Christmas gifts: 3 board games to give to children aged 10 to 13

Contents

Dauphin, the 9th passenger
Gang of Dice
Minecraft: Builders & biomes

He barely deigned to leave his game of Fortnite to tell you vaguely what he wants for Christmas, being careful to talk about a letter to Santa to keep the magic in his little brother’s eyes (because yes, he’s really cute, my pre-teen anyway). If you’re looking to battle Fortnite this Christmas, this article is for you.

Dauphin, the 9th passenger

Dauphin, the 9th passenger is a game that will attract your pre-teen with its aspect Among Us (and its reference to the title of Alien). Indeed, here you will also have traitors, the dolphins, who will have to be unmasked and also a system of crew members to be expelled into the void of space each round (the crew members are the players’ cards and not the players themselves, which avoids seeing players being eliminated).

The game comes with an app that is sensational! No really you will be amazed! And above all by the tutorial that you will enjoy doing and doing again each time you introduce the game because the mini scenario which is proposed to learn the rules benefits from a French voice-over with lots of humor. You’ll even find yourself trying something else and seeing how the tutorial reacts!

During a classic game, the application will be there to scan the players’ badges, and the cards that they will place on the game locations (and the scanning, with the phone placed on the table, works wonderfully). Once the cards are placed, the application will generate the consequences! An astronaut may well float in space… You’ll see your pre-teen dolphin’s eyes light up!

The strong points of Dauphin, the 9th passenger:

a tutorial really like no other
Among Us as a board game
easy to bluff even for a child thanks to asteroids

Dolphin the 9th passenger – 3 to 5 players – from 10 years old – duration 40 min

Gang of Dice

Gang of Dice is the game with which we had the most fun with Nolan (my pre-teen) and me this year! The theme of gangsters taunting each other with dice immediately attracted him and then the mechanics knew how to keep us playing one after another.

In Gang of Dice, you will roll the number of dice you want to obtain the highest score without exceeding the constraint which will make you explode. The number of dice used will be what decides ties (that’s super important). So how many dice to use when dad rolled 9 with 4 dice without exploding via the “no dice of 4 or 5 at the end” constraint? Your pre-teen will be able to remind you only too well how he is not afraid to take all the risks and use 5 dice… then give you a hug and ask you for dice so he can continue playing.

This die exchange is an obligatory and yet delicious mechanic : at one point a player will accumulate quite a few dice and the others will only have their tokens worth 3 dice. So they will give tokens to collect dice. It’s just to not have 400 dice in the box but it’s very funny to see a player end up asking for dice with a crestfallen look because he doesn’t have any more.

The strong points of Gang of Dice:

the risk-taking side of the game
the atmosphere that the game creates around the table
see others requesting new dice from players

Gang of Dice – 2 to 4 players – from 8 years old – duration 30 min

Minecraft: Builders & biomes

Here’s the perfect trap for your pre-teen, a Minecraft game! And an excellent game too! Even for you who know nothing about Minecraft! And it’s even better… because during the explanation of the rules you will see your pre-teen correct you by telling you that there is the enderman, there the bedrock, there a nether portal…

In Minecraft Builders & biomes you will experience a real adventure with him in each game. With many game possibilities. You will be able to mine a giant block to recover resources in order to construct buildings that you will have discovered while wandering around the map. These buildings will score 3 times in the game depending on their biome, material or type. On the map you can also discover monsters, to face thanks to a mini deck of tiles specific to each player. This deck will need to be improved by collecting new weapons: TNT is mine!

The strong points of Minecraft: builders & biomes

a giant block to mine until the bedrock
very interesting scoring for buildings in 3 stages
the possibility of facing monsters

Minecraft Builders & biomes – 2 to 4 players – from 10 years old – duration 60 min

A selection in challenge mode to get your teenager to let go of their console for a game evening with you thanks to games skillfully mixing universes they master or by creating an irresistible atmosphere around the table… but be careful: you may then join him on the console to play Minecraft!

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