Good Board Games

We all know the tale of the Hare and Tortoise , well now we have another chance to play out their historic race. Rio Grande games has purchased the rights to a classic Ravensburger game "Hase und Igel" (Hare and porcupine as the German fable goes). The original game by Ravensburger won the first ever Spiel Des Jahres award for excellence in game design back in 1979, and with seemingly few tweaks to the original, Hare and Tortoise looks as good as the original, if not better. The game plays 2-6 racers with an interesting mechanic of needing to calculate how fast you should run to burn your fuel, (carrots) while still having some left to make it across the line. The game being a race, it helps to go fast like a hare; however, being the fabled race it is sometimes better to pace yourself like a tortoise. The racing mechanic is fairly straightforward and players will learn how they can move easily. The tricky part comes in when they need to manage moving forward to win the ra

One of the most interesting games I've ever played is The Mind . It's not a game where the rules are complicated or even one where the rules are hard to understand, but it is a game that when you have success it's an overwhelming feeling of accomplishment by the entire group. Players that I've personally sat down and played a game or two will literally be standing on furniture screaming for joy fists clenched in the air like they've just won the Superbowl. What's the premise of the game then? Well you play cards numbered from 1-100 in ascending chronological order. Seems like sorting rather than a game so far, I know. Here's the catch. You and your partners can't talk. In fact the only form of communication is direct and indirect eye contact. Not even small hums and buts are permitted. You and your teammates work as a group to achieve the task of effectively in shuffling the giant deck. To achieve this the game is played in rounds. In round one each

One of the newer board games that became the topic of many conversations as gaming conventions last year was Photosynthesis . The game involves its namesake process in which you gain points from the sun based on how many trees you have that are growing in open, non-shaded areas. The game play is based around resource management and board control, but has enough quirks and foibles to make the game unique and exciting. Players take turns planting seeds, growing trees, throwing new seeds towards the center of the board, and eventually harvesting mature trees to accommodate space for new sprouts. To score points players harvest only the largest, most mature trees from the board. By doing this that player is sacrificing gaining new points from the sun in exchange for a leg up on the scoreboard. If you do this too soon you might not have the resources to repopulate; however, too late and you might be left behind. In addition to being a good strategy game that has beautiful pieces. This

Another game I was introduced to this year is Rattlebones . It is a unique game for 2-4 players that incorporates customize-able dice that help you to move your set of meeples around the game board. The dice are six sided but have interchangeable faces on them. This allows the players to make their dice uniquely their own while you play. The dice themselves come with a tool to pop out the sides (be careful these pieces really can fly) and allow you to put a new piece into the dice face. These new pieces let you change out number faces as well as adding new (non number) faces that you pick up from moving your pieces around the board. The game play is a unique risk/reward system that incorporates a limited betting system and press your luck tactics, with their own interesting twists. There are many ways to change your dice and also many different ways to setup your board with different pieces to ensure lots of replay- ability, without the need to buy additional expansions. I'm

Origins board and tabletop game convention was this past week, and I was fortunate enough to attend this year. There were many great new games, and many great classics on full display. One of the new ones that caught my eye early was from capstone games, called The Climbers . In the game 2-5 players move blocks of varying heights to allow them to move higher up the colorful pile. Each block is a 2 wide square, but the heights range from one high, two high, and 4 high. Players can move any piece they want, but can only climb on the face of the block that corresponds to their meeple's (or player piece) color. Each block has all 5 colors on them, but also a white, or neutral side. These neutral pieces can be used by anyone; however, you may need to make alliances as you make your ascent to the peak. To aid in your climb to the top, players can use a 2 high ladder or a 4 high ladder, in order to skip ahead to higher heights. These pieces are a one time use, so use them wisely. If y

This is one of the greatest "games" that I wish I'd thought of first. Start Player  is simply a game that determines who will go first in the next game that you play. The game itself is merely a deck of cards, each with a different prompt that will have one person be the winner, and thus, be the starting player in the next game you're about to play. It's not a necessity per say, but Start Player  does clean up many of the tedious and in some cases social oddities of how many games determine their starting player. Will Start Player , change your life? Likely not... Will Start Player be your new favorite game? Hopefully not... Will Start Player bring some added fun, and end debates at your next game night? Yes. Hands down yes. I was introduced to this game recently and it's exactly what it says it is, and will be an excellent gift for anyone you know that plays games.