02.28.06
Play board games
There are lots of people (Americans anyway) that don’t have the patience for board games in their adult lives. This is a great shame and due in large part I believe to how boring many of the popular American board games are. Monopoly, Risk, Life, Candy land, they just don’t have the same appeal past the age of 12. However, if you expand your horizon a bit, you’ll find a ton of great games out there that are entertaining and engaging for even the most jaded member of the intelligentsia among you.
Two games that I have been playing lately that I’m quite fond of are The Settlers of Catan, and Carcassonne. Settlers is a strategy game that is somewhat of a cross between monopoly, risk, and civilization. You are competing with the other plays to build roads, settlements, and armed forces to wrest control of an Island. The seemingly simple sets of rules you play with lend themselves to a wide variety of strategic options, and the replay value is extremely high. The only downside to this game is you need 3 people to play. Also, there is an element of chance to the game, as the roll of the dice determines how resources are distributed to players. There are a ton of expansion packs you can get, so if you find you like this game, there are accessories galore to keep you busy for years to come. Carcassonne can be played with only 2 players, and has a quite different premise. Rather than starting with a pre-built world which you subsequently occupy, in Carcassonne, each turn you take a card and help build out a world, choosing how you wish to connect your new piece of territory to the existing game board map. In addition to deciding how to build out the map, you have control over where you place your minions, which can become thieves, knights, farmers or monks depending on what type of territory you set them in. This game is incredibly addictive and again gives rise to a wide variety of playing scenarios based on a few simple rules. Again, there are also a ton of add on accessories and alternate rule sets, so if you grow bored with the initial variation there are lots more to choose from.
For both of these games, there are large communities of fans on and offline, so chances are if your living companion isn’t a game player you’ll be able to find some other like-minded souls to play with you.
Follow this link to learn more about the Settlers of Catan board game.