This is how we do it European style

12: Ticket to Ride: Europe

by Alan Moon

Players: 2 - 5
Ages: 8+
Time: 60+ minutes
Type of game: Family / Route building

Reccomended?: Yes

A slightly friendlier Ticket to Ride variant with the addition of stations. These cool little things allow you to ride your opponents train from 1 city to another allowing to complete that difficult journey.

Each station you don't use is worth an extra 4 VP though so you've got think carefully about when and if you should use them.

At the end of the game the player with the longest unbroken route of his own trains gets an additional 10 points.

The board can also look very crowded after a 4 player game as above so, even with the addition of the stations, 5 player games can still get a little nasty!

Risky Business

9. Risk: Nostalgia Edition

by Albert Lamorisse and Michael I. Levin

Players: 2 - 6
Ages: 10+
Time: 120+ minutes
Type of game: Family / War

Reccomended?: Meh

The aim of the game is to defeat  destroy decimate your opponents and conquer the world. A bit like Monopoly but with cold steel and warm blood instead of rent extortion and debtors jail.

In this Nostalgia edition, perfectly replicating an olden days game, you have exciting battles between cubes (1 army) and, if you're very lucky, odd-shaped beads (10 armies). If you're very, very sad lucky you can use a Lego Deathstar* (20 armies).

On your turn, you receive some reinforcements (decided by the number of countries and complete continents you hold) turn in some cards for more reinforcements and then attack!

You attack by selecting up to 3 armies from one of your countries and attempting to invade an adjacent country by rolling the same number of dice. Your opponent will choose to roll up to 2 dice (1 per defending army up to a maximum of 2).

You compare the highest and next highest dice in each roll. The aggressor wins if his dice is higher, defender has a home advantage and wins on tie or higher. Extra dice go unanswered and won't affect the combat.

You remove 1 army for each dice that is beaten. If the country is now empty the aggressor must move at least the undefeated armies from this roll in and may bring further armies from that country (leaving at least 1). If the country is still occupied the aggressor can attack again or decide to leave it until another turn.

On your turn you can attack as much or as little as you like. If you capture at least 1 country you will receive a card which you can trade in at the beginning of future turns for more armies.

And that's about it. There is only 1 way to win. Total annihilation of your opponents. Whilst this ensures you won't have any namby pamby ties, it does mean that for a portion of the game some or most of your opponents will be wiped out and start milling around looking for something more interesting to do.

Later editions fixed this problem by adding victory conditions and secret missions.

In the below pictures, I'm black, Louisa is yellow and Luke is red. 2 things have become apparent from my games of Risk:
1) it's a bit samey and long
2) I'm not very good at Risk

Nothing says Global Domination like a cartoon whale in a jaunty hat

Luke's Deathstar marches across the world

Victory! Now let's play something else...

*Lego Deathstar sold separately.

Articulate!

2. Articulate!

Players: 4 - 20+
Ages: 12+
Time: Depending on number of teams, 1 - 2 hours
Type of game: Party, Descriptive
Reccomended?: Yes-ish

The rules of Articulate! are simple:

1. Spin the spinny thingy in the board to pick a category

2. Pull cards from a box and, in 30 seconds, describe as many words from that category to your teammates by mostly saying umm, urrr and thingy

3. Move your pawn forward the number of words your team successfully guessed

4. Spend 5 minutes shouting at/being shouted at by your teammates/the other teams about how obvious your description was/how obscure your description was/how you can't believe they don't know who (insert political figure here) is/how you could have done it better if you only had a brain

5. Pass the box to the next team and prepare to mock them

There's a few other rules that insert some randomness and dictate how you can describe your words but, other than that, it's a game of shouting, disbelief at your collective stupidity and relief as you manage to guess at least 1 word correctly.

Like most games of its ilk it can be unbalanced if you have a team that is particularly in sync which can, like playing Trivial Pursuit with a Mastermind champion, suck the fun right out of it.

Hugely successful in the UK, recently we have been blessed with variants like Small Person with Less References to Politics and other Things of Value Edition and Obsessed with Myself, TOWIE, Crappy Gossip Magazines and Have Limited Understanding of Situation in the Middle East (Is That Where Madonna/Angelina/Jordan Got Her Baby From?) Edition. Needless to say, these are somewhat more biased to those who have had less exposure to the real world either through shortness of time on the planet or smallness of mind. #JUDGING.

Nevertheless, there are worse things to do with your time and Articulate! is as fun as the people you are playing with.

If you can't be bothered with the board, the spinner and pieces then take the box and timer and take it in turns to describe words to everyone. Successful guessers get the card with the word and once everyone has described once/twice/thrice/fource (delete as applicable according to patience level) the game is over. If you are obsessed with winning and losing and Being Better Than Others count up your cards and the player with most correct guesses is the winner and is allowed to visit the Queen.

Buy it in toy shops, WH Smiths, department stores or down below