Our Favourite Tabletop Games (2021 Edition)

A few months ago, my students and I were surprised to learn that some of my colleagues have been waiting for a game-related blog post with recommendations - both video games and tabletop games. You see, over the years, I have attracted music students who share some of my geeky interests: gaming, anime, manga, sci-fi and fantasy stories.

Our piano parties include gaming after everyone’s performances. Plans are in the works for joint-studio Minecraft parties with my brother’s studio. We all love our games.

Since our combined list is long, I’ll split this into two posts, sharing some of our favourites. First up: tabletop games.

Some of My Favourite Tabletop Games 

I have played countless games through the years with family, friends, and students. The Calgary Comic & Entertainment Expo, G33kmoot, FallCon, and Wil Wheaton’s Tabletop series have introduced me to some really neat games.

It’s very difficult to narrow this list down. These are just some of my favourites. They are games that I like to come back to, time and time again:

Clank! Series (2 - 4 Players, Ages 12+): Both Clank! and Clank! in Space are deck-building games. In the original, players raid a dungeon’s lair to steal some of its loot. At some point, the dragon becomes enraged and it becomes a race back up to the surface. In the sequel, players are sneaking around the evil Lord Eradikus’ spaceship, Eradikus Prime. Players hack into the ship’s system to find the evil lord’s artifacts and try to make it out in an escape pod with some loot.

Clank! In Space. Credit: R-M. Arca.

Seven Card Samurai (2 - 8 Players, Ages 9+): Seven Card Samurai is a favourite among members of Ka Muso Kai Calgary and the Edmonton Iaido Club. You know all samurai virtues that are represented by each of our hakama pleats? Those get thrown out the window as we steal rice and fight each other in this exciting card game.

Using Bandits and Ninjas to steal each other’s rice in Seven Card Samurai. Credit: R-M Arca.

Forbidden Series: In Forbidden Desert (2 - 5 Players, Ages 10+), players are members of an archaeological team, tasked with finding the parts to an ancient flying machine. It soon becomes a race against the clock as our sole mode of transportation crashes. Players must work together to find the parts and escape before the desert swallows them up. 

Searching for an ancient flying machine before the desert buries us alive! Credit: R-M Arca

Forbidden Island (2 - 4 Players, Ages 10+) is also a co-operative game. Players work together to collect treasures before the island completely sinks, taking them with it! 

Seeking treasure from the Forbidden Island. Credit: R-M Arca.

Castle Panic (1 - 6 Players, Ages 10+): Castle Panic is a cooperative tower defense game. Players work together to defend the castle from an onslaught of monsters that are trying to storm the castle. Expansions are available.

The monsters are coming! Credit: R-M Arca

Dominion Series (2 - 4 Players, Ages 13+). Since Dominion first came out in 2008, there have been multiple expansions. In this deck-building game, you are the monarch of a kingdom, seeking to build your realm up to a dominion. Standing in your way are the neighbouring kingdoms, seeking to build up dominions of their own.

One of my classmates from Japanese class had a turn that took around 20 cards to complete. Credit: R-M Arca

Defenders of the Realm (1 - 4 Players, Ages 13+): Defenders of the Realm is an adventure/fantasy game with lots of moving pieces. You and your fellow heroes defend the kingdom from dragons, demons, orcs and the undead who threaten to take over the land. Build your team of magicians, the tank, swords people, healers, archers...you know, the typical role-playing (RPG) team.

Defending Monarch City from Orcs, the Undead, Dragons, and Demons. Credit: R-M Arca

7 Wonders (2 - 7 Players, Ages 10+): This is a game I would not recommend to new gamers, just because the game mechanics are a little more complicated than the games I’ve mentioned so far. However, once you get into it, 7 Wonders is a very exciting game.

As the leader of one of the great cities of the Ancient World, you are building your city to last the ages - develop trade routes, build your army, build universities, invade your neighbours, etc. Choose your strategy and build your empire.

Honourable Mentions

The following games have been fun to play at games nights:

Machi Koro (2 - 4 players, Ages 10+): With the roll of a die and your growing deck of cards, build your city to become the biggest in the region. Multiple expansions are available.

Tales & Games: The Hare & the Tortoise (2 - 5 players, Ages 7+ ): Based on Aesop’s Fable of the tortoise and the hare, you bet on who will win the race in this cute card game.

