Category: boardgames

Cleopatra and the Society of Architects Designer: Ludovic Maublanc, Bruno Cathala Manufacturer: Days of Wonder Artist: Julien Delval Year: 2006 Players: 3 - 5 Time: 60 minutes Ages: 10 and up Cleopatra & the Society of Architects is a fun and engaging family game that includes a true, three-dimensional palace that players compete to build. Players strive to become the wealthiest of Cleopatra’s architects by constructing the most magnificent and valuable parts of her palace. Players, however, will be tempted to deal with shady characters and trade in materials of dubious origins in order to help them build faster. While these corrupt practices might allow an architect to stay a step ahead of the rest, they come with a high price – cursed Corruption Amulets honoring Sobek, the Crocodile-god. When Cleopatra finally strolls into her new palace, at the end of the game, the most corrupt architect (the one with the most amulets) will be seized and offered as a sacrifice to her sacred crocodile! Only then will the...

Ticket to Ride Designer: Alan R Moon Manufacturer: Days of Wonder Artist: Julien Delval Year: 2004 Players: 2 - 5 Time: 30 - 60 minutes Ages: 8 and up Description: One of the most popular games ever designed, Ticket to Ride is a simple yet strategic game of connecting cities in the United States with trains. On their turn, players simply draw train cards, claim routes on the board, or draw more destination tickets. Players must balance drawing cards into their hand with claiming routes before opponents in this friendly, yet competitive board game. The rules can be taught in only a few minutes, but games are varied enough to give the game unlimited replayability. With scores of plastic trains and a beautiful board, this is a game you'll find yourself playing time and time again with all ages. My thoughts: First of all, this game takes us at leat an hour to play, but that may be because we always have at least 4 players. And it takes us a...

Settlers of Catan Designer: Klaus Teuber Manufacturer: Mayfair Games Year originally published: 1995 Players: 3 - 4 Ages: 12 and up Description: In Settlers of Catan, players try to be the dominant force on the island of Catan by building settlements, cities, and roads. On each turn dice are rolled to determine what resources the island produces. Players collect these resources to build up their civilizations to get to 10 victory points and win the game. My thoughts: I'm amazed I haven't mentioned Settlers yet. It's a classic, well maybe not Scrabble classic, but a classic nonetheless. I actually won last weekend when we played, with 10 solid points, no longest road, largest army or victory point cards. I was pretty happy. In reality, I should be bad at this game. I'm not really good at cooperating with other players, and this game does encourage trading, especially how we play, but I manage, mostly because I try to only make trades that are advantageous to me. I rarely if ever...

Pirate's Cove Designers: Paul Randles, Daniel Stahl Manufacturer: Days of Wonder Artist: Julien Delval Year: 2003 Players: 3 - 5 Time: 60 - 90 minutes Ages: 8 and up Description: Come aboard and sail to Pirate's Cove... the legendary hideaway of thieving pirates and cutthroat buccaneers. The tales of those legendary pirates of old who've fought and survived these mysterious waters still haunt all those who yearn for a life at sea. Armed with a secret map and starting with a modestly outfitted sloop salvaged from last winter's storm, you set sail to Pirate's Cove -- your eyes filled with visions of treasure and fame, your lungs filled with the salty air of the High Seas. Your objective: to battle for the rights to plunder and become the most famed and feared Pirate the world has ever seen. To do so, you will need to navigate shrewdly, fight recklessly and pillage mercilessly. You will gain fame by winning battles; burying gold and treasure; and bragging about your exploits at the...

Puerto Rico designed by Andreas Seyfarth, published by Rio Grande Games Description: The players are plantation owners in Puerto Rico in the days when ships had sails. Growing up to five different kind of crops: Corn, Indigo, Coffee, Sugar and Tobacco, they must try to run their business more efficiently than their close competitors; growing crops and storing them efficiently, developing San Juan with useful buildings, deploying their colonists to best effect, selling crops at the right time, and most importantly, shipping their goods back to Europe for maximum benefit. A novel game system lets players choose the order of the phases in each turn by allowing each player to choose a role from those remaining when it is their turn. No role can be selected twice in the same round. The player who selects the best roles to advance their position during the game will win. My thoughts: Puerto Rico is one of our go-to games on nights when we have five players. We have...