Top Family Board Games

Using Skill, Strategy and Luck To Win!

Top family board games will provide excellent choices to make the family game night experiences fun and challenging. Playing games as a family is a great way to bond and help your children develop skills as they get older. It also helps bringing people closer and strengthens relationships and increase brain function.

If you want to reduce stress and have laughter and fun, play a board game. They are beneficial as it creates family time together. Board games also help sharpen your children’s focus and the value of teamwork.

Board games are challenging because of the outcome of a dice roll, drawing of a card, or taking an action when it’s your turn. You are trying to accumulate victory points to win the game. Some of the games will require skill, strategy and even luck to win. Requires all players to think and contemplate in planning their next move.

You can check out our other games that use dice or cards. These also are great for the entire family. They are also challenging too.

These games are also challenging enough that you may want to play them with your game group or add them your gaming collection. Please note that some of these games may seem to be a bit expensive, but worth it.

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• Top Rated Board Games
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Top Rated Board Games

Below are thirty of the most popular and top rated board games we are presenting. You can choose any of them to add to your family game night collection. Some of these games can be great for parties or larger gatherings. They are all fun and challenging and some require teamwork to win. Family members will have hours of fun playing these games.

OUR TOP CHOICE

 

#1. Viticulture (Essential Edition) – Stonemaier Games

 

ASIN: B018GRSLK4 Ratings: 657 Score: 4.9

Awards: Amazon’s Choice

This board game is played with 1 to 6 players ages 13 and up and takes between 45 to 90 minutes to play. You are in Tuscany where you have inherited a vineyard. The object of the game is to accumulate victory points by building structures, planting vines and filling wine orders. The game consists of 4 seasons. You play until someone has acquired 20 or more victory points and the game ends when everyone takes their final turn. The player with the most points is the winner and has the best vineyard in Tuscany.

SECOND PLACE WINNER

 

#2. Everdell – Starling Games

 

ASIN: B0792JY6G4 Ratings: 421 Score: 4.9

Awards: Amazon’s Choice

This board game is for 1 to 4 players ages 13 and up and takes 20 minutes per player to play. Set up game per instructions. Each player chooses a color. Each player starts with two workers of their color. 1^st player draws 5 cards, 2^nd player draws 6, 3^rd player draws 7 and 4^th player draws 8. The remaining workers are placed on the tree. 1 in spring, 1 in summer and 2 in autumn. Players take turns taking one of three actions. Place a worker, play a card or prepare for season. You gather resources throughout play. Play continues until all players pass in the autumn season. Players tally up their points. The player with the most points is the winner.

THIRD PLACE WINNER

 

#3. Paladins of the West Kingdom – Renegade Game Studios

 

ASIN: B07VHSBQ58 Ratings: 161 Score: 4.9

Awards: Amazon’s Choice

The board game is played with 1 to 4 players ages 12 and up and takes about 90 minutes to play. The object of the game is as noble men and women, players must gather workers from the city to defend it against enemies, build fortifications and spread faith throughout the land. Points are gained by building outposts and fortifications, commissioning monks and confronting outsiders. The player with the most victory points is the winner. The game is comprised of seven rounds.

HONORABLE MENTION

 

#4. Catan – Catan Studio

 

ASIN: B00U26V4VQ Ratings: 9,810 Score: 4.8

Awards: Amazon’s Choice

This board game is for 3 to 6 players ages 10 and up and takes about 30 to 60 minutes to play. The object of the game is to be the first player with 10 victory points. To gain them you must acquire resources to build structures, roads, settlements and cities. Acquire resources by trading and lucky dice rolls. Play continues in clockwise order until someone has 10 victory points and is the winner. Be aware of other players trying to steal your structures and a robber that may steal some of your gains.

#5. Ticket To Ride – Days of Wonder

 

ASIN: 0975277324 Ratings: 8,596 Score: 4.8

This fast action board game is for 2 to 5 players ages 8 and up. Each player is given 45 trains matching their color chosen. This is a cross country train adventure in which players collect and play matching train cards to claim railway routes connecting cities throughout North America. The longer the routes, the more points you earn. You earn additional points for completing Destination Tickets. The winner is the player with the most points.