Ticket to Ride (2 - 5 Players, Ages 8+): Collect cards and build your train routes. Winner earns the most points. Multiple expansions are available. Online versions are available.

Biblios (2 - 4 Players, Ages 10+): As the abbot of a medieval monastery, one of your responsibilities is to build the best library of sacred books. You are competing against abbots of other monasteries.

Just One (3 - 7 Players, Ages 8+): This is a short cooperative card game. Players try to uncover as many mystery words as possible. Strive to give your teammates unique one word clues to guess from.

Some of My Students’ Favourite Tabletop Games 

These are some of the games that my students enjoy playing:

Tsuro (2 - 8 Players, Ages 8+): Play your tiles and follow the path. Try to stay on the board and not run into any of your opponents. Last one standing wins. First of a series.

Follow the path and try to be the last dragon standing. Credit: R-Marca

Dutch Blitz (2 - 4 Players, Ages 8+): A fast paced solitaire-type game. First one to play all their cards wins.

Labyrinth (2 - 4 Players, Ages 8+): Explore the labyrinth in search of treasures. Be careful, though! As the game tiles move, so does your path to the loot. First of a series.

The shifting labyrinth. Credit: R-M Arca

Cat Tower (2 - 6 Players, Ages 6+): Stack the cats as high as you can. The first player to get rid of all the cats in their hand wins.

How high can you go? Credit: R-M Arca

Pandemic (2 - 4 Players, Ages 8+): A cooperative board game in which you and your teammates are part of a team of experts, tasked with saving the world from a viral pandemic. First of a series.

King of Tokyo (2 - 6 Players, Ages 8+): It’s an epic dice-rolling slugfest among monsters to become the King of Tokyo. Win either by being the first monster to earn 20 Victory Points or by being the last monster standing.

Last monster standing. Credit: R-M Arca

Trouble (2 - 4 Players, Ages 4+): Players race to the finish line but a simple dice roll with the Pop-O-Matic can send anyone back to Home Base.

Sorry (2 - 4 Players, Ages 6+): Players race Home but a simple card draw can send you back to the starting line.

Where to Buy Tabletop Games

Support local business! We have several, wonderful game specialty stores in Calgary. Each offers an extensive collection and excellent customer service: Imaginary Wars, Metal Galaxy Social Games & Bistro, Sentry Box, and Games People Play. You can also check out Chapters, Mastermind Toys and The Discovery Hut.

Online, check out these Canadian board game suppliers: Boardgame Bliss, Boardgames N More, and Boardgames.ca.

What are some of your favourite tabletop games? Where do you like to buy your games? Share them in the comments.

Stay tuned for Part 2 - Our 2021 Video Game Playlist.

5 Popular Co-Op Tabletop Games

Tabletop games have come a long way since Monopoly, Risk, and Sorry. These days, it’s not uncommon to hear about a tabletop games meetup or convention, featuring games like Settlers of Catan, Small World, and King of Tokyo. Earlier this month, gamers all around the world celebrated International Tabletop Day in cafes, pubs and homes.

“Tabletop game” refers to any type of game that is played on a table. This includes board games, card games, dice games, pen and paper RPG games and so on.

“Co-operative tabletop games” requires players to work together towards a common goal (as opposed to “semi co-op games, which usually has a traitor). I scoured Amazon and Boardgamegeek.com, and watched Wil Wheaton’s immensely popular show on the Geek & Sundry Channel, Tabletop.

These award-winning co-op games listed have a 4.0+ star user rating or higher on Amazon. They have also been ranked in the Top 500 out of the nearly 70,000 games in Boardgamegeek.com’s database. These fully co-op games have either earned a nomination or won a Golden Geek Award, presented by Boardgamegeek.

I am proud to say that I have played and/or own six of the games on this list, thanks to friends, conventions I have attended, and Wil Wheaton. Will I try out the remaining four? Most likely. Care to join me?

1 Castle Panic

The monsters are coming! They emerge from the forest and make their way towards the castle in droves. If you can successfully fend off the monsters without losing all of your castle towers, victory is yours.

The board is divided into five rings and four colored quadrants in Castle Panic. Archers, Knights and Swordsman can only attack from their designated rings, while the Barbarian and the Hero have more flexibility.

Together, you plan your turns based on what card in your hand would be useful for an upcoming player and what card combination is most effective for your turn. Sounds simple enough, until a plague or giant boulder rolls into the castle or you pull out, “Draw 4 more monster tokens.”

