Review 2 - Risk

My second post is Risk, why Risk? Because it was the first real board game that i ever received, probably around 15 years ago, don't know exactly, all I know is that was a Christmas gift in my early teenage years.

So let's go..

Review - Risk

Designer: Albert Lamorisse and Michael I. Levin
Year Published: 1959
Nº Players: 2-6

Purchasing - here in Portugal, risk is probably one the most sold games ever, since I can recall risk was on the shelves of every shop that sold games. Nowadays is still popular and you can easily buy almost everywhere.

Components - can you imagine being 12\13 years and receive a board game that says in the cover "over 300 figures", that's exciting and super cool, I love miniatures games, and risk is no exception. Overall components are great and the board is awesome.

Game play - It's a light war game, it's quite simple to understand the rules , it takes a little bit of time to complete the game, depending what kind of rules you're playing, but in my experience is not a game for everybody, who likes board games easily likes and play it, but for newcomers isn't the best game to start, unless you want to introduce war games to someone.

Pictures:

Resumed Rules :
In Risk, you start with a number of soldiers to place, number depends on amount of players, the cards are randomly shuffled and distributed to players, who will place 1 soldier on every region they got, you receive a mission card, which will be your victory condition (for example: conquer Europe and Asia), according to the card you'll place the rest of your soldiers on the regions that you think they will be more useful, that's the set-up.
Then the game turn as 3 phases, reinforcement, attack and movement.
On phase 1 you'll receive soldiers depending on the numbers of regions you control, if you control continents and yet you can exchange cards for soldiers.
On phase 2 you'll attack enemy regions, in order to make an attack you need at least 2 soldiers in region to perform the attack, you throw more dice if you attack with more soldiers, defence is equal. You receive a card if in the turn you conquered at least one region.
On phase 3, you can move soldiers from one region to another adjacent.Only one region.
The game ends, when a player can perform the victory conditions of the card. There are other ways to play it, conquer capitals or conquer the world.

Evaluation - I give a 8 out of 10. It's a nice game, enjoyable, fun until the end, not everyone likes this type of game, but for who likes war games this is a good choice. There are better war games, but they tend to be more complex, and Risk makes easy war gaming.

Review 1 - Monopoly

Hello, this is my first post, I'll be reviewing my board game collection, and I'll start with the games of my childhood. And of course Monopoly was my first real board game, like so many other people.

So, I'll review it from my point of view and my personal experience with the game, and of course whoever reads this can tell funny experiences with the game also.

So, let's start.....

Review - Monopoly

Designer: Charles Darrow and George S. Parker
Year Published: 1933
Nº Players: 2-8

Purchasing - like many other people, i never purchase it, i inherit it, my monopoly version is a Portuguese version from the 80's, and Parker Brothers certified that you can buy monopoly all around the world.

Components - like i said already my version is a quite old one, so I'll try to think like I'm in the 80's and i just received the game for Christmas, and guess what... components are great.....for the 80's. If it was today i guess components were OK, but not super, but every thing work well and that's the most important.

Game play - I've play over and over again in the last 20 years and it looks like a great experience every time I play it. It's easy to learn, very interactive and fun. Great family game.

Pictures:

Resumed Rules :
Monopoly is a dice movement game, where you go around the board and try to buy as many real estates as you can, and in order to build houses and hotels to make rent (what other players pay when their pawn moves there) higher, you have to buy all real estates of the same colour to make monopoly.
In the board there are other things, houses where you get special cards, prison, free park,tax houses, water and electric company and train stations.
The game ends when there is only one player left in the game, and all the others went bankrupt.


Evaluation - I give a 9 out of 10. Great game, a classic, and I guess my grand grand children will still be playing it.

Presentation

Hello, my name is Pedro Correia, and I'm starting a blog called Portugal Board Games. I played board games all my life, but only in 2010 i discovered the true depth of boardgames, when I found some websites that provided me vital information of this magnificent world of board games.

Of course, Boardgamegeek was a breakthrough, now I'm a daily visitor.

I live in Portugal, and here unfortunately the only board games you could buy in stores were always the same for the last 20 years, monopoly, risk, pictionary and trivial. Nowadays it's starting to change, it's a growing business.

Before get into boardgames for real, i had about 10\12 games, half of them I bought when I went to Germany on vacations in 2008, when i entered a game shop in Germany i had a glimpse of the world of boardgames, i never imagined that you could actually make a store only about boardgames, I was stunned...
In February 2010 I bought a second handed games from Paulo, a gamer that lives in a town near me, short after I discovered he was the second biggest collector in Portugal and part of the organization of the greatest summit in Portugal, LeiriaCon.
Since then, my collection is in about 40 games, and still growing.

So I'm going to review board games that I own in my collection from my personal view and experience.

Hope you enjoy it and help you to decide.