<p>The board game test is a good one for a potential mate. I love board games, which was a problem as an only child (I got good at playing multiple pieces and can play a great game of chess against myself), and no one in the family particularly enjoys games now. </p>
<p>Jigsaw puzzles are another thing that people seem to be divided on. Me, I could live without them.</p>
<p>My 12 year old daughter and I are game board addicts. For a couple of years we couldn’t stop playing Yamslam and Power Yahtzee. These days when we squeeze in a couple of games every day after school and it is usually Cribbage or Sorry. </p>
<p>It’s a great bonding experience and I keep an eye open on this thread for a new game!</p>
<p>Apples to Apples is a great game to play with a group. Depending on the group (and if alchohol is involved) you can get some very bizarre stuff. You also need to know the mindset & political leanings of the ‘judge’ to do well. </p>
<p>I grew up in an Irish family that played lots of gin rummy after dinner.</p>
<p>Glad I’m not the only one who detested Candyland. 
DD loved Hi Ho Cherry O, and I never minded playing it with her, but Candyland - ugh! DS’s favorite game when he was little was Uncle Wiggly.</p>
<p>I refuse to play Monopoly with DD and DS because one of us (and it isn’t me) is a terrible loser. </p>
<p>We currently like Settlers of Cataan. Another really great game is Cathedral - the wooden pieces are shaped like buildings in a medieval town and you have to place all your buildings within the walled city in such a manner to block your opponent from doing the same.</p>
<p>Wits and Wagers was the hit of the Christmas season. No real knowledge required, as you wager on the answers given by everyone in a given round. Fun questions, you can chat during the round without having to think about strategy, etc, so it’s a very social game.</p>
<p>Strat-o-Matic</p>
<p>When I was little we liked Clue and Monopoly. We also played cribbage every day with my Dad. My kids liked Uno, Careers, Risk (only with friends), Stratego, chess (which they played competively for a long time) and a bunch of others that came and went. They both still are big on board games. Of the new games we really like Blokkus, Dominion, Small World. This winter we played a lot of Carcasson. (It reminded me of Rivers, Roads and Rails, but with actual game play.) S2 was really happy when he realized it takes up hardly any space and stuck it in his luggage to take to Jordan. (He’s doing a junior year abroad there.)</p>
<p>I solved the problem of kids wanting to play stupid games like Candyland by not having them in the house!</p>
<p>I like Settlers of Cataan too. New one this year, that my son introduced – Agricola. It is a little fussy, with so many pieces, but fun.</p>
<p>I always swore that my kids learned basic math through Cribbage.</p>
<p>I’d like to see a study of kids who grew up in a board game environment and success in school later. Seriously, board games promote so much in terms of problem solving, decision making, communication, etc. - not to mention interacting with REAL PEOPLE - I bet it pays off in later education!</p>
<p>I used to play cribbage with my dad a lot too! And pinochle with both my parents. Will have to look up Carcassonne, we stayed in the walled city for a night when we were in France a few years ago.</p>
<p>Used to love Stratego as a kid even though its an inferior game to chess.</p>
<p>Any one into Munchkin? I play about once a week with the kids. Steve Jackson makes great games.</p>
<p>W love trivial persuit, apples to apples, my now likes cards against humanity. We like card games like uno. We played pretty pretty princess on TG once</p>
<p>I like Dictionary, played with an actual dictionary (but not the board game version, Fictionary).</p>
<p>I also like the “modern classics,” like Trivial Pursuit, Pictionary, Scattergories and Taboo, but we’ve been through the cards so many times that they are not longer playable. Boggle’s okay, but I don’t like to lose, and I usually do.</p>
<p>I liked Clue as a kid, but I’ve always hated the other “classic” board games like Monopoly, Life, Parchesi, Yahtzee and Scrabble. I even hated checkers and backgammon as a kid. I’m not sure why. I never even attempted to learn chess, which now makes me sad because I think I would have liked it and been good at it. </p>
<p>And I’m probably the only living human who has NEVER played a video/ computer game (other than solitaire and suduko)! I’m not sure why; maybe I’m unconsciously afraid that I’d become addicted and never do anything else again. </p>
<p>I wish I had a broader repertoire of games that I enjoyed. It is so weird to read stories set in the 1920s to 60s and to realize the extent to which bridge dominated the social lives of Americans. I love Ring Lardner’s stories set in the 1920s where everyone’s always playing bridge. And, of course, so many characters in 19th and early 20th century novels played whist all the time. I suppose video gaming has become the substitutes for those.</p>
<p>Awesome thread idea.</p>
<p>As a kid I remember crying at clue, monopoly and parcheesi as my dad was ruthless.
Liked sorry and scrabble. Risk has always been a favorite of all of us. Great battles.</p>
<p>Great memories of playing scrabble after school with my mom at the kitchen table</p>
<p>Liked chess, hated checkers.</p>
<p>Never had mousetrap, candyland, chutes and ladders, life but wanted them.</p>
<p>Mostly we played card games. Lots and lots of card games.
On holidays we would clear the table and play many of the card games my grandmother taught us that she played with her friends. So much fun!</p>
<p>We play euchre with our kids ( card game) and play it often with them now. </p>
<p>Husband and I still play many games together. We have a 39 year lifetime score pad of our gin games. I am losing by 20,000 pts!</p>
<p>Great memories. I could go on forever with stories !</p>
<p>Shenanigans Board Game! See if anyone recalls that one!</p>
<p>I should add that I truly adore bridge, but I never get to play any more.</p>
<p>I love bridge too, though I’m a terrible player, but it’s hard to get four people together. Usually we play once or twice when we have both boys home or my husband’s family here.</p>
<p>New games in our house this holiday season were Quelf (not for the shy) and Wits and Wagers. I love them both for different reasons. Quelf deals with some interesting “stunts”. There is a card that tells the player (you read it to yourself) to go to the bathroom and stay there until someone comes and gets you. Our son stayed for over an hour. We just skipped over him…lol. Wits and Wagers is a trival pursuit type game and after you reveal your answer everyone “wagers” on either they own answer or someone elses.</p>
<p>I use to play Shenanigans! I haven’t thought of that in years. Wasn’t it a game show too? I am glad this thread came up. I am going to by Hi Ho Cheeries tomorrow. Maybe candy land.</p>
<p>We play euchre, apples to apples and cranium now and something else- some game like Settlers of Cataan but I can’t think of the name. It may come to me.</p>
<p>Great thread!!</p>
<p>As kid and with young kids: Hi-Ho-Cherry-O, Chutes and Ladders, Mouse Trap</p>
<p>Older Elementary: Stratego, Chess, Sorry, Risk, Battleship, Yahtzee, Gin Rummy, Clue, Monopoly, Scrabble</p>
<p>Now: pinochle, Settlers (with Knights and Cities upgrade - and yes, two players can play this!!), still love Yahtzee, Monopoly, Scrabble and Risk, Apples to Apples, Euchre, Boggle, hearts</p>
<p>Am I the only person who detests Ticket To Ride and Carcasonne?</p>
<p>colmom, we have Cathedral also! I thought we were the only ones!</p>