6/12 Session Preview

Hello!

This upcoming Friday, 6/12, is our regularly schedule session at 6:30 PM.  Remember, our game night does not meet every other Friday, but rather specifically the 2nd and 4th Friday of the month.

This upcoming session will be on the same evening of the premier of JURASSIC WORLD.  Now, I'm super excited about this movie and as such I thought we should theme are games around it.  Unfortunately there aren't a lot of specifically dinosaur games (in fact the best one, Dominant Species (which ironically doesn't have actual dinosaurs), I don't own) so I thought I'd expand it to games that involve animals.

As with all of our other sessions, this is a great time to bring friends and invite new folk, so get the word out that we're having a fun game night!

Below are some of the games we'll be playing, presented in the form of my top ten favorite animal-related games.

10.  Hey! That's My Fish

Okay I'm not going to lie, there were only about ten games I own that directly involve animals.  This is a fine little game, but normally one so light wouldn't make any top ten list of mine.  That being said, this is a cute little fifteen-minute filler game that has players taking control of adorable penguins who want to eat the most fish.

9.  Zooloretto

This is a very popular gateway game - in fact, it won the Spiel de Jahres.  Players take control of a zoo and fill it with various animals, receiving points for the different combinations of animals in their pens.  It's cute and great with kids.  It's also very easy!

8.  Takenoko

If any one of these games is going to be described as 'adorable,' this is it.  It has gorgeous artwork, complete with a little painted panda miniature.  In the game you are trying to earn the most points by moving the panda, moving the gardener, and creating a beautiful farm of bamboo.  The game is very simple and does not take particularly long - the real draw here is the gorgeous components.


7.  Evolution

This game was put out on Kickstarter last year by North Star Games who famously produce party games.  Their first foray into strategy games was very successful.  While Evolution wasn't a smash hit, I thought it was a great little card game - particularly since I got the kickstarter rewards which include very cool dinosaur boards and a brontasaurus miniature as a start player token (see, dinosaurs!).  The game play is very fun - you create species of animals and give them various traits in order to be the one that ends up on top.

6.  Agricola

Agricola spent some time as #1 on BGG's ranking and has been in the top 10 for as long as I've been into gaming.  It is Uwe Rosenburg's breakout hit that launched several similar-ish games (one of which is on this list).  In this game you take control of a 14th century farm (15th? 13th?  It's old).  You're trying to create the best farming operation via having active livestock, developed structures, and viable crops.  It is challenging game that can be somewhat puzzly.  It's a superb game and is very worthy of playing!


5.  Camel Up

We have featured Camel Up before as it is a fantastic game.  It won the Spiel de Jahres last year and I think it was very worthy of that.  If you're into gambling at all, then this will be a fun experience for you - in this game you're betting on a camel race!  It's basically as exciting as American Pharaoh winning the Triple Crown.  It's crazy and silly and the camels on occasion
are known to jump on each other.


4.  Dungeon Petz

Dungeon Petz belongs in a category of games called "games I love but never play."  It is a tragic group.  I really enjoy Dungeon Petz.  My wife got it for me for my birthday last summer.  We played it three times in a week.  We haven't played it since, which is a shame.  Despite its cutesy theme - each player runs a pet store that sells monsters to the evil villains who own dungeons - it is actually a relatively intense Euro-game.  It can be very thinky but I think it's wonderful.

3.  Ultimate Werewolf


I'm not going to lie - I look for any excuse to put Ultimate Werewolf on this list.  I love moderating it.  I enjoy putting together interesting character combos and watching everything unfold from an omniscient eye.  In werewolf, players secretly are either villagers or werewolves.  Villagers want to find and lynch all of the wolves - the wolves want to systematically eat all of the villagers.  It is very similar to games like Mafia and does involve player elimination, which is why I like to save it for the end as it gives players a chance to pack up and leave when they've been eliminated.  We'll try and get a game or two of this going around 10:00 PM.

2.  Robinson Crusoe

This is our only cooperative game on our list and it is my absolute favorite of that genre.  Robinson Crusoe is loosely themed on the novels but really it takes simply the 'stranded on a deserted island' format and applies to many scenarios.  Different scenarios include spin-offs of King Kong, Indiana Jones, Swiss Family Robinson, and of course Robinson Crusoe.  On the island the survivors are constantly harassed by calamities, including the wildlife.  Often they will also go hunting the wildlife (see how it's connected to the theme?) in hopes of survival.  It's a challenging game that is just dripping with theme.

