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1. Catan Card Game
A card game version of one of the most popular gateway games can’t go wrong now can it? In Catan, payers compete to become the master of medieval Catan . All the same elements that made Settlers of Catan so popular are here – multiple avenues for strategy, low level of direct confrontation and resource and city development.

2 Lost Cities
Lost Cities is created by the popular designer Reiner Knizai and is a fast intriguing game with a large dose of luck involved. Players are exploring one of five ‘Lost Cities’ and must carefully manage their hand, discarding unnecessary cards for cities they do not intend to explore while making sure to collect cards for their expeditions. Be careful though – you don’t want your opponent to do better than you do! Lost Cities is a fast game with each hand playable within 15 minutes and a full game (3 or more hands) easily completed in an hour. There’s enough strategy to intrigue players yet the large dose of luck can remove antagonism.

3. Shear Panic
Shear Panic wins hand’s down for sheer cuteness factor. The well modeled sheep are a sight to behold and definite to draw ‘oohs’ and ‘ahhs’ from anyone. However, don’t let the cuteness factor fool you, this is GAMES magazine’s Best Family Game of 2008 so you can be certain of depth and fun to be had as you maneuver your sheep away from the sheers.

4. Bohnanza

Bohnanza’s a bean game – you’re a bean trader and you’ll need to trade cards with the other player to get the best possible deal for your beans. While not a two player game, this is a definite winner for large groups as it is high on interaction with a load of laughs packed into a short time-frame. After all, how can you not laugh as you trade for beans?

5. Ingenious
Ingenious is a simple game of area management played on a hexagonal board. You’ll need to place coloured tiles to score points and block other players, while working on an overall strategy to make sure you’re not hemmed in. Elegant and easy to play with a ton of strategy embedded in the game.

6. Odin’s Ravens
Odin’s Raven’s is a fast played two-player game that can be learnt and taught within 5 minutes. Players take on the role of Hugin or Mugin on their journey through the world. Players must travel a ‘track’ of the world with each track having two sections with different terrains. Players must then play journey cards matching the terrain type to fly over the terrain. The first raven to the end wins. A simple game to describe, it grows in complexity as players can extend the track during their turn and play ‘Odin’ cards that will affect the game itself.

7. RoboRally
In RoboRally, players race their pieces through a factory filled with moving, course-altering conveyor belts, lasers, pits, crushers and other obstacles. Players attempt to survive and race to reach checkpoints through the game, all the while adding to the carnage with weapons and dealing with the randomly dealt movement cards. With each robots movements defined by randomly dealt and sorted movement cards, RoboRally is a fun, entertaining family board game with a ton of bloodless, humorous mayhem.

8. Through the Desert
In Through the Desert, you are seeking to make your way through the desert with your caravan, marking out oasis and your trip through the use of tiny camels. A great game for it’s variety of cute camel pieces, it is also highly strategic as you can develop your caravan routes or gain dominance over the precious water supplies. Through the Desert is an award winning family game where players develop uncharted lands on the board and gain points for the areas controlled.

9. Balloon Cup
Balloon Cup is a fun two-player game where players compete to win cubes on each stage of the journey. A cute racing game, Balloon Cup has players compete to develop their coloured cubes which can be traded for a trophy card of that colour, while useless cubes can be traded in for new cubes. The first player to 3 trophy cards wins. To win cubes, players compete on mountain and plain trips, playing balloon cards from their hand of 8 for themselves or their opponents each turn, matching the cubes colour exactly. Once the maximum number of cards have been played on each cube, the totals on each card are added up. Victory conditions on the mountains require a high number and a low number on the plains. The winner takes all the cubes and the loser must plan again for the next round.

10. Killer Bunnies Blue Starter
Killer Bunnies attack! A fast paced card game whose goal is to finish off your opponents bunnies before they kill yours. Armed with a variety of off-the-wall weaponry, Killer Bunnies is a fun, action packed, bunny killing game. Mixing a dose of cuteness and insanity is a great recipe for a hilarious game.