I love a good game. And my collection of games is massive. But let’s say you just found board games. You probably aren’t at this blog. But let’s say you found Wingspan and you want to get another game. And then maybe a few more after that. What game is going to be the right one to get? Or maybe you want to start the game collection for a new board game fan. Let’s talk about five categories of games that make sense to start, and a recommendation for each.

Party Game

Yes, I put party as the first one in terms of a game to start a collection. A good party game is going to get played more consistently than any other game in that players collection. Why, because they probably play games with people who don’t play as many games. And this is where you can help find a better game for that person. Or if that person is you, can you pick a game that won’t grow stale.

That is the issue with a lot of party games. I used to play Cards Against Humanity. I don’t want to anymore, but the same is true for Apples to Apples. Both of these games grow stale over time. When I play a game of Apples to Apples i know the cards and if I know the cards the sense of discovery or creativity/surprise goes out the window. So you make it adult like Cards Against Humanity, that is better, right, no, the same thing happens.

Instead my recommendation is Blank Slate, this game keeps a lot of the party game feel but players are filling in one word. And they are using their own creativity and minds to try and match with other players and come up with words. Much of the laughing this game is not what people come up with, but them coming up with the word.

Strategy

Next up is a strategy game. I am not going to recommend here that you dive into a heavy strategy game. Maybe Chess is the option here, but I want a game that plays more than two people. And when I say strategy, I also don’t mean a game like Chess with zero luck. For a new gamer and a new game, a little bit of luck is often good because the strategy games that they have played, like Risk, still offer a good amount of luck tot hem.

For this I’m going to recommend the game Five Tribes. Five Tribes is a step up from games that people generally start into the hobby with, Catan and Ticket to Ride. But it’s not too complex. And it’s a good one because there is a little bit of luck as to what comes out. But also everything is laid out from the start of the game in terms of how you can move. So there is strategy. It also is very freeing in that it let’s you score how you want to score in a given game. Which is a bit overwhelming a times, but also fun to try new strategies.

Cooperative

Next is a cooperative game. This one I think might surprise some folks, but it’s a good way for new gamers to play a game with people who maybe have been burned by games. A three our game or Risk and you lost an hour in and are not waiting around. Or everyone ganged up on you, cooperative is your way to introduce new games to them.

Pandemic is going to be my choice here. This one offers strategy to it but also a great cooperative and work together feel as you have to pass off cards and try and deal with diseases as a team. It’s also not too complex of a game. But it might be the game that someone found as the one to get them into the hobby or looking for more.

So a back-up to that is going to be Marvel United. This one is another one that really has you working together as you play out cards and take actions while hoping the villain won’t take you out first. And there is amazing variety in this game for it to grow with the gamer. But even in the base box, this one is going to become a comfortable game quickly.

Filler Game

First off, what is a filler game? A filler game is a smaller game that you can play pretty quickly without taking the whole evening. A lot of the other games I’ve talked about are bigger and might take an hour or more to play. So this is something that should take half an hour or less to play. And the reason for that in a game collection is that they are great for that week night want to play something, or take to a bar and play something.

There are a lot of options that that I could pick here. But I want to pick a new game Symbiosis. This one is going to be a game that kind of feels familiar to some card games that you maybe played growing up. Face down cards in front of you are going to feel like a game that I can’t remember the name of. But in this one you want to score points and the more points the better, so you trade cards out from a grid and depending where they are depends on how they score. I like that it feels familiar but grown up scoring.

Combative

Finally, buy them a combative game. So, on my list thus far are mainly competitive games. But I think that this type of game, combative, is something that for a new gamer and a new collection makes a lot of sense to add into it. And there are a lot of good options and reasons for this. The big reason is that a lot of games you play before getting into hobby games offer take that to it.

So I’m not going to suggest Munchkin or King of Tokyo, mainly because those games often introduce people to more games. I’m going to go with one of my favorites in Dice Throne. Dice Throne is all about attacking your opponent to knock down their health. And each character is going to be different and unique in how they do that. Plus it uses Yahtzee style dice rolling which is going to feel familiar.

Plus there are Marvel sets as well as then as fantasy sets. Yes, there is a lot for this game, but that’s another pretty good thing. Because like Marvel United, you can always buy more once you feel like you know the base game. And then you add that variety and choice that will keep the game coming back.

What Game Category Do You Play Most?

I think that these are a good way to start a collection. And I think that it’s a good way not to overwhelm someone. You come into my game room as someone who doesn’t play games, there are hundreds of games. You don’t even know where to start looking. The same is true for a game store, what do you pick up off the shelf? And there are a lot of games (Root) that look like one thing and are something completely different. So what game did you first play to get into hobby games?

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