7 May 09

Gameplan

I somehow missed the Eurogame revolution, which is remarkable since I spent a frightful amount of time in my teens and early twenties playing board games of various sorts. Last Saturday I took a step towards remedying this lacuna when I was invited out to play my first game ever of Settlers of Catan, a 1995 game which is one of the classics of this style of games. In the 1990s, board games started emerging from Europe that were elegant in design and conception, often with simple rules but with deep play and minimal luck, and more about resource allocation than direct conflict. (For some reason, many of these games come from Germany, so these games are sometimes called German-style games; the Germans buy more board games per capita than any other nationality.) Having quite enjoyed my Settlers session, I’ve decided that these style of games may be a good fit for me now, and am doing lots of research on game possibilities. Right now Pandemic and Carcassonne are on my shortlist; we’re planning a trip to the local game store in Sacramento for Saturday. And though it’s hardly a Eurogame, I can’t help but being intrigued by a game entitled American Megafauna (the theme is the evolution of life on this continent since the Triassic).

Posted by at 09:01 PM in Games | Link |

Previous: Next: