2016 Gaming Year in Review

It's fun for me to look back at the year that has past and reflect on the games that I've played and the people that I've played them with. 2016 was a great year for gaming.  I played a lot of games and strengthened relationships while doing it!  In total I played 309 games representing 66 different games.  My top 10 games played are below:

Dice Masters - 27
Pandemic Legacy - 17
Legendary:  A Marvel Deckbuilding Game - 16
Bounce Off - 13
No Thanks! - 13
Coloretto - 11
King of Tokyo - 10
Qwixx - 10
Crokinole - 9
Sorry Sliders - 9

My most enjoyable gaming experience of 2016 is by far Pandemic Legacy.  We got Pandemic Legacy for Christmas last year and started playing with our good friends on New Years Eve 2015.  It took us 17 plays and about 10 months to finish.  I've always been a fan of Pandemic, but the Legacy format takes it to another level.  I'm looking forward to Pandemic Legacy Season Two that's coming out later this year.

I also had a lot of fun gaming with some guys in my neighborhood this year as well.  In March I organized a game group and we've gotten together almost every month since.  We usually have from 4 - 8 people show up and have a great time for 3 or so hours.  There were some especially memorable games of Resistance where I realized that I'm really bad at Resistance.  It was still a great time though.

2016 was also the year that my daughter is really starting to understand "dads" games.  She can play almost anything on my shelf.  We recently purchased The Castles of Burgundy.  I thought this one might be a little to heavy for her, but we decided to give it a shot.  She picked up the rules quickly and stays pretty competitive for the whole game.  She's also played Lancaster, Legendary, and many games of Dice Masters.  I'm thinking Agricola and Imperial Assault are in her future this year. 

While seeing the number of games played is fun for me, what's best about logging the games I play is remembering the experiences I had with the people I care about.  The time spent gaming represents time invested in people.  I look forward to 2017 and the fun games in my future.  Thanks for reading and happy gaming!

The Crazyness That Was 2014 and the Games I Played

2014 was a crazy year for my family.  In October I was contacted out of the blue by a company in Colorado that was looking to fill a Transaction Management position.  I had no interest in moving jobs, buy decided to look into it.  It turned out to be a pretty good opportunity, and after a whole lot of soul searching I decided to accept the position.  The process to move the family to Denver had begun.  I wish I could say that the transition to Colorado went off without a hitch.  Unfortunately it was anything but a smooth process.  After about 3 1/2 months, many plane tickets back to Salt Lake to see the family, putting our house in Salt Lake under contract with two people at the same time (not a fun experience and a story I can tell at another time), and moving into our new home in Castle Rock in a snow storm with temperatures around 5 degrees, we made it!  Needless to say, there was not a whole lot of board game playing the last 5 months of the year.  I was able to get quite a few games played the first half of the year though!

So what did I play?  I use BoardGameGeek to log all of the games that I play.  www.BoardGameGeek.com has anything and everything that you could every imaging that is board game related.  They even have an app that will let you log games in seconds.  You can enter as much information about the games you play as you like, or you can just log what was played and when you played it.  I do the latter, and it's a lot of fun at the end of year to go back and see what made it to the table.

In 2015 I played 151 total games.  This was a very off year for me, but with the explanation above it makes perfect sense.  Out of the 151 there were 50 different games played.  There were only three games that broke 10 plays a piece -  Dominion, Marvel Dice Masters, and Lord of the Rings LCG.  The top 10 were:

Dominion - 18
Marvel Dice Masters - 16
Lord of the Rings LCG - 10
Ubongo - 8
Zombie Dice - 8
Memoir 44 - 6
Kingdom Builder - 5
No Thanks - 5
Pandemic - 5
7 Wonders - 5

151 games may seem like a lot of games played to some people. To me it represents quality time spent with family and friends.  My daughter is now old enough to play "dads" games.  I've had a blast teaching her Dominion, Ubongo, Memoir 44 and many others.  I always make it a point to take a picture after the first time I play a new game with her.  She was so proud that she beat dad at Qwirkle Cubes! 

 2015 is already off to a great start.  I'm looking forward to more games with the family and making new gaming friends in Denver.  Happy gaming everyone!
       

Forbidden Island

My daughter LOVES Gamewright games! She is constantly asking to play Order's Up, Duck Duck Bruce, Feed the Kitty, Go Away Monster, and many others. The quality of Gamewright games is always top notch and the themes of the games appeal to kids and adults alike. When I first heard that Gamewright was publishing a game by the Matt Leacock I was intrigued. I had played Pandemic and Roll Through the Ages (two of Matt's other games) and really like both of them. I was looking forward to what he could bring to the Gamewright lineup with Forbidden Island.

This post isn't going to contain a lengthy rules explanation. For those interested the rules are posted online on the Gamewright website. Instead I'm going to go over a few of the reasons why I enjoy Forbidden Island and why I think you should check it out.

Cooperative games rule! I'm a big fan of cooperative games. The first co-op that I played was Shadow's over Camelot. Shadow's is still one of my favorites to this day. Forbidden Island is also a cooperative game. A cooperative game, for those who don't know, is a game where all players are on the same team trying to beat the game. It's either everyone wins, or everyone looses. In a good co-op there is almost always a lot of tension that builds up during the game. In Forbidden Island you are trying to collect treasures on an Island and fly off of that Island before it sinks underneath you. As the game goes on more and more of the Island disappears and the tension builds. You usually don't know if you're going to win until the very end.

Variable Player Abilities: In Forbidden Island everyone has a special ability. You can be an Explorer, Pilot, Navigator, Diver, or an Engineer. Your character lets you do something that "breaks" the normal rules. The Diver for example will let you swim to another tile where this is not allowed for all of the other players. It's fun to see how everyones special abilities work with each other in figuring out how to beat the game.

Difficulty Levels: Forbidden Island allows you to vary the difficulty level of the game. The game comes with a Water Meter. As soon as the Water Meter gets to the skull and crossbones everyone dies and you loose the game. This is one of the four ways that you can loose. You can start the game at different levels on the Water Meter. Beginners should probably start at Novice, but the daring can jump all of the way up to legendary. The ability to vary the difficulty allows families to play with younger kids and also makes it a little easier to introduce the game to new players. It also helps add longevity to the game by making it more challenging as you get better at playing.

