Algo's Game Collection

See, it can be a little painful reviewing your ridiculous expenditure on certain fun-ish things when you make a little cash total appear in your head. Ouch. Here's my game collection. Lovely isn't it?


This is further to my original post on EUROGAMES

So, starting from the top left:

1. The black box with the red spine is my travel edition of the wonderful and very ancient game of "Go" which was invented thousands of years ago in China (or Japan, I forget) and entails the claiming of territory using a simple "place one stone" system and yet contains so much strategy it has been described as like playing five interconnected games of chess at once. It is simply wonderful. This set is fairly crappy though, with plastic pieces and a very dodgy board.
2. To the right of Go is an old CD folder. It has PC games in it. Nothing more interesting than that.
3. Underneath Go is a jigsaw puzzle Mrs Algo and I picked up in Barcelona on a rainy evening when we decided we'd stay in. In the end we spent so long choosing a jigsaw the poor dear fell straight asleep when we got in. Ah well. It is of the big Heironymous Bosch Triptych, I forget its name. We eventually completed it at the in-laws last Christmas as a team effort, which is pretty much the point of Jigsaws, if you ask me.
4. Next to the Jigsaw is Abalone, a fairly good Marble pushing game that has long since been overtaken by Go as my "abstract" game of choice
5. The Purply box is for Descent: Journeys (sic) in the dark which is a new take on Heroquest. Not shown are the three expansions I have for it. It is quality, though a little tough on the heroes for half the quest, and then on the "dungeonmaster" for the second half when they get good kit.
6. Under Descent you find Twilight Imperium, a wonderful game (see top ten list) that is only slightly marred by its Six to Seven hour (!) play time. It is an epic game in all repects, containign a ridiculous number of pieces, options and an expansion too. It can be played by up to eight people. Though how you find eight willing people I am not so sure. I LOVE THIS GAME! PLEASE OFFER TO PLAY IT WITH ME!
7. From one end of the gaming spectrum to the other, with Taboo (to the right of the big boxes) - Its a reasonably amusing party game where you have to get your team to guess words without using certain words to do so - caused a laughably serious argument at Christmas, party games and too much booze do not generally mix well.
8. Now , to finish off the top shelf we have a Jenga set - a replacement for the one I used as a drinking game in India (that one is, to my knowledge, still behind the bar in Roxy at the Park Hotel, Calcutta) and as such has none of the tequila stained, suspicious marked goodness, but is still genius.
9. On top of Jenga is Citadels - a card game where you choose a character (king, assassin etc) for the round and use them to help you build the best city. Really quite good fun except for the steep learning curve. It is more or less essential to know all the characters up front to get the best out of it.
10. Onto the second shelf and we have Cranium, a game I love since it has variety - your team has challenges to perform in the realms of spelling, acting, artistry and knowledge - so everyones strengths can come to the fore. Don't get it play it enough since too many of my friends are too self conscious.
11. Next to that is the light wargame Memoir '44 which shares mechanics with two other games on this list (known as the "commands and colours system"), where you have a set of cards you can play as orders to your troops and then you move and attack with those forces you ordered. A great introduction to wargames for those who want it to be, but I like it just for its simplicity. This particular version is the simplest example of that system.
12. Next to that is Ticket To Ride:Marklin, a game of claiming train routes that is about a billion times more fun than that sounds. You gain points not only for claiming connections between cities, but also for both forming full routes between distant locations and for sending passengers along, picking up bonuses at every station. It really is good fun and almost pitifully easy to learn.
13. The next two boxes are for Mrs Algo's favourite game, Arkham Horror, a cross between Board Game and RPG. It stands out in my collection as one of the only "cooperative" games in there. I mean that in contrast to "team" games since in Arkham Horror all players are on the same side against the viciously evil Cthulu and his horrible mates. you have to close gates to other dimensions and deal with the monsters coming out of them, and quickly, or the big evil demon that is running the show will make mincemeat of you in a final encounter. Lots of dice rolling is involved, but it remains great fun. Plus, we have a whale of a time creating our own characters and putting them up against the game.
