Could this be the winner?

It’s that time of year again – time for the annual Dice Tower Awards!
Well, actually it’s time for the game nominations to be announced.

This week, The Dice Tower Network announced the nominations for the Dice Tower Gaming Awards for 2011. A committee made up of over 40 prominent board game podcasters and bloggers has come up with the lists of the best games released in the year 2011.

This year, it was decided to increase the nomination slate for Game of the Year to 10 games rather than five. They’ve also added two new categories: Best Digital Board Games – for board games translated to iOS devices or computers, and a Best Game Theme category – in which games are recognized for having unique, refreshing themes or portraying their theme well.

The winners will be announced the first week of July – after more game playing and comparisons can be made from repeated plays to judge which are really the Best of the Best.

Here’s this year’s list of nominations in the 13 categories, along with designer and English publisher.

We’ve found it interesting how these nominees compare to the Best Board Game and Best Card Game of 2011 list that we posted about just after 2011 came to a close. That preliminary list included 27 games. What’s interesting is that only 13 of those became nominees in The Dice Tower Awards 2011.

Now I better get back to playing some games – so I can be better prepared to worthily contribute along with the others around the world judging this year’s nominees and ultimate winners!

If you’re interested in seeing The Dice Tower Awards lists from years past, head to the Dice Tower website.
2010 – Best Game of the Year Winner: 7 Wonders
2009 – Best Game of the Year Winner: Smallworld
2008 – Best Game of the Year Winner: Dominion
2007 – Best Game of the Year Winner: Race for the Galaxy

This post is from The Board Game Family. Best Board Games of 2011 – Nominees announced! The Board Game Family - Families that play together stay together

Roll and score!

We’re guessing that everyone’s familiar with Yahtzee.

It’s a classic dice game played with 5 dice that you can roll up to 3 times, holding the dice that you want to complete 1 of 13 categories. Some of the categories are 3 of a kind, 4 of a kind, full house, large straight and of course – Yahtzee – which is all 5 dice showing the same number. Once all 13 categories are scored, the game ends.

Yahtzee was one of those classic family games we played growing up. Simply roll the dice, make your choices and score some points. And when our family picked up a hand-held electronic copy of Yahtzee, it could suck time away like nothing else.

One of the key elements of Yahtzee is choosing when to score each category – because you can only score each category once. So if you score your 4 of a kind with 4 twos, then when you roll 4 sixes, you’re just out of luck.

Well, we’ve got a game for you where that’s no longer the case – Yamslam and Pocket Yamslam by Blue Orange Games.

The great thing about Yamslam is that you’re not limited to only scoring a category once. If the dice are giving you straights, then just go with the flow, score 4 large straights, and rack up the points.

Yamslam is easy and fun to play

Yamslam is a dice game built on the same Yahtzee mechanic of rolling 5 dice up to 3 times while holding dice that you want to use for a scoring category. But Yamslam is a lot quick and more competitive. And you won’t need to worry about recording your score on a pad of paper. Instead, when you complete a category, you take one of the chips for that category.

Collect the chips for points.

There are 8 category combinations you can achieve with a different value for each:

• 2 Pairs / 5 points
• 3 of a Kind / 10 points
• Small Straight / 20 points
• Flush / 25 points
• Full House / 30 points
• 4 of a Kind / 40 points
• Large Straight / 50 points
• Yamslam (5 of a Kind) / Pick any chip and play again

In Yamslam there are only 4 of each chip so grab the best ones before they run out. Because once the chips start running out, your time is running out as well.

But just taking the highest value chip isn’t always the best strategy either, because you can score bonus points for having different combinations of chips in the end. For example, if you collect 1 of each chip, you’ll get a 50 point bonus and collecting 6 different chips will grant you 20 extra points. So keep an eye on those bonus opportunities as well.

Perfect for traveling.

Can the whole family enjoy Yamslam?
Absolutely!
As you can see, Yamslam is a very simple dice game that people of all ages can enjoy. It’s a family game that doesn’t take long to play and involves a lot of luck simply because it’s based on dice rolls. Sure, there’s some strategy in what categories you choose to go after and when. But it still comes down to who has the lucky dice rolls. And in that sense – anyone in the family can walk away with the win.

