Shallow Thoughts: Board Game Recommendations

The popular board game The Settlers of Catan.

Gaming has come a long ways since the days of Monopoly and LIFE. The Settlers of Catan is probably the most popular of the newer era of strategy games, and it has a lot to offer due to its ease of play and reliance on a combination of strategy and luck. I have a couple other recommendations that offer a quick game play speed and an affordable price.

The Resistance

For a $15 game The Resistance has a lot to offer. One thing to keep in mind is that you will need at least five people to play the game (and you can play with up to ten), which makes it a fun party game. The pace of the game is relatively fast, typically lasting between 15 and 30 minutes depending on the group you are playing with. The plot of the game is simple, it is the future and there is a brutal totalitarian government in place. The only thing standing in the way of the government is the resistance movement, who will try to topple the government on a series of missions. The players are divided into two groups, the resistance, and the spies (who will try to fail the resistance teams missions). The spies know who the other spies are, but the resistance doesn’t know who among their ranks are spies. What ensues is a lot of fun. Players make accusations about who is a spy and why, and tensions grow as the game unfolds. It is a very easy game to learn, and quite different than anything else I have played.

Coup

Coup is another easy game to learn, and it is made by the same indie gaming company that makes The Resistance. It is also a cheap ($12) and fast game. The game can be played with anywhere between two and six players (though I’d recommend playing with four or more), and is largely a game of bluffing. The premise is simple, each player is given two character cards. When both of your character cards have been killed (which can happen several different ways), you have lost. The winner is the last person with a living character card. These varying character cards give you different abilities in the game. Certain abilities can be used to collect wealth more quickly, or even to more easily destroy the character card of one of your opponents. The trick is, you can bluff and claim to have any of the character cards in the game, giving you those unique abilities. Bluffing is high stakes though, if someone challenges you to prove that you have a card you lose one of your cards if you are caught in a bluff. However, if you are telling the truth when someone challenges you, your challenger is forced to discard one of their cards. The game is incredibly fast, which is refreshing, because it allows you to play a number of rounds and it gives more people a chance to be winners.

Let us know in the comments section if you have any game recommendations!