The continued Race For The Galaxy....

The fourth instalment of RFTG is arriving soon and I gotta say, I probably won't be picking it up. I haven't even played the Rebel Vs. Imperium set with conquest rules. It's a great game but I've barely played it since Dominion came out. And I haven't played that much lately, either, partially due to this lovely little card game Tichu.

With another evening of Tichu planned tonight, I imagine I will soon be writing a longer review/strategy article. Seriously, it's that good. Takes me back to my duplicate bridge days with the parents but WAY more fun and about a million times easier to get into.

Oh, and Dominion: Alchemy is out soon. I imagine I'll cough up the dough for that. Dominion: Seaside was/is pretty awesome.

"Aw, does the poor baby need a... TICHU!"

New favourite card game: Tichu. Four players in two partnerships. One simple deck of cards. Plays like many climbing games (see Presidents & Assholes or The Great Dalmuti) but with a few twists. There are point cards as in hearts and four special cards which throw a wrench in everything. As well, the types of sets you can lead come in many varieties.

What this makes is a VERY strategic card game with just the right amount of chaos. Think Wizard but a bit heavier. And quite possibly better.

We're heading to the cottage this weekend so I imagine many rounds of this will be played. I'll also be bringing Macao and Hansa Teutonica which have been waiting for test drives. Should be fun.

4 is the loneliest number...

I've been trying for the last 3 weeks to get a group of exactly 4 people together so we can play Tichu, the classic Chinese card game that is so damn popular on BGG. I've owned a Tichu deck for months but never seemed to have the right amount of people to actually try out the game. Someone always seems to bring a friend along ("oh great, a fifth!") or just not show up last minute (looking at you, Mr. Brown....)

I think I had the same issue a decade ago when Catan was popular. Never could get exactly 4 people. Sigh.

Oh, look at all the pretty pieces...

Days of Wonder have released the rules for their new April release, Mystery Express, which I have mentioned earlier. As usual, the pieces look fantastic, as do the cards and board. Not so sure about the game, though, as it seems a tad random. At one point a player can see another player's card if they can guess which closed fist the player hid a token in. Hmmmm. I may have to wait and hear the reviews on this one.

But it sure looks pretty...

Okay, NOW I want an Ipad....

BoardgameNews points us to the first board and card game app announced for the Ipad. And I have to admit, it's pretty damn cool. Crappy games but I've a feeling that will change VERY quickly.

Of course, I'm the one who vows never to get an E-reader as I love the feel of a real dead-tree book. Who knows...

You can check it out here.

You tell me: boardgames as art...

One blogger describes at Infarrantly Creative how she frames and hangs boards from board games as art work. I think I'd much rather hang a Cranium game than play it anyways...

What boards do you think are worthy as artwork on a wall?

(Tipped off thanks to Michaela.)

Spielbox in English!

Great news for games addicts (at least I think so). The great German games magazine Spielbox is now going to be printed and shipped in English. Spielbox is well-known for often including expansions for popular games in its pages. I had to order one from overseas to get the Stone Age expansion (game still sucked...) You can order your subscription here although it's not too cheap. And although Games Magazine holds a dear place in my heart (mostly due to my teenage years devouring the December Top 100 issues), as far as board games go, it doesn't hold a candle to the articles in Spielbox.

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!"

First play: Alea Iacta Est

I've had this game for over a month, having bought it due to it being from the great publishers Alea and having been co-designed by Jeffrey Allers, the designer of the lovely Eine Frage Der Ahre. We finally got to play a game of it last night and impressions were pretty favourable.

In short, it's a dice game with a bit of area-control and some collection elements for scoring at the end. It's all quite simple to explain and we only struggled a bit with the scoring. But it was lightning-quick to play with 5 players, mostly cuz we didn't know what we were doing at first. I get the feeling that we were playing the strategy a bit wrong because the conflict was pretty minimal through most of the game and no one really got dumped in the latrina (yes, the latrina). Further plays will help me decide if I'm right, and happily everyone was up for trying it again next week. Great.

On the subject of Alea, I'm chomping at the bit to get an English copy of Macao. Looks great. And more dice!