Fun Board Games During A Lockdown

Save the world together, fight zombies, escape from an escape room, rob a train in the Wild West or share your darkest fantasies with each other. Every single one of these board games are perfect to play during a lockdown.

Sometimes life forces you to stay at home. Whether it’s a broken leg, a snow storm, your favourite bar that shut down, an empty wallet or because you are in lockdown due to a worldwide virus (just a far-fetched example). Not to worry; a lockdown is the perfect moment to sit down together for a board game. An exciting game with a big fun factor to keep you entertained for hours on end. Get inspired by this top five, and whichever game you choose; staying at home will suddenly not seem that bad anymore.

Pandemic

Together you form a team of scientists and specialists, and it is up to you to save the world. In Pandemic you have to fight –as the title suggests – a pandemic consisting of four different diseases which spread across the globe at a rapid pace. In this board game you do not play against each other, but you have to work together in order to remove disease cubes from the board, or to build research stations and eventually discover a cure for all four diseases. Besides, each character has his or her own specific capability that can be used to fight the diseases. And meanwhile the clock keeps ticking… A fun and exciting aspect of Pandemic is that each single game is different and unpredictable; sometimes you end up as the hero of the day, but often you will fail epically! Can you save humanity?

Pandemic- Z-Man Games, 2-4 players

Colt Express

Hop on board the Colt Express for an exciting ride through the Wild West! In this entertaining game you play a bandit who is trying to rob passengers on a nineteenth century steam train, in order to gather as much loot as possible. But there are also other bandits on the train who are after the same loot. So get ready to draw your gun and use your fists, while also trying to avoid the Marshal. On the one hand, Colt Express is a true tactics game in which you can plan all your steps ahead, but on the other hand this game is also completely unpredictable. During the first step everybody places their cards – open or closed – on one big pile. In the next step all these cards will be played out, one after another. One bandit will shoot, another will start running, but can you remember how and when? This confusion results in crazy situations which all happen in short succession and won’t make a lot of sense. Instead of a game board, Colt Express is played in an actual train with separate carriages that change from game to game. If this game won’t make you laugh out loud, nothing will…

Colt Express – Ludonaute, 2-6 players.

Unlock!

You don’t need to leave your house to experience the thrill of an escape room. Unlock! is a card game that is played in real time, accompanied by an app. Just like a real escape room, you have an hour to play a specific scenario and find the correct code to escape. In the meantime you will have to solve all kinds of riddles and puzzles. The app keeps track of the time, but can also be used to gain hints or extra information. There are different versions with specific themes, such as ‘Timeless Adventures’ or ‘Heroic Adventures’ and all these sets come with three different scenarios. One moment you end up in Wonderland, next you are a spy, or you get sucked into an arcade game… It’s a big plus that Unlock! can be set up very quickly and does not require a lot of room to play. In short; an exciting and challenging game in which every second counts…

Unlock! – Space Cowboys, 2-6 players

Dixit

Let your imagination run wild with this beautifully designed card game. Can you describe your card in one word, sentence, song or movie line to make the others understand what you mean? Without giving away too much? And do the other players have cards that match this description? The challenge is to find the perfect balance. Each card in this game looks like a work of art; beautiful images that are sometimes sweet and fairytale like, but there are also cards that appear to come straight from a nightmare. The fun lies in the fact that everybody sees something different in these images. The exact same image can trigger many different ideas. Dixit is a perfect way to discover how imaginative your friends really are. And it goes without saying that this seems to work even better after a few drinks!

Dixit – Libellud, 3-6 players

Zombicide

It has finally happened: zombies have taken over the world. And you have to survive during this zombie apocalypse. But that is easier said than done! One of the main goals in Zombicide is to kill as much zombies as possible. You start out with nothing more than a simple frying pan, but with a bit of luck you will soon find a better weapon or even manage to make your own Molotov cocktail from an empty bottle and a can of gas. Besides, you have to discover new spaces and rooms, gain specific objectives, find enough food to survive and protect your friends. But watch out; every turn new zombies will appear! This game comes with many different floor plans and different scenarios which change the game completely every time you play it. You can choose from many colorful characters, such as a waitress on roller skates or a freaked out business man. Want to really get in the mood? Play some scary zombie sounds in the background!

Zombicide – Guillotine Games & Cool Mini Or Not, 1-12 players

*All photo’s by Kim Somberg.