Bits 2 - 5 Pillars

Many subjects have fundamental ideas that everything builds upon.  Boardgaming has many pillars, but I submit that there are 5 major pillars: Alhambra, Carcassonne, Dominion, Settlers of Catan, and Ticket to Ride.

I'm aware that this list is missing a war-game, a dice game, and a cooperative game.  If you want those, I'd suggest Memoir '44, King of Tokyo, and Pandemic respectively.

Each of these games brings a little something different to the table.  They introduce core concepts that other games build upon, but they are also good games in their own right.

Alhambra - A bit of set collection, understanding where you can score points, even if it isn't first place, and a reward for spacial thinking and planning ahead.

Carcassonne - Very light worker placement, multiple ways to score points, short vs long term investments, as well as learning when to work with other players on a feature and when to cut your losses.

Dominion - Deck building, learning how to maximize potential and minimize "dead" hands, teaches players when to go for more stuff, and when to switch to victory points.

Catan - How to manage resources, trading with other players and the board.

Ticket to Ride - Emphasis on route planning, adapting to unexpected changes (blocking), and balancing what you have versus what you might get.

So there you go, the 5 pillars of boardgames.  Agree or disagree?  Leave a comment.

Top 7 Games to Play with your Significant Other

As Valentines Day approaches(it's next Tuesday as of the date of posting), our thoughts naturally turn to candlelight dinners, chocolate, and the one we love. Well, not so much in my case, but there is hope for the future.  Consider this my top 7 games I'd like to play with my wife someday.  I'm going to go with games that play well as 2 player, but not necessarily games that only play 2 player.

First off, some honorable mentions, but ones that didn't make it due to lack of a widely appealing theme, or me not knowing the game enough - Small World, Eminent Domain and Lost Cities.

#7 Mr. Jack
Mr. Jack is a back and forth puzzle and deduction game.   It's also a 2 player only game, so the game is balanced for that.  With game time around an hour, this isn't a brain burner, and it's pretty fun to pull out every so often.

#6 Carcassonne
Carc works really well as a 2 player game.  It's a simple matter of outscoring one opponent, and using tiles to either help yourself, or make life harder on your opponent.  If you take that to an extreme, you end up in trouble, but the occasional block should be fine.

#5 10 Days in _____ 
This is a full series of games in different locations.  I've yet to play it myself, but everything I've seen and read about it makes it fit this list perfectly.  It's all about planning a travel route in a manner similar to Rack-O.  You're dealt an opening set, but you have to draw new tiles to make adjacent countries connect, or use cars and airplanes to travel to non-adjacent countries.  It looks like a lot of fun, and who knows, you might just plan your next vacation this way.

#4 Agricola
Repeat after me, "This is not a weeknight game"  Now, some may disagree with me, but after a long day of work, I don't know anyone who wants to sit down and play a 1-2 hour game.  True, 2 player is the fastest way to play the game, but still, there's a lot of planning to this game, and every move has to matter. With that kind of cause and effect, it feels too much like work, and not the best way to relax on a weeknight.  That being said, it does make an excellent Friday night or Saturday game.  Lots of back and forth, tons of options, and you have the ability to take what you need and perhaps block your opponent from what they need.

#3 Dominion
This takes #3 in my book because it's has a lot of variety, and is quick to play.  If you or your partner don't care for the attack cards, don't play with them.  Don't like a certain card, change it out.  The goal is to make it fun for both players.  If you find that one of you wins all the time, try starting with 2 estates and a curse instead of 3 estates.  Dominion is all about cards and coming up with a good strategy.  There isn't a ton of thought required once you know the game and all the cards, but that can take awhile.  Still, for a 20-40 minute two player game, it's hard to go wrong.

#2 Ticket to Ride
I'm specifically thinking Nordic Countries since the board artwork is great, but any Ticket map would probably work well.  Depending on the map and the tickets, TtR can be a mostly friendly game or a brutal block-fest.  I think both ways can be fun, and as long as your sig-other remembers that this is just a game, I think it's a great game to play with 2 or more people.

#1 Forbidden Island
I excluded Pandemic since they are similar games as noted in my review of the two.  Forbidden Island is a great 2-player game.  The theme makes it accessible, and there's nothing better than teamwork for a relationship.  It's relatively quick, which makes it easy to play on a weeknight after dinner, and it doesn't require too much thought, which makes it the perfect game to play with your significant other.

I hope this list inspires you to sit down and play more games with your significant other.  It's a great way to bond, and a lot cheaper than dinner out and a movie!

Top 42 Part 4 (21-15)

Thanks for coming back again. You can find part 3 here, and links to previous ones from there.

