Wink Fun

Odin's Raven – A well-loved card-based racing game gets a swanky upgrade

Odin's Raven by Osprey Games Ages 8 and up, 2 players, 30 minutes $20 Buy a copy on Amazon

Odin’s Ravens is a gorgeous, quick, and easy-to-play card game for two players. The story behind the race at the heart of the game is simple: The Norse god Odin has two ravens, Huginn and Muninn. Every morning, he sends them out to circle the world and report back on what they see. The ravens have turned the daily ritual into a competition, as they race around Midgard to see who can return to Odin first. To win, neither of them are beyond calling on Loki, the trickster god, to thwart the journey of the other.

I absolutely love the production on this new edition of Odin’s Ravens, from the sturdy, very tome-like clamshell box, to the vivid and handsomely designed cards, to the two wooden ravens that serve as the playing pieces. Since the game itself is rather simple, it was smart of Osprey to up the aesthetic impact of the game. These two elements, ease-of-play and pleasing components, coupled with the mythological gloss of the backstory all combine to create a very satisfying gaming experience.

Odin’s Ravens is played out on a racing track of land cards. Each card depicts two different land types (mountains, forests, plains, desert, frozen northlands). Each raven starts on one of the two land tracks depicted on the two-part cards and races through all of the domains to arrive back at the beginning. Players have a deck of cards depicting the five different domains and must show a matching card from their hand that depicts the next land type they want to move onto. If the active player does not have a matching card, s/he can play two cards of the same land type instead and still move forward. If the player totally gets stuck, she can spend a Loki card (if she has one) from her hand. Each Loki card shows two available options for monkeying with the land track to make it work for you or make it harder for that clearly inferior other raven to make it back to Odin. The first raven who flies over all of the land and returns to Odin’s arm first is clearly the superior raven.

Osprey Publishing has recently been venturing into the realm of board, card, and role-playing games with some very cool and somewhat offbeat offerings. This edition of Odin’s Revenge is a refinement of a game that’s been around since 2002. Besides redoing all of the art and upping the ante on the production values, they’ve also streamlined the rules to make the game faster, less cumbersome, and I suspect, to widen its appeal. This is the perfect kind of game to play with the family, for a quickie, or to play something fun with people who don’t normally game. – Gareth Branwyn

Arkham Horror – Like Scooby Doo but with more monsters and no masks

Arkham Horror by Fantasy Flight Games Ages 12 and up, 2-8 players, 2-6 hours $43 Buy a copy on Amazon

Arkham Horror is like an old Scooby Doo mystery, but with more monsters and no masks. In the year 1926, cultists have opened a gate into a dark realm in the city of Arkham to wake up the Ancient One. As part of a rag tag team of investigators, it is your job to stop the cultists from completing their ritual, and of course save the world while you're at it. As a whole the game is very complex, so the following will only be a brief synopsis of the game.

Players each get a turn to move, fight monsters (or sneak by if you're smart), buy items, close gates, and use items or pick up clue tokens, which is the only way to close gates and win the game. To close gates, players must use the clue tokens, go through the gate (encountering some awful creature) and then return to Arkham. If they close all the gates they win!

However, every turn the monsters also get a chance – they can move, call in new monsters, open new gates and add a doom token to the Ancient One's track. If the track becomes full, and the gates are not all closed, the Ancient One awakens and the players are in for one heck of a fight.

This game is huge, with stats, attacks, encounters, allies, items, monster movements and abilities, Ancient One effects, board effects, card effects and a whole list of other things. There are eight Ancient Ones to choose from and sixteen investigators, each of which are unique and different to play. And during the game these characters can be driven insane, sent to the hospital or even get arrested. The game changes and so does the city, and no two games will ever play out the same way.

