If you’re reading this when it’s been published (Dec. 13), you might say to yourself (or to me,) “Hey, doesn’t winter start on December 21?” And you’d be right — it does. But I also think it’s maybe not supposed to snow in autumn, but here we are. When you’re inside looking out at the snow, the time to play a game is nigh.
Here are five games to pick off the shelf this winter as you’re trying to escape that cold. (If you’re somewhere warm, then I envy you right now, but I still think you’d enjoy playing these games. It doesn’t actually have to be cold outside to play.)
Calico
Curling up with a warm quilt, a friendly cat, and a crunchy little puzzle game? That sounds like a perfect winter afternoon. (Add in a fire roaring in the fireplace and you might have an even better winter night.) Calico is a tile-placement quilt-building game. Each turn, you’ll add a hexagonal patch to your quilt, earning scoring points for placing different groupings of patterns around the outside of several scoring points.
Calico is a game that seems like it’d be easy, seamless, and relaxing. It certainly starts that way. As your turns progress, your quilt will be increasingly full, and your options will diminish. It’s a game that demands thoughtful planning, and that’s what makes it so great.
Tiny Towns
One of the things I often hear when visiting friends and family (or when they’re visiting me) is that they’d love to play some games. Winter brings that doubly to the front, especially with the colder air keeping us largely inside. Tiny Towns is a perfect game to pull out for those moments. It's easy to teach, fun to handle, and has just enough depth to keep things interesting for new and experienced players. Further, there’s no direct conflict to speak of, so you can be sure to keep your game night civil.
In Tiny Towns, you’ll place resource cubes on your board according to the whims of a ‘master builder,’ a role that will rotate around the table each round. When you’ve placed resource cubes in an arrangement that matches one of the buildings in play for that game, you’ll remove those cubes and place the matching building. Scoring varies from game to game, giving Tiny Towns a chance to keep you on your toes, even if it’s just a little as you navigate the changes.
Root
Root is a game where you can really sink your teeth into one role — or you can jump around and try several over the course of an afternoon. As an asymmetric game of domination, Root is just the sort of game for a winter day. Sit down for your first game, and you’ll probably sink a couple of hours without any trouble. Your next game? Maybe it’s a little shorter. As you understand the game, your strategies expand. It becomes a game you feel like you can grasp.
Once you feel like you grasp your role, you can switch out for another. Tired of playing the Marquise de Cat? Try the Eyrie Dynasty, the Vagabond or the Woodland Alliance. And if you’ve got the expansions on hand, you can start shifting around the roles in the game altogether. It’ll keep you engaged for an increasing amount of time the deeper you get into strategy, and what better to pass the winter hours than something with that much substance?
You might be thinking that Root’s a game for the fall. But no, I don’t think so. If that means you have to turn the board over and use the snowy side, do — but the depth of play and the wealth of options is perfect for those long winter nights.
Sherlock Holmes Consulting Detective
Lounging on the sofa, newspaper and map in hand, snug and cozy in some blankets: If that sounds like a great winter activity, Sherlock Holmes Consulting Detective might be your perfect winter game. In this classic, you and your fellow players play the role of detectives trying to crack a case, and you’re trying to crack it before one Sherlock Holmes has an opportunity to do so. (You almost certainly won’t be able to do it, of course. The guy’s good.) It’s a whole lot of reading aloud and discussing hypotheses, and that really is the entirety of the game.
The Isle of Cats
I’m starting to suspect that I connect cats and winter in my head, and I’m not sure why. The Isle of Cats is a tile placement game in which you’re rescuing cats from an island and herding them onto a boat. As you pile them in, you’ll try to keep families of cats together, collect treasure, and complete unique scoring objectives on your way to success.
This is one of my favorite recent tile placement games. There’s a great level of variety here, and you’ll want to play it repeatedly as you figure out how to successfully navigate the difficulties of herding said cats.
Thanks for reading! I’m not sure what I’ll be writing about next week, so if there’s anything you’re interested in learning more about, drop a comment or reply to this email. I’d love to hear from you.