Entry 28: More classic games...

        We know that board gaming is gaining a lot of steam when the great publication, Reader’s Digest, is discussing board games. Two weeks ago they published an article called “24 Classic Board Games Everyone Should Own.”  

        As you may recall I wrote about classic games in Entry 16, nine of which made the RD list so I won’t talk about the cross-listed ones. A few others from the list were discussed in Entry 5: Ancient Games with one more listed in Entry 22 (Catan). This leaves us with eleven left from the list, so without further ado, lets dive into the list… 

Aggravation 

    This game has many good memories for me. It was the German version called Mensch ärgere Dich nicht first published in 1914 that I learned to play and love. Whichever name/version you want to call it, the game is a variation of the ancient game Pachisi so it is safe to that Aggravation is truly a classic. 

Boggle 

        A game in which you must spell words from the letter cubes as quickly as you can before timer runs out. If you find words that other players miss you get points. We played this game growing up and will go into our personal collection again when my daughter’s vocabulary is greater. 

Candy Land 

        Candy Land is a game that nearly every kid in America has played at some time in their life. Who doesn’t remember moving their gingerbread man up the rainbow path to get to the Candy Castle and find King Kandy. Ah, the memories. My daughter will have this game in her collection for sure. 

Clue 

        Another classic game from my youth and probably for many of you too. Clue, known as Cluedo outside of North America, was created in England in 1943 and first published in 1949. The popularity of this game has resulted in a few different editions as well as many licensed versions too. 

        Clue is so well loved that a Hollywood movie (with an awesome cast) was made as well as a mini-series, a musical, and numerous books. 

        “I suggest that it was Professor Plum in the Dining Room with the Rope. Can you prove me wrong?”

Connect Four 

        First came out in 1974, this two player game which you must get four in a row on a 6 high by 7 wide grid has become a fast classic. With many companies putting out variants (name changes) to the game it has remained popular even to this day. It is a game that can be played over and over until you either get tired of winning or losing. 

        The game has also become a hit for mathematicians for attempts at solving various equations regarding the game. The one that caught my eye was that there are 4,531,985,219,092 positions for all boards using 0-42 pieces. WOW!!!! Someone had a lot of time on their hands. 

Pass the Pigs 

 

        If you are a fan of pork or the farm life, this game may be for you. In Pass the Pigs you literally roll a pair of pigs and score points based on how they land. With scoring combinations named “razorback,” “trotter,” “snouter,” and “jowler” you are sure to have a squealing god time. Just avoid rolling a “pig out,” “oinker,” or “piggyback” which will cause to lose your points or get kicked out of the game. 

Pictionary 

        Based on what I have read about the history of Pictionary, the creator was actually inspired by Trivial Pursuit (which came out just a few years prior) when designing the game. This game tests your art skills by having you draw a picture in a short amount of time while your teammates guess what it is you scribbled. 

        The five categories are: People/Place/Animal, Object, Action, Difficult, and All Play. How well can you draw the action smell or the difficult alfalfa. 

Rummikub 

        The second ever Spiel des Jahres winner back in 1980, Rummikub (pronounced Rummy-Cube) was first sold door-to-door in Israel by its creator in the late 70s. This game is a combination of Rummy and Mahjong so if you like to play card and want to use tiles then this is the game for you. 

Sequence 

        Sequence is a hybrid card and board game in the sense that you are drawing and playing cards and putting chips on a board in attempt to get X chips in a row. This game can be played with a few individuals but if a larger group wants to play you would then divide up into teams. Another great game for the standard card lovers in your life. 

Twister 

        Originally called Pretzel when it was conceived in 1964 then changed to Twister when Milton Bradley acquired the rights in 1966. It became an instant hit when it was featured on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson. The game was also dubbed controversial because it caused participants to entwine themselves in “compromising positions.” 

        The game became a fad and even still today, groups are attempting Guinness World Records in three categories with the game. In a sense, Twister is truly a family game in which many generations came play together, as long as you are able to bend, twist, and reach. 

Wit’s End 

        Wit’s End is a game that we are not familiar with ourselves but I know I have seen copies of it at thrift stores and after reading the description listed from BGG it sounds like one that we could play with my Dad. Here is what it says on BGG: 

“In Wit's End, the players all start at the outer ring of a square gameboard; the goal being to reach the center square. This is done by rolling the die, moving along the track and answering a question. Questions can be analogies, slogans or definitions. Other wild cards can influence the outcome of the game. Players must land on certain squares to move up on a right answer, but a wrong answer will demote that player to the lower ring. First to reach the center wins.” 