It's a complicated game, and therein lies its charm. It's very easy to get pulled into the story of Arkham, as you feel part of something bigger, and as the game progresses you get sorely attached to your investigators and their stories. The game is brutal and dying is almost a given, but if your character does pass away a new one is rolled and you're back in the game. However, its greatest perk can turn into its greatest flaw. Because the game is so complex, it lends itself to getting bogged down in rules, and because each play-through plays out so differently, you can either have an amazing experience or a terrible one. It plays between 2-6 hours (depending on players), can play 2-8 players, and does take some time to understand to fully enjoy. As a whole this game is fun and that unpredictability is what puts it a step above most other board games. – Engela Snyman

Think up and create your own board game with this Game Inventors Kit

Junior Game Inventors Kit by Game Board Design & Manufacturing Ages 6 and up $20 Buy a kit here 

It's exciting to get a new game in its pristine box, wrapped in cellophane, begging to be opened. Inside you find the game board, colorful game pieces, cards, and, of course, instructions. Instructions are the worst part of a new game. Reading and rereading the sheet of rules, digesting them, and teaching them to your friends so you can get your game on can be excruciating. And how many practice games do you have to play before you really get it?

Instead of learning how to play someone else's game, how about inventing one of your own? Combine the elements of all those games you've played and loved into your own unique adventure using a board game inventors kit by Board Game Manufacturing. Don't be put off by their site's poor graphics and design. Their product is worth the slog through its eye-crossing pages.

I purchased their Junior Game Inventors Kit. The kit includes everything you need to start building a game: a pre-cut box, a blank folds-to-square game board, paper to cover box and board, nine pawns, a pair of standard dice, a 12-sided numbered die, 56 blank cards, and a bundle of play money. You can also purchase a la carte from a long list of goodies. I added a money tray, a set of ten chipboard blanks, and ten stands to the basic kit. They offer an Advanced Game Board Inventors Kit as well, with a mind-boggling array of pieces.

The components of the kit are sturdy and as good as those in a purchased game. There is only one set of instructions: how to assemble the box. Everything else is up to you (although Board Game Manufacturing does offer game development services). They also manufacture board games in large and small quantities.

Perhaps your new game will be reserved for personal use. Perhaps you will create a limited edition game for gifting. Or perhaps you will invent the next Monopoly and make your fortune. It all begins with a game inventors kit. – Lane Devereux

This Pongo Portable Set lets you play ping pong on any table in the house

Pongo Portable Table Tennis Set by Umbra Ages 7 and up $40 Buy one on Amazon

First off, this is not a review of ping pong. We already know that ping pong is great. It doesn’t matter if you like to overhand smash like Kramer, or you have a nuanced brush style like Ma Long. It doesn’t matter if you’re barely able to reach the table or you have the reach of an orangutan. Ping pong is the low impact tennis for the indoor kids. The only problem has been that you need a table, and where are you going to store this table? If you’re living in a downtown apartment you probably have space for one table, or you eat off a kitchen island, or you need to go to the local starbucks to see one of these tables people talk about. But now you don’t need a table to play table tennis. All you need is the Pongo Portable ping pong net and paddles from Umbra. Now any table becomes ripe for some tennis.

A regulation ping pong table takes up a good nine feet by five feet. Most likely even if you fold that table in half and store it away somewhere that’s still taking up a large enough footprint for something that you use occasionally. Unless you might also start eating dinner off it, that’s just too much square footage to give up. But this kit lets you turn any flat surface into a ping pong table, irrespective of regulations. A kitchen island or peninsula? Now it's a ping pong table. You only have a coffee table? Now it’s a coffee tennis table. You don’t own your own table? Go to work and convert the boardroom table into a break room table with a quick conversion. What may be the best feature about this add-on net is that it just sits on the surface without the need to clamp onto the sides of the table.

The kit comes with more than the net – there are also balls and paddles to complete the package. The net unrolls and rolls back up to be very compact tangle-free during travel. And the winding mechanism makes it possible to get a taut net even on narrower playing surfaces. And if that wasn’t enough of a feature set for a net, it also stores the balls! But the compacting doesn’t stop there. The handles of the paddles fold into the head of the paddles. Does this make them less than ideal paddles? For the connoisseur, absolutely. The provided paddles do however provide enough grip to put spin on the balls and control your slice. Though I must say they make an interesting hollow noise when struck that brings way more audio impact to your game. – Evan Abrams

Kano Computer Kit – If kids can put together Legos, then why not a whole computer?