#6. Pandemic – Z-Man Games

 

ASIN: B00A2HD40E Ratings: 6,895 Score: 4.8

Awards: Amazon’s Choice

This cooperative style board game is played by 2 to 4 players ages 13 and up. The object of the game is to save humanity. As members of a disease-fighting team, you work together and must keep 4 deadly diseases at bay while discovering their cures. If you discover cures for all 4 diseases all the players win. But, if not enough disease cubes are left when needed or not enough player cards are left when needed all players lose and the game is over.

#7. Labyrinth – Ravensburger Store

 

ASIN: B00000J0JF Ratings: 5,699 Score: 4.8

This fun strategy board game is played with 2 to 4 players ages 7 and up and takes about 30 minutes to play. The object of the game is to be the first player to make it back to their starting square to win. Each player is given a token of their color. Players take turns going through the maze finding treasurers and mythical characters. To win, a player must collect all the objects and characters on their card and make it back to their starting square first to win.

#8. Betrayal At House On The Hill – Avalon Hill Store

 

ASIN: B003HC9734 Ratings: 5,427 Score: 4.8

Awards: Amazon’s Choice

This cooperative board game is played with 3 to 6 players ages 12 and up and takes about 1 hour to play. Players must work together to survive the nightmare. The object of the game is to explore the house and make your character stronger until the “haunt” phase begins. All players begin by exploring a room and brave their way through them. Until the haunt phase no one knows who the traitor is. Once the haunt phase is triggered, follow instructions. The player who is the traitor leaves the room to read his/her victory condition. The hero players read theirs. To win, you must complete your side’s victory condition either as a traitor or hero. If one of the hero’s traits goes down to skull, that explorer dies. You keep playing until no one survives or you complete the victory condition and win.

#9. Avalon – Indie Boards & Cards

 

ASIN: B009SAAV0C Ratings: 1,784 Score: 4.8

Awards: Amazon’s Choice

This loyalty card game is played with 5 to 10 players ages 13 and up and takes about 30 minutes to play. Players are either Loyal Servants of Arthur fighting for Goodness and honor or aligned with the Evil ways of Mordred. Good wins the game by successfully completing three Quests. Evil wins if three Quests end in failure. Evil can also win by assassinating Merlin at game’s end or if a Quest cannot be undertaken. Evil also wins if the team the leader selects, is rejected 5 times in a row during a single round.

#10. Kingdomino – Blue Orange

 

ASIN: B01N3A4070 Ratings: 1,784 Score: 4.8

Awards: Amazon’s Choice

This card drafting and tile placement game is played with 2 to 4 players ages 8 and up. Players take turns connecting a new domino to your existing Kingdom, making sure at least one of its sides connects to a matching terrain type already in play. The order of who picks their domino first depends on which tile was previously chosen. The game ends when each last domino is lined up. Players should have a 5 x 5 grid. Points are counted based on the number of connecting tiles and crowns on the properties. Properties with no crowns earn no points. Player with the highest score is the winner.

#11. Forbidden Desert – Gamewright Store

 

ASIN: B00B4ECHJI Ratings: 1,703 Score: 4.8

Awards: Amazon’s Choice

This board game is for 2 to 5 players ages 10 and up and takes about 45 minutes to play.  A legendary flying machine is buried deep in the ruins of an ancient desert city and you survive. You’ll need to coordinate with your teammates and use every available resource if you hope to survive the scorching heat and relentless sandstorm. Find the flying machine and escape before you all become permanent artifacts of the forbidden desert! To win all of you must survive and get out alive. Otherwise, the desert beat you.

#12. Zombicide – CMON

 

ASIN: B0092GHPSI Ratings: 910 Score: 4.8

This strategy board game is for 1 to 6 players ages 13 and up and takes about 30 minutes for the beginner board and 3 hours for expert board to play. Players choose one of six survivors, each one having special abilities and skills. Play begins by selecting a scenario and setting up the board based on that scenario. The goal is to complete the mission objectives and survive. The game is lost when all survivors have been killed. The game is won when all of the mission objectives have been accomplished. Players must cooperate together to win. All players either win or lose.

