When I first heard about Martian Dice, I felt like I needed to get a copy, because Zombie Dice has been a hit with pretty much everyone I know. Martian Dice has some similarities, especially in appearance, but it’s a very different game with its own pros and cons.

I feel like I should also acknowledge that I haven’t posted in a long time, and I’m sad about that. I’ve been working really long hours and have had very little time for social activities and hobbies, including games. A couple of months ago, Sean and I played Martian Dice, and it has taken me a long time to get around to posting about it!

The way the dice look and even the container they come in look a LOT like the Zombie Dice game dice and container, but Martian Dice seems to be a different company.

Dice tube game package for Martian Dice

Basic stats: 2-unlimited players, 10-30 min (heavily dependent on # of players), ages 8+

In Martian Dice, the players are Martians attempting to abduct Earthlings. The Earthlings include humans, cows, and chickens.

The first time I played Martian Dice, I played with a group of 8 at work. We are all very familiar with Zombie Dice, and I think we expected something similar. However, I think 8 people is too many for Martian Dice. The game dragged on for a long time, and we finally quit at half the final score the instructions recommended.

Much later, Sean and I decided to give it a try alone at home, since I didn’t want to give away the game without giving it another shot (and getting the chance to blog about it!), and our experience was very different. As a two-player game, Martian Dice was pretty fun.

A first roll of Martian Dice

On your turn, you roll all of the dice at once. You must set aside any tanks you roll. You then choose one of the other types of item (death rays, humans, cows, or chickens) to keep, and keep all dice with that item on it. You set them aside with your tanks. Then you can reroll the rest of the dice. Again, you must add any tanks rolled to those set aside. Then you can choose to keep one of the other types of item you just rolled, and keep all the dice of that type, but it must be different from the one you kept earlier. This continues until you are out of rolls or decide to stop.

There is one exception to the rules on setting dice aside; you can choose to keep death rays on as many rolls as you want. If you keep death rays, though, that means you don’t get to keep anything else on that roll.

In order for you to get points for your turn, you must have death rays equal to or greater than the number of tanks rolled. This allows you to defeat the Earthlings and abduct those you rolled.

Second roll

If you do get points, you get a point for each Earthling you abducted. There is a bonus for getting each type of Earthling on one turn (this seems pretty rare).

Keeping the humans

With a large number of players, the game takes way too long, but with two, it moved quickly and was fine. There is a push-your-luck element to it, but it has more limits than in Zombie Dice, because there is a limited number of dice, and as you roll tanks, your maximum possible points on a turn decreases, because you must also then roll death rays to cancel out those tanks.

On some turns, you may find yourself rolling lots of tanks and having to use up the rest of your precious dice on death rays to combat them, resulting in very few or no Earthlings abducted.

Battling the tanks with death rays

Like in Zombie Dice, we played that the first player to pass a certain score triggered the end of the game, and the other player(s) got a chance to beat that score to take the win. (This is a modification of the official rules.)

Two points for this Martian Dice turn

In Zombie Dice, this means that although your chances may become very slim, you always have a chance at making a big comeback. In Martian Dice, the big comeback is limited based on the number of dice available, and rolling a few tanks can wipe out any hopes of a comeback pretty quickly. So it’s more difficult to make an exciting last minute come from way behind sort of win in Martian Dice. Sometimes, there’s no point in even trying to beat the other player’s score because there just aren’t enough dice to let you make up the gap between your scores.

Overall, though, Sean and I enjoyed Martian Dice as a two-player game. Zombie Dice still wins out in its level of fun for me, because I like the idea that I always have a chance until the very end, and that just isn’t always the case in Martian Dice.

Humans and tanks rolled in Martian Dice

Pros:

• Fun theme
• Light game that is portable and quick
• Has an engaging push-your-luck element

Cons:

• Drags on for too long with many players
• Doesn’t encourage last-minute dramatic comebacks

Tobago may just be the most attractive looking board game I own. It feels like a deduction game, since players are narrowing down the possibilities to find the location of treasures, but the locations of the treasures are actually determined by clues played by the players.

I like Tobago a lot, but it isn’t one of my very favorite games because it feels a little repetitive (narrow down clues to treasure, race to treasure, dig up treasure, repeat). However, when I played most recently with Sean and Josie, they both said Tobago is one of their very favorite games that I own. So it is pretty appealing!

Sean got Tobago for me for Christmas a couple of years ago. Since then, I’ve played it with groups of four, three, and two. It works pretty well with all of those numbers, but I think I prefer it with three or four. It works just fine with two though.

Basic stats: 2-4 players, 60 min, ages 10+

Tobago was not particularly easy to learn from the rules. I read the rules, but when I tried to explain it to a group of four for the first time, a couple of the members of our group thought it sounded too complicated. After we got into it, it became simpler. But it is the kind of game I’d rather learn from someone else who knows how to play rather than from reading the rules. It’s totally do-able to learn it from the rules, but if you have any impatient players, it may be challenging.

Since then, Sean and I have taught the game to a few other friends and to my sister Josie, and that always went pretty easily, since we understood the game well enough to answer their questions and explain the basic strategy.

Tobago game pieces, including jeeples (jeep meeples)

The game pieces and board for Tobago are very nice. The only game I own that I think compares in adorableness is Survive. In Tobago, each player gets a little wooden jeep meeple, or jeeple, to move around the island.

The Tobago game board can be set up in variety of ways that change the look and shape of the island. The island is divided up into different types of land, including beaches, rivers, lakes, mountains, jungles, and scrubland.

Near the start of the game

Depending on how the board is set up, for example, there might be a large beach in one area and a smaller beach in another, or there might be a large jungle in one area and a couple of smaller jungles in other areas.

There are also certain pieces that you add to the board as landmarks, including palm trees, huts, and statues. Setting up the game is part of what makes it feel complex at first, because there are rules about where to place the various pieces on the board and how to set up the deck of treasure cards.

Each player gets a collection of small cardboard compass roses in the color matching his/her jeep. These compass roses are used to mark the clue cards played by this player. They show the amount of stake the player has in a particular treasure. This matters later when the treasure gets divided up.

Compass roses to claim clue cards with

There are four treasures available at any given time. They are colored black, white, brown, and gray. You set the wooden cubes of those colors in separate piles near the board. At the start of the game, each player gets to assign the first clue card to one of the treasures.

The clues begin (note that this was a three-player game, so we each got to start one of the treasures; at this point red has already taken a normal turn and added a second clue)

The clue cards are used to narrow down the possible locations for that particular treasure. For example, a clue card might say that the treasure is in the largest jungle, that the treasure is not in a river, or that the treasure is within sight of a hut.

The clue cards are cleverly designed with visual representations of the clues, so they contain no text. The first time you play, it takes a few minutes to figure out what each symbol means, so you may want to keep the cheat sheet from the rules handy.

