Some friends invited me to a board game convention. I had a blast. Basically we arrived on Thursday morning, started playing board games and eventually went to sleep and repeat the next day. Once again, I'm a dork but it was awesome.
Now, not just any board game was played. Board games like Monopoly and Sorry are "frowned upon" (admittedly just for this I wanted to buy a copy of Monopoly and play the game just to see their reactions). The games that are played there are more along the obscure side but still entertaining. Fortunately one of my friends there was more than happy to learn the new games while we played games we are familiar with.
Here are some of those games we played and my take on each one. There are literally hundreds of games there. Keep in mind most of these games can be time consuming, taking anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour and a half or more. Because we were still learning most of these games it took a lot longer to play. Once learned these games would move a lot more quickly.
This will be a long post (we played a lot of games over 2 days) so here are the games I played: Colosseum, 7 Wonders, Alibi, Can't Stop, Ticket to Ride, Last Spike, Colossal Arena, Furstenfeld, Bacchus' Banquet, Patchwork (I will own this game at some point), Small World, Istanbul, Settlers of Catan, Asteroids, Roll for the Galaxy, Blood Rage (one of my favorites), Code Name Pictures, Loch Ness, Hornet
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| It's like you're Commodus putting on a show for your people |
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| The game in all it's glory |
My take on this game, it's long and entertaining. I wouldn't play this game with less than 4 people, it's a 5 person max. It takes at least 2 games to figure out a decent strategy but even with meticulous planning (which can take a while for some people, I tend to be on the quicker side of planning) things can go awry. I ended up playing the game twice during my stay. I wouldn't own it but if it gets pulled out somewhere I wouldn't mind joining the game.
Caligula has invited you to party like it's 37 AD. Some of the guests are there to get gifts, some are there to eat and drink and others there to kill him. You have to watch your waistline while trying to survive this feast. Literally. If you eat too much you die. And that's just what Caligula wants. In order for him to win he either kills 3 people or eats and drinks a certain amount. Depending on your character you either try to kill him or attempting to thrive off his scraps.
This was a very entertaining game. My only complaint is the turn taking. You only take your turn if someone gives you a gift that you accept. This can mean you wait a long while between turns. Overall it moves quickly.
By far the easiest game I learned to play. Roll the dice, place your 3 markers on the first 3 numbers rolled. Move your token each time your number is rolled until it reaches the end. If you don't roll your number before saving your spot you lose your place and start over.
We played this game while the game master learned a new game. Very addicting but I wouldn't pay full price for this game. If you see it at a garage sale totally worthwhile.
You're competing track builders trying to buy as much property before the last spike is driven between St. Louis and Sacramento. The more you own, the more money you get.
This was another filler game while the game master learned another. This one could be worth purchasing if you had a group of regulars that play games. Though it can be played with 2 people it would be much more entertaining with more. At $40 new I'm not sure it would be completely worth it but I don't have enough people to play this game with regularly (and the ones that invited me already own it). Maybe another day.
Build your army, build your city, get points, that's about all I know about this game.
The problem I had with this game was it was a last minute game right before we ran off to dinner and 2 people joined. No problem, no need to be exclusive. The problem was I was the only person who had never played the game before, I had no clue about the strategy, no idea what was going on and that's about it. I thought I was doing decent but honestly I don't know what was going on. I'd be willing to give this game another shot but it would need to be under completely different circumstances.
You build trains to get to your destination. The longer the train the more points you get. You can get blocked quickly if you don't build fast enough.
I actually own this game, got it for Christmas one year from my wife. I really enjoy this game, the more the merrier. As I said earlier, this is yet another time consuming game. It can last over an hour, easily. Definitely worthwhile. Though I haven't played the other variations of this game I'm sure they would be great to play.
In this game you're a farmer who sells goods to local breweries. The supply and demand of those products determines the amount you can sell those products for. Ultimately you want to buy your own castle, the first to do so wins.
This game was a blast to play. Though you can play it with 2 people it is definitely meant to be played with more. The more people playing makes it more difficult to win and competition is always more exciting.
You're trying to build a quilt and fill in as many spaces as you can. You only have patches to work with. It's only for 2 players.
This is a game I will definitely own. It's quick to play and easy to learn. A wonderful game for one on one time with family.
