Games - Family Connections Experiment
Today's post is all about GAMES!!! In case you didn't know, we love games at our house and we play a lot a lot of games. I've even written about games on the blog multiple times. In early 2019 we started playing a "game of the week" and for a brief period of time, that tradition actually stuck. We'd pick a new game each Sunday and play it every night that week, time permitting. I even did a short-lived series of blog posts that were basically game reviews of our weekly games. You can find those HERE, HERE, and HERE. The other mentions of games are sprinkled in throughout the eleven years of posts. So yes, Morans love games and we're aware that we're game snobs. We look down on games like Monopoly, Life, and Sorry and don't want to waste our time on mediocre games. We try to buy the Spiel des Jahres every year and are always looking for more great games to add to our growing collection. We're going to be living at my parent's house for the next 14-ish months and besides our clothes and a few other personal items (like my sewing machines!) I want the games here. Maybe not all the games, but the best of the best. Here are the games we like to play!
Any of the Settlers of Catan games. These games are what really started our love of the "german-style" board games. We have the base game, the Cities and Knights Expansion, Settlers of America, and Starfarers of Catan. Oh, and Candamir, which is like a prequel to Settlers of Catan and has a similar theme but really different game mechanics. Yesterday Jared and I played Cities and Knights (but we own the German version so we call it Städte und Ritter) with the Kennedys! How did we do this when we're spread over three states and two countries? The Catan Universe website and a four-way video call baby! It was so fun, we're playing again tomorrow.
Ticket to Ride and it's predecessor Union Pacific (which we got for free at the Airman's Attic) are both really fun. Union Pacific requires more thinking as it's actually more about investing and stocks than trains so we don't play it nearly as often. Abby usually wins Ticket to Ride because she's got some sort of train route completing superpower.
Qwirkle. This is a great game to take on trips because it fits easily in a bag or suitcase. It's a little like Scrabble but with shapes and no spelling? It's supposed to be for up to four players but we've played it with six or seven and it still works out well. Quick and easy, not a lot of strategy, a great game if you've got younger players in your group because everyone will enjoy it.
Camel Up (but we call it Camel Cup). This is like betting on the ponies but it's a board game and they're camels. This is a great game because up to 8 people can play, it's simple, it's quick, and it's exciting - especially at the end when you're trying to figure out which camel is going to win and you need to place a bet. Plus you roll the dice from a 3D pyramid.
Codenames. Such a great party game. It really puts Apples to Apples, Taboo, charades, etc. to shame. Two teams, each with a spymaster who is trying to get their teammates to guess which codenames of the 25 on the table are related to the hint word given by the spymaster. This game is best with 6 or more players. The hardest part of this game for me is controlling my facial expressions when I'm the spymaster.
Azul. In this game, you select tiles from the center of the table to complete patterns on your individual game board. Extra tiles give you negative points while completed patterns and specific sets earn your bonuses. It's fast to play, the tile pieces are gorgeous, and every time you play it it's a little different.
Scum. Some people call this President. Easy to play with a standard deck of cards or with Rook cards. Another great game for traveling because there's always room for a deck of cards. The player who gets rid of all their cards first (usually this is Jared) is the president in the next round.
Phases. You can also play this card game with a standard deck or with Rook cards. It's played in rounds and in each round there are different cards that will leave you with points at the end. You don't want points so it's really best not to take any tricks. In the final round, all of the rules from the previous rounds apply. I love/hate this game because I can go from having 5 or 10 points to hundreds in one round.
Cover Your Assets. Build a fortune by collecting matching sets of assets cards. Make your fellow players angry when you steal their carefully collected cards. Natalie LOVES this game. Like most card games, it travels well. Quick to learn and easy to play, this is a great little game. First player to $1,000,000 wins.
Skull King. In this game, you bid on how many tricks you'll take, and if you're over or under you lose points. There are ten rounds and in each one, you get as many cards as the number of the round. For example on round one, each player is given one card. That means there's one trick to win that round so if everyone bids one, three players are going to lose points. You can gain bonus points by capturing pirates and the person with the most points after ten rounds wins the game.