We also love the different colors of pips on the dice – red pips for even numbers and black pips for odd numbers. It may be a small thing, but we’ll admit it does add fun to the game other than just rolling standard black and white dice.

Pocket Yamslam
And Blue Orange Games didn’t stop with Yamslam – they also came out with a version perfect for travel – Pocket Yamslam!

Pocket Yamslam comes in a compact case that closes up tightly and makes it very easy to take on the road. So as we head into the spring and summer travel time, Pocket Yamslam is a great game to add to your stack of portable games to take with you on vacation.

After all, you can pick it up on Amazon.com for under $9!

The Board Game Family Game Ratings
	Caleb
	Brooke
	Jaden
	Trevor
	Mom
	Dad
	Average

This post is from The Board Game Family. Pocket Yamslam – Yahtzee in your pocket The Board Game Family - Families that play together stay together

Carcassonne tops the list.

That’s hard for us to believe because we know our extended family isn’t that big.

All we can say is THANK YOU for participating with us in the fun endeavor of family game time.

Those numbers indicate that on average each video has been viewed more than 3,000 times. However, we know that’s definitely not the case. Some board game reviews clearly stand out as the most popular.

So what are our most viewed board game and card game video reviews?

Our most viewed Family Board Game and Card Game Video Reviews are:
(at the time of this posting – 2/29/12)

Carcassonne
Carcassonne is one of the games that launched our family into the fun world of family board games. It’s on our Top 10 Must Have Family Board Games list for a reason. And it’s closing in on 50,000 views!

Dominion
Dominion is truly an card game like no other. It’s the most addictive card game we have and continually tops our list of most played card game. It may take you a play or too to get a feel for it, but once you do, it’s hard not to be hooked.

Risk: Star Wars the Clone Wars
This was the first board game that we filmed a review for so the video has its issues. But it’s still a great game. Of course we love the Star Wars theme and that it’s a game of Risk that builds up good to and end-game condition rather than going on forever.

Qwirkle
Qwirkle won the Spiel des Jahres award for best board game last year for a reason – it’s a great family board game. With luck of the tile draw and strategic tile placement it’s got a great balance for family fun.

Sequence
Sequence is a staple in our game closet. It’s a simple game that works well on so many levels. And whenever we get together with extended family for a weekend, it’s on the table.

Ticket to Ride: Europe
The Ticket to Ride series is simply a great group of family board games. If you haven’t tried it yet, don’t wait any longer. And for what it’s worth, we like the Europe version best.

Diary of a Wimpy Kid Cheese Touch
We think it’s pretty funny that this game is in the Top 10 of video reviews viewed – with almost 10,000 (as of this writing). Our guess is that there’s a ton of kids that love the books and have watched the movies. So of course they want to check out what the game’s like.

Blokus
Blokus is another abstract board game that’s fantastic for families. There have been a number of derivative board games created from the success of Blokus. But it’s hard to beat the original.

Killer Bunnies and the Quest for the Magic Carrot
Killer Bunnies is full of wackiness. Don’t know what wackiness is? Then pick up a copy of Killer Bunnies. The fun must be found in the playing of the game because the winning condition at the end is completely random. So enjoy the journey, not the destination.

Bang!
Bang! is actually THE game that put us on this path of reviewing family board games. It was Caleb at age 6 being placed in the role of Sheriff and coming out with guns blazing where we knew we had something on our hands and just had to share it with others. And since then we’ve added the Dodge City expansion that adds even more fun to the game.

So that’s our Top 10 The Board Game Family Video Reviews list based on the time of this writing. There are a bunch of great family board games that haven’t quite cracked this list yet and you can see which those are by visiting our YouTube channel.

If you want to see where these games rank our our favorite games, check out our Board Game Reviews page and click on the column headings to sort it as you see fit.

This post is from The Board Game Family. Top 10 Most Viewed Board Game Video Reviews The Board Game Family - Families that play together stay together

Do all of your board games get jumbled together too?

When we saw this Baby Blues comic in yesterday’s newspaper, we just had to share it. Our day doesn’t seem quite complete if we don’t read Baby Blues. Even the kids love the funny family comic. So when it mentioned board games, we especially got a kick out of it.

