5 amazing board games like carrom for your next family game night!

If there is one ‘board’ game India can boast of, it’s Carrom. A tabletop game with a sturdy wooden board as its centerpiece, this cue based game has been a popular family game and household name in India, apart from the ubiquitous Ludo.

The accessibility of the game and the easy rules have made carrom extremely popular in India. All you need is the board, pucks, a dash of talcum powder to make the pucks fly and an abundance of house rules that makes the game different for each individual.

There have been battles fought for the pink queen and many fouls with the striker landing in the nets; everyone will have a story about this dexterity game. 

When your nails hurt from hitting the striker too often and not landing the queen often enough, there are some other dexterity games you can explore which are challenging but not hard and have a range that will suit the youngest member from the family, to the oldest.

Klask

Move over air hockey & foosball and the massive lineups of people always waiting for a turn on these games; move in Klask, an upgrade on both of these games, with more complexity than blind hitting of objects. 

Titled Klask, an epic magnetic battle, this two-player game is all about trying to score a goal, stack your opponent with obstacles (white magnetic pieces called biscuits) and making sure you don’t land up in the goalpost! Using the dexterous skills of speed and precision, players move their pieces with the help of a magnetic board & pieces. 

Shoot the ball, score a goal or use the ball to overwhelm your opponent’s piece with obstacles, all these tactics get you points!
When you think you’ve got the game and understood the rules, the physics of magnets could play potential spoilsport and you’d end up attracting the very obstacles you were trying to repel towards your opponent so keep your eyes on the white biscuits to understand which way they could move as you get near them. A lot of fun, hilarity and mistakes ensue in this two-player battle; definitely get this one by publisher Marektoy for variety! 

Bonk

Brought to you by the makers of Klask, get ready to roll and bounce in fun with steel balls. This 2-4 player game features a rectangular board and the setup is super simple and uncomplicated, you simply attach wooden slides onto the board in four designated spaces and get ready to roll. 

Bounce and boink balls using slides on the board to knock the wooden ball into your opponent’s goal post- that’s it, that’s all the rules you need to learn! The game plays best at 4 players when team members can split playing offence and defense, making it feels like an actual contest. 

Flick ‘em UP!

This Western themed 2-10 player game from publisher Pretzel Games involves face offs between sheriffs and outlaws in a 3-d town. The games come with set scenarios you can use as a beginner and once you’ve got the hang of it, you can pretend to be an architect of the wild, wild West and use your imagination to make setups.

Unlike the carrom flicks where you can use the momentum of your thumb to flick the striker; in Flick ‘em Up, it is specifically mentioned that the move be a simple one-finger flick. This makes the game extremely challenging, as these are very diluted movements and also quite unpredictable.

The Western theme adds an interesting dynamic game to what is essentially a simple game of flicking pieces to grab weapons, hide behind objects and to pelt bullets on your enemies.

Packaged in a wonderful wooden box and a mix of well designed wooden & cardboard pieces, there are already expansions out there to make the gameplay more unique. Flick ‘em Up! Stallion Canyon adds cowgirls and horses to the base game and lots more playable scenarios. The Red Rock Tomahawk expansion adds a Native American scenario and expands the weapons arsenal to include bows & arrows and Flick ‘em UP! Dead of Winter takes the dexterity game to the realm of the undead – zombies! 

Crokinole

This Canadian flicking game has its origins in Canada in the 18^th century and is frequently compared to the sport of curling! Similar to carrom but scoring like a weird game of bullseye, Crokinole is played on a circular board with carrom-like discs. That is pretty much where any similarity with Carrom ends.  

The sheen on the wooden board would almost convince you it’s a shiny piece of plastic but it’s actual wood that has been varnished and waxed to give almost zero resistance and friction to your discs. The actual control is all in how hard and soft you need to flick to do a required action. Scalable upto four players, the game can also be played in teams of two with some tweaks in the rules. There is almost no downtime between player turns as the most important decisions to be made are – 1) Can you make the shot? and 2) Which angle works best?

There is no setup and it’s extremely easy to learn but that doesn’t make it easy to win as can be evidenced by the annual Crokinole World Championships! 

There is real satisfaction in the swoosh and clink of discs gliding across the surface and hitting other tokens, consider getting this to give your fingers and wrist a thorough workout.

Pitch Car

Here is a family game to remind you a little of carrom, some memories of your Hot Wheels days and get your finger flicking fix! Pitch Car is a racetrack game where half of the fun comes from assembling the racetrack itself. 

Playing the game is simple, flick your chosen car piece forward while making sure it doesn’t go off track or flip over or hit another opponent. Any rule violation resets your car to its previous position and flipping your car over costs a turn so drive carefully. Decide on the number of laps with your fellow racers before the game and start flicking! The first player to cross the finish line at the end of the laps will get all the glory and a lot of bragging rights! 

There are some really crazy add-ons available to make your track even more exciting like introducing loops, crossroads & rail tracks, as if the game wasn’t enough of a rollercoaster! 

Up to 8 Formula One champions from your family can play this game! Vroom-vroom sounds are optional.