My Top 5 games
Apr. 28th, 2007 09:26 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dagibbsIn response to my article about getting some new board games, ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
mycrazyhair asked me what my top 5 games were, and why. After posting the reply, I thought I might move the response up to the top level...
This is a complicated question - at least to some extent, my preferences are situational and change over time. But, I'll take a stab at it.
1. Go. Ancient, incredibly elegent and minimalist, yet with a depth of strategy that I will never master, and a handicapping method that lets players of widely varying skill levels play a game that is challenging for both AND plays like a game of Go for both of them.
2. Bridge. The best of the partnership card games -- awesome depth in three very different, and yet very overlapping areas. Rewards memorization, judgement, reading people, mathematical (probablity calculations) skills, bluffing, and much more. In some ways, it is three tightly-interrelated games in one: bidding, playing, and defense with different, yet interlinked, skills for the three of them.
Now, I'm betting neither of those were what you were looking for -- probably expecting more in the board game categories. :)
3. Caylus. Lots of choices, lots of routes to win, lots of interaction. Plays well with full range of 2-5 players, and yet is also a different game with different numbers of players -- the decisions and strategies and flow of the game are quite different. Also, still fairly fresh and new to me -- I have some tendency to get bored with games if they don't have enough depth. (Go and Bridge have enough -- most of the board games I play at the gaming parties have nowhere near the depth of those classics.)
4. Tigris and Euphrates. I don't get to play this often -- but it is a very deep game, with lots of tough choices and a very interesting set of victory conditions that can make judging the win difficult.
5. Traders of Genoa. But, only with 5 people. With 5 people this is an awesome game of negotiation and bargaining, with practically everything and anything that is an in-game item available for the bargaining. (Unlike, say, Settlers of Catan, where you can only trade goods -- not a road-building card, for instance.)
6. El Grande. I think the best of the area-control games that I've played. Lots of good choices, lots of interaction, a nice inclusion of simultaneous blind actions to make for some tough decisions. Plays well with varying sizes of groups (though I haven't tried it 2-player yet).
7. Jungle Speed. Just whole barrels of fun. It is a pattern-matching and reaction time game. I most often playing it at conventions, sometimes for a couple of hours, though one game will generally last no longer than 5-10 minutes. Great with a group of 4-8 or so. And, occasionally, blood is drawn. :)
mycrazyhair asked me what my top 5 games were, and why. After posting the reply, I thought I might move the response up to the top level...This is a complicated question - at least to some extent, my preferences are situational and change over time. But, I'll take a stab at it.
1. Go. Ancient, incredibly elegent and minimalist, yet with a depth of strategy that I will never master, and a handicapping method that lets players of widely varying skill levels play a game that is challenging for both AND plays like a game of Go for both of them.
2. Bridge. The best of the partnership card games -- awesome depth in three very different, and yet very overlapping areas. Rewards memorization, judgement, reading people, mathematical (probablity calculations) skills, bluffing, and much more. In some ways, it is three tightly-interrelated games in one: bidding, playing, and defense with different, yet interlinked, skills for the three of them.
Now, I'm betting neither of those were what you were looking for -- probably expecting more in the board game categories. :)
3. Caylus. Lots of choices, lots of routes to win, lots of interaction. Plays well with full range of 2-5 players, and yet is also a different game with different numbers of players -- the decisions and strategies and flow of the game are quite different. Also, still fairly fresh and new to me -- I have some tendency to get bored with games if they don't have enough depth. (Go and Bridge have enough -- most of the board games I play at the gaming parties have nowhere near the depth of those classics.)
4. Tigris and Euphrates. I don't get to play this often -- but it is a very deep game, with lots of tough choices and a very interesting set of victory conditions that can make judging the win difficult.
5. Traders of Genoa. But, only with 5 people. With 5 people this is an awesome game of negotiation and bargaining, with practically everything and anything that is an in-game item available for the bargaining. (Unlike, say, Settlers of Catan, where you can only trade goods -- not a road-building card, for instance.)
6. El Grande. I think the best of the area-control games that I've played. Lots of good choices, lots of interaction, a nice inclusion of simultaneous blind actions to make for some tough decisions. Plays well with varying sizes of groups (though I haven't tried it 2-player yet).
7. Jungle Speed. Just whole barrels of fun. It is a pattern-matching and reaction time game. I most often playing it at conventions, sometimes for a couple of hours, though one game will generally last no longer than 5-10 minutes. Great with a group of 4-8 or so. And, occasionally, blood is drawn. :)
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Date: 2007-04-29 02:33 am (UTC)Actually, I was very interested to see Go at the top of your list. I've never actually played it, but it sounds very cool.