1.  Caverna

Caverna is my favorite Euro-game and is one of my favorite games of all time.  It is the sequel
to the aforementioned Agricola, however in his game rather than being boring people-farmers the players are Dwarfs-far
mers.  They have free reign to build of their cave and their farm as they see fit and score points at the end for the most flourishing.  Unlike Agricola, which is more like a puzzle, Caverna is a sandbox.  All options are always available.  Each game I pick an interesting route and run with it, occasionally allowing for opportunities to mold my plans.  Sometimes I love the puzzle games, but in this case I find the sandbox nature such good fun.

5/8 Recap and 5/22 Featured Games

Greetings!

This past session was another enjoyable night of gaming!  For whatever reason it ended up being our lowest attendance in our short existence but we still saw 15 people come and play games.  It was space night and that was almost exclusively what was played!  We played X-Wing, Dune, and Battlestar Galactica (as well as Ticket to Ride - not a space game, but still fun).  Fun was had and if you didn't make it out that's too bad because it was a good time!

This upcoming session will be on Friday, May 22nd at the normal time AND I think we'll finally be back in the primary atrium.  As this day is our closest session to Memorial Day, our theme is going to be games with direct militaristic conflict (we'll shorten that to "Conflict Games.")  I am specifically not using the term "War Games" because this generally has a specific connotation of very heavy games that involve chits, counters, sometimes cards, lots of dice, and very long rulebooks with a plethora of exceptions.  While all of these essentially involve war, only a few are 'war games.'  If you're new to gaming that might be a bit confusing, but don't worry about it.  Essentially, these games all have fighting.

Now, if you're not a big fan of these kinds of games, whether because you're more of a 'euro-gamer' or because you just don't like the violence, fear not!  We will have plenty of other games available to play!

Here are my personal 10 favorite Conflict Games.  I doubt we'll play more than a few of these, but you can count on them being there and being available.  If you are really interested in learning or playing one of these, please say so in the comments or let me know via email and I'll be sure to look for others to join, particularly some of the longer ones.

10.  Small World

Small World is one of the most basic conflict games.  It has players taking control of different fantasy races randomly combined with some special attribute.  Players vie for control of a world that is far too small and at the end of the game the person with the most points win.  I'd consider this a gateway game because its rules are relatively straightforward and its pretty easy to pick up.  This is a great one if you've got friends interested in Risk but haven't tried anything newer!

9.  A Game of Thrones (Second Edition)

Based in the land of Westeros, this game by Fantasy Flight has grown quite popular.  In many camps it is the modern replacement of the classic Diplomacy.  Like the novels, this game features backstabbing, temporary deals, and drawn-out story-lines.  Each players takes control of one of the Houses of the land (Lannisters, Starks, etc.) and try to control the required number of strongholds through a combination of military prowess and diplomatic savvy.  The game can be long - 4 hours or so, so if you wanna do this it'll take up the whole evening.  It is definitely possible, though to get this in.

8.  Through the Ages: A Story of Civilization

Okay so I'm mostly putting this on here to make our Euro-gamers happy in the midst of all these war games and ameritrash.  Through the Ages has been in the top 3 of BGG's rankings for as long as I've been into boardgaming.  It is basically Sid Meier's Civilization III the board game (even more-so than the actual Sid Meier's Civ Board Game).  The focus of this is more the economic resource management and the engine building of your civilization, however military plays an important role, even though its abstracted through a generic 'military' rating rather than an actual board with troops.  This game is fiddly and I vastly prefer to play it online, however it is still a great game and a very satisfying heavy Euro.

7.  Memoir 44

This is another very straightforward and accessible game.  Memoir 44, by Richard Borg, is tactical skirmish-level game that re-enacts different battles of World War 2, in particular the various battles of the Invasion of Normandy.  The game is simple, fast, and fun.  Days of Wonder as known for its games beautiful components and Memoir is no different - excellent board, nice cards, and awesome miniatures.  It's a very enjoyable experience for two players!

6.  El Grande

Yet again this one technically isn't a conflict game - you don't actually kill each other's troops in this game.  Rather, this is the father of area-control games.  Players control various powers in Spain and issue their caballeros to different regions of Spain, attempting to score them at the right time by having the most caballeros there.  The interplay between cards, bidding, and turn order is superb and this classic game from 1995 still is among the best.  If you haven't tried it, you owe it to yourself to do so!

