My board games blog

Last Game of the year was TI-3 with 6 players

Wed, 31 Dec 2008 22:13:43 -0600

We played an amazing 6-player game of Twilight Imperium III on the last day of 2008. Melissa took some photographs during parts of the game. I created an entry to share how it looked.

Games played in 2008

Sat, 6 Dec 2008 11:04:51 -0600

Here is a summary of board games I played in 2008. These are “face-to-face” games, not games played with a computer. I expect game playing to be a regular activity for the remainder of December, with the Holidays and all, so these numbers are expected to change. It is interesting for me to see how many different board games I played this past year. And it’s also interesting how some of the really “hot” board games from 2007 didn’t see as much activity this year.

I also believe that 2008 was an excellent year for new board games. There were so many interesting titles that hit the table this year. For some of the games, they were played a lot at first and then less often in the following months. However, this was not always because of the attraction of new games to try, rather that there were so many exceptional great games we added in 2008, so we were always rotating through more game titles than usual.

This summary is ranked from most frequently played to least.

Carcassonne
2 - 5 players
60 minutes
Ages 8+

Played in 2008: 30

This was one of the first “euro” games we purchased and still remains a favorite. I think we own all the expansions but frequently play with just a few:
Inns & Cathedrals
Traders & Builders
Abbey & Mayor

Pandemic
2 - 4 players
45 minutes
Ages 10+

Played in 2008: 28

A new game for us in 2008. I’ve played this game at work over lunch, at home with family and out with friends. It’s a cooperative board game, all the players struggle to beat the game itself. The theme is that each player is a researcher working in a team trying to save the world from outbreaks of diseases. The game mechanics are quite clever and the game components and colors are first-rate. This is an excellent game, and obviously very popular. Pandemic is one of the those games that when it gets newly introduced to people, they often want to go out and purchase their own copy.

I still enjoy playing this game and even enjoy playing it solitaire. However, it’s not as “hot” as it originally was with my family. Still if I were constructing a collection of board games to introduce, this one would definitely be included. I’ve written up a review about this game.

Escalation!
2 - 6 players
15 minutes
Ages 10+

Played in 2008: 21

We started playing this game in 2007 and it still remain a family favorite. I’ve recorded that we have played this game 77 times since we first owned it. Escalation! is a fast-paced, fun card game. We frequently use it to “break the ice” when beginning a game session. I’ve also written up a review about this game.

Mr. Jack
2 players
30 minutes
Ages 9+

Played in 2008: 16

This is a very cool strategy game and was new for us in 2008. The premise of the game is that one player is playing “Mr. Jack” and the other is trying to figure out who he is. The challenge is that there are several detective figures on the game board and one of them is Mr. Jack.

The game plays pretty quick, I’ve introduced it a lunch time at work and it has seen several plays there. It feels a little like Chess because you need to out-think you opponent carefully. I like this game a lot, and frequently play with my son.

Stone Age
2 - 4 players
60 minutes
Ages 10+

Played in 2008: 13

A new game for us in 2008 too. This is a “worker placement” game with a bit of luck too. The board game is beautiful and the components are first-rate. There’s even a leather dice cup.

For a while there our family played this game every week. It’s still highly regarded by my family.

Chess
2 players
A classic and familiar game to many

Played in 2008: 12

My youngest brother hand made a wooden chess board for me back when he was in High School Wood Shop class. I still use it to this day with a very nice set of wooden chess pieces given to me 30 years ago. I taught Nicholas to play Chess years ago and he’s getting better at it. These games were all played between the two of us.

Factory Fun
2 - 4 players
45 minutes
Ages 10+

Played in 2008: 12

My wife surprised me with this game as a Christmas gift last year. She looked over my Wish List on Board Game Geek and discovered I was interested in this game. I’m not sure how she found a copy but I was delighted.

This is a “puzzle” game. Each player adds interesting factory machines onto their factory floor game board, looking for ways to optimize the connections (inputs and output) and locations on the floor. I’ve played this game over lunch at work. It also works as a solitaire game.

Felix: The Cat in the Sack
3 - 5 players
20 minutes
Ages 8+

Played in 2008: 10

This is a light card, auction game, by Friedemann Friese, the designer of Power Grid. It’s not quite as fun as Escalation!, but we also use this game as a session “starter”.

