'Terra' - A decent board game where you learn stuff!

I like board gaming. I like all sorts of board and card games, but tend to prefer the 'Euro style' strategy board games, good two player games and fun party games. There's a rare class of games I'm always on the look out for though, and that's a decent game where you learn something new. Now there's plenty of so called educational games out there that are popular with schools and teachers but to be honest they're usually pretty awful. There either basic roll and move games with a pasted on theme and no meaningful decisions, or they info dump knowledge onto kids which puts them off completely. Some basic trivia games are alright, but I like it when they do something more interesting than just firing off a succession of questions.

Which brings me nicely to 'Terra' a board game from noted board game designer Friedemann Friese. This is all about geographical knowledge but rather than just testing your trivia knowledge - do you know the capital city of Peru etc - it gets you thinking about geography, and a bit of history too.

The board is quite simple - it's a map of the world, dividend into many different regions, and there are also three number lines, a distance line, a date line and a general number line. Each round, a question card is shown, and players take it in turns to place cubes on the board which they think correspond to the correct answers. It helps if I show you a card.

When the card is in the card holder, only the top card half of the card is displayed. It will display the name of something, a place or a thing, along with a photo. In this case it is 'Sunsphere'. Below the photo there's three questions you can answer. One is always the Area, i.e. where on the map this is, the other two will be some other measurement or date - in this case, the diameter of the sunsphere, and the year when the World's Fair was held here.

Players take it in turns to drop one of their cubes on the board, either in an area, or on one of the number/date lines, until everyone has passed. Then players get 7 points for each correct answer, or 3 points for each cube that is close, i.e. adjacent to a correct area or zone on a number line. Careful though, if you get incorrect answers, you might not get all of your cubes back.

The second half of the card displays the answers, and some additional information. This only gets revealed when everyone has passed.

There's 200 cards in the game, which may not seem a lot, but you only actually play with 6 cards in each game, so it should last you a while. What I really like is that it really gets you thinking about the topics, and even if you don't know the answer, you can have a guess, or tag along with another player who you think does know the correct answer (you can only have 1 cube per space, but you can get points for playing adjacent, and sometimes, the answer will cover several spaces).  We played this with just two of us, and it was a good game. I can't wait to try it with more players though, as I think it would provoke more discussion and debate, which can only enhance the game.

Review of "The Game" game. Erm...

Back from a great holiday to Paris and Amsterdam. While I was there I randomly came upon an excellent board gaming shop, Descartes. Of course, it wasn't ideal for me personally, as most of the games were in French and my French is somewhat sub-par. However I did pick up a copy of a great little card game called, rather unimaginatively, "The Game". Or to give it its full title: "The Game": Spiel... so lange du kannst". It has no in game text, so is language independent apart from the rules which I already knew, so snapped it up.

In case you are wondering, Spiel... so lange du kannst is German and translates as 'Game... as long as you can'. Though my copy says "le jeu n'est pas votre ami!" which I think translates as "The Game is not your friend". Which is somewhat different. Anyway...

Type of game: Co-operative card game
No. of players: 1-5
Age: 8+
Difficulty: really easy
Length of play: 20 minutes

"The Game" BGG link (you need the link otherwise you'll never find it)

This is a really simple game to play, one of those 'why didn't I think of that' games. It's also a co-op game which is interesting for a simple little card game like this. It reminds me a bit of Hanabi, purely because you are working together to put numbered cards on piles in some kind of order. It doesn't have Hanabi's twist though - in The Game you can see your own cards and no-one elses.

How to Play

The game consists of 98 numbered cards, going from 2 to 99, and four base cards. Two of the base cards start at 1 and cards played increase in number each time. The other two base cards start at 100 and you play cards in reverse numerical order. Each player gets a hand of cards, 7 with two players, 6 cards with 3+ players, and this hand gets replenished every turn.

On a players turn they have to play at least two cards, but can play more if they like (note however - when the draw deck runs out they only need to play one card)They can play on any of the piles they want, and can play on multiple piles in a turn. Each card they play must be bigger than the last card played for the piles going in ascending order, or smaller than the last card on the piles going in descending order. The only exception to this is that if you are able to you can play a card different by exactly 10 on a card to go back. For example on the ascending pile, if the last card played was 37, you either play a card greater than 37, or you can play a 27 card. Similarly, if playing on a descending pile and the last card played was 37, you would have to either play a card less than 37, or you can play a 47. This is really useful as it allows more cards to get played on a pile.

