So I know I did a list of 10 board games that I want to play not that long ago. But a list like that is always going to skew towards larger games. So I want to talk about 10 small games that I want to get played because, well, they look fun and I think it’d be a good time. And it’s easy for them to get missed because I sometimes don’t see them, or sometimes just focus on playing those bigger games when I can.

10 Small Board Games I Want To Play

10. Tasso Banana

This looks like a silly little game, and I like silly little games. In Tasso Banana you stack bananas onto cards. You can’t stack it on a banana leaf. And if you stack your banana balancing it on two other bananas you take an extra turn. First to get rid of all your bananas and you win the game. That just sounds like a silly good time. And I am always here for a silly good time. It’s also one that I think I my kid might like too, so it could be a family game afternoon sometime and make it easier than some to get played.

9. Circus Flohcati

Who doesn’t love a game with the theme of a flea circus? Firstly, it is a great silly theme and the new 25th Century/Playte version of the game doesn’t look horrifying like some of the older versions do. In this game you are trying to collect cards. You score points for collecting sets of three and then the highest value cad you have of each color. It sounds like a nice simple game but one that could be a very fun puzzle to play.

8. Sequoia

I like a lot of Allplay’s little box games. And I hope the same will be true with Sequoia. This one is supposed to be a very fast game where you are trying to grow the tallest trees in a few different areas. But you roll dice to determine which forests you are going to place on. And you need to determine when to stop fighting over a forest and pivot to another because only first and second get the points for that forest. And if you tie, you are going to need to be fighting some more to end the game. The tie rules are the only part where I wonder if I’m going to enjoy this game.

7. Vampire Queen

This is a card shedding game. By that I mean that you want to empty your hand or deck of cards faster than other people. To do that, you are trying to beat the cards that were played before you. So if someone plays two threes you might play two fours, for example. Plus there are Vampire Slayers in the mix and Vampire Queens. The Vampire Queen is the number of whatever cards you play. So once someone gets rid of all their cards, you tally up the points for the other players and play five times. It sounds again simple, which I expect from a small game and easy to teach and play.

6. Pioneer Rails

A roll and write game, and not the last on the list. Though all of them on the list are technically flip and write games. This one is about building our a railway system in the old west. You are trying to build out poker hands and then using the poker cards flipped to build out your train routes and connect different locations. The more you can connect the more bonusses you get and end game scoring that you get. This is one that can be played solo so it is one that I should probably play on stream. I like the sound of it a lot and I enjoy a good roll and write style game.

5. Schadenfreude

Do you expect to see trick taking games on the list, you should. This one I got intrigued by when someone on the Dice Tower talked about it. It sounds like a pretty straightforward trick taking game. You want to win as many tricks as you can. But the twist is that might not be quite true. You want to win as many as you can without going over a point total. So it is a closest without going over that is going to be the challenge. How close can you get to that total and take home the win, or will you fly to close to the sun and get burned?

4. The Gang

This one I know has gotten some mixed reviews but it sounds unique. This is a cooperative poker hand building game. The first of two games about poker coming in a row here. For it to be a cooperative game is very cool and that is part of why I picked it up. I like the poker theme as well for the game. And I think the idea of poker hands is something that people in my game group are going to catch onto pretty quickly. So I want to get this one played and see if it’s a game for me or not.

3. Fliptown

This is an old west themed roll and write game. Though, it’s done using a deck of cards versus rolling some dice. So I’m very intrigued by it. You flip three cards and each card gets used for something different. With one card you determine which part of the board to activate, based on the suit of that card. Then for another one you keep it and are creating a poker hand. And the final one is the one that you use to fill in a spot in that part of the board you chose to activate. That just sounds like a very interesting thing.

2. Welcome to the Moon

I think that I need to play this one on stream. This is a roll and write game that kind of uses the Welcome To… system for it. But it’s its own unique game which is fun. And it’s a campaign game as well. For that reason alone I should play it on stream and see how well I can do. You play over a number of maps and see how well you can do. I’m not sure if you need to hit a certain target to advance, or how it works kind of as you advance. Though, as I write this, I suspect it is going to be a campaign game like Paper Dungeons is a campaign game.

1. Cat in the Box

This is a trick taking game and it’s one that I really should get played because it sounds so unique. In Cat in a Box there is a twist on your standard trick taking. Your cards don’t have a suit on them. You pick the suit of the card when you play it. And you decide when you are going to be short suited. Of course, this might mean that you have a four in your hand and have declared you are out of a suit and now can’t play that four, and thus you create a paradox.

Plus there is another element to the game. You get points for tricks, but you also get points for creating areas on the board. Basically, there is a board to track what cards have been played. And if you can get your cards played in the right way you will score additional points as well. Another element that is really unique about the game.

Final Thoughts

I know I could have made a list of twenty or thirty small games. It is so easy to pick them up and just add them to a collection. Do I want a game that I can get for cheap and see if I like it? Why yes, I always want to find more games like that because I don’t know when I’ll find a game. Plus it is easy for me to take these games to play with family or friends wherever because they don’t take up much room.

Obviously I put these in an order. But kind of like I did with that list of five games, I think it was, that I wanted to play, which is most likely to get played? As much as I want to play Cat in the Box, I think the some others, like Circus Flohcati, Sequoia, and the roll and writes Welcome to the Moon, Pioneer Rails and Fliptown are more likely to be played. And I want to play all of them, so it’s not like it’s a bad thing. What is a small game you want to play?

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