Settlers of Catan for Microsoft Surface

I didn't intend to blog here about computer/video games, but couldn't resist because this so so cool. First, I need to explain Microsoft Surface. I've played with it and it's really cool. Think of the functionality of a iPad, but embedded in a table top. So, it's really big. Someone has ported Settler's of Catan to Microsoft Surface. Checkout the picture on Facebook.

Unlucky 7's

This is a trick taking game created by my friend Mark. He wanted to create a game similar to Hearts, but that had two Queens of Hearts. To play, you only need a set of 9x9 dominoes. Here are the rules Mark supplied.

This is a trick-taking game, very similar to Hearts, but played with a set of double-9 dominoes.

Suits & Values

"Suits" are treated very similarly to how they're done in the dominoes game "42". Basically, the "high" number on the domino is the suit and the number that is less-than-or-equal-to the high number is the value. (A blank is worth zero.) Thus, the 9-3 would be in the 9s suit and have a value of 3. A 'double' (a domino with the same number of pips on both sides) is the highest value in that suit and will always take a trick of that suit (like playing an Ace in Hearts). Not all suits have the same number of dominoes, for example: the 9s suit has 10 dominoes in it (numbered 0-9), the 6 suit has 7 dominoes (numbered 0-6), and the "blank" suit has only a single domino (the double blank).

Object
The object of the game is to have the fewest points at the end of the game (just like Hearts). Each domino in the 7s suit is worth one point, the 8-7 is worth 8 points, and the 9-7 is worth nine points. Thus, there are 25 points total in a single round.

Setup

Remove the following dominoes based on the number of players. You'll need to do this to ensure that each player has the same number of dominoes in their hand. Players can pass one-fourth of the dominoes in their hand (dropping remainders).

# Players	Remove	Hand Size	# Passed
6	0-0	9	2
5	none	11	2
4	0-0, 1-0, 1-1	13	3
3	0-0	18	4

Passing

In Hearts, players can pass 3 cards: to the left on the 1st round, across on the 2nd round, to the right on the 3rd round, and then no pass on the 4th round. With the variable number of players in Unlucky 7s, it gets a little more interesting:

• On the first round, pass to the player on your left.
• On the second round, pass to the player that is two players to the left of you ("left-left"). Thus, you will end up skipping the player to your immediate left.
• On the third round, pass to the player that is three players to the left of you ("left-left-left").
• This pattern continues for subsequent rounds.
• If you discover that you're skipping so many players that you've come all the way back around to yourself, it's a no-pass (holding) round.
• After the no-pass round, begin by passing to the left again.

 Start of Round 

•  Shuffle the dominoes face down and deal them all out, such that each player has the same hand size.
• Players can pass a number of dominoes equal to one fourth of their hand size (drop remainders), per the rules above.
• The player holding the 6-0 is the start player and must lead that domino into the first trick (just like the 2 of Clubs).

Playing Tricks

• The player in the lead plays a domino from their hand. A domino in the 7s suit can't be led until a domino with a 7 has been sloughed on a previous trick (just like "breaking hearts") Note that 7s can also be "broken" when someone plays the 8-7 or the 9-7.
• Play proceeds clockwise around the table.
• Subsequent players must follow suit, if they have a domino in the led suit.
• If a player can't follow suit, they may play any domino they like (called "sloughing"); a player that sloughs cannot win the trick.
• Dominoes worth points cannot be sloughed on the first trick.
• The player that played the highest domino in the led suit wins the trick. (There is no trump suit.)
• The winner of the last trick leads into the next trick.
• As a convention, players should place their dominoes such that they look like petals on a flower with the suit toward the outside (pointing toward the person that played it) and the values in the middle. This way, players can easily compare the values without wondering which side is which.

 End of Round

•  A round is over when all the players have played out all the dominoes from their hands.
• Each player counts up total points in all the tricks they've taken and adds that to their score.
• If only one player takes all the points, they get zero and all the other players get 25 ("Shooting the Moon").

End of Game
The game is over when one or more players meet or exceed 100 points, at which point, the player with the fewest points wins. In the event of a tie, the tied players share the victory.

