13 Days Card Game

Okay, everyone, after one play and the expectation of playing again tonight, I would like to give a quick review of 13 Days.
13 Days is a two player card based area control game. Wow, now that I write the description out I can see how many adjectives that game description has, but I digress. You are playing through the struggle of the Cuban Missile Crisis. The general way it works is using influence in different arenas (military, political, and opinion) to gain prestige based on your opponent’s and your own chosen agenda for the round. You will have a hand of 5 command cards, you may play a card for a command or event benefit, using command to add or remove your own influence from different parts of the map. However, if at any time you place more than one influence in one place from a command action you also move your Defcon marker up for each influence beyond the first. You also have a hard cap of 17 influence total and 5 of your influence on each of the 6 locations. If you choose to use the event on a card matching the country you represent (US, Russia, or either can use the UN cards) you just do what it says on the card, often changing influence without changing the Defcon level.

There is a twist to this though, when you play an opponent’s faction card (which you will have to do), you must use it for the command and they have the option to use the event for free on your turn. This really requires you to think about which card you will have left over at the end of the round. After you play through 4 cards each going back and forth you place your last card in an aftermath pile. After three rounds you go through the aftermath pilot and whoever has the most command down based on their factions cards in the aftermath pile gets two additional prestige.

Overall the prestige you get at then of each round and the end of the game is more of a tug of war. You can never have more than 5 prestige over your opponent and each prestige move the marker closer to your side of the scoring track. The game ends either by a person reaching Defcon 1 and staying there until the end of a round or having all of their Defcon markers (3) in the Defcon 2 area causing them to lose, or 3 round are completed and the person with the most prestige after the aftermath wins. If the scoring marker is in the center, the person holding the personal letter token wins (which is how I won).

This is definitely comparable to the game Twilight Struggle, but a much lighter implementation. It has the same feel, the cards have historical images, and there is even a booklet to discuss the events of the Cuban missile crisis. The mechanism is very similar to Twilight Struggle as well. However, 13 Days took 45 minutes instead of 3 hours. It is a much more focused game with a number of choices and a lot of thinking and planning based on what your opponent might do, but it is not nearly as broad or deep as Twilight Struggle which goes through the entire Cold War and deals with the all the world.
I like 13 Days a lot, I know Jennie and I will be playing way more often than Twilight Struggle just because of the time requirements if nothing else. We also will be keeping Twilight Struggle though, the amount of depth and interactions in that game make it worth it, even if it only happens once a year. I would give 13 Days an 8.5 out of 10, I think it great and works well for a two player quick game that requires some thought.

Oregon Trial Game

Remember the old Oregon Trial computer game?  I know I played it middle school all the time!  Anyway, they put out a card game about it!  The game isn't that great - it is co-op and you will die most of the time. It is pretty repetitive and very random.  But for nostalgia is a great game - it feels like the computer game.  We both died first time out!  Anyway, if you remember the computer game with fondness, this is a fun game to try out and for the price point is well worth the experience as it is cheap.

Other Kids' Games

This is Bugs in the Kitchen - this is quite cute and was a friend's thrifting find.  It is pretty random but teaches trying to get the hexbug to move the way you want with the right patterns.  

Minecraft card game - pretty quick and easy. It really is just resource collection with card sets. 

Old oldest ADORES the Star Wars Risk game and is quite good at it.

Pokemon

Well it happened....the Pokémon CCG entered our lives.  Andrew ADORES it. Like obsessively.  I told Ray that he got his mini gamer in Adam, and it seems he got his eventual Magic player in Andrew.  The hit of Christmas morning  - the Pokémon pack in his stocking. Seriously. 

 

As to the game - it isn't bad.  The deck building is set at 60 and is pretty standard.  The game also is just played to 6 KOs so that's much easier than the life points in Magic.  It really is Magic lite. 

They seller "trainer" decks and it worked really well for teaching the boys the game.

Playing Emma

Ellie was helping me play Emma. 

 

This is the new version of Marrying Mr. Darcy. Such a fun girls' game!  If you like Jane Austen, you totally need this game.  This is a really simple card game, but the theme really comes out with the card text. 

Adam Gaming

Adam started learning 40K this summer!

We all learned Minecraft card game

Adam got to go to the game store to play 40K

Zeus on the Loose

Ray has decided that we should go thrifting for games.  So far we've picked up a few, the best being a very nice copy of Stratego ,but this little card game was a fun choice for $1.  Zeus on the Loose is a very quick and easy hard game (we are playing here at a restaurant) and was a great deal at a buck.

 

Magic

Jennie has finally been forced to learn Magic.  She doesn't play much, just enough so Ray can test his decks. 

