2007.12.17
Modern Board Games: A Guide for the Curious
I’ve been playing board and card games nearly my entire life, and I continue to do so today. One thing that troubles me about the hobby is that many people do not realize that there are many board games available besides mass-marketed ones like Risk, Monopoly, and Scrabble. I’m not suggesting these are bad games – if you enjoy them, that’s wonderful. But you would probably also enjoy many of the lesser-known games, if you knew where to look for them.
I’m writing this article to provide the curious with a starting point in the sometimes confusing world of modern board games. And yes, I’m going to recommend some of them as well.
Since you’re reading this, you’re obviously interested in board games and / or card games. So let’s get started.
Types of Games
Most mass-marketed games fall into the following categories:
- Family Games are games like Monopoly and Sorry that you can play with kids over the age of about 8 or 10 years old. They typically work well with 2 to 5 or 6 players, and have rules that are easy to teach.
- Children’s Games are games that are appropriate for younger people than family games. They have simple rules and often emphasize basic skills like memory, basic geometry, and basic math. Don’t be surprised when your 6 year old beats you soundly at a game like Memory.
- Party Games like Pictionary and Trivial Pursuit are great if you have more than 6 people and want to play a game. They are quick to teach and require lots of interaction.
- War Games like Risk and Axis & Allies focus on war and combat, and can require lots of dice rolling.
- Abstract Strategy Games like Chess and Go require a large amount of thinking, and typically are 2-player games.
- Traditional Card Games can be played with a standard deck of cards like Poker and Bridge, or may require a special deck of cards like Uno.
You have probably played some of these games and heard of most of them, but the world of games is much broader than games like these. There are many excellent games in each of these categories that you won’t find at mass-market stores like Toys-R-Us. There are also 2 other categories of games you have probably never heard of:
- Eurogames are a different style of board game than games you might be familiar with. Generally speaking, they don’t use dice; cards and tiles are more common. Eurogames generate tension by forcing you to make a decision on every turn. Conflict is usually indirect as opposed to direct, and nobody’s out until the end. Many Eurogames can be taught quickly and appeal to families, though some have more complex rules.
- Cooperative Boardgames have the players working together for a common goal; either all of the players win or they all lose.
What games should I consider buying?
Different people enjoy different games. The games I recommend here tend to have fairly broad appeal, but I cannot make any guarantees.
Ticket to Ride is a Eurogame for 2 – 5 players where you compete to build the best network of railroads. You also have ticket cards that list pairs of cities. Connecting those pairs of cities earns you bonus points at the end of the game.
Ticket to Ride has very simple rules, and you can teach a new player the basics in the time it takes to set up the game. Games take about an hour if all the players know the rules.
There are several variations and expansions for the game; for most people I recommend either the main game (Just called Ticket to Ride) or Ticket To Ride: Europe which is slightly more advanced.
Carcassonne is a tile-placement game that is a lot of fun for both groups of adults and for families. On each turn you draw a tile and place it, and you have to decide if you want to put one of your followers on the tile or not. You have a limited number of followers, but the only way you can get points is to place them.
Like Ticket to Ride, there are numerous expansions and variants of the game. The expansions add variety but sometimes make the game longer; I highly recommend the variant game Carcassonne: The City, but it is more expensive.
Games sometimes take more than an hour, but usually no longer than 90 minutes. The base game can be played with 2-5 players, while some of the expansions and variants differ in this respect.
Zooloretto lets you build your own zoo and fill it with animals. All of the players fill up the trucks cooperatively, and you have to choose one truck each round. The truck you choose probably won’t have exactly the animals you want, but that’s all part of the game. At the end of the game, the best zoo will score the most points. You can play with up to 5 players, and a game takes about an hour.
Ingenious is one of my personal favorites, and everyone I’ve taught the game to enjoys it. Every turn, you get to add one tile to the board, and you score points for each of the two halves of the tile. You’re scoring points in 6 different colors, but your overall score is the lowest score you have for any of the 6 colors. This means you have to take a balanced approach to the game, or you will probably lose. You can play with 2 – 4 players, and it’s easy to finish a game in well under an hour.
Lost Cities is a great 2-player card game that’s perfect to play with your significant other. You play cards in 5 different suits, and it’s to your advantage to focus on a few suits and play no cards at all in the others. You can only play cards that are higher numbered than ones you have already played.
The game is surprisingly tense, yet it still plays quickly and the rules are simple to learn. You’ll be able to finish a game in well under an hour, even if you have to learn the rules first.
Gipf is a good choice if you enjoy games like Chess and Go. It’s an abstract strategy game for two players with extremely simple rules but a lot of depth. Be warned, though: if you don’t want a deep strategy game that really makes you think, it may not be for you.
Apples to Apples will liven up most parties and break the ice pretty quickly. There are two decks of cards: Things and Descriptions. Each round, the referee picks a Description, and the players each select the one Thing form their hand that they think best matches the Description. The referee decides which Thing appeals most, and awards that player 1 point. The combinations can get quite humourous, and it’s not possible to play this game without laughing.
You can play with up to 10 players, and it’s even possible to join a game that’s already started. After you’ve played the game a lot it can get a little stale, but you can freshen it up with one of the many available expansions.
