Germans have the best boardgames in the whole wide world. Seriously. I'm not talking about strategic games where you have hundreds of counters representing tanks and troops, I'm talking about games like Settlers of Catan where you hava a variable map to build roads and villages and cities on, harvesting corn, wood, ore and bricks to build these things.
I couldn't agree more - in fact, we watch the German companies to see which games to buy. (And we also have a roomful of games - it's funny to see people's reactions, they either think we are weird or they love us even more!)
Some of our favourites are the Catan games (We're packing the Settlers of Catan cardgame in my labour bag for when baby Otto arrives), also Starfarers of Catan (the playing pieces are so gorgeous, Mr Babyotto and a friend spent 10 minutes playing with *them* before we even got the rest of the game out of the pack), La Citta and Carcassonne / Carcassonne Hunters & Gatherers.
You also make the best children's games. I'm still looking out for a copy of Ravensburger's Koffer Packen, which used to be everywhere. And the Enchanted Forest (Zauberwald?) - and I have this bizarre game I got in the early '80s called "Waldschattenspiel" which you play in the dark with tea lights.
The secret to all those games is, I think, that they're so easy to play. My 4 1/2 year old worked out what we were doing playing Carcassonne (I think fields are beyond her, but she enjoyed the map-making side of the game). But the strategic possibilities are vast.
A guy called Greg Kostikyan has written a lot about why the Germans are making such good games. I'll try to track down the link.
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2003-03-05 04:58 pm (UTC)I couldn't agree more - in fact, we watch the German companies to see which games to buy. (And we also have a roomful of games - it's funny to see people's reactions, they either think we are weird or they love us even more!)
Some of our favourites are the Catan games (We're packing the Settlers of Catan cardgame in my labour bag for when baby Otto arrives), also Starfarers of Catan (the playing pieces are so gorgeous, Mr Babyotto and a friend spent 10 minutes playing with *them* before we even got the rest of the game out of the pack), La Citta and Carcassonne / Carcassonne Hunters & Gatherers.
You also make the best children's games. I'm still looking out for a copy of Ravensburger's Koffer Packen, which used to be everywhere. And the Enchanted Forest (Zauberwald?) - and I have this bizarre game I got in the early '80s called "Waldschattenspiel" which you play in the dark with tea lights.
The secret to all those games is, I think, that they're so easy to play. My 4 1/2 year old worked out what we were doing playing Carcassonne (I think fields are beyond her, but she enjoyed the map-making side of the game). But the strategic possibilities are vast.
A guy called Greg Kostikyan has written a lot about why the Germans are making such good games. I'll try to track down the link.