Malicious Afterthought
Devout Dirtbag
I thought I'd drop my science upon those assembled when it comes to playing games indoors with your family or friends. These are my four favorites at the moment, and they get whipped out for fun, frolics and (SNIP! - Legal Ed) when my pals are in attendance.
So, let's stop, collaborate, and listen to each other about indoor funtimes:
Ticket to Ride - You have to build a rail connection between cities. To do this, you play cards of the same color as the route is on the board. So, if there's 4 red spaces between City A and city B, you need four red cards. Each turn, you either add cards to your hand, place your trains on the routes using the cards you hold, or pick up more routes to try to complete. Every other player is doing this, too, though, and there's only a set number of routes (one person's train per route). For each route you don't complete, you lose points. It is one of those games that is incredibly quick to learn, and equally tricky to work out who is trying to get to where and try and block them. There are many different iterations with rule variants, I've got the German edition, which is a map of Germany, the original is the USA. it takes about 90 minutes to play and is good fun. I recommend this. A solid 9/10
Carcassone with the River expansion - You place a tile, building up rods, castles or fields and place a man on them to claim them. If there's more than one player trying to claim an uncompleted castle, it is the person with the most men in it when it is finished that gets the points. Once again, it's quick to learn, and there are many complex strategies to try out. It takes about an hour to ninety minutes to play. 9/10
Zombies!!!! is good fun. To win, you either make it to the helicopter and escape the zombie horde, or kill 25 of the undead. Each turn, you place a tile which builds the city up, place zombies on it and any health or bullet tokens. You then move, fight, or both, then move the zombie horde. The city builds with each turn of the game, and, as an exciting addition, you have cards which you can play at anytime to help you or hinder other players. Such as moving them back to the starting square when they are moments from escape. Bullets allow you to add +1 per bullet to a dice roll when fighting a zombie (need a 4 or above to kill it, otherwise you lose a life point. life points let you re-roll a combat score. With the dark humor pervading the game, I'd recommend this, but buy more zombies as the starting 100 isn't sufficient. With 4 players it is excellent fun. Again, it takes about an hour and a half to play. 8/10
The Big Idea - Everyone draws two cards. One is a noun and one is an adjective. This is then the product you've to pitch to teh other players to gain investments. It's good fun and not at all serious when someone is trying to sell you an "automated chicken". Big laughs are to be found here, so if you see a copy, get one.
So, let's stop, collaborate, and listen to each other about indoor funtimes:
Ticket to Ride - You have to build a rail connection between cities. To do this, you play cards of the same color as the route is on the board. So, if there's 4 red spaces between City A and city B, you need four red cards. Each turn, you either add cards to your hand, place your trains on the routes using the cards you hold, or pick up more routes to try to complete. Every other player is doing this, too, though, and there's only a set number of routes (one person's train per route). For each route you don't complete, you lose points. It is one of those games that is incredibly quick to learn, and equally tricky to work out who is trying to get to where and try and block them. There are many different iterations with rule variants, I've got the German edition, which is a map of Germany, the original is the USA. it takes about 90 minutes to play and is good fun. I recommend this. A solid 9/10
Carcassone with the River expansion - You place a tile, building up rods, castles or fields and place a man on them to claim them. If there's more than one player trying to claim an uncompleted castle, it is the person with the most men in it when it is finished that gets the points. Once again, it's quick to learn, and there are many complex strategies to try out. It takes about an hour to ninety minutes to play. 9/10
Zombies!!!! is good fun. To win, you either make it to the helicopter and escape the zombie horde, or kill 25 of the undead. Each turn, you place a tile which builds the city up, place zombies on it and any health or bullet tokens. You then move, fight, or both, then move the zombie horde. The city builds with each turn of the game, and, as an exciting addition, you have cards which you can play at anytime to help you or hinder other players. Such as moving them back to the starting square when they are moments from escape. Bullets allow you to add +1 per bullet to a dice roll when fighting a zombie (need a 4 or above to kill it, otherwise you lose a life point. life points let you re-roll a combat score. With the dark humor pervading the game, I'd recommend this, but buy more zombies as the starting 100 isn't sufficient. With 4 players it is excellent fun. Again, it takes about an hour and a half to play. 8/10
The Big Idea - Everyone draws two cards. One is a noun and one is an adjective. This is then the product you've to pitch to teh other players to gain investments. It's good fun and not at all serious when someone is trying to sell you an "automated chicken". Big laughs are to be found here, so if you see a copy, get one.
