2013 Holiday Game Gift Guide

As a reviewer, I'm frequently talking about different games.  I give my opinions on games, and try to give you ideas of what to buy for yourself or others.  So why a Christmas shopping list?  Well, a few thoughts.  First, it's nice to have a set of recommendations in one place.  Second, it's a lot easier to point people to a list rather than a blog and say read reviews.

Formatting note, each category has 5 games in it, except for the Personal Favorites.  Those games are ordered alphabetically, not in an order of preference.  There are no repeats on the list, but there are games that would work in more than one category.

Personal Favorites
These are games that are great in a variety of situations.  They're things that most casual gamers should have in their collection.  They are games I've enjoyed, and they work for a lot of different people and situations.

• 7 Wonders - A card driven civilization building game.  Many different paths to take in the game: Merchant, Science, Warfare, Buildings.  Plays in around 45 minutes, less as you play more.
• Article 27 - A very engaging negotiation game.  It's great for people who like to talk and try to make deals.  It's not too complex, so anyone can play, but there's some depth that isn't apparent right away.
• Dominion - The grandfather of deckbuilding games.  Play cards to gain more cards, and ultimately victory points.  Plays in roughly 30 minutes, depends on the set of cards.
• For Sale - Quick auction game.  Bid on properties, use those properties to gain checks, try to make the most money. 
• Incan Gold - Push your luck game with a great sense of adventure.  Knowing when to run is key in the game.  Lots of fun for all ages and all types of players.
• Settlers of Catan - One of the classics of modern gaming.  Compete to gather resources, build roads, settlements, and cities.  Be the first to 10 points and you win.  Lots of luck, good amount of skill.  If you want a twist on it, check out Star Trek Catan.
• Ticket to Ride - Another classic of modern gaming.  Build routes on the map to complete tickets.  Have a network of trains to complete lots of tickets.  Easy to learn, quick to play.  I recommend either the US or Europe map to start.

Family Games for Young Children
These are primarily meant as games that young children can play with their siblings and/or parents.  I don't have much experience here, but I thought some ideas on this category would be helpful.

• Botswana - A card game about gathering animals.
• Bugs in the Kitchen - A quick game with a really cool toy factor.  You move utensils to guide a mechanical bug into your corner of the map
• Forbidden Desert - A co-op game(everyone works together) about gathering parts of an ancient airship after you crash-land.
• Loopin' Louie - Perhaps more of a toy with a game connected. Players try to make the plane land in someone else's farm.  The plane steals chickens until only one player has chickens left.
• Sorry Sliders - Players slide pawns down a track, trying to score points in the center area.  Somewhat similar to Curling, but with much simpler scoring.

Family Games for Older Children
As kids get older, they're able to play more complicated games.  Here are some games that are fun for kids and adults.  These games offer a challenge, but are also light enough that people won't be upset.  The themes are also kid friendly.

• The Adventurers - Ever wanted to feel like Indiana Jones? This really is the game for you. Avoid the walls closing in, the giant boulder running you down, lava pits, a rapid river and a rickety bridge.
• Castle Panic - A Co-op tower defense game.  Work together as a team to defeat goblins, trolls, and other fantasy evils.
• Say Anything Family - Ever wonder which boy band is the best, or which Disney princess in your dad's favorite.  This is a great way to find out.  Lots of fun questions, and players can write anything they want as an answer.
• Word on the Street - A tug-of-war of words.  Work in teams to spell long words that fit the category.  
• Zooloretto - Ever wonder what it might be like to run your own zoo?  Zooloretto gives each player a chance to see how well they'd do as a zookeeper. 

Games for all Ages
These are games for families, for kids, for adults, basically, whoever plays games.  They're not the most complex, but they are fun, and fairly short.

• Can't Stop - A push-your-luck dice game.  You roll 4 dice, combine 2 dice to make numbers, and then move that marker up. You only get 3 markers each round, and if you don't roll your numbers you lose. You can freeze after any roll, so there is an interesting choice to be made.
• Escape: Curse of the Temple - A real time co-op dice game.  This game takes exactly 10 minutes to play.  It's also probably the most intense 10 minutes of gaming you'll experience.
• Flash Point: Fire Rescue - Save people, and pets, from a burning building.  It's a great theme, a good challenge, and has good replayability.  
• King of Tokyo - A game of King of the Hill with all the randomness of a Godzilla movie.  Players are trying to destroy each other and the city of Tokyo.  
• Shadows Over Camelot - A Co-op game in the times of King Arthur.  Work together to fight the forces of evil, defeat the black night, find Excalibur and the Holy Grail, hold off the Picts and Saxons.  And if that wasn't hard enough, there might be a traitor amongst you.

Stocking Stuffers
These are relatively inexpensive games, I believe all are under $20, perhaps even $10. They're quick to play, and work in various situations.

• Bananagrams - A different take on the classic Scrabble.  Awesome carrying pouch, and no letter points make the game play faster and easier.
• Hanabi - A co-op card management game.  You really have to work well together to get out the right information at the right time.  This is a challenging game, but fun for a great number of people.
• Love Letter - 16 cards, some cubes, and very strategic gameplay with a bit of luck.  The game plays quickly, but it also good fun.
• No Thanks! - A quick card game with numbers. Players use chips to pass on cards or take cards.  Cards are points at the end of the game, but like golf, the low score wins.  Chips are negative, and when you take a card with chips, you gain the chips as well.  Make a run of cards and only the lowest card in that run scores.
• The Resistance - An interesting deduction/find the traitor game.  Plays quickly and doesn't feature player elimination like Werewolf/Mafia does.

Games for Teenagers/Young Adults
I'm thinking of games I was able to play in High School and College, plus some new games that would have been great for those groups.  A lot of the family games would work here as well.  The biggest thing for this category is theme.  13-25 is a time of life where most people, guys especially, want some theme in their games.  Theme helps draw people in.  These are all games with fun themes and good gameplay to back it up.

• Battlestar Galactica - Amazing theme incorporation, often a tense game, superb with 5 players.  It runs long (around 3 or 4 hours) but it's a great experience.
• Pathfinder Adventure Card Game - I haven't played this, but I've heard wonderful things about it from some friends who love roleplaying.  It seems to have a lot of variety and depth.
• Risk Legacy - This is THE GAME to buy for someone who loves Risk.  It's such a different game experience while holding on to the same mechanics.  It's still dice rolling and armies all over the place, but the game will end.  It's a matter of points and objectives not just take over the world.
• Small World - A fairly quick (~45-60 minutes) combat game. Players use combinations of fantasy races and powers to stay on the map and earn points.  Eventually all good things must come to an end, but new things come out.  Combat is simple, turns are quick, but choices are meaningful.
• Star Wars X-Wing Miniatures Game - If you have a child/parent/spouse/sibling/cousin/fiancè/etc. who loves Star Wars, buy this for them.  They will love it.  This is Star Wars space battles in a box.  There's a lot of room to expand, but this is a great place for anyone to start.

Couples games
These are all 2-player games. They come recommended to me by several couples.  I will say that I am not an expert, or even a novice here.  Really, Games with Two is your best resource for couples games in general.

• Agricola: All Creatures Big and Small - I haven't played this, but the wonderful people over at Games With Two did a fantastic review.  Here's the Link.
• Lost Cities - An adventure game using numbers to gain points on various trips.  You have to play cards in ascending order, and once you skip something you can never go back.  Several interesting choices in the game.
• Hive - A tile game where each piece type has a different power associated with it.  I've only played it on the iOS, but it's a challenging game, and a good battle of wits.
• Kahuna - Players use cards to place or remove bridges from various islands.  If you gain the majority around an island, you take control of that island and remove your opponent's bridges to that island.  That action might cause them to lose a majority on another island, and the ripple effect ensues.
• Mr. Jack - A deduction game that uses special character abilities.  Jack the Ripper assumes a hidden identity which the inspector attempts to uncover.  Jack tries to escape under the cover of darkness, or last 8 turns, in either case he wins.

