I'm lucky to have the perfect hobby for a long lockdown – board gaming.
And I'm not talking Monopoly or Cluedo but fresh games in a hobby that's been transformed in recent years.
No fewer than 1,500 new titles were unveiled last year at the world's biggest table top games expo that takes place in Essen, Germany.
“Easily accessible family games have been experiencing a boom for years,” said spokeswoman Dominique Metzler.
“A relatively recent phenomenon is that more adults are looking for games with greater strategic challenges.”
When the UK's first gaming expo was held in Birmingham 14 years ago it attracted 800 people. Now it takes over the National Exhibition Centre for three days and last year saw more than 45,000 visitors.
A statistic that might surprise some is that 35% of those attending were women.
The hobby is estimated to be worth £350million in the UK alone. Board game cafes are opening all over the country – or they were before coronavirus struck.
“We get customers looking for an alternative to the wining and dining, pubbing and clubbing routines,” said Russell Chapman of Draughts board game cafe chain in London before the lockdown.
“When we show them the state of board gaming currently, with so many great games that cater to different tastes and attention spans, they often come back again or invest in the hobby themselves. It's such a nice thing to observe.”
Here are my top ten entirely subjective suggestions for anyone new to the hobby.
Azul. An eye-catching game of collecting tiles to decorate a Portuguese palace.
Kingdomino. Dominoes made colourful and clever.
Patchwork. A two-player game by renowned designer Uwe Rosenberg with the cute idea of making a quilt with Tetris-like shapes.
Agricola: All Creatures Big And Small. Also for two players by Uwe Rosenberg but with more depth as you play an ambitious farmer. Don't forget to fence in your livestock, or the animals will run away.
Just One. Brilliantly simple family word deduction game that always raises a laugh.
The River. You play pioneers in early America in this new release condensing some of the best features of modern gaming into a short and accessible package.
Corinth. Yahtzee made interesting: roll dice to give you money and goods for your market in ancient Greece.
Deep Sea Adventure. Dive for treasure and try not to drown in a ten-minute filler game. It has dice and therefore luck, which we tend to frown on in the modern hobby but it's so short that doesn't matter.
Carcassonne. Twenty years old but it still holds it own. Take turns placing terrain tiles, building the board as the game progresses. There's a range of expansions you can buy to add variety to the base game.
Pandemic. Had to mention it in the current circumstances, it's a co-operative game with all players on the same side battling to save humanity.
You should be able to find these games on Amazon or mail order sites such as Gameslore and Zatu, otherwise a good website for the hobby is Boardgamegeek.com, which has its own marketplace for secondhand games.
Looking for the next step in gaming? Here are a few ideas for something a little more involved. Again, it's an entirely personal selection.
Wingspan is the remarkable debut game from designer Elizabeth Hargrave and has been flying off the shelves with a green theme involving attracting birds to wildlife havens.
Going way back in time, there's Imhotep, named after the ancient Egyptian pyramid architect. Everything about this game by Phil Walker-Harding is stunning, from the tense game-play to the top quality production.
The loveable Clank! features players starting with a small hand of cards which they build-up as they raid a castle for treasure, to the increasing irritation of the resident dragon. Get out with your loot or get fried trying.
Judging by games enjoyed at my local club by the most committed players, I'd suggest Russian Railroads (the rules run to 24 pages), Terraforming Mars (a mere 16 pages), and the modern classic Castles of Burgundy, first released in 2011 and which has just undergone a new edition make-over. Any of them will eat up most of an evening.
If I've got time I'd never turn down a game of Brass: Lancashire, a hefty offering set in the industrial revolution from great British designer Martin Wallace.
Stonemaier Games, the company that publishes Wingspan, also makes the delightful Viticulture, where players allocate their workers to different tasks to produce the best Tuscan wines over the passing seasons. Heat up some bruschetta, crack open a Chianti and enjoy.
