Intrigue

(Courtesy of BoardGameGeek)

Intrigue is a short and sweet game. Though it has an unhealthy concept of bluff and betrayal, it is good in training evaluation, communication and business skills. It is worth noted that this game may generate hatred. The objective is to be the player with the most money at the end of the game, which is Round 5.

Each player has a palace which is divided into four sections of different wage brackets. The player will also has eight workers. At each round, each worker will have to perform three actions. At the end of each round, each palace must be filled by at least one worker more than the round before. Therefore, by the end of round 4, the palace should be filled with one chemist(symbol of half-filled conical flask), one doctor (symbol of serpent), one priest (symbol of the Cross) and one author (symbol of feather). Round 5 will a round of collecting salary and then the game will officially end.

First action to be performed is to collect salary for the accepted workers. For example, if A has a worker in B's palace in 10000 dollar slot, so A will collect 10000 dollars from the bank.

Second action is to resolve conflicts. External conflicts are to be solved first. External conflicts are cases in which there are no other similar workers working in the castle. For example, A's priest wants to work in B's castle. A must now bribe B in so that B can accept his priest. Minimum bribe value is 1000. Higher bribe values are allowed to push the priest into a higher wage bracket. However, even if B accepts his bribe and promises him, B reserves all the right to do the otherwise (eg put the priest into lower wage slot). What goes around comes around too, remember. Anyway, B will have to put A's priest somewhere in the palace because there's no priest in the palace. Internal conflict is more interesting - it is a case in which there is ALREADY a similar worker accepted in the palace. In this case, the palace owner has to negotiate with both the incumbent and the candidate. The owner can accept any of the bribes but the final decision on who to keep is still in the hands of the palace owner. The rejected candidate or incumbent will be put into a reject island. Once a worker is thrown into the island, the worker can never come back.

The third action is to send workers out to apply for job. At each turn, two workers will have to be sent out to apply for jobs. Workers cannot be sent back to the own palace to work and gain salary (otherwise, what would be the point of the game?). The two workers can be sent to the same opponent.

After the end of the fifth round, the game ends and the one with the most money at hand wins. No more employing are allowed at the fifth round.

On the overall, it is somewhat good to be played between two very very good friends or acquaintances. It is not advisable to be played by those who are experiencing growth in their relationship. Playing with the wrong type of people will strain the relationship, really.

Bang!

(Courtesy of BoardGameGeek)

Another new game by Emiliano Sciarra. This game has its setting during the Cowboy Era in the US-Mexico area. The objective is to eliminate players according to the respective roles. The Sheriff has to hunt down all outlaws and the renegade. The outlaws must eliminate the Sheriff. The Deputy Sheriff has to protect the Sheriff and shares the aim of Sheriff as well. The Renegade must be the last person in play. Therefore, there is a possibility of having one or more winners. The catch is this: only the Sheriff exposes his/her identity. Other players will not expose anything. This means that everyone knows who's the sheriff including the deputy and but the sheriff doesn't which is which, including his/her own deputies!

Besides being a Sheriff, outlaw, deputy or Renegade, each player will also have be playing a special character such as Jesse Jones, El Gringo or Lucky Duke. These characters have unique abilities only for that particular player and will remain with the player till the end.

Like Catan, any player can play as many cards as possible in his/her turn with the exception for Bang Cards (see below). However, distance must be noted. Each player can only bang the player at position 1 (the one next to him/her - left or right). This also applies to some other cards such as Volcanic. However, symbols on cards will tell if distance matters or not. However, there are two types of cards - the blue and brown card. The brown cards are action cards - they are to be played and discarded. The blue cards are avatar cards - they represent your weapons and will stay with you till the end of the game once you display them (except for Prison and Dynamite). However, you cannot display two same avatar cards. Take note also that a Panic Card can force you to part with one of your avatar cards. Functions of each card are too many to be elaborated here. Please download the definition list at BoardGameGeek.

At each round, each player will draw two cards if the player is not under the influence of Prison and Dynamite card. A player can play or display as many cards as possible but at the end of his/her turn, the maximum cards he can hold at hand (excluding those displayed) must be equal to the player's life points (eg If a player has 3 life points, he can only hold a maximum of three cards at hand). A player is eliminated if he/she has no more life points. If he is hit, he can play a Missed card or Beer Card. Bear in mind that a player can only play a Saloon card at his/her turn.

