My game site

 

My site is looking at all things games, especially board games. Board games have grown tremendously in the last 20 years or so in both popularity and complexity. Considering the popularity of video games, there is considerable interest among younger people in their 20s and 30s for board games.

A lot of the most popular board games produced in the last 20-30 years are so-called "German-style" board games (or Eurogames) that are usually different from American, Canadian or British games.

From Wikipedia:
“A... German-style board game... is a class of tabletop games that generally has indirect player interaction and abstract physical components. Eurogames are sometimes contrasted with American-style board games, which generally involve more luck, conflict, and drama. They are usually less abstract than chess or Go, but more abstract than war games. Likewise, they generally require more thought and planning than party games such as Pictionary or Trivial Pursuit.”

The main international award for board games is the German Spiel des Jahres. A lot, but not all, of the Spiel des Jahres winners are Euro-style games. A good website for information on board games with descriptions and ratings is BoardGameGeeks.com. Also see Solo Board Gamer.

Games are rated for complexity which correlates to playing difficulty. BoardGameGeeks has a rating system of 1 to 5 where 3 or above is considered complex. Of the top 17 many are war games, and the only game I recognized was the ancient game of Go (at least 1500 years old) with a rating of 3.93. The game rated lowest for complexity that I saw is the card game, War.

Buying Games
Amazon usually has the largest selection of games available, though their prices are often higher than specialized game sellers, so I check them out first. The few that I regularly check are Game Shack, Boardgames.ca, 401 Games, Boardgame Bliss, Great Board Games, Wood For Sheep, and Zatu Games. They can be quite a bit below Amazon's prices but stock is limited and often back-ordered, but if it is in stock you can get it immediately. Also some have very reasonable shipping costs. Some other interesting sites are Board Game Oracle, Table Top Finder, and Board Game Prices which are consolidators that find games from multiple sellers. Located in the U.S., Noble Knight Games sells new and used games and will buy games.

For old classic and ancient games see Masters Traditional Games. They carry the Royal Game of Ur, Hnefatafl, etc.

Another source is the old brick & mortar stores: Minotaur, Mind Games, and SBT Comics & Games in Kingston. Nexus in Kingston is a game store and play room, as is Funny Bones Games Lounge & Cafe in Etobicoke. The Board Game Cafe in Halifax is both a store (storefront and online) and play room. And see the Orcs Nest in London, England.

Gamegenic make a large variety of accessories for gaming: card sleeves, card & game piece boxes, dice trays and game mats. There are also many accessories dedicated to the more popular games. Available at Nexus Hobbies, 270 Bagot St., Kingston.

X-Trayz make small plastic component cups for game play. Available online from BoardGameBliss.

Print & Play is a company that does custom printing for PnP card games.

If you can't play in person (which is ideal) you can play board games online at Board Game Arena which has 576 games. You can play with your friends or anyone world wide.

Learning Games

Learning new board games can be difficult. It is a combination of the increased complexity of current games and how so many of the instruction manuals are poorly written.

Youtube has many channels for learning to play many of the current board games. The best one is the Watch It Played channel. Rodney Smith explains how a game is played; Monique and Naveen do a play-through, and Paula Deming does a play-through of solo games.
Anther good channel with instructions on game play and play-throughs is Geek and Sundry. This channel features, among others, Will Wheaton doing instruction and play-throughs with, sometimes, celebrity guests, and Becka Scott does the same with various groups. The channel Good Time Society has many play-throughs with Becka Scott, Paula Deming and others.

Dized.com has tutorials for learning many popular games: 7 Wonders, Carcassonne, Cartographers, Everdell, Expeditions, Scythe, Splendor, Splendor Dual, Terraforming Mars, Terraforming Mars: Ares Expedition, and the Tiny Epic series.

