The theme for this installment is “The Top 3 Board Games of All Time.” Please feel free to name any game that you feel ranks as the best of the best. Here are my top three:
3. Racko Baseball – You can look all you want on ebay, but you will not find this game anywhere. My brother Rob and I created it and this is how it works
a. Items needed:
i. Baseball cards
ii. Racko card holders
iii. 2 dice
b. How its played:
i. Same rules as baseball
ii. You have to have all positions filled by players whose cards you have
iii. The batting average on the back of the card dictates how high of a number you have to roll the dice to get a hit
iv. The ERA of a pitcher dictates how high of a number you have to roll the dice to get a strike or out.
v. You use the racko card holder to hold your team
vi. Rob, did I forget anything?
This game was created in the attic of my friend’s house and we had a blast playing it. Years later I saw something similar for sale at the store, but I knew that it could not measure up to the brainchild of Greg and Rob Sherwood.
2. Acquire – For rules, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acquire
This game is great. You can only get on Ebay, I have yet to see a store stock it. I have to credit my brother in law’s family for introducing this game. When I was 10 or 11 I played it with them, and loved the business aspect of it. The main point of it is to buy shares of different companies and try to become the majority shareholder in the largest companies. The game teaches investing, cash flow, economics and a ton of other business principles. If you are up for a game, all you have to do is give me a call.
1. Risk – This is the greatest game ever. It can be playing over days, weeks, and even months. Seinfeld had an eposide on this game: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D2k0PRbYxVs . One of my friends came up with a great documentary idea. Video people playing risk in the airports of the world. The location would be determined by the country that was being attacked. For example, if Venezuela attacked Brazil, they would film the attack in the Sao Paulo airport. If you get corporate sponsorships from some airline companies and airport food vendors, this could be a profitable documentary.
Anyway, I need not speak about the merits of Risk, they are too numerous to mention.
Lets now hear your top 3, and the results will posted by the end of the week.
8 comments:
Greg, you have a much longer attention span than me. All of those games sound like they take a good chunk of time. Here are my three:
*25 Words or less. I love word games and this one is SO much fun. I was playing with Andrew's parents once and his mom started laughing so hard that she damaged her vocal cords and her voice has never been the same.
*Apples to Apples. I don't own this game, but every time I've played it with a group, several belly laughs resulted.
*Cranium Hullabaloo. This game is perfect if you have a 5 year old and a 2 year old child, which I just happen to have. All three of us can play together and have a blast. Gotta love a game that tells the winner to "Do a funky dance!"
Greg,
We'll have to get together for Risk sometime...must be on a weekend or a holiday where we can gather 5-6 guys and spend the day. With Beef and Cheese.
Those games are interesting, but here are my favorites for best board games: (in random top 3 order)
1. Monopoly. -Not just because it has such a huge following among board games everywhere, but because you can literally 'acquire' it as originally produced, or in any of the hundreds of themed variations that you are most interested in (Elvis, Simpsons, Friends,...even LDS versions). Also b/c even though the normal rules make it out to be a pretty long game (& better that way if you ask me), you can alter them & still have fun playing it faster if you want.
2. Risk. This game is on your list Greg and really, it should be on most. It is great because it teaches stratagem and critical thinking skills...as well as complete world domination and opponent humiliation. Good stuff.
3. Cranium. The original, with the silly putty and all. This game works for everyone; the artist of pencil and sculpture, the vocabulary/word enthusiast, the actor, and the "out of no-where" random knowledge facts person who has for some reason committed way too much unnecessary information to memory & is dying to let it out sometime.
There you go bloggers, my list.
Mike
I don't want to identify my top three games for fear of being made fun of (you know who you are, Greg Sherwood), but I must say 25 Words or Less cannot be included!!!! For reasons that I will not mention, other than to say "awe blank".
My top three games are as follows
Blokus
It is a game which requires you to place 21 different pieces of various shapes and sizes. You can play it with One to four people. I have still never beat Owen or Brock (ok once when he was also watching a Sci Fi movie).
Ticket to Ride
This is an amazing game where you have cards which show you a route you must build around the US. You try to build your train tracks before other use up the routes you oneed. You can play this with 2 to 5 players.
Carcasan
This is a tile game where you have many choices on what you want to play and how you want to play your pieces. Lots of fun.
You can find these games a game stores everywhere. We also have an extra copy of Acquire for the highest bidder.
If we had to put down the games we hate my top three would be:
Candyland
Hi Ho Cherrio
Monopoly
Kris
Greg was trying to show he is both creative AND smart with his three choices... I will prove in the next four paragraphs that I am neither of those things.
The greatest board game of all time is Clue. Let's be honest, who doesn't love saying "I say it was Colonel Mustard in the conservatory with the lead pipe" and watching everyone's crestfallen reaction as you check the Confidential envelope and then lay 'em all out there? Which of you guys didn't look at the cover of the box and wonder what it would be like to have a night on the town with Miss Scarlet? And what other board game is so awesome that a movie was based on it? And being the competitive freak that I am, it doesn't hurt that my all-time winning percentage for that game is over 73%...
Another board game I love that I know no one else will admit to is SORRY!. World domination in Risk is nothing compared to the feeling of power you get from sliding along one of those colored ramps and knocking someone who is about to make it to safety back to start.
Another favorite is Balderdash. My brain has for years created notoriously random blather, and this game gives me an outlet for all that tomfoolery...AND a chance to see how gullible the rest of you people are.
And so Greg doesn't feel like he's the only creative cat in town, I want everyone to know that I also invented a game when I was a lad. It's basically a combination of Winnie the Pooh Candyland and Dungeons and Dragons. I think you actually WILL find this one on eBay...
Top three-
Clue- cause it rocks
Balderdash- cause its funny
Apples to Apples- cause its different
Natalie
My favorite 3 games to play with my family are:
1. Clue (I love this one)
2. Sorry (Matt and Tacy can play without help)
3. Zooreka - a new cranium game where you try and build your own zoo - of course the family whose favoite computer game is zoo tycoon would love this one!
Matt (3) and Tacy (5) favorite games are:
1. Shoots and Ladders
2. Match (you know - turn over cards and try and get 2 to match)
3. Candyland
Tanna (14) and Drew (12) favorite games are:
1. Zooreka
2. Life
3. Cranium
Kim
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