Board games for winter: from the tactically tough to the outrageously silly, here are board games for all ages

9 great board games from the tactically tough to the outrageously silly, board games for all ages

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There’s a time and place for the board game classics: Monopoly, Chess, Trivial Pursuit. But there’s nothing like a new board game discovery to reinvigorate an otherwise ordinary night in

The outside is frightful, so we’ll be spending time with friends and family indoors over the coming weeks.

Time to break out a brilliant board game to help liven the long winter nights.

We surveyed our editorial team to see what their favourite go-to board games were. The results are delightful: a mixture of espionage, virtual travel, medieval world building, and W.H.O. role-playing.

Here, then, are 9 fabulous board games you and your household should try.

(If you are seeking time away from your housemates, may we suggest a jigsaw to help entertain you from our guide to 22 greats?)

Yes, this is on the nose. We’ve all had our fill of pandemics. But consider, if you’ve watched in dismay at who has been handling our UK pandemic response (Barnard Castle to check your eyesight, anyone?), here, you have the chance to try and solve the situation yourself.

With multiple viruses breaking out simultaneously across the globe, you are a disease-fighting specialist. Your mission: control the hotspots, while researching cures for the individual plagues.

What’s great about Pandemic is that you need to collaborate with your fellow players to succeed. Here, you won’t end up in some purgatorial deadlock while you watch two other people clearly on the road to victory: either you all work together to solve the crisis, or you all lose. Everybody takes their own role within the team (Operations Expert? Scientist?)

You may be well and truly fatigued from the real pandemic, but this board game version is an oddly cathartic iteration: here, intelligence and team-work wins.

For: 2-4 players, ages 8+. Average play time 45 minutes.

Qwirkle is a lovely game to play if you’ve younger members of your household seeking to partake. You are all given a series of wooden blocks, with six different shapes in six different colours. Place a block down - the next player has to place a block with a matching attribute next to it.

The game ends when the draw bag is depleted and one player plays all of his remaining blocks, earning a six point bonus. It sounds simple, but it’s a wonderful way of engaging younger minds in pattern recognition - without them ever suspecting they’re learning.

For: 2-4 players, age 5+. Average play time: 30 minutes.