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Board Game Gift Guide 2016 RSS Feed



User: kevintlee

Welcome to BoardGameGeek! We are a worldwide community of folks who love board games. We've put our heads together to make a gift guide that covers all of your shopping needs this holiday season. There's a game on this page that's right for anyone on your list!

We believe that board games make the best gifts because they bring family and friends together for memorable experiences while providing hours and hours of entertainment. They also stimulate the brain and can teach useful skills.

There is a diverse variety of games on the market. Use the table of contents to jump to the category that best fits your loved ones. Games in each category are arranged from the simplest and least complex game to learn to the most strategic.

This is the eleventh year we've put out a gift guide. Take a look at previous years if you're looking for other ideas.

Previous editions of the BGG Board Game Gift Guide: 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007, 2006

User: kevintlee

Board Game: 7 Wonders
Board Game: Carcassonne
Board Game: Ticket to Ride
Board Game: CATAN
Board Game: Pandemic
Board Game: Dominion

All-Time Favorites

Our All-Time Favorite games are considered modern classics that are a great start for anyone's game closet. They'd make our Gamers Hall of Fame and are often the start to a life-long love of games.

Microbadge: 1 7 Wonders
(All-Time Favorite)
User: kevintlee

2011 Golden Geek Awards for Best Family Game & Best Card Game

Board Game: 7 Wonders
Board Game: 7 Wonders
Board Game: 7 Wonders

7 Wonders takes the mechanic of card drafting and makes THAT the game. Each player at the start of three ages begins with a hand of 7 cards. Everyone simultaniously chooses a card to build then passes the hand on until 6 of the 7 cards from the original hands are built. The beauty of the game is that because everyone is working at the same time, making often interesting and tough decisions, the game lasts the same length whether you play with 2 or up to 7 players. The result after 3 short ages is that you've built up a substantial civilization and with many ways to score you never know if you've been out built until the very end.

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Microbadge: 2 Carcassonne
(All-Time Favorite)

Board Game: Carcassonne
Board Game: Carcassonne
Board Game: Carcassonne
Ever heard of a board game with no board? In Carcassonne, you and your fellow players actually build the board yourselves as you play the game, one high-quality cardboard tile at a time. By the time it's over, you'll have built such a pretty and unique arrangement of cities, roads, monasteries and fields that you may feel sad to put it away. Carcassonne is quite easy to learn with very quick and simple decisions to make with each turn. And with its many expansions the base game can be made exponentially replayable. Consider these two expansions if you've already given the base game... Carcassonne: Expansion 2 – Traders & Builders & Carcassonne: Expansion 1 – Inns & Cathedrals. For a list of all of the expansions check out the Carcassonne Family

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Microbadge: 3 Ticket to Ride
(All-Time Favorite)

Board Game: Ticket to Ride
Board Game: Ticket to Ride
Board Game: Ticket to Ride
Ticket to Ride is a very popular game that has sold over 3 million copies worldwide. The game board is a map of the United States and Canada where the players compete to build train routes between major cities to score points. It's easy to learn, fast to play, works great for any number of players 2 to 5, and is almost always a big hit with people who are new to board games. For a European map and just a few additional challenges try Ticket to Ride: Europe.

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Microbadge: 4 Settlers of Catan
(All-Time Favorite)

Board Game: CATAN
Board Game: CATAN
Board Game: CATAN
Settlers of Catan is one of the most popular board games in the world. Each player takes the role of a hardy settler on the uninhabited island of Catan. The island you settle yields five types of raw materials used to build roads, settlements, cities, and armies. However, the resources you've got may not be the resources you need. Trading with the other players is a big part of getting the right resources to build on the island. The player whose settlers are the most successful in colonizing the island wins the game. If you know of an experienced settler who is ready for a step up in strategy try... Catan: Cities & Knights

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Microbadge: 5 Pandemic
(All-Time Favorite)
User: kevintlee

2009 Golden Geek Award for Best Family Game

Board Game: Pandemic
Board Game: Pandemic
Board Game: Pandemic
Four diseases have broken out in the world and it's up to a team of specialists in various fields to find cures before mankind is wiped out. In this popular cooperative game you must work together with other players using your individual strengths and abilities to treat existing diseases and find cures before time runs out. Pandemic is your prescription for a great gaming experience like you've never had before! You can also add even more roles and more challenging diseases to the base game with Pandemic: On the Brink or Pandemic: In the Lab.

