Episode 401 – Ten Top Evergreen Family Games

Published: Mon 14th Jul

Family evergreen games? Evergreen family games? Let's discuss.

00:00 Fact for 401

The term “401(k)” comes from the section of the U.S. Internal Revenue Code that established this retirement savings plan.

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05:10 What We've Been Playing

Santa's Workshop (our review (https://www.thefamilygamers.com/santas-workshop/) )
Trio (our review (https://www.thefamilygamers.com/trio/) )
Smug Owls (our review (https://www.thefamilygamers.com/smug-owls/) )
Canvas Critters (check out the Kickstarter (https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/th3rdworldstudios/canvas-critters) )
Sabobatage
The Crew: Mission Deep Sea
Caution Signs (our review (https://www.thefamilygamers.com/caution-signs/) )
Donald Duck in Happy Camper (next written review)
Unmatched: Battle of Legends vol 3 (review coming soon)
Marvel X-Men Dice Throne
Fight for Olympus (old school! our review (https://www.thefamilygamers.com/fight-for-olympus-review/) )
Quarto (our review (https://www.thefamilygamers.com/quarto/) ) – great when you've only got a few minutes
Suspend – just fun.
For Sale
Doomlings (our review (https://www.thefamilygamers.com/doomlings/) )
Floristry (our review (https://www.thefamilygamers.com/floristry/) )
Food Chain Island – great to play with just one hand

22:35 June Monthly Report!

We both have ALREADY (as of July 12) played more games in July than we did in June.

Andrew: 11 plays, 10 unique games, H-index: 1. Most played: Ultimatch (2x)

Anitra: 20 plays, 16 unique games. H-index: 2 (Dice Throne, Micro Macro Kids, Ultimatch, Grove)

24:24 The Family Gamers Community

https://www.facebook.com/groups/familygamersaa/posts/4090537511235708

#Backtalk

We asked for your feedback on the podcast in general. You answered, with a lot of encouraging comments on the #backtalk channel (https://discord.com/channels/1157003438425653379/1239323617368604672) on our Discord, and in this Backtalk post (https://www.facebook.com/groups/familygamersaa/posts/4079378199018306) in the Facebook community.

We discuss Happy Camper's next release: Jungo (here's the trailer video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4CERBAwmvTU) )

29:35 Evergreen Games… for Families

What's an evergreen game? Just like an evergreen plant that doesn't die, this is a game that stays popular in stores year after year. The games that get pulled out and played over and over again. (Games like Wingspan that have staying power.)

We thought it would be easy to find a list on BGG of “evergreen” games… but it's a lot harder to determine than we thought! Much thanks to BGG user Daniel_M, who compiled a list using data analysis (https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/3026635/data-analysis-boardgamegeeks-top-100-evergreen-gam) to find the top 100 games that have stayed popular over time, back in 2023.

Here are the top ten from his list:

10 Race for the Galaxy
09 Agricola
08 Power Grid
07 Puerto Rico
06 Ticket to Ride
05 Pandemic
04 Dominion
03 7 Wonders
02 CATAN
01 Carcassonne

Maybe three of these we'd consider “family” games: Carcassonne, Ticket to Ride, and Catan (although you could argue for others).

“Family Evergreen” Games?

A “family” evergreen game might be a little different – something that works at all – or most – stages for your family. By definition these are going to be simpler games, because

#1 – Not everyone in the family is a board game nerd!
#2 – The game has to support multiple age ranges: not too many rules, not a lot of reading required.

So without further ado, here are our 10 games, in no particular order.

Ticket to Ride
CATAN
Carcassonne
Can't Stop
Just One
Kingdomino (https://www.thefamilygamers.com/kingdomino/)
Drop It! (https://www.thefamilygamers.com/drop-it-review/)
Azul
Strike (also available as Impact: Battle of Elements)
Trio (https://www.thefamilygamers.com/trio/) (also available outside the US as nana)'

50:30 New Backtalk Question

What's the game that, these days, your family is going back to over and over again? This doesn't have to be your favorite game – but what's spending the most time on your table?

Tell us on the #backtalk channel (https://discord.com/channels/1157003438425653379/1239323617368604672) on our Discord, or in this Backtalk post in the Facebook community (https://www.facebook.com/groups/familygamersaa/posts/4092019231087536/) .

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Twitter (X): @familygamersaa (https://twitter.com/familygamersAA)
Instagram: @f...

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