Lesser-Known Board Games

Just about everyone has heard of Monopoly, Risk, Clue(do), and the other popular board games, but have you heard of these less common ones? If you enjoy a fun board game, then I recommend checking out some of these games as they are all games I love to play.

Because of the popularity of geography in JetPunk (and the fact that I find this game particularly fun), it would be remiss of me to not mention this game. In Ticket to Ride, each player must earn the most points by creating train routes. Players each start with, and can later collect, route cards which tell them which cities their train routes must connect. Connecting cities will award a player points. Once a player has used up all of his/her train pieces, the game ends and players receive additional points for each full route which is completed. If a route is not fully completed, the player loses points.

The rules for this game are much more concise than those of Secret Hitler, but is in my opinion equally fun. Tension and competition can rise when multiple players have routes in surrounding areas.

I know how those of you geographically-scrupulous JetPunkers can get, so you'll have to remain calm as you play this game and notice that some of the cities don't appear to be in their exact location.

Unless you've heard of this game, you probably don't know what balderdash means. Balderdash can be defined as "senseless, stupid, or exaggerated talk or writing." And that's precisely what this game is. In balderdash, each player must create a definition for an obscure word. These definitions are mixed in with the real definition, which each player must attempt to identify. If your definition is guessed by someone as the true definition or you properly identify the real definition, you receive points.

You may think this sounds easy, especially if you consider yourself a vocabulary whiz. But somehow the creators of this game were able to find a ton of words that no one knows, and even less people use.

This board game is included for those avid "board gamers" that are upset that I've only listed games they have heard of so far. Prime Climb is a newer game (2014), and is published by a small company: Math for Love. As a mathematics student, I naturally find this game entertaining. The point of the game is to get your pawn to the number 101 by rolling ten sided dice. Your pawn moves by adding, subtracting, multiplying, or dividing the number where your pawn is located by the numbers that you roll on the two dice. If two pawns end up on the same number, the new pawn takes the place of the old, which is sent back to zero.

The game is advertised as educational, but I've played it myself many times, and it doesn't feel like a chore or homework. In fact, when played with the maximum number of players (four), it can get pretty competitive. I've even created my own fifth set of pawns to use so that I can play with my whole family.

 Have you played any of these games before?