5.  War of the Ring


This is my favorite game of all time.  Why isn't it higher?  Because I think other games bring about the 'conflict' aspect in better ways.  That being said, War of the Ring is gorgeous.  It is essentially the Lord of the Rings in board-game form.  The designers' love for Tolkine shines through and this game perfectly encapsulates his essence.  One side takes control of the Shadow, the other the Free Peoples.  The Shadow wins by either controlling a set amount of Middle-Earth or corrupting the Ring-bearer.  The Free Peoples win by capturing a portion of Middle-Earth or destroying the ring.  There is so much tension and excitement in this game and if you're a Tolkien fan this is absolutely a must-play.  Oh, and it's based on the books, not the movies - this game in no way tried to make money by printing a bunch of pictures of Orlando Bloom.

4.  A Distant Plain

There are some people who would say that A Distant Plain, by Volko Ruhnke, fits in the same category as El Grande - area-control, not direct conflict.  Technically they'd be right as it is much more heavy on controlling areas than actually fighting each other.  This game re-enacts the modern war in Afghanistan.  It is part of GMT's "COIN" series (Counter-insurgency) and is the third of four games in it.  The other ones are Andean Abyss (Colombia), Cuba Libre (Cuba), and A Fire in the Lake (Vietnam).  Each game is similar - there are four factions, to are insurgents, two are counter-insurgents.  All four factions play asymmetrically and have unique victory conditions.  In A Distant Plain, the four factions are the US/UK Coalition, the Afghanistan Government, the Warlords, and the Taliban.  The theme here can be a bit touchy as its such recent history, but the interplay between the factions is superb and the game teaches you so well how convoluted the political struggles in Afghanistan really are.   This game is meaty and is certainly not for novices to board-gaming, however if four people are interested I would love to see this hit the table as it is superb.

3.  Fief: 1429

This game is happening.  For sure.  Why?  Because it just came out, I just got it, and it looks amazing.  I haven't played it yet so it's a bit presumptuous for me to put it so high, but I think it might go even higher by the time we're done.  In this game players take control of various noble houses in France (circa, you guessed it, 1429).  Like A Game of Thrones, players use military skills, diplomacy, and economic management to earn their way to victory.  They also can elected as Pope and who wouldn't want to be Pope?!  Academy Games knocked it out of the park with the components - they're very pretty - and this game has glowing reviews.  I'd love (really love) to set this up and play it at our next game night!

2.  Twilight Struggle

This game is about the Cold War.  One players is the USA, the other the USSR.  It is ranked #1 on BGG's ranking list and has been for a while.  It is much deserved.  This is one of my favorite games and it perfectly captures the feel of the Cold War.  Through card-play a
nd area control there is constant tension, constant paranoia, and constant reacting and over-reacting.  This game is for two players and is really best when played with somebody at the same experience level - i.e. if two newbies want to learn.  Few games can compare to this one so if you haven't played it yet, bring a buddy and let me teach you!

1.  Here I Stand

This game won't get played at game night - it takes way too long.  A full game can last around six-eight hours, not counting explanations.  It's very complicated and while I think I can teach pretty fluidly, it's really something you plan a whole day around.  That being said, I wanted to list it as number one because I think it's the best combination of asymmetric play, military strategy, card management, and diplomacy that I've seen.  I've only played it once and it was terrific fun.  As far as overall games go, I actually like both War of the Ring and Twilight Struggle better, but as far as 'conflict' driven games go, I think this captures that nuance the best.  In this games six players take control of key players in the Wars of the Protestant Reformation: Britain, France, Spain (the Hapsburgs), the Ottomans, the Papacy, and the Protestants.  Like the other games, players try to achieve victory by completing their specific victory agendas and using their allies as spring-boards for their own success.  Even though it won't hit the table at game night, let me know if you ever want to get a game of this going some time and I'll add you to my 'interested' list!

Summary

I realize these kinds of game aren't everyone's cup of tea, so if you want to bring other kinds of games you are more than welcome to.   However, like I said before, we will definitely have these available to learn so if you've been meaning to try one, get on out to Game Night at Severn Run and learn one or two!

Invite your friends and family!  Hopefully we'll see ya'll out on 5/22!