A bit of strategy here....if you are the Renegade and the Sheriff appears defenseless, perhaps you should protect the Sheriff for that moment. The game will officially end once the sheriff is eliminated. Therefore, Renegade, who is supposed to be the last in play, will fail his/her mission.

Although this is a game of emotion and friendship as well, the mission is clear. Being a game which is short and sweet, Bang! definitely has the ingredients to spice up a party. It's easy to learn compared to many other designer games and there's no talent involved. Its low price adds to its competitiveness. A game which must be played.

Settlers of Catan

(Courtesy of BoardGameGeek)

Settlers of Catan marks the beginning of a new era of board gaming. It is a unique game altogether which deals with trading, management and planning.

It is a game to be played by 2-4 people. The objective is to be the first player to obtain at least 10 victory points at the end of his/her turn.

There are five types of resources - lumber, brick, wheat, ore and wool. These resources are used to build settlements (1 victory point per city), cities (2 victory points per city), development cards (no victory points) or roads (no victory points). Players can perform as many actions as possible at their turns. For example, player can use one wheat, one brick, one wool and one lumber to build a settlement.

They will build two settlements at the beginning of the game, which means all players will have 2 victory points in hand. They will start with initial resources which are the neighbouring resources of their second settlement.

The resources are represented by hexes (inset) and are marked by a number. A dice is rolled at every turn and the number will represent the number on the hexes. Let's just say, a player rolled a nine. All players who have settlements neighbouring hex No.9 (brick) will obtain a resource, which is brick (1 brick per 1 settlement). A city will yield two instead of one resource. Then comes the trading part. Only the active player can initiate trade with any one player. The trade can be done on any terms, such as 3 wheats for 1 lumber, 1 lumber 1 brick for 2 wheats 3 ores and so on.

Note that number 7 is not available on the hexes. It is meant for the only blank hex on the board. If any player rolls a seven, he/she will activate the robber. The robber will then be moved to any one hex and a resource will be stolen from the hand of a player surrounding the hex. A soldier card (a development card) will produce the same effect. However, when a player rolls a seven, all players with more than 7 cards on their hands will have to discard half of the cards on hand (excluding dev cards...and in the case of 11 cards, discard 6). This effect, however does not apply to soldier cards. Any hex which has a robber on it will not yield any resource even if the number is rolled.

Player can also play development cards during his/her turn. However, he/she can only play one development card at one turn. He/she also cannot buy a development card and uses it in the same turn. Roads doesnt bring any victory points, but you must build roads before you can build a settlement and then city. Settlements cannot be built next to each other.

There are special awards as well. 2 precious victory points will be given to the player with the longest road (at least 5 roads). When another player equals him/her, he/she still holds the title. However, once another player builds more roads, he/she will have to hand the title to the player. Note that the roads have to be connected and there is no opponent cities or settlements blocking the way. Another two victory points will be given to the player with the largest army (largest number of Soldier cards being played - at least 3 soldier development cards). The same principle applies - nothing happens if another player plays the same number of soldier development cards, but the player will snatch the 2 points away if he/she uses more Soldier cards later.

Sometimes, a development card may bear one victory point as well. These cards are to be placed face down, so the opponents will not know. It will only be revealed at the end of the game.

Once a player reaches 10 victory points or above, the game ends.

This game is very interesting but there is a visible effect of luck and emotion. Probability can suggest anything but if a dice keeps giving 11 or 2 or 3, players can get some shocking results. Besides that, friendship and loyalty can be a deterrent factor for winning as well. It all depends on the communication skills of human. After all, we are not perfect :P

Chinese Checkers

(Courtesy of BoardGameGeek)

Chinese Checkers, although often considered as a brother to Chinese Chess, is a very distant one. It was only said to exist from 1880.

Basically, the principle is simple, just jump your way through to your destination. The mission is to transfer all your pieces to the opposite triangle, by jumping across pieces. The first player who did that shall win the game, followed by the second player and so on. Minimum number of players is 2 and maximum is 6(as you all can see). Similar to checkers, there's no difference between pieces, so it could be quite mundane.

Checkers

(Courtesy of BoardGameGeek)

This is in fact, the simplest board game to start with. Checkers, like chess, is a game played by two people. The doubt about this game lies in the power of the king. In some games, the king can jump from one corner to another, which will finish off the opponent faster. However, it has been internationally accepted that the king can only jump one space at a time, but at any direction.

The best feature about this game is that it requires alertness. You have to be aware of potential pieces to be taken, or you will be forfeited.

