TaoBrowser: Where To Find English Board Games for Your Next Fireside Gathering

Where can you buy that? You already know the answer: Taobao. But navigating China’s biggest e-commerce platform can be a nightmare for foreigners, so we’re helping out by rounding up useful stores to browse in our column, TaoBrowser.

Last week, we curated a list of video games to help you party, exercise, travel around the world, and even find a cure for a fictional pandemic. However, it's no secret that staring at a screen for days on end is one way to ensure that your first big trip of 2021 is straight to the opthalmologist. Luckily, there are board games, which can offer a much-needed respite for your eyes and free your fingers from incessant tapping. Not to mention, these suckers are analog, meaning there's no algorithm or AI to dictate your experience, which in turn empowers players, allowing them to use their noggins to guide the adventure. 

Unfortunately, purchasing English-language board games is no easy task in China since most stores sell a limited number of titles, many of which are either counterfeit or turn out to be in Mandarin. To help me make sense of the whacky world of foreign-language boardgames on the mainland, I turned to Jeremy Foust, an expat boardgame guru and brains behind Taobao's most prominent English boardgame retailer, the Game Warehouse, which he established in 2016. All of the games below are available on 桌游秘库 the Game Warehouse store.

War Chest

Players: 2-4 
Play time: 30 Mins 
Age: 14+

War Chest is a bag-building war game in which players draft units into their army from their bag which are then used to capture strategic points on the board. This game makes significant use of the element of chance, but it certainly takes some brainpower to wage a successful campaign, both by maneuvering troops on the board and by building a useful bag to draw from.

Gloomhaven: Jaws of the Lion

Players: 1-4
Play time: 30-120 Mins
Age 14+

Gloomhaven was created for gamers interested in story-telling and adventure-based games but don't necessarily want to put in the requisite 150 hours these games can last. Gloomhaven: Jaws of the Lion brings things to an even more casual level and lowers the barrier to entry with a simplified set of rules, all while introducing a few new characters along the way. You don't have to own the original Gloomhaven in order to play this separate, standalone game, though it certainly helps with understanding the lore to have played it.

Tak University Edition

Players: 2
Playtime: 20-60 Mins
Age: 12+

Tak is a two-player abstract game that's perfect for couples spending time indoors during these trying times. It was born out of the mind of fantasy writer Patrick Rothfuss as part of his Kingkiller Chronicle world, who collaborated with US-based game designer James Ernest to make it a reality. The game embodies the "easy-to-learn, impossible-to-master" philosophy, as well as just about any tried and true classic game with its simple rules, which involve but one goal: build a road from one side of the board to the other before your opponent does.

Mansions of Madness

Players: 1-5 
Play time: 120-180 Mins
Age: 14+

If you're not ready to give up the screens entirely, then this cooperative game may be for you. Mansions of Madness: Second Edition is played with the help of an app that immerses players in the Eldritch Horror universe as they play the role of investigator confronting various scenarios, for which they'll have to use their cunning to overcome fights with monsters as well as their own inner beasts.

Palm Island

Players: 1-2
Play time: 15 Mins
Age: 10+

Not all board games require a big dining table and hours to play. Palm Island is a deck "transforming" game designed to be taken and played anywhere, and all you need is a pair of hands. But its versatility goes beyond that, players can choose to play it solo, cooperatively, or competitively against another player.

Tabletop Simulator

Alright, alright, keep your computer. For one final recommendation, Tabletop Simulator is a great way to connect with friends without even having them over. (It's also super hot around the world right now, so you might even find yourself reconnecting with some old friends back home.) You can play classics, download newer games for free from the workshop, or create your own game in a physics sandbox. Heck, you can even let out your aggression by flipping the table! The only boundary is your imagination. It's available on Steam, but keep in mind you may need some significant computing power to run it smoothly.

READ: Kapital Koopas: Games For These Indoor Days and Nights

Images: BGG