Hamster's top 20 board games

[Benjamin]

It's probably popular in Canada because it sounds like a board game version of curling.

[ChrisSteeleAteMyHamster]

9: Thebes

2-4 players

Boardgamegeek blurb: "Thebes is a game of competitive archeology. Players are archaeologists who must travel around Europe, northern Africa, and the Middle East to acquire knowledge about five ancient civilizations -- the Greeks, the Cretans, the Egyptians, the Palestinians, and the Mesopotamians -- and then must use this knowledge to excavate historical sites in the areas of these civilizations. Through the course of the game, expositions are revealed, and an archaeologist who has treasures from the requisite civilizations may claim the prize (this is a change from the first edition's handling of exhibitions). The archaeologist who learns the most about the civilizations, claims the greatest-valued artifacts, and collects the most exhibitions will win out over his or her colleagues.

The key element to the game is that it is played out over a period of two (or three) years, and each action a player performs takes a certain amount of time -- traveling is a week between cities, gathering knowledge takes time for the level of the knowledge, and actually digging at a cultural site takes time to yield a certain number of artifact tiles. The game uses a novel mechanism to keep track of this. There is a track of 52 spaces around the outside of the board. Each time a player moves and takes an action, he or she moves their player token forward in time. Players take turns based on being the one who is furthest back in "time." So, a player can go to an excavation site and spend 10 weeks digging for artifacts, but that will also mean that the other players will likely be taking several actions in the interim while that player waits for the "time" to catch up.

In addition, the artifact tiles for each civilization are drawn from a bag that also contains dirt. When a player excavates a site, that player pulls tiles from the bag, but some may only be worthless dirt instead of valuable treasure. That dirt is then returned to the bag, making the first draw more likely to provide useful tiles."

A.k.a Indiana Jones: The Game (sadly minus the Nazis). Move around Europe picking up knowledge about the ancient world before heading down to "dig" by pulling tiles out of bags that could be either "dirt" or artefacts (which are tiles of real historical artefacts). Great game this one, pretty easy and it's fun. The "time" mechanism that the blurb above talks about is really slick as you need to balance whether to take more shorter turns or go on longer digs. There are various ways to get points to win which adds to the strategy.

There's also enough luck in it so that the geeky, annoying player doesn't always win just because they've played it more.

[lanky316]

It's the game that Sid Meier based his kind of famous computer game on. It was made in the same year that I was born, which makes it old. It also takes hours and hours to play. It's great though.

*retro gaming nerd moment* Sid had never played the board game before doing the computer game. He'd heard of it but didn't know anything about it in reality.

For my part I've still got to find the time to try this one out... and several other games I've seen here. F1 Subbuteo sounds a laugh for starters.

[Maxx]

Wow, the UK has the most boring game blurbs of all time.

[LUKIE]

Hammie, I think I mentioned this thursday night, but do you know of a stranded, deserted island style board game, where you have to build shelter, get food, possibly escape the island, kind of thing?

[ChrisSteeleAteMyHamster]

8: Shogun

3-5 players

Boardgamegeek blurb: "Shogun is based on the Wallenstein game system. The game is set in the Sengoku period (approx 1467-1573) which ends with the inception of the well-known Tokugawa Shogunate.

The game is an international edition with language-independent components and five language-dependent rule booklets.

Japan during the Sengoku or “Warring States” Period: each player assumes the role of a great Daimyo with all his troops. Each Daimyo has the same 10 possible actions to develop his kingdom and secure points. To do so he must deploy his armies with great skill. Each round, the players decide which of the actions are to be played out and in which of their provinces. If battle ensues between opposing armies, the unique Cubetower plays the leading role. The troops from both sides are thrown in together and the cubes that fall out at the bottom show who has won immediately. Owning provinces, temples, theaters, and castles means points when scores are tallied. Whichever Daimyo has the highest number of points after the second tally becomes – SHOGUN!"

