BOARD GAMES!!!

[Eimi]

So, my local group of foreigners love to get together to play board games together.  I am hoping to give myself a new board game for Christmas this year, and I am already starting to plan what it might be (since I have to get it sent from America most likely!)  So, for any of you into board/card games, I thought maybe we could give a review of 1, 2 or 3 of our favorites to not only give ME ideas, but maybe give you all a head start on holiday planning as well! 

So I'll start:

1) MILLE BORNES - It's a card game for 2, 3, 4 or 6 (but not 5!) players.  It's game that came out back in 1962 and is based on a French automobile race of the same name.  When you play 2 or 3 players, it's every man for themself, but 4 or 6 is played in teams.  Basically your goal is to drive a thousand miles using different cards to get you moving.  However other players can impede your progress by causing flat tires, accidents, red lights or empty gas tanks.  They can also impose speed limits on you.  You can either play up to 1000 (or as close as you can), or you can play rounds of 1000 miles, earning points along the way for the different cards you play.  I played this game pretty much since I learned how to count to 1000, so it's really easy for even kids to play, but fun for adults as well.

2) COCKROACH POKER - This is a German card game.  This game is good in larger groups (I think we've played up to 8 people with it).  Each card in the deck as a different creepy creature (for example, spiders, stink bugs, toads, and of course cockroaches).  There are eight different critters I believe.  On your turn you select one of your cards and pass it to any of the other players face down and tell them "This is a ___".  It can be true, or a lie.  So if I have stink bug, I can pass it to someone and tell the truth or say something like, "This is a spider."  They they have to decide if I am lying or not.  If they say "Yes it is", they are wrong and have to keep the card face up in front of them.  If they say "No it isn't", they are correct, and I have to keep the card face up in front of me.  First player who has four of any kind of creature loses.  So this is a game to see who loses first, not who wins.  And this is another that can be played with any age.  (I play it with my elementary Japanese kids and they love it!)

3) TICKET TO RIDE - This is a train building game that you can play with up to 5 players.  There is a map of America (or Europe depending on the version) with train lines connecting different cities of different colors.  There are two types of cards, train car cards and destination cards.  You use the train cards to build trains along the same colored lines, and you get points for connecting the cities on your destination cards with your train lines.  It's a simple game of points which is calculated by moving your color token around the boarder of the board.  The longer the train line you build, the more points you get.  The more destinations cards you have completed at the end of the game, the more points you get.  But, any destination points not finished at the end of the game count against you.  It's really a lot of fun (but might be harder for younger children).

So, anyone else have a good game they'd be willing to share?

[Paula]

We have  TICKET TO RIDE -Europe, it's great but time consuming.

1) Monopoly, classic, never gets old. Who doesn't want to get rich? Unless you end up bankrupt.

2) Cluedo, great fun, my family's favourite. Except my daughter always wins, she's a frigging Sherlock Holmes.

3) Carcassonne - man I like world-building. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carcassonne_(board_game)) reguires large, flat space, usually we play on the floor and it can take over almost whole living room. (we have couple of expansions).

[Suzee]

One that I've recently discovered with my family:

Red Dragon In: In Red Dragon Inn, you and your friends are a party of heroic, fantasy adventurers. You've raided the dungeon, killed the monsters, and taken their treasure. Now you're back, and what better way to celebrate your most recent victory than to spend an evening at the Red Dragon Inn. You and your adventuring companions will spend the night drinking, gambling, and roughhousing. The last person who is both sober enough to remain conscious and shrewd enough to hold onto his Gold Coins wins the game.


(OH and I love Mille Bornes!)

[Leigh]

One thing I'm always happy to play at the not-so-local comic shop's game nights is "Cards Against Humanity." I keep saying it's a great way to find out what a horrible person you really are. :-P It's a question-and-answer card game that's crude, bizarre, sometimes far too real, potentially offensive, full of black humor, and always hilarious. I once won a round by replying to "What am I giving up for Lent?" with "Hope."

Collaborative games like "Sentinels" and "Castle Panic" are really entertaining too, as are dueling games like "King of Tokyo."

[emma]

We need to make a Pern version of Cards against Humanity.... Imagine a post with some of out guys playing it, or maybe not if you have a clean mind

[Leigh]

I wish I could like that idea ninety-nine more times, Emma.

[Avery]

Making your own themed Cards Against Humanity deck is fun! I created a small deck for my Myst convention full of game references and it was a ton of fun for people to play.

