Tuesday
Dec222009
Carols, friends and gaming...and a survey
Tuesday, December 22, 2009 at 1:05PM 
A POLL: So what are your current favourite boardgames? Or what WERE your favourite boardgames as a child?
On the way to meet Allison and Jodi for a Christmas lunch yesterday, I came across these carol singers. They were chatting with each other about what song to sing next but when they noticed that I was taking a photo of them with my iPhone, they immediately posed for this picture. :-)
They started singing a few moments later, and they were really good!
Above: homemade cookies, brought by our friend Ray when he arrived for a gaming session on Saturday. Mmmm! I played Ticket To Ride and Power Grid - Factory Manager.
Ticket To Ride has become one of my favourite games. It's a train game by Alan Moon with very simple rules but a lot of potential for strategy.
I enjoyed playing Power Grid - Factory Manager (designed by Friedemann Friese) for the first time. This game was debuted a few months ago. The theme isn't as exciting to me as some other games but I was still pulled in by the gameplay. Like Power Grid, there are constant calculations to be made throughout as you try to make best use of your workers, buy robots and machinery, keeping an eye on rising energy prices balanced against the energy consumption of your own machines.
Like Power Grid, there were times when all the calculations turned into a confusing mush in my head when balancing all the different factors before making a purchase; this is not a game I could play when I'm tired. But as I mentioned in my earlier post about why I love boardgaming, I get so much more satisfaction out this kind of game than I do a game like Monopoly or other simple party games...even when I crash and burn because I don't yet have a good grasp of the strategies.
And I can't help but think how much more fun people might have if they spent more time playing boardgames and less time watching tv, especially families. There are so many family-oriented boardgames available. I also find playing boardgames a much more satisfying couple activity than watching a rented tv show or movie together.
But I also realize that everyone's situation and tastes in entertainment is different. If you're curious to find out more about boardgames, however, I strongly encourage you to check out BoardGameGeek. Not only can you find out a ton of info about pretty much every game that has ever been published, you can also get advice about what games would best suit your situation.
tagged boardgames, carols, gaming, xmas in Admin
boardgames, carols, gaming, xmas in Admin
Reader Comments (16)
We have -got- to play some board games the next time we're at a filk con together, despite busy.
I haven't tried PG:FM, but it sounds like a lot of fun!
I enjoy Dominion a lot, but have been getting bored with it (particularly the reduced set version on BSW, for some reason). Actually, weirdly for me I can't think of any game I'm not ambiguous about right now -- ok, maybe Ingenious. But I can always play Ingenious. I still love Agricola, though, and have a lot of fun with simple auction games like Modern Art and For Sale.
And, of course, there's an abiding love in my heart (though also some limits) for table sports like Icehouse, Ice Towers, Falling, Light Speed, and Brawl. I'm not necessarily any good at these games (sports, really; though I am pretty good at Icehouse, and not unlikely to be the best Ice Towers player I've ever met), but there's definately an appeal to a combination of quick thinking, deftness, and time-sensitive system analysis.
I tend to look for board games that can be played with two or more people.
I like "Traders of Carthage" because it's fairly simple to learn, very portable, and yet quite a lot of fun to play. I like "Guillotine" as a game for people who aren't necessarily really into complicated board games. I also love "Ticket to Ride," though I find myself wishing that I'd bought the European board, not the North American one, because I enjoy having the tunnels as part of the game. Also the original North American one came with tiny cards that are awkward to play with, so I ended up picking up the expansion pack fairly quickly just so that I would have decent sized cards.
My friends in Victoria and I play an awful lot of "Race for the Galaxy," and again, I really appreciate that it's portable, but it takes a few games before new players really figure out what's going on. I really love the art on the cards in that one.
I love that most of my friends in Vancouver/Victoria would rather get together to play board games (or D&D :) ) than almost anything else. I like the interaction of board games, the variety, and the way that the game play changes depending who you're playing with.
I prefer two of the classics, Scrabble and backgammon, while sincerely disliking chess. The main difference, as I see it, is that the games I like have random elements unrelated to the actual players, but are skill-based (so that in the long run, the player with greater skill will win a greater share than half). Chess, on the other hand, is the sort of game that requires a prodigious memory and a modicum of skill, and has no random element at all other than the moves of the opponents.
Other games I like include Set, Cathedral, and Cosmic Encounter. (I have a set of Apples to Apples, but, typical of the way life has gone these past few years, have never opened it :-(
Keeping in mind that my favorite games change through out the year, my favorite board game is probably Iron Dragon my Mayfair Games. I also realy enjoy the rail games like Union Pacific, Ticket to Ride, Trans America and Metro
Also high up on the list are any of the Axis and Allies games, Powergrid, Settlers of Catan (any of them), Carcosone (spelling) and Dominion
Ask me in a couple months and this list will probably change
I... like a lot of different boardgames. Though there are also some I really dislike (some for rational reasons, some for irrational ones.)
The game I recently played which surprised me with how good it was, is the tie-in boardgame for the new BSG. It is /very/ complex and there are lots of little counters and things, but it was also a lot of fun, seems to have a high replay value and many different options, and was not that difficult to actually play, despite the complexity. It also has both cooperative and semi-cooperative modes. (In the semi-cooperative modes some people may be cylons from the beginning and some turn into cylons part-way through.) Do be warned that it ties in closely enough with the show that there may be spoilers for the first season or so in color text or even just some of the available characters.
