Roll a dice.  Move your thimble.  Go directly to jail.  Do not pass go.  Do not collect $200.  This is the image that most Americans conjure when the topic of boardgames is brought to the table.

Risk and Monopoly, are the staples of the American board game industry.  On top of having sold millions of copies, they have a number of other elements in common.

Both are dependent on dice.  One good roll can bring you great fortunes, while a bad one can cripple you for the rest of the game.  These games tend to have a large amount of chance or luck built in that seriously alters the flow of the game.  Coming back from these near death predicaments is not impossible, but struggling to survive up to your next turn is not the most enjoyable experience. Most board games in this category involve luck, conflict, and drama.

There is a school of boardgames that relies heavily on strategy without being a war-game like Risk or Axis and Allies.  They are more abstract than buying up random properties, and considerably less abstract then the movements in chess.  Simple economic themes tend to be somewhat more prevalent.  Also in this camp, it’s important to note that there are no player eliminations.

These games are still struggling to find a uniform name across the hobby.  Some call them German games because Germany produces the largest amount of boardgames per capita, the majority fitting this description.  Others call them Euro Games, because their popularity and production is not restricted to merely Germany.  Expanding further, some call them designer games and others strategy games.

Read the rest of this entry »

World Games just closed up shop.  With that, the Spiel Knights had to find a new place to play board games in Missoula Montana.  Some of the coffee shops are good places and rather casual, but not always the best place to play games.  While it is great to stop by there and play once and a while, it just wouldn’t be a home location.

Our stint of homelessness did not last for very long as we were fortunate in that one of the members is friends with the owner of the local comic book joint.  Yesterday was our first game day at Muse comics.

It was quite the different atmosphere than we were used to.  Instead of having relaxing panflutes and sweet strumming from the ukulele we had anime, action, and violence on televisions around the store.  Instead of having a couple of people near us talking about how they’ve never seen some game before, we had people near us slaying monsters and taking necrotic damage.

I did find some relief when customers came through the store and I had absolutely NO responsibility to help them find something.  I do like helping people find new games, but it was nice to be able to just focus on playing.

Dominion was played, Infernal Contraption was played, and we finally got an opportunity to play Hamburgum.  One of the few games (if not the only one) to feature beer, but not have mass consumption as the goal.

It was great of the Muse to welcome our game group into their store, and it will be interesting to see where the group goes from here.