Helping Hands

Sadly out of print (image by Patrick Carroll)

This weekend I was talking to one of my cousins about playing games with his three-year old.  They are playing the classics: Candyland and the like.  It brought back memories of Clue: Little Detective played before bed time with Daniel, my now 13 year-old.  I remember the beginning being about teaching him a basic game mechanism: draw a card, play a card.

Of course, that's fine with Clue: Little Detective, since you aren't holding a full hand of cards. Managing a hand of cards becomes one of the first game playing skills a child learns.  Small hands have a tough time though, particularly with standard sized cards.

Enter the card holder.  They come in two main variations.

Promotional image from Gamewright Games.

Most card holders commonly found in teacher's store and the like are a variation on a theme: two disks fastened together so that cards slide between them.  Sometimes they are just a half circle, sometimes they have evolved into having a handle attached such as the ones from Gamewright Games above.  These work great.  The best part is that the cards are displayed in the natural fan of an adult holding cards, so the rest of the card handing habits are formed.

Sunnywood rack promotional image

The second type is more like a tile rack.   This type isn't held in the hand, but rather set on the table.  This isn't so great for little ones, since it doesn't allow for teaching things like holding your hand where it can't be seen, and laying it down face-down when its time to go potty. Where it has it's advantages is at the other end of the age spectrum, where holding anything in the fingers for very long might cause arthritis pain.  Cards are self standing and fully on display to the player.

As it is, we have a set of the first type (literally two disks fastened together), and I am about to purchase two of the second type.  No, I don't have arthritis, but there are games where having the cards up where I can see them while my two hands are doing other things would be very convenient.  This is particularly true in games where the cards have a lot of text on them.  The first game that comes to mind is War of the Ring, but historical card driven war games like For the People (the American Civil War) or political games like 1960: The Making of the President would be helped too.  On a more casual game level, I can see using them for themed variants of Risk, like the copy of Risk: Star Wars - Clone War Edition we have.

We need more Star Wars movies so we can have more great games like these! (Photo by Rich Chamberlain)

Getting some type of card holder is almost essential if you have little ones running around your house, either as parents or grandparents.  The opportunity for family bonding is something to start early, and those before-bed game sessions, short though they be, have the same effect as reading to a child.  The biggest difference is that you can involve more of the family.

It's Your Move!

The Pocket Fishermen – Hey! That’s My Fish

My version - Mayfair standard edition (Photo by Neven Rihtar)

Okay, this game won’t actually fit in your pocket.  My version probably could if you repackaged it and, well, had somewhat larger pockets.  (The box was sized to be visible on the shelf, which makes it larger than really needed.)  That’s not the point though.  The fact is that this is one of those games that every family should own.  I will review why I believe in this game, the one big downfall it has, and the three different versions (as of today’s announcement).

Hey! That’s My Fish (H!TMF) is a very simple game to learn.  In reality, it is an abstract game, with perfect information.  As such, it would provide a great stepping stone for games such as chess.  Chess has three primary strategic elements: time (who has the initiative), space (including freedom to move) and material (who has the most valuable set of pieces on the board).  H!TMF has two of those three elements, time and space.  Since everyone has the same number of pieces that all behave the same way, material is not an issue.  The theme really isn’t present, but does make for a cute presentation.

Photo by Chris Norwood

How does it play?  Sixty hexagonal tiles are laid out in rows, making the “board”. Each player takes a turn initially placing his or her penguins on tiles.  After penguins are placed, players take turns moving their penguins in one of the six directions through the sides.  After a penguin has moved, the owning player collects the penguin’s start tile from the board, leaving a hole.  Penguins can move as far as they want until they either run into another penguin or a hole, at which point they stop.  The game is over when no one has a legal move left.  Each tile has one to three fish on it, and each player counts the fish on the tiles they collected.  The player with the most fish wins.

H!TMF  is simple enough for your average 5 year-old to play.  However, it's a GREAT game for any age! Your little one will understand what they are doing, but the strategy is a bit deeper.  When I really love it is when the kids leave the table and the gloves can come off.  About halfway through the first adult game, most people have The Great Light come on, and they realize this is pretty vicious as everyone tries to cut their opponents off and strand them in a corner.  A vicious little abstract that plays up to four people in 20 minutes – I’m all over that!