Chinese Chess

(Courtesy of BoardGameGeek)

Chinese Chess is a classic. Besides its widespread history, Chinese Chess presents a few differences compared to Chess. First different feature is the Cannon. Cannon in Chinese Chess will take an opponent piece after jumping through another piece. This makes prediction difficult because moves become more varied. Next, the king or general is protected by two bodyguards. This makes checkmate difficult but can be made easier in certain circumstances.

Each side will have five soldiers, two cannons, two knights, two rooks, two elephant, two bodyguards and one general. Each side will be separated by a river. The pieces will move on lines. The bodyguards and general will be confined to a "palace" area within the side while the elephant will be confined to the player's own side(ie bodyguard, general and elephant cannot cross the river). The general can only move one step forward in any direction while the bodyguard can move one step diagonally in any direction. Each soldier can only move one space forward on his own side. After crossing the river, it can move one space in any direction except backward. Unlike chess, there's no such thing as promotion in Chinese Chess. Rook and cannon move the same way as rook in chess. However, cannon takes an opponent piece with the condition that another (any) piece must be located between them in a straight line. Knights move two step forward before one step to the left or right (ie L shape in chess). However, if there are any places blocking the two-space path, the knight cannot move in that direction. Likewise, if the knight is checking the general, but a piece is blocking the 2-space path, the check is considered null and void. The elephant moves 2-space diagonally ONLY in any direction. Taking displacement as zero after four moves, it will form a diamond shape movement. Bear in mind again that an elephant cannot cross a river.

The game ends when the general is checkmated. In the case of a stalemate, it is considered as a checkmate. Draw due to insufficient pieces is still possible but in most cases, the player with the most pieces left wins.

All in all, this is a wonderful game but its weakness is similar to chess. If both players play casually, I see few reasons for not enjoying the game.

Scrabble

(Courtesy from Boardgamegeek)

Scrabble is another old game which has its history dated back to 1948. It is purely a game of words and in a way, simpler to play than chess. All it needs to win is a strong vocabulary and a fast creative mind. Oh yeah, and luck as well.

Players have seven tiles on their rack and play a word from it on the board. The tiles have to be placed next to each other in a straight vertical or horizontal line. After his/her turn, he/she has to replenish his tile rack with new tiles from the tile bag. Otherwise, the player can also pass or exchange some or all of its tiles. Players cannot exchange tiles when total number of tiles in the bag is less than seven. Marks are then counted accordingly and the player with the most points at the end of the game wins.

At tournament level, clocks will be used to limit each player's time to think (hence the term 'fast creative mind'). Normal time limit will be 25 minutes per player to complete all his/her turns. Any overtime will be penalised at 10 points per minute with a maximum of 50 points.

When a bingo is formed (ie all tiles on the tile rack are played to form valid words within the same turn), the player will receive a boost of 50 points in addition to the play.

Most of the time, tournament scrabble will witness players playing words which are not normally used in everyday life. Words such as "zo", "dzo", "dzho", "zati" and "cwm" raise doubts among conventional players.

All in all, scrabble is fun but to improve in scrabble, players may want to venture into other type of word games to improve wordpower such as Upword, Boggle etc.

Chess

(Courtesy of Board Game Geek)

Chess is a great game, judging by its popularity over the centuries. It has the capability of bringing people together from any age groups, any nationality and any backgrounds. And no one can claim that he/she's best!

Chess rules are so simple and they can be found all over the net, so I won't want to waste time here explaining here. It is played with 16 chessmen on each side of a 8x8 board. Although it is stated "strictly for 2 players only", chess players find this rule too boring, so throughout the years, they created a variety of variants for chess. Double chess is equally nice and 4-player-chess is a creative idea.

It is played so widely across the world that it is said to be the only board game that is able to conquer the world.

However, chess has only one setback. It sometimes can be a bit too mundane and it is a lousy way to create new friendships. In other words, it is not an interactive game.

Introduction

I'll just insert this introduction as a matter of ownership. Besides posting them for my own purposes, I will also like to introduce board games to every single person on this planet.

Board games aren't as boring as they sound. In fact, all it takes to enjoy the games and to learn something out of it is COURAGE to step forward and try.

I have tried about 10 new board games and I have not regret a bit.

More technical details and price can be found at www.boardgamegeek.com . However, I am providing the basic rules and my own views here.

Hopefully you will get to enjoy those games!