Games for the Non-Gamer
These are some ideas for games to get someone who isn't already a gamer.  They may never become a hardcore gamer, but these are some fun games that are easy to learn, play in under 30 minutes, and work for a variety of people.

• Beyond Balderdash - A hilarious game about making things up while trying to sound like the official answer.  Balderdash is just definitions of words, Beyond Balderdash extends that to dates, places, and all kinds of other things.
• Blokus - A great game for visual spacial people.  The puzzle pieces are tricky to get in the board, and other players often mess you up, but it's a great challenge.
• Ingenious - This is a big matching game. The challenge comes as space gets tighter and your options decrease.  There's a lot of planning, but also choices to be made each turn.
• Qwirkle - Place tiles in rows and columns with either the same color or the same shape, just no doubles.  Gain extra points for making a Qwirkle (all 6 pieces in a row/column)
• Take it Easy - Similar to Bingo, but all skill instead of the random luck of numbers.  It's a puzzle game, and no direct interaction, but a true challenge of a game.

Games for the Zombie/Horror Enthusiast

I am not personally one of these people, but I know Zombies are a big thing lately, and there are several games that use the theme to varying degrees of success. The same goes for the horror genre, though I've played some of those games.  

• Arkham Horror - This is the biggest game for the category.  It's a mega co-op game.  There are bunches of cards and even more tokens.  There are also around a dozen expansions.  It's a fantastic game for Lovecraft fans, and a solid game for people looking for a deep co-op experience.
• Elder Sign - Set in the Arkham Horror universe, Elder Sign is a co-op dice game.  The challenge is to collect Elder Signs before an evil one awakens, wreaking all kinds of havoc.  Players use cards, strategy, and lots of luck to complete quests and earn items crucial to their success.  This is by no means easy, but it is a good challenge.
• Give Me the Brain - Ever wonder what would happen if a bunch of Zombies ran a fast food restaurant? Well, this game gives you the opportunity to find out.  It's a fairly quick card game where you try to get rid of your cards as quickly as you can.
• Last Night on Earth - A team game of humans versus zombies.  Humans are trying to escape/survive/kill zombies based on the scenario.  Gameplay is simple, lots of dice, and some fun to be had.
• Mansions of Madness - An investigation game where players much seek out clues, avoid monsters, and try to escape with their sanity intact.  

Party Games
These are games that work for a large group of people.  They're meant to be loud and energetic games with a lot of laughs.

• Bang - A wild west shoot the bad guy game.  The sheriff is known to all players, but all other players are hidden.  The outlaws try to kill the sheriff while the good guys try to kill all the outlaws.
• Dixit Odyssey - Any Dixit works, Odyssey plays with the most people.  Dixit has amazing artwork, and draws on players imagination and story-telling abilities.  Even if you're not a good storyteller, or a creative person in general, this game is still a lot of fun.
• Mafia/Werewolf - A hidden identity and player role game.  The werewolves/Mafia know who each other are, but the "regular" people have no clue who is who.  The "bad" guys get a kill every night, and then the group as a whole can take someone out during the day for suspicions of being the "bad" guy.  It's an interesting exercise in group think
• Telestrations / Eat Poop You Cat - Words into a picture or a picture into words.  The game is a hilarious example of how bad communication is amongst people, especially when you can't draw.  There are no real winners or losers here, just a great way to spend time and recount things at the end.
• Wits and Wagers Party - A trivia game where you don't really have to know anything.  Sure, having an idea about things is good, but these questions are set-up so that you don't have to know it exactly in order to do well.  The game plays fast, but there's room for discussion and chat.  It also helps to know those around you, so when that random movie question comes up, you know to bet on the movie "expert." Or when the science question comes up, you bet on the guy who's taught HS science for 20 years. The better version of Trivial Pursuit.

Games Released in 2013 that are Worth a Look, Even Though We Haven't Played Them Much or At All.

• Augustus - I've heard this described as gamer's Bingo.  It's a fairly light game, but looks to be a great family game.
• Caverna - I've heard this called Agricola 2.0.  So, if your gamer is a fan of Agricola, this is certainly worth a look.
• Eldritch Horror - This is a followup game to the wildly popular Arkham Horror.  It's cooperative, and has a lot tough decisions.  There's a lot of different things going on in this game, so players should never be bored.
• Firefly: The Game - A must have game for the Firefly gamer in your life.  The theme is woven through this game at every turn.  It may not be a perfect game, but it captures Firefly.
• The Duke - I've heard this described as boardgamer's chess.  There are pieces on a board that can move in different ways, but once they move, the tile is flipped over and a different move is possible.  I think this has a lot of potential, especially for a chess player looking to get into boardgames.

Games for Gamers

There's a lot of variety in games that gamers will like. What this category attempts to do is give some games, both new and old, that should appeal to a wide variety of gamers

• Agricola - A classic Euro style game with a lot of replayability.  Players act as a farmer, balancing growing crops, raising animals, procuring resources for the home, and feeding their family.  There are a lot of choices to be made here, and not everything can always be done.
• Black Friday - A Stock Market manipulation game.  There are a lot of ways to adjust the market, a lot of back and forth, fighting to increase the value of a good so you can sell it for more, or lower it, so your opponent's stash is less valuable.  The game can get a bit mathy, but it's money, so not too bad.
• Cosmic Encounter - The grandfather of variable player powers.  Cosmic is a negotiation game with a streamlined combat system.  There's a ton of chaos, but it's mostly controlled chaos.
• Power Grid - Another economic game with a twist.  Players purchase power plants to power cities and buy resources to power the power plants. Power plants involve an auction, purchasing resources is done from a market so that the player who is "losing" pays the least for resources.
• Twilight Struggle - A two player political game that recreates the cold war.  Twilight Struggle is tense, has a lot going on, and will actually teach you a thing or two about the cold war era.  

Where to actually buy the games.
There are several places to buy these games.  Target, Toys R Us and Barnes & Nobles carry some of these games, but not all.  Amazon has just about every game listed here but can often be a little expensive.
I personally recommend these online sites

• coolstuffinc.com
• funagain.com
• gateplay.com
• miniaturemarket.com

I hope these give you some great ideas for games to buy for those around you.
62 games should give you some ideas.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all of you. May your days be spent with the ones you love.

Collection Building: Animal Games

This is a departure from the other Collection Building articles.  Today the focus is on the theme of animals rather than a game mechanic or a situation in which a game can be used.  Animals tend to fascinate many children.  There is so much to learn about the fellow inhabitants of planet earth.  There is a wide variety of animal games, and many more games that I don't know about than I do know about.  As such, this is not a comprehensive list, but a guide to my experiences with animal games, and hopefully it will guide your journey into the animal kingdom.

Zooloretto
The 2007 German Game of the Year (SDJ) winner for good reason.  Zooloretto allows players to take control of their own zoo.  This means that they must acquire animals and kiosks for their zoo while balancing limited funds and restricted space.  Animals include Elephants, Monkeys, Cheetahs, and Zebras.  The game plays in around an hour and works for 3-5 players. I wouldn't play with kids much younger than 8 since there is some strategy to learn.

Aquaretto
The sequel to Zooloretto, except now players are in charge of a marine park.  Animals include Dolphins, Whales, Sea Lions, Polar Bears, and Sea Turtles.  This was a great game for my sister since she loves dolphins.  The scoring rules are a little more complicated than Zooloretto, since the performing animals act differently than normal ones, but it isn't too much more to learn.  Acquaretto plays in around an hour and works for 3-5 players.