14. Next to Arkham and its expansion, we have "Death Zone" which is actually a box housing parts for Blood Bowl, so I'll talk about that later.
15. Next is The Lord Of The Rings game, another cooperative game and probably the game that turned me back onto this form of games, again a horribly challenging game that can give you some nasty surprises, but doesn't have the story element of the events in Arkham Horror, so this one has been left by the wayside a bit. It would probably be worth getting out again, come to think of it.
16. Another game from the commands and colours system next: Battlelore! This is similar to Memoir 44 but is considerably more complicated and has magic and fantasy elements to it, like giant spiders and stuff. I also have the bits to play it double sized, or "epic" scale making the most enormous battles. Truly great stuff.
17. Next to that and finishing off the second shelf are two versions of the highly successful game Carcassonne, the original version and the Hunters And Gatherers version. If you're thinking of checking out the "Eurogame" style, this is probably the best place to start in my opinion. The game is one where you lay out tiles on a table which have pictures on them of fields, roads, cities etc and claim those features with your "meeples" (little wooden men, from "my people" - yes I am a geek) you score points depending on the size of each road, city etc and get your man back when it is scored, so you are having to balance high points scoring areas with having less men to place. It is true genius.
18. Third shelf time! And we find ourselves with The Princes Of Florence, an auctioning game where you become a patron of the arts and try and oversee the creation of the greatest works by building theatres, laboratories and also lakes and parks for those silly artists to get inspired by. Thing is, only one player can take each action every turn, so you may have to adjust your plan!
19. Next to that is the current king of games, the plantation based, Puerto Rico - each turn you select one role, and use the benefits associated with that role. Problem is, everyone else gets to take that action as well - so make sure you are not helping them more than you help yourself. Also notable for best euphemism in my games collection (it describes the workers delivered to you as "colonists" when you know full well they're slaves). It deserves its reputation and has seen many plays from me.
20. Next to that is Thurn and Taxis, worst themed game ever. You are trying to set up postal routes. Its a little too similar to Ticket To Ride, but is a decent game in its own right. Maybe a little TOO german for many peoples tastes though!
21. Golly! Next is a vintage (read, 20 year old or more) copy of Fury Of Dracula. This game recently got a makeover and rerelease but I have kept this one for old times sake. Dracula moves in secret and its up to the three investigators to work together to trap him. Sort of like a more evil version of Scotland Yard. It is a decent game but really suffers from a lousy fighting system that goes on forever.
22. Another modern classic is Tigris and Euphrates, a game where you place one of four different coloured tiles or a monument every turn and score points for each. You have four leader matching those colours and you only gain points if a route can be traced to those leaders. If two leaders of the same colour fight it out players can add tile from their hadn to assist the fight. Only one can gain control of a set of tiles. Its quite hard to explain here, and equally hard to teach, but again - your patience is well rewarded by this game.
23. Final Command and Colours game in the collection next in the Red and Cream boxes, a more grown up edition called Command and colours: Ancients, and its expansion, spanning from Rome Vs. Carthage and Alexander the Greats campaigns. This one is more absract looking and has a different publisher, meaning that the plastic models are replaced by wooden blocks and the board is thin and nasty. It is still a wonderful game.
24. Aha! Next we have a game that is causing quite a stir in gaming circles, a truly magnificent piece of work called Agricola. In this players have their own boards on which they build their farms and try and diversify and gain points for having the best farm at the end. The picture is of my completed farm from today.
    
