Introducing Euros... and what better way than with Carcassonne!

[Joff]

Well, tonight's the night that I introduce my elder brother, his wife and their two daughters to Euro games. We will be playing vanilla Carcassonne to start, to allow them to adjust and understand the rules. I plan to move them on to I&C with the next game, and, depending on time constraints and how well they adapt to the game, add T&B to the final game. Will let you know how it goes

[Novelty]

Oh, I thought this was something to do with some change-over currency in the game...

[canada steve]

What are Euro games when they are at home ?

[Tobias]

What are Euro games when they are at home ?

Well .. boardgames?

[Joff]

After an explanation of the rules, we started a six player game of vanilla Carcassonne. Things started slowly, and the new players asked questions as we went along. I explained basic strategies and pointed out ‘better’ moves so to encourage the new players to look around the board and think about their moves. My children and I held back from too much tactical and aggressive play so we could ease the newcomers in.

It wasn’t long before the 3 new players were happy and had grasped the basic idea. To top it all, my sister-in-law (a new player) won the first game. This is always a good sign

After asking the group if they were happy about vanilla (they were), we added Inns and Cathedrals into the mix. Another niece of mine returned home from her boyfriends and just observed what was going on. She was going to play in the next game. Things went much better this time. The scores were slightly higher, and we played a slightly more aggressive game (a little bit more city stealing). It was good to see the new ones also challenging other players’ cities and farms. The scores were much closer though with ties for second and third place. My daughter won this game with sheer farming power, and my sister-in-law this time was last, but not too far behind.

For the last game we used the River I and II and added the 5 King tiles (but did not use the King and Robber baron) to vanilla Carc. We now had a seven player game going. Things were slower this time, due to having to go over some of the rules for our new player and due to the fact that the River made for a much more limiting game, and people thinking a bit before making their move. We were not too aggressive and again pointed out ‘better’ plays for our newcomer. Yet again my sister-in-law won, which she was very pleased with.

All the newcomers said that they thoroughly enjoyed the game and would want to try the other expansions, and we came away pleased that four more people had been introduced to this wonderful game. A great, fun night!

[Deatheux]

i wanna move in your town... everyone here are stucked up....

i play with the same groûp, and really enjoy it, but i'd like to add some players in the equation...

anyway, looks great that very game!!

[canada steve]

Sounds good but again what exactly do you call Euro games ?

[Joff]

I call a Euro game a board game, such as Carcassonne. Other Euros I play are Settlers, Zooloretto, Puerto Rico (just!) and Power Grid, although i'm not keen on Power Grid (I think i'm playing it wrong!). Another Euro i'd like to try is Agricola

[Tobias]

Sounds good but again what exactly do you call Euro games ?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German-style_board_game

Pretty much.

[mjharper]

Sounds good but again what exactly do you call Euro games ?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German-style_board_game

Pretty much.

Sounds better than Germo-games, anyway.

[Jambo]

Joff, Agricola's excellent.

I have Agricola, Stone Age, Carc (obviously), San Juan, Tigris & Euphrates (my personal favourite) and Lord of the Rings Confrontation.

[Joff]

Another introduction last night, and this time to my sister, her husband and daughter. We played vanilla Carcassonne with them. Again, we were not too aggressive and my sister and her husband came joint 1st place (with a mere 38 points each, so it was a low scoring game). However, they enjoyed the game so much that I had an e-mail later from my brother-in-law saying that they had purchased the base game and I&C for them to play. So now we have some new challengers!

I also gave him the link here (in case he gets stuck and needs help) and explained that we had played 3rd edition rules in our game that evening, suggesting that he adopts 3rd edition when he gets playing.

A BGG link was also given and he was amazed at the many quality games that were available that he never even knew about!

Edited for spelling.

[Tobias]

A BGG link was also given and he was amazed at the many quality games that were availablke that he never even knew about!

That still amazes me sometimes... I see all these games and I want them all! Last week we bought Arkham Horror. It is a great game that I really did not know anything about before we played it.

[Joff]

That still amazes me sometimes...

It does me too! I first found out about Carcassonne from Amazon. I was looking for an update to the 'Rush Hour' traffic jam puzzle type games (that you can pick up in 'normal' high street toy shops). I happened to notice Carcassonne in the 'Customers who bought this item also bought' section, so I clicked and investigated. I purchased Carcassonne solely on the reviews other customers had given it and I was lured into the world of euro-gaming! It did not take very long to find BGG and CC and I haven't looked back.

I am still surprised that major retailers do not carry these excellent games, which, let's face it, are so much better than the usual standard fare like Cluedo or Monopoly.

[Jambo]

Joff et al.,

Sadly it's because the boardgame industry in the UK is non-existent. You just have to look at BGG to see that almost all the good Euros are German. Most of us Brits (at least) are brought up in a society where exposure to games comes in the form of games consoles and PCs.  This is compounded by the fact that large gamestores like Toys R Us are littered with the likes of Monopoly and Cluedo and all their tedious spinoffs. One has to purchase Euros, etc, in specialised gamestores, and this makes the whole gaming thing in the UK a bit of a catch 22 - You need to know the games exist to be able to hunt for them online in the specialised gamestores. At the same time, you're never going to know these gamestores exist without first knowing about the games....

It's not that us Brits are any different so to speak. I've introduced the Euro games I've purchased to friends and family and they've all been a massive hit!  Comments are always, "where did you get these?" and "I've never heard of these!". All we can do is hope that the message gets around and more and more people become aware and interested.

To take a swerve and go off in a tangent - has anyone played Columbia Games' much acclaimed Hammer of the Scots?  It's a US block game and it's excellent. If anyone is interested, one can play this face to face at: http://www.f2fgaming.com/ or turn-based at: http://www.abovethefields.com/

Perhaps Joff will take up the challenge and try to conquer Scotland?

Best,