Life's a Game 12: Best of British

This year we're sharing with you our game of the month. These are all favourites from our collection, or ones we play with our friends.

December's game is Best of British.

Time for the final game in this years collection, and its a good'un. You may have noticed a lack of trivia games in these posts - time now to correct that. Over the years we've had many a fun evening playing Trivial Pursuit, Dingbats, Who Wants To Be A Millionaire and Bezzerwizzer, but the one in our current collection that we've played most is this one. Best of British.

   
Part of the same family of games as the Logo Game, Best of British is a nice gentle quiz all about the things that make this group of islands a fine place to live. You might get questions on anything from cream teas to Coronation Street, from breeds of cow to people called John, from castles to things that are pink. It's the huge range of questions that makes this one a game that can be enjoyed by a large range of people. 

   
Questions come in groups of four on a theme and the game comes with a randomly multicoloured board. Each question is coloured and if you answer correctly you jump to the next square of that colour. Sometimes this will be a frustrating one step but you can also make huge leaps forward with just a couple of correct answers.

If blue gets their next red question correct they'll move six squares, the red person on the other hand only gets to move one.

We'd definitely recommend this game, as I said, its a good'un.

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Life's a Game 10: Carcassonne by Rachel

This year we're sharing with you our game of the month. These are all favourites from our collection, or ones we play with our friends.

Octobers game is Carcassonne and is brought to you by Rachel, a good friend and a fellow lover of board games:

Chris and I have acquired a good cupboardful of games over the years but Carcassonne remains a firm favourite. I think one of the main reasons is that - whilst we thrive on having friends over for games evenings - on the odd occasion it’s just the two of us. Most of our preferred games fall at this hurdle, fortunately though Carcassonne is just as enjoyable and challenging with 2 players as it is with 6.

Chris likens Carcassonne to a big jigsaw puzzle, as you start the board with just one tile and build the rest as you go. On your turn you pick up a tile from a facedown pile and place it so it fits (city to city, road to road or field to field) orthogonally to another tile. You can then place your Meeple on the tile you have just placed (and not anywhere else!).  The options:


1. Place your Meeple into a city

2. Place your Meeple on a road

 

3. Place your Meeple on the field to make him a farmer.

   

4. Do nothing. A perfectly legitimate move as you have a limited number of Meeple. Once you’ve put them on the board they’re stuck there until you ‘complete’ the city or road. In the case of farmers they are stuck for the rest of the game!

The next person then picks up a tile and you keep going until you have run out of tiles. Now Meeple are quite protective of their property – so once you have claimed a city, road or field it is YOURS. Nobody else can just add a tile on and decide they want to join you. (unless they’re sneaky but we’ll get to that later).

So, how do you actually win this game? As usual, it’s about points.  There are 3 main ways to score points:

1. Complete a city that your Meeple is in. You get 2 points for each tile, so the blue Meeple has just finished a city and would normally get 2 points for 3 tiles = 6 points. Luckily for him he’s got a blue and white shield, so that gives him a bonus 2 extra points – making a total of 8. (The yellow city is still open as it doesn’t have a wall going all the way around it)

 

2. Complete a road that your Meeple is on. This is when both ends are closed. You get a mere 1 point for each tile, so it’s not as prestigious as a city.

3. Farming a field, which doesn’t happen right until the end of the game.  By the end the board will probably be split into 2 or more farms. The edge of a farm is marked by road, city walls and the edge of the board – see the board below. They can be notoriously difficult to spot, (especially on larger boards) and it takes a few times of playing to become adept at seeing them. Each complete city in your farm is worth 3 points.  If a city isn’t complete it’s worthless for a farmer. So here there are 3 points for 4 cities = 12 points. Farms can really swing the end of the game – adding some extra tension.

(If you have expansions, your board will be much, much bigger than this as you get more tiles with each expansion).

Now you’ve got the fairly mundane mechanics of the game, here comes the interesting part. Depending on your level of competitive-ness and mood you may wish to be sneaky and ‘join other Meeple’ in their ventures (ie steal from them!) You can join them indirectly by placing your Meeple into a new city, etc. and then placing a tile to join them together.

For example:

The yellow Meeple has just started their own city. It is not joined to the blue Meeple city at the moment (you can’t join diagonally) so they can get away with it.

However, a move later the yellow Meeple has put down a tile joining the two cities together.