It is this simple game play and cute figures that leads to the one real issue H!TMF  has.  My 13 year-old sees this and thinks of it as just a “kid’s game”.  Most people do not see it that way, but I can see how a young adult might want to separate themselves from it.  So, while it is a great family game, and I can’t say that enough, not everyone in the family will rave over it.  Though that’s probably true for any game.

The game publishing house Fantasy Flight Games just announced that they have obtained the rights to H!TMF, and will publish their version later this year.  It has previously been published by Mayfair games in two different versions: the standard version and a “deluxe” version with cute plastic figurines.  All of the versions play the same way, but the artwork is a little different.  Fantasy Flight puts a lot of effort into game components, so this will undoubtedly be a great edition to own.

H!TMF Deluxe (Promotional image from Mayfair Games)

2011 Version from Fantasy Flight (Promotional image by Fantasy Flight)

Fantasy Flight also announced that H!TMF apps will be available for both iPhones and Android phones.  The Android app will be $4.99, and it would be natural to guess the iPhone app will be priced similarly.  That’s an app I probably will skip, primarily because I am cheap, and chess and Words for Friends is the limit of my mobile gaming.

The board version though, is a must own for me.  Here are the vital statistics:

Hey! That’s My Fish

                Ages:                     8 and up (perhaps as low as 5)

                Time:                     20 minutes

                Players:                 2-4  

 It’s your Move!

Pecking Order

We finished the school chess club tournament last week – sort of. I had roughly 13 kids playing each other to figure out the pecking order and establish a chess ladder. It’s late in the year to be doing this, but it finally dawned on me that the reason the kids don’t want to learn chess is that they have no real sense of competition. A chess ladder will establish a ranking, and each child can compete to improve his or her ranking.

However, there are kids with different abilities and patience, which results in different lengths of games. As a result, this tournament was threatening to stretch out for the remainder of the year; something that just wouldn’t do. Our spring break is tied to Easter, so I decided that was a good break point at which to end the tournament. Unfortunately, I had kids who had played as few as five games, and some who had played as many as ten. How should I rank them?

I used a traditional scoring method for the games: 1 point for a win, 0 points for a loss, and a ½ point to each player for a draw or stalemate. From that, I could compute the average number of points per game for each child, effectively normalizing the data to one game. Now I had points/game for everyone, ranging from 0.80 pts/g to 0.0 pts/g. Ranking came pretty easily, as the first three slots were unique numbers.

Lewis Chess Queen (Finlay McWalter)

What did I learn from all of this? I learned three things, two of which are significant:

• Do this at the beginning of the year to provide motivation for everyone. This will also show where the children fall out in terms of “chess education”.
• Chess clocks would be a great help. A 10 minute per game limit would allow for two games per player per week (we meet for an hour) with sufficient time for clean-up.
• Less importantly, it is amazing how many stalemates show up in games at this level! The kids tend to promote pieces to Queens, and then are shy about moving right up against the King and putting the King in check! The result of two Queens and a Rook attacking timidly is very often a stalemate, just because the attacked King has nowhere to go!

 I am getting better as a chess club leader every year. Then again, as long as the kids are having fun and learning, I guess it is all working out! 

It’s Your Move!

Saving Humankind from Death and Disease: Pandemic

http://zwischen-zug.blogspot.com/p/gaming-glossary.html#Coop

Pandemic (image from Z-man Games)

Our gaming group, which will meet this Sunday, is regularly beaten by the game, Pandemic.  That’s right, the game beats us.  As I mentioned in the session report after last month’s game day, Pandemic is a cooperative game, where everyone is playing as a team against the game mechanisms, trying to cure the world of diseases that are threatening to wipe out the human race.  For each of the past several months, we have played this game once the group has whittled down to four players, which is the most that the game can support.  In over 25 plays, I have only been part of a winning team a handful of times.  However, in nearly every loss we have been incredibly close to winning, which is what keeps us coming back.  (Well, there was one game that went very, very badly and very, very quickly, ending with a crushing defeat in about 10 minutes.)

