Have you ever heard of the “Spiel des Jahres”?  If not, you are not alone.  I hadn’t heard of this prestigious award until I bought my first “eurogame”.  This relatively new genre of board games coming out of Europe tend to  be very fun, strategic, board games for families.  The first game of this type that I bought was a Carcassonne game called New World.  (You can view my post about how we modified this Carcassonne game to work for our preschoolers.)  When we opened the box there was a little flyer in it listing other Rio Grande Games that had won the Spiel des Jahres award.  (Carcassonne won in 2001).  I decided to learn a little more about the Spiel des Jahres as we started to enjoy many of the games that were listed in this brochure.

Spiel des Jahres (game of the year)

Incident One

A Salt Lake City woman is accused of throwing shot glasses at her husband and attempting to stab him with a cane after the two argued over a card game earlier this week. The 58-year-old woman was playing cards with her husband, daughter and her daughter’s friend … The woman pelted her husband and daughter with shot glasses. The daughter and the daughter’s friend left the house, and the woman then began hitting her husband in the head with a cane, charges state. The cane broke and the woman pointed it at her husband and threatened to stab him, according to the charges. She then found a baseball bat and began striking her husband with it. The man had to seek medical treatment for his injuries, charges state.

Incident Two

An Orem man whose luck ran out in a game of Uno was arrested Aug. 15 on suspicion of aggravated assault after he allegedly hit a woman and threatened her husband with a large kitchen knife. The 58-year-old man, who had been drinking, was playing cards in his home with his 47-year-old nephew and the nephew’s wife, 64, when he became agitated over the game, police said. He hit his nephew’s wife on the back of the head and when the couple later tried to leave, he waved a large kitchen knife at his nephew, Orem police said.

Now there must be something about being 58 years old that brings out severe aggression in card games. I have to admit to having thrown a few tantrums a time or two in some of our family board game sessions. But I can honestly say I’ve never attempted (or threatened) to stab someone over it. The worst I’ve done is throw a monopoly board at my husband, and get into a yelling match in front of his friend.

Here are some tips for managing contention when playing games (especially with family members):

1. Don’t play past midnight
2. Avoid games where there is the chance to “gang up” on one player
3. When you can feel yourself getting heated … just walk away
4. Try not to laugh when someone else is having bad luck
5. When people are having a bad game, allow them to vent about it
6. Don’t gave false sympathy to the loser, just move on to the next game
7. When all else fails, just go to bed and the next day you will remember it being a fun game night

Remember that families that play together stay together (as long as they can avoid the fighting). Hopefully you can find some fun board games for families that won’t incite this type of rage in your household

I finally found a game that my sisters will play with me.  Enter CRANIUM!  YAY!  We’ve played the original Cranium and Turbo Cranium and both are fabulous board games for families that allow 8 or more players. Now I just have to convince them to start on some euro-games.  That will be a tougher sell

Posted via email from Jodi’s posterous

My husband and I are avid game players and this trait has rubbed off on our children (ages 3 and 5). We have bought a few games specifically made for younger children, but they don’t tend to be very exciting for grown-ups to get involved in WITH the kids. So we have come up with variations on games that we enjoy that enable our kids to participate with us. Here are a few examples of games we’ve modified successfully:

Board Games For Families

Bohnanza – Planting and harvesting beans to collect coins
TransAmerica – A race to build train tracks between all your cities
Rook – Collecting “tricks” to earn the most points
Carcassonne New World- Earn points by dominating cities, roads, and farms

Last night we pulled out our Carcassonne game and decided to try it out with our two kids. Here is a summary of some modified rules/tips if you try it with your own preschoolers.

Carcassonne Rules (modified for little ones)

• In the New World version of Carcassonne there is an added component called “Surveyors” which cause you to have to wipe your “meeples” off the board as they move across. When playinng with younger children … SKIP this aspect of the game completely.
• Allow your child to enjoy building roads and cities at will. Don’t try to dictate too much strategy to them. They will have fun thinking of it like a puzzle and as they get older they will start to develop the strategic thought process that goes along with this seemingly simple game.
• Have your pre-schooler do all of the movements to keep score. This will help him to work on his math and counting skills. Who knew the Carcassonne games could be “math board games” as well?
• Don’t try too hard to really beat your child. This should be obvious but if you are playing with a competitive spouse you can tend to get caught up in beating him/her (not speaking from personal experience here or anything). You don’t have to be obvious about letting your little one win, but don’t be too vicious either or it sucks the fun out of it.
• Read the official Rio Grande Games Carcassonne: New World rules to learn more about the traditional playing of this fun game.