Conclusion 

        Out of the 24 games from the Reader’s Digest list. We are only missing 7 in our personal collection; however, I have played all of them except for Wit’s End. I bet most “advanced” board gamers would look at the list and mock it a bit (Monopoly I am looking at you) but I am sure that most games on the list they have played at some point in their life growing up too. 

        As my daughter grows up, I know that I will be collecting and playing these games with her as she also learns to play with our “advanced” board games as well. Enjoy the classics, I know I do. Happy Gaming!!!

Entry 27: Board Game Mechanics: Legacy

        When someone talks about board game mechanics, what does this actually mean? Wikipedia has a definition stating that “game mechanics are the rules that govern and guide the player's actions, as well as the game's response to them. A game's mechanics thus effectively specifies how the game will work for the people who play it.” 

        Game mechanics include action points, card drafting, cooperative, dice rolling, events, hand management, legacy, push your luck, take that, tile laying, trick-taking, variable setup, worker placement, and many many more. 

        No matter what type a game is, there are always mechanics that define what to do and how to do it. Let’s look at an example before diving into the legacy mechanic specifically. Sagrada by Floodgate Games is a game which involves dice rolling (pretty basic mechanic), drafting (selecting what dice to take), contracts & set collection (selecting what objectives you need to complete & collecting the dice needed) along with pattern building (matching the dice color and/or number to your board pattern). 

        All these mechanics together in just one game sounds like it is way too complicated to play, right? It seems like the weight (complexity level) of the game should be a 3.0 or higher because of all that is going on but in reality Sagrada has a weight of 1.93 (out of 5). Even Yahtzee which has five different mechanics to it and is only weighted at 1.19. 

        Now with a little understanding that games function using many different mechanics, let’s dive into legacy and see why this mechanics is picking up steam with more and more titles coming out with it. First, here is the definition provided by Board Game Geek: 

“Legacy games are board games whose rules and components change over time based on the outcome of each game played and the choices made by the player(s). They will oftentimes make physical changes to the board game by, for example: marking the cards, placing stickers, destroying components, opening sealed packages, and so on. 

The changes made in a Legacy game are designed to be permanent. A Legacy game's full experience is played out in a campaign that can only be played once. To replay the full experience again, the player(s) would need to purchase another copy of the game or, if available, a "recharge pack". 

Official and unofficial methods to circumvent Legacy mechanisms are common in popular Legacy games.” 

        So the big question is why would you want to play a game which changes the rules as you go along and that, most of the time, you can only play it once. Another question often arises about if you are required to play with the same people for the whole campaign. A third question is do you need to more players to do better in the game. Last question is what to do when we are done playing the legacy version. I shall address each of these concerns before we look at a few popular legacy games. 

Why play a game with rule changes? 

        Legacy games often are a story based version of a game. As you progress in the story, characters and/or pieces may change, locations (the board) will be added to and/or subtracted from, and etc. all of which may need rules modifications for the changes to be effective in the game. 

        To stay as vague as possible as to not spoil the game, if you are familiar with the game Pandemic you know it is all about defeating a virus outbreak. In Pandemic Legacy: Season 1 as you progress in the game the virus gets stronger and mutates which causes new rules to apply in how to win. These changes ensures that the game stays balanced so not one side is too powerful (although sometimes it seems like it is). 

Do we have to play with the same players? 

        This is definitely a good question to ask. Most legacy games encourage you to play with the same group throughout the whole game for consistency in the campaign. Some games another player can easily take over without much “catching up” to do. 

        An example… we started to play Charterstone a while back with our friend and her now ex-boyfriend. Well, they are no longer together and if we wanted to continue with a 3 player game we could or if we find another fourth player, we can catch them up since we did not get that far into the campaign. 

Do you need more players to do better at the game? 

        The short answer…. Depends on the game. Some games you have a better chance at succeeding the campaigns with higher player counts. 

        If you know the game Betrayal at House on the Hill, it is one that the best plays at a higher player count because you have a better chance to survive “the haunt”; Betrayal Legacy is the same way regarding player count (we don’t own Betrayal Legacy yet). 

    Another legacy game that we really love is My City (more about this game further down). Even though BGG says it plays best at four players, two and three player count still is fine to play with. Our first complete play through was with three players. 

What to do when we are done with the game? 

        Now, I cannot answer for all of the legacy games but some you can play over and over as a regular non-campaign version (My City) and some if you want to replay the whole campaign all you need is a recharge pack and flip the board over to the unused side (Charterstone). 

