board games

Day 240: Gaming Goal

 

Sushi Go!, one of the 10 new games I've played in 2015.

Sushi Go!, one of the 10 new games I’ve played in 2015.

I just realized I hit one of my yearly goals. It was my fifth goal, added on Day 100 of My Quest to Blog Every Day in 2015: Play 10 new board games.

As a reborn gamer, I’ve had a lot of fun becoming reacquainted with the board game hobby. The best part is that my wife and stepdaughter enjoy a few of the games and my nieces and nephew always ask to play Sushi Go or Love Letter whenever they visit.

Gaming is so much better when it’s with family.

For years, game night meant an hours-long session of poker with my buddies. Typically no-limit hold ’em, but if there were enough hardcore players in our group we would have a long mixed-game session. I loved playing Omaha Hi/Lo, Badugi, and other variations of poker.

Today, though, I find myself opting for hours of board gaming over gambling. One of the best decisions I made this year was buying Pandemic. It was my gateway game and I couldn’t get enough of it. It was nice that it was solo-friendly since I could log in a few solitaire games after my wife had gone to bed.

My stepdaughter immediately took a liking to it as well, so that was a terrific surprise. I treasure the time we spend together and what better way than trying to save the world from being laid to waste by a super virus?

Here’s my list of 10 games I played for the first time this year. I’ve listed them in order of preference, so my #1 game is Pandemic, etc. I’d recommend any of these games for anyone’s collection.

  1. Pandemic
  2.  7 Wonders
  3. Ticket to Ride
  4. Love Letter
  5. Sushi Go!
  6. Zombie Dice
  7. Tsuro
  8. Castle Panic
  9. Mille Bornes
  10. Moose on the Loose

Day 229: 7 Wonders

7 Wonders

7 Wonders

After a few rounds of solo play to get acquainted with the rules, I played 7 Wonders with my niece and nephew. We’d played plenty of rounds of  Sushi Go!, which turned out to be the perfect segue to 7 Wonders since both share a similar card-drafting mechanic (play one card from your hand, then pass the hand to your opponent).

7 Wonders is currently my favorite game. I love the civilization-building theme. Players build their cities and score victory points based on their city’s structures, treasury, military, science and technology, commerce, guilds, and their wonders (for example, Giza’s wonder is the pyramids). The cards represent the structures and players accumulate points based on the cards and other factors.

A player’s city is built up during three ages and each age consists of six turns. With how simple the game is and how quickly it can be played (30-45 minutes), there’s a surprising amount of depth here. Different strategies yield different results; for example, you can focus on strengthening your military or trying to improve your science and technology. Sometimes during an age, you can try to build your wonder while others build their civilian structures.

So far this year, my top three games are Pandemic, 7 Wonders, and Ticket to Ride. Each one takes less than an hour to play and are terrific for players of all levels. For newbies, I’d recommend Ticket to Ride first. But no collection would be complete without Pandemic or 7 Wonders.

Day 222: Card Games

image

Our latest game night was with the youngest members of the family. They liked these three card games the best: Sushi Go!, Pit, and Milles Borne. The most popular was Sushi Go! and we played it numerous times. It was the perfect combination of easy-to-learn rules, fast play, and fun player interaction.

I’ve had the Milles Bornes game sitting in storage for years, so it was nice finally playing it. We did one run-through to figure out the basic game play. We’ll figure out scoring and strategy the next time it makes it to the table.

Pit is always a popular choice with any crowd I play it with and especially with the kids since it gives them an excuse to yell while playing.

I’m pretty sure it’s the same reason why adults like it, too.

Day 221: Games Library

Games library growing

Games library growing

The games library in my home is growing slowly but surely. In addition to my latest games-buying binge, I found Carcassonne in storage. It’s a game that I bought years ago during a time when Game Night was called Poker Night and the only game that made it to the table was played with 52 cards, stacks of poker chips, and didn’t stop until long after midnight.

There still aren’t any heavy or hardcore games in my collection. I doubt I’ll ever get back into Dungeons & Dragons (my junior high self can’t believe this), since I prefer the light strategy games that don’t take up hours upon hours to complete.

I also prefer the games that are easy for non-gamers to play. Nowadays, it’s more satisfying for me to introduce people to the wonderful world of board games.

Day 215: 7 Wonders (First Thoughts)

7 Wonders

7 Wonders

I wasn’t able to get 7 Wonders to the table on Game Night, but I’ve run a few games by myself to learn the rules and it seems like it could be a new favorite.

The theme is what caught my eye. I’m not the biggest history buff, but I like how the seven ancient cities are used here. Build your city through three ages and gain points through your architecture, military, or science.

I love the card drafting mechanism; it’s simple and lends itself well to new players. Just pick a card and play it. Of course, there are dozens of icons to decipher, but the basic turn-by-turn play is easy. There’s some depth, too, with different strategies yielding different amounts of Victory Points.

More thoughts soon.

