Do not let the childish theme of Landlock lull you into thinking that this is just a children’s game.  While the rules are simple enough for an 8 year old to master, the strategy that comes into play will keep any adult on his or her toes.

By placing one tile per turn you score various amounts of points by doing such things as, land locking or water locking your opponent, matching up gnomes, placing creatures and running a continuous path (either land or water) to each of the four sides. Sounds simple enough and it would be, if they hadn’t added a few bridges into the draw pile.

The game is made up of tiles that are placed during the course of a game to form a 6 by 6 grid.  Every tile will have portions of two paths, a land path and a waterway.  In addition to this, there may also be a happy little creature, a gnome or a bridge.  The creatures will garner you a few extra points as soon as there placed, the gnomes as well (if they are facing each other) while the bridge will either play havoc with your strategy or give you a needed break.

Game play is fast, you can play an entire game in less than 15 minutes.  The components are sturdy and colorful.  The artwork is cute and vibrant.

As I said earlier, younger kids can master the rules pretty quickly.  The strategy of playing the tiles will come a little bit slower.  The tactical aspect of the game will really shine when bridges and gnomes start appearing.  You see, bridges not only break up boundaries by replacing an already played tile, they also let you move the tile you just replaced.  This opens up a whole new part of the game, where one shift on the board can send the most well placed strategy back to the drawing board.  There is also the often overlooked ability to set the parameters of the end game scoring with a strategic placement of the 6th tile horizontally and vertically. This in and of itself can give a player a nice advantage if done early in the game.  I won’t go into too much detail here, but it’s there, just look for it.

Overall, this is a good, light, 2 player game that can be picked up  quite easily. Kids will love it for the theme while adults will find its  tactical aspects fulfilling.

Complexity: 1             Strategy: 2             Luck: 4             Overall: 3

Being stuck on a night shift really sucks.  But every now and then something good comes of it.  Today, while ignoring my seemingly bottomless inbox and surfing the net, I found out about Brettspielwelt.  This is a German site that allows you to play dozens of games for free via a java applet.  And by games, I mean German games.   Currently, there are about 60-70 games offered.

The wife and I just got done with a few rounds of Carcassonne followed by a few hands of Lost Cities.  Wow!  The graphics are almost as good as the originals, the game play is flawless and the price is outstanding!  (That means free.)  However, there is a downside.  If your not fluent in German, navigation can be diificult.  They do have an English front end, but once your in, its all Deutsch.  Luckily, the Boardgamegeek site has plenty of helpful articles.  While this does not replace or even come near to the fun I get from playing face to face… It’ll do in a pinch.

The wife and I have been playing this one a lot lately. As a 2 player strategy game I can think of few that play as well as this one does. The game art is first rate, the pieces are solid and the mechanics are quite enjoyable.

You and your ‘opponent’ are lost in an unknown sector of space. Luckily for you, most of the natives are quite friendly. Each player has a starship and you set forth into this newfound piece of sky with the intention of spreading goodwill, shooting down a few bad guys and establishing a few colonies and trade posts. I use the word opponent in quotes because your not openly hostile towards each other. Your just competing over the limited number of resources available. These resources range from food and fuel to livable planets.

Starship Catan is a great 2 player strategy game. I highly recommend you get a copy.

Complexity: 2         Strategy: 4         Luck: 3         Overall: 4

It’s fast. It’s furious. Its fun.

Games played in real-time (no turns - all players go simultaneously) have always held a special place in my heart. Then again, so do shiny quarters and those little plastic toothpicks shaped like swords, but that’s another story. These types of games get the gamer blood pumping and are generally light and quick enough to get everyone up and running with very little effort.

Blink is such a game. Two players, 60 cards and a lot of “knuckle bashing”.

The deck is split evenly between the two players and placed face down as a draw deck. Three cards are drawn into each player’s hand (your hand may be less than 3 if you wish but never more) then the next card in each draw deck is flipped face up to form two discard piles. This is where the fun begins.

The object of the game is to get rid of all of your cards before the other player does. You do this by playing the cards in your hand on a previously played card in either of the two discard piles, drawing new cards as you go. The rules for playing a card are simple. Just match one of the following criteria; shape, color or number. As I said before, the pace is really quick on this one. The two stacks will change as fast as you or your opponent can flip a card, so don’t do anything foolish like blink, sneeze or think too hard. First person out of cards is the victor.

This game is like a potato chip. One just isn’t enough. The games usually last less than 2 minutes so you’ll find yourself reshuffling the deck more out of muscle memory response than conscious thought. It’s that addicting.

If you find this type of game fun to play… and you will, you may also want to try some other real-time games such as Perpetual Commotion, Pit, Brawl, Wig Out, or Speed (Blinks European brother).

Complexity: 1         Strategy: 3         Luck: 3         Overall: 4

I finally broke this game out a few weeks ago and gave it a whirl. If you’ve ever played ship-captain-crew, then your already familiar with this game… or rather the basic game mechanics.

Overall, your trying to launch your ship with the best crew, before your opponent does. This is done by spending points (from your ever changing point pool) to draw coins from a bag, each one representing a potential crew member, or by raiding the other players ship for his crew members. The combat system is novel and cute, but completely random. Of course, you can only do this when it’s your turn. Which is where the afore mentioned dice game comes in. Who gets to play each turn is determined by playing a single ‘hand’ of ship-captain-crew. Winner plays, loser watches. Once your ship is full, you may attempt to launch. If successful, the game ends and you tally up the scores to see who actually won. This is accomplished by adding, the remainder of your point pool, the point value of your crew plus any bonuses for launching first or having all of your crew come from the same faction.

Overall, League of Pirates was a fun experience. A little too random for my tastes, but a novel way to play ship-captain-crew. Which is pretty much how I prefer to think of it.

Complexity: 2         Strategy: 2         Luck: 5         Overall: 3