Game Library

The MVGA has been meeting on Thursday nights since it was originally founded in 1965. At the time, it was a wargaming club, but in the last few years our attention has turned more and more to Eurogames. Still, we enjoy some longer games, including railroad and "monster" games.

Since we meet at a fixed location where we have a locker set aside for our use, we can maintain a game library. Even on a night that no one manages to bring a "tub o' games" to MVGA, there will be plenty of games to play. The following games currently comprise the MVGA game library.

ACQUIRE. This Sid Sackson classic has been part of the MVGA repertoire since its 3M days, and we've mostly played it in the blue-box format (with three blank tiles that could be used for wild cards) but bought the nice new Avalon Hill big box for club use. It's best with four players, but it can be an entertaining and brutal experience with five or six. An MVGA favorite.

ALHAMBRA. Game of the Year in 2003. We play this a lot - it's fast, fun, and has enough strategy to make it interesting. We bought our copy at the Gathering this year; it has the new green currency.

AMUN-RE. Everybody loves Reiner Knizia. His most recent bidding game, the Egyptian-themed Amun-Re, has become a recent hit with our club. Our players tend toward the balanced approach, with equal attention given to bonus cards, farmers, and pyramids - but we understand that there's another strategy favored at other clubs that we'd like to see in action.

ATTIKA. This tactical game works well for 2, 3, or 4, and now it's in our Game Library.

BALLOON CUP. One of the newer Kosmos two-player games, Balloon Cup is a game about (you guessed it) balloon racing. Players play cards to win cubes, then trade in cubes for valuable prizes. What seems to be a game driven by luck actually has a great deal of strategy in it.

BOHNANZA. It's been asked before, but I'll ask it again - what is it with Germans and beans? We trot out the Bean Game usually at the end of the night, mostly to embarrass Dan Miller.

CARCASSONNE. Though we just broke out the expansion a few weeks ago, Carcassonne has seen regular play at MVGA since it came out. It has the advantage of being quick and brutal, both advantages among the MVGA sharks - I mean cognoscenti. We look forward to the arrival of König und Späher, the small expansion released at Essen.

DIPLOMACY. A legacy of our wargaming days. Twenty-five years ago we'd play Diplomacy over a course of many weeks, with a move at the start of the evening and a move at the end. Those were the days . . .

DURCH DIE WÜSTE. Thanks to Eric for contributing a copy to our library. A fine Knizia game, with the traditional conundrum of three things to do and only two actions to do it.

EL GRANDE. The grand-daddy of all cubes-and-area-control games, we've just added it to our Game Library.

EUPHRAT & TIGRIS. Another Knizia favorite. We own the large-box German edition, which means German player screens - but it's a simple enough game to teach and learn. The hardest things to wrap your head around in this game are that you have to do a little of everything - and that you can share a kingdom with an enemy and be at peace.

FALLING. Someone left this one in Holliston at Unity Games II. Please come and claim it.

GOA. Rüdiger Dorn's new strategy game has been a big hit at MVGA, and we've just added it to our Game Library.

HEROSCAPE. This new miniatures game made a big splash at Unity Games VIII, and now we have a copy at MVGA.

HISTORY OF THE WORLD. A "monster" game that covers human history from Sumeria to the Second World War. Not for the faint of heart or the limited attention span, we can usually get this one done in a full evening of play. It requires four players to be decent and six to be most exciting. We own the older Avalon Hill edition with a load of cardboard counters instead of pretty plastic figures, but I understand that there were some unfortunate rule changes in the newer version.

I'M THE BOSS. The new English-language edition of favorite negotiation game Kohle, Kie$ und Knete. The latter has been hard to find and has commanded serious prices on eBay; this one will make the game available to many more players.

LIARS' DICE. One of the great dice games of all time, it's not based on luck but rather on the ability to bluff. A great opening or closing game that we just added to our library.

LOUIS XIV. We have been playing this Rüdiger Dorn title quite a bit since the Gathering this year. It's an area control game, and like many of Dorn's titles has a number of interlocking scoring systems. A lot of game in a small package.

MANIFEST DESTINY. Called "Age of Renaissance in America", this is Bill Crenshaw's 'card driven strategy game'. It's already gotten a couple of plays at MVGA since it arrived.

MERCHANT OF VENUS. An old Avalon Hill title, we've played this one for years and always enjoyed it. MoV is essentially a railroad game with random bits, and plays best with three or four - preferably those who know the game. The only criticism of the game is that it's very hard to catch the leader, and sometimes luck plays too great a role. But the products and descriptions are funny.

OASIS. Alan and Aaron's new game has tile laying, plastic camels, and a bid/offer system reminiscent of Nicht die Bohne, an Amigo card game about beans that isn't Bohnanza. It plays very quickly for three, four, or five.