Fauna
A fun and educational game all about animal trivia.  Wait, it's not that boring.  Sure, the game does require thought, but it's not that hard.  Here's how the game works.  The top half of a card is displayed with a picture of an animal, the genus and species name, as well as how many areas the animal is found in.  Players then take turns placing marker cubes on the board in areas they think the animal is in, as well as ranges for weight, height/length, and tail length.  After all players place their cubes or pass, then the card is pulled and the right answers are awarded points.  If you're wrong, but you happen to be adjacent to a right answer, you get some points.  The game goes until a certain point level is reached, or for a certain number of rounds, depends on how you want to play it.  I was able to play this on Thanksgiving night with one of my uncles, a cousin, my dad and my sister.  My uncle, who does not play games, really enjoyed it.  It helps that he's a HS science teacher, but he asked to play it again for Christmas, which is a really good sign.  Fauna plays in around 30-45 minutes with 2-6 players, though I find it best with 4-5.

Botswana
This is a card game with an animal theme.  There are some really cool animal figures, but the theme doesn't shine through.  Still, kids will have fun with a simple card game, especially since there are animals around.  There is some strategy, but also a good amount of luck.  Botswana plays in around 30 minutes with 2-5 players, best with 3-4.

Price Wars

Botswana is really the best bang for your buck.  I can't speak to the replayability, but it seems high to me.  If you want a more immersive experience, go with Zooloretto or Aquaretto.  If you have kids that just love everything animal, go with Fauna.

My overall pick, Botswana.  It likely appeals to the most people, and has a lower price point.

2012 Christmas Game Guide

As a reviewer, I'm frequently talking about different games.  I give my opinions on games, and try to give you ideas of what to buy for yourself or others.  So why a Christmas shopping list?  Well, a few thoughts.  First, it's nice to have a set of recommendations in one place.  Second, it's a lot easier to point people to a list rather than a blog and say read reviews.

These are my thoughts, with the help of some friends, especially Nick, Rose, and BGG user stevepwalker.

Formatting note, each category has 5 games in it, except for the Personal Favorites.  Those games are ordered alphabetically, not in an order of preference.  There are no repeats on the list, but there are games that would work in more than one category.

Personal Favorites
These are games that are great in a variety of situations.  They're things that most casual gamers should have in their collection.  They are games I've enjoyed, and they work for a lot of different people and situations.

• 7 Wonders - A card driven civilization building game.  Many different paths to take in the game: Merchant, Science, Warfare, Buildings.  Plays in around 45 minutes, less as you play more.
• Dominion - The grandfather of deckbuilding games.  Play cards to gain more cards, and ultimately victory points.  Plays in roughly 30 minutes, depends on the set of cards.
• For Sale - Quick auction game.  Bid on properties, use those properties to gain checks, try to make the most money. 
• Incan Gold - Push your luck game with a great sense of adventure.  Knowing when to run is key in the game.  Lots of fun for all ages and all types of players.
• Settlers of Catan - One of the classics of modern gaming.  Compete to gather resources, build roads, settlements, and cities.  Be the first to 10 points and you win.  Lots of luck, good amount of skill.
• Ticket to Ride - Another classic of modern gaming.  Build routes on the map to complete tickets.  Have a network of trains to complete lots of tickets.  Easy to learn, quick to play.

Family Games for Young Children
These are primarily meant as games that young children can play with their siblings and/or parents.  I don't have much experience here, but I thought some ideas on this category would be helpful.

• Animal Upon Animal - A simple game of stacking animals on each other.  It's hard to do well, but simple to play and understand.
• Botswana - A card game about gathering animals.
• Forbidden Island - A co-op game(everyone works together) about gathering treasure on a sinking island.
• Loopin' Louie - Perhaps more of a toy with a game connected. Players try to make the plane land in someone else's farm.  The plane steals chickens until only one player has chickens left.
• Sorry Sliders - Players slide pawns down a track, trying to score points in the center area.  Somewhat similar to Curling, but with much simpler scoring.

Family Games for Older Children
As kids get older, they're able to play more complicated games.  Here are some games that are fun for kids and adults.  These games offer a challenge, but are also light enough that people won't be upset.  The themes are also kid friendly.

• The Adventurers - Ever wanted to feel like Indiana Jones? This really is the game for you. Avoid the walls closing in, the giant boulder running you down, lava pits, a rapid river and a rickety bridge.
• Castle Panic - A Co-op tower defense game.  Work together as a team to defeat goblins, trolls, and other fantasy evils.
• Say Anything Family - Ever wonder which boy band is the best, or which Disney princess in your dad's favorite.  This is a great way to find out.  Lots of fun questions, and players can write anything they want as an answer.
• Word on the Street - A tug-of-war of words.  Work in teams to spell long words that fit the category.  
• Zooloretto - Ever wonder what it might be like to run your own zoo?  Zooloretto gives each player a chance to see how well they'd do as a zookeeper. 

Games for all Ages
These are games for families, for kids, for adults, basically, whoever plays games.  They're not the most complex, but they are fun, and fairly short.

• Can't Stop - A push-your-luck dice game.  You roll 4 dice, combine 2 dice to make numbers, and then move that marker up. You only get 3 markers each round, and if you don't roll your numbers you lose. You can freeze after any roll, so there is an interesting choice to be made.
• Flash Point: Fire Rescue - Save people, and pets, from a burning building.  It's a great theme, a good challenge, and has good replayability.  
• King of Tokyo - A game of King of the Hill with all the randomness of a Godzilla movie.  Players are trying to destroy each other and the city of Tokyo.  
• Shadows Over Camelot - A Co-op game in the times of King Arthur.  Work together to fight the forces of evil, defeat the black night, find Excalibur and the Holy Grail, hold off the Picts and Saxons.  And if that wasn't hard enough, there might be a traitor amongst you.
• Smash Up - A faction card game with minions and actions.  Minions are played to bases to earn points for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place.  There are fun combinations of decks, like Ninja Dinosaurs, Alien Wizards, and Pirate Zombies.  Each faction plays differently, and each combination of two makes for an interesting game.

Stocking Stuffers
These are relatively inexpensive games, I believe all are under $20, perhaps even $10. They're quick to play, and work in various situations.

• 6 Nimmt/Category 5 - A quick card game involving numbers.  Play is fast, everyone is gathering cards but trying to keep their totals low.
• Bananagrams - A different take on the classic Scrabble.  Awesome carrying pouch, and no letter points make the game play faster and easier.
• Mr. Jack Pocket - A simplified card version of Mr. Jack. Jack tries to stay hidden as long as he can, while the inspector hunts him down.  Good for 2 players.
• No Thanks! - A quick card game with numbers. Players use chips to pass on cards or take cards.  Cards are points at the end of the game, but like golf, the low score wins.  Chips are negative, and when you take a card with chips, you gain the chips as well.  Make a run of cards and only the lowest card in that run scores.
• The Resistance - An interesting deduction/find the traitor game.  Plays quickly and doesn't feature player elimination like Werewolf/Mafia does.

Games for Teenagers/Young Adults
I'm thinking of games I was able to play in High School and College, plus some new games that would have been great for those groups.  A lot of the family games would work here as well.  The biggest thing for this category is theme.  13-25 is a time of life where most people, guys especially, want some theme in their games.  Theme helps draw people in.  These are all games with fun themes and good gameplay to back it up.

