For Christmas and my birthday, I received a few new board games, some of which I asked for, and some of which I had never heard of. By and large, these games were amazing, and have really brought on a renaissance of game playing in our house. So, in no particular order (other than the order I received them in):
This is probably the most universally liked of the new games. Basically, you draw destination cards, and you must build trains linking those destinations (although obviously it’s a little more complicated than that). Although you play with several people, you’re not competing directly with them per say, although sometimes people build on a route you’d like to build on. It makes you think, but just enough; it’s not nearly as thinking-intensive as, say, Acquire. This also works really well as a 2 person game, which is something Sara and I are always looking for. I don’t think anybody who has played this one doesn’t like it. The downside is that games can be long, especially with a lot of people.
In this game, each player tries to build the biggest, most beautiful Italian palace. What makes this game interesting is that the bricks for the buildings are usually auctioned off to the highest bidder. So you are directly competing with the other players, free market style. This game has been pretty popular as well. I personally prefer Ticket to Ride, but I think at least 2 people prefer Palazzo. The other nice thing is that games are always pretty short. Sometimes you just have time for a quick game, and if so, this one’s for you.
Killer Bunnies and the Quest for the Magic Carrot
Okay, I loved this game, but some people have expressed a strong dislike for it (although, I should point out that those people did not actually play the game). Basically, the point of the game is to try to keep your bunnies alive, while killing all of your opponents bunnies with things like flame throwers, black holes, and flying razor spatulas. I once killed two bunnies by having a clumsy bunny of mine open a pack of razor sharp melba toast, sending them flying. Oh yeah, and don’t forget to purchase your magic carrots. This game is hilarious and silly and a lot of fun, though maybe confusing on the surface. This game is also better with more people playing. I’ll be looking for people to play this with.
This is the only game I haven’t had a chance to play yet, but it is the game I am most excited about. Unfortunately you cannot play it with only 2 players. I found some various rules online that can allow you to play with only 2, but we figured we shouldn’t do that for the first time we play. So I’m still waiting. I have, however, read through the rules, so I think I have an understanding of things. Basically you build towns in strategic areas to collect resources to build more things. That probably doesn’t make sense, but suffice it to say, it is a strategy game that I think will require a lot of thinking. I wanted to hold off on this blog post until I could play this one, but it doesn’t look like it is happening any time soon.
One side story, my mom saw this box and mistakenly thought it said, “Settlers of Satan”, which I think sounds like a WAAAAY more awesome game that I should totally make. The box cover could look almost the same, with a few subtle modifications (that scythe could look a little more grim-reaper-y, maybe give the guy with the ax some glowing red eyes…). So anyway, look for the Settlers of Satan, coming soon to a gaming store near you!
Shane Halbach 
We really enjoy Ticket to Ride Europe and find it very easy to pick up for people who haven’t played before. It’s also very well balanced, so it’s difficult to completely screw the other players. And it’s even more fair when you look up the real rules online (since our rulebook is in Norwegian) instead of relying on the memory of a friend who once played it many years ago. Haha!
I’ve also read that Ticket to Ride Europe is the best of the Ticket to Ride series.
Killer Bunnies is one of my favorites, but Lucas thinks it’s too antagonistic. He’s too nice of a guy to enjoy the destruction and evilness. Plus, he always gets stuck with no bunnies, which makes the game super boring. Fair enough. We have a house rule that if you go a certain number of rounds with no bunny, you automatically get a bunny.
We also have a house rule that whoever has the least carrots at the end gets to do the big Carrot Countdown. This always involves lots of drama and suspense in our house. And we all agree that beer and wine improve Killer Bunnies.
Unfortunately, one of our Killer-Bunny-playingist friends moved a few years ago, and there has certainly been less Bunny playing since.
And since I’m rambling about gaming, and you mention the shortcoming of the 3-player minimum for Catan… We have the Catan card game, which is for two players, and it’s good but not the greatest. The few times we’ve played, you could tell who was going to win very early in the game. But a much better 2-player game is San Juan! It’s the 2-player card version of Puerto Rico, which is a good game but pretty complicated. San Juan is fantastic! It’s very well balanced and luck doesn’t seem to have as big an impact as in the Catan card game. Also, they have a very clever system where all of the cards function as buildings, production goods, and money. It’s kind of cool. The only shortcoming is that the Chapel was a bad idea. Take out the Chapel cards to make the game balanced, because they give people a huge advantage.
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I can also vouch for San Juan! I’d forgotten about that one…
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We’ll definitely be playing some games next weekend!
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I liked playing Killer Bunnies with you! I’ll have to come out more to play more games!
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I also recieved TtR: Europe for Christmas. Great game. And you should enjoy Settlers once you actually play it. And if you liek it, I highly recommed its expansions Seafarers and Cities and Knights.
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We got Zombie Fluxx, Scotland Yard, and Pandemic.
I love Pandemic because it’s a strategy game where all the players are working together and playing against the board, so either everybody wins or the board wins.
Zombie Fluxx is awesome for those who have an open and flexible mind, as the rules and goals are always changing. It’s really fun.
Scotland Yard is Kyle’s favorite. It’s basically everyone against one player. I enjoy it, but it’s a little stressful for me.
Killer Bunnies has definitely been on my radar, so that might be our next game. We bought Munchkin a while back, but the one time we tried to play it, we found the rules to be rather complex, and are waiting until we find someone who already knows how to play before we re-attempt.
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I believe I have heard of all of those. I haven’t played Munchkin, but I’ve heard people say that it is similar to Killer Bunnies. I have the blue starter deck as well as the red and yellow booster decks. The first game we played with just the blue and the yellow decks, and that was vastly easier than when we added in the red deck. So, maybe for first timers, you should just go with the basics!
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