“Each turn of Arkadia forces you to answer several strategic questions, as there is nearly no random element to speak of in the game.”

Arkadia is one of those games that appears to be fairly straightforward: you earn gold by cashing in seals you earn from completing buildings. Yet it is so layered in strategic choices that it can be impossible to get a good grip on it without several plays under your belt. Arkadia also has the unusual complication of requiring completely different tactics depending on the number of players, as plays that will probably be available to you with one opponent will most likely be stolen in larger groups. As a result, it is not as family-friendly as most board games, but deeply rewarding for those who enjoy more strategic fare.

Players represent master architects as they expand a town with a central castle, with three workers initially available to them and four cards in hand. Each turn, a player can place a Tetris-like building on the board by discarding a corresponding card (and then drawing a replacement at the end of his turn). Any tent spaces on the board covered by the placement of a building earns the player a neutral worker. Each building is endorsed by one of the four families and is marked with that family’s colored seal, to be claimed as an additional reward by whichever architect completes the building. A building is considered completed once it is bordered on all orthogonal sides by either other buildings or workers. Instead of placing a new building, a player my opt to place as many workers as he chooses (both of his own and any neutrals he may have) around a single existing building. Whoever completes a given building scores that building’s bonus seal, and each allies worker adjacent to a completed building scores his player one additional seal of that color.

Completing buildings also lets players place castle pieces on the central plaza, which can affect the standing of each family and in turn determines the value of each family’s seal at any given time. The plaza’s ten spaces initially weight each family evenly, with two seals of each family represented (plus two blank spaces). Each family also has three castle pieces that can be placed per level; the more a given family’s color shows when a player scores, the more that family’s seals are worth — from zero to six gold pieces per seal (as each level’s maximum value per family is three and the first level must be filled before the second can begin). Once the second level of the castle has been completed, each player gets one additional turn and then the game ends with one final scoring phase. Whoever has the most gold at the end of the game wins.

Each player has four opportunities to score before the final scoring phase and can choose to do so at the end of any turn; in addition to gold for traded-in seals, using a scoring opportunity also bestows two additional friendly workers to that player’s reserve. As the “market value” of each seal is constantly in flux, players must anticipate when to “cash in” and when to hoard for greater potential returns. Try to keep track of who is hoarding which seals (all such information in this game is private) and see if you can manipulate the market to screw them out of a huge windfall while shoring up your own investments. Additionally, it may be prudent to “score” without cashing in any seals at all, just to get more valuable friendly workers to place; if you don’t use them, then they’re just wasted!

Each turn of Arkadia forces you to answer several strategic questions, as there is nearly no random element to speak of in the game. Building or workers? Where to you place whatever it is you’re going to place? If a building, which one of the four in your hand is the best play? If you’re placing workers, how many will you put down — both how many non-scoring neutrals, and how many of your own precious scoring ones? How will you adjust the market if you complete a building — or two? Do you want to burn a scoring opportunity now? Will that awesome play you see still be there when your next turn rolls around or will someone else jump on it?

It’s a lot of thinking, and it can seem daunting. If that’s the sort of game you really love sinking your teeth into, then Arkadia won’t disappoint. If not, then you might want to look elsewhere. Playing Arkadia can easily instill an unwary player into feeling like he’s just along for the ride and not really sure where he’s going or what he’s doing, which is just a recipe for frustration. Arkadia is a great strategic game, just like Chess; but like Chess, it’s just not for certain types of people.

Images by GamerChris

“The game has drawn criticism from some as being ‘multiplayer solitaire,’ but nobody in my group cares.”

No, I’m not reviewing an abstract strategy game that predates my own birth by a few years. I wanted to write a column that both covered all of my gaming experiences in 2008 as well as looking forward to what to expect from this space in 2009. Being the attentive student that I once was, I knew that Janus was a god in the Roman pantheon famous for having two faces, one looking forward and the other looking back (this is why the first month of the new year is January, in case you weren’t as attentive a student as I was).

A ton of incredible games came out last year, and I was able to play quite a few of them in addition to my other “unplugged” passion, playing and judging Magic: the Gathering. I hope to write reviews of most of them in the upcoming months, in addition to any new hotness (as well as old classics and forgotten/overlooked gems) that might cross my path, but I felt I should at least fire off a quick Top Ten list. You can expect to see reviews of just about all of these sometime in the near future, but for now a quick blurb will have to suffice.

Honorable Mention: Stone Age — For all of Stone Age’s quality and uniqueness, it cannot escape the shadow of Agricola (see below). Call it unfortunate timing, but two “feed your family” worker placement games in the same year have no choice but to be lumped together. Many gamers consider Stone Age to be “Agricola-lite,” which might actually make it better-suited for some groups.

