GREAT GAMES GEEK DADS SHOULD PLAY WITH THEIR KIDS

As a father, it is important that you spend time with your children. But, sometimes it may be difficult finding something to do, especially on those rainy days when everyone is bored and acting up. Well, this may be just the chance you were looking for to pull out a game that has been gathering dust on a closet shelf that the whole family can enjoy playing together. Turn off the electronics and spend some fun time interacting with one another with a board or card game. 

As you are probably already aware, there are copious amounts of games out there to choose from and it is impossible to have them all. Look for elements of game play that are enticing to your family and friends. Is strategy and skill important or is your crowd less serious and looking for games that involve luck and chance to win? Do you want battle royal matches where only one person is the victor or cooperative games where everyone teams together and you only win if everyone contributes together to reach an outcome. Here are a few suggestions of some games my own family has had some good times with: 

Ticket to Ride

Can you monopolize the best transportation routes on a map to create the best transportation company? There are a variety of different versions of this game like the original where players compete for train routes across the country or my kids' favorite version where you battle for cab fares around New York City. An amusing way to learn about landmarks and geography while engaging in some competitive fun. I love games that combine educational content while also being entertaining. Ticket to Ride does just that!

Carcassonne

In this game, you compete to build cities, roads, churches, and farms from tiles you select at random. There is a starter piece to get you going, and you have to attach the piece you pick somewhere on the board, obviously where it fits. To earn points, you lay a miniature person, known as a Meeple on the city or road, and once the structure is complete, you earn the points. You can lay as many Meeples on a structure as you like, and so can your opponent. The player with the most Meeple on a structure wins the points once it is completed. It is a game of both strategy and of luck. 

Pandemic 

No games blog worth its salt would miss Pandemic while we are living through a Pandemic. This is a strategy game where you work together to cure diseases that are ravaging every corner of the globe. There are epidemic cards that supercharge the infection rate and make the pandemic worse. You are fighting against time and the board to win. It is a great game for thinking out loud and working together. 

Card Games 

Every father should have a set of cards at home. There are so many different games you can play with them. There are memory games where you play the cards face down and pick two trying to find pairs. Slapjack where the clue is in the name, you deal until there is a Jack and you all try to slap it, the winner picks up the cards. You also have the more complicated games such as Poker and Rummy. You could even teach the kids a lesson by using marked cards to show your kids how card sharks and magicians trick people. 

What are some of the favorite games your family plays together?

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DELIVERING SMILES

You never know who may be reading your blog? A mystery package arrived at our doorstep from Amazon. They'd read ageekdaddy.com post about how my kids sleep away summer camp experience had been cancelled due to the pandemic. So they sent some goodies our way to put some smiles on my kids faces!

Delivering smiles Amazon.com surprised our family with the new Ticket to Ride board game that lets you play with Alexa. They sent along an echo dot that provides an audio guided tour of the destinations featured in this edition of the Ticket to Ride game plus even lets you play against Alexa the voice-controlled artificial intelligence virtual assistant created by Amazon.

Ticket to Ride is a cross-country train adventure in which players collect and play matching train cards to claim railway routes connecting cities through North America. Connect cities, monopolize train routes and complete destination tickets to become the Railroad Baron that wins the game! The game is meant for 2-6 players and takes 30 to 60 minutes to play.

My daughter is super excited about the Sand Art kit that Amazon also sent to us.  With 7 colors of sand and 10 unique bottle designs this is sure to provide some summer fun. The kids are looking forward to designing their own sand art to decorate their rooms with a personal touch.

Also included in our Delivering Smiles package was a scavenger hunt activity book and a kids guide for exploring nature. Two nice book to capture their attention during the summer break from school. Amazon also provided an exploring nature activity kit that included a backpack, binoculars, bug collecting tools, a compass, whistle and more.

Thanks for delivering some smiles to our house Amazon.com! This dad blogger appreciates your kindness and my kids are excited to have some fun with all these goodies.

TICKET TO RIDE NEW YORK

We were supposed to spend my kids' Spring Break sightseeing in Manhattan but because of the pandemic it was a week of staying around our house instead.  Since we weren't going to be visiting the Big Apple, the kids imagined exploring its neighborhoods and landmarks by playing the New York City edition of the Days of Wonder board game TICKET TO RIDE. It provided for a fun time on a cold afternoon when we were cooped up inside.

