Game Review ideas

[Prof Underwood]

1.) the group I normally play Settlers and Rail Baron with needed a game that was less time-consuming (which is why we like Shadows Over Camelot, too) and
2.) TtR is easy enough for my 7-year-old daughter to play, which is a big deal for my family.

You are in a similar situation that I'm in, and our tastes in games seem to be very similar as well.  My personal recommendation for your next birthday/Christmas gift is Pandemic.  It is Co-op like Shadows.  It is fast like TTR.  It is capable of being played and enjoyed by a 7 year old daughter.  It is fun for a 37 year old gamer dad.  And it actually has a theme of saving the world from disease rather than conquering territory or killing anyone (like most strategy games).

[YourMathTeacher]

37? Whippersnapper!   

[Bryon]

1.) the group I normally play Settlers and Rail Baron with needed a game that was less time-consuming (which is why we like Shadows Over Camelot, too) and
2.) TtR is easy enough for my 7-year-old daughter to play, which is a big deal for my family.

You are in a similar situation that I'm in, and our tastes in games seem to be very similar as well.  My personal recommendation for your next birthday/Christmas gift is Pandemic.  It is Co-op like Shadows.  It is fast like TTR.  It is capable of being played and enjoyed by a 7 year old daughter.  It is fun for a 37 year old gamer dad.  And it actually has a theme of saving the world from disease rather than conquering territory or killing anyone (like most strategy games).

I've played Pandemic a couple times.  The game was exciting and fun, but the theme was a little off-puting to me, mainly because it seemed kind of morbid (lots of people die) and humanistic (we can solve all our own problems).  I certainly see your point that it is non-violent, however, and I agree there.

I wish Pandemic had another role available: The Intercessor, who prays for a solution (maybe if you are in dire straights, you can search top x cards of deck for a card or something).  Something that could interject a little divine intervention and remind us that we are not on our own here on this planet. 

Oh, and TtR is great.  Another fun train game is Trans America.  I like Trans America in that you only have one route to complete, but it must include stops at 5 cities, and -best of all - you can't get cut off from your route, since everyone shares tracks. Another reason I like Trans America is that my wife will actually play that one with us.

Other fun games you might like:

DC Deck-Building game, which is like Dominion but much faster to set up and clean up.  My son got it for Christmas and we've already played it at least 5 times.  It's pretty quick so you can play it 2-3 times per hour.

I played The Resistance last night for the first time.  It is a lot like Mafia (aka Werewolf, depending where you live), but the theme is future/sci-fi/resistance/spy/missions, and - best of all - no one gets killed/eliminated. Drawback here is it requires a minimum of 5 players.  We played with 6 and it was fun.

I like Saboteur, and I've heard they have a new version of the game (titled Saboteur 2) which makes it even better and fixes some of the problems with the original.  My kids love that one. It's fun to just build the tunnels. It's kind of a cross between Milles Bornes (which isn't my favorite) and Carcassone (which I love). The new version apparently gives you new ways to repair your broken stuff, which was the weak point of the original.

[Captain Kirk]

King of Tokyo is my new favorite quick game that people of all ages can learn and enjoy. King of the hill style game where you are all monsters (Godzilla and King Kong like characters) vying to score 20 points or be the last monster alive. You have 3 dice rolls on your turn to determine what you do and you can buy cards. Can play in 20-30 min.

Kirk

[Prof Underwood]

King of Tokyo is my new favorite quick game

I have heard great things about this game.  It is on my short list of games that I don't have, but would like to try out at some point.  Others on that list include: Sentinels of the Multiverse, Kings of Israel, Crokinole, and Cosmic Encounter.

[TheKarazyvicePresidentRR]

King of Tokyo is my new favorite quick game that people of all ages can learn and enjoy. King of the hill style game where you are all monsters (Godzilla and King Kong like characters) vying to score 20 points or be the last monster alive. You have 3 dice rolls on your turn to determine what you do and you can buy cards. Can play in 20-30 min.