My Thoughts… 

        We are just starting to get more into legacy games since we do have a few people that we can consistently get together with and play the same game with over and over. I feel having that base will make the legacy games more fun to play since we all have our gaming strengths and weaknesses that can feed off of each other. 

        Regarding to if it is worth getting a legacy game that may or not be re-playable after completion at a cost that is usually higher than a typical or the standard version of the game, that would be totally up to you to decide that. I consistently weigh that issue myself. 

        So how about looking at a few legacy games so you can decide if you want to try them or not. As of today’s posting, Wikipedia lists a total of 25 legacy games (a few not released yet) and I know that more are coming as well. 

Risk Legacy (2011) 

        Risk Legacy is considered to be the first legacy game. It retails for around $60, has a weight of 2.59/5, and has six mechanics list for the game on BGG. The description on BGG gives a wonderful overview so I will let you read it except for the last main paragraph… 

”It should be noted that although cards are ripped up over the course of the game, there are so many cards added via the sealed packages, that the game does not suffer. Nor is this a "disposable" game, merely a customized one. The game can continue to change beyond the 15 game campaign, and even when it finally does stop changing, you still have a copy of Risk that is completely unique.” 

        I grew up playing Risk and now after reading the full description, I might actually want to get my own copy. Maybe for Chirstmas?? (hint, hint, wink, wink) 

Pandemic Legacy: Seasons 1, 2, & 0 (2015, 2017, 2020) 

        Each of these retails for $80 and the weights for each (in order of release) are the following: 2.84, 3.23, 3.00. Seasons 1 & 2 each have 8 mechanics and Season 0 has seven. 

        What is neat about this is that Season 1 represents the “present” day (I know in a pandemic, playing a game about a worldwide pandemic is ironic, don’t you think) and is played over the course of a year so you can beat the game in just twelve plays if you win each month on the first try (at most is two plays in a given month). I haven’t heard of anyone winning that way. With our game, we are nearing the end of the season but have had to replay a month (or two). 

        Season 2’s setting takes place 71 years in the future and as you can see in the weight, it is suppose to be harder and with new mechanic to the game. That is all I really know and/or want to say about the next season. You don’t need to play Season 1 in order to play Season 2 but it highly recommended. 

        Season 0 is the third in the series but it takes place during the Cold War in 1962 as a prequel to the others. You do not need to complete the other two seasons to play this according to the publisher so if you want to dive right into the Cold War thriller. Go right ahead. For us, we want to complete the first two season before “going back in time.” 

** Note: Pandemic Season 1 and Season 2 have two different boxes each. The box for each season contains the same game just different artwork to complete the picture shown above. You do NOT need a copy of both to play the season. 

Charterstone (2017) 

        Charterstone is by Stonemaier Games is a 1-6 player game which plays best at 6 in order to get the full scope of the game for completion. It retails for $70.00 on the SM website but you can find it cheaper elsewhere. It has a weight od 2.82/5. Here is the description from the BGG page: 

“The prosperous Kingdom of Greengully, ruled for centuries by the Forever King, has issued a decree to its citizens to colonize the vast lands beyond its borders. In an effort to start a new village, the Forever King has selected six citizens for the task, each of whom has a unique set of skills they use to build their charter. 

In Charterstone, a competitive legacy game, you construct buildings and populate a shared village. Building stickers are permanently added to the game board and become action spaces for any player to use. Thus, you start off with simple choices and few workers, but soon you have a bustling village with dozens of possible actions. 

Your journey through Charterstone's many secrets will last twelve games, but it doesn’t end there. Your completed village will be a one-of-a-kind worker-placement game with plenty of variability."

        Charterstone can be replayed if you purchase the recharge pack ($30 retail) which resets the cards that have been used and play again with the backside of the board. The other components are not replaced in the pack so you still need to have at least one copy of the full game. If you like it so much after the second play through, you can buy another board separately and more recharge packs to keep playing over and over again. 

        One of these days when this Covid pandemic gets under controller where we can return to a new “normal” I do want to either finish what we started and/or get a new group and dive head first into completing the game. 

Sagrada Legacy (2021?) 

        You recall the game I talked about at the beginning of this article when describing game mechanics? Yeah, it was Sagrada. Back in January Floodgate Games sent out an email to subscribers stating: 

“We’ll be making and official announcement about Segrada Legacy in the coming weeks with more information. But we wanted you, our most loyal fans, to have the inside track on it first. Sagrada: Legacy will be released this summer for Gen Con 2021!” 