Clue card examples

After the game is set up and each player has added a clue toward one treasure, any player can contribute a clue toward any treasure on his/her turn. The only rules about this are that the clue card must not contradict any of the previous clue cards on that treasure, and it must help to narrow down the possibilities.

For example, if one of the clue cards says the treasure is in the mountains, you can’t play another card on that treasure that says it’s in the jungle. Or if the clue cards already say that the treasure is on the largest beach, you can’t play another card that says the treasure is on a beach (because we already know that).

The clue cards start narrowing down locations of treasure

On your turn, you can choose whether to play a clue card or move your jeep. Or, if you really hate your clue cards, you can use your turn to discard all your clue cards and draw new ones.

If you move your jeep, you have up to three moves. This does not mean three tiles on the board. The movement options for the jeep are a bit tricky to understand at first, but basically you can move as far as you want within one type of terrain for one move, and moving from one type of terrain to another costs you another move. After you are in another type of terrain, you can then move anywhere in that terrain for one move.

Josie moves her jeep

As you get closer to narrowing down the possible locations for a treasure, you start marking the possible spots for the treasure with the wooden cubes. Then, as the possibilities narrow further, you remove cubes from the board until there is just one possible location for the treasure.

Clue cubes are removed from the board as we narrow the possibilities

After you know where a treasure is, it’s a race to get there first and dig it up, since the person who digs up the treasure gets first dibs on that treasure and will also get to add a new clue card to the next round of treasure.

The person who digs up the treasure gets to add a compass rose to the end of that treasure, and the people who added compass roses to the treasure most recently will get higher priority in selecting treasure cards from that treasure.

Treasure cards vary in value from 2 to 6. The players who contributed toward the treasure get sneak peeks at parts of the treasure before it is revealed. The person digging up the treasure deals out cards to each player who contributed to that treasure. For example, if I contributed two clue cards toward that treasure, I get to peek at two of the treasure cards. Nobody else gets to preview those two cards.

Tobago treasure cards at final scoring

After peeking at the cards, the players hand them back to the person who dug up the treasure. That person randomly mixes the cards together and adds one more random card that nobody peeked at.

The player who dug up the treasure then flips over the first treasure card from the pile so that everyone can see it. The person with first dibs (the most recent compass rose) chooses whether to take that card or pass. If the player passes, then the player with the next compass rose chooses, and so on down the line. If a player chooses to take the card, the player takes back his/her compass rose, the dealer flips over a new card, and the process continues until all of that treasure has been distributed or passed.

It’s possible that a player with first dibs might pass on that card with his/her first compass rose but then decide to take that card with a later compass rose of lower priority. This would mean the later compass rose gets removed but the player keeps the first dibs priority on future cards.

Since there is just one extra card in the treasure, it’s okay for all players to pass on a card once, but after one of the treasure cards is discarded, the players don’t have the luxury of discarding another card, or the last player in line won’t get a card for that compass rose. So after one card has been discarded, the last player in line pretty much has to take whatever card the others have all turned down. Otherwise, there will be no treasure card left for that last compass rose in line.

A curse card

There is one further challenge to the decision-making process–there are two curse cards in the deck of treasures. When a curse card comes up in a treasure, that card curses all the players who have compass roses remaining in that treasure. Those players then either lose an amulet (if they have one–more on this in a bit) or lose their highest value treasure card.

The early peeking at the treasure cards can help a lot with decision-making. For example, if you peeked and saw that there is a treasure worth 6, and you have early dibs, you may want to pass on most of the 3 and 4 value cards to wait for that 6. Or if you peeked and saw a curse, you will want to get the heck out of that treasure as fast as possible so you don’t get cursed.

After a treasure is dug up, that treasure gets restarted. So if it was the gray treasure that the player dug up, the gray treasure then resets and the player gets to add the first new clue card on that treasure.

After a treasure is dug up, something magical happens on the island. Amulets are raised from the sea and added to the game board. They are raised at the point directly straight in front of each of the statues that is closest to the water. Then the players turn the statues in a clockwise direction, with a “grinding sound”, according to the rules, which is fun.

Josie and I turn the statues

Amulet pile at start of game

A player can collect an amulet by driving his/her jeeple to that location and stopping in that location to pick up the amulet. The amulet can then be used in the game as protection against a curse or as a way to take another turn. A player can play an amulet to get to add another clue card or to move a jeep again. But the player can’t use the amulet jeep move to collect more amulets.

Late in the game

Close up of game board with jeep and statue

Late in game clue status

At the end of the game, the players add up the values of their treasures, and the player who collected the most treasure wins.

When Josie, Sean, and I played recently, the winner was Sean. But we all had a great time. It took us a little over an hour, I think, but we took some breaks to get drinks and snacks.

Pros:

• Attractive board and pieces; satisfying to play with them
• Medium to light thinking required, not too taxing on the brain but does require thought–more short-term tactics than long-term strategy
• Light-hearted silliness in driving jeeps around and turning statues, etc.
• Design of clue cards is very clever
• Fun and satisfying to narrow down the possibilities for treasure locations (in fact, just writing this review is making me want to play Tobago again!)
• Sean and Josie both rate the game very highly, so it’s popular with some of my most common opponents

Lost Cities is a fairly popular two-player card game. I know many people love this game, but it isn’t one of my favorites. It’s okay, but it doesn’t stand out as being special in comparison to some of my other favorite games. I find it a little dull for what it is.

I got Lost Cities because it was recommended as a two-player game on BoardGameGeek. I think it’s a fine game, but I’m not eager to play it. Sean and I hadn’t played in quite a long time, but we decided to play recently so I could get some photos and blog about it.

Basic stats: 20-30 min, 2 players, ages 8-10+

I like the Indiana Jones style theme of the game. Each player starts expeditions to explore different areas. Your initial commitment to a specific expedition may end up helping or hurting you later. Unfortunately, the theme doesn’t feel very strong as you play the game. It feels more like a numbers game as you play it.

Empty game board at start

You start out with a hand of cards, a draw pile, and an empty board. There are five colors to the cards: red, green, blue, white, and yellow. Each set of cards has one card for each number ranging from 2-10, plus some cards with handshake symbols on them.

My hand of cards

Sean's hand of cards during the game

On your turn, you must play or discard a card, and then draw a card. You can draw a card from the draw pile or from the discard piles. Each color has its own discard pile.

To play a card, you place it on the table in front of you near that color on the board. Playing one card of a color commits you to the expedition. At the end of the game, any expeditions that you didn’t commit any cards to earn you 0 points. Those that you commit cards to can earn you positive or negative points.

You must play cards on an expedition in order from lowest to highest. If you have already played a red 6, you can never play a red 5, for example.

If you decide to play a handshake card on an expedition, it must be played first, before a numbered card. The handshake card means that the total for the expedition will be doubled at the end. This can help you a lot if the expedition turns out to earn you positive points, but it can hurt you a lot of the expedition turns out negatively.

