Gaming: A beginning

We are organising a games event at the local library to introduce or reintroduce people to board games and share the love with them. Now, whilst I think that games are great value (and can even be a good investment) compared to the money you would spend on a bog standard night out at a pub, the cinema or on a pizza it can be a hard sell to get a newbie to consider shelling out £20-£30 on a few pieces of card. This got me thinking about what games I would recommend people attending should spend their hard earned cash on first and why. Then, if money was still an issue, what other alternatives are there? When looking at a game to include I considered replayability, that it scratched different itches for different occasions, exposed new players to a variety of fun game mechanics without being overly complex and that it was good value for money. 

This is the list I came up with.

1) Love Letter – the filler game

This small package is excellent value for money. Who would have thought that 16 cards and a few cubes could deliver so much enjoyment? I would always go for the version in the red velvet bag as this is a talking point and travel friendly. Although players get eliminated the games are so short and the eliminations can be so funny that this is not an issue.




2) Castles of Burgundy – the Euro game

A euro game with dice that punches above its weight. There is something I love about games that allow you to create something in front of you that is just yours. In Castles of Burgundy you are building your own province with fields, castles, towns and areas of knowledge. My only criticism is that the colours are a little muted but if you look past the blandness this is excellent value. Tonight you’re gonna party ‘cus it’s £19.99. Get your Euro games before Brexit! Also consider Carcassonne.




3) Codenames – the party game

For a larger player count and the number of plays you will get from this Codenames represents great bang for your buck. There is tension and hilarity and extreme pressure on the Spymasters who have to come up with clues to direct their operatives on the ground. The concept is extremely simple there are 25 words on a grid, some of them are locations where your people are, find a one word clue to link as many locations as possible and ensure that none of them relate to your opponents locations or the assassin while your team scratches their head wondering what three locations you could possibly mean by ‘Booty - 3’?

4) Pandemic – the cooperative game
What do you mean we all win or we all lose? Well that is the thing with co-operative games! Playing against the game is a great idea for those bad losers in your life. If everybody loses it mitigates the feeling of individual loss. In Pandemic the world is becoming overridden with terrible diseases. You are one of a team of people tasked with finding cures for all of these before they infect the world and humanity is lost. No pressure then. Each player will have a character with particular skills that they bring to the team. At the moment Pandemic is £34.49 on Amazon but I have seen it as cheap as £18 on there. For younger players I would recommend Forbidden Desert or Forbidden Island as alternative cooperative games, both of those come in tins – I like games in tins for reasons I cannot quite put my finger on.

5) Dominion – the deck builder 

This is the granddaddy of deck building games (bn. 2008!) and still regarded as a classic. At the start of the game all players have exactly the same cards in their hand and use these to buy other cards with particular powers or value to enable them to eventually buy victory cards which have no powers or value except at the end of the game as the player with the most victory points wins. The replayability of Dominion comes from the fact that only 10 sets of Kingdom cards are put out in addition to the coin cards and there are 25 sets in the game. This will affect your strategy and make every game feel different. I would recommend starting with the Dominion base set rather than Dominion Intrigue.

6) Lords of Waterdeep – the worker placement game
You will play as one of the Lords of Waterdeep in a Dungeons and Dragons fantasy environment where you will recruit warriors, mages, clerics and villains in order to complete epic quests ….

STOP!

Do not panic. Do not be afraid of the geek chic that envelops this. It is a beautifully simple worker placement game i.e. you have a few little meeple characters that you will place down on a limited number of locations on the board and each location will allow you to pick up a number of cubes or cards or money which will enable you to complete quests for which you will get points. The most points wins. Simples.