Agricola
1 - 5 players
120 minutes
Ages 12+

Played in 2008: 8

We received our copy of this game in August, so there’s hasn’t been much of the year for playing it. Even then it shows a healthy 8 plays in only a few months.

Agricola is a board game about farming. And it’s an excellent game. There’s a set of rules for the family/starter and the regular rules which provides for a rich gaming experience. This really is an outstanding game. I’ve read great reviews about it and enjoyed teaching it to others. Invariably, while the game is on-going I’ll hear someone remark how cool this game is. I recommend that if you want to learn this game, waste no time and go over and see the excellent video tutorial Scott Nicholson created on his Board Games With Scott web site.

Note that there are official rules to play this game solitaire. Also, it’s become such a popular game that many people have “tricked out” their components with custom made pieces. We did it too. We made a whole set of very cute and fun custom Sheep, Pigs and Cows for use in playing this game. It just adds to the fun. This game is rated number 1 on Board Game Geek, having been the first board game to displace Puerto Rico from it’s long-held number 1 position.

Agricola may not be for everyone but I recommend you give it a try if possible. The only downside I feel with the game is that it can take about 3 hours to play the first time with newbies.

Hive
2 players
20 minutes
Ages 9+

Played in 2008: 8

Hive is an abstract strategy game. Each player is provided with a set of insects that have unique movement abilities, like pieces do in Chess. However, this plays nothing like Chess. The board is formed by the placement of the pieces. And the pieces can move around as each player tries to surround the opponent’s Queen Bee.

I keep a copy of this game in the car and often play a game with Nicholas if we go out somewhere for lunch or dinner.

Ticket To Ride
2 - 5 players
45 minutes
Ages 8+

Played in 2008: 8

This was our first “Euro” game and remains a family favorite. If I’m introducing someone to European Strategy Board Games, I always bring out Ticket To Ride. It’s reputation as an excellent “gateway” game is deserved. We always play with the USA 1910 expansion nowadays.

Our family can usually complete a game of Ticket To Ride in 30 to 45 minutes. We haven’t done anything to “trick” this game out, even though it is a family favorite. I do admit though that we purchased the Ticket To Ride: Marklin game just to have the purple and white train pieces so we could use them with the original game. You can see we’re pretty big fans of Ticket To Ride.

Cuba
2 - 5 players
120 minutes
Ages 10+

Played in 2008: 7

This is another “worker placement” game with beautiful components and game board. It’s an economics game. I think it’s quite a bit of fun and consider it a medium-weight strategy game, not quite as light as Ticket To Ride. We played Stone Age and Cuba often in the same weeks, and did not tire of either.

I’m not going to break out details about the other games, but they are all excellent examples of modern board games and I am happy to have them in our collection. Each of these games were played about a half-dozen times in the past year. Some of the board games have not been played very often just because there’s hasn’t been lot of time, and there are so many excellent new games to choose from. Here’s some of the remaining list. Each entry has a link to it’s entry at Board Game Geek.

Metropolys
1960: The Making of the President
Container
Galaxy Trucker
Khet: The Laser Game
Last Night on Earth: The Zombie Game
Ave Caesar
Memoir '44
Power Grid
Broadside
Galactic Emperor
Kingsburg
Modern Art
Mystery of the Abbey
Starfarers of Catan
Wits & Wagers
Airships
Blokus
Fearsome Floors
Thebes
HeroScape Master Set: Rise of the Valkyrie
New World: A Carcassonne Game
Ra
Starship Catan
Ticket to Ride: Switzerland
Twilight Imperium 3rd Edition
Age of Empires III: The Age of Discovery
Arkham Horror

Thanksgiving Day board gaming

Wed, 26 Nov 2008 08:58:13 -0600

Our schedule prohibits traveling back to Ohio to visit with family members this Thanksgiving Day. Between school schedules and my work activities, we decided to stay in Omaha for the holiday.

When talking with one of my friends from work we realized that there was an opportunity for our two families to get together and spend the day playing board games. We’ll also stay for dinner and just make a great day of it. Since we’re the invited guests we will be bringing a gift, but instead of a bottle of wine we thought we’d donate a new board game. I’m not going to say which one since my friend may read this before Thanksgiving day arrives. But it is a new additional copy of one of the games we are bringing.