Modular Board: Modular board games allow you to play on a new board each game because the board is built fresh every time you play. Forbidden Island comes with 24 tiles and they are randomly placed in order to create your board. You never quite know what you are going to get. This affects the kind of strategy that you are going to play and dramatically adds to the re playability of the game. Every time you play it's fun to see how your Island gets set up and this always leads to discussion on how to best attack the game.

Forbidden Island is a lot of fun. It would be a welcome additional to anyones game collection. It has been nominated for the game of the year in Germany this year, The Spiel Des Jahres. I think it's definitely worthy of the nomination and gets my vote to win. Thanks for reading and happy gaming!

Anyone interested in purchasing Forbidden Island can find out more about it here.

Random Thoughs on Agricola

I was pretty late jumping on the Agricola bandwagon. I had seen it for years on boardgamegeek on or near the top of the highest rated game list. It had always kind of intrigued me but, I mean, how fun could a game be that was about farming? About a year ago I was able to get a copy of the game. After reading through the rules a couple of times I was ready to play. The problem was that nobody else was ready to play. This happens to me quite a bit. I get a new game. I read through the rules a few times. I don't get a chance to play the game for a while and I forget the rules. This doesn't bother me too much though. I'm one of those weird ones that actually enjoys reading rules. About six months ago I suggested the game at one of our game nights. Luckily, a few of the people had played and they were willing to teach the game. I'm not going to lie, I wasn't a big fan of the game the first time I played. There's A LOT of stuff going on and it made my brain hurt. I did see though that there was some definite potential to the game and I wanted to play again to explore. I now have played a dozen or so times and I can now say that Agricola is one of my favorite games. Once you get through the initial learning curve you find a fantastic medium to heavy weight strategy game. I'm not going to explain the rules in this post. I'm not really in the mood to wright for the next two hours, and I don't think many of you would want to read them. I will go into some of the reasons why I love the game though, and why I think you should check it out.

Choices, Choices, and more Choices! Did I mention choices? There's a lot of decisions to be made in this game. This allows multiple paths to victory. Many games have one dominant strategy that everyone uses because if you don't you probably won't win. This is definitely not the case with Agricola. This adds to the replayability and total enjoyment of the game.

Goodies! There's a recent expansion to the game that came out called The Goodies. This adds little wooden pieces that actually look like the things they are supposed to look like. The grain looks like a bundle of grain, the sheep are little wooden sheep, and the cows actually look like cows! The expansion doesn't add a whole lot to the actual game play, but it does add a lot to the theme. It's pretty fun to see your farm after the game is over with little pigs and sheep running around. My wife likes the goodies so much that she refused to play until I was able to order one.

The Cards. You can play Agricola with or without most of the cards. I definitely prefer playing with the cards. They add a little complexity to the game, but also allow for deeper strategy. You are dealt 7 occupation cards as well as 7 minor improvement cards when you begin the game. It's a lot of fun studying your cards and figuring out which ones to play and how they are going to interact with each other. The game comes with a ton of cards. You'll have to play a lot of Agricola before you see all of them.

Balanced: As with most good strategy games the person with the best strategy is usually the winner. With that said, most games are really pretty close and come right down to the end. The person who can squeeze out the most victory points in the last round could very well be the winner. I've had quite a few games that are decided by one point. This can make for a very exciting finish.

Passes "the wife test": My wife really enjoys Agricola. She like a lot of games, but usually shies away from the more complex and heavier strategy games. This one is an exception to the rule. Any game that can take over two hours to play and still passes "the wife test" is a winner in my book. It's also a great two player game. A lot of my game playing is with my wife, so I'm always looking for game that play well with two.

These are a few of the reasons why I love Agricola. The more I play the game the more I find reasons that I enjoy it. I'm looking forward to getting The Farmers of the Moor expansion in the future. There's still a lot that I need to explore in the base game before then though. If you haven't checked out Agricola yet I would highly recommend that you do. Thanks for reading and happy gaming!

To log or not log...

In January of 2009 I ran into a site called boardgamegeek. Since then many hours have been spent on the site researching games and reading anything and everything board game related. Shortly after finding the site I found that you could log all of the games that you have played. You can go into as much detail logging games as you like, including: where you played, number of players, who played, who won, what the scores were, comments on the game, and even if you want to post it to twitter. I usually just log the game, date, and where I played the game at. It's been kind of fun going back a seeing what I've been playing for the past two years. I thought I would post some useless stats on my game playing for the past two years in case anyone was interested. Who knows, it might inspire someone else to log their game plays as well. :)

Where I've played: Over the past two years I have played games in 26 different places. The majority of my game playing has been done at my home, but I've also played in some pretty unique places. I've played games high in the Sawtooth mountains and in Canyonlands in southern Utah. I've played games at a coffee house, conventions, hotels, and at many friends and family homes. No matter where I've played it's always been fun.

Different games played: Over the past two years I've played 143 different games. One of my favorite things is getting a new game, reading through the rules a few times, and jumping into a new board game experience. My board game collection has grown dramatically in the past few years and I don't see it slowing down much.

Most played game: For those who know me this won't come as a surprise. My most played board game the past two years is Dominion. I have played Dominion and it's many expansions 148 times. Despite all of my Dominion playing it hasn't gotten old. I'm always up for a game. My second most played game is No Thanks! with 51 plays. That's mostly due to over 30 plays on a backpacking trip. I was a little sick of that one after three days in the desert.

Total games played: I have done more gaming by far than the average person. I guess that's what happens with a hobby. Over the past two years I've played 743 total games. This doesn't include many kids games played with my daughter and nieces and nephews. Whew...that's a lot of games! That averages out to be about 31 games played a month.

When I look back and reflect on how much has happened in the past two years it's really pretty amazing. I've played a lot games, got to know A LOT of great people, strengthened friendships with those that I already knew, and started a board game business that will hopefully one day turn into something that will let me provide for my family doing something that I love. Board games have been a big part of my life I wouldn't want it any other way. Thanks for reading and happy gaming.

So Why Games?

So why do people play games? This is a question that I've asked myself many times. As I put more and more time and effort into the hobby I see even more value in it. The game industry is growing. Games like Settlers of Catan and Ticket to Ride are becoming more mainstream. Barnes and Nobles even has games like Dominion and Forbidden Island. More people are being introduced to the wonderful world of modern board games. I've put together a list of some of the reasons that I like games. Feel free to comment and add some reasons of your own!

