Game Reviews: Mensa Mind Games®, year 2008

Stonehenge: An Anthology Board Game

• Replay Value (1-10): 10
• Fun Factor (1-10): 8
• Worth Buying (1-10): 7
• MMG Popularity Rank (out of 54): 1st

The genesis of this game is a bit different than most games. The components of this game were designed first, and then five well-accomplished game designers were then asked to design games with the set. The result is five games that all play very differently and use the given pieces in different ways, as well as a set that can be used by the players to design their own games.

As I mentioned in a review of a different game here, too much freedom in a game's component design can be a bad thing, but in this case the veteran designers have done a good job making sure that they have designed playable games instead of perhaps trying too hard to use all the components. I found that the best game of the five was Richard Garfield's card-bluffing game (although it probably only plays best with 3), followed by Bruno Faidutti's strategic political-maneuvering game. James Ernest's bidding game is an okay game but not particularly memorable (unlike a lot of his Cheapass game designs, which I find to be very memorable but often not very play-worthy). Richard Borg's war game was playable but seemed to have game-balance problems, and Mike Selinker's race game definitely pushes the envelope at the sort of game these components can make... but would probably be much better if it had custom components. (Sorry Mike!) The set is beautifully-produced, except that the cards probably will have problems with repeated play. No individual game here would stand out as an excellent strategy game in its own right, but as an anthology it works well.