What Are Your Favorite Board Games and Card Games?

Dominoes aren’t considered cards or board games.  Mexican Train sounds dirty but it really is a domino game.  2-8 players.  

Go to here to see the current rated best board games:  https://boardgamegeek.com/browse/boardgame

My current top 10:

1. Wingspan

2. Puerto Rico

3. Splendor

4. Cosmic Encounter

5. Terraforming Mars

6. Galaxy Trucker

7. Viticulture

8. Orleans

9. Scythe

10. Ethnos

I own too many board games. The plus side of the downtime (I'm FINALLY getting some this week) is I have some time to play more of them.

Some of my preferred standbys: Agricola (I'm told Caverna is even better), Puerto Rico, Race for the Galaxy. My family likes KingDomino and Carcassonne. 

7 Wonders is a great mix of strategy, mechanic, and a tidy length--games aren't even an hour long. And my pre-teen can understand it well. Race for the Galaxy, a sci-fi card game with some similarities to Puerto Rico, is also pretty good for time. 

I am a fan of Twilight Struggle, but finding people to play it with can be tricky; my wife would gamely play against me, but it's the kind of game I would beat her handily in (she beats me regularly in games like Skip-bo, so it evens out) and that's not as fun. 

There are others, but that's kind of my list right now. 7 Wonders might not be my "favorite game," but it's my top recommendation at the moment. 

RISK.

It's the only game that matters.

In no particular order:

APBA Baseball

Euchre

Monopoly

A few years ago I got into Go. It's a great game. The rules are actually incredibly simple. But it takes time to understand what the hell you're doing. You'll suck at chess in the beginning of course, but the idea of having an army and attacking the other army is easy enough to get. With go you're just putting stones on seemingly random spots. There's a Japanese saying, something like "Lose your first 100 games" because you'll be so clueless in the beginning. I got going playing against AI with an app where you can play quickly and experiment, and watching Nick Sibicky videos on youtube. You're welcome to play me on OGS. I'm only 10kyu. Gulogulo.

I almost forgot.  It's been a loooong time since I played the board game Civilization.  You need like 8-10 hours minimum.  And the game only has like 15 turns in it, maybe less.  The first few go fast, then it slows down big time.  The turns go in very specific phases, and if you play it the way my friends and I did, each trading phase lasts a goddamn hour - I mean that absolutely literally - because the rules say that at least three cards must be swapped in any trade, and the players must tell the truth about at least two of them.  You couldn't possibly win or even contend if you didn't make trades, but with everyone obviously lying about what they had and calamity cards buried within the resource cards, nobody ever trusted anyone.  You couldn't make a trade for two hides (garbage resource) and an ivory (good resource) because then you were getting two hides and an earthquake.

Euchre. Euchre 3D app is the answer to next question. Next question?

I agree with most of the suggestions that have already been given. A game that my family has gotten into over the last couple of years is "Ticket to Ride".

I'll take a shot at a quick description... The game board is a map (the base game is the US and parts of lower Canada) with destinations (i.e. Chicago, New York, Seattle). Each player has "mission" cards (i.e. Seattle to New York) that they are trying to complete throughout the game by collecting colored train cars that match the route between two destinations. You collect points by completing routes and missions. Whoever has the most points at the end of the game wins. 

It is a strategy game and super easy to learn. I haven't played with younger children but the basic strategy is super easy to learn. Also might be a helpful geography lesson. They have released a number of expansion maps including a great lakes version which is fun if you are in the area. 

Link:

Game Board for the traditional game: 

With how mainstream D&D has become, there's no shortage of TTRPGs (tabletop role-playing games) being produced. You can look up one-page RPGs that are incredibly rules-light and all you need is a couple six-sided dice. Using roll20 or similar service, you can practice social distancing while still playing with your friends.

We usually get a group of four together a few times a month to play some board games. Currently Scythe is out most played. I would personally love to get twilight imperium on the table more, but its hard to find more people that gel well with our usual players. Viticulture is great. Terraforming mars, feast for odin, brass birmingham, spirit island, and gloomhaven get played with some frequency for us. But now with the current climate we have turned to WoW....and it is amazing haha. Located in Oakland county if anyone is nearby and wants to maybe get together after this craziness dies down.

I'll echo some of what others have already said: Settlers of Catan, Ticket to Ride, and Pandemic are some of my all-time favorite games. Catan and Pandemic are a bit more involved strategy games (which is what I love about them); TTR also involves strategy but is more accessible for the casual gamer. My in-laws are not into board games at all, but they will play TTR and they enjoy it.

A few others:

• Hanabi - a cooperative card game where you cannot see the cards in your hand, and you have to strategically give clues to your teammates to play cards in the correct sequence. (It won the Spiel de Jahres Game of the Year in 2013.)
• Qwixx - an easy and fun dice game. This is a game that my in-laws will play (read: accessible, fun, not hard to grasp).
• Sushi Go! - a quick and fairly simple card-based game.

Edit: just remembered a couple other accessible/fun family games:

• Pit - if you play with kids, it turns into chaos (the fun kind). You're basically "stock traders" trying to barter and deal with each other to collect resources. So as soon as the round starts, it's mayhem as people are calling out deals. Lots of fun.
• Farkle - I saw someone else mention this, but it's an easy and fun dice-based game.

Euchre

Carcassonne is good game, and younger children can play, even if they don't get the strategy nuances. It's a tile playing game that involves building roads and villages.  

Card games - I'll put in another plug for hearts. Basic euchre is too simple - try double deck bid Euchre for a change of pace. 

Late to the party, but stuff we've played during the lockdown:

Sequence

Phase 10

Egyptian Ratscrew (with the kids)

Poker (teaching my 14 yo daughter who wants to learn for some reason)

Korean card game called hwa-toh, and the gambling more complicated version called go-stop (not to be confused with the board game Go)

Settlers of Catan

Clue

Boggle

Pictionary

Taboo

Pandemic

Ticket to Ride

Euchre and Mah Jong

Board games? Risk. Card games? Euchre. Favorite game? Also Euchre.