The larger my board game collection gets, the more I appreciate a compact game that packs a big punch. These are the games that I most frequently take to public game sessions or on trips with friends or family. There simply isn’t space in my bag for a huge box unless I know that we’re guaranteed to play it. For something much smaller? Well… I can spare the space for a little game that will maybe get played.
Nearly three years ago, I made a list featuring the Best Travel-Friendly Board Games. This was in celebration of our then upcoming launch of Trailblazers featuring a travel-friendly clamshell case and carabiner. I didn’t know it then, but it turns out that this was only the beginning of our quest to make killer portable games.
After putting out far too many different versions of Trailblazers (a whopping FIVE, if you are curious), it turned out that Trailblazers: Travel Edition proved to be the most popular version by hitting that sweet spot between portability and affordability. It makes sense that those of us who enjoy gaming also love to squeeze in a bit of play at the hotel and such amid our travels. And the most convenient games for such occasions are generally compact, approachable, and relatively quick.
While my old list still applies, I realized that I have many more recommendations up my sleeve. It’s also the perfect time to put out a sequel list since we recently revealed our upcoming Travel Line. So in celebration of all gaming-on-the-go, here’s my list of the Best Travel Sized Board Games followed by some details about our upcoming titles in this genre…
DroPolter
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DroPolter is a delightful little game of jingling bells and sticky palms. Each round players are racing to dispose of the reveal items on a flipped card — these items reside in each player’s fist and can only be removed using that hand. But the most brilliant rule of all is that the winner of the round earns the point in the form of a tiny bell that gets added to the player’s fistful of knickknacks. And if a bell is dropped, then it is lost forever. DroPolter is the kind of hilariously unique game that is made all the more excellent by its tiny box.
Viking See-Saw
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On the topic of portable dexterity games, Viking See-Saw is another winner. It’s basically tiny Jenga on a teeter-totter with a variety of objects including rolling balls, weighty metal cubes, and light wood pieces. The objective is to get rid of all of your objects first, but you have to decide when and where to add each piece to the high end of the seesaw. If you cause the ship to tilt the opposite way, then you must take a cargo piece from the center. And if you knock over a growing tower of precariously stacked items, then you’ll suffer the sadistic laughter of your friends.
Rainbow
This next batch of games comes from our friends over at Allplay who just so happened to start a new line of $9 “Tiny Box” games perfect for travel. Of the four titles released thus far, Rainbow has become one of the clear favorites. In this game you make ladder climbing style bids (solo cards, sets, or runs) to try to earn scoring cards from the center. The catch is that the bids of this round become the scoring cards of next round, and you’ll have to manage your hand wisely to not run out of cards too early.
Panda Panda & Fairy
If you’re looking for even more of that tiny box goodness, then I also recommend Panda Panda and Fairy. Panda Panda is basically Phase 10 (gradually fashioning your hand into a specific set) but funnier and in only 15 minutes (instead of an agonizing stretch of hours). Fairy is party-style gambling on what card comes out of the deck next — you can play it in 5 minutes with up to 10 players (and it’s a blast if you have the right group who will fully invest in mindless gambling). Neither of these games are earth-shattering experiences, but at this size and price they are absolutely charming.
Ito
If you’re looking for a travel sized party game that is more social than Fairy, then I recommend Ito (which plays 2-8 players). And for those groups who enjoy The Mind or Wavelength, meet your next game night hit. Ito is a cooperative game of ranking your secret cards in numerical order (each player can have a card ranging from 1 to 100). The only way to communicate the value of your card is to give a clue based on a topic spectrum. So if the topic is “Things You Want to Take a Picture Of” then a player with a 12 might say, “A blank white wall,” while a player with an 87 might say, “The Grand Canyon.” It’s funny, it’s addictive, it’s Ito.
Hive
A common question I see online is “What board games can I play at the beach?” To be honest, I don’t think there are very many good options, but the perhaps the best answer is Hive. Hive is nothing more than a drawstring bag of weighty plastic tiles that can be played on the sand or by water without a care in the world (unless a big wave manages to reach your tiles and carry them back out to sea). This Chess-like abstract strategy game sees two players using their various insect abilities to try and surround their opponent’s queen bee. Hive is one of the highest rated abstract games of all time, so if you’re into such battles of wit then you can’t go wrong here.
Chartae
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If you’re looking for something a little less heavy than Hive, then Chartae makes for a nice little 2-player snack. This game does a whole lot with only 9 square tiles. As cartographers, you and your opponent are competing to build the largest mass of land or water (depending on which state of matter is your favorite sorry, no gas fans allowed here). Chartae definitely falls into the category of “micro-game” or game so small and simple that it will underwhelm some and mightily impress others.
Marabunta
For those hobbyist gamers who want more meat on their 2-player travel-sized game, Marabunta has my strongest recommendation (as long as you don’t mind painful decisions and cutthroat competition). Marabunta is all about cutting off your opponent on the map while giving them horrible options with the I-split-you-choose dice rolls. You’ll bask in glee as your rival groans over the evil options you’ve devised, only for them to give you some of your own medicine in the next round. While Marabunta functions like a full-blown tile placement strategy game, it brilliantly condenses its size down through the use of dry erase markers and boards instead of piles of tokens.
Azul Mini
Azul Mini is an easy pick for this list, but that doesn’t make it bad pick. The mega-hit Azul is now more affordable and accessible than ever thanks to this smaller production. There are even some quality of life improvements such as bumps and grooves to help hold your tiles and score markers in place. It also comes with a drawstring travel bag, but you’ll want to be careful because loose tiles can still sneak out.
So What is the Travel Line?