A.k.a Risk in Japan. Shogun is smart because it's tight. There's not quite so much focus on conquering as much as you can compared to games like Risk. Instead you have to conquer carefully to avoid over-stretching yourself. Not just your forces but also your resources. Everything costs money and each winter your people need rice to survive. Tax an area for money - your peasants will refuse to fight for you. Same if you take rice from them for your winter stores. Go back and tax them again and you'll have a peasant uprising on your hands. You're also building castles, temples and theatres which score you points, but if a rival takes that area then they take those buildings too.

The two best parts of the game are 1) that each season you choose ten actions (a few build, a few troop actions, a couple of tax actions and a couple of war actions) but can only do one from each area (and these are planned secretly and revealed together).... 2) instead of dice there is a cube tower. Fighting armies are dropped into the tower (which has shelves inside to keep some armies in there) and those that come out the bottom of the tower survive. Whoever has most cubes come out wins. This does mean though that even if you have a run of bad luck, your armies are being stored up in the cube which will help in future battles.

Shogun takes about 3 hours to play which is definitely comparable with Risk and to my mind is a much more interesting and strategic game.

[ChrisSteeleAteMyHamster]

Hammie, I think I mentioned this thursday night, but do you know of a stranded, deserted island style board game, where you have to build shelter, get food, possibly escape the island, kind of thing?

I believe there may be one coming out in November at the huge games fair in Germany. Ask me again then and I should know more.

[LUKIE]

If it doesn't.

Me and you Hammie. We will make that shit.

[Mongrel]

Not sure it fits with the theme of the others, but, man, I'm gonna be so disappointed if Test Match doesn't make an appearance!

[ChrisSteeleAteMyHamster]

Test Match / World Cup Cricket? Where you flick the bowler's arm over and flick the bat down to hit the ball?! I love that game...Not in the list though. The bowler's hand has come off in my copy but it actually means that you can feed the ball down the chute yourself allowing for spin, swerve and slower balls.

[Mongrel]

Test Match / World Cup Cricket? Where you flick the bowler's arm over and flick the bat down to hit the ball?! I love that game...Not in the list though. The bowler's hand has come off in my copy but it actually means that you can feed the ball down the chute yourself allowing for spin, swerve and slower balls.

Yep, that's the one. Might be known by a different name in the UK. I loved that game, but it was always so creased when you got it out of the box and my mum ruined it for me at like age eight with an iron.

[lanky316]

Subbuteo cricket! Never got the chance to play that as most of the bits were lost by my cousin before it got passed on. The Rugby version was pretty good too. All I have now is the remains of the football one

[ChrisSteeleAteMyHamster]

Nah, the one I'm talking about is a little different.

Though yours is Subbuteo Cricket which is a classic.

[Liam]

Yeah, I had the one Hammy posted. Never played it a lot though, never seemed to have the right amount of space for these kinda games.

[ChrisSteeleAteMyHamster]

7: Antike

2-6 players

Boardgamegeek blurb: "Antike is a challenging strategy game about evolution and competition among ancient civilizations. Ancient nations create cities, build temples, sail the seas, and discover new principles of science and technology. Their legions and galleys open new settlements and defend their people against attacks from their enemies. Two scenarios can be chosen as the game board is two-sided. Players choose from Greeks, Romans, and Germanic tribes and Phoenicians, Carthaginians, Persians, Arabs, Egyptians, and Babylonians.

Every nation tries to win ancient kings, scholars, generals, citizens, and navigators for themselves. The nation that acquires a specified number (depending on the number of players) of ancient personalities first will win the game!

Lead one of these nations to victory! But watch out for your enemies, as they will want to conquer your cities to destroy your temples. The game depends not on the luck of dice or cards, but on thoughtful plans and skillful diplomacy."

A.k.a Risk in the Cradle of CivilizaSHUT UP ALREADY.

I do like a game based on ancient civilizations and the development of. In this one, players start with a few areas which produce gold, marble and iron. There's a little graphical wheel drawn on the board and on your turn you can move your marker 1-3 spaces around it for free (or more spaces by paying money to do so). You can then do what that space says - whether taking the resources from that area, or building troops or temples (which increase your resource output), or buying a development like roads, or masonry or sailing to help you in your quest. You can also go and start a fight. There's no dice involved in the fighting so by looking at the size of the forces you can work out whether you'll win or not.