• Games are Social: Board games are a very social experience. This is probably what I like most about the hobby. I love getting together with friends and playing. I run a game group and it has been a blast getting to know local gamers. It can be kind of crazy packing 25 or so people in my little house, but it's always a great experience.

• Competition: Who doesn't like to win? The experience of games is almost always fun, but when you see your carefully crafted plans working as expected and you win a game, it can be a very satisfying experience. I'm a big fan of strategy games. Dominion is a perfect example. I can formulate a plan going into the game, and if I play it well my strategy wins. Unless someone had a better strategy that is. :) Winning obviously isn't everything, but it sure is fun every once in awhile.

• Games provide memorable experiences: I will never forget the time when my brother in law scored 20 total points in Ticket to Ride. For those that have played Ticket to Ride you know that scoring 20 points is pretty hard to do. You almost have to work at getting a score that low. We've laughed about that game many times as we've gotten together to play games. Playing games with friends and family makes memories and provides experiences that we will remember for the rest of our lives. And then there was that time that my entire ship got blown apart in Galaxy Trucker...

• Games are educational: As my daughter gets older I'm having more and more fun playing games with her. It's fun seeing her learn and develope through games. Games teach important skills such as learning to win or lose gracefully. This is something that many adults need as well. :) They can teach math, social skills, color and shape recognition, decision making skills, and many other things. There are a lot of games that are historical reenactments as well. Many of these games recreate historic battles or they can replay presidential elections in American history. You can play games about the Roman Colosseum, or the Incan empire. While some of these games are loosely based on historical events, they can generate interest in further study.

• Games can bring families together: Life can get very busy. It's important to slow down and spend quality time with the ones you love. Games help provide that opportunity. Some of my best memories growing up were playing Mexican Train with the family. I also remember some great games of Chess, Rummy, Hearts, Spades, and many other card games. With so many influences in the world trying to tear the family apart, it's important to find things that help bring the family together. Family game night can do the trick.

So whether you break out an old favorite, or play the latest and greatest game around, enjoy the value that comes from a good game! Happy gaming!

Holiday Gift Giving Guide

So many games and so many gifts to give this holiday season! Is there anything

better than getting a shiny new game for Christmas? I don't think so. But with so many games out there how do we decide what game would make the perfect gift? Well...reading my holiday gift guide might help. :) I would love comments and feedback for this list, so please post your suggestions for great gifts as well.

Party Games: Party games are great for people who enjoy getting together with a large group of friends and family to just hang out and have a great time. There's usually not a whole lot of strategy in party games, but if you can find a good one there's always a lot of fun and laughter. Three great party games are:

Dixit
Wits and Wagers
Say Anything

Family games: I love playing games with family. It's always a great time when my brother and his family are in town and we get to sit down and enjoy some games. Games that are best suited to families have some light strategy. There's enough strategy to be engaging for the older family members, but not too much for the younger ones. Some great family games are:

Blokus
Forbidden Island
Zeus on the Loose

Heavy Strategy: Seasoned gamers might enjoy a game that has a little meat on it's bones. Something that is challenging and has some deeper strategy. These games tend to have a longer play time, usually at least 2 hours and sometimes longer. For those types of gamers the following games might do the trick:

Power Grid
Dungeon Lords

Medium weight strategy: For those game players who enjoy some strategy in their games, but don't want a heavy strategy game that might go on for 2 to 3 hours, this group of games is for you! These are the types of games that I'm most drawn to. Typical playing times for these types of games can range from a half hour to 90 minutes. Some great games to choose from are:

Dominion - Best game ever. Just go buy it now. You won't be disappointed. :)
Smallworld
Galaxy Trucker
Colosseum

Games to introduce to new gamers: Let's face it, not everyone plays games. There's a huge world of board games out there, but most of them haven't hit the mainstream and are relatively unknown. So if you want to introduce someone to the wonderful world of board gaming it's a good idea to ease them into it with what many people call gateway games. Gateway games introduce people to modern board games without being overwhelming. They generally play in under an hour and have light strategy. Some great gateway games are:

Ticket to Ride
Carcassonne
Settlers of Catan - probably the most famous gateway game and the one that got me into gaming.

Games for two: Much of my gaming is with my wife. So I'm always looking for games that play well with two players. The following games play great with two players:

Lost Cities
Campaign Manager
Dominion

Kids Games 4 +: One of the best things to hear as a father is "Daddy, do you want to play a game?" My daughter just turned 4 and there are some great games for her age group.

Feed the Kitty
Duck Duck Bruce! - the box says 6 +, but my daughter does great with it.
Go Away Monster

Kids Games 6 +: I've run a number of kids game day's at my home. We invite anyone who wants to come with their families and all of my kids games are available for everyone to play. It's great to see families playing games and enjoying time together. The following are some games for kids 6 and up that everyone has enjoyed.

Orders Up!
Space Race
Too Many Monkeys!

Well, hopefully this gives you a few ideas in case you're stumped on what to get this Christmas. Games can be the gift that keeps giving. They provide hours of entertainment and help to bring friends and family together. I hope everyone has a wonderful and safe holiday season. Happy gaming from The Board Game Nut!

The Adventurers

"At the heart of the Guatemalan jungle, a group of rival adventurers is about to explore the temple of the ancient Mayan god Chac. The temple is full of priceless archaeological treasures, but guarded by deadly traps and perils! Each player plays an Adventurer represented in the game by a figure and a card. These Adventurers are on a mission to carry away as many archaeological treasures as they can, even if it means facing the traps of this lost temple deep in the middle of the jungle." (from the rule book)

If this sounds like Indiana Jones the board game, you're right. The game even comes with a plastic bolder that rolls down a corridor throughout the game threatening to crush everything in it's path (and it frequently does). The adventures is a light press your luck family game for ages 10 and older. It plays in about 45 minutes and accommodates 2 to 6 players.

When I first opened the box I was very impressed with how everything was laid out. I love game boxes where all the stuff in the game has it's own spot...and this game has a lot of stuff. The components are some of the best quality components I have seen in a game. They even rival the quality of a lot of Days of Wonder games, which is saying a lot. So what do you get? The game comes with the following: A large game board, 12 adventurer figures, 12 adventurer cards, 18 wall cards, 65 treasure cards, 28 lava room and clue Glyph tiles, 2 sun tiles, 1 large masking card, 5 plastic planks and a support forming a "wooden" bridge, 2 plastic walls, 1 plastic bolder, and 5 dice...whew!

