Board Games for Boring Days

Board games!

We've all heard of the big 3: Chess, Monopoly and Risk. Many of you will have heard of Apples to Apples, Life, and/or Pit.

These were some of my most played games for a long time. But, two years ago, I was exposed to Settlers of Catan at a New Years eve party. 

Ever since then, it seems that I've played many new games. Lots of games actually. 

So, I figured that I'd share my knowledge about two of these board games, and my thoughts on them.

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Curses

Curses is a party game that I played for the first time a few months ago at a friend's house.

In the game, you can assign other people curses. These are things which they must follow. For instance:

"You are a Vulcan. Whenever you laugh say: 'That's not funny' with a straight face."

If you ever break this curse by not doing it, you can get one of your cards flipped over. If you have three flipped, you're out. It's a game of survival of the fittest.


Pros:
Great ice breaker game, as things get very absurd, fast.
Fun way to get introverts to be more open.
Promotes problem solving skills to accomplish crazy tasks.
Not too expensive.

Cons:
Once you know all of the cards, part of the fun is gone.
No expansions.

Final thoughts:
A great party game that's really fun to play with people who've never played before.

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Settlers of Catan

Settlers is a trading based, empire building game for 3-4 players. The goal is to expand your empire. In order to build, you need certain resources. Sometimes, you might have to trade with others to get the resources. You get points by building Settlements, City's and completing various tasks.

Pros: 

Everyone is in the game until the end.

Promotes negotiating. 

Change of pace, not a game of Conquering.
Once the game is in full swing, it moves quickly.

Cons:
Setup is lengthy if you are playing with new people.
Can get boring if everyone isn't equally invested.
Quite costly

Final thoughts: 
A wonderful game, that I'd recommend to strategic, board game enthusiasts.



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Anyways, that's all guys. Hope that you were able to get something out of it.

Live Long and Prosper

-Josh