Intent: Inspire you to try new games and use them to invite more people into the hobby.

Are you getting antsy for a new game? Tired of playing the same old mainstream game? Not sure which game to introduce to friends and family during the holidays? We know that finding a new game can be tough. We also know that board games can feel intimidating and complicated especially when you have to constantly learn new rules and different mechanics. Thankfully, we put together a list of five games for you to pick up and play that are perfect to kickstart your board game collection.

Continuing on with our goal to inspire people to play games, we wanted to share five games that are both easy to learn and easy to teach. These games are great to bring over to your parents house, fun to play with any age group, and have continuously been a hit amongst our friend groups.

Of course there are a lot of different games out there that are super great pick ups to start your collection, learn new mechanics or immerse yourself into another world but the next 5 games are what we like to call gateway games. These are games we picked up early on that really helped pave the way for our love of board games or games that we still continue to play to this day and enjoy both as a starter game or a game to take up the whole evening with friends!

So without further adieu, in no particular order.

Kingdomino

Designer: Bruno Cathala

Artist: Cyril Bouquet

Publisher: Blue Orange Games

Player Count: 2-4 players

Length: 15 minutes

Overview: In Kingdomino, your goal is to score the most points by creating a symmetrical board with as many matching tiles as possible. You are a newly appointed lord competing to expand your kingdom by exploring new lands. Each round, a new set of four tiles are placed out for the picking with the smallest numbered tile first and the largest numbered tile last. The game starts with randomly determining who goes first and having that player place their lord on the tile that they want. This process repeats itself until all players have placed their lord. Then, the next rounds turn order is determined by ascending order of the tiles. That is, whoever picked the lowest numbered tile goes first next round. Generally speaking, the better tiles have a higher value number, which creates a hand-off between picking a better tile and a priority pick for next round. Some tiles have crowns on them which act as multipliers for that specific land type. Similar to dominoes, the game uses tiles that have two sections and your job is to connect matching sections with one another to score more points. The game ends once all tiles have been depleted, points are then counted for connected tiles and the crown symbols associated with them. Whoever has the most points wins the game, becoming the victorious lord of the land!

Kickstart Factor: This game is an ideal pick up for those who are already familiar with the classic domino game. On top of that, the game is easy to set up, simple to teach and quick to play. It’s a great game to keep on the shelf as it can act as a nice board game night starter or a quick single game pick up to pass some time!

Harry Potter: Hogwarts Battle

Designer: Forrest-Pruzan Creative, Kami Mandell, and Andrew Wolf

Artist: Joe Van Wetering

Publisher: The Op

Player Count: 2-4 players

Length: 30-60 minutes

Overview: Battle through the years in Harry Potter Hogwarts Battle! This game is a cooperative deck-building game which gets progressively harder as you make your way through the years at the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. You will take on the roles of Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Neville to battle the evil threats that exist in the wizarding world. Working together, you will each take turns playing your cards, zapping your enemies, and spending money to fill your deck with more powerful spells, items and characters. The year is completed once you have defeated all the villains and but be careful because they fight back! There is a chance that you won’t succeed at defeating all the villains but do not fear, you can simply start the year over and learn from your mistakes. Balancing your offense, defense and protecting the locations from threats is crucial for victory. Once you make your way through a year and are feeling confident, move on to the next year to see what’s in store! Each year is a new experience that adds new cards, new villains and new twists to your game.

Kickstart Factor: If you have never played a deck building game, then this game is the perfect one to add to your collection. It eases you into the mechanic of purchasing cards for the benefit of your deck. Over the years, the game gets more difficult but as you play through each year separately, you can keep playing a year you’re comfortable with until you are ready to scale up the difficulty and crush a different set of evil-doers! This game has a lot of replayability and variability through seven years all in one box!