The strength of the game is in that wheel as you need to plan a few turns ahead otherwise you'll find yourself having to pay extra money to get to the space on the wheel that you need. Pretty game and plays really well and within 1-2 hours which is crazy for a civilization game. Also has a double-sided board so you can play a more western part of Europe or a more eastern part into the middle east.

[Mongrel]

Nah, the one I'm talking about is a little different.

Though yours is Subbuteo Cricket which is a classic.

Nah, it wasn't the one I played either. Just couldn't find a laid out version on Google Images.

I think we are talking about the same thing.

[Damian WayLNKe]

Better watch out for Tornado Rex! Best game ever.

[LUKIE]

The cricket one you guys are talking about is called TEST MATCH here in Oz. Cousins used to have it. Played it a little. It's a fun game.

[Ruki]

8: Shogun

3-5 players

Boardgamegeek blurb: "Shogun is based on the Wallenstein game system. The game is set in the Sengoku period (approx 1467-1573) which ends with the inception of the well-known Tokugawa Shogunate.

The game is an international edition with language-independent components and five language-dependent rule booklets.

Japan during the Sengoku or "Warring States" Period: each player assumes the role of a great Daimyo with all his troops. Each Daimyo has the same 10 possible actions to develop his kingdom and secure points. To do so he must deploy his armies with great skill. Each round, the players decide which of the actions are to be played out and in which of their provinces. If battle ensues between opposing armies, the unique Cubetower plays the leading role. The troops from both sides are thrown in together and the cubes that fall out at the bottom show who has won immediately. Owning provinces, temples, theaters, and castles means points when scores are tallied. Whichever Daimyo has the highest number of points after the second tally becomes – SHOGUN!"

A.k.a Risk in Japan. Shogun is smart because it's tight. There's not quite so much focus on conquering as much as you can compared to games like Risk. Instead you have to conquer carefully to avoid over-stretching yourself. Not just your forces but also your resources. Everything costs money and each winter your people need rice to survive. Tax an area for money - your peasants will refuse to fight for you. Same if you take rice from them for your winter stores. Go back and tax them again and you'll have a peasant uprising on your hands. You're also building castles, temples and theatres which score you points, but if a rival takes that area then they take those buildings too.

The two best parts of the game are 1) that each season you choose ten actions (a few build, a few troop actions, a couple of tax actions and a couple of war actions) but can only do one from each area (and these are planned secretly and revealed together).... 2) instead of dice there is a cube tower. Fighting armies are dropped into the tower (which has shelves inside to keep some armies in there) and those that come out the bottom of the tower survive. Whoever has most cubes come out wins. This does mean though that even if you have a run of bad luck, your armies are being stored up in the cube which will help in future battles.

Shogun takes about 3 hours to play which is definitely comparable with Risk and to my mind is a much more interesting and strategic game.

Shogun!!!

I played this game once, and I was a bit iffy before we started...but it turned out to be a whole lot of fun. Plus, the cube tower thing was great.

[ChrisSteeleAteMyHamster]

6: Samurai

2-4 players

Boardgamegeek blurb: "Part of the Knizia tile-laying trilogy, this game is ostensibly set in medieval Japan. Players use hexagonal tiles to surround cities, which have one to three different figures: rice paddies, Buddhas, or high hats. The tiles represent influence on particular facets of the cities, and the highest influence on a figure when the city is surrounded takes that figure. The object of the game is to have more of any one else in one category, and then have the most remaining figures."

Wow a part of ANOTHER trilogy. Game designers are as bad as Hollywood.

There really isn't any theme in it. Loosely it's set in Japan and you're laying tiles to "influence" the workers, religion and politics in various cities. In practice you're laying tiles in order to win cool little bakelite rice paddies, Buddhas and pointy things. It's a smart little game though which allows for plenty of opportunities to screw people over and steal pieces from under the nose of others. Game ends when all of one type of piece has been won from the board and then some scoring jiggery-pokery is done to see who wins. Basically it could have been designed without any theme at all but it does make it look and feel nice.