Kevin “ekricket” Ricketson

Kevin “ekricket” Ricketson

by Kevin Ricketson

(Bartlesville, OK, USA)

They take strategy games serious here

They take strategy games serious here

I have been gaming for a long time, back when there were only sticks and rocks to play Monopoly with. Actually not that far back, but for about 40+ years now.

One of my earliest board game memories involves Monopoly games. My older brother and I had got a copy for Christmas, and we were about 8-9 years old. My mother helped us set it up a little, but she did not know the rules, but we got the basics ourselves and started to play.

The trading aspect was left out, as was the houses and hotels, because that was just too confusing for our feeble brains. So we played until all the money in the bank was gone, just paying rent to each other (no monopoly’s, houses or hotels), and collecting $200 every time we passed Go. We played nonstop, only stopping when our mother made us go to bed, and it took us three days to finally run the bank out of money.

My brother won, and it was a long time before we played again, because we reasoned the game just took too darn long. When we finally played some years later, with the houses and hotels and trading, we were amazed at how much funner the game was.

From there I evolved into Risk games, Stratego, Mastermind, Othello, Go, Chess, Checkers, The Farming Game, and just about any game that involved cards. The newer games coming out in the last ten years or so are really intriquing, and I enjoy Puerto Rico, Bohnanaza, Dominion, and Settlers of Catan, all the usual ones that are making it big.

But I am always on the lookout for a new one, something to challenge the strategic thought process, so reviewing games kind of appeals to me. Hopefully in the months to come I can make some good contributions and learn which games are the best from other reviewers.

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