Games: what I want

Wherein as I was saying


Previously, on board games....

Earlier, I mentioned some old Avalon Hill games I own. Here's some more recent ones I wouldn't mind having. I say recent, but Cosmic Encounter was first released in the 1980s.

• Monsters Menace America
  
• Robo Rally
  
• Cosmic Encounter

So I've read through the Games 100 looking for some new and interesting. Something I just have to have. I guess I'm looking for more family type games, or at least games that aren't too completed and could be played in under an hour. It would be nice to play some of these. Games I could start training my daughter on would be nice.

The first three are at the top of the list and Hey, That's My Fish is definately on the list to buy. Really want Silent War, but for $75 I damn sure better be prepared to play it.

• Hey, That's My Fish. How to play with screenshots
  

  Yet in all actuality it's simply an abstract game, with players moving their pawns around, trying to cut one another off and score the most points. Yet I've encountered few abstract games such as this one. It's simple enough for my five year old daughter to comprehend and play, yet deep enough that it can be played seriously by gamers. Personally, I think it's more on the light side of abstract games (it should be played fairly lightly, anyway). Still, any abstract game that can be played in less than twenty minutes, hold a decent amount of strategy, and play almost as well with three and four players as it does with two is worth getting in my book.

  
  
• Techno Witches. Review:
  

  This is a light game that requires good spatial perception. You need to know which piece to take just by looking at it and so you have to estimate lengths in your head and visualize the curve of the trail without actually putting the piece on the board. There are some tactics to game play in both selecting tiles since you can choose to hoard certain trail pieces preventing others from taking them and in knowing when to fly so that you can take advantage of the trail pieces as they return to the pool. You can use your position to block opponents just like in a real race.
  
  Make sure you have a nice table to play this on because that’s your board. I played one game on my colorful holiday tablecloth and found all of my spatial estimations were distorted. I wouldn't play this with obsessive-compulsive people because the pieces do tend to move around a bit as they are placed / bumped and I'm sure that would drive these people crazy(-ier).

  
  
• Silent War
  

  Silent War is a solitaire simulation of the United States' submarine war against Imperial Japan during the Second World War. The scenarios allow players to recreate various stages of the war or the entire campaign. In each of these scenarios, the player takes on the role of Commander Submarines, US Pacific Fleet (ComSubPac), deploying available submarines from either Pearl Harbor or Brisbane in order to attack the Japanese Navy. Additionally, in the patrol game, using single submarines, players can recreate some of the war's most famous patrols. The amount of flexibility the game allows the player is tremendous, a single submarine patrol can be completed in 10 minutes, the various campaigns can be completed in 10 or more hours depending on which campaign you play and your progress as commander.

  
  
• Aloha
  

  Aloha is a nice mix of tile play and push-your-luck. Players are travel reps trying to secure the best beaches by placing sun loungers on beaches as they explore the island. The tiles show a good mix of land and water, with 1-3 golden beaches on most tiles. On your turn, you jump your rep to a new place, then draw a tile. This must be placed adjacent so you can walk straight onto it, otherwise your turn is over. If you walk on, and it has a beach, you have the option of dropping a lounger in your color onto it on its side.
  
  Then you can decide to push your luck and draw another tile. Each time you walk on, you may drop another lounger, but these go onto their sides. When you decide you've done enough or cannot move on anyway, you stop drawing and turn your loungers upright. But if you draw a tile you can't place so that you walk on, you lose all the loungers on their sides back to your pot. The tile still gets placed, and the game has a clever rule. Whenever a tile is placed, it must go where it touches the most tiles. So if the tile is going next to where you stand, sometimes you have no choice, the game forces its placement. But usually you have a few choices and these are crucial to pushing your luck.

  
  
• Jochen der Rochen. Or Fish Boogie.
  

  ou have a circular dance floor that has been sabotaged by sawfish. You must jiggle the floor to make as many different colored (5 colors, 2 of each color) fish fall off without two fish of the same color or Ray the Stingray falling off. You can bail at any time, and score as many birthday cake pieces as the number of fish that came off the dance floor."
  
  "This particular dex game is obscenely simple to learn, fairly tricky to operate, and absolutely compulsive to play. It just look SO mind-numbingly stupid. Besides how can you knock a game about a Stingray's undersea birthday party?"

  
  
• Wallamoppi. The description was interesting, but it wasn't until I saw the picture that it all clicked -- "ahh, so that's what it is." This could be fun.

And a few more I marked as interesting:

• Tricky Town
  
• Any of the Ticket to Ride games
  
• The Great Space Race.
  
• Poison