Scrabble. For many people it is the alpha and omega of wordgames. It's really just the beginning, and there are a ton of different wordgames out there. Today I'm going to discuss one that has a hook that will appeal to us all.

Unspeakable Words is worth whatever you pay for it just for the little Cthulhu figures that come with the game. That the game itself is a clever wordgame mixed with some great inside HP Lovecraft jokes is a pleasant bonus.

The game is simple, you are dealt a hand of 7 cards and 5 mini-Cthulhus (these reflect your sanity, which will inexorably reduce as you spell words), each with a letter on it. The letters are worth a certain number of points each (humorously, they are worth one point for every right angle in the letter, so S is worth 0 points. Non-Euclidean Geometry is built into the game!) you play a word down, total the points on the card and record your score. Two things happen after you score your points, one – the word you played is written down, and no one else can play that word, two – you have to roll a sanity check. The sanity check is simply rolling more than the points you scored on your word on a D20. If you succeed nothing happens and your turn continues. If you fail you lose one of your little Cthulhus. Lose all your Cthulhus and you are out of the game, no matter how many points you have. First to 100 points wins.

It's a fun, light cardgame with some interesting strategy. Not being able to use words that have been previously spelled can really complicate matters. Deciding whether to play a large word (and face a daunting sanity check) or a small one, and having to keep track of which words have already been played is good fun. The sanity check mechanic makes the game faster, and also adds a hint of unpredictability.

A special note has to be made about the art and theme of the game. The cards are wonderfully illustrated, with all sorts of visual sight gags for fans of the Mythos. The cards are like Mythos flash cards. "M is for Mi-Go" and my personal favorite "H is for _______________" (I won't say his name either..)

Not only is it a nice little filler game, but it will have an extra layer of fun for anyone who is a fan of HP Lovecraft. Unspeakable Words is definitely worth checking out!

I enjoyed a wonderful Halloween night of friends and boardgames. We got to play several games that I need to review here, including the better everytime I play it Le Havre and the new expansion for Dominion. Great games all (and I won 2 out of 4, which always helps.) For the evening, I put on the digital cable channel Sounds of the Season, which was playing some awesome Halloween songs.

We got "Nature Trail to Hell in 3D", Marilyn Manson's awesome cover of "This is Halloween", some kitschy Elvira stuff and much more. It was a lot of fun. Until it wasn't. At exactly 11:30, Halloween ended as far as Comcast was concerned, and the channel started to play Christmas music. Argh! Must we begin the ramp up already.

Look, for a Jew, I love Christmas. I celebrate everything about the season, but I refuse to do it until after Thanksgiving.

For the most part, the games I have talked about have been the longer, meatier games. Sometimes, you are in the mood for something a little shorter. Or, you are looking for a game that plays a few more players. This is often where the class of games we call "fillers" come in.

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Another only in San Francisco moment (sort of like when I was walking to work this morning, and a gentleman in a light purple zoot suit, complete with matching long scarf, politely enquired if I wanted to buy a jeweled watch) as Hasbro converted famously curvy Lombard Street into a Candyland board to celebrate the game's 60th birthday.

It's nice that they got kids from local shelters & hospitals to play, and I bet it was a fun experience, but couldn't they have given them a better game? Heck, even chutes & ladders. I would love to see a huge version of Carabande on Lombard, but the insurance would be a nightmare. Heh.

If there is one thing gamers can agree on it's that Monopoly is awful. In fact, a backlash against the tired roll and move mechanics is a big reason that Eurogames have blossomed. But, what if Monopoly were redesigned with a modern sensibility? I think it might look something like Owner's Choice.

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This post would have been a lot more interesting and topical if I had done it two weeks ago when the winners were announced. But, as always I am behind the times. Still, I thought I would spend a little time telling you about the five games that were nominated for the (arguably) most recognized prize in boardgames, the Spiel des Jahres.

The Spiel des Jahres (literally "Game of the Year")is decided by a jury each year. The award is definitely biased more towards family friendly games, and there is certainly an undercurrent of politics with which companies win. I find that the SdJ does a pretty good job of picking a deserving game. This year, the five nominees (of which I have reviewed two for this site, and have played three) all look like excellent games. The winner was not a surprise to me, but seems to have been to many.

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Sorry I have been so silent. At the risk of offending parents everywhere, I was unprepared for just how completely an 8 week old kitten would dominate my life. In fact, I found myself trying to lull Penny to sleep so I could have a few minutes to myself or actually clean up a little. It really is exhausting. Luckily, she is really the cutest, friendliest and most affectionate cat I have ever had. Nothing beats coming home from work and finding her purring waiting to shower me with affection.

But, I digress. The real reason for this post is to detail for you the shocking happenings of the first bachelor party I ever attended. A night of debauchery so intense that I will not include any names for fear it might affect attendees professional lives.

Last Sunday, a group of 6 crazy guys started the bachelor party by finding out that the wait at Texas Roadhouse was too long, so we went to Tony Roma's instead. Between all of us, we ordered one margarita. And two deserts.

