Settlers of Catan

If I could only recommend one game for a family to own, it would be Settlers of Catan, created by Klaus Teuber. It's the closest thing to a perfect game I've ever played. There are a number of reasons why I highly recommend it.

1. It’s a race, not a brawl

Games like Monopoly and Risk are brawls—you win by essentially beating your opponents into the ground and taking away everything they possess.

Races, however, are won by being the first to achieve an objective. In Settlers, you win by being the first to earn 10 victory points. Building settlements and cities gain you victory points that are never lost.

And as you build, the average number of resources you receive each turn will increase. This allows you to do more each turn and mitigates the effects of other players ganging up on you.

In my experience, races have much broader appeal than brawls, particularly among casual gamers. That’s not to say that Settlers is completely lacking in direct conflict between players—there’s competition for open spots on the game board and some accomplishments yield victory points that can be taken away—but these brawl elements are well balanced with the race elements of the game.

2. Clean, simple rules

The rules are simple enough that they can be taught verbally. The recommended age is 10 or older, so once the kids are old enough the entire family can play. And if you’ve ever played a game where the rules are ambiguous about what to do for a certain situation, you won't have to worry about that playing Settlers.

3. Minimal waiting

In many games, players are only allowed to perform actions on their turn. In Settlers, a player can only build on their turn, but players are eligible to receive and trade resources during any player’s turn, so there's incentive to barter so you’ll have what you need for building when your turn comes around.

4. Reasonable playing time

Most games can be played in 30 to 90 minutes—depending upon the number of players and their experience—so you can play at least several games in an evening. If your strategy isn’t paying off or you have a run of bad luck, you won’t have to suffer the entire evening.

5. Replayable

The game board is constructed by forming a large hexagon out of smaller hexagons representing different terrain types. This allows for a large number of board combinations affecting both resource availability and desirability of open spots. There are many different strategies for winning that can be learned through repeated play.

6. Experience counts

There's a good mix between luck and experience. Resource production each turn is determined by a die roll, so while it’s possible for a complete novice to win with beginner’s luck, experience definitely gives you an edge in selecting the best placement for your settlements and cities, determining which trades are in your favor, and devising the best strategy for a given situation.

7. Lots of expansions

If you like Settlers, there are a number of expansions for it (including one that allows up to six players rather than just the two to four that can play with the basic game). There’s also a family of similar games using the same tile-based resource generation mechanics.

8. Intelligent tutoring agent

OK, so this one’s only of interest to artificial intelligence nerds, but there’s an intelligent tutoring agent for Settlers built using CLIPS.