A game I've played twice and loved is Codenames. The joy of trying to give a single word that can indicate multiple things on the board, while not tipping off the other side, is an experience. It does require language fluency and hoping you're on the same page with your friends so they can figure out what you're indicating, but I think it's well worth a game or two!

[Eimi]

All those games sound really cool!  And I would love to have another Pern based game (my older brother actually used to have the original Pern board game a long time ago!), but I would want a world building game where you have to settle the Southern Continent, build a Weyr and the Holds to maintain it!

[Eimi]

I played a game last week called "Pandemic".  It was pretty awesome!  Basically there are four epidemics that are spreading around the world and it is the players job as a team to cure them before it gets to the point of no return.  If you have a chance, you should look into it!

[Eimi]

So we had a typhoon roll over us this weekend, meaning I had to postpone my Halloween party for the kids, so instead two friends and I holed up in my apartment to ride out the storm and ended up playing six different board games!  Two of them are ones that haven't been shared here, so I thought I would tell you about them...

1) Sushi Go/Sushi Go Party



Sushi Go is a card collection game where you are trying to collect different items from a sushi shop menu.  Just like the KAITENZUSHI shops that have a conveyor belt of items to choose from, in Sushi Go each player is given a certain number of cards which, after they choose one to keep, is then passed to the player to their left.  You keep taking cards and passing until there are no cards left in your hand, at which point you count up the points for the round.  Each game is three rounds.  Sushi Go Party is the same, but with more kinds of cards available, a changeable "menu" of cards you play with, and more people can join.  The illustrations are adorable and everyone I know just loves this game!

2) Potion Explosion


This game is definitely not for a house with small children as there are lots of small marbles used in the game, but it was a lot of fun!  Players select "potions" that they want to make, the ingredients being represented by different colored marbles.  There is a special dispenser box for the marbles that allows them to come down in tracks.  On a players turn, they can choose to take one marble from the dispenser.  If by taking that marble you cause two or more marbles of the same color to crash into each other, you get to keep those as well.  In this way, it's kind of a hybrid between a collection game and a smartphone "Candy Crush" type game.  It was lots of fun!

[Len]

I don't know anything about board games but 'Red Dragon Inn' sounds like something I need in my life...hilarious idea!

[Yvonne]

Yay board games! I LOVE board games!

Lots of good suggestions here already - I'm going to have to look into Mille Bornes for sure. I have a lot of boardgame friends who are also really into F1. On that note, there is actually a game called Grande Prix that some of my friends are really into. It sounds a lot like Mille Bornes but with a board. https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/4503/grand-prix-f1

I will give a hearty, enthusiastic thumbs-up to Code Names. It's a great party game for lots of players, and is simple to play with folks who aren't super into board games. I also really like Carcassone.

And if you liked Pandemic, you should look into Pandemic Legacy. Basically, what you do in previous games affects the board/gameplay for the next round. It's only playable for 12-24 sessions though, depending on how you do and the choices you make. Great game if you have a consistent group that gets together. And I like cooperative games.

Right now, my board game friends are really into this wacky gambling game called Camel Up where you bet on racing camels. It can be played by up to 8 people, is medium quick to learn, and is full of surprises and upsets. If you have a group that knows how to play, it can be played in about half an hour/45 mins. https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/153938/camel

Others that are good... Robo Rally is a racing game where you race robots across a board with lasers and conveyor belts. I also really like Dutch Blitz, which is a lot like Speed. Tokaido Road is lots of fun - basically you travel across Japan and visit temples and hotsprings, paint a watercolour, eat food and get gifts from strangers. The goal is to go on the best pilgrimage. Lots of fun! Takenoko is also fun - it's about growing bamboo and feeding it to pandas.

And Cards Against Humanity... oh, it's for bad people. ;) I bought the 12 Days of Kwanza for my husband one year, and now one of the white answer cards in our deck has his name on it. I also have a Kickstarter pack of custom cards for urban planners and architects called Cards Against Urbanity. There's so many options!

[Eimi]

Pandemic Legacy definitely sounds fun!  I will have to look into that!

I love Cards Against Humanity, and the cleaner "Apples to Apples".  Dixit is a very similar game.  It's another "choose your favorite card" game, but with art rather than words.

I bought Carcassone for myself for Christmas, but I can't open it till then.  I'll let you know what I think of it!