inconsequential ruminations

Zendo

I finally managed to persuade my group to play Zendo with me. I bought it a few months ago, but when I tried to introduce it originally, a couple of the guys rejected it almost immediately. I think they were a bit intimidated by it. Last Tuesday they were not there, so I pulled it out for another try. Bruno Faidutti explains the Zendo concept nicely. I was attracted to it because it looks so different and is obviously so clever. I was also influenced by the hype.

Unfortunately, it was not a huge success. Zendo was too dry and cerebral for my group, who are a freewheeling banterful bunch, who love games like Dragon’s Gold or Ivanhoe. I enjoy light games and love the type of people who like light games, so I doubt Zendo will ever be enjoyable for me – even though I respect it.

At least I now have a full Icehouse set, so I can play many other games with it. Gnostica and Volcano look interesting and there are some interesting piecepack combination games, especially Alien City.

Kuhhandel

Bruno Faidutti says this is his favourite auction game and it is my joint favourite, along with Medici. I am surprised it is not written about more often, particularly as Ravensburger reprinted it in English as You’re Bluffing.

Despite the childish graphics, it is absolutely brutal. The winner usually wins by a street and the last placed player ends up with almost nothing. There is blind bidding, which might bother some, but I think it works beautifully as people try to calculate how much they can get away with paying.

It should be a 45-minute game, but actually takes an hour. A neat variant for shortening the duration if four are playing is to give each player a chicken, a goose, a cat and a dog. This eliminates the luck in the official short version rules.

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 3rd, 2005 at 17:33 and is filed under boardgames.