        Well, Gen Con 2021 is coming up in a few weeks, and since the email from January I have not seen any chatter about the supposedly release. So we can hope that this will be a reality but the masterminds at Floodgate only knows.

My City (2020)

        My City was the first legacy that we introduced to my sister. It has become a new favorite game of ours in so much that we ordered a second cop to play the campaign again. You may be thinking that since legacy games typically cost $60 or more why would we spend the money on the game again. Well, one of the high points to this legacy game is that it only cost $35 (the cheapest legacy game that I know of). Our second copy was a bit cheaper because of a “ding and dent” sale in which part of the box was pushed in but everything else was pristine. 

        BGG has the game weighted at 2.02/5 and the average rating by those who rated it is 7.9/10. It has 8 different mechanics to the game which as you progress in each of the chapters the mechanic become more and more important. 

        I cannot praise this game enough so here is the description from BGG: 

“My City is a competitive legacy game in which you develop a city on your own playing board through the ages. 

The game consists of 24 episodes, beginning with the development of a city in its early preindustrial stages and progressing through industrialization. During each game, players customize their experience by adding elements to their personal boards and adding cards to the game. Players' choices and action made during one session of gameplay carry over into the next session, creating a personalized gaming experience. 

For players who do not want to experience My City as a legacy game, a double-sided game board offers an alternate set-up for repeatable play (some elements from the legacy experience are needed for the repeatable play game, players can unlock these elements by playing through the first 4 episodes). 

        Since we played it with 3 players the first time, we plan on playing it again with 3 players to see if we can beat our scores from the first play through. Because of that we will have 2 extra boards for my wife and I to play it again a third time just the two of us. 

 

        If you have multiple copies of the game (completed through the first four episodes) you can actually play the game with more than four people at a time. Can you say GAME NIGHT!!!! Everyone.

Entry 26: Nothing today

 Hi Everyone, for the first time since starting this blog. I have nothing for this week. My old computer had "died" and last week I had to scramble to get a new one up and running reloading everything programs and etc. To ensure that I was fully operational for my job.

Stay tuned for a new article next week.

Entry 25: Games for my non-gamer Dad

        Today I want to highlight some games that my non-gamer father will play with us. You see, it is his birthday today so I want to mention a few games that he will actually play with us from time to time. Happy Birthday Dad! 

Play Nine 

       

        My dad is a golfer and finding a card game that uses the same terminology used in the sport had caused a hit within the family. This is our go-to game for when we want him to play with us. 

        Here is what playnine.com says about the game: 

Gone are the days where you need sun, clubs, and a course to play golf. Play Nine brings all of the elements of golf right into the palm of your hand, so get ready to tee off anytime, anywhere! The object is simple: shoot the lowest score. After nine holes, the lowest score wins. This is a game of strategy, with card values ranging from -5 (hole-in-one) to 12 (out of bounds). 

Trivial Pursuit 

        My love of knowledge stems from watching Jeopardy and playing Trivial Pursuit with my parents. My mother who was not born and raised in this country, is not good at trivia games at all, would still play with us because it is one of the games that my dad would play. 

        As a result of this love, I own many more editions of the game than my parents do (some trivia for you... there are over 100 US editions of the game). However, finding the right group to play with is difficult since I tend to do pretty well unless I am playing against my Dad. 

        How many answers from this card can you answer from the original game: 

Geography- What World War II road ran from Lashio, Burma to Chungking China? 

Entertainment- What was the name of Gene Autry’s horse? 

History- Who described Fidel Castro as “the sexiest man I ever met”? 

Arts & Literature- What kinds of animals were Pinnochio’s pets Cleo and Figaro? 

Science & Nature- What country is plagued by the most tornadoes? 

Sports & Leisure- What’s the lowest hand that beats ace-high in straight poker? 

iMAgiNiff 

        When we want to play a game that is fun and we have a full table of people, iMAgiNiff is a great one because we get to guess how other family member would choose and/or react to the questions posed. What I enjoy about playing this game is that our family is pretty fair when it comes who we pick on next. We just don’t want to target one or two people all the time so we “spread the love.” 

Yahtzee 

    The first roll and write game has been a hit in my family for many years. A fond memory growing up was that Yahtzee is the one game that we travelled with going camping (and regular playing cards). Small and compact, it is a fun game which we can sit and play a few games at a time before Dad would say he is done. 

        We have tried to introduce him to more modern roll and write games to provide more variety of games to play but to no avail. He would rather just stick with the classics I guess. 

