Get Better at Board Games: Tips, Tricks, and Strategies

Having a husband who wins a majority of the board games we play I have learned a few things when it comes to getting better at board games. While I am not an expert, I've had some awesome winning streaks throughout my life. I have learned some ways to actually improve my board game skills and start winning new games more often.

You can get better at board games and there are actionable things you can do that won't make winning feel like a stroke of luck. There are strategies you can use for almost any board game that will result in more wins.

If you need some tips and tricks to know how to improve your game you have come to the right place. This article will help you know what to start looking for in games and some tips on what to do to increase your win rate. Almost every board game has some sort of strategy to it, even if it does just seem to be luck, you just have to know how to figure out what that strategy is quickly in order to win.

Learn Strategy

There is a strategy to almost any game, even for games such as Yahtzee that on the surface seem to be just dice rolling game that boils down to luck. A study was done to prove that there is an actual strategy, students at Cornell University even broke down the math for you. Learning a couple gaming strategies will ultimately lead to you being a better game player overall.

For instance, say you study the Cornell study and learn the ultimate strategy to Yahtzee. Well Yahtzee is based on Poker, so if you start playing Poker you would start to see the similarities and immediately have an advantage over other beginner players. This is applicable to almost any set of games. Most games are based upon certain game rules and components that can only be used so many times when designing a board game. This means you only need to learn strategies for just a couple games you will most likely understand most of the underlying strategies of all board games.

If you need help figuring out strategy for each game, there are plenty of resources out there. You can easily go online and find forums, or guides that teach you the mechanics of each game. If you’re old school, you could even check your local library for some books on the topic.

Read the Rules

Ok, hear me out. This sounds very obvious and boring, but if there is one game that you just find that you are terrible at and want to get better this is a great place to start. How many times have you actually read the rules to a new board game? I find that there are a lot of games I have never read the rules to, I just learned by having someone explain how it works. Maybe they weren’t a good teacher and I don’t have the full grasp of the game.

Ask yourself how you learned how to play a certain game, and you may remember that you never even looked at the rule book someone just told you what to do. If you aren’t getting better as you play the game more, you might have had a lot of unanswered questions at the beginning. If you go and read the rules you may find that you misunderstood some aspects of the game and that could be your missing piece to your game play.  

Loopholes

Now I don’t think this will be applicable to every game. And it may not be a loophole per say, but there are a lot of tricks for every game out there that you probably are not aware of. For example, in the game Catan whoever gets the longest road gets a card that gives them an extra two points, but what I did not know was that someone can cut off your road and then your road is no longer one continuous road and you lose the longest road card. Now when I play and someone has the longest road I will look to see if it’s feasible to cut off their road and take the longest road for myself.

Knowing these little tricks for a game you play frequently will make you a better player. Not only will you have some tricks up your sleeve for some other unsuspecting player, but you will become more aware of your overall game play.

Watch Others Play

Watching people play a game will make you better, you get to see the same thing from someone else’s perspective. There is a lot of value in watching someone play a game you are trying to improve at. When you watch others, you will start questioning why they do certain moves which will deepen your understanding of the inner workings of the game. You may also start seeing mistakes others make and when you go to play yourself, you can avoid similar pitfalls.

YouTube is a great resource for watching others play. Most channels are not likely just to feature a group of people playing their favorite game, what you will find is even better. Most likely they will explain the rules or even better give out their strategy and their personal take on the game. Look up a couple of your favorite games on YouTube and I guarantee someone somewhere has taken the time to create a video telling you how they play.

Practice on Your Own

If you are really looking to get better at a board game set it up and go through playing it on your own. This may work better for some games, such as Rummikub, Poker, or Chess but you could arguably do this with about any board game. Set up certain scenarios for yourself and play through those to discover what works best for you.

If you want a less lonelier feeling experience you may want to check online. There are actually a lot of board games that also offer an online version. It won’t replace playing in person, but all the practice components will be there. Almost any board game that you can purchase in the store will likely have a free online version that you can use to practice and then conquer your next game night.