Subbuteo is a classic finger-flicking football-simulation action game. It is played on a large cloth playing field called a “pitch”, with teams of players that are represented by miniature men mounted on smooth round bases. The men are made to kick the ball by flicking their bases, which causes the men to slide around on the pitch, hitting the ball. The rules simulate nearly all details of a soccer game including ball possession and passing, throw-ins, goal kicks and corner kicks. There is even a large section in the rules devoted to fouling.
Far more popular in European countries than in the United States, this game allows collectors to buy teams of men representing dozens of teams and countries from around the world, along with soccer stadium enhancements such as stands filled with cheering fans, referees that stand on the sidelines, even stadium lights.
Stay Alive The game consists of a 7×7 board with horizontal and vertical slides that can be in any of three positions each. Each slide has a certain number of holes in it. Initially, the board is set up in any random position, then the players deploy their marbles onto the non-holed spaces. On your turn, you change a slider’s setting, hoping to open new holes underneath opponents’ marbles. The last player to Stay Alive wins.
Basket,
Battleship,
Battleship was originally a pencil-and-paper public domain game known by different names, but Milton Bradley made it into the well known board game in 1967. The pencil and paper grids were changed to plastic grids with holes that could hold plastic pegs used to record the guesses.
Each player deploys his ships (of lengths varying from 2 to 5 squares) secretly on a square grid. Then each player shoots at the other’s grid by calling a location. The defender responds by “Hit!” or “Miss!”. You try to deduce where the enemy ships are and sink them. First to do so wins.
Mastermind,
Stratego,
Sorry,
Race your four game pieces from Start around the board to your Home in this Pachisi type game. By turning over a card from the draw deck and following its instructions, players move their pieces around the game board, switch places with players, and knock opponents’ pieces off the track and back to their Start position.
Slides are located at various places around the game board. When a player’s piece lands at the beginning of one of these slides not of its own color, it automatically advances to the end, removing any opponent’s piece on the slide and sending it back to Start.
Game moves are directed exclusively by cards from the play-action deck. If one plays the normal version in which one card is drawn from the deck each turn, the outcome has a huge element of luck. Sorry can be made more of a strategic game (and more appealing to adults) by dealing five cards to each player at the start of the game and allowing the player to choose which card he/she will play each turn. In this version, at the end of each turn, a new card is drawn from the deck to replace the card that was played, so that each player is always working from five cards.
A player’s fortunes can change dramatically in one or two rounds of play through the use of Sorry cards, the “11” cards (which give the player the option of trading places with an opponent’s piece on the track), and the fact that it is possible to move from Start to Home without circumnavigating the full board by making judicious use of the “backward 4” cards.
PayDay,
Pay Day is played on a one-month calendar with 31 days. During the game, players will have to deal with various bills and expenses, but will also have the opportunity to make deals on property and earn money. At the end of each month, players are paid their salary (the same for each player) and must then pay off all outstanding bills, taking out a loan if necessary. Most money (or least debt) wins after a certain number of months decided by the players (3 months usually takes 30 minutes to finish).
Chineese Checkers,
KerPlunk
Just Me Being Me 