Recommended Games

• Introduction
• Starter Games
• Party Games
• General Interest
• More Serious Games
• Miscellaneous

Introduction

Funagain Games has a terrific selection; they have or can obtain almost any game currently published and many past games. Their prices are good and more than make up for the shipping costs, at least compared to stores near me. Still, you will save on shipping if you bundle your orders. Below, I give links where you can find out more and purchase these games at Funagain Games, which gives me 5% referral credits.

The owner of Gamefest asked me to list his site. I do not have any experience with it. If you buy from them, please let me know about your experience.

Here is a list of my game collection.

Starter Games

Abalone (2 players, or 3 with expansion marbles)

Abalone is a strategy game with very simple rules but quite involving play. I have had it for ten years, and it is still fun to play. It can be taught in 30 seconds yet absorbs your attention in the first game. The three-player variant is interesting, because you must not merely win but also keep your opponents from killing each other off lest one of them win before you get going.

Quoridor (2 or 4 players)

Quoridor is an appealing strategy game that is easy to learn and attracts watchers into playing. On each turn, you either move your pawn or place a blocking wall. This simple concept produces entertaining strategies as you try to make your opponent zig zag as much as possible. Sometimes it is even to your advantage to restrict your own path.

Can't Stop (2 to 4 players) (Out of stock March 2005)

Can't Stop challenges you to choose between keeping what you have got or risking it in a try for more. You might make more progress, or the dice might leave you stranded and cost you everything you had gained on the current turn.

Trumpet (2 to 6 players) (Out of stock March 2005)

Trumpet is a pleasant trick taking game. Tricks are won to advance in a token race around a board. Certain squares on the board allow the player to change the trumps. The game is entertaining and not hard to teach.

Party Games

Apples to Apples (4 to 10 players, the more the merrier)

Apples to Apples is a guaranteed fun game at parties. Play is active and draws in even people who are typically reluctant to get involved. Everybody participates in every turn. The rules are simple: The current judge reveals an adjective card (like "Powerful"), and each player chooses a noun card (like "Volcano" or "Television") from their hand to match the adjective and puts it on the table. Since the last card played doesn't count, play is fast. The judge then decides the best match, and the decision is often amusing. There are also expansion packs: One, Two, Three, and Four.

25 Words or Less (2 teams, minimum 4 players, more than 6 preferred) (Out of stock March 2005)

25 Words or Less is a good party game for intelligent people. A member from each team bids on how few words they need to get their team to say all five phrases on a card. The bidding brings the game to the skill level of the participants.

General Interest

Evo (3 to 5 players)

This is a very good game for gamers and occasional players alike. The rules aren't too complicated but give plenty of opportunity for play, play is active throughout the game, and the theme is appealing. Each player has a species of dinosaurs and acquires various mutations to help their species survive. Fur keeps dinosaurs alive when it is cold, horns aid combat with other species, and eggs make more dinosaurs. Over a series of turns, players compete to do the best with their species. Play is lively.

Edel, Stein & Reich (3 to 5 players)

Edel, Stein & Reich (German version) or Basari (English version) is deceptive. When you learn the rules, it seems there is nothing to the game, just bid for what you want and take gems or money. The game is actually subtle and competitive. You cannot always get what you want, and you have to make choices about taking risks, what your opponents might do, how to structure an offer to induce your opponent into agreeing, and more. Easy to learn yet intriguing the first time you play.

Hare and Tortoise (2 to 6 players)

Hare and Tortoise is designed as a children's game, but it is an interesting game, particularly because the rules make it advantageous to move backwards sometimes.

Montgolfiere (2 to 6 players)

Montgolfiere is a light game that causes the players to interact by hooking onto higher balloons, drop sleeping gas on lower balloons, and guessing what other players might play.

Union Pacific (2 to 6 players)

I enjoy the way this game plays. The times when dividends are paid are semi-random, and the tension builds deliciously. The game involves building up railroad systems and accumulating stock in them. Building and buying stock is an old theme, but Union Pacific has a fresh feel and good play mechanics.

Targui (2 to 4 players)

Targui is a simple territory-conquering game (like Risk but lighter).

Cube Checkers (2 players) (Out of stock March 2005)

This is a superb checkers variant. It is played with dice instead of the usual checkers pieces. In addition to a normal checkers move, you can increase the number on one die, on most turns. Since a die cannot jump over a greater-numbered die, the dice become more powerful as they increase. This adds a great deal of strategy to the game.

