And if you want to know the criteria that I’m using, or the conversation starting point, you can read that article here.

My Tableau Building Games

As normal, we split it into games that I’ve played first and then games that I haven’t played yet in my collection.

Tableau Building Games I’ve Played

• 7 Wonders Duel
• Lord of the Rings Duel for Middle Earth
• 7 Wonders
• Splendor: Pokemon
• The Castles of Burgundy
• Arkham Horror The Card Game
• Marvel Champions
• Dwellings of Eldervale
• Forest Shuffle
• Res Arcana
• Meadow
• Space Base
• Faraway
• Castle Combo
• Furnace
• Aquatica
• New Frontiers
• Jump Drive
• Ancient Knowledge
• Starship Captains
• Village Rails
• Call to Adventure: Stormlight Archives
• Cafe Baras
• Terraforming Mars: Ares Expedition
• Pixies

Tableau Building Games I’ve Yet To Play

• Everdell
• 3 Ring Circus
• Ark Nova
• A Feast for Odin
• Revive
• Beyond the Sun
• Targi
• Endless Winter: Paleoamericans
• Vale of Eternity
• Expeditions
• Fantastic Factories
• The Bloody Inn
• Raising Robots
• The Witcher: Path of Destiny
• Andromeda’s Edge
• Earth

What Stays and What Leaves?

This is a tough list to really do because they are so unique. A lot of the time there is a pretty big difference between a scoring tableau game and an engine building tableau game. So as I’m looking at the list, it’s hard to say that I should keep this one or another one. Plus sometimes they didn’t really do a great job of putting like games on the BGG list. For example, Terraforming Mars, on the list, Ares Expedition, not on the list. New Frontiers is a tableau building game, but Jump Drive wasn’t part of that list. So I hope that I caught everything, but I’m sure some where missed.

What Is And Easy Leave?

So when we look at the list the ones that I have yet to play, those are generally going to stay. That means that we’re looking at what I’ve played for easy games to leave the collection. It’s not an easy list to pick from. I only have one that is an easy leave from the list. And that is I’m going to be getting rid of 7 Wonders Duel. Mainly because I own Lord of the Rings: Duel for Middle Earth. Yes, they are different, but I’m most apt to pick the Lord of the Rings themed one to play.

The other one that is going to leave is 7 Wonders. Now that might be surprising, but I bought I copy and I just don’t play it. If I want a big group drafting game, I go with Sushi Go Party! For that reason while 7 Wonders offers something quite different, it just isn’t going to stick in my collection.

What Is An Easy Stay?

Now for easy stays, I definitely am keeping Lord of the Rings Duel for Middle Earth and then both of the LCG’s on the list from Fantasy Flight Games. I know that I want to keep one of Dwellings of Eldervale and Andromeda’s Edge, but having not played the latter, I don’t know which I want to keep. I’ve heard the latter is the better game, but I like the theme for the former more so.

Space Base, Forest Shuffle, Castle Combo, Castles of Burgundy and Ancient Knowledge easily make the list as well. As does Call to Adventure: Stormlight Archives.

Everything Else

Now let’s touch on everything else and this is where I need to find a few to cut. Do I need Jump Drive in my collection if I play it on BGA so much? I had actually put it in the too sell pile but then I brought it back. And I want to keep it and New Frontiers because I really like both of them. So they stay, though with Jump Drive, it’s tempting because of BGA.

One that it tough for me is Meadow. I like Meadow a lot, but it’s also one that I play less often. I think that this means I just need to play it more to keep it in the collection. The same can be said for Res Arcana. I need to play it more because I really do love that game.

Furnace is going to leave the collection, I’ve decided. Mainly because it’s okay at two players. And I think that I am most apt to play it at two players. Because of that it should leave the collection I think. Another one that I love the theme of but thought the game play was okay so it’s going to leave is Cafe Baras. Mainly it’s super cute, but a bit too simple for my tastes. Even as a game to play with my kid, it’s not quite interesting enough.

So The Tableau Games That Are Leaving

Just to recap we have Furnace, which I really enjoy but less so at two. Cafe Baras is a bit too simple and 7 Wonders Duel is a game that has been replaced by Lord of the Rings: Duel for Middle Earth. And 7 Wonders is getting kicked out because it’s the secondary drafting game for big groups for me.

