Great! I just bit the proverbial dust again!

For those of you who might not know, our family is lucky enough to see eldest brother Aaron a few days out of each week. Recently, seeing Aaron has been accompanied by being introduced to a new game.

For your pleasure and review, here are some games that we have recently played (and LOVED).

1. Pandemic:


The newest game Aaron brought home, Heather and I played tonight. It's all players against the diseases that are taking over the world. Heath and I played three times in a row, visiting cities and setting up research stations, and almost finding cures... and lost every time. (Thus the dust-biting title of this post.) Apparently the biologics are too much for two players. I think if we played with all four we might have more success. Still, we're getting better each time we play. It's like Tetris; you keep losing, but you know that if you just play one more time, then you'll win....


2. Small World:



This game helped us survive during the snowy recesses of the "one-two punch" storm all the newspapers keep talking about. It's a complicated strategy game where you try to take over land and strategically switch races throughout the game. It's neat because there are a lot of different combinations for how you can play each race, and unless you're playing against Joel, you might win. Maybe. Just hope the other guy doesn't get to be a flying halfling. Personally, I think the dragonmaster skeletons is a great combination. And yes, we took a sharpie and made one slight modestification on the Amazon warrior princess. Now she's as beautifully modest as the elf man.


3: Zeus on the Loose


Katy introduced us to this card game several years ago, and it continues to be a favorite. It's a game where you can practice and show off quick adding skills as you try to make the cards on "mount olympus" reach 100 while you are in possession of Zeus. There's some tricky cards in the deck, though...like a card that will invert a score (making 90 into 09). I won all four rounds (Each round you win spells Z-E-U-S) and won last time, so it's a great game in my book. Plus it lets you practice that tricky, "What's 37+6 again?"


4: The classic "Ticket to Ride" with a heritage-ly twist: Nordic Version


Makes you proud to be Norwegian, that's what. If you haven't played a version of TtoR, then this is a good one to start with--it's for 3 players and has pretty simple rules (no train stations, etc). But don't be deceived into thinking that you might win with the longest train, because those dern destination cards will get you every time!


5. Scotland Yard


Another in-law introduction (thank you, Nathan!), and I must say, I LOVE this game. The hat might be the best part of the game: when you are Mr. X, you get to wear it for strategical prowess. This is a game where it's all other players against the one Mr. X, chasing him around London. Dave Younce, have you played this one?

In fact, who has played any of these? I'd love to know those of you who've been able to enrich your lives with these great games.