After that dalliance with Extreme, there was some discussion about what to do next. One person suggested Hooters, but was shot down. The groom finally decided that the party would head back to my place for (and I would ask all small children to stop reading now) a raging game of Junta!

Junta is a game for up to 7 players where each is a powerful family in a Banana Republic. Each family is trying to gain the most influence, and end the game with the most money in their Swiss Bank Account. Along the way, there are coups, massive corruption, deals, double crosses and lots of cursing your fellow players.

The game plays through elections that are controlled  by cards you play that give you a certain voting bloc (the church, conservatives, labor, etc..) The more votes you have, the more likely it is that the Presidente (one of the players) will give you more money out of the budget.

It's a great game for a large group (you really want to have at least 5 to play) and if you know each other well, the deals and assassination attempts can be even dirtier. The one knock on the game is that if you get in a bad spot early on, it can be hard to get back into contention, but really this game is more about screwing with everybody else than winning (at least that's what I tell myself…)

So, I played a boardgame at a bachelor party. That either makes me a geek god, or a very sad person. Hmm. False choice.

After lunch, I decided to swing by the Library & see what's new. I love just browsing the shelves and seeing what jumps out at me. So, the haul this time is:

Boys Will Be Boys, an insider tell all about the 90s Cowboys. Like any good Niners fan, I have a generous disdain for the Cowboys (although, I have been at it a little longer. Growing up, I was an Oilers fan..)

Alphabet Juice, Roy Blount's twisted manual of style, grammar (maybe he can explain semi-colons to me..) and vocabulary.

1960 JFK vs LBJ vs Nixon, I have been fascinated with this election since playing the excellent boardgame that simulates it. This looks like an interesting addition to the information available, and doesn't have the pro-Kennedy bias that 1960: Making of a President had.

Should be a good couple of weeks of reading!

In the early 90s Collectible Card Games (CCGs) were all the rage, with Magic the Gathering being the most well known. I never got into the games. I was always annoyed by the collectible idea, and the fact that I needed to buy more cards to have a better deck. My brother once tried to make a deck of photocopied cards, and get people to play him (mainly to prove that Magic was all about the money, not about the fun of the game) and no one would.

So, I dodged the entire game style. I never got really involved in deck building or the strategies of which cards were superfluous. Finally, Dominion brings the gameplay of Magic to those of us who were not fans of the naked capitalism in it's marketing. It's a NCG, a non Collectible Card Game. The game has three types of cards: money cards (copper, silver, gold) used to buy other cards to put in your deck, victory point cards which are how you win the game (but serve no purpose in the game, and fill up your deck) and action cards (which allow you to do something like draw 3 cards for example.) Each card costs a certain amount of cash (paid for by using your money cards) and each card will remain in your deck for the rest of the game.

On your turn, you have one action (playing any card that says action on it) and one buy (using the money cards in your hand to buy another card.) Action cards may give you extra actions or buys or allow you to take some other action. It's the combination of these cards that gives the game its strategic depth. There are 25 types of action cards (each type having 10 cards), with 10 being used for each game. That means that in any given game there are 150 cards that are not being used, which leads to extreme replayability. The game ends when 3 of the 10 action card decks are empty or all the most expensive victory point cards have been bought.

The beauty of Dominion is how simple the game really is. You draw 5 cards, play as many as you can, buy extra cards if you are able, and then put it all in your discard pile & draw 5 more cards. Once you've run through your deck you shuffle your discard pile & start the whole thing over again. Obviously, the faster you can get through your deck, the better so cards that let you draw more cards are a big benefit, but if you don't have any extra actions, those cards better be money cards or they will be no use to you.

The cool thing about the game is the clear progression. In the beginning, you are building your deck trying to get the cards you want balancing the need for more money cards with action cards. The mid game is about fine tuning your deck and building your economic engine. The end game is a race to buy victory point cards (especially the most expensive Province cards) Throughout the game, you are faced with tough choices about adding cards. If you start building up victory point cards too early they will fill your deck with useless cards. Each card you buy reduces the chances of any other card showing up in a particular hand, but if you don't buy cards you are crippling your deck. The balance is key.

One of my favorite aspects of the game is the variable decks that the game starts with. The rules suggest some basic ideas for good combinations, but my friends have taken to playing random, where we deal out the 10 action cards we will be playing with. This forces you to adapt your strategy to the cards available, and makes sure there is no sure-fire way to win everytime (although, playing cards that give you more cards in your hand is rarely a losing strategy.) It's an interesting twist when the decks come out and there are no extra buys, or no extra actions or cards that make it hard to get more money.

A typical game of Dominion runs between 45-60 minutes, and it plays well with 2,3 or 4 players. I have been especially impressed with how well it plays 2 player. Dominion is a great game that should be in any gamers collection. It's relatively easy to learn, but has enough variables to make it impossible to master. And, as a bonus, you don't have to buy any booster packs to play!

Municipium is another tight worker placement strategy game from the Eurogame guru, Reiner Knizia. It has simple rules, deep gameplay, tough choices and beautiful design.

