START Your Dream Board Game Collection in 2025 with These 15 Essentials

in this video we'll showare you 15 must have Gateway Games to start your collection in 2025 and hello everyone I'm Stella and I'm tant welcome to mle University these are the games that we will recommend you to start I mean you don't have to get the mall see what it sounds good we're going to give you the overview and how it feels and we will give you suggestion who this game is for and these are they're not all new games these are tried and true games games in many cases some of them are on the newer side some of them have been well established in the hobby for a number of years but these games are mostly available in most countries and we'll also share you the price these games are not going to cost you an arm and a leg most of them are going to cost under 25 like with a couple of exceptions under 45 and these are a variety of great games that represents one or two mechanisms and here are the games with the price and overview in no particular order the first one is Splendor $22 Splender is a light engine building game so it's one of the simpler engine building games out there what you're are doing is getting chips representing different gems and then spending them on cards each card that you get gives you a gem discount for future cards and then ultimately as you get higher the cards are worth more and more points so that's basically engine building where you gain something for future purchases that is going to be cheaper because you've already have these particular cards or tokens it's also an interesting game in that it's got a reasonable amount of interaction with other players because of how limited the supply of chips can be so you've got a couple of elements in there where it can get a little Cutthroat which is nice this game would be for you to obviously learning how engine building works and if you want that satisfaction of building something that is going to be useful in the future turn the second game is the settlers of Katan or many will call it just Katan at $44 katan's almost 30 years young now and it really is that big Gateway into bigger Euro games because it fits that definition of a Euro where you are building up your own Empire you're not breaking other people down but you're building up your own Empire but it still has the feeling of perhap the non hobby game where there's dice rolling involved so there's a bit of Randomness to it so a lot of people will enter this hobby with that in mind as a part of gaming and there is negotiation so beside the Euro game it has slightly negotiation where you exchange resources if you like that sort of game then and a bit of uh Randomness in dice role Katan would be the recommendation yeah and negotiation you see it less often actually these days beyond the the games that were out in the 90s so it's still actually in addition to being a Gateway there's a really critical game in that space and this is the negotiations that's not going to ruin your friendship no it's just exchanging resources between each other the third one is ticket to write at $44 so the core of the game is Network building but the engine behind the game is again it's a very familiar Gateway feeling because you're drawing cards or taking them from a face up display trying to make sets so it's going to give you that feeling that a go fish at its simplest or maybe a Canter or something like that from a card game standpoint has but then instead of just making sets like you would in those games or marjong you're going to be cashing them in to build a network on the board and so that will it's a great introduction into using these other mechanisms to achieve something on a board and what is a network building it really simply is building a route from one point to another point in this case one city to another city like a train like building a train track so basically that that's it and with Ticket to Ride there are multiple versions out there there's a couple which are equally good from an entry Gateway standpoint the US version the US map is the simplest in rules but a little more Cutthroat the Europe map has a couple of extra variance and rules in there but they make the game a bit more forgiving so they both have good value as a Gateway so if we have any other videos that we have for these games we will link it below in the description so if you are interested in particular one you can find out more the fourth game is love letter at $15 love letters a light puzzle deduction games there's a small deck of cards and they're numbered from 1 to eight and each has a set of powers on it and you want to end the round with the highest card but if you're holding the highest card it's more likely that someone's going to guess your card or play a card which kicks you out so it ends up being this pretty well balanced game it's kind of just there's a lot of guessing and there's a lot of light deduction involved but it's a very quick game each round plays over five rounds and gives you a small decision space which is fun to play in usually comes in small box or even a bag a velvet bag of some sort it's easy you can just put in your bag and you can just bring it out at restaurants and play with friends that way there are so many different variations as well I don't think it matters like they all are just thematic difference mostly really simple mechanics really quick in to get to the table and to teach it's just one fun game the fifth game is One Night Ultimate Werewolf at $15 now there are a few werewolf game and this one in particular we want to bring out is the One Night Ultimate Werewolf fashion yeah social deduction games they've been around a very long time and you often just play them with normal playing cards when you look in that space there's werewolf and there's Avalon are two really big games but they're very long to play and they can be quite Cutthroat what makes One Night Ultimate Werewolf the perfect entry point to social deduction is that it does play over you know 5 minute rounds 10 minute rounds you do a quick phase which is driven by an app so you don't need someone to run the game and then everyone just does their little bit of social deduction they'll talk they'll argue and they'll ultimately make a single guess which determines winner or Loser yeah you're right that time limited time pressure all right there's only this many minutes and then you need to make your decision the sixth game is just one at $20 yes this is probably this is one of the more recent games on our list and it's one of the simplest easiest and most accessible I breaker word games out there it's very simple one player is trying to guess a word everyone else is trying to give a one-word clue to that word but if anyone writes matching Clues those Clues get cancelled out and the gessa doesn't get to see them so this is one of those games there's a way of scoring that's in there but it's really not about that you can just go round and around the table playing this for as long as people are having fun you can play this at work at lunch break for companies or paries it plays quite a few of people and you can just jump in and out of the games without any