Need inspo for what to get your board game obsessed loved one? Or, are you using Christmas gifts to introduce a friend to the wonderful world of tabletop gaming? 2022 has been a great year for board games releases, we’ve got some long-loved classics as well as new releases in this gift guide.
Whatever your budget, and whoever you’re shopping for this Christmas we’ve got goodies that are bound to bring joy and spread Christmas cheer. For gifts under $20, we have stocking stuffer suggestions you can find here.
Under $30
Under $50
Over $100
Under $30
Great gifts don’t need to break the bank. Our options for less than $30 are great for kids and those who are new to board games. Here are some affordable choices to help them start playing.
Yum Cha
Yum Cha by local Australian publisher Quokka Games (creators of Carry On and Dirty Laundry), is an easy to pick up but hard to put down game where players must collect three sets of dim sum cards and one pair of tea cards to win. Great for families, parties, and any social gathering, this is a perfect time-filler game that’s just as fun with two players as it is a full group of six.
Players take turns drawing and playing cards with the aim of scoring as many points as they can by assembling small, medium, and large dim sums sets. Be the first to declare “Yum Cha!” when you draw your eleventh card and complete your hand of assorted dumpling and tea cards.
Created with the goal of introducing Chinese-Cantonese foods and dialect to audiences interested in this traditional Asian cuisine, the game is both fun and educational as offers a delicious gateway into another culture. Yum Cha is a Good Games store-wide best-seller, as it’s super simple, great in groups (2-6 players), and has adorable (and mouth-watering) graphics that’ll make you want to book your next group outing at your local Yum Cha! It’s also extremely portable, with the whole box fitting in your hand, so it’s the perfect travel companion for those who want something pocketable.
Anomia
Next on our list is the award winning Anomia, a fantastic group game that’ll have your playgroup fumbling over phrases and tripping over their own tongues as they face-off in a competition to see whose mouth can keep up with their brains. If you’re getting a Christmas gift for a smooth talker or a know-it-all at Trivial Pursuit, then Anomia is the perfect game to push their vocabulary skills to the max!
If you want a quick video tutorial on how to play. Check out our Tiktok here.
To play, draw and reveal a card from the center pile, then see whether the symbol on the card matches another players – if so, race them to give an example of the category on their card before they can do the same for yours. The winner takes their opponents card and the drawing continues, but watch out – wild cards allow different symbols to match, so pay attention!
Perfect for groups of three to six players, Anomia will have your families and friends tongue-tied round after each round! Anomia fits nicely into any suitcase or hiking pack, so it’s great for getaways. There’s several editions, such as the more party-oriented Anomia Party, so if you’re looking to splurge a bit more on that special friend or family member, look no further!
Codenames
Rounding off our under $30 Christmas section, Codenames is a brilliant little party game for family and friends that divides groups into two teams of spies determined to decipher coded messages given by their team leader, whilst trying to crack the codes sent from the enemy team leader. If your friend group is competitive, then this is the perfect Christmas gift for your Secret Santa or Kris Kringle get-together.
Become part of a top-secret team of spies in fast 15 minute round games where each team leader must lead their team to victory. How? With 25 different word cards on the table, team leaders guide their teammates to the correct word cards by giving them one word clues according to prompts only the leader can see.
It gets tricky though, with certain word card being duds that assist the other team when incorrectly chosen, so stay on your toes and think fast, agent!
Under $50
Here are our gifts for the more dedicated tabletop gamer. If they’re missing any of these from their collection, be sure to slip them underneath the tree this December.
Land Vs Sea
In this beautiful tile-laying game, players are either the Land or Sea (or the Cartographer in a 3 player game) taking turns to place 2 double-sided hex tiles containing a mix of land and sea shapes. The rules can be learnt quickly and by the end of the game, you’ll have a gorgeous map sprawled across your table.
The strategy of the game involves careful tile placement to score from as many land or sea areas as possible, while minimising your rivals’ opportunities to score from the tiles you play. Whilst simple on the surface, there’s a level of depth with bonus points, stealing, and the unseen flip side of the tiles.
This game is perfect for couples but can easily be bumped up to support games with 3 or 4 players. If you know someone who loves tile-laying games like Carcassonne, be sure to grab this one for them!