Since I obviously own a large selection of excellent board games, we’ll bring along several for playing. I thought it would be good to share here which games we selected to bring and why. First, some parameters. There will be 6 adults present and several children, ranging from 5 to late teen years of age. Probably the youngest will not really be playing board games. I imagine that we’ll have several games running in parallel. My friend’s family enjoys playing board games and has a few very nice Euro Games already. For example they love playing Ticket To Ride, Nexus Ops and Pandemic. Excellent games.

We also discussed the challenge levels of the games we will play and agreed that a mix of lighter fare, like Ticket To Ride and heavier games like Power Grid would work well. Here are the games we’ll be bringing along. I’m not certain we’ll play them all but it’s a good selection. The list is alphabetical and not in any favored order. Although, as it happens, the fist entry in the list is one of my newer favorites.

Agricola
1 to 5 players
120 minutes
Ages 12 and up

This board game is currently number 1 on Board Game Geek. It’s a great choice because it’s very easy to teach yet has great depth and fun. It has a “family” version of rules, and a more in-depth “gamers” version. We play the heavier version because it’s easy to understand and is quite engaging.

Agricola is a new game about farming. It sounds dull, but it’s actually a lot of fun. Each turn goes very fast and every decision can be difficult.

The stock game comes with little painted wooden cubes to represent the farm animals (sheep, cattle and pigs). For our own copy my family made custom animals from hobby clay. Here’s a photograph of one of the custom “animeeples” my wife created for this game. We’ll be sure to bring the custom “animeeples” when we play. They are too cute and add to the fun of playing this excellent game.

Ave Caesar
2 - 6 players
30 minutes
Ages 12 and up

This is a fun racing game. It’s very easy to teach. Ave Caesar has a beautiful board and nice little chariots that each player races around the track. Think “Ben Hur” and you get the idea.

It’s a lightweight game and should provide plenty entertainment for the younger boys and girls. Although I’ve played this game several times with adults and it’s fun too.

Carcassonne
2 - 5 players
60 minutes
Ages 8 and up

This is the most famous euro-style tile laying strategy game. It’s easy to learn, with maybe the exception of scoring the Farmers, and provides a lot of enjoyment.

We own all the expansions to Carcassonne and it’s one of my wife’s absolute favorite games. The interesting thing about Carcassonne is that, depending on the players, it can vary from being lightweight fun to an outright battle-to-the-death strategy game.

Escalation!
2 - 6 players
15 minutes
Ages 10 and up

I’ve written a review about this game. It’s a fast-paced easy to learn card game that always generates plenty of laughs. Escalation! is one of my favorite games design by Reiner Knizia.

We often use Escalation! to start our gaming sessions. It gets everyone in the right mood. It’s light, fun and plays quickly. I’m thinking this game will probably be played in parallel to the “deeper” games by younger members.

Galaxy Trucker
2 - 4 players
60 minutes
Ages 10 and up

This is a new game with great components and fun. It’s lightweight and plays pretty quick.

Each player has to build a spaceship out of components you place together on a game board. They can only be assembled in a “correct” manner, and you’re racing against the other players to get finished.

Then, once you have your majestic space ship assembled, all players go on a hazardous journey encountering space pirates, asteroids and other challenges. Pieces of your space ship may become damaged and very likely fall off and be destroyed. The fun in this game, believe it or not, is how much fun it is watching yours and your competition’s ship get pummeled to bits as the game proceeds. It’s quite a bit of fun and easy to learn.

Metropolys
2 - 4 players
30 minutes
Ages 8 and up

This is also a new board game. It’s easy to learn but gets your brain going in no time. I’d rate this a game that’s only slightly more difficult to play than Ticket To Ride.

Each player places wooden building components, almost in an auction-style game mechanic, onto the game board. You have to pay attention to what your opponents are trying to do and plan your steps accordingly.

We play this game at the office over lunch some times. My friend mentioned that he really liked this game and wanted to introduce it to his family.

Power Grid
2 - 6 players
120 minutes
Ages 12 and up

I love this game. It’s one of my favorite deeper Euro games. At it’s heart this is an economics game. Each player is buying power plants that operate on varying kinds of fuel (coal, oil, burning trash, nuclear, or solar). They must also build a network of powered cities onto the game board.

