David Fair: One Is the Loneliest Number Part Two: Why Can’t You Be More Like Your Brother?

Every year, a lot of gamers talk about their “Five and Dime List�. I usually find the first couple of them interesting, especially if the writer has taken time to add a little commentary to the list. After a while though, you just scan them looking for pithy commentary. I thought it would be an interesting change of pace to examine the 151 games that I played only once each during 2005. These 151 games fall into several different categories, and over the next few articles, I will examine each of them.

Part One: Long Distance Love Affairs can be found here on Boardgamenews.com.

Part Two: Why Can’t You Be More Like Your Brother? (25 games)

There are a lot of games out there. There are a limited number of game mechanisms and themes. It is inevitable that, at some point, you will play a game that isn’t bad but is similar in theme, mechanisms, or both to another game. When the mood strikes to play one of these two, the other game always gets the nod. These are the games I played once but found there is another game that is similar and gets played instead.

Ab die Post: This is a race game, in which each of the players is flying a postal airplane. It has a pretty unique movement mechanic, involving a black cloud with little plastic balls inside. You shake the cloud and turn it over, allowing some of the balls to fall into a clear chamber. Kinda cute. The problem is that as a race game, it offers little other than this cute cloud bit to differentiate itself, and is especially lacking in player interaction. I can see playing it once in a while, but there are so many other race games to choose from.

Alhambra Expansion Set 2: Alhambra is pretty popular in my house, and there are several of the expansions that I like, even in this set. The truth is that Alhambra itself competes with the expansions, such that we play vanilla Alhambra almost every time we play the game, and only use the expansions once in a great while. I have been thinking of instituting a “Boardgame of the Month� occasionally, like Mark Johnson advocates on his excellent Boardgames to Go podcast, and if I do, I will likely make Alhambra one of the first games I choose, if only so that we can try more of the expansions with it.

Attribute: This is a word/party game in which players must play a word card attempting to match or mismatch the word chosen by the start player. It is really similar to Apples to Apples. I’m not the biggest fan of Apples to Apples, but it scratches the same itch, and I have more cards for it and that means the game has more variety when we play.

Can’t Stop: I enjoy this classic from Sid Sackson, but it doesn’t seem to get played much, most likely due to the lack of theme. For push-your-luck games, Diamant seems to rule the roost at our game days, and it is hard for a themeless game with components that, while not bad, are certainly less exciting, to compete.

Carcassonne-The City: My favorite of the Carcassonne Games, but I am not a huge fan of Carcassonne. Usually if we play it, it is Hunters and Gatherers that gets played, as my wife kids like that one.

Cloud 9: I have the Out of the Box version. It is a cute game with really nice components. It is a little dice-rolling, card-collecting, push-your-luck game. It isn’t bad, but both Diamant and Can’t Stop are much better. Diamant matches Cloud 9 in component quality, and allows for more players, so it gets pulled out at the start or end of game night far more often.

Farfalia: This is a trick-taking game with an odd theme of taking nature photographs. I liked it well enough, but there wasn’t enough there to keep me coming back, especially with all of the other great trick-taking games out there.

Fossil: An older set-collecting, tile game. It isn’t bad, but there are so many options for set-collecting games that this rarely hits the table. It’s too bad, as the board movement is actually quite interesting. I should make more of an effort to play this game.

Groo: The Card Game & Groo: The Expansion: This is a decently fun little game, but it has a tendency to run on just a bit too long for its own good. The dice passing was an innovative mechanism in its time, but Mag*Blast is a game that feels similar, plays faster, and just seems better overall.

Guillotine: Like Groo, a “take-that� game. I have already played it twice this year, so maybe last year was just an anomaly. This was my “gateway game�, the first modern board/card game I ever bought (yard sale find for $.50), and even though we have played at least a hundred games of it, I still enjoy it.

Hearts: One of the few games I can say that I have played over 1,000 times. I have great memories of playing in college, and before that learning how to shoot the moon playing with my family. These days the only game I seem to play with a standard card deck is Poker. It’s a shame, really, as Hearts is at least as good a game as many of the specialized trick-taking games I have been playing lately.

Medieval Merchant: I was assured that, as a huge fan of PowerGrid, I would enjoy Medieval Merchant. Well, I thought it was really dull, and that the elements that make PowerGrid interesting, were all missing-in-action. Had I played it before PowerGrid, I think I would have found it a bit more interesting, but as it is, I don’t see the need to play it again.

Motley Fool Buy Low, Sell High: I learned to play this from the master himself. Reiner Knizia came to a special even hosted by Uberplay and The Motley Fool, and he taught the game to many of us, and we all enjoyed meeting him and playing his games that night. The game is not all that memorable, though Uberplay has top-notch production values. For economic games, I would rather play Acquire, PowerGrid, or any of about a half-dozen other options.

