I can thank my 16-year-old son for my tabletop gaming hobby (obsession?). Sure, I played board games growing up, including the usual classics like Monopoly, Battleship and Risk, as well as Dungeons & Dragons in my high school years, but then I lost track of them for a while in adulthood.
When my son started school, I met several other friendly dads at the schoolyard during drop off/pickup who were keen board gamers. They invited me to join their gaming sessions, and since then, tabletop gaming has become a big part of my life.
As our kids grew, our gaming interest rubbed off on them. At younger ages, they couldn’t play the more complex games their dads enjoyed, but we were able to find some interesting games that worked for all ages.
A board game café in downtown Victoria gave us a great option for PD Days or rainy Saturdays. We’d order grilled cheese sandwiches while the kids picked a game to try off the shelves, and the dads could sip Americanos as we whiled away the hours.
Tabletop board games are not only fun, but they can also be a great learning tool for kids, bolstering problem-solving strategies, exercising math muscles, developing negotiation skills and encouraging socializing. And in this digital age, it’s also a great way to keep kids off their devices.
Here are some suggestions for tabletop games to try at different ages.
Younger Ages (6–9)
Catan Junior. A good intro to the game that kicked off the modern board game craze; players vie to be the first to control seven pirate hideouts.
Stratego. An oldie but a goodie that I played when I was a kid; two players face off across a battlefield trying to capture your opponent’s flag before they find yours.
Sushi Go. A fun card game themed on sushi ingredients; this is a good intro to more advanced games that use the “draft and pass” card mechanism.
Tweens (9–13)
Many of these games can work for younger kids with some parental assistance.
Azul. Collect mosaic tiles to place them in patterns on your gameboard and score points.
Carcassonne. A family favourite that can be made more complex with expansions. Players create a map together, scoring points by building cities, roads and farms.
Cascadia. Designed in the Pacific Northwest, this beautiful game asks players to place different wildlife tokens and terrain tiles to build an ecological preserve.
Catan. Released in 1995, this modern classic still holds up today. Collect resources, and trade and negotiate with others around the table to build settlements and cities on the island of Catan.
That’s Pretty Clever. A deceptively simple series of dice games where each coloured dice can be scored in a different way. These games are great for ferry rides or airport waits.
Codenames. Played by teams of two who communicate through one-word hints to determine which cards represent their own team of spies without revealing the assassin.
Flamme Rouge. Ideal for cyclists, this bicycle racing game recreates the Tour de France on your tabletop.
Saboteur. Ideal for a larger group, players are either dwarven miners or saboteurs who must hide their identity while they dig tunnels towards gold deposits.
Ticket to Ride. One of the best games to be played by folks of all ages and gamer levels, players build train routes across a map of North America or Europe, making it ideal for kids who are into geography.
Wingspan. This is one of the most beautifully designed games out there. Draw and place bird cards into three regions on your player board, scoring points based on the birds and in-game challenges.
