Last week Brigge held a board games evening together with the Bambaram Toy Library and Amethyst Cafe — and man did we have a cracking time!!
Not sure if you were one of the lucky ones who attended — but if you missed out (Loser!!!) — no sweat, we’ll be organizing more such fun stuff in the future. Until then, here are some fun board games that are a total riot when you have some free time on your hands!
1. Pachisi
Pachisi has the distinction of being called the national (board) game of India. It apparently came into existence in ancient India, and is supposedly derived from an even more ancient game called chaupar. It somewhat resembles the game of dice that the Pandavas and Kauravas played in Mahabharata. However, that is apparently another game called ‘Chopat’. Nevertheless, most of these games are quite similar — board and rule-wise (they are called cross-and circle board games) — even good old ludo belongs to this same category, but Pachisi is kind of a classier, more rustic version. It is usually played with two teams of two players each, moving their pieces from the centre (charkoni) down one arm of the cross and up the same, going back to the charkoni. Movement is determine by throwing dice (or cowrie shells — if you really want to get in the zone). The team that gets all of it’s pieces to the finish first wins.
Pachisi ‘boards’ are easily available online, or can be just as easily fashioned at home using some cloth and fabric paint (but who has time for that). Or if you really want to up the ante, you could play it like emperor Akbar. Apparently the entire court in the Mughal palace would be turned into the Pachisi board, with a large stone structure marking the charkoni. Each team would have slaves as pieces, dressed in the requisite colours, moving as per the instructions of the team and the dice. Pretty cool, huh? But for now, you will have to make do with the smaller version available on ebay.
2. Mendicot (main-dee-coat)
While technically a card game, this makes for quite an entertaining time — all you need is four people and a deck. Played in pairs (teams of two players) the objective of the game is to collect all the 10s (spades, clubs, hearts and diamonds) with every hand. The teams with the most 10s wins. The play gets more intense and complicated with the introduction of a trump card. As with all card games, strategy, observation, and some wily cheating is imperative to win. And of course, one needs basic knowledge of card games (how to deal, what makes a hand/trick, how to calculate moves/plays, how to follow suit). The team playing the highest card or trump in a suit wins the hand. The team who has the highest number of 10s in the collection of tricks wins.
What makes this game more fun is penalties that could be imposed on the losing team — anything from sponsoring snacks, or keeping cards behind their ears for every game lost. Get as creative as you’d like.
3. Go
Long before PokemonGO became the sensational phenomenon it has, there existed (and still does) it’s namesake Chinese board game (without any pokemons, of course). Go is said to be one of the oldest board games in the world. Not just, that — its also super complex, involving more strategies than even chess, and apparently posits more possibilities than the known number of atoms in the visible universe (boasts). It was pretty popular with Chinese aristocracy, considered one of the four essential arts in antique times. Go is played between two opponents on a grid measuring 19X19 (although smaller ones are available for beginners) using black and white pieces (called stones). Each player has practically an unlimited supply of stones, and the whole objective is to occupy as much territory as possible on the board. You can also try to capture the opponents pieces by surrounding them completely. While not a riot, if a mental workout is what you live for — this is just the one for you. Plus there’s brownie points for playing the oldest board game known to man.
4. Jenga
This one is fairly straightforward, you have a tower made of blocks. You remove a block from the lower levels and place it at the top. The objective is to see how high your tower can go without collapsing.
Okay so where’s the fun in that? Ah well, the game itself may be simple, but some geniuses have come up with their own variants that promise a thoroughly entertaining, if embarrassing time.
Truth or Dare Jenga: Write embarrassing questions/ridiculous activities on each Jenga block. Players have to comply before placing the block.
Drunken Jenga: Same as above, only instructions are related to drinking. Trust us, after the third round, it feels like you’re building the Eiffel Tower.
Colour coded Jenga: Colour the short ends of the blocks, then use a dice or a dial to pick out the colour that each player must pull out.
And it goes on. But we’ll stop here to try and keep this PG13. (Psst.. a bunch a guys set their Jenga blocks on fire and tried to build themselves a flaming tower.)
5. Twister
The big bad grand-daddy of all party games, twister is prolly one of the most opportunistic games, especially if you’re at a co-ed party. It’s also the most fun, along with being a total workout. You don’t really need the twister mat/rug/whatyoumaycallit, just some coloured circles on the floor will do, along with a dial or dice. Roll and twist!
6. Mahjong
If you find rummy to be too desi, try mahjong. Rummy’s cousin from ancient China, Mahjong has pretty much the same objective, that is, to complete a ‘hand’ of 4 ‘melds’. the major difference is that Mahjong is played with tiles instead of cards, and well at some point of time dragons get involved, but the rules are simply straightforward — and Mahjong tiles easily available.
There happen to be a lot of variations of Mahjong, and almost nobody knows definitively how the Chinese originally played it, but generally all the variants require immense skill, and promise to engross players completely.
7. Chinese Checkers
We had a version of this called Brainvita — remember? Or maybe it was just me. Anyway, they didn’t tell you it was actually Chinese Checkers, or worse, that it’s actually a German board game and has nothing to do with the Chinese. The manner of play is similar to Brainvita, that is, to move by jumping over marbles. The objective however, is slightly different — it is to move your marbles to the opposite end of the board as opposed to discarding them. Oh, and the board is also kinda cooler — a six point star instead of a circle.
Players usually sit opposite each other taking turns to move their marbles (or pegs, as they are called) to the opposite end of the board. This is done by moving pegs into adjacent empty holes or jumping over other pegs. The player to get to the end first wins.
8. Scrabble
C’mon, you have had to play scrabble at least once as a kid. Sure, it was a bit geeky, but it’s still great fun (especially if you make up your own words). Scrabble is sure to promise a few hours of good fun time and maybe teach you a few new words too!
9. Mastermind
Okay so this one is out and out for the geeks, but a lot of people rate it as the most entertaining game they’ve ever played, so it’s worth a shot even if it’s not up your alley. Technically the game requires the mastermind board, which involves rows of holes and small pegs to place in them, however, the concept of the game can be applied to any scenario. It closely resembles the 20-questions’ type of guessing game (if you were ever nerdy enough to play that). Basically, there are 2 players — a code-maker who creates a pattern with the pegs and the holes, and the code-breaker who has to figure it out based on feedback by the code-maker. Of course the board and the pegs makes it a lot more interesting.
10. Trivial Pursuit
Players, dice, trivia and pie wedges! What more do you want on a night in? (The pie wedges aren’t real, they’re plastic). The game is fairly straightforward, roll the die, move your piece, answer the question, collect wedges, repeat. Collect all the wedges and you win! If you like collecting random information on obscure topics, this is your game!
If you love board games, make sure you don’t miss the second edition of the Brigge Board Game Evening. In the meanwhile, you can organise your own on Brigge! Download the app, and find other gamers like you!
