Entries Tagged 'board game reviews' ↓

I don’t think I’m exaggerating when I say that, in addition to being the World’s Greatest Dad (and I’ve got the mug to prove it), I also qualify for the role of World’s Funnest Uncle**.  But as one comedian put it, there is a very thin line between “fun uncle” and “creepy uncle”… or words to that effect.  And few things define that line quite like a little game I played last night called, “Flapdoodle.”

Flapdoodle, according to its Amazon production description, is “a totally silly game for kids and families. Use your creativity and imagination to answer crazy questions and do silly stunts.” For each of these questions and stunts, you get to move forward a certain number of spaces.  List three things from the ocean that you would NEVER want on your sandwich (seaweed, algae and, let’s face it, oil) and you move ahead one space.  Use the back of a chair like a steering wheel and pretend you’re a motorcycle for 60 seconds, and congratulations, you just bumped up three spaces.

Now I’d say 95% of these questions and stunts would place any adult male safely into the category of “fun uncle.”  For instance, “In a rockstar voice, repeat the words WET RAIN and DRY LEAVES until the timer runs out.”  Perfect opportunity to elicit some giggles from my ten- and six-year-old nieces with my AC/DC and Metallica impressions.  Or how about pretending your two big toes are named Gus and Earl and you need to make them have a conversation about potato chips.  Fun Uncle GOLD.  But wait, then we get this card: “Close your eyes and have all the players line up in front of you.  Identify each player using only your sense of smell.”

(AGH! AGH! AGH!)

(WARNING! WARNING! WARNING!)

I’m sorry, but if my female niece, who stands perched precisely on the threshold of puberty and adolescence, goes home and tells her mom that “Uncle Brian was smelling me,” I’m guessing there won’t be any more sleepovers at the Hodges house.

Still, barring a couple cards that, while most definitely cute and harmless when played exclusively amongst 6- to 12-year-old girls, but which are borderline we-may-have-to-send-Dateline-to-check-out-this-guy’s-computer-history once you get a 30-year-old involved, it really is a fun game.

Especially for kids with the world’s funnest uncle.

**Excluding, of course, any and all uncles under the age of thirty who drive a convertible and are still in the amusing early stages of full blown alcoholism.

I hadn’t thought much of the description of Ticket to Ride when I first read it (drawing cards to build train routes), but every review I read raved about it.  All but the most hardcore gamers loved this game and said they played it often with their friends and family.  It had been the top selling game on TimeWellSpent.org for a good year and according to several gamers I’d talked to, it was one of the quintessential introductions into German style board games. With all that good press, we finally decided to give it a shot.

I am so happy we took everybody’s overwhelming advice.  This game really is good wholesome fun.  The board depicts the United States with a series colored “train routes” between different cities, varying in length from one to six spaces.  Players start out with 43 train pieces, two or three “trip tickets” and four train cards, which are colored to correspond to the various spaces on the board.  On each turn, players can either draw cards, draw trip tickets, or claim a route.

You earn points by claiming routes with your trains.  The points go up exponentially as the route’s length increases.  For a route one space long, you get a single point.  For a route six spaces long, you get fifteen.  Players claim routes by laying down enough cards of the appropriate color for the route in question.  To claim the five-space green-colored route between San Francisco and Los Angeles, a player would lay down five green cards (or three greens and two wild “engine cards”) and then place one of their train pieces on each space in the route.  Obviously, with the way the points are tallied, it’s in a player’s best interest to claim longer routes, the obvious caveat being that it takes longer to draw six cards of one color than, say, two—especially when it seems like the cards you need never come up when you’re actually looking for them.

At the beginning of the game players draw trip tickets showing two cities that they have to connect with a continuous line of their trains by the end of the game.  Each trip ticket has a certain point value, with the longer routes obviously giving you more points than the shorter ones.  At the end of the game, you gain the given number of points for each ticket you complete and lose the number of points for whatever tickets you leave unfinished.

The game is played until one player runs out of trains, at which point you tally up the points for each route and trip ticket.  An additional bonus is given to the player who has the longest continuous route.  The player with the most points wins.

I finally understand all the fuss surrounding this game.  It has exactly the right amount of complexity and options for strategy so that you can feel challenged yet still have a nice relaxing game that doesn’t make you think too much.  Part of the excitement comes from the fact that you really don’t know who’s going to win until the very end of the game when all the points are tallied.  The rest of the excitement (and tension) comes from the fact that since nobody can see the other players’ trip tickets they can end up inadvertently (or on purpose if they’re particularly perceptive) blocking somebody’s route, forcing the other guy to take the long way around.

My only beef with Ticket to Ride is that it involves very little direct competition with the other players.  By and large, you’re concentrating so much on completing your own trip tickets that you don’t really have time to worry about blocking your opponent’s route or otherwise messing with their progress. But other than that one small gripe, it’s a great game that we’ve managed to sell the entire family on. It gets pulled out frequently whenever all the siblings-in-law get together.