Castle Panic was designed by Justin De Witt and published by Fireside Games. It is for 1 - 4 players, ages 10 and up. Although the lists gameplay at 60 minutes, it truly depends upon how long it takes players take to strategize and play their cards.

The game won 2011 GeekDad Best Board Game of 2011 for “Most Monsters” and earned two Golden Geek nominations in 2010. Most recently, Castle Panic’s Wizard Tower expansion earned a nomination at the 39th Annual Origins Awards, presented by the Game Manufacturers Association. It currently sits at #523 on Boardgamegeek.

Castle Panic on Amazon

2 Forbidden Island

Forbidden Island is the predecessor to Forbidden Desert. Your team of adventurers will explore the island in the hopes of unearthing four sacred treasures. However, as Wil Wheaton says in Tabletop, the island is out to get you.

Utilizing each player’s special abilities, you must find the treasures, while trying to prevent the island from sinking completely. There are seven roles to choose from, including Pilot, Diver, Explorer, and Messenger.

Forbidden Island was created by Matt Leacock and published by Gamewright. It’s for 2 - 4 players, ages 10 and above. Gameplay is 30+ minutes.

 This co-op game won the 2010 Golden Geek Award for Best Children’s Board Game, 2010 Mensa Select, 2013 UK Games Expo Best Family/Children’s Game, the 2011 Juego del Año, and 2011 Vuoden Peli Family Game of the Year. It is currently ranked #333 on Boardgamegeek.

Forbidden Island Game on Amazon

3 Defenders of the Realm

This is an RPG hybrid. If pen and paper RPG games aren’t your thing, if you don’t like the idea of being a Game Master, yet you want to take a break from RPG video games, give Defenders a try.

You and your companions are the King’s Champions. You can choose from eight roles, including Wizard, Paladin, Dwarf and Ranger. Each player has different special abilities and weapons.  Every game is different, depending on what role you play and which quests you take on.

Four enemy generals and their growing army of minions are marching towards Monarch City. Even the best of your party’s plans can go awry by way of a poor card draw or dice roll. Victory is pretty sweet if you do manage to slay all of the generals.

Defenders of the Realm is a co-operative fantasy game for 1 - 4 players, ages 13 and up.  It was designed by Richard Launius and published by Eagle Games. Gameplay is 90+ minutes.

Defenders of the Realm was nominated for the 2010 Golden Geek Best Thematic Board Game, and Origins Awards Best Board Game Awards. It is ranked #185 on Boardgamegeek.

Defenders of the Realm Game on Amazon

4 Hanabi

Listed as the best board game of 2013 by Paste Magazine, Hanabi is a co-op card game with a twist. The object of Hanabi is to work together and build fireworks by building colored number sequences from 1 to 5.

However, players hold their hand facing the others so that they cannot see their cards. This game tests your short-term memory: Can you remember the hints your friends gave you two turns ago to decide which card to play next? Is there someone at the table who unknowingly has the next card that should be played and could use a hint?

There are a limited number of hint tokens. You must balance the hint tokens with the cards played, or you will wind up playing your hand.

Hanabi was designed by Antoine Bauza and published by RnR Games. It’s a game for 2 - 5 players, ages 10 and up. Gameplay varies depending upon the number of players and how long a player’s turn takes.

This game currently sits at #120 on Boardgamegeek. It won the 2013 Fairplay À la carte Award and the 2013 Spiel des Jahres.

Hanabi Card Game on Amazon

5 Forbidden Desert

In Forbidden Desert, you and your colleagues are on an archeological expedition to recover the parts of a legendary flying machine. From the Climber and Explorer, to the Navigator and the Water Carrier, each member’s special skills play a critical role in the expedition’s success.

The storm picks up and moves the the artifacts. If you take too long to find the parts, the desert will get you. If your team is too slow at clearing the growing piles of sand, you will be buried.

It is extremely satisfying when you successfully find and assemble all the parts. There’s just enough room on the airship to place a couple of game pieces on it for a victory photo.

Forbidden Desert is a co-op game for 2 - 5 players, ages 10 and above. Gameplay varies depending on the size of the team, but averages 45 minutes.

Designed by Matt Leacock and published by Gamewright, Forbidden Desert currently ranks #168 on Boardgamegeek. It has won the 2013 Golden Geek Award for Best Children’s Game, the 2013 Mensa Select Award and the 2013 UK Games Expo Best Family/Children’s Game Award.

