Tuesday's Tunes: Midnight City

Today's selection "Midnight City" by M83 is a little more outside of scope of the music I normally listen to, but nonetheless enjoy. The music video itself is reminiscent of the iconic 80's anime film Akira, and M83's music in general made for some great background music during a recent board game session.

Board Games: Acquire

Photo taken with instagram.

I was recently taught the board game Acquire and if you're someone who really like the real estate development aspect of Monopoly, or just think that the concept of capitalism is the best thing since sliced bread, this might be the game for you. I'm terrible at describing games, especially in a succinct way, so here's the official product description from Amazon.com:

This Sid Sackson classic has taken many different forms over the years depending on the publisher. Each player strategically invests in businesses, trying to retain a majority of stock. As the businesses grow with tile placements, they also start merging, giving the majority stockholders of the acquired business sizable bonuses, which can then be used to reinvest into other chains. All of the investors in the acquired company can then cash in their stocks for current value or trade them 2-for-1 for shares of the newer, larger business. The game is a race to acquire the greatest wealth. The original version is part of the 3M Bookshelf Series.

Ok...that may or may not have helped. I'm not sure why they call them "businesses", you're building and investing in hotel chains. Anyhow, I had a great time learning this game and I look forward to playing it again despite losing--BADLY, by tens of thousands of dollars--in my first venture.

Interested? Read more about it this one on BoardGameGeek.

Back to Work

Happy 2009 everyone!

I had a relaxing time during Christmas/New Year's. Eating good food, playing games, and catching up with friends and family defined my time in NY, while in Boston I greatly enjoyed being off the work schedule and had complete freedom with my hours. A few things that occupied those hours:

Movie: Slumdog Millionaire: First movie I've seen in the theater since "The Dark Knight" and it lived up to all the recommendations I got telling me this is a must-see.

DVD: How I Met Your Mother: Started watching Season 1 just before Christmas and I just wrapped up Season 3 this past weekend. Favorite episode that I watched multiple times: "Slap Bet". Love it.

Game: Saboteur: I must have played this game a dozen or so times. I'm also happy to report that I've made some new fans of the game! Its a great one for gamers and non-gamers alike, kind of life the social game "Mafia" combined with building a maze out of cards.

Kitchen: Pot Roast with Cranberries: Food post pending...

Board Games: Catan - Cities & Knights

This past Fall, I really got into the hobby board games and luckily found a good group of people to share in this social-by-nature past time. While I love video games, there's something about sitting face-to-face with your teammates and opponents.

One great resources that has helped fuel this hobby is the site Board Game Geek. With BGG I have a website that not only has a ton of information and reviews of games out there, but also a site that provides a system to rate and rank games and tools to keep track of your personal collection, as well as games you're interested in playing or purchasing.

Anyhow, I thought it'd be fun to share pictures from some of these gaming sessions. First up, Catan: Cities & Knights, an expansion/variation on the popular Settlers of Catan. What's great about the basic Settlers of Catan is that it acts as a gateway game: a game to show non-gamers that there are now more rich and fulfilling gaming options than just Monopoly. While gateway games will vary in complexity, Catan is easy enough to learn if you have some friends to teach and walk-through a round or two with you.

The funny thing about my initial experience with the Settlers of Catan is that I didn't enjoy it that much but was willing to give the game a few chances despite my overall lack of fun. With all the colorful wooden pieces and interchangeable hexagonal pieces that give you a different board every game, it had all the pieces of a wonderful and variable game. I knew there had to be something behind all the great reviews.

However, I wasn't truly a convert until a played with the Cities & Knights expansion, which basically gives the player a lot more options on their turn, though it also throws in more things to keep in check. My first time playing C&K was also in Hawaii, while visiting one of Taryn's friends. Needless to say I purchased my own copy within a month after playing.

Here's a picture of the board after all five players had claimed their settlements and cities. The regular Settlers of Catan, as well as C&K, has a limitation of 3-4 players. However you can purchase a 5-6 player expansion (ranges from about $15-$20), but the tricky thing is if you need to buy separate 5-6 expansions for both versions of the game. No one said this would be a cheap hobby I suppose, but if you factor in variability and actual hours of play, the pricing of board games should usually be a better value than a video game.

Hopefully this has been an informative overview of the hobby and game itself. I am planning on featuring more games in later posts, as well as an entry on where I recommend finding these board games.