THINK: Logic and deduction games

2009/11/13

Traditional = Clue; Update = The Name of the Rose In Clue, players move from room to room (yes, with a die roll!) in a mansion to solve a mystery of “who done it”, “with what” and “where”.

By making accusations at characters, you make other players show the cards on their hands, and through deductive reasoning, you must guess which character, weapon and location cards are hidden in the secret file.

Though not as luck-driven as Monopoly, rolling the dice to move is nevertheless very outdated, and the game doesn’t allow any room for deception.

Also, it’s more about being systematic than having fun, making it a rather bland exercise rather than a fun game.

The Name of the Rose, on the other hand, is not only dripping in the theme of Umberto Eco’s whodunit novel set in an Italian monastery in 1327, it is actually really fun to play.

The Rose is not a game of precise note-taking and elimination (read: boring!), but a very clever game of guise and deception as you constantly plot to lead the other players to believe you’re someone else.

However, at the end of the game, each player gets to guess which characters belong to the other players.

For each correct guess against them, more suspicion points are added, effectively preventing players from making it too obvious that they are trying to benefit their own character.

The character with the least suspicion points wins the game! >>>BOXED INFO 3: World conquest, war games Traditional > Risk; Update > Antike Risk’s a dice-rolling fiesta where players attack others to gain territory and eventually win the game.

Nothing sophisticated here, just plan to attack with superior numbers and hope for a good roll of the die.

Compared to Risk, Antike oozes class and sophistication.

First off, it has no dice.

Next, it offers you a variety of ways to grow your civilization (a.k.a. conquer the world) and win the game, with war being just one of them (and usually not the best option).

However, it’s not technically a war game, so those inclined may turn to the many other designer war games such as Memoir 44 (which now has everything from the D-Day landings to the Eastern Front, to the Mediterranean and even the Pacific) or the Combat Commander series.

For those who prefer their conquests intergalactic-style, then the mother of all space operas is Twilight Imperium 3, where you have to use the full array of diplomacy, military force, technology and special skills of your alien race to rule the galaxy.

And if it’s just a sci-fi showdown you seek, then Starcraft (from the legendary computer game) is your designer game as you face-off against the other races for control of the universe.

Despite the mega-showdowns between warring factions, no dice are used, giving you an idea of the level of control and depth of strategy and tactics offered.

The same goes for Neuroshima Hex!, another no-dice strategy game set in the post-apocalyptic world of Neuroshima where up to four players face-off and try to take out each other’s HQ.

>>>BOXED INFO 4: Victory point games Update > Settlers of Catan, Carcassonne Simply put, a VP game means that either the first player to achieve a pre-set number of VPs, or the player with the most points at the end of the game wins.

Because you can collect points in a variety of ways, VP games allow you different paths to victory (and consequently, opportunities to try different strategies and tactics).

VP games are short (1-2 hours) and allow players much more control (hence, fun!) over what they do.

In Settlers of Catan, arguably the most popular of all VP games, you decide each turn what actions you want to take as you race to be the first to achieve.

You can build roads, trade resources with other players, build settlements, upgrade them into cities or even buy development cards - all of which eventually help you to win points.

Carcassonne is another popular VP game where players take turns to lay a tile as they build the city of Carcassonne.

Each player has eight followers (called Meeples). Throughout the game, they must deploy them cleverly as knights (in castles), highway robbers (on roads), clerics (on cloisters) or farmers (on farms) to win points.

The entire concept of designer games like Settlers only surfaced around 1995 (Carcassonne, 2000), so you would find no equivalent of it in any traditional game, most of which are more than 30 years old.

Even Uno, despite being the newer of traditional games, is almost 40 years old!