Top 5 games to help make it through the Holidays!

Hi there my name is Paulo. This time of year can get pretty hectic, so I’ll save you time by doing a proper introduction later.  For now, know that I love playing games and from time to time I will contributing my thoughts on those games here at Huscarl Hobbies and Games.

Here are my top 5 games to help get friends, family, and yourself through this holiday season.

I picked these games because they are fairly inexpensive, short on the rules, easy to explain to non-gamers, and my family and I genuinely enjoys them.

5. Monikers - This is the classic holiday game known by most as Celebrity.   What makes this game fun is it is accessible, good for large groups, it’s familiar, and  gets the whole group laughing together.  Monikers takes a lot of the pain out of setting up celebrity by providing you a box full of cards (TANGENT! I love this game’s box).  On each card, is a  “type” of celebrity (from past and to present) with a brief bio.  Monikers is played over 3 rounds with two teams.   To start each player on a team gets a hand full of cards.  Each player then selects only a few of these cards.  Everyone’s cards are then added to a common pile, these are the cards used in each round.  Players take turns attempting to get their team to guess famous people .  In round 1, players can say anything they want, except the name of the of the celebrity.   In round 2, players can only provide their team 1 word clues.  In round 3, players can only use charades.  Additionally, there are internet rumors of super-secret rounds however I leave that for you to explore and discover.

4. Sushi Go – A card game good for 3 to 4 players with cute art.  Is a simple game about having a hand full of cards, picking one card from that hand, playing it in front of you to score points by “building the best sushi plate”, then passing your hand to the next player, and gaining another players hand to begin the process all over again.  Cards that you play in front of you can be combo’ed together to score a greater number of points.  You will find yourself watching the other players "plates" to possible take a card they could use on a future turn to mess with their sushi plate/points.  UPGRADE: Gamewright released a bigger version, called Sushi Go Party, that allows for up to 8 players and different decks that can be mixed and matched to change up how points are scored to add a greater variety to the game. If you can find Party, I believe it is an excellent value.






3. The Resistance: Avalon – This game puts the fun in dysfunction (and holds one of my favorite gaming memories).  It is based on psychology research done in the mid80s at Moscow State University (yes, the one in Russia).  This is good game for 5 to 10 players.  This is a social deduction game that is intense, filled with deceit, betrayal, manipulation, and wild accusations!   There are several themes of this game available, in my opinion “Avalon” which is based on the Arthurian legends, seems to be the best themed and easiest for newer players to understand.  It is a team based game in which a group of people (Team Good) are trying to successfully complete some tasks, however among these players, is secretly a minority of players (Team Evil) attempting to get the group to fail.  If 3 of 5 tasks are completed successfully Team Good wins, if not Team Evil wins. Once the game is over all players reveal which team they were on, which provides its own amount of entertainment.  The first time we played with my family, I (on Team Evil) pitted my mother and father (both on Team Good ) against each other, and sat back as they began to make wild accusations against each other.  Setup can be more "involved" and a little tricky on this one compared to the other games, so I recommend reading and understanding the rules before trying to “Jump into this one”   BONUS TIP: Players on Team Good never, ever, under no circumstance should ever fail a mission.

2. Love Letter – A beautifully simple designed game made up of only 16 cards, good for a player count of 4 (also plays well with 3).  I can teach this game to new players, like Dave at Huscarls, in about 2 minutes.  It is a great “filler” or lite game, offering a combination of risk, luck, and deduction mechanics.  This game gets so much love and is played so often, people have been known to wear out the cards in the deck.  The object of this game is to be last player standing or have the highest value card at the end of the game. Each player starts with only one card in hand; one card is removed from play. On your turn you take a card from the deck, compare it to the one already in your hand, then play one of those cards in front of you and perform that cards affects in an effort to eliminate other players or protect yourself. UPGARDE: AEG just released a Premium version of Love Letter that can expand the player count up to 8.  I just picked up a copy of it at Huscarls and I plan to write up a review on it soon.  However, I can tell you what comes in the box.  The premium version contains larger, Tarot sized cards on really thick cardstock, and custom card sleeves; all of which should help keep this game from wearing out for a while, as it tends to get played a lot. It contains the original 16 cards in the base game plus several new cards when you need to expand the player count past 4.

1. Las Vegas – Top on my list is “Las Vegas”.  This is one of those games that reminds me of the old adage; not to judge a book by its cover.  It looks so simple and unassuming, however it offers so much in terms of mechanics, like area control, push your luck, and in my family, negotiation. My family gets into this game, encouraging table talk to influence others decisions.  This is a fun and exciting game.  All this and all players are doing is rolling eight dice, picking dice with matching results from the roll and placing those dice on one of six spaces that match the results of those dice to win a predetermined amount of moneys.  Played over 4 rounds with an in box max player count of 5.  PRO TIP: We were able to expand the player count to 8 players by simply adding 3 more sets of colored dice to the game.  This is a family favorite and I cannot wait to sit down and play it with mine.