Monday, June 6, 2011

It's All Fun And Games Blogfest!

Hells to the yeah I signed up for this blogfest! (hosted by the ever awesome Alex J. Cavanaugh)

I mean, it's a blogfest where you pick your favorite 3 games. Do you know how many board games we play in my house??

Let me give you some idea.

Here is our game closet (that's right. A whole room for games):



And here are the games we haven't put away in the game closet yet:



I'd say, on average, we probably buy a new board game every 3-4 months or so. Our newest addition was Dominant Species, which was fun but would be even more fun if we had more than 3 people to play with (hint hint, MOM...)




Anyway, as you can imagine, it was hard to pick 3 favs. Part of me wanted to choose Monopoly, cuz we play that a lot (also, I typically win) but, meh. Also, I know the rules say ANY games, but there is absolutely NO WAY I could include card games, and domino games and video games all in one pile. There's literally no possibility I could choose out of such a huge list. So instead, here are my top choices of BOARD GAMES in no particular order:


RISK

For obvious reasons, risk is a lot of fun. I mean, who doesn't like making secret alliances with your siblings, only to brutally betray them later (before they betray you of course)?


capturing south america is a key strategy











AGRICOLA

Agricola is a perfect example of our favorite type of games, one with a lot of little pieces (and also, preferably with enough little plastic bags for easy storage). In Agricola, one has a certain number of turns to be successful at a life of farming. Whether that means raising a large family (as long as you can feed them) or a large herd of cattle or sheep, or by planting a massive hoard of crops, it's up to you as long as you don't starve or forget to pay your taxes.




aww, a cute little fenced in pasture with a barn. No sheep, though. Must have been eaten...









CARCASSONE

Carcassone is awesome, because you create the board as you play, which means every game is different. You flip over a tile, which contains a picture of either a road, a city piece or a field (or any combination of the above) and decide if you want to claim any of them. Build an empire-spanning road, a massive city or be content to farm, but just remember the bigger your roads/fields/cities, the more points, but only if you can complete them, so try and keep your greed in check.






I claim this city in the name of the allmighty Sarah!






I also chose 2 honorable mentions.

THE LORD OF THE RINGS board game

Is an honorable mention because it remains, to this day, a board game we have never won without cheating. To be fair, the game thrives on players who can balance meeting their own needs while serving the greater good of the whole team. And remember what I said about betrayal and junk up at RISK? Yeah... that comes into play here, which is why we can't ever get that damn One Ring into the fires of Mount Doom before Sauron destroys our asses.
It's full of tension and fun.










ohh, Merry. Chances are you gonna die...






ARKHUM HORROR

Do you like Cthulu? Of course you like Cthulu, who the hell don't?
Arkhum Horror is like a combination of Agricola (lots of little pieces) and LOTR (lots of tension and trying to balance your own safety vs saving everyone else too). This game actually requires a hefty amount of setup, but if you can get past that, then you're off, trying to solve the mystery of the old ones while simultaneously trying to keep your sanity and prevent yourself from being lost in space and time or devoured. If you can do all that, then maybe you'll be able to survive when you face off against a randomly selected Elder God.
Full of terror, and depending on the Elder God you have to fight, sometimes damn unwinable, but still a lot of fun.








oh shit. I've just gone insane. Damn.






So there you have it! It's good times for all.

What are some of your favorite board games?

51 comments:

Dan Schwent said...

Was that Fireball Island at the bottom of your closet? I'm still pissed that my mom got rid of mine at a yard sale years ago.

Summer Frey said...

I saw Killer Bunnies in there! Fun game. We play Carcasonne a lot too! My personal preference is card games, though, because I'm a card shark.

Talli Roland said...

Wow, that is A LOT of board games! I'm impressed!

Carcasonnne looks cool.

Anne Ahiers said...

@Dan- ha! it sure is! we purchased it online maybe last year because we had such fond memories of it as children

@Summer- have you ever played The Great Dalmuti? That and Corsari (and maybe Canasta) are my fave card games evar!

Sarah Ahiers said...

Dan - hells yeah it is! It's a childhood game we felt the need to replace as adults. For obvious reasons

Summer - we also play A LOT of card games, which is why i had to separate it out. Favs include Corsari, Canasta, The Great Dalmuti, 31, Rummy 500 and hearts if we can get a 4th player

Talli - it is! You should totally check it out because it's really easy and fun!

Anne - what you said

Austin Gorton said...

I've always preferred Axis and Allies to Risk, but I do appreciate that Risk can actually be played in an afternoon as opposed to an entire day.

I also love Monopoly, mainly because nobody ever wanted to play it when I was a kid, and Trivial Pursuit (though I'm not as much a fun of their newer anniversary edition).

Hannah said...

I've never played any of these games. My family was not big on board games, more card games and marbles (not how you're thinking, there's a board involved).

Kelly and I did play some games when we went dogsledding: Niagra, Tabloid Teasers...I can't remember the other one. You know, this was back when she wasn't boring. hahaha, zing.

Matthew MacNish said...

Wow. I haven't even heard of a couple of these, that's pretty shocking.

