My New Favorite Board Game

Saturday night, Jacob and I went to game night again. It's really fun to have a group of friends we play board games with. It's also really nice to have a fun place to go on a date together, and to know that we're just paying for the babysitter and not for something else on top of that.

We do game night in an auditorium. I'm kidding, this photo is from a concert we went to recently.

We played two games this time: Tsuro: The Game of the Path and 7 Wonders

I had never played Tsuro before, and when someone said "That's a really beautiful board," I had to agree.

The game has quick turns, something I love in a game.

I took 2nd place the first time we played, then said "Ok, now I want to play it like 20 times, to figure it out." So, we played again.

We played with 5 people, no problem. As many as 8 players can play at once. The second time we played, I took last place. So of course I'm dying to redeem myself.

I would recommend this to fans of Blokus, because I'm a fan of Blockus and I can see some similarities between the games: moving across the board, planning your moves out and getting blocked by opponents.

My kids (ages 5-10) could play Tsuro, I think, and I've got something to prove, now. I'll be putting this game on my Christmas list.







7 Wonders: Leaders Expansion

Expansions sometimes give me a headache, but this one did not. I've played 7 Wonders enough to be able to handle the upgrade: be impressed! Of big board games with lots of tiny pieces and obscure rules, I think 7 Wonders is my favorite. Thanks to the Van Noys for introducing us to it, five years ago.

The Leaders expansion fits nicely into the original game, basically adding a new phase before phase I starts. You get to choose 3 "leaders" for your city and at the beginning of each phase you can play one of them if you like. They give you extra powers and/or chances for victory points.

I went whole hog on the army stuff, and thought I was going to take 2nd place, but it's better to go whole hog on the science stuff, which is what the winner did. The 2nd place winner went with a very round strategy, whereas I pretty much passed on all the science cards, and took 3rd.

We played with 6 people, one newbie. The new player made a couple of mistakes (see above: "obscure rules") but everyone in the group made similar mistakes the first time they played. I actually said, "Oh, we forgot to mention that rule," and our host said, "No, we mentioned it, but it's ok..." I love the good sportsmanship that I see at game night.

Played any good games, lately?