Kano Computer Kit by Kano Ages 7 and up $150 Buy one on Amazon

Confession: I know nothing – NOTHING – about coding. I’m still stuck in the glory days of the “if/thens” of my original Apple IIe, circa 1983. And I barely knew how to do anything past whatever I copied verbatim from Byte. I never got that right either. I don’t think. Ever. I remember staying up all night to do a Thundercats hi-res game. Tried to run it at 4am. Nothing. No Lion-O, no Cheetarah, no Snarf... NOTHING. Thus began a life of failure. BUT. I did not want my kids to suffer that same fate. Especially because it is now a presidential mandate that all kids must learn to code. And code they shall.

Kano is built on a simple idea: If kids can piece together Legos, then why not a whole computer? So they not only have a tactile experience in the building of the thing, but more importantly, they take ownership. Have a hands on experiece with their computer, and know it inside and out. My kids opened the cleverly packaged Kano box and had their machines up and running in about 45 minutes. The directions are sort of similar to Lego directions. Very simple, very easy to understand, and I’ll be damned... these boys, ages 7 and 9, were coding within the hour.

The computer itself comes with a Rasberry Pi brain, all the necessary cables, a keyboard, instructions and stickers to personalize the experience. It comes loaded with a bunch of different apps: Minecraft, Scratch, hack old school Pong, hack Snake, and many other great things, all with an eye towards hacking, coding and exploring. As I’ve said, I’m new to this, but the “come see this, Dada!” echoes that emmanate from their room is pretty incredible, and the stuff they’re coming up with wildly surpasses my expectation (and abilities).

You can use a TV for the monitor, or you can purchase a “Screen Package” which is a small, free-standing screen, which they also build. It houses the Rasberry Pi brain. The keyboard and all the cables and odds and ends pack up right into the back for a really convenient and well thought-out piece of equipment. (The screen is especially great if your home has wall-mounted TVs. The provided cable is a little short to reach that high.) All in all, I’m amazed at how quickly they’re picking it all up, but more to the point, how much they’re enjoying themselves. They shall never feel the shame and disappointment of not being able to figure out why the “If A$=“yes” then goto 100” line is not working. It was supposed to work! Byte said it would work!!!!! – Dave Finkle

Pixel Tactics – A strategic two-player war game

Pixel Tactics Card Game by Level 99 Games Ages 12 and up, 2 players, 45 minutes $15 Buy one on Amazon

Pixel Tactics is a two-player war game where you’ll be playing the part of an elite leader, steering a war band against the enemy. Both players have an identical deck of 25 cards, each representing a different character. Each card here acts differently when played in a certain rank, or used for their order ability. There’s a lot of variance in this game, since the leader that you’re playing will affect your strategy regarding the rest of the cards in your deck. Some of the leaders are combatants, and some of them help out the other units in your squad. Play continues until one of the leaders is taken out.

It’s a very portable game since the decks are small, and the rules come on a giant poster that is the play mat when flipped over. The art direction echoes sprite animations from retro video games and is charming. It’s pretty easy to pick up and play, but with all the variance, some analysis paralysis can set in from time to time. The games run really quickly though, usually in under 15 minutes per round, and with 3 to 5 rounds per game. – James Orr

Survivors must fight off zombies to stay alive in Dead of Winter

Dead of Winter by Plaid Hat Games Ages 13 and up, 2-5 players, 90 minutes $43 Buy one on Amazon

Winter is coming, and the walking dead are following in its wake. A small group of survivors have taken refuge in The Colony” but supplies are running low, the zombies are coming, and someone is putting their own selfish needs and desires ahead of the rest of the survivors. Every round begins with a crisis occurring, driving the survivors out of the colony to search for food, medicine, fuel and equipment, but the weather outside is frightful and the zombies think your brains are delightful so leaving the colony is rife with danger. When a survivor goes outside they must brave the elements and the undead, either of which can injure or kill.

