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Dixit Board Game: Giving Clues and Reading People
Dixit is a storytelling and interpretation family board game built around a deck of illustrated cards. Great for creativity and learning to read other players. Read more
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Ant Colony Board Game: Planning Routes and Anticipating Risk
In a nutshell Ant Colony (Ages 5+, 2–6 players, c.20 mins) is a cooperative tile‑laying board game. Players work together to build an underground ant colony while avoiding rocks, beetles and hungry anteaters. They take turns to add tiles, creating a network of tunnels that must have at least two clear entrances and four rooms.… Read more
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Labyrinth Board Game: Learning to Plan and Adapt
In a nutshell… Labyrinth (Ages 7+, 2-4 players, <30m) is a family board game in which players work their way around a shifting maze picking up treasures. On each turn, a player pushes a leftover pathway tile onto the board. The tile moves a full line of tiles and changes the routes available to everyone.… Read more
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Next Step Children’s Board Games: Hey That’s My Fish!
As summer comes to an end, children return to school and the nights draw in, I’m starting a new blog series. I’ll be looking at games for children that come after the early-years staples (e.g. Shopping List, Mermaid Fun) and before the classic “gateway” games (e.g. Ticket to Ride, Carcassonne). These games are still colourful… Read more
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Bandido – A Puzzle‑Based Introduction to Cooperative Games
In a nutshell… Bandido and Bandida are puzzle-based family cooperative games. Players add tunnel cards to a shared layout to close every route before Bandido/a (= bandit) can escape. Bandida uses the same tunnel system as Bandido but adds variety. It has specialist item cards and three modes: stopping Bandida, helping her escape, or completing… Read more
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Kotakote – A Different Kind of Spatial Challenge
In a nutshell… Kotakote is a pattern‑matching family card game where players race to recreate an image using a small set of double‑sided cards. Each picture card shows a target image; each Kotakote card shows fragments of shapes and pictures in different colours. Players must combine the right Kotakote cards, in the right orientation, to… Read more
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Kariba – An interactive family card game without targeting
In a nutshell… Kariba is a compact family card game about wild animals competing for water. Players take turns placing animal cards around an eight-sided watering hole. When a group reaches three or more, the next card added chases away the nearest weaker animals, scoring points for the player. The elephant is strongest but is… Read more
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A Gentle Rain: A Quiet Tile-Laying Game
In a nutshell A Gentle Rain is a solo (or cooperative) tile‑laying game where the player(s) line up square tiles with cut-out corners to form matching flowers. Players look for placements that create flower matches without blocking or reducing future options. The board grows outward in a loose pattern that is different every time. When… Read more
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Trash Pandas: Push-your-Luck Laughter and Low Stakes
Trash Pandas is a relaxed, forgiving family card game that mixes push‑your‑luck unpredictability with a playful theme. Players roll a custom die to collect and store their favourite food scraps for points. It takes 10-15 mins and is suitable for 2-4 players. Read more
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Qwixx: A Quick Dice Game Where Choices Narrow as You Play
In a nutshell… Qwixx is a roll‑and‑write game played with six dice: two white and four coloured. Each player has a scoresheet with two rows (red and yellow) that increase from 2 to 12, and two rows (green and blue) that decrease from 12 to 2. Players use dice rolls to cross off numbers in… Read more