This game is widely regarded as a fantastic game.  On BoardGameGeek, it is ranked #4 in family games, and ranked in the top 50 for strategy games (“thinky” games) and in the overall ranking.  Everyone I personally have played it with loves it.  There are several reasons why I think this should be one of the first games anyone should own: it’s almost universally appealing theme, the ease of play, and the fact that it is a co-op.

The Roles (Photo by Richard van Vugt)

Many people enjoy having some theme, some plot line, to the game they are playing.  However, not everyone likes to play a ruthless tycoon trying to make money at the expense of others.  I understand that.  Not everyone wants to play the heroic leader of the forces of good defending against the evil horde of malicious creatures that I, AND I ALONE, COMMAND!  Yeah… this one I have trouble understanding.  But it is what it is.  Nearly everyone loves the idea of saving world, the real world, from the brink of disaster, and Pandemic allows the players to do just that.  The theme is reinforced by the different role each player has, which allow him or her to contribute to the team in different ways.  For instance, the Scientist role allows a player to find cures for diseases more easily and quickly.  The Medic, on the other hand, can treat diseases more easily.  It’s easy to see how these two can play off of one another, and the other roles similarly give each player a different way to help.  There are five roles, but a maximum of four players.  As a result, there are five different combinations of roles in a four player game, and many more combinations when the game is played with fewer players.  The game plays well with any number of players up to four; it even makes a pretty good solo game.

It's the end of the world as we know it! (Photo by Chris Norword)

The game is very easy to play.  Each player gets four actions per turn, which include moving in various ways, curing a disease if they have the right hand of cards, treating diseases, exchanging information (cards), and building research stations.  After playing their four actions, the player draws two cards.  Lastly, the player acts as “the infector” spreading the diseases a little bit.  Sounds simple enough, but there are terribly bad things that can happen.  First of all, whenever a disease reaches a certain level in a city, there is an outbreak, which infects surrounding cities.  If those cities then are above the threshold, they outbreak in a chain reaction.  Furthermore, when drawing new cards, a player can draw an “Epidemic” card, which puts infected cities at additional risk, making outbreaks more likely.  The net result is that once bad things start to happen, they tend to accelerate, which keeps the team of players on edge and forces a coordinated effort to win!

My last reason for whole-heartedly recommending Pandemic is the nature of cooperative games themselves.  As a style of play, co-op games are still relatively uncommon, and offer new players a fresh look at gaming.  Because co-ops are a team effort, the game lends itself to bringing along both new players and younger players.  Discussion amongst players is allowed, and even necessary.  Furthermore, since everyone wins or loses as a team, children tend to be less heartbroken, and can learn as the adults around the table (hopefully!) deal with the loss gracefully.  In fact, there are lots of lessons about healthy interplay that can be learned in this style of game.  That said, I have to admit the nature of co-op games makes them difficult games to play with very controlling or very passive people.  Neither person contributes equally with the rest of the team.  Either can make for a bad situation; control freaks can absolutely destroy the game experience.  This is the one drawback, though even this can also provide a lesson to a controlling or demanding child.

Pandemic is a great game.  It is right up there with my top games, both in how I rate it and in number of plays.  Your family and friends can save the world together in an easy to play game in about an hour; I am confident this will make it one of your favorite games.  Our local Barnes and Nobles are now carrying it for roughly $35.00 (USD), so it is getting easier to find.  Even at full price, the high number of plays for me means the game has yielded an entertainment value of $1.25/hr, and I am ready for more plays!  I cannot recommend this game enough!

Vital Statistics:

Pandemic

                Ages:                     10 and up (perhaps as low as 7 due to the co-op nature)

                Time:                     60 minutes

                Players:                  1-4 

 

It's Your Move!

