Board Game Roundup
"So, Matt, what are you going to be addicted to next week?" my wife asks.
Last week this was in reference to a bunch of episodes of The Riches we had downloaded.
For several weeks before that it was the online Puerto Rico game.
And before that it was Zuma. I think. Oh, and Travian. It all gets hazy around that time.
But this week, she's referring to BrettSpielWelt, and, specifically, playing Caylus on BrettSpielWelt.
I think our foray into European style boardgames started about two years ago, when a friend recommended that we try Carcassonne. We picked it up at a comic book store one day, and several dozen plays and no social life later, we realized that board games were a great fit for us as a hobby. They're a great way to spend time together and with friends, are far more intellectually stimulating than television (except for The Riches, of course), and who can argue with boxes that come packed full of little wooden people and coloured cubes?
Our game collection rapidly grew after testing the water with Carcassonne:
Jambo — another obsession: I can't count how many times we played that one. Ironically, when we first learned it we got one of the card drawing rules wrong, but when we finally figured it out and tried it the right way, it was less fun than our accidental way. So we play it wrong on purpose now. Dracula — fun, with cute little Dracula and Van Helsing wooden meeple, but not all that addictive. About a billion expansions to Carcassonne Ticket to Ride: Europe — another addiction, and probably our favourite game to teach to non-board-gamers because it's attractive, fairly easy, and doesn't create as much of a gap between the experienced players and non-experienced players as some games do. Zombies — funny, but not too engaging from a gameplay perspective. The Nacho Incident — not a bad game. I love the theme of smuggling Mexican food into Canada because, well, I've actually done that in real life a few times. Hera and Zeus — for some reason we've only played this one once. We keep saying, "You know, one day we should try Hera and Zeus again. But we don't. Munchkin Bites — the vampire/werewolf/mummy variant of Munchkin. Entertaining, but unfortunately not a very well-balanced game, and loses its replay value after a while. Thurn und Taxis — game of the year in 2006, and another one we were hooked on for a while. Alhambra — game of the year from back in 2003. We didn't play this one much when we first bought it, but it has really grown on us. Unlike some games we don't get too rusty on the rules, and it's fun to pick back up again. Settlers of Catan Card Game — We've played the full Settlers of Catan game with various friends fairly often, but tend to steer clear of buying games which don't play with only 2 players. The card game version is a nice compromise, and we had quite the grudge match going for a while. Only downside is that a string of bad dice rolls or card draws can really turn the tide of the game. Bohnanza — a fun one to teach to friends. Once people get past the initial confusion, they seem to learn it really fast and catch onto the strategy well. Ponte del Diavolo — a very beautiful and quick little abstract strategy game. About Venice. How could you go wrong, unless you ask it to make you food. Ticket to Ride: Switzerland — a nice alternate gameboard which is great for 2-3 players. Mr. Jack — I'd read somewhere that it was one of the very best specifically two player games. We've played it a few times, but never quite reached that, "I demand a rematch" stage. Power Grid — ranked #2 on Board Game Geek, and deservedly. Not too difficult to teach to newbies, either, especially for a more heavyweight strategy game. We've also played Puerto Rico quite a bit lately (the perennial #1 Board Game Geek game), both with friends and online, but don't actually own it, so it doesn't get a bullet of its own.
And most recently,
Caylus — it had been recommended to me several times, and I just couldn't get past the notoriously disturbing cover art and lacklustre back-of-box description. But oh, what I had been missing.
First off, a medium-heavyweight strategy game that plays well with anywhere from 2 – 5 players, which was a great start, but for me, it builds upon everything that I like about Puerto Rico (careful choice of actions each turn, high level of cause/effect between player activities, heavily resource driven game), but with a little less of a cyclic feel, and a lot more suspense. There've been far too many times when I was jumping up and down in my seat shouting, "Don't move the provost! Don't move the provost! Aw, crap, he moved the provost. . . ." (and those of you who know me in person know how uncharacteristic that seems in general), or the adrenaline rush which came from the realization of a perfectly lined up series of actions spoiled by underallocating my available money by only one, but which made the whole house of cards tumble down.