Awesome games.

Alex J. Cavanaugh said...

Third mention of Arkham Horror - I need to seek it out. Think you have us beat with games, although we do own Titanic.
Thanks for participating in the blogfest!

Lola Sharp said...

I love Risk.
We play a lot of Scrabble and card games.

Happy Monday, Sarah. :)

Hugs,
Lola

Teralyn Rose Pilgrim said...

Holy cow, you have a ton of games!

Ellie Garratt said...

OMG. That is a lot of games! My brother and I used to play Risk all the time growing up. Loved it, and your choices.

Ellie Garratt

Kristin Rae said...

That closet looks a lot like mine back home--it's FULL of games and mom always brings one out when hubs and I visit.

The only one of the games you've mentioned that I know is Risk! LOL. I bought the LOTR version for my dad one year, and we still haven't played it!

Anne Ahiers said...

@ Austin- confession time. We purchased Axis and Allies like 2 or 3 years ago- mostly because you were such a fan so we thought we'd check it out. And we have NEVER learned how to play it. Seriously- we'll get it out, get out the instructions, and just not get past the first page.
recently we decided that you need to come over and just teach us how to play it, because we're clearly never going to learn on our own.
seriously- we'd rather buy a new game and learn how to play that instead

Kittie Howard said...

Wow! That's an amazing collection. I've heard Agricola is loads of fun. Hmmm, this winter. And, I'm so happy you're into canasta, too. It's just fun!

Austin Gorton said...

@Anne: recently we decided that you need to come over and just teach us how to play it

I would LOVE to. We'll have to find a time. It's actually pretty basic once you get down to it, especially since you have experience with Risk, so the whole concept of rolling dice and having certain values inflict certain levels of damage isn't foreign to you.

Kimberlee Turley said...

"The Game of Things", is my current favorite.

With prompts like "Things you shouldn't do in public." how can it not be the most hillarious fun ever?

"Malarky" is a similar game to Balderdash and is fun if played with a bunch of wise cracks and good liars.

Sarah Ahiers said...

Teebore - we play a lot of monopoly with our Mom. But yeah as Anne said above, we still haven't played axis and allies yet. We were going to learn a few weeks ago and instead bought dominant species...

Hannah - we also play a LOT of card games. Probably a bit more than we play board games. We also play mexican train, which is a dominoes game. We needs to hang out more for some gaming

Matt - some of them are a little more obscure. Carcassone has na xbox arcade version which i liked enough to make me buy the board game. Totallty worth it

Alex - Arkhum is awesome. But don't bother with the expansion packs until you've really mastered the original version. They're not worth it otherwise

Lola - we play a lot of cards as well. Not too much scrabble for us

Teralyn - well we get bored easily, and our solution for that is to buy a new game!

Ellie - risk = good times. I love the malcolm in the middle episode where they become obsessed with playing it

Kristin - ooh! You should totally play it! It's so much fun! And yeah, my parents also have a game closet where they keep their games as well for when we come over. We have a lot of family game nights


Anne - it's a sad fact

Kittie - i LOVE Canasta! And Agricola got game of the year for 2010 i believe. Might have been 2009...

Teebore - clearly, like i said to hannah, we just need to hang out and introduce each other to more games. Like Time's Up - we play that ALL the Time with our family now. We loves it

Sarah Ahiers said...

K. Turley - ooh that does sound like a lot of fun. We occasionally play balderdash in our family as well

Donea Lee said...

As a lover of board games, I'm sad to say I haven't played ANY of these. For shame... I guess I know what I'm buying myself for Christmas this year! Thanks for the suggestions! :)

Donna K. Weaver said...

Love the games you've listed. My boys love the "Game of Thrones" games based on George R R Martin's series.

mamasmental said...

OK looks like that cupboard has reasons 4567 through 4632 why we have to come and visit you guys!!! I know Matt will love that you have Catan! Shame is with just two of us, we cant play many games :( You have sooo many cool ones!!! Of course my fave game of all time is Travian ;) met some truly awesome people in that village <3

Mary Aalgaard said...

Wow. You're really into strategy games - and look how much fun you have. Great photos, too.

Sarah Ahiers said...

Donea - Yay for board games as presents! And i don't think any of these will steer you wrong

Donna - oh man, i totally forgot that i've wanted to check that one out for awhile! It may need to be the next game we buy

SheRa - LOL it was indeed a good game! And yeah, we have troubles sometimes by only have 3 of us. 2 would be much worse

Mary - we're pretty much into all games, but strategy games tend to be easiest to play when you've only got 3 people

Golden Eagle said...

I haven't heard of Agricola or Carcassone--they sound like fun games!

Hannah said...

I played Mexican Train once. We've played a lot of Hand and Foot. We're also a big 500 family.

Unknown said...

LOL, I love board games, but I don't even have a closet for my clothes!

Ciara said...

That's a lot of board games. Wow. Love it. I've always wanted to try Risk. I just never have.
I'm a new follower. :)

M Pax said...

I am so envious of your game closet. Are we neighbors? lol Probably not. Nice meeting you.

