Welcome to our new family project! We’ve always loved a variety of games, and often get asked for recommendations from friends and colleagues. When 2020 brought us COVID-19 and social distance mandates, we found ourselves keeping ourselves entertained with some of our old favorites. That, coupled with the need to keep our kids entertained during remote learning, led to the creation of this website. If you want to get to know us a little more, check out our “About Us” page. We hope you enjoy reading – we’ve enjoyed creating the content!
Coming Soon
We hope you have been enjoying our blog. Stay tuned, because we have some really fun game reviews coming soon…
- Parcheesi
- Goat Lords
- Ticket to Ride
- Catan Junior
- Mega Monopoly
- Qwirkle
- And More!
Do you have other suggestions of games for us to review? Feel free to comment below and we’ll add them to our list!
Game Review: Catan
Overall Family Rating: 5 Meeples
Ages 10+
3-4 Players (You can add an expansion pack to play with more players)
About 60 minutes
Catan is a game that includes building roads, settlements, and cities.
You set up the board with hexagonal tiles that are kind of like a puzzle. The tiles have pictures of resource such as sheep, ore, wood, wheat, and brick. The tiles have numbers on them, and whenever that number is rolled whoever has a city or a settlement there, gets that resource card. If you roll a 7 you get to “rob,” or steal, a card from another player.
Once you collect enough cards you get to trade them in for settlements, cities, or development cards (which are each worth different amounts of victory points). You can also get points for having “The Longest Road” or “The Largest Army”.
The first person to get 10 victory-points wins! Watch our video below for an overview.
Kid Ratings
Sister
5 Meeples
I like when you get to do the robber because you can block people from getting cards, and you get to steal one of their cards.
Brother
5 Meeples
I like being the resource banker. I’m good at it and I get to hand out the cards every roll!
Parent Ratings
Mom
5 Meeples
This is a game we started off playing with adults in the family. We originally thought it was too hard for the kids to play. We got Catan Jr to teach the kids the basic game, and soon our oldest was able to play the original with us. While the strategy is too hard for our youngest, he’s the “resource banker” and gets to hand out cards after every roll. He loves it so much now that he says it’s one of his favorite games. I love that it’s an adult strategy game that we can enjoy with the kids.
Dad
5 Meeples
Catan is one those games that is different every time. Strategy comes into play from the outset and it evolves throughout the game. We’ve been playing this game for over ten years and it’s still as enjoyable now as when we first played it! You can play to block others from expansion & growth, play in your own small area, or play to aggressively expand throughout the board. Regardless of how the game takes shape, it’s a lot of fun for the whole family. My wife and I also have the Catan app that we like as much if not more than the original board game!
Important Parent Question:
Would you play this without kids?
Mom and Dad
Yes!
We also really enjoy playing this with our high school and college-aged nieces and nephews.
Interested in getting this for your family? Click here to order Catan, or click here to order Catan Junior.
We will be reviewing Catan Junior in a future blog post – stay tuned!
Game Review: Carcassonne
Overall Family Rating: 5 Meeples
Ages 7+
2-5 Players
About 35 minutes
Carcassonne is a strategic game, that’s fun for the whole family.
You create the board as you go using small tiles that have roads, cities and monasteries. On your turn you play your tile, connecting it to existing tiles already on the board. It’s almost a big puzzle where you have to find the right “fit” for each piece.
Once you play your tile, you have the option to play a meeple, which is where the scoring and strategy come into play. Watch our video below for more details!
Kid Ratings:
Sister
6 Meeples
At first I thought Carcassonne seemed complicated, but once I got the hang of it, I was rolling! I really like Carcassonne!
Brother
3 Meeples
I like Carcassonne because of the meeple people. I also like that I can play it with my whole family! It reminds me of a big puzzle, and I like puzzles!
Parent Ratings:
Mom
6 Meeples
I like that there’s only a few rules. Once you know those it’s a simple and fast paced game. The “puzzle” aspect entices the kids, the strategy side keeps it entertaining for adults.
Dad
5 Meeples
It’s a good entry-level strategy game for kids. You can play the whole game just thinking about your own paths/points, or you can start to get a little competitive and potentially mess with the other players plans. My son is 7 years old and he begins to lose interest about 3-5 turns into the game. I really think he will enjoy the game more once he gets older.
Important Parent Question:
Would you play this without the kids?
Mom and Dad
Yes!
If you are interested in playing yourself, click to order here!
About Our Rating System
To understand our rating system, first you’ll need to learn about meeples. A meeple is a small figure used as a playing piece in certain board games, having a stylized human form.
Now, you’re probably wondering how we have incorporated meeples into our rating system. Here’s what you need to know…
1 Meeple: No way! – I wouldn’t play this again!
2 Meeples: No Thanks – This game doesn’t appeal to me.
3 Meeples: It’s alright – I could take it or leave it.
4 Meeples: Good – I like it, and would recommend to friends!
5 Meeples: Great – This is really fun, and one of my go-to games
6 Meeples: Amazing! – One of my favorites, and I want to play it all the time!
We know that different members of your family will likely have different opinions of the same game. That’s why, on our blog, you’ll get four perspectives.
Each game will contain four ratings:
Mom and Dad – Both in their forties and not shy to tell if you they don’t like a game.
Sister – A ten year old girl getting ready to start 5th grade.
Brother – A seven year old boy getting ready to start 2nd grade.
That’s enough info to get you started…let’s start reviewing some games!