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Microbadge: 6 Dominion
(All-Time Favorite)
User: kevintlee

2009 Golden Geek Awards for Game of the Year and Best Card Game

Board Game: Dominion
Board Game: Dominion
Board Game: Dominion

One of the most innovative and award winning games to emerge from the last couple of years! In Dominion, each player starts with an identical, very small deck of cards. In the center of the table is a selection of 10 other cards the players can "buy" as they can afford them. Through their selection of cards to buy, and how they play their hands as they draw them, the players construct their deck on the fly, striving for the most efficient path to the precious victory points by game end.

The base game includes 25 sets of center cards and allows for hundreds of variations. There have been several expansions released adding even more variation starting with Dominion: Intrigue. You can find the complete list of expansions in the Dominion Family.
User: kevintlee

Board Game: Splendor
Board Game: Tsuro
Board Game: Qwirkle
Board Game: King of Tokyo
Board Game: Forbidden Island

Games for All Ages

These games are accessible to a wide range of gamers because of simple rules and creative gameplay.

Microbadge: 1 Splendor
(For all ages)
User: kevintlee

2014 Golden Geek Awards for Best Family Game

Board Game: Splendor
Board Game: Splendor
Board Game: Splendor

Splendor is a game of chip-collecting and card development. Players are merchants of the Renaissance trying to buy gem mines, means of transportation, shops—all in order to acquire the most prestige points. If you're wealthy enough, you might even receive a visit from a noble at some point, which of course will further increase your prestige.

On your turn, you may (1) collect chips (gems), or (2) buy and build a card, or (3) reserve one card. If you collect chips, you take either three different kinds of chips or two chips of the same kind. If you buy a card, you pay its price in chips and add it to your playing area. To reserve a card—in order to make sure you get it, or, why not, your opponents don't get it—you place it in front of you face down for later building; this costs you a round, but you also get gold in the form of a joker chip, which you can use as any gem.

All of the cards you buy increase your wealth as they give you a permanent gem bonus for later buys; some of the cards also give you prestige points. In order to win the game, you must reach 15 prestige points before your opponents do.

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Microbadge: 2 Tsuro
(For all ages)

Board Game: Tsuro
Board Game: Tsuro
Board Game: Tsuro
The goal is to keep your token on the board longer than anyone else's, but as the board fills up this becomes harder because there are fewer empty spaces left... and another player's tile may also extend your own path in a direction you'd rather not go. Easy to introduce to new players.

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Microbadge: 3 Qwirkle
(For all ages)

Board Game: Qwirkle
Board Game: Qwirkle
Board Game: Qwirkle
Qwirkle should be instantly familiar to anyone who has played Scrabble. Think Scrabble with symbols and colors instead of words and without the board and you'll have a good idea of how this game plays. The excellent components and reasonable price makes this a particularly good gift. (Unfortunately not suitable for color-blind players.)

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Microbadge: 4 King of Tokyo
(For all ages)
User: kevintlee

2012 Golden Geek Awards for Best Children's Game, Best Party Game, and Best Family Game

Board Game: King of Tokyo
Board Game: King of Tokyo
Board Game: King of Tokyo

In King of Tokyo, you play mutant monsters, gigantic robots, and aliens vying for the ultimate title in monsterdom, "King of Tokyo". Each turn you get a Yahtzee style three rolls of a set of 6 dice.

You decide with each roll which dice to keep and which to throw for more points, energy, health, or hits to your opponents. In order to win you must either destroy Tokyo by accumulating 20 destruction points or out last your fellow monsters in a bout to death.

This light-hearted, quick to learn, and quick to play game has you laughing with each roll and accommodates a whole family of players. For added fun the expansion King of Tokyo: Power Up! adds one extra monster and gives all of the monsters their own personal power decks.