• Battlestar Galactica - Amazing theme incorporation, often a tense game, superb with 5 players.
• Munchkin - A fun card game. Very random, fairly light. If players don't take it too serious, it's a fun game.
• Risk Legacy - This is THE GAME to buy for someone who loves Risk.  It's such a different game experience while holding on to the same mechanics.  It's still dice rolling and armies all over the place, but the game will end.  It's a matter of points and objectives not just take over the world.
• Small World - A fairly quick (~45-60 minutes) combat game. Players use combinations of fantasy races and powers to stay on the map and earn points.  Eventually all good things must come to an end, but new things come out.  Combat is simple, turns are quick, but choices are meaningful.
• Star Wars X-Wing Miniatures Game - If you have a son/father/brother/nephew/husband/fiancè/etc. who loves Star Wars, buy this for them.  They will love it.  This is Star Wars space battles in a box.  There's a lot of room to expand, but this is a great place for anyone to start.

Couples games
These are all 2-player games. They come recommended to me by several couples.  I will say that I am not an expert, or even a novice here.  Really, Games with Two is your best resource for couples games in general.

• Agricola: All Creatures Big and Small - I haven't played this, but the wonderful people over at Games With Two did a fantastic review.  Here's the Link.
• Lost Cities - An adventure game using numbers to gain points on various trips.  You have to play cards in ascending order, and once you skip something you can never go back.  Several interesting choices in the game.
• Hive - A tile game where each piece type has a different power associated with it.  I've only played it on the iOS, but it's a challenging game, and a good battle of wits.
• Kahuna - Players use cards to place or remove bridges from various islands.  If you gain the majority around an island, you take control of that island and remove your opponent's bridges to that island.  That action might cause them to lose a majority on another island, and the ripple effect ensues.
• Mr. Jack - A deduction game that uses special character abilities.  Jack the Ripper assumes a hidden identity which the inspector attempts to uncover.  Jack tries to escape under the cover of darkness, or last 8 turns, in either case he wins.

Games for the Non-Gamer
These are some ideas for games to get someone who isn't already a gamer.  They may never become a hardcore gamer, but these are some fun games that are easy to learn, play in under 30 minutes, and work for a variety of people.

• Beyond Balderdash - A hilarious game about making things up while trying to sound like the official answer.  Balderdash is just definitions of words, Beyond Balderdash extends that to dates, places, and all kinds of other things.
• Blokus - A great game for visual spacial people.  The puzzle pieces are tricky to get in the board, and other players often mess you up, but it's a great challenge.
• Ingenious - This is a big matching game. The challenge comes as space gets tighter and your options decrease.  There's a lot of planning, but also choices to be made each turn.
• Qwirkle - Place tiles in rows and columns with either the same color or the same shape, just no doubles.  Gain extra points for making a Qwirkle (all 6 pieces in a row/column)
• Take it Easy - Similar to Bingo, but all skill instead of the random luck of numbers.  It's a puzzle game, and no direct interaction, but a true challenge of a game.

Games for the Zombie/Horror Enthusiast

I am not personally one of these people, but I know Zombies are a big thing lately, and there are several games that use the theme to varying degrees of success. The same goes for the horror genre, though I've played some of those games.  

• Arkham Horror - This is the biggest game for the category.  It's a mega co-op game.  There are bunches of cards and even more tokens.  There are also around a dozen expansions.  It's a fantastic game for Lovecraft fans, and a solid game for people looking for a deep co-op experience.
• Elder Sign - Set in the Arkham Horror universe, Elder Sign is a co-op dice game.  The challenge is to collect Elder Signs before an evil one awakens, wreaking all kinds of havoc.  Players use cards, strategy, and lots of luck to complete quests and earn items crucial to their success.  This is by no means easy, but it is a good challenge.
• Give Me the Brain - Ever wonder what would happen if a bunch of Zombies ran a fast food restaurant? Well, this game gives you the opportunity to find out.  It's a fairly quick card game where you try to get rid of your cards as quickly as you can.
• Last Night on Earth - A team game of humans versus zombies.  Humans are trying to escape/survive/kill zombies based on the scenario.  Gameplay is simple, lots of dice, and some fun to be had.
• Mansions of Madness - An investigation game where players much seek out clues, avoid monsters, and try to escape with their sanity intact.  

Party Games
These are games that work for a large group of people.  They're meant to be loud and energetic games with a lot of laughs.

• Bang - A wild west shoot the bad guy game.  The sheriff is known to all players, but all other players are hidden.  The outlaws try to kill the sheriff while the good guys try to kill all the outlaws.
• Dixit Odyssey - Any Dixit works, Odyssey plays with the most people.  Dixit has amazing artwork, and draws on players imagination and story-telling abilities.  Even if you're not a good storyteller, or a creative person in general, this game is still a lot of fun.
• Mafia/Werewolf - A hidden identity and player role game.  The werewolves/Mafia know who each other are, but the "regular" people have no clue who is who.  The "bad" guys get a kill every night, and then the group as a whole can take someone out during the day for suspicions of being the "bad" guy.  It's an interesting exercise in group think
• Telestrations / Eat Poop You Cat - Words into a picture or a picture into words.  The game is a hilarious example of how bad communication is amongst people, especially when you can't draw.  There are no real winners or losers here, just a great way to spend time and recount things at the end.
• Wits and Wagers Party - A trivia game where you don't really have to know anything.  Sure, having an idea about things is good, but these questions are set-up so that you don't have to know it exactly in order to do well.  The game plays fast, but there's room for discussion and chat.  It also helps to know those around you, so when that random movie question comes up, you know to bet on the movie "expert." Or when the science question comes up, you bet on the guy who's taught HS science for 20 years. The better version of Trivial Pursuit.

Games Released in 2012 that are Worth a Look, Even Though We Haven't Played Them Much or At All.

• Descent 2.0 - An update to the dungeon crawl game Descent.  The game is designed for fast play, has an optional campaign mode, streamlined combat.  
• Love Letter - A game of risk, deduction, and luck. You're trying to deliver a letter to the Princess, and stop others from doing the same.  You have to balance powerful and weak cards to not be too much of a target, but not so weak that you can't deliver the letter.
• Mice and Mystics - A dungeon adventure for intrepid mice. Yes mice, not men, well, mice who were once men who are trying to become men again.  Here, rats, roaches and the dreaded cat are the dangers that lurk in the castle.  This game has a unique twist on the dungeon adventure and a great family friendly theme.
• Seasons - Like the name might suggest, this is a game played over several seasons, which each season affecting players in different ways.  There is a lot of card drafting, a good mix of luck and skill, and adapting to new challenges.
• Suburbia - In a way, this is Sim City the boardgame.  Then the game launches in new ways that truly make it a boardgame.  

Games for Gamers

There's a lot of variety in games that gamers will like. What this category attempts to do is give some games, both new and old, that should appeal to a wide variety of gamers

• Agricola - A classic Euro style game with a lot of replayability.  Players act as a farmer, balancing growing crops, raising animals, procuring resources for the home, and feeding their family.  There are a lot of choices to be made here, and not everything can always be done.
• Black Friday - A Stock Market manipulation game.  There are a lot of ways to adjust the market, a lot of back and forth, fighting to increase the value of a good so you can sell it for more, or lower it, so your opponent's stash is less valuable.  The game can get a bit mathy, but it's money, so not too bad.
• Cosmic Encounter - The grandfather of variable player powers.  Cosmic is a negotiation game with a streamlined combat system.  There's a ton of chaos, but it's mostly controlled chaos.
• Power Grid - Another economic game with a twist.  Players purchase power plants to power cities and buy resources to power the power plants. Power plants involve an auction, purchasing resources is done from a market so that the player who is "losing" pays the least for resources.
• Twilight Struggle - A political game that recreates the cold war.  Twilight Struggle is tense, has a lot going on, and will actually teach you a thing or two about the cold war era.  

