boardgames

I got a bunch of board games for Christmas, and so far I've gotten to play:

• Jaipur - Nice little 2 player game about becoming the richest trader in the market - this one had very simple rules, and felt competitive without feeling too "mean" - both games we played were close. The "camel" system definitely keeps things interesting.
• Hues and Cues - A very simple game - you are simply trying to give word clues to get people to guess the exact color on the board - my family definitely had some fun, but we also unanimously agreed to play it only to 25 points - the board goes to 100 which would absolutely overstay its welcome. There were also issues with indoor lighting / shadows causing colors to appear different to different people.
• Coup - This one is a classic and I was so excited to play it - basically a bluffing / assassination game. My family didn't have too much trouble learning it, though we definitely did not play optimally. It'll be interesting to see how I feel about different player sizes - we played with the maximum player count (6), which for better and worse meant that in time you could pretty confidently learn what was in the entire draw pile. I'm definitely interested in picking up the "Reformation" expansion - I think the new card is really interesting, and the entire faction system could really shake things up for experienced groups - and it's cool that you can add one or the other or neither, and the game still works.