4/24 Featured Games - Games for Large Groups!

Hi Everyone!

Before I get to our upcoming session I want to take a brief moment to mention that we are now officially a meeting site for the Game Club of Maryland (GCOM).  GCOM is the largest state-wide gaming club in the entire country and has meeting site all across MD as well as PA, DE, and VA.  It's a great group and should provide even more advertising!


Our next gaming session will be on 4/20 at the regularly scheduled time.  There is another church event that night (Family Movie Night) that will be using our normal space.  As such, we will be using the children's area atrium - the part of the atrium outside the bathrooms.  This is right next to the normal spot and is still a very large, accommodating area to play games in (and slightly more convenient for using the bathrooms!).  Please don't let this prevent you from coming!


Since we'll be using a smaller space I thought this would be a great time to feature games that play larger groups - thus we can have more people around each table and save some room.  At first I was thinking there wouldn't be as many games to choose from, but there are actually a reasonable amount that accommodate at least six, and not just party games!  Last time I did the feature in the form of a 'Top 10' and while I don't want these features to be just my personal favorite games, it seemed to be a popular format, particularly over at boardgamegeek.  It's also more fun to do!  Since our game group's library also happens to be my personal collection, it doesn't seem completely unreasonable.

So!  Without adieu, here are my ten favorite 6+ player games as well as a number of others that you can expect to see on Friday, 4/24!

10.  Camel Up

Camel Up won the 2014 Spiel de Jahres (German Game of the Year Award - it's a big deal) and is a great game.  Despite many people not thinking it deserved the award it is in fact quite fantastic as long as you know what to expect.  In Camel Up people are betting on a camel race.  The race is quite silly - when the camels land on the same spaces of the track, they climb on top of each other and who ever is highest is considered to be winning.  It's very random and there's little in the form of planning - but that's what makes it so fun!  You pick a camel you think could win and root that it does!  Few game evoke the atmosphere this game does and it plays up to eight people!


9.  Viticulture

Viticulture is  Euro-game (meaning it is more about resource management and strategic planning) in which the players take control of vineyards.  Throughout the course of the game the players place workers and attempt to have the most prestigious vineyard - marked by victory points.  They plant seeds, grow grapes, convert them to different types of wines, build buildings, and more.  It's a very fun Euro and is not particularly complicated.  I haven't played it with six and I suspect with that many it may be a little slower than ideal and it will be very competitive.  I like this game a lot and I own the Collector's Edition which means the components are amazing.   The new edition just came out and is definitely worth a try.

8.  Cosmic Encounter

Cosmic Encounter is a delightful game where players take control of different alien races.  The first person to take control of five different foreign planets (meaning other players home planets) is the winner.  The gameplay is very simple - the person whose turn it is draws a card to see who they attack, they invite any players they want to ally with them, and then the offensive and defensive players play a card from their hand - whoever has the highest total between the number shown on the card and the number of ships being sent is the winner.  It sounds simple and not terribly exciting, but what makes the game is all of the alien races.  I have one expansion and so in my set there are around 90 different aliens.  Over 150 have been released and all have different and unique ways to 'break the rules.'  The game is light and fun and full of laughs.  It also can play up to 6 with the expansion I own and more if you own more expansions.

7.  Letters from Whitechapel

In the opposite direction from Cosmic Encounter (which is light and often funny) is Letters from White Chapel - a game in which 1-5 players take the roles of police officers tracking down Jack the Ripper (who is played by a player as well - thus it plays up to 6).  Jack plots his paths through the streets of London after committing murders and the police use teamwork, wits, and deduction to track him down before he can get to his hideout.  This game can get thinky (and a bit long) but is my absolute favorite deduction game.  The seemingly heavy theme is very tastefully done (it's not graphic or gorey at all) and the board and components are very nice.  If you like deduction, this is one you have to try!

6.  Power Grid

If we were simply ranking my favorite games this would be really high as I very much enjoy Power Grid.  I don't think it's at its best per say with six players (the most it plays) but it is still very good.  This classic came out originally in 2004 and has been extremely popular in that time.  I own the recently released deluxe edition and enjoy it very much.  Players own a power plant company and are trying to be the first person to own a set number of power plants across a map (either North America or Europe) and also be able to power them (the number changes based on player count).  The game features several interesting and interlocking mechanisms including auctions, resource management, and more.
5.  Ultimate Werewolf 


Ultimate Werewolf is the only game I own that will play over 70 people at one time (which is crazy).  It is very much like the popular card game Mafia - players have secret roles and the entire game is based around deducing which ones are bad.  In this case, players are either Villagers or Werewolves.  There are further special abilities within these two camps but the basic idea is that each nights the werewolves secretly discuss and decide to kill somebody.  Each day the villagers try to figure out who the werewolves are and vote to kill somebody.  If somebody dies they're eliminated from the game.  The villagers don't know who anybody is - the wolves know who each other are.  It is a game of social deduction that is very fun.  We will be trying to get a large-ish (hopefully 15-30 or so players) game of this going around 10:00 PM on game night so if you're interested in joining, plan for your games to end at that time.

4.  7 Wonders

7 Wonders is a card-drafting game in which players are building up their civilization.  It is played over three rounds and each round has several turns.  Players have a hand of cards and get to pick one card out of their hand to put into play.  That hand then passes around the table and the next turn they do the same thing with a new hand of cards (which was handed to them from the player in the opposite direction).  Different cards give you resources or points or other special abilities and by the end of the game you want to have the most points.  It is civilization themed so there are things like aqueducts, mines, military, trade routes, and more.  It is a somewhat easier game and with the expansion plays up to eight players.  It is a classic and is very worthwhile.

3.  Eclipse

Eclipse was easily the hottest game of 2012 - everyone wanted to play it!  Since then it's popularity seems to have fizzled a bit, but I think it is still a fantastic game.  It is an epic 4X space game in which players are exploring the universe, expanding their empires, fighting other players, discovering technologies, and developing their economies.    Each player plays a unique alien race that has different special abilities and you can further customize yourself by adjusting the blew prints for your different ships with various weapons, engines, shields, computers, and more.  This is a great space game and can play anywhere from 2-9 players (with the expansion).  I think it's great with as many players as possible!

2.  Telestrations

Telestrations (the party pack that I own at least) plays up to twelve.  It is by far the funniest game I own.  I didn't put a lot of party games on this list because most of them play at least six, but I made an exception for this because it is by far my favorite.  This game is the telephone game meets pictionary - a player draws a word, then the next player writes what he thinks the first player drew, the following player draws that guess, which is again subsequently guessed by the following player.  By the end the original word is extremely convoluted, usually in incredibly hysterical ways!  This game is great for a laugh and one that anyone can play!

1.  Battlestar Galactica

Finally is one of my absolute favorite games - Battlestar Galactica.  I love games with an element of deceit and I think that BSG is still the absolute best at it.  If you've seen the show you probably can guess the premise but if not, that's okay!  It's still a great game even without having seen the show.  Most of the players are on the same team but one or more (depending on player count - two with six players) are secretly Cylons (robots that look like humans) that are actively thwarting the crew.  There are many opportunities for sly coercion and deception and that's what makes this game so great.

There are a host of other games that play 6+ that are also great, particularly in the party game genre, so please bring you favorites and share those as well!  Write your favorites in the comments if you'd like!

Invite your friends and family and hopefully we'll see everyone out on Friday!