Any expedition that you commit to must first break even by reaching 20 points before you start earning actual points that count. An expedition that adds up to 20 points earns you 0 points. But an expedition that adds up to 22 points earns you 2 points.

A successful white expedition

The white expedition in the image above adds up to 14 points total, since the total score of the numbered cards adds up to 27. After subtracting 20 to break even, the cards add up to 7, and the score for that expedition is then doubled because of the handshake card.

On your turn, you play a card and then draw a card, etc. There is a lot of luck to the game, but there is also some strategy. For example, if you see that your opponent is starting a yellow expedition and you have yellow cards in your hand, you may hang on to them instead of discarding them to make sure that the other player can’t take and use them.

If you see another player start an expedition, you may think twice about committing to an expedition of that color yourself unless you are very sure that you will be able to break even. If the other player starts a green expedition, but you hold the green 9 and 10, you may still feel confident enough to start your own green expedition.

It can be tough when you start out the game with some high cards, because you usually want to hold on to them until you can get a decent base of lower cards on an expedition first, since the expedition must move from low to high. But the high cards in your hand give you confidence about which expeditions you can safely commit to.

It can also be challenging to decide how many expeditions to commit to, since you don’t want to spread yourself too thin.

The completed expeditions at the end of the game

The game ends when you run out of cards in the draw pile. You can delay the end of the game by drawing cards from the discard piles rather than the draw pile. We often do this even when we don’t want the cards from the discard pile but need more time to get to play some of the good cards in our hands.

I think there is a pretty decent mix of luck and strategy in Lost Cities, and I like that it’s fairly short, but for some reason it seems to fall flat for Sean and me. It isn’t as engaging and interesting as some of our other quick card games. I find that it feels a little boring and drags on.

For example, in the game we played recently, I can’t even remember who won. I think it was Sean. But in the end, we just didn’t care that much. We were glad to be done with Lost Cities so we could move on to some fast-paced rounds of Scopa.

Oogie seemed to enjoy acting as my consultant

Lost Cities is very popular, and I can understand some reasons for that. It does have a good mix of luck and strategy. But for some reason this game just doesn’t click with us as much as some others do. For a quick two-player game, Sean and I would pick many games over this one, including Scopa, Hive, Jaipur, Archaeology, and many others. A few months ago, I taught my sister Josie how to play both Lost Cities and Jaipur on the same day, and she also strongly preferred Jaipur.

Pros:

• Fairly quick
• Nice art and theme idea (though not very thematic feeling as you play)
• Has a balance of luck and strategy

I’ve had to travel for work lately, and I had the good fortune to sit with my friend and co-worker Charlie on a couple of fairly empty flights recently. We both like games, so we spent the time trying out games on the airplane tray tables. We played Hive, Blokus Duo, and the Ticket to Ride iPad app.

Our flight was so empty that we were able to spread out across three seats and tray tables, which was nice. That was especially helpful during Blokus Duo. I have blogged about Blokus Duo before, so I won’t go into detail on that here.

We used the center table for the Blokus Duo board and our own tables to spread out our remaining pieces.

Preparing to play

Me placing a piece

I was purple, and Charlie was orange. It worked pretty well with the three tables. I’m not sure it would have worked as well with just two tables, although I think it could be done.

Mid-game

End of game

Charlie won definitively, with 22 remaining squares to my 28. I have a hard time seeing the optimal moves, and I tend to focus on blocking my opponent more than protecting myself. I like how fast this game is and how it makes me think differently from other games.

Blokus Duo worked pretty well on the plane, but I think it would be more awkward to fit on just two tables, so I probably won’t bring it again. Also, the box isn’t quite as small as I’d like to fit in my carry-on purse, although it is nice and light.

We also played Hive, which required even less space. (I have also blogged about Hive before.) But the Hive pieces were more slippery on the tray table surface, so we put down magazines to keep the pieces more stable.

Early in the game

I was black, and Charlie was white. I won this time, but we both still feel like there are probably a bunch of moves that we’re not seeing because we’re still pretty much beginners at Hive.

Mid-game

End of game

Hive is pretty good on the airplane table, and it only requires one table. The main disadvantage to Hive on the airplane was that it’s somewhat heavy in my carry-on, and I have to haul it around the airport and airplane. Even though I liked playing it on the plane, I don’t think I’ll bring it again because of the weight.

Our flight attendant stopped by and asked us about Hive while we were playing it. She seemed very interested in it, which was fun.

Charlie and I have also played a few iPad games on the plane. On this particular flight, we played Ticket to Ride. (I blogged about the Ticket to Ride iPad app earlier, too, so I won’t go into detail on it.) I won this one, but Charlie won on the previous flight (unfortunately, we forgot to take pictures that time).

Our final scores

Compared to Hive and Blokus Duo, the iPad is much more convenient for airplane gaming. It doesn’t require a tray table at all and is very light and compact for fitting in my carry-on.

Charlie and I also tried the Carcassonne iPad app and the Settlers of Catan iPad app on another flight. I’ll be blogging about those apps soon. The quick story on them is that we liked the Carcassonne app a lot but didn’t like the Catan app very well. More details to come in a future post!

It’s fun that Blokus Duo and Hive give you the tactile experience of using game pieces, but the truth is that they just aren’t that convenient to play on the plane. The iPad was the clear winner in terms of convenience, compactness, and variety of games to play. I’ll definitely keep bringing it on flights. Many of the apps even have solo player options for when I don’t have a human opponent to play with!

If Charlie and I sit together on more flights, we’ll probably be more likely to play iPad game apps or else Scopa or Zombie Dice on the tray tables, which we think would work well. (Scopa and Zombie Dice are both VERY small and light and don’t require much space.)

Blokus Duo is a quick abstract game that is simple to learn but challenging to play. Sean and I don’t play many games like it, but we both enjoyed it. It’s a puzzle-like experience to figure out how to block your opponent and claim areas for yourself. 

Basic stats about Blokus Duo: 2 players, ~15 minutes, ages 5+

Sean and I learned to play Blokus Duo recently at Cafe Mox, a local board game cafe. We borrowed it from the big game library they have at the attached Card Kingdom store.

We chose Blokus Duo because we had seen people playing it at The Sloop recently, and we thought it looked interesting. Also, we had seats at the bar of Cafe Mox that night, and there isn’t a whole lot of space, so we wanted a small game. We also wanted one that was quick to learn, since we were there for dinner and didn’t want to spend too much time reading and interpreting the rules for a new game.

Short and sweet rule sheet

The rules were indeed simple and easy to learn. The sheet was short and clear.

Each player receives a set of pieces in a variety of shapes. Sean chose orange, and I was purple. The game board is set up with a grid of small squares so the pieces click into place and stay there easily.

The blank board and pieces

Players take turns placing tiles on the board until they can’t add any more tiles. The more you can fit on the board, the better. At the end, you count up the number of tiles on the remaining pieces you didn’t place, and the person with fewer tiles left wins.