I think that there will be others to leave once I play more. But it’s tricky getting all the tableau building games to the table. Some I maybe shouldn’t keep, like Res Arcana just because when will I play it again.

What is your favorite tableau building game?

Send an Email
Message me on X at @TheScando
Visit us on Facebook here
Support us on Patreon here

And for other ideas check out the previous lists.

Two Player Games
Campaign Games
Solo Games
Party Games
Welcoming Games

Medium Weight Games

Now, I know that some of these games are going to feel pretty light to people who play heavier games. I mean Medium Weight Games as those next step level of game, where you know some games but you haven’t played a ton.

Heat: Pedal to the Metal

Let’s start out with a racing game for our medium weight games. While Heat: Pedal to the Metal follows a nice system of what actions you take, there are a number of actions to keep track of. That’s what kept me from putting it in my welcoming game list.

Heat: Pedal to the Metal, like I said, is a racing game. And it’s one that moves along pretty quickly as you gun it down straightaways, slam on the brakes and hit corners. You paly out cards for how far you want to go each turn, depending on what you have in your hand and what gear you are in. But if you blast around a corner, or need to accelerate or brake too quickly you build up heat in your engine. This clogs things up, and while you can drop down in gears and start to cool down, you’re costing yourself speed potentially.

This game is a great balancing act of trying to push it as fast as you can while managing the heat as well. And as you play more, you can do tournaments or cups through several races. It even has a solo mode which is fun to play as well.

Dice Forge

Dice Forge is a dice building game. There aren’t that many of that type of game out there. But you roll dice to collect resources and then spend those resources to buy cards or upgrade the faces of your dice so that they are better.

I like how this game has a nice pivot point. You want to improve your dice. But at some point you pivot to getting more cards for points. When do you pivot, though, is the question that determines how well you do in the game. And you also need to figure out the strategy that works the best with the faces of the dice you have. Some cards might be more unattainable than others, but you might be generating points in other ways.

I also appreciate that you do something on your opponents turns. You don’t do much, but you roll your dice. So it’s not a slow resource generation. You can generate a lot of them quickly, and there are rules for two players to roll more so that it doesn’t slow down the game there as well.

Asking for Trobils

Next up we have a worker placement game. But this one is a bit friendlier and goofier than most. It parodies a lot of classic sci-fi stories and shows.

Basically, Trobils are causing troubles. So you need to catch them, and you get points. But of course you need to build the traps to get them. And everyone is racing around to do that. The worker spots are limited, but the number of ships you have to place out is limited as well before you need to pull them back. And you can recruit pirates or do other things to mess with players, but it’s not really a take that sort of game.

If the idea of this worker placement and almost contract fulfillment, building the traps to get the trobils, interests you, Asking for Trobils is on the lighter side of worker placement games, but will still feel like there is a bunch to do.

Clank! In! Space!

Now we’re moving to a slightly heavier game in Clank! In! Space! In this game you are racing around, building out a deck and trying to get treasure before the evil Lord Eradikus takes you out. But of course, the faster you go, the noisier you are.

I like this game a lot because it offers fun deck building. You buy cards that help you buy more cards, or fight bad guys, or race around the board. And I like how in Clank! In! Space! the board is modular. I know that Clank Catacombs offers that as well, but I need to play that one still. You compete with the other players to get in, get a treasure and get to an escape pod. But if you just get to the bay, you are rescued and can win the game. But you might not even make it out and will be out of the running.

Any version of Clank is good. Regular fantasy, Clank Catacombs with it’s even more modular board. Or Clank! In! Space!. And there is a good app for it if you want to try out the game because you aren’t sure.

Slay the Spire

Finally a cooperative game to wrap up the medium weight games list. I put this one on here because it’s cooperative, it’s based off of a video game, and it’s a lot of fun to play, both the board game and video game.

This is a rogue like deck building game. You battle against monsters to gain more and new cards for your deck. You heal up, upgrade cards, and buy more cards as well as you go along. Can you climb all three levels and win the game?

