Three's Company

For a variety of reasons, our attendance is most often three players these days. This is unfortunate as a good part of my collection is aimed either at two or four/five. Consequently, I frequently have trouble picking when it's my turn to dictate, because I/we don't have many games that are good with three that are also liked universally by the common triumvirate of Agent East, Shemp and me... or so I thought.

Shemp took the time to cross-index games recommended/best with three at BGG with the games that are in our collective collection. For the record these are (BGG ranking / title / playing time):

Best with Three

Light

140 Through the Desert 45 mins
142 Carcassonne: The City 30 mins
195 China 45 mins
251 Hey! That's My Fish! 20 mins
261 Colossal Arena 60 mins
309 Can't Stop 30 mins

Medium

7 Dominion 30 mins
29 Ra 60 mins
123 Yspahan 60 mins
146 Thunderstone 60 mins
155 Blue Moon City 60 mins

Heavy

2 Agricola 120 mins
4 Through the Ages: A Story of Civilization 240 mins
6 Le Havre 150 mins
9 Caylus 120 mins

Recommended with Three

Light

47 Galaxy Trucker 60 mins
48 Ticket to Ride: Europe 60 mins
57 Ticket to Ride 45 mins
68 Carcassonne 60 mins
87 Ingenious 45 mins
97 Citadels 60 mins
131 Last Night on Earth: The Zombie Game 90 mins
137 PitchCar 30 mins
141 For Sale 20 mins
154 Nexus Ops 90 mins
160 Bohnanza 45 mins
186 Formula D 60 mins
203 Wits & Wagers 25 mins
204 Roll Through the Ages: The Bronze Age 30 mins
219 Formula Dé 120 mins
227 Liar's Dice 15 mins
229 Zooloretto 45 mins

Medium

12 Race for the Galaxy 60 mins
22 Stone Age 60 mins
23 Pandemic 60 mins
27 Railroad Tycoon 120 mins
32 Chaos in the Old World 90 mins
38 Small World 80 mins
50 The Settlers of Catan 90 mins
55 Space Alert 30 mins
61 Taj Mahal 90 mins
69 In the Year of the Dragon 75 mins
70 Acquire 90 mins
74 Modern Art 45 mins
78 Tikal 120 mins
80 Cosmic Encounter 60 mins
92 The Pillars of the Earth 120 mins
93 Chicago Express 60 mins
96 Genoa 120 mins
108 Ghost Stories 60 mins
114 RoboRally 120 mins
115 Cyclades 60 mins
120 Glory to Rome 60 mins
121 Fury of Dracula 120 mins
139 Vegas Showdown 75 mins
166 Medici 60 mins
175 Antike 120 mins
180 Macao 90 mins
193 Domaine 90 mins
221 Lowenherz 90 mins
248 Lord of the Rings 60 mins

Heavy

1 Puerto Rico 90 mins
5 Power Grid 120 mins
11 Tigris & Euphrates 90 mins
13 Steam 120 mins
16 Age of Steam 120 mins
18 The Princes of Florence 90 mins
21 Goa 90 mins
25 Shogun 150 mins
30 Imperial 120 mins
51 Arkham Horror 180 mins
128 Maharaja: Palace Building in India 90 mins

Conan the ...Eurogamer (?)

"Between the time when the first game of Chess was played, and the rise of the sons of Caylus, there was an age undreamed of. And unto this, Conan, destined to wear the jeweled crown of Essen upon a troubled brow. It is I, his chronicler, who alone can tell thee of his saga. Let me tell you of the days of high adventure!"

Ouch suggested we throw off the burden of heavy thinking and play using only our Conan-brain - quick and intuitive play without deep strategy. Amid much thick Austrian accents and exhortations to "get out of the tunnel, it's not safe," we completed a full game of Power Grid in just over one hour last night. Conan-thinking!