(I think when you get better at it, there are other scoring rules that become relevant–like a bonus for placing ALL of your pieces on the board–but we have never gotten anywhere close to that yet.)

There are two squares on the board that have small circles on them. You must place your first piece on one of the grid squares that has a circle on it.

The game begins with Sean (orange) and me (purple)

Then you take turns placing pieces. Each piece you add must be touching at least one of your other pieces at the corner only. You can’t have full sides of your own tiles touching.

There are no restrictions on having full sides of your tiles touching the sides of the other player’s tiles.

Early in the game

It can be tricky to visualize all the possible moves, but it is important to protect your own corners and not let the other player cover up your corners with their pieces. You also need to do your best to eliminate the other player’s corners and claim areas of the board for yourself.

Toward the end of the game

Blokus Duo is simple but not at all easy. I tried to be aggressive and attack Sean and claim areas, but he won both games we played.

I haven’t played enough times to have a strong strategy about when to place each piece, but I’m guessing that there are some basic optimal strategies that will become clearer with more plays.

Sean (orange) wins

Overall, I like Blokus Duo and bought a copy for myself shortly after playing at Cafe Mox. It’s very different from the other games in my collection. It’s quick, fairly portable, and gives your brain some fun spatial work.

Below are some pros and cons of Blokus Duo.

Pros:

• Easy to learn
• Quick to play
• Waterproof pieces and fairly stable surface, so could work in a variety of environments
• Spatial puzzle feel to it
• Good for two players
• Variety in the sizes and shapes of pieces and in the order they are placed means each game turns out differently

On a recent snow day when Sean and I both worked from home, I got an email from Carmelita, one of our favorite restaurants, saying they were having all day happy hour for the snow day. When we both finished working, I put Zombie Dice in my pocket, and we took a long walk through the snow for some dice, cocktails, and yummy vegetarian food.

Like many people in Seattle, we live on a steep hill. It looked beautiful in the snow, but we have seen many cars get out of control when people try to drive up or down it in the snow.

Looking down our steep hill in the snow

Another view of our steep snowy hill

The walk was cold and slippery, but fun. Lots of people were outside sledding and playing. I like how bright it is outside at night when it snows.

The texture of the snow was unusual because freezing rain had started creating a layer of ice on top of the snow, so we had 4-5 inches of snow with a crunchy layer of ice on top. It was a lot like the texture of creme brûlée.

Sean as we reached Carmelita

We finally got up to Carmelita and found that the bar area was busy, but two groups left soon after we arrived, so we got spots at the bar.

Pretty snowy scene outside the windows

The bar at Carmelita

Our drinks being mixed

We always love the cocktails at Carmelita. They are unusual and tasty! Sean and I like to share our drinks so that we both get to try more things.

We ordered a Sugar Plum, which was a bubbly drink in a flute with creme de cassis and some yummy wintery spices. We also ordered an Aquamarine, which included gin and chartreuse, among other things.

Sugar Plum and Aquamarine

We ordered a salad and flatbread with dips to start. We started playing Zombie Dice while we snacked on that stuff. We rolled the dice on the menu to avoid disturbing other people, but nobody seemed to mind or even notice.

Carmelita flatbread with dip and salad with roasted apples and nuts

Rolling Zombie Dice on the Carmelita menu

I won’t go into detail on Zombie Dice because I blogged about it in more detail before. It sure is a great size for taking outside in my pocket on a walk or hike. (We also hiked up a mountain with it in September.)

Sean took a photo of the mirror and then realized I was in it

The pizzas were delicious! This is such amazing vegetarian food.

Delicious pizzas

After we ate, we finished our game and ordered another round of cocktails. We got a drink called a Smitten and one called Bitter and Spice. Both featured rosemary, and both were good. Smitten was much sweeter. I liked both.

Smitten and Bitter and Spice

I won at Zombie Dice.

I rolled eight brains in one turn!

We wrapped up with a hot buttered rum to warm up for the long walk home!

Buttered rum

Leaving Carmelita

Me on the way home from Carmelita

It was a fun snow day!

Finca is a board game about fruit farming. That might not sound so interesting, but it is actually a fun strategic game that is focused enough that it doesn’t require terribly deep thinking, which is refreshing.

Turns are quick, the components are attractive and good quality, and there is something very satisfying about harvesting little pieces of wooden fruit. The windmill mechanic for moving farmers and getting fruit is also an interesting puzzle-like system.

Basic stats about Finca: 2-4 players, 45 min, ages 10+

Sean and I played Finca recently at Naked City Brewery, which I blogged about recently. It’s a great place to take a game and get some good beer and food. On that night, we started out with Racko and switched to Finca after dinner. We had some yummy beer while we played Finca.

Sean's beer at Naked City

This game was Sean’s first time playing Finca. I had played Finca twice before with friends, once as a two-player game and once as a three-player game.

The premise of Finca is that players are fruit farmers on the island of Mallorca, a Mediterranean island near Spain. According to Wikipedia, finca is Spanish for an estate that consists of rural or agricultural land.

In Finca, players harvest and deliver fruit to the cities on the island via donkey cart. The player making the delivery to a city must provide the number and type of fruit specifically being requested by the city.

Finca fruit meeples

The board and pieces are attractive and nice in quality. The little wooden pieces of fruit really make the game stand out as being cute.

Each player starts with a specific number of farmers. In a two-player game, each player gets five farmer meeples.

A Finca farmer meeple

The piles of wooden fruit are sorted by type and set next to the game board.

A pile of olive meeples

The game also comes with cardboard fruit tiles that are used to tell the players what number and types of fruit each city wants. These fruit tiles are shuffled randomly and then arranged in face-down stacks of four tiles for each city. The top tile is flipped face-up to tell you what the city is currently requesting.

The game board at start of game

After a player has delivered what a city is requesting, the player takes that fruit tile and keeps it for scoring. Then the next tile for that city is flipped face-up, and this is the city’s new request.

At the start of the game, you also randomly mix up smaller finca bonus tiles and put one at each city. The bonus tile for a city is distributed when all the tiles from the city are gone.

When all the tiles from a city have been taken by the players, a wooden finca is placed on the city. It looks like a barn. At this point, the finca bonus tile is distributed to the player who has delivered the greatest number of the fruit type shown on the bonus tile.

This is determined not by the number of wooden fruit of that type that you have, but by the number of this type of fruit shown on the fruit tiles you have collected.

So your main way of getting points in the game is by delivering fruit and collecting fruit tiles and bonus tiles. But in order to deliver fruit, you must first harvest it. You do that by moving farmers around on a windmill.

The windmill

There are a bunch of cardboard tiles shaped like pieces of a windmill. Each has one type of fruit shown on it. You mix them up and arrange them randomly on a rondel area. According to Wikipedia, in gaming, a rondel is a wheel-shaped game mechanism with a number of different options.