It also reminded us of a number of comments we received from friends after they saw us on TV on Studio 5 and noticed the shot of our game closet. They mentioned how organized our game closet looked with games stacked nicely on the shelves. By comparison, while they only have a handful of board games, they’re laying disorganized on a closet shelf with all the pieces scattered amongst them.

They have to go somewhere.

Organized by Default
Of course, we can’t claim that our game closet has always been organized either. In fact, we didn’t start out with a board game closet even on the list. Our current board game closet was actually built to be a storage closet. And we planned for a cabinet in the family room where we’d place our games so we could easily pull them out to play. But then the family board game bug struck and before you know it, we got carried away.

With a current board game, card game, and party game count coming in over 250 we need to be organized. It’s that simple.

Thus our storage closet became our walk-in game closet. And when we’re looking for a game, we simply head to that section. Kind of like a library. We’ve put all the party games in one area and card games in another. The large box games are stacked near the back and the kid games are on the lower shelves. And so it goes.

Stormtroopers on the beach in '44.

If we didn’t organize it some way, we’d be overwhelmed.

Creative Kids
But the thing that I love about the Baby Blues comic is how the kids make creative use of the games. Who says you have to be limited by the rules of a game? And in a like manner, who says you have to keep the games separate at all?

Why not just have fun with your games in any way you choose?

We know there's treasure here.

In fact, that’s probably just how some board games get designed. The designers take parts of games they enjoy and then find creative ways to combine them with a new theme.

And if your game pieces do get mixed around, that might bring fresh life to some of your family board games. Why not have Star Wars characters storm the beaches in Memoir ’44 or Gold Miners look for treasure on Forbidden Islands?

So this week we challenge you to add some creativity to your family board game time. Mix it up a little and see what your family can come up with during your game time.

This post is from The Board Game Family. How organized are your board games? The Board Game Family - Families that play together stay together

We’re often asked what our favorite new board games and card games are. And when the year rolls around to a new year, the question gets asked more frequently. Many people are anxious to hear what the best board games of the past year were.

While we’d love to give the definitive list of best board games to the world, it brings up a few issues.

1. With about 1,000 new board games releasing every year, there’s no way for one person to judge them all. How can one person or one family get through all those games to compare them?
2. With so many different types of games, how should we compare one against another (party game vs. a deeply themed strategy game) ?
3. When’s the best time to judge the games? Can we judge it like a movie with a singular experience or should it first stand the test of time?

So with those issues in mind, we’re happy to point you in a solid direction.

This month The Dice Tower podcast released 2 episodes focused on the Best Board Games of 2011. The great thing about this source for a “best of” listing is that contributors from around the world weigh in on what they believe the best games of 2011 were. They also break them down into various categories so it’s easier to compare one against another.

In regards to how soon a game can be declared “the best”, the final Dice Tower list will come out in the summer of 2012 – after many plays and rounds of nominations and voting from game reviewers across the globe. That’s when we’ll have a better feel for how the test of time will treat these new games.

With that in mind, here are the games that made The Dice Tower preliminary list of Best Board Games of 2011. (Of course, at the end we’ll also tell you which board games our family liked best from 2011.)

Best Board Games and Card Games of 2011 – The Dice Tower

• Super Dungeon Explore
• Star Trek Fleet Captains
• Discworld: Ankh-Morpork
• Mage Knight Board Game
• Eminent Domain
• Yomi
• Kingdom Builder
• BattleCON: War of Indines
• Quarriors
• King of Tokyo
• Castles of Burgundy
• Eclipse
• Paperclip Railways
• Risk Legacy
• Battleship Galaxies
• Core Worlds
• Node
• Sentinels of the Multiverse
• Airlines Europe

And their Runners Up are:

• Letters from Whitechapel
• Dungeon Run
• Fealty
• Dungeons & Dragons: Conquest of Nerath Board Game
• The Ares Project
• Conquest of Planet Earth
• Few Acres of Snow
• Panic Station

Best Board Games and Card Games of 2011 – The Board Game Family
Here are the 2011 games that our family liked the most:

• Knock Your Blocks Off
• City Square Off
• Say Anything Family Edition
• Dixit Odyssey
• Reverse Charades Junior Edition
• Martian Dice
• Dominion: Cornucopia
• Ninja: Legend of the Scorpion Clan
• Castle Panic: The Wizard’s Tower

(As you can tell, we’ve got a few of these game reviews still coming.)