    
    
    This game has it all, meaningful decision/reward balance, a good competition system (each action can only be taken once a turn so the one you want may be stolen by someone else) and the ability to grown your family and house. Thing is, you family has to fed every harvest, so planning is required. This is really really excellent and I have no hesitiation in demanding you buy a copy right now.
25. Ick... the next game is Pirateology, a game so rancid it makes the room stink. NEVER BUY A GAME FROM THE ...OLOGY SERIES. Its awful awful awful!
26. Lastly on this shelf we have the Carcassonne Tower, which I use to store all the tiles from Carcassonne, since it is legendary for having too many expansions - I keep the tiles here and the bits in the main box.
    
27. Crikey, onto the fourth shelf and we have Zombies! lurking in the far left, a silly little game of screwing over your mates in as many ways possible as you fight off the Zombie hordes. It is great fun, not particularly one you will dream about afterwards but has led to some extremely great moments. One that comes to mind is me moving the escape route (a helicopter) away from the lead player and over to the other side of the board. Not a friendly tactic.
28. After three Memoir 44 expansions (did I mention I like expansions?) we find, in the yellow box, a classic two player card game, lost cities. The concept of searching for lost cities is totally irrelevant however, since this is really an abstract suit building game of scoring high against a high initial risk. Again, it is waaaay better than it sounds, and has a great mechanic whereby if you discard a card you don't need. your opponent can nick it - meaning you have to be careful what you get rid of as well as what you put down.
29. Next to that we have Alhambra in the orange box. This is a game of buying tiles to make up your palace, and you are rewarded for having the most of each type of tile at three stages. The catch? There are four different in game currencies, and workers will only take pay from their currency and build only one type of tile a round. A cool variation on the tile laying theme.
30. In front of the two white boxes (dumb impulse purchases I won't bore you with) there's an Uno set. I used to like it a lot, I sort of got bored with it. You can get it on Xbox live.
31. Now, next to that is a true gaming legend. Race for the galaxy is probably as good as card games get. You choose an action per turn and this can be to draw cards or lay cards in front of you, or even produce goods on your planet cards and sell them for victory points or other cards. Its a really hard game to learn since it is all about card combinations but if you see a copy get it for yourself and put some time into learning this superb game. You won't be disappointed.
32. Next to that is Trivial Pursuit (shudder) 20th Anniversary edition.
33. Next to trivial pursuit is a great civilisation building card game, Through The Ages, made by a very small, Czech based company. It is a great game of managing resources to build wonders like the pyramids, get leader such as Michelangelo or Shakespeare and improve your scientific knowledge, all while keeping your people happy and fed. Great stuff.
34. Next to that is Cutthroat Caverns, another card based game (they're easy to carry around) where you and your friends have discovered the artifact of untold power, thing is, you all want it for yourselves. Cue a trip out of the dungeon fighting monsters along the way and trying to get the most prestige from defeating them. The USP here is that you are all fighting the same monsters (all of which have different attacks and different characteristics) - but only the character who lands the final, killing blow, gains the experience. This means a lot of backstabbing, potion stealing and general mayhem - thing is though, if you let your buddies die, the monsters stay as strong as they were, so you may be in deep trouble!
35. Running out of breath now but lets keep it going! The big black box on the fifth shelf down is my nice copy of Go. Nice thick double sided board and glass stones. The game is good enough that you'll have a good time with the less nice sets, but there's nothing lice the tactile feel of these glass stones.
36. Right... Orange box is a game called Shogun, not the one from my childhood (which is now called Samurai Swords) but a newer game based on a game called Wallenstein. It is a stand out because of its combat system whereby small wooden cubes of yours and your opponents colours are dropped into a treacherous "cube tower" and the victor is the one who has the most cubes come out of the bottom. This adds a great sense of newness to this game and can cause some major upsets since any cube that does not come out of the tower will stay there for next time, and may be knocked out to assist that players later battles. It also has a nest planning mechanic where you assign each of the turn actions to one of your provinces, meaning you do this blind at the beginning of the turn, not knowing whether other players will block your moves, or maybe take that province, making your order useless!
