I first heard about Catan, back when it was known as “Settlers of Catan” and was featured on a YouTube channel. My brother actually owns the Star Trek version, though I have never actually played it before myself.

When opened up and set up, the game appears a little like Carcassonne, the idea being to build. However where Carcassonne builds the board game as you play, Catan is a set space for the game board, but with randomised tiles, giving you a different game everytime you play.

Since it was our first time playing, we chose to use the setup shown in the front pages of the rule book. There were only three of us playing and so we didn’t add the red player in. As mentioned, the tiles are placed randomly so field, quarries etc are all in different places. Players then choose to add their roads and settlements (though again, we followed the ‘first time playing’ set up in the book). Once you’re settled in, you claim your first lot of resources and then play begins by rolling the dice.

On each play, you roll the dice and according to it’s number, the settlements on the edges of those numbered hex spaces, claim the corresponding resources. Then on your go, you may also trade or build. Once you’re done, it’s the next players turn and the same applies. You build roads and then in turn settlements, to claim more resources and the more settlements you own, the more points you gain.

Play continues around and around, with players claiming their resources and choosing to build. Trouble comes in the form of a robber though, every time a seven is rolled. This sets you back some and loses you resources, which at times can be frustrating.

To win the game, you need to reach a score of ten. You score one point for every settlement and two for every city (none for roads). You can also buy development cards which ocassionally score you points too. Additional points can be gained by building the ‘longest road’ too.

Catan can take quite a while to play and is part luck but also some skill and planning as well. It’s quite relaxing to play and not too compeitive, but I’m not sure it would be great for younger children. My youngest didn’t play with us that night and I think maybe she would have found it hard work.

Just like last month and Stuffed Fables, When I Dream is a game I had never heard of before but the box looked very interesting. I got quite excited while setting it up too, as the actual board game and bed are very cute.

After you have set up the board game, each player gets handed a character at random. There are Sandman, Fairy, Boogeyman etc. While they don’t really effect your game play, they do affect the scoring and since this is how you win – its very interesting seeing who gets what!

To begin play, someone places the eye mask on – according to the rules, the oldest player (probably because they need the most sleep!)

Once the eyemask is on, players take it in turns to describe the picture on the card on top of the deck (on top of the bed). They can only use one word and as soon as they have said the word, play passes to the next player for their word and so on. At any point, the player with the eyemask can stop the clues and take a guess but they only get one guess. If they are correct, the card is placed on the right of the bed, if they are wrong it’s placed on the left. Then guessing begins for the next card at the top, again until the player with the eye mask guesses. The player with the eyemask only has 2 minutes (with the included timer) to guess as many cards as they can. Once they have done that, still with the mask on – they have to try and recall all of the cards they have previously guesses but in the form of a story/dream.

Once this is done, scoring happens and as I mentioned before, each character has a different scoring ability. For example some gain points for how well the masked player did, while others benefit from them doing badly. Once scoring is done, play passes to the next player and the same thing happens again for another 2 minutes.

Once everyone has taken a turn and each round has been scored, that’s game over and the player with the highest score wins. You could technically play as many rounds as you liked before declaring a winner, although if you do it after one turn each, it just means you could start over again for the next few rounds so more people have a chance of winning – it’s totally up to you.

This game has a really interesting design and is very family friendly as you can gear your clues to the person who is guessing. It’s quite tricky at times to come up with a one word clue and it does create a few giggles but we definitely enjoyed it. If you enjoy games like Dixit then you’ll probably enjoy this too!

When Stuffed Fables arrived as our monthly game, I have to admit I was a bit fascinated. I’d never heard of it before and reading the box it sounded quite exciting. When we opened it up though and read the rules, I was a bit concered that it was going to be complicated. However when we played, I was pleasantly surprised.

The game is basically a little bit like family D&D. The board game is actually a book (basically like a pre-written Dungeon Master) and all the players get to play a role in the story. Stuffed Fables is a story of a little girl who finally gets moved from her crib into a big girl bed. The first story you play (the one for beginners) gives some back story and basically explains about the stuffed toys that you will play. Each player picks a character and takes their game card and player token.

Each character has a specific set of abilities, some available from the beginning and others which you can earn as you play the game. The book is the board game and as you play the story through and turn the pages, you can new mini board games and stories to play.

There are a lot of rules, so I won’t get into explaing them all but each round you roll dice and then choose to move, search, fight etc. Your actions have some bearing on the storyline and as you complete each section and turn the page for the next part of the story, you ocassionally even have choice in which way the story forks.

The game does take quite some time to play. It’s definitely a solid afternoon and evening for one story or leaving it set over the weekend for a couple of sessions of playing. The first story is only 5-6 playable pages but that still took us a good four hours (although we were also learning how to play).

Though I wasn’t really sure about this game at a glance, especially as it seemed complicated, I would strongly recommend it. Since it’s a cooperative game, kids ages don’t really matter as you are more than able to help them out without just taking over. The story itself is beautifully written and you find yourself quite sucked into it. Though we have only played the first few stories, I can’t wait to play some more.