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Microbadge: 5 Forbidden Island
(For all ages)
User: kevintlee

2010 Golden Geek Award for Best Children's Game

Board Game: Forbidden Island
Board Game: Forbidden Island
Board Game: Forbidden Island
Forbidden Island is a cooperative game - but don't think this means that it's boring or easy! Competition to beat this award-winning game can be tough, and you either win together or lose together! Join a team of fearless adventurers on a do-or-die mission to capture four sacred treasures from the ruins of the perilous paradise of Forbidden Island. Work together as a team as the island begins to sink beneath every step! Expect lots of tension as you race to collect the treasures, and make a triumphant escape - or be swallowed into the watery abyss!
User: kevintlee

Board Game: Galaxy Trucker
Board Game: Small World
Board Game: Coup
Board Game: Lords of Waterdeep

Games for Teenagers and Adults

These games provide more of a challenge but also a more rewarding experience. Scarce resources and a chance to conquer your opponent dominate this field and often appeal to more aggressive gamers.

Microbadge: 1 Galaxy Trucker
(For teens & adults)

Board Game: Galaxy Trucker
Board Game: Galaxy Trucker
Board Game: Galaxy Trucker

In a galaxy far, far away... they need sewer systems too. And Corporation Incorporated needs you to get them there. Everyone knows their drivers, the brave men and women who fear no danger, would fly through hell and back if the pay were good enough. Now you can join them!

Galaxy Trucker is a tile laying game played in 3 rounds of two phases: building and flying. The goal is to have the most credits at the end of the game. You can earn credits by delivering goods, defeating pirates, building an efficient ship, and being the furthest along the track at the end of the flying phase.

Building happens in real time by picking up tiles from a face-down pile and quickly placing them on your mat to build your ship with various parts. The quickest to build starts off ahead on the track. During flight you get to see how well your ship holds up to the pressure and you get the glorious chance to see this beautiful creation fall apart before your eyes. Ships will vary greatly depending on what you draw and how much time you take to build them. Build the best ships or be daring in flight and you can prove that you have what it takes to be a Galaxy Trucker.

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Microbadge: 3 Small World
(For teens & adults)

Board Game: Small World
Board Game: Small World
Board Game: Small World

In Small World, players vie for conquest and control of a world that is simply too small to accommodate them all. Small World is inhabited by a zany cast of characters such as dwarves, wizards, amazons, giants, orcs and even humans, who use their troops to occupy territory and conquer adjacent lands in order to push the other races off the face of the earth. Picking the right combination from the 14 different fantasy races and 20 unique special powers, players rush to expand their empires - often at the expense of weaker neighbors. Yet they must also know when to push their own over-extended civilization into decline so they can pick a new one and ride it to victory!

For added races, abilities, and terrain see the complete list of expansions to this base game in Small World Family.

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Microbadge: 4 Coup
(For teens & adults)

Board Game: Coup
Board Game: Coup
Board Game: Coup

Nothing says the holidays like gathering your friends and families around the table and tricking them!

Coup is a fast and furious card game about bluffing and deduction.

Players are dealt two cards face down. Each card can be one of 5 different roles, with each role allowing a player to take a particular action. On a player’s turn, they can take an action relating to a role. If a player takes an action for a role that is not one of their two cards, they are in effect bluffing - the bluff is successful provided no other player challenges them. If a player is challenged and they were bluffing they must discard one of their two cards. If a player is challenged and they were not bluffing, they can reveal and discard the card and are given a new card, the challenger has to discard one of their two cards. Once a player has has lost both cards, they are knocked out.

