I will help you be the hero of the party, game night, or family gathering by making simple, informed decisions on which board games to invest your valuable time and money.
My boy and I took over the family room on a relaxing Sunday afternoon. After an intense back-and-forth throughout the game, he had sneakily built up his Dozer Overload, poked his head through a door and blasted away my Echo with his Scrapshot for the big win against Dad. Yes, I tackled him scattering the game all over the room. =-)
Continue reading “Adrenaline Game Review: An insane, high-octane, shoot-’em-up game”
I have been a big fan of the classic Perudo game for many, many years…and it just got pushed aside in favor of Spoils of War. I feel a bit traitorous, but it’s that fun. The combination of luck, strategy, bluffing, and calculating odds is simply perfect. You’ll burst into laughter, pound your fist on the table in frustration, cheer in surprised delight, and let out seething groans of anger…all in a matter of exhilarating minutes.
Lords of Vegas has been our latest “rage” game (what I call those games that completely take over all other games for a certain amount of time and that I lay in bed devising new strategies to play better next time). It is an incredibly dynamic game of strategy, mind-games, muscle-flexing, scheming, and of course, luck! The uber-conservative will not win nor will the extremely aggressive. You need to find the right balance of each (which changes each game depending on who you play with and how the game plays out!) to pull off the elusive win.
Preface: this review comes after playing several evenings with a group of highly competitive adults. Skull King can be played on a much lighter scale with younger players on a “play to have fun” instead of “play to kill” basis. =-)
Skull King is so simple in construct: bid on how many tricks you plan to take each round; the closer you are, the more points you receive. Yet the nuances are many. In a nutshell, players have a number of cards in their hand that correspond to the round number (5 cards in round 5, 8 in round 8, etc.). Over 10 rounds, players bid on how many tricks they will take on each round. The starting card is the lead color and must be played by following players. If a player doesn’t have a lead color, she may “sluff off” with a different color or trump it with a black flag card. At any point, a player may play an escape card to get the heck out of there, a pirate card to trump all trumps, or the Skull King card to trump everything. There’s even a pirate who can play as a pirate or as an escape (a very valuable card to have!).
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