There are a lot of moving parts to Dead of Winter, but with a play or two it becomes fairly straightforward to remember them all. The game is set up with a particular mission to accomplish, as well as some losing conditions. Every player gets two survivors and a secret mission which may be a betrayal mission. If a player accomplishes their secret mission, they win the game. Each round starts with a crisis, and all of the players get to add cards, facedown, to the crisis contributions to prevent the bad things from happening, but any betrayers in the game are able to add cards to make the crisis more likely to happen. Each player takes their turn, their neighbor drawing a crossroads card and using it if appropriate. The players can then move their survivors, fight zombies, search, build barricades, play cards and use special abilities. The Colony then activates and all the survivors in the colony need to get fed or they start to starve, the trash needs to be taken out or morale suffers. The crisis is resolved, with all the contributions being counted up and either having the bad stuff happen, or having the players succeed at managing the crisis. And then as if things weren't bad enough, the zombies come knocking.

On Christmas Eve, six players came together to fight the hordes of undead threatening to ruin Christmas for everyone. Mike Cho was the first brave survivor to venture out of the colony, and quickly found that the weather made for a more dangerous enemy than any walking corpse as he took a wound from exposure. Sophie and Carla banded together thinking that traveling in a group would be safer than going alone, and they headed to the police station, but again, found the elements too challenging and suffered from frostbite and wounds. Bit by bit the survivors branched out, exploring the town and finding vital resources, some food here, some medicine there.

The first crisis to overcome was a spoilage of food, which was dealt with, but at great cost. The student John Price, after suffering from frostbite, attempted to take out a zombie, and paid with his life. The next day a survivor fell ill, so again our heroes went out into the cold and sought out medicine. While heading towards the hospital, Buddy Davis was bitten by a zombie, a death sentence if ever there were one. Then Jenny Clark disturbed a horde of zombies and ran back to the colony leading a trail right to the door of our safe haven. Jenny got bit and met her death when all the other survivors chose to kill her rather than risk the infection spreading. Finally, just as things seemed darker than ever, we discovered that there must have been a traitor in our midsts as someone poured gasoline over some of our medicine. And so it went, more survivors fell and the zombies overran the colony. No one would live to see spring. – Josh Johnston

In Mottainai you're a monk in a temple creating works for visitors

Mottainai Deluxe Card Game by Asmadi Games Ages 14 and up, 2-5 players, 15-30 minutes $30 Buy one on Amazon

Mottainai means “Don’t waste,” and in the card game bearing the name, you’re going to be a monk in a temple creating works for visitors. Each card has 3 different aspects. Each is a material, an action, and an item. Then, those can be used in 6 different ways. Your monk can take the action, or if the card is placed as a helper, it represents apprentices to assist you. It can be placed as a material in your crafting bench to assist you in crafting items of its material, or as a sales order to earn you points at the end. It can be placed as an item in the shop, or as an example to your apprentices to assist them in being better at their jobs. No card is ever fully discarded and goes back into the draw deck.

I’ve never had a game run the same way as another – this is the true essence of what I like about this game. There’s a lot of meta-strategy in what you’re playing as your action, as your opponents will be taking that action on their turn as well. It’s incredibly deep, which might be its only drawback. Generally speaking you’ll have to play the game fully about 2 or 3 times before what you’re doing really starts to sink in.

The game generally ends in one of 3 ways. Either the draw deck finally runs out, someone gets 5 works in the gallery or shop, or a card effect forces the end of the game. Then points are totaled, and someone wins. It feels remarkably profound, taking a look at your hand and trying to plan out anything at all, since some of the largest parts of your turn rely on the other players' actions that they’ve played. Turns can be intense while you figure out what you’re supposed to be playing versus what you should hold on to, and how each card will best benefit you. It’s also worthwhile to note that the design choice of incredibly simple art and card design serves this game well. All the information that you need is visible and called out. It’s what you do with that information that makes the game interesting. – James Orr

The Kids of Carcassonne must build roads to bring home sheep, chickens and goats

The Kids of Carcassonne by Rio Grande Games Ages 4 and up, 2-4 players, 20 minutes $65 Buy one on Amazon

A much simplified version of Carcassone, the children of Carcassone are building roads to bring home the sheep, chickens and goats that have been released from their pens on the national holiday in France. Colorful tiles have pieces of roads, bridges and buildings on them, apart from animals and kids dressed in one of four colors. Kids choose a color and gather up their colored figures, shuffle the tiles and stack them face down in several stacks. Each player in turn flips over one tile from any stack and lays it down to build long winding roads.