Just One

Designer: Ludovic Roudy and Bruno Sautter

Artist: Èric Azagury and Florian Poullet

Publisher: Repos Production

Player Count: 3-7 players

Length: 20 minutes

Overview: Just One is the perfect party game where you will work together with your team to see how many words you can guess correctly! This game starts by taking thirteen cards from the deck and placing them in the middle of your group. Each turn a player will be designated as the guesser, they will pick a number between 1-5 which will correspond with a word on a card. Everyone else will see this word and write down just one word that they think will help the guesser to guess it correctly. BUT there is a catch! Without the guesser looking, everyone will compare their words at the same time and if there are any duplicate words, or words that have the same root to them, then those clues are tossed out. Once all the clues have been filtered out, the guesser will look at all the clues that remain and attempt to guess the original word. BUT there is another catch! If the guesser guesses the word wrong, the card with the word on it and another card from the pile in the middle go into the discard. If they guess correctly, the group gains one point and uses the card to keep track. Alternatively, the guesser has the option to pass their guess, which saves the group from losing out on an extra point; your team only discards the card in play. After all thirteen cards have been guessed or discarded, the game is over and your team ends with a score out of thirteen!

Kickstart Factor: Another simple game to pick up and teach to a crowd of people. It is perfect for family gatherings, it is easy to set up, super portable (you can practically play this game anywhere, including virtually) and it is a relatively quick game. We personally use this as another game to start off the evening of games but love to bring it to gatherings with a larger crowd.

Mysterium

Designer: Oleksandr Nevskiy and Oleg Sidorenko

Artist: Igor Burlakov, Xavier Collette, Oleksandr Nevskiy and Oleg Sidorenko

Publisher: Libellud

Player Count: 2-7 players

Length: 42 minutes

Overview: Work together as an amnesiac ghost and a group of mediums trying to uncover the truths of murder that happened within a mansion. In Mysterium, a single player will act as the ghost (clue giver) and the rest of the players will act as the mediums (the guessers). It is the ghosts job to make sure all the mediums correctly guess the who, where and what associated with the potential suspects before time runs out. Through seven rounds, the ghost provides clue through abstract visions about the suspects and the mediums cooperatively work together to build their case in finding the right culprit. The mediums will piece together the full story starting with the person, then the place and finally the weapon of choice. The more your team works together to find the suspects, the better chances you have of guessing the right person. On top of that, your team will only be able to take a stab at finding the right culprit if everyone guesses their suspects before the seven rounds conclude. Once and if you have all made it through the guessing phase, the ghost will give one final set of clues to encourage the mediums to find the murderer. The last step is played silently and, like any democracy, the majority decides the collective guess at the end. If the guess is correct, you all win!

Kickstart Factor: Outside of the game play, Mysterium is a great game to add to your collection for the art alone. It is a great family game where you are working together to deduce who committed the murder, where it happened, and what was the murder weapon. This game is reminiscent of the classic game of Clue. It is a little more complicated than some other games but is truly a blast to play, straight forward to learn, and adds a light horror/mystery to your collection!

Marvel Villainous: Infinite Power

Designer: Prospero Hall

Artist: Fabio Perez and Johnny Morrow

Publisher: Ravensburger

Player Count: 2-4 players

Length: 40-80 minutes

Overview: Ever wonder what it might be like to be in the role of a villain? Look no further than Marvel: Villainous! This game places you in the drivers seat of some of the most powerful villains in the Marvel Universe. The goal of this game is to prove to the other villians that you are superior by defeating heroes, successfully scheming faster than your rivals and finding ways to ruin your opponents schemes while you are at it! In this game, you take turns moving your villains to different locations on your boar, associated with various actions. The catch is that you cannot go to the same spot in consecutive turns, which means you need to be on your toes and always thinking ahead, planning your actions in a strategic manner. Each villains goal is different, but ultimately, they are all out for world domination! Whoever completes their scheme first, is the ultimate villain… for now!

Kickstart Factor: It’s a game that involves Marvel, that is all! Seriously though, this game adds a twist to classic games by putting you in the front seat as a villain instead of the hero. It’s a great game to play with family and friends. It has high replayability, whether that be sticking with one villain until you have mastered them or bouncing back and forth between them all. Feel free to check out Disney Villainous as well if that interests you too, similar and exciting concept.

Kickstart Trends

• Games that are simple to teach.

• Games that introduce a new mechanic that can be found in lots of other games.

• Games that are perfect to bring to family gatherings and to get other people playing some new games.

• Games with great themes that remind you of a classic game or some form of popular culture.

Have another game you would include in this list? Let us know by commenting or connecting with us on social media!