There are so many great uses for the ubiquitous scrabble board game. This must be the reason we have so much trouble keeping vintage scrabbles in stock. They generally sell as fast as we can find them.
From Weeping Cherries
What a creative idea to put the tiles of a scrabble board into a mason jar and set out the tray to leave messages or inspiration! I love it!
Episode 173 of the Dice Tower podcast covers a topic that is important for many new and would-be gamers: Bang for the Buck
Gamers that are just beginning to explore the vast array of games available can suffer sticker shock when confronted with some of the larger and more elaborate board games available. The economics of a buying a new game becomes much clearer to understand when you factor replay-ability. When factoring how to spend your hard-earned entertainment dollars it is important to consider whether a game will sit on the shelves unplayed. But a game that brings family and friends together at the gaming table for countless hours over its lifetime is money well spent. Compare the cost of a 2 hour board game session with the cost of a 2 hour movie for a family of four and the dollars spent may be comparable. Play the game twice and the game quickly becomes a better use of your time and money.
Here are some highlights from Tom and Eric’s top 10 games that offer bang for the buck. (Plus a few of my own):
Cosmic Encounter
In Cosmic Encounter , each player is the leader of an alien race. The object of the game is to establish colonies in other players’ planetary systems. Players take turns trying to establish colonies. The winner(s) are the first player(s) to have five colonies on any planets outside his or her home system. A player does not need to have colonies in all of the systems, just colonies on five planets outside his or her home system. These colonies may all be in one system or scattered over multiple systems. The players must use force, cunning, and diplomacy to ensure their victory.
For Sale
For Sale is a quick, fun game nominally about buying and selling real estate. During the game’s two distinct phases players first bid for several buildings, then, after all buildings have been bought, sell the buildings for the greatest profit possible. Up to 6 players.
Roll Through the Ages
Build a thriving civilization–in under an hour!
Collect goods, assign workers to build cities and erect monuments, advance your civilization through cultural and scientific developments, but don’t forget to harvest enough food to feed your growing population. Grab those dice and Roll Through the Ages! in this addictive and strategic new game from Matt Leacock, designer of Pandemic.
Roll Through the Ages plays in 30-45 minutes. The game is for 1-4 players, ages 8 and up.
Power Grid
Eric calls this his favorite game of all time and I would concur.
The object of Power Grid is to supply the most cities with power when someone’s network gains a predetermined size. In this new edition, players mark pre-existing routes between cities for connection, and then bid against each other to purchase the power plants that they use to power their cities.
However, as plants are purchased, newer more efficient plants become available, so by merely purchasing you’re potentially allowing others access to superior equipment.
Additionally, players must acquire the raw materials (coal, oil, garbage and uranium) needed to power said plants (except for the ‘renewable’ windfarm/ solar plants which require no fuel), making it a constant struggle to upgrade your plants for maximum efficiency while still retaining enough wealth to quickly expand your network to get the cheapest routes.
Pandemic
In Pandemic, you are specialists at the CDC/Atlanta where you watch several virulent diseases break out simultaneously all over the world. The team mission is to prevent a world-wide pandemic outbreak, treating hotspots while researching cures for each of the four plagues before they get out of hand.
Players must plan their strategy to mesh their specialist’s strengths before the diseases overwhelm the world. For example, the Operations Specialist can build research stations which are needed to find cures for the diseases. The Scientist needs only 4 cards of a particular disease to cure it instead of the normal 5. But the diseases are breaking out fast and time is running out: the team must try to stem the tide of infection in diseased areas while developing cures. If disease spreads uncontrolled, the players all lose. If they can cure all four diseases, they win.
The board shows earth with some big population centers. On each turn a player can use four actions to travel, cure, discover and build. Cards are used for this but the deck also contains Epidemics…
Bohnanza
This one is my addition to the list. As card games go, Bohnanza is quite revolutionary. Perhaps its oddest feature is that you cannot rearrange your hand, as you need to play the cards in the order that you draw them. The cards are colorful depictions of beans in various descriptive poses, and the object is to make coins by planting fields (sets) of these beans and then harvesting them. To help players match their cards up, the game features extensive trading and deal making.
