Looking back at my childhood, board games were not a form of entertainment that dominated my time. I was more of the 007 and Mario Kart Nintendo 64 kind of kid. Don’t get my wrong, I played the normal family games here and there such as Monopoly (before the evil seeing all tower), Risk, and Sorry. However, I could probably count on two hands the total number of times that I actually finished these games. Honestly, who wants to play a game with sales tax, jail, and a bank in which you can’t steal the money out of (I may have been accused of this while playing Monopoly). None of these games provided a strategic challenge, rewarding win, or timely play. Risk comes in close with its focus on strategy and the overall level of challenge, however, no one likes to play a 6 hour game every time they pull out the box. Also, the overall concept of games like Monopoly in which the goal is to obliterate your opponent creates a gloomy atmosphere to some extent

Monopoly is not what I would call a fun social game. For the most part, anytime you are doing well in a game like Monopoly, it is directly correlated with someone else doing bad. More so, how many times have you been in a game where someone is about to go bankrupt in Monopoly and someone loans them some money to keep them afloat simply because you don’t want to force that player out of the game. For the most part, games being played socially become a lot less fun when people start getting eliminated. If only there were good games that involved strategy, team work, had the capacity for several player, and didn’t take 8 hours to finish a game (Risk). This is where my heritage from across the Atlantic comes in – German style board games. German style board games have gained popularity in recent months/years and have proven themselves as a leader in fun, thought provoking, yet easy to learn and reasonable to play games.

German-style board games are a broad class of tabletop games that generally have simple rules, short to medium playing times, indirect player interaction and attractive physical components. The games emphasize strategy, downplay luck and conflict, lean towards economic rather than military themes, and usually keep all the players in the game until it ends. German-style games are sometimes contrasted with American-style games, which generally involve more luck, conflict, and drama. – Wikipedia

Three games are at the forefront of this movement.

• Carcassonne
• Ticket to Ride
• The Settlers of Catan

Each of these games takes the German board game style of reduced conflict, increased strategy, increased teamwork/player collaboration, and an automatically correcting game board when someone starts pulling away. The first of these games I was introduced to, and what I would consider an excellent starter game for the German style newbie is Carcassonne.

The carcassonne board

Carcassonne is a tile based strategy board game that revolves around the placement of tiles and wooden people all the while creating a puzzle like and always different map of matching pieces. Strategy comes into play in the form of gaining points instantly through the creation and closure of kingdoms/cities/roads in which your person pieces (meeples) are returned after gaining those points, or a more long term point strategy involved with farming in which points are gathered by controlling the land surrounding completed kingdoms and churches where meeples are not returned until the end of the game.

At its most basic level, Carcassonne is based on putting together a puzzle of pieces that must match on all sides. It is this simplistic premise that allows beginners to gain an immediate understanding of the game. Taking this level of simplicity, it is easy to add in the strategy components of Carcasonne such as farmer placement, use of roads for blocking and complicating kingdom completion and even the stealing or what my friends call the Kudzu of kingdoms.

Another common trait of German style board games is the availability and constant release of expansion sets for the game. Many gamers are use to the concept of expansion packs for video games, however, German board game designers take the replay value of their games just as serious. Many expansions sets exist for Carcassonne and provide new features such as new tile types, new game scenarios, and new uses of meeples. Along with expansions, there has also been several spin offs of the board game into the video game world across multiple platform including the iPhone, Xbox, PC, and even an online game. All in all, Carcassonne is an excellent introduction to German styled board games.

Ticket to Ride Board

Another relatively simple German style board game to pickup and the second game I was introduced to is Ticket to Ride, or as I like to call it “Trains”. Ticket to Ride is a railway themed strategy boardgame that involves the use of destination cards and colored “railway car” cards. The basic premise is that each destination card contains a start and ending destination and the player must gather the appropriate railway cards to develop their rail line between the destination points. The strategy/collaboration aspect of Ticket to Ride comes into play in the fact that players can either help or detriment your quest between destinations as there are limited number of routes to each destination with some being much easier to access then others. Worse case scenerio, you are just a few pieces from your beautiful end destination and another player blocks the path you were planning to take, forcing you to go a much longer route or blocking the destination completely.

Much like Carcassonne, Ticket to Ride has the capability for a number of expansions that provide additional maps, card types, railway cars, and overall game play scenarios. Also similar to Carcassonne, various electronic formats of the board game have spun off including a Xbox, PC, and online version of the game. This is another simple German style board game that will treat new comers nicely. In my opinion, Ticket to Ride provides less variables in play in comparison to Carcassonne, however, a few wrong moves or right moves by competitors can leave you with several uncompleted destinations which will count against you in th end.

The last German styled board game that I will be discussing is what many consider to be the greatest board game created to date – The Settlers of Catan.

Settlers of Catan Board

The Settlers of Catan has been labeled by some as a Monopoly Killer. There is so much history within this game that it would take several post to truly tell, however, it is what I would describe as the Cadillac of German style board games. The premise of the game is as follows:

Players assume the role of settlers on the game board, each attempting to build and develop their settlement while trading and acquiring resources. Players are rewarded points as their settlements grow; the first to reach a set number of points is the winner. -Wikipedia

Settlers is another great example of a high replay board game as for each game, the hexagonal tiles that make up the games resources are laid out randomly which instantly adds to the strategy of the game. While no aspects of attacking exist within the game, the concept of blocking a players progression on the road path does occur. Primarly though, the game is focussed around the gathering of resources and the expansion of settlements.

Due to the limited resources, random positioning of the resources, and the fact that it is rather difficult to gain access to all resources, a market of sorts develops within Settler game play. A player who has access to a limited resource or one that is not being rolled often will find themselves able to market and sell their resources in much the same way as the free market of supply and demand. Players must be involved within every turn whether their own or not as every turn will effect them in some way. It is also highly beneficial to monitor the resources acquired by other players so one can better understand the true availability of the resources within the game.

Settlers Growth in America - via Wired.com

Settlers is what most consider as the game that brought German styled board games to America. As the graph shows, Settlers has grown dramatically within just the last few years. It is through Settlers popularity that other German styled games have began their rise to popularity in the U.S. market. Also, much like it’s German styled friends Carcassonne and Ticket to Ride, Settlers has been created for the electronic world via Xbox, PC, and online play options.

It’s clear that German styled board games have arrived in the U.S. and their popularity in comparison to the destroy all mentality of games such as Monopoly has made it clear that Americans are ready for some European board game fun. Had games such as this been available when I was a kid, who knows… I might not be pwning newbs on Call of Duty Black Ops after all.

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