Last updated on January 27, 2020
Nowadays, video games are fast, exciting, and intended to hook you up in order to get you to spend more money. They also have fancy graphics that require high end computer to play at their full potential. However, that is not always the case. Before video games took off, board games dominated the entertainment industry.
In this article, we will list the best board games of all time. Without further ado, let’s start:
- Clue
Clue or Cluedo, as it is called in other variations, is the leading classic detective board game in which players attempt to solve a crime. There are 6 players, and one of them is the murderer. The goal of Clue is to figure out the identity of the killer, the murder weapon used for the killing, and where the crime took place. The killer, murder weapon and murder location is dynamic and changes every game. It is determined by getting a random card out of the three card categories.
The game starts by taking turns to explore a mansion. The number of squares you can traverse is determined by a die roll. Every player has been given a card, which contains a suspect, murder scene and the murder weapon. Interactions between players will reveal whose player have which card, so that the real murderer, murder weapon and location can be determined using a process of elimination.
Clue is an incredibly fun game, especially when played with a large group. You can win by being observant and by taking a lot of notes. This game will make you feel like a proper detective, requiring you to record things and deduce using your notes. In the end, the better player will win, but you can also win with a bit of luck.
- BattleShip
Battleship is a timeless Hasbro board game that even had a Hollywood movie to its name. It demands its players to strategize and be lucky in order to be successful. The game is a naval bombardment game in which two players aim to sink every single battleship of the opposition.
The board game is played out on a grid-based board measuring 10 x 10. It requires a preparation phase, in which both players position their battleship on the board. Once the game starts, the ships cannot be moved. The goal is to smartly position your battleships so that your opponent cannot sink them easily. There is also a mechanic in which you will get to have another turn if you hit a ship, theoretically allowing to hit and sink multiple ships in one go if you are very lucky. The game is exciting, and sinking a ship before your opponent does is really satisfying.
- Scrabble
In scrabble, players begin with 7 tiles of letters, each having a matching score. Immediately after taking their turns, the players will replace the tiles they used, so that each player have 7 tiles each unless the tiles are depleted.
Every turn, participants will construct a word with the letter tiles they have. Points are calculated based on the score on the individual tiles, with harder letters such as Z, X, Q, J, and other hard to use letters having more points. Additionally, the board itself has multipliers. It is important that you try to land on the multipliers to score high, or to prevent the enemy from using it.
Every new word placed on the board must be attached to an already existing word, with the first ever turn the only exception. This requires players to think ahead of time and consider the letters already on the board when thinking of words to play.
After a player has used up their tiles and there are no tiles remaining to be drawn, the game ends. Every other player sums their remaining letters and deduct it from their final score. Scrabble is a fun game that requires people to be creative, and it also teaches a lot in terms of vocabulary. It motivates people to learn new words, which makes it an excellent learning tool. The game itself is extremely popular, being played in school competitions and households alike.
- Chess
A list of the best board games of all time is not complete without any mention of Chess. Chess is a game that pits two players against each other. It is a strategy game played in a checkered 8×8 board, in total featuring 64 squares. It is among the oldest and most popular games in the world, with millions of players all over the world. Although the origins of chess are not certain, it is considered to have come from India at about 280–550 BC.
Chess has a lot of possible game outcomes, so every game of chess is unique. Even if Chess is an old game, there is still more to discover unless you are a grandmaster or an AI. There are many guides and tips about chess that you can find on the internet, so there is no lack of knowledge barring you from playing this game. There are also free ways to play on the internet, so you can play it even without a chessboard (or a playmate.)
- Monopoly
Monopoly is a game that is said to have destroyed friendships and relationships among family members. Monopoly has a circular board area, with players going in circles until all but one gets bankrupted. Monopoly is a board game centered on real estate dealings and can be played by as much as 8 players per session. The primary goal of the board game is to be economically secure while pushing the other players right into bankruptcy at the same time.
Every player travels across the board, buying real estate properties and developing them with houses and hotels. If an opposing player land on your property, they will have to pay rent. The rent is dependent on the amount of development you have done on the property. As a single player purchases most of the properties and improves them, the rest of the other player’s financial assets will gradually diminish. The game continues until just a single player remains on the board.
There are some random factors in this game, which includes two card decks that affect how the game is played. The movement is also determined by a die roll, so the majority of the early game is dictated by the player lucky enough to land on the tiles they want.
- Connect Four
Connect Four is a very simple board game made by Hasbro. Two players drop their pieces on a vertical board, and the first player to connect four pieces of their color, either vertically, horizontally or diagonally wins.
These days, there are many ways to play Connect Four in digital form. There are Connect Four games that are found in board game bundles for PC, and there are mobile applications that can be found in the Apple Appstore or Google Play Store. There are also websites that allow you to play connect 4 online so that you will be able to play even if you don’t have a board or do not have someone to play a game with you.
