new games

My sister had a couple of new games with her this weekend. The first we played was Tumblin' Dice, which she hopes to demo at Winter War. This is a fun little party that involves manual skill. It's the first such game since Jenga that I've really liked. The idea is simple: you roll, flick, or bounce dice off of the upper starting area to the lower levels of the board. Once you're across the black 'O points' line you score points equal to the number rolled times 1, 2, 3, or 4. Games are played in 4 rounds, so you have opportunity to knock other players' dice off the board or maybe you can knock a previouslly thrown die of yours into a higher scoring position. Tumblin' Dice makes for raucous fun and would be perfect as a party game. You can teach this game to anyone in a minute or two.
One nifty little feature is the dry erase scoresheets right on the board:

Then we played Ingenious,a Riener Knizia tile-laying game. Its one of those deceptively elegant games at which my sister excels, so she beat me at this one as well. The basic deal is that you draw tiles shaped like two connected hexagons out of a bag. You score points by laying like colors in lines. Points are scored for each color (hence the multi-track scoreboard in the pics below). Whoever has the most points in their worst color wins the game. Very fun as a two-handed game. I'm hoping Jenn brings this one to Winter War so we can play it with more players.