The gist of the game is that each player is one of the four ruling families of a Roman colony, vying for power. Each player has 7 pawns that represent their influence in the city, and these pawns are placed in the 7 locations on the board. Each location offers a different power to the family that has the majority in it. The game is won by converting citizen meeples into decurion tokens. There are 4 colors of citizens, and a complete set (one of each color) is automatically converted to a decurion token. 5 decurion tokens wins the game.

The key to the game is strategically using the powers of the various locations. Powers are actvated by the play of cards, some cards will let each player activate one power, or each power they control. One particularly powerful card activates all powers, no matter who controls them. The powers range from the Temple, which controls the tie breaker (and can turn one of your pawns into a distinguished citizen complete with laurel wreath!), to the Praetorium, which lets you move all of your pawns anywhere you want.

The mechanics of the game mean that there is not a lot of downtime. You often take actions during another players turn. It also means that there is the potential for some analysis paralysis as you try to come to terms with the various options available to you. Although, that hasn't been a great problem in the games we have played.

I love the simplicity of the rules (essentialy, your turn is move a pawn or two and draw a card. That's it.) and the depth of game play. We still haven't found a sure fire winning strategy, although I am starting to think that the Forum's ability to keep putting citizens out is pretty powerful. As with most Knizia games, the game rewards multiple plays. We have played with 3 and 4 players, and enjoyed it with both. I wonder how it would play two player, though…

A special mention should be made of the design. The board and cards are beautiful, yet still convey a lot of information. I especially like the mosaic look to everything. My one quibble would be the pawn colors selected, as the pink and orange end up looking pretty similar in cafe lighting.

I definitely recommend this game.

Tuesday at Game Night, I got to try two new games that I really enjoyed. I'll review one today, and then the other hopefully tomorrow (but given that our office Xmas party is tomorrow, no promises…)

In my last review, I talked a little about luck games, and how a new wave of Eurogames have taken elements of luck and used them in interesting ways. Well, this time we have a game that is almost perfect information (especially if your memory is better than mine..) and leaves most of the components face up. It also has great design, incredible (almost gratutitous) bits and entertaining gameplay. Plus, you are making sushi! Ladies and Gentlemen, Wasabi.

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I have written before about the current re-emergence of dice games in gaming. It's an interesting shift, since for the longest time luck was frowned upon by "real gamers." They would turn their noses up at games with anything more random than a deck of cards, and looked for games that limited the effect luck could have on your strategy. This led to some really great games, many of which I quite like. It also led to Puerto Rico (the apotheosis of this movement) which I find boring and programmatic (although, I am definitely in the minority there..) Today's game, Galaxy Truckers, is the antithesis of that idea, and I love it.

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Continuing my certainly not annoying habit of starting features and then using Lamarck's theory to kill them, I will be talking in the next several days about a number of new boardgames I have tried this holiday season. It's a fairly eclectic mix, but I there are some darn good games out there now. One, in particular will make Ken happy (although I haven't played that game yet, so I reserve judgement for now.)

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I have talked previously about the new wave of dice games that aren't really dice games, a genre that I really enjoy. Last night we played Kingsburg, another fresh take on this mechanic. It's a great example of a dice game with lots of strategy and some really tough decisions.

Each round, you roll 3 dice and use the numbers on the dice to influence the king's advisors. Each advisor brings you something a resource, a soldier, possibly some victory points, etc. Once someone has influenced an advisor (ie put their dice there) no one else can use that advisor for that round. You then use the resources you gained to build buildings that will give you advantages. This continues for 3 seasons and then a monster attacks to end the year (they are on a very strict schedule, those monsters…) 5 years make up the game, and most victory points wins.

I love the influencing mechanic. It has a lot of nuance. For instance, the lowest roll goes first, so they might steal an advisor that you really wanted. You might be really in need of a gold, but not able to get an advisor that gives you one, so you have to change your whole plan. There's also a surprising amount of math in the game, as you look at the various permutations your 3 dice offer. Do I take the 6-6-5 that I rolled and place them on the Queen at 17? Or do I spread it around a little and play 11 & 6, or 12 & 5? What have the other players rolled, and how might that affect my choices?

The monsters deserve special note. They get progressively meaner each year, and you don't know which monster you might be facing at any time (although, certain advisors do let you look at the monster card.) Every game I have played has had at least one case of someone being crunched by not having enough strength to beat the monster and losing precious victory points because of it.

Kingsburg has enough randomness that it is a different game every time, but enough structure that there are definite strategies and paths you can follow. It plays a little long (almost 2 hours in my experience) but is a lot of fun, with very little downtime for each player. I heartily recommend this game!

Dice games are often controversial in the gaming world. One of the points of the Eurogame movement was to avoid luck, and dice add an often unwelcome random element. Personally, I enjoy dice (heck, my favorite game is a press your luck dice game, Manila) and there is a new spate of games that use dice in interesting and strategic ways. I call them "dice games that don't feel like dice games." Games like Kingsburg, Ysphahan and the game we played last night, Stone Age are definitely not Yahtzee.

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