It is games like those listed above and others that inspired Bitewing Games’ new Travel Line. The Travel Line is debuting with Gazebo and Gingham plus Bombastic in the pledge manager (although Trailblazers is an honorary member as well). This line of games is laser-focused on one thing above all else: being supremely easy to get to the table. That means our Travel Line games are super portable, easy to learn, quick to play, and addicting to revisit. These are the kind of games that you can simply toss in your bag, bring to a gathering, take on a trip, and break out with friends or family. Thanks to the sturdy clamshell case and carabiner (a free gift to Kickstarter backers), your game pieces will be well protected and effortless to transport. The Travel Line lets you enjoy a game that you can truly play with anyone, anywhere.
Gazebo
Dominoes are such a satisfying game piece — the way they feel in your hand and nestle together on the board — but few games do them justice. We set out to publish the greatest domino game ever created… and boy howdy is Gazebo a worthy contender. The game is dead simple — play a domino from your hand next to any other on the board — but the strategic depth is oh so satisfying to uncover.
Gazebo is our most approachable strategy game yet. It can easily be played with your partner, your parents, your co-workers, or your friends whether they are casual or hobbyist gamers. Thanks to the compact size and travel case, you can take Gazebo on the go and play on any nearly flat surface in roughly 30 minutes. It lives up to our Travel Line’s “play with anyone, anywhere” mantra.
While Reiner Knizia has made a whole lot of games, he rates Gazebo as one of his “Top 10 designs ever” thanks to its elegance and depth.
Gingham
Gingham is a game where you are deploying real ants on a real picnic blanket as you compete to stockpile and claim sweets… Ok, maybe that is only partially true. The game does come with an actual gingham fabric game board, but the ants may only be replicas… Either way, this game is freaking brilliant.
While Gingham is NOT a trick taking game, its creation was inspired by trick taking card games, and this has resulted in a wonderfully unique strategy game. The lead player determines which side of the board that all players must play on each round. In other words, all players must follow the led “suit.” Who ever places their queen closest to the star (in the most valuable position of the led side) becomes the leader of the next round. You will deploy an ant into whatever row that you positioned your queen. The catch is that you cannot deploy your ant beyond the stitch, and the rows that are closer to the star offer less options. Do you opt for a better turn order position for next round, or more flexibility for this round?
Players are racing to connect matching sweets to score big points. Can your ant colony snatch up that valuable cupcake before your rivals assemble their chain? By fully surrounding a sweet token or stack, you can claim it as your own stockpile for major scoring. But it’s possible for another player to steal your stash if they can surround your stockpile, and that’s even easier to accomplish if they can carry your stockpile away with a clever connection of ants. Jockeying for turn order can become painfully crucial when it means the difference between triumph and defeat. You can even bump rival ants from their spaces, but be careful, a bumped ant can be placed on any open space on the board!
Folks who enjoy highly interactive games on a shared board are likely going to love Gingham.
Bombastic
Note: Our recently revealed Tic Tac BOOM has now been renamed to Bombastic… although BoardGameGeek has yet to update the name. The images shown here are with a prototype that also has not been updated yet.
I mentioned earlier how Hive is one of the only good options for playing a game at the beach. Well that list is going to grow a little larger with the release of Bombastic. This is a 2-player, 5-minute game that you can play in the sand, on an airplane tray table, or in a damp cave by the light of glowing mushrooms.
Those who enjoy Trio/Nana are especially going to love this. Bombastic takes the widespread familiarity of tic tac toe and makes it a tense, addicting, and frequently funny game that you can play with anyone. One player is Xs, and the other is Os — pretty standard so far. But what you don’t know can hurt you. Nine chunky tiles are shuffled face down into a 3×3 grid — 4 of them Xs, 4 of them Os, and the last? A ticking, delicate bomb. Can you find your tiles without blowing up?
On your turn, either:
- Go for It — Show three tiles in a row. If they are yours, you win! If you show the bomb — BOOM! You lose! If you show any of your opponent’s tiles, then you give them helpful information (whoops), but the tiles are placed back face down, and the game keeps going.
- Use one of two available action cards to help you peek at and rearrange tiles, staying one step ahead of your rival.
Only the cleverest player who uses the action cards wisely (and isn’t afraid to take a chance here and there) will be able to win.
Bombastic will be our first ever direct-to-retail release, but folks can also add it to their pledge during the Travel Line pledge manager or preorder it from us directly for a bonus PVC (waterproof) card upgrade.
Posts like this are made possible thanks to the support of our Kickstarter backers. Backers will further be rewarded with free travel cases and discounted bundles — all for low flat-rate shipping in most regions. You can follow the Travel Line Kickstarter project here. I wouldn’t have the privilege of making or highlighting all these awesome games without your help, so thanks for your support!
Article written by Nick Murray. Outside of practicing dentistry part-time, Nick has devoted his remaining work-time to collaborating with the world’s best designers, illustrators, and creators in producing classy board games that bite, including the critically acclaimed titles Trailblazers by Ryan Courtney and Zoo Vadis by Reiner Knizia. He hopes you’ll join Bitewing Games in their quest to create and share classy board games with a bite.
Disclaimer: When Bitewing Games finds a designer or artist or publisher that we like, we sometimes try to collaborate with these creators on our own publishing projects. We work with these folks because we like their work, and it is natural and predictable that we will continue to praise and enjoy their work. Any opinions shared are subject to biases including business relationships, personal acquaintances, gaming preferences, and more. That said, our intent is to help grow the hobby, share our gaming experiences, and find folks with similar tastes. Please take any and all of our opinions with a hearty grain of salt as you partake in this tabletop hobby feast.
