Top 10 Relaxing Board Games - Chairman of the Board

0:00 hey everybody today I'm talking about my top 10 relaxing board games now 9 times out of 10 when I fantasy board gaming I tend to kind of gravitate towards heavy strategy games that kind of pull your brain in different directions but sometimes you just fancy a change of pace and just want something we can relax and enjoy the process and just have a good time so these are 10 games that I I feel that way about ones I don't necessarily care about winning I just said just enjoy the process I found that these games generally have kind of a puzzling kind of aspect to them because I find that a side of gaming quite relaxing so let's get started so at number 10 I have a Sagrada now Sagrada is a game that received a lot of hype when it came out got a lot of praise it's basically a it's a dice drafting and puzzle game where you are drafting these dice I place the amount on your little board in order to make different patterns the game almost has the Sudoku kind of feel to it as you work is you can't kind of place any the same numbers or colors directly next to each other and you get bonuses such as having like no duplicate numbers in the same row or call them or no duplicate colors or only having certain numbers in certain spaces it's a really therapeutic game and it's just a really nice flow to it the only reason it doesn't come higher on the on the list is because the dice drafting and it can be quite cutthroat so if you know if you particularly need a certain die that's in the pool and someone grabs it just before you can take it it could be quite frustrating at times but other than that it's so relaxing enough fun to play and

1:31 it looks absolutely beautiful as well I love the theme of it being kind of a you know you being crafters of stained glass windows and it yeah just the translucent dice and the nice player boards and the different powers you can use they're just really nice and it just comes together in a wonderful package so that's Sagrada number 9 I have wingspan our wingspan is a game from 2019 that received again tremendous kind of hype and buzz when it came out it's still highly talked about and regarded now it's a game where you are basic collecting these bird cards and put them in different rows and basically it's got a degree of engine building to because each of these birds has a unique power and when you kind of activate these bird rows they all those powers of a certain row just trigger and you can get lots of different bonuses and stuff the thing I like about it although I find relaxing about it is not only just the theme and the production because you know all the all the illustrations the card are absolutely gorgeous the the game comes with this gorgeous dice tower where there and wonderful production in general and it just has a nice flow and feel to where nice simple elegant mechanisms and just enough thought to keep you engaged but not not enough to kind of you know really get your brain working over time so it's just just waited it's such a nice level where anybody can enjoy it but again not not to the point where it's just brainless oh yeah a very pleasant fun game that is wingspan at number eight I have caca song Carcassonne is a game

3:02 that was pretty what one of the first games that almost anybody gamer any gamer including me a place when they get into the hobby it's a tile placement game where you're trying to make these different roads and castles in order to score points when I play it now I really don't play with the competitive edge I just enjoy the process I just enjoy watching your map expand it's a game that me and my girlfriend tend to play in the garden and summertime and yeah so when you know what I play I do enjoy it not really something odd request to play unless I'm in a very particular mood but yeah I can definitely see why this game is stuck around so much and normally for a gateway game I've kind of gone and done it and I've kind of noticed it's in the rear view mirror and I don't want to play again but with Carcassonne and I think it's just such a nice elegant and smooth game I'm happy to play this one any time so that is Carcassonne my number eight at number seven I have that's pretty clever this game I'm purely kind of giving a marathon it's solo mode play on the app I find this game extremely relaxing to play it very much reminds me of just sitting sitting and doing like a crossword book or some kind of puzzle like that it's a it's another base drafting game where you're picking up these dice trying to put them in these different in their different colors and getting points in loads of different ways but all the different ways you can score points combined with each other and get your huge multiplying world and it's one of those games you want to go back to time and time again to try and beat your best score it's just a really fun experience that plays in about 10-15 minutes and again it's just

4:33 tremendous fun and very relaxing that is that's pretty clever at number six I have how long now how long is a two-player abstract game which normally would be something I'd steer way away from because I find them quite you know to kind of in-your-face and too stressful because you don't want to make a single mistake but this one has a very different feel to it as each player kind of controls this dragon and you are navigating around this map trying to just take bites out of each other and basically kill the other dragon but the way you move around uses their mind car system where you have these different kind of tokens and you are moving a block of tokens around this wheel of actions and whenever you land somewhere that's the action you get it's just a very nice little spatial puzzle it looks again again it looks absolutely fantastic the way the Dragons move is just slow and methodical but to a point where it's not overly frustrating I just find it quite as I said relaxing so that's why it's how long is my number eight at sorry number six at number five I have Tokaido our Tokaido is again that pretty much plays itself in my opinion it but I just find it so so you know just just relaxing and quite therapeutic everybody basically is taking the role of this different tourist who is traveling through Japan in a point-to-point kind of grid system and along the way you go to all these different kind of you know different