#13. Deception: Murder In Hong Kong – Grey Fox Games

 

ASIN: B019FPQZNG Ratings: 801 Score: 4.8

This fast paced mystery game is played with 4 to 12 players ages 12 and up. Each player is assigned a role during the investigation of which weapon and the evidence used in committing the crime. Players hide their roles from everyone. The scientist instructs all to close their eyes. The murder and accomplice opens their eyes so they know who they are. They close their eyes and the witness opens their eyes with the murder so he knows who the murder is. Only the investigators can guess the weapon and evidence used for the crime. If they guess correctly, they win. However, the murder and accomplice can try to guess who the witness is. If they guess correctly, they win the game. Each investigator gets only one guess per game.

#14. Wrath of Ashardalon – Wizards of the Coast Store

 

ASIN: 0786955708 Ratings: 774 Score: 4.8

Awards: Amazon’s Choice

This cooperative board game can be played with 1 to 5 player’s ages 13 and up. Each player selects a hero; a rogue, thief, warrior, cleric, or wizard. On their turn, each player can explore further into the dungeon (turn over new tiles), move through the already explored parts of the dungeon, and fight monsters. When a new dungeon tile is revealed, there is typically an encounter of some sort, and new monsters to fight are added. Slain monsters reward the players with treasure, and experience points, allowing them to level up and increase their skills during play. Players must cooperate to stay alive, slay the monsters, and achieve the goal of their quest to win. Failure to achieve the quest, they lose.

#15. Sagrada – Floodgate Games Store

 

ASIN: B01MTG2QY2 Ratings: 766 Score: 4.8

Awards: Amazon’s Choice

This dice board game is played with 1 to 4 players ages 12 and up and takes about 30 minutes to play. The games consists of 10 rounds and players select dice that matches the pattern on their game board. After the 10 rounds players score points. The player with the most points wins the game.

#16. Plague Inc. – Ndemic Creations

 

ASIN: B01MRGY6G6 Ratings: 613 Score: 4.8

Awards: Amazon’s Choice

This strategic board game is for 1 to 4 players ages 14 and up and takes about 60-90 minutes to play. The object of the game is to infect the world with a disease before a cure is complete. The game begins by selecting a disease and a starting country. As you are infecting people you don’t want to get noticed. Keep your symptoms and infectivity up, and invest in your abilities without squandering away your DNA points. To win the game is the player who has accumulated the most DNA points. Players lose if all the infected have been cured. However, there is a time pressure to complete the game before humans, the opponent, develop a cure for the plague.

#17. Wingspan – Stonemaier Games

 

ASIN: B07MC9JN56 Ratings: 525 Score: 4.8

This wonderful bird board game is played with 1 to 5 players ages 10 and up and takes about 60 minutes to play. This is a competitive board game. Your goal is to attract the best birds to your aviary. The game consists of 4 rounds. The bird board has 2 sides of play. Blue easy and green more competitive. Place the goal tokens in the appropriate spaces for each round. Return the excess to the box. A turn is made up of taking one of 4 actions. After the 1st round, players score their points based on the goal marker. Place a token in the space you won. Play continues until the 4^th round has finished. Score points according to instructions. The player with the most points is the winner.

#18. Stone Age – Z-Man Games

 

ASIN: B00CF4G7OW Ratings: 378 Score: 4.8

This game is played with 2 to 4 players ages 13 and up and takes about 60 minutes to play. Set up the game per instructions. Give each player a player board. Each player chooses a color. A round is made up of 3 phases that all players take. First, place people on the game board, second, use actions of the placed people, third, feed their people. Play continues until the end of game is reached by not enough civilization cards (game ends no further turns), or 1 building stack is empty (in this case, the round plays out to the end). Players now score their points. The player with the most points is the winner.