Follow us on Twitter - we will be tweeting some special deals in the near future.
http://twitter.com/StgGames
We have just received a re-stock of Days of Wonder Best sellers Ticket to Ride, Ticket to Ride: Europe, and Colosseum. In addition we have some new titles that may not be around long. Namely, Z-Man’s Neuland and Stack Market which are moving to discontinued status.
Other titles returning to stock are Livingstone, Agricola: Farmers of the Moor, and Heads of State.
We are rolling out a few designs to sell board game themed merchandise on the Zazzle platform.
About Zazzle:
Zazzle is the world’s leading platform for quality custom products. Zazzles proprietary technology enables individuals, professional artists, and major brands, including Disney and Hallmark, to create and offer billions of unique products for customers worldwide. Zazzle’s rapidly expanding product base covers every topic imaginable and includes t-shirts, business cards, invitations, in addition to a variety of custom gifts. Upon creation, products are instantly and accurately visualized on the site and offered in the Zazzle marketplace. When ordered, each product is made on-demand, typically within 24 hours. Launched in 2005 and based in Redwood City, California, Zazzle’s vision is to redefine commerce, powered by the world’s imagination.
Zazzle is a pretty cool platform for custom merchandise. You can take someone’s basic design and further customize it to your tastes by changing images and adding text.
Our designs will be located here: Zazzle: stg3095
The first design we are putting up is the Meeple Empire.
This design is kind of an intermediate step in the design of our new logo for StgGames.com, which is still in progress.
A simple Venn diagram will explain the seed for the idea and the target demographic.
We have heard from a few different customers that said the SSL certificate we use on StgGames.com is causing errors and warnings on various browsers. This has caused concern from some customers who are, understandably, skeptical about purchases from newer online retailers. StgGames.com has been in operation for just over a year and we know that in the online world a new retailer has to work hard to earn your trust.
We have recently changed providers for our digital security certificate and as soon as the changes propagate through the DNS system we expect these issues to disappear completely. However, if you still experience warnings or errors during checkout please let us know. We take your privacy concerns very seriously and we take the utmost care to ensure that your account is secure.
StgGames.com will never rent, sell, or share your email, physical address or other personal information to a third party, period.
Thanks again,
Shannon
UPDATE
The changes are complete. Everything is back online and better than ever. The test server showed no signs of bad behavior. All of the SSL warnings are gone. Testing was done with IE8 and FF 3.6.
Bug Hunt
I am officially announcing a bounty on any bugs found. If you discover an issue that you feel is an error please contact us and let us know the operating system, browser version and description of the problem.
The person reporting each new confirmed bug will get some free swag.
No news means too busy to blog. That’s good news.
Well, the long-neglected blog is still active. Updates are coming.
Wits & Wagers is now on sale for $19.49 at the store! That is 35% off retail prices. While supplies last!
Wits & Wagers is the fast-paced party game that combines the most interesting elements of trivia with the excitement of winning big bets. Not a trivia buff? It doesn’t matter! Players can win by making educated guesses, by playing the odds, or by knowing the interests of their friends!
Trivia for People Who Don’t Know Stuff!
Not a trivia buff? It doesn’t matter! Each player writes a guess to a question such as “In what year did the bikini swimsuit makes its first appearance?” or “How many feet wide is an NFL football field?” and places it face-up on the betting mat. Think you know the answer? Bet on your guess. Think you know who the experts are? Bet on their guess. The closest answer pays out according to the odds on the betting mat. Strike it big and you’ll be cheering like you just hit the jackpot!
Wits & Wagers is a trivia game that lets you bet on anyone’s answer. So you can win by making educated guesses, by playing the odds, or by knowing the interests of your friends. It can be taught in 2 minutes, played in 25 minutes, and accommodates up to 20 people in teams.
We only have a few remaining copies of the new Pandemic Expansion : On the Brink. When they are gone the status of this game will revert to pre-order.
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