To start the game each player randomly selects two adventures to use during the game, although only one adventurer is used at a time. So why would you select 2 you might ask? Well, there's a really good chance your first adventurer is going to die, so you get a replacement right off the bat. The additional adventurer card is also used as a cheat sheet throughout the game. After characters have been selected a starting player is chosen and you are ready to go.

The goal of the game is to carry as much treasure as you can out of the temple before dieing. The problem is, the more treasure you carry, the slower you go and the better chance you have of dieing. The first phase of every turn is to adjust your load level. Every character can carry 0 to 3 treasures for a load level of 2. This means that if a 2 or higher is rolled you get one action for each die roll of 2 or higher. If you're adventurer is carry 4 to 6 treasures, your load level increases to 3. If a 3 or higher is rolled you get one action for each die roll that is 3 or higher. Your load level gets increasingly higher with the more treasure you carry. In phase one you can dump treasure to lighten your load and have the possibility of more actions.

Phase two is what determines how many actions you get for your turn. The current player rolls all five dice, and depending on the load level of the adventurer, you count up the actions for each player. There is a max of 5 actions per turn.

In phase three you get to perform your actions. There are four actions that can be taken during your turn. You can always move one space for one action. You can search for treasure and take the corresponding treasure card for the part of the temple you are in. If you are in the wall room you can take a peek at a special glyph tile and discover a trap in the lava room. Or you can use your characters special ability.

In phase 4 you move the walls and the bolder. To move the walls you flip over the next three cards in the wall deck. If you flip over a card with an arrow, or multiple arrows, you move the walls in the number of arrows. If the two walls come together and you are still in the wall room, you are crushed and die. It's important to not take too much time in the wall room. :) You then move the bolder. For the first turn the current die roller rolls three of the 5 dice. If a 3 or higher is rolled the bolder is moved one space for each 3 or higher rolled. If you are in the path of the bolder you die. For turn two four dice are rolled. For turn three the bolder reaches it's cruising speed and all five dice are rolled. In the last game I played, the bolder caused much death and destruction. It was a lot of fun.

For the last phase of a turn you pass the dice to the next player and they become the new first player and dice roller.

So I've talked a little about the wall room and the bolder, but those aren't the only ways to die. You can also fall through a trap and die a horrible death in the lava room, or maybe you don't make it out of the underground river and you fall off the waterfall. There's always the chance that when you try and cross the rotten bridge that all of the planks give way and you fall to your death. And if all that isn't enough, if you don't make it out of the temple before the bolder seals off the exit, you die in the temple with all of your treasure.

All of this makes for a very fun press your luck game. The game has some strategy, but really it's the type of game that's just fun to play and shouldn't be taken too seriously. There's quit a bit of luck in the game due to rolling the dice and the random selection of treasure cards, but in my opinion this doesn't detract from the game at all. It actually adds to the tension and enjoyment of the game. You just don't know what is going to happen. Is the bolder going to move 4 or 5 spaces? If it moves 4 I'm OK, but if it moves 5 I will be crushed!

I really like The Adventurers. It's not something I will pull out for every game night, but when it does make it to the table everyone has a blast. So if you're looking for a light press you luck game the whole family can enjoy, The Adventurers might be for you. Thanks for reading and happy gaming!

CARDcassonne

I've been playing Carcassonne for years. So when I heard about a card game based on the original I was intrigued, but a little cautious. Many card game versions of other popular games have come no where close to the quality of the original. Granted, they probably are trying to target a different audience, but the fun factor just isn't there. So I got a copy of Cardcassonne and we gave it a shot.

The game comes with 4 scoring tracks, 5 treasure chests, 5 scoring tiles, 140 cards, and of course 10 meeples (you can't have Carcassonne without meeples).

To start the game you set up the scoring track and the dealer deals 10 cards. Each of the scoring tracks match one of the four colors in the game. The yellow row is the cloister row, the red row is the road row, the green row is the field row, and the blue row is the city row. The cards are placing in the the rows that correspond to their color. Once the cards are in place the dealer deals a number of cards to each player depending on the number of players. Not you're ready to play.

During a players turn you have one of two options to choose from. You can lay a card down on the corresponding row, making sure to match the colors, or you can claim a row by placing your meeple at the head of the row. If you are placing a card on a row you must make sure that the first card that you lay down is played face down. The color of the face down card does not have to match the color of the row. All other cards for the round are placed face up. If you claim a row that means that at the end of the round you get all of the cards from your meeple to the end of the row or to another players meeple. Play then goes to the player to your left. The round is over when everyone has placed all of there cards and meeples. You then score for the round. After you have scored the dealer deals more cards and another round begins.

There are four types of cards that are scored. There are person cards, animal cards, building cards, and jokers. All person cards have a number from 1 to 3 on the top of the card. During scoring for the round you add up all the numbers on your cards and times that number by the number of the cards. You then move your small meeple on the scoring track the points scored for your person cards. The animal cards are scored by using a chart on a scoring card. The more animal cards you have of one type the more points you get. For example, if you have one animal you get 3 points, two animals of the same type you get 6 points an so on, until you max out at 20 points. Animals are kept in front of you the entire game and can be scored multiple times in later rounds. Although, they can only only be scored if you are adding an animal to a specific color for the round. Buildings are only scored at the end of the game. If you get a building you immediately put it under your treasure chest and you can't look at it for the rest of the game. If you have one type of building at the end of the game it is worth zero points. If you have two different types of building you get 5 points. 3 types get you 15 points. And if you have all four different types of buildings you get 30 points. The trick is trying to remember throughout the game what buildings you have under your treasure chest. Finally, joker cards can be played with either building or animal cards and scored with them for the round.

The game ends when the deck runs out and the final scoring round has taken place. The person with the most points is the winner!

I really like Cardcassonne. I think I even like it better than the original. My wife definitely likes it better than the original. It's a "nicer" game in her words. Carcassonne can get a little cutthroat when you steal peoples farms and cities, and with some of the expansions it gets even worse (princess and the dragon for example). In Cardcassonne I really like the tension that builds up during the game. You have some really hard decisions to make on whether or not to claim a row or to place a card and wait to see if there are better cards on the row later. But, you never know if someone is going to steal "your" row before it gets around to your turn again. The cards that are placed face down are another really fun aspect to the game. Unless you placed the card you never quite know what you are going to get. Cardcassonne is a game where you are constantly tying to guess what your opponent is thinking and be a step ahead of everyone else. There's some really fun strategy to the game. Are you going to focus on animals, building, or person cards. Or maybe a combination of all of them. I've seen games where there are huge point swings at the end from the building cards under the treasure chests. This really adds to the fun because you really don't know who is going to win until the end.

