Summer Gaming

It is high time I shared at least some sort of update on my summer goings-on, so how about gaming? We’ve had a range of short- and long-term visitors that enjoy meatier games, so the balance has definitely been on the side of mid to heavy weight strategy games. We still get in a game of Guesstures or Dixit from time to time, but the new hotness Res Arcana has hit the table over 20 times this summer.

• Res Arcana – I love this game. It is a Tom Lehman game that shares some mechanisms with Race for the Galaxy but is lighter and faster like Jump Drive. I had held off on getting Jump Drive for some reason (I’ve played it 13 times) and this game nicely fills that niche for me. Experienced players finish in 40 minutes or less, sometimes around 25 minutes. It has a fun 2-player match format, drafting for a metagame strategy, and seems ready for expansion. Highly recommended. Thank you Greg for the surprise gift!
• SpaceCorp – Sadly High Frontier didn’t hit the table this summer, largely because SpaceCorp is a bit more approachable to new players. Played this three or four times and I think it has earned a permanent place in my collection.
• Root – Played this with neighbors here at the lake and sadly I wasn’t as familiar as I should have been with all the factions so we stumbled a bit with the rules. At least 2 of the 3 new players enjoyed it though.

• Kingdomino – This is one of our go-to gateway games now for “all ages”, ranging from 7 to 70. Easy to teach but still with some strategic depth.

• Acquire – We needed a five player game one night and everyone wanted a “real strategy game” instead of a party game or activity. Acquire was about the only option (though Dominion as it turns out does fine for a learning game with five players) and not surprisingly it was a big hit. Folks my age and older are always surprised when I mention that this game came out in 1964.

• Magic: the Gathering – My friend Matt brought a box of recent boosters and we had fun doing a draft round-robin tournament. This game remains a perfect 10 for me, and I still spend less than $50 a year playing it (about the cost of a round of golf).