Lacuna
Two-player battle for flowers scattered across a silk surface
If you've been following the blog, you know we're big fans of two player games, and even bigger fans of games you can learn immediately, on the spot. Lacuna hits both those notes, with style to spare, and it's from our of our favorite publishers, CYMK Games? Let's go!
How it works: This is truly one of the simpler games we've ever featured. The rules video is 1 minute long. You shake the tiles out onto the play mat, then take turns placing pawns and collecting the tiles. The player who collects the most tiles (across the most colors) wins.
Why it's clever: Just opening the canister is an interesting experience. The contents are a giant silk (or silk-like) mat, a fabric drawstring bag of metal pawns (that would make Monopoly jealous), and a sealed manilla envelope of wooden flower tiles, and a ruler (for when the arguments need legal precision). To collect tiles, you place you pawn between, anywhere along the imaginary line connecting the two matching tiles. There's a lot of thinking ahead, and trying to jam up your opponents, just like we like it!
Price: $32
