Board Games for People Who Say They Don't Like Board Games

When someone tells me they don't like board games, what they almost always mean is that they don't like Monopoly. Which is fair. Monopoly is a game designed to go on for four hours and end in a family argument, and it is extremely good at doing both of those things.

The good news is that board games have changed enormously over the last twenty years. There's now a huge range of games that are quick to learn, don't require you to be ruthlessly competitive and are genuinely fun with a glass of wine on a Saturday evening. These are the ones I bring out when I'm trying to convert a sceptic.

Two teams, a grid of 25 words, and one person on each side trying to get their team to guess the right words using one-word clues. It plays in about fifteen minutes, it works brilliantly with big groups and it's a word game, so naturally I'm very fond of it. It also generates the best kind of arguments: the ones where you realise the person you've lived with for three years has absolutely no idea how your brain works.

You're collecting coloured train cards and building railway routes across a map. That's it. The rules take five minutes to explain, but there's just enough tension - someone always blocks the route you desperately need - to keep everyone interested. It's my go-to for introducing parents and in-laws to the hobby.

Perfect for people who hate competitive games, because everyone's on the same side. You're a team of specialists racing to cure four diseases before they spread across the world. It's tense in the best way, and when you win, you all win together. When you lose, you all lose together, which is somehow much less upsetting than losing to your brother.

Beautiful, surreal picture cards and a simple idea: one person describes their card with a word, a phrase or a sound, everyone else picks a card from their hand that fits, and then you all try to guess which was the original. It rewards creativity rather than strategy, and it's very good for people who claim not to be "a games person".

A tiny game with sixteen cards that fits in a pocket. Rounds last a couple of minutes, there's a bit of bluffing and a bit of deduction, and it's ideal for the pub or a long train journey. It's also a great test of whether a new person will enjoy the bigger games.

You take turns placing tiles to build a medieval landscape of cities, roads and fields. It's relaxing, it looks lovely by the end, and it's one of the few games I've found that works well with just two players. The scoring can be fiddly at first, but it clicks after a game or two.

• Start short. Anything under 30 minutes is ideal for a first game.
• Teach as you play. Nobody wants a twenty-minute lecture on the rules. Explain the basics and fill in the rest as it comes up.
• Don't play to win against beginners. Seriously. Nobody comes back for a second game after being crushed.
• Snacks help. This is true of most things in life.

If you've got a favourite gateway game that I've missed, I'd love to hear about it. My shelf is already groaning, but there's always room for one more. Probably.