I love board games and it got me thinking about all the classic board games out there and which ones are actually fun. There are so many different classic board games, but the interesting thing about the concept of a classic board game is that it could be different to each person. This list is what are classic board games to me, yes, but I also added board games that others say are their idea of a classic board game. This list consists of my ideas and others of what a classic board game is.
So what is the list of classic board games?
- Risk
- Manacala
- Checkers
- Chess
- Connect Four
- Axis and Allies
- Battleship
- Stratego
Now let’s take a deeper look at the classic board games that are actually fun that we think are ones you should take a look at. Obviously, this isn’t a full list of all the great classic games out there. You can find a full list of our favorite games and where we recommend to buy them by https://agogegameacademy.com/recommended-games.
1) Risk
Game Specifications
| Players | Duration | Age | Difficulty | Game Type |
| 2-6 | 120 Minutes | 10+ | Medium | Area Control |
Why is Risk so fun?
Risk is fun because of how the game works. I like the fact that only one person comes out as the winner. It is easy to learn, yet complicated enough to have one game go for a couple hours. It is a good group game for parties. It’s a game that a person needs to use strategy to win. Risk is a game for someone to watch and pay attention to everyone’s moves in order to use mistakes or oversights to come out victorious.
Game Play
Risk is an area control game using dice, to win battles, and meeples to represent the army. The game is won by the person who conquers the world. The game is played in rounds. Each round consists of a few things like gaining reinforcements for the armies, battling, and if a battle is won, gaining a bonus card. Each round gets more and more interesting because the armies get bigger and bigger and are harder to conquer. The way a player gains more soldiers for their army is determined by what country is owned. Each country has a certain number that equals the amount of soldiers a player would get every round for owning that particular country. The bigger the country, the more soldiers one gets to help protect it. The player must strategically decide where to put the soldiers each round. A player can decide to attack and try to conquer another country to gain more soldiers or hold off and defend what country they do own.
2) Mancala
Game Specifications
| Players | Duration | Age | Difficulty | Game Type |
| 2 | 30 Minutes | 6+ | Easy | Combat Game |
Why is Mancala fun?
Manacala is a lot of fun because it is a very simple game, and even though it is simple it is full of strategy. It is a game for two and the game from start to finish is very fast. It takes strategy to see the other players moves and then act accordingly to their moves. It is all about adjusting to the other player and trying to distract them to get more of their stones.
Game Play
Manacala is a fun and simple game, yet can be very strategic as well. There are a few different variations of game play, but the idea is the same. The way one wins is to have the most stones in one mancala (end hole) compared to their opponent’s. The game is split up in two sides. The row that is directly in front of the player is considered “their” row. Whichever mancala is on the far right of a player is that player’s “scoring mancala,” or the mancala into which they place their stones. The game starts by one player picking up the stones in any of their holes and moving them until there are no more stones in their hand. So if there were four stones in the hole, a player picks up the four stones and moves one stone into each hole until the stones run out. If the last stone goes into the mancala hole then the player can pick up more stones in any of their holes and keep playing. It can get strategic because if you land your last stone in an empty hole on your side, and there are stones in the adjacent hole, you get the opponents stones and the one that landed in the empty hole.
Two Ways to Play
There are two ways to play this game. The first way is however many stones are in a hole, is the amount of moves the player gets and no more (other then landing in the Mancala Hole). And the second way to play is however many stones are in a hole are picked up and placed into holes until the stones land in a hole that is empty. So if a player picks up four stones and puts their last stone into a hole with three other stones, then the player picks up the three other stones and keeps going. The player goes until their last stone ends in the opponent’s side, then it is the opponent’s turn.
3) Checkers
Game Specifications
| Players | Duration | Age | Difficulty | Game Type |
| 2 | 30 Minutes | 6+ | Easy | Combat Game |
Why is Checkers fun?
Checkers is fun because of the unique way in which the game works. It, like many board games is a simple game but has so many different strategies that can be implemented into the game to win. What I like about this game is the fact that even if someone has been losing the entire game, one move can change the course of the game. It is skill based and like chess, a player needs to anticipate the opponent’s next move to win.
Game Play
This is an easy yet strategic board game. The game is won by whomever gets all of the other players disc-shaped pieces first. The players can only move in a diagonal, forward movement and can only move one spot at a time (unless there is a two or three way kill). If one player gets a disc-shaped piece to the opponent’s side without that piece being “taken,” then that piece becomes a king piece and can be moved backwards or forwards.
4) Chess
Game Specifications
| Players | Duration | Age | Difficulty | Game Type |
| 2 | 60 Minutes | 6+ | Medium | Combat Board |
Why is Chess Fun?
Chess is one of my most favorite games I’ve ever played! It is a very complicated game. It is easy to understand and play, but it’s hard to master. This does not mean it isn’t fun! It really is! It is all about beating the other person in a battle of wits. The whole game is literally about anticipating the opponents moves and making them make moves to where they expose the king and allow you to win. It can be difficult to learn the rules for each piece, but once they are learned, it’s all about using strategy and every piece on the board to become triumphant. There is no better feeling then beating someone with strategy and having them fall into trap after trap.
