1. Stone Age
2. Ticket to Ride
3. Colosseum
4. Genoa
5. Seven Wonders
This isn't a desert island top five but one based on what I'd like to play next Tuesday, given the chance.
Stone Age seems to be a hit with all of us and the reasons are simple - it's a less mind-melding Agricola with an element of chance thrown in, though not so much that you feel a slave to the dice. It's a nice board, a good length, a good mixture of pursuing your own plans and screwing up everyone else's.
Ticket to Ride I've only played the once but I really enjoyed it. Again an element of chance - with the cards - but mainly strategy based, and what little boy doesn't enjoy playing trains, even
if the trains in question are 2cm long plastic ones.
Colosseum has been a fave since I first played it, it's a game the completist in me would really like to buy - even though, as I was told at Area 51, Joe's got it - just so I can see it on the shelf, unplayed and box-fresh for all time. I really respect how they built a great game mechanic out
of the idea of putting on a show.
Genoa I think is only really popular with me but I think we should give it another shot - now we're all (ok, most of us) familiar with the rules I think we could knock a good 45 minutes off
the lengthy play-time. I like it because it feels like a completely different mechanic to anything else and gameplay has an emphasis on trading, which is unusual. Joe felt there was too much interaction for him, but with the game played in two-thirds the time it took last time this might feel different.
Seven Wonders is great because though it feels like a BIG game - a small big game, perhaps - you can just pretty much pick it up and go, and once it's started it moves quickly. And when
it's not moving quickly you can do the patented whacking-cards-on-the-table manoeuvre that hopefully no-one outside the games community will ever see us doing.
So that's mine. I should mention though I'm yet to play the famous/infamous Brass and I also missed out on St Petersburg and Steam. For some reason I'm often absent when the trains come out... one game I could happily not play again is Medici, really liked it at first but now feels very one-note to me. Maybe it's time for a maths trade...
Top five games, eh? Here's mine.
ReplyDelete1. Colosseum. In terms of player interaction, I think this is the best I’ve seen. Everyone gets their moment in the limelight as they describe the show they’re putting on, and the trading bit is good to. And the subject matter is such that just describing what you’re doing is funny.
2. Seven Wonders. Short, especially if no one talks to each other during play, which can happen. It needs some extra rules that enforce interaction with the other players. I like how it’s often difficult to tell who’s winning until the scores are added up. And then Adam wins.
3. Brass. Although I haven’t played it for a while. Not since Joe went cold turkey on the online version to save his sanity. How can something so broken work so well? Even though I usually come last. We should teach this to Sam soon before it acquires mythical status and no matter how good it is, it’ll be a let down when he finally plays it.
4. Stone Age. A gateway game if ever there was one. Simple, yet deep. And I even approve of the use of dice to ruin your carefully laid plans.
5. Agricola. I still like this game. Not the version with the firewood, though. And perhaps not when you’re against Adam, unless you’re happy with second place at best.
Oh, and Caylus! I forgot two-player Caylus. Put that at number two and shift everything else down a place.
ReplyDeleteNext Tuesday I'd like to play:
ReplyDelete1. (Age of) Steam. Trains and patterns and complex goods-distribution path calculations... I know it doesn't sound like fun but it really is. Honest. Guys?
2. Agricola. It's got so much variety even in the basic game, I just don't think I'll get tired of it.
3. Colosseum. The more I play it the better I like it, like Sam and Andrew say it's an original and very funny set-up.
4. Ticket to ride. I don't think there is a lot of depth in terms of different styles of play or strategies, but it's the tension because you don't know which route is going to get snapped up JUST WHEN YOU'D PICKED UP THE SET! And it's got trains. I don't know what it is about trains...
5. Blockers/Brass/Ra. Or pretty much anything else. I'm not fussy you see.
Okay, I just added my top five and the whole thing got wiped — couldn't complete my request apparently. So here it is again . . . slightly briefer this time.
ReplyDelete1. Stone Age
This is pitched at just the right level for me, a great combination of fun and tension. And a lot of the fun is in the dice rolls — pushing your luck or realising new opportunities when the rolls go in your favour.
2. 7 Wonders
I seem to be getting worse and worse at this, but it's so quick and fun it's impossible to hate.
3. Colosseum
What you lot said. It puts a smile on your face; and kudos to Days of Wonder for playing it very straight with the artwork — if they had made it 'humorous' and hammy it wouldn't be nearly such fun.
4. Brass
This would be my go to heavy game at the mo, I think. But it only plays 3 or 4. So for 2, Caylus is the obvious choice, or Agricola maybe? For 5, Age of Steam or Agricola.
5. Ticket to Ride — same combination of fun and tension as Stone Age for me, with the added advantage that it rattles along — no analysis paralysis here. Or Ra — always a pleasure, and definitely has the edge on Medici.
Roll on next term. In fact I might just blog something up about that.
Common theme in appeal seems to be simple mechanics and depth in strategy. 7 Wonders, Stone Age and Colosseum all have that going for them. Agricola would definitely be in my desert island top five but right now I'm really enjoying these quicker-moving games.
ReplyDelete