Having a great time with new board games

We’ve had a blast playing a bunch of new board games that we got for Christmas.

The extended time off from work and school is a great time for playing games – and we’re taking full advantage of it.

This Christmas we had 11 board games under our tree!

Most were games I bought for our family. A couple were games from our BoardGameGeek Secret Santa. And one was from Trevor to me.

While we haven’t played all of them yet, I’m sure we’ll get to the rest in the next couple days.

Board Games under our tree

Here’s the quick list of the board game gifts we got this year followed by our initial impressions:

• Black Fleet
• Seasons
• Arcadia Quest
• Star Wars: Empire vs. Rebellion
• Bugs in the Kitchen
• Red7
• Cash n’ Guns
• Splendor
• Super Mario Chess
• Going, Going, Gone
• The Battle of Five Armies

What a great set of new games!

So far, we’ve played 7 of the games and have enjoyed every one we’ve played. However, like most games, some have been bigger hits than others. And those are the ones that will hit the top of the “to review” pile first. So keep an eye out for our detailed reviews of these games.

Black Fleet
Black Fleet was one of the games I was most anticipating playing. And I wasn’t disappointed at all!

It was the first board game we played Christmas afternoon and a couple times since because it’s a lot of fun. First of all, the artwork and components are fantastic!

The board and cards look fantastic and totally deliver on the pirate theme. But the ships steal the show. The detail is awesome. And not only do they look fantastic, but they also server their purpose completely. For example, the merchant ships can carry 3 goods between ports. And the form of the ship itself has 3 perfect spots to hold the cubes. No need to remember how many to carry, just fill ‘er up.

But the best part of Black Fleet is that the game play is terrific! Getting to control both merchant and pirate ships in the same swashbuckling game is a lot of fun. Each player has both a merchant and pirate ship – using the merchant ship to transport goods between ports and the pirate ship to attack other merchant ships to steal their good and bury them on the islands. (Bury the stolen good, not bury the other merchants.) Each turn players also control one of the 2 Navy ships to attack the other pirate ships.

And as the game progresses, players use their doubloons to get special abilities – which are a lot of fun as well. There’s plenty of plotting on how to maneuver ships around the board to get the most doubloons to win the game. Black Fleet is so much fun!

Cash ‘n Guns
The next game that we’ve already played many times is Cash n’ Guns. We’ve heard about it being a great party game, and now we see why. It’s a hoot.

We’ve put off getting the game mainly because the theme of the game sounded suspect – gangsters splitting loot and pointing foam guns at each other. But now that we’ve played it, I’ll totally vouch for it being a light-hearted, fun game. And chances are that we’ll have our full review out soon with Brooke doing the video review – because she totally gets a kick out of it.

Bugs in the Kitchen
Bugs in the Kitchen may be a simple children’s game, but it’s one others can enjoy as well. Players quickly roll a die to see which utensil (fork, spoon, knife) they can twist on the board to get the HEXBUG® nano® into their corner to score a point. The fun in this game is clearly the hexbug. With the bug franticly bouncing around the maze, it’s hard to know where he’ll go next.

Caleb has also pulled Bugs in the Kitchen out with his friends and they’ve had a lot of silly fun.

Arcadia Quest
My BoardGameGeek Secret Santa came through big this year with Arcadia Quest and Seasons. While we haven’t played Seasons yet, Trevor and I did dive into Arcadia Quest to get a feel for the game. From our quick initial play,it’s pretty clear to us that the fun of Arcadia Quest will be in playing through a Campaign – since that’s when we’ll get to upgrade our heroes with some cool weapons and powers.

Right out of the box, we were totally impressed with the amazing miniatures!
There are a bunch of them and all are amazingly detailed. We love the comic-style artwork of both both the hero and monster characters and amazed at how closely the miniatures match the artwork. These Arcadia Quest character pieces are going to be a lot of fun to play through campaigns with.

Splendor
Splendor has been touted a ton this year in the board game industry. It was a nominee in the Spiel des Jahres competition this year for Family Board Game of the Year. While it didn’t win, many reviewers believe it should have.

We can see why it’s popular because it’s very simple to play and lasts only about 20 minutes. It’s a simple game of acquiring gems to buy cards to earn points. It’s like following a recipe to gain enough points to win. The art is fantastic and the gem ‘recipes’ are easy to understand and follow. For example, if you want a certain card, simply look to the bottom left corner to see what gem combos are needed to buy it.

Once a player reaches 15 points or more, that’s the final game round and the most points wins. The game play also clips along nicely so players aren’t sitting around waiting for their turns. Splendor is a very solid family board game that we’re looking forward to playing many more times.

Super Mario Chess
Who gets excited for playing chess? Well, with this super cool chess set, who won’t want to play?

I’ve played chess a lot with the scouts over the years – even helping many earn their chess merit badge. But having such a fun-themed version of chess is so cool. Grandma saw this game and immediately had to buy it for the grandkids. With all the Mario playing we’ve done over the years, this chess set is a clear hit in our family.

Red7
So far we’ve only played one game of Red7. But I know there will be plenty more. It’s a quick card game with a unique game element that always raises eyebrows because it seems so strange at first:
After each of your turns you must be winning the game, or you’re out.

How strange does that sound?

It kind of reminds us of Fluxx because the winning game condition changes throughout the game. And that’s because players have to keep changing the winning conditions in order to stay in the game. For example, one rule states simply that the highest card wins. Another states that the most cards of one color wins.

Red7 also has advanced game rules that use the additional icons on the cards, but we haven’t played that way yet – opting for the simple way to get familiar with the game first.

Games we haven’t played yet:

The Battle of Five Armies
I listed The Battle of the Five Armies last on our list above mainly because it was the last to arrive. That’s because it’s the game that our oldest son, Trevor, gave to me as a present and it arrived a couple days after Christmas. Since it hadn’t arrived in time for Christmas, he printed out an image of the box cover and wrapped that.

With such a light gift to unwrap, I was completely surprised when I opened it. And I was also super excited for what was to come. Since that was at the top of my board game wish list this year, he hit it out of the park. What a son!

Star Wars: Empire vs. Rebellion
The next game we’re anxious to play is also a 2-player game. But instead of The Hobbit / Lord of the Rings universe, this one is in a galaxy far, far away – Star Wars!

Star Wars: Empire vs. Rebellion is a card game that pits the good vs. evil in head-to-head battles. The goal is to win event cards which give you victory points (the first one to 7 victory points wins the game) and sometimes influence tokens. You win an event card by being the closest to meeting its conditions.

For example, one condition is getting the closest to 11 (without going over) using three or less of your resource cards. With 24 event cards in the game, there will be plenty to battle over.

Seasons
It’s hard to say why Seasons hasn’t hit our game table yet. (Guess it’s all just a matter of having the time.) I’ve played Seasons once before (at SaltCON earlier this year) and had a fun time. Since then, I’ve had it on my game wish list because it’s a solid game that I think our family will enjoy. We’ll see soon enough since I’m sure we’ll play Seasons either today or tomorrow…

Going, Going, Gone
Going, Going, Gone is another party game that we’ve heard good things about. It’s a fast-flowing auction game of tossing dice in cups to place your bids. The auctioneer counts down to when the auction will end and can do so at the pace he/she wants. It sounds frantic and fun. We sure hope so.

That’s our rundown so far.

What fun board games did you get for Christmas?
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