Board Games

Best board games for beginners: easy gateway games by type

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If your idea of a board game is the family classics you played as a child, modern board games may surprise you. Many are quick to learn, do not knock anyone out early, and keep everyone involved until the end. These are often called gateway games: the first step from the classics into the hobby. The best way to choose one is by type, because each type suits a different group.

Route and set collection

Simple turns, clear goals and a satisfying board at the end.
  • Ticket to Ride: collect coloured train cards and claim railway routes between cities. Designed by Alan R. Moon, it won the Spiel des Jahres, Germany's well-known game of the year award, in 2004. A turn is one of three simple choices, which makes it easy to teach.

Tile placement

  • Carcassonne: draw a tile, place it to build a medieval landscape of roads, cities and fields, and decide whether to place one of your followers on it. Designed by Klaus-Jürgen Wrede, it won the Spiel des Jahres in 2001. Every game creates a different map.

Trading and negotiation

  • Catan: collect resources, trade with other players and build settlements and roads. It is the game that introduced many people to modern board games. The trading keeps everyone talking even when it is not their turn.

Worker placement

In worker placement games, you have a few workers and take turns placing them on spaces on the board, each giving an action. When one player takes a space, others usually cannot. It teaches planning and is easy to grasp, because the options are all laid out in front of you. Many beginner-friendly worker placement games exist; look for ones with short rulebooks and fewer than ten action spaces in a basic game.

Deck-building

Everyone starts with the same small deck of cards and buys stronger cards over the game, so your deck grows into your own engine.
  • Dominion: designed by Donald X. Vaccarino, released in 2008 and winner of the Spiel des Jahres in 2009. It popularised deck-building as a genre, and the base set is still a common starting point. The rules are short; the variety comes from which cards are in the supply each game.

Co-operative

Everyone wins or loses together against the game.
  • Pandemic: designed by Matt Leacock and released in 2008, for two to four players working together to cure diseases spreading around the world.
  • Forbidden Island: also by Matt Leacock, a lighter, faster co-op about recovering treasures before an island sinks, good for families.
Co-ops are excellent for nervous or competitive groups because nobody loses to anyone else at the table.

Party games

For larger groups, laughter and almost no rules.
  • Codenames: two teams, a grid of words, and clue-givers trying to connect several words with one clue. Designed by Vlaada Chvátil, it won the Spiel des Jahres in 2016.
  • Dixit: players give imaginative clues about dreamlike picture cards. It won the Spiel des Jahres in 2010.

How to choose your first one

  1. Count your players: check the number on the box, and the number people say it plays best at.
  2. Check the time: under an hour is ideal for a first game.
  3. Match the group: chatty friends suit Catan or Codenames; quiet planners enjoy Carcassonne; people who dislike conflict enjoy co-ops.
  4. Try before you buy: board game cafés, libraries and local game nights let you play first.
What was your gateway game? Share it, or ask for a recommendation for your group, in the comments below.

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