Review 6 - Scrabble

Scrabble, surely one of the oldest word games ever made, but for sure the best ever made.

Review - Scrabble

Designer: Alfred Butts
Year Published: 1948
Nº Players: 2-4

Purchasing - Being the best word game and one of the most popular games in the world, you can find almost everywhere. I purchased on ebay brand new for quite a small amount.

Components - Who doesn't love to build words out of small squares of letters, that's super cool, love the components.

Game play - It's a game super easy to learn, and easy to master... if you're a dictionary!! It's always a fun game to play, the game play is always changing, because new words on the board gives more possibilities.

Pictures:

Resumed Rules :
The game is very simple, each player has 7 letters on hand, letters have different values and on the board you have some bonus (ex: word 2x or letter 2x). So, one player at the time, has to make one of three things, place a valid word on the table; pass or exchange some letters from hand. So the game keeps going until all players pass and can't make a valid word, then the player with the highest score wins.

Evaluation - I give a 8 out of 10. By far the best word game I know.

Review 5 - The Settlers of Catan

Settlers of Catan, "Spiel de Jahres" 1995, is a great family game, very popular.

Review - The Settlers of Catan

Designer: Klaus Teuber
Year Published: 1995
Nº Players: 3-4

Purchasing - Nowadays, Catan is a huge trademark with several variants and expansions, but this version was the first one, the original, you can buy this game almost everywhere. This game I also inherit, in this case my girlfriend, one more game that I only played recently, because in Portugal Catan wasn't for sale.

Components - Today, the new versions have better versions of the board, my version has the hexes all loose, and sometimes a knock in the pieces can ruin the all game. Cards are nice and the wooden pieces too.

Game play - It's a game easy to learn, it has some cool mechanics and it's very fun.

Pictures:

Resumed Rules :
The rules are a bit complicated at first, but after the first play everybody gets it. So the objective of the game is to get 10 points, how do you get 10 points? Several ways, each villa 1 point, if upgraded to city 2 points, longest street 2 points, collection of cards 2 points. That's the scoring, now the mechanics, there are several fields that provide certain resources and each one as a random number, and players start with 2 villas and 2 streets. The turn as 2 phases, the dice throw, and the number is the resources that each players gets (example: if I have a villa connected to a field and the number is throw, i get one resource for each villa i have connected, 2 resources if I have a city), and the second phase is to buy cards, villa, street or city.
The game ends when a player reaches 10 points.

Evaluation - I give a 8 out of 10. It's a great game and everybody should play it at least once.

Review 4 - Scotland Yard

Scotland Yard, "Spiel de Jahres" 1983, the year I was born, a super classic, fun and very entertaining.

Review - Scotland Yard

Designer: Manfred Burgraff, Dorothy Garrels and 4 other people
Year Published: 1983
Nº Players: 3-6

Purchasing - Scotland Yard, is a game I only knew about 3\4 years ago, when my girlfriend played with me at her parents house, unfortunately in Portugal I never saw this game for sale, it's sad but it's true, Portugal sucks in board games, still does..., but internet and a group of great people are changing it, and finally it's getting a little better. So if you're in Portugal, and you want to buy Scotland Yard, you have to order from other country.

Components - Another game from the 80's, components are cool, specially the Mr.X hat. Board is great, map of London.

Game play - It's a game very easy to understand and teach, super fun with kids, they love being Mr.X and they have a great time.

Pictures:

Resumed Rules :
The rules are quite simple, one player is Mr.X, who is trying to escape in the streets if London for 24 moves, and the other players are trying to catch him, using 3 kinds of transport (taxi,bus and metro) the cool thing about this game is that Mr.X is in a unknow position to the other players, and only reveal himself 5 times in the game, and the other players have to try to work as a team to catch him, Mr.X can move with any kind of transport, and the other players have limited bus and metro tickets, so they have to plan very well the moves.
The game ends if Mr.X is captured, or the 24 moves end and Mr.X is not captured.

Evaluation - I give a 8 out of 10. It's a classic, a must have in any collection, super fun with kids. Love it.

Review 3 - Chinese Checkers

Chinese checkers, great game, being playing it for all my life, it's always a cool game, super fun and interactive.

Review - Chinese Checkers

Designer: Unknow
Year Published: 1893
Nº Players: 2-6

Purchasing - So, about 3 years ago i acquired a cardboard version of Chinese Checkers, but I played all my life, mostly as a computer game, but i saw it in a store, and I thought, this is a game I should have, so I bought it. It can be purchased almost everywhere, from very cheap to very expensive versions (wood versions very detailed).

Components - Depending on the kind of version you get it, components can be really weak to super cool and artistic. Better ones are definitely the wooden versions.

Game play - It's a easy game to learn, not very easy to master, everybody can play it, it's fast, super interactive, every move changes the game.

Pictures:

Resumed Rules :
The rules of this game are quite simple, you have 10 pawns on your side, and the objective is to take all 10 pawns to the 10 spots ahead of you.
You can only move 1 pawn in your turn, and there are two types of movement, simple (move to an adjacent spot), or jumping (you can jump above one pawn and move to a free spot ahead of him, and if there is still more available movements you can do as many as you like until it's possible).
The game ends when all players reach the other side, winner is the first one to do it.

Evaluation - I give a 6 out of 10. It's an enjoyable game, not a super game, but a great filler.