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What Are the Top 6 Must Have, Most Popular Board Games?

February 13th, 2023

Have you ever stopped in a toy store or gift shop to buy a present and been completely astounded by the aisles after aisles of board games piled up mountain high? With so many board games in existence, it is nearly impossible to find the perfect one with little time and cornered by the never-ending options. With that in mind, we have compiled a list of the best of the best; the top 6 board games that are must-haves for any household. If you have been on the constant search to find a board game that is fun and enticing, then our list of the Top 6 Must Have, Most Popular Board Games is the ultimate resource to quench you board game needs!

The Top 6 Must Have, Most Popular Board Games:

o Monopoly- I’m sure that there are probably less than 10 people in the world that haven’t ever heard of the classic board game, Monopoly. Monopoly is the classic game of real estate and the banker. Players of young and old try to race around the board, buying as many properties as they can and collecting fines from others that land on their claimed properties, all while trying to earn as much money as possible. The player who has earned the most money by the end of the game is declared the winner of that match of Monopoly, but with the game being so addictive that title is usually quickly challenged in hours of follow-up games and re-matches! Monopoly is the perfect game for all types of people and can be enjoyed by both young and older generations, with the help of many different versions of the game, including ‘Star Wars’ versions, popular cartoon versions, special animal versions, deluxe versions, and much, much more for more hours of Monopoly fun!

o The Game of Life- What game is better than one about your own life? The Game of Life is a game in which you travel around the board in a tiny plastic car on the main road of your life. You literally experience all the stages of life right at your kitchen table! Players are given a job and a salary and try to maintain a high fortune after being put through all the joys and troubles of life, such as having children and paying for their education. At the end of the game, each player is led to the retirement home of their choosing in order to count up all the money that they have accumulated throughout The Game of Life. The player who is the richest wins the game! This board game is perfect for any group of people, young or old, who would enjoy having a laugh out of what this board predicts will occur throughout their lives!

o Scrabble- Enjoy using the English language to create long, exotic words out of random letters and scoring points for it? If so, than this game is perfect for you! In Scrabble, players gather around a game board and basically create a crossword puzzle in front of their own eyes! Each player receives random wooden tiles with letters printed on them and must try to create words using their tiles and linking them to the words that other players have already laid out on the game board. Each letter that is on the tiles has a point value, and in the end, the player who received the largest total amount of points by using their tiles to create words is the winner of the game. Scrabble is an excellent game for adults or elders who are trying to improve their vocabulary, or just for children who are just learning the basics of the English language. Either way, Scrabble is an excellent Family Game Night choice!

o Clue- Do you have a niche for solving mysteries? Have you always been the one to know where Waldo was or to discover where in the world Carmen Sandiego was hiding before anyone else could even begin to fathom where she might be? If this sounds like you, then you are sure to fall in love with Clue, the board game. In this thrilling game, players travel around the rooms of a house on the board trying to collect clues to discover which one of their fellow players murdered a member of the household. A player must hurry around quickly before anyone else can discover it and proclaim the suspected murderer out loud. Those who participate in this game will find themselves intrigued by the dark secrets and truths that other players are keeping and will be excited to try to unravel those mysteries! This board game is the next best thing to a live murder mystery party!

o The Settlers of Catan- This game is a pretty new game in comparison to the above classics. First created in 1995, the game offers the power to build a civilization to the normal, everyday person! In The Settlers of Catan, players must try to build settlements, cities and roads to build up the island of Catan throughout the game. With each turn, the dice are rolled in order to determine what resources the island produces and the players use these resources to build up their civilizations even more and to earn victory points. The first player to earn 10 victory points wins the game. This is a phenomenal board game for those who are ‘Civilization’ and ‘Tycoon’ computer game addicts!

o Risk- Okay, so maybe you don’t want to fight for power over just a tiny island, like in The Settlers of Catan. Perhaps, you desire control over much more land, like the whole world? Satisfy this desire through playing the board game, Risk! In Risk, players compete in battles to win over areas of continents and ultimately try to conquer the world by defeating the troops of all the other players. In this game, players fight to the death and the last player to have surviving troops after killing all their fellow players’ troops wins the game. This board game is perfect for competitive spirits and will suffice if you have a lot of spare time on your hands; a good game with friends can potentially last several hours!