Game Play
Chess is known worldwide. I had to add it because it is a classic board game in my mind. The game is won when a person traps the King. The King needs to be in the line of fire from one piece and have other pieces around it so if the King were to move to another spot it would be taken by those other pieces. In this game every piece is important even the little pawns. Not only is every piece important, but every piece has its own movements and rules to those movements. This is one of the most strategic board games I’ve ever played.
5) Connect four
Game Specifications
| Players | Duration | Age | Difficulty | Game Type |
| 2 | 10 Minutes | 6+ | Easy | Board Game |
Why is Connect Four Fun?
Connect Four is fun because like Manacala, it is a very fast game including set up time. It is one of my favorites because my kids can play it and can understand the concept of how to win. Connect Four is a surprisingly strategic board game. Some might say that it’s boring because it’s so simple, but the game is all about seeing what the other player is missing and using it. Not only is it using what the other player doesn’t see, but it’s also about deceiving the other player so that they don’t see the win until it’s too late.
Game Play
This is a pretty simple game but can be very strategic even with the simplicity of the game. In this game the players are playing with pieces called checkers. A player wins by getting four checkers in a row on a 7 slot board either horizontally, diagonally, or vertically.
6) Axis and Allies
Game Specifications
| Players | Duration | Age | Difficulty | Game Type |
| 2-5 | 180 Minutes | 12+ | Medium | Area Control |
Why is Axis and Allies Fun?
I love Axis and Allies for the fact that it makes me feel like I am in World War II. It is a game that is based off of history. It is a game where there are only two teams and the amount of players playing the game are either on the Axis or Allies team. The players need to work together to take out their common enemy. The game is fun because there needs to be a certain amount of strategy involved. To win a team must watch the other players and take advantage of mistakes made, and eventually take over the world.
Game Play
I like this game because it has history integrated into the game. The whole idea of the game is based on World War II. This game is similar to Risk, but also has its differences. The game starts off with the players splitting into two groups, the Axis and the Allies. The Axis are Germany and Japan, while the Allies are the USA, United Kingdom, and the USSR or Russia. During the game the players will have access to a variety of different soldiers, weapons, and planes. These can include infantry, armor, fighters, bombers and aircraft carriers. There are even ships such as battleships, submarines, troop transports. Lastly there are defense against planes like anti-air guns, and factories. The good thing about this game is the fact that the players work together to defeat the other team so they have to work together to attack, defend and win. There is an option to risk the production resources on the possibility to create a super weapon or technology that would turn the war over to whoever creates it. The game ends when one of the two groups defeats the other.
7) BattleShip
Game Specifications
| Players | Duration | Age | Difficulty | Game Type |
| 2 | 30 Minutes | 8+ | Medium | Combat Game |
Why is Battleship Fun?
Battleship is an interesting game. It is a game that can have so many levels or different angles of strategy! Each player needs to figure out where the other player’s ships are and hopefully destroy the ships before the enemy wins. It is a fast game and very simple! It is fun because no matter if a player is winning or losing, the game can switch rather quickly.
Game Play
The ships are deployed on a square grid. Once the ships are deployed and in their spots, one player begins the attack by calling out a location by the letter and number. The other player must say “Hit” or “Miss” indicating if the player has hit the ship or not. First person to hit all of the enemy ships is the winner.
8) Stratego
Game Specifications
| Players | Duration | Age | Difficulty | Game Type |
| 2 | 45 Minutes | 8+ | Medium | Combat Game |
Why is Stratego Fun?
Stratego is one of my favorite games! It is so much fun and it requires quite a bit of strategy. It requires one to pay close attention to the enemy’s soldiers, where the bombs are located and where the flag is. It requires a lot of memory as to which soldier has certain numbers and what soldiers can destroy the weaker ones. There are varying strategies that different people can take towards this game. One person might want to put all the weak soldiers in the front to try to figure out which enemy soldier is which. Then there is another strategy to put all the strongest soldiers in the front to attack. There are so many options that anyone can play this game and find a strategy that will work best for them. Because of the diversity in game strategy, the game is fun to play over and over.
Game Play
In this game each player must protect their flag from the enemy, if the flag is found, game over. The players must set up the game by deploying their armies onto the battlefield. There are also bombs that can be placed as protection or decoys. Each soldier has a number on it. When the soldiers are battling, the highest ranking officer or soldier is the winner. The number on the soldiers indicates whether one defeats another. Usually the higher number wins, but there are a few exceptions. So for example, a 9 can defeat any number it encounters, other then a 1 or a bomb. Where as the bombs can be defeated by a three. The fun part about this game is the fact that no one knows what number the enemy soldier is, but you must attack anyway. The soldiers can only move one space at a time. Once the battlefield has been taken and a player has captured the flag, the game is over.
Conclusion
There are a ton of classic board games in the world. These are the ones that we found to be fun. As you can see many of them were simple, yet fun because they require strategy. Hopefully this is a list that will help you find a classic game to play with friends or your family.