Day 214: Game Night Success

Water Works

Water Works

Game Night was a success last night, as my stepdaughter and her friends enjoyed themselves at the house. My wife did an awesome job of cooking while I got things rolling with quick games of Sushi Go! and Love Letter. The kids (they’re not kids anymore, but they’ll always be the kids in our eyes) moved on to Zombie Dice while we cleaned up.

Next up was the always crowd-pleasing Pandemic. It’s been months since I played and I forgot some of the rules, but picked them up again after a brief refresher with the rule book. My wife and I then relaxed with our own game of Zombie Dice while the kids played a rowdy game of Cards Against Humanity.

While we didn’t get to play 7 Wonders, I’m still excited to play it and hopefully we can do another game night soon. If anything, it’ll give us a chance to use our clever water sign shown above.

Day 212: GenCant

GenCant 2015 badge

GenCant 2015 badge

I stumbled on #GenCant earlier today — what a cool idea! This virtual get-together that runs during the same time as Gen Con, the tabletop gaming industry’s biggest convention, is for all us who Can’t make it to Gen Con.

What makes this online “convention” so fun is that there are actual prizes given away and you can even print your own badge (I’m using the one above). I can’t tell you how happy my inner geek is, especially since I’m doing game night tomorrow. Perfect timing for GenCant!

Here’s the history of GenCant from the official site:

“#GenCant started in 2014 on Twitter as Jason Paterson (@nakedmeeple,) Suzanne Sheldon (@425suzanne) and others were chatting enviously about all the Gen Con news in the social media sphere. One fateful Twitter exchange created the hashtag – and GenCant was born. Twitter gamers jumped in head first with enthusiasm by participating in the conversation, tweeting #GenCantContest photos, and donating prizes of all sorts. Soon the event had enough buzz that publishers and designers were asking how to get involved too.

  • GenCant is a community created and fueled event.
  • Call it an UnConvention, a Virtual Con, or Digital Gathering – just call it fun!
  • GenCant is intended to be something a bit fun for everyone who can’t attend the world’s biggest board gaming event, Gen Con.
  • GenCant is not intended as criticism or insult to Gen Con.”

I wonder if there’s a San Diego UnComic Con out there?

Day 211: Sushi Go!

Sushi Go (image from thegameaisle.com)

Sushi Go (image from thegameaisle.com)

Seeing all of the tweets from Gen Con has got me ready for game night here at the house. I may run a solo game of Pandemic before bed, but I wish there was a Sushi Go! single-player variant. My wife and I gave it a quick run-through to learn the basics and I loved it.

The graphics on the cards are uber-cute, from the salmon nigiri to the dessert puddings. I love the card-drafting mechanism; it’s easy to learn and the interaction with other players is always a good thing in my book.

I’ve read this elsewhere, but I’ll say it again here: I believe this physical interaction is what has been fueling the board game renaissance. Even though we have more ways now to communicate with each other, from Facebook to Snapchat to text messaging to the next technological breakthrough, we’ve lost the daily interactions that were a bigger part of our lives just 10 (5?) years ago.

I’m guilty of it as anyone. I always seem to be quicker to respond to a text or an e-mail. In a world of multi-tasking, it’s just easier to do it this way.

But board games require you to be in the moment. It’s not as much fun if you’re playing a game while someone’s on their smartphone or laptop. So the electronics stay off the table while we deal cards, roll dice, and move meeples around.

We’ll be running a bigger game of Sushi Go! soon, but just based on our little preview, I know it’ll be one of our go-to games on game night. It’ll be fun to disconnect from the electronics while connecting with our friends and families.

Day 208: Christmas in July

7 Wonders and Sushi Go

7 Wonders and Sushi Go

Another family game night is coming up, so I decided to buy two new games: Sushi Go! and 7 Wonders. Both are card-drafting games and received excellent reviews from the board game blogs. I can’t wait to put them through the paces with family and friends.

Today the UPS guy delivered the Amazon package with the games one day ahead of schedule. It was exciting adding them to our modest-yet-growing games library. It was like Christmas in July.

Day 189: The Gift of Gaming

Love Letter

Love Letter

To celebrate our anniversary, I took my wife out to eat and I surprised her with a few new games: Scrabble Flash, Ticket to Ride USA 1910, and Love Letter.

We were hooked on Scrabble Flash last year when my sister-in-law bought the game. It’s a fun, high-tech version of the classic board game. It’s an outstanding solo player game and I love the fast-paced play.

I wrote about our addiction to Ticket to Ride earlier this year. We played countless games before downloading the app for our tablets, where we ended up playing most of the time. So, to rekindle our passion for TTR, I bought the 1910 expansion. We’ll be putting this to the test soon and I’m already fired up to try out the new rules.

Finally, no anniversary would be complete without a love letter or, in our case, the Love Letter card game. I’ve heard nothing but good things about LL and it seems like it’s our style of game: easy to learn, with some strategy, and games that don’t take all day to play.