Cards Against Humanity: First Thoughts

As a brief mention beforehand, there's a great mini-documentary that's trending on /r/boardgames right now. Anyone who's looking to start planting roots for a gaming group, this is a very interesting take on why some people like to boardgame. Just send your buddies here, and chances are good you may be able to change some minds. Personally, I think it picks up on some very important ideas. Some of my best memories are of hanging out in a group of four, playing team slayer on Halo. With the gradual shift towards internet-based gaming, however, I found myself moving towards boardgames. It's not that I don't see the value in a web community (obviously), but there's something about having people physically in the room that adds a dimension to the games we play. Granted, it's a five minute video, so they can't get into the myriad other reasons we play, but I think it's a good first grab for the spirit of boardgaming.

I got in my first game of Cards Against Humanity the other night, and it seemed to go over pretty well with the rest of the group. I had been planning to bust out Catan, but given the fact that we were having such a good time, and the size of the group, we kept right on playing. The game plays like a very offensive (read: hysterical) version of Apples to Apples. It's a more "traditional" type of boardgame, and is quite accessible in terms of mechanics. Every player gets a hand of ten white cards from a pile, each with a word or phrase on it. The players then take it in turn to pick up a black card, which is some sort of prompt for the other players' white cards. For example, Julie picks up a black card with the phrase "In M. Night Shyamalan's new movie, it turned out the ________ was ________ all along.". Every other player puts a white card facedown in front of Julie, who mixes them up, and picks the most appropriate card. The best response (as judged by Julie) is rewarded with a point (as represented by the now discarded black card). The white cards are where  the real humour of the game lays, with prompts that range from zany ("a micropig in a tiny raincoat and rubber booties"), to political ("Rush Limbaugh"), to offensive ("coat hanger abortions").

There is very little in the way of a competitive element to this game. To the extent that it is there, it encourages knowing a good deal about your fellow players, and giving them the white cards they would find most entertaining. Some of the white cards may be very entertaining to the person who plays them, but it will fail to earn them any points if they are given to the wrong person.

That is the extent of the formal rules, but there are a host of recommended house rules included with the game. This adds a replay value to Cards, which could admittedly get a little monotonous over extended play. The entire game can be downloaded for free off their website. For those who want a higher quality set of cards, or to support the creators, an option is given to buy a commercial version of the game. They also provide the option to buy expansions to the game. Given the degree to which my gaming group enjoyed themselves, I think I'll be adding Cards to my shortlist of games to be purchased. It's simple, it's fun, and it's a great way to game with people who may not like more involved boardgames. Everyone should at least download it, and people that enjoy it should strongly consider buying it.

Ticket to Ride (Europe): First Thoughts

I picked up Ticket to Ride with the idea that I needed a simple game that could act as a gateway for more complex eurogames. This, combined with Settlers of Catan, will make a great foundation for Powergrid, which I am very much looking forward to.

Ticket to Ride is a simple game that plays in a way that is almost immediately intuitive. Players have a finite number of train pieces, and attempt to build routes between major cities on a map (in the vanilla version, the United States/Canada, in mine, Europe). Coloured train cards are collected and used to build the specifically coloured routes. This means that short routes tend to be quite easy to build, and long ones can be quite difficult. This difficulty is mitigated somewhat by the resource gathering mechanic, where a player is given the choice to draw from either a known bank of cards, or an unknown pile of cards. Once a player has enough train cards of the required colour to build the complete route, they can do so and score points. After a player has built enough routes to have 2 or fewer trains left, everyone gets one more turn. The player with the most points wins.

Complexity and a level of strategy are added to the game by giving each player a number of destination tickets they have to complete. Completion of a ticket by the end of the game awards the player bonus points, but a failure to do so subtracts points. Players have to gauge whether or not they can complete these specific routes, and gamble on their ability to do so. The player who manages to string the most routes together in a single line is given the express route bonus of ten points. Successful players will strike a balance between short tickets, long tickets, and the express route.

Ticket to Ride: Europe offers some changes to the original version of the game. For instance, players are given separate destination tickets for short routes (a small route worth fewer points) and a single long route (a more ambitious route worth more points). Given this added challenge, players are also given train station pieces. This is a mechanic that acts as a means of using an opponent's route as part of your own for the purposes of completing your destination tickets. This will, however, cost the player an increasing number of train cards. The players who don't use them will get bonus points at the end of the game. Finally, Europe introduces different types of route. In addition to the standard routes, there are now ferries (as represented by a mandatory minimum wildcard expenditure), and tunnels (which have a variable number of cars). These add an element of risk and planning to laying down routes.

On the whole, the game is brilliant in that it allows for a very customizable degree of strategy, while stripping away a good deal of the complexity. Short downtime between turns keeps players invested and concentrating, but still allows for planning and forethought. The central bank mechanic, in addition to the map-spanning routes prepare players for more complex eurogames (ie Powergrid). This game comes strongly recommended in most  gaming circles, and I firmly agree with them. Ticket to Ride is an incredible  gateway game that retains a great deal of replay value, and offers a very player-specific level of difficulty. It takes no more than 5 minutes to learn, and can be fun for just about anyone. This one is a must-buy for any would-be boardgamer.