Ho! Ho! and thrice Ho! As Christmas shoots towards us, faster than a speeding bullet, here are some ideas for that last-minute get-out-of-jail gift.
Small, quick, easy-to-learn games seem to be the most popular amongst my reader (you know who you are!), so I’ll start with those, concentrating on portable card games. If you’re looking for a bigger “game night” game, keep going to the end . The shopping links are just a random selection – you could go to Amazon, or to your local games shop.
It was first on the list last year, and it’s still one our most-played games:
Cockroach Poker – It’s not really anything like traditional poker, but there is a lot of bluffing involved. The idea is to pass cards around the table, trying to get other players to pick them up, whilst not collecting too many yourself. Someone’s passed you a card and claims it’s a Toad. Do you believe them? Do you call their bluff? Or do you take a peek at it then try to fob it off onto someone else? The first player to collect 4 identical cards loses – and everyone else wins! What’s not to like about a game with so many winners? Unless you’re the one loser… The card art is quirky and fun (unless you’re scared of SPIDERS!) and is suitable for kids and adults alike.
Cabanga – another simple card game. This time you’re trying to ditch cards from your hand onto one of the central piles, but without pickup penalties along the way. When a player has no more cards in hand, the round ends and all players count the points on their cards. As soon as a player has collected 18 points, the game ends and the player with the fewest points wins. It plays up to 6 players and takes about 20 minutes.
No Thanks! – The rules are simple. Each turn, players have two options; either play one of their chips to avoid picking up the current face-up card or pick up the face-up card (along with any chips that have already been played on that card) and turn over the next card. Picking up cards is bad, unless you can form a run of numbers; then it’s good. You have a limited supply of chips, but you can get more my picking up unwanted cards. If you can collect a sequence of numbers, then you only score the lowest number. The player with the lowest total wins the game.
Go Nuts for Donuts – In this game, players simultaneously bid for the donut they want from the display – but you only get it if you were the only one bidding for it. The donuts come with victory points or special abilities, but if more that one person wants it, then it’s discarded. Do you attempt to win the ‘best’ donut each round, or go for a lesser pastry and hope that at least you get something? A fun little game for up to 6 players.
Moving on to bigger, longer, more ‘gamey’ games, here are some suggestions if you want more than a quick 20-minute blast. The first on my list is not a new game (it came out in 2016) but it’s taken a while to grow on us. However, it’s become my wife’s favourite ‘big’ game, so it must have something going for it.
Terraforming Mars – If you’re happy to sit down for a few hours (at least 3 for your first game, but it does get quicker as you get used to it), then terraforming mars is time well spent. You’ll be buying and playing cards to form projects that go towards terraforming the red planet. Each player contributes to the overall goal, but the one who best contributes will be the winner. Terraforming comprises raising the planet’s temperature and oxygen levels, and unlocking vast oceans on the surface. Choosing which projects you want to push forward and achieving a level of synergy in the cards you play will be key to winning this game. Whether it be pushing the technological boundaries, growing forests and other flora and fauna, or building cities to house the population, each strategy has its merits – and costs. The game box says it takes 120 minutes – my experience with new players is to allow one hour per player. Just so you know.
I’ve mentioned Wingspan before, well now there’s a new version – Wyrmspan – and this time, you’re after dragons!
The game is broadly similar to its older sibling, but there are differences in gameplay. This time you’re opening up caves for dragons to inhabit, and collecting the appropriate food for the dragon you’re after. There are also points to be gained by enticing compatible dragons into the same cave. (yes “enticing dragons” is a thing!) It also has those little eggs, like Wingspan, but these are speckled! A 2-3 hour game for up to 5 players.
Let’s Go to Japan – What a great idea! Wait, we don’t actually go? We just plan our trip? Oh well, that’s probably cheaper. This is a game about planning your trip (you do get to execute your trip at the end, but the game is about the planning). From a limited selection of attractions each round, you have to choose where you go each day, maximising enjoyment whilst minimising cost and travel. If you’re bouncing between Tokyo and Kyoto each day, you’ll waste a lot of time on the train. But if you can manage to harmonise your trip, then a much more relaxing and enjoyable experience will be had. The best-planned trip, taking in themes for each day, will win the game. A one hour(ish) game for up to 4 travellers.
What else have we been playing?
The number one racing game continues to be Heat: Pedal to the Metal (up to 6 players, 60-90 minutes), with the much simpler Ave Caesar (up to 6 players, 30-45 minutes) a close second. If you want an environmentally themed game, then Earth (up to 5 players, 2-3 hours), is a game about building a flourishing ecosystem, using cards that synergise with each other to grow the flora on your island. Whereas the simpler Forest Shuffle (up to 5 players, 60-90 minutes) concentrates on just one forest and its inhabitants.
Our most popular short games have all been mentioned before, but briefly:
Skull – If you like bluffing games, then here’s a different one. Here, each player has 4 discs, one with a skull and three with a flower. You take it in turns to lay a disc face down in front of you until someone decides to open the bidding, declaring how many disks they can turn over (of all players) without revealing a skull. Whoever bid highest has to turn that many disks over. If they succeed, they get 1 point – if they fail, they lose one of their disks. Whoever scores two points first (or is last person with any disks) wins.
Colt Super Express – A quicker version of Colt Express, that I’ve also recommended here before, and it concentrates on the shoot-em-up aspect of the original. Again, you play a bandit on a train, but this time it’s last-bandit-standing who wins, as you try to avoid either getting shot or falling off the back of an ever-shortening train. It plays up to 7 bandits and generally, the more the better.
Just One – A really good party game, particularly for people who don’t like games! One person has to guess a hidden word that the other players know. The other players will each secretly write a one-word clue to the hidden word. Once they’ve done this, they compare answers, and any duplicates are removed from the pool. The active player can then look at the remaining clues and try to guess the hidden word. It’s a cooperative game; very simple, very much fun. We’ll be playing this a lot over Christmas!
If you like word-connection games, then why not take a look at Codenames or So Clover.
All images are from the BoardGameGeek user community (https://boardgamegeek.com/) and are used under the Creative Commons public licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/).
Merry Christmas!