Additional Note 1/5/09: We have also tried the Europe version of this game and found it to much less fun for several reasons. First of all, unlike the America version where converging train routes cause you to frequently clash with your opponents who are making trips through the same geography, the Europe trips often go way off by themselves, further alienating you from competing against the other players. Beyond that, since I’m not as familiar with European geography as I am with the United States, it was a lot harder (and not in the fun way) figuring out and remembering exactly where my trips were supposed to be taking me.

VITALS: This is a 2-5 player game which generally takes anywhere from 30-60 minutes to complete. I originally thought the designation of ages 8 and up was a tad too generous but our niece started learning to play at 8 and while she may not be as competitive as the 30-year-olds at the table, she does just fine with it.

OVERALL FUN FACTOR: It’s fun and not too taxing on the brain, though I find that as time goes by I am less and less excited to play it. I think it all goes back, again, to the lack of direct competition. But maybe that’s just me. It’s still a good game and worth having in the collection nonetheless. 7 out of 10.

BoardGameGeek.com Reviews

Hera and Zeus is a two-player card game which is really hard to learn at first, but once you figure it out, it is a lot of fun to play. The gist of the game is that each player takes on one of the eponymous roles from Greek mythology. As the story goes, each of the gods has kidnapped the other’s favorite mortal: Argus and Io respectively. Players build up their gods’ armies by laying cards of varying strengths facedown into three attack columns as they attempt to locate Argus or Io in their opponent’s deck.

Your cards consist of numbered “fighting cards” which are placed into the three attack columns, as well as “mythology cards” that give you special functions but cannot attack. The initial difficulty comes from the fact that there are a lot of cards to keep track of, each with their own strengths, weaknesses and special skills. The Pythia card, for instance, has a strength of zero which means anybody can kill her. But, if Pythia attacks Poseidon or Nemesis, the two strongest cards in each opposing deck, then she wins the fight. In addition, rather than attacking, Pythia can also be used to spy into an opponent’s hand or reveal all the facedown cards in any one column. With me so far? Don’t worry, we weren’t either.

The first time Lauren and I tried playing this game we got fed up and quit before we were even two turns into it. There were just too many cards to keep track of and we kept getting confused about who did what and what went where. To be fair, we were exhausted at the time and didn’t have the energy to figure it out at that exact moment. The next night we did it right. We went through each card one by one and figured out what they did, who they could beat, who could beat them, and any special circumstances where their special powers wouldn’t work. That gave us a good perspective on how to proceed and even though we still referred back to the directions and “cheat sheets” several times in the first few games, we at least had a working knowledge of the game’s mechanics and flow. Since then, we’ve had nothing but fun.

There are so many different strategies that one can use in Hera & Zeus, not the least of which is the use of bluffing. Placing cards facedown in a certain way so that your opponent thinks you’ve got a stronger card on the table than you actually do; hiding your Io or Argus card behind weaker cards so that your opponent won’t think to attack it; holding onto really powerful mythology cards for a long time in the hope that your opponent won’t attack it in your hand… these are all typical “bluffs” that one will employ.

But beyond that, and in my opinion the mark of a really good game, strategy is a consistently fluid thing and you find yourself constantly reworking how you fight and counteract your opponent’s likewise evolving methods. Lauren and I have been on similar learning curves with this game and are constantly figuring out how to exploit the inherent weaknesses in the other person’s strategy. No game is ever the same and the tension is palpable during those close matches that get down to the very end. Sometimes a game has literally been decided by a single card left in somebody’s draw pile.

And just to sweeten the whole pot, the artwork on each of the cards is beautifully rich and dark and complements the theme of the game perfectly. There’s a lot to love about this one and we pick it up often.

VITALS: This is a two-player card game which tends to last an average of 30 minutes. It’s definitely one of the harder games to pick up on so I trust the box’s appraisal of ages 12 and up.

BoardGameGeek.com Reviews

Cartagena (said: car-ta-HAIN-ya) is advertised as a “prison break” game where you’re trying to get a band of pirates down a tunnel and into their awaiting sloop. That initial theme serves as a jumping off point for the artwork (which utilizes a lot of skulls and guns and other creepy pirate paraphernalia), but when you get right down to it, the game is really just an abstract goal of getting your pieces from point A to point B. But that doesn’t hurt the game a bit. In fact, I think it helps because the game doesn’t get so bogged down in sticking to a “theme” (like Monsters Menace America) that it tries to make more of itself than it really is. In fact the simple design of Cartagena gives it a certain timeless quality where you could see yourself playing this exact same version with your grandkids forty years down the line.

I’ve read reviews that call Cartagena “Candyland for adults,” and I think that’s an accurate, if overly simplistic description. It’s similar in that you draw cards then move your pieces down a path and whoever reaches the end first wins. But this game goes beyond merely flipping a card and moving, flipping a card and moving. Players control six pieces (pirates) and have the choice on each turn of moving forward or backward—three moves per turn. To move forward, you have to play a card from your hand and move to the next available space with that picture (skull, ruby, knife, key, bottle, gun). If the closest applicable space already has a pirate (yours or somebody else’s) on it, then you move to the next available space with that picture. In theory, if all ruby spaces between you and the sloop are filled, you could play a ruby and move your pirate all the way to the end of the tunnel.

