Yeah, another boardgame post. What can I say? Me likey the Euro-games.
Vegas Showdown: Sylvia's brother Karrrl brought this game with him. I'm glad he did because I had just recently resisted the urge to buy it but still wanted to try it out. In VS you're a wealthy landowner who is building a new hotel/casino on said land and attempting to make a more profitable, more popular, and ultimately more famous one than your wealthy landowning friends. At its heart it's a bidding game with some tile laying aspects. Each round you'll bid on a variety of hotel and casino tiles, everything from slot machines to restaurants to gaming tables to 5 star steakhouses. Any tiles you win get placed on your gameboard which represent your fancy-schmancy establishment. Each tile also has an effect on how much money you bring in each round and how much popoularity your place has. For example, buying a slot machine tile will increase your finance score while a buffet will make your business more popular. Balance is important because the money you make each round is equal to the lesser of your finance score and your popularity score. There are a lot of different tiles to buy and each one has differing effects on your finances, popularity and fame. The tiles also can't be placed on your board unless there's a place to fit it. See, the tiles are of different shapes and sizes and each have doors on them. If you buy a tile and want to add it to your hotel/casino you need to place it in such a way that it fits completely on your game mat and also has an unobstructed path from it to one of the entrances of your establishment. You can rearrange your tiles later but it takes a turn to do and that means you can't buy anything that turn. What to do, what to do? At the end of the game there are bonus points given out for completing certain configurations of tiles, having the most money, being the most popular etc. All these things get added into your fame score. The player with the most fame wins! Karrrl's girlfriend Mycuz beat us both times we played with them but I won when we broke in Jenny and Michizzle's copy.
If you're interested in checking it out in more detail AND in video format check out Scott Nicholson's Review. This was actually his first video podcast and he's gotten better at it and gotten nicer equipment since then too. If this sort of thing interests you at all there are a lot of great games out there that Scott has made video reviews about.
You can also check it out if you just want to see someone who is actually dorkier than I am.
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4 comments:
We have about ten baord games at our house and can't keep them properly stored. I can't imagine how you guys...
Oh, right, no kids. Yep, that would do it.
Little bastards.
Reason #241 to not have kids. And it's far from the last reason.
If you'd like I can suggest some good games you could play with your kids that won't drive you batty with their stupidity. The games, I mean. I can't help it if the kids drive you batty with their stupidity.
Seriously though. If you'd like to give me their ages I can give you some ideas. There's so much better stuff out there than Candyland, Chutes and Ladders, Life, Monopoly and Trivial Pursuit. You'll probably end up throwing out the other 10 so you'll have plenty of room.
Suggest away.
Although if we threw out Candyland my daughter would kill me.
ages 8-6.
These links will take you to boardgamegeek.com and will give descriptions of the games as well as provide reviews and answer any questions you might have about them. You probably won't find them at your local toys r us though. If you don't have a good hobby/game store near you, you'll most likely have to order them on-line at a place like housefullofgames.com, funagaingames.com, or timewellspent.org.
Several of these are games we've gotten for our nieces who can vouch for them. Sylvia's sister and her husband will vouch for them being immensely better than a 100th game of Chutes & Ladders. Your daughter will soon say, "Candywhat?"
For both kids:
Gulo Gulo
For the younger:
Chicken Cha Cha Cha
Enchanted Forest
For the older:
Amazing Labyrinth
This next one may be over their heads. The 8 year old is getting close but you and your wife will love it. It's the game that got me and the Spousal Unit into euro-games. There are several expansions that I'd rather not play without but the base game is excellent on its own and should really be tried:
Carcassonne
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