If you're pressed for time, just play to a time limit instead of playing to a maximum number of points. At the end of the time limit, the player with the fewest number of points is still the winner.

China

Alas, China is out of print. But that doesn't mean you can't enjoy this fantastic game if you know someone who owns a copy or you're willing to spend a bit more to get it used from ebay or Board Game Geek. In fact, I'm trying to get a copy from Europe. Yes, this game is that good.

You are vying for control of China. The country is divided up into regions and different colors. There are two regions for each color, except purple, that has only one. Each region contains a number of cities and roads run from city to city, region to region. There are also cards the same color as the regions. Each player gets a hand of three cards. Each player also gets a number of houses and emisaries of a particular color.

On your turn, you can open a new region or play in a region that's already open. To open a region, you play a card the color of the region you want to open and place one of your houses on a city. If you play in an already open region, you use cards of the region color. You can play one or two cards for an already open region, allowing you to play a house or an emisary. You can also play two cards of the same color for as a wild card. You then replenish your hand up to three cards.

Houses go on the cities, one house per city. When all the cities in a region are taken, the region is closed and scored. The player with the most houses in the region gets one point for each house in the region. The player with the second most gets one point for each house of the most colors, and so on. In case of a tie, each player scores.

Placement of emisaries is different. They are placed in the desinated area in each region. The total number of emisaries per region is the same as the count of the most houses of one color, so if there are two blue houses, you can have two emisaries, three houses of one color allows for three emisaries, etc.

The game continues until the deck has been passed through twice. Open regions are then scored per the above rules. If a player has four or more continuous houses on a road, they get one point for each house. Emisaries are then scored. The Emperor makes his way through the country, stopping at the border of each region. The player with the most emisaries in each of the two bordering regions scores one point per emisary in each region. For example, when Emperor stops on the border of the purple and yellow region, exam the emisaries in one region. The purple region has two yellow, one red, and one green emisary. The yellow region has two yellow and one blue emisary. The yellow player has a majority in each region and scores seven points. However, if the yellow region has two blue and one yellow, no player has a majority in both regions, so no one scores.

Playtime is around 45 minutes, so China makes for a quick, fun, and challenging game and plays 3-5 players.

Update June 17, 2010: I have secured a copy of China.

Vegas Showdown

Have you ever wanted to be a big Las Vegas tycoon like Howard Hughes, Donald Trump, or others? Now's your chance with Vegas Showdown.

Each player starts with a blank mat that lays out their hotel/casino. One end, the casino is yellow. The other, the hotel is blue. In the middle is a blank white area. The rooms of the hotel/casino are represented by different size and color tiles. Yellow casino tiles match up with the yellow and white areas of the mat. Blue hotel tiles match up with the blue and white areas of the mat. There are also green tiles that can go anywhere. The borders of the tiles have breaks in them to represent doors, the you need to match up with doors of adjoining room tiles. Casino tiles must be placed to that a path can be traced back to the front door of the casino. Likewise for hotel tiles.

So, how do you get tiles? Each round consists of several steps. The first is "Flip new tiles". A card is read that triggers some event, for example, Slot builders on strike. This means that you can't gain a slot room this round. The card then specifies the size of the tile that comes out. The tile specifies how much is the opening bid. At any one time there are up to eight different rooms out for bid. Each round that a room isn't bought, it's minimum price is reduced.

The next is collect income. So, you'll get paid a certain amount based on your income and population counters. More on that in a moment.

The third is "Place bids". Each player in turn will place their bids for the building of their choice. You can get zero or one room each turn. If another player outbids you, you can move your bid to a different room tile or opt out of the bidding.

Step four is "Place tiles". Once you have won the bid, you place the tile on your mat per the above rules. The tile also specifies one, two, or three things. The first is income. The tile will say something like "Increase your income by 3", so you move your income marker up three. You only do this when you place the tile. The second is population. You adjust it similarly to income. At the beginning of each round, you get income equal to the lower of these two. The third thing is fame points. At the end, the winner will be the person with the most fame points.