It’s an understatement to say that there’s a ton of 2011 board games that we haven’t had a chance to play yet. Here are the 2011 board and card games that we’re most anxious to try:

• Kingdom Builder
• King of Tokyo
• Dominion: Hinterlands
• 7 Wonders Leaders
• Power Grid: The Robots
• Ticket to Ride: Alvin and Dexter
• Small World: Underground
• A Fistful of Penguins
• Secret of Monte Cristo
• Lost Temple
• Pastiche
• Rumble in the House
• The Road to Canterbury
• Dungeons & Dragons: Wrath of Ashardalon
• Dungeons & Dragons: Conquest of Nerath Board Game

It’s a long list and who knows if we’ll have a chance to try these board games or not, but it should be fun trying. After all, we’re thinking there may be another cool game or two come out in 2012 that we’ll want to play along the way.

Have a great 2012 with your family!

Do you have a Best Board Games of 2011? Tell us about it in the comments below.

This post is from The Board Game Family. Best Board Games and Card Games of 2011 The Board Game Family - Families that play together stay together

What defines a board game or card game?

In our view, the whole definition of a board game or card game revolves around it being something physical that you can touch, feel, and move around. Playing board games is all about the social interaction of sitting around, face-to-face and moving stuff around on the table or from hand to hand.

So what’s the deal with board games going digital? And do they still qualify as “board” games, “card” games, or “dice” games if they don’t have physical boards, cards, or dice?

So many board games have gone digital

Take your games with you.

With the rise of the iPod, iPad, iPhone, Android, and other mobile devices, digital gaming has gotten another big boost. It’s amazing what they can cram into mobile devices. And one of the most popular uses of these “phones” is actually games. It seems everywhere we turn, we’ll see people playing games on their devices.

Board games have also shot up in popularity over the last decade as more and more great board games and card games are developed and sold. So it’s really no surprise that the two forces should meet. And over the last year, we’ve seen a huge rise in the number of board games and card games that are being ported over to a digital medium.

Digital games have also gone physical

Bring on the birds!

As we’ve watched the rise of these fun board games being given their digital incarnation, we’ve seen the blurring definition of “board game”. Is it dependent on what medium a game starts out with? If it first comes to life as a physical board game and then goes digital, is it still considered a board game. But if it first comes on the scene as a video game and then goes physical, is it still a video game?

Because that has happened too. Angry Birds is an amazing example of that. Angry Birds may be the most popular game on digital devices. But did you also know, that not too long ago it came to life as a physical game where you build structures, place pigs, then fling birds to knock them down? So what is Angry Birds – a video game or a board game? Or can it be both?

Great Board Games gone digital

Great digital cooperative games.

Whatever we call them, one thing is for certain – great games will find a way to live. And in today’s world, that means they’ll go for whatever medium will support them and will gain a huge following. (And makes financial sense for the designers, developers, and publishers.)

So maybe instead we should be surprised if fantastic board games and card games don’t go digital.

Just to give you a glimpse, here are great board games that are now available for playing on mobile devices:

• Smallworld
• Forbidden Island
• Ticket to Ride
• Carcassonne
• Hey That’s My Fish
• Roll Through the Ages
• Zooloretto
• Tikal

That’s just a sample – there are a ton more available. Just check the iTunes store for board games and you’ll find plenty. And if you look beyond mobile gaming, you’ll see even more available as online computer games.

If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em

So what’s a board game lover to do?

Games are played very quickly.

Leaning towards the purist side of the equation, we held off for a long time on playing digital incarnations of these fun board games. However, with kids interested in games, “life will find a way” (to quote Ian Malcolm in Jurassic Park). And sure enough, before you know it, we’re playing digital versions of our loved games.

Our best example is the recently released version of Ticket to Ride on the iOS. Since we love Ticket to Ride, we had to take the plunge on this one. So last month we loaded the Ticket to Ride app on our iPods and iPhone to check it out. And it was a hit. It takes all the fun of the board game and boils it down into a fantastic mobile game loaded with goals and achievements to get you hooked into playing over and over.

And what did the kids think of it?

Nice Christmas present, eh?