Our 5 year old was able to play the modified board game for families and he totally understood the game play. Our 3 year old just wanted to lay her pieces down in the middle of our board and got ticked when we tried to move them out of the way Gotta love kids! ]]> http://boardgamesforfamilies.com/articles/childrens-board-games/board-games-for-families-carcassonne-game-modified-for-preschoolers/feed 1 http://boardgamesforfamilies.com/articles/fun-date-ideas/3-fun-date-ideas-with-board-games http://boardgamesforfamilies.com/articles/fun-date-ideas/3-fun-date-ideas-with-board-games#comments Tue, 11 Aug 2009 04:52:03 +0000 Jodi http://boardgamesforfamilies.com/?p=38 Whatever phase you are in in a relationship one of the biggest problems is finding fun date ideas. My husband and I just had our 6 year anniversary and we have two little pre-school aged children who make it difficult to get out for a good date night. Not only is it a pain to find babysitters, but we also have a hard time coming up with date night ideas. Here are a few fun date ideas we have come up with lately now that we’ve found a some great board games for families:

1. Two Player Games

There are several EXCELLENT two player games available. Put your kids to bed, pop up some popcorn, grab a nice cold beverage of choice, and break out a game like Lost Cities, Mr Jack, or Balloon Cup. These games are ONLY for two players so use them when you and your partner want to have a nice relaxing date night at home.

2. Double Date Games

Invite over another couple and expand your game horizons. There is a vast world of games out there that require more than two players. This is a great chance to break out some of those games and give them a try. If couples tend to have contention when playing one-on-one, having two additional players can really help to diffuse the tension and make for a fun night. Some excellent games for 4 players are Dominion, Small World, TransAmerica.

3. Group Party

While this may not be a very intimate date, it can sure be a lot of fun. These are fun date ideas because you are still interacting with each other even if other people are there too. Some really fun multi-player games are Bang, Saboteur, and Guillotine. To make it really fun you could even decorate for the party in the theme of the game you will be playing. *nerd alert*. Or you can just have some good refreshments and a clean house

Hopefully this has given you a few fun date ideas that you can consider when you are short on money, unable to find a babysitter, or just want an activity that is interactive and mentally stimulating.

What are some of YOUR favorite games to play for a date night?

Couples Gaming

How much would you spend for a date night with your spouse? $20, $50, $100 for just ONE date? For a lot of people that is just not feasible any more and they are looking to cut costs. What if you bought just ONE board game every few months and used them for night after night of quality time with your spouse. It’s much more engaging to play games together than to just watch tv side by side or sit on your computers each doing your own thing.

Children’s Board Games

While playing the traditional games like Snakes and Ladders and Candyland can be fun, they are not very mentally stimulating for the kids, and frankly they are quite boring for adults. There are quite a few games out there that are getting kids prepared to play the more intense strategy games as they get a little older. These games are pretty fun for grownups as well. You can also take an adult game and “dummy-down” the rules a bit in order to make it playable for younger children. Kids always want to mimic their parents so they will be thrilled to get to play games just like mom and dad. Consider purchasing games that kids can play with “just kids” as well as games that will need more interaction. It’s always nice for them to have their own board game to play when mom and dad want to engage in a more serious board game.

Board Games for Families

If you have an older crew your gaming possibilities are endless. Most of the really fun new European-style board games are fairly playable for kids 8 and up. They may not get ALL the strategic nuances but they can get the general game play down and have fun. Teenagers that won’t normally sit and engage with adult family members are much more likely to sit down and spend an evening playing games. What a great way to interact!

Keep reading our blog as we will be discussing many great board games for families of all types and ages. We hope you will start to enjoy them as much as we all do!