We have been playing games! Even up through the summer. And we will continue to do so.
I thought I'd blast down some of the games we have been playing -- some old faves, and a few new ones.
The list of games we've played in the past few weeks... and some notes... it'll be a bunch o' stuff. I put the games in alphabetical order, because the score sheets are all scrambled up, and there are even some games we played which we didn't record, but I had made a note of. So this is more of some quick game reviews as opposed to actually session reports. But it's something! And something a little different than usual. Different is often good. Anyhoo -- here goes...
BohnanzaThis is one we come back around to when we're in the mood. It can lead to anger and impatience and annoyance when the trading is not going well. Egos need to be put aside, but you still need some real shrewdness to get by. One of the hardest parts of this game is remembering that you can not reorder the cards in your hand -- it's painful sometimes. It's one that, in the right crowd, can be quite a bit of fun. In the wrong batch of folks it can turn into a bloodbath. It's amazing that a game based around bean farming could EVER be fun, but this actually is, most of the time (see above).
Bull in a China ShopThis is another unlikely themed game that turns out to be quite a bit of fun. I'm really glad I stumbled over this gem. I'm not surprised, really. It's made by Michael Schacht, who has made such wonderfulness as California, China, Zooloretto (described later in this blog entry!), and Fist of Dragonstones (together with Bruno Faidutti, who is another game genius). Each player runs a China Shop, and during your turn you can buy new china for that shop. If you have no money, or chose to not purchase, your shop is invaded by a bull, which may destroy some of your fine porcelain. You do gain money from this (I suppose you submit an insurance claim), so you'll be able to buy stuff in the future. 4 times during the game, the play is paused and scoring occurs. There are four different ways to score your shop, and you can use each one just once (the system is very Yahtzee-esque). Timing is crucial, buying stuff too soon, will almost ensure its destruction, but waiting will allow other players to scoop up the good stuff. The rules are simple, it plays VERY quick with players who know what they're doing. We'll play this one a lot.
Cranium: Cloodle, Humdinger, Letter Line-Up & SculptoradesCranium games have never been my favorites, really. They really are the ultimate games for non-gamers. I mean, they are good for some silliness, but the enjoyment gets kind of thin after a while. These MINIgames are actually a good way for me to get over this. Each game takes a MAXIMUM of 5 minutes. That's the time everyone has to work together to guess words by describing, drawing, sculpting, or humming. The only new thing to Cranium is the "Letter Line-Up", which is sort of like one of the elements of Hoopla -- in that you have to describe something using words starting with only one letter. In this you roll six letter dice, and you have six letters to choose from (maybe less, if there's a repeat). They're good, quick, cooperative games. And you can mix and match them together to make whatever you may be in the mood for. It's just a tiny little bite of Cranium, and that's perfect.
ElfenlandI do like this game. Designed by Alan Moon. He has probably sold more of his "Ticket to Ride" games than any others. Funny thing: those are my LEAST favorite of his -- I've actually come to avoid playing them whenever I can help it. I love his 10 Days... series of games. Incan Gold (which will be mentioned again below), is a super-simple super-tense wonder of a game. So, I suppose liking this would make sense. The ENTIRE game takes place in 4 turns. Each turn consists of a few steps -- you gather 'permission' tokens, than allow you to plan your path. You then place those tokens, possibly being thwarted by others placing theirs. Lastly you use cards to actually move along those paths. You're trying to visit as many cities as possible -- most cities visited wins! The board is gorgeous, the wooden bits are satisfying to hold, and the cards and tokens are solid and colorful. Pleasant to look at, and pleasant to play. I'm glad we've finally moved this into regular rotation.
For SaleThis one is by a fella named Stefan Dorra, who has also done Intrigue and Turn the Tide, two of my favolrite games ever -- both are quite different in style. Intrigue is completely about negotiation. Turn the Tide is a trick-taking game with painful twists, every point is hard-won. For Sale is also one I enjoy immensely, and is different still. It uses 2 VERY basic game mechanics: Auction and Blind-bidding. These two are often confused or lumped together as the same thing, when they are NOT at all. The game For Sale helps clear up the difference. The first round is an auction round -- some real estate is placed on the table, and the auction begins... the bids go up until everyone drops out, and the best property gets purchased by that person. Once all real estate is purchased, the second round begins: selling off those propereties. This time some money is put on the table. Each player secretly picks a property they've purchased... the highest valued property fetches the most money. Most money at the end wins! Another quick and wonderful game.
Hamster-rolleThis is a dexterity game, sort of in the land of Jenga-style things. But this one uses a wheel! Every person is trying to get rid of a variety of wooden blocks by placing them on the wheel. Each placement disturbs the delicate balance of the wheel, possibly dumping pieces on the table -- those go back into your collection of things you need to get rid of. First one ridding themselves on those pieces wins it all.
Heave Ho!This is just a two-player game, where you are trying to win a tug-of-war game in Scotland. You win barrels of whiskey after each round. One of the wildest twists is the first part of each round is a furious sorting of cards -- each player gets a little less than half the deck. And then each player decides which half to keep and which half to give away. Then you play along playing cards to try to create a heartier team of tuggers than your opponent. Winning gets you a whiskey barrel -- most barrels wins!
Hornochsen!This is relatively new to game club, and may be turning into one of our favorites! It's a card game with a deck of numbered cards (1 to 98). A bunch of seed cards are placed on the table, in order. The order determines what cards can be played on what cards. Each turn players can play one to three cards. When 5 cards in a set are played, it is claimed. Some cards are positive, some are neegative. There are also some +5 and x2 cards in the mix that can help or hurt. Points can be hard to come by. It's simple and fun, and has a really good "One more game!" factor.
Incan GoldThis one requires little explanation or description, because we play it often. This was an instant favorite due to its fun bits and theme. You are an Indiana Jones-style archeaoadventurer (the CLASSIC Indiana Jones, not the new piece of trash), and treasures and horrors await you in a variety of ancient temples. The bravest adventurers can get quite rich, but also risk losing it all to mummies or giant spiders. It's great fun, and there is is much yelling and cheering during each game.
Lost CitiesReiner Knizia's best 2 player game. Don't just take my word for it -- besides Magic: The Gathering, this game has the MOST plays logged on Boardgamegeek. By quite a bit. Settlers? Puerto Rico? Power Grid? ALL PALE in comparison the number of plays of Lost Cities. And it's clear why -- the game is simple, portable, quick, strategic and beautiful. I will play this whenever anyone suggests it. The game is easy -- once you've played a card of a certain color, you can only play numbers greater. At the end, add up all your points, subtracting 20 (to pay back your investors), you get a 20 point bonus if you have 8 or more cards of a single color. Shuffle cards. Play again.
Odin's RavensAnother 2-player game. You are each try to race a raven through an obstacle course of territories. It actually has a feel of being somewhere between Elfenland and Candyland. You have a route you need to take and you play cards to manuever through that route. You also can call on the power of Odin to help you, or thwart your opponent. It's simple and fun, with enough levels of things to do that it is fun every time. The narrow cards are well illustrated, and allow you to fit a lot of cards on a smaller table.
QuiddlerIt's Quiddler. Far and away the most played game here at game club. It's rummy meets Scrabble. It can be played with 2 people or 10 people. It is easy to learn, and can be played however you may be in the mood for -- helpful, or cutthroat. I am on about my 5th Quiddler deck, I play this game so much -- I either make it so the cards are too grubby to be usable, or give a deck away to spread the joy that is Quiddler.
San JuanOver the past coupl of months, San Juan has turned into a real regular for Game Club. It's definitely a "gamer's game", with strategy seeping out of every pore, but it is light enough that we can rope in new people fairly easily. It has turned into one where the regulars like to play with regulars, but we can still drag a new person into the fold now and again. This game has a clever use of cards. The single deck is used for everything. The cards have buildings on them, and you play them as buildings. You use the other cards in your hand as payment for those buildings or as products produced by those buildings. It makes for wonderfully painful choices as to which buildings you discard to build others. With hand limits in effect, the choice is required -- you can't just sit there and hoard cards to build whatever you like. This is based on the smash hit game "Puerto Rico" which I've never successfully played. That one seems to have to same unneccessary and unsatisfying complexity of Power Grid. San Juan is a lovely, lovely game. And the last time we played I actually won. This never happens.
SpyThis is a fairly weak offering from the game giant Reinere Knizia. I mean it IS fun, but it is mostly filler. It is just a set-collecting driven game, quite a bit like Ticket to Ride. BUT, each set made (there are twelve different "suits") increases the number of cards needed the next time. You make a set of 4 "Europes", the next person is going to have to have 5 to cash in. That difficulty increase really saves this otherwise simplistic game. I will play Spy as a filler, but it is certainly not my favorite Knizia game. (At least it's not Blue Moon. BLECH.)
