Setting up a house party is very tedious, especially when your friends are nerds; you can’t just go with the flow when they arrive. If you don’t plan out a fun time for your guests, you’ll end up with everyone on their phones, disinterested and waiting to go home. Games are your way out of the awkwardness that comes with hosting parties, but we’ve got you covered with these top-rated accessible games for your group of nerd friends.
Whot
A lot of us have played Whot at some point in our lives and we can agree that it’s probably the easiest card game to master. You get a special pack of cards, that consisted of five groups of unequal suits represented by symbols of circles, triangles, cross, star and squares. Then, there are the special wild cards. Each card has a number and a symbol and all you have to do is pull out a similar card to that on the open stack; when you run out of similar cards you’re out. It could get very intense, especially when you’re almost done and someone goes “Pick 3 cards, Pick 2, General Market, Hold on, Pick another 2”, and you’re there losing your mind. Hundred per cent recommended for nerds.
Ayo
Ayo tops the list of traditional board games in Nigeria and is also well known across Africa. This ancient game is played by two people facing each other on a bench, in an attempt to collect more seeds from the opponent’s bank and emerge the winner. The lane or divide that is closer to you is considered your territory. Ayo is made up of 12 holes, with six on each side of the board; each hole contains four seeds, totaling 48 seeds. This game is good at tasking your brain, because it involves strategic calculation and planning- this makes it a perfect game to be played among nerds. Deceit and speed are valued attributes of a good player.
Checkers
It is a classic board game involving two players. It is very simple and fun. You play Checkers game on an 8×8 checkered board. The pieces can only move diagonally on the dark squares; the light squares of the board are never used. The objective of the game is to capture all the opponent’s pieces by jumping over them. Once you have no remaining pieces or you cannot move due to being blocked, you lose the game. It involves brilliant strategies that become intense, and it’s just perfect to introduce this game to your nerd group of friends.
Ludo
With its yellow, green, red and blue “houses”, this game brings back fond memories and accommodates up to 4 players. A game of Ludo is made of a square board with four different colored bases (blue, green, red and yellow) in each corner. The first colored space outside of each base is the start position, and you get a piece of die to govern the movement of the pieces. You must roll a number 6 to move a piece out of the base and onto the start position in the beginning; that becomes your piece in play. You cannot make any other moves until at least one of your pieces is in play. The first player to have all four of his pieces finish their journeys wins. The remaining players continue the game to determine the runners-up. So, while thinking of a game to play during your next together, Ludo is a good choice.
Scrabble
If you need a game that can test you and your friend’s knowledge of words, scrabble is your best bet. This is a staple board game since as far back as 1930. The players form words on the gameboard using letters from their racks. Each letter has a different value. On the board, some premium squares can increase the letter or word value. The player with the highest final score wins the game. Another interesting part of the game is where players start arguing on whether a particular word formed is correct or not; occasions like these are what makes the game really fun.
Chess
Chess is one of the oldest and most popular board games, played by two opponents on a checkered board with 64 squares, especially designed with pieces of contrasting colours, commonly white and black. White moves first, after which the players alternate turns in accordance with fixed rules. It is played by many Nigerians and millions of people worldwide. Each player begins with 16 pieces. The goal of chess is to capture your opponent’s king in checkmate. Checkmate occurs if you put your opponent’s king in check (meaning it is under direct threat) and they are incapable of moving the king or blocking the threat with another piece. Chess requires the players’ full attention and it is a game your group of nerd friends will definitely enjoy playing.
