20 Fun Facts About Board Games

What is the name of the original Atlantic City street that replaced "Boardwalk" in the UK version of Monopoly?

In the UK version of Monopoly, the most expensive property, equivalent to Boardwalk in the US version, is Mayfair. Park Lane is the second most expensive property in the UK edition.

Which resource is represented by sheep in the board game Catan?

In Catan, players collect various resources to build settlements, cities, and roads. Sheep provide wool, which is used for certain building costs and trading.

How many squares are on a standard chessboard?

A standard chessboard is an 8x8 grid, resulting in 64 squares of alternating colors.

What is the highest-scoring letter in a standard English Scrabble set?

In a standard English Scrabble set, the letters Q and Z are both worth 10 points, making them the highest-scoring individual letters.

Which ancient board game, discovered in Ur, is considered one of the oldest known board games?

The Royal Game of Ur is an ancient Mesopotamian board game dating back to 2600-2400 BC, making it one of the oldest and best-preserved board games known to archaeologists.

Which board game was the first recipient of the prestigious Spiel des Jahres (Game of the Year) award in 1979?

The first Spiel des Jahres award, an influential German board game award, was given to Hare & Tortoise (Hase und Igel) in 1979.

What iconic feature do players build in Carcassonne to score points, often surrounding them with meeples?

In Carcassonne, players place tiles to build landscapes, with cities (often referred to as castles by players), roads, monasteries, and fields. Completing cities and placing meeples as knights inside them is a common scoring strategy.

What is the primary objective in the board game Ticket to Ride?

The main objective of Ticket to Ride is to score the most victory points, primarily by claiming railway routes to complete destination tickets and by having the longest continuous path of trains.

Which continent is often considered the most strategic to control early in a game of Risk due to its defensibility?

Australia is frequently considered the best starting continent in Risk because it has only one entry point (Indonesia), making it relatively easy to defend and hold for its bonus armies.

In the cooperative board game Pandemic, what do players work together to eradicate?

In Pandemic, players take on roles with unique abilities and work as a team to treat infections and discover cures for four deadly diseases threatening the world.

From which country does the ancient strategy board game Go originate?

Go is an ancient abstract strategy board game that originated in China over 2,500 years ago, where it is known as Weiqi.

Who designed the highly influential board game Settlers of Catan (now Catan)?

Klaus Teuber is the German game designer best known for creating The Settlers of Catan, which was first published in 1995 and has since become a global phenomenon.

Which of these game mechanics is central to games like Dominion and Star Realms?

Dominion is widely credited as the first deck-building game, a mechanic where players start with a small, identical deck of cards and acquire more powerful cards during the game to build a more effective deck.

Which chess piece can move any number of squares diagonally, horizontally, or vertically?

The Queen is the most powerful piece on the chessboard, combining the moves of both the Rook (horizontal and vertical) and the Bishop (diagonal), allowing it to move any number of unobstructed squares in any direction.

What breed of dog is represented by the dog token in Monopoly?

The iconic dog token in Monopoly is a Scottish Terrier, often affectionately called a Scottie.

While primarily a tabletop role-playing game, Dungeons & Dragons is often credited with popularizing which type of die?

Dungeons & Dragons famously uses a variety of polyhedral dice, but the D20 (twenty-sided die) is central to its gameplay for resolving most actions, attacks, and skill checks.

Which classic Eurogame, known for its role selection and resource management, is set on a Caribbean island?

Puerto Rico is a highly acclaimed Eurogame where players take on roles of colonial governors on the island of Puerto Rico, focusing on growing crops, shipping goods, and constructing buildings.

Which critically acclaimed board game by Jamey Stegmaier features mechs, area control, and engine-building in an alternate-history 1920s Eastern Europe?

Scythe is a popular board game known for its unique blend of engine-building, area control, and asymmetric factions, set in a fictionalized 1920s Eastern Europe with giant mechs.

In the game Dixit, players use beautifully illustrated cards to tell stories and guess which card matches the active player's narrative. What is the game's core mechanic?

Dixit is a storytelling game where players associate words or phrases with surreal images on cards, requiring creativity and clever word association to score points by having some, but not all, players guess correctly.

In chess, what special move involves moving the king two squares towards a rook and then placing the rook on the square the king crossed?

Castling is a unique chess move that involves both the king and a rook. It's the only move where two pieces move simultaneously, aiming to protect the king and activate the rook.