Game Night: No Wargames, but great fun!

I’ve tried to bill some of our events at Fair Game as Wargame nights in hopes some grognards would come out of the woodwork. For sure, there has been some interest, but it s definitely hard to stick to that plan where there are more than the two players that most wargames support.

Fortunately, my friends Kris, Bob, Joel, and Gosia were well into gaming last night and turned me onto some great boardgames I hadn’t played before.

Cleopatra and the Society of Architects – This Days of Wonder Game is a neat and simple card game focusing on the competing architects building a temple for Cleopatra. The card aspect is supplemented by some nice looking building pieces and some clever mechanics not seen in other games. Some liken the play to 7 Wonders, but I’ve only played each game once and can’t say I see the connection yet. Aside from the fact that I won my first play, I have to admit I enjoyed the game overall and would definitely play again. It does seem well worth the pice I’ve seen if going for (~$25), not sure of its long term play value though.

A nearly completed temple for Cleopatra

Agricola – Joel tells us this is his favorite game of all time. I was excited about it for that fact and because it has a faming/building mechanic that I found attractive. A lot of the fun was making silly jokes about our farmers and their families. The game took a bit of getting used to but in the end wasn’t overly complex. It was a bit frustrating at times in that sometimes one of the limited actions I wanted to take had been claimed by another player, but that didn’t turn me off of the game. Other players who don’t like too much head-on conflict my find this a problem though. Gosia outscored by far all of us at the end of the game. I would definitely play this one again and incorporate some of the mechanics we avoided for this introductory game.

The hands that build the fames in Agricola

Forbidden Island - Since it was getting late, we tried this relatively short game. The parallels with Pandemic are so strong that it is almost just was well that you play that game instead as it is deeper and more strategic. Nonetheless, Forbidden Island is a fun, quick group game to play. I think it is less than $20 and is probably a worthy investment if you need a quick game to play. In the meantime, I’ll still to Pandemic.

The island is Sinking in Forbidden Island

 Ok, so no wargames this time around. I had brought Conflict of Heroes and Labyrinth. But when you’ve got some good friends around it is hard to knock some good games to play.