Board Game Gift Guide 2023 – 45 Favorites!

We’ve posted a Board Game Gift Guide for the past 12 years. And each year we’ve recommended around 40 games to get your friends and family as gifts.

Which means that through our annual gift guides, we’ve shared close to 500 game ideas!

Well, rather than give another list of new games to check out, we’ve decide to roll back through our 12 years of game gift guides and pick out our very favorites to recommend for 2023.

So, without further ado, here’s our recommended favorites in each category.

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The Lord of the Rings: Adventure to Mount Doom game review

Over our 14 years of doing family board game reviews, we’ve played and reviewed a number of The Lord of the Rings games.

Today’s review is on the lighter side of The Lord of the Rings board and card games, The Lord of the Rings: Adventure to Mount Doom, by Kosmos.

Like a number of LOTR games, this game is a cooperative board game. Players work together to help Frodo and Sam get the ring to Mount Doom. They do so by rolling dice, reacting to cards, fighting Uruk-hai, dodging Nazgul, and overall maneuvering the Fellowship along the treacherous route.

While it’s a simpler LOTR game, we’ve still lost more times than we’ve won. Just begging us to play again.

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15 Stocking Stuffer Games for 2022

Time is ticking down and there are only a few more shopping days left until Christmas Day.

If that puts you in a frantic rush for finding game gifts for your friends and family this year, we can help with that!

For starters, jump over to our 2022 Board Game Gift Guide and you’ll find a bunch of great games to choose from as gifts.

If you already have what you need with those game gifts and just need a few smaller games to pack a Christmas stocking with game goodies, then this list of 15 recommended games is for you.

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Marvel Dice Throne dice game review

Who would win between Doctor Strange and Captain Marvel?

Or between Black Panther and Black Widow?

Or between Loki, Mile Morales Spider-Man, Scarlet Witch, and Thor in a free-for-all match?

Well, in Marvel Dice Throne, by The Op and Roxley Games, you’ll get to find out.

And as you might guess, who comes out on top will change from one play to the next. That’s what makes this dice-rolling, dice manipulating, and card playing game a hoot. With a high amount of luck and some card management, almost anything could happen to turn the tide of fortune.

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Star Wars: Destiny card game review

When our monthly game night fell close to Star Wars Day earlier this month, we had to dive into some Star Wars games.

And that meant it was a perfect time to play Star Wars: Destiny!

It’s a 2-player card and dice game battle that we have tons of cards for – so we could set up multiple head-to-head battles among everyone there. Plus, it can be played in 30 minutes and then we can be on to the next battle against a different opponent.

That’s also when I realized that even though we’ve had the game for a number of years, we haven’t posted our full review of Star Wars: Destiny yet.

That changes today!

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Magnate: The First City board game review

“Welcome to Humbleburg, a sleepy commuter community that has resisted development for years. That is until one fateful city council meeting where everything changed in the blink of an eye. Developers from all over raced to Humbleburg to make their fortunes in this small town. Will you be one of them?”

In Magnate: The First City players take on the role of developers who buy land, develop it, and lease space to tenants. But nothing lasts forever and sooner or later the bubble will burst.

The player who can manage their properties the best and sells at the right time will be victorious.

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Dragon Market board game review

The princess is having a wedding this weekend and everyone is rushing to gather gifts and treasures for the occasion.

But this gathering isn’t as simple as running to the store and buying things. Instead, you’ll be maneuvering boats and jumping from boat to boat to collect the items you’re after.

Plus, others will be out doing the same thing and they’ll make even harder for you to get around and get what you need.

So it is in Dragon Market – a fun family board game from Blue Orange Games.

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Bellum Magica Board Game Review

Running a castle, plundering neighboring villages and defending yourself from other competing overlords is hard work. You can’t possibly be expected to do it all yourself. You need good, reliable help.

That’s where Evil Creature Inc. comes in.

We take the hassle out of finding your worker needs. We have Evil Creatures and Most Evil Creatures that can do the heavy lifting for you. You just provide the meat and glyphs and they’ll do the rest!

In Bellum Magica, by Blue Orange Games, players take on the role of evil overlords trying to conquer and plunder the human countryside. To do this they need to hire Evil and Most Evil Creatures to provide resources and swords to the cause. The first player to loot their 10th treasure chest ends the game, and the overlord with the most treasure wins.

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Qwinto Dice Game Review

We have no idea what “Qwinto” means or where on earth that name came from, but we do know it’s a fun dice game!

Over the last few years, “roll-and-write” games have been pouring out from almost every game publisher. These are games where players either roll dice or flip cards and then write the results on their personal sheets. A few such games we’ve reviewed include That’s Pretty Clever, Kingdomino Duel, and Metro X.

Qwinto, by Pandasaurus Games, is the latest we’ve played and we’ve been hooked!

We got a copy in the game trade at SaltCon 2021 and have played over 20 times this past month. And when we play a game that much, you bet we’re going to tell you all about it.

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SaltCon 2021 End of Summer Fun

“Back in the Game”

That was the bold statement on the winning t-shirt design for SaltCon End of Summer 2021. And it couldn’t have been more appropriate!

It was awesome to be back at SaltCon this past weekend playing game after game for a couple of days straight.

SaltCon is the big board game convention in Utah, USA and it’s packed with gaming goodness. The event is typically held for 4 days in March each year, so I was sad when it was announced last Fall that the March event would be canceled. But, the news a few months ago that they’d hold an “End of Summer” SaltCon for 3 days at the end of July got me excited again.

Let’s dive in!

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