7) 7 Wonders Duel – the two player game 

Most of the previous games play well with 2 players but this one is my current favourite of the pure two player games. When I buy a game these days it is an important consideration that it plays well with two so I can play at home with my partner. In terms of getting value from a game player count is really important. I have some games in my collection which play from 3 players up. These tend not to get to the table so often. Scalability is also important in that it plays well at all player counts. Sometimes a game can be too slow above a certain number of players and sometimes the 2 player game can be an abysmal experience. 7 Wonders, which is the game that this is derived from, had special rules and required a ‘dummy player’ to allow two players to play. Duel avoids this completely and is designed for just 2 players. It is a light portable game, great for travelling and has enough to think about without being overly complex. Other 2 player games worth considering would be Patchwork and Lost Cities

8) Qwirkle- the abstract strategy family game

Abstract strategy games (think chess and drafts) are not my go to game type but Qwirkle is a great family game ideal for ‘non-gamers’ in that it doesn’t require knowledge, linguistic prowess or in depth strategic thinking. If you know colours (WARNING – colour blindness accessibility issues!) and shapes you can play Qwirkle. In this game you are drawing a hand of solid chunky wooden tiles from a bag to lay them down in lines either all the same colour and different shapes or all the same shape and different colours. As you do this you gain points for how many tiles are in the lines you have added to. If you complete a row of six this is a Qwirkle which gets you 12 points. This is a robust, child proof game that can be played by grubby hands and have drinks spilled on it and still survive. Also consider Tsuro and Splendor.

9) Sequence- the some of the older games are ok really game

Again this is a good game for ‘non-gamers’ (My personal viewpoint is that there is no such thing as a non-gamer. We all have a need to play whether that is board games, football, pool, darts it doesn’t really matter as long as it creates contact with other people. Some people have just forgotten that or dismissed games as childish. A non-gamer is just someone who has not found the right game!). Anyhoo…Sequence is like Connect 4 with cards and a board. And that is it. Apart from the fact you are trying to make lines of 5 and Jacks allow you to either place a token anywhere or take an opposing piece off. I got this for 50p at a car boot and it is probably the best value £ to plays game in my collection. Also consider No Thanks! and Can’t Stop.

10) Dixit- the creative visual imagination game

Eighty four cards with strange and wonderful pictures, 6 wooden bunny rabbits, some tokens and a score track make up Dixit. In this game each player has a hand of cards and each player in turn is the storyteller. The storyteller will select a card and say a word or phrase that they believe relates to their card and place it face down. Each player will then select a card from their hand they believe closely resembles the storytellers’ description and also place it face down. The storyteller will then shuffle the cards and place them face up in a line. Each player then tries to guess which the original card that the storyteller selected is. Points are then awarded for correct guesses and incorrect guesses made on your card. The art of the game from the storytellers’ point of view is to not make the clue so obvious that everyone gets it or so obscure that nobody gets it. If the vote is split the storyteller gets points. Also consider Mysterium to introduce a Cluedo type twist or Apples 2 Apples for a similar game with words.

11) One Night Ultimate Werewolf – the hidden role game
Sometimes technology is a good thing and the app that is used in this game is a great example of a digital enhancement to an analogue game. In this game for 3-10 players everyone has a secret role which is on a card in front of them known only to that player. A number of players will start the night as werewolves. The players then close their eyes to simulate the night falling and the voiceover on the app then guides the players with particular roles one by one to open their eyes, perform an action and then close their eyes again. In the morning everyone will wake up and, from the information they have, try to determine who the werewolves are, bearing in mind that through the night roles may have swapped and villagers may have become werewolves. Following the vote if the majority of villagers correctly identify a werewolf then the villagers win, if not then the werewolves win. This is a game that bears repeated plays and shows that deception is an art. Also consider Bang the Dice Game, The Resistance, Spyfall , A Fake Artist Goes to New York or Avalon.

Conclusions

I am conscious that having totted up the current prices on Amazon these eleven games will come to just over £250. That is not an insignificant sum of money and could buy a short break for two to the Algarve in February or something essential like a washing machine. So what sensible alternatives are there?