Where to actually buy the games.
There are several places to buy these games.  Target, Toys R Us and Barnes & Nobles carry some of these games, but not all.  Amazon has just about every game listed here but can often be a little expensive.
I personally recommend these online sites

• boardsandbits.com
• coolstuffinc.com
• funagain.com
• gateplay.com
• miniaturemarket.com

I hope these give you some great ideas for games to buy for those around you.
61 games should give you some ideas.  For some other thoughts and opinions, check out Games with Two's list which you can find on their blog http://gameswithtwo.blogspot.com/2012/11/2012-christmas-gift-guide-with-two.html

My Best of the Best Games to Buy This Holiday Season

1. Star Wars X-Wing Miniatures
2. Incan Gold
3. Ticket to Ride
4. Dixit
5. Flash Point Fire Rescue

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all of you. May your days be spent with the ones you love.

Collection Building: Card Games

Since the mid 1990's there have been a slew of Collectible Card games or CCGs as they're commonly referred to.  For awhile, I got in to the Star Trek CCG with my cousins.  That was a fun bonding experience and made for some awesome Friday nights hunting down the Future Enterprise (the first Ultra Rare)

In 2008, things changed.  Two major paths started in gaming. The first, the Limited Card game.  Buy a core set, buy chapter packs as they were released, but nothing is random.  I like the model, since it lets you control your costs.  The second path was the deckbuilding game.  Instead of building a deck outside of the game and playing it, the game was all about building that deck.

Dominion
Dominion introduced the deckbuilding mechanic.  The base game had everything you needed to play with up to 4 people.  Then there were expansions which added, and added, and added, to the possibilities in any given game.  Now, one would think that with all those expansions Dominion would become impossible to learn.  And they'd be right, if it wasn't for the clever mechanic that there are only ever 10 special cards in any given game.  This keeps the game easy to learn and quick to play.  It also adds near infinite replayabilty, to the point where you could never play every single possible game using all the cards.

Eminent Domain
Eminent Domain added building to the deckbuilding concept.  In Em-Do, players build up an empire of planets.  These planets give bonuses, produce resources, and help with technology.  Speaking of technology, there's an interesting and deep tech tree in the game which gives it added depth.  Em-Do is still simple because there are only 5 things you can possibly do on your turn.  It's also highly interactive because you can do something on other players' turns.

Race for the Galaxy
RftG follows in the shoes of San Juan(the card game, not the place).  Each round, players select an action.  Then all players take each of those actions, with the player who selected the action getting a bonus.  The goal is to gain the most points through colonizing planets, researching developments and selling resources.  The game uses cards for almost everything.  Each card is either a development or a planet.  Players use cards in their hand to pay for the developments and planets.  They place a card facedown from the deck when they produce a resource. When they trade a resource they take cards from the deck.  Using cards for everything, except points, is an interesting feature of the game.  I like that it offers you more choices, even with a limited hand of cards.  It also keeps the extraneous components down, which is a plus when it comes to table space.  The one knock I have on Race for the Galaxy is the lack of interaction.  I know that the 2nd expansion offers rules for takeovers, but it's so limited, the rules are more trouble than they're worth.  The more I played, I tried to anticipate what other players would select for their actions so I could combo off that, but with so few action choices, this rarely made a huge difference to me.

Fluxx
Cue the collective groan in 3,2,1....
Ok, now that you've got that out of the way, let me talk about Fluxx for a minute.  The game is random, it's often crazy, and it can take forever to play, but it is simple to teach, easy for people to get into, and it offers a lot of theme choices.  I personally like Monty Python Fluxx.  I think the trap that many of us fall into with Fluxx is playing with too many expansions mixed together.  You can do it, but what you're really doing is prolonging the game.  What I've done with Fluxx is institute a 1 hour time cap.  If no one has won in one hour, we either end it right away, or do something that everyone can agree on, like one last turn. Typically I go with the person who has the most keepers at that point wins.

Munchkin
Sure, let out another groan. I'll wait.
Better? Good.
Munchkin is a decent game under a couple of circumstances.  1. Do not consult the rulebook other than at the start of the game. 2. Keep things moving.  3. Don't waste cards early, level 3 is not the time to make a stand against someone, level 8 or 9 is.
For those of you who've never heard of or played Munchkin, here's the brief rundown.  You go into a dungeon, fight bad guys, have bad things happen to you, gain treasure and gain levels. First person to level 10 wins.  What frequently occurs is that players get to level 9 and then all the bad cards come out to stop them.  At that point it becomes a game of luck to see who can get a monster to fight when people don't have bad cards to hurt them.  I don't have any great solutions outside of this; it happens, so factor it in to your strategy.  Also, you can clamp down on the hand limit, which should keep things moving as well.

Price Wars

From a pure price standpoint, Fluxx wins out, but you're doing yourself an injustice if you think that's all there is to card games.  Dominion is a good game, but it's not for the budget conscious, because you will want to buy more expansions.  Race for the Galaxy is good, but again, expansions drive the price up.  If you want a relatively cheap card game, go for Eminent Domain.

I personally take Dominion because I have the expansions.  If I only had base Dominion, it wouldn't be my pick.

Collection Building: Worker Placement Games

Some of the most popular Euro style games utilize Worker Placement as a fundamental mechanic.  First, we should look at what worker placement actually is.  Using BGG's description, "Worker placement requires players to draft individual actions from a set that is available to all players. Drafting is done one-at-a-time and in turn order.  There may be a limit on the number of times a single acton space may be used each round.  Usually, each player has a limited number of pieces with which to participate in the process. In other words, they "place workers" to show which actions have been drafted by which players."  That's all well and good, but what does it actually mean?  Well essentially, you take turns choosing actions to do, and typically you block everyone else from being able to do exactly the same thing.

Worker placement is probably the most highly ranked mechanic on BGG.  There are currently 5 games in the top 20, 9 games in the top 50, 13 in the top 100, and 23 in the top 200.  I personally haven't played many worker placement games, but I am a fan of the mechanic.  The detractor for me is that they often take awhile to play, and they are thinky games.

I'm only going to talk specifically about games I've played, since that's the only way to be honest about things.  I will mention that I've heard a lot of good things about Stone Age and Alien Frontiers, and I want to play both of those, but since I haven't, I can't recommend them.

Agricola
I had heard a lot of things about Agricola before I got a chance to play it.  The biggest thing I knew going in was to make sure we played the family game before playing the full thing.  The family game serves as an introduction and leaves a few of the variable cards out of the game.  Agricola is all about running a farm.  You need wood, brick, stone, etc. to build improvements, you need to gather animals and farm your land, and you always need to feed your family.  All of these things take actions to gather the resources, and since everyone needs all of the same things, you have a lot of tension.  I think Agricola is a well designed game, but it never really struck a chord with me.  I can win my fair share of games, but there's just something lacking for me.

Lords of Waterdeep
I had a chance to play this at game night a few weeks ago, and I really enjoyed it.  It's set in the Dungeons and Dragons universe, which I know basically nothing about, yet I still enjoyed the theme.  You recruit agents: Clerics, Wizards, Thieves, etc. to help you accomplish quests.  These quests earn you victory points and other rewards.  Workers are used to recruit agents, build buildings (which gives everyone an additional spot to place their workers), gain new quests, and play Intrigue cards (which affect other player(s) in some way).  The best part of this game was that it took a little more than an hour, and that was to teach 3 new players how to play and then play the game.  It gave me a similar feel to Agricola while being more engaging and faster.

Kingsburg
I talked a bit about Kingsburg in the Dice game article, but it warrants mention here as well.  In Kingsburg, players use dice to influence advisors.  The higher the advisor number, typically, the better things they give you.  There are times when splitting up your dice is actually more beneficial, or even taking a lower valued advisor.  What I appreciate about Kingsburg is that you almost always have options.  You may not get exactly what you want, but the odds are that you'll be able to get something that helps you.  Once you get the resources you need, you use them to buy a building.  Each building gives you a different bonus.  What really makes Kingsburg a game is the end of year combat.  That forces players to spend time investing in their military instead of just playing a resource game.

