Everyone has their favorite game they like to bring out on game night. These are our family favorites. While not everyone enjoys every game, we all agree that these are the first to be played when it’s time when gathering for a couple of hours of fun.

Ticket to Ride

Favorite Family Game 

Ticket to Ride is one of my favorite games to bring out when I have a wide age range of players. While recommended for ages 8 and up, both my youngest and nephew enjoyed it from a relatively early age of 6, and us adults have enjoyed it equally well.

Set up is a breeze. Place the game board with the USA map between the players, set out playing cards, and pass out train car pieces, and the game begins!

To play the game, players collect color cards which can be redeemed for color train pieces, which are needed to connect cities across the US. Play continues until one player has placed all of their train pieces on the board. Completed routes earn points. Bonus points for the most train pieces on the board and the longest train route. The player with the most points wins. 

For those with children learning their geography, Ticket to Ride comes in several versions, 1910 America, India, Asia, Switzerland and Europe. 

Telestrations

Favorite Group Game

Remember the game Telephone, in which you whisper a phrase in the ear of another player, and each subsequent player whispers what they think they heard?  When the final player response rarely sounded anything like the original phrase!

Enter Telestrations, the drawing equivalent of Telephone. All players receive a reusable spiral notebook and dry-erase marker. Each player draws a subject card and begins drawing. When the item is drawn, it’s time to turn the page over so no one can see what was drawn and pass the notebook to the next player. That player writes what they think the picture is. The notebook is passed again, and the next player looks at the word the player wrote before and draws their interpretation of that word. The notebook continues around the table, returning to the original player.  

Each player then reveals their phrase and subsequent words and drawings. Rarely do the first word and the last word coincide. A great game for multiple ages!

Imhotep

Favorite Set Rounds Game

Currently out of print- check eBay for options.

Gather your tools! You’re now an Egyptian architect. This game is relatively new in our stash . While it may seem a bit overwhelming looking into the box, the game has a simple format easy to learn. Stones, cards, and playing boards are laid out for open gameplay.

Gain points by transporting stones to and from boats and onto ancient constructions sites, while keeping your opponents from doing the same. To win and become the best architect, you’ll need to get your blocks to the best sites, in the correct order, and in the right time. 

On your turn, you choose only 1 of 4 actions: take stones from the quarry, move stones to a boat, or sail a boat, or pick a blue (action) card. Be strategic! You may need to choose to give your opponent a point in order to gain more for you! 

The game is played over 6 rounds. Points are earned both during the game and end of game play. The player with the most points is the winner. An additional bonus to this game is just by turning over one of the game boards, the game changes. 

Therapy

Favorite Couples Game

Currently out of print. Check eBay for older versions

My parents purchased a travel trailer and this game was found shoved on the back of a cabinet. It sat on the gameboard shelf for years until one day someone pulled it down and we opened it up. It’s become our go-to favorite couples game. Pairs nicely with your wine or adult beverage!

In Therapy, you are both the patient and the psychiatrist, helping others when they land in your office, and a patient when you land in theirs. 

Similar to Trivial Pursuit in design, you and your opponents go around the board, answering questions from 6 categories: Adulthood, adolescence, childhood, seniority,  Questions and statistic answers are pulled from various psychology manuals; the answers are often surprising!

The real fun happens when you land in an opponent’s office (their color block), in which you, the patient, and your opponent, the psychiatrist, must have matching answers to the provided question. Didn’t get it right? You’re needing more therapy, and on your next turn, must again try to match answers. Guess it correctly, and you earn a colored piece. Once you’ve earned all six pieces, head on over to the finish line to win the game. 

There are several versions of this game. The newer has inkblots, which you guess what most people see when observing. 

Players often learn a new tidbit about each other when playing Therapy. It’s a fun game to spend an evening with friends. 

Cover Your Assets

Favorite Card Game

Cover Your Assets is a winner with kids and adults. It’s such a hit around our house, that often we have more than 8 players. It does make the game go faster, so less stealing, but no one wants to be left out!

Although there is some strategy involved, much of the game is luck. This makes it easy for all ages to compete against each other equally.

Each player is given 4 cards. On their turn, they try to make pairs from their hand or the discard pile and place them on the table. Have a card in hand that matches an opponent’s tabled assets? You can try to steal it and add it to your assets. But watch out-your sweet pile of assets isn’t safe until you’ve had a chance to cover them-and your opponent might steal it back before you get them covered! 

The first player to collect a million dollars of assets by collecting cards is the winner. Sounds easy? It is! But expect plenty of groans and giggles in this game!

Sagrada

Favorite Solo Game

Billed as a stained glass sudoku, Sagrada is a multifaceted puzzle game. As a family, we play Sagrada often. It also has a solo version which is just as enjoyable as playing with a group. 

Aside from being simple to play, it’s also a visually beautiful game. The gameboard is a stained glass window outline, with removable window patterns which you’ll fill with colored dice, AKA stained glass pieces.

The goal is to fill your stained glass window and earn more points than the target number. Dice are randomly drawn from the bag and are played by either color and number, according to the pattern in your window. Some spaces on the window board require a certain color or number die, and no 2 color or number can be placed adjacent either vertically or horizontally. Points are collected by completing the objectives on the personal and public objectives cards. 

Sagrada is a surprisingly addictive puzzle game, and an enjoyable alternative to solitaire.