Top 10 list 09/2002

I had the chance to play Carcassonne for the first time last week and have to say, that even though it looks simple it's actually very intriguing game and looks very nice too.

But even though I made my re-entry to boardgames couple of months ago, my top 1 favorite is still settlers of catan with the seafarers expansion and four players.

We'll probably try Puerto Rico soon too and I'd love to play Machiavelli, but currently we have only about five players so we'd need a couple more.

Lord of the Rings is nice too with the expansion, but requires a bit roleplaying to get it feel good. Going by pure numbers and cold calculation takes alot of fun from it away.

That's pretty much the best thing about Carcassonne, how a simple game like that can still be entertaining and even challenging. Well, some of the shine will come off after repeated playings, but it's still a game most people like to play, the lowest common denominator. "What shall we play?" "I don't know, let's play Carcassonne..."

I've definitely burnt myself on Settlers. We played a game with the Cities & Knights expansion few months ago and I was hoping that would make it better - but no, it only made the torture lasts three times as long as it usually takes.

I'm sure you will enjoy Puerto Rico; most people have, I think. It's a bit heavier game, but still so logical that I'd have no doubts trying to introduce it to non-gamers (at least after they've been charmed with something like Carcassonne).

I haven't played much Lord of the Rings, even though I went through the effort of ordering it from England a long time before it was available in Finland. It's nice, but takes a right kind of people to be fun; I don't like playing with new players, because I can't play as well as I want (because if I did, I would probably control the game completely) and if I can't play as well as I want, it's not that enjoyable anymore.