Two more reasons why I love Days of Wonder...

This is mostly due to my somewhat unhealthy ongoing obsession with all things Ticket To Ride, one of the greatest board games ever made.  In any case, here they are:

1)  'Heart of Africa' expansion with new terrain cards that can increase the value of routes when claimed.  Yes, yes, please.

2)  A new set of orange Halloween-themed trains for no other reason than the sheer awesomeness of miniature freight cars bearing pumpkins.  Amazing.

Um, I kinda get the feeling you like Monopoly....

Hard to tell if this is a super-fan or an employee of Hasbro.  Definitely not the designer of the game because she's been gone for a long time.

Either way, I think I know which token this person plays the game with....

(Source)

How to choose a board game....

If you are like me you probably often find yourself staring at towers upon towers of games, feeling quite overwhelmed with the daunting task of determining what to play.  This graphic may help.

(Thanks to Petr for mentioning the original larger image...)

Nature versus Nerd-ture....

So Vince and I just spent two days visiting friends in Toronto and taking in all the mayhem that is Toronto Gay Pride.  In fact, Toronto's Pride is the third largest festival of its type in North America.  And yet through it all, the only thing I could think of was getting to 401 Games on Yonge Street to pick up some of the games I'd passed up at Origins.

Let the rest of them have their parade - I think I'll stick with my shiny new copies of Rails of New England and Barons....

You tell me: your most played games....

Writing a blog about board games means one should try and play a variety of games, not only to remain knowledgable and up-to-date, but also so one doesn't keep posting about the same damn things all the time.  Unfortunately, our group of friends tend to get hooked on certain games.  There was a good 5-6 months where we ONLY played Dominion and for the last  year or so every evening has ended with a couple hours of Tichu.  This last month I've found that all I've wanted to play was Agricola (which is quickly becoming an all-time favourite, up there with Ticket To Ride and Acquire). 

What game is your group obsessed with?  Which games do you keep going back to night after night?

RELATED:  Dominion: Prosperity is now available and I can't help but want to play it.  More treasure and bigger points could get us back into Dominion....

Have your game and eat it, too... Part 2!

Two of my absolute favourite things are board games and pastries.  So I've posted some really cool board game cupcakes previously. 

How about birthday cakes?  Here's some of my favourites from a user-made list on BGG.  Delicious.

Rumis (Blokus 3-d)!

Settlers!

'Gric!

Carc!

Acquire!

Dominion!

Tichu!

Must. Stop. Buying. Games.

Games I own but have yet to play

Macao

Hansa Teutonica

Quo Vadis

Gloria Picktoria (although I have played Get The Goods!)

Lucca Citta

Burger Joint

Some recent games I own but have only played once

Castle For All Seasons

Jet Set

Alea Iacta Est

Terra Nova

Yspahan

Turn The Tide

Seriously, this is a bit ridiculous. I blame it on the german importer guy who lives 5 blocks away from me.

This recent cartoon on BGG by Brian Barling seems appropriate:

The obsession rolls on...

I haven't played too many games of Dominion: Seaside, although we all agree that it's quite a good little expansion. I wonder if I'll actually pick this one up as well.

I can hear an old Depeche Mode song playing in my head... "I just can't get enough! I just can't get enough!"

Have your game and eat it, too...

In what seems like an ongoing series of post about games and eating (see the chocolate monopoly post), here's a few pics from a fun little post with a hundred game cupcakes. Ah, eating and gaming... two of my all-time favourite activities.

(Thanks to my sister and cousin for pointing this one out.)

They REALLY love their games...

Someone on BGG has posted a list of the best homemade versions of games of this decade. You gotta check it out... I posted a few pics of favourites below. I wonder if these people take orders?

Carcassonne



Settlers



Race For The Galaxy



Caylus (drool!)



Dominion (with chips!)

It's not December yet, is it?

So I can still buy Leo Colovini's Atlantis for myself, right, without feeling too guilty? Especially since it was less than 30 bucks, right?

My guilt is assuaged a little by the fact that the game is actually quite beautiful, a lot of fun, and has a surprising amount of depth.

Okay, no more gifts for me...

Complete set of Dominion: Seaside cards available!

Rio Grande Games has posted the complete set of rules for Dominion: Seaside here. On page 3, there are images of all 26 of the new Kingdom cards. Exciting.

The kingdom cards from Intrigue have not had as much play by us as it seems to increase play time in our group. These ones look like they will not have that issue.







My copy is on reserve and I pick it up Friday. Can't wait!

Dominion: Seaside cards!

The first two have been posted.....

The Island

Cost: 4, Action-Victory

Set aside this and another card from your hand. Return them to your deck at the end of the game.

Offshore havens for your victory points? Love it...

The Ambassador

Cost: 3, Action-Attack

Reveal a card from your hand. Return up to 2 copies of it from your hand to the supply. Then each other player gains a copy of it.

Hmmm... I don't like these curse cards. Maybe I'll just put them back and YOU can have them.






Of course the geek is alive with comments here and here.......

Dominion: Seaside kept under wraps...

Before Intrigue came out, there was pictures of the complete images of all the action cards available. But according to the OTHER Eric Martin, Rio Grande is keeping this one a big surprise until it's international release on Oct. 19th. Sigh. I guess no early drool-worthy previews. But I suppose I'll be buying it either way....

Drool-worthy....

One company I just love is Queen Games in Germany. Great games with components that are deliciously well-produced. The latest thing which I would kill to get my hands on arrives at Spiel '09 in Essen. It is a Queen big-box called Colonia and it is created by Dirk Henn, the guy who made great games like Atlantic Star and Alhambra. Embiggen the pic to look at all the bits...

People must be excited....

Looks my blog numbers have taken an upturn and I've tried to figure out why. Looks like the last post with pictures of the new Dominion: Intrigue cards is getting all the hits. Glad I'm not the only one obsessively waiting for this. Sadly, you can probably expect even more posts/session reports/etc. about it when the game arrives on our doorstep.... Less than a month!!!

All the new Dominion: Intrigue cards are out!

Alright, Rio Grande Games just posted all the rules for Dominion: Intrigue and you can see them here. But you're most interested in, I'm sure, are the new action cards. Well, here they are...




Gotta say, I'm excited about the victory cards that also provide actions with them (Harem, Nobles, Great Hall). Should add a ton to the game....

Magda, expect to play a lot of this when you arrive!