Without further adieu,


#21 Werewolf/Mafia
It's hard to really count this as a board game, but with the ultimate werewolf edition, and thus role cards I'm going to go ahead and count this.  I've only played Werewolf a handful of times, but each time it has been a lot of fun.  It takes a large group to play well, and the best games I played were the 15-20 person ones.  You need at least 10 to make it worthwhile, so because of that, I don't get to play it much, but it's a lot of fun trying to figure out who's a werewolf.  The best moments are the ones where everything goes wrong, like when the werewolves get the last laugh, who then kills one of cupid's lovers which kills the other lover.  This game has a lot of good memories, and is a really fun way for a large group of people to play something together and have a lot of laughs.

#20 1960: The Making of the President

This is another game that I've only played a few times, but it was an interesting game.  Politics aren't of much interest to most people except in election years, but this game captures the tension of a close political race.  1960 was perhaps the most seesaw election process in recent history, and this game captures it perfectly.  Each player can play cards either for their affect or for action points, but they have to be careful because if they use them for action points, their opponent can try to use the action for himself.  I don't have much of the strategy to this game figured out, but it's a very well designed two player game, and it makes me want to try Twilight Struggle.  A great political game about a fascinating election, and my favorite 2 player only game.

#19 Carcassonne

This would be higher on my list, but it dropped down due to lack of recent plays. I think all the good things I have to say are in my review of Carc, but let me summarize why it's here on the list.  I can play it with just about anyone, it's easy to teach to new players.  Also, Meeples are just plain fun to play with, and the way they do different things gives players strategy opportunities.  You can't go all farmers early on, else you'll fall behind on points, and your farms won't do enough to catch up.  The downside is the numerous expansions and thus new rules, so it feels like I play the set of tiles every single time.  It's the only tile laying game I own, which gives it unique mechanics.  I really like the variety on tiles and the building aspect.  I've had a lot of fun with Carc, and I will continue playing it at least occasionally for a long time.

#18 Small World

First off, sorry Tahlia, it did fall this low, but really 19-8 were really had to decide between, and they each have their own merits and I like them all.  Small World is a fantasy combat game.  I won't call it a war game, since it's a bit too simple for that, but the game is all about combat.  You get a race, think Halflings, Elves, Giants, Sorcerers, etc. and a power, like Seafaring, Forest, Dragon Master, which give you a certain number of tokens which you use to conquer areas on the board. For each area you get a coin, and after a certain number of rounds, the high total wins.  Combat is really easy, you just need 2 tokens, plus how ever many things are currently on the region in order to take it over.  This leaves no surprises in bad die rolls which eliminates some of the frustration.  Somehow it just seems more fun when you die to Diplomat Ratmen or Flying Halflings as opposed to the rigorous and tedious combat system that is Risk.

#17 Space Hulk: Death Angel 

This is the hardest co-op game I've played.  The genestealers pursue you from room to room, and your space marines will rarely be exactly where you need them.  Nevertheless, it's a lot of fun to try to beat the game, and with player range going from 1-6 it works well for a lot of game groups.  Each player is put in control of one team of space marines (2 different marines) and given 3 options for actions.  On your first turn, you can choose from any of the three, but after that you only have access to the two you didn't just play, meaning you can't do the same thing back to back.  This means you have to be sure that what you're doing now isn't going to be necessary next turn, and you also have to communicate with teammates so not everyone attacks on the same turn.  It's all about balance and communication, yet the way in which enemies come out and the events that happen are anything but balanced, and the game limits the player's communication.  It doesn't matter though, because the game is still enjoyable and something I want to play frequently.

#16 Settlers of Catan

More specifically, Cities and Knights.  This was the first hobby game I ever played, and I, for lack of a better term, fell in love.  I started thinking about it, replaying games in my head, and wanting to play it all the time.  Perhaps I've romanticized Settlers, because when I play it now, some of the charm is gone, but I can't deny that I played it a lot of times, and it was the start of my gaming family, and the reason I have three amazing friends from college.  Catan is a game I will one day play with my girlfriend, and then fiancé, and then wife, and someday kids and nieces and nephews.  I can't deny that it is the reason I love boardgames, and it's an amazing blend of strategy and luck, resource management and player interaction.  It does a lot of things pretty well, no single thing great, but it's a great way to spend a few hours with people, and that's the mark of a great game.

#15 Roll Through the Ages

Consider this a civilization game boiled down to dice. Now, many elements had to be removed, but since I've never played a true civ game, I enjoy this for what it is.  You use workers to build cities, cities give you more dice, then you use workers to build monuments.  You have to get food to feed your cities, else your people starve and you lose points.  If you roll too many skulls, you lose points, but if you make 3, you attack your opponents.  Skulls give you goods which let you trade for coin which then allows you to buy developments.  Sure, there's luck in what you roll, it's dice for goodness sake, but there's a lot of strategy that can mitigate the luck.  I personally play with the expansion which adds more development and player to player trading, which adds to the civilization feel.  Overall, it's a well done dice game that I enjoy in ~45 minutes, which is great.

Just 14 more to go.  Sunday will be 14-7, then I will do 7-6-5-4 on Wednesday 2/7 and 3-2-1 on Sunday 2/11.