Favourite current boardgames. Well, we have fairly regular gaming now each Friday night so have had a fair chance to try out the games we have between us (which get nicely swelled each Christmas or when temptation gets too much!).
We're fairly picky in the games we buy, generally sticking both to games which have good reports (BGG is the most marvellous website!) and also seem to match our preferred gametime and complexity. So I'm not sure there's any we have that I don't enjoy playing, but if I had to pick favourites... um...
Brass, Carcassonne (with Inns, Cathedrals, Traders & Builders), Jamaica, Pandemic, Carcassonne the City, Vikings and Agricola. Tobago I've only played once but we're getting that for Xmas and it looks promising.
I'm not actually a massive fan of Ticket to Ride games. Oh, they're fun enough, but generally I find the winner comes down to who picked the luckiest second and/or third batch of tickets. I don't mind a big luck element in say Thebes or Formula De or Diamant because they're meant to be luck-driven. But TtR doesn't feel like it should be and so it lessens my liking for them.
My older brothers had something like 45-50 linear feet of bookshelf space, mostly with SF, but the real treasure was the 7 linear feet of closet shelfspace devoted to various board games. Risk, Diplomacy, Stocks and Bonds,... anything that involved group dynamics was their pride and joy. When I was a teenager, I became addicted to Monopoly, learned several card games (not the topic here, of course), and then left off for the most part until I learned Scrabble from Elizabeth's family. Once K. and V. were old enough to play Chutes 'n' Ladders, then chess, Settlers of Catan, Carcassone, and a few others. I'll admit I became too cutthroat in Monopoly to have much fun at it after long. Settlers and Carcassone are always enjoyable.
Lately I'm really enjoying Pandemic, which works well for 2, 3, or 4 players. It's fairly new, I think (last year or two) and put together really well. It's also a cooperative game, which is a fun break from world domination or the like. :-)
My favourite boardgame is very rare and hardly anyone in the world has heard of it.
It's called "Full Gut" and was released by an Australian indy band called "P Harness" with their CD called "@ction."
The board is actually a jigsaw puzzle that you have to assemble before you can play (only about 9 pieces). The object of the game is to collect "Gut Points" and be the first to achieve a pre-determined "Full Gut" goal.
As you move around the board you pick up food cards. There are different types of food worth different amounts of points. You get the points added to your total by "eating" the food. The more you eat in one sitting the more points you get. But if you hold onto your uneaten food for too long you might lose it with various penalty cards and squares on the board.
It's a really funny game that's quick and easy to learn - I guess because it's designed to be played when you're drunk! :-) It's also quintessentially Australian which is almost unheard of in board games.
Speaking of quintessentially Australian games, there's also Squatter in which you run a sheep farm. Very similar to Monopoly but still enjoyable. My girlfriend has a copy with the box signed by the designer.
I love the game of life!!
Joshua: Wow, now I'm curious about some of those table sports games you mentioned. re: playing boardgames at filkcons -- Unfortunately I don't think this is going to happen. I get to so few filkcons these days that when I do, I think I'd rather hang out with people to chat. Boardgaming tends to shut out anyone who isn't directly involved in the game itself. I don't suppose you ever go to BGG.con, do you? :-)
Lyanne: You play Race for the Galaxy? I attempted to play this at BGG.con in November and was sooooooo lost! Jeff says it's a good 2-player, though, so I'd like to learn to play it. Love Guillotine and Ticket To Ride, too! Never tried Traders of Carthage but now I'd like to.
Bruce: I enjoy Scrabble, but only when I'm playing someone of approx. equal skill level and who hasn't memorized all those 2-letter and 3-letter word lists :-). Never did get into Backgammon or Chess. Jeff & I own Cathedral but haven't played it in a while. Haven't played Cosmic Encounter or Set. I like Apples to Apples - fun party game. :-)
Bryan: I really enjoy Union Pacific and Ticket to Ride too! I've played Trans Europa but not Trans America yet. I enjoy Settlers of Catan & Carcassonne, am neutral on Power Grid (I need to play it more often to get a handle on the strategy, I think), never tried Axis and Allies. Isn't A&A the one with the huge board?
Tibicina: I played part of a Battlestar Galactica game (I took over from someone who had to leave) so didn't really entirely get the rules. Seemed fun, though, especially the paranoia surrounding who was a Cylon. :-)
Phil: Darn, wish we lived closer to you and Lissa. Gaming together would be fun! I've played quite a few of the games you've mentioned.
Sherman: Ok, I have to know. How does one become "cutthroat" in Monopoly?
Shane: Full Gut sounds intriguing. It's not listed in BoardGameGeek.com -- maybe you should list it? You and I (and Jill!) will have to play this when we eventually meet in person. :-)
Tarrah: Do you play the new version of the Game Of Life or the old, classic version?
There are many A&A games out there. The one with the realy big board is probably the aniversary edition. The others have smaller boards.
They are re-doing both A&A Europe and Pacific (each has a approximate 3ft by 3ft board) and when done, both ofthem will be able to fit together the games can be combined.
They are some good looking games with lots of bits.
I generally play the enhanced version on my computer, but I have tried all kinds and own the classic version! Another great game is Wits and Wagers.