Carcassonne

You build a stretch of medieval France one square tile at a time, on one shared, growing map. Tiles show cities, roads, monasteries and fields, and each must match its neighbours. When the last tile is placed, the highest total wins. A turn is short: draw a tile, place it, and decide whether to put a wooden meeple on it as a knight, robber, monk or farmer. Close a city or road and the meeple comes home with points. Farmers stay down until the end and score for every completed city their field touches, which causes most of the arguments. Many of us at Never Board played this before any other modern game, and it is still our first recommendation for a family stepping beyond the games of their childhood. Best at two or three, when you can actually plan; it stretches to five.