The game ends when either a player has filled their mat or a card calls for a tile size that doesn't exist in the supply. You get additional fame points for things like filling in all the hotel or casino areas or have doors connecting the casino door to the hotel door. Vegas Showdown is a great game for 3-5 players.

Carolus Magnus

One of my favorite games is Carolus Magnus. I have described it as Chess on steroids because you need to plan a couple of moves ahead, but watch out! Your plans can be thwarted with the single move of another player.

You are vying for control of Charlamaine's empire. At the beginning of the game, his empire consists of 15 territories. Control is determined by cubes of five different colors and a tower of your color (black, white, or gray). You will always have control of your own towers, but the person who controls a particular cube color can change, which can cause territories you thought you controlled to swing to another player.

At the start of the game, the territories are layed out in a circle and seeded with a single cube. An emperor token is placed on one of the territories. You then fill your personal cube supply and a starting player is chosen.

Game play goes like this: You have disks numbered 1 to 5. In turn order, you put down one of your disks. You can't play a number that another player has just placed, unless you don't have any other choice. The numbers on the disk determine the play order for the round, lowest to highest. Sometimes it is advantageous to go first, but you can't replay a number until you've used all five, so you will end up going last in some rounds.

Once it is your turn to play, you examine the cubes you have in your supply and can place some cubes on territories to try to win them over. Optionally, you can place cubes in your court to try to win control of a specific color. The player with the most court cubes of that color takes control of it. The number of cubes you can play varies with the number of players, so consult the rule book.

After placing your cubes, you move the emperor token clockwise around the territories. You can move it from one territory up to the number on the disk you played in that round. When the emperor stops, you evaluate the territory where it stopped to determine who owns it. The person who controls the most cubes plus the tower color, if a tower currently sits on the territory, takes control of the territory. If ownership of the territory changes, the new owner places a tower of their color on the territory. This may cause the tower of the previous owner to be removed. If you now have adjacent territories owned by the same player, they are pushed together to form a larger, more powerful territory.

You then role the special dice that show which colored cubes you take from the supply to restock your personal supply. Play then moves to the next player.

The winner is the first player to place all their towers.

In many games I've played, I found the person who comes into power first, often loses when control suddenly flips to another player. This adds a great element because you don't know when the tipping point will occur, or even if it will.

I have found Carolus Magnus plays really well with 2, 3, or 4 players, but is especially good with 3 players. Rules are slightly different for 4 players, but does not take away from the game. Play time is rated at 60 minutes. Some games have taken the full 60, while a few have finished in as little as 15-20.

Bohnanza

Bohnanza is a great family game that I have also enjoyed in the lunch game group at work. I've played the game for a few years, but just recently picked up my own copy. The object is grow and sell beans, with the winner being the person that has earned the most money. Cards are different types of beans, cocoa, green, blue, chili, stink, etc. Because of this, we call it "The Bean Game". Each type of bean has a different quantity of cards, for example cocoa has four while coffee has 24. The fewer the cards, the higher the value.

To start the game, you are given six cards. Note that order does matter. You can never rearrange your cards. Play consists of planting the first card and optionally planting the second. You only have two bean fields to begin, but you can buy a third later in the game once you have enough coins. After planting, you draw three cards face up from the draw pile. Plant ones that match the beans you have already planted. You then need to give away or trade the beans you can't plant because you can't put the cards in your hand. They must be planted.

If you are forced to plant any of the three drawn beans, you have two options. First, you can sell beans you have planted. The rates are printed on the card. But beware, you may not have enough to sell or you may be close to getting to the next price level, but forced to sell. When you sell beans, you place the specified number of cards upside down in a pile in front of you. The backs of the cards have a picture of a coin. If you don't have enough to sell, you must burn the field. The crop is a total loss.

You can also trade cards from anywhere out of your hand. This is a good way to get rid of cards that will cause problems when planting.

After planting, you draw two cards, which are placed, in order, at the back of your hand and the turn moves to the player to the left.

There is a rules variation for two players, but I find it works well.

Bohnanza plays 2-7 people. Game time is listed at 45 minutes, but I've rarely seen it take that long.