Caltrops - Reviews - Mark's Boardgame Roundup part 2

Forum Overview :: Reviews

by mark 04/27/2005, 6:11pm PDT

Reiner Knizia's JRR Tolkien's Lord Of the Rings

This is a couple years old now but this game has had more staying power than most people predicted. Probably the only cooperative game that has ever worked, each player plays a Hobbit on route to Mount Doom and dunking the ring. Actually, it is pretty complicated to explain, so I'll just link to this review instead, which gives a good overview of the mechanics. This game is great, very tense and still fun despite being cooperative (which is a nice change of pace from the usual hyper competitive games played. The expansions are pretty cool too, Friends and Foes adds various monsters, more scenario boards and powers to the game making it quite a bit harder. The Sauron expansion lets one person play Sauron and direct the nazguls against the rest of the players who are still playing as a team. This game is great.

Recommendation: If you are secure enough with your sexuality to play a non-competitive game, this is an awesome choice. Be warned that if you really hammer away at the base game you may more or less solve it. Luckily the expansions are much harder. Also the (1st ed) rules are somewhat unclear.
Availability: Easy to get new, but you should probably buy it cheaper off of ebay. This game was mass produced (Hasbro had 1st ed distribution rights) so it's not too hard to get a copy. Expansions are also cheap on ebay/webstores, too expensive at retail prices.

Modern Art

Probably my favorite boardgame right now, Modern Art places each player as the owners of an international art gallery. Players then take turns selling art and bidding on art by various artists represented by cards. In a clever manner, artists are only worth money for how popular they are this season and past seasons. Even formally popular artists can be worth nothing if not much of their art sells in the current season. This game is awesome, and one of those rare games (like Settlers, aside from Fabio) that appeals to hardcore gamers and nongamers alike. You can play this with your parents or girlfriends parents and not feel embarassed. This game is in print again and is pretty cheap ~$20 american you should buy it.

Recommendation: One of the greatest boardgames ever made, one of the truly great bidding games. Over in an hour. Knizia's best game.
Availability: High. Mayfair is printing it, however, so the quality is a little poor.

Junta

I don't know if I should sell this or not. On one hand, it is selling on ebay for ~3x as much as I bought it for. Another version is apparently coming out soon, but I don't put too much faith in that. Anyway, Junta is a classic and somewhat flawed game about ruling a banana republic, named Los Bananos. Every player represents one of the predominant families of the country. Every player has one or more positions within the government (General, Admiral, Intelligence Director) that are assigned by the current president for life. Each turn, foreign aid money arrives in the country (7 bills, but the exact amount is secret) and the president proposes a budget which may or may not pass. The goal of the game is to get the most money in your swiss bank account before the aid money runs out. This can be a challenge because people are trying to assassinate you (not a big problem, you can come back as a different member of the family on the next turn), rob you, or start coups against you. During a coup, the game goes into wargame mode where generals control armies that attempt to take over the important parts of the country. At the end of the coup, players controlling buildings declare if they are with or against the revolution, a new president is declared and some people get assassinated. This is not a bad game, but it is pretty long (6+ hours with 7 players) which puts it into the category of games which are too long to play in an evening and only come out a few times a year. Also, the wargame component is sort of fun, but suffers from a This Game Does Many Things versus This Game Does One Thing Well issue where the running the country and the wargame phases are a little disjoint and not exactly balanced in either case. Still, this is a game that I like having in my collection, is a little bit rare, and is fun those few times a year that it comes out. This game has sort of a rep among the Euro gamers as sucking, but I think its strength outweigh its weakness, even if not by a lot.

Recommendation: If that description sounds awesome to you (coups, assassinations, and embezzling) and you play with a group that doesn't get pissy when people are picked on, its not a bad game. Its pretty long though, and is better with more players, so keep that in mind.
Availability: Not very. Pretty expensive right now, although apparently a reprint is coming later this year.