History Fun for your Holiday Traditions

By Nina Kendall

Holidays are a great time to get together with family and friends. Annual celebrations in my family include enjoying food and fun times together.  We watch football, take in the parade, and play games. I have enjoyed many a happy hour playing games with relatives and family friends over Thanksgiving.

If you play games at the holidays and are looking for a few history games to add to the line-up we have a few suggestions for you. These games are easy to carry in your luggage and easy to play.

Guillotine is a French Revolution themed card game. This is a hand management game for 2-5 players.  Players compete with each other for position during each round of play. With each turn, the player makes decisions about what will contribute to your status (points). After several rounds of interaction, the player with the best played hand wins.

Archaeology: The Card Game is a set collecting game for 2-4 players. With simple rules, this game is easy for players of all ages. Different types of artifacts carry different point values. Challenge your friends and family to find out who can gather the best collection of artifacts. Beware of the sandstorm!

Saboteur is a game based on building network building. Players act as miners on the hunt for gold. Players collaborate with each other to create a tunnel to the gold.  Trouble hits when the Saboteur strikes! See if you can find the Saboteur and reach the gold to win.

Timeline: Events is a card game played by 2-8 players using cards that depict history events. The challenge is demonstrate your knowledge of history. Each turn the player places a card from their hand in the timeline. Correct placement of each event card move the player closer to success. The first player to place all of his or her cards correctly in the timeline wins.

Want a game for everyone? Try Retro Loonacy. This speed matching game is played with 2 or more players and can be enjoyed by anyone. This special deck contains images that will spark conversations between generations about “retro” stuff. Have your own blast to the past!

October 2015 Games of the Week

By Margaret Duncan, Ed.D.

The Histocrats support the idea of incorporating board-games into your personal life as well as in the classroom.  As such, we support and participate in a local board-gaming group.  Any and all board-game enthusiasts are welcome to join the Game Nights that are held every first and third Friday night of the month.  As part of our gaming group initiative, we also recommend history centric games that are fun to play each week to all of our followers.  The selected games receive our “Game of the Week” distinction.  Recommended games are a mix of cooperative, card games, as well Euro style games.


Map It USA Geography Game, FoxMind Games
Challenge your family with knowledge about cities and landmarks in the US edition of Map It! Players take turns placing randomly drawn location cards in the correct position around a given starting point. Is New York north or south of Seattle? What about Miami? Is it to the east or the west of New York? If you're not sure, make your best guess! You'll also score points by catching errors made by confused opponents. What's more, with two levels of play, young minds and seasoned globetrotters alike can lose themselves in the fun of this great game of directions!








Moonshot The Game, Limited Edition
This board game is part of a Limited First Edition series, dedicated to the crews of Apollo I and the Challenger Space Shuttle, with a gold-colored sticker on the front of the box signed by game designer Van Overbay. "Moonshot The Game" puts you in command as you develop rockets, launch spacecraft, avoid hazards and earn mission patches in a thrilling race to be the first player to land on the Moon.  The game combines the strategy of a classic board game with the tactics of a collectible card game. 








Swing State: Presidential Election Game
Swing State is designed to be a great and realistic game of political strategy -- something interesting for older kids but a truly competitive game for adults. It centers on the Electoral College - the heart of presidential elections in the United States - and the strategies involved in winning 12 swing states. The game, like a real election, involves two players or two teams with one candidate and one campaign manager on each.








Risk - Dalek Invasion of Earth, Hasbro
EX-TER-MIN-ATE The Earth as multiple Dalek descend from the skies, seeking to destroy one another and conquer the world! Choose your side, deploy your armies and go into battle! In the Doctor Who Risk game, you can play as one of five different armies, either classic or New Dalek Paradigm as you invade Earth seeking supremacy. Only once all opposition has been wiped out can you begin the search - will you be the last Dalek army left? The Doctor will do his best to stop you, bringing peace to a different territory each turn, and if your army is not victorious by his eleventh regeneration, then the battle is over and all Daleks must retreat as the Oncoming Storm saves the Earth. With special power cards to boost your forces or destroy your plans, and special missions to defeat other invading forces, this game of Risk is an epic battle for control of the Earth...and the universe.

*All product descriptions are from the manufacturer