Camp 

        I am not sure how my parents found this game but is one that my dad will play because it is a simple and fairly fast game. Here is what BGG has for a description from their press release: 

With this fun and educational game, families can learn facts about the great outdoors. For two to eight players, it includes 200 game cards and is designed to grow with the player, starting with level one questions (primarily animal identification) and progressing to higher level questions. “A vibrant earth tone color palette, full-color photos, interesting playing characters and a cute Camp card decoder” were incorporated to make this family game appealing to both children and adults. 

        For me, the game is a bit too simplistic for my taste but since my Dad will play it, I play it too. I am pretty sure that we had gone through all of the cards from the base game so as a gift to my parents, we got the expansion so now we have more questions to ask. 

Trekking the National Parks 

        Trekking the National Parks is a game that I discovered after backing the sequel Trekking the World on Kickstarter (which was not so much a hit for Dad). What I really like about this game is that the creators had visited ALL of our National Parks and then decided to design a game around the experience. I am sure glad they did because it is one that Dad will play from time to time. 

        This is from Underdog Games website: 

Trekking the National Parks brings the fun and challenge of modern family board games to your table. The game was specially designed to be both entertaining and educational. Every park card features an interesting fact and gorgeous photograph that will inspire players to explore the protected natural wonders of America. Each game also begins with a unique setup that alters the play experience in surprising ways, allowing for endless replayability. Trekking the National Parks is the perfect gift to anyone who loves the outdoors and board games. 

Finding Games 

        As you can see from this list, there is a variety of game genres that my Dad will play (we are always trying to find a few more to play). So if you have difficulty finding games to play with the non-gamer in your family, just know that there is hope and not to give up your search. 

        So how do you think you did with the Trivial Pursuit questions? Here are the answers: G- The Burma Road; E- Champion; H- Margaret Trudeau; AL- A cat and goldfish; SN- The U.S. ; SL- A pair of twos

Entry 24: Traveling with Games

     
       As I am writing this entry, I am sitting in a house up in the Cascade Mountains of Washington overlooking a beautiful lake contemplating what to write about. I then look over to a carrying case that is next to me (where I store my computer when we go places) and thought, what about the journey? 

        You see I have two specific game bags for going to game nights and other events which I can play. One we picked up because of the need at the time, the other was a Christmas gift from my mother-in-law. Now most of our travelling that we do is via automobile so we plan on one of the bags to come with us so we have a variety of games to play. 

        In this bag next to me are the following games: Cavern Tavern, MYRACLIA, the complete Everdell series, Wishland, Drawn to Adventure, and ThunderGryph’s Matchbox Collection (15 Days, Eiyo, Rebis, Golems, & Space Lunch, in it’s carrying case with the playmats in the tube too). This gives us games to pick and choose from depending on what the length of downtime we have. 

        Now I am not predicting a lot of downtime since my 2 year daughter is at the point in her life where she thinks afternoon naps are of the devil, so having the variety to pick and choose from is great. While the girls were out at the dock this evening, I was able to get a few solo games in (thank you Matchbox Collection). Ah the peace and quiet was lovely. 

        Again, since we travel via automobile we have the opportunity to pick and choose games from our collection at will. What about for those who travel by air? I am sure that they would not want to get a board game bag full of “goodies” for the airline to manhandle and potentially damage, stored beneath them in flight, and also pay outrageous fees for it. 

        So smaller games like the Tiny Epic series or even A Fistful of Meeples that fit nicely in a small suitcase would be great to travel with. Mass produced card games such as Phase 10, Uno, the Spot It series, and Monopoly Deal would fit perfectly in a carryon bag (by the way, the individual games in Matchbox Collection would be great to travel with as well). 

        On Facebook I see posts of people looking for suggestions and/or showing us what they travel with so what to pick from is solely on what space you have and what type of game(s) you want to bring. Also, I would not bring games that would not be a good fit for the people you plan to play with. If the people you are visiting/traveling with are not into a specific genre of game, find games that they would enjoy playing as well. 

        To summarize traveling with games, my key points are the following: 

    • Bring what is appropriate for your travel needs (i.e. travel on a plane or by automobile) 

     • Bring games that will fit in your time allotted for games (do not bring a three hour game if you only have one hour of downtime). 

     • Bring games that everyone would enjoy playing. Don’t be selfish with just your personal favorites; make sure the entire group would have fun. 

        Since the pandemic is easing up a bit, I hope everyone has had a chance to travel at least for a weekend away from home. As always, be safe out there and happy gaming!