Ah, boardgames. I attend a weekly game night with a bunch of other folks, so there's always plenty of gaming to be done. We tend to play the hell out of old favorites - Settlers and expansions, Puerto Rico, and the like - rather than getting into too many new games. In particular, the past year has been completely dominated by sanity destroying horrors from another dimension.
Arkham Horror is essentially Lovecraftian hyper-Talisman, a quasi-RPG game where all the characters have different powers and collect weapons, magic items, spells, and followers to fight back the darkness. What distinguishes AH is the cooperative nature of the game, with everyone working together to defeat Cthulhu and his ilk rather than screwing each other over. Also, the thematic element is played to the hilt, with extensive amounts of flavor text in the encounters you have, not to mention about a million nicely designed fiddly bits. It's also not a cakewalk, as you and your intrepid adventurers are generally quite challenged as they attempt to save the world from the Great Old Ones. And, once you master the basic game, there are several expansions that both keep the game exciting by adding new game mechanics, characters, GOOs, and plenty of atmosphere, as well as increasing the difficulty level in order to keep you on your toes. In short, it's terrific. Anyone interested in buying Arkham Horror should jump right in, even if you aren't sure about tracking down players, as it's well suited to a solo game.
Another staple is Illuminati, the classic (over 25 years old) card game where you and your friends all play secret societies (such as the Bavarian Illuminati, the Discordian Society, and the Gnomes of Zurich) who are hell bent on world domination by taking control of groups (such as the Federal Reserve, Cycle Gangs, the Boy Sprouts of America, and New York), all while gleefully backstabbing each other. Cooperative it ain't. While Illuminati has been around for ages, a couple of expansions help keep things fresh, such as the latest release, Bavarian Fire Drill. For folks familiar with Illuminati, BFD adds a slew of cards (though not new Illuminati themselves, ala the recently reprinted Y2K), plus a new type of card: Artifacts, special groups with their own powers. It's a good solid expansion, though I'm contemplating weeding out some of the massive stack of cards that results when you pile it in along with Y2K. It's definitely recommended if you've got the Deluxe Edition.
However, I do manage to play new games now and again, the latest being Race for the Galaxy.
This was introduced to me as being similar to San Juan, the Puerto Rico card game. This is an understatement, which makes sense as apparently the designer for Race for the Galaxy had originally set out to do a card version of Puerto Rico and worked with Puerto Rico designer Andreas Seyfarth to do so. However, there's enough happening here that it stands along nicely on it's own.
For folks not familiar with Puerto Rico, the idea is that each player is trying to build the strongest force in the galaxy. Everyone starts out with a home planet and a hand full of cards, as well as a set of action cards that allow you to explore (draw more cards), develop a special card, settle a planet, produce goods on a planet, or exchange goods for either points or more cards. Each turn everyone designs what they want to do for the round, pick their choice in secret, and then everyone shows what they're doing simultaneously. For every action chosen, every player will get to take part in that action, though the folks who selected it get a bonus. After certain conditions are met the player with the most points wins. Like both Puerto Rico and San Juan, it's a terrific game.
For folks familiar with San Juan, there are some distinctions,
which are explained in detail here. Beyond the space theme - which is really well done - the settlements you're establishing all have powers that interact with each other. So, if I settle a particular type of planet, not only will it produce a good but it may confer extra cards when it does so. The game has also been structured with expansions in mind, including having cards in the game with modifiers on them that the rules say to ignore until said expansions are out. I'm curious to see what they've got in mind for the game. That said, the base game itself was really entertaining and I'm looking forward to getting a copy of my own. It's a nice fast game with an elegant card system that offers quick setup time and eliminates fiddly bits. It's also quite fast paced and we knocked out a game in about 45 minutes. The main criticism is that player interaction is minimal, but I haven't played enough to really comment on that. In any event, I loved it and recommend it highly.
Then, on the opposite end of the spectrum, I played a partial-game of Antiquity over Christmas:
Considering that we didn't get through an entire game, bowing out after two hours of a learning session, I can't comment on the game in detail except to say that it's damned impressive. Antiquity is a city building game set in the late middle ages where your goal is to amass workers who can establish crops, man fields, and produce goods, all of which are used to help expand to future cities, one of which will establish the chapel honoring a particular patron saint that will fulfill your victory condition. It plays somewhat like a cross between Puerto Rico (with the phases of the game allowing you to build, produce, etc.), Princes of Florence (playing building Tetris within the space of each city), and a wargame (chits ahoy!). It is non-stop strategy and is not very forgiving; thanks to medieval farming techniques, areas produce goods once and are then polluted for the rest of the game, and if you don't expand properly you're going to quickly find yourself in a brutal death spiral. I'm generally not quite that hardcore a strategy person, but I really enjoyed the game. And, while it's pricey (copies run around $120), the quality of the components and the print run limitations of tiny hardcore Dutch game publishers mean you won't begrudge the purchase. I'll likely try to get my hands on a copy later in the year. If so, I'll report back; alas, the copy I played lives a plane flight away, so I dunno when I'll get to give it another go.
FnordChan