#19. Decrypto – IELLO Store

 

ASIN: B0765KL7B8 Ratings: 293 Score: 4.8

Awards: Amazon’s Choice

This team cooperating board game can be played with 3 to 8 players ages 12 and up and takes about 30 minutes to play. The object of the game is for teammates to transmit secret codes without letting the opposing team intercept them. One team player places a card in the screen. A code number is revealed. You must communicate single word clues for each number in the sequence so your team can guess the correct number sequence. Your team members try to guess the code. If correct they gain a white mark of success. If you guess wrong, you get black mark of failure. You win the game by guessing correctly 2 times. You lose the game by guessing incorrectly 2 times. The other team also gets a chance to guess the code if your team guesses incorrectly. Play alternates until a team gets 2 correct or 2 incorrect.

#20. Raiders of the North Sea – Renegade Game Studios

 

ASIN: B0721VGFKF Ratings: 272 Score: 4.8

Awards: Amazon’s Choice

This board game is for 2 to 4 players ages 12 and up and takes about 70 minutes to play. The object of the game is to impress the Chieftain by having the most Victory Points (VP) at the game’s end. Victory Points are gained primarily by raiding Settlements, taking Plunder and making Offerings to the Chieftain. Players select their color. Play begins with the first player taking their turn performing a “work” or “raid” action. Players take turns in clockwise manner until one of three conditions occur: only 1 fortress raid remains, all Valkyrie tokens have been removed, or all offerings have been made. Players now tally their scores and the player with the highest score is the winner.

#21. Tuscany Essential Edition – Stonemaier Games

 

ASIN: B01I5RNQUK Ratings: 269 Score: 4.8

This is an expansion edition to Viticulture board game. This game offers three expansions to viticulture. This game offers 4 seasons verses only 2. Everything plays exactly as Viticulture but you have extra ways to earn victory points. This is a great edition to the viticulture game if you already have it in your collection.

#22. The Quacks of Quedlinburg – North Star Games

 

ASIN: B07LC1TYC2 Ratings: 246 Score: 4.8

Awards: Amazon’s Choice

This board game is played with 2 to 4 players ages 10 and up and takes 45 minutes to play. Your challenge is to make a special brew that will make you the best miracle doctor in the land. One ingredient can spoil your potion and will explode. The play consists of 9 turns. All players take out ingredients from their bags at the same time. Players can keep drawing ingredients at any time unless their potion explodes. They have the option of stopping before exploding. Players earn victory points by earning rubies and coins during the evaluation phase after everyone passes. The evaluation phase consists of 6 steps. Players mark their scores on the scoring track. This continues for the other 8 turns of the game. During the last turn, all players select one ingredient and place it in their hand and make a fist in front of them. All players reveal the ingredient and place it accordingly. After the 9^th turn ends, the player whose token is furthest down the scoring track is the winner.

#23. Tapestry – Stonemaier Games

 

ASIN: B07XDD71LQ Ratings: 215 Score: 4.8

This board game is played with 1 to 5 players ages 14 and up and takes about 2 hours to play. The object of the game is to acquire victory points which is done through 5 eras by creating a civilization. You gain benefits by advancing on one of the 4 advancing tracks (science, technology, exploration, and military). The game ends when you finish your 5^th turn. When all players have finished their turns, you tally up the victory points. The player with the most is the winner.

#24. Unmatched Battle of the Legends – Restoration Games

 

ASIN: B07WV68XCJ Ratings: 111 Score: 4.8

Awards: Amazon’s Choice

This board game can be played with 2 to 4 players ages 8 and up and takes about 30 minutes to play. Each player selects a hero, it’s action deck, and hero’s action card. The game is played over a series of turns and perform two actions on each turn. You choose from maneuver, scheme, or attack. The object of the game is to get your opponent’s hero’s health to zero, you win the game. This is done by winning battles on the game board along with using the hero’s abilities.