Second Hand
Ebay can occasionally net you a bargain, although most good board games do tend to retain their value. Don’t forget that you may have old games you don’t play that could be worth something. Check for sold listings on eBay to see what they have recently sold for. Sell other stuff you don’t want on eBay to make some extra cash for games. Charity shops and car boot sales can occasionally have a gem amongst the old Trivial Pursuits, Scene Its’ and associated tat. Warning – be careful not to accumulate a vast collection of terrible games just because they were cheap. If you see something, stop, get out your phone, read the description and some reviews on Board Game Geek to see if it is something you would be interested in. From the above list I have picked up Sequence for 50p, Qwirkle for £2.99 and Dixit for £1.99.

Make your own – the cheap-ass feelgood alternative
I have made my own versions of One Night Ultimate Werewolf, A Fake Artist Goes to New York and Tsuro which are all perfectly playable. There is a game called Skull which requires just 4 identical beer-mats per player one of which will have a cross on the bottom. The rules for most games are obtainable online. Can’t Stop would be easy to make as would Minefield.

There are also print and play versions of lots of games available. I have done this with Kill Dr Lucky, Cards Against Humanity, Battle Line and Love Letter variants and several other small games.

Join a board game club
Let some other idiot spend money on games! Just turn up to a club, play the games on offer and go home. Seriously, this is a fantastic way to try before you buy or to find out what sort of games you like. For example I hate programming games with a passion. I would rather chew my own nipples off than play Robo Rally or drink cold sick to avoid Bill and Teds Excellent Adventure. How do I know this? Because someone else bought them and I played them at a game night. Once you know what you like and what you are not so keen on you will be able to make more informed choices on your purchasing decisions. Knowledge is power! Now if I could only think of a good board game club to recommend…..

And finally whatever you do avoid Top Tens of anything. This one is different… this one goes all the way up to eleven!

HEALTH WARNING – The above is an opinion. An opinion is a fact for only one person. For everyone else it is just an opinion. Opinions may disagree with some people; side-effects may include nausea, lack of tolerance, shouting and table flipping. If you are likely to have an extreme reaction to an opinion please consult your doctor.

Giles

Children, Emotional Blackmail and Board Games

Here's the thing. 

I love playing board games. 

I find it therapeutic, relaxing and a pleasant way to socialise and spend time with people whether that be family or friends.

I will play anytime and anywhere. My wife Lisa likes board games but if there is any housework to be done she is not able to relax and start to play until everything is shipshape and Bristol fashion. Olivia and Harry enjoy board games when they play but are unlikely to initiate a game session and when a game is suggested they are unlikely to show much enthusiasm for it if there are competing on-line distractions vying for their time. 

So here is the dilemma. Should I bully them into playing as I 'know' that it is good for them? Should I be completely laissez-faire and know that getting all 4 of us to the table at the same time will be like waiting for the planets to align? Or should I try for some midway point? Bribery, emotional blackmail, cajoling?

I recently took delivery of a game called Castles of Burgundy as this ticks a lot of the boxes required for us in that 

1. It isn’t too long 
2. It plays well with 2 and scales up to 4.
3. It is well priced and has a proven track record as a great game. ( I avoid Kickstarter because I like the look of everything and know that disappointment is inevitable)

I ensured that I had played it with Lisa as a 2 player game first and was confident with the rules. Quite rightly this is something the children insist on before they will play a new game. Eventually, I found a slot on a Sunday afternoon that I booked a couple of days in advance in everybody’s mind to play. As I work shifts weekends are at a premium as I only get two in nine off. I used a bit of emotional blackmail saying how much I was looking forward to playing a new game with them. 

When the time arrived Harry had forgotten we were going to play, there was housework to be done and suddenly remembered homework outstanding. Now whilst we did play the kids were not as engaged as usual, they felt it lasted too long and made their feelings apparent throughout which meant I felt guilty for ‘forcing’ them to play and none of us really enjoyed the experience. I was hoping that the game would have been a big hit with the family but alas the experience tainted the game for them and I anticipate that it will be difficult to tempt them back to play Castles of Burgundy in the near future.

Lesson learnt. 

Wait for the planets to align and for everyone to willingly come to the table. In that way everyone will have a better experience and be more likely to increase the number of times they return in future.

Giles