Ticket to Ride vs.... Itself29 June 2010

Anyone lucky enough to have experienced the drama and tenseness of a keenly fought Ticket to Ride game, apart from being able to consider themselves a fortunate human being, may have wondered "which Ticket to Ride is the best." So here is the The Games definitive guide to Ticket to Ride.

The Series

Everyone loves ticket to ride, like parfait, if you ask someone for a game, nobody says "no I don't like ticket to ride." Building trains and watching your rail empire spread over the known world (game board) is a satisfying adventure. You might not come away with the win, but connecting Moscva to Palermo in the last round of play feels pretty great. The race for key routes is a great aspect of the game also, as all players add more and more trains it gets exponentially trickier to achieve missions. Its my experience that 'gamers' and non-gamers alike love, and get addicted to, Ticket to Ride.

Ticket to Ride

Set in the USA, Ticket to Ride offers the most straight forward of the series. No tunnels, or sea routes, or passengers just build the biggest and the fastest, and complete the most missions and you'll win - the American way ;-). Super fun - it maintains the essence of what makes ticket to ride great but without the complexities. Another benifit for most New Zealand users is the familiarity of the place names. 'New York' and 'Chicago' can be a bit easier to find on a map than 'Smolensk' (Europe) and 'Magdeburg' (Marklin) making the game just that wee bit easier to pick up.

Ticket to Ride wins the 'Make Friends' award for 'Best Ticket to Ride version to introduce to new players'

Ticket to Ride Europe

Streching from Edinburgh to Rostov, Ticket to Ride Europe offers more diversity than its US based counterpart. Western Europe has lots short tracks and tunnels, it is usually hotly contested from early in the game. Eastern Europe has more long tracks meaning big points can be made in this area with the right missions, then down around the Mediterranean there are more sea routes. The game has a good balance to it. It is the version I have played the most.

Ticket to Ride Europe wins the 'Lets play again' award for 'Best Ticket to Ride version to play over and over with anyone and everyone'

Ticket to Ride Marklin

A level up in gaming intensity from the two above, Ticket to Ride Marklin is intense. First of all there are no 'Railway Stations' - meaning if someone else takes 'your spot' you have to find another way, or die (fail that mission) trying. Inevitably most players will miss out on a few of their missions and so the final count up of points is pretty exciting. Then there are 'passengers' who provide opportunities for scoring some big points if managed well - timing is everything, but how to get that right while staying on top of the other areas of the game? So not for the light-hearted but a great challenge.

Ticket to Ride Marklin wins the 'Test Friendship' award for 'Best Ticket to Ride version to beat your mates or family at.'


Which is your favourite?

Dominion and its friends29 June 2010

Dominion Alchemy arrived in stock yesterday. This is an expansion for Dominion and/or Dominion Intrigue. As you can see from its cover Rio Grande Games have gone for a 'Dumbledore and Harry Potter' look (except Dumbledore has stolen Harry's glasses and Harry can't see whats going on,) to illustrate the expansions introduction of 'potions' to the game. Despite this rather funny cover I am confident that Dominion Alchemy will add new depth in a positive way to your Dominion gaming experience. It adds 12 new action cards and the Potion card. Here are a couple of examples:

• GOLEM: Reveal cards from your deck until you reveal 2 Action cards other than Golem cards. Discard the other cards then play the cards in any order.
• APOTHECARY: +1 card: +1 Action: Reveal the top 4 cards of your deck. Put the revealed coppers and Potions into your hand, put the other cards back on top of your deck
• ALCHEMIST: +2 Cards: +1 Action: When you discard this from play you may put this on top of your deck if you have a potion in play.

Over the summer of 2009-2010 we played heaps of Dominion (and Intrigue.), everyone we taught it to loved it and most got their own copy. Its addictive nature comes from three aspects of gaming that it does better than any other game I know.

1. Fast paced: Especially when you know the game well. Its super intense, turns come round in seconds and you mind goes into over drive trying to build your dominion (deck) faster than or opponents. While you doing that you have to stay mindful of what others are doing to try and counter their attacks. Then there is the timing of when you start building up your victory cards. After many, many games - a hard and fast rule for knowing when to pounce still evades me.
2. Short: Not always a good thing, but it is in Dominion because of aspect 3 (below). The box says 30mins, but you can often crank through a game in 15-20. This is great for getting a game in while the dinner is on - which usually leads to everyone wanting to play another few games after tea too.
3. Infinitely replay-able: No really, it is. Whether you have just won, or lost the game, there is always an epic sense of 'lets go again.' I think it comes from the fact that you are always learning more about how to best use cards or combination of cards, and so you want to have another shot. Also, there are 25 action cards in the game but you only use 10 per game. Just changing one or two of them can massively change the way the game pans. Then you add in the expansions and if you played every night for a year you would still not have exhausted the possibilities available.

If you haven't tried the dominion series yet I would fully recommend it.

First Post - Introductions14 June 2010

Welcome to our blog. This first post is all about introducing you to the people behind the website. The Games is run by three board game enthusiasts from Timaru Hamish, Tony, and Sam.

Hamish is the founder and genius behind The Games. As an avid board gamer, web software developer, and part time graphic designer thegames.co.nz was project that made a lot of sense.  When not playing board games he likes to be Managing Director of web software company Verb Ltd. Verb offer outstanding service to graphic designers throughout NZ and Aus.

Fav Games: Citadels, Puerto Rico

Known for: Slow turns, being really hard to beat.

Tony met Hamish a few years later and it wasn't long before they struck up a conversation about board games, which led to The Games website, to graphic design..... and that evening they decided to start a design company together. Tony now takes care of storing and shipping the games. When Tony's not playing board games he likes to be Creative Director of graphic design company Yellow Design Ltd.

Fav Games: Dominion, Puerto Rico

Known for: his unpredictable, but effective (esp in Puerto Rico) approach to gaming.

I (Sam) was introduced to Hamish and The Games by Tony while I was in Dunedin. The chance to be involved in a board game website was a bit of a dream come true. I take care of stock levels and help people to find the right game. If you have an enquiry it'll most likely be me who responsed to you. When not playing board games I like being Studio Manager of photography business Callander Girl Photography.

Fav Games: Memoir 44, Shadows over Camelot

Known for: being willing to play any game... at any time