STAYING IN Special
BOARD MEETING
Move over Monopoly and Scrabble: there’s a new wave of games in town. Yasmin Sulaiman takes a look at fi ve of the best tabletop pursuits to liven up your nights in
CARCASSONNE (Hans im Glück, 2000)
IN A NUTSHELL
A tiled board game based in the real medieval French town of Carcassonne. Fun for two to six players, but not super competitive. HOW TO PLAY
The game starts with just one terrain tile face up on the table. Each player then draws a tile and places it adjacent to the existing tiles to create the board. Players can also place a tiny wooden ‘meeple’ – a counter called a follower in the game – on a newly placed tile. YOU’VE WON WHEN You’ve got the most followers on the board after the last tile has been placed, which signals the end. Sounds simple but it’s surprisingly absorbing. VARIATIONS
The expansions for this one tick pretty much every medieval box: look out for Inns and Cathedrals, The Princess and The Dragon, and Bridges, Castles and Bazaars Carcassonne sets, among many others.
SETTLERS OF CATAN
(Kosmos, 1995) IN A NUTSHELL
One of the best-selling tabletop games of all time. Designed for three to four people, each player represents settlers founding a new colony on the island of Catan. HOW TO PLAY The board is made up of hexagonal tiles that are laid out randomly at the outset, so it’s a different set-up each time you play. Players expand settlements by gathering and spending resources in order to earn victory points (one for each settlement and two for each city). YOU’VE WON WHEN
A player reaches ten victory points. Most games last a fairly swift 90 minutes. VARIATIONS Catan addicts have a huge array of spin-offs to choose from, including Catan: Seafarers (Catan plus ships and new islands) and Starfarers, where colonists now aim to colonise the Catan star system alongside its peaceful alien population. There's even a Star Trek Catan.
FLUXX (Looney Labs, 1997)
IN A NUTSHELL
A card-based game in which the rules are constantly changing, so each game is completely different. HOW TO PLAY Each player (it’s designed for two to six) picks one card and plays one card. But there are i ve types of card: New Rule, Action, Keeper, Creeper and Goal, each of which changes the gameplay. Keep your eye on the Goal cards because . . . YOU’VE WON WHEN
Someone meets the conditions of the Goal card that’s in play. We admit, this one takes a few goes to understand, but it’s worth persisting. Games can last anywhere from i ve minutes to an hour or more. VARIATIONS Lots and lots, including Pirate Fluxx, Monty Python Fluxx and – our personal favourite – Zombie Fluxx.
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16 Oct–13 Nov 2014 THE LIST 25