10: Android — The only reason this game isn’t higher on my list is because I’ve yet to actually play a full session since owning it. Android is a cyber-noir detective game that has you juggling a murder investigation (but nothing like Clue’s “whodunit” objective), the conspiracy linked to that murder, and your character’s own personal problems over a two-week span of time. A number of mechanics all combine into an unique experience, but the complexity means a hefty time commitment; this is a game that (at least initially) demands the dedication of an entire evening, not just an hour or two.

9: Jamaica — One of two games technically published in (late) 2007 on this list, Jamaica is a pirate-themed race game that has you sailing around the titular Caribbean island while amassing treasure, feeding your crew, and fending off cannon assaults from your rivals. It plays quickly and is one of the best “pirate” games I’ve played, although sometimes random die rolls (especially combat) can sour the experience.

8: Ghost Stories — Speaking of games ruined by randomness, I’ve developed a love-hate relationship with Ghost Stories in the short time that I’ve owned it mostly due to its reliance on dice to accomplish your goals. Your task is to defeat the incarnation of Wu Feng as you defend the village from his ghostly minions searching for the urn containing his ashes; there is one way to win and several ways to lose in this cooperative nightmare. Solo play is much less hampered by randomness once you know what you’re doing, but cooperative play can be more fun as long as you and your friends don’t mind occasionally having your heads handed to you.

7: Pandemic — Another cooperative game out for your hide is Pandemic, except instead of haunting apparitions your enemies are viral infections that are threatening to spread all over the world. It will take cooperation, skill, and more than a little luck to prevail, but when you win you will have saved the world; it doesn’t get much more epic than that. (Although try not to think about what happens if you lose…)

6: Dominion — As an avid player of Magic: the Gathering, I have a soft spot for card-driven games. Dominion is nothing but cards… several hundred of them, in fact, although each session will only use a subset of them. Simple mechanics and nearly limitless replay value make Dominion a solid addition to any gamer’s shelf, but be sure that you and your friends are gentle when it comes to shuffling.

5: Cosmic Encounter — Ok, technically this game is a few months older than I am. And yes, it gets picked up by a new company and reprinted roughly once every decade (the latest of which and justification for listing it here is Fantasy Flight’s 2008 edition; I personally own the early-90s Mayfair version), but this game is so influential on modern gaming that it deserves a mention whenever possible. It is probably my favorite game of all time, and anyone who calls him/herself a gamer but hasn’t played it yet should correct this oversight immediately.

4: Witch’s Brew — Another card-oriented game, I really liked the “So be it…” twist on the classic role-selection strategy. Witch’s Brew is a fast-playing game that is easy to learn, which are always big plusses in my book, plus it has a cute theme.

3: Toledo — While Renaissance Italy is a recurring theme in many boardgames for some reason, Spanish swordsmithing doesn’t usually crop up that often. Turning steel bars and jewels into finely-crafted dueling implements as you race through the city is accomplished by placing your own “shops” on the board to make valid spaces, discarding cards of the same value to move your pawns from shop to shop (plus the occasional visit to the tavern). Your swords are only worth their full value if they have been delivered to the palace, but the game ends when one player has moved his third pawn to the “finish”, creating late-game tension.

2: Agricola — If you are at all familiar with the hobby of (European-style) boardgaming, then you probably already know that Agricola was last year’s 800-pound gorilla (almost literally… this game’s densely-packed in more than one sense) and is currently the #1 rated game on BGG. At its core a simple worker-placement and resource-management game, this post-Plague farming simulation has remarkable depth and strategy. Three different decks and a cardless “family” version allow for variations in replayability, and solitaire rules just add to the value.

1: Race for the Galaxy/The Gathering Storm — While Race for the Galaxy was officially released late in 2007, it dominated my 2008 like no other game. Our group played over 100 sessions last year (and those were just the recorded ones!) of this “San Juan-in-space” card game and we show no signs of stopping this year. The first expansion was released late in 2008, with a second (and I believe final) on the way later this year. RftG’s only real drawback is a seemingly-overwhelming learning curve, but after a handful of sessions you’ll have overcome that particular hurdle; the fact that most games are completed in around 20 minutes will only accelerate your learning. The game has drawn criticism from some as being “multiplayer solitaire” (with actual solitaire rules appearing in the first expansion), but nobody in my group cares; this game is fun, fast, and compact (once you stop carrying around the player aids), making it ideal for almost every
situation.

Images by GamerChris

“Who else would want that fertile female panda you just drew? Are they also collecting flamingos?”

The winner of the 2007 Spiel des Jahres (essentially Germany’s Game of the Year), Zooloretto pits players as rival zoo owners trying to fill their various enclosures with assorted types of animals in order to earn the most points. Each player starts off with two coins and an empty play mat featuring three such enclosures (of varying sizes) and a barn in which extra tiles are stored; there is also an additional piece of play mat that represents a potential expansion to your zoo. One empty “truck” per player is placed in the center of the play area (except in a two-player game, which uses special rules) and fifteen of the tiles being used are set aside to represent the final round. All of the other tiles are either face-down in the play area or placed in a bag, waiting to be drawn and placed into a truck.

