Try These Incredible Board Game Hacks to Win at Christmas
Or: "How to Suck All the Fun out of Board Games"
It wouldn't be Christmas without board games
...But it also wouldn't be Christmas without getting really competitive and taking it too seriously. Here are some top tips for winning EVERY. SINGLE. TIME.
IMPORTANT: These tips might not technically be cheating, but they won't make you popular either!
Monopoly - Buy the orange squares first
According to some maths research, you are more likely to win at Monopoly if you buy up the orange squares first. This is because people land on these the most after they come out of jail. Next best is the reds, and the browns are the worst (but everyone knows that!)
Scrabble - If you get stuck, go for 2 letter words
Ever been stuck for a word in Scrabble? Well there are actually lots of super-easy two letter words you can use. Here's the full list: aa ab ad ae ag ah ai al am an ar as at aw ax ay ba be bi bo by ch da de di do ea ed ee ef eh el em en er es et ex fa fe fy gi go gu ha he hi hm ho id if in io is it ja jo ka ki ko ky la li lo ma me mi mm mo mu my na ne no nu ny ob od oe of oh oi om on oo op or os ou ow ox oy pa pe pi po qi re sh si so st ta te ti to ug uh um un up ur us ut we wo xi xu ya ye yo yu za zoRemember though - just because the official rules say you can use them doesn't mean you should!
Guess Who - Ask if they are a woman first...
A good question to start with when playing Guess Who is "are they a woman?" because that narrows it down a lot. But an even better one to use is "does their name begin with a letter between A and L?" This question gets rid of loads of possible characters!
Connect 4 - Put your first counter in the middle
Maths experts have found out that the secret to winning Connect 4 is just to put your first counter in the middle. If you put your first counter at the edge you are much more likely to lose. The question is - does this make the game more or less fun? Bah humbug, maths experts!
