My 10 Favourite Board Games  

By Chris Jacksonn of the Canton Progressive Gaming Cooperative

( Chris’ preferred pronoun is ‘ oh my God it’s him!)

There I was enjoying lockdown when I get a call from Senor Ferres who proceeded to describe, in great detail, my street. It suddenly dawned on me HELP he’s outside!!! I reluctantly opened the door to find the man mountain that is Herr Ferres in the frightening sight of shorts and tight T-shirt, God help me!!!!! We had a chat about how we were coping with lockdown and it became very clear the absence of a wife and two kids meant I was winning the enjoyment/painting/gaming race hands down. It was nice to see the Trump wannabe,  and explained that I was too busy to get bored with lockdown as I was painting figures, having the odd live LADG game via camera with #Valdermort and playing board games on line with the Firestorm Group. We said our goodbyes and I had to lay down for an hour to recover. 

He obviously went away very jealous of my “FREE TIME” and clearly cogitated on it to the extent that he thought “How can I make Mr Jackson’s life a misery? I know I’ll get him to write an article for me!” Stupidly I agreed after enormous pressure and the threat of a visit from the Tercio’s minions! So here goes…… 

 

In 1 Terraforming Mars 

 

https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/167791/terraforming-mars 

By far my favourite game ever!!!  

“In the 2400s, mankind begins to terraform the planet Mars. Giant corporations, sponsored by the World Government on Earth, initiate huge projects to raise the temperature, the oxygen level, and the ocean coverage until the environment is habitable.” 

As it states you battle with other corporations to terraform the planet using cards (projects) and other actions to get the jump on your opponents. Great fun game. 

Backstabbing Rating 5 

 

In 2 Great Western Trail (lovingly referred to as Cows) 

 

https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/193738/great-western-trail 

Now this at first glance looks boring as hell as all you have to do is drive your 19th Century cattle from Texas to Kansas City but there is SO MUCH MORE than this to this game. You can build various buildings on the trail and the further down the train line that you sell your cows the more cash you get. With this new found wealth you can buy different and more expensive breeds of cows and therefore next time you sell you’ll get even more money. It does loads more than what it says on the tin and yes you’ll be punning about cows for months. 

Backstabbing Rating 4 

 

In 3 Brass Lancashire/Birmingham  

 

https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/28720/brass-lancashire 

https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/224517/brass-birmingham 

Two separate games Birmingham being an updated version of Lancashire and is my choice if I had to choose one or the other but both fantastic games. Set in the 19th Century   

industrial north you have to develop your factories and buildings to sell your goods via ports (Lancashire) and markets (Birmingham). They both span the canal age first then move on to the steam age and you have to grow to survive. 

Backstabbing Rating 5 

 

In 4 Detective 

 

https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/223321/detective-modern-crime-board-game 

A COOPERATIVE (I know lol) game set in the 70’s where, as a team of up to 5, you have to solve a series of crimes that are connected in a mysterious way. If you start this I warn you that you will become addicted and want to keep going even if its 5 am. I also warn you it’s a one-off experience as once you’ve solved it (or not lol) you can’t do it again until you’ve forgotten all about it but what an experience!!! 

Backstabbing Rating 0 

 

In 5 Imhotep 

 

https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/191862/imhotep 

As you will all know Imhotep was the architect of the great pyramids for a number of Pharos and in this game you have to build various monuments with the stones from your quarry the only problem is when you ship them down the Nile your opponents might make the stones go somewhere you didn’t want them too. Really good fun short game. 

Backstabbing Rating 8 

 

In 6 Flamme Rouge 

 

https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/199478/flamme-rouge 

Now I’m not a big fan of cyclists and HATE watching bikes racing in any form but this game is enormous fun. You have a sprinter and pacemaker on your team and you choose how far both of them move each turn keeping some of your higher move cards back for that sprint finish. With the expansions you get more teams and more difficult courses that you can do naughty things on, and no Mr Ferres it’s not your favourite pastime spent in parks in your Mac! ( Editor: I’ve sued for less!) It’s more about timing and cutting up your opponents. 

Backstabbing Rating 5 

 

In 7 Dune 

 

https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/283355/dune 

Love the books and sort of love the films but the game brings all the spicy flavour of the books to the table. You play one of the six factions and each faction has its own special ability. You are actively encouraged to form (and break) alliances and if you like putting things up your nose then this is the game for you. 

Backstabbing Rating 10 

 

In 8 Donning the Purple 

 

https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/221155/donning-purple 

https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/278416/donning-purple-votes-virtue-expansion 

I’ll let the covers speak for themselves lol😊 I recommend getting the expansion as well as adds another dimension to an already great game. You want to be Emperor but you DON@T want to be Emperor lol😊 Good fun game with lots of treachery thrown in that invokes the age very well. 

Backstabbing Rating 9 

 

In 9 Pax Pamir 

 

https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/256960/pax-pamir-second-edition 

“In Pax Pamir, players assume the role of nineteenth century Afghan leaders attempting to forge a new state after the collapse of the Durrani Empire. Western histories often call this period “The Great Game” because of the role played by the Europeans who attempted to use central Asia as a theatre for their own rivalries. In this game, those empires are viewed strictly from the perspective of the Afghans who sought to manipulate the interloping ferengi (foreigners) for their own purposes.” 

Love this game. 

Backstabbing Rating 7 

 

In 10 Qwirkle 

 

https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/25669/qwirkle 

I’ve pictured the travel one as I recommend you get this version as its small enough to take on holiday or down the pub. A simple game with complex levels like all good games should be. Fun for all the family, Its like a mix of Scrabble and Dominos highly recommend it. 

Backstabbing Rating 2 

 

Well worth a mention  

https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/171908/el-grande-big-box 

https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/112/condottiere 

https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/134157/guilds-london 

https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/67917/colonialism 

https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/84876/castles-burgundy 

https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/155426/castles-mad-king-ludwig 

 

Missing the face to face of both table top and board gaming BUT there are online versions of millions of games. There are different servers like 

https://steamcommunity.com/ 

Free to join but the games cost but once you’ve bought them they are yours AND there is a version of LADG on here but you have to own Table Top Simulator. 

https://boardgamearena.com/welcome 

Free to register but if you want to play popular games you have to pay. 

https://www.yucata.de/en/ 

Free to register and free to play and has a good selection of games  

https://tabletopia.com/ 

Free to register but you have to be a Gold member for a lot of the games to invite more than one to play 

 

Anyway hope you are all keeping well and safe in these troubled times and can’t wait until we can meet up for some face to face gaming😊!!!! 

Chris J

Editor’s closing comments; My thanks to Christopher for such an insightful piece, the first I think to have its own backstabbing rating! It is very much to be hoped that our two  rival organisations can continue in a spirit of harmony, especially now that the “Three” Diane Abbot posters have been taken down !…..