Think back to the games that originally made you LOVE gaming. What were you playing? When was it? How did you come across the game? What about THAT game (or setting, group of people, etc.) made you fall in love with gaming?
For our February 2018 game day, we decided to do a twist on Valentine’s Day and asked everyone to bring or suggest the games that wooed them into the hobby. For some, it happened decades ago, while for others it was much more recent.
Share your experience in the comments!


ThurnAndTaxis
Thurn and Taxis
Designer: Andreas SeyfarthKaren Seyfarth
Artist: Michael Menzel
Publisher: Hans im GlückRio Grande Games
There were other games that got me interested in the board gaming hobby before I first played Thurn and Taxis, but Thurn and Taxis is probably my first board gaming LOVE. It made me really enjoy set collection as a mechanic. Playing Thurn & Taxis is relaxing for me. I love the puzzle of planning my postal routes and collecting as many regions as possible. It’s easy to teach and new players can usually pick it up pretty quickly.
I first played it four years ago with a group of friends who gathered for gaming on Friday nights. The friend who ran that group and owned Thurn & Taxis moved out of state, so I started hunting for my own copy. I was hard to find a reasonably priced copy of the game in English because it was out of print. My husband, Greg, found a copy for me in German and printed out a set of rules in English. The cards in the game have names of cities throughout Germany on them, so those don’t need any translation. None of the other components are language dependent, so a copy of the English rules was all we needed.
On Nostalgia Game Day, I introduced two friends to the game. Neither of them had heard of Thurn and Taxis before, so I was excited to share the love. We had a great time playing!


Carcassonne
Carcassonne
Designer: Klaus-Jürgen Wrede
Artist: Doris MatthäusAnne PätzkeChris QuilliamsKlaus-Jürgen Wrede
Publisher: Hans im GlückZ-Man Games
We had an EIGHT PLAYER game of Carcassonne. EIGHT. The board got quite cozy, but it was a lot of fun. Several people voted for Carcassonne as a nostalgic game in the poll we did with the group. For many it was a first, or near-first, game (at least, outside of childhood board games like Monopoly, Sorry!, Clue, etc.).


There is something zen about Carcassonne, especially when you find THE perfect spot to place a Monastery tile. We played with the River expansion, which hardly qualifies as an expansion in our group since we automatically include it in all games of Carcassonne. There were several people at the table who had never played before, so we decided to leave the other expansions out.


One of our friends brought over a 1886 printing of The Game of the District Messenger Boy. We didn’t play this one – just admired it. What a gorgeous game! There’s just something about the color and graphics from those old McLoughlin Brothers games – simply stunning.


Other games played included:

Dominion
Dungeon!
Mansions of Madness 2E
The Settlers of Catan


What games are nostalgic for you? What games are your first gaming loves? Tell us in the comments!

3 Thoughts on “Game Day: Nostalgia”

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