Five Getaway Games: Travel the World Without Leaving Home
Most of the world is working hard to adapt to the new normal. Sheltering in place. Working from home. Online schooling run by schools that have never done online education before now. We are missing restaurants, coffee shops, travel, parties, sports, seeing friends…handshakes.
I had researched and organized a family vacation to Europe that was supposed to happen in April. Now it will be postponed indefinitely. Instead I am spending a lot of time working on my computer or streaming on my television. My kids are also on their devices a lot since that is how they do their school work and keep up with their friendships. It can be hard to maintain a sense of family bonding with everything that is happening.
I love board games and I find myself wanting to break them out more now to help keep the family dynamic positive and to take a break from the wave of constant news/updates.
Here are a list of a few of my favorite games that allow me to feel like I am traveling or at least learning about the world.
1. Parks (designed by Henry Audubon)
Parks is a game that was published last year)and in it players are hikers exploring the U.S. National Parks. Over the course of 4 rounds (seasons) players will walk the trails, picking up resources in order to visit one of the many parks featured in the game. The game even has a mechanic where players you a “camera” to take pictures of places they visit. This game has beautiful components and the designer collaborated with 59 Parks (https://59parks.net/) to supply the much of the art in the game.
Parks can be played in about an hour and the rule book is well written so that new players can learn the game fairly easily. Visiting National Parks is something my family enjoys and this game has helped put many parks on our travel list.
2. Ticket to Ride (designed by Alan R. Moon)
Ticket to Ride is one of the most popular board games in the world today. The original game has spawned many expansions allowing players to explore India, Europe, Asia, Great Britain, America and many more locations. Ticket to Ride is an easy game to learn and can be enjoyed by children as young as 8 years old. During the game players are are laying track (represented by plastic trains) to develop a network and meet personal goals (tickets).
The game is easy to learn but hard to master and it can be quite mean. Over time a player will be able to guess which cities an opponent is trying to connect and can block them (at least temporarily). This adds to the tension and the fun. The game allows for nice educational opportunities as players will learn the geography depicted on the map and can easily lead to further research on the web.
3. Tokaido (designed by Antoine Bauza)
In Tokaido players choose a character (each with certain asymmetrical abilities) and go for a walk from Kyoto to Edo, Japan. While walking the eastern sea route players perform actions to stop at local hot springs, buy souvenirs, donate to temples, and paint panoramas of the places they visit. Several times during the journey, the player’s traveler will visit an inn and purchase a meal. The player who completes the journey and earns the most points from their actions wins the game.
Tokaido is an elegant game played with delightful components. The rules are simple and allow for easy access to the game, but the openness of the game creates difficult choice for the players. Do you specialize and focus on only certain actions or diversify? Since players can move their character as far down the road as they like it can be tempting for players to jump ahead to an action that they really want. However, player order is based on whoever is at the end of the line going first. So if Player A jumps ahead 4 spaces, then Player B can take several successive turns by stopping at the places that Player A skipped. All of this creates a delightful push and pull as players compete to win Tokaido.
4. London (designed by Martin Wallace)
Martin Wallace’s London is a game that explores late 1800’s London. During the game players will build a personal tableau to represent a subdivision of London. They will then select cards that reflect different institutions or people found in 1890's London. Poverty was a huge issue in London at the rise of the Industrial Revolution and this is reflected in the game.
London is the most complicated of the games on this list. The new second edition of the game, which is what is currently available, has a much improved rule book. However it is recommended that people new to the game find a “how to play” video online to help them learn it game. The game is nicely illustrated with many historic places featured in the game. If a trip to London is in your future, take the time to learn more about its past with Martin Wallace’s intriguing design.
5. Warsaw: City of Ruins (designed by Filip Miłuński)
Warsaw: City of Ruins is an interesting game that was brought to the United States last year by North Star Games. In this game players create neighborhoods in Warsaw by selecting tiles that represent different portions of the city: parks, residential, business, important historic buildings, etc. During the game players build their neighborhoods over several rounds reflecting life in Warsaw from 1600's to present day. The designers included many tiles with images from actual places in Warsaw (the rule book includes historical information on these places of interest). For example, the Royal Baths Park tile in the picture below is Łazienki Park, the largest park in Warsaw. The game even handles damage suffered in Warsaw due to World War 1 and World War 2 by having players discard some of their neighborhood tiles at different points during the game.
The designer endows his game with his love for his city and creates a fantastically challenging game in the process.