In Finca, the rondel takes the form of a windmill. To get started, you take turns placing farmers on the windmill. For each farmer that you place, you get to take one wooden fruit that matches the windmill tile you placed the farmer on.

Piles of wooden fruit

Farmers on the fruit windmill

After your farmers are all placed, the real turns begin. On your turn, you have three choices. You can either move a farmer on the windmill, deliver fruit, or use one of your special ability tiles.

Most of the turns are spent moving farmers, since this is how you harvest fruit. You can only move farmers in a clockwise direction.

You determine how far an individual farmer must move based on how many other farmers are currently sharing its blade on the windmill. If the farmer is alone, it would move forward one tile.

If the farmer is currently sharing a tile with one other farmer (of any color), the farmer would move forward two spaces. It is not “up to two” spaces. It is exactly two spaces. If the farmer is sharing with three other farmers, it would move forward three spaces, and so on.

You only move one farmer per turn, and you get to decide which of your farmers to move. Your goal is often to reach tiles with certain types of fruit on them so that you can harvest and deliver that type. But you also need to pay attention to where the other farmers are located, because this affects how many pieces of fruit you get to harvest.

Your farmer will collect the type of fruit shown on the windmill tile where farmer lands. The number of fruits collected is determined by the number of farmers standing on that tile.

For example, if your farmer is alone on the lemon windmill blade at the end of your move, you collect one lemon. If one other farmer of any color is sharing that windmill blade with you, you collect two lemons, and so on. So if you can get your farmer to end up on a blade where other farmers are standing, you will get more fruit.

There is a line drawn horizontally across the windmill, and if one of your meeples crosses the line, you collect a donkey cart from the center of the windmill.

If a player moves a farmer and needs to collect more fruit than is left in the supply, all players must return all of their fruit of that type to the supply, and the player then collects the fruit needed for that turn. The same rule applies to the donkey carts.

This discourages hoarding of fruit or carts, because it’s possible that all those fruits and carts could be taken from you if you hold on to too many of them for too long.

The way to avoid hoarding fruit and carts is by delivering fruit to cities as soon and as often as you can.

Midway through the game

The other main thing you can do on your turn instead of moving a farmer is delivering fruit. You do that by using a donkey cart, which can carry up to six fruits total. You can only use one cart per turn.

The cart can carry any six fruits you want; they don’t have to be the same type. You can deliver to multiple cities at once, if you have the fruit needed and can fit it all in your cart at once.

You know what each city wants by its fruit tile. The tile says the number and types of fruit being requested by that city. The tiles range from as low as one to as high as six. For example, one city might request one lemon, while another city requests three figs and two oranges.

To deliver fruit to a city, you collect up the number and type of fruits needed and take one of your donkey carts. You return the fruits and cart to the supply and take the city’s fruit tile.

The number on the city’s fruit tile that you collected will count toward your final score. You can also collect special bonus tiles by getting one tile of each number from one to six. The first person to do that gets a bonus tile. The next person to do that gets a smaller bonus. You can even continue getting those bonuses if you collect more sets.

Farmers, fincas, and tiles

You also get bonuses by collecting the finca bonus tile when the all of the city’s fruit tiles have been collected. The finca bonus tile goes to the player who has delivered the most of the fruit of that type. Often, this is not the same player who caused the city to run out of tiles.

It’s worth paying attention to which bonuses are associated with which cities. You can focus on depleting those city tiles in order to get the bonus for yourself, if you know you are way ahead on oranges or lemons or whatever.

At the start of the game, each player gets four tiles that give them special abilities. You can use one of these tiles instead of the basic moving farmers or delivering on your turn. You can only use each special ability once.

The abilities allow you to make a delivery using a large donkey cart with space for ten fruits, move a farmer anywhere on the windmill, take a second turn at moving a farmer on the windmill directly after the first, and make a successful delivery with one fruit less than the city was requesting.

The end of the game

In a two-player game, the game ends when four cities are out of fruit tiles and have fincas on them. At this point, you count your score based on the fruit and bonus tiles you have. You also get two points for any special ability tile that you didn’t use during the game.

In our two-player game, Sean got every single finca bonus tile, and he made more deliveries than I did. He beat me by a huge margin. His score was almost double mine!

Sean's winning score in Finca

My losing score in Finca

I didn’t mind losing, though. It was fun to teach Sean a new game, and Finca is a fun and satisfying game even when you don’t win.

I think Finca is great for times when you want the experience of a real board game but don’t want something with long turns that make your brain hurt. It’s a mellow game with some strategic thinking. It isn’t a laugh out loud silly sort of game, but it’s fun and not too heavy.

Sean compared playing Finca to a more focused version of Stone Age (which I blogged about earlier) where your only goal was to build huts. (The normal Stone Age also has many other ways to get points.)

I think that comparison to a more focused Stone Age makes sense, because Finca gives you more limited ways to win, and your options on any given turn are not so many that it’s mind boggling and difficult to decide. But your decisions do matter; this is not a game of luck.

All of the information about each player is fully visible to everyone at all times. Since there is no hidden information, you can and should pay attention to what the other players are likely to do. I had a hard time predicting what Sean would do in this game, and he beat me to delivering fruit quite a few times because I was focusing too much on my own plan.

Pros:

• Very cute and attractive looking.
• The windmill mechanic for moving farmers is a fun puzzle element.
• Focused enough that turns are quick and the game moves quickly.
• Strategic enough that your decisions matter; there is very little luck.

Cons:

• Has a lot of little pieces that require setting up at the start. Not as complicated to set up as many other games, though.
• The storage of the baggies and areas in the box insert are not perfect for these pieces. It isn’t easy to separate the fruit types. I should get more baggies for this.
• Not much else I can think of.

Racko is a simple and classic numbers game from the 1950s that is very heavy on luck. It’s light and enjoyable. I got it for Sean for Christmas after he enjoyed playing it at a game night recently. We took Racko along with us to dinner at Naked City Brewery after work on a Tuesday night. Naked City is a very cool local brewery with good beer, good food, and a board game-friendly environment.

We have been to Naked City a handful of times, and we have almost always seen other game players there. The servers are interested and encouraging of people playing games. They even have a shelf of board games near the front door that customers can borrow and play.

The Naked City game shelf

Of course, you can also bring in your own games. I’ve seen people play many games at Naked City, including Dominion, Small World, Settlers of Catan, and others. In fact, Naked City is where I first taught Sean to play Survive: Escape from Atlantis, which I blogged about earlier.

To start things off, we ordered Naked City beers. They brew many delicious beers there, and they also have a fantastic list that includes many other interesting beers, mostly local.

Naked City blond beer in front of doorway to back room

I ordered a Naked City blond beer, and Sean got a pale. They were both great!

