1/30 Featured Games

Hi everybody!

With January being one of those awesome months that contains five Fridays, we at FND will be having our bonus 5th Friday of the month session!  Woo!  This means that there'll be two FNDs in a row - on 1/30 and then subsequently on 2/6.

This upcoming session (on 1/30) we will have a unique theme:  Arabian Games!

Oddly enough there are a good amount of games that involve Arabian and they are all quite different.  Now some of these will be a bit of a stretch, but most of them very specifically involve an Arabian theme set in the world of the Arabian Nights.  Let's check 'em out!

Tales of the Arabian Nights

I don't think we could have this theme and not feature this game.  This is possibly the most unique game I own.  It is a storytelling game (not quite an RPG) in which you move your character around a map of Arabia and respond to various events.  There is a massive tome of a book that details various interactions and how your responses influence them.  It is more of an experience than a game and is extremely enjoyable.

Five Tribes

Five Tribes is one of the hottest games of 2014 and it is also set in the world of the Tales of the Arabian Nights.  Admittedly, the theme in this one is a bit less consequential and certainly not as rich as in Tales, however it is definitely present in the artwork.  This game is very much a medium-weight Euro game and it is one of the best games of the year.  It incorporates the mechanisms of mancala and various other things to create a wonderful and thought-provoking package.

Alhambra

Okay so this one technically takes place in Spain, however it is in Grenada during the Middle Ages which is a time when this part of their culture and architecture was heavily influenced by Arabia.  So it flies.  This game, a former winner of the Spiel de Jahres (in 2003 I believe) award, is an excellent gateway-level game in which players are trying to build their own Alhambra.  Players are awarded points for the amount of various types of buildings they have for each type.  It has very similar mechanisms and feel to Ticket to Ride but with different scoring and theme.  This is a terrific game, particularly if you're relatively new to the hobby.



Camel Up

Camel Up is the somewhat controversial winner of the 2014 Spiel de Jahres award.  Many people felt that it should have gone to Splendor instead of this light, almost family-style game.  Well, after having played both Splendor and Camel Up, I firmly agree with the choice of Camel Up.  I've played Splendor more times in 2014 than any other game (mostly because my wife loves it so much) and it is a great game.  However, I recently played three games of Camel Up in the span of 24 hours and afterwards it was generally agreed that we had so much more fun playing Camel Up than we would have with Splendor.  Camel Up is a betting game where you wager on a camel race.  It is very luck driven and there is only so much you can do to control things.  But that's why it's so fun!  We had a group of adults hooting and hollering over which of these little wooden camels would cross the finish line first and it was a fantastic time.

Kemet

Kemet is also a bit of a stretch as it technically takes place in Ancient Egypt, but Egypt is pretty close to Arabia and they interact a lot so I'm tossing it in here.  This is a game that heavily involves player conflict and encourages you to attack each other.  Each player has a group of Egyptian warriors and you are both building up your civilization's technology while also vying for control on the map.  The game is gorgeous and the pieces are awesome.  You can recruit some giant god-like creatures from Egyption lore (huge Scarab beetle, Phoenixes, etc.) and it just feels awesome.  Each player as unique minis for their army and there are various ways to achieve victory.

A Distant Plain

The final game I'm 'featuring' is really one I don't expect us to play.  Not because it's not good - it's superb - but because it would jump to by and far the heaviest game ever played at FND.  This is a genuine War Game and as such it would probably be a bit of a stretch to play at FND.  If people are interested playing this or learning this, I'm all about it and feasibly if we started right at 6:30 we could probably play it by 11:30 but it'd be close with a thorough rules explanation.  I mention it this week because this game features the very recent conflict between the United States and its Coalition against the terrorist forces in Afghanistan.  It is a very recent theme and some of the beauty of this game is how educational it is.  It really helps you better understand the complex and volatile political climate of Afghanistan.  If you're interested in just checking it out, I'll have it there and perhaps we can try and schedule an extra time for it to be played.  I'm determined to make some War-Gamers out of FND, yet!

Well that's all of the featured games!  Invite some friends and bring any of your own Arabian games!  I'm thinking games like Jaipur, Istanbul, or any more I haven't heard of!  Hopefully we'll see you Friday!