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 - 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.