3rd Sunday Gaming Group – March

Yesterday was our monthly gaming group day.  We started off with seven players, which can be an awkward number.  Most gaming groups split into two games at that point, with some playing a four player game and others in a three player game.  Sometimes it will split 5/2 instead of 4/3.  However, our group generally wants to be all inclusive, so we looked for a seven player game.  I had hoped my copy of 7 Wonders would have arrived by now, which plays up to seven, but my understanding is that the US distributor is waiting for the shipment to clear Customs.  That wasn’t an option.  We played a few other games instead.

We started with Pit.  I hadn’t played this since high school, and our game wasn’t as rowdy as I remember it.  You are commodity traders on the floor of the exchange, and you are trying to corner your market.  There are no turns.  You are trading in real time by just shouting the number of cards you have available for trade.  There really isn’t much strategy here, it’s just rowdy fun.  It feels a lot like a party game.  In the end, it wasn’t really a hit with the group.

Next we moved on to Citadels, which is a game I like less and less as time goes on.  With three or four players, there are better games to play.  With six to eight players, there is too much time waiting for your turn.  Additionally, there is very little control.  At that point, the game just outstays its welcome.

Dinner was the next agenda item, and then one of our regulars had to go.  At six players, we went with Carcassonne with several expansions:  The River, Inns and Cathedrals and Traders and Builders.  This is a typical European style game, in which the object is to score the most points.  Some points are scored during the game, and some are scored at the end.  This session was interesting in the various approaches people took.  I concentrated on in-game scoring opportunities, and was the leader after play stopped.  Meanwhile the person in last place had concentrated almost exclusively on end-game scoring (though I am not sure that was intentional!).  That player scored roughly 125 out of 140 points all in the endgame, and very nearly won.  It made the end of the game pretty exciting!  The winner blended the two scoring opportunities.  (I came in fourth, if you are wondering.)  This is a game that deserves a review for family and casual gamers, and is on my list.  In the meantime, I will just give it a thumb.

Three more left, and we broke out Pandemic.  This game is designed by the same person who created Forbidden Island, which I have reviewed.  Pandemic is a little longer and a little more complex, though certainly still good for families and casual players.  It is another cooperative game, where everyone is playing as a team against the game mechanisms, trying to cure the world of diseases that are threatening to wipe out the human race.  To put a positive note on it, we solved the world overpopulation problem, since the diseases wiped out the world’s population!  We lost two close games.  This game is also a great one, and is in the hopper for a review too.

By this point, it was getting late, so we called it a night.  For those of you who are curious, I won exactly zero games.  I said I love to play games; I didn’t say I was terribly good at them.  Of the games in this session, my recommendations are:

Pit 
Citadels

Carcassonne

Pandemic

 Until next time,

Keep on rolling!

Bait Games – Getting your family and friends to play

Since you are the one reading this post, it would be natural to guess that you are the one most interested in playing games in your family or group.  In fact, you may be the only person interested.  It may come as a surprise to you, but I feel your pain.

Most of my gaming is with my gaming group that meets once a month.  I would certainly like to play more often than that though.  That leaves me three choices, playing solitaire games, playing online or getting my family to play.  I have a few solitaire games; it’s really not the same experience.  Playing online is great for chess, but leaves me cold for other games.  Let’s talk about the last option; playing games with those friends and family you spend most of your time with.  There are three things that help draw people to the game table: great looking game bits, how fast the game plays, and a theme that appeals.

Because I like sports games, I have two football games.  The first is Bowl Bound, a college football simulation that is the sister game to Paydirt, which some of you may remember.  Bowl Bound was originally published by Sports Illustrated in 1973, and is faithful to the game of football.  It features lots of charts and tables and one little flat football.  Last week I picked up Battleball (which just sounds cooler) from the thrift store.  Published by Milton Bradley in 2003, it is the “future of football”.  Which is the better football game?  To a football fan (me), that would be Bowl Bound.  To a 13 year-old boy (my son), it’s definitely Battleball, because of the truly cool figurines. “Wow, miniatures!”, Daniel says.  “When do we play this?”  The Awesomeness Factor is definitely a pull.

