Obligatory Favorite Games 2015 Edition Post Part I: Em’s Top 5 Favorite Games List (Guest Blogger)

Yeah, you can tell we really take life seriously around here!

My husband has been asking me to write this guest blog post for at least a month at this point, so today I finally found the time to sit down and give it a shot. First of all, you should know that until last year I was never into tabletop games. My best friend Becks can attest to that fact, since she had to bribe/threaten/bug me constantly to get me to play a game with her when we were kids. Part of that reason is that I never won…ok, I won ONE game of Trivial Pursuit in our entire 20+ years of friendship. That tends to turn one off to games. We also would go through these weird stretches where we were obsessed with one game…Monopoly comes to mind. Please don’t judge me too harshly, I was in middle school at the time! 

Anyway, my interest was piqued in modern boardgaming when my husband introduced me to Munchkin, which he’s talked about on this blog several times. We really enjoyed playing it and then he eased me into Heroclix, which preyed on my love of all things superhero/geeky. We started actively buying modern boardgames and setting up date nights just to play, then it branched out into our own little monthly game group. Before I knew it, I was into tabletop gaming. I even watch some of his favorite YouTube channels on the topic.

I thought I’d give you all a glimpse into my Top 5 Games thus far, just for kicks so check them out below: 

Takenoko

#5 – Takenoko: This is one of the first modern boardgames Aaron introduced me to after our first foray into Munchkin and Heroclix. He knew the panda figure and artwork style would hook me in, and it totally did. I love how entry-level this game is; it has a simple mechanic but still allows an element of strategy. We routinely use it as our go-to intro game to newbie tabletop gamers and everyone has loved it so far, we even gave it as a gift to friends of ours this past Christmas! 

Dungeon Petz

#4 – Dungeon Petz: I love this game. I can’t even really tell you why, it just is so much fun to play! This was the first worker-placement game that Aaron taught me how to play (by the way, he is insanely patient and good at explaining new games to the less experienced of us, thanks babe!) and I was surprised how quickly I picked up on the rules and feel to the game. The artwork is fun and being able to raise the cute/insane monsters in order to compete on the auction block was definitely unique to me. Whenever we want a fun game that might take more than an hour or so, I always vote for this one.

#3 – Pathfinder: This game is addicting. I’ll admit it, I am completely hooked. We even brought this game with us on our anniversary trip this past year and played it constantly! I had never gotten into a game where you actually build your character through multiple rounds. It plays on my love of the “choose your own adventure” mechanic and I like the cooperative element. This was the first cooperative game I was introduced to and as a bizarrely competitive person; it probably was a good thing for the health of our marriage for us to try the cooperative approach. My character is Merisiel, by the way, and she totally kicks ass. 

Carcassonne

#2 – Carcassonne: So simple, yet so complex when it comes to strategy, I could play this game all day. We just recently started getting some of the expansions, so those have been fun to throw into the mix. I still love just the classic straightforward original version too. This was my first real introduction to a map-building concept (other than Takenoko) and as someone who angrily hates puzzles, it was so freeing to be able to have a mellow puzzle-type mechanic, but with so much freedom to build where you want.
 

Seasons

#1 – Seasons: I. Love. This Game. Even though I’ve lost the last 2 times I’ve played (which irritates me, believe me!), I can’t not put this game as my number one. The artwork pulled me in, then the strategy hooked me completely. This is our go-to game when we want to play but aren’t feeling anything specific. I love it and we recently were able to teach it to a friend of ours, which was the first time we played with more than 2 players. It was crazy! And I lost pretty badly…but I just can’t get enough of this game.

Of course there are more than 5 games I really like, Quarriors almost made the list, so did 7 Wonders and Elder Signs. I’m thinking this time next year it’ll be a lot harder to narrow my list down to 5!

So, as my husband says…until next time, game on!

Family Game Night #8 & Family Game Night #9

Sorry it’s been so long since my last post! It’s great to be back! This post will focus on mine and Em’s 8th and 9th family game nights! 

Our crowd from the 8th family game night!

Our 7th family game night (which you can read about in an earlier post) ended up as just three of us, so we decided to invite a few more people. Lo and behold, we ended up with seven people showing up to our 8th family game night! This time, joining Em and I were “old-hats” Dave, Leigh, Lydia, and Sean. New to the table was our buddy Laura! As usual we started with some delicious appetizers (both of the savory and the sweet variety) made by my beautiful wife Em!

Sadly, I don’t have any links to specific food items that she made for the 8th or 9th game nights because mostly she went to old favorites. But, as usual, you can go over to her blog, A Tasty Mess, at http://www.tastymess.org to check out her previous game night appetizers or any of her other delicious food.

