New Game: Carcassonne

Meeples clowning around before our first game of Carcassonne

 

We love games at our house. I’ve always been more of a Rummy or Yahtzee kind of guy. I enjoy simple rules and easy game play where your turn comes around fast. Although I have been known to promote a rousing game of Schafskopf or Russian Bank in my time. 

My oldest son loves involved, intricate and complicated board and card games. Thankfully, his latest game is more of a compromise in my favor. Carcassonne is a cool little game of placing tiles and building cities and roadways. The rules and play are simple but there’s a surprising amount of strategy in where to place the tiles and whether to put meeples on them after they’re placed.

I love games that can bring the whole family together. In this case, my wife even agreed to play with us. And with a whole bunch of expansions to buy, the game will hopefully stay fresh for a while.

 

A meeples after party

The Game of Everest

I love it when my kids go from “I’m bored” to “I’m making a board game”. This is one my older son prototyped with cardboard. It’s called Everest and the premise is that you’re part of a mountain climbing party trying to reach the summit.

The cool thing about it is that it’s a cooperative game so you’re not trying to battle each other. Each player has health, hunger and warmth points that go up or down based on cards you draw when you land on certain parts of the board. Even if your character dies, you can win the game if someone else on your team makes it to the top.

It’s kind of like a monumental Chutes and Ladders type of game only instead of playfully being sent down a slide, you starve, get hypothermia and get buried by an avalanche.