The game is also a ton of fun because it takes what’s a solo computer game and makes it multiplayer in a way that works really well. I love how it builds up towards that. And it still offers you the unlocking experience that you get in the video game as well. There’s so much going on and it’s just a very fun time for deck building. And you play three acts, but it’s easy to stop between and save if it gets too long.

Final Thoughts

These are just some oft he games that I could put down for next steps. The list is long and there are a lot of great classic games that could work on here as well, things like 7 Wonders would make sense, for example. But which of these games would you want to get and play or do you already have that you love?

Send an Email
Message me on Twitter at @TheScando
Visit us on Facebook here
Support us on Patreon here

How to Play 7 Wonders Duel

7 Wonders Duel is still a drafting game where you are collecting resources in order to be able to build all of your wonders and buy buildings that will give you points or chain into other buildings that you can play.

For drafting, though, the process is different than your 7 Wonders or Sushi Go style of drafting. The cards are laid out in a pattern, which varies through the 3 ages of 7 Wonders Duel. And depending on how players are doing with their military, that determines who picks first. So as you remove cards that are open, no cards overlapping, you might open up new options for your opponent, and you will need to throughout the game.

The game, ends at the end of three ages, three drafts. Points are tallied at that point, and the player with most points wins. But there are alternate win conditions. If I push the military all the way over to your side, I win by military victory. Or if you collect seven different science symbols you get the victory. So it creates some strategy with drafting because you need to plan for how free up cards.

Two Player Drafting

I like this way of two player drafting that it does. I’ve seen it in other games, mainly Truffle Shuffle. While that game messed around with creating poker hands, this one still keeps what works in 7 Wonders. And the strategy is present in the game. What might you want, and will I potentially open it up for you is a question.

And there is risk as you open up new cards. About half the cards each time are face up. So you know that information before you draft. And you can try and manipulate when cards become available. The other half, though, being face down until uncovered create a new tension in the game. If I flip a card, what is that going to give you?

7 Wonders Duel vs 7 Wonders

So one thing I said at the beginning is that it needs to feel like 7 Wonders as well. The two player of 7 Wonders is not good, so is this going to fix that itch or is 7 Wonders a 3+ player game and this a game with the same name but different?

I think that 7 Wonders Duel, while offering new things, is a solid 7 Wonders game. You get the experience of building up your civilization. It is different, though with military and science. For both, I think it is a good change, especially for two player. The multiplier for science in the regular game could go insane in a two player game. So to change it to an alternate win condition is smart.

But I do want to say, the game is not clunky because of any of the changes. The game play is still fast and smooth which is important. A good drafting game, like 7 Wonders, should move quickly. And while 7 Wonders Duel is only ever going to do that at two players, it does it well.

Who Is It For?

Now, this is interesting to think about. Mainly because, by being a two player only game, it is a bit more niche. Some people don’t play with only two. If they play a game, it is them, and a group of friends. So 7 Wonders is going to cover that area. But for others, like myself, I play with a mix of player counts. And that makes 7 Wonders Duel way more appealing to have along with 7 Wonders.

So I think the game is for people who like the original but want to play with two. And they want to have that better experience with two. I also think it’s a game for people who just enjoy drafting in general and want to play at two. I think most drafting games are decent to poor at two. While I can think of exceptions, Ohanami and Floriferous for example, they benefit from more. 7 Wonders Duel clearly wants to work at two.

Final Thoughts

I like this game, it’s a good two player drafting game and it’s a good 7 Wonders family of games. I think it’s strength really is that you still get to build your civilization and chain cards off of each other for building them more efficiently.

And it works well with how it offers the other two winning conditions. If it were just the same scoring as in 7 Wonders, I think it would work better but not be great. But because it is different and can just end the game, it forces players not to ignore any element. Regular game, get behind on military, just eat those points and make it up in other areas. Here, you get behind and you need to pick some up as you fight for the game.

My Grade: A-
Gamer Grade: A-
Casual Grade: B

Send an Email
Message me on Twitter at @TheScando
Visit us on Facebook here
Support us on Patreon here

That one is trickier, in some ways, to pick out games for. Because, it isn’t like I can pull out a heavy board game off the shelf to play with. It is often too many people to do that with. And I need to think about the different levels of gamer and numbers as well. I like to theme the nights, as well, so people know what they are getting into.