OHNE FURCHT UND ADEL. This game is best with five or more, and is one of the few games we own that seats six - a frequent number of attendees. It has considerable double-think in the game, though sometimes it seems that people will just play randomly (which drives our doublethinkers crazy). We play with the variant that the victim of the Assassin (Meuchler) collects two gold even when dead, but can perform no actions.

OLTREMARE. A "Bohnanza-like" game about trading and set-building. It was a huge hit at Essen in 2004, and now graces our shelves as well. It has a tiny puzzle-cut map of the Mediterranean and nice colorful cards. Don't let the cartoony art fool you - there's some game here.

POWER GRID. This is the new version of Funkenschlag with improved components (block placement instead of marker drawing). It has a two-sided board, adding variability to the play.

PRINCES OF FLORENCE. This Kramer game has been a favorite since Dave Bernazzani first brought it to MVGA a few years ago, and we recently added a copy to our library. In Princes, you only get to do 21 things - seven auctions, fourteen purchases - and you can't easily change horses in midstream. There are a few very disparate strategies that veteran players swear by, which suggests that there's a lot of possibilities for replay. We've played the game a lot in 2003 and expect to see it hit the table a lot in 2004 as well.

PUERTO RICO. The consummate "gamer's game". This has to be one of the top choices at MVGA, appearing almost every week. We've taken to using combinations of variant buildings to change the playing field, but it's a game we all enjoy playing again and again. It's one of the most used games in our library.

SAINT PETERSBURG. The fastest rising star in recent months, we've managed to play this two to four times each week since it became available. It only plays four (or three equally well), but is done in 45 minutes. The club just acquired a copy for the game library.

SAMURAI SWORDS / SHOGUN. The easiest to find of the "GameMaster" series, this is a Risk-like game of area control and warfare in medieval Japan. There are lots of neat wrinkles, though - Daimyo promotion, the ninja, bidding for turn order - that make this an interesting, if somewhat long, game. We actually own two copies of this game.

SAN JUAN. The Puerto Rico card game. It has some nice wrinkles that aren't presently in the board game, and plays faster; we play PR a lot and will likely bring this out as a filler. It is certainly a way for two players to get their Puerto Rico fix. I understand that Mik Svellov has a two-deck variant that will let up to 8 players play this game, which is a solution when that sixth potential Puerto Rico player comes through the door.

SETTLERS / CITIES & KNIGHTS / SIEDLER-BUCH. The old standard, about which little needs to be said. We own all the variants, including Seafarers (the Sackson auction copy), Cities & Knights, the 5-6 player expansions, and the book (only published in German; we got it in a recent Adam Spielt order). Still makes it to the table on occasion.

STOCK MARKET. This is a game from Whitman, published in the mid-60s. It has an interesting price-setting mechanism, and with a few variants has some interesting strategy. We pulled a copy off eBay.

TAJ MAHAL. Rich Meyer's favorite Knizia game, our copy has come out frequently. In my opinion, it's a game best suited for 4; with 5 players it invariably seems to lead to one player getting the shaft several times and just waiting for the game to be over. Still, it's an excellent game, and the random setup makes it very replayable.

TICKET TO RIDE. Alan Moon's new game for Days of Wonder. It's been described - inaccurately - as a cross between TransAmerica and Union Pacific. It's a very quick play and appears to have some subtleties not obvious on first play.

TOWER OF BABEL. A Knizia game about cooperative building. The best part? At the end of your turn, as Alison H. says, "you get a card!" Most interesting? You can ask people to help you with a building effort - and if you spurn their help, they get rewarded . . . but in a different way. The uncertain ending makes you pay attention on everyone's turn, and the game plays very quickly.

UNION PACIFIC. Another game that can be played by up to 6, this game is only vaguely a "train game" - it's a card game with a board. Every turn has choices - lay down stock or expand existing holdings? Which share to pick up? Contend for Union Pacific stock or let it go? We play with the variant setup, with scoring cards (relatively) evenly distributed through the deck. One of the best Moon / Weissblum designs, our set gets lots of use.

VINCI. A game of area control with an interesting system of bidding for special powers. Our copy hasn't been out of the locker for some time, but it did enjoy popularity for a while.

WEB OF POWER. An area control game, tame with 3 and chaotic with 5 - best played with 4. You can tell the experienced players from the rookies because they'll start placing the advisors in the first round even though they don't score. Spend too much time doing that, though, and you'll be left behind in the monastery scoring. This game has grown on me more and more as I've played it.

WYATT EARP. An excellent Rummy variant that works well with 2, 3, or 4 players and serves well to start or end an evening (or as a filler). The only complaint is the flimsiness of the cards. It's a great game for smack talk as well, and we've recently added it to the game library.

This page last updated 29 July 2005.

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