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  • #591770
    WolfishMusings
    Participant

    Does anyone here like any deep-strategy games? Specifically, I’m referring to the German-style of boardgame.

    Among the games I have (and play with my kids and others) are:

    Settlers of Cataan

    Caylus

    I’m The Boss (technically not a German-style game, but a lot of fun)

    Power Grid (I don’t own this one, but I borrow it sometimes)

    This week I bought a new game — Wealth of Nations. It’s a very interesting game — although it took a few turns before my sons and I understood how the markets work and how the economies of the game are set up.

    So, what about you? Do your gaming habits go beyond Monopoly and Risk? If so, what are they?

    The Wolf

    #808907
    Yenem
    Member

    Nothing beats good old Chess

    #808908
    Poster
    Member

    I loved Stratego! I say it in past tense since I havn’t played the game in years!

    #808909

    I used to love playing with my older brother these games.

    1. Risk

    2. Axis and Allies

    3. Spy Alley

    They were all games you needed to use your head in order to play… Not just randomly move pieces around…

    #808910
    amichai
    Participant

    chess wins all. kids love rummy and uno.

    #808911
    Imma613
    Participant

    We love “Bannanagrams”

    what is a “German-style” strategy game, may I ask?

    #808912
    Feif Un
    Participant

    I enjoy playing Settlers. Another game I’ve enjoyed is called Ticket to Ride.

    #808913
    WolfishMusings
    Participant

    Chess is a very good game. The fact that it’s been played for thousands of years is a testament to it’s ability to entertain.

    However, I’ve found over the years that chess just isn’t quite my speed. That’s not to take anything away from it, but I’ve found I like the games mentioned above better.

    The Wolf

    #808914
    SJSinNYC
    Member

    Diplomacy.

    Its similiar to Risk, but much better. Less chance and more strategy.

    #808915
    WolfishMusings
    Participant

    what is a “German-style” strategy game, may I ask?

    A German-style board game is a game that has most (if not all) of the following characteristics:

    — Favor strategy heavily over luck (in some games there is no luck at all)

    — High level of social interaction (trading, direct competition) between players

    — No player elimination (unlike, say, Risk or Monopoly, where players are eliminated and then have to wait around for the other players to finish)

    — In many games, most players are still in the game (in terms of having a chance to win) until the very end (unlike other games where a player can fall hopelessly behind).

    — An element of resource management and/or economic development.

    — The quality of the game components (pieces, boards, artwork) are usually better than standard board games.

    The Wolf

    #808916
    WolfishMusings
    Participant

    Diplomacy.

    I’ve always wanted to try that, but never quite got around to it.

    The Wolf

    #808917
    squeak
    Participant

    One can eliminate dice from Risk and thus eliminate much of the “chance”. There is a house rule to use “one-for-one” army elimination instead of dice rolling. This speeds up the game and places more emphasis on strategy. If you combine this with other house rules for distibuting and adding armies, it can be a great improvement over the traditional game.

    #808918
    SJSinNYC
    Member

    We played it in high school history class 🙂 It was an awesome competition.

    I know its a different vein, but have you tried Magic? Its somewhat luck based but still heavily skill based. I don’t play it but my cousin used to.

    #808919
    WolfishMusings
    Participant

    Magic

    Yep, I played that for a while in the late 1990s. I always thought the design of the game (in terms of playability and scalability) was ingenious.

    The Wolf

    #808920
    SJSinNYC
    Member

    Well, at least I’m on the right track!

    I really like Settlers of Catan too.

    #808921
    Feif Un
    Participant

    squeak, one for one is not correct for Risk. If you assume a 3 vs 2 roll, there are 7,776 possible roll combinations. 2,890 have the attacker winning twice (37.2%). 2,275 have the defender winning twice (29.3%). 2,611 have each winning once (33.6%). As you can see, the attacker in a 3 vs. 2 roll has the advantage. If the same number of dice are being rolled, the defender has an advantage. Therefore, one eliminates one is not a good idea.

    #808922
    WolfishMusings
    Participant

    I really like Settlers of Catan too.

    Settlers was actually the first “German-style” game that I played. I suspect that that statement holds true for a lot of other people as well.

    Some other really good games that I didn’t list in my earlier post —

    — Small World

    — Alhambra

    — Civilization (the old board game from the 1980s, not the computer game — although that’s good too.)

    — Scrabble (yeah, it’s not a G-S game, but it’s still fun and Eeees and I have a lot of fun playing this)

    This past Shabbos, my sons and I played our first game of Wealth of Nations (my daughter elected to go to her cousins instead. 🙂 ). In Wealth of Nations, players represent heads of nations attempting to make their nation into an economic superpower. In this game, my younger son and I developed an odd symbiotic relationship in that I controlled the only banks on the board and he controlled all the generators. As a result, every turn I would end up buying energy from him with the money I generated from the bank. The older son, however, quickly took control of the capital and labor and that put him in a formidable position in the game. In the end, it turned out to be quite close, but my older son won by about three points.