Top 5 Themes for Board Game Night

5. Racing Games

Kicking off this board game theme list is racing games. And this actually catches some games in other categories that I came up with as well. But racing games work well because racing is a theme that people understand. I want to finish the race first. Or, a lot of racing games, I want to win the most money because I bet best on the racing games. It might be more about the betting than the racing, but people understand it either way.

The downside to some racing games, Formula D for example, is that they can take a while. But then there are other ones that are fast and action filled. You might even decide to play a dexterity game like Pitchcar in this as well. And that one might take a bit, but it has some other benefits which we’ll talk about coming up. But racing games often play a number of people, you just want to make sure they are fast moving ones, as a race should be.

4. Roll and Writes

Roll and write style games work well for a board game night as well. Mainly, again, a lot of them play higher player counts. It might be a bit solitaire in what the players are doing, but it works because everyone is playing off of the dice on their own sheet of paper.

I think of games like Cartographers, or Paper Dungeons, though, that offer a little bit of interaction that makes it work. Or other games, though, like Trek 12, Welcome To… or Railroad Ink that offer less. So you can choose between a few options, but generally you’ll find that you play a few more of these that work well as competitive but non confrontational games.

3. Dexterity Games

Now, this type of board game might seem odd to be in there for an adult group playing games. But dexterity games really do work great for a board game night. They provide a party game atmosphere without having to play party games every time. And some of them definitely handle a high player count well.

And for me, one thing that I really love is that they are light and silly, but they offer feel good moments. For example, with Pitchcar, a game of racing disc cars around a track, when someone makes an amazing shot, everyone is excited. Why, because it is an amazing shot. And even if you play the game a lot there is an element of luck to pull off an amazing shot.

2. Drafting Games

Next I want to talk about drafting games, because they are an interesting sort of game for a game night. A good drafting game is going to stand out in that it can handle a lot of people. Why, because a lot of the drafting games are fairly simple and they keep everyone engaged at the same time.

I think of games like 7 Wonders, Sushi Go Party! or any of the Ecosystem games. They all run off of a similar systems. When I am drafting a card, so are you. Everyone is involved at the same time. And 7 Wonders and Sushi Go Party! both work with a higher player count. The others could as well, it’s just fewer cards, so that limits the player count. But because you all play at once, there is no downtime which makes it easier.

1. Party Games

This is an obvious one. However, I will say, this doesn’t mean Taboo, Balderdash, Catch Phrase, and Cards Against Humanity. Thankfully, now is a good time for party games. And it is also a time where there are several cooperative ones, so it’s easy to sit down with a group and enjoy without it becoming too competitive. Which is something that is needed for some groups.

When we play party games, I think of games like Doodle Dash, Just One, Blank Slate, Medium, and So Clover that top the list. All of these are solid games with solid theories behind them as to how they work. And they provide humor and a good time through the players versus something like Cards Against Humanity which tries to add that via the cards only.

Final Thoughts

There are a ton of different themes. And often times i look at it and I think, I could mix in another type of game, or it might change based on player count. If we end up with just a few people, sure, I’m going to pull out a couple of heavier games, or even a couple of games that play at a lower player count. We get ten players, it might pivot to party game night, or we might split into two groups. It is about knowing your group for a game night.

At the same time, it’s fun to give a theme or an idea of what games are coming. Why, because then people can decide if it’s a night for them or not. Maybe you don’t like roll and write games, that is fine, you skip the board game night where it is roll and writes. But as someone coming, you now know what is coming to help you make a decision.

Do you find that your game group gravitates towards different types of themes in board games?

Send an Email
Message me on Twitter at @TheScando
Visit us on Facebook here
Support us on Patreon here

But for me the combination of the cover and the designers Hjalmar Hach and Lorenzo Silva and it being a Horrible Guild game put it over the top. In particular, I’ve found that I enjoy most Hjalmar Hach designs. So pair that with an amazing looking cover and a company that I like, I needed to check it out.

How To Play – The Great Split

The Great Split is not that difficult a game to play, though learning it on the fly there are a number of things to think about. It has a particular cadence to the game that you need to teach. But the main premise of the game is that you have a number of tracks that you want to go up on. Depending on the track(s) they score in different ways or give you different bonuses.