Price Wars

Like I said in the open, these are heavy games, and with heavy games comes a heavy price tag.  If you're really on a budget, this is a category to skip.  If you're looking for a lighter game in the genre, go for Stone Age.  Based on price and my enjoyment level, I'd choose Lords of Waterdeep.  I think it has great replayability and has a good enjoyment/time ratio.

Collection Building: Next Level Games

Many gamers ponder where to go after the into/gateway games.  They like the ideas put forth in those types of games, but they want something a little deeper, a little longer, maybe a little bit more complicated.  Many factors come in to play here, but the key question is what have they played.  Here are some of the games I've had success with when it comes to furthering someone's interest/love in games.

Acquire
Acquire is a classic from noted designer Sid Sackson.  Players place tiles on the board to increase the size of hotels.  They then buy stock in hotel chains on the board.  The goal is to merge hotels, have your hotel taken over so you get paid out on stock, and then to invest in large hotels for the end of the game.  It's not the most intuitive game at first, but it is a familiar concept for many adults due to the stock nature of the game.  It takes about 90 minutes to play, and it makes you think, but I enjoy it from time to time.

Cosmic Encounter
Cosmic is the second designer game that I ever played, so it has a soft spot in my heart.  Getting into the game can take time due to a variety of card effects, but this is less for all new players.  Cosmic focuses on hand management and negotiation.  It is a confrontational game, but rarely is it a "beat-up on one person" game.  Cosmic has a great deal of variety, with 50 unique player powers in the base game, and 20 in each expansion.  Cosmic is a great game, but it is not for everyone.  There are moments of backstabbing and cunning plans, there are times where you pull a rabbit out of your hat that annoys everyone else.  There are ways to be nice, ways to be mean, and ways to be everything in-between.  If you take Cosmic too seriously, you won't have fun with it.  But if you're willing to laugh things off and not let a loss ruin your day, it's hard to say no.

Mystery Express
Fan of Clue? Here's a fun deduction game that adds a lot of variety and options to that experience.  Mystery Express simulates a murder on the Orient Express, except for the ending.  Players spend time to investigate 4 categories - suspect, location, motive and modus operendi.  Unlike Clue, there are two copies of each card, so players have to figure out which card only has one copy in circulation.  There are various means to see cards, as well as trade cards, which makes the whole investigation more complicated.  The game takes around an hour, and it's great for people who really like Clue or deductive games.

Power Grid
Power Grid is probably the heaviest game for next level, and because of that, it probably appeals to the smallest group, but in the right group, it's a great game.  Power Grid is all about getting power plants to fuel cities, buying the resources to run the power plants, and expanding into cities.  You have to balance all three aspects so you're not wasting power, or buying resources at a high price, and certainly so you don't get blocked out of cities.  If this all sounds like a big spreadsheet, it kinda is.  The thing is, that other players influence things, and change what you want to do throughout the game.  I see it as a big economic puzzle, with some key choices on when to do certain things.  It is long, roughly 2 hours, but most games are close until the very end.

Rattus
What's more fun than the Black Death?  Well, many things, and that's true of games.  There are games that are funnier than Rattus, but Rattus is still a fun game.  It loosely falls under the "Area Control" umbrella, meaning that you're trying to have cubes on the board and survive.  Through the game, you will use different roles to do different things.  Each role lets you do something special, like add extra cubes, make a cube safe forever, etc. but each power you have makes you more likely to lose cubes when the plague hits.  For more info on Rattus, read my review.

Price Wars




As you can see, most of these games are fairly pricy.  The good thing is, they're fairly hefty games, and you're getting a lot out of them.  It all really depends on what you're looking for in a gaming experience.  I'd say that Power Grid is probably the best bang for your buck, Mystery Express will probably appeal to the most people, and Cosmic Encounter offers the most variety.

If I have to pick one and only one, I'm taking Cosmic for the replayability.

Collection Building: 2 Player Games

Sometimes, there are only 2 people around to play a game.  Now, often times this leads to other activities, but there are times when you want to have the challenge of a boardgame.
There are a lot of games that work for 2+ players, but I want to focus on 2 player only games.

Abstract games as a whole are typically two players and provide a great challenge.  Think of games like Chess, Checkers, Go, Backgammon, etc.  I don't know enough about abstract games, nor do I play them often enough, to recommend them.  Still, they are worth a mention in any list of 2 player games.

Lost Cities
Lost Cities is a card game where players are going on adventures.  There are 5 different adventures each player can embark upon.  Players do so by playing cards in ascending order from 1-10.  If they skip a value, they can never go back.  For each adventure you start on, you need to get at least 20 points, else you'll have a negative score.  Players typically play 3 rounds, and the highest combined score wins the game.  I've only played it once, but it was a fun game.  It's really easy to learn, and it only takes about 20 minutes to play 3 rounds.

1960: The Making of the President
Yes, you guessed it, a political game all about the 1960 US Presidential election.  Without getting political, 1960 was a landmark election in the US.  This game captures a lot of the back and forth of the race, and it's almost always close.  Players use cards, which represent different moments in the campaigns, for one of 3 things: action points, card text, the debates.  The game is somewhat long, typically 90-120 minutes, but it is a rich play experience.

Twilight Struggle
No, this has nothing to do with the books or movies. The game encompasses the entirety of the cold war.  One player is attempting to spread communism, while the other is trying to spread democracy.  This is designed by the same person who designed 1960.  I've only played this one time, but it's a very deep game.  Expect to spend a bit learning the rules, and then around 2 hours playing.  The game is well worth it, but it has a steep learning curve.

Memoir '44 (or anything in the Commands and Colors System)
Memoir '44 is a simplified take on some of the major engagements of WWII.  Players primarily use infantry and tank units to accomplish various objects.  Most engagements are a matter of eliminating the other side's units, but some involve controlling locations.  Players use command cards to issue orders, and dice to resolve combat.  The system is fairly easy, at least before expansions, and offers good variety with a plethora of scenarios.

Mr. Jack
Mr. Jack is a neat deduction game with one person taking on the role of Jack the Ripper, while the other player is the inspector hunting Jack down.  Jack will secretly be one of 8 characters on the board. The inspector is trying to narrow down the possibilities and eventually make an accusation, while Jack is trying to escape as quickly as possible, or last 8 turns.  I really like the mechanics of Mr. Jack.  The deduction aspect is interesting and challenging.  My problem with it is a lack of replayability.  Since it's a shorter game, I want to be able to play it more often, but it just doesn't lend itself to that.  Because every character is used in every game, the only real change is which role Jack takes, and then which side you're playing.  If you're looking for a neat 2 player game to add to your collection for those rare times you have only 2, Mr. Jack would work well, but if you play a lot with only 2, then Mr. Jack wouldn't be the first game I'd buy.

Price Wars

1960: ~ Looks to be Out of Stock, copies exist in the BGG marketplace for around $40.

From a pure pricing standpoint, Lost Cities wins out.  I think Lost Cities has the biggest potential to be played frequently, due to the short play time.  It's easy to set up, and play a round while you're waiting for someone else to show up.  It also works as a couples game for something quick to do before dinner or to wind down after a long day of work.

My pick for a 2 player only game to add to a collection is Lost Cities.  I liked it in theory before I ever played it, and playing it only made me like it more.

I'm by no means an expert on 2 player games, I just don't play them that often.  That being said, check out http://gameswithtwo.blogspot.com for more on two player games.  They have a lot of good suggestions, and a really interesting series on Risk Legacy.