Battleball - All kinds of awesomeness! (Photo by Henry Durand)

This works a little differently for my wife.  She likes games that are visually balanced and/or beautiful as you play.  It’s actually more important than winning to her.  Scrabble games must fill the whole board, which is aesthetically appealing to her.  Another favorite is Carcassonne, which produces a beautiful map of cities and countryside by the end of the game.  Players build it as they go, and it never looks the same way twice.  Again, the visual appeal gets her to play this game more than others.

The Carcassonne Countryside (Photo by Mecandes)

Time commitment will often be another factor.  The “speed” of the game has three pieces to it.  First of all, most people who play more casually are looking for a game they can learn fast.  Secondly, they want a game that keeps them involved, without a lot of “down time” between actions.  Lastly, and most obviously, they may not want to commit to a four hour marathon even if there is time.  Ask someone to describe Monopoly in one word, and you will most likely get the word “long”.  At first, a game should probably last less than an hour.  Once your family and friends realize this is fun, they will have the patience to learn longer and more complicated games.

The final factor is theme.  Most people like playing a game about a topic they like.  Daniel likes fantasy themes, which shouldn’t be a surprise with him being a boy his age.  In fact, his favorite game is War of the Ring, which has a fantasy theme, figurines and a huge map of Tolkien’s Middle Earth – go figure.  My wife, being a school librarian, almost immediately likes word games.  We were introduced to Bananagrams over this past Christmas, and she immediately wanted all three games in the series.  Those are the two types of games I can almost always get them to play.

War of the Ring (Photo by Christopher Bartlett)

I will admit those themes are worlds apart.  Getting all three of us to the table at the same time isn’t easy.  Taking turns is the rule for picking games as well as playing them.  I can be persuaded to play almost anything, so that helps a little. Flexibility is important.

I would love to hear what works for you and yours.  Please let me know what themes work for your family.  There may be a theme that appeals to you that will help someone else find a game for their family and friends, and you may find a new theme too.  Until then…

Keep rolling along!

Getting on Board with Ticket to Ride

Last month I said I would review Ticket to Ride, which is one of my go-to games for casual gaming. No one has ever told me they dislike it, and we often have people ask to play “the train game”. With it being recommended for ages 8 and up, which is accurate, it is accessible to many children. At the same time, it is definitely a game that will appeal to adults. The publisher, Days of Wonder, produces quality games that are solidly made with artistic components, making them a joy to play.

Welcome aboard! Ticket to Ride is the cross country adventure game set in Victorian America. You are travelling the United States, attempting to become the most travelled person in the country. You will be taking trains from city to city to claim the honor, trying to get to all of your given destinations before time runs out!

Photo by Manuel Pombeiro

The artwork in Ticket to Ride is reminiscent of the novel Around the World in 80 Days. In fact, the game play has some of that feel to it. Players play sets of cards attempting to “claim routes”, placing little passenger train cars on the routes between nearby cities. These claims score points, which will determine the winner. Additionally, each player has a few cards, called “destination tickets”, which give secret goals of connecting two cities that are not near each other; Los Angeles to Miami might be one destination ticket a player might have. The end of the game occurs when one player has essentially run out of little passenger cars to place. At the end of the game, those secret goals which have been completed add to the score; those goals which failed subtract. The person with the most points at the end of the final scoring is the winner!

Since only one person can claim each route between nearby cities, there are strategic opportunities to block, giving this game a little spice. That said, we have nearly always played Ticket to Ride as a “friendly” game, with confrontation happening incidentally as a result of trying to complete destination tickets, rather than overt attempts to block someone. It’s just as fun as a friendly game. The game is not complicated (though it’s not tic-tac-toe, either) and the strategy is not so complex that you are exhausted after play. I will say again that I have never met anyone that doesn’t like the game: kids and adults alike.

Ticket to Ride belongs to the genre of “Eurogames”, a style of gaming that originated in Germany. Unlike American designed games, Eurogames do not eliminate players. Everyone is in the game until the end. Typically, there is scoring during the course of the game, with a big set of points being awarded at the end of the game to finally determine the winner. The person leading up to the end isn’t safe; someone can certainly come from behind in the endgame scoring.