Too Many Cooks
Take the age-old saying to the next level this Christmas with one of the hottest new tabletop board games, Too Many Cooks! This is a cooperative hidden information card game about multiple chefs trying to create the perfect broth – but not everyone’s on the same page. Designed for two to six players, this game is a perfect time-filler that has three difficulty settings which can be combined to form a longer, escalating-in-difficulty game-mode. Typically played in three rounds of five minutes, the game starts with sixteen vegetable cards laid out in a grid, and each chef takes turns changing, rotating, and moving soup ingredients according to their own agenda on what makes the perfect soup.
The catch? Each chef has their own culinary tastes, and while they can indicate how happy they are with the soup after each change, they cannot say exactly why they are happy or unhappy with these changes. Here lies the core appeal of Too Many Cooks – there’s a great social element of poker faces and guessing what ingredients each player likes or dislikes that makes this perfect for parties or close friend groups.
Racoon Tycoon
Raccoon Tycoon is a perfect gift for those looking to get friends or loved ones through the gateway of mid-level board games. It also offers a great depth of strategy for the gamers who love business and building management games such as Tiny Towns.
In Raccoon Tycoon, two to five player groups will enter the land of Astoria at the dawn of the Gilded Age. Embark on an exciting business (ad)venture with your friends (ahem, competitors), as business tycoons determined to make your fortunes producing and selling key commodities. Corner the market on the most valuable products and invest your hard-earned profits into new businesses and the ever-important railroads, which are the key to victory!
For the really special ones... (Over $100)
You’ve hit the premium tier on our list! These are for the loved ones who deserve a little extra splurging. Here are our games for the dedicated collector and pro board game player.
Ark Nova
First up in this section is Ark Nova, the Winner of the International Gamers Award (Two-Player category). This board game is a Christmas gift must-pick for those family and friends who love animals and zoology, and are also interested in board games focused on resource management.
Players will design and manage a modern scientific zoo with the goal of owning the most successful zoological establishment. Build animal enclosures to accommodate various species, and support worldwide conservation projects through hiring specialists and producing unique buildings. Each player has a set of 5 action slots (Cards, Build, Animals, Association, Sponsors), and each action players can perform are determined by what card currently occupies these slots. With 255 unique cards each with their own special ability, the heart of Ark Nova lies in managing your resources and action slots to increase the reputation and appeal of your zoo.
Marvel Champions: The Card Game
Swinging its way into our Christmas list (like a certain friendly neighbourhood wall-crawler) is Marvel Champions: The Card Game! This is a sure-to-excite gift for those card gamers who love superhero team-ups and beat-downs!
Great for families and small groups of friends (one to four players), Marvel Champions offers not only the perfect crossover between pop culture fans and board game enthusiasts, but also the perfect team-up opportunity for your favourite heroes. Players can create their dream team of heroes full of interesting synergies and flavourful mechanics, and thwart infamous Marvel villains from completing their master plans. With great art faithful to their beloved comic iterations, as well as engaging scenarios and variance between games, Marvel Champions is sure to have you coming back. If that’s not enough, there’s many expansions which regularly update the game with new heroes and scenarios to keep the game feeling fresh.
Bardsung: Legend of the Ancient Forge
Be the one people sing songs about, and live your legend in Bardsung: Legend of The Ancient Forge, a cooperative, complex, and procedurally generated dungeon crawling adventure for one to five players! This is a perfect gift for those who are already head over heels with board-gaming as well as table-top roleplaying games, such as Dungeons & Dragons.
Bardsung is chock-full of gorgeous miniatures that are lovingly crafted, and can be painted for further immersion into the branching and labyrinthine dungeons they’ll explore. Avoid traps, solve puzzles, confront monsters, and most importantly, hunt for treasure all whilst choosing how your character levels up and grows into a hero worthy of song – but be careful! Monsters can level up and evolve, and even hold grudges against your characters. Take control of the situation (and your destiny) by dynamically adopting strategies, focus on positioning, teamwork and limited ability management.
No two playthroughs will be the same, and Bardsung can be played in standalone sessions, or as part of a greater narrative campaign. If you want a gift that introduces friends and family to traditional fantasy roleplaying game but don’t necessarily know where to start, Bardsung is for you.
