5 Board Games I Like to Play With My Wife

So, you're looking for a board game to play with your spouse?

Something that's fun, but not boring?

A board game you can play over and over again?

Here's my list of top 5:

1. PATCHWORK Our default go-to game, did anyone say Tetris?

This game, by Uwe Rosenberg was probably made for couples. You can find a hundred blog posts like this nominating it as one of the best board games for couples.

It's also our favorite.

Why do we like it so much? I guess it's that Tetris like format. Much of what you play is in the construction of your own board, not having to fight much over stuff. It's sweat when you win, and sweat when you lose.

...But, we actually play a much simpler version, which is also a lot more fun, and more interactive. Definitely worth trying

2. HANABI A card game that's all about collaborating

Hanabi is for bonding. It's for understanding each other without words.

The rules are dead simple - you gotta build sets of cards - 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. But you can't look at your own cards, only at your partner's.

Hanabi is one of these games you can play 10 times in a row, till you beat it and win together.

3. "6 NIMMT" Is for laughs and for having fun together

You each play a card, but no more than 5 cards can fit in a row. Who's gonna take all those angry bulls?

This one is all about the unexpected results of your best planned moves.

Now don't get me wrong, it's not a silly game of random play, and it's actually a tough one to master. It's just that it always feels like no matter how hard you try you can't really rationalize about it.

Image By Muu-karhu - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=362601

4. LOVE LETTER Does the name say it all?

Actually there's nothing romantic about Love Letter, except for the name and the packaging. But it's a really quick one, we play it just for spending a few minutes together.

There are 8 characters, one of them is the princess. Each character does something, and if you get to keep the princess by the end of the game you win. But most likely you won't.

5. LOST CITIES Finally a real game, in disguise

Lost cities by Reiner Knizia is only a card game, but just like most Knizia games you can't let that simplicity fool you. It's a serious game.

I guess we like it because of that disguise. You don't feel like you're playing a serious game, but at the same time you do. You can feel you're thinking, but then again it's just a simple card game.

This is probably why this one has stayed with us for years. Sometimes it picks up dust, but then once in a while one of us would say let's play a game, and pick Lost Cities, and as wipe out that old dust we would always feel like going back to an old love.