Once a road is closed at both ends or looped, kids can place as many little figures of their color as they can on the tiles. The first one to place all their figures wins the game. The charm in this game is not only the endless patterns of roads that can be built, but that the dynamic changes depending on the number of players. Two players can simply disregard the two non-chosen colors and concentrate on placing their color while hindering their opponent. With three players, there is a choice to help one. It gets even more fun with four players as now every tile placed can also help or hinder another player. – Carolyn Koh

An incredibly quick meta-strategy dice game that has you rolling for your life

Bang! The Dice Game by Flat River Group Ages 8 and up, 3-8 players, 15 minutes $15 Buy one on Amazon

Bang! The Dice Game keeps the core game play of the original Bang! card game, where you've got hidden roles such as a sheriff, outlaws, deputies and renegades, but you don't know who anyone is for sure besides the sheriff. To win, the sheriff and the deputies need to kill the outlaws. The outlaws try to win by killing the sheriff, and the renegades are trying to be the last guns standing.

The major difference between this and the traditional card game is that it plays in about half the time. It's incredibly quick, as you roll the 5 dice up to 3 times in a press-your-luck fashion, trying to get the symbols you want before 3 sticks of dynamite come up. It has a nifty pacing mechanism in arrows rolled that store up on characters until the last one is taken out of the kitty. Then, everyone takes damage for the number of arrows.

Sometimes you forget that it's primarily about role deduction. You have targets that need taking care of for you to fulfill the winning conditions for your team, but it’s rarely obvious who those targets are. There's a lot of meta-strategy that goes into lying about whose team you're on. If you just start shooting the sheriff full of holes, you've outed yourself as an outlaw, or being pretty bad at another role. Either way, you're making yourself a target for every deputy, renegade and the sheriff.

It's a cheap and easy-to-pack game that plays great with 3 to 8 players, though it's a vastly different game at either end of that spectrum. At 3, it's more of a bullet race, and the rules are slightly different in who has to take out whom to win. At 8, it's utter chaos for anyone further down from the sheriff than 2 spaces, since that's as far as you can normally shoot. So, unless someone makes it clear that they're a target early and they’re within range, it can be difficult to decide who to go after. Bang! The Dice Game is incredibly easy to pick up and play. In fact, the rules are explained while you're getting everything setup. – James Orr

Bullfrogs – Take control of a warring faction of amphibians to win control of the swamp

Bullfrogs by Thunderworks games Ages 8 and up, 2-4 players, 20-40 minutes $23 Buy one on Amazon

Take control of one of four warring factions of amphibians to win control of the swamp. Bullfrogs is an area control game, with elements of hand management and a lot of deep forward thinking. The abstract strategy is married with a unique theme and wonderful artwork as you try to take over the most lily pad cards and end the game with control of the center card. With two players, you can do a lot of forward-looking action, planning your moves out and hedging your bets. With four players, there’s a lot more chaos, but you can still make the best moves available to you, with an idea of what might happen in the coming turns. Each move causes frogs from players who didn’t win the card to evacuate onto other nearby cards, changing the balance there. Cards disconnected from the whole are shifted around, changing the battlefield even more. Initially it’s quick and easy to learn the rules. The entirety of them are summed up on a couple of cards. After that though, you start to grasp the strategy, then you realize you haven’t grasped the strategy, but you do now. Then you realize that was just the tip of the iceberg. – James Orr

Carcassonne – Build more of the french countryside than your opponents in this classic tile-laying game

Carcassonne by Z-Man Games Ages 8 and up, 2-5 players $35 Buy one on Amazon

Carcassonne is a tile-laying game where you'll be constructing a fictional version of the southern french countryside, building walled cities, monasteries, and laying roads. After you've placed a tile, you get an option to place one of your meeples in a role based on the tile you've placed.

