In the world of hobby board games there are two major schools. On the one hand there are Euro-style games that emphasize clever mechanics often at the expense of a deeply thematic experience. The theme is pasted-on in such a way that you could imagine playing the game's rules in any setting. Complex Euro games generally involve little luck and almost perfect information. Conversely you have Ameritrash games, which tend to be very thematic and are often full of dice rolling. Some gamers much prefer one style over the other; I own more Euros than American games, but I generally abstain from very heavy Euros and can enjoy a good dicefest.
Lords of Vegas, released in 2010 and designed by James Earnest and Mike Selinker, represents perhaps the best marriage of these two schools I have ever played. It blends Euro-style mechanics with a great incorporation of the Vegas theme. It's very accessible and playable in under 90 minutes. Ir reminds me of a good summer blockbuster movie; it may not win any Oscars, but you're guaranteed a good time. When we played this at a cafe yesterday, we actually got shushed by some customers trying to have a meeting of some sort - something unheard of in a Euro game (why they were trying to have a quiet meeting in a public restaurant is beyond me).
In Lords of Vegas players are competing to develop the Strip by building their own casinos. The board is composed of a large grid of empty lots, each of which has a cost and die face printed on it. On their turn a player pulls a card from a deck which awards them an empty lot and determines which color of casino pays out both money and points this turn. Then the player is free to conduct a variety of actions. They may develop one of their empty lots into a casino by paying the cost, choosing a casino tile color, and placing one of their player dice on it, with the face on the board space showing. They can sprawl by growing a casino into an adjacent tile, which is risky because if that tile's card is drawn on a following turn, whatever player drew it immediately gets that tile instead. Casinos can also be remodeled by changing tile colors. Trading of money, lots, casino dice, and actions is also allowed, which leads to some cutthroat but engaging and fun negotiations.
The end goal is to be the boss of casinos that score points according to their tile size when that casino's color is drawn. The scoring track is interesting in that it has "breaks" which require scoring larger chunks of points at the same time to move along it, which requires players to fight for control of larger and larger casinos.
This may sound a bit complicated, but it's really not once the game starts moving; I would say it's only slightly more complex than the standard "gateway" game like Settlers of Catan. There's a lot of luck in the game, so hardcore Euro gamers may be turned off by it. But there is certainly strategy present, and the luck is actually the game's biggest strength. It is crucial to the thematic integration, as you really feel like you're gambling. And just like in Vegas, you can know all the probabilities involved in what you're doing. Whether to take the chance is up to you, and taking risks is the most fun part of the game - no real money is at stake, and playing too conservatively probably won't work and might be a bit boring. In our last game I started out slowly but had a chance to win by the end, only to have that robbed when I had control of a casino taken from me, when it was 4 of my dice vs. 1 one of my opponent's. Losing to odds like that would tick some people off; I won't say I wasn't irked, but it was just so fun that I could laugh it off.
Lords of Vegas is available on Amazon for about $36 with free shipping, less than the cost of an average family to go to the movies. It's definitely replayable, accessible to many different players, and just a sure-fire good time. Highly recommended.
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