My Little Scythe

Never thought a competitive game would work this well with my easily-frustrated six-year-old, but the pie fights and the little animal minis won him over instantly. Turns move fast enough that nobody's waiting around, and we finished our first game in about half an hour.

We’ve played this with our two kids (ages 7 and 9) and the 2-player version works surprisingly well—each of us controlling two animal miniatures keeps everyone engaged without any downtime. The rulebook is clear enough that my 7-year-old doesn’t need help remembering what to do on her turn, which is

Setup takes about ten minutes and the rulebook is surprisingly clear for a competitive game, so we were playing with our 8-year-old within the first evening. The pie-based resource mechanic adds just enough strategy without overwhelming younger players, and the animal minis are charmingly chunky.