Ricochet Robots (4 stars)

This is a fast paced game that any number of people can play. You could even play it as solitaire. If there are more than 10 people it could get a bit crowded. Unlike other games that are this flexible, it is a game of strategy. But you do not have to consider too many distinct factors. Things do have to be worked out in the head, and that is what makes this fun.

The board is a simple 16x16 squares. This is the playground of the 4 robots - each with a different color. These robots, when activated go along a straight line until stopped by other robots or by a wall. The board is surrounded by a wall, the central four squares are walled off as well. Other than that there are small angled walls on two adjacent sides of several squares. In these squares are targets that the robots seek - 4 distinct ones per color, and one universal. Each of these 17 have a matching token.

This is how you play: One person pulls out one of the 17 tokens at random. The appropriate colored robot is supposed to reach the corresponding location on the board by ricocheting off walls and others robots. Each linear move by any robot counts towards the number of moves. This is where the strategy comes in. In your head you figure out the minimum number of moves needed to reach the target. You then announce it. Whoever announces a number, a one-minute countdown starts (hourglass or stopwatch). If someone can better that count within a minute, that is allowed. Otherwise at the end of the minute the move is demonstrated and the token goes to the winner. The robots are left where they were at the end of the first set of moves. Now the next token is drawn and the moves contemplated.

Online versions are available, but these seem buggy. It will be fun to program for the best moves. One can print the board and play with lego pieces as robots - a poor mans way. The original board is of course much better to play with.

Scotland Yard (4 stars)

This is an intriguing game for 2-6 people. There is  1 Mr. X and the others are detectives.Mr. X goes around London using Buses, taxis, subway, ferry and resurfacing every so often while the detectives try to form a team and catch or block Mr. X with the limited number of transport tokens at their disposal.. What works in favor of Mr. X is that every time a detective uses a mode of transport Mr. X gains that token. Mr. X is often on the edge not knowing when the detectives will be eliminate many of the locations and come close. There are two double jumps to help Mr. X in particularly dire situations. The detectives on the other hand can, in general, never be sure which small taxi route could have helped Mr. X escape.

Unlike many games, here different players do not have symmetric roles. . As a result, it is best to play this as return games, taking turns at becoming Mr. X. A single game can easily take an hour or more, making a full round rather long (if that is how you are playing it). That is one big drawback. But the game is addictive and you can find yourself playing late.

Coordinating between the detectives is a big issue. If not done well they quickly run out of viable alternatives to move and can get stuck giving Mr. X practically a free ride. Deciding where Mr. X may be based on where he had surfaced 3 steps ago can be tough. To cheat a bit in figuring that out I have written a perl program (gradually improving; uses mysql db as backend; available on request).

A Java program is available that allows you to practise this as solitaire. Mr. X makes his moves and you act for all detectives. One person manipulating all detectives (they nevertheless have to move in order) is perhaps best lading to least conflicts. All in all, a fun game to try. You can also try to modify it to your own city. Alas, us Angelinos don't have any public transport to write home about, leave alone making a board game. I did try possibly the next best thing though. Modeled a story (in Marathi) after it.

Apples to Apples (4 stars)

Apples to apples is a great party game. Its really a card game rather than a board game, and even people who shrug at board games generally like it. Typical playing time is 30 minutes. While any number of people could play it, its best for 5-7 people. There are two sets of cards: one with nouns and the other with adjectives (the nouns also have some associated text and the adjectives have synonyms). Players take turns being the dealer. The dealer places an adjective face up. The players then choose a noun from their hand (of 7 - replenishable at the end of each turn) that they feel matches the round best and place it face down. When all have done that, the dealer gathers those, mixes them up and chooses the best in her opinion. The players can debate the selection a bit to add some spice to the proceedings.

The opposite viz. crab apples can also be played - place a noun and match it with adjectives. Extension packs and a set for children is also available.


Seven of us once played it recently, and what different people got as correct made for interesting discussion:

• One who got the least, a female, won "Masculine".
• Then one had: Nerdy, Stunning and Patriotic.
• Another had: Animated, Desperate, Soft, Speedy.
• Next it was: Ordinary, Expensive, Horrifying, Obnoxious
• The fifth had: Delicious, Charming, Colorful, Talented, Cuddly
• Sixth got: Perfect, Sensitive, Sweet, Rich, Handsome
• Finally, the winner had: Luscious, Radical, Wicked, Corrupt, Scary, and Odd.

Though the clustering seems odd, hopefully a man (or a woman) is not known by the adjectives he (or she) wins at apples and apples. Hope you enjoy the game.

It can be a fun project to convert the game into other languages.

Lost Cities (4 stars)

Lost Cities has been my favorite two player game for sometime. The plus points are that it does not go on for too long (30 minutes at most), and often people who do not like board games also readily play it (because they like it). Its essentially a card game with a small board which can be replaced by any board with five spaces. Five because you can launch expeditions to up to five cities. The better your expedition is, the more points you get (including double, triple and quadruple if you are ready to boast early on that you will do good). There are also penalties for not completing an expedition. Its that simple! No complex rules at all.

There are no dice to bring in extra chance (besides what naturally comes about by having a deck of shuffled cards). BUT, and that is a big but, if you think that you can just be logical and win, it generally does not happen. At any point you have access to seven cards and you have to decide which of the different expeditions to feed AND simultaneously try to keep the opponents' expeditions in check. That tension means you have to take chances. So though a straightforward game it is extremely fun to play.

In principle you can use a standard deck of 52 cards and mimic this game with four expeditions. But having five expeditions provides that extra edge. With four expeditions it can be like a series with just two matches. Neither here nor there.

The game won the International Gamers Award in 2000. You can also try playing it online at flexgames.com.

Settlers of Catan (5 stars)

Settlers of Catan is by far my favorite board game. We encountered it a few years back and it continues to remain the favorite. The standard version is for 4 people, with the minimum age around 10. Extensions are available, and you can easily change some rules if there are only 3 of you. A typical game lasts about an hour.

The players compete to acquire resources and construct roads, settlements, cities etc. There is also an amount of chance since you use two dice at each turn to determine who gets what resources. In that respect it is like many other board games. But there are three main factors that make it very interesting and why everyone feels that they can have a chance of winning each game: (1) the board setup is random, so that everytime you play, it IS a new game (there is a Nexus One app available that allows you to get a more balanced board), and (2) you can trade resources, and only the player whose turn it is can trade so that each time you have a possibility of acquiring points, and (3) there are many ways of acquiring  points to take you to victory.

Incidently, Amir Khan once said on his blog that he likes to play Settlers of Catan a lot.

Due to the large number of possibilities the first time you play it seems a bit daunting. But it is worth every bit of you time and effort. The game was apparently invented in Germany to teach about capitalism. It has one the 'Spiel des Jahres' (game of the year) award in 1995.