Geek Syndicate Issue 8 | Page 51
Geek Syndicate
THE BLUFFERS GUIDE TO ... Board Games
Ever wondered what all
those geeks in the corner
were talking about? Sick of
missing out of the sly references and obscure injokes?
Never Fear!
Hang on. Board Games? Like...
Cluedo?
The Bluffers Guide is here to
help!
About that, probably.
Cluedo? How long has been
since you played a board
game? Decades?
OK, so the Board Game scene
has changed immeasurably
since then and there is now
a boom in the sort of board
gaming that we all missed out
on as kids, because all we had
was wet afternoons playing
bloody Monopoly. Forever.
I never liked Monopoly.
So, what are we going to do tonight?
Same thing we do every night!
Try to...Take Over The World!
Good. There is some hope for
you then. The current boom
in board gaming is often attributed to the Germans, and
many popular choices are often described as “German” or
“Euro” games. They tend to
be characterised by simple
rules that interact in a complex way, so they’re quick
to learn but reward multiple
play throughs so you can understand them better. They’re
also not big on direct competition, so whilst they’re clearly
competitive, they’re not so often about tearing chunks off
your opponents.
So, like….?
A good example is probably
Settlers of Catan, often held up
as one of the greatest Board
Games ever made. Settlers is
played on a board made up
differently each time out of
coloured hexagons, representing resource-generating
fields, and the aim of the game
is to build roads and towns
along the field boundries.
Image © Marcin Niebudek, 2012
Sorry…?
You don’t get that?
No. Too obscure for me.
Never mind then. We’ll try
something else: “Would You
Like to Play A Game?”
Thats another one, isn’t it?
Yes. Sorry. Although, the questions stands; would you like to
play a game? I’ve got a stack
of them and we can get a couple of people over have some
beer and…
A game of Settlers of Catan in progress
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