New Board Games

So, I don’t talk about it much, but since college, I’ve become increasingly enamored with board games.  I can actually (partially) blame the weekly board game group at Bethesda for this, but I was (sorta) the one who started us getting together in the first place, so I guess that’s a no go.  Whoever’s to blame, they’ve got me addicted.

Today, I was looking for some new ones to play, including Race for the Galaxy (which is freaking sold out everywhere), and thought I’d ask blog readers for some suggestions.  I pretty much have (or have played) most of the standards (Settlers, Carcassonne, Puerto Rico, Bang!, Caylus, etc.) so I’m looking for stuff that’s either new, or a little off the beaten track, but still good.  Additionally, does anyone have a board game news site they can suggest?  One that doesn’t spam with lots and lots of news (releases and reviews are about all I care about)?

In other news, apparently Hasbro / Wizards of the Coast has finally decided to republish Aquire.  If you have not played it, Acquire is a really awesome game.  I got the original 3M version of the game this year, and have played much since then.  I’m happy to see it out again.  I wonder if this bodes well for games like Betrayal, which were part of the same acquisition.  That said, the quality of the pieces of the new Acquire look terrible (see the official website here, compared to the Wikipedia picture of the Avalon Hill version).  I guess I shouldn’t be too shocked, but it doesn’t bode well for Betrayal, which had (count um) 291 tokens just for the scenarios.  Not to mention the room tiles, the double sided character cards and the character miniatures.

4 Responses to “New Board Games” »»

  1. Comment by Joe Ludwig | 04/10/08 at 9:21 pm

    Some games we enjoy at our board game nights that you didn’t list:
    Ingenious
    Tikal
    Medici
    Stupiduel
    Citadels
    Bohnanza (best game about bean farming EVER)
    Three Dragon Ante
    Samurai

  2. Comment by Jeff | 04/11/08 at 8:23 am

    Excellent list. Thanks Joe!

    I actually own Bohnanza. It’s one of the few games my girlfriend will frequently ask to play (she likes the heavy amount of negotiation and strategy in large group games). I’m looking forward to seeing if I can get Agricola (the designer’s new game) when it has its limited release in the states soon. We’ll see if I can get one of those first print copies.

    As for the rest, I don’t think I’ve heard of any of them, so I’ll definitely check some of them out!

  3. Tao
    Comment by Tao | 04/11/08 at 10:55 am

    Hi Jeff,

    Depending on whether you want to pay for shipping from Canada, we currently have 1 copy of Race for the Galaxy left. It was on hold for a customer who never picked it up so it’s back on the site.

    Let’s see, other good games. You seem to enjoy Euro’s mostly, so I’d suggest finding ‘Through the Ages’ - if you’ve played Civilisation on the computer, you’ll love this game. Don’t have it in-stock, I think only FunAgain does (Fred Distribution I believe).

    Other suggestions, some older:
    - Louis XIV
    - Pillars of the Earth
    - Jambo
    - Zooloretto
    - Khronos
    - Thebes

  4. Comment by Jeff | 04/11/08 at 11:47 am

    Hey Tao!

    Thanks for the offer, but with the Canadian $ and the US $ now pretty much at the same level, it’ll cost me about $15 more to buy it, let alone the additional shipping. According to a local site, the game should be available again later this month so I’ll probably grab a pre-order from them.

    I’ve seen Thebes and Khronos around but haven’t had a chance to play them. Maybe I’ll see if I can convince someone to grab copies and I’ll see what I think.

    Thanks for the suggestions!

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