We've played a few boardgames at home over the last few weeks and I realised I hadn't posted anything about these. My son and I actually managed to buy each other the same game for xmas... great minds!! Luckily he was able to exchange his and bought one of the other games we played instead so a good result in the end.
Game #1 is Dominion. This has been around for several years (2008 according to BGG) and is a card based game. Players are rulers of a kingdom and play out their hand of cards to gain coins, estates (which are what give you victory points) and a range of advisers or buildings. These provide players with more actions, cards, or special effects for a turn. Initially your hand of cards is small and some of the slots are taken up with coins (which you can use to buy more cards) or estates which are important but annoyingly take up valuable slots in your hand. Each turn players can choose to buy one of 10 types of card which remain the same throughout the game. As the game progresses though, your hand grows and, if you know what you're doing, you can build up increasing chains of actions, or trade up your coins to something more valuable which take up less space in your hand. Very simple but really fun and requires some clever thinking. What's appealing is that the game comes with 25 types of card of which 10 are in play in any given game so there's lots of variety. There are also lots of expansions to add to the mix.
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| Little paint pots act as markers |
Our next game was Kanagawa. This is the game we both bought each other... we both have a liking for all things Japanese and games that are visually pretty and this ticked all the boxes. In this game you are a student under the great Hokusai and are trying to complete your own painting of different landscapes. Each turn there are a selection of cards played out which players can claim and then use to either add to their painting or improve your studio. Essentially it's a 'push your luck' game... if players pass on the 1st round of cards, more are added so you need to decide whether to go for the limited number of opening cards or wait and hope your opponent doesn't snaffle the card you really want. Paintings build up a number of 'harmony' points which win the game. It's pretty simple and only takes about 45 minutes but is very nicely themed and looks lovely.
The final game is Viticulture which is the game my son bought as an alternative to Kanagawa. This 2013 game is a brilliant worker placement game. As you can guess, you own a vineyard and have to maximise your wine production and fulfill contracts to earn VPs. You only have a limited number of workers however and there won't be enough slots for each action for everyone to do what they want each turn so it's very strategic and clever. Each turn is divided into 4 seasons. In Spring yo sort out player order and a benefit for that turn... an extra card, some cash, a temporary worker (this last one seemed really useful so we were both after it each turn). In Summer you take turns allocating workers, offering tours round the vineyard to raise some cash, building extra structures such as irrigation systems, windmills etc all of which are useful but cost cash and a valuable worker slot, and crucially you can select vines and plant them. These can be harvested in the autumn to give you grapes and eventually, wine.
Cards selected in the Fall provide you with useful visitors (wine specialists, workers etc) which can be played in the Summer or Winter. Here you can also acquire contracts... these are the only way to convert your lovely wines into Lira but you need to be able to house your wine in your cellar while it matures and the cellar will need to be expanded to accommodate the bottles... all of which (you guessed it!) costs Lira!
It's a brilliant game... actually very simple but really engrossing and full of character. AS soon as we'd finished I was itching to play again which is a sign of a great game!
