A New Game (for us) - Dixit

Yesterday we received a fairly large package from Amazon. It contained 3 new board games!

All these were games that we saw on Wil Wheaton’s (Wesley Crusher) web show Tabletop. If you haven’t seen it, it is a lot of fun. He invites a few fellow actors over and they play a board game. It’s a great way to learn about a game and see if it’s something you’d like. Based on our viewing, we ordered:

•  Dixit
• Cthulhu Gloom (Tabletop showed the original Gloom but we couldn't result Cthulhu) 
• Elder Sign (another Cthulhu themed game)

In addition, we are still waiting for:

• Takenoko http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/70919/takenoko

I'll be discussing these as we try them out. First up is:

Dixit

This was the first game we tried, primarily because the rules are absurdly simple that I read them in a few minutes. My wife picked it out but I wasn't expecting much from it. A French game? All about pretty pictures and words? With no fighting? Boring! Or so I thought.

I must say that I was pleasantly surprised. As the “Storyteller” it was quite a challenge to come up with a clue that one person would get but someone would miss. Trying to determine the other Storytellers’ clues also took some thought. There was strategy involved as well. In one game, my wife was in the lead and closing in on a win. It was my turn to be the Storyteller. If she got my clue, she would win. I had to come up with a clue that someone else would get but she wouldn’t. My clue was so vague that she didn’t get it. Our other opponent didn’t understand it but I got lucky and she picked my card. As a result, I pulled ahead and ultimately won. If I had gone with my initial instinct, my wife would have gotten the clue and the game. It also is a short game; each one we played took about half an hour. This makes it ideal for a quick game (sometimes we won't do a game night because I don't feel like setting anything up). The only drawback is that there is a limited number of cards (although there are expansions) so I can foresee us repeating clues at some point. Nevertheless, I also foresee this getting regular playtime.