Board Games

My game club meets every Thursday night in a two room, 200 square foot apartment that has been dedicated to gaming. This last week I arrived late, as usual, after taking care of some daddy duties, lugging a dozen games in a plastic tote. Parking is always at a premium in the residential neighborhood where we meet but this night it was worse than I had ever seen. I ended up parking almost a block away which made me second guess my tote full of cardboard. Why did I bring so many games? I wouldn't be able to play them all. Each step brought this thought to my mind until it started to sound like a common argument my wife makes. "Why do you buy so many games?" she asks. "You won't be able to play them all." After that I forced the argument from my mind.

I finally arrived at the door to the apartment and thrust it open. Instead of tables with boardgaming in progress I was met with the sight of the backsides of a dozen or so gamers. The frontsides of these gamers were all pointed towards the three TVs along the wall. My beloved gaming tables had been either folded up and hid away or were covered with coats and other non-gaming stuff.

"Did you bring your own controller?" I was asked? I had not. I did have a dozen games in a tote and over one hundred games lining the walls. But it didn't look like that mattered. My board game night had been taken over by Halo 2. I found a place to put the tote down and started to clear a place at the table. I walked in front of one of the televisions and grabbed A Game of Thrones Boardgame from the stack on the bookcase and passed back in front of the TV. Having made no friends with that maneuver I sat down at the table and started to set up the game.

I didn't have any delusions that I would be joined by four other players so we could play, but the game had been sitting on the shelf for months and no one had learned the rules. I figured I'd have at least the next half hour to read the cards and rules. I was wrong. Nathan broke away from the pack around one TV and came over to me just as I was eyeing the sword and raven markers. He asked if I wanted to play Attika.

Did I want to play Attika? I've never turned down a game and didn't plan to start that night. Perhaps the day wasn't a loss after all. Nathan and I set up the board and we were soon in the battle for control of the land mass. I went first and after a few turns had cut off his forward progress. I had much more room to grow, which put him on the defensive. We had both established solid walls across the land mass which made a shrine connection by either player unlikely. My initial control of the board carried me towards a win.

Surprisingly, Ryan joined us as we were cleaning up the game, giving us three players which is certainly the ideal number for many games. We decided to break out Africa. We grabbed it from a bookcase (or should I say gamecase) and opened it. The game has been in the apartment for well over a year but had never been played. We opened the box and punched the pieces. We picked our colors, noticed that no white explorers had been included, and sorted the pieces.

I tend to be one the who reads the rules and teaches the games. I had read the rules to Africa a few times in early 2003 but my memory didn't serve me at all with this game. So we set about pouring over the rules and learning to set up the game. We decided to play a few turns to understand some of the concepts and before we new it we were many turns into the game, still not understanding all the different options we had. Definitely not the ideal way to learn the game.

By the end of the game at least one of us had done each of the five options in the game and Ryan, who had a majority of gems and gold, won the game. I hope to get a chance to read the rules again and make sure we have a complete understanding of how to play. Then, by the time we play it again in 2006, I will have forgotten that information.

Next up was Oasis. My only playing had left a bitter taste in my mouth. I had ended up in fifth place for multiple turns in that game and did not fare very well. This game went differently. The three player game is much more forgiving. Nathan developed a very large heard of camels while I got two large fertile green areas going. Ryan, a big fan of the game, ended up getting a very balanced set of tiles and beat Nathan and I easily by over thirty points. This kindler, gentler game did get me interested in playing it again with more players.

I had not yet opened my tote. I had lugged that a block I figured so I better use it. I broke out three games that were new to Nathan and Ryan. I had played them all and gave them a choice from the three. The games were Turn the Tide, Samarkand, and Vanished Planet. I informed them that one of the games was not very good and they spent a few minutes trying to decide which one was the culprit. They finally decided it was not Turn the Tide and we started the game. We all ended up with four life preservers which gave us a total of 12. That indicated a low scoring game and we dug right in. Ryan and I didn't make it to the end of the round before we were both found to be a life preserver short. Nathan scored two points, Ryan and I were both negative one.

We rotated our hands and tried again. We found that Nathan's original hand was best as I still had two preservers when Nathan and Ryan went down with their sheep. The third round gave Ryan the good hand which didn't work out for him. He made it to the end of the twelve hands but with no preservers. Nathan had been ejected earlier in the round, and I still had one marker. Victory to me. I found the game to be fun and I will probably reserve it for family play.

At that point is was only 10:30 p.m. so this night was shaping up very nicely. The Xboxers continued to kill each other as the three of us continued to game. We played two Michael Schacht games; Hansa and Web of Power. Both were quick and very enjoyable. Both taken in small doeses should provide enjoyment for years to come.

We reached midnight and Nathan expressed his interest in Power Grid. Now our group has a rule that we start no new games or no games of Power Grid after midnight. This rule is often broken. The Xboxers were now taking their boxes and going home so we were joined by Everett, Dave and Devin. Ryan bowed out. That gave us five players. Everett had never played so I explained the rules over the jeering of the others. We set out to power Germany. At 2 a.m. we were still at it but running out of steam. By 2:30 the game finally ended, which relieved us all. We made a mental note to not start that game after midnight.

This certainly had been a surprising night. What I thought would be a wasted night away from my family turned out to be hours of back-to-back gaming. Now I just need to figure out how to get my family to turn off football and break out the board games for Thanskgiving.

Looking back at the games I've played the most this last year I realize that 9 out of 10 of the games are found online. Eight of those nine games that are found online I have also played in person this past year.

The gaming community definitely is split when it comes to online games. Many enjoy the opportunity they have to game

My gaming group has been meeting for over five years. At first we didn't have any hard and fast rules regarding the conduct of the members but as the group has grown and as incidences occur we have been forced to establish a clear set of guidelines. Here are the rules we established:

1. Root Beer should never be spilled or sprayed across a gameboard. It is even less acceptable if the root beer comes out of your nose. You will be viewed as totally responsible, even if it is in response to a poorly timed joke.

2. Bumping or overturning the table is not viewed as 'A graceful way to concede'.

3. Shoes should be worn at all times, even when playing Lord of the Rings. Cards should never be held between a person's toes.

4. Club dues will be $5 a month. Payment is not allowed in Dinari, Elektro, Escudos, or Ducats.

5. No spitting allowed at any time including when you are 'in character' during a game of Bang!

6. Gamers may only play one game at a time. That means you, David.

7. Nathan can never be banker in any game and the money should be located far from him. This is not because of any concern over cheating, just a problem with Nathan's fuzzy math.

8. Stacking of game pieces or meeples is only acceptible if it is not your turn, you take your turn swiftly when it arrives, and we can be reasonably assured that no person, meeple, or game in play will be hurt if an accident occurs.

9. Clean up after yourself. That means pick up the game when it is over, especially if you conceded (see #2). Take care of your trash.

10. Remember to have fun. Exceptions can be made if playing Fluxx or Killer Bunnies.

11. No games new to our group can be started after midnight. Empire Builder and La Citta can never be started after midnight.

12. No game pieces, candy, clothing or game boards should be used as projectiles. Accept your loss gracefully and with no wailing and gnashing of teeth.


If you need rules for your group I would suggest you don't accept ours 'as-is'. Your group might not even have a Nathan. Or your Nathan might be named Jeremy.

I am curious as to what rules your groups have. Feel free to post them below.