John Kaufeld

7 Wonders makes me happy

Yay! After taunting me with several plays of the almost-impossible-to-get original release of the game and then making me wait months for a new printing, I’m the happy owner of 7 Wonders from Asmodee / Repos Production.

Reprints arrived in distribution about a week ago, and started hitting stores on Tuesday and Wednesday, so check your friendly local game store about getting a copy. This entire print run is already sold out at the manufacturer, but you can find plenty of copies in stores right now. Two weeks from now it’ll probably be sold out again, so don’t say you didn’t get fair warning.

The game plays up to seven people at once, and uses a delightful game mechanic that works like a modified draft format from sealed deck CCG tournaments. All players get an equal-size stack of cards at the beginning of a round. You pick one card from the stack to play, then you set the stack aside to show that you’re done. Once everybody picks a card, you all reveal the cards you selected and pay any costs to play them. Then, you pick up the stack of cards from your neighbor and repeat the process.

I’ll post a complete review soon.

If you like Dominion and Race for the Galaxy, but want something that plays faster and supports more people, here’s your game. It gets five happy pawns from me!

Dice games for a passel of people

Phase 10 Dice does a good job of turning the Phase 10 card game into a relatively fast dice game, but it can still be a bit long, especially with a lot of players.

If you need to entertain a large group, and want to keep the learning curve low with the game speed high, I can recommend these for you as well. Give ‘em a go!

• Bowling Dice (Fundex) — Anyone who ever bowled can make sense of Bowling Dice in seconds. Easy to learn, relatively fast to play, plus groups can naturally form teams. Fun party game!
• Golo Golf Dice (GoZone Games) — Nine custom dice create a classic 9-hole round of golf. Even if you don’t know much (or really anything) about golf, you can pick up this game with a quick demo. Golo also has a nice “push your luck” aspect to it, which makes every round exciting. Players “shoot” nine holes of golf on each round, so there’s a top limit to the number of rolls each player could take. That keeps the game moving, and ensures everybody stays involved. Add a second or third Golo set and you have enough to create a whole evening’s worth of golf tournament action.
• Left, Center, Right or LCR (George & Company) — The ultimate “easy to learn” game! Yes, you can make your own version with three standard six-sided dice plus a roll of pennies (or quarters, dollar coins, or even $100 bills, as a customer informed me one day at the store). Yes, it’s entirely luck, but the game’s interesting “you’re never really out” mechanic keeps people engaged even after they think they lost. Keep one in your car or briefcase so you’re always ready in case of a spare time entertainment emergency.
• Zombie Dice (Steve Jackson Games) — Braaaaaaainsssss!! Really, what more could you want from a dice game than the chance to be a zombie for a while? Zombie dice plays quick, with little instruction. It wraps the zombie theme nicely around the game mechanic, too, as three shotgun blasts end your turn. The custom dice (with three sets of probabilities) adds a layer of strategy to the play, so it’s more than just blindly rolling dice. And did I mention the zombie theme?

Have you played any of those? Any other favorite large-group dice games on your shelf?

Any other fast and easy dice games to recommend?

bluemeeple:

Game: Phase 10 Dice with 7 players

Play: Roll ten dice up to three times to try and get the required sets and/or runs for each phase. You must complete each phase in order, so if you don’t get it, try again next turn. The phases include things like two sets of three of a kind, a set of four and…

Board game recommendations

makeitalready:

We really love games in this house. A few years ago my brother introduced us to Settlers of Catan and we played almost every day for awhile. My mom bought us Seafarers a little after that and we love that too. We’ve heard Cities and Knights is the best one, but we haven’t played that one…

For great two-player games, take a look at some of the Kosmos titles published in the US by Rio Grande  Games. Our favorites are Lost Cities, Carcassonne, Balloon Cup,  (although it can strain friendships at times…), and San Juan.

For a game that’s fun, fast, and scales well between two-four players, try Hey, That’s My Fish from Mayfair Games.

Here’s a question back at you — how many people do you usually play with?