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Microbadge: 5 Lords of Waterdeep
(For teens & adults)

Board Game: Lords of Waterdeep
Board Game: Lords of Waterdeep
Board Game: Lords of Waterdeep
In Lords of Waterdeep you take on the role of one of the masked Lords of Waterdeep, secret rulers of the city. Through your agents, you recruit adventurers to go on quests on your behalf, earning rewards and increasing your influence over the city. Expand the city by purchasing new buildings that open up new actions on the board, and hinder – or help – the other lords by playing Intrigue cards to enact your carefully laid plans.
User: kevintlee


Board Game: Colt Express
Board Game: Escape: The Curse of the Temple
Board Game: Castle Panic
Board Game: Survive: Escape from Atlantis!
Board Game: Takenoko

Family Games for Older Children

Family games should be fun for both kids and parents. This set of games require just a little more thought than your standard family games but provide adventure and a sense of accomplishment without the aggressive approach.

Microbadge: 1 Colt Express
(For older children)


Board Game: Colt Express
Board Game: Colt Express
Board Game: Colt Express

In Colt Express, you play a bandit robbing a train at the same time as other bandits, and your goal is to become the richest outlaw of the Old West. The game takes place in a 3D train in which the bandits can move from one car to another, run on the roof, punch the other bandits, shoot them, rob the passengers, or draw the Marshal out of position.

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Microbadge: 2 Escape: The Curse of the Temple
(For older children)

Board Game: Escape: The Curse of the Temple
Board Game: Escape: The Curse of the Temple
Board Game: Escape: The Curse of the Temple
Escape is a new co-operative game played in real-time directed by a sound track. With all players rolling dice and taking actions simultaneously you have to keep your eye on your teammates and work together to explore a cursed temple. As you roll, you explore new rooms of the temple and sometimes find treasure and other times get cursed and held up. The simultaneous action and tension building time element create a fun challenge that will have you hanging on every die roll. If you're up for the challenge of a real adventure consider picking this one up.

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Microbadge: 3 Castle Panic
(For older children)

Board Game: Castle Panic
Board Game: Castle Panic
Board Game: Castle Panic
This is an exciting game that's proven to be a favorite with many children and families. Together with your friends, you must work as a team to defend your castle against the horde of monsters that emerge from the forest and threaten to tear down your walls and destroy your castle towers. It's win or lose ... together!

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Microbadge: 4 Survive: Escape from Atlantis!
(For older children)

Board Game: Survive: Escape from Atlantis!
Board Game: Survive: Escape from Atlantis!
Board Game: Survive: Escape from Atlantis!

Survive is a cutthroat game where players seek to evacuate their pieces from an island that is breaking up, while remembering where their highest-valued pieces are located to maximize their score.

An island made up of 40 hex-tiles is slowly sinking into the ocean (as the tiles are removed from the board). Each player controls ten people (valued from 1 to 6) that they try and move towards the safety of the surrounding islands before the main island finally blows up. Players can either swim or use boats to travel but must avoid sea serpents, whales and sharks on their way to safety.

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Microbadge: 5 Takenoko
(For all ages)
User: kevintlee

2012 Golden Geek Best Board Game Artwork/Presentation Winner

Board Game: Takenoko
Board Game: Takenoko
Board Game: Takenoko

A long time ago at the Japanese Imperial court, the Chinese Emperor offered a giant panda bear as a symbol of peace to the Japanese Emperor. Since then, the Japanese Emperor has entrusted his court members (the players) with the difficult task of caring for the animal by tending to his bamboo garden.

In Takenoko, the players will cultivate land plots, irrigate them, and grow one of the three species of bamboo (Green, Yellow, and Pink) with the help of the Imperial gardener to maintain this bamboo garden. They will have to bear with the immoderate hunger of this sacred animal for the juicy and tender bamboo. The player who manages his land plots best, growing the most bamboo while feeding the delicate appetite of the panda, will win the game.

User: kevintlee

Board Game: Animal Upon Animal
Board Game: My First Carcassonne
Board Game: Bugs in the Kitchen
Board Game: Chicken Cha Cha Cha
Board Game: Labyrinth

Family Games for Younger Children

These games are accessible to the youngsters but still provide enough challenge to keep the parents interested! You may also wish to check the Games by player age wiki page.

