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In an attempt to increase my geek-hood, I’ve invested some time and money into boardgames. Yes, I’ve reached a deeper level of geekiness just shy of the Warhammer/Magic the Gathering depths (which is a little too extreme for even me).

I’m delightfully surprised to find that unplugged gaming is at times more enjoyable than video games. Fun factor doesn’t depend on visual aesthetics and wow-factor, but solid game play and mechanics. The more games I play and the more variety I play, the more I seem to enjoy board gaming.

I guess the biggest turn-off for me all these years for boardgames is that I played games like Monopoly, Trivial Pursuit, and Risk. They’re somewhat fun in themselves, but the games get frustrating and boring when the main mechanic relies on the random luck of the dice.

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Then just two years ago, I played Settler’s of Catan for the first time and had a fantastic time. Sure there was some chance involved with the dice, but there was a lot of depth in terms of strategy. It was easy to pick up, it was fun, and it was very social in that interaction is critical in the game. I played it a few more times with some friends for board game nights, and the game stuck with me.

This June, while out in Victoria to do the West Coast Trail, Renata and I were checking out the sights and found a board game store on main street. The owner of the store had a collection of over 300 different board games, and was a hardcore board gamer. He was super helpful in helping us find some new games to play. Thirty minutes and $250 later we walked out of the store with five new board games to play with.

Of the batch we got:

1. Puerto Rico
2. Medici
3. Hive
4. Carcassonne
5. Hollywood

So far we’ve tried all the games except Hollywood. I must say, I’m more than happy with our investment. With the gem of the group being Puerto Rico, which has been the #1 rated game for years now. After having played a few times, I can now understand the hype and fanaticism for the game. It may not be the most popular game (the best selling game right now is still Settler’s of Catan), but it is the most intriguing, fun, and addicting game I’ve come across so far.

Chance and luck in the game is kept to a minimum, as there’s no dice involved. The game is heavy on strategy, but is setup in such a way that every game will play differently due to the multitudes of strategies available. The depth of the game is so deep that it feels like I’ve only scratched the surface having played a handful of games so far. I can’t wait for this Thursday when Mel and Frank are coming over for some Puerto Rico :-).

The other games too have been really great.   Carcassonne is unique and fun.  Medici is a tricky auctioning game that requires a lot of analysis, and Hive is a quick and portable tactical game that relies on spatial thinking.

On Monday Renata and I swung by Wizards Tower, a nearby comic book and game store.  Mel and Frank gave us a nice gift certificate to spend there, and so we picked up Caylus, another highly acclaimed game.  It’s a beefy game that is probably the heaviest in terms of depth and time for all the games we have so far.  I can’t wait to try it out!

Tack on another hobby on my already long list.  I’m on my way to board game geekiness.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 15th, 2007 at 6:16 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.