Mutiny: I don’t remember much about this game. I know we played it on “International Talk Like a Pirate Day�. It was ok, but certainly not the hit of the night (Halunken and Spelunken was the surprise favorite), but it wasn’t the worst either (Hispaniola took that dubious honor). I am sure that I will play it again on “International Talk Like a Pirate Day� this year. Yaaarrrghh.

Palazzo Paletti: I like dexterity games. I have a ton of them, and I enjoy almost all of them. I have Villa Paletti, but a good friend has Palazzo Paletti, the monster-sized version. Whenever the mood strikes to play a dexterity game, we opt for Bamboleo if we are at my house, and Palazzo Paletti if we are at his. Starting this year, he is hosting a once-a-month game night, so my chances to play this will go up.

Q-Jet 21XX: Ave Caesar is one of my favorite racing games. This is a pale imitation. The artwork is less pleasing to the eye, and the theme just doesn’t grab as well. I hope the reprint of Ave Caesar looks as good as the original. If you haven’t seen it, there is an amazing image on BGG of a homemade Ave Caesar board that I lust after, just look for images uploaded by Antony Hemme (Toynan).

Razzia: Ra without the Destruction tiles, and with a mafia theme. It works, it’s a good game, but truly the original is so good, both in play and theme, that there is no reason to play this again. Ok, it is more portable, but that is about it.

Ticket to Ride: Mystery Train Expansion: We play TTR & TTR: Europe a lot. In fact, not counting online games, I played those two 26 times last year. The mystery train expansion just doesn’t seem to hit the table. Too bad really, as it does give an incentive to draw tickets, and that isn’t a bad thing.

TransEuropa: Had to try it at least once. If anything, the luck of the draw is worse here than in TransAmerica.

TuneBaya: Very similar to the game Hossa. Now that I own Hossa and will get to play it more than once a year (see my previous column, linked above) there is no need to play this again.

Turbo Taxi: Similar to Take It Easy, I played it with my wife and oldest son, and just crushed them. Now they won’t play this, but they will play Take It Easy. Go figure.

Venezia: I own at least three games that are area-majority contests held on a map of the city of Venice. This one has the most humorous theme (The Pigeon Mafia), but Doge if we have four players, or San Marco if we have three, make for a much better gaming experience.

Was Sticht: This might just be the most involved trick-taking game I have ever played. Plays best with exactly four (in fact, I am not sure it plays at all with other numbers), and it allows the players to set their own goals each hand, and cards are drafted into your hand, so a person with phenomenal memory would have a distinct advantage. It is a bit long for a trick-taking game, so one of the myriad other options in that vein usually hit the table first.

Wongar: Well if you think that Mermaid Rain has an odd theme, then you have to read the rules to this. It’s an area control game themed around aboriginal dreams. Setting aside the difficulty of keeping track of the Ancestor vs. the Ancient, it just doesn’t grab a hold of you like Doge, San Marco, or El Grande does.

Coming Soon:

Part Three: No One Will Ever Love You Quite The Way I Do (Apparently)

Part Four: Voted Off the Island

Part Five: I Don’t Know Where We Went Wrong

Part Six: Too Long, Too New, Two Player

© 2006 David Fair

---

Comments:

You must register with BGN in order to comment. Registration is free!

Your group prefers Diamant to Can’t Stop?  Say it isn’t so!  Diamant is cute enough and handles a large group well, but the push-your-luck aspect is pretty simple.  I find the decisions in Can’t Stop much more interesting and the game still plays very fast.  No, to me the only real challenger to Can’t Stop is Pickomino. I really don’t think Medieval Merchant and Power Grid have much in common.  There’s the city connections, but outside of that, they’re really different games.  MM has a pretty steep learning curve, so I’m not too surprised your first game was less than stellar.  Once you get the hang of the mechanics, it’s a good game, considerably shorter than PG, and plays well with six (a lot of PG players prefer to play with fewer players).  You may want to check it out again sometime, Dave, without worrying about the comparisons to Power Grid. I don’t get the connection between Turbo Taxi and Take it Easy.  The former is a real-time puzzle race game and the latter is Bingo on steroids.  I’m not surprised your family won’t play TT--it can be pretty frustrating if you can’t see the connections in time. I agree Was Sticht is pretty involved and that there are many good trick-takers out there.  But the Schmiel game has its own unique charms.  This one is worth trying to get to the table a little more often. Posted by Larry Levy on Apr 6, 2006 at 09:01 AM | #

To me pickomino goes on too long. i love Can’t Stop, but most of the others aren’t enamored with it. I play it a lot online, so i survive. My friend Bob has echoed your statements on MM. I have a feeling i will be “given the opportunity” to play it again soon. Was Sticht is a very good game, but more than a little daunting. you are correct that i should work harder at getting to play it more often. Posted by David Fair on Apr 6, 2006 at 11:02 AM | #

I love Pickomino enough to play it occassionally with six or seven, but it really shouldn’t be played with more than four players.  With three or four, I think the duration is just right. Posted by Larry Levy on Apr 6, 2006 at 11:59 AM | #

< Back Home