Rediscovering the Incas....

Yesterday, the stars were aligned, I think, and I had a group of 4 people, myself included, who were in the mood to learn and play a heavier, meatier strategy game.  I giddily grabbed an old favourite, Tigris and Euphrates, and then from the corner of my eye I saw my lonesome copy of Alan Ernstein's Inca Empire.  And I remembered really enjoying my first and only game of it last year.  Alright, I said, let's try it again....

Boy, was that the right decision.  I forgot how great, seriously great, this game is.  It is has player interaction by the truckload, route-building, and some brilliantly nasty balancing mechanisms which kept us all within 3 points of each other until the final round.  I have no idea why this was only my second game since last year (maybe because last night's game clocked in at 3+ hours...)   If you haven't played Inca Empire, I encourage you to go out and find a copy.  This Z-Man Games reprint of Tuhuantinsuyu was easily one of the best games released last year and I've spent all morning thinking about how I could play it better and when I can get to play it again.

Click on the pic to see the beautiful board and pieces larger

Best of 2010...

So I'm starting to look back at this year and thinking about what some of my favourites are of 2010.  Movies are easy (Inception, Black Swan) and music as well (The xx, Janelle Monae, Sufjan Stevens).  Games, on the other hand, are a bit tougher.  I bought a lot of games this year (now THAT's an understatement!) but a lot of them weren't released this year.  Agricola, a release of 2007, has quickly become one of my top five absolute favourite games but I only started playing it a couple months ago.  And with so many games being released now each year, it's near-impossible to play them all.  So I can only hope to mention the ones that I've enjoyed personally and maybe pick some stellar choices from there.  So without further ado (of the games I actually got play this year):

Best family game of the year:  7 Wonders - You can read more in my review of the game but this was an easy choice.  Accessible rules, games in 30 minutes, endless strategies to try out, and scales amazingly well from 2 to 7 people.  If you enjoyed Dominion at all, I imagine the speedy play of this fun, fantastic card game will also appeal.

Almost best family game of the year:  Lords of Vegas - Not many strategy games can have such crazy swings of luck and still be enjoyable for me.  This one is.  Maybe because it feels a bit like Acquire played in a high-stakes casino.  This one definitely doesn't have the staying power of 7W but the last couple games have been a hoot.

Best heavy game of the year: Inca Empire - I have to admit that I've only played this once due to the lengthy play time since our group doesn't usually last more than two hours anymore.  But that one play of this reprint of Tuhuantinsuyu was a brilliant experience.  The route-building that I love so much from train games combined with a clever, nasty action card mechanism to affect the other player's games make this a worthwhile purchase.  This modern classic really is THAT good and deserves more recognition. 

Best filler: Mosaix - Like FITS and Take It Easy meets X's and O's, this little game in a lovely tin case is seconds to learn but surprisingly challenging due to its extremely clever scoring mechanism.  Grab a copy cheap and take it everywhere you go.







Looking forward to playing some more of these games in the new year as the many companies move on from Essen and the Christmas season.  I'm currently looking forward to reprints of Alien Frontiers and Scripts and Scribes (now Biblios) which should be arriving the first-quarter of this year.

Have a happy new year and enjoy what's left of the holidays....

More pics from Games Night...

More gaming this Monday night at the University of Waterloo...  Much fun was had.

A game of the delightful little 1-2 player co-op Onirim while we waited.



Lost Cities, which I have yet to play



Lovely bits and scorecards for Inca Empire



The gorgeous board for Inca Empire

So many games that didn't get played...   :(

Dominion.  Of course.

Everyone started with Ricochet Robot when the night began.



Fun night although I really only played the 10-minute Onirim and Inca Empire.  And I must say Inca Empire was fantastic.  Heavy but relatively easy to learn and really well-balanced.  In fact, the balancing mechanisms were reminiscent of Power Grid.  The road-building felt a bit like Empire Builder.  But in the end, this great game was all its own.  Looking forward to playing it further.  I'm glad Z-Man picked this one up...

On The Horizon: Inca Empire

Add this one to the list of "must-buys"...  Inca Empire is Z-Man Games' reprint of a fantastic crayon train game from a small publisher years back called Tuhuantinsuyu (which I always wanna pronounce in a deep voice whilst Phillip Glass plays in the background - see Koyaanisqatsi).  The game was raved about by Bruno Faidutti in his Ideal Game Library and of course sold out quick due to it's small print run.

This new version is looking great, with wooden sticks instead of crayons and new symbology on the cards to make them easier to understand.  It has route and empire-building galore and an interesting element of left-right binding in the play of cards.  Even better, the game has been compared to Puerto Rico and Power Grid in terms of depth and that is more than enough for me.  Essen can't come any quicker...