Collection Building: Dice Games

Many board games use dice for movement or combat, but those games would not be classified as dice games.  What I'm looking at are games that focus on dice.  The most prevalent of these games is Yahtzee.  These are games about utilizing your dice.  Sometimes, various combinations score points, other times different rolls let you do different things, but the main idea is that the roll of the dice determine what you can and cannot do.

When it comes to dice games, there are several types.  There are the quick filler games, like LCR and Liar's Dice, and longer strategy games like Kingsburg and Roll Through the Ages.  Several dice games take a pre-existing property, and transform it into a dice version. Hasbro experimented with this idea for Battleship, Monopoly, Risk, Clue, and Sorry and called it their Express line.  While I appreciate the attempt to make these big name games faster, it really changed too much of the game's identity.  Two of the big names in hobby games did this as well, Catan and Carcassonne.  Ticket to Ride incorporated dice into the game, replacing the train cards, but it is not solely a dice game.

Let's talk more in depth about a few of these games.

LCR
LCR is a very simple game.  Each player starts with 3 chips.  Each turn they roll 3 dice. For each L, they pass a chip to their left. For each R, the pass a chip to their right. For each C, they put a chip in the center.  The goal is to be the player who has all the chips at one time, meaning no other player has chips in front of them.  There isn't any strategy to the game, just roll the dice and do what it says.  I can't recommend this for gamers, but it could be a fun party game, or maybe a drinking game.

Liar's Dice
In Liar's Dice, the goal is to be the last person with dice left.  Each player starts with 5 dice.  All players roll their dice, and then the start player makes a statement about all the dice at the table, based on only knowing their own.  The next player can either call them a liar, in which case all dice are revealed, and then if the asserter was right, the player who called them a liar loses a die, but if the asserter was wrong, they lose a die.  If someone doesn't call liar, they must up the statement in some way, either by calling more of the same die face, or by calling a higher die face. For instance, if someone calls four 3's, I could call four 4's(5's,6') or five(or more) any face.
Liar's Dice actually has some strategy and some bluffing, so it is a real game.  The dice are crucial, but so is the ability to read people, and do some quick probabilities in your head.

Catan Dice Game
The Catan dice game is an interesting play.  Each turn, you roll 6 dice up to 3 times.  The faces of the dice are the 5 standard Catan resources and gold. Gold acts as a wild, which is a great help.  The game only lasts for 15 rounds, which keeps play time under 30 minutes, maybe 45 as an absolute long.  In the game, you use resources to build roads, settlements, cities and knights.  Knights grant you one free resource of a given type once during the game. They don't offer many points, but they can be a swing in the game.  Things have to be built in order, which is a little confusing at first, but it keeps the game moving along.  I've only played this a couple of times, but I find it a short version of Catan without the trading, and a fairly good competition between the players.  There's a lot less you can do to mitigate bad luck, but given the time length, that's ok.

Kingsburg
Kingsburg fits more into the boardgame that heavily uses dice, but I think that it is a dice game at heart. In Kingsburg, players roll dice, then take turns placing one or more dice on various advisors.  These advisors give the players different resources or army points, or victory points.  Once an advisor is claimed in a round, no one else can take it.  There's a lot of strategy in how you place your dice, but even the best strategy can be foiled by poor rolls.  There is a lot going on here beyond the dice, but if you like dice games that let you do something meaningful with your rolls, Kingsburg is a great choice.

Roll Through the Ages
RTA is a civilization building game with dice.  Players have to balance workers, food and coins with the threat of disaster.  The more cities you build, the more dice you get to roll, but the more people you have to feed each turn.  If you can't feed your people, you lose points, but if you don't have enough cities, you won't have enough dice to do things to score points.  RTA has a fine balance to it, but there are a lot of ways to win.  I think it's one of the most replayable dice games out there.

Quarriors
I wrote a full review of Quarriors, which you can read here.  As such, I'll just summarize.  Quarriors is a dice building game, where you are trying to gather creatures to score points.  Each player starts with a very basic set of dice, but they buy more each round to grow stronger.  Quarriors has a lot of fans and a lot of detractors.  I personally fall in the "meh" category.  It's a decent game, but I don't want to play it frequently.

Scary Tales
Here's another game I've done a full review, which you can find here.  Scary Tales is all about rolling sets of icons to gather relics.  There are cards that add in symbols, making the set easier to obtain.  There's not an abundance of strategy to the game, but it is a neat game.  I recommend picking up two different sets for variety, and to allow more players.  I didn't really like it as a 2, but it's fun with 3 or 4.

Price Wars
Since we are building on a budget, let's look at the costs of these games.

If you're on a really tight budget, I'd say salvage dice from other games and play Liar's Dice/LCR.  If you've got a bit more money to spend, Roll Through the Ages is a really great value purchase. For kids, Scary Tales might be fun due to the theme.

My pick for a dice game to own is Roll Through the Ages. Word of advice, track down "The Bronze Age" expansion, it's available for free online. It really does add to the game.

Collection Building: Team Games

A lot of these games fall under the co-operative banner of games, with one notable difference, someone is working against the other players.  This could be as a hidden traitor, as seen in Battlestar Galactica, or Shadows Over Camelot.  It could in a team versus team game, as seen in Last Night on Earth.  There are also 1 v all games such as, Catacombs, and Scotland Yard.

Regardless of which style the game takes, I feel that they all have a similar feel in the play experience.  Some people win, some people lose, but someone is going to win.  I enjoy team games because it gives me a chance to work together with people while maintaining the competitive spirit.

But enough of my ramblings, let's talk games.

Battlestar Galactica
I did a full review of BSG very early on, so my thoughts on the game are best represented there.  To summarize, BSG is a game of paranoia and deception.  In a 5 player game, 2 players are cylons, and 3 are humans.  Players get loyalty cards at two points during the game, the start and the middle.  This means a loyal human could become a sleeper agent and switch sides mid game.  The game does take awhile to play, around 3 hours, but it's a very immersive theme.

Shadows Over Camelot
I'm planning on getting a full review of this out later this week, so I'll keep my remarks short.  Each player takes the role of a knight of the round table.  At the start, each player is given a loyalty card.  There is 1 traitor card, the rest are loyal, so it is possible to play a game with no traitor, though unlikely in a large group.  Shadows offers players a bevy of quests to attempt, but there are too many for the knights to triumph in all endeavors.  Ergo, something must be sacrificed while focus is placed on key quests.  It takes a good balance, and a lot of trust to pull off victory.  A traitor must bide their time and act at a crucial moment.

Last Night on Earth
I've only played this once, but I had fun with it.  Players take on the role of either a hero or zombies.  The heroes have an objective, survive n turns, reach point x, etc. The zombies are trying to kill the heroes or prevent them from achieving their objective.  There are a lot of cool items and ways to do different things in the game.  It's one I'd like to explore more if/when I get the chance.

Catacombs
I just reviewed this, so please read the review for more info.  Catacombs is a 1 v rest game where the 1 is trying to stop the rest before the end of the game.  The heroes are trying to make it to the final room and kill the boss.  It's a dungeon-crawl game, but the game is all about flicking disks, and that makes for a lot of laughs.

Scotland Yard
This is one of the oldest 1 v rest games.  One player takes on the role of Mr. X trying to escape detection from the other players.  He has to leave clues along the way, but how useful they are depends on the skills of the investigators.  Scotland Yard hasn't aged brilliantly, but it is still a solid game and worth looking at, especially if you can find it at a yard sale.

The Resistnace
A streamlined version of BSG.  Players each have a secret role, and it's up to them act in their best interest.  There are several rounds of players going on missions and trying not to get caught.  Double agents will try to mess things up.  It plays in around 30-45 minutes, so worth a look.