    The Wolf

    #808923
    so right
    Member

    I recall as a child learning that a game with play money (like monopoly) cannot be played on Shabbos.

    #808924
    WolfishMusings
    Participant

    squeak, one for one is not correct for Risk.

    The great thing about house rules is that if it makes the game more challenging and enjoyable for them, then who is to say it’s wrong.

    You (and I) may feel that it changes the game to the point where it’s no longer Risk, but hey, if he likes it…

    The Wolf

    #808925
    squeak
    Participant

    Feif, good observation. The way the rule is implemented is that first the defender loses an army, then the attacker loses one, and so forth – until the attacker runs out of armies or captures the territory. Thus, if the attacker brings 3 armies and the defender has 2, the attacker will capture the territory with one occupying army. If the defender has only one army, the attacker loses nothing and captures the territory. The attacker’s advantage is intact.

    #808927
    Feif Un
    Participant

    But squeak, if the attacker comes with 3 vs. the defenders 2, they are each rolling 2 dice, and the defender would have the advantage, not the attacker. The attacker only gains the advantage when he rolls more dice than the defender does.

    #808928
    oomis
    Participant

    I like the original Trivial Pursuit.

    #808929
    squeak
    Participant

    Feif, it does change the game somewhat. But there are advantages to the changes and disadvantages. I did not create this house rule, it is a fairly well-known one. I think it is officially known as “no dice”.

    #808930
    WolfishMusings
    Participant

    I like the original Trivial Pursuit.

    Funny story about Trivial Pursuit that happened to me while Eeees and I were dating.

    Eeees and I were playing TP at my house one day (the game was very popular back in the 80s). Of the six categories in the original game, my weakest category is Entertainment. So, after I collected all six wedges and got to the center of the board, Eeees chose entertainment.

    The question that I got asked me to whose picture did Judy Garland sing “You Made Me Love You” in some 1938 movie (I forget the title now). I knew the correct answer (Clark Gable) only because I had seen a special on TV about a week earlier where that particular clip from that movie was played. She was completely surprised and shocked that I knew the answer.

    The very next time we played Trivial Pursuit was about a few weeks later. Once again, I collected all six wedges and got to the center of the board. Entertainment was still my weakest category and so, again, Eeees chose Entertainment and drew a card from the box.

    It was the exact same question. 🙂

    The Wolf

    #808932
    so right
    Member

    Is that when you realized she was your basherte?

    BTW are you Asian? Eeees sounds like a very foreign name.

    #808933
    WolfishMusings
    Participant

    Is that when you realized she was your basherte?

    No. I had already long known by then.

    BTW are you Asian? Eeees sounds like a very foreign name.

    No. Eeees is a nickname. We’re both American.

    The Wolf

    #808935
    mosherose
    Member

    “I had seen a special on TV about a week earlier”

    Im shocked we even allow this sentance on YWN.

    We have sunk so low. People are wasting shabbas playing games!

    Shabbas is meant for learning and davening. Not for playing games. How about if you spent your shabbas afternoon learning with your kids instead? Besides the fact that theyll do better by learning you also wont be oiver on bittul torah.

    #808937
    smartcookie
    Member

    Mosherose-

    My guess is that you are one very bored teenager…

    EDITED

    #808938
    mosherose
    Member

    not a teenager. I got reshus from my rosh yeshva to go to college twice a week. its usually the only Internet acess I have so that’s when I post. Im usually not online the rest of the week so I cant realy respond to other members.

    And I dont bash, I ask questions and give my opinion.

    #808940
    smartcookie
    Member

    But do you always do as you say? Because you usually are VERY extreme with ur opinions and it just seems like ur telling everyone what they’re doing wrong and I doubt ur doing these things yourself.

    #808941
    mosherose
    Member

    “But do you always do as you say? Because you usually are VERY extreme with ur opinions and it just seems like ur telling everyone what they’re doing wrong and I doubt ur doing these things yourself. “

    im not perfect. Sometimes I slip up. But atleast Im ashamed enough about it that I dont brag about it online. I dont brag about wasting my shabbas or my kids shabbas playing games that dont mean anything.

    #808942
    smartcookie
    Member

    What exactly is wrong with spending time with your kids shbbs afternoon, after you learned with them? You can’t pressure kids with learning ALL DAY.

    #808943
    mosherose
    Member

    “What exactly is wrong with spending time with your kids shbbs afternoon, after you learned with them? You can’t pressure kids with learning ALL DAY. “

    Iagree that they cant learn all the time. But there are so many other things to do. Read them stories of the gedolim then. Play a torahdik game (not the ones he mentioned). Sing zemirois with them. There are lots of other good things to do rather than waste time playing games on shabbas.

    #808944
    smartcookie
    Member

    Mosherose, you gotta understand that not everyone lives in the same world as your mind.