So if you're looking for a fun strategy card game that plays in 30-45 minutes this might be the game for you. Thanks for reading and happy gaming!

Game Sale

This upcoming Saturday (May 15th) I'm having game sale. For all of you who live in or close to Salt Lake we would love to have you come. All of my games will be 30% off retail plus you can enter a drawing to win a free game. Follow the link below to RSVP or you can contact me with any questions you might have.

Huge Board Game Sale

We hope to see you there.

Thanks!

Kevin
801-870-3868
kevinmichaelis@gmail.com

Duck Duck Bruce

I've recently been playing a lot of Gamewright games. Gamewright publishes games that are mainly focused toward kids. I've played a few of them with my 3 year old daughter and she has loved them. What's surprised me most though is that I've had a ton of fun playing them as well. One of the games that I've had the most fun with is Duck Duck Bruce.

Duck Duck Bruce is for kids 6 and up. I played it with my daughter, but she didn't quite grasp the concepts. She really like the fun art though. I played it with my wife a little later in the day and luckily she picked up on it really quick. :)

Gamewright says this about the game: "A flock of ducks waddling through bizarre locations and a rambunctious dog named Bruce. If this sounds like a strange combination for a card game, wait until you give it a try! After just one round, we guarantee you'll be barking (or quacking) for more. Remember to say "Duck!" every time you reveal a duck card and do your best to resist the temptation of turning over more cards than you should. Oh, and Bruce loves to be scratched behind his ears, and on his belly, and well - just about everywhere else!"

The object of the game is to score the most points by collect numbered cards in a variety of different suits. A suit of duck cards could be: ducks at a pond, ducks on a log, or ducks on a treadmill for example. Cards are numbered from 1 to 4 but only the highest number in each collected suit counts at the end of the game.

To start the game all of the cards are shuffled and put in the middle of the table. The starting player turns over the top card of the deck and starts a row of face up cards next to the draw pile. If the card is a duck the player says "Duck!". The player can then either take the card or draw another card and place it next to the first. Play continues and the player either takes the card/cards or keeps drawing cards. If two cards of the same suit are drawn it's called a "double duck". If you get a double duck you must discard all cards in between and including the two cards that match. The remaining cards are then place into your nest for scoring at the end of the game. Play then passes to the left.

If a Bruce card is turned over all players shout "Bruce!". Your turn ends immediately and you lose all of the face up cards in the row. You now have the opportunity to steal cards from another player. The player says 1 to 3 indicating how many cards they are trying to steal. The player then rolls the dice and if the number on the dice is equal to or higher than the number of cards they want, they get to randomly take those cards from another players nest and add then to their own nest. If the roll is a -1 the person they are trying to steal from gets one of their cards.

The round ends when the draw deck is gone. Players then sort all of the cards in their nest by suit and count only the highest numbered cards in each suit. The person with the highest total is the winner for the round. You can play for a set number rounds, a specific length of time, or play until one player reaches a set point value.

Duck Duck Bruce is a lot of fun. I really enjoy press your luck type games. The game kind of reminds me of Incan Gold, but has a different feel and is definitely geared more toward kids. The art is great. The cards are high quality and should last through hours and hours of fun. This is a great game to help teach and reinforce counting and matching skills for kids. Games can be great teaching tool and this game is no exception. So if you're looking for a fun press your luck type card game with a fun theme this one might be for you. Thanks for reading and happy gaming!

Mystery Express

Ever since I played Ticket to Ride for the first time I have been a big fan of Days of Wonder and the games they publish. They set the standard in component quality, artwork, and just plain fun games. They have just recently announced their newest game called Mystery Express. It's a whodunit on rails. Here's some flavor text from the DOW website about the game:

Seeking a well-deserved break from your latest misadventures, you decide to splurge, treating yourself to the extravagant luxury of the most talked about train of our time - the legendary Orient Express. Most unexpectedly, and rather unfortunately, the holiday turns out to be short-lived. The train has barely left Paris when word spreads that someone has just been murdered, and in the most hideous manner...

Mystery Express is a deduction game where you are trying to figure out the who, what, when, where and why before your journey ends. It kind of looks like a game in the same vein as Clue. After checking out the site this one's definitely on my radar and it will be one I pick up as soon as it comes out. Only time will tell if it's another Days of Wonder classic, but I'm excited to find out. Thanks for reading and happy gaming!

Ubongo

Ubongo is a game that I didn't think I would like, but was pleasantly surprised. The game is a puzzle game where you are trying to be the first person to solve your puzzle. First of all, I'm not very good at puzzles, and second, if there is time limit...well, that's just a disaster waiting to happen. It turns out I'm a little better at puzzles than I thought and with a little practice I'm getting better. :)

Ubongo comes with the following components: 1 game board, 4 sets of 12 tiles (think Tetris or Blockus), 1 sand timer, 36 puzzle boards, 4 player pawns, 72 jewels, and one custom die. To set up the game the game board is placed on the table in a place that is easily reached by all players. The game board consists of six columns with twelve holes in each of the columns. Once the game board is set up the jewels are randomly placed in all of the holes. The puzzle boards are then handed out to all of the players and you're ready to go!

All of the puzzle boards are double sided with one side being the hard side and other side the easy side. Each puzzle board contains a pattern of squares that you are required to fit either 3 or 4 of your tiles on. The easy game is 3 and the hard game is 4. On the top of each of the boards there are 6 symbols. Each symbol corresponds to a side on the custom die. The symbols on the puzzle boards have 3 or 4 pictures of tiles below them. To start the game a person rolls the die and all players then match the symbol on the die to the symbol on their puzzle board. The indicated tile pieces are then taken from your tile supply and they must be used to complete the puzzle on the board. The timer is then turned over and all players frantically try to complete their puzzles. The first person to fit their pieces on their puzzle board yells Ubongo!

The first player to complete the puzzle can move their pawn up to 3 spaces in any direction on the red spaces on the game board. The second player to finish can move up to two places. The third person can move one space and the fourth player has to stay where they are. Once the players move their pawns they immediately take the next two available jewels in the row. If a player does not complete their puzzle before the time runs out they do not get to move their pawn or take any jewels. If no players complete their puzzle before time runs out the timer is flipped over one more time. If nobody finished their puzzle the second time feel free to mock each other. If you complete your puzzle but don't take any jewels before time runs out then you're out of luck and don't get jewels for that round.

