We’ve gone through Medium and Welcoming games. Let’s finish out the holiday list series with some heavy games. Now, when I say heavy games, I won’t have a ton of heavy euro games on the list. That isn’t my style of game, so take my list with a grain of salt. Or not so much a grain of salt, but just the knowledge of the type of game I like is much more thematic in nature. If that is you or the person you’re looking for a gift for, then these games might be great. So let’s get into the heavy games.

Heavy Games

ISS Vangaurd

Let’s start out with ISS Vanguard. I just spoke about this in my Top 100 Games (of all time) 2023 Edition. I’ll say check that out to get even more of the details on the game. But it’s a game experience that makes you think and immerses you in the mystery of the world that is being created.

The game is a giant space experience as you try and unravel why you were brought out or went out to this remote location in the universe and why all the signs pointed there. The actual mechanisms are not the most complex but there are a lot of choices to make in the game. You need to determine who to send down to a planet, what skills will be the most useful. When to trigger locations on the planet, how to avoid things that might be there. There is a lot to do.

Then there is the ship phase. And the ship phase is completely different and still has a ton for you to do in it. Do you want to spend crew to increase how fast you complete technologies. Do you need to heal up your crew because they got injured down on the planet. Or do you need to memorialize them because they passed away down on the planet. There are so many things you do in the ship phase and all of them matter.

Gloomhaven

Next up a game that is literally heavy as well as offers a lot of big decisions in how you tackle the game and utilize your character(s) to defeat the scenarios. Gloomhaven is another big campaign game and one that has been at #1 on Board Game Geek before. The complexity of the game comes in with the characters you are playing and leveling up.

Gloomhaven takes you through different scenarios generally trying to beat the monsters. But it isn’t a dice chucking beat the monsters game. Gloomhaven has a smart card system where you play out two cards each round. You pick which is your initiative, how fast you go, from those two cards. Then you use the top half and bottom half actions, one on each card. So you need to build in flexibility as well. Because the monsters all have initiatives and they might go faster than you, or they might be slower when you needed them to be faster.

And to add to that, all the characters play differently. And you definitely won’t play just one character throughout all of the scenarios. Because each character has a retirement goal. When they hit that goal, they retire and unlock a new character. Now you can play any character, but it’s fun to try a new character and learn a new system of how they work.

Burncycle

Now a heavier game that isn’t a campaign game. Burncycle from Chip Theory games is literally heavy, but also heavy in what you are doing and how you need to maintain the systems. You are robots who are on a stealth mission into a corporation run by humans. You are both sneaking around the offices but also the network to power up your character in various ways. This dual stealth adds to the complexity of the game.

But the big area is managing the burncycle. Not only is it the name of the game, but it’s also one of the core mechanisms. It is a track that determines what actions you can do. And the track degrades as you go. So think of it this way, you’re robots, you work off of programming. This set of actions is what you’re activating each round collectively. You are able to change up the programming but that’ll then effect it for the next person. And the cycle itself is degrading over time so actions are getting removed.

Plus there is threat in the game. And one of the biggest ways to boost up the threat is to reboot the burn cycle and get the enemy activating more often and kind of push you closer to the end of the game. It’s a fully cooperative experience and when you are in it, it’s not bad. But there is a lot to pick-up from the start.

Lords of Hellas

Next up we have Lords of Hellas from Awaken Realms. First of two Awaken Realms games in a row. I didn’t want to do all campaign games, so Lords of Hellas and Burncycle are my heavy games that aren’t campaigns.

Lords of Hellas is an area control game, at least that is most of the ways that you are able to win. You win by controlling an area with a complete statue after three turns. You win by controlling two large territories. Or you win by controlling areas with temples. And finally, the non-area control way, you win by defeating three monsters. So there are a ton of options and a lot to think about as you play.

Add in that the game system is an interesting puzzle. You activate certain actions and they won’t be ready again until you take the action that resets and makes available all the other actions. Lords of Hellas becomes a timing puzzle that way as you play.

And then the game also starts out with you being unique. Each player has a leader who has a unique power. And you gain more unique powers and abilities as you draft them when temples are built. So the game becomes more complex as you go because now you need to think about all your other powers and what end game goal they are leading your towards.

Tainted Grail: Fall of Avalon

Next up is Tainted Grail: The Fall of Avalon, and the expansions. These are three big campaigns with a ton of story to it. And when I think of Tainted Grail, I think of the story of the game and the experience that comes from that. And that story element is not that complex with how you interact with it. It’s just an action management system that you use.

But the game also challenges players by being a system of resource management. And you can play it on hard modes where maintaining the menhir, statues that keep the wyrdness from overrunning the land and eventually killing you, is more work. Or you can play on story mode, where it is still work, but it is easier. So for some people that element is going to be a heavier element trying to manage that with your health and progressing the story as the story often locks the players into time boxes for doing things.

And then there is the combat and diplomacy. These I think are the trickiest part of the game. You are building out a line of cards to try and defeat the enemy or resolve the situation. But each of them is going to be a bit different, at least the first time you come across them. And you need to be strategic about who goes when and what points you stop on the damage track. Some points are much worse and more dangerous to the players than others.

Oathsworn: Into the Deep Woods

Finally we have Oathsworn, another big box campaign game. This one I like a lot because of it’s dual parts to the game. And it is one that I need to play more of. In fact, it might be a Malts and Meeples Campaign experience after I play Rogue Angels. But Oathsworn is a story driven boss battling campaign game.

The first part of the game is going through a story. You are somewhere in the world, probably in the Deep Woods or the town that resides within it. And you need to explore, find the mystery that is happening, and figure out what is causing it. If you do well you get some boons for that inevitable boss combat that it is leading into.

Then you have the boss combat which is tactical combat on a hex grid against generally one big boss and sometimes some smaller minions But all the bosses are hidden until you unlock them, so it’ll be a surprise. And that combat is done by card play, determining what actions you take. And each card has a cooldown on it. But cards don’t cooldown just over turns. You need to play other cards that are higher cost which push down all the cards which get you closer to getting those cards back. That card play system is what really creates the complexity and challenge in this game.

Final Thoughts

Maybe by next year I’ll have played some heavier euro style games. I have A Feast for Odin that I really want to get played. And that is a big euro game with a lot to dive into. But i know what I prefer and it’s those story driven big games that offer their own complexity and challenges.

So which of these games would you most like to get? Is there one that you already love? Let me know in the comments below.

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