Be aware there are several versions of Ticket to Ride, including Ticket to Ride: Europe, Ticket to Ride: Märklin, and Ticket to Ride: Nordic Countries. I will recommend the original Ticket to Ride, with the United States map, since it is slightly simpler. However, any of them would be a great purchase. They are all loved by both casual gamers and the hobby gaming community.

Ticket to Ride: ages 8 and up, 45 minutes, 2-5 players.

Knightly Devotions

This is my third year of teaching chess in our son’s grade school. Contrary to what I expected, it gets tougher every year. While I have some great ideas I have received from others who have run scholastic chess programs, they are only partially helpful. Many of those programs are aimed at competition, and we just aren’t there. In fact, I have learned there are at least three big obstacles to starting a scholastic chess club: the emotional maturity of the child, the level of chess knowledge they come with, and when they join during the school year.

First of all, let me say that our school chess club is based upon the idea that chess is a classic ability everyone should know, improving logic and problem solving skills and promoting sportsmanship. Subsequently, no one is ever turned away. This principle is largely responsible for this set of problems, so I realize I have made my own bed.

That said, the administration agreed with me at the beginning of the year that primary school children in general would not have the ability to sit still and play chess. Therefore, a child has to be in fourth grade to join. Since the primary is in a separate wing of the school, being “beyond the double doors” has meaning akin to a rite of passage. Using this existing distinction to define the privilege of joining the chess club is accepted more easily. This is not a hard and fast filter; we admitted a second grader based on faculty recommendation and consultation. This boy has shown he already knows how the pieces move and he is focused. At the same time, a fourth grade girl who has been with us all year apparently has not yet learned how all the pieces move. There is some suspicion she is pretending to be confused to gain attention. Even some of the older students cannot remain quiet, and must be reminded they are disturbing other players’ thoughts. The noise and distraction get in the way of teaching, even for the mere ten to fifteen minutes I would like, just as they would in the classroom. Even when a lesson manages to slip in, the difference in maturity shows. Younger players are less likely to move center pawns out early, even when instructed repeatedly. It seems the younger children shy away from the kind of confrontation early center play can start.

Another obstacle is the variation in the children’s “chess maturity”. I currently have students that have never played the game before this year, and I have students that have been in the chess club all three years. Their needs are obviously different. My wife is the school librarian, and acts as the faculty advisor to the group. She is willing to take the new learners and teach them the moves. Our idea at the beginning of the year was that we could divide the group between us, with me teaching the next level of play. However, it has become apparent there are at least three groups that need attention. There are those learning the moves, those learning very basic concepts (control the center of the board, protect the king), and finally the students who are looking at somewhat more advanced ideas (doubled rooks, bad bishops). As this goes forward, I suspect there will be more differentiation.

Add to this the constant inflow of new students to the club, and we sometimes take two steps forward and one step back. It can be a bit frustrating, but I will firmly stand by the commitment to teach anyone who wants to learn, even teachers who show up! More volunteers would be great, but very few people can come in after school.

Most of the chess programs I have seen that are highlighted in the news, or who write about their success, are based on the idea that they will take students who are already chess players and take them to tournaments. There we see the best and brightest. We are far from that goal, though I would love to be able to do that, but my group of kids is just not there yet.

If you have any suggestions, please let me know. What qualifies me as a chess coach for the school is not any great ability to teach, and obviously (if you have been checking out my chess rating on the left) not any fantastic skill in chess. I am just the guy who said “yes”. I would love to hear thoughts on how to make it a better chess experience for all.

Roll on!

Mass Market Moment – Blokus

Blokus is a family of games that started in the hobby gaming world and crossed over to the mass market, assisted by the purchase of publication rights by Mattel. The game won many awards, including a Mensa Select award. (Don’t tell the kids, but it also won a Teacher’s Choice award in 2004.) It them spawned several additional versions: Blokus Duo (aka Blokus for 2 and Travel Blokus), Blokus Trigon, and Blokus 3D (aka Rumis). With a simple set up rules and colorful pieces, it draws in potential players, appeals to children, and makes the whole series a set of excellent abstracts.