For our game choices on Family Game Night #8 we went with Diamonds to start out the night, and with Poop: The Game to end it. Diamonds is a fantastic little trick-taking game by Mike Fitzgerald which takes games like Spades and Hearts and gives them a little nudge into the modern gaming scene. In this game you have a hand of cards and you are laying down cards in order to take the hand. 

You have to lay a card in the same suite if you have it, but if you don’t you are able to take a “suite-action” which gives you a bonus. This is the reason that I prefer this game over most trick-taking games. Instead of just relying on getting a great hand to take all of the tricks, you can also use the off-suite cards to get point as well. This game plays from two to six players, but I was able to slightly tweak the hand size and it played just as well with my personal seven-player variant. Lydia walked away with the sneaky win, but everyone loved this game!

Next up we went with Poop: The Game. This is a game somewhat similar to Uno where you are trying to get rid of the cards in your hand before you “clog the toilet” and are forced to take all of the cards that are on the table at that point. This is a very quick and fairly silly game as some of the cards force you to make farting noises and such. This is one of the first Kickstarter games that Em and I funded and we’ve loved having it as it is just a simple fun card game to pull out with large groups of people. Em and Dave pulled out the wins in this game. On a fun side-note, this is the first time Dave won a game! He is no longer just the bridesmaid, but now the bride! (If curious about this, just read previous Family Game Night posts!)

Family Game Night #9 was just a couple of weeks ago and we didn’t have as many people as the previous. Due to previous engagements only Sean and Laura were able to join Em and I for the game night. Again, we started with the appetizers, but since they were ones that had been done before, I’ll just go straight on to the gaming.

Slightly smaller crowd for the 9th family game night!

We decided to have an Antoine Bauza game night for this particular evening. We started off with Bauza’s super-fun gateway game entitled Takenoko. This is a beautiful, colorful game that uses tile-laying and set-collection as its main mechanics and it uses them perfectly! Plus, one of your main moves involves moving a panda around the board and eating colorful bamboo! How can you not love it? Sean was able to take this teaching game with a slight win over Em who came in second place.

We then pulled out one of my favorite card-games, 7 Wonders, also by the fantastic Antoine Bauza. This is a quick-playing, civilization card game that plays in just about 30 minutes when everyone knows what they are doing. Both Laura and Sean were new to this game but they picked it up within the first couple ages of the first game. Laura was able to take the first win by crushing us in civic structures (the blue cards) as we weren’t paying close enough attention! I was able to eke out the second win as I focused on a more balanced approach in last game of the night with everyone involved.

After 7 Wonders, Laura needed to leave and Em decided to turn in for the night. That left Sean and I to pick up and play two quick games of the wonderful tile-laying game Carcassonne. I was able to take both games that we played by being a bit of jerk and stealing castles that Sean was building on. Don’t feel too bad for him though, he tried to do the same to me...on a side note, I scored the largest castle I ever have with 40 points!

These were two more great nights with our friends (or as we call them, family!) and we look forward to many more in the future. Em is already planning out our next night’s delicious treats and I think we may break out a game I’m getting for Christmas called Elder Sign. As always, thanks for reading and I hope you all have a wonderful holiday season! Until next time, game on!

Family Game Night #4: AKA "Unofficial" Family Game Night #1: AKA Antoine Bauza Day

This past Thursday (9/11), our friends Becks and Chris came to see us.  They live in England and are only able to come to the states once or twice a year, so whenever they're able make it “across the pond” we try very hard to get together and just hang out for a little while.  Em and Becks celebrated their 21st anniversary of being best friends while they were here...I don’t really how this affects family game night, but at least you know how we all know each other!

They arrived in the afternoon while Baby Knives (our child’s middle name is Knives so Baby Knives became an early nickname, just FYI) was taking  her nap (although not sleeping - welcome to the world of 2 year olds).  They arrived, had some lunch and Em decided she wanted to teach them Takenoko by the fabulous Antoine Bauza.  Just as an aside, I love that my wife now suggests we play games instead of it just being my idea!

As I’ve explained before, Takenoko is a simple modern board game where you take control of a panda who wants to eat bamboo and a gardener who wants to grow bamboo in order to please his emperor.  It is a simple and brightly colored game that uses game mechanics such as tile placement, set collection, and pattern building in order to obtain your objectives.  This makes for a super-fun, entry-level game that is easy to teach and fun to play.  Becks and Chris had a ton of fun playing and then even wanted to go for a second round.  Becks took the first (teaching) round and Em won the second.