It's a simple-to-learn game in which you face interesting choices about where you're going to place your meeples and how long you think they'll be tied up in the spot you've placed them in. Can you work another knight into the city to deny your opponents' points while scoring all of them for yourself? Will you be able to complete a road to free up the robber that you've stationed there? Is there a good place to put your monastery where it'll be easier to complete?

The game offers a large amount of variance, and once that wears out, there are 7 large expansions, 23 small ones, and 9 mini expansions that add more tiles and different forms of gameplay. Once you get a good idea for the tiles in the game, you can judge whether there are still tiles in the stack that could complete a specific city, or if your resources would be better spent somewhere else. It's worth noting that it's also the game that's credited for really coining the meeple as something in the board gaming vernacular. So if you have this game, not only is it a great gateway game, but it's also like owning a bit of board gaming history. – James Orr

Monthly games in the mail for adventurous players who love surprises

Game Box Monthly by Game Box Monthly Ages vary, Players vary Approx $25-$144 Buy one at Game Box Monthly

I love getting mail, almost as much as I love getting surprises in the mail. I also love giving and getting gifts. And, of course, games. All of these loves gather into a perfect storm in Game Box Monthly.

Game Box Monthly is a subscription game service. You sign up for either a one, three, or six month subscription. GBM just rolled out some features that make such a service a lot more desirable. You can now set up preferences for the kinds of games you like and you can create a library of your existing games. This way, you won’t get games that you already have and you greatly decrease the chances of getting a game that you won’t like.

If the game I got for my test subscription is any indication, please sign me up. This month’s selection was Sun Tzu, a gorgeous new deluxe edition of an older game. Sun Tzu puts you in the middle of a battle between iconic Chinese military genius Sun Tzu and King Shao as their two armies vie for control of China. Players attempt to control ancient Chinese provinces in a game that the little Game Box Monthly info cards calls a “push and pull style” game. The game goes nine rounds or when a player moves into the last space on his or her scoring track. The production of this new edition of Sun Tzu is really lovely, with a handsome gameboard and high quality components. You get 44 plastic miniatures of the two armies, 55 playing cards, and various other components, all housed in a sturdy box with a traditional Chinese print inside.


When I excitedly retrieved this box from my doorstep and saw how cool the game inside of it was, I immediately started thinking of who I could give a subscription to as a present – and who I could ask for a subscription of my own. Always a good sign. – Gareth Branwyn

'Tis the season to make Japanese nengajo cards!

Nengajo Stamps by Kodomo no Kao as well or Beverly Japan Ages 3-99 Approx $4-$26 Buy one on Amazon

Hello From the Banana!

Here in Japan, ’tis the season to make nengajo. Nengajo are specialized New Year’s postcards sent to friends, relatives, acquaintances, former classmates, current classmates, co-workers, and anyone and everyone else in one’s contacts list.

These days, the vast majority of nengajo are either pre-printed or made on a computer and printed at home. Even then, however, many people still make a few cards by hand with stamps and ink. To that end, every year, stores display and sell rubber stamp and ink pads, along with markers, glitter, and all kinds of other utensils and accessories. The stamps are made primarily by two companies: Beverly Japan and Kodomo no Kao (Child’s Face). Both companies produce a full line of New Year’s themed stamps as well as stamps featuring popular characters like Snoopy, Doraemon, and Hello Kitty.

2016 is the Year of the Monkey in the Chinese Zodiac, so, for my card this year I chose a stamp called “Banana Kara Konnichi wa,” or “Hello From the Banana,” and a small banana stamp for accents. I toyed with using a multicolored ink pad but, in the end, I chose a standard black ink pad for the outline. Once I had the outline stamped on all my cards, I colored the cards using stiff brushed markers. I used the same marker to color directly onto the banana stamp in lieu of using an ink pad and it worked very well. What I have yet to do is write individual messages on the cards and then haul them down to the post office to be stamped (different kind of stamp!) and sent. But, one step at a time! – Joel Neff

Cube Quest – Storm the castle and dethrone the king in this fun and physical tabletop wargame

Cube Quest by Gamewright Ages 8 and up, 2 players, 45 minutes $19 Buy a copy on Amazon

Cube Quest is a simple-on-the-surface flick game (think: paper football). The game comes with a three-section rubber gaming map and a bunch of hollow plastic playing cubes. Cleverly, the maps are made of the same thin, foam rubber material from which mousepads are made. This creates a perfect, bouncy surface for the cubes, which play very “lively” on it.

