May/June Boardgames

It's been another distinctly non-vintage couple of months for boardgaming, although I still managed to play twenty games:

6 nimmt!: A bit random maybe, but a perfectly fine short card game which I prefer to X nimmt!.

Abluxxen: Another fine short card game.

Arctic Scavengers: The role of theme in boardgames isn't always that important; however I would suggest that while it can't make good games better it can make bad games worse. I have a distaste for the post apocalyptic almost as great as that I have for fantasy and magic. This gets a big thumbs down from me.

Avenue: This is a quick and interesting enough game that handles a lot of players without taking any longer.

The Climbers: I do like a 3D game and I especially like this. I suspect that my unexpected victory a couple of months ago will never be repeated, but I'm always happy to play.

Codenames: Reliable filler.

Elysium: I was pleased to play this again. It has an interesting auction mechanism and is one of the few engine building games that I don't mind. The scoring is also exactly like Rummy, thereby proving that there is nothing new under the sun.

First Class: From the designer of Russian Railroads, this is a bit like Russian Railroads. My advice would be to play Russian Railroads.

Five Tribes: I like this; recommended. The number of tribes involved is probably one, possibly zero, but certainly not five.

Ice Flow: Another favourite of mine, with a very different mechanism to most games.

Istanbul: An enjoyable game, which is rather looked down on by the hard core gaming fraternity; their loss.

Lords of Waterdeep: Speaking of theme, this one's is notoriously wafer thin. Treat it as an abstract worker placement game and it's good.

Package?!: A filler which, as they often do, took longer to explain than to play. Nominally about delivering parcels, it has a mechanism for doing down other players which rebounds if you're not careful. Enjoyable.

Port Royal: Yet another nice little card game. I'm not sure I entirely grasped the best tactics; maybe next time.

Power Grid: China/Korea: We played the Korea board, which had an interesting - though possibly irrelevant in our game - split in the resource market between North and South. You'll be pleased to know that the North doesn't seem to have any uranium.

Quantum: Another old favourite unplayed for a couple of years. I think the dice as spaceships mechanism is very clever. For added interest to wargamers, there is the opportunity - necessity even - to attack everyone else's ships, which is achieved by rolling dice adjusting for various factors and comparing the results.

Sail to India: There's a lot of game in a small box here.

Skull: I thought that this had suffered from overexposure and was unlikely to appear for quite a while. I was wrong.

This War of Mine:  More post apocalyptic drivel, this time it's a co-operative just to rub salt in the wounds. Apparently it's based on a video game; I trust that the original is better than this over complicated farrago.

The Voyages of Marco Polo: This is an OK worker placement game with a map. My tip is to buy as many camels as you can, as early as you can and as often as you can.