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I love tabletop games. Board games, card games, tile-based, you name it. They have always been a big part of my life and they continue to be one of the main ways I spend time with friends and family. Over the years I have played MANY different tabletop games (which, as the name implies, are games you play on top of your table and encompass a variety of styles) and my favorites are constantly changing. Below is a list of what I believe to be the current best games to play for 8 different scenarios.
One Player - Legendary Encounters: An Alien Deck Building Game
The Legendary games are Marvel's stab at deck building games. The general concept of a deck building game (brought to popularity with the game "Dominion" and finally mastered by "Offering") is that every player starts with the same deck of cards and throughout the game they accumulate cards to add to their deck with varying win conditions. At the end of a deck building game, every player's deck is different and it looks like the start of a trading card game.
Legendary pits all of the players against the game itself and there are many different scenarios you are supposed to team up with the other players to beat. In "Legendary Encounters: An Alien Deck Building Game" the theme is not Marvel superheroes but instead the Alien Movie Franchise. You can play the game solo which is why I have it as my current favorite solo game. The theme is scary, the win condition is very difficult, and it is rarely the same game twice as you attempt to accumulate powerful cards to find back the xenomorphs. I have never won this game but I always enjoy it. Legendary games are more up my brothers' alleys, anyway.
Two Player - Twilight Struggle
You might see "Twilight Struggle" on other lists of the best two-player board games. It seems overwhelming at first because set up is long and the rule book is thick. However, after a few play-throughs, you will realize there is no game quite as nuanced. One player plays as the Soviet Union and one player plays as the U.S. as you attempt to increase influence across the globe during the Cold War. I honestly have learned a little more about the history of the Cold War through playing.
Three Player - Biblios
In Biblios, the game is split in two parts, a Donation stage and an Auction stage.
During the Donation stage, players acquire free cards according to an established plan. In the Auction stage, players purchase cards that were previously thrown out during the Donation stage. After the two stages, winners of 5 different color categories are chosen depending on how many of those colored cards you have. This description is...rough. Just trust me, it's a lot of fun and not really the best with 2 people and a little too much with 4.
Four Players - Ticket to Ride
I think most of our readers likely have already played T.T.R. by this point. Winner of multiple awards, it has become the new Settlers of Catan in its popularity among people who rarely play board games. You need to play with 4 players because that's when you can start using the double tracks and as my dad says, "T.T.R. is just not worth playing without the double tracks."
Five Players - Puerto Rico
My FAVORITE board game. One of the few board games I have ever played that has
taken chance out of 99.9% of the game. (There is a small amount of random generation, but it's pretty negligible.) No dice. No card drawing. Just strategy as you and the other players take turn being the governor of Puerto Rico and adding to the parts of the city and plantations you own. With 5 people it doesn't take longer than 1.5 hours (2 if it's the first time playing).
Six Players - Oh Heck
The only card game on this list, "Oh Heck" is a classic bidding game. The first hand everybody gets dealt one card and then the top card of the deck is flipped over to determine trump. Then, starting to the left of the dealer, the players bid for how many tricks they think they will win. The dealer cannot say a number that will make it so everybody can win their bid, so it guarantees at least one player misses out on their bid every round. With one card, the bidding seems easy. But every round you deal out one additional card. Any more than 6 players and it's a little unwieldy so I recommend 6 for a totally fun game.
Seven Players - Seven Wonders
The perfect numbers of players is in the name of the game! Every player takes
control of building one of the 7 Wonders of the Ancient World. This game is genius in that it can be played with up to 7 players but every game lasts for approximately 35 minutes (if everyone has played before). You will never get that ratio of players to time spent playing anywhere else. This works because there is minimal interaction with other players since you can only trade and buy from your literal neighbors at the table. The theme is fun and the mechanics are easy to master once you get a game under your belt. I would recommend playing a game WHILE you teach because it's one of those games where you just need to feel it out yourself.
8 Players - Cranium
A classic party game that I believe never gets old. Why play Charades, Pictionary, or Trivial Pursuit when you can play all three and add a spelling bee to it?! There are so many aspects to the game that most teammates can find SOMETHING they bring to the table. It's fun as 4 teams of 2 or 2 teams of 4. The only condition is, if you decide to play, please invite me because nobody ever plays with me.
