Initial thoughts on Village, Agricola All Creatures, and Small World.

Well, I've gotten all the boxes open now from our Christmas games I mentioned last post.  I have to say the overall quality of the pieces in cardboard and wood, plus game boards have been great as expected.  Small world has loads of cardboard pieces, and the other two have their fair share as well.  Agricola has the standard wooden pieces like its larger counterpart, and Village comes with a large assortment of colored wood pieces as well.  I was a little disappointed by the size of the 'cubes' in Village.  They are pretty small, and because of that, will likely be easy to lose.  I would have preferred something about twice the size, similar to those in Agricola.

Z-Man Games' Agricola: All Creatures Big and Small packs a lot of pieces into a small box, and as such, I didn't expect a lot of ability to organize.  They have two ziplock bags of wooden pieces, plus 4 cardboard forms of punch outs.  No problem, and I don't think there will be any major setup issues.  The rules aren't lengthy, and I expect that this will be a fun go-to game for my wife and I when we have a little time to play.  The regular version is always fun, and our only lament is the time it takes to set up.  I'm hoping they caught the same magic in this smaller version.



I went through Tasty Minstrel Games' Village last post a fair bit.  They do include two nice cloth bags for two different random choice parts of the game, one to deal with 'influence cube' placement, and one to do with the 'mass' portion of the game round.  All the game boards are detailed and have the necessary visual instructions on them to make gameplay easier without having to consult the rules often, although it is certainly a bit overwhelming at first glance before you read the rules.  While the game appears to have a lot of options, which I hope will mean it will take a long time to master, it shouldn't be too overwhelming after the first playthrough.  Given the number of different cardboard and wooden pieces, it looks like I might delve into making some sort of cardboard tray in the box for putting them into.  This thought brings me to the last game...

Small World by Days of Wonder (makers of Ticket to Ride) has piles of cardboard pieces and one wooden custom die.  What made my day here, and I have to say any game I open with this makes me a little giddy inside, was the box design.  So often there is so much thought put into the game, and nice box art, and good quality game pieces...  But no thought put into how the game will be stored after you punch out all the pieces and put it away after your first time playing.  Village included some ziplock bags to separate out some of the pieces, but Days of Wonder has designed a beautiful plastic storage area in their game box for all the game pieces.  *Insert inner squeal of glee*  Ok, I have to admit, I like organization...  When you have a nicely laid out game box, it makes putting away and setting up so much easier.  I have several games that came with nice organization compartments, and I absolutely love the person who sat down and figured out how best to put the game away into the box when the game is done.

I know German board games can be hard to find, so if you can't find a local retailer, or a favorite online shop, I've included links to the games on Amazon Canada.