We hope you enjoyed our list of the Top 6 Must Have, Most Popular Board Games! Hopefully this list will help you find the board game that is just right for your next friend or family gathering; good luck on your gaming ventures!

Nicole Jacques is an up and coming writer who has started her career in th

The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game, Review

August 13th, 2022

Many games have emerged during the last decade with the words “Lord of the Rings” in their name from traditional board games to Monopoly: The Lord of the Rings Trilogy Edition and Risk: The Lord of the Rings. The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game is a Living Card Game (LGG). In Living Card Games, a system invented by Fantasy Flight Games, all cards of the game become available in packets, that contain all the cards published in the set in contrast to Trading Card Games in which expansions become available in small packages, called “booster packs” that contain some random cards from the set. That means that with TCGs one has to buy countless boosters in order to find specific cards and thus spend much money whereas on LCGs you just have to buy the appropriate expansions that contain the cards and that’s all. This system has proven to be quite successful taking into account the economic difficulties many countries have run to the last few years. This review is about the core set of the game which contains four 30-card starter decks and components for two players. Expansions of the game, called “adventure packs” come out every month and so far two cycles of expansions have been published, “Shadows of Mirkwood” and “Dwarrowdelf”, along with a deluxe expansion called “Khazad-dûm”. Adventure packs contain 60 cards that include a new scenario, a new hero, three copies of nine new player cards from all spheres and new encounter cards. But what are heroes, player decks, encounter decks and spheres?

The Lord of the Rings: The Card game is a cooperative game based on the renowned trilogy novel by J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings. One to four players travel through the lands of Middle-Earth trying to complete dangerous quests and defeat the ancient evil Dark Lord, Sauron. Each player controls 1-3 heroes that become available from the start of the game and each has a deck of cards, that can be played by spending resources that belong to a specific sphere. There are four spheres: “Lore” which emphasizes the potential of the hero’s mind, “Tactics” which emphasizes a hero’s martial prowess, “Spirit” which emphasizes the strength of a hero’s will and “Leadership” which emphasizes the charismatic and inspirational influence of a hero. Each sphere provides a unique style of play and you can include in your deck cards belonging to more than one sphere, providing that you use appropriate heroes as well as they are the source of resources. The player decks comprise of Allies that come to aid your heroes, events influencing the course of the adventure, and attachment cards.

At the beginning of the game you decide which of the three scenarios included in the game you are going to play. Each scenario has different difficulty and is represented by quest cards that provide the storyline of the scenario. Each scenario consists of a sequential deck of quest cards and goes along with specific threats (unexplored locations, enemies, treachery and objectives) represented by specific encounter sets. Each scenario requires two or three encounter sets that are shuffled to form the encounter deck.

The game starts by setting the threat level of each player (depends on the heroes used) and by shuffling the player and encounter decks. In the course of the game the threat level will eventually rise and when it reaches level 50, the player is eliminated. The rest of the players continue the adventure and if at least one survives till the end of the quest, the whole group of players is considered to have accomplished the quest. The first quest card is revealed and each player draws 6 cards. Then the game continues in rounds, consisting of the following phases:

