Which game would you rather play?
You are battling in the category: Abstracts
Four Dragons
From the designer Frank Branham: A 4 player partnership trick taking game themed around the Mexican Day of the Dead. (A particular favorite holiday of ours, as Sandi and I were married on that day in Marietta Confederate Cemetery.) It is short (about... SHOW MORE
From the designer Frank Branham: A 4 player partnership trick taking game themed around the Mexican Day of the Dead. (A particular favorite holiday of ours, as Sandi and I were married on that day in Marietta Confederate Cemetery.) It is short (about 30 minutes), and rather brain bending.
Dia De Los Muertos (Day Of The Dead) is played over three days as you send animals, then children, then adults on to the afterlife. It is a basic trick taking game, except that most cards have an action with them. You play as a partnership, and if your side wins scoring cards (the dead or food), you exchange a card with your opponent. Other cards allow swaps between partners, asking a question, cancelling other cards and so on.
The first time you play, there's a lot of checking the rules, checking the crib sheet, remembering if you exchange cards. You spend more time figuring the game than playing the tricks. But after a couple of hands, it makes sense and you switch to game-playing mode. And here's where it pays. If you enjoy Bridge, you can figure out what your partner signals when they swap a card, or you can read the deck based on what's been played, you will really enjoy Dia De Los Muertos. If you don't like Bridge, or can't figure trick-taking games anyway, steer well clear. It is rather brain-bending.
The original game has nice native graphics of the dead abroad and has a variant for 3 players. The re-issue as Four Dragons has an oriental theme.
Not to be confused with:
Dia de los Muertos (2007)
Dia de los Muertos (2016)
... SHOW LESS
Click to Battle Again!
Casa Grande
In Casa Grande players try to develop well-located building lots in order to construct large and tall buildings on them. Opponents can use your buildings for their own purposes, and the final result should be one large magnificant house – "casa... SHOW MORE
In Casa Grande players try to develop well-located building lots in order to construct large and tall buildings on them. Opponents can use your buildings for their own purposes, and the final result should be one large magnificant house – "casa grande" – after another.
Casa Grande is played on a game board that shows a square grid for the building area, which is framed by a track. At the start of the game, each player receives a number of building blocks and differently-shaped platforms. Each player also receives five bonus points and one pawn, which is placed on the track.
The game is played in turns with some elements being similar to Burkhardt's own Kupferkessel Co. At the start of his turn, the player rolls the die and moves his pawn forward on the track as many spaces as the number rolled. By expending bonus points, the player may move his pawn further. Then, the player must place one building block on the board in the column or row corresponding to the space on the track where his pawn is located. If he now has the building blocks needed to support one of his platforms, he may place that platform on top of the building blocks. If he does so, he gains an amount of money (Casa Grande Lire) based on the size of the platform and the level at which it was built.
After a platform has been added, building blocks may be added on top of the platform. If another player builds on top of your platform, you gain a number of bonus points. You also gain bonus points if your pawn ends its move on a corner (in which you don't get to place a building block). If a player accumulates nine or more bonus points, he receives nine Casa Grande Lire, but loses the bonus points.
The game ends at the end of the round in which a player has placed his last building block. The player who has collected the most money wins.
... SHOW LESS