Spy Alley (2 to 6 players) (Out of stock March 2005)

Spy Alley is more like the typical American board game than others on this page. Players move around a track on the board, acquiring items and paying penalties. What makes it interesting is that you have to acquire all the spy paraphernalia of your secret nationality without revealing your nationality to the other players. So, to bluff, players end up buying a lot of things they do not need.

More Serious Games

Mississippi Queen (3 to 5 players)

Mississippi Queen is a race down a river with paddle boats. Each player makes small adjustments to the speed and direction of their boat on each turn. One wants to go fast, but going too fast can cause a player to crash or not be able to make a crucial turn. The boats must also slow down to pick up passengers twice during the race. There are car-racing games that are similar in letting the player choose the course of their car on the board, but I find this to be a nicer game, achieving a pleasing challenge without rules as complicated as the car-racing games.

Samurai (2 to 4 players)

Samurai is an interesting tile-placing game. Players lay tiles of various types and values to stake claims to tokens. When a token is finally surrounded, the player who has the highest total of claims to it wins it. Strategy is enhanced by tiles of special or multiple purposes and by the fact that each space for a tile is near more than one token. Winning requires balance; the winner is not the player who won the most tokens, but the player who got the most categories in which they won the most tokens.

Tigris & Euphrates (2 to 4 players)

Tigris & Euphrates is a very involved game, but it is wonderfully balanced and quite absorbing for serious game players. Players build kingdoms on a board and maneuver to get income in each of four categories. This causes them to struggle for control, and kingdoms merge and separate in intertwined ways. Your score at the end of the game is the number of points earned in the category you have the fewest of, so you strive to balance your power and earn income in each category.

Hera and Zeus (2 players)

Hera and Zeus is a battle between two players. Some cards depict mythological warriers of various strengths and others represent characters with mythological powers. The players array the warriors on a small battlefield and use the powers to examine and alter the battle. There is a lot to learn in this game, but it starts to flow after a few plays. There is tension between an orderly battle that depends on warrior strengths and disorder from the mythological powers that are randomly drawn from the deck during the game. The tension is nicely balanced, causing some amount of suspense, relief, and disapppointment.

Ra (3 to 5 players) (Out of stock March 2005)

Ra is a well-balanced bidding game with some interesting strategy twists. Various tiles are added to a pot until a player declares an auction and bidding begins. Different types of tiles contribute to a player's score in different ways. E.g., one type gives points for each tile, one type gives points for having the most of that type, and one type gives points for each different kind within the type. This causes each pot to have different values for different players, which complicates the bidding. Sometimes it is desirable to call an auction not to win to the tiles in the pot but to force other players to expend their money.

Taj Mahal (3 to 5 players) (Out of stock March 2005)

Taj Mahal is a complex game involving competing for multiple resources, biding your time, and evaluating options. The rules are lengthy.

Miscellaneous

Torres (2 to 4 players)

Torres is hardcore abstract strategy. Players build castles and position pawns to earn points.

Aladdin's Dragons (3 to 5 players)

Players compete to win treasures that buy artifacts. Aladdin's Dragons is an interesting game because it adds a magic component that would be disruptive in many games but adds to the tension in Aladdin's Dragons. Play the non-magic game only to learn the rules and only part way, then play the magic game.

Tightrope (Drahtseilakt in the original German) (3 to 5 players)

Tightrope embellishes on the trick-taking card game by giving positive points to the high card and negative points to the low card. The goal is to have your points balance out by the end of the hand. This causes you to seek balance in your cards, but also to plan how to take the tricks needed to correct your current imbalance. Tightrope is a light little game, quickly learned and played.

Lord of the Rings (2 to 5 players)

Lord of the Rings belongs in the serious games section except that is not your typical competitive game. It is hard and requires serious strategy, but all the players must cooperate. The game is structured to make it hard to win, so the players have to discuss their group position and plan. Winning is not easy and will require experience and learning.

Schotten-Totten or Battle Line (2 players)

Two players each compete to form better triples on their side of nine stones. You can take a stone before your opponent completes a triple on their side if you can prove they cannot beat the triple you already have. This means even if you are certain to take most of the stones eventually, your opponent can still win if they can beat you to the punch on three stones in a row.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer (2 to 5 players) (Out of stock March 2005)

I am a Buffy the Vampire Slayer fan, so I could not resist buying the game when I saw it. To my surprise, it is a fairly nice game. The play mechanics are faithful to the television show and provide an interesting game with several goals and interesting things to do.

© Copyright 1999 by Eric Postpischil.