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.