The winner is the person who collects the most jewels of any color. If two or more players have the same number of jewels in their "best" color, then one of those players with the most jewels in their second best color wins. And so on.

Ubongo is a lot of fun. It's very easy to explain and play. New players are up to speed in a matter of minutes. I introduced the game to a game group over the weekend and every one really liked it. One of the new players actually won. I like the fact that the faster player won't necessarily win. The faster player does have an advantage because they can move the furthest and will get first pick of the jewels, but with good strategy slower players can be competitive as well and still have a chance to win. The only thing that I don't like about the game is that two of the jewels are very similar in color. It makes it a little hard when your quickly trying to pick which jewels to take, especially when the time is almost out. So if you're looking for a great family game that is very accessible to a wide group of people Ubongo might be for you. Thanks for reading and happy gaming!

Days of Wonder!

Great news from The Board Game Nut. I'm now able to get Days of Wonder games! Days of Wonder makes the very popular Ticket to Ride line of games as well as Shadows over Camelot, Colosseum, and Small World. I received my first my first shipment of games in today. My inventory list has been updated with all my new games with the current pricing.

I also received some new games from Gamewright. Gamewright's games are mainly focused towards kids. I now have a good selection of games for kids ranging from 3 years old and up. I just played two of the new games with my daughter and she loved them! All of the Gamewright games that I have played are not only fun for the kids, but are also fun for the adults as well. So if you're tired of Candyland and the other old standbys, give one of the Gamewright games a try.

Also, Alicia and I will be hosting a game day for kids sometime in the next two or three weeks. It will be an open house where you can come and play all of the games I have available with the whole family. Up until now all of my game nights have only been for adults. It will be fun to involve all of the little munchkins as well. It will also be a great way to try before you buy and make sure it's something your kids will enjoy. If you're not in the market for new games, come anyway and have a fun afternoon playing games with the kids. More details about the open house will be coming soon.

If you have any questions about the games I carry or games in general please give me a call or send me an email. I would love to help if I can. Thanks for reading and happy gaming!

Fast Flowing Forest Fellers

I know what you're thinking. Fast Flowing Forest Fellers...really? That's the name of the game? That's the best they could come up with? If you're thinking that I would have to agree. This game has the weirdest name of any game that I have heard of, and I've heard of a lot of games. Despite the crazy name the game is pretty fun. It's a quick light strategy race game where you are trying to be the first person to get your lumberjacks down the river. Here's what the rules say about the theme of the game:

"Daring lumberjacks meet at the river to begin their traditional contest of the fastest log riders. By skillful maneuvers they try to beat-out their competitors to get ahead in this running of the river. Sometimes you want to move ahead quickly and other times you want to block others in your race to be the first across the finish."

The game comes with some pretty cool stuff. You get 10 lumberjacks on logs, 45 logs, 80 movement cards, 5 jokers, 5 player cards, and 6 double sided game boards. The quality of the game is great. The only gripe I have is the box isn't laid out very well to store the components. You get a deck of cards, but no place to put them. What are supposed to do with the cards, just let them flop around in the box? I'm sure you could easily make a tuck box to store them in, but it would be nice have that included or have the box layout have a slot for the cards and other components. The game does come with a large resealable bag to store all the other components that works well. The box layout does nothing to affect the game play, but little touches like well thought out box design adds to the overall feel of the game.

So how do you play? Two game boards are selected and put together. Every board has rapids. When placing the boards together you have to make sure that the rapids match up. Logs are then placed on the board on all of the indicated spots. Players then select their starting lumberjack color (one male and one female) and their deck of cards that corresponds to their lumberjack color. The cards that make up your deck have a number ranging from 1 to 5 and a picture of a male or female lumberjack. The cards when played indicate how far you can move your lumberjack on your turn. There is also a wild beaver card in your deck that allows you to move either lumberjack up to three spaces.

Beginning with the starting player, each player plays one of their cards and moves their lumberjack the indicated number of spaces. You can move down the river or up the river, but movement on to the rocks, banks, and up the rapids is not allowed. You may not move your lumberjack directly on another lumberjack or log, however you may shove up to two other figures in a straight line. If three or more figures are in your way you cannot shove them, but must find another way around. At the end of your movement you then check to see if anything has landed on a current. Currents are indicated by arrows facing in a specific direction. Anything that is on a current must move one space in the direction of the current. If there is another current space that the figure moves on to it keeps going until the figure can't move any further. This make for some pretty fun game decisions and consequences. By cleverly shoving logs or lumberjacks you can send your opponents helplessly down the river in the wrong direction! After all movement has been resolved the player draws a card returning their hand to three cards and the next player takes their turn. The winner is the person that moves their lumberjacks past the last spaces on the river.

I like FFFF. It's easy to play and teach which makes it very accessible to a wide range of players. With 6 double sided game boards it would take a long time to repeat a setup, so replayability is high. The game suggests only placing two boards together, but I don't see why you couldn't put 3 or more boards together for a longer game. The only problem I could see is you might run out of logs to place on the board. There's not a ton of strategy, but there are some interesting choices to make on when to play certain cards and where you move on the board. A bad move could put you in a position to be whisked down the river in the wrong direction. So if your looking for a light strategy race game that would work for families and casual get togethers with friends, this game might be for you. Thanks for reading and happy gaming!

The Great Dalmuti - By guest writer MaryAnn

Several years ago our friends introduced our family to a game titled "The Great Dalmuti". Surprisingly, we realized that at previous times in our lives we had played this game but under several different titles. We knew it as President, Janitor, and Scum. Since our original introduction to the game however, it had been several years since we had played the game. We were thrilled when The Board Game Nut was able to locate a copy of this game for us as we'd been told it was only available through the European market.

We picked up the game after Thanksgiving and began playing with a couple of people we knew, along with some strangers. One great thing about this game is it's quick pace. As in any card game, some luck is involved, however strategy is definitely an important element of this game as well.