So, how do you go up on the tracks, it’s a simple I split, you choose mechanic. By that I mean that I have a had of cards, between five to seven in the game, and I am creating two groups of cards. Then I pass my wallet to you and you pick one of those groups. I get the other one back. At the same time everyone around the table is doing this, so I get a wallet of cards to pick from and pick one of the two groups.

You do that several turns and then at the end of the game you tally up your points. Whomever has the most points is the winner. And I can go into scoring more, but there is some to learn with that, but not too much.

What Am I Worried About?

So a bit of twist on how I normally do it, closer to the review. But I don’t want to fully dive into it, this is more of a first impressions. There are two things that stand out to me that I am curious about with the Great Split though.

Firstly, I wonder about the viability of this game at lower player counts. I enjoyed what the game does a lot, but I played it at 3. I wonder if 4-7 would be better. The game doesn’t really add much time to it the more people you play with. But at 2-3, you won’t see many cards. It adds a different element of strategy to it with how you can play your opponent, but you are going to get more unbalanced scoring.

I also want to know what it’s like to teach the game. I played at the time we were learning the game as well. And looking back on it, I think that I could make it faster and simpler for teaching. But there are a number of things to teach. There are six different sections you need to teach scoring on. At the same time, I think most of the things are pretty simple once you know them. And I don’t think I need to teach some elements of the game as the game suggests that you have someone “run” the game and turns.

What Have I Enjoyed?

I really enjoy the “I split, you choose” mechanic of the game. The game is really just that mechanic which doesn’t worry me too much because you’ll get variety each time you play in the cards you take. But it’s interesting to look at the board of the player you are passing to, the direction doesn’t change, see what they are picking, and try and create a combination where they pick something that gives you what you want plus just a little bit more.

Or it could be that you create a split where either one will work for you, but you’ve split up what they want in order to slow them down. The game seems simple, but you can really give someone what they don’t want to keep some scoring tracks in check if you split stuff up well.

I also enjoy how the scoring works. Now, I won’t go into everything, but some of them are just how far you are up on the track, another has a sliding market, and another is the lowest of two tracks. But I’m more talking about how the game scores each section twice, minus contracts. So the three main tracks twice, once each mid game and once at the end of the game. But mid game you might score books and gems first and then art and nothing, or it might be books and nothing first and then art and gems. So when you score the first time might determine what you push for.

Final Thoughts – The Great Split

This is a very fun experience and I really enjoyed playing it once so far. I wonder how often I will get it played, though, because it is a game that seems to work better with more. And while I do have game nights, I feel like it isn’t one we’ll play all the time. But it fits into the same category, in my opinion as a game like Sushi Go Party or Seven Wonders.

With that, I mean that I can see playing it at higher player counts. And with more players, it is not a game that takes longer to play. I play it with three players, it goes as fast as the slowest player. I play it with 7 players and it still plays as fast as the slowest player. Now, the slowest player might be slower, but that is the restriction. So I really like that about the game. And I like it when I find a big group game that isn’t a party game.

Do you like The Great Split? Is it a game that you want to try? Let me know in the comments below.

Send an Email
Message me on Twitter at @TheScando
Visit us on Facebook here
Support us on Patreon here

Board Game Holiday List – Top 12 Group Games

12. Hues and Cues

Hues and Cues might be a little bit more group dependent than some of the other games. It’s about giving one and two word clues to guess a color. Let me start out by saying that this is not at all colorblind friendly, so that is some of the reason. The other is that coming up with a one or two word clue for a color can be hard at times.

But when it works, it’s a ton of fun. Because what does baby blue mean to you? That is a fun question to ask and answer. But it is also a fun game. The scoring is good for Hues and Cues as well. If you get it right, it’s 3 points and then around the spot 2, and around those 1. But as the clue giver, you score points for people being close, but only in those 3 and 2 point ranges. So it encourages everyone to try their best.

