Entry 36: "Serial" games

            Let me clear right away, I am not talking about playing games with Fruit Loops, Cheerios, or Lucky Charms. This blog is about games that belong to a series that fit nice together in sequence and/or follows a “story” line, even though a bowl of Cocoa Pebbles sounds good right now. 

            In the beginning of my collecting of board games I was just thinking that I would stick to a whole bunch of “one and done” type games and be happy with that. I also play Magic: The Gathering which does follow story lines I thought getting into board games that does the same might not be what I want to do. Wrong answer! Dominion was our first serial game that we dove head first into and to top it, Rio Grande Games has announced the next expansion is set to be released in December, Dominion: Allies. I won’t talk more about this game since I wrote about it in Entry #4. 

            Now let us take a look at a few other series that have drawn my attention that we own and/or started to collect. 

CLEVER SERIES 

            Ganz Schön Clever (That’s Pretty Clever) and Doppelt So Clever (Twice as Clever) are the first two in the roll and write Clever series. The third one that was just released a few months ago is called Clever Hoch Drei (Clever Times Three) continues the roll and write series. 

            What we really like about this series is that by choosing the various colored dice you can focus on the handful of different objectives on your game board. Each game in the series follows the same basic gameplay rules making it easy to go from one game to the next. 

            Shh… don’t tell St. Nikolas that I know that I will be receiving the third game on his day this year. December 6th is St. Nikolas Tag but I am sure I will be writing about this special day in an upcoming entry. 

NORTH SEA SERIES 

            Garphill Games published this series which is based around the Vikings of old. 

            

            Shipwrights of the North Sea is the first game in the series in which you must collect resources to build the best Viking Fleet. The setting is earlier Viking times. By constructing ships and buildings you gain victory points and the game ends after the first player(s) build their 4th ship. This game does have a mini-expansion and promo cards to enhance the game. 

            

            Raiders of the North Sea is the second chapter in the series, set in the middle Era of Vikings and is the one that has gotten the most attention. It is also the first game in the series that we picked up (got a great deal on the secondary market). There are two main expansions and a lot of promo cards for this game. 

            In Shipwrights you build the ships and village and in Raiders you are now trying to impress the Chieftain by using your workers to prepare for and raid other locations. There are multiple win conditions for this game. 

            Explorers of the North Sea is the conclusion of this trilogy. Set in the latter times of the great Vikings, you are now charged with settling new lands, raid other locations, and attack other ships. The game ends after 48 turns (48 tile placements). Are you strong enough to because the fiercest Viking in the land? The game has one main expansion and one mini-expansion. 

WEST KINGDOM SERIES 

            Also by Garphill Games, the West Kingdom games are set in Western Europe. 

            Starting with Architects of the West Kingdom set at the end of the Carolingian Empire, players are the royal architects trying to appease the King by building various landmarks and working on the cathedral. A strong worker placement game will leave you wanting to do more. A lot of promos and two main expansions complete the first chapter in this series. 

            Paladins of the West Kingdom is chapter 2 and is set a short time after Architects in West Francia (Western France). Trying to defend yourself from outsiders, you will gather workers and carry out various tasks. The game ends after seven rounds of play. A handful of promo cards and one main expansion complete this chapter of the West Kingdom. 

            The newest and last game in the series is Viscounts of the West Kingdom which is set just over 100 years after the first game. This time you will work in the castle for the king, gain additional workers, and complete other tasks. Will you keep the Kings favor and stay true and loyal? A few promo cards and two expansions finish off the last chapter of the West Kingdom. 

SO WHAT ELSE? 

            Final Frontier Games has the Five Realms series that I plan to dive more into in a future blog post. There are also games by Deep Water Games that publishes a Temple series which they brought over to the United States from an Asian publisher that we played a few of the games. If I think more about all this, I am sure I can come up with more games that we have that fits our “serial” category. 

            I honestly do enjoy playing games that are part of a series. Yes, playing games that are “one and done” are just as fun, but seeing a continued progression of a game is just as fun. 

            My family loves playing Cartographers and really soon the next game in this series (Heroes) is out (Kickstarter shipping soon). From the same company is Roll Player which the next part of this series is also shipping soon. Since we backed both on Kickstarter they will ship both at the same time to save on shipping costs. The picture below is the collector's edition box that combines the two Cartographers games.

            Bottom line, find games that you and your gaming group will enjoy playing together. Now, let me check to see if we have enough milk for a bowl of cereal. Those Cocoa Pebbles are begging to be eaten.