AGI: Settlers Of Catan

Settlers of Catan is a game published by Mayfair Games. If you haven't heard of this game by now then you have been living under a rock on the moons of Jupiter. This Game jumped beyond just being a Gamers game and its not hard to see why.

You play as an independent town that builds and expands to based on the resources they gather. The winner is the first person to achieve 10 victory points.

As you can see in the picture,  the board is a set of hexagonal tiles. Each tile represent resources (wheat, sheep, brick), water, or desert. On each resource tile, a number token is randomly placed ranging from 2 to 12.  There 2 types of cards Resource cards and Development Cards. Resource cards are used to track the number of resources a player has.(one brick card = one brick resource) Development cards are special cards that can add victory points to your score or give special bonuses on a turn. Finally, there is the Thief. He starts in the desert tile. I will explain his purpose later. Each player then place down 2 towns and road tokens on the corners of 2 different of the hexes.

The Player turn start with him rolling the dice. The result on the dice creates resource cards that have the matching number on their number token. For example, you roll a 6 and a wheat tile has a 6 token that resource can be taken. Any player that has a town on a tile corner with the number rolled gains one of that resource. If the player rolls a 7 then the player can move the thief onto any tile on the board. Once the thief is a tile that tile no longer generates its resource. Next, the player can build roads and cities, and buy Development cards with the resource cards he has gained. A player can also barter his resource cards with other players for resource cards that he needs. 

Over all if you are looking for a game that will get your family into more than just Scrabble like games this is a good start drug.
The reason this game has taken off in popularity is because it easy to pick up and the gameplay makes it very family friendly.  I have played this with my parents and they picked up the games mechanics quickly. After the game they told me that they definitely would play this game again.  The game has enough strategy to keep the game interested and is still simple enough that the non gamer can enjoy it.

AGI - Dominion

Dominion, from Rio Grande Games, is a game about building a kingdom. Your start out small using your resources to build a bigger kingdom. This in turns allows you to buy more Estates, duchies, and provinces for yourself. Amazingly, this is all done with cards... Many, many, many, cards. (500 cards in total.) There are four Types of cards:

• Treasure Cards: The money cards to buy things, Ranging from 1 to 3 coins.
• Victory Cards: Give you victory points to win the game, again ranging form 1 (estates) to 3 (Provinces).
  
• Kingdom Cards: Cards that help your kingdom get money and victory points faster.
• Curse Cards: Subtract Victory points.

The game "board" are the stacks of cards. The Treasure and Victory cards and 10 of  25 Kingdom cards chosen randomly. The player's turn has 3 parts Action, Buying and End. Action cards are played first these are Kingdom cards, and allow the player to do things like: "add 2 more gold to you pile this turn" or "play another action card". Buying is when you can buy new cards to add to your deck, finally the End phase is when you discard any cards you played this turn to your discard pile and draw 5 new cards. This continues until the one of the of the Victory card piles or 3 of the Kingdom card piles is empty. Victory points are then added up to see who the winner is.  

The game is quick to pick up, most understand the basics of a turn after 1 round of play. The real gaming is the strategy on how you create your kingdom. One method is of course to collect Victory cards, another method is to use the garden card to gain a small amount of victory points, over the course of the entire game. The smoothness of the mechanics make the gameplay go by quickly.

By the time this review has gone up there have been many expansions for the game. Each one adds more cards into the mix and more ways to win. While Dominion is not the most complex game is still a gamers game. Those who don't play things beyond Monopoly may be overwhelmed by the options of the cards. Dominion may be still worth trying with the family if there is time to play it, but be prepared to explain many of the cards.

AGI - Hex Hex

It's been a while since I last posted but there are plenty of games I could bring up. Today, I bring you a game that I just recently found called Hex Hex. This is a card game that has its origins in the game hot potato. The object of the game is to not be hexed, to avoid this fate you have spells (cards) that deflect the hex to other players. This continues until a player can't deflect the Hex and
they lose Voice (points). Interestingly enough, the game has no real victory conditions. They only state that the players choose a certain number of round to play and the end of it the person with the most voice wins. This may seem odd but once you play a few turns you understand why the victory conditions are so odd...

It just a blast to play!

