game night

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 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 165: Scrabble

image

It’s been awhile since we’ve had a game night at the house, but thanks to a visit from the kids, we had a three-hour session of Ticket to Ride and Scrabble. Even though a deluxe edition of Scrabble (with its fancy rotating board and lockable letters) has been on my wish list for years, my old board is still going strong after over a decade of use.

Another thing that’s still going strong is my love of the game; it remains fun and challenging, even if I can never remember all of the legal two-letter words. Why do I always forget “za” (slang for pizza)? It’s one of my favorite foods. It should be one of my favorite Scrabble words, too.

Day 146: A Moose in the House

There's a Moose in the House

There’s a Moose in the House

My wife picked up a copy of There’s A Moose in the House at Barnes & Noble. It was in the clearance section, so she only paid two bucks ($9.99 list price) for a light and entertaining card game.

The theme, artwork, and object of the game are funny. You are trying to fill your opponent’s house with moose by playing moose cards onto empty room cards. There are also door cards to close empty rooms to keep the moose out and “moose trap” cards that remove moose from a room, leaving it available for another moose to enter. After the deck is exhausted, moose in your house are counted; the player with the fewest is the winner.

It’s a simple game and takes about 15 minutes to play. The instructions are a bit longer than necessary and somewhat unclear until a run-through or two. After a few warm-up games, you’ll be giggling as you and your opponents try to bring rampaging moose through each others’ homes.

We liked the game, but I doubt it will be part of our regular rotation of games. It might play better with more players; it was okay with 2 players, but up to 5 can play and I think our nieces and nephew will enjoy it. Still, I can’t think of many better ways to be entertained for two bucks.

Day 88: Game Night

imageWe introduced my niece and nephew to three new games today: Tsuro, Castle Panic, and Ticket to Ride. My wife and I were impressed with how quickly they picked up each game. We started the session with several games of Tsuro. It was the perfect way to get things rolling, since it only takes one or two turns to learn how to play and the game itself only lasts 10-15 minutes.

Next up was everyone’s favorite of the night, Ticket to Ride, which won over both my niece and nephew just as it had won over me, my wife, and stepdaughter. After the first game, everyone immediately wanted to play again, which is all you need to know to understand its popularity. It’s a fantastic family game and deserves all of its praise and accolades.

Finally, Castle Panic was a hoot, as my nephew was in charge of the sound effects for slaying each goblin, orc, and troll. He was the biggest fan of this one, more so than my niece and wife, and he quickly grasped the rules and strategy. We cheered when the Barbarian was picked up and won both games we played. High fives were given and promises were made to play again.