Just take a look at the “present” Caleb, our 8 yr old, gave us for Christmas. It’s a card he made in his class at school and it’s simply a thank you card – thanking us for putting Ticket to Ride on our iPhone and iPod. What a simple thing to put a smile on our faces.

But don’t think that’s the only version of the game he’ll play now. Just the other day when I came home from work, I found Caleb playing and teaching the Ticket to Ride board game to one of his friends. And it didn’t stop with one play. His buddy wanted to play again and again.

Maybe, just maybe, that’s what the publishers are after – reach a huge, modern audience with digital versions and then hope for an upsell to the physical board games. After all, we don’t doubt that digital games are currently hitting a broader base than physical board games. So if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em.

Now we can’t wait for some digital board games

With the fun we’ve had with Ticket to Ride, we actually find ourselves hoping to see certain games come out for mobile devices. And at the top of our wish list are Dominion and Thunderstone. We’ve seen announcements that Thunderstone is being developed, but we haven’t heard about Dominion yet.

Playing Dominion with friends when we can’t get together to play for one reason or another would be awesome!

Why would these make great digital card games?

Tile laying without the tiles.

First, because they’re addicting. With the random selection of different decks to play with every time, the game changes every time you play. But the other reason they’d made for great digital versions is because there’s a ton of shuffling. The deck building games are full of shuffling your deck over and over as you play. With a digital version, you don’t have to take time shuffling. You’ll just see your cards and play them.

So taking out the shuffling is a great benefit of digital gaming. You also don’t have to worry about the set up time of the game. Setting out all the decks of cards and putting them all away at the end does take time.

The same is true for a lot of board games. Setting up before play and cleaning up after play take up time. And digital gaming can save time on both of those fronts. So playing digital games will go much faster. Which also means that you’ll be able to play a lot more games in the same amount of time. Which is pretty cool.

But on the flip side, the setting up and cleaning up is also a great part of the physical board game play. Taking time to set up a game provides a great opportunity to talk with your fellow players and engage in the socialization that makes board game playing so fun. It’s not all about the game, but rather about the people you’re playing with.

Will digital games kill their board game version?

NO!

Moving bits is where it's at!

We don’t think that digital incarnations of great board games will kill the physical board game version at all.

Like we just mentioned, the big draw for physical board games and card games is the socialization. Getting together with friends and family is what it’s about.

Now, if you want to enjoy the game by yourself when you’re not with friends, then a mobile version is awesome. Or if your friends or family live far away, staying in touch by playing a digital game at a distance can be great fun as well.

But if you want a reason to get together and enjoy face-to-face time, then grab the game off the shelf and sit down at the table and have a great time together pushing bits, shuffling cards, and rolling dice.

What do you think about board games going digital?
We’d love to hear.

This post is from The Board Game Family. Digital Board Games – an Oxymoron? The Board Game Family - Families that play together stay together

So many games, so little time.

Our family had a great time playing lots of new board games and card games in 2011!

We also had a great time playing games that we’ve had for years.

In fact, it’s very relaxing to play a board game that we’re familiar with rather than always learning rules to new games. Don’t get me wrong. I love seeing all the new games that come out every year and learning how to play these fun games. But at times, it can feel like more work rather than relaxation. And to kids, familiarity is very comforting. So we make sure to intersperse both new and old games throughout the year.

So what are the board games that we played most in 2011?
Knowing what board games and card games we played most might be difficult if we didn’t have such a cool tool from BoardGameGeek.com (BGG) that let’s us track our game plays. Of course, most families that enjoy playing games, just play and don’t worry about recording what they play. But I guess that’s why the site has “Geek” in the name. For some reason, I find it cool to track things. And when there’s a tool for tracking game plays, and I can have access to it on my mobile device, why not record it?

You may have noticed in our right-hand sidebar a list of “Recently Played Games”. This little widget is pulled from the tool on BGG showing the last 5 games we’ve played. Pretty cool!

We can also run reports from the tool to find out what games we play most in a given period of time. Of course, since I’m not around all the time, I don’t keep track of what the kids play with each other or with their friends. So this list is what I (dad) have played the most in 2011. And while I’ve played a number of games with friends, you can bet that the majority of my game playing is with the family.

98 Different Games played in 2011
Ok – this is crazy to see, but I played as many different games in 2011 as I did in 2010 – 98!