After we had dinner we decided to play a few more games (of course). For our second, I wanted to pull out Hanabi (also by the great Antoine Bauza) and teach it to them.  This is a favorite of mine as it is totally different from any game I’ve ever played.  This game’s mechanics include memory, co-operative play, hand management, and set collection.  What makes this game totally different from any other game I’ve played is that you take your hand of cards and instead of looking at them you face them out towards your fellow players.  

You then take turns giving hints and attempting to score the most possible points (25 being the best) and creating a “crowd-pleasing” fireworks event.  While the theme is thinly pasted on, the game itself is a ton of fun.  Beware though, there is a certain level of frustration that players can have during this game as you never see your own cards.  I love pulling out this game whenever I can because it isn’t a great two player game and my wife isn’t a huge fan of it.  Becks and Chris seemed very entertained and I think if we had played a few rounds we may have hit a very high score!  As it is, we had a perfectly respectable score of 18.

Lastly, we ended up pulling out our third Antoine Bauza game of the day: 7 Wonders.  This is quickly becoming one of my favorite games as it is so quick and easy to teach and everyone who has played it really seems to enjoy the mechanisms and gameplay.  This game uses set collection, variable player powers, and my personal favorite, card drafting as its gameplay mechanisms.  Becks and Chris figured out the game relatively quickly during our teaching game (where Becks won again!) and then settled in nicely for another round before they had to leave for the evening.  Em took the final game, edging me out when Becks played a card I needed to finish a science set!

Happy Antoine Bauza Day!

As usual, we had a ton of fun playing games with our friends and teaching them a whole new side to the boardgaming world.  As both Becks and Chris enjoy gaming they both seemed to have a great time and I look forward to the time they're back in the states so we can have another prolonged gaming day!  Even though this wasn’t a planned “Family Game Night,” it was just as fun and I hope to have many more “Unofficial Family Game Nights!”  As always, it’s been a pleasure.  Until next time, game on!

Family Game Night #2

Unfortunately I am late on this post, but in the end I‘m okay with it as long as my readers are!  On August 10^th, Em and I had our second “family game night” and it was just as successful as the first!  This time Em chose to cook even more delicious “appetizer-style” foods that we were able to enjoy along with our gaming.  This game night consisted of Em and I as well as our friends Leigh and Lydia.  They were brand new to our game night although Lydia enjoys good “designer” board games already.  Leigh is brand new to the hobby but she took quickly to the game we chose for the night and definitely enjoyed the gaming and fun!

To begin with, I feel as though I should talk a little about the delicious food that Em cooked up for the evening.  She began her planning by realizing she wanted to do a cannoli dip recipe for a sweet, Italian-inspired appetizer.  This consisted of the cannoli dip along with strawberries and both chocolate and original graham crackers on the side to dip.  This made her go with an “Italian” theme for the night and from there she went with three savory style appetizers.  

First she made some delicious marinara sauce and put it in a crock-pot with some small meatballs, a simple but delightful food.  She then went on to make some stuffed mini peppers with a fresh pesto for dipping or spreading on top of the peppers.  Lastly she went with a potted cheese spread that we were able to spread on crackers.  It was all delicious and you can find the recipes and more about them at Em’s blog: Tasty Mess.  You can find the specific post at http://www.tastymess.org/2014/08/family-game-night-excuse-to-serve.html.

Photo courtesy of Amazon.com

Following some delicious appetizers from my wonderful wife, we went on to the game.  For this night we chose a fantastic “gateway” game by one of my favorite (perhaps my very favorite!) game designers, Antoine Bauza.  The game we chose for the night is called Takenoko.  This is a beautiful game distributed by Matagot/Bombyx/Asmodee and it is known for its beautiful components and simple but fun gameplay.  We only had time for one full game, as it can take a little while with four players.  This was actually the first time that Em and I have played this game with more than three players and we found it to be just as fun!  I ended up winning but don’t really count it as a victory since both Leigh and Lydia were brand new to the game.  Even though they hadn’t played before, both of our new players did an excellent job and picked up the gameplay very quickly and vied for the lead the entire way through the game.

After Leigh and Lydia left for the night, Em and I decided to pull out Quarriors (a “dice-building” game) and played through a round of that.  All in all it was a great night of fun, “family,” and gaming.

As a side note, the picture that I’ve included of the four of us was “technically” from our most recent family game night, but we figured the addition of the hats would make it stand out and fake everyone out!  Perhaps it didn’t work, but it’s the thought that counts, right?  Until next time, game on!