This can happen for cities, roads and (is most common) for farms. When you end up sharing it’s fine – in fact a joint venture can even help you both get more points. However, it’s a tightrope to walk – can you trust your partner? For instance if yellow sneaks in another Meeple so there are 2 yellow Meeple and only 1 blue Meeple, blue gets nothing! How ruthless are you?

I have to confess I haven’t fully explained all the ins and outs or even more obscure ways of scoring points. But you’ve heard enough from me, the best thing is just to give it a go now. Honestly, it’s much easier to play than to explain! Besides where would be the incentive to play if I explained about the expansion when the Dragon gobbles Meeple and there are magic portals?

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Life's a Game 9. Mapominos

This year we're sharing with you our game of the month. These are all favourites from our collection, or ones we play with our friends.

September's game is Mapominos 

This is one we've only discovered in the last couple of years, but has provided us with great enjoyment. It comes in five variants; Europe, Asia and Australasia, Africa, Americas and UK Counties. In each box you'll find a card for each country (or county) in the region, complete with a few stats about the country and - most crucially - which countries it borders.

The aim is to put down all your cards first and is played very much like classic dominoes. You place each country next to one that it borders, creating a grid-like map that can often be rather askew! What could be more natural than North Korea sitting next to Georgia - they both border Russia after all. Play is also limited by the surface you use. If the card won't balance of its own accord then it can't go there - sorry but that's the rules!

The whole world laid out on the floor.

It can get better though, because its possible to combine packs to make the game bigger. With some friends we joined up all four countries versions to make the world which we decided to play on the floor - but having done so once I think we'd be up for the challenge of limiting it to the size of a table. It did provide some interesting card combination's:

Things getting busy in the Caribbean. 

Spain, Gambia, Guinea Bissau and Trinidad and Tobago.
Not natural neighbours but united around a border to the Atlantic Ocean

Mexico, USA and Canada sitting - surprisingly - next to each other before jumping the
Atlantic to the UK and Cape Verde.

Each set is as different as the part of the world it represents which affects the game play quite a lot. We've found the Americas set to be rather slow play. It consists of only 35 cards and most of them being islands meaning that everyone ends up playing lots of sea (transit cards) just to get their cards connected. It would probably be improved by making the 50 US states individual cards to boost the number of connections.

At the other end of the scale there's UK counties. With over 150 cards it apparently makes for a long and intricate game, though we've not played ourselves. We'd definitely recommend going for Europe to most new players (though obviously if you're more familiar with Asia or Africa that might make a better choice). All told, we've had lots of fun playing all the different versions of this game though - so do give it a go.

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Life's a Game 8: Whist

This year we're sharing with you our game of the month. These are all favourites from our collection, or ones we play with our friends.

August's game is Whist

If you have a good memory you'll recall that many many months ago, whilst talking about Cribbage, I said that my family have always enjoyed a game of cards. Whist has many different variations I've enjoyed both knock-out whist and nomination whist with different groups of friends and family.

Deciding which card to play... In this case clubs were played first so I have to follow suit with my Q.

All versions of the game involve playing cards in tricks; each person plays a single card and the person who played the highest card in the chosen suit wins that trick (if you've ever player Hearts on the computer thats also a trick based game). This continues until everyone's hands are empty when scores are tallied, the cards are re-dealt and it starts again. With nomination whist (sometimes called "oh, hell" whist apparently) you make a guess at how many of the possible tricks you think you can win in each hand before play starts and the scores are based on how accurate your prediction was. The number of cards dealt varies throughout the game adding an extra challenge of adapting your bidding tactic to match.

The advantage of this sort of scoring is that someone with a rubbish hand can correctly predict to win zero tricks and get almost as many points as person with all the aces who correctly bid four - its all about playing your hand to match your bid, and less about the cards you're dealt. Of course the person who was given a hand of 8's, 9's and 10's would probably beg to differ as making an accurate prediction is significantly harder with the middling cards.

This time spades were led, so I have a choice to make. The A on the table will win the trick regardless so I played my 10, hoping that my K might win me a trick later.

We've had so much fun playing this game over the years on all sorts of rainy evenings and family holidays and it has an added advantage that all you need is a pack of cards and pen and paper.

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Life's a Game 7: Uno

This year we're sharing with you our game of the month. These are all favourites from our collection, or ones we play with our friends.

July's game is Uno.


Uno is a fantastically simple game, but one that has provided us with lots of amusement over the years, particularly when we get together with the same university friends I mentioned here. To play Uno you use a special bright and colourful deck of cards that contains the numbers 0-9 and a set of special features on backgrounds of red, blue, green and yellow. There are also a few cards with a black background that can be played at any time.

