Catan (Settlers of Catan)

Catan (formerly, Settlers of Catan), invented by German Klaus Teuber, won the Speil des Jahre in 1995. It is one of the most popular board games in the world, selling over 32 million copies and is available in 40 languages. This is a trading and resource development game where players build settlements, cities, and roads to connect them as they settle the island of Catan. A few expansions are available, and many variations of the game have been produced based on different themes.

Expansions available for Catan base model: Seafarers, Explorers & Pirates, Traders & Barbarians and Cities & Knights.

Additional scenarios for the base game: Crop Trust; Oil Springs; Big Game, Big Honor; Helpers of Catan; Frenemies; and eleven regional varieties.

Alternate stand-alone games: A Game of Thrones Catan, Starfarers, Rise of  the Inkas, Family Edition, Settlers of America, and Rivals for Catan (which has its own particular expansions: Age of Enlightenment and Age of Darkness).

There are also a few portable versions: Catan Traveler, Struggle for Catan, Catan Dice Game, and Catan Logic Puzzle.

See a video on game play of Catan here.

Click to view video

Monopoly

Probably the biggest selling commercial board game ever. As of 2015 it had been estimated that 275 million copies of the game had been sold. It has been translated into 47 languages and is played in 114 countries. Like Scrabble it was invented during the depression though much of the game's form was derived from The Landlord's Game that was created 30 years earlier.

There are dozens of variations on the game: 007, Avatar, Back to the Future, Batman, Big Bang Theory, Bob Ross, Disney Theme Park, Fortnite, Friends, Game of Thrones, The Godfather, Godzilla, I Love Lucy, Jurassic World, Lord of the Rings, Mandalorian, Millennials, Monopoly Junior, The Nightmare Before Christmas, Pixar, Pokemon, Queen, Schitt's Creek, Scooby-Doo, The Simpsons, Sopranos, Space Jam, Spiderman, Star Trek, Star Wars, Super Mario, Toy Story, Transformers, WWE, etc. There are also many local and regional editions: Arizona, Brooklyn, Canada, National Parks (US), Lake District (UK), etc. A partial list of the huge range of Monopoly version can be found here.

Monopoly Deal is a card game version (that would make a good travel game).

Most of these variations are the same size as the original, just varying the names of the properties and changing the Chance and Community Chest cards. But there is now an enlarged version of the game called Monopoly Mega with a board 30% larger and the number of properties increased. There are also three dice and three piles of draw cards.

The range buildings has also expanded. Besides the houses and hotels there are train depots for the railroads and skyscrapers for the properties. Download the Monopoly Mega rules here.

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The Landlord's Game:

Click to enlarge.

Rummoli

Rummoli is a card game invented in Canada. The play involves having certain cards or combination of cards that let you win the various chips that are deposited in each round. The standard game “board” or playing surface (that we played on) was a heavy paper material that showed each pot.  See the complete rules here.

Tinners' Trail

This is an economic game built around tin mining in Cornwall, England. Players buy plots of land at auction and then build and expand their mines, often having to deal with water in the mines. The ore is extracted and then sold for profit and the money invested in victory points.

 An expansion is available that adds another mining element - arsenic, and worker emigration.

Tinners' Trail Expansion Box

Here is a good video describing the game:

Click to view video

Produced by Alley Cat Games.

Pan Am

The Pan Am game follows the development of Pan American airways in the twentieth century. The airline grows by expanding routes and buying up smaller airlines, and the play of this game follows that pattern. Players begin by developing their own airline routes and then selling them to Pan Am in exchange for Pan Am stock. The goal is to collect the most Pan Am stock. It is an ingenious combination of multi-element strategy with some luck, but is surprising easy to learn and play.

This instructional video explains the game:

Click to view video

This video is a little quick on the explanation. There are a couple of review videos that are more well-paced that provide an overview and a play run-through. A video of a full game being played can be found here.

From the game box: “From island-hoppers of the '30s to glamorous jet-liners of the 1960s, Pan Am set the pace of the airline industry. Compete with Pan Am and other players as the head of your own fledgling airline. Expand your fleet of planes, build airports, outbid rivals for landing rights, and create your own globe-circling air system. Play through decades of air travel history alongside ever-growing Pan Am: make a fortune when they buy your routes, invest in Pan Am stock when it's cheap, and don't get pushed out of the skies by your competition!”

Produced by Funko Games.

Codenames

Invented by Vlaada Chvátil, Codenames was the winner of the Spiel de Jahres award for best game of the year in 2016. This is a simple but clever discover game in which single word clues are given to teammates (similar to Password) to discover their agents, and to avoid discovering their opponent's agents or the dreaded assassin. There is a leader for each team (called the “Spymaster”) who gives the clues to their teammate(s). The leaders know the location of all the agents so they try to give a word clue which will lead their teammates to pick their agents without mistakenly discovering the opponents agents. They also have an online version.

There is also a two player co-operative version called Codenames Duet.

Codenames Duet

A video that provides a good overview of Codenames can be found here. The videos below show a full play through:

 

Click to view videos

Levée en Masse: The Wars of the French Revolution

This war game plays out the events of the French Revolution. Invented by historian John Welch, it follows the conflict between the revolutionaries and the established monarchical government, and the intervention of other European powers. It is highly rated at BoardGameGeek. and they also have a good video describing the game.

Original game with components

New game board*

There is an online version of the game though it is fairly low quality, but there is a video to explain the game play.

* - Long out of print, the game is being reproduced via a Kickstarter campaign, due out Oct, 2022.