When I received Codenames Pictures as one of my monthly games to review, I was actually really excited. We already own the original version of Codenames (and I’ve had my eye on the Disney version) but we’ve never played the picture version before. At first glance, the game is basically the same as the original, but the biggest difference of course is that instead of using code WORDS, there are code PICTURES. If you want more fun-filled games like this, then sites such as 먹튀검증 are definitely for you.

To play Codenames (any version) you must have at least four players. This is because you play in two teams and each team needs at least two players. You can play in much bigger groups too although I have to admit I have only ever played as a two.

Two players sit one side of the table and two players sit the other. You generally sit opposite the other player on your own team. The cards are laid out in a series of 25 – this is 5 columns, each with 4 cards in them.

On one side of the table, sit the people who will give the clues for the cards and on the other are the players who are guessing. You play in two teams – red and blue. For the players who are giving out the clues, they take a random card which will show which cards are blue, which are red, which are white (the innocent bystanders) and which is black (the assassin). Only the players giving out the clues can see this and there are multiple cards with the positions marked on them so no two games are ever the same (not to mention you can use different pictures each time too).

The card being used to show the cards positions, also shows which team should go first (marked by the colour at the left and right edge). This is because there is one more clue to be found by that team. The blue player in this example, goes first by giving a one word clue to his fellow spy and guesser. This clue should be something that will help his other player(s) guess which card he is wanting them to pick. He also picks a number, for the amount of cards that relate to that clue. For example he could say animal and four. This would mean there are four possible cards to be picked with the clue that relates to animal.

The other player or players on his team, pick a card at a time for which they believe he is hinting at. If they get it right, a colour token for their team is placed over the card and guessing can continue. If they pick wrong, there are two options. If the card picked is a blank/white token, then an bystander card gets placed on top. Nothing bad happens by the turn ends and is passed to the other team. This also rules out a pick making it slightly easier for future guesses for both teams. If the card guessed wrong is black – the asassin card – then play ends and that team loses automatically. It’s basically like being shot and you’re dead. After at least one guess, the guessing players can stop and choose not to guess any more as well. They can also guess all four of their clues and risk guessing more if they wish – perhaps using previous clues they have been given and missed.

Play continues until a) someone picks the assasin and the game ends automatically or b) one team wins.

Its a great quick game, which can be a bit complicated and hurt your brain but is also great for a laugh. Any game which requires one player to give a clue and another person to try and be in their head and guess that clue, is always going to be a bit humorous. We play as a family, often one adult and child versus another adult and child and we have never laughed so much. I definitely recommend this as a family game as its a really easy concept to grasp and doesn’t take a lot of skill (plus you can play easy clues and words to help younger children). The picture version is incredibly more wide open for giving clues as as you may see, the pictures are not quite your average straight forward image either!

This month’s game was Dixit and I was actually pretty excited to play this as I’d played it once before. The game is made with beautiful illustrated cards and that alone sells the game to me.

This particular version of Dixit is very self-contained. When you take the lid off the box, you can already see that the board game is almost built into the box. The middle contains the cards and tokens so its all just there for you.

To begin with, each player picks a colour. This gives you a rabbit moving piece and then 6 number tokens (numbered 1-6). The cards are shuffled and 6 are dealt to each player. On each round, one player is the storyteller. They pick a card from their hand and place it facedown, using one word or phrase to describe the card. This is something you have to think carefully about as you can’t be overly specific but you can’t be so vague that no one will be able to guess the card either.

Once the storyteller has placed the card down, the other players must pick a card from their hand which they think could also be described the same way as the storyteller’s card. They place this face down with the storyteller’s card. These cards are shuffled and laid out in a line. They take on a card position – for example 1-6 in a row (there were 1-5 in the game we played).

Each player, who is not the storyteller, now has to guess which card belongs to the storyteller. You do that with your numbered token cards, picking the number card you believe is correct and placing it face down as your vote. Once everyone has made a choice, these cards are revealed and you see who has picked which card. If everyone or no-one picks the storyteller’s card, then they don’t score any points. This is why the clue is important as you need some people to guess it, but not so easy that everyone does. Everyone’s who guesses correctly scores 3 points, so long as not everyone or no-one, this includes the storyteller too. Players also score 2 points if their misleading card has been picked. The rabbit tokens are moved around the board/box edge as the points are won. For the next round, cards are drawn to replace the ones used in the last round and then the next person around becomes the storyteller and you play again. The game is won by whoever has the highest points, once all the cards in the draw pile are gone.

As my partner was out, the girls and I played as just the three of us. To combat the game being too easy with three, the players have to play two cards each round instead of one, making the total five cards to choose from. However we found this was tricky in another way so we would definitely like to replay as a four. All of us appreciated the beautiful drawings and the simplicity of play. My youngest struggled to pick words and phrases that suited her cards, but otherwise enjoyed the game. For anyone who has played Fibbage, I would definitely liken this game to that. I think its a great family game but probably not suitable for young children unless they have help.