Interestingly, despite the low-brow intent we played a relatively close game of Ticket to Ride - Shemp and Ouch tied at 101 (I trickled in at 80 with a poor mid-late-game ticket draw unfulfilled, Hilaria - something less... she elected not to count, I believe) - it came down to destination tickets filled - of which Shemp had more.

Power Grid was a lop-sided win for Shemp. I did my initial placement poorly (grabbing easy early connections rather than going for long-term strategy) and then Ouch was persuaded to blockade me rather than go for a more long-term strategy himself. Consequently, Shemp had the western half (we played with the top three regions of Germany) all to himself for most of the game. He earned it, but we helped by playing poorly.

"He did not care any more... life and death... the same. Only that the crowd would be there to greet him with howls of lust and fury. He began to realize his sense of worth... he mattered. In time, his victories could not easily be counted... he was taken to the east, a great prize, where the war gamers would teach him the deepest secrets. Language and writing were also made available, the designs of Knizia, the philosophy of Ulrich and Kramer.. But, always, there remained the discipline of dice."

Oh, I finally won a game of Trans Europa! Wooooooo! Apparently all I have to do to do well at games is to say "This is the time I will not suck at playing X." Power of positive thinking! (gag)

We played Carcasonne stupid-fast. It was... interesting. Any faster and it would have been pointless-fast. The layout was a mess.

Ticket to Ride (~0:50) [Shemp 101, Ouch 101, Kozure 80, Hilaria >80), Power Grid (~1:10) [Shemp 17, Ouch, 14, Kozure 11 - not even close] , Trans Europa (0:35) [Kozure 1, Shemp & Ouch - 14+] and Carcassonne (0:20) [Ouch (by a wide margin), Kozure, Shemp (scores not fully calculated after Ouch was shown to be easily the winner)], all after a 7:45 PM start time. Not bad, eh?

"So, did Conan travel to all his destinations in America, power the grid of Germania, connect the cities of Europa and lay waste to the fields of Carcasonne. And having no further concern, he and his companions sought adventure in the West. Many wargames and euros did Conan play. Honor and fear were heaped upon his name and, in time, he became a king by his own hand... And this story shall also be told."

Playing Favourites

There is a unfortunate trend in modern society to try to "top ten" everything, from books, to songs, to stupid dog tricks. Although certainly fun, it also over-simplifies and narrows the qualities of things - a movie might be admired for its direction, while lacking somewhat in a script, or a book might have a fantastic set of characters, but lacks pacing - as examples.

As widespread and reductive the trend is, one thing that "top ten" and "best of" lists and articles force you to do is really sit down and evaluate what you really like about something. After listing to a number of Board Game Geek "GeekSpeak" podcasts over the past few weeks, I've decided to come up with my own answers to their "hook", as well as defining a few other favourites.

Derk and Aldie's "hook" is to ask an interviewee about their favourite game for two, three, four, five and six or more players. They usually say that for the six or more player category, that you can also specify a "party" game.

Understanding that preferences can change over time, here are my game favourites:

Favourite Game for Two

Hard question, since I play wargames, many of which are intended for two players. My favourite Euro for two at the moment is Lost Cities. My favourite wargame for two is a toss-up between Firepower, which is an all-time favourite, and the newcomer, Twilight Struggle, which is sort of a "weuro" (Euro-game mechanics with a wargame-like feel). Forced to choose, I would go with Firepower, just because with only three plays of Twilight Struggle under my belt, I can't really call it a favourite with conviction yet. I also enjoy Zero! for two, but I prefer it with four. Combat Commander: Europe was making a strong play for this category to displace Firepower, but after additional plays, the bloom is off the rose for me - I still enjoy it, just not as much as Firepower.