Forbidden Desert Game on Amazon

Stay tuned for my next list of 5 Popular Co-Op Tabletop Games.

My Tabletop Games Wish List: 2013 edition

Some of my friends are coming over during the Christmas Break and we're going to do some serious tabletop gaming. It will be a great way to catch up with each other, challenge our minds and to just have fun. It's no surprise that some of the people on my Christmas shopping list are receiving tabletop games for Christmas. I had to think long and hard about the games they enjoy. I even had to call in my friend Sharwhiz for some recommendations.

While shopping, and exploring, my Tabletop Games Wish List has steadily grown. Here are 12 board games, card games and dice games that are on my Wish List:

1. Lost Cities

2. 7 Wonders expansions: 7 Wonders Leaders and 7 Wonders Cities

3. Pandemic expansions: On The Brink and In The Lab

4. Castle Panic

5. Tigris and Euphrates - Double Scenario Edition

6. Tikal

7. Agricola All Creatures, Big and Small

8. Flash Point Fire Rescue 2nd Edition

9. Martian Dice

10. Rio Grande Games ACH Space Alert

Of these, I think I've only played two: Castle Panic and Martian Dice. For some reason, I can't remember if I've tried Lost Cities. I don't think so as I'm sure I would have remembered going an archaeological expedition.

The Monster Onslaught: Castle Panic

Castle Panic is a co-operative game for one to six players. The objective is simple: survive the onslaught of monsters coming to trash the castle. If all the towers are knocked down, you're dead.

It's a card and dice game. You roll the dice to determine the monsters' entry point. There are four rings around the castle. The monsters enter your land through the Forest and cannot be attacked from there. Once they step into the Archers' ring, only they can attack. Next are the Knights and Swordsmen. The Barbarian and Hero are exceptions to the rule.

During your turn, you can draw or discard cards, exchange cards with your team mates, attack the monsters, repair walls and add fortifications. Your turn ends by drawing new monster tiles and then moving ALL monsters up one ring closer to your castle. If you wind up with a Boss, it gets ugly.

Kidnapping Earth Specimens in Martian Dice

I understand that Martian Dice is a lot like Zombie Dice. I can't get over my distate for zombies, so I am just happy that there is this cute martian version.

You and your opponents are Martians. This dice game is recommended for two to five players.

Your mission is to abduct human, chicken and cow specimens in a three-roll turn. Watch out for those big bad tanks. If you roll the same number or more Martian death rays, you successfully make off with your specimens. However, if you roll more tanks than death rays, the humans manage to fend you off.  The first Martian team to hit 25 points wins.

Game Expansions Squared

You will notice that I have expansion sets for two games listed: 7 Wonders and Pandemic. As you can see, I do own the base sets:

How about you? What tabletop games are on your wish list?

My First FallCon

I first heard about FallCon two years ago through one of my friends in Japanese class. At the time, I was intrigued, but for whatever reason, didn’t go. This year was different. Over the summer, I explored some new tabletop games with friends and at GeekMoot. I wanted to explore more games.

It would have been nice to attend the entire convention (September 27 - 29, 2013) but alas, time is so short. I only had time to attend the session on Saturday afternoon. Since it was my first time, I decided to register for Open Gaming.

This was a little different from GeekMoot. Upon registering for FallCon, you are basically reserving a seat, which becomes especially important when one of the featured games is running. You can see how many spaces are available at a table when you view your account. Or, if you're on the waiting list, you can see what position you are in.

It was just an adventure getting there. The venue is on the opposite end of town from where I live. Couple that with the fact that I was coming up from High River where I was visiting family - combo that with Deerfoot Trail being reduced to single lane traffic, starting at 22X - level that up with the fact that the detour ended in me overshooting my destination and backtracking through neighbourhoods I never knew existed - and you get one grumpy panda.

Now, don’t you tell me to turn on Google Navigation. My Android doesn't really get along with Google Maps or Google Navigation and I prefer using landmarks. Besides, I’m a hard copy map gal in the end. Guess what I forgot to print off that morning?

I was relieved to finally pull into the very full parking lot at the Commonwealth Centre and even more relieved to meet up with a friend’s hubby in the parking lot. He gave me the lay of the land upon entry: vendors here, food there, registered games right by the vendors and open gaming tables as far as the eye could see. In the very far corner, my friend and other volunteers were busy at the Games Library.