Resources are gathered from heroes and one card is drawn from the player deck.
Planning. Each player can use resources and play cards such as Allies and Attachments.
Quest. Each player decides which characters (heroes or Allies) they will send to the quest. Then cards equal to the number of players are revealed from the encounter deck and positioned on the staging area. Total willpower of the heroes is compared to the total threat strength of cards in the staging area and if willpower is greater, players have successfully quested and some progress tokens are placed on the quest card. A specific number of tokens are required in each quest for it to be completed.
Travel. Players may travel as a group to a location on the staging area, making it an active location and no longer contributing with its threat level upon questing. Progress tokens are placed there first after successfully questing until the location is fully explored.
Encounter. Players may engage enemy creatures on the staging area and then engagement checks are made to see if any enemies engage the players. Engaged enemies are moved from the staging area and placed in front of the engaging player.
Combat. Enemies then attack the players first and then players attack enemies. Characters may either commit to a quest, defend or attack enemies. Each of these actions require the character to exhaust (turn sideways). Characters may also exhaust when using an ability that requires them to do so.
Refresh. All exhausted characters become ready (moved to their normal upright position). Each player increases his threat by 1, and the first player passes the first player token to the next player clockwise on his left. That player becomes the new first player. Play then proceeds to the resource phase of the next round.
But enough with gameplay aspects. Now is the moment of truth. Does the game hold up to our expectations?

First Impressions

Upon opening the game box, I realized that it was simply too big for what it contained. Actual contents require only the middle one-third of the box, while the two other thirds are covered with cardboard pieces. Overcoming the initial frustration I began opening the small packages containing cards and the cardboard sheets with tokens and the threat counters. Upon observing the components I realized how much attention to detail was given during design. Fantasy Flight has proven in the course of years that where looks matter, it can make the difference and this game is no exception. All cards are exquisitely beautiful and detailed.

And then comes the rulebook. I have to admit that it seemed pretty intimidating to read through the 32 page manual but taking into account that many pages are example illustrations, things have been a bit easier than anticipated. But let’s go through our usual rating categories:

Components:

As mentioned earlier, cards couldn’t be better designed. Images of all cards are awesome, tokens are sturdy and the threat trackers are just superb. The only complain I had is about the number of players that can play the game. While four 30-card decks are included in the box, allowing four players to play, only 2 threat counters are included. I think that it would be appropriate to give full components for four players as only two threat counters would be required. Of course one can easily track threat in a piece of paper but it still seems a bit awkward. Fantasy Flight preferred profit over efficiency stating in the rulebook that “a one to two player game can be played using only the contents of this core set. (Up to four players can play the game cooperatively with a second copy of the core set.)” 9/10

Gameplay:

Gameplay is well thought of. The game has a lot of depth and allows many different strategies giving players the privilege of adjusting their decks as they please even combining different spheres in them and play according to their style. The game provides absolute immersion, through the beautiful artwork and interesting text on cards, not only quest cards that describe the mission of the party of adventurers but character and enemy cards too. Players are constantly faced with important decisions such as: Which characters should I use to commit to quests, which to defend or attack? Maybe I could use the character’s special ability instead. I was really impressed by the duration of the first few games until all players felt comfortably regarding the rules. The game box states a playing time of 60 minutes but be prepared to play a lot longer in the first games. Everyone who is not intimidated by complex rules and long gameplay and is a fan of the book will simply love this game and never be bored to play it. 8/10

Learning Curve:

All that is required to learn the game is go once through the rules and play the game once. That could take a while though. It is recommended that one of the players who likes to read rules should just do that and then explain the game to the others while playing the first (easier scenario). Merely stating the game rules will be intimidating and won’t serve much as the rules are pretty extensive and will be soon forgotten without the in-game experience. The sequence of phases is shown in the last pages of the rulebook along with the timing when players can take actions which will prove quite useful. 6/10

Theme:

The game quests take place during a timespan of 17 years: from when Bilbo celebrates his 111th birthday (and Frodo’s 33rd) to days just prior to Frodo’s leaving the Shire. However the scenarios are not retelling the story of the books but instead they describe new adventures throughout Middle-Earth history. That may be seen as a positive or negative point to players and is clearly a matter of character. I personally find this idea refreshing and more intriguing. Game artwork along with detailed texting and the appearance of well-known heroes such as Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli makes the theme of the game always present in every action players make. 9/10

Replayability:

Replayability is another strong point of this game. While new adventure packs are released each month, keeping up the interest in the game, even the core set with it’s 3 scenarios is pretty interesting as you will always want to replay scenarios to achieve better scores (lower scores are better!) and accomplish quests in fewer rounds. So replayability is at its best here. 9/10