Ticket to RideI have really come to avoid playing this game whenever possible. Its set collection is tedious, its unintentional screwage of others is annoying, its scalability is ATROCIOUS (2 or 3 players, and the game is too spacious, 4 or 5 and you can accomplish nothing), and its length and pace is just ponderous. The bits are tremendous -- hundreds of plastic trains, gorgeous oversized map, nicely colored and illustrated cards. It's not enough to save this otherwise broken game. His other offerings are so much better. I'd rather play Clocktowers... I am clearly alone in this regard, though. Ticket to Ride has sold, I dunno, billions of copies, I think. It's current number 43 on boardgamegeek. I cannot understand it.
TongiakiThis is a fairly quick strategy-filler of a game. WAIT?! Strategy-filler?! It can't be! It's either a strategy game OR a filler! Not anymore. Tongiaki does them both quite well. You each play a group of explorers of the South Pacific, sailing through uncharted territory. The strategy is in how you expand your boats and at what times. The problem is that when an island fills up, your opponents can sail you right off the island without your permission. This potential expansion of your folks can help or harm you. And even though you are not actively participating, you feel involved in the game when it isn't your turn. It makes the downtime feel a lot less 'down'. And there is often groaning and screaming as an opponent forces your boats into dangerous waters to their demise. I really love this game. The bits, the action, the tension, the strategy, and the brevity of this game make it one I come back to often.
Word BlurA new party game has been added to Game Club! This is a word-guessing game. It's a little tricky to explain for a really simply game, but here goes: Imagine Pictionary, but instead of DRAWING the word, you need to grab words from a head of Magnetic-Poetry-looking bits and arrange them so they describe to word. Every play is an all-play, so there is no down time at all. There is a card with modifiers on it, to help you better use the words you pick from the pile (plurals, 'sound like', opposite of). You have to be fairly clever, and have some real mind-melding going to be successful at this game. It is fun, and hilarious. There are some real "OH WOW!" moments when you finally figure out where someone was going with a cleverly wacky description. I see this one being played fairly often...
Zombie FluxxI've never been a big fan of Fluxx. I liked it when i first played it, but it got a little tired after a while. I think part of the problem is that new people tended to complain about its complexity. The simplest game on the PLANET, and people would whine, "This is TOO HARD." Then they'd go sit down and play Power Grid. ALL THE RULES ARE ON THE CARDS. READ AND DO. NOT hard. And everyone else will help step you through this monstrously easy game! That aspect always ate away at me, so Fluxx disappeared for a while. But now there's Zombie Fluxx. A little more complicated because ZOMBIES are involved. I think this could help... I amagine this conversation: "YOu know Fluxx?" "Yeah, that's too tricky." "Well, now it has zombies in it." "ALL RIGHT THEN, let's play!" Zombies make everything better. And it has definitely worked for Fluxx. This is FAR from a perfect game, but the hilarity of the Zombies (especially with the card that forces you to groan like a Zombie whenever one appears) gives it a nice edge. This is some fine, fine filler. And I just love the "Zombie Jamboree!" "Let's Shamble!!"
ZoolorettoThis is a game designed by Michael Schacht, who I have learned makes very, very wonderful diversions. Bull in a China Shop (described above), California, China, Fist of Dragonstones, have all turned out to be ones I enjoy immensely. Zooloretto fits in with those very nicely. Each player owns a zoo and is trying to fill their zoo pens with a set of animals. FILL is the key, incomplete pens net you less points. You can also put vending machines around to help attract folks. Each turn starts with people loading up trucks with random stuff (animals, vending, money). During the loading process you can use your money to upgrade your zoo, move animals around, or buy animals from opponents. Endgame comes sooner than you'd like -- it's easy to get stranded with stuff you wouldn't like. Planning ahead is important, and unfortunately sometimes impossible. You have to keep an eye on everyone else's zoo, and see how they interact with your own. Each play reveals more subtleties in the gameplay. I couldn't possibly say enough about the bits -- the animals are adorable, and the wooden "trucks", though they don't look truck-ish are perfect. There are plenty of add-ons to this game, which I haven't tried, but would like to. Although, the base game is tremendous alone.
PHEW. That was a lot of reviewing. But hopefully it adequately filled in a huge gap in blog sessions...
Off to play some more!
No comments:
Post a Comment