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Tag Archives: board games

I play! Sushi Go edition

Did I miss an entire week of posts?  Yes.  Was there a good reason for that?  Arguably, yes.  Did I for some reason decide it was ok to not even post fillers while also not writing any posts?  Um…yes…sorry.  Does it help to know that it wasn’t so much that I thought it was ok as it was that my Good Reason took up every last bit of time?  Anyway, here’s a post.

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Continuing with my theme of games I’ve been playing, here’s one that is really good for kids.  Sushi Go is a card game and one that is pretty easy to pick up, even for the younger ones.  I like to think of the game play like one of those conveyor sushi places and you pick something off the belt while food items are passing by your table.

Sushi Go is a card drafting game.  In the game, you are dealt a specific number of cards, which are visible only to you.  You choose one and place it face down on the table.  Everyone reveals their chosen cards at the same time.  The hand you were dealt is passed to the left, i.e. it’s a draft and pass game.

The objective is to gain the most points.  Points are awarded according to the instructions on the cards.  Some of the cards instruct you to make sets for points, some allow you to choose an extra card from the hand you have, some award points after the end of the game.  There is some strategy, as you can try and block your opponents from completing sets while trying to complete your own sets.

I’ve played the game with kids as young as 7-8.  To teach the younger ones, I would just play the first game with open hands while everyone figures out the rules.  Then we play for real.  It normally takes a game or two for them to figure out that they can’t just focus on their own set collections and that they have to keep track of what is in each hand as it’s being passed.  And all subsequent games pass pretty quickly.

The graphics on the cards are nice.  The cards themselves are of good quality.  If you play with younger kids, you might consider card sleeves, as I note that the younger ones are not terribly fond of washing their hands.  I don’t like sticky cards.  Gross.  Oh, and I really like the tin the card set comes in.

 

On Axis and Allies (1941 edition)

I often try and find things that are entertaining for kids that aren’t terribly mind-numbing.  Outdoor activities are all well and good, but sometimes weather or daylight just doesn’t permit something like that.  I will cook and bake a lot with the kids, but…you only need so much food.  I will craft with the kids too, but sometimes that requires more prep time than I can allot in a given week.  So recently, I’ve been looking more into board games.

I’ve always liked board games.  They have more of a social quality to them as opposed to video and computer games.  Yes, you have the MMOs, but…you’ve heard the kind of social interaction that goes on in an MMO right?  Yeaaah…

My brother was home for a few weeks recently and he also has been looking into board games, both because he likes them and because he’s looking for ones he can play with the kids he takes care of.  This was perfect because we were able to audit and test play a bunch of games together.  I’ll probably present my thoughts on them in no particular order in the coming weeks.  Assuming that there is no other pressing ridiculous to cover in a post, that is.

First up, Axis and Allies 1941.

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I liked this game a lot.  But…it’s probably not one I’d play with the kids.  Firstly, because the bulk of the kids I spend time with are jr. high and high school girls.  Most of them are not very nerdy and do not have a lot of interest in involved games, war history, or even board games themselves.  Secondly, the boys I do take care of are young, the oldest being maybe 5th grade.  They do not have the attention span (or maturity) for an involved game.  Even if I were around the high school boys more often as my brother is, I still probably wouldn’t suggest this game because it is involved, a couple of hours at least.  But I do like the game a lot.

There are multiple versions of Axis and Allies and the 1941 version is probably the most accessible of all of them.  It has a stripped down board and game mechanics.  It’s similar to the other, fuller versions, but it’s much less intimidating to a new player.  Which I was.

My brother had already played the 1941 edition several times with his friends and also the full version several times.  I’ve skimmed the rules for the other versions.  If I’m going to learn or teach how to play Axis and Allies, I’m definitely choosing the 1941 version.

If you’d like to read an actual review of the game, here’s one from boardgamegeeks.

Incidentally, my brother and I played a game in about four hours (with setup and an awful lot of questions from me) with my brother playing as the Allies and me playing as the Axis powers.  I wiped out USSR with Germany in about three turns (with the help of some monumentally bad rolls from my brother).  And then I used Japan and completely annihilated the US.  I then proceeded to make Germany dominate the air and Japan dominate the sea and the UK had no chance.  Bwahahahaha.

This is particularly amusing to me because my favorite strategy in war games is just to inundate the enemy with troops (hence my proclivity in playing as China or Russia in a lot of war/sim/civ games).  It’s a terrible actual strategy and I should never be a general.  But I didn’t actually use that “strategy” here.  And I won so hard.  😁

Also, Horse ended up eating a section of the box and a large section of the rule book.  I guess he was feeling left out?  At any rate, it was salvageable, my brother wasn’t too upset (as it is his game), and he’s decided it’s the perfect excuse to buy the 1942 version.