Board games are often full of maps and a great resource for exploring and learning more about our world. Before diving into some great games, we visit about some of our experiences with geographically rich games and some educational opportunities they can offer. We had the additional pleasure of doing some exploring in real life ourselves aboard a Gamer Adventures cruise to the Caribbean. Some of today's comments were collected during that excursion.

Our first look is at the board game Ingenious. This abstract strategy game is challenging, easy to learn, and full of color. You have a lot of options to weigh to maximize your score.

We then take a look at Empire Builder. This one is full of geographic principles creating a good fit with today's topic. There is a real geographic impact on the economy of the game that is fun to explore. Empire Builder has been repackaged from the earlier edition and promises new popularity with its new found beauty.

Our final look is at Catan Geographies Germany. Relive German history as you build the infrastructure of Germany and various historical sites. It plays like the other Catan games but is streamlined into one quick-setup board.