The purchase price of power plants increase as they become more powerful and efficient. You end up bidding against the other players to buy power plants. The resources needed to power your plants are available on a sliding demand scale right on the board. As the availability of resources declines their price go up. Each player, as they take turns, can purchase and stock resources. This has the ability to influence what the other players may pay for resources they need. It’s even possible to starve another player out since there’s a limited number of resources available in the game. And lastly, as you place cities on the grid it also costs money. Earlier investments in a location are cheaper.

With every turn you also generate electricity and power the cities connected on your grid. The more cities you power the more income you receive. The game has tight economics and every turn has interesting choices for players to make as they compete to have the most cities powered at the games’ end. This is a great deeper strategy game.

Shadows over Camelot
3 - 7 players
(with the expansion it supports 8 players)
90 minutes
Ages 10 and up

Shadows over Camelot is a co-operative game. With a twist. The players are knights of King Arthur’s Round Table and they are trying to defend against evils on multiple fronts at once.

The rules are easy to learn and the board game and components, just like all the Day of Wonder games, are beautiful and outstanding.

The game is already difficult to “beat”. But here’s the real twist that makes this game so much fun. One of the players is potentially secretly a traitor and working to make everyone else lose. It’s not assured in every game that someone is a traitor, but the odds are high that it happens. The traitor is randomly, secretly, chosen by a card deal at the beginning of the game.

That potential for a possible traitor makes for a lot of additional tension and built-in doubts about the agenda of your fellow team mates. Did he or she do that action because it was the best that they could do, or are they secretly a traitor? Of course, you can accuse another player of being a traitor, but you better be right. The interesting things is that a game may coincidently not actually have a traitor present, but no one knows for sure, so everyone scrutinizes and wonders about everything. With the expansion, which we’ll be using, the game supports eight players and there’s actually the possibility for there to be 2 secret traitors.

Starfarers of Catan
3 - 4 players
(with the expansion it supports up to 6 players)
120 minutes
Ages 10 and up

This is a great science fiction themed edition to the Settlers of Catan series. We like this game a great deal. It has excellent components, with some of the best looking retro-space ships available for each player. The game has an additional exploration component, as each player explores the cosmos they discover what the various star systems provide as resources. There’s also alien races to encounter and develop trade relations with. We purchased the optional painted alien figures for our game to just add to the overall fun.

This game, like Ticket To Ride and Power Grid, was one of the first Euro board games our family learned to play and it still has a special place among our favorites. It’s another one of my wife’s favorite games. It’s middle-weight in depth and learning. The only downside is that the game can take a long time with inexperienced players. Although we can support up to 6 players, I think this game plays best with 3 or 4.

Thebes
(Also known as Jenseits von Theben)
2 - 4 players
60 minutes
Ages 10 and up

In this game you feel like an explorer seeking treasures and artifacts from ancient ruins around the globe. It’s easy to imagine yourself as Indiana Jones. You travel to exotic locations and “dig” for hidden treasures. You can also return to various countries in Europe and exhibit your discoveries for points.

This game is lightweight and fun. There’s a strong element of luck to it. The components are outstanding. There’s little colored cloth bags representing each dig site. When you “dig” at the site you randomly extract cardboard chits from the bag. Most of them will be “sand”, empty and of no value. However there are also tablets, and statues and other rare artifacts that can bring you many points. One of the cool thematic game mechanics concerns these bags. When you draw out the useless “sand” chits you put them back in the bag at the end of your turn. This makes the odds of the next player visiting the same dig site even worse. Very cool.

Pandemic

Sat, 7 Jun 2008 10:03:43 -0500

News bulletin Atlanta:
The Center for Disease Control issued a warning today that a new aggressive strain of the Ebola virus is running rampant through parts of the Middle East, North Africa and India. Notably, travelers are advised to stay clear of the city of Karachi until the situation is under control. Researchers expressed concern that if the apparent epidemic outbreaks continue unchecked, a world-wide Pandemic may be upon us.*

- This is a fictional account

This review is about the new board game Pandemic from Z-Man Games. Here's the introduction text from the publisher:

You and your companions are highly skilled members of a disease-fighting team waging a battle against four deadly diseases. Your team will travel across the globe, stemming the tide of infection and developing the resources you'll need to discover the cures. You must work together; using your individual strengths to destroy the diseases before they overtake the world. The clock is ticking as outbreaks and epidemics accelerate the spread of plague. Will you find the cures in time? The fate of humanity is in your hands! A truly cooperative game where you all win or you all lose.