In Puerto Rico there are those times when you come up one doubloon short of buying the building you wanted when the builder comes up, and you kind of grit your teeth, but you can ultimately recover from it.
But in Caylus, one particularly poorly spent turn can cost you the entire game, and not just by a little bit, but by dozens of points at the end.
And that seems to be the factor that makes people either love or hate it: it's an utterly brutal game. Experienced players don't just beat beginners, but stomp them into the ground with up to double the amount of points. Even tiny mistakes can cost a person dearly, and since many of the buildings and actions are unique and have no equivalent substitute, coming up with Plan B when things don't go your way makes up about half the game.
But for gluttons for punishment like myself, that makes me want to finally win all the more. I'd declared it my favourite board game of all time about the time my win-loss record hit about 0-6. And not just second place — I had been in dead last every single game I had played. But I loved every minute of that pain.
I still like Puerto Rico — it and Power Grid are more or less tied for 2nd place in my book. And for playing with less serious gamers, Ticket to Ride, Carcassonne, Settlers of Catan, Bohnanza, and Alhambra will always have a place on the bookshelf.
But Caylus has been like finding my spouse in the board game world.
So if any of you would like the opportunity to put me back in dead last again in a Caylus match (or any of the others, for that matter, though I can't guarantee the losing quite as reliably), I'd love to let you.
Last week this was in reference to a bunch of episodes of The Riches we had downloaded.
For several weeks before that it was the online Puerto Rico game.
And before that it was Zuma. I think. Oh, and Travian. It all gets hazy around that time.
But this week, she's referring to BrettSpielWelt, and, specifically, playing Caylus on BrettSpielWelt.
I think our foray into European style boardgames started about two years ago, when a friend recommended that we try Carcassonne. We picked it up at a comic book store one day, and several dozen plays and no social life later, we realized that board games were a great fit for us as a hobby. They're a great way to spend time together and with friends, are far more intellectually stimulating than television (except for The Riches, of course), and who can argue with boxes that come packed full of little wooden people and coloured cubes?
Our game collection rapidly grew after testing the water with Carcassonne:
And most recently,
First off, a medium-heavyweight strategy game that plays well with anywhere from 2 – 5 players, which was a great start, but for me, it builds upon everything that I like about Puerto Rico (careful choice of actions each turn, high level of cause/effect between player activities, heavily resource driven game), but with a little less of a cyclic feel, and a lot more suspense. There've been far too many times when I was jumping up and down in my seat shouting, "Don't move the provost! Don't move the provost! Aw, crap, he moved the provost. . . ." (and those of you who know me in person know how uncharacteristic that seems in general), or the adrenaline rush which came from the realization of a perfectly lined up series of actions spoiled by underallocating my available money by only one, but which made the whole house of cards tumble down.
In Puerto Rico there are those times when you come up one doubloon short of buying the building you wanted when the builder comes up, and you kind of grit your teeth, but you can ultimately recover from it.
But in Caylus, one particularly poorly spent turn can cost you the entire game, and not just by a little bit, but by dozens of points at the end.
And that seems to be the factor that makes people either love or hate it: it's an utterly brutal game. Experienced players don't just beat beginners, but stomp them into the ground with up to double the amount of points. Even tiny mistakes can cost a person dearly, and since many of the buildings and actions are unique and have no equivalent substitute, coming up with Plan B when things don't go your way makes up about half the game.
But for gluttons for punishment like myself, that makes me want to finally win all the more. I'd declared it my favourite board game of all time about the time my win-loss record hit about 0-6. And not just second place — I had been in dead last every single game I had played. But I loved every minute of that pain.
I still like Puerto Rico — it and Power Grid are more or less tied for 2nd place in my book. And for playing with less serious gamers, Ticket to Ride, Carcassonne, Settlers of Catan, Bohnanza, and Alhambra will always have a place on the bookshelf.
But Caylus has been like finding my spouse in the board game world.
So if any of you would like the opportunity to put me back in dead last again in a Caylus match (or any of the others, for that matter, though I can't guarantee the losing quite as reliably), I'd love to let you.