#25. Forbidden Island – Gamewright Store

 

ASIN: B003D7F4YY Ratings: 4,681 Score: 4.7

Awards: Amazon’s Choice

This board game is similar to Forbidden Desert and can be played with 2 to 4 players ages 10 and up and takes about 30 minutes to play. All players will have to work together as a team and make some pulse-pounding maneuvers, as the island will sink beneath every step! Race to collect the treasures and make a triumphant escape before you are swallowed into the watery abyss! You win when you escape successfully. Otherwise, the island wins.

#26. Wits & Wagers – North Star Games

 

ASIN: B00Y0L8FPW Ratings: 2,094 Score: 4.7

Awards: Amazon’s Choice

This challenging fun guess game can be played with 2 to 7 players ages 10 and up and takes about 30 minutes to play. Each player is given a board and wager chips of the color of their choice. A question is read to all players. Players have 30 seconds to write their answer on their board using a marker. The boards are then placed face down on the mat until time runs out. Then, they are placed face up to reveal all the answers from the lowest to the highest. Next, players have 30 seconds to wager on which answer is correct by placing their wager chips in the corresponding spaces. The correct answer is read. The player with the card closest to the correct answer collects 3 chips. Then, wager chips are paid according to which space the correct card was on. The payout varies from 2 to 1 up to 6 to 1. Each chip on the correct space wins chips from the bank. That question card is placed on the bottom of the deck and the next card is selected and question 2 is read. Play continues until 7 questions have been asked. The winner is the player with the most chips after the last question.

#27. Trivial Pursuit Family Edition – Hasbro Gaming

 

ASIN: B00NQQTXNK Ratings: 1,874 Score: 4.7

Awards: Amazon’s Choice

This challenging trivia board game is for 2 to 6 players ages 8 and up which can be played as individuals or in teams. Each team or player selects a pie token of their color. The game has questions for kids and adults. The game consists of questions in six categories to earn a piece of the pie with a correct answer. Players take turns clockwise rolling the die and answering questions. Answer correctly, get another turn. Answer incorrectly, your turn ends. Earn all six pie pieces and get to the center space and answer the question correctly, you or your team wins the game.

#28. Terraforming Mars – Indie Boards & Cards

 

ASIN: B01GSYA4K2 Ratings: 1,570 Score: 4.7

Awards: Amazon’s Choice

This challenging board game can be played with 1 to 5 players ages 12 and up. Your goal is to colonize the planet Mars. Players select a mat and cubes of 1 of 5 colors. You have an option of choosing a beginner cooperation or not. Each player collects their starting resources as indicated on their cooperation card. You are now involved in a variety of activities that will increase the temperature, oxygen levels, and water. These actions will award the companies with points. The player with the most points is the winner. The game is played in a series of generations and each generation consists of 4 phases. The game ends when all three global parameters have reached their goals.

#29. Photosynthesis – Blue Orange

 

ASIN: B074K5W5N5 Ratings: 1,110 Score: 4.7

Awards: Amazon’s Choice

This strategy board game can be played with 2 to 4 players ages 8 and up. In the setup, everyone is given a board of their color. Collect trees and seed tokens matching the color of your board. Place trees and seed tokens as instructed in the rules. The object is to place trees that will soak up sunshine to grow. However, trees are placed from your playing area and not your board. Those trees must be purchased first using life points. As your trees grow, you collect points and the player with the highest score is the winner. The game ends when the sun has made three revolutions or 18 rounds have been played.

#30. Dead of Winter – Plaid Hat Games

 

ASIN: B00HFKITJC Ratings: 1,086 Score: 4.7

Awards: Amazon’s Choice

This board game is played with 2 to 5 players ages 12 and up and takes about 90 minutes to play. Players are a colony of survivors trying to survive a hazardous winter in the aftermath of the zombie apocalypse. The colony in on a mission they are trying to complete, but each player also controls a group of survivors that has a secret objective. The game ends when the morale track reaches zero, or the round track reaches zero or the main objective has been completed. Either all surviving players win or some along the way get eliminated and lose. If someone completes their secret objective they win, provided the morale and round tracks have not reached zero. If all players get eliminated, they all lose.

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