You start the game with only four cards, which is obviously not enough to get all your pirates down the tunnel. You pick up new cards by moving a piece backwards to the closest space that has one or two pirates already on it. If there is one pirate on that space, you pick up one card. If there are two pirates, you pick up two cards.

Those are the only rules. Very simple and easy to explain while still lending itself to plenty of strategy as you “make chains” and “break chains” with your pirates, allowing your pieces to jump farther down the board without allowing your opponents to take the same advantage. Another little twist for this game is that the “board” is actually comprised of six sections of tunnel that you assemble randomly at the beginning of each game, making the layout different every time.

Since I was introduced to the world of German Style Board Games, I’ve come to realize that, for serious gamers, the word “luck” is definitely a four-letter word. The less a game depends on any “luck factor” the more integrity it apparently has. In Cartagena the two luck factors are that you don’t know what cards your opponents have and you don’t know what cards are next in the draw pile. So even though there is still a good deal of strategy going on, the actual decision of whether to draw or move is more dependent on luck than skill. For those strategy diehards, there is a second way of playing that lends itself to being more “skill based” than “luck based.” In the “Tortuga version” of Cartagena all cards are face up. You can see what your opponents have and they can see what you have. In addition, the first five cards of the draw pile are also face up. Much more strategy comes into play because you can see exactly which chains your opponents can exploit and make a much more educated decision about where to move and what to draw.

While I’ve never personally attempted the Tortuga version, I’ve read several reviews that say it isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. It takes what should be a fun and simple game that employs just the right amount of strategy, and tries and turn it into something it’s not. In the end, everybody’s turn ends up taking twice as long as they agonize over every single move and every single decision. The game ends up turning into a slow boring march rather than a fun sprint through the tunnel. So I say stick to the basic rules. There is still plenty of strategy involved and it keeps the game fast paced and fun, which, if you’ll remember, was the whole point of this anyway.

VITALS: This is a 2-5 player game which I’ve found can last anywhere from 10-45 minutes depending on how long people agonize over their moves. The age on the box says 8 and up, which seems a pretty good assessment. Perhaps a precocious six-year-old could play it provided an adult helped walk them through their decision making process.

OVERALL FUN FACTOR: Classic and timeless board game fun. Since it’s not based on some trivial novelty, the “novelty” of it never wears off, which means if you like it the first time you, you’ll like it for the rest of your life. 8 out of 10.

BoardGameGeek.com Reviews

This was the game that introduced me to the world of “German Style Board Games.” In Monsters Menace America you take on the role of one of several classic movie monsters with slightly altered and comical names—for instance, the giant ape monster is named “Konk.” It’s the monster’s job to move around the board, which depicts the United States, and “stomp” major cities to collect health points. In addition to cities, there are other sites that you can “stomp” in order to gain Mutation Cards (which give you special powers) or Infamy Tokens (which allow you extra opportunities to attack later in the game).

In addition to controlling a monster, players also control one of the four branches of the military to defend the country from your opponents’ monsters. The caveat of this is that all military forces are still, in theory, loyal to the country, so they cannot attack other units and if you happen to cross paths with your own monster, you still have to shoot it.

Players spend the game building up health points, mutation powers and infamy tokens in preparation for the Monster Challenge. Once a certain number of cities have been stomped, the Monster Challenge begins. Players take turns rolling a die, trying to inflict as much damage as possible on the opposing monster. It’s obviously in one’s best interest to have as many health points as possible before entering the Monster Challenge, but it’s also wise to have collected several mutation cards and infamy tokens which give you added strength or skill and allow you to take extra swings at your opponent, respectively. The last monster standing is the winner.

Lauren and I played this game several times that first night and then again the next night. We soon realized however, that the enjoyment on this particular game is a bit short-lived. Once you get past the novelty of the artwork and the fact that you’re controlling monsters (I for one had a blast making monster noises and explosion sound effects whenever I fought a military unit), the game really kind of drags. There are certain games that lend themselves to complex movement and strategy. But Monsters Menace America, by its very design, was never intended to be one of those games. What should be a lighthearted stomp fest becomes a complex and slow moving game as you move your monster, deploy your military units, attack a city, fight other units, assess damage and health points, collect mutation cards and infamy tokens as well as military research cards, keeping track of what cards you need to play at the beginning of a turn and which can only be played once and which ones will actually have an effect on your opponent… In my opinion, it was too much hassle and too much to keep track of for a game where, let’s face it, you’re playing the part of a fire-breathing dinosaur.

VITALS: This is a 2-4 player game which generally takes at least an hour to play. The age on the box says 12 and up. You probably could go a couple of years younger since, let’s face it, this is a monster game, but there is a LOT for even older players to keep track of. I also imagine, with the right people, this game could make for a bit of raucous drunken college fun.

OVERALL FUN FACTOR: Meh. Once the novelty of moving monsters and shooting them with military jets wears off, the actual mechanics of the game make it more frustrating than fun. 5 out of 10.

BoardGameGeek.com Reviews