Despite there being thousands of games available to play on our mobiles and tablets, many people still enjoy gathering around the table with family and friends to enjoy classic table games from time to time. From card games like baccarat and poker to board games like Scrabble and Monopoly, enthusiasm for traditional games has yet to die out.
Table games have been around for thousands of years and the earliest boards to be discovered date back 5,500 years to Ancient Egypt. Games have been heavily influenced by different cultures over the years and have evolved into the classics we know and love today.
If you are looking for some inspiration for your next games night, here are some of the best classic games of all time:
Scrabble
Scrabble is a board game played with between two and four players, who compete to form words spelled out on lettered titles in a crossword-style format. They each begin with seven titles and replenish their tiles after each turn unless they choose to replace all tiles at once or skip their turn.
Each letter has a points value on the tile, the winner is the player who scores the most points overall. Extra points are scored when two or more interlocking words are formed at the same time or when premium squares are covered.
The game originated as Criss Cross in 1931 but was later redeveloped by James Brunot in 1948 and released as Scrabble. There are now many different versions of the game, including many different foreign languages and a Braille version.
Baccarat
For card game enthusiasts, Baccarat is often one of the top choices. It is a guessing game in which players place bets on either the player’s hand, the banker’s hand, or a tie. The winning hand is the one with the highest amount of points out of a possible nine points.
As a guessing type game, it is one of the simpler table casino games you can play. It does not require a specific skill set; players just need to read and understand the rules before placing their bets.
It is believed that Baccarat originated in medieval Italy and became popular in Europe sometime in the 18th century. Since then it has travelled the continents and become a well-loved game across the world.
While many love to play this classic game around the table with friends or at a casino, it has also become a very popular choice on online casino sites and mobile apps.
Cluedo
Next up is the exciting murder mystery board game Cluedo, in this game, the first person to solve a fictional murder using the clues provided is the winner. They must discover what room the crime took place, who the perpetrator was and what weapon they used.
There are different rooms on the board and players move between them by rolling a set of dice to decide the number of steps to be taken. Once in a room, they can make a suspicion in order to gain more information. Once they are confident, they have the answer, they can make an accusation but if they are wrong they are out of the game.
The game was designed in England during the Second World War by Anthony E. Pratt with his wife Elva Pratt. Notably, Anthony, a musician, completed private gigs for the famous detective novel author Agatha Christie.
Jenga
Jenga is neither a board nor a card game, instead, it is made up of a collection of 54 wooden blocks. At the beginning of the game, the blocks are stacked in rows of three to form a tower.
Once built, each player must take turns pulling out one block from the tower and placing it on top. Only one hand can touch the tower at any time and the loser is the person who is first to make the tower topple over.
Jenga has been around for more than 40 years and was designed by British game designer Leslie Scott in 1983. It has been claimed that the tallest tower achieved in the game was 40 ⅔ levels high. There are now different versions of the game, including giant Jenga, which is popular as an outdoor game in the summer months.
Snakes and Ladders
One much older game with origins in ancient India is the board game Snakes and Ladders. Played with two or more people, players must navigate through a numbered grid (1-100) that has snakes and ladders connecting some of the squares on the grid; rolled dice indicate how far a player can move each turn.
If you land on the lower end of a ladder, you climb the ladder to get ahead. If you land on a snake, you fall to the grid square where the snake’s tail ends. The aim is to be the first to reach the end of the board.
Now that you have a rundown of the most popular classic table games of all time, use these as inspiration for your next board game night!
