GameHead Holiday Gift Guide: Day 1

GameHead Staff Mon, 11/07/2011 - 00:04

Here at GameHead, we know that buying the right gift for the right person can be tricky, and that's especially true when you're buying for a Gamer. The GameHead Holiday Buying Guide 2011 is here to help. We've put together a total of 25 games that bring you a huge variety of gaming experiences. Please read our introduction and information about how we arrived at our choices for details.

Top 10 Games for Anyone

The Settlers of Catan from Mayfair Games

If you're used to thinking of a board game as something that involves nothing more than endlessly circling a track and seeing where you land, Settlers of Catan can get a few minutes to get used to, but it's worth it. You play (strangely enough) a new settler on the island of Catan, and although there are lots of resources on the island, it quickly becomes apparent that the island is a little bit too small to sustain all the players equitably. Cue the rush for garnering brick, wool, ore, grain, and lumber, and converting them into more settlements, roads, and eventually cities.

Although there's plenty of room for clever players to show that they're clever, the core mechanics of the game are really easy to learn, and there's enough luck involved to give everyone a chance deep into the game. Each turn, two dice are rolled, and whichever spaces on the board match that number deliver the appropriate resource to all players with a road or a settlement attached to it. This is neat, because it keeps everyone involved every turn, and that involvement continues with trading between the players. This isn't Monopoly, where one or two deals set up the rest of the game. In Catan, you'll be trading with somebody for something almost every turn, trying to barter away your spare grain for the lumber you need to complete the requirements for your next upgrade.

Throw in a Robber figure, who goes around ruining your plans whenever a seven is rolled, and the chance to buy development cards which can help you on your quest for victory, and you have a game with a near-perfect blend of luck and skill. Best of all, if you find that Catan is the game for you, there are literally dozens of extra editions to try, with new twists to the core rules, different map layouts, special figures, terrain...

Catan is a true gaming juggernaut, and if you want a game that sees everyone involved right from the outset, with plenty of interaction between the players, a healthy dose of skill and just the right amount of luck, you can't really go wrong with The Settlers of Catan.

Top 10 Gifts for Gamers

WARMACHINE Two Player Battle Box from Privateer Press

If you've never played a miniatures game before, this is a fantastic way to try the genre out, and see if it's for you. Set in the future, WARMACHINE (and its stable companion game HORDES) see players using miniature armies representing spellcasters and giant robots, cavorting across battlefields bringing carnage and general destruction. In the Battle Box, you'll get to play as either the Khador or the Protectorate of Menoth. Like all good minis games, these factions have a vast range of back story, and there are several more factions to choose from once you get into the WARMACHINE world.

Inside the box, you get a fantastic selection of gaming goodness. In total there are seventeen plastic models representing the two warring sides, which arrive unpainted. Don't worry, this isn't a malfunction - part of the fun of the minis world is the opportunity to customize your model armies by painting them, and there's a huge world of information and techniques out there that is virtually an entire hobby quite apart from the game itself.

Each of the models comes with a stat card for easy reference, and there's an excellent rulebook delivering the full play experience in 86 pages. Yes, that's 86 pages - this isn't a game that you'll be playing inside the first ten minutes. That's also part of the appeal of minis gaming - this is something you can get many, many hours of pleasure from reading, thinking about, painting, and playing.

Once you're into the action, WARMACHINE is a fast and furious minis game that doesn't take hours to set up, and the emphasis is very much on aggressive play. You'll use the included dice and ruler to help the battle unfold, and there's ample opportunity for creative and strategic thinking. WARMACHINE is the kind of game where Dad and Son disappear into the garage for hours at a time, emerging with tales of devastated Warjacks, Vanquishers, Repenters and Exemplars.

If you've never taken the plunge into the beautiful world of miniatures gaming, the WARMACHINE Two Player Battle Box really does represent both fantastic value, and a brilliant introduction to many happy hours of skirmishing.

GameHead and Privateer Press are going to make one of our readers very happy by sending them a free copy of the WARMACHINE Two Player Battle Box. If you would like a chance to win this, do one of the following:

- Reply or share this post on Facebook
- Tweet this message. "GameHead has picked the WARMACHINE Two Player Battle Box as one of the best gifts for gamers this year. http://bit.ly/rVqdd4 " Make sure to follow @gameheadnews so we can message you if you win.
- Rate or write reviews for any five WARMACHINE or HORDES products on GameHead.

Do all three and triple your chances for winning!

Five Gifts for Tech Gamers

Medici from Sage Board Games

Coming from Sage Board Games, a company who are increasingly a watchword for high quality board game conversions to the iPad, Medici is a simple but endearing game from Reiner Knizia. You play the part of a trader, trying to fill your ship with the most precious cargo. In five different goods, the players compete to ship the most, getting points and bonuses for cornering the market.

Each player puts one, two, or three goods up for auction on their turn, and each player round the table gets one chance to bid. As the five slots in your ship fill up, you find yourself unable to bid if there's no room left, so there's a constant juggling act between getting what's available right now, and hoping that you'll be able to get something better later.

In the iPad version, the docks where the action takes place are very colorfully brought to life, and the assorted family members of the Medici that you bid against have carefully drawn personalities. For an AI, this is really good stuff, as after a few games you'll find yourself cursing some of them for being crazy overbidders, or feel smug as you persuade the idiot in the corner to let you have a lot for practically nothing.

At the end of each of three rounds, bonuses are handed out for the players with the highest value goods on their ships, and also to the dominant market leaders in each of the five goods. Hopefully you've acquired some extra Florins in the first two rounds to fight off your opponents in the decisive third round of auctioning, but every Florin you spend sets you back, and it's sometimes the player who keeps their hands mostly in their pockets that walk away with the prize.

Medici isn't an earth-shattering game, but it's well-presented, never crashes, and almost always delivers an entertaining 15-20 minutes of thoughtful auction gameplay. It's easy to recommend to just about anyone who enjoys games, so we do. Go download.

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Join us again tomorrow for Day 2 of the GameHead Holiday Buying Guide 2011, when we'll look at the ultimate train game, explore a dungeon with some terrific quirks, and download a gaming classic.

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