Designed by Matt Leacock, Pandemic is a co-operative board game for 2 to 4 players. Minimum recommended age is 10. Game time runs around 45 minutes. Cost is around $35 retail.
This is a very hot game right now and can be difficult to find. The first production run sold out and the publishers says that the second production run has also been totally sold out to distribution. If you see it at a Friendly Local Game Store (FLGS) you should act quickly and purchase it. It probably won't be there for long.

What’s in the box

The game comes in an excellent box. Graphics are clean and colors are interesting. The designers had fun with the box design -- the four sides of the box each show the graphics of the four diseases that are part of the game.

The mounted board is nicely made with attractive colors and a kind of matte finish.

There are 5 wooden pawns that are used to represent the players. The color of each pawn corresponds to the "Role Card" for that player. More on this later.

There are also a handful of neutral colored wooden Research Stations.

An supply of attractive wooden cubes is provided. They come in four colors. One color for each disease in the game.

Pandemic also comes with a small number of cardboard chits. There are used to represent the state of various disease cures, the levels of infection rate and number of epidemics in the game.

59 Player Cards are provided. These contain city names around the board as well as Epidemic cards and Special Event cards. Players collect these and use them to make decisions and cure diseases. Here a few Player Cards.

These are the Special Event! and Epidemic! cards. They are shuffled into the Player Card draw pile. There are 6 Epidemic! cards provided with the game. The number you include shuffled into the draw pile is how you control the difficulty level of the game.

A set of 48 infection cards are also provided. There is one infection card for each city on the map.

There are 5 Role cards, corresponding to the player pawns.

Four Reference cards are also provided with the game, making one available for each player. After a few minutes playing the rules will be absorbed easily enough that these reference cards will not get used much. Here are the front and back sides of a Reference card.

The rule book is excellent. It's only a few pages and is of high quality materials, colors and print size. The rules are explained very logically and are very easy to follow. There are even several example actions and turns documented generously with pictures and text.

Game play

Pandemic is a cooperative game where the players are united to beat the game. There’s only 1 way for the players to win. The game has 3 different ways it can win. It can be a tough battle for the players.

At the beginning of the game the 5 Role Cards are shuffled and dealt out. 1 card is dealt per player. If there are only 2 players, there are only 2 Role Cards in use. The players then gather the matching wooden pawn. A wooden Research Station is placed in Atlanta. All player pawns begin the game there.

The chits for Outbreaks Indicator and Infection Rate Marker are placed on the beginning places on their respective parts of the board. The 4 colored Cure Marker chits are set aside. All 6 Epidemic! Cards are set aside for now.

The Player Cards are shuffled and then a specific amount is dealt to each player. For a 2 player game, each player receives 4 cards; for 3-players, each get 3 cards; and for a 4 player game each player gets 2 cards. The cards are kept hidden from the other players.

The difficulty level of the game is now determined. For beginners it’s recommended that 4 Epidemic! Cards are used. Divide the remaining Player Cards into 4 even stacks and then shuffle 1 Epidemic! Card into each stack. Then place all the stacks on top of each other and face down on the game board in the Player Cards area. You can add all 6 Epidemic! Cards if you’re finding the game too easy to beat. HINT: I have won only about 30% of the time we have played at the Easy Difficulty Level.

Shuffle the Infection Cards and put them in their draw stack place on the board. Next you establish the initial game infections. Draw 3 Infection Cards. For each city identified, place 3 wooden disease cubes of the matching color. As the Infection Cards are drawn, they are placed face-up in the Infection Card Discard area on the board. Draw another 3 Infection Cards and place 2 cubes of the indicated color in each city. And finally draw 3 Infection Cards and place 1 colored infection cube in each of these cities. At this point the game is ready for the players to begin.

The person who was most recently sick is the starting player.

