favorite puzzle & logic games?

[CloudBee]

DS (7, very math minded, 8 in March) received the games Qwirkle and Blokus Trigon for Christmas. He's obsessed, and I really enjoy playing both with him. We like how they are open and go with zero setup. We've played Qwirkle every single day since Christmas...!

He really enjoys detecting patterns and piecing together geometric shapes.

He turns 8 in March and is receiving 2 new Perplexus maze toys (independent play) for his birthday, along with the game Tenzi. That's a really popular game right now. Do any of their games (many ways to play) include strategy? Or are they all chance?

Anyway, I currently have Stello (by Mobi) and Buildzi (by Tenzi) sitting in my Amazon shopping cart. Stello looks seems what we're looking for more of. Placing pieces where they fit. Buildzi requires following a visual graphic of how to place your pieces while racing to build your tower before your opponent finishes theirs. Lots of fine motor and following visual instructions.

Games have really been what's kept us going through this pandemic. We keep a stash of unopened gifts in the back of my closet for medical appointments/procedures, which we also tap into for his birthday and Christmas.

Here are some of the games that are currently hidden away:

- Mexican Train Dominoes (we actually have very limited domino experience!)
- Spinner Dominoes 
- Tenzi
- Bananagrams Duel (haven't played the original, so I'm tempted to order that, too)
- Cobra Paw
- Travel Blokus (the original square shape)

What other games out there are we missing? Game play of 30 minutes or less would be great.

[AdaraMarie]

Tenzi is pretty much all chance which has made it fun here across for both of my kids who are quite far apart in ability and interest for strategy games.
My 10 year old and I have really enjoyed playing Azul since Christmas. It has some logic/strategy elements to it depending on how competitively you want to play. It isn't really a puzzle game.
I don't think I've played anything else on your list.

[sometimesrunner]

Genius square! It’s a 6x6 square (similar to a bingo card) where you roll 6 dice and put “blockers” on the corresponding squares. Then you have 7 Tetris-looking square pieces that you have to fill in the remaining open squares. You can play it by yourself or with another person. Some puzzles are easy to solve, and some require more thinking. My 8 year old enjoys it.

[1yeartogo]

My DS who is big into math/puzzles loves Rubix cubing/pyraminx , there are algorithms to solve them that math minded kids may find interesting. He u in a also getting into chess for the strategy.

[jaycee]

What about chess?

Mastermind is very fun, needs lots of strategy, no set up, tiny bit of clean up and about 10 minutes per game.

[imojoebunny]

My son really liked Rush Hour at that age. He is very good at math and logic puzzles. He, also, beats really competitive adults in Monopoly and Risk on the regular.

[yellow23]

We love mastermind at our house, it was one of my favorites as a kid and now my 8 & 10 year olds love it too. Racko is another favorite.

[edwardo123]

Qbitz and Qbitz Extreme

[CloudBee]

He plays chess, received a "build your own Rubik's Cube" kit for Christmas. I actually just found a 2 player game called Rubik's Race. You shake a mini Boggle-like box, colored squares fall into place, and you race to slide 2D tiles into their proper position before your appointment. For $12 I think I will order that, too.

We actually gave Mastermind to my husband for Christmas. I need to pull that out.

Genius square looks great! I think I'm going to order that one. Elementary spreadsheet prep. Ha!

I keep hearing about Azul! I think I'll look at a video to see it in action.

Qbitz! That looks like loads of fun, too. So many options!

We've heard of Rush Hour, but I think it's a 1 person game? I'll check.

Great suggestions! Thank you!

[mae141]

The card game Set is really fun. You can try out a puzzle online to see if you like it. www.setgame.com/set/puzzle

I just gave my 7 year old Rush Hour and she loves it.

[Dumbledork]

Prime Climb
Krypto
Ticket to Ride
Mastermind

[ohgillian]

Othello? There's no set up, and it's strategy based. I played it quite a bit as a kid, then picked it up at a thrift store a few years ago and my kids like it.

[hazelden]

My family has been loving Skyjo. It's a pretty easy card game that requires some strategy.

[countthestars]

The Game is fun! I’ve only played with adults but I bet he could do it.

[expectantsteelerfan]

I was going to suggest Othello, Chinese Checkers, and Chess. Target also has a bunch of 'strategy' type games that he could do on his own. Dog Pile is one we have that is like that (you have to stack the different sized/colored dogs different according to each card) and he might also like a magnetic tangram set if you don't have one (different magnetic shapes and cards that challenge you to make what's on the card, that might be too young for him but I think my kids still did them at that age).
My ds (who also loves the perplexus balls), loves wooden brain teasers that they often have as stocking stuffers for Christmas everywhere, and we also got him some wooden tangram puzzles or other puzzle things that popped up on amazon when I was searching for them.

[sent]

All I have to suggest is Perfection which is probably too simplistic. I played it for the first time with DD last night and realized the game will get boring once you memorize the board. But until then, it's been fun to take turns and see who gets the most pieces in. I'm going to check out the ones on your list.

[wesleycrusher]

There is an older game called Bandu that is a lot of fun- it involves stacking pieces of unusual shapes but also has a strategy element in being able to auction off pieces. It would be a good game to grow into, but also involves fine motor to stack the pieces, so could be frustrating if your kid is not good at that. Unfortunately, I don't think they make the game anymore but it's still available on ebay or if we ever get out of this pandemic, you can find it at thrift stores.

[wesleycrusher]

Thought of another one- Tsuro is also a quick game with some strategy.

[kitty]

My 7 yo like minded DS currently is obsessed with Kanoodle head to head.

[sporklemotion]

My kids like the one-person games like Rush Hour and Kanoodle. Besides some others mentioned, we play Battleship, though maybe that’s a stretch for what you are looking for.

[blue]

We play a lot of board games with my 7 yo (we also love Qwirkle and Blockus).  Here are some of our favorite logic/strategy games: Rummikub, Azul, King Domino, Ticket to Ride, Backgammon.  I've heard good things about Prime Climb but haven't played it myself.

[jenny1223]

DS1 is 9 and really likes a lot of the ones mentioned already. He got Quarto for Christmas and that's a good quick one. No set up and games are 5-10 minutes each.

[ellipses84]

More about motor skills and spatial strategy, we love Chairs, Kerplunk and the Perplexus Ball. Even though they are simple, Connect 4, Battleship and checkers are fun. I don’t play chess but my 9 year old was doing chess club at school and loves it. He’d probably like card games, or similar games like Rummikub. I loved Risk as a kid but my dad was really into it and taught us to play.