Die Sieben Siegel (the Seven Seals) and Mystery Rummy: Jack The Ripper are both excellent traditional card games. In the Seven Seals, you must predict the exact number of tricks you’re going to take in each of five suits. If you are correct, you get a score of 0 (the best possible score) for the hand. The more incorrect you are, the worse your score. Mystery Rummy feels a lot like other rummy games you might already be familiar with, but it’s got a very different feel to it. There’s evidence, crime scenes, and suspects. Worst of all, if Jack the Ripper escapes, only one player scores points that hand.
Both games play quickly, in under an hour.
Lord of the Rings is a great game to try if cooperative games intrigue you. The game follows the basic story line of Tokien’s Lord of the Rings trilogy. Each person plays a hobbit, and you have to work together to get the ring to Mordor and destroy it. Your adversary, Sauron, is represented by the game itself. But just because there’s no human controlling the bad guy, don’t assume the game is easy.
While you can play the game solo, it’s best (and easiest) with 4 or 5 players. You’ll have to set aside an afternoon, though. Unless you lose really quickly, the game will probably take about 3 hours to finish.
Finally, while I do not generally play wargames, Memoir ’44 and BattleLore are both highly regarded war games that are worth a look if you like Risk and Axis & Allies.
Where do I buy these games?
Unfortunately, most of the games I have suggested cannot be found in stores like Toys R Us, Wal*Mart, and Zellers. You’ll have to go shopping at a more specialized store.
In Calgary, there are 2 specialty stores that immediately come to mind:
- Sentry Box, located just west of downtown on 18th Street SW.
- Revolution, located just east of the University on 14th Street NW.
You can also order games online. Shipping costs are sometimes expensive, though, and if you order games from the USA, you will probably have to pay customs fees and GST when the game is shipped to you.
- Funagain is one of the largest mail order board games stores in North America. They have a huge selection.
- The German Boardgame Company specializes in importing games from Europe. Some of their games have not been released in North America (and may never be), though English rules are almost always included.
Can I try the games out before I buy them?
Some game stores have demo copies of games that you can borrow. In the case of Sentry Box, they have open copies of some of the popular games that you can play in their gaming area upstairs, but you cannot take them home to try. In any game store, it’s best to ask the staff about demo copies of their games.
You can also try to find someone you know who already owns the game. Invite them over for a game night, and ask them to teach it to you.
What other games can you suggest?
If you like Ticket To Ride, Carcassone, or Zooloretto, I recommend that you look at some of the expansions and variants for those games. You might also like Through the Desert, Tongiaki, and Attika. If you want games that are a little more complex but still similar in feel, try Tikal, Java, Thebes, Power Grid, or Blue Moon City.
If you like Ingenious, try Blokus, Pueblo, or any of the recommendations above.
If you like Lost Cities, try Odin’s Ravens or Caesar and Cleopatra. Many of the other games that come in the game size box and which have the Kosmos label are also worth considering, but not all of them are as good as these three.
If you like Gipf, try the other games in the same series. Dvonn, Tamsk, Zèrtz, Yinsh, and Pünct.
If you like Apples to Apples, try Faces or Time’s Up.
If you like die Sieben Siegel or Mystery Rummy: Jack the Ripper, try one of the other Mystery Rummy games: Murders in the Rue Morgue, Jekyll and Hyde, Al Capone, and Bonnie and Clyde. You should also consider Bang!, Citadels, Three Dragon Ante, Tichu, and Gang of Four.
If you like Lord of the Rings, you may want to look into the expansions for the game, especially Friends and Foes. I strongly recommend Arkham Horror as a cooperative board game. An ancient evil being threatens the town of Arkham, and you have to work with your fellow investigators to avert disaster. If you like H.P. Lovecraft’s fiction, you will probably enjoy the theme of the game. As a semi-cooperative alternative, you might try Fury of Dracula, where one player plays Dracula and the other players all work together to try and kill him.
If you enjoy wargames, there are many good ones out there, but I cannot really recommend many, as I seldom play them. However, I have enjoyed playing Wizard Kings. It’s a traditional hex wargame with a fantasy theme. The maps are superbly produced, and some scenarios can be played relatively quickly (under 2 hours).
Where can I find more good games? How do I know if a game is any good?
The internet is a great source of information about board games. BoardGameGeek is the largest board game site on the internet, with information on almost every game ever published. People post pictures, reviews, and there is tons of discussion about games.
The Spiel des Jahres is an award given once per year to recognize an outstanding newly published Eurogame. The nominees and winners are almost always family-oriented games, and all of them (even the nominees that don’t win) are of high quality. Many games that were nominated or which have won the award will have the red pawn Spiel des Jahres logo on the box.
Your local game store is another good way to find new games. Browse the shelves, and ask the staff for their recommendations. Tell them what games you like, and see if they can suggest some similar games. If the store has demo copies, try it out for yourself and see if you like it or not.
There are so many new games. How do I keep up?
The internet is definitely the best source for current news from the world of board games. BoardGameGeek and BoardGameNews are both excellent sites. For an audio/visual fix, check out some of the board game podcasts like The Dice Tower and Board Games with Scott.
That’s all, folks
Hopefully you found this guide to be a useful introduction into the world of modern board games. And have fun playing, everyone!
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