For each game turn, play proceeds clockwise beginning with the start player. Game turns are simple. Each player must perform 3 steps:

Take 4 actions
Draw 2 Player Cards
Play the infector role

That’s it. The game cycle repeats until the players either win or lose. Here’s what happens in each of those steps.

Take 4 Actions

A player may perform up to 4 Basic or Special actions. The Basic actions include moving around the board in various ways. The action cards are shown above and can be examined for more detail. The Special actions are non-movement related. Again, you can review the cards text above.

A player is trying to collect a matching set of colored cards so that they can cure a disease. It takes 5 cards to discover a cure.

Draw 2 Player Cards

After taking actions a player must draw 2 cards from the Player Card deck. If an Epidemic Card! is drawn that’s bad news and must be dealt with. Also if all the cards run out from the deck the game is over and the players lose. This is one of the three ways you can lose. It’s a built-in game timer. Most games I’ve played, are lost this way -- when time runs out.

There is an upper limit to the number of cards a player may hold. If you have more than 7 you have to discard down.

An Epidemic Card! being drawn causes the infections on the board to increase. This part of the game play is one of the most clever designs that fit the theme so well. Let’s see how it works.

When an Epidemic Card! is drawn, the first thing that happens is that the Infection Rate Marker is moved to an increasing number on the board. The number indicated controls how many Infection Cards are drawn in the next part of the epidemic phase.

Next you draw the bottom card from the Infection Deck and turn it face up. Place 3 colored cubes onto the impacted city. Ah, but there’s a potential problem. Each city may hold only 3 cubes of any one color. If the number of cubes getting added to a city causes it to exceed 3 of a color, an Outbreak happens. When you are “lucky” the newly infected city has no preexisting cubes. The maximum of 3 same-colored cubes are left in the city you just drew. But now every adjacent city gets one cube of the same color. And here’s where it can get really out of hand fast.

If any of those cities reach the 3 cubes-of-a-color limit they also generate an Outbreak. Outbreaks can cascade into a chain reaction infecting multiple adjacent cities. The yellow cubes have spread through Africa in the example shown.

For each Outbreak event the Outbreaks Marker increases its value. You can only have 7 Outbreaks in a game. If the Outbreaks Marker reaches 8 the players lose.

The final step of an Epidemic Card! is to add the newly drawn Infection Card to the contents of the existing Infection Card discard stack. The very cool twist is that the discard stack is shuffled and placed back on top of the Infection Card draw pile. This means the players know that previously infected cities will become re-infected.

Play the Infector Role

The last step in a player’s turn is to perform the “infector role”. The Infection Rate marker shows how many cards you need to draw from the Infection Card deck. Remember, if an Epidemic! Card happened recently, the odds are high you will draw an already infected city. You add 1 cube to every city drawn. Again, watch for Outbreaks. If during the game all the cubes of any single color are placed onto the board, the players lose.

Okay. How do you win? Remember that the players are trying to collect cards of matching colors. When a player has 5 of the same color, that player can travel to any Research Station on the board (the game begins with 1 in Atlanta). Once there, the player discards all 5 cards and discovers a cure for that color. The cure indicator is placed on the board. There are 4 diseases and 4 cure markers.

When all 4 cure markers on the board the players win.

Now there’s more that the players can do during the game. As an action, a player can remove disease cubes from infected cities. This action becomes critical to avoid Outbreaks. If a disease is cured it can still infect cities on the board. The players can remove infected cubes from cities as the game progresses. If all the cubes of a “cured” color are removed from the board then the disease is considered Eradicated. The cure token is flipped over (showing a sunset) to indicate this. Once a given disease is eradicated from the game the good news is that new cubes of that color may never be added to cities again.

The building of Research Centers at easy to reach locations around the globe also helps. The players have to collaborate, each using their special Character Role. The only rule is that players may not openly declare which cards they have. They can trade cards under proper conditions. Look over the text on the Role Cards and you can begin to appreciate how combinations of players working together can be effective.

I haven’t discussed player interaction strategies here. Much of that becomes obvious as the players start thinking about how to beat the game.

Variants

One of the first variants we started using was to have each player place all of their cards face-up in front of themselves, on the table. This makes the game easier for everyone. The game is still great fun that way. I only do this when playing a “teaching” game.

You can also play this game solitaire. I recommend choosing 2 Player Role cards and treat the game as a 2-player game.