Sarah Ahiers said...

Golden - They are! Especially Carcassone which is quick and easy to learn

Hannah - what's hand and foot? And is 500 Rummy 500? Cuz if so, we play that a lot too

Siv - well, to be fair, the game closet may be bigger than my closet for clothing...

Ciara - Risk is fun! But it's also stressful because of the whole betrayal aspect

M Pax - Hah! I wish we were neighbors, we could always use another gamer

Hannah said...

Hand and foot is kind of like a big game of solitaire and 500 is not like 500 Rummy. It's more like Hearts but the trumped suit changes.

Also I lurve Cribbage.

Luanne G. Smith said...

That is some serious game love. Impressed!

Derrick said...

Love Arkham Horror and Carcasone...

Just picked up Agricola yesterday - heard many great things about it...

@Austin - Totally with you on Axis & Allies; actually have had a major hankering to play it lately...

yokohamamama said...

Mostly a card-player (euchre;-), but-- Risk! Ooh! Used to play that with my next-door-neighbor (a looong time ago). And Pente--love that game! And Nuclear Escalation. fun times...

Anonymous said...

WOW. That's a lot of games! Anyone who appreciates board games that much is a friend of mine!

LOVE the "about me" intro. You a twin or is that fiction? Either way, I thought the paragraph was GREAT!!

vic caswell said...

ohmygoodness!!! there's too much awesomeness and games i've never heard of here!!!! love your list! and it's so cool you have people who love to play with you! in my house, pieces always seem to dissapear and end up in toy boxes and then we can't hardly play anything! ugh. so, i'll just have to wait on all the little pieces games.. my, i do love risk though! :)

Nicole Zoltack said...

Wow, what a collection! I haven't played most of those games. They all sound great!

Sarah Ahiers said...

Hannah - can you play it with more than 4 people?
And Pat and our Dad play a lot of cribbage. I remember liking it, but it's been so long i can't remember how to play

L.G. - thanks! We're pretty hardcore gamers in every sense of the word

Derrick!!!!! - YAY! So glad to see you here! I've really been on a carcisonne kick lately. And agricola is great because there's different ways to play it.

Yokohama - i haven't heard of any of those games but they all sound AWESOME!

Bryce - HAH! That's the way i feel too! And thanks, yes I am a Twin

aspiring - yeah we had a lot of problems with that as kids. We're much more careful about it now

Nicole - i'm not gonna lie. They're pretty awesome

Hannah said...

I don't believe so, but in my family we will have two groups. Or we have 500 parties and there's four games going on at the same time. It's like a poker championship but with 500, as in the winners move on and whatnot.

Hannah said...

Scratch that. I looked it up and you can have up to six players but I don't know if I've ever played with six. You can play 2, 3, 5, and six handed games. And there are so many other variations it's hard for me to remember and strategize but I LOVE to play.

baygirl32 said...

look at that closet! don't have the LOTR game, but I do have LOTR risk

Matthew MacNish said...

I notice Axis and Allies in that photo. Another great game!

Sarah Ahiers said...

Hannah - ooh, you'll have to show us how to play some time

baygirl - we also have LOTR risk!

Matt - yeah, at some point we'll have to actually learn how to play it...

K.C. Woolf said...

Wow, what a collection!

Great choice of games there. I've never heard of Agricola but it looks like a lot more fun than Farmville. ;-)

Anonymous said...

I almost absolutely refuse to play board games. LOL, I've been spotted playing UNO on occasion though. And if I had to pick I would say Taboo, but we don't even own it. Scrabble and Chess too. But No. We own things like Life and Monopoly and I absolutely DETEST both of those games with a passion.

I can count the number of times on one hand that we play board games in like two or three years.

Jeff Beesler said...

Monopoly, Risk, Settlers...these are all great games!

TL Conway said...

I covet your game closet! Do you host game nights, complete with potluck-style meals? :)

I haven't heard of many of those games, but the LOTR sounds great! Was never a Risk girl, myself. Not sure if it took too long or if it stems from my youth--it was the only game my brother would play. I never understood why he wouldn't play Clue with me...

Denise Covey said...

Well you are obviously the game queen girl of the world! How many do you have! I haven't heard of any of those you mention, but am travelling to the real Carcassone in a few week's time!

Denise<3

Anonymous said...

Risk is a great game. And all your other picks sound really cool too. I should give them all a try!

Thanks for sharing.

Nate Wilson said...

First of all, the correct strategy to win Risk is to amass all your armies in Australia, then run rampant over the board once everyone else is weakened from fighting each other. Boring, but effective.

And it's possible your sheep cubes weren't eaten by your hungry disc people. Maybe they're just grazing outside a monastery in Carcassone. Or sent to Arkham as sacrificial lambs...

Games is good. I likes games.

Adam Heine said...

So I came over here because it took me a second read to notice Matt MacNish said you were also into board games. And I found this post. And... ohmygoshIwanttoliveinyourgamescloset.

I can't believe you have Fireball Island. My brothers and I loved that game when we were kids. I've never seen it outside my house.

If you're interested, you can find some of my obsessions here and here.

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