5 Great Gateway Board Games for New Players

Calling Board Games a hobby is really weird to me. I'm a German and I don't know anyone who doesn't have a minimum of 15 games around. Board Games aren't a hobby but a common part of life I guess. Is this phenomenon really just a German/European one?

I like to explain Dixit as apples to apples but with trippy pictures.

Spiel des Jahres is pronounced like Shpeel dess Yaris

CARCASSONE!!! WHY have you NOT mentioned Carcassone in any of your videos???

Totally agree about splendor! It was an absolute hit with my in-laws, so much so that after playing it with them for a couple of years we got them their own copy! Another one that wasn't mentioned but was a real hoot with both my family and my in-laws is "Sheriff of Nottingham" - easy to learn, is a lot of fun, and can be very funny!

just want to say i freaking love the board game vids. I dont play the games but you can see you really care about these!

I full expected this to be a joke

So many games I buy are Kickstarted and difficult to recommend if there's a limited run. Usually I say can't go wrong with UNO 🤣

I've played the first three, they are very fun

Azul is a fantastic game! Thanks for the recommendation

Ticket to Ride - quick to play, someone hasn't played with my family

Calling hasbro board games bullshit feels very on-point right now.

for some reason this board game made me think of one called mantis falls, which is extremely complicated to learn but very fun, its basically all the players are witnesses to a murder they weren't supposed to see and they are on the run trying to make it to the next town and escape the mob. I like it because there are several occasions where players can screw others over to survive and if you get unlucky enough you NEED to or else you won't make it for one reason or another. 10/10

Gizmos is a great alternative to Splendor. Very similar game and very fun. Every time I introduce someone new to board games, my go to game is The Quest for El Dorado. Simple to teach and it has deck building which is one of my favorites if not my favorite mechanic.

Ticket to Ride has the incredible distinction for me of being the board game I was able to teach my dad in just one session. My dad doesn't play board games, really, and he doesn't pay attention, and he's not terribly patient for or inclined to anything he isn't used to, but the game engaged him plenty (he loves trains), and he figured out not only the mechanics, but some even some of the strategy by the end of one game, and was willing to play it again a couple days later.

I cannot agree more with its inclusion on this list.

Ticket to ride is not a new player boardgame, at all.

Good picks. Apart from the last. It demands at least four people.

"monopoly, risk... bullshit" 😂

Mysterium!
I love introducing a cooperative game to non/new-gamers. No "feelz bad" of losing, you're all in it together!

Only haven’t played dixit from the 5 mentioned. But definitely great pics. All of them are very easy to explain to friends who’ve never played before as well which is always great.

Dude, you cursing like that early in the video was so disarming and hilarious that my fiancé and I both burst out laughing! Your channel is amazing and all of your opinions are very well executed!

The neat thing about Ticket To Ride is that you really don't know who's going to win until the very end. That's why I like it so much, you won't have a situation where you know 5 minutes in that you're going to lose and just have to slog the rest of the game. A player who was lagging behind in points the whole game can reveal a miracle combo of completed routes at the end and suddenly shoot way ahead of everyone. :)

Yep, love me some Splendor and Century Spice Road.

Not Alone is a little more complicated, but it's pretty cool, and doesn't have a ton of rules.

The only one of those I don't own is Azul.

You know what’s funny been playing Board Games everything from A Feast for Odin to Vital Lacerda’s awesome Heavy Euro’s…owning over 500 games…I still absolutely love and cannot get enough of Azul, Ticket To Ride, Splendor,and Carcassone. Anytime you might get a little board you can just get an expansion and it has new life. Great “gateway” games are actually just really great games.

I think the problem with Azul is that the rules guide was not very well written. The rules themselves are relatively intuitive and simple, but I felt lost by the way they were explained in the booklet.

I dunno I dunno I dunno I dunno I dunno I dunno I don... I don't get it. I guess I'll figure it out as I go.

I actually got my friend into board games with Scythe. He plays a ton of strategy games on PC. But he hated board games because they were "slow and boring". But he saw it on my shelf one day and asked about it. Now he will play any board game these days even the simpler ones. He thought everything was like Monopoly or something like that.

As soon as you said “You fucker” you had my allegiance

I recommend the Codenames XXL version, good for bigger groups

Citadels was my gateway game. Lesser appreciated beginner game

“I don’t know, I don’t know…”

I fucking love Dixit!! We had it when i was a teen and i always suggested it when anyone suggested family game night. However, nobody else in the family wanted to lmao

Your german accent is amazing sir - great video and recommendations ProZD!

As a German person, I feel the need to tell everyone this before I rip out my ears.
Spiel des Jahres is not pronounced like that. German doesn't have the American J, so it sounds more like a y, (like in year). And if a word starts with Sp, then you have to pretend there's an h after the s (like in the word shine). Also, in German, there's no silent letters, so you always pronounce the "es" at the en. So it's pronounced Shpiel des Yahres

I would advise against soft scoring games until you know the people you play with, like Dixit or Codenames.
Soft scoring as in your score is dependant on how other people score you rather then a rule. I would also say that they are not board games, they are rather party games.

I would add the card game Astronauts

I love Splendor

I'd add Machiavelli to this list.

Two can play at that game. Three can play at that game. Four at that game and five can play at that game.

Thank you for this! I'm looking for some to introduce to my parents. 😊

Someone really made a board came and called it dicks it, huh.

I love this video, and I appreciate it. I have a family who love Love Letter, Rummy, Codenames, Next Station London. They bounced off Pandemic, Cockroach Poker, Skull hard. They've warmed a little to Trapwords. They tend to also like trivia games. So next on my list is, of course, Herbaceous, TTR Europe (I'm told the additions smooth out some of the mean blocking) and Pax Pamir 2e :P

Someone introduced splendor to me as a gateway into the hobby and I hated it. I put off board games for 6 years before I considered jumping back in. Believe it or not, Blood Rage is the one that did the trick for me.

But Dixit is just great.

If I could only play risk and monopoly until the end of my life I would rather never again play any game. Thanks you said it!

Love splendor, hate dixit. Its amazing how stressful everyone becomes.

Four of these five games are also four of the five board games that both I and my my parents love. The fifth is Carcassone; I've never played Dixit. Based on the hit rate of the rest of the video, I probably should.