consequences real consequences really fun game yes perfect game to have in any collection the seventh game is code names at $20 and there are a few different types of cod names and this is just the basic cod names it doesn't really matter which version you have really yeah it's similar in some ways to just one because it is a word guessing game with one word Clues but it's a team versus Team game it plays over a longer period of time and has more complexity in the rules so as word games go you know you look to older games like categories when people are trying to come up with words to fit categories and it was all very independent code names is a perfect branching Point into something which is very involved and and has a lot of interaction and it plays like unlimited basically Unlimited number of people like you can get I don't know 10 to 10 10 versus 10 team or something like that and that will still work so a great great party game here sitting at number eight is Sushi go at $10 yes this is one of many games in the genre of card drafting where or circular sort of draft where you will get a hand of cards you'll pick the one you want hand the cards to the next player and you go round and round trying to get the cards cards that are going to give you the most points and in sushigo it's very simple you're trying to collect sets in different ways or maybe have a majority of something and there's always a card in there it's the puddings that will build up over three rounds of play as well so there's lots of different ways to go into it very quick to pick up family loves this as well I play this with my little niece and nephew they love it they bought their own copy and it got Sushi because they love sushi as well I mean you know it's just a theme but it's a really good entry to card drafting at Number Nine East Forbidden Island at $15 d well it's not that forbidden and the D is for forbidden not on $15 yes uh this is this is the best Gateway entry point to action point allowance Cooperative gaming and it's a type of game I mean the designer Matt leok has made many games in this style uh there's a map or a board and all the players are trying to move around it and achieve some underlying objective but at the end of every turn something bad is going to happen in this case it's various tiles are going to flood and you have to go and deal with those floods before there's too many of them and that ends the game for you so there's all these potential lose conditions that start to compile on top of each other and get worse and worse as the game goes on and meanwhile there's an objective you have to achieve underneath so there are many games out there many by Matt leok of this style the whole forbidden Series so Forbidden Island desert sky sky and then pandemic is probably his most famous forbidden island is a very low cost and lower rules complexity entry point to that area so I would always recommend Forbidden Island as the first step to see if that type of cooperative play is the sort of game you're after and what is action Co so basically on your turn you have let's say three or four things you can do and each action might cost you one or two points or depending on what it is so one you need to move for example the second one you need to play card and so on action points sitting at number 10 is Dominion Dominion was the first game really to introduce the core mechanism of deck building which is a style of game where you have your own deck of cards you have your own discard pile every time your own deck Runs Out you shuffle your discard pile and it becomes a new deck and then through the course of the game you're adding better and better cards and getting rid of the weaker cards because you're taking actions with the cards in your hands so you want to make them stronger or get specific combinations that will achieve your objectives there's many many games like that out there in the world these days and so many modern games use deck building now as a small part of driving other things but really Dominion is still the original and simplest and best way to learn that mechanism I mean there are many variations of demean as well we would recommend the basic one the first one because it's got the most simplest rule set compared to the other ones they keep adding other things like events or other components as well but the base one is the one that is probably is recommended to start with number 11 is king of too at $25 yes King of Tokyo is a game that at its simplest it took what had existed for 70 years with yatsi where you're rolling Dice and you get two rerolls and you're trying to make combinations but instead of then using those combinations to essentially do an accounting activity and trying to hit certain combos you're using them to punch each other uh score points do things on a board buy fun cards that will give you upgrades so it really takes that core mechanism and makes it this pretty chaotic freefor all but one that is very fun to play and plays up to six players it's kind of like the next level to yachi with other mechanics and then you can be like these monsters you know imagine you are the monsters like trying to destroy Tokyo and things like that and trying to do fight each other like you know that movie Godzilla versus King Kong like that sort of like feeling it's fun number 12 is Rebel princess at $20 Rebel princess this is the newest game on our list and this is an introduction into the hobby space of trick taking so trick taking it's a game that's been around for or a style of game that's been around in card games for many many years and there's a growing space of hobby trick-taking games that add different powers or different rules or try to give things a Twist Rebel princess is a really easy doorway into that space because the core of the game is very familiar it's essentially based on hearts that most people have played a lot of on their um Windows 995 Microsoft packages showing your h t yeah so it takes it it fundamentally plays the same as that but then adds individual player powers different powers for each round things that give you different areas of focus and that I think gives you a perfect way into the sorts of games that exist out there in the hobby trick taking space and must I say the theme is really fun so you are princess you're Rebel princess and you don't want to marry Prince Charming so you try not to win certain things or lose on certain things to win number 13 is Cascadia at $30 Cascadia is another relative atively recent game it's only a couple of years old and it's really the I think it's the best entry point into the tile placement genre which is really booming at the moment tile placement fundamentally is you are collecting tiles building them into your own personal area and trying to lay them out in a way that meets a bunch of competing objectives and scores the most points Cascadia hits a really good difficulty point for for entry to this type of game because the tile the way you pick the tiles from a common display is it gives you a medium amount of choice without a lot of direct interaction with other players so you can really focus on your own area and what you're trying to build I think is a