Extensive beer list

The environment in Naked City is very inviting. There is a lively crowd, even on weeknights, but it isn’t too difficult to get a table, because the place is pretty huge. You can bring kids before 9 pm as long as they don’t sit in the bar area.

The soundproofing inside is really nice. You can actually hear the other people at your table easily, even with many other people around. They also consistently play great music, at least in our opinion.

Inside Naked City Brewery, with restaurant area tables on the left and the bar on the right

The servers are friendly and helpful. They know a lot about the beer and food and can provide lots of advice.

On the night we went recently, we sat on stools at a tall table in the bar area. Our table was plenty big enough for games, food, and beer.

The bar

My blond beer in front of doorway to back room

We also ordered a pretzel with a delicious cheesy dipping sauce that also included beer in it.

Dipping the pretzel in cheesy mustard sauce

We ate the pretzel as we played Racko. We also ordered dinner, which arrived well into the game, so we wrapped up the game over dinner.

Consulting the food menus at Naked City

Ready to start Racko and that pretzel

Racko's cheesy 50s style game box

Basic stats on Racko: 2-4 players, ~30 min, ages 8+

Each player gets a plastic card holder with slots in it for 10 cards. The set of cards has one of each number from 1 to 60 or something. But with two players, you remove all the numbers above 40.

Starting the pretzel and Racko game

Each player is dealt 10 cards, and you must keep them in that order and put them in the slots on the holder in the order they were dealt.

Starting a round of Racko with the numbers way in the wrong order

Your goal in the game will be to change the arrangement of cards in your slots so that they are in order from lowest in front to highest in back.

In a game with more players, that’s all you need to do. When your cards are in order, you say Racko and the round ends.

In a game with two players, you must also have a streak of three cards in order (such as 6, 7, 8 or 22, 23, 24) within that in order to get a Racko.

End of a round

On your turn, you draw one card, either the face up card on the top of the discard pile, or a random face down card from the deck. You can then either discard the card you drew, or you can swap it with one of the cards in your holder and discard the card from your holder, instead.

After you have discarded a card, you’ll never get it back, unless you go through all the cards on the round and have to reshuffle them, which is rare.

The components in our copy of Racko feel a little cheaply made. The holders are pretty flimsy, and the cards are not printed well. The numbers should be printed in a consistent location on the card regardless on which side is up, but they aren’t, so it isn’t easy to tell in a visual way whether your cards are in order.

If you were very careful to keep all the cards right-side up, the location of the number would allow you to see visually whether they were in the right order, but that is kind of a pain.

Whoever gets a Racko first says so, and the round ends. The person who got a Racko gets 75 points. The other player gets points based on how many cards they have in order, starting with the first (closest) slot.

Each slot is worth 5 points if the cards are in order for those slots. So if your first 5 cards are in order, you get 25 points. But if your first (closest) card is a higher number than your next closest card, you only get 5 points.

When the round ends, you calculate the scores and write them down. You play more rounds until one person has 500 points, or whatever number you agree to play to.

Sean and I played Racko while we waited for our dinner to arrive and while we ate dinner. Strangely, I got a Racko on every single round! The game is very heavy on the luck, and I think I had a streak of good luck.

Of course, bad decisions can totally kill you in this game, so it isn’t 100% luck. You do make some important decisions.

I ordered a black bean burger with salad, which I ate while we wrapped up the game.

My tasty black bean burger

Sean ordered a chicken burger.

Sean's spicy chicken burger

Burgers and Racko game at Naked City

We actually didn’t play all the way until I reached 500 points, because my score was about double Sean’s score, and we had another game with us that we also wanted to play. We ended up sticking around for more beer and a game of Finca after dinner. (I’ll blog about that session of Finca soon!)

Below are some pros and cons of Racko.

Pros:

• Simple to learn and teach.
• Light and quick.
• Can feel satisfying.
• Even though there is a lot of luck, you still have some control and decisions to make.

Cons:

• Components are somewhat flimsy and not printed well.
• Requires that you write down scores after each round.
• Feels very luck heavy.

Sign outside the Naked City Brewery

And below are some pros and cons of Naked City Brewery.

Pros:

• Great beer and good food.
• Board game-friendly environment.
• Lots of comfortable seating.
• Helpful servers.
• Feels cozy and inviting.
• Good music.
• Good soundproofing.
• Allows kids before 9 pm.

Cons:

• Parking can be a little difficult–but at least it’s free.
• Can be a wait for a table on a weekend night.
• Nobody under 21 is allowed after 9 pm.

Survive: Escape from Atlantis is a game that is both silly and brutal–a fun combination! Players attempt to rescue their meeples from a sinking island, avoid sea monsters, and turn those sea monsters on the other players.

I’ve played some seemingly friendly games like Ticket to Ride and Carcassonne where players got upset with each other based on perceived mean behavior, but I have never seen any sort of hard feelings in games of Survive. I think that’s because the conflict is so direct and expected. You can’t really blame someone for killing off your meeples when you’re trying to do the very same thing to the rest of the players!

Basic stats on Survive: Escape from Atlantis: 2-4 players, 60 min, ages 8+

Survive was originally published in 1982, and it was reprinted with updated components in 2011. I have the reprinted version.

I’ve played Survive with 2, 3, and 4 players, and I think it’s best with 4, because there’s that much more chaos and that many more people to attack, so all of your attacks aren’t focused on just one player.

I have a mini expansion that allows 5-6 players, but I haven’t tried it yet. In fact, there are a bunch of challenge rules and additional sea monsters that I haven’t even introduced yet, but I’m looking forward to it.

The game includes colored meeples for each player, along with adorable sea monster meeples. The basic game includes whales, sharks, and sea serpents. It also comes with dolphins, but those are only used with more advanced rules. I also have the Survive: Giant Squid expansion that introduces squid.

This poor little meeple has many enemies...and only one friend (the dolphin!)

Over our holiday vacation, Sean and I taught his mom, Celia, to play Survive. We played on New Year’s Eve in between parties. I was yellow, Sean was red, and Celia was green.

The game board at start of game

Each player starts out with 10 meeples. Each meeple has a number printed on the bottom that tells you how many points that meeple is worth if you manage to rescue it.

The game board looks like a huge watery area surrounded on four corners by islands. To set up the game, you randomly arrange land tiles in an area in the center.

There are three types of land tiles. Beach tiles are the lowest–and the first to sink! The forest tiles are taller and sink after the beach. The mountain tiles are the tallest and the last to sink.

The cardboard tiles are of very nice quality, and the difference in thickness of each tile type is obvious.

Starting our three-player game

After arranging the land tiles randomly, five sea serpent meeples are placed on the board, in the four corners and the center.

One of the sea serpents starts out in the center

Then, players take turns placing individual meeples on the land tiles until they are all on the board. Players get to look at the numbers on the bottom of the meeples before placing them. There are multiple meeples worth 1, 2, and 3 points, but only one 4, 5, and 6, so the higher point meeples are important to keep track of if you are able to do that.

