Thurn and Taxis

This is a placement game where players earn points by building the most efficient Postal System in Old World Germany. Why a Postal System? Well it's in the name of the game, duh.

A quick history of where the game gets it's name (cause if your like me you're thinking: "not a great name for a game.") If you don't care, just skip down to "Description".

History of the Name
In the 12th century, the Lombardic family Tasso (meaning Badger) was resident near Bergamo. The badger (German: Dachs) became Taxis in the family coat of arms. In 1624 the family became counts (Grafen). In 1650 they changed their name to Thurn (Tower) und Taxis. In 1695 they received their princely title from Holy Roman Emperor Leopold I.
Ruggiano de Tassis founded a postal service in Italy. And later in Innsbruck, on 11 December 1489, Jeannetto de Tassis was appointed Chief Master of Postal Services. The family held its exclusive position for centuries. On 12 November 1516 the Taxis family had a postal service based in Brussels reaching to Rome, Naples, Spain, Germany and France by courier.
The Thurn und Taxis company would last until the 18th century, when the postal service was finally bought by the heir to the Spanish throne.

Description
The board is a map of Old World Germany and some surrounding cities with roads connecting the cities. The cities are grouped into six regions (designated by color). There are coinciding "city cards" (multiple of each city) that players collect to build their postal routes. Points are given for building the most efficient postal systems. The Player with the most points at the end of the game wins. Points can be earned in various ways depending on where you build, when you build, and how many post offices you build on one turn.

The basic turn consists of a player drawing a city card(s), playing his card(s) in front of him or her (building a postal route), and then "caching in" (when appropriate) the played cards and placing his post offices on the board and scoring his or her points.

I won't bother with a complete breakdown of all the rules. This game seems fairly complex and hard to understand at first, but is really quite simple and very enjoyable. There a some fun different strategical approaches to it. One downfall is that it is only a four player game without any expansion options. Game play takes 40-60 minutes, depending on how well versed with the game the players are. It has similar aspects to the games "Ticket to Ride" or "The Settlers of Catan" but without some of the frustration, so if you like this type of game, you'll like Thurn and Taxis.

4 Card Golf

Golf is a card game for two or more players, in which the object is to score as little as possible, as in the sport of Golf. In front of each player is a layout of cards arranged in a square or rectangle, and players improve their scores by drawing new cards to replace unwanted cards, which they discard. Each deal is seen as the equivalent of a hole of Golf, and in many versions a complete game consists of nine or Eighteen deals, corresponding to the length of a Golf course. Each player has a layout of cards, initially face down, which can be successively replaced by new cards drawn from the draw or discard pile. The aim is to make a layout scoring as little as possible. At the end of nine holes,(deals),the player with the lowest total score wins.

My two favorite versions of this game are 4 card golf and 9 card golf. Both versions are quite fun and offer different game play and strategies. 4 card golf is somewhat faster to get through nine holes, so if you are looking for a shorter game, give this version a try. In 9 card golf each deals lasts about twice as long.

4 Card Golf

The Deal:

A standard 54-card pack is used,(with jokers) and the number of players could in theory be from two to around eight or more. With a large number of players, say eight or more, two packs may be shuffled together. The deal and play are clockwise.

The dealer deals four cards to each player, one at a time. Each player's cards are to be arranged face down in a square. The remaining undealt cards are placed face-down in the center of the table to form a draw pile. The top card of the draw pile is turned face up and placed beside the stack to start the discard pile. Before play begins, each player may look once at any two of his or her cards without showing them to anyone else. After this, the cards may not be looked at again until they are discarded during play or scored at the end of the play.

Play:

The player to the dealer's left begins, and the turn to play passes clockwise. At your turn you must either (1) draw the top card of the face-down draw pile, (2) draw the top discard, or (3) knock to cause the play to end.

1 - If you draw a card, you may use it to replace one of the four cards of your layout, but you are not allowed to look at any of your layout cards before deciding which to replace. You place the drawn card face-down in your layout, being careful to remember what it is, and discard the card that previously occupied that position, putting it face-up on top of the discard pile. It is then the next player's turn.
If you draw a card from the stock and decide that you do not want to use it in your layout, you may simply discard the drawn card face up on the discard pile, and it is then the next player's turn.

2 - if you choose to take the discard, you must use it to replace one of your layout cards

3 - If you knock, you do nothing else in your turn. All cards are then turned face up and each of the other players in order has one more normal turn (in which they draw a card from the draw pile or discard pile) and then play ends and scores are tallied.

Scoring:

Each numeral card scores face value (Ace=1, Two=2, etc.)
Each Jack scores ten (10) points.
Each Queen scores twenty (20) points.
Each King scores zero (0) points.
Each Joker scores negative five (-5 ) points.

If two cards of the same value are in the same vertical column, they cancel each other out and the total for both cards is zero. This counts for any card, including Queens and Jokers.

Penalty for knocking: If the player who knocks does not end up with the lowest score at the end of the round he or she must add 10 points to their score.

Players add the score of the four cards in front of them and record it for each round. The player who has the lowest cumulative score after nine deals wins.

