GAME FOR A LUNCH
IS IT POSSIBLE TO DRAG TEENS AWAY FROM SCREENS? AMANDA CABLE TESTS TEN CHRISTMAS BOARD GAMES WITH HER MISCREANT TWINS, CHARLIE AND ARCHIE
Pandemic
2-4 players, 8+ HHHH✩
THE IDEA: As skilled members of a diseasefighting team, you must keep four deadly diseases at bay while discovering cures. THE REALITY: Not for anyone who is working NHS shifts over Christmas. But the idea of a virus about to wipe out the world actually achieved the impossible – it caught the interest of my teens. Two to four players are involved but with infections breaking out at every corner, if one person in the team fails, all players lose together. Not one for family harmony, then.
TEEN VERDICT: Pretty cool. You get disease cubes and infection cards so this beats Scrabble any day. The only problem is that Mum keeps losing and so everyone loses. If you ban the ‘old folk’, the game’s pretty good.
AMANDA’S VERDICT: No danger of germs spreading in our house – by the time we’d finished a two-hour epic, nobody wanted to talk to anyone else! However, there was something catching about this one…
BEST FOR: Gore-loving teens.
I Moustache You A Question
4-6 players, 8+ HHHHH
THE IDEA: Each player dons plastic specs (including plastic nose) and attaches a moustache piece every time they answer a trivia question correctly. Longest wins.
THE REALITY: It sounds as much fun as a Brexit debate but the forfeits if you answer wrong keep the entertainment factor high. Also, general knowledge questions are split into adults and kids so nobody feels left out.
TEEN VERDICT: A good laugh and the false nose actually improves Mum’s looks! AMANDA’S VERDICT: Clearly, there’s no need for expensive IQ tests any more because the way to discover the real mental age of your teenager is to don a plastic nose and moustache. But seriously, folks, this did have six of us in stitches. A winner – by a close shave (groan!)
BEST FOR: Anyone who is immature.
Ticket To Ride: London
2-4 players, age 8+ HHH✩✩
THE IDEA: Transportation and destination cards decide your challenge – basically to make your way across London. Simple… wait!
THE REALITY: What is it about buses? You wait ages for one and then 68 plastic ones arrive all at once. Worse still, the challenge is to find your way across London via car, London cab, bus, milk float and submarine. Really? When did you last see a submarine stuck in rush hour?
TEEN VERDICT: Great fun. Watching Mum try to understand her bus route is hilarious. A little like she is in real life.
AMANDA’S VERDICT: Any eight-year-old who tries to understand these rules will be ready for university by the time they’ve mastered them. On the plus side, the instructions are so complicated, they’ll need a degree anyway. But it’s slightly whimsical and charming, a little like something your great uncle would invent.
BEST FOR: Nostalgia. Or anyone who doesn’t live in London.
Call The Midwife
2-4 players, 8+ ★★★✩✩
THE IDEA: Choose your midwife character, start at Nonnatus House, pick up a Delivery Card and race around the board on rolls of the die to basically collect as many baby tokens as you can. Oh, and repeatedly say: ‘Nonnatus House, midwife speaking.’
THE REALITY: Christmas isn’t complete without Call The Midwife (festive special spoiler alert – baby born in snow scene). But if that’s not enough, you can now play the game too!
TEEN VERDICT: Like the plot of the Christmas TV special, it’s simple, at least – and over soon enough.
AMANDA’S VERDICT: Wins the prize for most unimaginative box design in the world (picture of three midwives) and getting teenage boys to say ‘Midwife speaking’ is harder than all the instructions.
BEST FOR: Grannies. Or midwives.
Rummikub
2-4 players, 7+ ★★✩✩✩
THE IDEA: You get 14 ‘tiles’ with different numbers and colours, which you arrange in sets on the table, with just one minute per turn. Whoever empties their rack of tiles and shouts ‘Rummikub’ wins.
THE REALITY: After reading the instructions multiple times, I am still totally baffled. TEEN VERDICT: Quite good fun. Not the game but watching Mum’s face as the instructions make her angrier and angrier. AMANDA’S VERDICT: There’s a clever and classic game of intelligence and skill here. If only I could work out how to play it. BEST FOR: Throwback games.
Cobra Paw
2-6 players, 5+ ★★★★★
THE IDEA: Place 21 Clawfuku stones in the middle of the table, race to snatch a stone with the pattern that matches the dice, and the first ‘ninja’ to grab six stones is the winner.
THE REALITY: Rules state you must snatch with just one paw and use only fingers. Play this with teenagers and they’ll use elbows and feet too.
TEEN VERDICT: Brilliant fun. Great excuse to elbow your brother in the face and claim it was an accident.
AMANDA’S VERDICT: Fast and furious games of between five and 15 minutes are ideal for the Twitter generation. Inspired.
BEST FOR: Short attention spans (any male).
Agatha Christie’s Death On The Cards
2-6 players, 10+ ★★★★✩
THE IDEA: A card game consisting of 25 detective cards, 22 event cards, secret cards, devious and my favourite – the ‘not so fast’ cards. Detective cards include old favourites Hercule Poirot (surprise!, Miss Marple, and Tommy and Tuppence. One person’s the murderer – the rest of you have to guess who.
THE REALITY: You need more little grey cells than Poirot to figure out these written instructions. But clever graphics simplify instructions and there’s game play examples and strategy tips. Bestpresented instructions we found.
TEEN VERDICT: It actually looks nice because of the 1930s-style design and you can play different versions with different amounts of people. Perfect if you’re not talking to your brother.
AMANDA’S VERDICT: Doesn’t quite recreate the tension of Murder On the Orient Express but it’s a clever effort and – consisting of cards only – small enough to stuff away in the bag as a travel game.
BEST FOR: Agatha Christie fans (d’oh!)