All the Games on Our Shelves

Push is a game we've been playing a lot of lately. It's simple and casual and can easily be played while carrying on a conversation at the same time. Our friends the Kirks introduced us to this one. It's mostly a game of luck, but there is a teeny-tiny bit of strategy in it - for example, how far to "push" your luck on your turn - and also when to skip your turn and "bank" instead to keep cards (points) safe.  It's nice in that it can be played and enjoyed by people of (almost) all ages, which is something we're thinking more and more about with 4 young grandchildren. We played with my parents on Easter Sunday: The person whose turn it is draws card after card - creating as many as three "piles" of cards - with the restriction that no pile can have two cards that share a color or that share a number The cards picturing dice cause you to roll (which isn't a good thing). Once the person whose turn it is decides to stop drawing cards,

  The game HerStory was another gift from my brother - no special occasion, just thought I would like it. I love history, and I am a woman, so, you know  .  .  .  Anyway, we've played it a couple of times this weekend, and it is a very nice game. It is a resource management game and has elements of Splendor and a hint of Dominion (but just a hint) and also a tiny hint of Wingspan ,  but it's nowhere near as strategic as any of those. It's a very casual strategy game. I think the more we play it the more strategic we'll be able to be because we'll know better what all of the cards do - what to look for - what kinds of combos we can make. Some cards provide symbols to help you build other cards, some have game-end bonuses, others have bonuses during play if you're in last place, others have high value but no other bonus, etc.  Though the strategy is pretty light, there is some strategy to it. The first time we played, I was going for big point value cards eary

  This game was given to me by my brother. If he sees something he thinks someone will like, he buys it for them, so that is how I came to own this game. The game is basically Chutes and Ladders combined with trivia, so it's almost entirely based on luck. If you land on a square with a letter symbol or a book symbol on it, then you answer a question on a card. If you get it right, you spin again; if you get it wrong, then your turn ends. There are blank squares on which nothing special happens and the turn just passes. The spaces that cause ascent or descent are kind of clever. The base of each ladder is a property such as Netherfield or Pemberely. The top of each rope (chute) is a "spoiler" - a character from Pride and Prejudice who interfers with the course of a romantic relationship. There are some other twists to basic Chutes and Ladders such as what happens when you reach squares 89-99 and what happens if you land on your "perfect match." The questions ar

Two weeks ago our son, whose love language is very definitely "The Giving and Receiving of Gifts," gave David an EARLY Father's Day gift of the game That's Pretty Clever .  We had played it once before, a year or so ago, at our friends' house.  That first time we played it, I found it interesting but very confusing.  You use a die or combinations of dice to mark spaces on the board, and those spaces can provide one or more benefits.  Each of the colored dice provides opportunities in a different way, and that first time I played it I found it nearly impossible to make decisions about which die to choose to use at any given time.  It wasn't hard to play; it was just hard to figure out any kind of strategy to be able to play well.  But even though it was at least a year later that I played again, I found it vastly easier  to make decisions with confidence each turn.  My husband and I are now completely addicted to this game and have played it nearly every day si

  This was a birthday gift to me this year, um, actually for my most recent birthday, which was "last" year now that it's 2023.  How is it that it's already FEBRUARY 2023?  Wasn't it just 2022 like yesterday?  I am so far behind on my blogging!  It used to be that I was too busy with work to maintain my blog, but now that I've retired (as of December), I'm too busy writing books and starting up a YouTube channel and trying to get back in shape.  So my gaming blog continues to languish.  Alas  .  .  .  but we do continue to PLAY games, and that's the important thing!  I first played this game with some of my colleagues earlier last year, and really liked it, so it ended up on my birthday list.  I've played many games that involve building some sort of domain, but all previous ones had been on a flat surface.  The fact that the building here is in 3D really intrigued me.  The polygonal terrain pieces reminded me a bit of Catan at first, but it's

  Anthony brought this game with him when he and his family headed up north to our place for Christmas break.  We enjoyed it so much that David promptly ordered one for us.  The package arrived today, and we just finished playing our first game together.  It's a good combination of strategy and luck, though somewhat heavier on strategy, I'd say.  We are pleased with the quality of it - the feel and look of the tiles and gems, the solid box that folds over and closes magnetically, etc.  Unfortunately, ours arrived with one side of the box torn in two places.  I'm not sure how that could have happened, as it was well-packed and was sealed in it's original plastic wrapper.  We thought about returning it, but we'd enjoyed it so much that we didn't have the patience to send it back and wait for another one, so we're just taping up the tears.  Here are the opening few moves to our first game. You begin with 5 tiles, and you draw-up again after your turn.  Generall

  I can't believe I hadn't yet posted on this common classic, Sequence .  Caleb requested to play this today, after I had suggested Dominion and Splendor .  He wasn't in the mood for that sort of game (unusual!) and went upstairs to look at the shelves.  He saw this and said he remembered it being one of his favorite games in childhood.  So we played.  We used to play it quite a bit -- decades ago!  It's not one I've been drawn to because it's so simple and doesn't involve a lot of strategy, but I was pleasantly surprised at how engaging I found it to be today.   The game consists of a board with a grid of card images on it, and you begin with 7 cards in your hand.  You can play a token of your color on a spot on the board that matches your card.  (There are more than one of each.)  The goal is to be the first to get two sequences, a sequence being five in a row.  There are no jacks on the board, as they have special abilities -- two-eyed jacks are wild, an

  Well, we continue to play games I've already "counted" and games that aren't on OUR shelves, so the count remains on hold.  David and I played a new game tonight, a game that my brother left here for us to try.  I'd been grading midterms all week, so it took us a while to get to this.  It was a nice way to end the week - very fun game - also very pretty, which is always nice.  We played two rounds.  David won the first, and I won the second.  I can see that the more we play this game the more it is going to change on us as we guard against each other and try to out-strategize each other.  One issue to work out is whether to try to play as many cards as possible as fast as possible or to try to get things set up so as to be able to play higher point cards, but always with the fear that the other person will mess up the grid if you try to do this over a couple of turns.  Each card has a point value.  You get to play the card if the picture on the card matches part