Conclusion

This game is fun. You get a sense of theme easily as you play. And don't you just love that you determine the starting player as whomever was most recently sick? That's a cool touch. Pandemic is another one of those games that’s a joy to introduce to new players. Everyone seems to like it. I think the game mechanics are elegant and components are wonderful and inviting to play.

There are a few points to be aware when playing the game with inexperienced players. The first is that the “Share Knowledge” action can be confusing to get right. The way the rule works, with the exception of the Researcher Role Player, a player can give a card to another player only when they are both on the same city and the player giving the card must have that city card in his hand. Only the matching city card can be handed off to another player.

The second aspect of game play that I’ve seen when you have a blend of experienced and new players, it’s very easy for the experienced players to start telling the new people what to do on every turn. Easy to understand why this happens since everyone is trying to do the best they can to win. But I tend to offer hints when something obvious might be overlooked. Other than that, I’ve found that the players enjoy discovering what works well on their own.

Something else to be aware of when you purchase your game. At least for the initial production run, there were some errors in the contents of cards included with the game. It is very easy for you to check if you have the correct cards. There will be one and only one Infection Card for each city on the map. There will also be one and only one Player Card for each city. There are 5 Special Event cards and 6 Epidemic cards. I purchased one of the initial copies and actually played a few games and didn’t notice that I had 2 Infection Cards for 1 city and a missing card for another. Z-Man Games customer service will take care of you promptly if you contact them with a report if this happened to your game copy.

Pandemic is a difficult game to win. But it plays quickly and almost always you want to try again as soon as it’s over. I recommend this game if you play with folks that would enjoy a little non-competitive gaming sometimes.

Games That Are Popular With Our Family

Wed, 4 Jun 2008 06:02:03 -0500

Recently someone remarked that I was quite lucky that my wife loves to play certain board games. In particular the heavier games were noted.

This got me to thinking and I compiled a quick list of games my wife prefer playing from our board game collection. Yes, I agree, I am fortunate in more ways than one.

These are the games that are favored

Carcassonne
Long time favorite. It plays well with 2 players and scales up easily. It is actually capable of being played competitively. My personal experience is that whenever I agree to a game of Carcassonne with my wife, I know it will be a challenge to win. She excels at this game.

Ticket to Ride
This was the first Euro Game we ever played and still remains a favorite. We’ve been playing with either the 1910 expansion, which adds more destination tickets and improves the cards size, or the new Switzerland map which is specifically design for only 2 or 3 players and makes a very competitive game.

Starfarers of Catan
This was also an early purchase and remains a favorite. I really love the components and how the playing experience feels. We often play the 2-player variant.

Power Grid
This game was the first “complex” Euro Game we owned. It plays well at 2-player and higher. At heart it’s an economics game where you need to maintain a strategic view on your spending yet most importantly watch how you spend and grow with each turn. Great game. Even though we own all the board expansions and the new Power Plant deck expansion (which we use all the time now), the original USA map is still our familiar favorite.

Lost Cities
Lost Cities is the well known “spouse game”. This game is 2-player only, and it really is just a card game. It plays fast and for some reason has a reputation as being favored by women. I know whenever we play I hardly ever win.

Twilight Imperium III
This was the game that introduced us to large-scale deep themes. It has many decisions you choose every turn. It is such a wonderful experience because you can follow a military focus, political, or economic. Yet, usually you cannot win with out balance to how you play. The game takes about 3 hours for 3 players, and about an hour-per-player when you add more. It’s one of those games that you never notice how much time elapsed because it gets you so immersed. I am quite fortunate that my wife loves playing this game.

Gloria Mundi
This game is not as well recognized but we love it. It works with 2 to 6 players. The board and components are beautiful and every turn has agonizing decisions.

Conceptually, the game is about Roman statesmen fleeing Rome as it falls. You try to make out better than your opponents before the Goth reaches and destroys Rome.

Tikal
Tikal is one of the “mask” games. So nick-named because of the cover artwork and similar game mechanisms with “Java” and “Mexica”. Tikal is the favorite of all three for us. It’s another game with rich colors and components.

Tikal is a game for thinking on every turn.

Age of Empires III: The Age of Discovery
Age of Empires is a board game named after the popular computer game. It has a wonderful balance of too many optional decisions available every turn and paying close attention to what all the other players are doing. The game always plays “tight” and is quite fun.

Pandemic
Pandemic is the new hot game released earlier this year. It’s really difficult to find. The first print run sold out everywhere quickly. The second print run which is due to arrive at stores in June has already been sold out by distributors. I’m sure another run will come soon.

There’s a reason this game is so popular. It’s fun to play and plays in about an hour. It’s a cooperative game. All the players work together to defeat the game. It’s difficult to win, but can be done. The components and board are wonderful to see. Every time I get a chance to introduce this game it is well received. I was quite fortunate to find a copy at a local game shop the first week it came out, before all the popularity buzz made it rare to find.

I should write a review about this game.

Container
Speaking of reviews, I just did one on this most excellent game. It’s a challenging economics game. Container is hard to play and win. I only wish there was a decent 2-player variant.

Escalation!
My most recent game review was about this quick fun-filled card game from designer Reiner Knizia. Wonderful fun.

Puerto Rico
This game is the highest rated game on Board Game Geek. It’s full of great decisions with every turn and even plays well with a 2-person variant. For my birthday the year we bought this game, my wife and I played Puerto Rico 8 times in a row. It plays like that. when you finish a game you often wonder how another strategy might play out.

1960: The Making of the President
I’ve mentioned this 2-player game before and really need to write a review for it as well. This game is also not as easy to find because of it’s recent popularity. As unusual as it sounds, the game is about the USA presidential election in 1960 between Richard Nixon and John Kennedy. The game plays well and is very engaging. We love how it makes real for us the election process. The game does a wonderful job of being fun as well as informative. There are many cards included as part of the game, each card having a pertinent event and photograph from that era, with historical text. I was pretty young when this election happened, but can see why they chose it for the theme of the game. It is very competitive and feels so timely.

Ra
Ra is another favorite for us. It’s another excellent design from Reiner Knizia. We play the 2-person variant and it works well from 3 to 5 players. With 4 players it’s really interesting.

Shadows over Camelot
Can you say Monty Python? Actually, this is not a game about The Holy Grail, or at least not about the movie. But the theme fits wonderfully. This is another highly enjoyed cooperative game. All players are Knights of Round Table and struggle against the game. A most unique aspect of this game is that one of the players may secretly be a traitor working in the midst but against the other players. Quite fun.

Cuba
This is another economics game and is themed around Cuba before the revolution. The artwork is beautiful and there are many interesting game mechanics at work here. I would do well to write up a review about this game as well. It’s another family favorite.

Kingsburg
A recent addition to our games collection. This game uses dice in an interesting way. You roll them and select how you want the numbers on the dice faces divided amongst specific places on the game board. Sometimes you decide how to place based upon what you see on your opponent’s dice.

Runebound 2nd Edition
I’ve written a review of this game before. We enjoy playing this adventure game. I enjoy that you can also play it solitaire when there’s no one else around.

World of Warcraft: The Boardgame
This is a huge expansive adventure game where two teams battle monsters on the board and not each other. Yet they are competing against the opposite team. It takes a while to play this game (about 3+ hours), and a really big table. I was impressed how well the entire family enjoys diving into this one.

Ys
An interesting game with an interesting name. I think you pronounce it like “ease”, like the word peace without the letter P. I substituted the wooden cubes that came with the game for glass gems. Makes a much more attractive game. This game has auctions and bluffing. It’s unique and interesting to introduce to folks.

Warrior Knights
Love playing this game. It’s got war, politics and religion. I’ve written an extensive review about this game you can find in the archives of the old site.

Starship Catan
This is a 2-player game that’s themed in the same “universe” as Starfarers of Catan. I think it can move a little slow and you need to have good memory to play this game well. It is a game that my wife and I have played on quiet evenings.

Mission: Red Planet
Love the Steam Punk science fiction theme of this game. It’s a blend of and area-control game with a little bit of special character powers like “Citadels”. The game is about exploration and colonization of Mars. The colors and components of this game are appealing for playing.

Nautilus
This is another science fiction themed game of exploration of the deep ocean floor. Components and colors are wonderful. I’ve mentioned this game before in a review.

Now, just to be clear, there are some games my wife does not like to play. I like these games however.