Power Grid (2-6 players) (5 stars)

After a couple of early attempts we had temporarily given up on power grid as it seemed too linear and run-away game with first person to take lead staying there. But I had read about its non-linearity and wanted to persist with exploring it a bit. And that does pay off. Holding off at the right moments is indeed important in this game and the pressing on of one's advantage has more dimensions than do games like Settlers of Catan, Puerto Rico etc.

The aim of the game is to connect cities on a map, and power them using power plants that you but through auctions. The power plants can run on 5 different types of resources including green energy. What makes the game exciting is that the order of players can change at each round depending on the number of cities and the highest power plant, and in two phases the order reverses making it crucial to maintain one's position carefully in different parts as the game progresses.

The resources for the plants are bought from a finite supply and you get to buy them for cheap if you have less cities and/or less expensive power plants, a mechanism that helps balance the game. An important thing to remember is not to buy too mean cheap plants since each player can hold only so many at one time (4 in the 2-player version, 3 otherwise)

As you power more cities, you get more money (Electro), but the increment per city gets smaller and sometimes it is worth asking if the extra resources will pay off for themselves. All in all, a more dynamic game with not too many variables.

Familiarity with a game goes a long way in befriending it. Initially the mechanisms, the role-play seem alien, but play it 3-4 times and you start understanding the finer aspects of it and appreciating the nuances. Another well designed game.

Pandemic (1-4 players) (5 stars)

The stage for this game is a world map with 48 locations where four diseases spread. The players, using roles dawned for the game, try to contain the diseases. There are five roles possible: a researcher collecting and passing on information, an operations expert setting up research stations, a dispatcher shuttling people around, a scientist discovering cures, and a medic curing diseases. The nature of the game is different from a usual board-game in that the players play against the game in a cooperative way and either they all win, or they all lose. The official version is for 2-4 players, and it can be fun with players trying to come up with steps in the strategies to arrest the spread of the epidemics. At this moment, however, it is my favorite solo game where I take on the role of 2, 3, or 4 players (whatever version I have set up the game for - but I like the one with 4 roles best). The game has a small number of attractive pieces and is easy to set-up. The roles, a few special cards that can delay the epidemics, an element of randomness and the continuous race against the outbreaks make the play tight and exciting.

The element of randomness in the location where the disease starts off, or accelerates, is balanced very well by the number and type of tools available to the team-members with the final result (win or loss) almost never completely clear. Corresponding to the 48 locations where diseases can spread, team members have the same set of locations available for movement using different mechanisms and understanding these mechanisms is important. Since the game is for a maximum 4 players, at least one of the five specialist roles always gets left out.

Each player takes 4 actions, followed by new locations being available, and spreading the disease (an unavoidable side effect). Mixed with the location cards arethe epidemic cards. As a result, instead of getting access to a new location, one can accidentally cause an epidemic adding to the tension. Once such an epidemic does happen, the rate at which infection spreads increases, and this can cause outbreaks that spread to more regions. The cities that were already affected are now at a greater risk. You could also get some special cards (only one each of five different types) that give you one special free action. To discover a cure one needs five cards of one color in the hand. The usual capitalistic limit of not being able to hold more than 7 cards at a time makes this non-trivial.

The game ends in victory when all four cures are discovered or in a loss when no more cards can be drawn, or there are no more disease markers for a color, or there have been eight outbreaks. Four, five, or six epidemic cards can be roughly equally spread in the draw pile and that is what makes this an easy, normal, or heroic game. Don't mistake the 'easy' to be so. First few times, until you master the speacial roles, that is what you should play. Gradually you start understanding how to use the order of the roles effectively and are
ready to try to be more heroic. In a given game the roles come in a particular random order as decided at the start. Since the different roles complement each other in different ways, it is important to have a plan and to work towards it. One has to also keep an eye on evolving situations that could torpado the entire world. The importance of the role order can be illustrated with a couple of examples: if a dispatcher comes before the medic, it is a good idea to get him to move the medic to where the worst infection is. If the
dispatcher comes before the researcher and the scientist, it is important to move them together in case the scientist can be given cards that contribute to a cure. If operations expert comes before medic, he should set up stations that will aid the movement of the medic to hotspots. And so on. The variations possible are large. For 4 player games, any one of the 5 roles gets left out (5C4 = 5C1 = 5). For the four players, the order can be one of 24 distinct one (4P4 = 4! = 24). Because of the cyclic nature of the roles this reduces by a factor of 4. Still the total possibilities is 5*6 = 30. Add to that the four diseases, and the 12 cities (and their connections) within the main areas of each disease making each game unique.