In this Days of Wonder tabletop game, players compete to secure the taxi cab routes that usher tourists among landmarks and residents between community hubs. Whoever can secure the most lucrative routes scores the most points to win the game. These are obtained by drawing two types of cards during turns and strategically playing them: Transportation Cards and Destination Tickets.

Routes are a variety of lengths ranging from one to four spaces and can be one of seven different colors. Players can draw cards each turn so that they have a maximum of five cards in their hand at any time. Cards are blue, black, green, pink, red and orange and can be turned in to secure a route by matching the same number and color of cards as spaces on the board game.

Wild cards are also available that let a player match it with other cards as the color of their choice. So you could grab a two space green route with one green card and one wild card or two green cards in your hand. If you don't have a combination of cards for a route you want, a player may have to select another choice on the game board so they can than pick new cards from the deck.

For example, someone may want to grab a three green space route but only has one green card along with solo orange, blue, and pink cards as well as a wild. In that case you would have to secure on the single space colored routes (we'll say blue) to be able to draw another card for your hand. If lucky, the next card would be green and that along with the existing matching card and wild in your hand would let you grab the desired route. But if say a pink card is pulled a player may need to alter their game plan. The randomness of the card pulls is what makes TICKET TO RIDE: NEW YORK fun to play.

Destination Tickets are what adds a competitive edge to this game which can be played by 2 - 4 players. Everyone pulls two Destination Tickets that highlight a path between two locations that a player needs to unite routes so as to create a continuous path. Your Destination Tickets are kept secret from other players during the game. Competitors are supposed to try and guess where each other are trying to go and block their opponents from obtaining all the routes to get there.

For example if you have a Destination Ticket to go from Lincoln Center to the Empire State Building and are able to secure an unblocked path there with your cabs than at the end of the game you will get the 3 points printed on that Destination Ticket added to your score. On the other hand if you have a Destination Ticket to go between the United Nations and Wall Street but are unable to achieve that goal than at the end of the game you will lose the 8 points printed on that card at the end of the game from your final score.

Players who complete both Destination Tickets can pull another one from the deck if they want. This means they could add or possibly lose more points. This is optional though and players can stick with just the ones they drew at the beginning of the game. Every player though has to utilize a minimum of two Destination Tickets during the game. This aspect of the game adds mystery and intensity to TICKET TO RIDE that compliments the randomness of the Transportation Card pulls.

Whoever gains the most points during the game wins. A game ends when all the players have run out of taxis or all the routes have been taken. The game includes score cards to tally everything up.

Points are earned by claiming routes. Players get 1 pt for a one space route, 2 pts for a two space route, four pts for a three space route, and 7 pts for a four space route. See where you've placed your taxi cabs and add up your points.

Next players add or lose points based upon whether or not they completed the Destination Tickets in their hand. So if you didn't get that trip done between the United Nations and Wall Street done subtract 8 pts from your Route Point tally. On the other hand if you completed the task add those points to your score.

Finally you can get +1 bonus points for connecting tourist attractions. These are identified with a cooper circle with a white one number one printed inside. If you have routes that connect between these points add bonus points to your score. So for example if you have all the routes in a circle connecting Central Park, United Nations, the Empire State Building and Times Square that would be four bonus points added to your score. When picking routes keep an eye out for ones that are bookended by two bonus markers.

There you have TICKET TO RIDE: NEW YORK in a nutshell. What I particularly appreciated about this game is that it is rather quick to setup and play. Games average about 15 minutes. So you can pull it off a game shelf and play a few bouts of it during a lazy weekend afternoon or for a family game night. The other day we played six games in about an hour and a half.  We had to keep going until my son finally won.

Because my family had a lot of fun playing TICKET TO RIDE: NEW YORK it earned a Geek Daddy nod of approval. If you are looking for a game that isn't too complicated to play yet provides a lot of entertainment value this is the game you have been looking for. I also liked that it is very portable to take along while traveling as well as doesn't take up much space to store at home. A great selection for family gaming fun appropriate for ages 8+ from Days of Wonder. You can pick up the game at a good price from Target.