Speaking of the Games Library, what an impressive sight! There were over 690 tabletop games (some multiples). What was even more amazing was the fact that the majority of those games belong to one person.

My first stop was to the two vendors. The one game I didn’t purchase during my shopping spree was King of Tokyo. I’ve been itching to stomp around, kaiju style ever since GeekMoot but Imaginary Wars and Sentry Box were sold out when I went. I bought it from Boardgames.ca .

We caught up with my friend and then went in search of a table looking for players. These tables were denoted by an orange cone. Other tables sported a red cone, which meant that the players were in search of a teacher.

First up: Tzolk’in: The Mayan Calendar. The basic premise is similar to some games that I’ve played - build your kingdom/domain/land, gather resources, care for your people. However, the layout is quite different:

There’s a quite a bit more to the game. I was actually glad that our teacher (my friend’s hubby) had to explain the game three times, although I did feel badly for him. Since I was the first newbie at the table, I got the spiel, with added information, three times. Once he finished giving the rundown, another person showed up and then another.

There are six interconnected gears. On your turn, you can either place your workers on the lowest available spot in a wheel, or take them off so that you can reap the benefit granted for being in that spot. The wheels turn as the calendar advances, so your workers go around, stopping at different spots. It’s a waiting game to obtain a particular item, be it a building resource, corn to feed your workers, the right to build, an extra worker, etc.

Through all the action, you are trying to gain Victory Points. These are achieved in various ways, such as erecting buildings and temples, traversing the big blue wheel and moving up the temple levels as you gain favour with the Mayan gods.

Make sure you keep enough corn to feed your people otherwise, you will lose favour with the gods. I wound up with negative points for a while because of that.

If you need extra corn, one way you can get corn is to take control of the Headdress. You gain whatever corn has built up in the kitty AND you get control of the calendar. You can move time forward one day or two. You can also move the calendar backwards, in hopes of positioning your workers in a better spot on the gears.

It’s a neat game, but we three newbies readily agreed that it’s hard to get our brain around. It’s a game I’d like to try a few more times with a more experienced player as a guide before attempting to play it with me trying to be the coach.

It’s also one of the longer games too. The Boardgame Geek estimates gameplay at 90 minutes.

While we were playing, my nose was bombarded with delectable scents from the kitchen. People were ordering not just burgers and fries, but lasagna and Shepherd’s Pie. Oh so yummy. However, I made do with popcorn as I had dinner plans.

Next game: Bruges (pronounced “broozh” or “”brugguh”). It’s a city in Belgium. The game is set in Bruges during the Renaissance. Players are wealthy merchants competing to be Number 1. This is achieved by earning a high reputation on the scale, building as many buildings and canals as you can and having as many highly valued people out in your neighbourhood.

I was joined by a gentleman from BC and two ladies. The two ladies were familiar with the game.

Gameplay consists of four phases. In the first, we built our hand from the two decks of cards. The cards have colour-coded houses on one side and people on the other.

Phase 2 involves Player 1 rolling the coloured dice. The colours correspond with the works and the houses. If a player rolls a “5” or a “6”: watch out! Everyone gets struck with misfortune, such as pestilence or fire, earning a Threat Marker. Then, players can decide whether or not they want to pay the fee shown on the designated die to move up the Influence (or “Reputation”) Track.

In Phase 3, the players go around the table, playing their hand. Players can build canals or buildings, recruit workers, put workers in their buildings and activate an action listed on a card that’s in your neighbourhood.

In the final phase, players determine “majorities”. That is, you determine who’s the winner of that round in terms of canals, people and influence.

The decks are then passed to the next person. He or she becomes the Player 1 for the new round.

It’s straightforward enough. In some ways, I like it better than Dominion because of all the extra parts. You have your workers, gilder, cards and game piece. The combination of using cards and dice is neat as well.

Gameplay is listed at 60 minutes, but I’m sure we took longer than that. I think we were actually closer to 90 minutes. We missed out on the auction (which sounded quite lively). However, we were all committed to completing the game.

My first FallCon was short and sweet. The registration process was straight forward. The scheduling was varied. The cone system was brilliant. That Games Library simply blew me away. Everyone I played with or spoke to was extremely friendly and helpful.

And so ended my first FallCon experience, but not my gaming weekend. You see, my tabletop extravaganza began Friday night with a game of Pandemic. My brother and I wanted to see if we could save the world in a two-player scenario. Not only did we develop cures for all four dreaded diseases, we decided to keep playing until we eradicated all those nasty cubes from the world map.