11. Cross Clues

Cross Clues is a very fun party game as well, less group dependent than Hues and Cues. In Cross Clues you have a grid, I generally play 5 by 5. The columns are letters and rows are numbers. And each column and row has a word assigned with it. You draw a coordinate, for example A2. If the ‘A’ word is “brick” and the ‘2’ word is “wolf”, you might give the clue “pig”. Then everyone else discusses where they think it might go. And your goal is to get as many right as possible. If they don’t, well, they don’t know what they missed.

What I like about Cross Clues is that it can make you think more than just what word works best. Because while “pig” might be a good clue for “brick” and “wolf” it might also work for another pair of words, and now which one do people guess. So there is an element of being clever in what you pick.

10. Medium

Medium I talked about already. You can see it on the Stocking Stuffer list, it and the next one Similo. Medium has some of the same things that Cross Clues does, trying to link two words. But instead of it being on a board and everyone guessing where, you and the person you are paired up with, you are trying to match the difference between your two words. So it might be “brick” and “wolf” still, and I might say “pig”, but I need to hope that the person I’m paired up with also says “pig”. If not we try again two more times, each time from the last words we said. Light and good for laughs.

9. Similo

Also on the stocking stuffer list, like I said. Similo is another small party game that you can play. In Similo one player is the clue giver trying to get the other players to eliminate cards based off of a card that is either similar or not to the chosen card.

It’s simple to play, but what makes it work is that I have a deck of historical figures, and I need to think, is John F. Kennedy more or less similar to Genghis Khan? But then you can also mix sets together. So now is John F. Kennedy more or less similar to a ghoul? And they have a ton of decks from historical and mythological figures to spooky monsters, woodland creatures, or Harry Potter.

8. So Clover

So Clover, continuing the list of party games, really, but there is what I’d consider a non-party game or two on the list as well. Like other games So Clover is a clever game of trying to find the connection between words again. So like a Cross Clues or Medium that way. But instead of just doing it once, you are doing it four times.

You have a four leaf clover which holds 4 cards in a square. And on each leaf you need to write down a clue for the two words that are facing that side. So back to the example, “brick” and “wolf” for “pig”. And you do that on all four sides. Then you add in a fifth card and everyone tries to put back together how your cards were on your clover. It’s a ton of fun and a good cooperative game.

7. Blank Slate

It’s word matching again, but different this time. Instead of coming up with a connection between two words, Blank Slate has you filling in the blank. So it might be ________ “cream”. You need to fill that in. And you want to match with others. Because if you match with two or more people, you all get one point. But, you really want to match with just one person, because then you get three points.

So in the example, “ice” might be the most obvious word. But “heavy” or “whipping” or “whipped” all could match with someone. Or “moisturizing” or a lot of different options. So what is most likely to get you points, but also isn’t going to match everyone. A good fast game that is just fun to sit down and play.

6. Scattergories

To flip the script we go with a classic game of Scattergories. Scattergories you don’t want to match with other people. If you can avoid it, well, then you get points for your word. If you can’t, you both cross it out.

In Scattergories you get a list and a letter. Then in a time limit, everyone writes down answers for the list, starting with that letter. You want to be unique so you don’t match other people. But sometimes, being too unique, well, if someone thought the same way you did it, you cross it out. Or, maybe you can’t think of anything unique. But if no one else puts down “grape” for a “fruit” that starts with ‘G’. You get the points. Or if only one other person did, you block them from getting points.

5. Wits & Wagers

Wits & Wagers, not as old as Scattergories is another is another classic party game. And it’s a trivia game that works because it isn’t about how knows the most. All of the trivia questions in Wits & Wagers are number based. So everyone writes down a guess and the “winner” is the closest without going over, like The Price is Right.

However that is just trivia where someone knows the most. Wits & Wagers fixes that issue by then letting people bet on what they think the right answer is. So if you know more about cars than I do, say the question was what year was the first Model T produced, I might bet with your answer if I have no clue. So it’s about knowing the people you play with as well as knowing the answer.

4. Deception: Murder in Hong Kong

Now for a non-party game one, Deception: Murder in Hong Kong. Now this sounds like a big game, and it’s not, it’s again pretty simple to play. But it’s a game of hidden roles and a murderer. The goal is to figure out the weapon and clue from the murder to know who the murderer is. But as detectives, we know it’s one of us, and we only get clues from the forensic scientist who is sending up reports, which may or may not be useful.

