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Aussies love the outdoors, but there are times when we just want to stay indoors and enjoy the company of our friends and family, watching a great show or movie on TV or streaming service. Sometimes, listening to classic oldies is enough to enjoy a relaxing day inside the confines of our home.
Staying at home should never be boring! Ask any homebody and they will definitely agree. There are plenty of productive things you can do at home. You can clean the house, fix some mess in your storage areas, learn to cook a new dish, bake some pastries, or build a new fixture that can be useful to yourself and your housemates. Yet, at the end of a productive day at home, you may be inclined to ask, “So what should I do now to relax?”
There’s another fantastic way to enjoy and relax away from the outdoors – especially if you’re up for thrilling, competitive fun.
Well, you’re in luck! We have prepared a list of entertaining activities you can enjoy while you relax at home. And no, we’re not talking about binge watching on TV or streaming some videos and movies on the internet (but you can do that too, if want to). We’re talking about recreational activities that involve engagement and interaction with family or friends, something that is both emotionally and mentally challenging. When stuck at home, people could compromise their social life which can impact their psychological well-being. That’s why indoor recreational activities such as board games are recommended to ensure you stay mentally healthy and in touch with the family.
Classic board games have entertained generations of people – young and old – since the time humans first learned to play games. You’re lucky to have come across this blog post, because here we’ll give you a list of the greatest classic boards games and some interesting facts about them.
Classic Board Games
Oldies but goodies! Nothing can replace the fun you get from old-fashioned games that have entertained our grandpas and grandmas. You won’t get disappointed with our assortment of classic board games. Check them out! You may even be surprised to discover that there's more than one way to play them.
It’s a game with an origin that is still debated upon by historians – Mancala! This 2-player game will bring out your ability to count and calculate. Mancala makes use of pebbles, seeds, or seashells and a board with pit holes where the pebbles are dropped one by one. In the olden days, earth was used for the holes. However, with our assortment of mancala sets, you don’t need to play with dirty stones and earth. Plus, you get to enjoy the game in colourful and vibrant designs! It’s the ideal board game to pass the time – particularly for long hours.
In the Philippines, this game is called “sungka” and is played mostly during wakes when people spend long hours attending to their dearly departed.
• Number of players: 2
• Duration: 15 to 30 minutes
• Recommended age: 6 years and above
Do you love to play cards? Card games may not belong to our list of board games, but there is one classic game that serves both as a card game and a board game. Enter the cribbage game! Also known as crib, cribbage can be played by 2-4 people. You will be using ordinary playing cards to group in combinations and a “cribbage” with pegs to mark your scores.
Early records of this game can be traced back to the 17th century and its invention can be credited to an English poet named Sir John Suckling. However, some say that cribbage evolved from another old English game called Noddy. Whatever it is, cribbage is a game that will certainly bring fun to any idle time.
• Number of players: 2, 3, or 4
• Duration: 15 to 30 minutes
• Recommended age: 8 years and above
You don’t need to be Garry Kasparov to start learning to play chess! All you need is the desire to get better while you enjoy the game. Who knows? You’re efforts of trying to beat your dad in chess would eventually make you the next Ian Rogers.
Chess is probably the most popular board game since ancient humans began keeping a record of history. Imagine the time when tribes and kingdoms could not help but settle their conflicts through war and had to live through long periods waiting for their men to come home from battle. Those who were left at home found an idea to turn war into a board game where kings, queens, knights, and soldiers battle it out using tactic and strategy until one camp has captured the opponent’s king.
Historians still cannot agree when and where exactly the game of chess originated, but what we do know is that chess is a game for both the masses and the elite. It is a sports game that has given rise to such names as Kasparov, Karpov, and our very own Anton Vladimirovich Smirnov.
• Number of players: 2
• Duration: 15 to 60 minutes
• Recommended age: 6 years and above
If you’re on a quiz and you’re asked to name a board game that has been in existence since the ancient times, you won’t get wrong if you answer backgammon! Yep, backgammon is one of the oldest games that dates back to ancient Mesopotamia.
Just like chess, it requires 2 players only. But unlike chess wherein pure tactic and strategy are all you need to win over your opponent, backgammon uses luck and cunning in its gameplay. You have to roll 2 dice to move your tokens between 24 triangle points as prompted by the numbers on the dice. However, it doesn’t mean luck is all you have – you still need to think in order to maximise your movements to win the game.
Here’s a bit of trivia: If chess represents war, backgammon symbolises the movements of the Earth and the planets. That’s according to Greek philosopher, Plato!
• Number of players: 2
• Duration: 10 to 30 minutes
• Recommended age: 8 years and above
Also known as draughts, checkers is a 2-player board game great for passing the time. Players move the pieces in a uniform diagonal direction, trying to capture the opponent’s pieces in a jumping motion one by one. It’s a classic game that even kids in kindergarten can start playing.
Checkers is a great introductory game for children who want to play chess, given the similarity of gameplay and board structure. Have a look at our checkers sets and play checkers with a friend today!