Photo by Tom Rosen

The original game Blokus is a four player game in which players alternate placing one of their geometric shapes on a board, covering as much as the board as they can by game end. The shapes are made of squares starting with one square and continuing up to every shape which can be built with five squares. The catch is that one player’s pieces can only touch at the corners, which makes it difficult to fence an area off from opponents. At the end of the game, players receive a negative point for every square (not piece!) that is not put in play. Positive points are received for using all of your pieces and for using the one-square piece last. Highest score wins. Stepping back from the board after the game is done shows a pretty mosaic that leaves observers saying, “That looks cool!”
Blokus 3D, originally known as Rumis, also won several awards. The objects are now three dimensional, as might be guessed. The scoring is different, with each player scoring positive points for the number of cubes visible from directly above the board. Negative points are earned for cubes left over as before. Since this is the one game in the series I haven’t played (though we do own it), I can’t say much more.

The two player rules for Blokus have each player using two of the four colors, as if there were two teams of two colors. A better approach is taken by the next game in the line to be published, Blokus Duo, which originally was named Travel Blokus. It is also sold exclusively at Target as Blokus to Go, which allows the pieces to actually snap in place for play in a moving vehicle. Regardless of the name, the difference between Blokus and Blokus Duo is merely the number of players and the start location. Duo is strictly a two-player game. This is my favorite form of the game. The board is smaller and makes for a very tight game.

Blokus does not play well with three players. Play starts from the corners, which means one player has an opponent on both sides; the others have opponents on one side only. The player in the middle is squeezed, and will nearly always do poorly. Blokus Trigon attempts to address this. The board and pieces are made of triangles rather than squares, which results in some strange shapes. The overall board shape is hexagonal, which allows three players to evenly space themselves out. There is equality with four players too, but the game tries to be a little too much. I, for one, have trouble visualizing what I want to do.

I can hear some of you thinking, “I need to buy THREE games, Blokus Duo for two, Blokus Trigon for three, and Blokus for four?!” No. Unless you really want to travel with it Blokus Duo isn’t needed. Many people play two player Blokus by using one color per player, and using a third color to fence of the board, reducing it to the size of Blokus Duo (14x14). Similarly, Blokus Trigon can be played with two colors and the two outer rings of spaces marked off on three sides. As for playing with three players, I would still play Blokus. Blokus Trigon is just too oddly shaped, and while it might be a more even game, it isn’t any more fun. Just buy and play the original Blokus with the strongest player in the squeezed position, or rotate through that position in several games of match play. Since the game plays in roughly 20-30 minutes, that’s a possibility. Therefore, while all of the variations are good, the original Blokus is the purchase to make.

Gaming – Opening Moves

My re-acquaintance with boardgaming came about four years ago when my son received a copy of Ticket to Ride for Christmas. I had received a copy of Lord of the Rings before that, when the movies were in the theatres, but my own prejudices had kept me from playing it. With Ticket to Ride, I started down the path into the gaming hobby.
We had our share of mass-market games on our shelves: Monopoly, Balderdash, Taboo and Uno. There were also children’s games like Hi, Ho Cherry-O! After playing Ticket to Ride and then Settlers of Catan, I started looking for other games, and stumbled upon the BoardGameGeek website. This website supports an online community of gamers around the globe. With around 50,000 games in the database, it opens up the boardgaming world. After joining in January 2008, I have used this site to find games I love, received answers to questions on rules, and thoroughly enjoyed the hobby beyond just playing games.
Most of my friends and family, though, do not share this passion. Many of them play casually, socially, and it is for them (and you!) that I write this blog. The question many ask is, “What would be a good game for my family and friends to play now and then?”
The first step is to figure out what you have and start playing! Monopoly, Risk and Trivial Pursuit, amongst other commonly found games, can make for memorable evenings even if they are not everyone’s favorite game. (Did you know that stealing is not against the rules in Monopoly? I found out the hard way, and we still tell the story in our family!) As you play, you will start to see what types of games are better for you family. Are there little ones in the family? How much confrontation can the game have before tempers flare? How long can the game be and still keep everyone interested? How complex can it be?
It sounds complicated, but that’s why I am here. In fact, I am going to open up this topic with my first, all-purpose, suggestion: Forbidden Island. It is a cooperative game, which means all players are team up against the workings of the game. For most people, this is a completely new concept, but it is becoming more popular in the gaming world. Players form a team of adventurers, looking to recover ancient artifacts. A long-dead civilization placed these mystical items on the island to keep them from falling into the hands of enemies, and with safeguards in place to keep the artifacts from being taken. Once someone sets foot upon Forbidden Island, it begins to sink into the sea. The players must recover the artifacts and fly off the island before it sinks to win the game. Each player has a unique role on the team, and a corresponding ability, which will help the group in its efforts. Using these different abilities effectively is critical to win, and keeps the game fresh.
This game plays in 30 minutes with up to four players of nearly any age. Because everyone is playing as a team, children can be coached by parents within the spirit and rules of the game. Kids don’t feel like “the loser”, since everyone wins or loses together. It is certainly not a “kid’s game” though; adults will find themselves challenged to win. Forbidden Island will certainly promote a lot of group interaction without confrontation (though there might be some passionate debates!). The artwork and game pieces are wonderful, and it comes in a nice tin box. It is priced very reasonably, and shouldn’t be too hard to find. Bookstore chains were carrying it at Christmas, and online gaming stores will have it in stock.