Microbadge: 1 Animal Upon Animal
(For younger children)

Board Game: Animal Upon Animal
Board Game: Animal Upon Animal
Board Game: Animal Upon Animal
Animal Upon Animal is a fun stacking game that can be enjoyed by adults as well as by children as young as 4 (the game has some small wooden parts and it requires some fine motor skills which might be hard for younger children.) The players construct animal towers using cute wooden animals thus getting rid of all their animals. A die determines if you can attempt to stack 1-2 of your animals, pass one of your animals to another player or have to let another player choose which animal to stack. If you knock over the pile, you have to take 1-2 animals back into your hand and keep playing. First one to use all of their animals wins!

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Microbadge: 2 My First Carcassone
(For younger children)

Board Game: My First Carcassonne
Board Game: My First Carcassonne
Board Game: My First Carcassonne

A kid-friendly version of the original Carcassone, with nice big colourful pieces.

Players take turns to place a tile - building up a map. The aim is to complete roads and place your meeples on their designated spots along the road. The first to play all eight meeples wins!

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Microbadge: 3 Bugs in the Kitchen
(For younger children)
User: kevintlee


Board Game: Bugs in the Kitchen
Board Game: Bugs in the Kitchen
Board Game: Bugs in the Kitchen

Bugs in the Kitchen - YUK! A game that comes with your very own squirming, jiggling bug.

The board is a maze made out of the movable barriers, in the shape of knives, forks and spoons - in each corner is a player’s area. The bug is set loose in the middle and buzzes around. Players roll the die and move the corresponding piece of cutlery, changing the bug’s course and sending it towards your rival’s corner or catching it yourself - depending on the object of the game.

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Microbadge: 4 Chicken Cha Cha Cha
(For younger children)

Board Game: Chicken Cha Cha Cha
Board Game: Chicken Cha Cha Cha
Board Game: Chicken Cha Cha Cha
A memory game for children 4 and up. You must steal the feathers of other chickens in order to win. When you find the face down tile showing the same drawing as the one in front of your chicken-pawn, you can move forward.

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Microbadge: 5 Labyrinth
(For younger children)

Board Game: Labyrinth
Board Game: Labyrinth
Board Game: Labyrinth
This game is a-MAZE-ing! Literally! A moving maze, and who doesn't love mazes? Even younger children will be able to begin figuring out how to slide the tiles and make paths. But best of all, adults will find this game challenging and fun too. The Amazing Labyrinth has the potential to be enjoyed by people of all ages, young and old.
User: kevintlee

Board Game: Dixit
Board Game: Telestrations
Board Game: Ca$h 'n Guns: Second Edition
Board Game: One Night Ultimate Werewolf
Board Game: Wits & Wagers Party
Board Game: Codenames

Party Games

These party games are fun, light games designed to be played by a boisterous group.

Microbadge: 1 Dixit
(Party game)
User: kevintlee

2011 Golden Geek Award for Best Party Game

Board Game: Dixit
Board Game: Dixit
Board Game: Dixit

This award-winning party game features beautifully illustrated cards with unique artwork. The story-teller must make up a phrase to describe one of the illustrated cards, and after other players have chosen a card from their hand that they think also matches this phrase, players must try to pick out the story-teller's card from the cards of the other players. A beautiful game with intriguing pictures, and lots of room for creativity and fun!

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Microbadge: 2 Telestrations
(Party game)
User: kevintlee

2010 Golden Geek Award for Best Party Game

Board Game: Telestrations
Board Game: Telestrations
Board Game: Telestrations
In this award winning party game, players sketch a word that's dictated by the roll of a die, then pass their sketch on to the next player to guess what's been drawn. That player then writes down what they think the word is, for the next player to draw a sketch of. Remember the classic game of Chinese Whispers? This is like that, but with pictures, and it's proven to be very popular and lots of fun!

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Microbadge: 3 Ca$h 'n Guns
(Party game)

Board Game: Ca$h 'n Guns: Second Edition
Board Game: Ca$h 'n Guns: Second Edition
Board Game: Ca$h 'n Guns: Second Edition

Here’s a party game like no other - gather your friends and family and hand out foam guns with brightly-colored tips (here you go, grandma!)

