In which there are my most beautiful games

I've made a lot of posts in the past about Playmobil and Lego, but what about the other toys I own.

Since Andy and I met we've loved playing board games together. We used to take our scrabble set down to the beach or play canasta on a picnic table at the caste when we were at university. We also had a few more of the unusual board games: Killer Bunnies and Order of the Stick, for example. As time went on we've collected more and more games. Then when we moved here we became part of a board games club, increasing our collection all the more as we were introduced to everyone else's favourites.

So we do have a lot of games now. In fact our game collection looks something like this:

The drawers have smaller games, and packs of cards. The Lego bricks have Magic the Gathering cards. Oh and the left bottom draw of the set? That's just full of dice! 

What I really love though about the wider world of gaming is the detail in some of the pieces available.There are the most gorgeous playing pieces, beautifully painted boards, unusually faced dice and well designed cards, even amazing storage boxes. So even setting the game out feels like working with art. In this post I'd like to show you my favourite games, in terms of the pieces themselves.

1. Quarriors

As you may be able to see here the box that the game comes in is a patterned tin that matches the design on one of the dice you can use in the game. It wins hands down for best packaging. Then you play the game using some cards (not shown), velvety dice bags, and a fantastic mix of unusual dice. It has beautiful texture. The game is competitive, involving collecting dice from a central pool. Dice can be monsters, spells or the money to buy more dice. You then use your dice to collect points towards winning. There's a nice amount of strategy in it, but it's not overly complicated either.

2. Elder Sign 

Elder Sign is a Lovecraftian inspired co-operative game. You play together to go through a bizarre museum, defeating monsters within and gathering the tools necessary to ultimately defeat the beast from the other world who is trying to devour you all. It comes with a LOT of pieces. There's a clock, little footprint clue tokens, interesting dice and a weird set of monsters. This is one of my favourites games. I like having something less competitive for a change and I love the artwork.

3. Twenty Fives

This is no Fantasy Flight or boardgamegeek game. It's from Past Times, a British shop that sells fake antiques and is on the way to going bust. Despite that, I've had this game since I was a kid and I love it. The game will be far more familiar to you under the title of Ludo. It is very much the same, with the difference being that you play with shells rather than dice. This allows for some unusual bonuses. You count how many upturned shells land for your move, but if all land flat down, no mouths showing you get to move twenty-five. The shells just feel lovely in your hand and make a nice clackety noise as they tumble.

4. Carcassonne

This game is a little more well known than the others and for a very good reason. It's fantastic. If there is anything here I would recommend freely, it would be this one. So much so it has been a Christmas present for many people! The pieces are intricately drawn and the wooden figures are solid and friendly. The gameplay involves drawing pieces randomly and fitting them together to form a map, claiming bits of castle, road and land with your tiny people. It's a competitive game, but not aggressive. The game encourages you to help each other, and the beauty of a finished map of Carcassonne makes it always chilled out.

5. Descent

This game is a cheeky addition as I have only played it once since getting it. The game is huge and heavy. You may get some idea by looking at the size of the box. I only got out a tiny selection of the pieces. It is very basically the game of Dungeons and Dragons (or any other dungeon crawl type game) played out without the role-playing aspect. You have tiny warriors who move through dungeons built out of jigsaw pieces. You roll dice to fight monsters. It is co-operative, except one person has to control the monsters. The game hasn't thrilled us as much but I think it calls for a large group. It does however, have a fantastic dragon piece.

Also, we got all but one of the games listed here for our wedding, so thank you guys! You know who you are. We love our collections and all the evenings of fun it gives us.
Do you play board games? Do you have any favourites I should know about? Do you also treasure pretty playing pieces?