The Smart Examiner

Want to start a boardgame collection?

If you’ve got kids, or if you just enjoy socializing over a game of Monopoly, then starting a board game collection is a cool thing to do. The list of 4 board games we’re providing are a good starting point for a new board game collector, and we’ve included a little bit of information about each game. (And we’ve left out some of the obvious stuff like Risk.)

1. Puerto Rico

Puerto Rico is consistently one of the top rated boardgames, and it has been for years. The game was produced by Rio Grande Games and designed by Andreas Seyfarth. The box and the artwork on the box are understated, with muted colors. This game doesn’t just leap off the shelf at you visually, but that’s not what’s important in a board game anyway. What’s important is how much fun it is to play. And Puerto Rico is fun with a big F. It’s a historical game where the players take the roles of farmers in Puerto Rico in the past. The farmers grow 5 different kinds of crops, including tobacco, coffee, corn, sugar, and indigo. The game requires strategy, planning, and resource management skills.

2. Go

Forget about chess. Go is cooler and more fun. It’s a 2 player game played with black and white stones on a grid. The goal is to encircle territory with your stones. The game sounds simple, but the strategies are complex, and you can play Go for years without mastering it. And as far as being a classic boardgame goes, there’s evidence that Go has been around before Christ was born.

3. The Settlers of Catan

The Settlers of Catan always reminds me of Puerto Rico, and vice versa, but that could just be because both games are so brilliantly elegant, playable, and fun. The game was designed by Klaus Teuber and is published by Mayfair Games. The players try to win at this game by creating a settlement and developing it. Players collect materials to use to build up their settlements, and each player earns victory points by achieving particular goals. The Settlers of Catan is great fun.

4. War of the Ring

This is a game obviously based on The Lord of the Rings novels from J.R.R. Tolkien. In War of the Ring, one player takes the side of the Free Peoples, and the other player takes the role of the Shadow Armies. Can you guess which ones are the good guys and which ones are the bad guys? The game takes 3 hours to play. Sauron’s side can win by conquering enough countries belonging to the Free Peoples, but the Free People’s main hope is to hold out long enough for Frodo to complete his quest as the Ringbearer. This is an involved and intense game that probably isn’t great for little kids.

Start with those 4 board games, and you’ll be on your way to becoming a board game collector of some note.