Cleopatra

Cleopatra is a fun game with lots of pieces. The goal is to become the wealthiest architect. You do this by building pieces of her palace. But watch out, corruption is everywhere. If you are deemed the most corrupt architect you automatically lose the game! It's not just about making the most money.

We have played this game several times now and have always enjoyed it. The suspense builds at the end as it can be very hard to know who has acquired the most corruption amulets. The game plays up to 5 players and takes about 1 hour to play.

Dominion

We sold several of these games before we opened one up to play. What a great game! Dominion feels like a board game but it is all cards. The goal is to try to control as much land as possible. There is a great variety of cards to play with and you only play with a limited amount each time. Therefore the game always changes and presents new oportunities as well as challenges. Fairly easy to learn. Once you get the hang of it you can play a round in about 30 minutes. 2-4 players can play, recommended age 10+.

There are several expansions that go along with this game. Dominion: Intrigue adds rules and cards that allow you to play up to 6 players. Dominion: Prosperity adds several new cards inluding treasure cards with abilities. Dominion: Alchemy and Dominion: Seaside add new Kingdom cards.

Power Grid

We have played Power Grid several times now and it has become one of my favorite games. It is similar to Puerto Rico in that you play in phases but it is simpler. The goal is to supply the most cities with power. You do this through buying (through an auction process) a variety of different types of power plants (coal, oil, etc...). Each type of plant requires resources that you have to buy in order to keep it powered. You make money as you power cities. You travel from city to city supply power to as many as you can. The game has good variety but isn't overly complicated. Once you have played through the phases once it is very easy. With the same board you can play on a map of the United States or Germany.

The game generally takes us between 2 and 2 1/2 hours to play. Up to 6 people can play.

Blokus 3-D

blokus
Blokus 3-D is similar to the traditional Blokus game but the strategy is very different. As the name implies you build layers with your pieces. There are 4 different kinds of board that come with the game and each has its own rules on how you can stack your pieces. You always play a piece that is flush with one of your already played pieces. At the end of the game you count how many of your cubes you can see from a top view and then subtract how many pieces you have left.

I think this game is just as fun as the original. Watch out though, it is much easier to get completely blocked where you are out until the next game! Very good spacial game. Great for anyone over 5 and usually only takes about 10 minutes to play.

Ingenious

Ingenious is a great puzzle game! Up to 4 people can play. There are tiles that are composed of two hexagons together and each hexagon has 1 of 6 different colors on it. You place tiles together to try and get points in each of the colors. Be careful not to get too caught up in one color though! At the end of the game your score is how many points you got in your lowest color!

This game is very addicting and great for all ages! It usually takes about 30 minutes to play and is really easy to learn. There is also a travel edition for 2 players and you can play online for free. This is definitely one of my favorite puzzle games.

Shadows Over Camelot

I love Shadows Over Camelot because it is a board game that you can play with up to 7 people. The other great thing about this game is that you play TOGETHER to defeat evil. It is not everyone for themselves but a team sport. You play as one of the Knights of the Round Table and work together going on a variety of legendary quests.

If you are playing for the first time and no one at the table has played before, the instruction manual can be very daunting. I would highly recommend playing first with someone who has played before. Once you get the hang of it the game is very entertaining.

For an added thrill you can mix things up by adding a traitor. That's right. Everyone draws cards and one of you will no longer be a team player. The longer you can keep yourself from being discovered, the better chance you have of being the only one to win (or on the off chance...lose) the game!

There is also a Shadows Over Camelot: Knights Expansion. It includes a set of painted plastic minitures of the 8 knights.

Ticket to Ride

Ticket to Ride is one of our favorite games to play. The primary goal is to get more points than the other players. You do this by laying down trains and completing routes. The longer the train, the more points you get. The more routes you complete, the more points you get, but be careful; if you don't complete your routes you lose those points! This game is very simple. You only do one thing on your turn. You either draw more colored cards, lay down trains, or draw more route cards. That's it! Easy to learn, easy to play, very engaging.

This game is for 3-5 players and usually takes about an hour. Great for younger kids learning geography, for the rest of us it helps us remember :). There are several versions of this game including: Europe, a Swiss map expansion, and a dice expansion. You can even play this game online.