Top 10 Games To Get Your Friends Into Board Games | Gateway Games

[Music] hey how's it going i'm bianca and i'm james and we're a husband and wife board gaming duo called the trick takers we're here to play our hand at board game reviews and how to's today we're talking about our top 10 gateway games these are games we like to play when introducing others to the exciting world of board games that's right now keep in mind that we listed these games from lightest to heaviest complexity level so the games at the bottom of the list are easy to teach but a little more involved for beginners these are for those looking for just a little bit more of a challenge let's get started for our first game we selected code names this is considered a party game so it will appeal to anyone looking to dive right into a game without having to dissect a strenuous rule book codenames is a social work play game where each team is a spy network trying to communicate with each other using code names two rival teams have a spymaster who provides a one-word clue to their team of operatives the operative's goal is to select the words they believe the spy is hinting at to reveal their team's agents whichever team finds all of their agents first wins if a team accidentally reveals the assassin the game ends and that team loses codenames has a minimum player count of four but it's great at any number beyond that there's no limit to how many people can be on a given team yeah and it's so much fun watching the other team's spymaster squirm as their team struggles with an obscure clue our number two spot goes to king of tokyo where everyone is a different monster trying to overtake the city and their opponents similar to yahtzee in king of tokyo each player takes their turn by rolling a set of dice up to three times in hopes of gaining points health energy and attacks against other monsters players can also use energy to purchase power cards that enable special abilities against their opponents the power cards in the game do increase the complexity just a tad but the overall gameplay is still very light and easy to explain to new gamers the winner of the game is the last monster standing or the first player to gain 20 points i picked up king of tokyo on a whim but i'm so glad i did it has really rounded out our collection as a game that appeals to more experienced gamers and to the board game curious the next game on our list is one of my absolute favorites number three goes to century golem each player is a crystal merchant trying to accumulate and upgrade different crystal types in order to collect golems in century golem players can do one of three actions on their turn they can play a card from their hand gain a new crystal generator or converter card or spend their crystals on a golden card worth points the game ends when a player accumulates a certain number of golem cards and the player with the most points wins aside from the whimsical artwork one of the other things i love about this game is that the rules are extremely well written and concise they all fit onto one double-sided rule sheet in our household james is usually the one to read a rulebook and explain a game to me but i tackled century golem and taught him how to play and i was so relieved at how easy the game was to pick up and explain [Music] number four on our list is azul it is super fun with an artistic theme where players create their own mosaics in azul each player takes a turn choosing a tile type from the center of the table all tiles of a single type are taken from a selected tile factory and placed onto the player's board players spend each round trying to fill the row next to their mosaic board with a single type of tile and at the end of the round points are tallied based on completed rows and the corresponding tiles placed in the mosaic there is some strategy involved here as each row and column can only contain one of each tile type at the end of the game even though zuul is on the lighter side it has enough strategy for new gamers to think critically about their next move plus the player boards provide a helpful template to follow when placing tiles [Music] placing at number five on our list of gateway games is ticket to ride we don't actually own this game yet but we've played it a ton with friends in ticket to ride each player aims to complete designated goal routes between cities however points can also be earned when placing trains on the board to form your route the longer the train the higher the point value plus the longest route at the end of the game earns an additional 10 points the rules are straightforward and the gameplay is simple it's a great introduction to euro style gaming this game has become super popular over the years so even your non-gamer friends may have seen it on the shelves in big-name retail stores next we have carcassonne and number six it's a tile-laying game where each player aims to build cities and roads to earn points in this game the board expands as tiles are drawn and placed every turn to create the land surrounding the fortified city of parkasong when a player places a tile containing an unoccupied city or road they may also place a meatball claiming it as their own the larger your city or the longer your road the more points it scores it's an ongoing joke for us that one day we will add our own rule requiring that that makes sense i mean is that even possible next up at number seven it's paperback a unique combination of card drafting and word building the concept of paperback is simple players are authors making words in order to write books players start with the same ten cards five letters and five wilds each turn players draw five cards from their deck and attempt to create a word which is used to purchase higher scoring letters from the market a player's hand will get higher value cards as the game progresses and more letters are purchased once you have bought enough letters to make higher scoring words you can start buying famed cards that are worth victory points the player with the most victory points at the end of the game wins the awesome thing about paperback is it appeals to those who are familiar with games like scrabble who are looking to try something new plus it's a great way to introduce people to deck building games [Music] next up falling into place at number eight the crew it's a game that's been held in high esteem among the board game community this past year the crew is a cooperative trick ticking game with 50 different supplied missions to achieve with the other players in this game each player is a crew member aboard a spaceship working towards a common goal players collaborate helping each other win specific cards throughout the game the most challenging part is the limited communication players can only communicate once per game using a very restricted communication token the missions vary in complexity but the overall concept remains the same play cards from your hand to win or lose certain cards the first missions are the easiest so you can start with those and increase the difficulty gradually until everyone has a good grasp of the game similar to games like poker there's a lot of hidden complexity in this game especially once you get the later missions and number nine we're going with yet another cooperative game horrified this game incorporates the classic movie monsters including dracula frankenstein and his bride the invisible man the wolf man the mummy and the creature from the black lagoon each player is assigned a different character with specific abilities everyone works together to defeat the monsters and save the townspeople the level of difficulty can be adjusted during game setup based on the number of monsters you choose to take on for beginners start with just one or two monsters for more of a challenge add more unlike the crew there are no limits on communicating with other players so people can talk through their plans and share their strategy for taking on each monster this is one of our favorite games placed at number nine for the level of complexity the asymmetric characters and monsters can be a little daunting for new players lastly number 10 it's the most complex game on our list small world it's an area control game where players choose from a unique combination of races and powers in order to gain control of the board and earn the most coins once a player has made their selection they start attacking to claim their regions coins are awarded at the end of each turn based on how many regions the player has conquered once a certain race has run its course place them into decline and select a new race to dominate the board once again small world is a lot of fun even though it is the most complex game on this list don't let that scare you the game place flows smoothly and it is definitely possible to teach this to new board gamers for more on this game check out our small world game review the link is in the description [Music] well that about covers it for this top 10. we hope that you found this list helpful now we've inspired you to bring some new players to your table we're curious what are some of your favorite gateway games let us know in the comments don't forget to like this video and subscribe to our channel we have new videos every other week so make sure to ring that bell to get notified when our next video drops see you next time trick takers out

Channel: Trick Takers

Views: 9,072

Rating: 4.9469028 out of 5

Keywords: board game reviews, top 10 board games, top 10 gateway board games, boardgames, top intro boardgames, entry level board games, trick takers, top boardgames, tabletop games, boardgaming, board gaming, Top gateway games, Top gateway board games, New gamers, Best gateway games, Best gateway board games, Best gateway boardgames, Best intro games, Best games for new gamers, Top 10 gateway games, Top 10 gateway games 2021, Top gateway games 2021, Best starter games, Starter games

Id: I9c9Fppiow8

Length: 9min 53sec (593 seconds)

Published: Thu Mar 18 2021