The game starts with one player dealing out 5 cards to each person, then assign the hex to a random player. As mentioned above the players all bounce the Hex around until it finally explodes. To add spice to this not all cards pass the hex, one cards actually cause the hex to explode on the player it is attached at the moment. Others include splitting the Hex into 2 hexes and the card that the game is named after the Hex Hex card. This card can be played at anytime and when placed everyone at the table has to raise their hands above their head and say: "Hex Hex!" The Last person to do this loses three voice. The variety of cards turn this game in an excellent group game. the more people you have the better since it make the game more unpredictable.

Hex Hex is a great party game with rules are quick to pick up and variety make it fun to play for extended periods of time. Buy it no seriously buy this right now from the link in my blog, its worth the money. Here's the link one more time just in case you can't find it above.

AGI - Fluxx

Welcome to Analog Game Interest round 2!

Today, dear reader(s) (I might have 2 people reading this) we have a game that is not only fun but unpredictable. Fluxx is not a game that can be explained well because humans by nature need games to have set rules. In this game, the rules always change. watch as I try to explain below:

Fluxx is a card game by Loony Labs, that for a lack of a better way to define it, it is a game about rules. Rules most likely will change after each players turn. One thing they do to keep it simple is that you can only draw/play cards on your turn.

There are 4 types of cards: (as seen in picture above) Rules, Goals, Keepers, and Actions.

Rule cards: Cause the rules to change in the game. If a card is played that requires everyone to draw 2 cards on your turn that means you draw 2 cards.

Goals: these cards allow give you your victory conditions. buy for filling the specified goal you can win the game. there is only one goal at a time.

Keepers: these are used to help you achieve goals. by placing these down in fron t of you during your turn you can work towards the current goal.

Action: these are the spice cards that allow you to do things outside the normal rules. for example: one cards says draw 3 cards, play 2 of them and discard the 3rd one.


The challenge for anyone new is to wrap their head around playing the game. It seems really complex but in all honesty after a few rounds of play most people catch on. It is amusing to see people reaction to the game. Most approach it as way too complex and leave loving the game. the games length can vary sometimes it can end after about 5 minutes of playing other times I've seen games go as long as 30 minutes. It also forces one to never plan ahead because goals, rules, and keepers shift all the time. To quote one person: "This game made me fear change." Fluxx's gameplay certainly lives up to its name.

The downside is that this unpredictable gameplay results in only one way to win:
By getting everything you need to work on your turn. I'd say 99% of games are won by the player having the cards he needs and putting them all down on his turn. Its rare that a person wins through some else's actions. However, the feeling of success by doing what you need to win on a single turn is a great rush.

This game is great to play anyone who needs a good party game for a lot of people. If you don't have it, buy it.

Anolog Game Interest

What the heck is this?

That my friend is a what I call a fun game. I have a bad habit of walking in to a hobby store and finding 20 board and card games I want to try out. The problem is I never have the money to buy them all and the second is, well, they may horrible. This game is one I, honestly, bought on a whim and was worth the price.

King's Blood can be summarized as a glorified Uno. Same idea of getting all the cards out of your hand, but just more rules. Don't worry though, the rules actually make it more fun. In order to complete your objective you have to put down different character cards with matching traits .(ex: color or number) Some character cards have special abilities like draw 3 or skip to help keep your opponent from winning. Each card has a gender as well. If the character placed next to each other are opposite genders and other conditions are met, a marriage is formed. By the end of the game you could a sprawling royal family tree on you table.

I after reading the rules and playing it out alone a few times. (a habit of mine to make sure I know the rules.) I took this game on a vacation and forced a group to play a couple of rounds. After a practice they got the hang of the rules, and serious game play ensued. What was interesting was as the everyone got used to the flow of game play, they began to create stories about characters. They began to note the odd pairing that sometimes were created. It was fascinating to see how people would create their own story for the family tree on the table.

King's Blood is the type of game I like because it takes a tried a true concept and changes it enough to be interesting but not enough to be intimidating. In the group I played with, most had played a game of Uno, but I think the majority don't play hobby shop card games. Trying to get them play a game like this is far easier than say Magic the Gathering, because many of the elements of a "normal" card game are there. The rules are on one sheet of paper and not a booklet.

King's Blood to me is something worth checking out, especially if you have people who are hesitant to try a game that isn't sold at Target or Wal-Mart.