In an abandoned warehouse a gangster band is splitting its loot, but they can't agree on the split! It's time to let the guns talk and soon everyone is aiming at everyone. The richest surviving gangster wins the game!
Ca$h 'n Guns helps you relive the best scenes of your favorite gangster movies. The goal is to survive, with more money than anyone else after eight rounds.
Each round, the loot is revealed, guns loaded with bullets or blanks, and pointed at opponents. Players can chicken out, keeping their lives intact but losing the loot, or hold their nerve and fire! Players battle it out for eight rounds to win money, diamonds, paintings, bullets and boss-status. Whoever ends the game with the most valuable stash wins!

  • Players: 3 to 8
  • Time: 40 minutes
  • Ages: 12 and up
  • Availability: local game stores, online
  • Price: $16-$25
  • Review and Video Review

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Microbadge: 4 One Night Ultimate Werewolf
(Party game)

Board Game: One Night Ultimate Werewolf
Board Game: One Night Ultimate Werewolf
Board Game: One Night Ultimate Werewolf

It’s a common problem in small villages - life is rosy until you start hearing night-time howls and Edward the Butcher is eaten…looks like one of the villagers is a werewolf! Only one way to find out who: unleash the mob!

One Night Ultimate Werewolf is a new way to play classic werewolf, without the need of a moderator (if you use the app) or player elimination, with a smaller group, and in games lasting only 10 minutes.
Each player is given a card that assigns them a secret role. Different roles allow players to look at cards, swap cards, etc. At the end of the round, players use the knowledge they’ve gathered to work out who the werewolves are, although things are not always as they seem thanks to card-switching roles like the Troublemaker! After the deliberations, if the majority correctly guess the werewolf’s true identity, the villagers win and the village is saved!

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Microbadge: 5 Wits & Wagers Party
(Party game)
User: kevintlee

2007 Golden Geek Award for Best Party Game

Board Game: Wits & Wagers Party
Board Game: Wits & Wagers Party
Board Game: Wits & Wagers Party

Take everything you know about trivia games and throw it out. Wits and Wagers Party is a trivia game that you can win without ever knowing a single correct answer! In this game, every team gets to submit a guess for every question, then use their poker chips (included) to place bets on the answers they think are closest. Rely on your own knowledge, or just bet on which of your friends you think knows the most -- but wait, are they bluffing? Bring out the excitement of a Vegas-style casino in your own home, and don't leave anyone feeling left out of the fun. Other available editions include: Wits & Wagers Family and Wits & Wagers.

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Microbadge: 6 Codenames
(Party game)
User: kevintlee

2015 Golden Geek Award for Best Party Game
2015 Golden Geek Award for Best Family Game

Board Game: Codenames
Board Game: Codenames
Board Game: Codenames

In Codenames, two teams compete to see who can make contact with all of their agents first. Spymasters give one-word clues that can point to multiple words on the board. Their teammates try to guess words of the right color while avoiding those that belong to the opposing team. And everyone wants to avoid the assassin.
User: kevintlee

Board Game: Jaipur
Board Game: Hive
Board Game: Patchwork
Board Game: Lost Cities
Board Game: 7 Wonders Duel
Board Game: Star Realms

Two Player Games

Great for couples or fillers waiting for additional players.

Microbadge: 1 Jaipur
(For two players)

Board Game: Jaipur
Board Game: Jaipur
Board Game: Jaipur

Jaipur, capital of Rajasthan. You are one of the two most powerful traders in the city. But that's not enough for you, because only the merchant with two Seals of Excellence will have the privilege of being invited to the Maharaja's court. You are therefore going to have to do better than your direct competitor by buying, exchanging and selling at better prices, all while keeping an eye on both your camel herds. Jaipur is a fast-paced card game, a blend of tactics, risk and luck.

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Microbadge: 2 Hive
(For two players)

Board Game: Hive
Board Game: Hive
Board Game: Hive
Board Game: Hive Pocket

Looking for a quick strategic game? You've come to the right place with Hive! In this highly addictive game, the board takes shape as you and your opponent lay down your pieces. Each player controls an identical army of bugs, each with its own unique movement. Can you place and move your pieces so that you surround your opponent's queen bee before he surrounds yours?

