If you’re tired of parties, bars, and restaurants, looking for a great way to hang out with your friends at home, can be tricky sometimes. The good news is there are plenty of ways to enjoy time at home with friends — trying a new recipe, learning a new language, reading books, doing arts and crafts activities, and playing board games. We’re going to focus on the last example, board games.
Continue reading for the best board games of 2019.
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Catan
Did you look forward to playing Oregon Trail during computer class in elementary school? Discover the island of Catan and harvest and trade resources for your new civilization, but be on the lookout for robbers who want to steal your goods! There are even Seafarers, Cities & Knights, Traders & Barbarians, and Explorers & Pirates extension packs.
What Do You Meme?
All of the memes you fell in love with are part of this game which involves matching photo cards with caption cards to create your own lol-worthy memes. There are also expansion packs for your favorite shows including Rick & Morty, The Real Housewives, and Mean Girls. One question remains—who will be crowned Meme Queen/King?
Sushi Go
Sushi lovers will adore these cards that feature different parts of sushi. It’s simple—to win all you have to do is create the most delicious meal. This fast-paced card game has you collecting as many sushi combinations as you can to create sushi rolls or sashimi sets. Dipping your favorite nigiri in wasabi triples your points! Just make sure you leave room for dessert.
Codenames
Have you always wanted to live out your James Bond fantasy? Well, now you can with codenames the game that players (agents) only know each other by code names and they must race to see who can identify the agent first. Spymasters give one-word clues that point to words on the board and teams must guess the word of the right color while trying not to guess the other team’s ones. But, you must avoid the assassin.
Exploding Kittens
Don’t worry, no cats were harmed playing this game! Exploding kittens is simple; players take turns pulling from a deck of cards until someone gets the exploding kitten. You can avoid exploding with defuse cards which distract the exploding kittens with lasers, kitten yoga, and catnip sandwiches or you can play cards to skip your turn, attack other players, peek at the deck, or secretly relocate the exploding kitten cards.
Cards Against Humanity
“The party game for horrible people” allows you to let your dark humor out, without offending anyone in the process. Basically, the most politically incorrect people will do the best at the game. You can play with up to 10 people and you fill in the blanks answering questions or create stories based on hundreds of R-rated prompt cards. Just don’t play with your grandmother!
Image via MarkCastiglia/depositphotos
Pandemic
This board game couldn’t be more fitting for the times we’re currently in. In pandemic, four diseases have spread simultaneously across the world. You’ll be a disease-fighting specialist who treats hotspots while coming up with cures for the diseases before they become unmanageable and wipe out mankind. Each turn players can travel between cities, treat infected populations, discover cures, or build research stations, but sprinkled throughout the deck are Epidemic cards that speed up the diseases activities in just seconds.
Betrayal at House on the Hill
Horror fans will have so much fun with this game that captures the essence of Halloween at any time of year. Build your own haunted house, but then try to escape it alive through the horrors entailed in the walls of the mansion and the creak of footsteps on the stairs. There are 50-terrorizing scenarios and tons of rooms filled with danger that will never give you the same experience twice. Try not to get too scared with the monsters and omens that appear in every room to give you a glimpse of your fate. But beware, the house will turn one of the players against the others.
Dixit
They say “a picture is worth a thousand words” and in Dixit, the pictures tell a story. In each turn, the storyteller says a phrase or word to match the image on the card and players must guess what image the storyteller saw when they created their tale. Other players must pick a card from their deck that they think best represents the storyteller’s story. The storyteller’s card shouldn’t be too obvious and if everyone correctly guesses their card, they don’t receive any points.
Spontuneous -The Song Game
Do you find yourself constantly busting out into song lyrics? If you do, then this is the game for you! One player says a word and the other players must try and sing a song with the word. The first person to start singing a minimum of five lyrics containing the word rolls the dice and advances on the board. When you land on certain spaces you have to complete challenges. But, you only have fifteen seconds to come up with a song and if no one can choose a song with the word, the player who said the word must have a song ready. Don’t worry, no singing talent is required!
