Want to get into TableTop Gaming, but don't know how? I got you!

This post is truly fun for me. I get to revisit games that I haven't played in quite some time. These are the games that really got me into Tabletop gaming. The ones that bridged the gap from simpler board games like Monopoly and Scrabble into a whole new world of strategy and fairness. Thus the reason I call them "bridge games." These are the games that made me realize the gameplay in Monopoly boils down to one thing...luck of the dice. And don't even get me started on Chutes and Ladders.

I don't completely loath those games. Well, Chutes and Ladders maybe. It's just that I've seen the light now. The "simpler" games are often completely dependent on luck instead of strategy. I've since learned that dice should enhance an experience, not completely drive it. Otherwise, a game can feel hollow. A win doesn't feel truly rewarding because you didn't do much to get it. Victory isn't supposed to taste like an unripened strawberry, it's supposed to be sweet! 

Enter the bridge games. The next rung up on the board game ladder. The following is a list of some games that are a bit easier for non-gamers to jump into, but still provide that sweet ripe strawberry taste of victory.

Note: this is not to say that bridge games are weak. This is simply a testament to what powerfully good game design can do to make a game feel simple on the surface, yet complex underneath the lid.

Carcassone

Carcassone, by Z-Man games, is a worker placement game. What that means is you have a certain number of Meeples at your disposal. You can place these Meeples in spots on the board to gain you points. But be careful, because if you run out of Meeples to use, you might just be sitting there for several turns without the ability to score points. 

On your turn, you draw one upside-down tile randomly. You then add that tile to the existing tiles, which form the playing board. But the tile you place has to match on all sides with existing tiles. This is easy at first, as few tiles will be in play. But as time moves on, you'll be in agony as another player pulls the one tile you needed to complete your mega-city and score monster points. 

Once you place a tile, you can then place your Meeple on that tile to claim a road, a city, or a monastery. There are more advanced ways to score, but these are the core tiles, and they each have different rules. If you close a city or road, you score points if you are the only Meeple on there. But if another player has infringed on that city or road, you might have to split the points. 

This game is very easy to learn, and yet hits on so many levels. Part puzzle, part Meeple management, Carcassone always creates a frantic scoring frenzy at the end of the game. Most of the time it's hard to tell who is actually going to win until all scores are tallied. 

Throw in some killer expansions (which I would wait on until you fully grasp the game), and you've got an outstanding Tabletop experience that will keep you coming back time and time again. It's a game that will never leave my collection.

Catan (or Star Trek Catan in my case)

Ah Catan. The OG. The gateway drug of obsessed Tabletoppers everywhere. This is the one most people will point to as the game that got them away from their preconceived notions of board games. And yet, despite being the elder statesman of the recent board game revolution, Catan easily still holds up. 

Catan is a game revolving around resources. The goal of the game is to reach 10 victory points before any other player, and you'll need resources in order to build things such as roads, settlements, and cities. You get more and more points for things that you build. 

A huge part of Catan is your setup. You get to place a settlement anywhere on the board that isn't already taken by an opponent. Your settlement will ideally touch multiple resources, each with a number on them. That number corresponds to die rolls. So, if someone rolls an 8, every player who has a settlement touching a resource tile with the number 8 gets that resource. If you have built a city, you get two of that resource instead of 1. 

But you can't just keep hoarding resources, because if someone rolls the dreaded 7, the stupid robber comes out. The stupid robber can then be placed by an opponent on any resource tile, rendering that tile useless for resources until the robber is moved with another roll of 7. Also, as if that wasn't bad enough, if you have over 7 resource cards in your hand, you have to get rid of half of them. Yeah, that's why the robber is stupid. 

One very cool aspect that makes Catan so great is that you can trade. On your turn, if you need a resource like wood or clay (or something like water or dilithium if you're rocking the Trek version) in order to build a settlement (or Starbase), you can try to trade for it. In trading with players, you can offer up, say, one wheat for a wood. Other players may not want to help you, so you could sweeten the pot by offering two wheats instead. Or, if no player will trade, you can always go 4:1 trading with the bank. But that's a lot of resources to only yield one. There are ways to help this, but I'm not going into that here. 

