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TIME to put away the mahjong tiles, pack away the cards and give your calloused fingers a break. EDWIN WONG has designer board games to entice you during these long, hot weekends!

EVER since one cared to remember, Chinese New Year had been synonymous with food overload, free money (in the form of ang pow and card games (albeit with a little bit of ang pow money at stake!).

Blackjack, Poker, Gin Rummy and even mahjong graced the tables into the wee hours of the morning, bonding up to three generations of families. After all, this was usually the one time during the year that grandchildren got the chance to go head-to-head with grandma and grandpa, armed with a licence to pry some money away from the old folk!

Sadly, after all the shuffling, taunting and winnings, the cards are put away in a corner until next year.

Apparently, no one noticed the power that these games had in providing an activity that engaged and brought together several generations – something few other activities succeed in doing.

This week, we look at some designer games that promote the same kind of bonding, minus the need to put any money up for stake, and which you can play anytime, instead of just once a year.

Email imagine.games@mac.com if you have any questions on how to get your grandparents to play designer games!

Keltis

Kosmos

SINCE grandma and grandpa know their way around playing cards, they will enjoy this 2008 Spiel des Jahres winner.

Each player has five pawns that they try to advance as far up five different paths as possible (players may only have one pawn on each path). The deck comprises cards (two of each) numbered 0-10 in five suites (that correspond to the five paths).

Players are dealt a hand of five cards and their goal is to play as many cards as they can in either ascending or descending order, advancing their pawn one space (on the corresponding path) each time they lay down a card.

The trick is that once the second card of a suite is laid down, the direction is set for the rest of the game (ascending or descending) for that suite (path), making Keltis an excellent hand management type of game.

The game ends when the fifth pawn (of any player) enters the second highest zone, whereupon all players then count their scores – the further along the path your pawn, the higher your score. Pawns that end the game in the first and second zones attract penalty points.

In addition, there are bonus tiles randomly distributed along the five paths that allow the first player to reach it to move an extra space (along any path), earn extra points, or avoid penalty points at the end of the game.

Keltis is the most suitable for getting veteran grandparent card sharks into designer games!

Battleline

GMT

POKER playing grandparents will immediately be able to play this with you since it uses the poker scoring system of flush, straights and full house.

In Battleline, you and grandpa (or grandma as the case may be!) stand atop two hills facing each other, your armies ready for epic battle in the fashion of The Lord of the Rings. However, the fog of war prevents either generals from knowing the true strength and intention of the opponent, setting the scene for a tense encounter.

In between the generals and their armies, lie seven objectives. Victory is simple. Capture any five objectives or punch through by capturing three objectives next to each other and victory is yours!

Each turn, players lay down their cards behind one of the seven objectives. At any time, if a player is unable to “prove” that they can muster a stronger force than their opponent, then the objective is lost to the opponent.

Since scoring follows the poker scoring system (i.e. where Royal Flush is the strongest), poker playing senior folk will undoubtedly enjoy this!

BuyWord

Face 2 Face

APART from card shark grandparents, there are also a good number of Word Game grandparents who keep themselves occupied with Scrabble (if others choose to socialise with them) or Crossword Puzzles (if no one chooses to socialise with them).

Either way, these Word Hogging veterans will love BuyWord as it provides them with a completely fresh and novel approach to forming words.

In BuyWord, each player randomly draws two to five alphabets each round. Each alphabet has a value much like the tiles in Scrabble. However, in this game, these alphabets represent “stock” which players have to decide if they wish to buy. The rule is, however, that if they choose to buy, they must buy all the tiles, or none at all.

During their turn, players may buy alphabets and then sell words. Because the income you earn increases with the length of the word, players are constantly challenging themselves to sell very long words so as to maximise their income!

Players also have a restriction on the total number of alphabets they can “store” in any round (eight), making it more challenging as players would not have the luxury of just keeping the alphabets they purchased earlier until the right ones come along to form profitable long words!

Since the winner is the player who earns the most money, BuyWord is sure to appeal to many grandparents!

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