B - Board games, German

Brian and I are famous (or is it infamous?) among PCVs for our love of board games. Not just any board games, but board games with German origin. Whenever I tell people about our favorite games I usually start out by calling ourselves “game snobs” and end the conversation with “we’re really big nerds.”

The games we love are not your uber-nerdy D&D, Magic, Buffy the Vampire Slayer role-playing games. But they’re close. In fact, to purchase most of our favorite games we’ve usually ended up in game stores where people are holed up in the dark corner drinking 1-liters of Mt. Dew playing D&D, Magic or Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Our games are one (tiny) step above that. I'm pretty sure that everyone of our favorites has been "published" by Rio Grande Our favorite games to play in Botswana include:

• Carcassone: I’ll go out on a limb and call this our all-time favorite game. It’s great as a two-player game but we’ve played it so many times together that it’s even more fun to add more people to the mix and mess with your typical strategy.
• Lost Cities: This is strictly a two-player game that seems simple at first, but there is a lot of strategy to it. Wendy and Ken gave us this for Christmas and we've been hooked ever since!
• Bohnanza (aka “the Bean Game”): We take this card game on all our big trips to teach to other PCVs. Again, fun as a two-person game but even better with more players. The game always creates hilarious conversations amongst players trading for beans (especially for those not playing and just overhearing the fun!)
• The Settlers of Catan: We own the two-player, card version of the game and love it. We also own a bunch of expansion sets which is like playing a whole new game. I can’t wait to play to “full” version in the States.