Board Games

I don't mean Monopoly or Trivial Pursuit; I mean proper, geeky boardgames which should be played over a curry and a bottle of wine. Most are German in origin but can easily be found in translation. Some of my favourites include:

• Settlers of Catan
• Power Grid
• Vinci
• Quo Vadis
• Civilization (NOT the computer game version...)
• Puerto Rico
• Dos Rios
• Bohnanza. I prefer to play in German, because many of the bean names are slightly obscure jokes that aren't reflected in the English language version. It took us a while to find out what all the German bean names mean. Weinbrandbohnen are delicious bean-shaped brandy-filled chocolate liquers, literally "brandywine beans". Blaubohnen are bullets, it's apparently a slang term used in old westerns. Saubohnen are literally "sow beans" and are some sort of white bean that Germans feel are not fit food for humans, I suspect they may be broad or butter beans. Gartenbohnen are some sort of green bean, probably a French or bobby bean, as are brechbohnen. The "brech" means "break" - these beans are named for the sound they make when the pods are snapped. And "brech" is apparently also slang for throwing up, hence the picture on the card. Oddly there is no "runner bean", I can only assume nobody asked an English person when making the "English" version.