 

Camping Game: Over Under

We went to our cabin with the family over the Fourth of July.   No electricity and all that.  We took a few games: Batman Love Letter, Over Under and Pie Factory.  Over Under turned out be great as we could play it at the campfire just passing around a handful of cards.  It was easy and fun and you could play it until you felt like quitting and then count up to see who "won." (Honestly, who cares was our opinion.)  Plus since you are estimating, this didn't have the "trivia" aspect, yet was fun to try to figure out.  Most questions are history or sciences, which for us is great, but be warned if you absolutely hate both of those. 

Batman Love Letter is our favorite Love Letter and this was a great game for us after the kids and grandparents went to bed.  Doesn't take that long or that much room. 

The nice thing about all three games is they are very portable and were easy to toss into to take with us as well as didn't take much room to play.

Pie Factory actually takes the most room and got played the least.  We played Over Under each night at the campfire with even the grandparents playing along. 

Gaming on the Go

We recently took a train trip to Seward (which was really fun, but that post is on my regular blog).  Knowing we'd be on the train for quite awhile each way, we took some small games.  The games were took were Pie Factory, Microcosm (Eminent Domain), Brave Rats and Romans Go Home.  All did really well for the small spaces and times.  We also brought out the App version of Ticket to Ride, which was great. 

Pie Factory on the train

Ticket to Ride - this was nice as we could do pass and play in our seats

Microcosm at Subway when we stopped for a snack bread after walking the town - there was no one in there as it was the middle of the afternoon and they didn't seem to care we hung out for awhile playing while we ate our cookies!

Wharfside

 

We backed this on Kickstarter and it arrived about a week ago.  We LOVE Fleet,  but honestly, even with the robots (which work really well for robots), it isn't a great two player game.  You can (and we do) play it two player, but it is better with more. This is a GREAT two player game. I love how the markets change automatically.  This is a simple game, but there is plenty of strategy here. It also isn't that long, which makes it great to pull out for a quick game. 

 

I do wish the captains added more variety in that it really changed your overall strategy, but that's my only "complaint."  We played two games of this, both were close (we each won one).  The rules are easy to pick up, even for someone new to gaming (I would say this is easier to learn than Fleet).  Plus just like Fleet the cards are GORGEOUS!!

Ticket to Ride

Ticket to Ride is a great "starter" game if you are trying to bring new gamers into the fold.  It is easy to learn and for those without any prior gaming experience, not as overwhelming. A great place to start them off!

Catan and Catan Histories

We recently played Catan, the Ancient Egypt edition.  Now I like Catan...Ray doesn't. It isn't that he hates it, just that he feels it is too long for what it is (for instance with 4 players, Egypt took us 3 hours).    I like base Catan and I enjoy the various expansions (I think the seafarers one is pretty cool), but I really enjoy the historicals.  So I wanted to tell you about the ones I like/don't like of those. 

Now Trials to Rails (the American one)...I want to like this one. Seriously, I did.  But I don't. It is long and repetitive and the mechanics just weren't well thought out/executed.  There are some cool features, but it just isn't that good.  We ended up selling this one.  From what I've seen/heard, the European one (Merchant of Europe) seems to be very similar, so I haven't even tried it.

We do have Struggle for Rome, which I really like. I like that there are two stages of the game...you are wandering, then settle down. I think this really helps and makes this a cool, and unique, version.  I think this is worth picking up and trying.

I also think the new Ancient Egypt one is as well.  Now this comes with the base game in essence, but I have no idea why you'd want to play it. We did the Great Pyramid one and that was fun. I like the addition of the Nile, the God cards, the Great Pyramid.  My biggest "beef" with the game is that the components just aren't up to snuff...and given the price point, they should be.  So that was a major disappointment...the Great Pyramid was well....pathetic. 

My husband's (who doesn't like Catan much as mentioned) favorite is Catan Germany, which was one of the Geographies.  I think the rest ended up just being maps. The production value here is EXCELLENT and the game is fun, the landmarks are just cool and the map is very true to Germany. 

We also have a few random maps, which are just fun to have around. 

We also have played Star Trek Catan and have the extra maps, really this is just a re-theming, no new additions. 

There are two card games: Rivals and Struggle. Rivals is just two player and has a TON of expansions. My biggest beef is that this pretty long and takes a TON of room to play. I like it, but I wish it wasn't so cumbersome to set up/play.  Struggle plays 2-4 and is much more compact....this is the one we still own (we gave the other to my brother). It is fast version of Catan and relatively simple to set up/play. 

Our Airplane Game: Brave Rats

A couple of months ago I challenged Ray to find me a game we could play on the airplane (or in another small space).  The idea was this would have be very compact, very portable and fairly easy to play.  We found BraveRats.  This is quick and easy and only 16 cards.  That's it.  It is pretty much War with special powers.  You play cards simultaneously, out of a deck of 0 to 7, where each has a "special" power.  It takes no room to carry, no room to play and doesn't take a lot of brain power to play. Each game only takes 5 minutes.  Perfect carry-on material!