6:04 sites that can kind of do different things such as you can make donations to shrines and then you get points on majorities or you can collect these different paintings for set collection points and stuff like that so basically it has this mechanism where you can go as far as you want on us on the on the track but you can never go back on yourself and you can never share a spot with anybody else so you've got to jump towards the next place and before someone else gets there but naturally I just think this game I said it almost has like feel where it plays itself and all the decisions are fairly obvious but it's so inoffensive and it looks so nice and it's so cleanly designed that I just again I just wouldn't wouldn't turn a game of this down because it's just so it's nice and fun it just puts a smile on your face and it's the thought process is so on um you know under stressful that it's just a joy to play so that's Tokaido at number five at number four I have Santiago de Cuba this is a euro style game but one that just you know just has enough going on in it to keep you engaged but again it has a very kind of relaxed feel to it as this very gorgeous looking board about this port in Cuba and you are going around this track in this little car and go to these different spots and getting different resources and you're getting these resources in order to trade them in for when you get back to the port at the bottom but everybody is sharing that car at the same at the same time so if you go past a certain spot that someone

7:35 once I'll have to go all the around the board in order to get to the spot that they want and have to pay money for every excess kind of space they have to go it also has this cool kind of mechanism where when you go to a spot not only do you have to take or take the rewards of that of that spot you can also take this worker placement action as well based on the color of that spot and again it's just it's so simple in this concept but again it just has enough going on in it to keep your mind engaged has a very slight amount of engine building a very slight amount of worker placement and that point-to-point movement just keep the game flowing nicely the you know there is a competitive edge to it but it doesn't feel cutthroat at all and again it's just a place in a nice amount of time and it's it's very it's just very simple and pure and I draw it quite a lot so that's Santiago de Cuba and before at number three I have a museum now Museum is one of the best looking games out on the market it's absolutely gorgeous to look at I've Institute rate has hand Illustrated a whole bunch of different artifacts from kind of world history from all the different kind of cultures and the idea of the game is that everybody has their own museum there taking these cards and placing him in their museum in different sets you've got your different kind of cultures and your different kind of themes or genres of artifacts such as your military and your nautical stuff and you're basically trying to align all these different cards in certain orders and different exhibits and it's so that kind of

9:07 spatial puzzle is there you get a whole bunch of points based on set collection and this is probably one of the games what I just do not care about winning I just enjoy looking at all the arts I enjoy looking all the kind of flavor text and it's just it's got a really nice feel to it a nice flow to it it plays in a nice amount of time and yeah it's just a joy to play that is Museum at number three at number two I have another strictly two-player game with patchwork our patchwork is a another kind of spatial puzzle as you are collecting these different we pulled the AMA know kind of tiles and placing them on your board as if you're making this patchwork quilt you're trying to fill up as many spaces as possible because any kind of empty space at the end of the game it's going to score you negative points and but it also has this very cool kind of economy in the game as you are traveling around this time track and you're not in order in order to cut the towers you want but the towers you want also have buttons in them which determine the income you get at certain points in the game so there's a different things to think about but that a spatial puzzle in itself I just find I just find engaging and simple and fun and I just enjoy doing it at my own pace and not really worry too much about my opponent does so yeah that's why my that's why patchwork is it number two for my most relaxing games and finally at number one I have Sherlock Holmes consulting detective now this game is you know it's almost not a board game in a way it's more of like an activity the the premise

10:40 of the game is that you are taking the role of a detective trying to solve kind of a murder mystery or some kind of mystery and you do that by reading a blurb of text and then you get given a telephone directory and a book and then you're basically speaking to all these different people in London kind of piece trying to piece the different stories together trying to find out who's done the murder or the crime I'm trying to find out giving each other alibis and stuff like that so fun so thematic and it's just a nice game just to sit back get a takeaway get a few friends around and just enjoy the process of solving the mystery do it in your own time not worrying about how long it takes or anything like that I just do kind of lose myself in this one I don't you know I don't find myself clock-watching or anything like that and because I just enjoy the process and again I just find it relaxing and so I can just sink my teeth into and enjoy so number one is Sherlock Holmes consulting detective so that concludes my top ten most relaxing board games I hope there's something on there that maybe you haven't heard of before or something you want to check out I hope you enjoyed the video if you have please hit like and subscribe to the channel and check out my other videos too forever now so I'll see you next time on chairmen of the board bye