Top Three Favourite Small/Travel Board Games 2022
It’s coming up to that time of year where we see every shop window filled with Christmas, and people want to buy presents for the festive seasons, or even just want a new game to try out. Following on from my previous post, I’m looking at my top three small/travel games for 2022, which I’d recommend trying or gifting to someone. I’m not sponsored or paid to promote any of these games, they’re all games that have made their way into my own collection over years of gaming.
Mountain Goats
Mountain Goats is a fast-paced game by Board Game Tables.
Mountain Goats is a very popular choice in our gaming group, even those less interested in playing games love Mountain Goats! Players take it in turns to roll the dice to get their goats to the top of the mountain to score points – before their opponents knock them off! Mountain Goats is a simple game which offers a surprising amount of tactical play; players can choose to score on all of the mountains and capture those precious bonus points, or their goats can sit at the top of a mountain and horde tokens of one number. Be careful though, strategy can go out the window when the dice refuse to do your bidding!
A game of Mountain Goats set up and ready to be played.
Exploding Kittens is an easy to learn and fast-paced game - great for everyone.
Exploding Kittens is an extremely popular game, there’s a good chance you’ve already played it! Exploding Kittens has simple gameplay: each turn you choose which cards, if any, you wish to play, and at the end of your turn you pick up a card – it couldn’t be easier! But wait, did you draw an Exploding Kitten? Uh-oh, better defuse it quick! Each card in the game has a different effect, you can see what you’re going to draw with a See the Future card, skip your turn to avoid picking up, or play a pair of picture cards to steal a card from another player. Excluding picture cards, every card in the game says what it does on it, so learning the cards is quick and easy too.
Exploding Kittens and Defuses are the most important cards in the game.
Exploding Kittens has plenty of expansions to keep it interesting too: Imploding Kitten, Streaking Kitten, and Barking Kittens. We have the Streaking Kitten, which, whilst fun, definitely causes controversy within the group!
Coup
Coup is a game of secret identities and deception.
Speaking of controversy, Coup is a very divisive game: people seem to love it or hate it. For me, I really enjoy it, and recommend giving it a try. Coup is a quick paced game of bluffing and deception, which can be played by up to six players, although I find four or five works best. Each player starts with two character cards (influence) which they look at and keep face down, so no one else can see them. On each of their turns, players choose an action to do. There are three basic actions: Income and Foreign Aid, which both let you gain money, or Coup, which forces a player to lose an influence. There are four other actions, each associated with a different character, although players can choose to do those that aren’t associated with a character they have, but they run the risk of another playing calling their bluff and losing an influence! This is a great game for people who like bluffing games, such as the Resistance, One Night Ultimate Werewolf, and Poker, but if bluffing isn’t your thing, then you probably want to give this a miss.
There are so many games out there, picking out three favourites is a challenge! In the end, I had to settle for these three, but there are several others I’d like to mention. Sequoia, also by Board Game Tables, is a very good, fast paced game, like Mountain Goats. Sequoia and Mountain Goats can be bought in a set with GPS, so if you’re looking for some quick games, they are the perfect thing; they make a nice little gift for someone if you’re that way inclined. I also have to talk about the Fluxx range by Looney Labs; these are card games where the rules and goals constantly change, so no game ends up playing the same. There are a plethora of different themes you can get, so whether you’re into zombies, pirates, or fairy tales, there’s something for you!
What are your favourite small/travel games of 2022? Let me know in the comments below!
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Thanks for reading!
Chris