The game is based on a hierarchical seating arrangement which begins with The Great Dalmuti presiding at the head with the lesser Dalmuti to his left, progressing finally to the lesser peon and ultimately the Greater Peon - a.k.a. the shuffler, dealer, and garbage/card collector. While the two peons have to pay 'taxes' (their best cards) to the Dalmutis, the Dalmutis get to give their worst cards to the peons. The Dalmuti then begins the first round laying down a set of cards while each player then lays down a set of the same amount of cards, but of a lower numerical value. Whoever lays down the lowest set of cards gains control and begins the next round by laying down the next set. The first player to rid himself of all of his cards becomes the next Great Dalmuti, and so forth. The last guy - well, he's the great peon and can get to work.
While not an extremely technical game, this game is interactive and yes, slightly addictive. It is a great game for parties and for breaking the ice, especially as seats and positions are exchanged after each game. Complete strangers quickly fall into the camaraderie of light banter, complaining, railing against the masses/overlords, and scheming to make their way around the table.
Another great aspect of this game is that children can quickly pick up the strategy and play as well. When we were first introduced to this game, a 10 year old maintained control of the Great Dalmuti seat for the entire evening much to our chagrin!
While fast paced, each individual round can be completed within 10-20 minutes.
This is a fun, interactive, and easily learned game which can be played with 4-10+ people.

Galaxy Trucker

So with a name like Galaxy Trucker the game has to be good right? I'm just going to get this out of the way early. I REALLY like this game. It's probably the most unique game that I've ever played. It's got a speed element, some good strategy, fantastic components, and everyones spaceships can get blown to pieces by asteroids. What's not to like?

Most of time learning a game can be kind of a pain in the butt. Digging through rules and trying to figure out the game mechanics can be a confusing and frustrating experience. Galaxy Trucker on the other hand has one of the best rule books I have ever read. All throughout the rule book there's flavor text that adds to the theme of the game and the rules flow very well. It was actually fun reading and learning the game. The rules also recommend playing through the game as you read the rules the first time. The rule book explains just enough to start playing, but not too much to get you confused. I usually read through the rule book once or twice before I play, so it was nice to just jump in and start.

For an overview of the game here's the flavor text from the start of the rules: "Corporation Incorporated is an interplanetary construction firm that builds sewer systems and low-income housing on the less-developed planets of the Galaxy. For years, Corp Inc. has tottered on the brink of bankruptcy: transporting building materials to the edge of the Galaxy, where the need for their services is greatest, is a risky business.

The company was saved by a few visionaries on the board of directors. Instead of shipping materials to the Periphery, they reasoned, why no build the materials into the spacecraft and let them ship themselves? Furthermore, why hire pilots if there are nut-cases who will do it for free?

That's where you come in. Just sign the contract, and you gain unrestricted access to a Corp Inc. warehouse. Build your own spaceship from the available prefabricated components, and fly to the Periphery. Of course, you may have to eat a loss, but any profits you make along the way are yours to keep, and Corporation Incorporated will pay you a bonus for quick delivery.

It's possible that you will end up with an insurmountable debt and finish your days panhandling on the streets of Deneb III, but if Lady Luck should smile upon you, you just might find yourself among the 10 billion richest people in the Galaxy!"

So when I opened Galaxy Trucker for the first time I was amazed with how much stuff was in the box. You get a ton of tiles representing all of the ship components used to make your spaceship. You also get money (cosmic credits), aliens, humans in spacesuits to man you spaceship, small green battery pieces that look exactly like tic-tacs, a pair of dice, a bunch of boards to build your spaceships on, wooden goods cubes, and I'm sure some other stuff I'm forgetting.

The game is played over three rounds. For each round there are two phases. In the first phase you get to build your spaceships. All of the building tiles are placed in the middle of the table face down. These tiles represent the warehouse you use to build your ship. The boldest player says "GO!", and the round begins. Everyone playing then simultaneously takes a tile from the supply, turns it over and decides if they want to add the tile to their spaceship. All players have a starting cockpit on their ship and the tiles they draw must connect to the cockpit, or another tile they have previously placed. All of the tiles also have connectors. In order to legally place a tile the connectors on the tiles must match up. The types of building components you can can build your ship with consist of: cabins for your crew, guns, E-batteries (the E stands for enormous), alien life support systems, engines, goods containers, and shields. There are other rules for placing the tiles that I won't go into, but when playing you need to make sure you follow the rules or there are penalties. Oh, and did I mention that you are being timed? Depending on what round you are in is how much time you get to build your ship. Ships built in later rounds are bigger, so you get more time. If you run out of time before your ship is finished you have to fly an incomplete ship, which probably isn't the best thing to do.

Now you get to fly your ship! The game comes with three decks of cards that represent your flight to the Periphery. Depending on the round you have a certain amount of cards that are randomly put in the flight deck. The later rounds have more cards so your flight is longer. The person who finished their ship first is the leader and gets to draw the first card. The cards represent things you encounter during your journey, such as meteoric swarms, epidemics, sabotage, Pirates, Slavers, Planets, combat zones, and other things that can be either good or bad. Depending on how well you build your ship is how it will hold up during the flight, or how many goods and cosmic credits you will get. After all of the cards have been drawn, the flight is over and the rounds' scoring begins. The person who arrived to the final destination first gets bonus points, as well as the person who has the prettiest ship, which basically means the ship who took the least amount of damage. This goes on for three rounds, and the person with the most cosmic credits after three rounds is the winner.

Galaxy Trucker is one of those games that is just as much fun to lose as it is to win. There is something strangely satisfying about seeing your ship blown to pieces by meteors or a pirate invasion. I played a game with my wife and brother in law and nobody made it to the end in the third round. We were all taken hostage! The game was still a blast, and I wanted to play again. The only downfall to the game that I can see is the price. It's one of the more expensive games I own, but with everything you get in the game it makes sense. I still think it's a good value for the amount of enjoyment you get. So if you're looking for a great game with a sci-fi theme this one would definitely do the trick. Thanks for reading and happy gaming!

New kids card games

I just got a small shipment of kids card games just in time for Christmas. I didn't know if they would make it or not. Shipping from Gamewright is SLOWWWWWW. I've only had the chance to play one of them and it was a lot of fun. Here's the games I got:

Frog Juice $8.80
Sleeping Queens $8.79
This Big! $8.79
Hisss $10.40

The artwork on the all of the games is great and thematically they're great for kids, and adults too. Hisss is for kids 4 and up. The rest of the games are for kids 8 and up. If you're interested in any of the games let me know. Thanks for reading and happy gaming!

