Frequently asked questions

Codenames. Czech Games Edition states 4-8+ players, ages 10+, 15 minutes. The rule is one sentence, there is nothing to set up, and it works with almost any group of four or more. If the recipient is usually only one or two people, Ticket to Ride instead - Days of Wonder states 2-5 players.

Card games in small boxes run about $12 to $20, boxed card and party games $20 to $30, full-size board games $30 to $50, and large illustrated games $50 to $100. Price tracks what is physically in the box far more closely than it tracks how good the game is. Our cost guide lists publisher list prices where publishers publish them.

Most take 15 to 45 minutes. Card and party games are usually 15 to 20, mid-size board games 30 to 45, and the longest game we cover is CATAN at a publisher-stated 60 to 90 minutes. Add about ten minutes to any of those for a first play while somebody learns the rules.

The publisher’s stated player count. It is a hard limit rather than a suggestion - CATAN states 3-4 players, so a couple cannot play it, and Codenames states 4-8+, so three people cannot. This one number eliminates more wrong answers than length, age, price and genre combined.

My First Carcassonne, which Z-Man Games states at 2-4 players and an age floor of 4, or Outfoxed! from Gamewright at 2-4 players, ages 5+, 20 minutes. Outfoxed! is cooperative, so a young child is not losing to an adult.

7 Wonders Duel. Repos Production states 2 players, ages 10+, 30 minutes, and it was designed for exactly two rather than trimmed down from a larger game. Jaipur is the easier one to teach - Space Cowboys states 2 players and 30 minutes.

Herd Mentality, which Big Potato states at 4-20 players in 20 minutes - the highest stated maximum of any game we cover. Concept (4-12 by Repos Production) and Codenames (4-8+ by Czech Games Edition, where extra people join a team) also work at that size.

Usually not. Only two games we cover publish a solo mode in the base box - Cascadia (AEG states 1-4 players) and Wingspan (Stonemaier states 1-5). Everything else needs at least two people, so unless the recipient reliably has company, another present is the kinder choice.

A cooperative game, where everybody plays on the same side against the board. Pandemic (Z-Man: 2-4 players, 8+, 45 minutes), Forbidden Island (Gamewright: 2-4, 10+, 30 minutes) and Just One (Repos: 3-7, 8+, 20 minutes) are the three we recommend most often for this.

Happy Salmon - Exploding Kittens states 3-8 players and a play time of 90 seconds, and the entire rule is to call out the action on your card until somebody matches you. Codenames, The Mind and Herd Mentality are also one-sentence games.

No, and we say so on every page. Games we claim to have play-tested: 0. What we do instead is compile the publisher’s own stated figures, check that every pick genuinely fits the constraint in the page title, confirm it is still buyable, and pull a live price. The full method is at how we pick.

Each game’s publisher, read from the publisher’s own page, with the publisher named on every figure. Where a publisher does not state a figure we leave a gap rather than estimating - Stonemaier does not publish an age band for Wingspan, so no age for Wingspan appears anywhere on this site.

Because we do not hold a current one. Prices refresh daily and are dated; if our data is more than 48 hours old the number disappears automatically and the button reads “Check price”. We never print a price from memory or carry one forward from a previous check.

It is a gift-fit score: how safe and well-aimed a game is as a present for somebody who may not play board games. It is an editorial judgment read off the published specifications - not a verdict on how good the game is, and not a test result. It never appears in this site’s structured data.

Where our retailer data supplies a photograph of the product, yes. Where it does not, the thumbnail is a licensed photograph of the type of game and the alt text says so explicitly. Nothing on this site is presented as a picture of a specific box unless it is one.

Affiliate commission. When you buy through a link here we earn a percentage at no extra cost to you. It does not change which games we recommend or the order they appear in - the highest-scoring gift on this site is one of the cheapest games on it. Full statement at affiliate disclosure.

No to both. No publisher, retailer or brand can buy a position in a ranking or an inclusion in a roundup, and we do not accept review copies - which is straightforward, since we do not review games by playing them.

40 at present, every one of them with the publisher’s own player count, playing time and age band. The complete reference tables are in the age guide and the playing-time guide.

Email info@meepleandmat.com with the page and the figure. You do not need to explain why it matters. We respond within seven days and correct confirmed errors within 48 hours of verifying them, with a visible note on the page.

No. This is a new publication with no reader reviews to show, and we are not going to invent any. If that changes, they will appear here with real attribution or not at all.