The Games People Play

Today was Game Day.

One of my gaming buddies turned 40 and celebrated by holding a day-long gaming event.  One of his friends owns a game store and arrived with a very tall stack of games for us to play.

One game that I played and really enjoyed was Small World.  The short summary is that the game plays a bit like Risk-meets-Settlers of Catan: players control sections of a map and earn money for each controlled area, and the game end after a predetermined number of rounds.

The mechanics of the game are very simple (an area is captured by simply placing more invaders than there are defenders), and the light-hearted, random civilization combinations (Flying Giants! Diplomat Skeletons!) increase the replay value. Once a civilization you control is no longer of value, then you may allow it to decline and select a new random civilization (Mounted Amazons! Heroic Wizards!) to rise and rule the lands.

A game takes around 40 minutes to play, depending on the number of people.  It's not a cheap game – $50 for the basic set – but I think that it could be $50 well spent.  I'll put it on my Bawkmas wish list.