Already getting some sizable time gaps between posts. Hopefully that doesn't become too common of a thing. Like everyone else we're busy with the holidays. Had to get ready to travel to MN and are visiting family and friends, and we've also had some personal stuff. Maybe I'll blog about that some other time, when I feel like I have something to say.
Usually we have to split holiday time between my family and my wife's, whose parents live about an hour away from mine. It's often been Christmas Eve with my family and Christmas day with hers. Christmas Eve at my parents house is the immediate family while Christmas Day is extended. It's been a few years since we've done Christmas day with my extended family. This year my wife's parents are up in Alaska so we're staying with my parents the whole time.
Christmas day at my parents has long included board games. When I was a lot younger I'd play Risk with a few people, especially one of my uncles. I can't stand the game now, but it was a favorite in my early years. There's also always a Scrabble game, which is a personal favorite of my grandma. Everyone involved now gets a little bitter at my brother-in-law, who absolutely wipes the floor with them every year. I'm more than a little afraid to challenge him. Danielle and I like board games, and probably have too many for how often we get to play them, so being able to play a few on Christmas is becoming a treat. One of my brothers is really into games these days and always supplies us with a selection, since we're not going to bring many of our own across country.
Before the extended family arrived, we played a new (to me) game called Castles of Burgundy. It's from Ravensburger, so I first thought the box was a puzzle, but it was a very fun strategy game that I already want to play again. In some ways it's similar to Settlers of Catan, as there are a bunch of hexagonal tiles and it takes a little over an hour to play. Each player has their own domain, where you build using different tiles giving different upgrades or ways of scoring points. There's a common space in the middle where everyone takes the tiles you need to develop your domain. The only way you directly compete with the other players is over these tiles. Like many games it's a little overwhelming at first, largely due to the wide variety of pieces, but the game is also long enough that once it's started you can still formulate a strategy. My brother was impressed with my sister and I, as we figured out the game quickly. I actually won the first (and only) time we played.
Later that night, after the extended family left, my sister, brother and I, along with our spouses, played the one game that we did bring, called Skull. Unlike Castles of Burgundy, this is more of a party game and each game is very short. The artwork is cool to look at and there are very few pieces. Each player gets a square 'mat' and four disks, three featuring a flower and one featuring a skull. Each turn consists of the players taking turns going around the table and either placing a disk face down or issuing a challenge. The challenger is guessing how many of the face down disks he/she can turn over without finding a skull. If you complete the challenge successfully, you flip over your mat. If you do not, you lose a disk. If someone completes two challenges, they win. It's all about bluffing and guessing what the other players at the table are going to do. The strategy gets more complicated as players lose disks and are only one challenge away from winning. It was a hit and I'm glad we got to play with the full six players. Now that I think about it, we probably could've improved the game a little by having the players swap positions at the table, but it certainly was still fun playing several games without doing that.
Both games were a lot of fun and certainly recommended. If you're one of those weirdos who are reading my site, I hope you had a Merry Christmas!
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