We're always looking for game suggestions, what's your favorite you think we'd love?
Any of the Settlers of Catan games. These games are what really started our love of the "german-style" board games. We have the base game, the Cities and Knights Expansion, Settlers of America, and Starfarers of Catan. Oh, and Candamir, which is like a prequel to Settlers of Catan and has a similar theme but really different game mechanics. Yesterday Jared and I played Cities and Knights (but we own the German version so we call it Städte und Ritter) with the Kennedys! How did we do this when we're spread over three states and two countries? The Catan Universe website and a four-way video call baby! It was so fun, we're playing again tomorrow.
Ticket to Ride and it's predecessor Union Pacific (which we got for free at the Airman's Attic) are both really fun. Union Pacific requires more thinking as it's actually more about investing and stocks than trains so we don't play it nearly as often. Abby usually wins Ticket to Ride because she's got some sort of train route completing superpower.
Qwirkle. This is a great game to take on trips because it fits easily in a bag or suitcase. It's a little like Scrabble but with shapes and no spelling? It's supposed to be for up to four players but we've played it with six or seven and it still works out well. Quick and easy, not a lot of strategy, a great game if you've got younger players in your group because everyone will enjoy it.
Camel Up (but we call it Camel Cup). This is like betting on the ponies but it's a board game and they're camels. This is a great game because up to 8 people can play, it's simple, it's quick, and it's exciting - especially at the end when you're trying to figure out which camel is going to win and you need to place a bet. Plus you roll the dice from a 3D pyramid.
Codenames. Such a great party game. It really puts Apples to Apples, Taboo, charades, etc. to shame. Two teams, each with a spymaster who is trying to get their teammates to guess which codenames of the 25 on the table are related to the hint word given by the spymaster. This game is best with 6 or more players. The hardest part of this game for me is controlling my facial expressions when I'm the spymaster.
Azul. In this game, you select tiles from the center of the table to complete patterns on your individual game board. Extra tiles give you negative points while completed patterns and specific sets earn your bonuses. It's fast to play, the tile pieces are gorgeous, and every time you play it it's a little different.
Scum. Some people call this President. Easy to play with a standard deck of cards or with Rook cards. Another great game for traveling because there's always room for a deck of cards. The player who gets rid of all their cards first (usually this is Jared) is the president in the next round.
Phases. You can also play this card game with a standard deck or with Rook cards. It's played in rounds and in each round there are different cards that will leave you with points at the end. You don't want points so it's really best not to take any tricks. In the final round, all of the rules from the previous rounds apply. I love/hate this game because I can go from having 5 or 10 points to hundreds in one round.
Cover Your Assets. Build a fortune by collecting matching sets of assets cards. Make your fellow players angry when you steal their carefully collected cards. Natalie LOVES this game. Like most card games, it travels well. Quick to learn and easy to play, this is a great little game. First player to $1,000,000 wins.
Skull King. In this game, you bid on how many tricks you'll take, and if you're over or under you lose points. There are ten rounds and in each one, you get as many cards as the number of the round. For example on round one, each player is given one card. That means there's one trick to win that round so if everyone bids one, three players are going to lose points. You can gain bonus points by capturing pirates and the person with the most points after ten rounds wins the game.
We're always looking for game suggestions, what's your favorite you think we'd love?
We like Bohnanza, a fun card game where you plant and harvest beans and earn coins. We have an old school Careers game that is from my youth that we still enjoy playing. Sequence, Inklings, Time's Up and Eye to Eye are our favorite group games. Mastermind is a fun one for one on one. We also love Qwirkle,Azul and Ticket to Ride. Rail Baron is our favorite train game though but it takes about five hours to play so our family tradition is to play it once a year at Christmas and so it is a big deal to win and be the Rail Baron for the year.
ReplyDeleteWe used to have Bohnanza but we never played it so we got rid of it at some point. Probably in conjunction with a move. I'll have to look for Rail Baron and the group games you mentioned. Thanks for the suggestions!
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