All Forces

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qhjgGBiqPDM[/youtube]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TKA0gUMEIKM[/youtube]

These are my kids looking very impressive solving the Rubik’s Cube. Now, if you are a cuber, you wouldn’t be as impressed since you know the “Cube” move is the most basic of all moves and can be learned in just a few minutes. And yes, I did set it up so that all they needed to do is apply the move to finish it. But man, they look so smart doing this. I’m sure most parents think their kids are special, but I’m just saying…. My kids are special.

Saturday night our friends Scott and Amy came for BBQ, Firepit, and a night of gaming. For the board game, we chose the game that first got us into german board games, The Settlers of Catan. Settlers is a famous game amongst gamers. I has won numerous awards including game of the year. It also has gained an expansion set for more players and variations of the game like Seafarers of Catan and a Catan travel edition. Settlers plays in about an hour, it simpler than Puerto Rico, more complex than Carcassonne and very, very addictive.

Link: Buy from Amazon .com .uk .de

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Two weeks ago we introduced Carcassonne to our friend Stephanie. This was her first german board game ever. It was new to her, easy to understand and it played fast. But it was time to break her into a more meatier game and last night we finally introduced her to my favorite game “Puerto Rico”. We spent four hours playing it. Yes, i did say four. Usually, we play it in about two but we had a first-timer and so we took a while explaining the rules and guiding her through her numerous choices. On top of that we had to pause for an intermission because our kids put a dressed up dancing show for us that was quite spectacular. Puerto Rico takes place during the colonization of the new world where you build plantations of crops to send to the old world. Funny observation though, plantations do need peons, and these game pieces are of dark color which makes them historically accurate since the new world was unfortunately developed with slave work. Now my friend is now officially hooked on it, just like everyone we’ve introduced this game to.

Link: Buy from amazon .com .co.uk .de .at

German Board Games are the next big thing. You just watch. Our friends Scott & Amy introduced us to Settlers of Catan some years ago. Back then they were doing board game nights at their place. The first night we went they had multiple copies of Settlers set up around the house. We bought Settlers the next day, and we’ve added Puerto Rico, Dalmuti and Carcassonne to the list. Puerto Rico is our favorite game by far, not because I’m puertorican, the game could have been called Cuba and still be just as good.

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