Welcome back to the Nexus. The geek topic for the week is board gaming. As I write this, I know some of you will be rolling your eyes at the mention of board games because the same old boring games come up again and again: The mere mention of these kinds of games makes people think of classics like Monopoly, Life, chess or Parcheesi.
While I admit these classic games can be fun, the genre has changed so much and so quickly in the past few years that we now have many more options available to us gaming enthusiasts and today I aim to broaden your board gaming horizons. Looking for a fun new board game to share with family and friends? Read on, some of these are some of the most fun that I have encountered in recent times, and you may be unfamiliar with some (most?) of them.
First off, we need to consider Euro board gaming. I am not sure where the term comes from, perhaps they originated in Europe before becoming popular in America. Euro games tend to consist of challenges for players. Some feature game mechanics dealing with economics and the acquisition of resources instead of familiar concepts like player versus player conflict and can also be distinguished by fewer elements of randomness. A lot are "cooperative" games where the players work as a team to accomplish shared goals, but not all of them fall under this category.
One popular example (first published in 1995 and designed by Klaus Teuber) is Settlers of Catan, but there are others. I first realized that these games were becoming more mainstream when they started showing up in retail shops like Target and Walmart. Another one is Pandemic, which we ironically played in a board game group a friend of mine started in Kelseyville during the actual pandemic during the covid years. It wasn't the first time I had heard of the game.
Ticket to Ride: Created by Days of Wonder, this is a train game that I learned to play in a board game group in Southern California. You may have come across this baby at a Target or other retailer as it has become quite mainstream as well. The object of the game is to connect various cities on a map by laying tracks for multiple routes. The players are working against each other to see who gets the most victory points by the end of the game and they each have tickets which instruct them where to construct their tracks. This game is an excellent and easy to learn game for beginner groups and has often been referred to as a "gateway" game and introduction into the board gaming hobby.
Castle Panic: If you like a little fantasy mixed into your board gaming, with a little D&D flavor, I recommend Castle Panic by Fireside Games. In this one you are a group of adventurers of different classes including knights, archers, swordsmen and other medieval army troops defending a castle in the middle of a forest. Every turn a few monsters come out and they try to attack the castle. The object of the game is to defend it. A series of cards allow the players to use tactics to accomplish their goal. It is another co-op game where the players act as a unit. One set of cards in the deck allows them to build walls and fortifications, because of course, the monsters are hitting the castle on each of their turns. If the castle falls, the players lose. We have been playing this one a lot at the Lakeport Library which holds board gaming sessions every Tuesday at 2 p.m.
King of Tokyo: Another fun game which the young ones especially like. I know a 6 year old who adores this game now. In king of Tokyo, a number of monsters based on famous Kaiju creatures like King Kong and Godzilla invade Tokyo and fight each other for supremacy. It's a pvp (player verus player) style game, meaning players fight each other representing one monster. There are cards which give your monster unique powers and you roll special dice to see if you attack the other players or do something else. Two victory conditions exist: You can score points to win, but you have to stay alive, if your monster gets slain by another player it's curtains for you. The strongest monster doesn't always win.
These are just a few of the games I know and love that are fun beyond Bingo, Clue, Monopoly or the board games people are already familiar with. I challenge you to find a game you enjoy that is unique and different. I use the Magic Companion app on my phone to pinpoint locations anywhere in the county or country to find other people to play with, but I am not endorsing the product, it's just one I have used before, but I am sure there are others out there. The Youtube channel "Geek and Sundry" is a good place where you can watch people playing these games if you want to learn the rules before engaging in play. Whatever your preference, or whether you play table top, board games or digital games, the important thing is to have fun, because all work and no play...well, you get the picture.
Ariel Carmona is the managing editor of the Record-Bee, when he is not busy putting pages together, editing stories and/or working on publication budgets, you can find him around the Lake playing D&D or other favorite leisure activities or on KPFZ 88.1 FM Fridays at 4 PST talking about geek culture and niche hobbies.
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