And so we start the process to reveal what I rate the top Canadian board game.
This week I am working on numbers 11 to 15, and this is perhaps the most difficult set of five since I was trying to glean what game among several hundred warranted mention above the others.
First up is a beautifully made but sadly somewhat obscure game which pays homage to our wonderful Canadian Football League; GridIron Master.
GridIron Master is a wooden board game invented by Brett Proud, Craig Proud, Paul Morin and Jordan Sampson. It was first published by Canadian company PHI Sports Games in 2007. It combines the strategic elements of American and Canadian Football with chess. The Canadian Edition of GridIron Master is licensed by the Canadian Football League Players Association (CFLPA).
The GridIron Master is sized to scale of a real football field. It is a combination of the skill and strategy of football and chess that is for ages ten and up.
At number 14 I’m going out on a bit of a limb with a choice based admittedly on my own bias toward miniature games.
Dream Pod 9 is a Canadian company with several long0running mini game ranges, but I will focus on Heavy Gear Blitz.
“Heavy Gear Blitz is a miniatures wargame set in the award-winning Heavy Gear universe. In Heavy Gear Blitz players take command of detachments of Heavy Gears (light, piloted humanoid mecha) with support from tanks, infantry and other resources to take objectives and smash the enemy,” details www.dp9.com/heavygearblitz
“Heavy Gear’s story spans multiple planets and centuries of history, but the focus of the action is Terra Nova, a colony abandoned by Earth that has developed its own complex and exciting culture. Earth was a distant memory until recently, when the Terra Novans learned that a dying, war-torn Earth had reached out to retake its former colonies by force. Earth’s new army, the CEF, has set its eyes on the desert world as a new place to relocate its citizens to, but the Terra Novans have become quite capable at defending themselves after centuries of fighting amongst themselves.
“Each player builds a force according to guidelines in the appropriate book. Currently, the book Heavy Gear Blitz: Locked & Loaded contains rules for a dozen core factions, but other books such as Black Talon: Return to Cat’s Eye and Perfect Storm: NuCoal Field Guide detail addition. The armies should generally be built to a Threat Value, or point limit, both players can agree on. 1,000 TV is common.”
Daniel MacDonald, a Canadian teamed with Michael Escobar in designing Omega Chess that is number 13.
You can’t go wrong with a great chess variant and that is what Omega Chess is. Among dozens of variants, maybe hundreds actually, this is in my top three with Wildebeest and Grand chess.
“The whole chessboard has 10x10+4 squares: it consists of one large expanded 10x10 square with ten rows and ten columns of squares, as well as four additional squares which are located diagonally to each corner,” describes www.boardgamegeek.com
“Those outmost corners are the opening position for the Wizards, one new kind of piece in Omega Chess. The other new kind of piece are the Champions, which are located in the corners of the 10x10 square, with a Pawn in front of them (there are ten in total) and a Tower to their side. The remaining pieces - that are also found on a traditional 8x8 square - are between the Champions and their Pawn, arranged as usual.
“Similarly to the Knight, the new pieces are classified as leapers, which allows them to jump over pieces. A Champion can jump two squares in all eight directions. The Wizard can either jump three squares straight and then one square to either side, or move one square diagonally. Except for Pawns, standard pieces move as usual. Pawns are also allowed to move three squares from their initial position. As with moving two squares at once, they can be captured en passant when doing so.”
A card game falls in at number 12, with Haggis from Sean Ross.
On boardgamegeek.com the game has been highly recognized with the following;
• 2011 Golden Geek Best Card Game Nominee
• 2011 Golden Geek Best 2-Player Board Game Nominee
• 2011 Fairplay À la carte Winner
• 2010 Golden Geek Best Card Game Nominee
Haggis is a climbing game in the same family as Zheng Fen and Big Two. It borrows and recombines elements from its parent games - card combinations, bombs, scoring for cards in hand, scoring for cards collected in tricks - and it mixes in equally distributed wild cards and betting that you’ll be the first to empty your hand of cards.
While some might question why a derivative game makes the list, but haggis is fun on its own merit and a card game was almost a must somewhere on the list.
Jean-Francois Lassonde gives us Micropul at Number 11.
This one made it largely because it works for head-to-head play, but also is an outstanding solo game.
Micropul is at its heart is a tile-laying game.
“Each player has a hand of tiles they must play optimally to keep a flow of new tiles coming in and if possible keep aside some tiles in a supply stack that will be worth more points at the end of the game. Drawing new tiles is done by activating catalysts, this part is very tactical,” details www.boardgamegeek.com
“During the game, groups of micropul of the same color will get formed. These groups can be claimed and will be worth a lot of points if they are closed at the end of the game. This is the strategic part.”