Hive comes in three versions: 1. Hive (original) 2. Hive: Carbon (monochromatic) and 3. Hive: Pocket (35% smaller). Both Hive: Carbon and Hive: Pocket include the Mosquito and Lady Bug expansion bugs.

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Microbadge: 3 Patchwork
(For two players)
User: kevintlee

2014 Golden Geek Awards for Best Abstract Game

Board Game: Patchwork
Board Game: Patchwork
Board Game: Patchwork

In Patchwork, two players compete to build the most aesthetic (and high-scoring) patchwork quilt on a personal 9x9 game board.

Creating a beautiful quilt requires effort and time, but the available patches just do not want to fit
together. So choose your patches carefully and keep a healthy supply of buttons to not only finish your quilt, but
to make it better and more beautiful than your opponent‘s.

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Microbadge: 4 Lost Cities
(For two players)

Board Game: Lost Cities
Board Game: Lost Cities
Board Game: Lost Cities
Even those who think they have tried everything will have to admit that Lost Cities is an exciting, unusual two-player card game. It's quick, it's simple, it's tense, and it's addictive! The play is simple: You put down numbered cards in sequence on one of five "expeditions." But once you start an expedition, you must keep adding cards to it - or else risk losing more points than you gain! All the while, your opponent may be holding onto the card you want, trying to build up his or her own expeditions. In Lost Cities, the finish is usually so tense that you'll want to play just one more game ... and another!

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Microbadge: 5 7 Wonders Duel
(For two players)
User: kevintlee

2015 Golden Geek Awards for Best 2-Player Game
2015 Golden Geek Awards for Best Card Game

Board Game: 7 Wonders Duel
Board Game: 7 Wonders Duel
Board Game: 7 Wonders Duel

Players acquire cards that provide resources or advance their military or scientific development in order to develop a civilization and complete wonders. Players choose from a display of face-down and face-up cards arranged at the start of a round. A player can take a card only if it's not covered by any others, so timing comes into play as well as bonus moves that allow you to take a second card immediately. As in the original game, each card that you acquire can be built, discarded for coins, or used to construct a wonder.

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Microbadge: 6 Star Realms
(For two players)

Board Game: Star Realms
Board Game: Star Realms
Board Game: Star Realms

Star Realms is a fast-paced space combat card game. It combines classic deck-building with the interactivity of trading card-style combat. Players trade to acquire new ships and bases. These ships and bases allow players to generate more trade or initiate combat with their opponents to destroy their ships and bases. When you reduce your opponent’s score to zero, you win.

User: kevintlee

http://png-4.findicons.com/files/icons/247/xmas_festives/128/xmas_07.png
Board Game: Love Letter
Board Game: No Thanks!
Board Game: Hanabi
Board Game: Sushi Go!
Board Game: For Sale
Board Game: Bohnanza

 http://png-4.findicons.com/files/icons/247/xmas_festives/128/xmas_07.png

Stocking Stuffers

Small, inexpensive, and well worth your time.

Microbadge: 1 Love Letter
(Stocking stuffer)

Board Game: Love Letter
Board Game: Love Letter
Board Game: Love Letter

All of the eligible young men (and many of the not-so-young) seek to woo the princess of Tempest. Unfortunately, she has locked herself in the palace, and you must rely on others to take your romantic letters to her. Will yours reach her first?

Love Letter is a game of risk, deduction, and luck for 2–4 players. Your goal is to get your love letter into Princess Annette's hands while deflecting the letters from competing suitors. From a deck with only sixteen cards, each player starts with only one card in hand; one card is removed from play. On a turn, you draw one card, and play one card, trying to expose others and knock them from the game. Powerful cards lead to early gains, but make you a target. Rely on weaker cards for too long, however, and your letter may be tossed in the fire!