The game play is straightforward - everyone is dealt a fixed number of cards and the aim is to be the first to put all your cards down. Each person takes it in turns to place a card on the pile in the centre, and that card must match either the value or the colour of the one before it. If at any point you can't play you pick up another card which puts you further behind. Some of the special cards also force the next player to pick up two or four cards which is definitely to be avoided and the swiftest way of doing so is to play another "+2" card to pass the curse on. These cards will accumulate so woe to the person who finds themselves at the end of a chain of them and has to pick up 6 or 8 cards! 

Other special cards include miss a go's, change direction of play and the ability to dictate what colour the pile becomes next. The intensity with with special cards appear tends to increase as the game goes on, and peaks once someone has declared "UNO" - meaning they have just one card left and should be stopped from playing it at all costs.

While this might not be the game when intricate strategy is what you're after, the rest of the time its good fun and suitable for all. 

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Life's a Game 6: Maindealer

This year we're sharing with you our game of the month. These are all favourites from our collection, or ones we play with our friends.

June's game is Maindealer.

This month we come to another of our charity shop finds with a game that's copyrighted 1987. Maindealer is a classic board game in style. Players set out to buy cars which they can then sell for a profit with the aim of having the most money at the end of the game.

The cars themselves vary wildly from the cheapest Russian car at £1000 to the most expensive German at £13000. One of the best ways to accrue cash is to collect cars originating in the same country and then starting yourself a dealership. We find that people naturally gravitate towards either collecting lots of cheap cars or relying on a small collection of expensive ones to earn them their winnings - both can be successful if lucks on your side.

On of the things we love about this game are the little details, both in the board itself and the cards that fate can toss you.

"Everyones" favourite square.

Why, thank you very much!

A double whammy here of a vintage looking "new" computer and the mate who is merely "away"!

Punter cards can cover all aspects of life...

... while Dealer cards mostly get you to sell cars with varying amount of profit.

One of the downsides of this game is its length. It can take a while to get going and start your collection, but once it gains momentum things start to get more exciting. Not a game to be played in a hurry but one we've had lots of fun with on wet miserable days! If you can find yourself a copy we'd recommend giving it a go.  

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Life's a Game 5: Scrabble

This year we're sharing with you our game of the month. These are all favourites from our collection, or ones we play with our friends.

May's game is Scrabble

This months game needs little to no introduction. Scrabble, the popular board game where players take it in turns to construct words from a limited rack of letters and connect them to the words already played. Points are awarded based on the letters used, and multipliers are scattered over the board for higher scores. 

This game can be both immensely satisfying - scoring 40 points through clever letter placement - and rather frustrating - when you have a rack of vowels and your opponent scores 40 points through clever letter placement! All in all though it's a good fun, thought provoking game, that can be enjoyed by anyone who likes playing with words.

All the letter tiles, with their points.

Selecting a letter to see who goes first - my E narrowly beat Joe's F.

Starting to build up words - in this particularly game the board has already rather dense making things tricky.

The final board. Joe narrowly beat me on this occasion - I'll get him next time! 

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Life's a Game: 4. Cribbage

This year we're sharing with you our game of the month. These are all favourites from our collection, or ones we play with our friends.

April's game is Cribbage.

Looking for  cards that add up to fifteen...

This is one of those games that, for me, goes right back into my childhood. I have distant memories of being taught to play by my Dad, but feel like I've always known it. We played card games a lot as I grew up, often as a family activity; my Mum, Dad, brother and I sitting down on a Saturday evening for round of whist, bridge or canasta and this is still a well loved way to pass our time when we all get together today. With cribbage though, typically a two player game, it was game for mostly just for Dad and I.

As time went on I taught Joe how to play, and also discovered one of my university friends knew this game. Between us we taught another of my housemates and cribbage has become a favourite once again. We nearly always play when the four of us are together.

Crib scoring board. 

There are many quirks to this card game. It comes with it's own special scoring board to help you keep track of your points and the game is broken into two different sections in each round, both of which can score you points. As well trying to find the classic runs and pairs of many card games you're also on the look out for cards that add up to fifteen and every player starts by donating one or two of their cards into the crib, or box, which the dealer gets to treat as an extra hand at the end of the game to score bonus points - and this is what gives the game it's name.

Section 1: Play out your cards one at a time trying to make combo's
with your opponents cards; here we have 15 on the table, 2 points. 