It’s very difficult to remember which meeples you care most about during the game, though, because the game gets chaotic quickly, and you aren’t allowed to peek at the numbers after you have placed the meeples.

After placing meeples, each player then gets to place two wooden boats (with space for three meeples) on the board.

Then the real play begins. At the start of a turn, a player has the option to play one tile they already have collected. Then the player gets three moves. The player can move one or more of his or her own meeples on these moves.

Three sets of meeples ready to escape from Atlantis

A move can be used to move an individual meeple from one tile to another. The three moves can all be used on one meeple, or they can be divided between the player’s meeples.

Meeples can move freely between land tiles, but once the meeple has left the land, it can never return. Meeples can also move freely between sea tiles. They can move onto boats from either land or sea.

If a player has meeples on a boat, the player can use moves to move the entire boat. Each move of the boat counts as one move, so if the player can get multiple meeples on a single boat, this method is more efficient at transporting meeples.

But other players may move their meeples onto the same boat, so they are sharing in the benefit. A player can only move the boat if they have either dominance or equal share in the boat. If a boat contains two red meeples and one yellow meeple, only the red player is allowed to move the boat. The yellow player could make the yellow meeple jump out of the boat and swim, but the yellow player can’t move the boat.

If a boat contains one yellow meeple and one red meeple, both players can move the boat.

Celia's green meeples and my yellow meeple sharing a boat

After the player has moved meeples, the player flips a tile. Players must start with beach tiles first, and the beach tile being flipped must be touching water on at least one side.

You can flip a tile that another player’s meeple is standing on. If you do that, the meeple becomes a swimmer and can never return to Atlantis. It must instead swim or find a boat to get to a nearby safe island.

When you flip a tile, you look at the symbol on the bottom of it without showing the other players, and then either keep the tile or use it immediately. The tiles with straight down arrows are used immediately. They show a symbol of an item that needs to be added to the board, such as a shark, a boat, or a whale.

These tiles are how the sharks and whales are introduced to the game.

A shark meeple aiming for an innocent person

Tiles with a curved arrow and hand can be saved by the player to use later. They give the player a special ability, such as the ability to move a swimmer or boat faster or the ability to move a sea monster to any unoccupied space.

There are also defensive tiles that a player can save to use as protection against specific types of monsters later.

When Sean and I played with Celia, we didn’t keep our tiles secret, since it was easier to explain them that way, and it made the game easier to teach and learn.

Celia flipping a tile

After flipping a tile, the player then rolls the red monster die. The die has symbols of each type of sea monster on it. Whichever monster is rolled can be moved by that player.

A whale can move up to three spaces, but it can’t hurt meeples directly. It can destroy boats, making any meeples in them into swimmers.

A shark can move up to two spaces, and it kills any swimmers in its space. A shark can’t hurt people who are in a boat.

Rolling and moving a shark meeple

A sea serpent can move only one space at a time, but it destroys all meeples in its space, even meeples in boats. If a sea serpent attacks a boat of meeples, both the boat and the meeples are removed from the game. 

As the game progresses, the tiles that you draw become more and more dangerous. The forest tiles have more dramatic effects than the beach, and the mountains are even worse. Soon, you’re flipping over whirlpools that pull in all meeples, monsters, and boats in their range.

The backstabbing and drama increase, too. For example, you may decide to sacrifice one of your less important meeples in order to kill off what you hope are more important meeples of other colors.

My yellow meeple has some dangerous creatures around it

One of the mountain tiles has a volcano on it, but you can’t tell which one it is from above. When a player flips over the volcano tile, the volcano erupts and destroys all of the meeples and monsters left. The meeples that reached the safety of nearby islands at that point are the survivors.

The carnage from the volcano eruption

When your meeples are killed during the game, you set them off to the side without looking at their point values. That way, at the end, there is a surprise when you count up your points. The values on your surviving meeples are added together to make your score.

When Sean, Celia, and I played, they tied for first place. I came in second (last).

My rescued yellow meeples with points

The final points for red meeples

So far, I have played Survive six times, and each time I was teaching a new player (or learning it myself), so I still haven’t tried the challenge rules. I think the challenge rules will make it even more exciting.

For example, there is a different set of blue dice that lets you roll a monster symbol on one die and a number on the other. Then you get to move that object up to the number of spaces on the number die, so it’s less predictable. It also includes the ability to move boats that way, which is helpful, since boats tend to sit around uselessly after they have shipped people to nearby islands.

The blue dice also include dolphins, and the dolphins can be used to protect swimmers in some way, but I am not very familiar with that yet since I haven’t used them. I think squid are able to pull people off the land, which would be interesting.

The blue number die also includes the letter D, which means the object dives underwater and can come up in any space (possibly any unoccupied space–again, I’m not totally sure since I haven’t played that way yet). But I am excited to try out the blue dice, dolphins, and squid soon! I think it will make the two-player game more exciting.

Below are my pros and cons of Survive: Escape from Atlantis.

Pros:

• Direct conflict makes it very different from most of my other games–in a good way.
• Easy to learn and simple, without brain burning strategic decisions. Doesn’t lead to over-thinking, so it’s pretty fast-paced.
• So silly and brutal that it’s unlikely that people will be upset about the conflicts, unlike in some nicer seeming games where you don’t expect it.
• Nice game pieces and board, especially the sea monster meeples.
• The rules describe other ways of playing and different challenges to use, so there’s variety and different levels of difficulty to choose from.
• Just plain fun.

Cons:

• Isn’t as exciting with two players, because most meeples get rescued or killed before the volcano erupts. I’ve heard it can be more exciting if each player draws two tiles per turn in a two-player game. I think trying out the blue dice and the other creatures would also make the two-player game more exciting.
• Might not work as well for people who don’t like such direct conflict. But the silly and cute nature of the meeples helps to lighten the mood so people don’t tend to take it too seriously.
• The symbols on the tiles can be a bit tricky to interpret when you’re first learning the game. At least, they are a bit tricky when I’m trying to teach it to new people.

Carcassonne is a special game to me because it is the game that really got me interested in board games. My friends Jill and Morgan received Carcassonne for a wedding gift, and they taught us to play it in fall of 2009. It was eye opening! I had never enjoyed a board game so much.

Sean and I got a copy soon afterward, and we have played many times since then. I started researching other games like it online, found the BoardGameGeek website, and got hooked!

Although I now have many other great games that I enjoy, I still love Carcassonne. Last night, Sean and I had dinner with our friends Pat and Rich, and we taught them to play Carcassonne. Carcassonne feels like a mellow game, but it can be pretty cutthroat in a quiet way. I find something very satisfying in the puzzle-like game board that you create as you go.

Pat and Rich own a wine shop on Lummi Island called Artisan Wine Gallery, which Sean and I love. They give wine tastings and sell an interesting variety of wines. Rich has a blog for the wine shop, and he is the one who originally suggested that I start a game blog after the four of us played Survive: Escape from Atlantis back in July.