• Number of players: 2
• Duration: 15 to 45 minutes
• Recommended age: 4 years and above
If in checkers or draughts you have to capture all your opponent’s tokens to win, in Chinese checkers (or sternhalma) invasion is the name of the game. You will have to take over the base of the other player using all your tokens. What’s more is that this board game can be played by 6 individuals – to each their own, no team ups!
• Number of players: 2, 4, or 6
• Duration: 15 to 45 minutes
• Recommended age: 6 years and above
The Best Board Games for the Whole Family
Board games are great with friends, but when you’re staying at home due to inclement weather or because they can’t come over, it becomes even greater fun to play with the family. Let’s have a look at the best family board games recommended by most families in Australia!
If you are looking for a game in which kids can compete with the grownups, then get your dice and tokens, and lay down the board where ladders and vipers abound. Snakes and Ladders is a board game for the entire family! It’s probably the first game every preschooler has played. Don’t forget to include Grandpa and Grandma!
Experts say the Snakes and Ladders game originated in India, and that it was meant to teach children the meaning of life and karma. The ladders represent good karma while the snakes are the bad karma. If you do good, you go up ahead (ladders), but if you do bad, you go down back (snakes).
• Number of players: 2 to 6
• Duration: 15 to 45 minutes
• Recommended age: 3 years and above
Are you good with vocabulary and spelling? Well, here’s a game that lets you showcase your knowledge of WORDS! Scrabble is a competitive game for 2-4 players that makes you think and spell words through tiles of letters with score values, interlocking them in a crossword fashion on a board of squares. Your score depends on the values of the letters you use to spell the words. So who says words can’t get you anywhere?
Did you know that scrabble was called Lexico when it was invented by Alfred Mosher Butts? He later re-named it to Criss-Cross Words, before his friend and business partner changed it to scrabble.
• Number of players: 2 to 4
• Duration: 30 to 90 minutes
• Recommended age: 8 years and above
It may not be as old as chess, backgammon, and the others, but Monopoly belongs to our list of popular classic board games! In Monopoly, you can either become filthy rich or go bankrupt like a sore loser – but that’s just all in the game.
They say Monopoly is an endless game because you need to make all the other players loose all their money and properties for you to be declared the sole winner. The thing is, players would often quit the game before anyone loses everything. The longest game of Monopoly recorded lasted for 70 straight days.
• Number of players: 2 to 8
• Duration: Depends on the number of quitters or losers
• Recommended age: 8 years and above, 5 years for Junior Monopoly
Another 20th century game enters our list of classic board games! Cluedo lets players travel around the board with the roll of the dice to solve a murder mystery. As you move from one place to the next, you try to pick up clues and cross them off your list until you are left with only one person, weapon, and room. The first player who figures out WHO did it, with WHAT weapon, and WHERE the crime was done wins the game!
Did you know that the game had to be re-named as Cluedo because its original name was not child-friendly? Anthony E Pratt devised the game’s original concept and named it “Murder.”
• Number of players: 3 to 6
• Duration: 45 to 180 minutes
• Recommended age: 8 years and above
Popular Board Games Just for Kids
When they're playing games, sometimes it’s good to let the children be. Besides, kids would rather play with other children most of the time. So when they do, there are specific board games made and designed just for kids. Well, if grownups want to play, we won’t prevent them.
It's the kids’ favourite Operation game with fun Try Me packaging and some classic funny ailments! Cavity Sam is feeling a bit under the weather, and children will love to "operate" and make him better.
Use the tweezers to take out all of Cavity Sam's 12 funny ailment parts that parents might remember – such as a wishbone, Charlie horse, and Adam's apple. Players choose a doctor card and "operate" to remove that ailment from Sam, and collect the money if they can avoid the buzz. The player with the most money wins!
• Number of players: 1 or more
• Duration: 10 to 20 minutes
• Recommended age: 6 years and above
Kids will have a chompin’ good time with Hungry Hippo and his pals! Be ready to join in the feeding frenzy when you release all the marbles onto the game base, because all the hippos will be chomping and your hippo will need to move fast! If he chomps the golden marble, you win! The classic Hungry Hungry Hippos game has 4 hippo heads and bodies plus 20 marbles and one golden marble for them to chomp. Cleanup is a snap with the marble and hippo storage!
• Number of players: 2 to 4
• Duration: 10 minutes
• Recommended age: 4 years and up
Here’s another board game based on war! Some say that Battleship was already being played before the 1900s, but other experts believe that the game is based on the First World War. Battleship is a classic naval combat game that lets players think competitively just like an admiral doing battle with the enemy at sea.
In the game, you get to search your opponent’s ships. Once you hit one, you get to destroy it all throughout. If you miss, the other player gets his turn to hit your fleet. The player who has all their ships destroyed by the enemy loses the game.
• Number of players: 2
• Duration: 15 to 30 minutes in a single round
• Recommended age: 7 years and up
These classic games never cease to be a source of enjoyment for families and friends who are looking for a great and exciting indoor entertainment. Of course, when staying at home, don’t forget to eat right, move around and exercise, and get adequate sleep. Grab some board games and have fun playing indoors today!