Kirk

I keep wanting to pick that up since I saw it on table top.

[YourMathTeacher]

I think we need to create a sticky thread that lists the Message Boards' favorite board games (and brief synopsis of each game). I know there are sites dedicated to board games, but I think as a community, we have a lot of like-minded gamers. Maybe we could even have a "Recommended by" list with each game to see which ones are approved by the most people that we "agree" with. I have listened to the majority on these boards and ended up buying Settlers of Catan, Shadows Over Camelot and now Ticket to Ride, and I have immensely enjoyed all of those games. I am debating what to buy next, and if others are like me, we may want to see all the options in a quick list that we can sort by Board popularity. That may help in our decision making.

Just a thought. 

[Prof Underwood]

I think we need to create a sticky thread that lists the Message Boards' favorite board games (and brief synopsis of each game).

Good idea YMT.  If you'll make the thread and keep it updated, then I'll sticky it for you

[Captain Kirk]

I agree Tim. I use the following 3 threads on the boards that do much of what you suggested. Schaef has a lot of great recommendations. maybe we can use those threads and this as our basis for the new thread? I shoul write more game reviews about games I would and would not play going forward. I have easily played 15 new games in the past year.

http://www.cactusgamedesign.com/message_boards/board-card-games/non-mainstream-board-games/

http://www.cactusgamedesign.com/message_boards/board-card-games/good-boardcard-games/

http://www.cactusgamedesign.com/message_boards/board-card-games/starting-my-own-board-game-collection/

Kirk

[YourMathTeacher]

I think we need a general format that includes what everyone wants to know. Here is a sample:

Name of Game:
# of Players:
Time Duration for typical game:
Recommended Ages:
Expansions:
General Description:
Price Point:
Possible Objectionable Material:
Board Members who own/play it:
Online Version?:

What other information is needed?

[Prof Underwood]

I definitely think it would be good to have a link to the boardgamegeek page for the game and another link to the Dice Tower Youtube Review for the game.

It would probably also be good to have some sort of an age recommendation/difficulty level kind of thing.
I would propose a scale somewhat like this:
10 - Advanced Squad Leader
9 - (I don't know what goes here)
8 - Fortress America, Battlestar Galactica
7 - Lord or the Rings RISK (trilogy edition), Samaurai Swords, RISK 2210 AD
6 - Chess, Diplomacy, Shadows Over Camelot, Arimaa, RoboRally
5 - RISK, Stratego, Settlers of Catan, Ticket to Ride, Pandemic, Acquire, Dominion
4 - Blokus, Star Wars:Epic Duels, Heroscape, Twixt
3 - Scotland Yard, Clue, Battleball, Othello, Backgammon, Checkers
2 - Mancala, Connect-4, Dominoes, Battleship, Monopoly
1 - Candyland, Chutes & Ladders, Yahtzee

[YourMathTeacher]

Oh yes, I forgot age recommendation, and I did mean to include that. Thanks! 

[TheKarazyvicePresidentRR]

I definitely think it would be good to have a link to the boardgamegeek page for the game and another link to the Dice Tower Youtube Review for the game.

It would probably also be good to have some sort of an age recommendation/difficulty level kind of thing.
I would propose a scale somewhat like this:
10 - Advanced Squad Leader
9 - (I don't know what goes here)
8 - Fortress America, Battlestar Galactica
7 - Lord or the Rings RISK (trilogy edition), Samaurai Swords, RISK 2210 AD
6 - Chess, Diplomacy, Shadows Over Camelot, Arimaa, RoboRally
5 - RISK, Stratego, Settlers of Catan, Ticket to Ride, Pandemic, Acquire, Dominion
4 - Checkers, Blokus, Star Wars:Epic Duels, Heroscape, Twixt
3 - Scotland Yard, Clue, Battleball, Othello, Backgammon
2 - Mancala, Connect-4, Dominoes, Battleship, Monopoly
1 - Candyland, Chutes & Ladders, Yahtzee

Love how chess is below Risk renditions.