The tiles themselves mostly represent various species of animals, with the actual number of available species varying depending on the number of players. Four specific tiles of each species are marked with a male or female symbol, indicating a fertile member of that gender; pairing up a fertile male with a fertile female yields a baby tile, distinguished (and kept separate) from the others by being round rather than square. There are also concession stand tiles, which assist in scoring, as well as coin tiles, which bestow an additional coin on whoever collects their truck. Filling certain enclosures in your zoo will also earn you an extra coin or two.

On each player’s turn, they have three options. The first and most common is to draw a tile and place it on one of the empty sections of one of the remaining trucks. The second is to take a money action, which are various effects that cost you one or more of your coins; these include moving tiles, swapping tiles, buying tiles from other players’ barns, discarding a tile from your barn, or expanding your zoo. Finally, you can end your round by claiming a truck and placing any tiles on it in your zoo and/or barn. A truck does not have to be full (three tiles) for you to take it, but taking a non-full truck doesn’t end your round any less. Whoever takes the final truck in a round draws the first tile in the next round. The game ends after the round in which a tile from the final fifteen is drawn.

Each enclosure is worth two set point values; the higher value is for a full enclosure, and the second is earned if you are one tile shy of filling it. Anything less scores zero unless there is a concession stand adjacent to that enclosure, in which case you score one point per tile. Each different type of concession tile placed in your zoo is worth two points, but each species of animal and/or type of concession stand in your barn will cost you two points, so plan carefully when taking those trucks.

In fact, most of the strategy in Zooloretto comes from careful management of your incoming tiles. It is often correct to take a truck with only one or two tiles on it in order to avoid receiving unwanted extras, which are expensive to discard. By the same token, when placing a tile on a truck you have to pay attention to not only your own plans, but those of your opponents as well. Who else would want that fertile female panda you just drew? Are they also collecting flamingos? Would they still take the truck if it meant they’d have to deal with the unwanted bird? Would someone else take the truck before you get another shot at it, assuming you even want the panda in the first place?

Zooloretto is a quick-playing game suitable for ages eight and up. Everything about the game is sturdy and colorful, from the tiles to the play mats, and there is no in-game reading required beyond reminders of what each money action can do. Like many tile-based games, the only random factor involved is which tiles come up at what time, which leaves plenty of room for adaptation, strategy, and solid family fun.

Images by GamerChris

Experienced board gamers are always on the look-out for a simple “gateway game” that can introduce new players to more-strategic, less luck-based gaming. Many keep a copy of Ticket to Ride available for just such an occasion, as the game’s simple mechanics are easy to teach and quick to play. It has also won numerous awards since its 2004 release, including the prestigious Spiel des Jahres (a Germany-based Game of the Year award). Ticket to Ride is in many ways considered to be the archetypical “rail game”. Players compete to connect various American cities via train routes that criss-cross the country (as well as spilling over into some neighboring Canadian provinces). To complete a route, you simply need to collect the corresponding number of colored cards. The length of the route determines how many points it is worth. Additional points are available at the end of the game for completing Destination Tickets; any uncompleted Tickets in your possession are deducted from your score, so plan accordingly. There is also a one-time bonus of ten points for the player with the longest continuous chain of routes. Each player begins the game by being dealt four Tickets and keeping at least two; they also start with four route cards. On your turn, you have three choices: 1) draw two route cards from the face-up array or from the top of the deck (if you want to take a Wild card, you may only take one card that turn); 2) draw four Tickets and keep at least one (returning the rest to the bottom of the deck); or 3) complete a route using the cards in your hand. The final round begins once one player has used at least forty-three of his forty-five train cars (each car represents one segment of a route), at which point each player receives one more turn.

The game’s strategy comes from planning your routes and balancing your choices each turn. Only one player may claim a given route, so you might find your plans crushed to pieces if you take an extra turn to draw cards, allowing one of your rivals to claim that route instead. Some cities are connected by multiple routes (except in a 3-player game), and you can usually arrange for a detour, but that doesn’t change the fact that many of the cards you’ve spent precious time collecting may now be less useful to your designs. The other main strategic decision involves whether you want to attempt one continuous series of routes to connect as many Destinations as possible or to simply claim as many high-scoring Routes as possible and grab Destinations as they become convenient. As mentioned, Ticket to Ride is easy to play, with its core gameplay centering around collecting sets of colored cards. It may actually border on being too simple for more experienced players, who will have passed through this particular gateway a long time ago. Outside of a more casual group/setting, Ticket to Ride is unlikely to feature prominently in an evening’s festivities, but for those times when it is approrpriate, it will definitely hold its own.

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Images courtesy of BoardGameGeek.com