Game Recommendations

Yesterday, I made a post asking for recommendations on games I could play with my wife. Here's a bit of an update on that.

First, let me give you a bit of background and some clarifications. Anna got introduced to modern board games through me this year. Before Thanksgiving, her experience with games included Love Letter, Azul, Santorini, Skull, Just One, Welcome To, and a few other games.

Then Thanksgiving came around and she had her first experience of Catan (mine as well)--and she loved it! Since then, I've been asking her a lot of questions (probably too many or too often) to find out more about her preferences. And I learned that Anna heavily favors games with player interactions.

Now, just so that you don't misunderstand, Anna clarified that she still likes games like Welcome To because it's a great game for a relaxing downtime--after all, who would be constantly in the mood for a brain-melting, cut-throaty, or whatever type of game? (I'm probably asking the wrong crowd here). But in general, she is way more interested in games with interaction in various forms (e.g. Just One, Skull, Catan), where there's the exchanging/trading/taking away of cards, decision-making that affects other players, observing how different people make choices, etc.

And since Catan, Anna has been introduced to two more games that helped me grasp to what degree she wants her games to have player interaction:

Test #1 - Quacks of Quedlinburg (basically zero interaction)

• I tried this out thinking maybe some games could be potentially too good that she wouldn't mind not having any player interaction at all--I was wrong. She didn't find it as enjoyable that all she had to do was to focus on her own board/pot and that there's basically zero need to be aware of what the other person is doing.
• On a side note, we took a long time to finish the game because we had to stretch it out into three different sessions throughout the day. If we were to play again and took around 45 min, maybe she might enjoy it as much as she enjoys Welcome To? Maybe, maybe not, but definitely not as fun as Catan was to her.

Test #2 - Wingspan (has limited player interaction)

• Anna got her first game of Wingspan in tonight, and I could immediately tell how she felt about the game afterwards--good, but still doesn't scratch that itch from the kind of enjoyment she got from Catan. She also mentioned that she liked Wingspan more than Quacks because it seemed like a deeper game with more dimensions. I'm pretty sure she'll like Wingspan even more after giving it a second play because she was starting to understand what it means to build an engine (Anna won by the way haha).

Future Test #3 - Viticulture (another step up in player interaction)

• I'm going to try to get it out this week.
• Elements of player action include choosing the wake-up time, blocking your opponent's workers from taking certain action spaces, and visitor cards that could affect the other players)
• It'd be great if she likes Viticulture because it's one of my favorite games.
• I have a feeling that Anna would like it especially when played with more than two players.

Again, this doesn't mean Anna thought any of these games were bad. They just didn't have that same type of fun she liked in Catan. For now, I think I should avoid games that (1) only have individual player boards since that often suggests limited player interactions like in Quacks and Wingspan, and (2) look for games with a modular board, route/network building, and maybe even tile placement mechanics.

Based on previous recommendations, I am thinking about Carcassonne and also trying out Forbidden Island with her to see if co-ops could be our thing, but if you can think of any good two player games similar to Catan, let me know!

Lastly, this gives me high hopes for being able to play Root with her some day! :)