Yeah, its been busy, a happy busy, but quite a bit more so for me to work on beating board games and doing unnecessary stats. I hope to get back on top of things soon, but until then, I'll do some different things.
Like cleaning out your family game cabinet.
I've been watching a lot of Shut Up and Sit Down lately, and I got an idea to there intro to board gaming video (show your friends here!). Most families / folks have a game cabinet that has a couple of standards in it:
- RISK
- Monopoly
- Cards Against Humanity / Apples to Apples
- Pokemon/ Yu-Gi-Oh / Magic
- Chess/ Checkers
- Scrabble
Buckle up for fun, this is a long one!
Bonus: If you don't care how I got the results, just scroll to the bottom of the page for a table!
Game: RISK
Style: Area control, combat
Problems: I'll freely admit RISK was my favorite board game up until a few years ago (when I fully got into games), but RISK has more than its fair share of issues. First, in large games you have a 20-30 minute break between your turns, which leads to most of game night being waiting around. Second, the dice, as I have covered before, the game is completely at the mercy of the dice, while this does add interesting outcomes, more often and not they prove to be a little too interesting.
Alternatives: Game of Thrones: A Board Game does a fantastic job of removing the randomness of combat, you often have a good chance of knowing the outcome before the battle. The game also includes numerous parts that require input from all players, meaning you are almost always involved (though it is quite a bit more complicated than RISK). Mémoire '44 is a great game that plays out various battle of WW2, it is fast to teach and lets you and your friends kill each other in logical ways (as oppose to the 1 army in Egypt killing 40 blue armies). Probably the best replacement for RISK is Small World, where players take control of mythological creatures fighting for fantasy lands. Small World is often described as "Risk without bullshit dice". It also includes a high degree of random starts and army abilities, which prevents your friends from always clamoring for Australia.
Game: Monopoly
Style: Economic Control
Problems:
While this example of flawed capitalism is often cited as the most
popular game of all time, it certainly isn't for its mechanics. The
primary complaint against monopoly is it is loooong. Now, long games
aren't always a problem (Twilight Imperium and A&A are prime long
and awesome games), but Monopoly's long games often don't result from
varying phases of development or drawn out, detailed engagements.
Monopoly often goes on for long periods of time because of its victory
condition: the last player with money. Often, one player will run away
with a lead, but not be able to fully finish everyone off due to dice
rolls and everyone mortaging their properties (I've always felt the
final third of the game resembled this video.
Alternatives: Basically, any euro-game where players battle for resources without battling each other. Ticket to Ride
is the game I've had the most success with when converting people into
board gamers, since its fast to teach and ends in a reasonable amount of
time. Alhambra and Catan are also great for making sure everyone can finish the game and still be friends before I post again.
Game: Apples to Apples / Cards against Humanity
Style: Party Games
Problems:
For me, parties and board games are like peas and carrots, however, all
to often, everyone resorts to Apples to Apples or Cards against
Humanity. While there is nothing really wrong with either game, they
are always the ones people want to play, and lets face it, there
are only so many times that abortion-holocaust-masturbation jokes are
funny.
Alternatives: If you couldn't tell from my Resistance post, it is probably the best game in the party genre, its fast to learn and fast to get invested in, TEARS ARE SHED FOR THIS GAME! It is an excellent gateway game. Other games that go great are Bang! and Coup, these are both fun, but don't seat as many people and take longer to teach, so I tend to shy away from them. Recently, I picked up Let's Rob a Bank!, a light card game that plays out a bust experiment (HEY! THAT'S WHAT MY NEXT ARTICLE WILL BE!) it seems to be right up their with Resistance. The other game that I am hopefully going to play soon is Scalawag, which seems to play a lot like Coup.
Party Game Bonus: Wit's and Wagers is a great alternative to trivial pursuit, since it takes out waiting for other players to come up with an answer. Say Anything! is like apples to apples mixed with trivial pursuit, and almost always lead to interesting stories.
Game: Magic the Gathering / Yu-Gi-Oh
Style: Trading Card Games
Problems: Ignoring the "those are for kids and nerds!" stigma on trading card games, these games have a very serious problem in that players need to keep collecting in order to have effective and competitive decks. These games turn into such an investment of money (and time), that its almost "go big or go home". I know most people don't care about this, but it still bothers me to know my Yu-Gi-Oh deck from 5th grade would be the laughing stock of any game night I bring it to.
Alternatives: Instead of trading card games, Fantasy Flight introduced the concept of the living card game, with Android: Netrunner and the LCGs of Star Wars, Game of Thrones, and Lord of the Rings. These games have box core sets that come with several prebuilt decks that don't need to be updated. The updates come in sets that are specifically directed to certain decks, making it much less of a chore to put together a good deck, and when you buy expansions, you know exactly what you are getting, so you don't need to buy 400 packs in order to get 5 good cards. Deck building games like Dominion and Arctic Scavengers keep the deck building solely within the session, so that there is no need for any booster packs. Summer Wars is another deck game, but you don't need boosters, you can just buy an entire new faction. My personal pick here is Netrunner, hard for people to call you a nerd while you're hacking the blade runner universe and it has a lot of math (which I always advocate).
Game: Scrabble, Boggle, etc.
Style: Word Games
Problems:
Scrabble really favored people with more vocabulary, and while I get
that's kind of the point, it doesn't help the one sidedness that tends
to crop up around tables. These games also rely on your opponent a lot
(either finding different words than them, or building off of their
plays). On top of that, these games tend to be relatively dry and
boring to look at.
Alternatives: Unspeakable Words gets rid of all of these issues by reducing the size of words you play, changing scoring drastically, and adding in a private had of cards and figures straight out of the H.P. Lovecraft universe. If this word game still leaves your head spinning, Qwirkle is a domino/ scrabble style game that is easy to learn and has pretty pictures instead of words.
Game: Chess / Checkers
Style: Abstract Games
Problems: The thing about abstract games is that most of them (particularly Chess), are solved. While good games, they rarely hold interest long unless you are playing against a grand master (in which case, you'll want to leave fast).
Alternative: I'm not big on abstract games, I like a healthy dose of probability and more than 2 players usually. However, one abstract game is truly one of my favorites to play right now. Hive is like a combination of Chess and Chinese Checkers, but without a board, while it runs on the expensive side (in my opinion), it it sure to give joy to any chess master you give it to.
Double Triple Quadruple Bonus: I really like the idea of table-top war games like Warhammer, but I can't afford models and I suck at painting, whatever shall I do?
The answer to that, my friends, it X-Wing Miniatures. X-Wing models come out of the box looking fantastic with no painting required, they are also cheaper ($100 will give you a full imperial and rebel squad so you can play with a friend with a little bit of variance). Also, the game is faster to learn and more realistic. I plan on doing some full break downs of X-Wing in the future, as I can't recommend the game enough for people who enjoy those games.
****STOP SCROLLING!****
Those of you who scrolled down for the table, thanks for joining us, here you go!
| Replace | With | Or |
| RISK | Small World | Memoir '44 |
| Monopoly | Ticket to Ride | Settlers of Catan |
| Card's Against Humanity | Resistance | Coup |
| Magic Cards | Android: Netrunner | Dominion |
| Scrabble | Unspeakable Words | Qwirkle |
| Chess | Hive | Hive |
I hope to get back to doing more statistical work coming up (right now, it's either going to be Coup or Let's Rob a Bank!). Hopefully it will come out next week