In upcoming posts I will discuss Ticket to Ride and other good games to start your play.
Roll On!

Angola

This past weekend was the annual trip our Scout Troop takes to Angola, IN. We spend a few hours on the iced toboggan run of the nearby state park as the focal point of the weekend – 35mph worth of fun! Since it’s a three hour drive, though, we go up Friday night and come back Sunday morning, which leaves quite a bit of time for games. We have a big gym available to us at the National Guard armory where we stay. Much of the gaming is dodgeball and other physical games, but there is some boardgaming that goes on, too.
Typically, the Scouts play Magic: the Gathering, Axis & Allies, and a few other games. Apples to Apples seemed to be big this year. It’s always interesting to see what the Scouts bring themselves, and to see where there interests lie.
I brought an assortment of games that I consider travel games. Those are games that, at least individually, would easily fit in a briefcase or backpack for playing on the road or trail. Of the games I brought, two made it to the game table:
Hive. This game has been a hit for a while now in the Troop. In fact, two other leaders have copies now, so it gets played fairly regularly on outings. It is an abstract strategy game for two players in which you move your different “bugs” around the hive in unique ways in an attempt to surround your opponent’s queen bee. There isn’t much theme, much of a storyline, in this game. It has been described as “the new chess”. I won’t go that far, but it does have the same strategic elements as chess: time, space and material. The rules are few, the components are great (you can wash them in the sink if they get dirty!), and it is a LOT of fun. There is a bit of “brain-burn” to it, but not too much. I would say more than checkers, but less than chess. Hive may not work for kids younger than 10 years old.  It takes around 30 minutes to play. 
 
No Thanks! This is not a new game, but it is new to me. I had just recently purchase it, and was eager to play it. The game is a reverse auction, in which you pay to not take a card. Each card is worth points, and you are aiming for the lowest score. Very light on rules, they only took a minute to read, understand and teach them. No deep thought is required. The components are cards and small chips, which is perfectly appropriate for this game. This game doesn’t even pretend to tell a story, but is great fun. It played in about 15 minutes, so we played nine times! No Thanks! Is designed for 3-5 players, but we stretched it to six for a couple of games without an issue. This game should work pretty well with younger children.  This was a great purchase!

I also played a game brought by one of the other leaders. I only managed to play it once, but it proved to be a lot of fun:
Abalone. This is another 2 player abstract strategy game, in which you place a group of marbles on a hexagonal board across from your opponent. You then attempt to align your marbles so that pushing a line of them (maximum of three marbles) against a smaller number of your opponents pieces shoves them off the board. This was a good, solid game, again with few rules but some thought needed. I personally enjoy Hive a little more, but Abalone is probably a little bit easier to grasp.  It would be a great introductory abstract for children. Playing time is roughly 30 minutes.

Roll On!