Games with my son


My son has become my most regular board game opponent. We often play in the mornings: on weekends and on schooldays when his school starts on 9. He’s eight years old, and quite the gamer, and here’s what we play now:

  • Agricola — We play the family game, and recently started using the Farmers of the Moor expansion. My son has still some problems managing the farm, and hasn’t really been near winning yet, but he likes the game nevertheless. He also competes against his own personal records (currently 29 with the expansion, and 25 without, I think). It has been very enjoyable for me to get back to this old classic, last time I’ve played the game this much was back in 2007 when the game was new.
  • San Juan — I made a Finnish translation for San Juan, one of my personal favourites, and introduced it to my son. He likes the game a lot, which suits me fine. I’ve yet to lose to him, but in this game it’s likely to happen sooner or later.
  • Pantheon — This is one of those games I like, but few people care about. Almost nobody even plays it here in Finland, or at least it’s very silent. I like it, and so does my son. We’ve played several games, and the two-player game is quite nice.
  • Stone Age — This is a new one for us, we’ve played twice so far. Here he’s quite far from winning, but it doesn’t seem to be a problem. In our second game, my son managed to build quite a few huts, but fell badly behind in cards – and that, of course, means lots of points lost. Well, we have time to practise this.
  • Lost Valley — Simple and peaceful adventure, looking for gold. I had this when the game was new, but didn’t really want to play it after the novelty ran out. I recently rebought it, and it was a good move: my son likes the game, and I don’t mind playing with him. The two-player game is a bit bland, but it doesn’t matter in this case.
  • Walnut Grove — The Agricola Lite. Not that we need one, as Agricola takes us about 30-40 minutes. Well, this is faster, and quite fun. Not a keeper for me, except for my son, but a nice family game to play.
  • Lewis & Clark — My son has had this thing for explorers, so I thought Lewis & Clark might good for him. It was, and I like it too. The 30 minutes per player play time scares me from trying this with my friends, but I should, so I could write a review. Two hours of this sounds way too much, but as a two-player with my son, this is quite tasty. The combo-building is fun.
  • Subdivision — He hasn’t asked for this one for a while now, with all the new games, but we’ve already played this more than ten times. It’s a fun little puzzler.
  • Suburbia — The big brother of Subdivision. This is slightly complicated, because the tiles are in English, but since the tiles are public and open all the time, it’s not a huge deal.
  • Machi Koro — I bought the Japanese edition and needed a translation anyway, so I made the translation in Finnish. My son and I have played this quite a bit, this has been one of our favourites.

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