Brian O'Neil
Houston, Texas, USA
Webmaster for Funagain Games
http://www.funagain.com/

Discarding the idea of bringing theme games like Survive! and Rette Sich wer Kann as being too likely to cause depression and/or murderous tendencies, and resigning myself to the reality that five copies of Jenga probably wouldn't provide enough wood to build a suitable raft, here are the five board games I would choose to be stranded with:

The Settlers of Catan: Stadte & Ritter (Kosmos, 1998, by Klaus Teuber)

My gaming group was addicted to The Settlers of Catan basic game for quite some time, playing perhaps 50-60 times (quite a lot for us to replay a single game) before eventually burning out on it. But, unlike many game expansions which often offer only slight incremental new possibilities, Stadte & Ritter cleanly integrates a couple of whole new layers to the game. In addition to the resource production, trading, and settlement aspects of the basic game, Stadte & Ritter adds the concepts of city development (similar to the Settlers card game), and an invading army and defending knights (in a non-warlike manner which won't be a turn-off for strategy gamers).

For any of my fellow castaways who haven't played Settlers of Catan yet, the basic game will provide many hours of enjoyment; and to any who already know and love the game, Stadte & Ritter will introduce many more complexities to explore. (Ok, ok -- so I cheated with this one by naming an expansion to a stand-alone game. I suppose I'd really regret bringing an expansion to a desert island if it turned out that meant it wouldn't also include the basic game.)

I love rail games and other games which offer interesting geometric networks to explore and optimize. In Santa Fe, players extend the networks of five rail lines bit by bit throughout the game. No player actually owns the rail lines themselves, and any player can extend any of the five networks on each turn. Players earn money throughout the game for being the first to connect a new city to the rail network, and earn big money at the end of the game with the "city cards" they have played throughout the game -- each such card is worth its face value times the number of different rail lines connected to the city represented by that card.

Another great game, Wildilfe Adventure, might also fall in my favorite games list for similar reasons as Santa Fe, but there are enough similarities in the feel of the two games that I'd be wiser to bring just one of the two. (In Wildlife Adventure, players extend the paths of three expeditions across a map of the world in search of different animals.)

It's tough to pass up other truly fantastic strategy games like El Grande and Elfenland in order to bring a second rail game, but I just love this game. Dampfross is played on a large hex grid overlaid by a map with such geographic features as mountains and rivers, and about 30 cities (several different maps come with the game, and others can be purchased separately to add variety and replay value). Players use their money to extend their own rail network across the map, competing with one another to earn bonuses by being the first to connect to new cities -- and, most importantly, to create an expansive rail line.

The bonuses basically provide capital for more building -- but the big bucks are earned (and the game won) by participating in train races! Between rail-building phases throughout the game, two cities on the map are selected at random as the start and finish line of a race. Players who choose to compete in a particular race use their own track for free, but must pay to use opponents' tracks in the race. Is it best to take a longer route on your own track for free, or to pay your opponent to use his shorter track and have a better chance at winning the race? Or should you race at all, perhaps instead just collecting money for allowing others to use your track?

There are so many fine Reiner Knizia games to choose from (Modern Art, Medici, Samurai, and the list goes on) that it was hard to pick just this one -- but alas, such is the nature of preparing to be stranded on a desert island. Knizia's games are well-known for their elegance, and even his simplest games like Flinke Pinke (aka Quandry) have an amazing depth to them. But with so much time available to play, the more ambitious and complex Euphrat & Tigris is my clear choice.

In this tile-laying game, players attempt to build the most powerful -- but balanced -- civilization. Players compete for control of ever-changing kingdoms in the cradle of civilization between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. Each player controls four leaders of his people, one for each of four different aspects of civilization (Religion, Politics, Farming, and Trade). Victory points are earned in each of these four categories, and at the end of the game, each player's score is the number of victory points he has earned in his weakest category -- thus, balance between the four is crucial. A few special victory points are available which can be used as "wild cards" to help compensate for imbalance. Great gameplay and the unique scoring system make this game a classic.

And finally, the one game on my list which is not part of the German Game Invasion: the classic territory-building game of Go is perhaps the most difficult-to-master game of all time. I don't normally play deep abstract strategy games, as I find such games don't offer enough entertainment value (measured in fun per amount of energy invested) for my personal taste. I do love strategy games, but with Go, the amount of experience needed to fully appreciate this game is so significant that one would really need to devote a chunk of one's life to studying the game -- but being stranded on a desert island might provide the perfect opportunity to do just that!

I can't think of a deeper game more worthy of such study than Go. Perhaps an epic themed strategy game like Advanced Civilization would be another fine game to bring as one that would provide many, many hours of play, but an advantageous side effect of bringing Go along is that Pente could also be played with the same board and stones! (Heh heh -- maybe if I break the rules enough, I'll get kicked off this forsaken island!)

Desert Island Board Games Index