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Microbadge: 2 No Thanks!
(Stocking stuffer)

Board Game: No Thanks!
Board Game: No Thanks!
Board Game: No Thanks!
Take the card, which costs me points but earns me chips? Or pay a chip, which I have precious few of? That seemingly simple decision is the entire heart of the game of No Thanks. The rules can be explained in just a few seconds but you'll be honing your strategy over dozens and dozens (and dozens) of plays.

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Microbadge: 3 Hanabi
(Stocking stuffer)

Board Game: Hanabi
Board Game: Hanabi
Board Game: Hanabi

A co-operative card game, where, as a team, you’re trying to play cards of the same color from 1 to 5. Wait, that’s it?

Well, you don’t actually get to see your own hand of cards - instead, you fan them out so your fellow players can see them. Players can play a card, give another player a piece of information, or discard. The information that players can give has to be generic and complete, so they can tell a player which of their cards are twos or greens. What players can’t do is tell other players to play a specific card or give information about one card if the same information could be given about another card in their hand.

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Microbadge: 4 Sushi Go
(Stocking stuffer)

Board Game: Sushi Go!
Board Game: Sushi Go!
Board Game: Sushi Go!

A super-fast card game that proves that sushi is best served with ALL the extras! The more dumplings the better!

Players are dealt a hand of cards. Each player selects one card from their hand, places it down and passes their remaining cards to the next player. This continues until all cards are laid on the table, and then the scoring begins. Scores are based on the number and type of card, with special scoring bonuses for certain cards. Adding wasabi can up your score, dumplings are worth more depending on how many you have, the object of the game is to stuff your face with a whole selection of sushi!

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Microbadge: 5 For Sale
(Stocking stuffer)

Board Game: For Sale
 Missing Image
Board Game: For Sale
For Sale is a quick, fun game nominally about buying and selling real estate. During the game's two distinct phases, players first bid for several buildings then, after all buildings have been bought, sell the buildings for the greatest profit possible.

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Microbadge: 6 Bohnanza
(Stocking stuffer)

Board Game: Bohnanza
Board Game: Bohnanza
Board Game: Bohnanza
As card games go, this one is quite revolutionary. Perhaps its oddest feature is that you cannot rearrange your hand, as you need to play the cards in the order that you draw them. The cards are colorful depictions of beans in various descriptive poses, and the object is to make coins by planting fields (sets) of these beans and then harvesting them. To help players match their cards up, the game features extensive trading and deal making.
User: kevintlee

Other resources

Where to Buy?

Many of these games can be found at your local specialty game store. You can look for a local specialty game store using the Days of Wonder Store Locator or BGG advice in the FLGS of the World (Friendly Local Game Store) thread.

If you don't have a store near you, or they don't carry the game you're looking for, you can buy online. Some online retailers in the US that we've had good experiences with are:

Canada: 2012 online Canadian retailer list
Australia: 2013 Online Australian Retailers List & Price Comparison

For others, including many outside the USA, see our full list of online vendors.

Other Game Gift Guides

In addition to this guide, several other gift guides exist:

Other Gift Guides By Users

Quick List at a Glance

All-Time Favorites --- 7 Wonders, Carcassonne, Ticket to Ride, Settlers of Catan, Pandemic, Dominion
For All Ages --- Splendor, Tsuro, Qwirkle, King of Tokyo, Forbidden Island
For Teens & Adults --- Galaxy Trucker, Small World, Coup, Lords of Waterdeep
For Older Children --- Colt Express, Escape: The Curse of the Temple, Castle Panic, Survive: Escape from Atlantis!, Takenoko
For Younger Children --- Animal Upon Animal, My First Carcassonne, Bugs in the Kitchen, Chicken Cha Cha Cha, Labyrinth
Party Games --- Dixit, Telestrations, Ca$h 'n Guns (second edition), One Night Ultimate Werewolf, Wits & Wagers Party, Codenames
For Two Players --- Jaipur, Hive, Patchwork, Lost Cities, 7 Wonders Duel, Star Realms
Stocking Stuffer --- Love Letter, No Thanks!, Hanabi, Sushi Go!, For Sale, Bohnanza
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