Welp, looks like it's time for another post! This time, I'll be talking about the board games I've played recently that I hadn't heard of before. If board games bore you, then perhaps you may want to wait until my next post. I, for one, find board games both stimulating and very good fun for all who participate.
Guillotine
The first of the board games I played was Guillotine. A delightful game of picking and choosing who you execute and trying to acquire the most points based on those executions.
A game starts with a certain number of victims on the board in the middle. The victims can perform effects if you get them as yours, detract from your points, or just grant large amounts of points. The goal of the game is to acquire the most points before the third day ends. (A day ends if an entire lineup of victims is emptied and needs to be refilled.)
The game starts off simply with a small number of action cards, six or so I believe. Then a lineup of victims are displayed in the middle, with the rightmost one being the soonest to be executed.
The action cards are what each person carries in their hands. These cards can perform effects once on your turn that vary anywhere from adding more hapless execution victims to the end of the line, switching the positions in the line, to ending an entire day in the game.
Each turn, a player would play one action card, and then gather the victim closest to the executioner's block. Some victims would not allow action cards to be played on their turn, others would grant you additional action cards when collected. Some victims had more unique abilities as well.
All in all, a very enjoyable game with very simple rules and minimal complexity.
Thirteen
The second game I tried was Thirteen. A game I had heard of before, but never truly participated in.
Thirteen only requires a basic deck of cards.
The game revolves around the concept of planning your moves in order to grant other players the least amount of moves, while granting yourself the most amount of moves.
The game begins with a player setting down a set or card. The player who goes first is the player with the Three of Spades, as this is the lowest card in the game, it must be gotten rid of first. However, this can be either a single card, a pair of the same card, triples, quads, or a straight of cards played.
After that, each player around the table takes turns playing their higher cards on top of it.
The order of card hierarchy is skewed slightly in this game in that 2 is the highest card, and a 3 is the lowest, as opposed to Aces being highest and 2 being the lowest.
The order of suits goes from the lowest to highest in this order: ♠ ♣ ♦ ♥ (If I remember correctly)
Let's do a short example, the game starts. Player 1 sets down two 4's. Player 2 cannot place any single cards, triple cards, or anything that is not a pair, lower than 4, or a 4 of a lower suit than the current 4 pair.
So if the first play was 4♠ and 4♦, the valid plays from there would be:
(4♣,4♥), (5, 5), (6, 6), (7, 7), (8, 8), (9, 9), (10, 10), (J, J), (Q, Q), (K, K), (A, A), (2, 2);
All cards not given a suit may be any suit in the previous list. Note how 4's can still be played, but as long as one of them is a higher suit than the other two. I believe that's how it goes at least.
The two games I played both elicit a degree of planning and precognition of the board and other players. Both are a game of strategy, with a sprinkling of luck. Card games are probably one of the most tried-and-true games alongside dice or gambling games that have withstood the test of time for their usability and enjoyment of players. The fact that new games and game types are made using cards as a medium is a good indicator of that. So get out there and play some card games! They're fun, I promise.
