To make it easy to play, the maps for these adventures are printed in a book, with descriptions and information written around them – you don't have the fiddly setting up of a map that similar games (including the big, full-fat version of Gloomhaven) have. This makes it much easier to get to the table and start playing than those games. Cooperative vs competitive– some games have everyone working together towards a common goal, while others are all about beating the opposition. Both are tons of fun, but some people like to work together more than they like a competitive atmosphere, so it’s just about reading the room. The market starts with the six pre-determined cards in it, each in a pile of three. Once this pile is empty, the next player to buy a card may fill the gap by buying any of the other cards. This lets you shape your tactics, but also makes the card you have chosen available to your opponents. This simple mechanic creates some difficult decisions! Despite this, all these cards have their uses, so it is easy for younger players to get in on the action and not lose out. The Rest of El Dorado?

El Dorado: Heroes and Hexes Expansion | Board Games | Zatu El Dorado: Heroes and Hexes Expansion | Board Games | Zatu

The modular board is ace. Setting it up in different ways allows for oodles of replayability, especially as each section is double-sided. Not only that, it can be made shorter or longer to adjust the length of the game. The only thing we don’t like is having only 4 cards in hand to use. Of course we want more cards in hand to cruise through the board. But that’s also what makes the special power cards and high powered movement cards so enticing. Our favorites seem to be those that let us draw more cards into our hand.Spyfall is brilliantly simple to play, because all you do is ask questions to each other. Except choosing which questions to ask and how to answer is not simple at all. The setup here is that one player is secretly a (seemingly terrible) spy, who doesn't know what location they're in (from a big list provided in the box). Everyone else does know the location, and they need to figure out who the spy is, at which point they can accuse someone, and everyone votes. The spy wins if they successfully guess the location, or if someone else is wrongfully voted as being the spy. You have 10 minutes to ask each other questions. Go! The brilliance of Wavelength is that it takes an everyday activity and turns it into an enchanting game. After all, who hasn't tried rating things as an idle conversation starter? The concept is instantly familiar yet the secrecy and vagueness of where that dial might be make it very hard to give and guess good clues. Winning does feel like it requires a near-psychic connection to think the way your friends are thinking – after all, you know where you you would put "biscuit" on the spectrum between "soft" and "hard", but where would they? The game also includes a special way to play with 2 players where each player controls 2 explorers. The cool thing is that this makes the game just as enjoyable to play with 2 players as 4.

Island of El Dorado: The Thieves of El Dorado | Board The Island of El Dorado: The Thieves of El Dorado | Board

The Quest for El Dorado was in contention for the Spiel des Jahres family game of the year in 2017 for a reason. While it didn’t win the award ( Kingdomino did), we’re sure it was a tough decision because it’s a great game for families. The problem? If your tree is behind someone else's, the sun won't reach it, so you'll get less light points that turn. The bigger the tree, the longer the shadow it casts. But the good news is that the sun moves partially around the board every turn, so suddenly your shaded trees are in the sun, and others are in the dark. When the sun has gone all the way around the board three times, the game ends – 18 rounds in total.

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This game has been in this list since way before the current situation, but it's only become more appropriate.Pandemic is a game of trying to stop diseases outbreaking all over the Earth, working together with everyone else. On your turn, you need to use your actions to move around locations treating diseases, building research stations, and finding the cures that will win you the game. But with only four actions per turn, you won’t be able to do very much of it on your own, and after each player's turn more disease appears on the board – if too much appears on one city, it outbreaks to everywhere nearby, and you can only take so many outbreaks before you lose the game. Theme vs mechanics– Some people enjoy games more when there’s a strong theme that helps them grasp the mechanics (or just that adds atmosphere), while some will only want to focus on the mechanics and will be happy with ‘abstract’ games that are all about the rules, really.

Island of El Dorado: Legend Edition | Board Game The Island of El Dorado: Legend Edition | Board Game

The simple mechanics and flow of the game will draw in players of all ages. And the reference boards for each player outline the steps of a player’s turn so easily that anyone can join in the fun. War games with a shouty infantry man on the cover can make a game seem like it's going to be very dry, but don't let Undaunted pass you by, because it's a brilliant battler built around one core truth: you can't win every fight. So why wait? Join the search for El Dorado today and experience the thrill of the hunt in this exciting and engaging board game.

And getting special power cards deliver a lot of the fun. It’s always exciting when you draw these cards into your hand for your next turn. This terrain tile is almost solid jungle. Even seemingly easy wins can be tight decisions: there are only five cards in the middle of the table to take from at any time, and if three greens come out, you might think that’s a great bonus for you… but those three will be replaced with something as soon as you take them, and what if it’s something more valuable that you leave open to the other player?