A boardgame, a cardgame and an old game.

I am a relatively recent convert to boardgames and card-based games. I just never really considered them to be in the same league as tabletop wargames and computer games, but how wrong I was!

Over the past few years I've seen my brothers and our group of friends increasingly play more boardgames when we meet up and less wargames.

Anyway, I'm not going to ramble about this now, I want to talk about some games I've been keeping my eye on for a while.

Firstly, Lords of Waterdeep. This is a game of intrigued, set in the Forgotten Realms city of Waterdeep, which is mostly famously associated with Dungeons and Dragons. I'm not a huge fan of D&D, but this game in no way seems to reflect this association at all and is more akin to a classic resource management/allocation game such as Age of Empires 3: the board game. There are no dice to be thrown and appear to be no dragons. This is all good though, because from reading reviews and watching introductory videos it looks great and the mechanics look engrossing and full of strategy. I do also very much like the setting, as it reminds me of when I played Baldur's Gate on the PC and I had to help the Harpers; which are one of the factions in Lords of Waterdeep.

Now I wish to further endulge my love of card-based games. A Game of Thrones: the card game, looks like another deeply strategic game involving politics and warfare to fight for power. I love how each player plays as a house, with distinct differences in play style and how there seem to be so many different ways to go about winning. I also like how it can be played with 2 to 4 players and how in larger games there are extra treats to fight for. The card design and richness of the setting make it very appealing, although I should point out I know nothing about A Game of Thrones! I might have to get the DVDs and learn a bit more about it.

Lastly, while I'm on a rant about boardgames and cardgames I thought I'd bring up an old classic, which I'd love to own (again). Talisman! In contrast to the 2 games listed above this has very little depth and no intrigue, but what made this game so great was the epic sense of adventure you felt as you travelled around the board. I owned a second hand copy of this when I was about 11, but I've no idea what happened to it. I would love to get one of the shiny looking newer copies from Fantasy Flight. Such an easy game to play, with a wonderfully elegant theme, I think this is a great game to pull out when you just want to have a laugh with a few mates when there's nothing much else going on.