The outbreaks started in Asia. We decided that it was fitting that we end up back in Asia. After we traversed the globe, treating and curing the world of Bugger Black, Bad Blue, that Darn Red and the Pesky Yellow diseases, we met up in Tokyo so our game pieces could party it up in Akihabara.

Sunday, we cracked open King of Tokyo. It was a fierce family fight amongst our kaiju, with each member employing a different gaming strategy. It was a bloody battle, coming back from 3 HP, but Mekka Dragon and I were victorious.

Now, it’s another year until FallCon 27. Thankfully, there are various tabletop gaming meetup groups, Gamer Sundays at Dickens’ Pub and of course, as many gameplay opportunities we can squeeze in with family and friends.

If you’d like to check out any of these games, head to a specialty gaming store. In Calgary, we have several, including Imaginary Wars, Revolution Games and Music and The Sentry Box. Otherwise, check out Amazon (click on the game links above) or GermanGames. If you have a favourite tabletop gaming store, feel free to share in the Comments section.

My TableTop Games Shopping Spree

It all started with Wil Wheaton's Tweet about Qwirkle on May 13, 2013: "Turns out Qwirkle is a really fun #Tabletop game." I was intrigued. Time passed, work happened and a flood came, so I forgot about it. Later in the summer, when one of my friends posted a photo on Facebook of her new newly acquired Qwirkle, I remembered. She and her hubby hosted a little games night and I got my chance to try it.

How can I describe Qwirkle? It's like Scabble with colours and shapes. It's also like Sudoku in that a tile can only appear in a sequence once. The object of the game is that you're trying to earn the most points by building tile sequences. The tiles you play must share one aspect in common with the the tile you're connecting it to, either the same colour or shape.

You seek to build as many Qwirkles as you can (worth 12 points each). A Qwirkle is a set of six tiles that share one thing in common (colour or shape).  I loved it and set out to buy my own set.

That night, we also played Pandemic. I heard wonderful things about it at GeekMoot and really liked the idea that it's a co-operative game. Sadly, our team during games night wasn't able to save the world from the dreaded Black Disease, so I was itching to try it again and save the world.

Each player has a role, such as Dispatcher, Researcher and Quarantine Specialist. You work together to treat, cure and eradicate disease around the world, but you're constantly fighting epidemics.

We tried two other games that night too: Love Letter and Biblios. The former was all right but the latter is a game I'd like to try again.

A few weeks ago, I set out to buy Qwirkle and Pandemic. Unfortunately, Imaginary Wars didn't have either, but I picked up Labyrinth. It reminds me of the 2D adventure video games, in which you are trying to find hidden treasures. However, it's 3D and you must push a tile into the board to move the tiles around. Sometimes, you wind up in a dead end path and wish that the next player pushes you off the board so you can come in at hopefully a more favorable position.

Then, I went to the Sentry Box. Now, I knew they were big, but I never realized they were THAT big. It's the largest gaming store in all of North America, with over 13,000 square feet of tabletop gaming, models, comics, manga, books, plushies and play space.

I, er...um....bought enough to get the bulk discount:

So far, my family has tried Tsuro, which was featured on Wil Wheaton's show, Tabletop. The rules for this tile-based game are simple: 1 - Last dragon flying, wins. 2 - Follow the path. 3 - Don't crash into other dragons. It's fun to watch that particular episode:

Another new game that we've tried out is Edo. North Americans will say "EE-doh" but the Japanese student in me will pronounce it as it should be ("Eh-doh").

Although it took me a while to weed through the instructions (too much information to digest in one sitting), after a couple of rounds of gameplay, it's becoming one of my fave games. It's like Dominion in the sense that you are building a "kingdom" (er, "daimyo"). It's like Puerto Rico in the sense that you can build, harvest and earn money. Combine that with very well designed pieces - solid construction and aesthetically pleasing - and the Japanese theme and this chibi samuari is hooked.

We will get to the other table games in those bags, but all in good time. I think we'll tackle the award-winning 7 Wonders next, as well as No Thanks.

If you're interested in checking out any of these games, drive past Toys'R'Us and head to a gaming store that specializes in European tabletop games, like Imaginary Wars and Sentry Box. Online, you can purchase Edo, Qwirkle, Tsuro and Pandemic on Amazon. One of my piano families recommend German Games.