One complaint about Catan is that too much rides on the initial setup - where you place your first two settlements. And it's true. You can get stuck in a corner where you're not generating resources, and can't build anything. That's why I prefer the Star Trek version, as you will have a bridge crew member who can help mitigate things when you get stuck. 

Catan is still hugely popular, and has tons of expansions, and the Star Trek version is yet another game that will never leave my collection. 

King of Tokyo

I don't see King of Tokyo listed as a bridge game much, but I think it should be. King of Tokyo is easy to understand, extremely fun, and features a party style mechanic with some hidden depth underneath. So yeah, pretty much defines bridge game for me.

In King of Tokyo, you are trying to survive and become the last monster standing. First, you pick a monster that you want to wreak havoc with. Then you start rolling some dice, which have different icons on them. They are Attack, Heal, Energy, and the numbers 1, 2, and 3.

When you roll dice in KoT, you get to reroll any or all dice. And then, you get to do that again. So theoretically, you could reroll all of your dice twice. But that probably wouldn't be wise. What you're trying to do is pull off some combos. Multiple attacks mean you'll get that many attack points to use. Same with healing and energy. And if you get three 1's, 2's, or 3's, you get to add that many victory points to your victory point tracker. First person to reach 20 VPs wins the game.

The cool dynamic of King of Tokyo is the city itself. The first person to roll an Attack has to enter the city. Once someone is in the city, each attack they roll attacks ALL other players not in the city. But, any attacks rolled by other players only attacks the monster in the city. And keep in mind that if you're in the city, you do not get to heal. And when a monster in the city is attacked, they have the option of leaving the city, and the monster that attacked has to enter Tokyo.

This creates a wonderful risk/reward dynamic. Do you stay in the city if you only receive one damage from someone? Keep in mind that you start the game with 10 hit points, and they can go fast. Or, do you yield the city to the attacking player so you can hopefully heal up before they go on the offensive.

On top of all that, there are cards that you can buy with your energy cubes. They range from pretty helpful to extremely powerful, and can be cards that you keep, or cards that you use one time and immediately discard.

I love this game, and my group played it dozens of times. But I will say that the first expansion, the Power Up expansion, is almost a necessary addition. It feels like the designers pulled it out of the game just so they could sell it as an expansion. It adds cards specific to each monster, truly giving personality to your monster choice in the beginning of the game. This expansion really should have been a part of the core game.

But this is a minor complaint. King of Tokyo is just plain fun. A perfect party game to bring to the table, and we still do so today.

Pandemic

Ah, Pandemic. The first cooperative (co-op) board game I ever played. That's true for a lot of people, actually. And if Pandemic wasn't a person's first co-op game, it's probably one of the designer's other games, like Forbidden Island or Forbidden Desert. Matt Leacock knows how to make a co-op game.

In Pandemic, players try to cure 4 diseases that are starting to take over the world. You start by choosing (either randomly or by actually picking) a role for your character. You could be anything from a Scientist, which makes curing diseases a bit easier, to a Medic, who can handle diseases easier on a micro level. 

You will be traveling all over the world trying to manage the outbreaks of diseases in various countries. This is much easier said than done, as the deck of cards you have to pull from has a set number of Epidemic cards. The more cards included, the harder the game. 

There are so many ways to lose in this game. It creates a constant feeling of needing to hurry. A panicked rush to cure those diseases before one of the many ways to lose actually happens. The game always feels different, as the cards in the deck bring about different challenges, and the roles you select in the beginning are extremely varied. 

Now, I must say that Pandemic can be subject to Alpha playing, or quarterbacking. That's when one person tends to make the decisions for the entire team, and can certainly result in some frustration from the other players. This can be an issue with many co-op games, but for some reason, Pandemic seems to be especially susceptible.

Aside from that minor complaint, Pandemic is simply wonderful. My group probably played this thirty or forty times back in the day. We would go 3 or 4 in a row because we couldn't get enough. Pandemic creates a suspenseful, fully cooperative experience that's challenging to the end, and extremely rewarding if you win!

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So if you're looking to enter the world of more serious Tabletop gaming, but don't know where to start, those are some truly solid choices. They are a little more sophisticated than what you might be used to, but they are also infinitely more rewarding. Now get out there and game!