The official version is sleek, attractive, and beautiful, but the dynamics of the game itself can be set-up using a couple of standard decks with different designs and a bunch of lego pieces. Remove the Kings (or Aces) from the decks and treat those as the 48 cities belonging to 4 disease areas (each suite representing one disease). The connections between the colors can be decided as follows: order of suites: Clubs (C), Diamonds (D), Hearts (H), Spades (S). S5 connected to H2 and H3, S11 to H3 and H8; H5 to D2 and D3, H11 to D3 and D8; D5 to C2 and C3, D11 to C3 and C8; C5 to S2 and S3, C11 to S3 and S8. The kings (not used as the 48 cities) become the epidemic cards (along with 2 jokers). I would have suggested Jacks instead of Kings, but did not want to break the sequence. For the special cards, 5 cards with backs identical to the 48 location and 6 epidemic cards will have to be used. Lego pieces can be used for markers of role (5), epidemic (1), outbreak (1), cure (4) and research station (6). And then there is the board. While this can be done, it is much better to buy the game itself. You will enjoy that far more.

Puerto Rico (5 stars)

Of late Puerto Rico (PR) is our favorite game and has somewhat overtaken Settlers of Catan in that respect. The reason? It has less of a chance element compared to Settlers. The downside? It takes a wee bit longer to arrange if the max i.e. 5 players are not playing, and the game itself takes longer - about 90 minutes. Even if it takes longer, most people seem to like the elegance of the game, the strange bit of tension that exists in trying to procure resources that are just about right and in general tight. And it is not at all as complex as it may first seem. Its a simple but wonderful role playing game where you are trying to get victory points and when the game ends, whoever has most victory points, wins.

The role selection is a little bit like Citadels, but differs in two major aspects. One chooses roles openly, and that role can be done by everybody (although there is an extra benefit for the one who chooses the role). Rules dictate when choosing which rule is good and there are decisions to be made at each stage since you can see what resources other people hold as well.

Of course all rules have exceptions and there are ways of getting around the rules and that is what makes the game exciting. You break the rules by certain actions, but there are only so many who can take those actions. So, initially its worth reading about the different buildings you can buy.

There are also 5 special buildings that come into play close to the end of the game. And knowing when the game ends is important as you have to plan for it. It ends in one of 3 ways: There are no more colonists (people), or there are no more victory points, or any of the player fills up the 12 building spots. So one has to keep an eye on all possibilities, and also on people who may want to end the game sooner because they are ahead.

There are a few not-so-hidden points to keep in mind that make the game even more fun. One of them is the Craftsman angst. It feels great to be the craftsman and produce lots of good. But then the danger is that the next person becomes captain and before its your turn all the ships are full and your goods are spoilt.

A few tips for novices: (1) money is more useful initially, (2) at least a quarry or two is good to have so that you need to pay less money, (3) the games typically last between 15 and 20 rounds, (4) keep an eye on the large buildings.

PR can also be played as a two-person game, and unlike most multi-person good games it does not lose any of its charm in the two-person version. Definitely recommended. There is also an online version that you can play at http://www.phial.com/puerto-rico/ (for the two-person game play only 5 roles per round rather than 6). You can also play it against 4 computer opponents. Though these are okay, they are not as good as people who have played the game even a couple of times.

Here are some more details about the roles and the mechanisms.

How do you get victory points?
By shipping goods during the Captain's phase! Every barrel gets you one point.

What goods?
Oh, the usual: Corn, Indigo, Sugar, Tobacco, Coffee.

And where do you get these?
You produce them! (During the Craftsman phase). All you need are appropriate plants (with people to work with them) and factories to process them (with people to work these too).

Where do you get the plants?
During the Settler phase.

And the factories?
You get those (and some other buildings) by paying for them during the Builder phase.

Where do the people come from?
The Mayor brings them during his phase.

Where does the money to buy the buildings come from?

You get the Dubloons (PR currency) when you sell goods during the Trader phase.

Do all crops fetch the same value?
Of course not! Corn fetches nothing (but you don't need any factory to process it), and Coffee pays most (and coffee processing is most expensive).

Hope you give PR a try - you will not regret it.