Simple enough to learn, reliant on the luck of the cards, but with the chance to become skilled at spotting the best combinations to score you points this is a game that can be enjoyed by the young and old on different levels, and I'd recommend you give it a go.

Section 2: Add up the points in your hand. This person scored 6; two fifteens (K+5) and a pair. 

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Life's a Game 3. Chronology

This year we're sharing with you our game of the month. These are all favourites from our collection, or ones we play with our friends.

March's game is Chronology

Another charity shop find, this months game takes a little more thinking about - though it is set out in such a way that even those with only a slight knowledge of history can take part and enjoy it. 

Unlike some of the games on our shelves, this one doesn't take long to explain or play, with a game taking around 30 mins. Each player starts with one card face up on the table, then everyone takes it in turns to be read a historical event. If you can correctly guess where this sits in the timeline of events you have in front of you then you get to add the card to your line. The first person to have a set of ten cards wins the game. 

Of course this means that the first round is not that hard - you just need to guess whether the event took place before or after the card you were given at the start. Once you have nine cards on the table, perhaps some of them grouped quite closely chronologically, guessing the location of the tenth can be quite a bit trickier. 

A lot of the cards are based in the last 200 years, but the dates do stretch all the way back to the Ancient Egyptians (everyone breaths a sigh of relief when asked was the building of the pyramids before or after WWII) and could involve the discovery of America, the first successful heart surgery, or the production of the first Barbie. There's no way you could know all the events in the set - but because you only need to know where it sits in history, not the dates themselves, there's always a chance for a guess. 

Good for when a game of Monopoly just seems too long, or for a change of pace from other board and card games, I wouldn't say this was the best game on our shelf, but we've played it multiple times with different groups of people and always seem to enjoy ourselves - and you can't say fairer than that.


p.s. The next challenge in The Great Swift Bake Off is approaching. This month two dozen biscuits are the order of the day. We'll open Mr Linky next Wednesday - what will you make?

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Life's a Game: 2. Go

This year we're sharing with you our game of the month. These are all favourites from our collection, or ones we play with our friends.

February's game is Go.

No, we're not talking about the ancient Chinese game involving little black and white counters. We're talking about Go, the 60's board game that takes you around the world on the hunt for souvenirs. While this is part of our charity shop collection, it is also one of the few that we went hunting for rather than stumbling upon. Joe's mum played this game as a child and Joe has fond memories of playing it too.

The premise is fairly simple - travel from city to city to collect a fixed number of souvenirs and then race to be the first back to London. As with every game there are the spaces everybody wants to land on (Thomas Cook - tickets and bureau de change under one roof), and those everyone avoids (Customs!). Some precise dice rolling is needed to get you from country to country while avoiding the hazards that might befall every traveler. It is a rare game where a freak storm does not whip an unwary passenger from their route and park them in an obscure part of the board - that's all part of the fun (though mighty frustrating if you were almost back to London and suddenly you find yourself in the Falkland Isles!).

One of the joys of the game are the details, and none more so that the range of currencies you need to use to buy your tickets and souvenirs. From Deutchmarks in Germany to Yen in Japan all with different exchange rates, its worth picking yourself a good banker for this one! Fortunately a handy chart is provided to make things easier.

I'd say this is one of the favourites on our shelf. Even the most cunning of players can be derailed by an unlucky dice throw and that makes it a good game for all the family.

Catch up with previous Life's a Game posts here.

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Life's a Game: 1. Shave a Sheep

One aspect of our life that, up till now, we've not mentioned on this blog is a love of board games. In particular we enjoy hunting down older games from charity shops. While this has a tendency to be hit and miss (we've certainly bought a couple of duds) it has also produced some gems which we'd like to share with you.

Therefore, in 2014, we're going to feature a board game of the month, working our way through the highlights of our collection. Some will be old, some new and some will not be ours but belong to friends.

January's game is Shave a Sheep.

This is the most recent acquisition in our charity shop collection and kept the family very amused over Christmas. It's a simple enough game: first you make yourself a sheep from the Lego provided. Then you roll a dice to try and collect wool for your sheep - but beware, if your sheep looks too good someone might try and swap their sheep for yours, or even set the wolf on you! Fortunately the wolf seems to eat wool not sheep, so all is redeemable.

The best bit of this game in our opinion is the Lego sheep. While you might start the game with a sheep that looks like the one on the box it seems impossible to keep it that way. As other players take their turns you often find yourself fiddling with your little sheep; first you make it longer, then maybe shorter, perhaps switch the eyes and the nose, start checking the box for spare parts... a yellow eye? Thank you very much.

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