Tabletop Board Gaming Thread

Our Family loves to play board games.

We have a Podcast called, “The Catholic Board Gamer,” but we haven’t recorded in a while.

Here are some Catholic Bingo Cards that we made that you can download for free : )

My current favorite Board Game is “Architects of the West Kingdom,” where you are building a Cathedral, Churches, and other things. What I love about this game is that you can choose to play it virtuously or in a way that is corrupt, but if your virtue meter dips too low, you are doing yourself a disservice. This game would have made our list of Top 5 non-Catholic Catholic Board Games, had we played it prior to making the list : )

What are some of your Family’s favorite Board Games?

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Never heard of these games but they do sound interesting!

Monopoly is my all-time favorite, though I went decades in between games because I couldn’t get anyone to play. Now my 10 year old is interested in it and we’ve played the last 2 Sundays. I also enjoy Chess, Clue, Sorry and Yahtzee.

Check out “Machi Koro!” If you like Monopoly, then you and your 10 year old will really enjoy Machi Koro.

If you like Clue, then check out “Deception: Murder in Hong Kong” and “Code Names.”

If you like Yahtzee, check out “Cartographers” or “Silver & Gold” (which has similar mechanics). These are both flip & writes, whereas Yahtzee is a roll & write. There are some new roll & writes out there, but I can’t think of any that I’ve played.

If you like Chess, check out “Stratego,” “Wandering Towers,” and “Table Gype” (based on a joke that G.K. Chesterton had with another author).

I have gotten to know the creator of Table Gype (which is currently out of print) on Board Game Geek. He actually let my daughter and I stay with him and his family when we went to an unpublished board game convention near where he lives. We attended Mass with them as well.

If you like Sorry, I’m sorry (roll & moves are not really my thing ; )

My favorite mechanics are area control (think RISK and “Mission Red Planet”), bidding games (like actioning in Monopoly and the Game “Biblios”), and worker-placement (like “Architects of the West Kingdom” and “Everdell”).

Worker-Placement would be a great genre to replace your love of roll & move. It takes the chance out of it. And there are usually many options. Basically, you place your token or meeple on a place of your choice and take the action that comes with that location. This adds so much more depth to these types of games.

What I love about Architects is that there is a virtue scale. You can either play the game entirely good, entirely evil, or somewhere in between. But, if you become too evil, there are certain actions that you can no longer take and if you become too good, then there are certain places that you would never enter (like the black market). Also, in this game, we are working together to build a Cathedral. When the Cathedral is built, the end-game is triggered and everyone gets one last action. I can’t tell you how much I love this board game! You are placing workers, building Churches, hiring skilled workers, performing citizen’s arrests (optional), and bailing people out of jail (who were either legitimately sent there or just at the wrong place / wrong time). I like to play as someone who is bad in the beginning of the game and then has a conversion and tries to do good. This strategy usually does not win me the game, but I enjoy a good story. If you have ever played “Pillars of the Earth,” this is similar, but better!

If the theme of building Churches does not appeal to you, and cute animals is more your thing, then check out Everdell. You are animals harvesting and building for the Winter. There are four seasons. Like Architects, you are plaining workers and taking actions, whether that is gathering resources, building, or visiting another player’s village.

Both of these games appear to be overwhelming at first, but hang in there. It is so worth it. Everyone I have taught these games to can’t help, but think about them days after we’ve played. Most have gone out and purchased one or the other. They are a bit pricey, but there is a lot of game that it pretty much is cheaper than going out to eat and to the movies these days.

Let me know what you think or if you have any questions about any of these titles I’ve mentioned : )

I just stumbled across this post from last year. I am a new member to catholictalk.net. I noticed that there is not much activity in this area but I am wondering if there is any interest among Catholic families, especially those with lots of children, in Catholic board games.

I am the creator of a brand new really Catholic board game called the Holy Quest. My goal is to revive this niche and make some really cool and entertaining tabletop games to teach our children about our beautiful faith and entertain them at the same time. Right now I have finished designing the game and I am producing prototypes of it. I am also running a fundraiser so the game can be produced. Let me know if there is any interest in this game and other games I am working on. Does anyone think this is a great idea and are you interested in getting such games for your families? You can check out the Holy Quest at www.theholyquest.us. I hope you like it. If anyone is interested in reviewing the game, promoting it or just talking about it, let me know.

For Father’s Day, my girls (with the help of my Wife) got us tickets to go to Origin’s Game Fair in Columbus, Ohio coming up this Weekend! Anyone else going to be there?