light to medium level of complexity of puzzle it's just enough to get the gray matter going so you've got you've got tokens representing animals that need to be in different spaces compared with other animals and you got tokens representing different types of terrain which you're trying to make big clusters of and so those two things they will interact with each other and you've got to work out the best way to achieve them not to mention the awesome looking drawing but be soble so she draws like really beautiful animals and nature and really feels that you building this animal and nature ecosystem in your game at number 14 is telestrations at at $25 yes telestrations is a drawing game and I don't think any boy game collection is complete without a drawing game oh yeah it's not really a Gateway cuz all drawing games are pretty light and simple at their core but up until T illustrations really Pictionary was the only game that existed here T illustrations is Pictionary mixed with uh Chinese Whispers essentially you draw something you give it to the next person they guess what it is they give that the next person who draws that and you go around the circle and there's no winners or losers you just look at the end to see what has happened and it's from a Simplicity of game play and a fun being fun as a drawing game hard debate so there are a few different th RS and the basic one is eight players so that's the entry point price as well and there's also the 12 player one and I think there's after dark ta rtion so different Vari ation of this and it will give you prompt of what to draw but you can always create your own prompt so it's really fun to try to draw what the previous person write and then write what the previous person draw and then see what happened at the end number 15 is lots of water deep at $39 yes this is a so it's a higher cost game it's a bigger game and for me it's still the best Gateway entry point to the broader worker placement Euro style of game there's been a lot of there's heaps and heaps of games in this style and there's probably many at the same level of complexity but I still think Lords of water deep is the best entry point what is worker placement so worker placement is there's a series of action there's a lot of actions available on the board and you have workers in your supply and you have to put the worker onto a space to take the action and it blocks that space out for everyone else for the rest of the round and that's how you get stuff that's how you play cards it's a relatively simple type of things you're trying to do here essentially it's a contract fulfillment game so you're trying to get resources that match the requirements on a card and then you go and complete that card so what you're doing there is not that complex it's easy to wrap your head around and then you can get into under understanding the complexities of placing and moving workers there a few ways to move workers and adding new placement spaces to the board because one of their actions is to construct buildings which then put new and more powerful actions out there on the board so it's not the simplest game you're not going to move straight into this if you're not a few games deep in the ones we've already spoken about before but it is a really great tutorial to the more complex some broader styles of games that use these mechanisms out there in the yep and more of a Euro game as well I remember the first time I found out about worker placement my mind blew I was like what is this so you put it there and then you gain the resources and then it blocks everyone else I'm like oh no oh no and then I was like the next one after my mind blew oh no I need to go there fast no I need to go there first go there first so it really has changed my perceptions of Gaming once I discover that worker placement yeah as I say I think there are simpler entry points to worker placement out there but I still think this is the most effective Gateway and so those are our 15 Gateway recommendations and you know we've spoken about the prices there they're all relatively comfortable entry points but if you want to dabble across all 15 Styles and work out which ones are more for you wait there's more that's going to add up pretty quickly so yeah most of the games we've just spoken about are pretty broadly known and you'll find them in a lot of public board game libraries so that's one thing that's always a good option for you is go to public gaming meetups or board game stores that host meetups and play these games and see how you enjoy them uh there's another product on the market at the moment that's come out this year and it's this one here it's a game called Gateway Island from Van Rider game for $20 yeah $20 it's another way to dabble it's probably a lighter way to dabble if I show you what's inside this box it's got a rule book that has 21 games in it 21 games it has a series of these cards and they represent there's different boards and different things here and there's a bag that just has a series of cubes and discs and a die so very Sor the D is here so very basic set of components and they've developed a series of very simple games that fit all of these mechanisms that we just spoken about um what I would say for this is it probably and it's lighter than the games we spoken about here the games are all shorter it's a good entry point I think for younger children um and I remember growing up we had a there was a set of games we had it was just basically a board I feel like it came out of a magazine or something like that it was a thin cardboard board and you could just play them with counters and dice and there was a series of types of symol games in that and there was some of those that I played quite a lot and there were some of them I played very infrequently uh this set here I feel like it's like that it's like that complexity level um with a bit more of a a modern hobby gaming swing to it so they're not all dice games and different ways of playing dice games there are a bit more in that space of there there are some social deduction games in here there are some word games and category games in here there are some which are different types of movement where you have to think tactically and they do get up to little worker placements and things like that so another good options to start with and then see which mechanic you like before going to other games yes I say I don't think this is going to be a way for adult to work out what sorts of games they like but for the uh for the younger demographic this is going to this could be quite effective and the the book they've got some helpful tips in here under each game they' got some helpful tips on what sorts of games could be similar and that will give you other places to go for your next option if you find that one of them is getting overplayed so many games so hey hopefully you've enjoy our recommendations 15 plus the if you have any other recommendation any other videos that you think will be useful to you please let us know in the comments and let us know what you think of this video give it a like And subscribe for more videos like this and hopefully you have a great day see you next time