Ticket to Ride

Players: 2-5
Age: 8+
Playtime: 30-60 mins

Ticket to Ride was one of the first games I bought when my interest in board games was rekindled thanks to Geek and Sundry and their tabletop channel on youtube.

This is a great game to play to introduce people to board gaming if they are nervous about playing.  Especially if their own past experience is scrabble, monopoly and the like.

The rules are simple and easy to follow.  There is a lot of strategy in this game but also some luck as you're never quite sure what carriage cards are going to come up.  The aim is to create routes between two locations on the map, the longer the route the more points it is worth.  There is also an extra 10 points for those that create the longest route.

I always enjoy this game, especially when you try and ruin someone's route... I'm mean like that.  I've played it often enough that I can find the locations relatively quickly.  I enjoy the simplicity of the game along side the struggle of trying to get the cards for the route before the other players.  There are a lot of different Ticket to Ride games and a wonderful extension that can be used for any of the board maps Alvin and Dexter.  Well worth the investment.  This extension adds an extra difficulty/frustration level and allows you to mess with other players, which, if you're playing with the right people, is a lot fun.

Score: 9/10

Dawn

Fluxx the Board Games

Players: 2-4
Playtime: 15-30 minutes
Ages: 8+

A lot of people will know the Fluxx Card Games.  They have become a popular favourite within a number of gaming groups.  I have played a number of different versions and was fortunate enough to play the original version.  So imagine our delight when there was a board game created based on Fluxx.

For those who do not know Fluxx the idea behind it is that the rules and the goals change from one turn to the next.  It's is intensely fun as it is frustrating (usually due to the other players).  It depends on the luck of the cards and how mean players want to be to each other the games could last between 15-30 minutes.

The board game is not much different.  It consists of nine individual squares that make up the board.  Each player gets three colour pieces, a card that tells the players what colour they are (this is really important), rule cards with pegs which help keep track of the ever changing rules, plus the playing cards: Actions, Keepers & Goals.

The rule tile that show the number of move, draw, play, hand limit, wrap-round (when a piece can go from one side of the board, off the board and enter the same row on the opposite side), move-a-tile (move any tile to a legal position), rotate-a-tile (move one time 90 degrees anticlockwise).  There is also a tile that shows the number of goals that is required to win which can also change within the course of the game.

It took us a while to get the feel of the game so we played it twice.  Then it got funny.  Changing the colour you're playing on people, moving tiles you know people are aiming for, moving tiles to help you win. The rules changing so regularly it is important that the rule tiles are checked.  Drawing cards is the first events that every player much do, after that the moves, playing of cards can happen in any order.  At the end of the turn players much reduce down to the hand limit.

Strategy is not a huge priority in this game due to the fluctuation of the rules.

If you are a fan of Fluxx I would recommend this game.

Score: 8/10

Dawn