The goal of Cube Quest is simple: flick the opposing king off the map and win. But the cubes have different abilities and different point values. Picking from the different cube types, you construct an army of 40 points. Besides the king (who costs zero points and has no special abilities), there are grunts, knights, assasins, and others. This being able to construct armies of different abilities adds some depth to what would otherwise be a very straightforward game of lucky finger-flicking. Another cool feature is that the cubes have saving throws. Each cube has at least one image of the troop type on it and a number of sides where the image is grayed out. If you flick your cube within the opponent’s territory and it lands on a grayed-out shadow image, that cube is basically wounded. But you’re allowed to re-roll it. If it lands on a shadow side again, you failed the save, and the cube is removed. If it lands on a picture side, the unit is saved and placed back in your castle to recover and fight another day.

Cube Quest is the sort of game that anyone can enjoy, even people who aren’t big gamers and those who don’t normally play wargames. But given the fact that it involves army building, employing different troop types, saving throws, and a number of other well-known tabletop game mechanics, Cube Quest is also a great gateway game that could help pave the way to more involved games in this category. – Gareth Branwyn

Strike – A fast-paced dice game that devolves into shouting and laughter

Strike by Ravensburger Ages 8 and up, 2-5 players, 15 minutes $20 Buy a copy on Amazon

Strike is a fast-paced and exciting dice game for 2-5 players. You're trying to make matches in the arena, and be the last person standing with dice left. If the person before you manages to clear out the arena by matching whatever dice are in there, you're forced to roll your entire set and hope for matches.

The dice are numbered 2-6 with an X replacing the 1. Any Xs rolled on the dice are immediately removed from the game, and on your turn you have to roll one die, and can continue to throw dice in one at a time until you either get a match, call it quits, or run out of dice. The remaining rule is that dice that don't make it to the arena, bounce out, or land on the side of the arena are removed from the game as well. If there is more than one die in the arena, you can attempt to hit one of the existing dice with your throw to cause it to change to another face to get more than one match in a go.

The dice are of excellent quality, nicely embossed with the pips and Xs. It comes with enough dice for 5 players. The box bottom serves as the arena, and is constructed in such a way as to be a little bouncy. Every time I've played, once folks get the general idea of how to play down, the table devolves into laughter and shouting about how improbable it is that the 3 players in front of them were forced to roll their entire collection in a row, and now it's up to them. Or that they rolled 5 dice and managed to get no matches, or that they keep tossing dice in only to have them come up as an X over and over again. It's a great filler game that, once you get going, you're not going to want to stop. – James Orr

Castles of Mad King Ludwig – Build the most extravagant castle for a crazy king

Castles of Mad King Ludwig by Bezier Games Ages 13 and up, 2-4 players, 1-2 hours $40 Buy a copy on Amazon

King Ludwig II of Bavaria, having built Neuschwanstein, has tasked players in their role as builders to build him the most extravagant and amazing castle ever. You'll have both open and secret goals based on the king's desires, and every round, someone will take a turn as the master builder setting prices for the individual rooms that are available. If they're not chosen, they'll be discounted on the following turns.

Castles of Mad King Ludwig is a superb game. Not only are you having to juggle the layout to determine what you can place in your castle, but you must complete rooms by connecting other rooms to them to earn points and other bonuses. How you price the individual rooms is another strong element when you're playing the part of the master builder. You need to interpret what you think your opponents want to build, and put it just within their monetary reach, since you're paid any money they spend on rooms while you're the master builder.

You'll end up with highly unlikely layouts in the quest to get all the rooms to fit into your castle. Trying to figure out what your opponents really want, and what bonus cards they might have is tough, particularly since more of them can be drawn during the course of play. After several rounds the game ends, and after points are awarded for the secret and the public goals, the most points wins. – James Orr