Christmas Board Games

This Christmas was a board game Christmas.  Virtually all of my gifts were board games and at this point, I have more than enough to keep me busy through the rest of the year. Perhaps even longer.

I've had a chance to play a few of them (though not all) and it is an interesting mix.

Race for the Galaxy

I think of this game as Puerto Rico set in space; a lot of the mechanics are similar.  Each player chooses an action that all players will execute but he/she gets a bonus for choosing it.  There are goods that have to be produced which can be turned into victory point or turned into money. Developments can be built that enable a variety of advantages such as greater yields during production or lower cost of expansion.

There are key differences, though, which makes the game far from a re-themed Puerto Rico. Most importantly, the game is a card game which makes it both simpler to manage (fewer bits all over the place) and more complex as the costs and advantages of each card are much more variable.  It kind of feels like a hybrid of a deck-building game where each card adds unique abilities and a role-picking/resource development game like Puerto Rico.

There are other differences which I find as advantages over Puerto Rico.  The game can be played with only two players with no compromises or alternative rule sets.  Once you've got your handle around the iconography, the game plays very quickly, less than 30 minutes for a two player games.  Though I've only played a few games, the possible strategies seem quite varied and of course, with any card game, there are a number of expansions to increase the variety.

Battlestar Galactica

Though I didn't get this game for Christmas, it has gotten a lot of play time among me and my friends lately. The first two times we played we used a modified rule set to try to get our handle around the rules.  The third time, a few weeks ago, we played using the full rules and the experience was great. At least I think so, as I was the sole Cylon traitor and despite making a few crucial errors, was able to destroy humanity right as they were about to reach safety.

I feel the game does a great job of capturing the desperation and paranoia of the the television show and I expect it will become a favorite among my friends.  Clearly, though, it is a tough game to learn.  It took all of us six or seven hours of gameplay to feel like we had a handle on it.  The first night we played, we had a string of bad card draws that made the game seem impossible to win and on the second occasion, this time playing without traitors to give ourselves a change, it seemed too easy.  It is due up for another play in the next few weeks and we'll see how that game turns out.

Dixit

If you've played Apple to Apples, then you understand the basic play of this game.  For Dixit, though, the play revolves around cards with fantastical images rather than phrases or titles.  On a player's turn, he/she picks a card, gives a clue and all the other players contribute cards that they think best match the clue.  Points are awarded if the players guess the clue-giver's card and the non-clue-giver's get additional points if people guess his/her card is the clue-giver's.

The artwork on the cards is evocative and I think the game can really thrive when playing in larger groups with people who are capable of giving obscure and oblique clues.  The game is quick to learn and removes some of the arbitrariness and silliness that Apples to Apples can bring.  (Not there is anything wrong with those; sometimes that's what everybody wants).  I think of Dixit as the artistic, creative, and imaginative party game.