Playing the Game on the train to Amsterdam

The aim of the game is for everyone to successfully get rid of all of their cards (once the draw pile is empty your hand doesn't get replenished). Often this doesn't happen, as once someone can't play, the game ends, and then everyone adds up the number of cards in their hands, and the number of cards (if any) left in the draw pile. A score of less than 10 is good.

The trick to this game is getting the right amount of communication between players. You have to communicate with other players to co-operate in what cards to play, otherwise you'll lose badly. However too much communication will ruin the game by making it too easy. The rule is you can't mention numbers at all, but you can say things like "please don't play on that pile as I've got a good card for it", or "only go up a little bit on this pile if you can" but can't be more specific than that.



The Verdict

I really like this game. It is so simple to learn and play (after much pleading with us, we relented and taught my six year old daughter the game and she keeps asking to play it), but playing it well and winning can be really challenging especially if you stick to the minimal communication rules. If you are finding it too easy and you are winning too often, there are ways to make it harder too. It's good value for money (mine cost 12 euros), and has lots of replay value.

I've played this game with two, three and four players and it plays well with all player counts. It is an easier game with two players, communication is more complicated and with four players you can't as easily ensure no one plays on the pile you want to play on (sometimes they just have to, or ruin another pile completely). But even with two players it is a good, fun challenge.

Castles of Mad King Ludwig review

Today I'm going to review one of my favourite games at the moment, 'The Castles of Mad King Ludwig'. First some details.

Publisher: Bezier Games
Designer: Ted Alspach
Age: 10+
Number of players: 1-4
BGG rank: 52
Length: 1-2 hours (two player can be played in an hour)
Difficulty: Easy-medium




What's it all about?

The game is all about designing your own crazy castle. You start off with an octagonal entrance foyer, and from there you buy rooms, corridors and stairs to add on to your castle. You are seeking to beat your fellow players to some shared goals, as well as working towards your own secret goals, both of which earn you victory points. You also earn victory points whenever you put down rooms.

How Do You Play?

Game Board - The Master Builder Chooses the cost of available rooms

Every round, each player gets the opportunity to buy a room and add it to their castle (or take money if they prefer). One of the neat things about the game is that each round, a different player gets to be the Master Builder, and set the price of the rooms available to buy. When the other players buy a room, they pay the Master Builder, thus earning him or her an income. The Master Builder still has to pay if they buy a room, but they pay the bank. So the Master Builder has to weigh up how to price the different rooms. They might want to make a room they really want cheap, but not too cheap that other players buy it first (they have to buy last after all other players have gone).

Here's a close up of one of the rooms

Players usually only to buy one room per round, which must be placed immediately, and a room cannot be changed once it is placed (fairly obviously, rooms aren't usually portable!). Each room scores a certain number of points when played, plus additional points are scored depending on the rooms adjacent to it. This usually fits in well with the theme, so that the Master Bedroom will score negative points if it is situated next to the Singer's chamber or the Lute room for instance.

Here's my castle at the end of a recent game

As well as scoring points, players can earn bonus for completing a room - linking all doorways with other rooms or corridors. Different room types have different bonuses, like having another turn, getting money, earning extra victory points etc.

So What's the Verdict?

As I think I've already said, I like this game a lot. It's a really easy game to learn, but there's a lot of strategy with players having to weigh up quite a few different factors. Despite this though, play is quite quick with very little downtime in choosing what to do, even for AP players (Analysis Paralysis). I haven't played the solo variant but it is excellent with 2, 3 or 4 players. In my opinion it is just as good with 2 players as with 4, which isn't the case for a lot of games. The only slightly tricky bit is making sure you keep up with the scoring and don't miss points.

As well as actual game play, there's a lot of fun to be had with the theme, which is present throughout. Several times we've played we've had a good laugh at the unusual combination of rooms we've built in our castles, and what the inhabitants might be getting up to!

If you've played the designer's previous game, Suburbia, you might be wondering how this compares. Well I've played both, but much prefer this game. It's easier to play and a lot less confusing, as you are building your own castle rather than contributing to one joint suburbs. In Castles you really get a feeling of satisfaction with your own creation that just isn't there in Suburbia. I also think the theme is much better, as is the artwork.

Compenents - 4/5
Ease of play - 4/5
Theme - 5/5
Replayability 5/5

Overall: 5/5

A very enjoyable, light strategy game that's easy to learn with tons of replay value.

So that's my review. Tomorrow however I'm going to try something a bit different as I delve a bit into the background to the theme of the game (now available - click here). Who was Mad King Ludwig? Was her really mad? What strange, crazy castles did he build?