Favourite Game for Three

Three is a very difficult number for games, for balancing reasons - it's too easy for two to gang up on one. I actually don't own many games which work for three. Probably Tigris and Euphrates, even though it's not one of my favourite games in general, and Colossal Arena, which is a little light for my tastes. China is also good, but I'd rather play Tigris and Euphrates over China unless time was limited. In the wargame category, Doom is a lot of fun for three. I haven't really played many others which work for three - Axis and Allies: D-Day and Axis and Allies: Pacific being the principal ones, neither of which being stellar in my opinion. None of the answers feel satisfactory for me with three.

Favourite Game for Four

Another hard call but for the opposite reason of three-player games, because of the sheer volume of games which work well with this number. Probably Power Grid as the front runner, with Tikal and Princes of Florence coming in very close second and third respectively. A dark horse in this category is WildLife - with additional plays, it may creep up past Tikal and Princes of Florence to vie with Power Grid for first place. Louis XIV may do the same, once again, more plays would determine the eventual winner. I think a lot of people list El Grande in this category; I like and appreciate El Grande; it's just not something I jump at playing. In the wargames, my favourite four-player game is Zero!/Down in Flames series, pretty much hands down. I love that game. Duel of Ages is not exactly a pure wargame, but I enjoy it for four as well.

Favourite Game for Five

At the moment the clear winner for me in this player-category is Railroad Tycoon. It's unbalanced, somewhat random and has a number of other flaws, but I just love it, conceptually and during game play. I also like Ticket to Ride for this number, but it's a little light for me. I also like Draw Poker (I prefer draw poker to Stud variants) for five or more, but in the board games category, Railroad Tycoon wins out. I used to love Shogun (Milton Bradley version) and Axis and Allies in this category as wargames, but I played those to death in my teens. With additional plays the new Shogun (Dirk Henn) may also feature as a "waro" (a wargame with Euro-mechanics).

Favourite Game for Six

Until I play more six-player non-party games (doesn't happen often, really) it's probably Railroad Tycoon again. I'd like to be able to say Twilight Imperium, but having only played it three times, and only once with six, I can't really say for sure. Same with Civilization - I've never actually played it with six, but I imagine it would be terrific (if long). Bang! works well with this number, if a shorter game is needed. Firepower works well with almost any number, but I'd love to try it with six sometime, with each player controlling a squad. Duel of Ages is a lot of fun with six as well.

My favourite party game for six at the moment is Wits and Wagers, which is really quite good for almost any group of adults and I've played a lot. I've only played Times Up twice, but I really enjoyed it then, so additional plays of Times Up might bump Wits and Wagers out. Same with Werewolf, which I've only played on three evenings (with one or two plays each evening). I've heard Smarty Party mentioned a lot in this category, but I've never played. A close second in the party games category would be Things... which is a lot of fun with the right group of people.

Derk and Aldie also typically ask the following quesions:

Favourite Book

Hard question, for the reasons I listed at the beginning of this piece. The books I've probably read most often is the Narnia Chronicles, followed closely by "The Lord of the Ring". I'd have to say "The Name of the Rose" by Umberto Eco.

Favourite Movie

My favourite movie is Blade Runner, for reasons which are too complex to go into here. Close runners up are Aliens, Apocalypse Now, Seven Samurai and Once Upon a Time in the West.

Favourite Word

I enjoy the sound and the meaning of "sibilance". Similarly I enjoy "serendipity" as well. Probably "sibilance".

Not on Derk and Aldie's list is favourite TV show...

Favourite TV Show

Another difficult choice. Almost a dead tie between DaVinci's Inquest, Band of Brothers, Deadwood and Firefly. Of those, probably Deadwood and Firefly and if I had to pick between them, Deadwood. Fantastic cast, direction, writing, acting... just fabulous. All of them are great. If Firefly had gone another season or two, it might have been Firefly. As it is, there isn't quite enough depth with just the 14 episodes.

I'll probably be shot if any fellow Browncoat reads that.

In any case, I'm burning up the last minutes of my lunch hour, so I'm going to finish playing favourites and turn it over to my fellow WAGSters for comment.