catapult magazine

Ten things I’ve learned from playing board games

by Renee Aukeman Prymus

1. Imagination can turn cardboard tiles into an island, blocks of wood into sheep, and tiny cylinders into the Roman Empire.
2. Sometimes you roll a die or draw a card, and your next move is determined by chance.
3. If you’re 85% confident in your next move: do it. Waiting to be 100% sure is called Analysis Paralysis, also known as a good way to lose your friends.
4. Failure is how you learn. There’s always another game.
5. Decisions made tiny on the table are practice for big decisions made at the same table: like how to manage the resource of green paper, real or virtual.
6. Practice makes perfect, but repeating the same strategy and expecting a different result does not.
7. All family trust is suspended during a board game — but if you were actually hunting for Incan treasure in a scary cave, they’d have your back.
8. At the end of the day round, you still have to have enough food to feed your family.
9. Check the rules. Double-check the wording. When in doubt, go to the Internet.
10. A good game has nothing to do with who wins or loses: a good game is a close game.

And here are my top ten family board games:

1. 7 Wonders
2. Stone Age
3. Ticket to Ride
4. Pandemic
5. Small World
6. Carcassonne
7. Settlers of Catan
8. Dominion
9. Flash Point
10. King of Tokyo