Price Wars

The bang for your buck choice is The Resistance, no question about that.  Not having played it, it's hard for me to recommend.  Personally, I'd take BSG, but that's because I have the right people to play it with.  Shadows is the easiest game to get people to play, due to the theme.  Arthurian Legend is familiar to most people in some form.  It may be the most expensive game, but there's also a lot of game for your money in the box.

Collection Building: Co-op Games

Over the last 8 years or so, co-operative games have grown in popularity.  Lord of the Rings started it all, but the genre really picked up with Pandemic, Ghost Stories, and many other games.
There are a couple of things to look at when it comes to co-operative games.  The first is what they actually are.  Co-operative games mean that everyone is working together to beat the game.  The group wins or loses as a whole.  There are other games that involve two sides, either in teams, or all versus 1, but those will be addressed in another post.
The second thing to consider is if you like co-op games or not.  Some people really like playing games in the pursuit of a solo win.  They want to do the best they can do, and not have to depend on other people in order to win.  I can't blame them for that, maybe they work as part of a team at their job and they want a game to not feel anything like work.  Other people thrive in that competitive environment.
If you like the idea of working in a team, perhaps with your family, here's a small sampling of the multitude of co-op games that are in the marketplace these days.

First, let me start with three games that I have not played, but have heard a lot about.  Those three are Castle Panic, Elder Sign, and Flash Point: Fire Rescue.  Castle Panic and Elder Sign were played on Tabletop (Youtube), and that's one of the better avenues to explore to learn more about them.  Flash Point puts you in the role of a firefighter.  You have to go into buildings and rescue people before time runs out.  It seems like a really cool game, it's won a bunch of awards.  I have it sitting on my shelf, waiting for the right group to play it with.

Now, for the games I have played.
Forbidden Island/Pandemic (2-4 Players)
The best thing you can do to learn more about these two, is read my comparison of them in this post.
Both games take about 30-45 minutes.  Forbidden Island does tend to run shorter, and is less prone to the fast loss.  Forbidden Island is the more kid friendly of the two, but Pandemic is great too.

Space Hulk: Death Angel the Card Game (1-6 Players)
This is not a kid friendly game.  The theme is dark, the art is dark, and the game is really tough.  I like it because everyone has to work together to best use their abilities.  Each person does need to know the game, because there are times where they have to make decisions on their own that affect the entire group.  Death Angel does have the greater player flexibility, which I like for those larger groups.  The last time I played, we had 5 people, which was too many for any other co-op we had.  This is a great game for a group of guys, High School or later.  I'm pretty sure the game says 13+, and I'd keep to that.

Price Wars

Forbidden Island wins the price war hands down.  It really is the best bang for your buck game on the market right now.

If you get one from this list, it's hard to go wrong with Forbidden Island.  Pandemic is deeper than Forbidden Island, but also a little harder to learn.  Death Angel is probably the hardest game on the list. I'd say that my group has about a 40% win rate, maybe a bit higher, but I'm not sure.
If you're going to get two, grabbing Forbidden Island and Death Angel for under $35 is an amazing deal, and a lot of game to enjoy.

Collection Building: Introduction Games

First impressions set the tone for a relationship of any kind.  First impressions in the board game realm are just as important as impressions with people.  Monopoly, Risk, Life, Trivial Pursuit, and games in that ilk are the standard of boardgames to most people.  The bar is yet relatively low, but many people have a comfort with these games, and that has shaped what games should be in their mind.

Because of these preconceived notions, I feel like every gamer needs to have a game that they can pull out to show people what a designer board game is.  Now, I run the risk of sounding really snobby here, so I'm doing my best to dance around that.  Ultimately, we play games to have fun.  If people have a good time playing Scrabble or Clue or Monopoly, that's great.  I've done my best to never discourage people playing games, no matter what the game.

The goal of introductory games is to show people that there is a whole world of possibilities in games that they may not know about, and those games are something they might enjoy.  As always, I'll provide a few examples, give my thoughts on them, and hopefully help you reach an idea of what you'd like to have in your collection.

Settlers of Catan (3-4 players in the base, 5-6 with expansion)
This was the game that started it all for me.  It was my first exposure to a game where everyone played the whole time, and had things to do even when it wasn't their turn.  If you're not familiar with Settlers, you are trying to build settlements and cities with resources that you get on dice rolls.  You'll rarely have everything you need, so you have to trade with other players.  The dice are a comforting part of the game to players.  The idea of trading is familiar, but the frequency is new to people.  A lot of people can really get in to Catan and have fun the first time.  Catan appeals best to the dice fans, and people who like Monopoly.

Carcassonne (2-5 players, 6 with Inns and Cathedrals expansion)

Carcassonne was my 3rd game, and my first exposure to meeples.  Just for the meeples themselves, the game is worth a look.  Carcassonne is a fairly basic game to teach players.  Drawing a tile, playing it to the board, and adding one of your tokens to the tile is fairly simple.  There are some choices, and a lot of unique arrangements you can make with the tiles.  Building a map is a fun thing for people of all ages to see, especially when it comes together. Can Carcassonne get a bit aggressive?  Sure, but that's true of most games.  Carcassonne is a great introduction to people who enjoy puzzles, and long term strategy.

Dominion (2-4 players, up to 6 with Intrigue)
I first played Dominion in 2009, and I was instantly hooked.  I bought it for my birthday, and it started a bit of an obsession.  I've always been a fan of card games, I dabbled in Star Trek CCG and Pokemon, so I liked seeing cards interact.  The idea of deckbuilding always intrigued me, but as a kid, I never had the money to have the best cards or a lot of the good cards, so I knew I'd never be great.  Dominion changes that idea.  It's deckbuilding, but the whole game is building your deck.  Everyone starts with the same deck of 10 cards - 3 victory points, and 7 money.  You have to use these cards to buy better cards, slowly making your deck bigger and better.  The base game comes with 25 unique kingdom cards, and you play with 10 in each game.  This gives a lot of variety and makes most games feel different than the last one you played.  If someone is a fan of a CCG like Magic the Gathering, or Yu-Gi-Oh! this is something for them to look into.  They might just appreciate not having to spend $100+ every few months to get new cards.

Ticket to Ride (2-5 players)
Ticket to Ride is the first game I ever bought for myself.  I played the German board (Marklin version) with my gaming family.  That's the most complicated version of TtR, but I liked the core.  I decided to get the US map, since it would involve the least amount of hunting for odd cities, and thus save time.  I'm so glad I bought TtR.  It's currently my 3rd most played game (if you count all the different maps, 4th if you don't) and I don't see that changing.  It's a game I can play with just about anyone.  On a player's turn they have 3 options, really only 2 that come up every time.  You either take cards or play cards.  The third option is taking more destination tickets, but that isn't something to do every turn.  The scoring is fantastically simple, you get points for trains on the board, you gain points for completed tickets, you lose points for tickets you don't complete.    It's hard to nail down a particular group of people that would be best suited for the game.  I don't want to cop-out and say everyone, so instead I think that Ticket is a great way to get people who used to play games as a kid, but lost interest due to a plethora of things, back into gaming.

Price Wars
No, not a game, just time to talk money.




Like all these categories, this comes down to the budget pick, and the pick you want to have around.
Carcassonne takes the budget pick, but if you're willing to go up a bit, get Dominion.
As for the game to have around, my winner is still Ticket to Ride.  It works for the widest range of people, and trains are just fun.  If you want to take a 2nd in any category, I'd encourage you to take it here and also get Dominion.

These 4 games are fairly common these days.  I think Target even carries at least Ticket and Catan, maybe more, haven't checked lately.  Since they are common, you can generally find someone who owns a copy of at least one of these and ask to try it out.  I like all 4 of these games, you can't go wrong with any of them.