Pat and Rich like playing games and are always up for learning a new one, which is fun! Pat made an incredibly delicious salmon chowder, salad, and muffins for dinner, and Rich poured us some yummy Malbec. After dinner, we broke out Carcassonne. They had never played it, but they had actually been to the real Carcassonne in France just a couple of months ago! Rich showed us some photos, and the real thing looked a lot like the game!

Basic stats: 2-5 players (can play 6 with an expansion), ~45-60 minutes, ages 8+

The game consists mostly of tiles and little wooden pieces called meeples that represent your people in the game. The Carcassonne game instructions refer to the meeples as “followers,” but everybody calls them meeples, and the Carcassonne meeples are the classic meeples. (Many other games also have meeples. I posted earlier about the variety of meeples in my games.)

Carcassonne meeple

Carcassonne meeples

In Carcassonne, you get eight meeples, but you have to put one of them on the scoring track, so you really have seven meeples to work with. On your turn, you draw a tile and place it on the table. The game starts with one starting tile that you have to start building on. Each tile that you add must have at least one of its sides fully touching another tile that is already on the board.

Toward the end of the game

Since the players build the board as they go, each game turns out a little different from the others. It’s like building a group puzzle and claiming areas of it for yourself as you go.

In the past, we created stacks of tiles face down for players to draw from, but one of our expansions came with a bag that’s handy for drawing tiles from, so we use that now.

Bag for Carcassonne tiles

Carcassonne tiles in the bag

Each turn, you draw and place one tile. You can place a meeple on that tile to claim a feature, such as a road, city, farm, or cloister. To claim a feature, you place your meeple on that feature.

You don’t have to play a meeple on the tile, but this is your only chance to put a meeple on that tile, because you are only allowed to place a meeple on a tile that you are currently placing. You can’t place a meeple on a tile that you or someone else already played. If you do place a meeple on your current tile, you can only place one meeple on it, no more.

A meeple on a road is a thief. A meeple on a city is a knight. A meeple on a cloister is a monk. These meeples are all placed standing up, and when the feature (road, city, or cloister) is completed, you will get your meeple back. If you place a meeple in the grass as a farmer, you lay the meeple on its side, and you will never get it back.

The meeples on their sides are farmers; the one standing on the road is Rich's thief.

Roads, cities, and cloisters are scored during the game whenever the feature is completed. A road is completed when both ends of the road are placed. The player gets one point for each tile in the road. The road is worth the same amount whether it is completed during the game or not, but you won’t get your meeple back unless you complete the road during the game.

Rich placing a road tile

A city is completed when it is enclosed by walls on all sides. Cities are worth more if you complete them during the game. If you have incomplete cities at the end of the game, they are only worth half the points. Each tile in a completed city is worth two points. Some city tiles have special shields on them that make that tile worth double. If a city is incomplete at the end of the game, the player gets one point for each tile in the city, instead of two.

Roads and cities can vary a lot in size. A city can be as small as two tiles or much larger. Roads can vary a lot in length, too.

A cloister is completed when the cloister is surrounded by tiles on all sides, including tiles on the corners, so that there is a square of nine tiles. Each tile in that square is worth one point, and, like roads, there is no bonus for finishing the feature during the game other than getting your meeple back.

The yellow meeple is a monk on a cloister; the others on their sides are farmers.

Meeples that are placed as farmers are never going to return to you, so placing a farmer is a permanent move for that meeple. Farmers are scored at the end of the game. A farmer gets three points for each completed city that is on that farmer’s area. Incomplete cities don’t count. So you want to lay your farmers strategically in areas where many cities are being completed.

You can’t place a meeple on a feature that is already claimed by someone else. For example, you can’t add another piece to someone else’s city and put your meeple on it.

But it’s possible to sneak onto someone else’s feature by placing a tile so that it doesn’t connect to the other feature yet, and then you can connect them later. If that happens, you and the other player share the points for that feature. This happens frequently with farms, because they can be so valuable, but it gets tempting with any feature that gets especially large, such as a huge city or road.

This sort of sneaky business can lead to people trying to sneak extra meeples of their own onto their own features to get more power over the feature. If you have two meeples on a feature, such as a city or farm, and another player has a single meeple on that feature, your meeples will outweigh the other player’s meeple, so you will win the points for that feature, and the other player will not get any points for it.

At the end of the game, the red farmers (Sean) and yellow farmers (Rich) got points for the biggest farm.

But since you have a limited number of meeples, you want to manage them carefully and not have them all out on the board.

Another interesting thing about Carcassonne is that nothing is secret. When you draw a tile, you show it to the rest of the group. You decide where to put it, but the others can give you advice. It encourages discussion and makes it a little easier on beginners who are learning how to play.

Pat and I are helping consider Rich's options.

Rich making his decision on tile placement

Since some features are scored during the game but others aren’t scored until the end, it may look like one player is ahead during the game when in fact that player is in last place. When we played last night, I looked like I was doing very well during the game, but after the farms were scored at the end, I was far behind the others!

My green meeple appears to be ahead during the game, but it's deceiving!

The final scores, with Rich (yellow) way ahead, then Pat (blue), then Sean (red), and then me (green)

Rich ended up way ahead, with Pat next, then Sean, and then me. I didn’t mind losing, though, because the game was so fun!

After Carcassonne, we had tea and some awesome Christmas cookies.

Such delicious cookies

Pat and Rich’s cute Australian shepherds, Tater and Cooper, hung out with us.

Tater checking out the game on the table

Tater was a little wiggly for photos

After dessert, we pulled out Scopa (which I have blogged about before) and played that while we snacked on some yummy nut mixes. Rich and I had good luck! Our team won.

Cooper hanging out behind the table of Scopa cards

Pat and Rich liked Scopa a lot. It’s a nice quick game.

Here are some pros/cons of Carcassonne!

Pros:

• Has the same satisfying feeling I get from jigsaw puzzles, but with the addition of competing and interacting with others
• The tiles combine to form an attractive looking game
• Can be played in a friendly or cutthroat manner, depending on your preference (I like playing cutthroat but wouldn’t do that with beginners)
• Beginners can learn as they go, because no info is hidden, and more experienced players can help identify options for them
• The number of decisions you make at one time is somewhat limited, because you only get to place one tile at a time
• Different every time because you build the board as you go
• Isn’t always obvious who is winning, so you still feel like you have a chance
• Really good for 2-4 players
• Has many expansions (not discussed here) which add to the variety

Cons:

• Not as great with 5-6 players because it can be a long time before you get a turn, especially if players aren’t totally focused
• Not a boisterous party game, if that’s what your group is looking for
• In two-player, too often turns into a farmer shoot-out, so we often play without farmers in two-player
• Difficult for some people to visualize the possible tile placements (this kind of spatial/visual placement isn’t fun for everyone)