Sourced from two bona fide board game boffins, trust us when we say it’s unlikely that you’ll get a better list of board game recommendations anywhere else.

First published December 2022.

This summer, the meteorologists of New Zealand are wisely hedging their bets with their Christmas and summer holiday forecasts. La Niña is with us for a historic third year and with this complex weather system comes the constant possibility of rain and spending holiday time indoors with your nearest and dearest. Avoiding difficult conversations for the sake of peace is a game in and of itself but many of us will turn to literal games to pass the time.

If you’re still playing Cranium but not doing the sculpting challenge because the playdough dried up ten years ago, or angrily slogging your way through the millennium edition of Trivial Pursuit which is inexplicably awful for both young and old, it might be time to upgrade your games.

These recommendations have been sourced from Ezra Whittaker, who has a literal masters in board game design and works at The Spinoff’s sister agency Daylight, and Te Aihe Butler, podcast manager and founding member of The Spinoff’s board game club.

Games for trivia-heads

Wavelength (All ages, 2-12 players)

Wavelength is a social guessing game. Two teams compete to read each other’s minds. Teams take turns to rotate a dial to where they think a hidden “bullseye” is located on a spectrum. One player, known as the “psychic” draws a card with a pair of binaries on it –  Hot/Cold, for example. That player knows exactly where on the spectrum the bullseye is and must give clues to help the players turn the dial to locate it. Using Hot/Cold as an example, with a bullseye slightly to the “cold” side of the centre, the psychic might say something like “salad”. 

Wits and Wagers (10 years and up, 3-7 players)

Take a trivia game and add a light smattering of Vegas, baby. You don’t actually need to be super good at trivia for this one as the game relies largely on placing bets on who you think has the right answer. Back yourself, back friends and family – just make educated guesses and play the odds. It’s a game that can be learned quickly and played in 25 minutes.  

Hivemind (8 years and up, 3-12 players)

This has a hint of the ye olde 90s classic, Scattergories but with more collaboration and less likelihood of fighting about what does and doesn’t fit the category. Again, this is trivia but without the annoying and binary restrictions of being definitively right or wrong. The key here is be on the same page and operate as, you guessed it, a hive mind. Players answer trivia and opinion questions like “Name four things at a funeral”, trying to match their answers with other players. Points are scored for each match achieved. Answers don’t have to be correct, they just have to be the same as the other players which means making it obvious, rather than using it as a platform to show off.

Games for playing with kids

Sushi Go! (8 years and up, 2-5 players)

A fast-moving card game where the goal is the goal is to grab the best combination of sushi dishes as they pass by. The person with the most points is declared the sushi master.

Love Letter (10 years and up, 2-4 players)

Another card game where the goal is to get a love letter to the princess. You start with one card in hand. On each turn you draw a card and play a card. A typical game of risk and deduction with some renaissance romance thrown in.

Carcassonne (7 years and up, 2-5 players)

Named after fortified town of Carcassonne in southern France, this tile-based game builds up a medieval landscape as tiles are placed on the board. Players must draw tiles and then decide whether to place a follower (known as a meeple) on it.

Ticket to Ride (8 years and up, 2-5 players)

Another card game that’s simple to learn. Players collect cards of different types of train cars and can then claim railway routes in America. More points are earned based on the length of the routes.

Tokaido (8 years and up, 2-5 players)

A board game where you travel the famed Tokaido road in Japan. Described as zen and peaceful, play follows a linear path where players must choose whether to advance slowly in order to get more turns, or to travel rapidly to beat other players to desired action spaces.

A drawing game

A Fake Artist goes to New York (8 years and up, 5-10 players)

Like Pictionary but better. This one tests your ability to spot a faker more than it does your drawing skills. Every player in the team is made aware of a category, like food. All but one player (the fake artist) gets the exact word prompt to draw. Each player gets two attempts to contribute to the group’s picture, but you’re only allowed to draw one line on each turn. The players then have to guess which player didn’t know what the prompt was and is therefore the fake artist. Draw anything too obvious on your turn and the fake will be able to guess what it is, making it harder to guess the fake artist.

A bilingual word game

Designed in Aotearoa by Kura Rehia in collaboration with Maimoa Creative and Hemi Kelly, Kaupapa helps you learn kupu. It’s a word description game that can be played at any level – from kākano (beginner) to tohunga (expert). The goal is simple: describe as many words as possible to your teammates in a minute.

Games for more hardcore board-gamers

Butler describes these games as “more complex and time-consuming, but very rewarding”. 

Scythe (14 years and up, 1-5 players)

Set in an alternate history version of 1920s Europe, Scythe is an engine-building board game. Players control factions that produce resources, develop economic infrastructure and use dieselpunk combat mechs (giant, human controlled robots) to engage in combat and control territories. Players receive coins for their achievements and the territories they control, and the player with the most coins is declared the winner.

Power Grid (12 years and up, 2-6 players)

A strategy board game where the aim is to be the person who can supply power to the most cities in the network when the game ends. You need to watch your opponents closely, carefully manage your money, and expand your network to generate income.

Wingspan (10 years and up, 1-5 players)

Another engine-building, strategy game. In Wingspan you are a bird enthusiast seeking to discover and attract the best birds to your wildlife refuge. The game features 170 cards, featuring  beautiful hand-painted imagery of each bird. The birds are worth a certain number of points and have special powers that add value to your refuge. 

Above and Below (10 years and up, 2-4 players)

Above and Below is a town-building and storytelling game. Players compete to build the best village above and below ground.  Stories are read aloud by one player and you must select different villagers for different jobs. Your choices will determine whether your village thrives or fails.