Occasionally a random off topic thread is interesting; so here goes - at least it is timely.

My top five board games :

1) Ticket to Ride : easily my favourite. I have played it with my family (perfect for four or five players) every week for the last three years, and it is still not old. It is a game where you plan train track routes. Sounds boring, but it is not, it is a just a perfect balance of strategy, logic, card probability calculation, timing and luck. Plus it only takes an hour so is practical. The original game planned train routes around the US & Canada, but such was the success of the game, there are have been many new map variations to the basic game (Europe, Nordic Countries, Germany, India, etc). We tried the Europe game, but it is not as a good; "an abomination" in the view of my daughter due to a subtle rule variation which makes it less cruel than the standard game. The 1910 US expansion is excellent though.

2) Memoire 44 : A WWII based strategy game. Actually I am not a huge fan of war strategy games, I never loved Risk (the classic) that much. Memoire 44 is much, much better. Due to it's clever flexible board layout you play actual battles from WWII with accurate terrain restrictions, and troop formations. There is a little luck in the command chain and firing accuracy, but good strategy always wins. Also nice and compact, only takes 40-60 mins for the basic game (massive expansions which take hours are available. Like Ticket to Ride, there are a huge amount of expansions available - the intial set covers D-Day and the aftermatch, but just finished playing the Kursk battle with my son from the Eastern Front expansion and it is even better than the original.

Legal disclaimer .... both of these games are made by Days of Wonder. I don't work for Days of Wonder or own shares in the company. I do the evangelism for free! I guess most of us dont work for LVMH Tag-Heuer, so we know the feeling!

3) Dragonology : This one I haven't played for a while, as I used to play when my kids were younger. A typical travel round the world and collect sets game, so not particularly original, but beautifully styled, and surprisingly for a game for (albeit older) kids, it has some very cruel special powers cards which typically cause some tantrums and crying (all part of a good game). I put it in for nostalgia reasons, it is not a patch on the first two.

4) Rumis: It's is like a three dimensional Tetris, but played with solid wooden blocks of random shapes. The idea is to build a tower and use all your bricks before others do. Very simple, but hard to be good at. Requires careful planning and three dimensional shape manipulation in your head. Nice and short as well.

5) Blockus: This is a two dimensional Tetris like game, but very different to Rumis, as here it is more a conquest game, you manipulate your pieces on the board to create shapes to block off your opponents ability to expand their territory and place their shapes. Also quick and easy to pick up but good depth and forward thinking required.

Who do you vote for?