1. Tigris and Euphrates
A venerable classic, I've long wanted to play this, and news that Sam has procured a copy means that I may soon get to do just that. I hear it's a game that you need to play a fair bit to make the most of; Ryan Sturm has done one of his excellent How to Play podcasts about it.
2. Tinners' Trail
Copper and Tin mining in cornwall; adits, steam pumps and cornish pasties, for heaven's sake! This, I think, is a good way to break Sam into the Brass experience. It plays in a little over an hour, and has a far simpler set of rules than its big brother, but has all of Mr Wallace's love of industrial history and economics. And wooden cubes. I'll read you all the last page of the rules before we play this; it explains how Martin Wallace came up with the idea, and where he got some of the mechanics. It's very funny, and provides a good intro to what looks to me like a bit of a winner. We shall see . . .
3. Hansa Teutonica
I'm not totally sure about this — have heard lots of good things — plays fast (60mins), lots of strategies etc etc, but I've had a few learning games on my own, and it's almost like there's too many possibilities. But we'll only know for sure when we all play it.
4. Glory to Rome
Technically Adam and I have played this already, at Stabcon. But speaking personally, that game sort of happened to me. SO I'm counting this as unplayed. It is apparently very good once you get past the bad Powerpoint presentation artwork. And won't take all night.
5. High Frontier
This is rocket science. Literally. A rulebook that reads like a manual for a particularly complicated printer, and a beautiful but faintly terrifying board. Not sure this has 'tuesday night' written all over it, more like saturday night and on into sunday. But who knows. I'll keep reading the rules on this, and only unleash it when I feel sure I know what's going on.
I've actually played Tigris and Euphrates with a pal in London but a LONG time ago now, just remember it seemed good but complicated next to the Settlers/El Grande type games we played at the time.
ReplyDeleteUp next: Adam's five games that hasn't won 80% of the time he's played them, Quent's five games that need an advanced grasp of equations to win and Jonny's five imaginary scenarios where he manages to get out of work in time for the Tuesday night club.
One more for the shelf of perusal: I received the War on Terror board game for my birthday. It took me a while to come to terms with playing Pandemic because of the theme, but for those who see this in bad taste it is intended as a satire rather than (or more likely, as well as) a cynical cashing-in.
ReplyDeleteWe watched a couple of guys playing high frontier at stabcon - I think that they were only marginally less confused than we were... who has a spare weekend soon?
ReplyDeleteI do have a list of games I'm not very good at, but that info is on a need to know basis...
I've been reading the rules this weekend. It's honestly not that bad — I have been dreaming about space though. I thought I might offer up a saturday night session for this one; it says 3 hours on the box. Mind you, it also says 'not suitable for children under 36 months' on the box, which I would call an understatement.
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