MY GAMES

Board Games:
7 Wonders (2011 Spiel des Jahres winner)
7 Wonders Architects
7 Wonders expansions: Armada, Cities, Edifice, Leaders, Wonder Pack
7 Wonders Duel
7 Wonders Duel expansions: Agora, Pantheon
Alien: Fate of the Nostromo
Axis & Allies: 1941
Blitzkrieg!: World War Two In 20 Minutes!
Brass Birmingham
Brass Lancashire
Caesar!: Seize Rome In 20 Minutes!
Carcassonnne (2001 Spiel des Jahres winner)
Carcassonnne Big Box (w. expansions)
Cartographers
Cartographers Heroes
The Castles of Burgundy
Catan (1995 Spiel des Jahres winner)
Clue: The Classic Detective Game
Codenames (2016 Spiel des Jahres winner)
Coffee Roaster
The Crew: Mission Deep Sea
The Crew: The Quest For Planet Nine (2020 Spiel des Jahres winner)
Deception: Murder In Hong Kong
Deception: Undercover Allies
Detective: City of Angels
East India Companies
Elite
Exit: The Cemetery of the Knight
Exit: Man on the Orient Express
Firefly: The Game
Firefly expansion: Artful Dodger, Esmeralda, Jetwash, Pirates & Bounty Hunters
Forbidden Desert
Forbidden Island
Friday
The Guild of Merchant Explorers
Imhotep
Imhotep: A New Dynasty
Imhotep: The Duel
In a Grove
The Initiative
Inkognito: A Carnival of Spies in Venice (1988 Spiel des Jahres winner)
It's a Wonderful World
Jaipur
Jeopardy!
Kings Cribbage
London (2nd Ed.)
Mansions of Madness (2nd Ed.)
Maquis
Memoir '44
Monopoly
Mysterium
Mysterium expansion: Hidden Signs, Secrets & Lies
Mysterium Park
Obsession
On the Rocks
Pan Am: The Game
Parcheesi
Ramble: the Lake District Board Game
Ready Set Bet
The Resistance
Risk
Sabotage
Scotland Yard (1983 Spiel des Jahres winner)
Scrabble
Scythe
The Search For Planet X
The Shores of Tripoli
Splendor
Splendor Duel
Star Trek Catan
Star Trek Federation Space
Summit
Summit: Teams expansion
Terraforming Mars
Terraforming Mars: Ares Expedition
Ticket To Ride (2004 Spiel des Jahres winner)
Ticket To Ride Amsterdam
Ticket To Ride Europe
Ticket To Ride Nordic Countries
Ticket To Ride Rails & Sails
Ticket To Ride expansion - France & Old West
Ticket To Ride expansion - India & Switzerland
Ticket To Ride expansion - Japan & Italy
Ticket To Ride expansion - The Heart of Africa
Ticket To Ride expansion - Poland
Ticket To Ride expansion - United Kingdom & Pennsylvania
Ticket To Ride deck - Europa 1912
Ticket To Ride deck - USA 1910
Tinners' Trail
Tinners' Trail Expansion Box
Tiny Epic Galaxies
Tiny Epic Galaxies: Beyond the Black
Trekking the World
Trump: the Game
Turing Machine
Ultra Tiny Epic Galaxies
Undaunted: Battle of Britain
Undaunted: Normandy
Undaunted: North Africa
Undaunted: Reinforcements
Undaunted: Stalingrad
Under Falling Skies
Virtù: The Art of Governing
Wayfarers of the South Tigris
Wheel of Fortune
Wicketz

Card games:
Air, Land, & Sea
Air, Land, & Sea: Spies, Lies & Supplies
Cluedo Shuffle
Cockroach Poker
Coup
Coup Reformation
Cribbage
Deep Sea Adventure
Firefly: Tall Card
Five Crowns
The Fox in the Forest
Fugitive
Jeopardy!
Love Letter
The Mind
Monopoly Deal
Quiddler
Rivals For Catan
Rummoli
Saboteur & Saboteur: The Duel
Scout
Scrabble Slam!
Star Realms
Startups
Struggle for Catan
Sushi Go!
Valley of the Kings: Last Rites

Other Games:
Backgammon
Catan Dice Game
Checkers
Chess
Dominoes - Mexican Train
Firefly: Shiny Dice
Jenga
Hive Pocket
How To Host a Murder: The Last Train From Paris
Howzat! Cricket
Mexican Train Dominoes
Password
Pocket Games - T20 Cricket
Pocket Games - Test Cricket
Rummikub (1980 Spiel des Jahres winner)
Sherlock Holmes Consulting Detective: The Baker Street Irregulars
Sherlock Holmes Consulting Detective: Carlton House & Queen's Park
Sherlock Holmes Consulting Detective: Jack the Ripper & West End Adventures
Sherlock Holmes Consulting Detective: The Thames Murders & other cases