I love board games--we have a ton of them and are always looking for an excuse to haul them out. Got a chance to play three new games over the holidays--Munchkin, Settlers of Kattan, and Gobblet.
I was introduced to Munchkin a couple New Years parties back--it's played with a deck of cards, and is a little roleplay-y--so the basic idea is you draw a card to open a door, if it's a monster, you have to fight it. If you kill it you get its treasure, such as armor (in picture) or other weapons, which make you stronger and you go up a level. The first player to reach level 10 wins. It's a little nerdy, granted, but the illustrations are all very funny and the gameplay is quick with a lot of negotiations between players when the monster is too big to take on by yourself.
Settlers of Kattan was given to me as a gift, and we got a couple chances to play this while we were back home for Christmas. Interesting game--lots of strategy--the basic idea here is you're on an island and you start with two settelments that have limited access to resources needed to build more roads and settlements, the object to essentially build 10 settlements. You have to do a lot of trading with other players to gather the resources needed, which requires a lot of politicking. There's really a lot of additional detail that I'm leaving out, but I'm hoping we can find a couple people locally to play with (as opposed to Margaret and Kenny who live in Detroit), because you can't play it two player.
And then there was Gobblet--I thought it looked interesting so I bought it for my Dad last year for his birthday, but we only just now got the chace to play it. It reminds me a little of Othello, in that it's really simple to learn how to play, but there's a ton of strategy that you pick up as you go along. It's two player, and played on a 4x4 board. Each player has 3 sets of 4 nesting pieces (check out the picture). The goal is to create a row of 4 of your pieces, doesn't matter what size, though, of course, your opponent can always use one of the larger pieces to swallow (er...gobble) one of your smaller pieces. You can un-gobble a piece too when you move your larger piece back off of it--but that could inadvertantly end up helping your opponent if you didn't remember that was there. A little hard to do it justice in the description. But, um, just bought it for $15 on Amazon, so this is sure to end up at the office. Maybe Austin can better relate it.
So what are some of the best games you've played lately? What are your top ten, for that matter? Here's mine, excluding games played with a standard 52 card deck:
. Taboo-Better the better you know your teammates--my wife is wicked at this game, though we're never allowed to be on the same team--boo.
. Perquackey-This is maybe the game I'm the best at--It's like boggle, without the structure, a little more fast-paced, think, and a bit more fun because of it.
. Chess-I haven't played in a while, but have always enjoyed it. Used to play it over email with my Dad...maybe time to get that going again?
. Guesstures-Charades, but on the clock--always a riot.
. Boggle-While I still think Perquackey is more fun, there's still a lot to be said about good ole fashioned Boggle. Plus there's a pretty decent version of it on Yahoo games to play one player.
. Scene-It-I'm a movie buff, so have always enjoyed Scene-It, though last I knew it was in despearate need of an update.
. Trivial Pursuit-We have a few different versions--I think my favorite currently is the Pop Culture edition which comes with a dvd for some of the clues.
. Stratego-Played this some when I was a kid, but on my previous model of phone I had a version of this that was a lot of fun to play one player when you're killing time.
. Scrabble-This is a fave for when we're up at the cottage, playing with my stepmom, sister, and sister-in-law. Yep, I'm the only guy who plays it up there, but I'm still pretty good at it.
. Risk-Haven't played this in a while, but always struck me as a fun way to pass an evening with a few friends.
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3 comments:
Hey JD - You're preaching to the choir with this post. You have a lot of avid Settlers players among your readership.
As for myself, I actually run a store that vends a lot of these games, although it will be a cold day in hell when I'll ever get Austin to play any of them.
This Christmas break I played 3 different games, in addition to Catan, which always comes out:
Pit - chaotic card game. Sold in a lot of mass-market stores in addition to ours.
Alhambra - Not a lot of interactivity, but a great strategy game that can be finished in about 45 minutes. You're building an alhambra (a popular fortress-type of structure in Spain), and you're competing with other players to build the superior one.
Agricola - A newer one, enormously complex, and takes about 3 hours to play, longer if you're new to the game. But there's so much depth to this game that every time I get done I want to play again so that I can try a different tact. Also, unfortunately, it costs about $70. :)
settlers i have taken a solemn vow to never play again. ever time i play it a) get scrwed and b) break several lines of the church covenant.
there's a game called such and such out there. you have to name two things that go together like laurel and hardy or PB and jelly. i rule at the game.
ahh, chess. maybe in my golden years.
risk was a big high school staple. tom and sam know what i'm talking about.
can't think of anything else.
Commish--cool, I didn't know that about you--which store?
Austin--yeah, I can see the potential for that in Settlers...I've only played twice so far, but the second game was a bit of a glum one for me, I stepped out of the room briefly after picking my first settlement's location only to find out upon my return that my wife and sister-in-law collectivly screwed me by boxing me in, dammit. So yeah, A, and B, I get. But I haven't had my fill yet, though, so I'm still looking to play it again sometime.
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