Ra

For a long time Ra was my favorite game. Then a little game called Dominion came around and pushed Ra down to number two. Ra is a fantastic auction game from the designer Reiner Knizia. For those who don't know, Reiner Knizia is a German board game designer and has made a ton of games including: Lost Cities, Keltis, Tigris and Euphrates, Modern Art, and a bunch of others. Ra, in my opinion, is his best.

Here's the game overview from the rule book: "The game spans three epochs, which reflect the history of ancient Egypt:
- the Old Kingdom (2665 - 2155 BC)
- the Middle Kingdom (2130 - 1650 BC)
- the New Kingdom (1555 - 1080 BC)
During these epochs, the players acquire tiles representing various aspects of Egyptian life. Tiles are acquired in auctions when tokens are received from RA. The selection of tiles in the auction is ever changing, but tokens from RA are limited. Skillful players choose carefully when and how much to bid in order to get the tiles they want. When an epoch ends, players receive tablets marked with the fame points they have earned. The player with the most fame after the three epochs is the winner."

The game comes with a board, 18o tiles, 48 tablets (to keep score with), 16 suns (used for the auctions), 1 RA figure, and a cloth bag to keep all of the tiles in.

To set up the game, the board is place in the middle of the table and the suns are separated into groups of three depending on how many people are playing. Each of the suns have a number ranging from 1 to 16. Each person gets a random group of suns that they will use to start the game with. Now you're ready to play.

The person with the highest sun tile goes first and can do one of the following actions:
1. Draw one tile from the bag
2. Play God Tiles
3. Invoke Ra
The board consists of two tracks, the Ra track and the auction track. If the player draws a Ra tile it is placed on the Ra track, and if a player draws any other tile it is placed on the auction track. When a Ra tile is drawn an auction is triggered.

The person who triggered the auction takes the Ra figure and the auction begins with the player to the left. The players are then bidding for tiles that are in the auction track. The winner will also receive the sun in the sun space on the board. Each player in turn may bid one of their face up suns by placing it on the edge of the board. Bids subsequent to the first must be greater than the previous bid. The player with the highest bid takes all of the tiles on the track and places them face up in their player area in front of them. The player also takes the sun from the board and places it face down in from of him. This sun can not be used in this round. The sun that was used to win the auction replaces the sun taken from the middle of the board. Play then resumes with the person to the left of the one who drew the Ra tile.

If a player has won a God tile in a previous auction he may use the God tile during his turn to take any tile that is currently on the auction track. This completes the players turn and play resumes to the player to left. God tiles not used add additional point to the players score at the end of the round.

The final action that can be used during a players turn is invoking Ra. When a player invokes Ra he takes the Ra figure and places it in his playing area. An auction them begins. When a player invokes Ra he MUST bid during the auction round.

Once the Ra track has been filled the round is over and the rounds scoring begins. To begin the next round all suns are turned over and a new round starts.

So why do want all these crazy tiles anyway. You get points in the current round and points at the end of the game depending on which tiles you get during the auctions. The different types of tiles include: Pharaohs, Nile and floods, gold, civilizations, monuments, and disasters. You need to be careful when gaining tiles because points are awarded, or taken away, for having the most or least of a certain group at the end of an epoch. There are also monument tiles that you keep until the end of the game and are only scored at the end of the game. This requires some planning on what kind of strategy you want to take. I've seen game where a person doesn't have a whole lot of points through the first two round, but has a huge third round due to all of the monument tiles they have.

After all the tiles from the third round have been scored the players sum up the total numbers on their suns. The person with the highest total gets 5 points and the person with the lowest total gets negative 5 points. Scores are then totaled and the person with the highest total wins!

I love Ra! There's some really fun decisions that you have to make during the game. Should I bid, or should I wait? Should I invoke Ra, even though it's going to make everyone else mad? Should I go for the monuments, or try and get some extra points for the round with civilization, flood, or pharaoh tiles? There's enough luck in the game to keep it interesting, and a good strategy almost always gives you a chance to win. So for a great light strategy board game, I would definitely recommend Ra. Thanks for reading and happy gaming.

Say Anything

Say Anything is the latest party game from Northstar Games, the makers of Wits and Wagers. If you've read my Wits and Wagers post you know that I'm a big fan of the game. It's the first party game I've actually enjoyed. So is this the 2nd party game that I like? Read and find out. :)

The first time I played this game I was not impressed. The scoring seemed kind of wierd. The group didn't seem like they were having much fun. It just wasn't the greatest experience. It was still fun, but it wasn't something that I was looking forward to playing again soon. The second time I played I realized that I wasn't playing right the first time. Well that explains why it might not have been the best experience. I played it again and had a blast. I'm looking forward to getting this game to the table again.

The instructions start out with the following: "Say Anything is a light-hearted game about what you and your friends think. It gives you the chance to settle questions that have been hotly debated for centuries. For instance, "Who is the most overrated band of all time?" or "Which celebrity would be the most fun to hang out with for a day?" So dig deep into your heart or just come up with something witty - this is your chance to Say Anything!"


The game is similar to Wits and Wagers, but there are some important differences that make this game different enough that it's a completely unique experience. The game is played in 7 to 12 rounds depending on the number of players. It can play anywhere from 3 to 8 players, or more if you would like to play in teams. A person is randomly chosen to start and that player takes a card. All of the cards have "In My Opinion" in big green letters on the top and then 5 different phrases to chose from. An example of a phrase is "What's the best place to buy shoes?" (the perfect question for my wife), or "What's the weirdest thing that could happen right now?". The person whose turn it is choses a question, reads it aloud, and all other players wright down an answer to the question on their white boards. The player asking the question then takes the SELECT-O-MATIC 5000 and secretely choses the answer that he or she likes best and places the SELECT-O-MATIC 5000 face down on the table.
Everyone then has two player tokens that they use to guess which answer was picked. Players may place their tokens on the same answer or on different answers. Once everyone has placed their tokens the SELECT-O-MATIC 5000 is turned face up and everyone gets points if they chose the correct answer. The person whose answer was chosen gets a point, and everyone else who chose that answer gets a point as well. The person asking the question also gets one point for everyone who chose the answer he or she chose up to 3 points. Points are written down on the score card and the next round begins. The winner is the person with the most points at the end of the game.

Say anything is a lot of fun. It's fun see some of the crazy answers people come up with. I think the game is best when it's played with people you know. So it might not be the best get to know you game, but it's still would be a good choice in almost any situation. Thanks for reading and happy gaming!