That’s a lot of different games to play in 1 year – close to 2 different games per week. I knew we’d played a lot of different games, but to hit the exact same number as we did in 2010, is strange to believe.

So out of those 98 different games, which did we play the most?

5 and Dimes
One of the standard reports in the BGG tracking tool is the “5 and Dimes” report. This is a report that categorizes the games played 5-9 times (5s) and those played 10 or more times (dimes). So you can see at a quick glance which games fall into those most played groups.

Here’s my list of 5 and Dimes for 2010:

Dimes:

1. Hive – 30
2. Memoir ’44 – 25
3. Dominion – 24
4. Dominion: Seaside – 24
5. Dominion: Intrigue – 18
6. Dominion: Prosperity – 14
7. Ticket to Ride – 10

Yep – Dominion is on there a lot. I could have lumped all the Dominion games into one category, but it’s also great to see which expansions I pull from the most.

Fives:

1. Spot It
2. Martian Dice
3. Pentago
4. Shake ‘N Take
5. City Square Off
6. Quarto
7. Say Anything Family Edition
8. Rack-O
9. Bug Out
10. Lemming Mafia
11. Ligretto Dice
12. Fastrack

You’ll notice that a lot of games on this list are shorter games, rather than long strategic board games. And that’s just fine because a lot of family game time needs to be caught in the moment. If the kids are ready for some fun, light games that don’t take too long, then by all means, that’s what we’ll play. Take the time with them and have fun when you can get it!

And here’s looking forward to another fun year playing games with the family!
Who knows – maybe this year we’ll surpass more than 100 different games played in 2012!

P.S. If you’re interested in keeping track of games you’ve played, I’d suggest you check out the tool on BoardGameGeek.com.

This post is from The Board Game Family. Board Games Played Most in 2011 The Board Game Family - Families that play together stay together

Wonderful, colorful dice racing.

Are you ready to test your dice rolling skills?

And how fast can you roll, spot, and match your dice?

Pretty quick?

Then you may be ready for Ligretto Dice.

It has plenty of colorful dice and lot’s of rolling. And it’s as simple to understand as matching the dice to the board.

Of course, don’t be fooled by the simplicity of it. Because when you’re in need of rolling a 4, before you know it, you’ll be pulling your hair out while you quickly roll your last die over and over and over…

And just when you do finally roll that 4, someone else will take the spot. Don’t believe me? It’s true. It’s true.

Check out Caleb’s video review of Ligretto Dice.

Can the whole family enjoy Ligretto Dice?

Plenty of dice to play with.

Ligretto Dice is another simple game that people of all ages can enjoy. Of course, like most games, that’s also to say that not everyone will like Ligretto Dice. For some, the frantic rush to roll and place your dice just isn’t their cup of tea. But for others – have at it!

We like that it’s just so simple to play it’s a great way to start a game night. Usually Ligretto Dice won’t be the only game we play during the night. But if we want to get the games rolling and the energy up, Ligretto Dice is a great starter.

How many can play Ligretto Dice?
One of the things that holds our ratings back a little for Ligretto Dice is that it only allows up to 4 players and we’re a family of 6. That said, though we really can play it with 6 players. Since there are 24 dice, we could evenly divide the dice so everyone gets 4 to place. But then the odds of getting rid of your dice quickly improves and the rounds end too quickly.

Part of the fun of Ligretto Dice is as the tension mounts when you’re trying to roll your last die and the board’s filling up. So having 3 or 4 players is ideal. That way each player has 8 or 6 dice which will take a little longer to place each round.

How does Ligretto Dice score on the “Let’s Play Again” game meter?
Ligretto Dice scores in the middle of the range on our “Let’s play again” game meter. Like mentioned before, it’s more of a game that we play to start out a session of games rather than one we play back to back. However, since you play many rounds each game, it’s like every round is a new challenge anyway. But it is a game that has a front spot on our game shelf so it can get pulled out easily any time the dice-rolling-racing bug strikes.

The Board Game Family Game Ratings
	Caleb
	Brooke
	Jaden
Has not played	Trevor
	Mom
	Dad
	Average

This post is from The Board Game Family. Dice Racing Fun with Ligretto Dice The Board Game Family - Families that play together stay together