[YourMathTeacher]

Love how chess is below Risk renditions.

I like how Checkers is so much more complicated than Yahtzee. 

-------------

Back to Ticket to Ride, I picked up the 1910 US Expansion. The cards are full size like playing cards, which is nice. To say there are more Destination Tickets is a bit of an understatement. The original game had 30 Destination Tickets (DTs), while the expansion has added 39 new ones, for 69 total! 

Four of the new DTs were apparently reprints of a promo set that was given out at an Essen convention. Oddly enough, the new tickets still don't include Raleigh, which seems weird. They added only one DT with Charleston. If they're going to add that many new tickets, why not give the forgotten cities their due. 

Anyway, one of the new game variations does allow for the "Draw 5 Pick 3" for your opening DTs others have mentioned. You also "Draw 4 Pick 1" on your future turns. With so many new DTs to existing cities, the opportunity to overlap existing routes increases significantly. This is important for the other new addition in the expansion pack: the Globetrotter Bonus. This is a 15 point bonus for whoever completes the most DTs. Realize that some of the new DTs are like the Essen promos - Vancouver to Portland. 

[Alex_Olijar]

The Resistance is basically the greatest game of all time. But I would recommend buying "Avalon" instead. It's the same game with some enhancements that add more complexity.

[Prof Underwood]

Love how chess is below Risk renditions.

Chess is actually pretty easy to learn and start playing (although of course very difficult to master).  I put it above regular RISK, but it certainly takes a bit longer to learn all the rules to RISK 2210 or LOTR RISK than it does to learn all the rules to chess.

I like how Checkers is so much more complicated than Yahtzee. 

Yeah, I debated whether to put Checkers at 3 or 4, and perhaps it belongs more at 3.  But there really is a lot more to learn to play Checkers well than there is to play Yahtzee well.

[soul seeker]

Chess is actually pretty easy to learn and start playing...But there really is a lot more to learn to play Checkers well than there is to play Yahtzee well.

It looks like you put those two where they are for shock value because the combination of the above statements looks like you are using 2 different evaluation techniques.
   1) degree of difficulty of learning the rules (how you evaluated chess)
   2) degree of difficulty to Master the game's nuances (how you evaluated checkers)

In summation, I think you have chess about right and checkers too high. As you can tell, I think games should be evaluated by the ease of learning by non-game players. (FWIW, I disagree with some of your other assessments but that's neither here nor there.)

[YourMathTeacher]

If I am creating the thread, I will not be using Mark's rating scale. Just FYI. 

[STAMP]

Anyone play Christian Fluxx yet?  Is it much different than regular Fluxx?

[Prof Underwood]

In summation, I think you have chess about right and checkers too high...I disagree with some of your other assessments

Like I said, I was on the edge for Checkers between 3 and 4, so with the input of multiple people on this thread, I'm glad to drop it down.  I am curious which other assessments you disagree with.  My list was off the top of my head, and could easily have some errors in it compared to most people's experience.  I would like to make a list that is as representative of our experiences as a group if possible.

If I am creating the thread, I will not be using Mark's rating scale. Just FYI. 

I wouldn't expect you to use it if it was just mine.  But if we could modify it to show the community's experience, I think it could be a really helpful thing for people who want to know what they're getting into.

[YourMathTeacher]

I think the difficulty code can be just Easy, Moderate, Challenging. We can also specify what reading level is required. Checkers requires no reading ability, while Redemption requires significant reading ability (and vision for some cards    ).

[AJ]

I just played checkers yesterday with my nephew who is young he understood it very quickly needless to say checkers is easy enough for kindygardners.

[Alex_Olijar]

Yahtzee is far more difficult to play than you give it credit for. America doesn't teach math well anymore.

[AJ]

Cuz math is stupid duh ;)jk

[Prof Underwood]

I think the difficulty code can be just Easy, Moderate, Challenging.

That is way too subjective and broad to really be very useful imo.