    May I ask what age RANGE you are?

    #808945
    mosherose
    Member

    My world is teh torah world. In the torah world we dont waste shabbas afternoon playing games with no meaning.

    Im in my 20s.

    #808946
    smartcookie
    Member

    Ok. Good for you then if you can use every minute for torah. But its not very realistic todays days. But for yourself- learn torah and be as frum as you can! Kol hakovod!

    EDITED

    #808947

    I didn’t want to start up with mosherose but I do agree with smartcookie. Mosherose-Not every one lives a life like you do and when someone wants some good ideas for a board game they’re not necessarily interested in you putting them down for playing.

    #808948
    oomis
    Participant

    “Of the six categories in the original game, my weakest category is Entertainment.”

    That’s my BEST one 🙂

    Actually the only one I am terrible at is Sports. I play with my married son whenever they come to visit, and I used to beat him until he insisted on using the more up-to-date edition. I am really good at this game most of the time, because my head is filled with useless trivia (LOL), but the funny thing is when I got the last wedge and my son would give me the sports question, invariably it would turn out to be something that EVEN I would know, like what sport gave Mark Spitz his olympic gold medals?

    To answer Mosherose, there is nopthing wrong in spending a portion of Shabbos or ANY day, having fun. We are not ascetics, and one day after 120 years Hashem will ask each of us if we made enjoyable use of this world. Yes, we have a chiyuv to learn, but we also have a chiyuv to challenge our minds in other wholesome ways, and women, I would point out, do not sit and learn Gemarah, though we probably go to shiurim on Shabbos and other days whenever we can. I hope you enjoy your life, too.

    EDITED

    #808949
    smartcookie
    Member

    “My world is teh torah world. In the torah world we dont waste shabbas afternoon playing games with no meaning.”

    Moshe-

    You didn’t answer my question. I asked if you always do as you preach here on YW.

    I also live in a torah world but I do play games and I do other things which you yell NO to.

    EDITED

    #808951
    WolfishMusings
    Participant

    “Of the six categories in the original game, my weakest category is Entertainment.”

    That’s my BEST one 🙂

    For me, it’s always been strictly in this order (best to worst):

    History

    Science & Nature

    Geography

    Sports & Games

    Arts & Leisure

    Entertainment.

    As a result, when I play with Eeees, about 90% of the time she’ll take Entertainment as the final question and Arts & Leisure the other ~10%.

    The Wolf

    #808952
    SJSinNYC
    Member

    Geography was always my best category.

    Even if I was given a current version of Trivial Pursuit, I would barely know Entertainment questions.

    #808953
    WolfishMusings
    Participant

    Even if I was given a current version of Trivial Pursuit, I would barely know Entertainment questions.

    Heh. Same here. Over the last ten years the number of movies I’ve watched that were made before 1975 is probably about twice as many as the number of movies made after that date. 🙂

    The Wolf

    #808954
    WolfishMusings
    Participant

    Shabbas is meant for learning and davening. Not for playing games. How about if you spent your shabbas afternoon learning with your kids instead? Besides the fact that theyll do better by learning you also wont be oiver on bittul torah.

    The only response I’ll give to this is as follows:

    Considering you don’t know me, or my kids, nor my relationship with them, I would have to say that that’s a pretty presumptuous statement.

    The Wolf

    #808956
    WolfishMusings
    Participant

    Another game that I’m a big fan of is backgammon. I like it because it’s relaxing, doesn’t require too much deep thought and you can hold some pretty good conversations over a few games.

    Of course, you’ve got to play with the doubling cube. 🙂

    The Wolf

    #808957
    so right
    Member

    What about playing these board games on a computer. Either against the computer or against a live player online. What do people think of that? How does it compare to playing a board game in the living room?

    I used to play Chess online against other players.

    #808958
    WolfishMusings
    Participant

    How does it compare to playing a board game in the living room?

    For me, the social interaction is almost as important as the game itself.

    The Wolf

    #808959
    oomis
    Participant

    I would only play board games with other live people who are present in the same room as I. Playing with the computer is not the same fun as having human contact.

    #808960
    WolfishMusings
    Participant

    I’m actually looking forward to another game of Wealth of Nations tomorrow. I just found the version 2 rules online which should make the game move a bit faster.

    Perhaps I can even get my daughter and one of my nieces or nephew to join in for a six player game.

    The Wolf

    #808961
    mosherose
    Member

    “Perhaps I can even get my daughter and one of my nieces or nephew to join in for a six player game. “

    Besides bitul torah and everything else I said you shouldnt be playing games with yoru niece becasue its arayos. Since you can marry your neice yur not aloud to have any contact with her just like anyother strange woman.

    #808962
    mosherose
    Member

    “Of course, you’ve got to play with the doubling cube. :)”

    The gemara says that mesacheik bkuvya is pasul for adus.

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