Ah! The Games We Play.
By now, you may be thinking "How can people be so fanatic about Snakes and Ladders, Monopoly or even Risk? The truth is that we're not. And strictly speaking, I guess, some purists would say that some of the games we play are Cardgames rather than Boardgames. What follows, in no particular order, are lists of game designers, game producers and games that we enjoy. Just click on the links to view the manufacturer's or some other person's balanced and objective descriptions of the games.
Good games don't happen by chance or accident and some people have justly deserved reputations for producing consistently good quality games:
- Reiner Knizia is one of my all time favourite game designers and a master of the craft;
- Martin Wallace is another designer whose games have a balanced complexity and replayability;
- Consistently interesting gameplay is also a feature of the works of Andreas Seyfarth;
- A more entertaining and manic approach is employed by Steve Jackson, whom I was prvileged to meet when he visited New Zealand last year. His games are funny as well as fun;
- Dirk Henn has produced some impressive games;
- Alan Moon designs some fairly magical games as well, though there have been mishaps;
- And no list of great contemporary game designers would ever be complete without a mention of the legendary Klaus Teuber.
Good designers are helped heaps by good producers who ensure that the finished product enhances the playing pleasure of the game without pricing themselves out of the market. Some noted producers are:
- Days of Wonder, who consistently weave quality component magic;
- Uberplay is a leading German company;
- Mayfair Games are well known in the English speaking world;
- Rio Grande Games also do beautiful games;
- Ystari Games are a Breton company, which has produced some great games lately;
- Z-Man Games have filled an important niche with a range of fascinating card games, amongst others;
- And then there's that maverick lot around James Ernest who give us so much inexpensive pleasure through the brand of Cheapass Games.
As for the actual games, well there are so many of them, but here are a few of our favourite titles:
- Settlers of Catan;
- Carcassonne;
- Elfenland;
- Kill Dr Lucky or any of the other Cheapass Games;
- Viking Fury;
- History of the World;
- Fluxx;
- Puerto Rico;
- Munchkins;
- Citadels;
- Alahambra;
- Princes of Florence;
- Ticket to Ride;
- Lost Cities;
- Chez Geek and Chez Goth;
- Cosmic Encounter.
- Ys;
- Metro;
- Thurn und Taxis, winner of the 2006 Spiel des Jahres award, Boardgaming's most prestigious prize;
- Hacienda;
- Saboteur;
- Torres;
- Cleopatra and the Society of Architects;
Would you like to join us?
If you live in Auckland, or are visiting Auckland on the right weekend, and would like to join in a game or two, please contact me and we'll arrange things. We have a mailing list as well. I usually find though that people like to come along at least once first and decide if they like playing these sort of games with these people before being subscribed to a mailing list.