37. Next to that is a collection of simpler games ina wooden box, things like Draughts, Pick Up Sticks etc.
38. That sits beside Balderdash, a funny party game where all players submit potential answers to really obscure questions and score points for how many people believed their answer was the real one (if by crazy chance they turn out to have been right, they get even more points).
39. Then we get to Settlers of Catan in the red box. Recognised by many as the game that has given new life to board gaming, this game is easy to learn, forgiving in its options, has trading between players and a limited amount of negative interference, while it is not the best game in my collection it remains a fond friend for the occasional play.
40. Next is Zooloretto - a game where you populate your zoo with animals of diffrent types to score points, almost like a quicker and simpler Agricola in many ways, it has a certain amount of kiddie appeal too, for teaching our neice in a couple of years.
41. Super Scrabble next, and its Scrabble on a bigger board feturing (gulp) QUADRUPLE word and letter scores, otherwise its the same old Scrabble.
42. Thats next to Scattergories, a game at which Mrs Algo is the undisputed champion. You have to answer in many categories with words that start with the letter rolled on an unfeasibly large die with 20 odd sides. You have about a minute. I suck.
43. Two copies of monopoly (which I hate) for some reason along with regular scrabble. Had these for years.
44. Finally on this shelf is the Mystery at Hogwarts game, which can best be described as Harry Potter Cluedo. Nothing more to it than that. I was hoping I could sell this at a nice profit since it was a tie in with the first movie, but nothing is doing at the moment. Think I'll wait five years or so.
45. Last Shelf now (phew, my fingers hurt from all this typing) and another of Algo's top ten first. It's Power Grid, and you get to set up connections between cities while bidding at auctions for more and more efficient power stations to power those cities with. Thing is, it also has a brilliant Supply/Demand=Price mechanism that means competition can make things expensive for you when buying resources to power your stations. It is really, really, really great.
46. Then we have Tannhauser, which I got as part of an exchange for Battlelore (for the more expensive World Of Warcraft game if you must know) and I haven't really decided if I like it or not, it's similar to a first person shooter video game in deathmatch mode, and I don't really know why I'd play this instead of Timesplitters, but maybe it'll grow on me.
47. Now its Age of Empires III and this game bears almost no relation to the computer game the licence is from. It is, however, an excellent game of colonisation and risk taking.
48. Subbuteo. It used to be cool with plastic men. Now it has cardboard men on plastic bases. Rubbish. plus my table is STILL too small to play it properly.
49. Advanced Heroquest! A true classic - not really much competition for Descent these days, but great to own for old times sake if nothing else, plus it'll hold its value for future sale.
50. Necromunda. I have really gone off most of Games Workshops stuff since my teens. This used to be my favourite example of their games. It represents small gang warfare as opposed to massive army battles and is a lot better for it.
    
51. Talisman - I remember many very long games of this in our old house in Canterbury. A bit dated now, since its really a case of everyone playing their own game and other people waiting for their turn, which can be a drag if there's five or six of you!
52. The great Blood Bowl, which is the only Games Workshop game that has retained its fun value for me - I have a lovely fully painted team too! It works because it has a great sense of humour to go with its relatively simple playing rules. It has been constantly updated and they are now publishing a "living rulebook" through their website and you can download it for free if you wish and make your own board and pieces up. A free game? Sure!
53. Finally we have a copy of Pirates Of The Spanish Main - the boardgame version of the collectible constructible pirate ship game. The game is actually fairly toss. The ships are very very cool. I have loads of them. They are in a box in a cupboard.
    
54. (Not Shown) Escape From Colditz. A thirty year old charity shop purchase. Complete and in good nick. Hurrah!
55. (Not Shown) The Battle for Hill 218. A very cool simple card game usign supply, support and artillery rules but in a really easy to understand way. Sadly there are 5 cards missing from my copy but I have contacted the makers so we'll see if I get replacements.

And that's it! If you've stayed with me through all that well bloody done. I hope some of these seem interesting and exciting - I am always up for a game, if you're happy to bring Coke and Crisps! Keep drinks away from the boards though!

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