http://en.boardgamearena.com
(in browser, free, uses HTML5 instead of flash)
Some people miss turn-based strategy games. Board games are exactly that. This website allows people to play board games for free (they can be very expensive otherwise) and is meant to stay that way. They have official permission of those games' authors. Presumably, they get money from them because the website raises awareness and makes people want to buy these games and play them in meatspace. Some of them, like Saboteur, are strongly social and much better played in a circle of friends.
One game of note is Seasons.
While it's very chaotic at 4 players, some even say it's best at 2, it has a couple of things going for it. It has interesting mechanics. First, there's a draft from a very varied deck. You get some cards, pick one of them, and pass them to the player next to you. After each draft pile is empty you should end up with 9 cards. So it's important to plan your strategy carefully at this point. You may see a few very good cards, but you can pick only one at a time and by the time the pile is back in your hands you may find pieces of your dream combo gone. You need to have backup plans, know personality of other players, etc. You need to evaluate how this board will play like. If you see many attack cards, you may want to become an aggressive player or build a more resistant deck that doesn't rely on early crystal gain.
Then you divide these 9 cards into piles of 3, one for each year. You start with 3 cards, then draw extra 3 cards at the start of year 2, and the final 3 cards at the start of year 3. There are a few nuances here, but for most part it's easy to see what card is good when (for example cards granting benefits over time tend to be good early, victory point cards which are not reusable are good in year 3). However, the division part is not very strategic.
Then the game proper starts. In each round, dice are rolled. They're special dice, each season gets its own set. Each side of a dice offers players some options, and very often there's a combination of them. Examples:
+2 water energy (for playing cards of power), +1 summoning power (a star; increases the number of cards you can have on the table. Very important, because most cards stay on the table.). And two mysterious dots.
Draw a card. Three mysterious dots.
get 1 fire and 1 earth energy, and gain 3 crystals (victory points and and an additional resource). One dot.
Get two air tokens, a border around these symbols (you can transmute energy into crystals this turn), two dots.
Gain 6 crystals, 1 dot.
Starting from the first player, everyone takes a dice with the options he wants. There is a random element here, but no side of a dice is only bad. They're good and bad in certain situations. You want to choose what benefits you and take options your opponent would like to get. The dots at the bottom of the dice determine how many months pass after this turn. The last player chooses one of 2 remaining dice and the number of dots on the unused dice counts. So the last player actually has a say in some important matters. The dice determine options available, as opposed to binary success/failure.
Then, in the same order, players can play cards - if they have enough energy and summoning limit (invocation - the cap for the number of cards). Then the next round and the player to your right is the first player this round.
Energy crystals are used to summon cards. Each of them, except one use cards, is worth a number of victory cards at the end. There are two types of power cards: familiars (affect all players) and magic items, which generally have better long-term effects. You want to play cards that synergize well and play them at the right moment. Each season has different dice and getting fire energy in winter, for example, is very difficult. You have to plan ahead and may need to wait until a season that produces energy you need. But you might not get it if others beat you to it ! You can increase your chance by picking dice in such a way that you spend 2, or even 3 turns in a season. The increment is between 1 and 3, multiplied by 3 years it's about 18 fast turns.
You can also transmute energy into crystals for victory points, or if you need to pay for some card in crystals. The board indicates how many crystals you get for "
selling"
energy each turn. Spring energy is worth the most right before it, and very little in Spring and Summer. The price changes with seasons.
When you draw a card from dice, it's a random card from the top of the deck. It's a good option when you have lots of (in particular, varied) energy and no other cards to play. Other forms of card drawing (which is very rare compared to other games) are more useful, for example amulet of Fire makes you take 4 cards and discard 3 of them, Divine Chalice makes the same... but summons it for free !(don't be silly and don't use this card with only 1 summoning power left)
Taking crystals directly from dice is rarely a good idea, but can come in very handy when you need to pay a cost in crystals.
Card images are high quality, but some may dislike them as they're sugar-sweet. I tolerate them. What's more interesting is card mechanics and their variety. Almost no two cards are alike. Some grant you energy over time, but always in different ways that encourages to assemble strange combos. Beggar's Horn is very inexpensive and can potentially give you 1/turn (of any color!), but only if you have 0 or 1 in your reserve (out of max of 7, or 10 with a grimoire). Coupled with the fact that you often get even +2 energy from dice alone, each turn, it can make getting the bonus difficult. But if you plan well and often burn all your enery (or transmute it), then it's great. Hourglass of seasons gives you 1 energy of your choice whenever a season changes (a season can take 1-3 turns), but is very expensive. So is Hand of Fortune, which makes you pay 1 energy less for cards - so cheap cards benefit the most. The vase gives you 1 energy whenever you play a card and is only moderately expensive.
Other cards let you sacrifice familiars for energy, transform energy of all other players into Air, leech crystals from other players over time, whenever they use an activated ability, whenever they play a card... you can get extra crystals for playing cards, for having 4+ energy in reserve, for having the most cards on the table at the end, for having no familiars. Many more cards and they often interact. There are general tendencies, but overall strategies differ quite a bit from game to game because the starting pool of cards to choose from differs widely, and you draw few cards thorough the game.
I like to play 3 player games of Seasons. I had a particularly fun game yesterday. My opponents had more points than me and it looked like they successfully thwarted my strategy by blocking my attempts to transmute big piles of energy. Then came Autumn of year 3. One of players had gathered an amazing 10 of water energy, which would sell for 30 in Autumn. Fortunately, I've seen this coming and kept my aces for the right moment. I managed to become the first player, which ensured that I could pick a dice with transmutation. Also important was that I'd get to act before others. I sold some leftover energy, then used some energy from my Amulet of Water to...
...summon Lewis Greyface. This creepy rabbit allows you to copy energy from another player. Suddenly I was full to the brim (7 energy) with Water, and sold it for 4 a piece (+1 bonus from an item). But that wasn't the end. I....
...summoned another Lewis Greyface. I copied energy from the same player and sold it, again.
I knew he was going to stockpile energy, because he had two cards which would give him extra points for energy in reserve at the end.
I gained 68 energy in a single turn, using basically two cards. That's a lot. The final score was very close:
some guy: 225
me: 220
another guy: 219
I nearly won. Everyone was amused. Someone wanted a rematch, but it was 00:00 am.
You can also watch people play games to check out new games and see if you might like them. There's also a (not very strict) ladder system based on reputation (more points for defeating a better player).
Dominion is currently out of order for technical reasons. The last match was played over 55 days ago.
____________________________
http://www.gamasutra.com/features/20051128/adams_01.shtml