I don’t like social deduction games, and Deception: Murder in Hong Kong has that element in the game. I don’t like them because often you are just guessing about what is happening, especially early in the game. But with Deception, you start talking you have information from the forensic scientist. So it blends in some deduction to go along with that social element of trying to point people away from you if you’re the killer or even if you’re not because you know it’s not you, but do others believe you?

3. Codenames Pictures

Back to more of a party game and this one I know a ton of people love it already, so someone might have it to bring to the holidays. Or one of the many versions of Codenames. Codenames or any of the versions, are a game where you have two teams trying to guess all their cards before the other team can. And this is done by a clue giver giving a clue and a number. It might be “Taco 2”, there are two words that pertain to tacos that you need to guess. The first to get all of theirs wins.

Now, I put down Codenames Pictures because that is the version that I prefer. The original version is just words on the cards. And sometimes you can combo words together but often times, you’re down to basically doing “synonym one”. And that isn’t that exciting.

Pictures gives you more chances to be clever, because the pictures are generally two things. It might be a cat shaped like a donut in one picture. A building with a fish coming out of the chimney in another. I like that better because it’s more chance to give clever clues and to make a light game that you’ll likely want to play again go faster.

2. Just One

We now have another game that kind of blends some of the other party games together. Just One is a guessing the word game where one person is it, and they get a word. But they don’t know what the word is. Instead, everyone else writes down one word clues and then the guesser needs to guess their word off of that.

Now that isn’t too difficult, but if I overlap my word with someone else, both of those are cancelled out. And we hide them and the guesser can’t see them. So now maybe a clue that would have made it really obvious has been cancelled out.

For example, in a game I played, the word was Karate. I wrote down “style” and my wife wrote down “discipline”. So far so good. The other two people wrote down “kid”. Those two clues cancelled out and the poor guesser had to guess “karate” from just style and discipline. Or the word was “Cookie” and two of us put down “Snickerdoodle”. So you can end up with situations where you can get it from a great clue, or where you’ve lost too many. It does that balance of wanting to go obscure but not too obscure.

1. Sushi Go Party

And finally we have Sushi Go Party. You could put in Seven Wonders as well where. Both are drafting games that play a pretty high number of players. But I prefer Sushi Go Party because for me the theme is more fun.

In Sushi Go Party you are drafting cards to create the best meal you can. Really, you are doing so to score as many points as you can. And you do that over three hands. Each type of card scores in a different way. So some cards just score a set number of points. Others, if you have more of them, they score more points. And some you want to have two, exactly two, or they are worth less points.

And Sushi Go Party offers a good amount of variety to the game. While you have one type that you need to keep in the game. You can swap around the rest to make it higher scoring, lower scoring, meaner, or however you want it to be. Or just so that you can swap stuff out again and play with a whole new set of scoring objectives.

Final Thoughts on Group Games

There are a lot of them out there, and a lot of not so great ones out there. Or a lot that just go for a different audience than works for me. Social Deduction games, for example, play well with a high player count. But I don’t like social deduction games, nor does my wife, so I don’t have them in my collection or on the list. But they might work for you.

And there are a ton of party games out there that I didn’t mention. I didn’t put down games like Apples to Apples or Cards Against Humanity, but there are a plethora of games like those two. And while I did pull in two from the stocking stuffer list, I didn’t from the roll and write list. And a lot of those games can play higher player counts as well, like Welcome To… , Trek 12, and more.

So what are the games that you bring to play when you get together with family or friends around the holidays?

Send an Email
Message me on Twitter at @TheScando
Visit us on Facebook here
Support us on Patreon here

What Board Games are Leaving?

There’s no chance that I’m going to remember all of them. Mainly because, like I said, there are 17 games on the pile to get rid of. And surprisingly, there are several from my Top 100 games of all time. I won’t go into detail on why they’re leaving, I do in the video, but most of the time it is because I have others in the same genre or style that I will always play over it.

Claim

Two player trick taking game. I enjoy it, it can be a little bit swingy, but the game plays fast. So that randomness or the luckiness of the game doesn’t bother me much. It is more that for two player trick taking games, I now prefer Fox in the Forest and Fox in the Forest Duet.