"The game that started it all". From what everyone I spoke with at the convention they claim this game is the one that helped propel board gaming to it's current status. This game is a blast to play. You're settling a new area and with limited resources you have to build cities, roads, and more settlements.
I've owned this game since the early 2000's. I bought the 5-6 player expansion along with different expansion games available at that time, Cities and Knights and Seafarers of Catan. I love this game and wish I could play it much more frequently than I do. If you haven't played this game, I say go out and get it. After writing this post to give you links I think I own some classic games worth quite a bit of money. WOOHOO!
This game is like Clue with cards. And motives. And so many specifics that it's pretty difficult to figure everything out.
I hate the game Clue (the movie was terrific, love it). And this game is almost identical to clue. But instead of who, with what and where you also have why. And to make it more difficult you may have the right person but if you guess the wrong time of day you get it wrong anyway. It's horrible and takes forever. I personally wouldn't bother with this game at all.
This game, from what I understand, has been out of print for a while. You place bets on which monster you think will survive the arena, while you are able to control (to an extent) what happens and who survives.
This game was entertaining, and with a few tweaks it would be worth purchasing. Once again if it were in print. We'll see what happens. I enjoyed this game.
This is a game of world conquest. Different races (elves, trolls, magicians, dwarves, skeletons, etc) fight to control the most territory. You control one race at a time and you choose when to let your current race die and start another race to continue the world domination.
I enjoyed this game. I could see myself owning this game at some point, if my kids start enjoying games more (and develop more patience). There are several expansions and again it looks to be worthwhile.
You're a merchant in Istanbul (not Constantinople) and you're trading goods for gems. You can only move a certain number of spaces and if you run out of "help" you can't do anything until you've collected them.
This was a fun game, takes a while to set up but easy to learn and many different ways to win. A fun game to play with friends.
For those of us who can remember arcades I'm sure you remember Asteroids. It was painfully addicting and I'm sure you spend many quarters trying to perfect your game (I never did, I'm horrible at arcade games but it never stopped me from trying).
This game you're trying to fly your spacecraft to 4 different checkpoints avoiding asteroids along the way. The asteroids move with each dice roll and the number rolled determines the direction each asteroid moves. We played the easy version of this game, there was no timer. To increase difficulty you can set a timer so you don't have as much time to plan your route.
I can't imagine what this game is like using the timer, anxiety increases just thinking about adding that component. It would take quite a while to plan a route and even then I would miss something and either get hit or run into an asteroid. There are also other variations of this game, maybe one day I'll venture farther out and play more.
The gist of this game is you roll dice to build and explore the galaxy. Unfortunately the person who taught me this game wasn't that great at explaining it at all. It would be worthwhile to learn again but maybe I actually attempt to learn it better myself instead of relying on someone else.
You're a hornet that collects pollen and makes honey. I always thought bees collected pollen and made honey while hornets were carnivorous thieves. I don't understand it but the game is amusing. You definitely have to plan several steps ahead and pray for a lot of luck that things go as planned.
It's your typical party game where you're divided into teams and have to describe to the team where you're pictures are located without actually revealing the actual picture. You can't guess wrong or the other team wins.
I prefer other party games to this one. I like games where there is more interaction between everyone, one person here can only say one word and everyone else talks.
Loch Ness
You're a tourist trying to take pictures of the Loch Ness monster. You move around thinking where the best picture is going to be while the Nessie moves around the lake.
This was a fun game but considering the logistics of the game, it would be much more entertaining with more than 2 people.
Blood Rage
The gist of this game is you're a bunch of viking clans wanting to die in battle to get to Valhalla in order to be resurrected in Ragnorak. You have a bunch of missions and rage to help you in this quest of a glorious death.
This honestly was one of my favorite games played there. The person who explained how to play this game was the same one who explained the Roll for the Galaxy and didn't do a great job but we all caught the gist and it was a load of fun. If I had people that would play this game regularly with me I would buy this game.
You're trying to smuggle good Mexican food into Canada trying to avoid getting caught by the Mounties.
The premise is simple but it takes a bit to learn. Unfortunately because of how long it took me to play this game the first time with my family I don't think it'll be played frequently in this household. I do like this game though and might look into some of the other games this developer has.
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