Risk

Get ready for battle in the game of global domination. Make sure you set aside the better part of an afternoon when you pull Risk off the shelf. This is a fantastic strategy game that, like monopoly, scares people off because of the length of time it can take to play. If you know what you are getting into and are in the right mood, Risk can be a very exciting and enjoyable way to ruin some friendships.

Each player controls an army and chooses which part of the world to occupy. On a players turn they get the chance to grow their army, attack other army's and advance into new territories. The ulitimate goal is to destroy all other army's and take over the entire world. As you might imagine, this can take some time. But as I mentioned before it can be fun and challenging as you decide where to reinforce your army, plan who to attack, and try to defend yourself.

I would also recommend playing the shorter version of the game which involves the "mission cards". These cards are found in new versions of risk so if you have a vintage version it won't contain the mission cards. This version allows each player to draw a specific mission to carry out. The first to accomplish their mission wins the game. These missions include occupying certain continents or a certain number of territories, or destroying one army of a certain color.

Whether it's mission risk or global domination, this is definetly a game worth playing.

Risk can be found almost anywhere games are sold.

Sorry!

This classic Parker Brothers race to home game is one of my favorites. Each player has four pieces that must be moved from start to home using cards drawn from a deck. Pieces move around the board forward, backwards, sliding, trade places and sending each other back to start. This is a very unpredictable, sometimes frustrating, always fun board game. It truly is "the game of sweet revenge".

I think this game sometimes gets tagged as being only for young children, but it can be a fun and challenging game for adults as well. The best way to accomplish this is to play the adult version. In new editions of sorry you can find this variation in the instructions. The main difference in the adult version is that you get to hold five cards in your hand at all time. This allows quite a bit more strategy into game as you get to decide which cards to play and which piece to move. In this version you also start with one of your game pieces outside of start. If you haven't played Sorry since you were young, or have never played it, I would recommend picking up a copy and playing. I guarantee you will want to play again and again.

You can find Sorry! for about $10 - $15 at Target, Wal-mart, Toys-R-Us, or your local game store.

Farkel

Game Object and Overview:

Farkel (or Farkle) is an addictive dice game of guts and luck. It is played with two or more players with each player taking a turn throwing the dice until they score or bust. Generally the game ends when one player reaches or surpasses the score of 10,000.



Equipment Needed:

- Six starndard six-sided die
- Paper and pencil to keep score
- Reference list of scoring combinations

Play:

At the beginning of each turn, the player throws all six six-sided dice. After each throw, one or more scoring dice must be set aside (see sections on scoring below). The player may then either end their turn and bank the score accumulated so far, or continue to throw the remaining dice. If the player has scored all six dice, they have "rolled out" and may continue their turn with a new throw of all six dice, adding to the score they have already accumulated. If none of the dice score in any given throw, the player has "busted" and all points for that turn are lost. At the end of the player's turn, the dice are handed to the next player in succession (usually in clockwise rotation), and they have their turn. The new roller has the choice or (1) rolling whatever remaining dice are left over from the previous rollers turn and building on their score for that round, or they may start fresh and roll all six dice. If the previous roller "busted" then the next player must start fresh.

Once a player has achieved a winning point total of 10,000, each other player has one last turn to try to score enough points to surpass that high-score and steal the win.

Scoring:

Each 1 = 100
Each 5 = 50
Three 1's = 100
Three 2's = 200
Three 3's = 300
Three 4's = 400
Three 5's = 500
Three 6's = 600

Three pair (e.g., 1-1-4-4-6-6) = 1500
A straight (1-2-3-4-5-6) = 1500
Four of a kind = 1000
Five of a kind = 2000
Six of a kind = 3000
Two triplets (e.g., 2-2-2-5-5-5) = 2500

Any of these variant combinations must be achieved in a single throw. Dice from a previous throw may not be combined to make a scoring combination.

A player must reach a score of 500 before her or she may bank any points. Once this score has been achieved, then any score (from 50 on up) may be banked on subsiquent turns. Remember, your turn ends once you've "Banked" or "Busted".

Once points have been banked, they can never be lost. Only the points on a players current turn are at risk when rolling the dice.

The trick to this game is knowing when to stop and bank your points, and when to keep rolling. This is where the guts come in. If you want to score big, you have to be willing to lose big. The game can get very exciting when players begin to build on each others scores. But don't get too greedy or your luck may run out and you can lose it all!

Some tips:

Rolling four, five, or six dice always has a better chance of a higher scoring combination and less of a chance of busting. When chosing which dice to set aside each turn, take into account how much the scoring dice are worth and how many you will have left to roll. For example, this might mean if you roll two 5's, out of the six dice, you only keep one of them and re-roll the other five dice.

Defense. When choosing to bank a high score (usually anything over 1,000) keep in mind how many dice are left over that the next player has a chance to roll. Generally it's best to try and leave them only one or two dice as to keep them from building upon the score that you just banked.

Building on other players high scores (usually anything over 1,000) is always a good strategy. Take your chance with the remaining one, two, or three dice and try to build upon the score that has allready been rolled.

You can find a cool pocket edition of Farkel here