Carcassonne Review

I store my game and expansions in a tackle box
I purchased at Walmart for ~$5

Carcassonne

• Designed by Klaus-Jurgen Wrede
• Published in the U.S. by Rio Grande Games
• Plays with 2-5 players (6 with the Inns & Cathedrals Expansion)
• Plays is around an hour, depending on expansions and number of players.

Overview

Carcassonne or “Carc” as I will now call it is an older game, published in 2000, which makes it old in modern game sense.  It’s commonly placed in the trio of “gateway games” alongside Catan and Ticket to Ride.  Carc is a tile-laying game, which is exactly what it sounds like.  On your turn you simply draw a tile, add it to the board and then you can place one of your meeples on a feature to score points on a future turn.  You play until all the tiles have been played, then you figure out who had the most points.

Components

Meeples - Amazing.  If nothing else, you can stack them and do different things with them while you wait for your turn which is handy in a game.  The tiles are thick and great quality.

The tile bag, which comes with the Traders and Builders Expansion is great quality and holds just about every tile made so far.

Score - 10/10

Highlighting some of the tiles with Yellow on the city,
Black and Blue on roads and Red and Green on cloisters.

Game Mechanics

Stacks of tiles, the top left shows a volcano tile from P&D,
the stack below it a Tower, and the the right a tile from the
Games Quarterly small expansion

I talked about mechanics in the open, but to recap, you draw a tile, place it, then throw a meeple on that tile if you can.  Several expansions add to that idea in terms of features on tiles, but the basic ones are cities, roads, farms and cloisters/monasteries.  Cities, roads and monasteries score when they’re complete, while farms don’t score until the end of the game.  This leads to a good balance between in-game scoring and end-game scoring.  Players have to take to both if they want to win, because focusing on only one will usually lead to a loss. The mechanics aren’t that deep, but there is depth to the game, and the tile laying concept is best done in Carc, so for that my score for mechanics is a 9/10.

Player Interaction

My first instinct is to say that there isn’t a lot of player interaction, but then I realized that there actually is.  While you can’t add directly to another player’s feature, you can try to get in and either share, or take it over.  Of course someone is more likely to share if they have to as opposed to doing everything they can to avoid a takeover.  The way in which players go about sharing has a large impact on multi-player games.  You can also place a tile in a way that makes it difficult, or perhaps even impossible for an opponent to complete their city.  This is delightfully fun at times, but is also likely to have the favor returned.

I give it a 9/10 for a lot of freedom in how you interact.

The Twist

Not much of a twist to Carc.  Expansions certainly do some different things, but those add complexity rather than a twist.

Learning Curve - Short  

I’d say this is one of the simplest games to teach someone, since the basic rules are so simple.  Expansions turn it into a short-medium learning curve, but at that point someone has had a game or two under their belt.

Why I like this game

It’s a giant puzzle, and by that I mean that I enjoy creating the board.  It’s fun to see something develop.  It’s also fun to figure out how to share as much as you can while managing your limited supply of meeples.

Why I don't like this game

Some of the expansions serve only to lengthen the game, or add a lot of complexity without doing something for the game.

Expansion Talk

I’ve made reference to some expansions, but I’m going to collect them in this little segment.

• Inns and Cathedrals is a must get for the game.
• Traders and Builders is probably my favorite, though it’s diminished slightly.  It still gives an interesting twist in completing other player’s cities to earn the trade goods, which can yield up to 30 points at the end of the game.
• Princess and the Dragon.  I really like the dragon once in awhile. It basically negates farming, but it leads to interesting maps.  The princess is really needy, like Rapunzel from Tangled, except without the endearing smile and character growth.  The princess throws meeples out of cities, which is just really annoying.
• The Tower is one I’ve never played.  I think that it serves to prolong the game without adding anything that interesting to it.
• The River and River 2 does a lot for the early game.  It gives you some actual choices to start, and speeds up the game overall.
• The Count makes things a bit more personal, and it lengthens things out.

I could go on and on about expansions. If there’s a specific one you’d like to know more about, leave a comment, and I’ll respond.

The Dragon with a Red and Blue
Meeple running for their lives

Overall

I give the overall game an 8.5/10.

It’s a game I enjoy, but I don’t play much.  It’s tough to score it without taking expansions into account.  I’ve never played a game without Inns and Cathedrals, and as far as I’m concerned, the basic game should include I&C.

Will you like this game?

If you like puzzles, you should enjoy Carc.  Also if you’re looking for a fun game for two players that can play with more, this works well.  If you’re looking for a lot of theme in your game, it’s not here.

Final Thought

Carcassonne is one of the few games that I’ve been able to play with just about anyone interested in games.  It’s also served to get some of my family members interested in playing games, which is always a plus.

I think it’s something you should give a try if you haven’t played it, but it’s not like you’re missing an amazing game if you don’t play it.  That isn’t to say that Carc isn’t fun, I rather enjoy it and would gladly play a game with anyone who’s interested.

Want to buy Carcassonne or some expansions?