Hanabi

Hanabi is a game with a fun concept. You have a hand of cards and you are trying to get them played out in order. But you can’t see you hand of cards. You only get and give clues. I like it for that, but it’s one I’ve played 10-15 times, I don’t pull it off the shelf anymore. For a game where you don’t know what is in your hand, I prefer Letter Jam now.

Skulk Hollow

Skulk Hollow is consistently in my top 100 games of all time, and I suspect it might stay for a while. But it is leaving my collection. Not because I am getting Maul Peak, the sequel, but because it just doesn’t get played. If I want to play a two player game, I pull others out first.

Tsuro

Tsuro is the poster child for, I liked this game, but I’ve played it enough. It’s a good filler game that can play a lot of people. But I went through a number of games like that. So Tsuro can find a new home.

The Terrifying Girl Disorder

The Terrifying Girl Disorder, I picked this one up because of the title and the artwork. And both still are still intriguing to me. But it’s been a long time on my shelf and I have yet to play it. It is one that I wouldn’t mind getting to the table sometime before I get trade it, just to see, but not enough to make sure it happens.

Call of Cthulhu: Living Card Game

I got this one recently, and now it’s leaving. It’s not because I’m not curious about it. I like the idea of a living card game around the Call of Cthulhu theme, but I already have Arkham Horror LCG and Marvel Champions LCG, I don’t want to try and track down old things for it. So as much as I’m curious about it, I know I will get sucked in.

Shadows of Kyoto

Shadows of Kyoto is another in the Hanamikoji themed game. But this one has more of a Stratego feel. And honestly, that’s why I’m getting rid of it. The whole hidden thing, trying to find your opponents, or maybe take them out, it’s not as interesting. And it’s two player, so why play it over Hanamikoji if I want a two player only game?

The Grimm Masquerade

Hidden role game that I find to be a good amount of fun. What I don’t love as much as that it’s a bit long. If I want to pull out a game where we’re trying to figure it out, then I am going to play two games of Deception: Murder in Hong Kong, if not three. And that’ll take the same amount of time and is just more fun for me. It’s a situation where I have another game I’ll always pick first.

Inbetween

Inbetween is another two player only game. You can see that I’m clearing out a number of those. One that I wanted to play because it had a Stranger Things-esque theme to it. But two player push and pull game as you fight over characters one to the “upside-down” and one to the “real world”. So, I could play it, but I don’t feel like it over Hanamikoji.

MonsDRAWsity

MonsDRAWsity is a party game that I picked up cheap, learned the rules to it, and then I realized that I wasn’t going to enjoy it as much. It is a party game of drawing what you think a character looks like based off of a description. That’s fun, but then voting on which one looks closest, that is way less fun. Any party game where it’s a vote or picking a favorite, it’s hard to keep those in my collection.

7 Wonders Duel with Pantheon

Yet another two player game. 7 Wonders Duel is just a game that’s been on my shelf for too long. I know it’s supposed to be a very good game. But the theme isn’t that interesting to me, I think 7 Wonders is just okay at best. And I have Truffle Shuffle that works for two person drafting, same with Ohanami.

Quiddler

A word game that has a 5 Crowns type feel to it as you build out bigger and bigger words or multiple smaller ones. It’s a fine word game, but like most word games, the bigger vocabulary, the better you do. It’s one I’ve played, had fun with, but I’m not going to pull it off the shelf again.

I think that’s 11 total games, so I’m missing six from the list. I guess that’s a sign that I’m not that interested if I don’t remember them. I’ll add them on in a separate article when I can look at them again.

The Drink

Just a cream soda and Orange Jameson mix again. Still a very good drink that goes down easily. One that I’d recommend. Though, as we were talking about in the chat yesterday, it’s not nearly as good straight. It’s a whiskey that I’d say needs to be mixed.

Upcoming Streams

I think Part 7 is going to be the end of going through my collection. And I want to do that on Wednesday. When we’re going to get back to playing some games. Probably some more roll and writes, or smaller solo games for a little bit before diving into the next campaign. But right now, I’m guessing I have 30-40 games and expansions that I’m getting ready to cull.

If you want to know when I go live, you can go to the Malts and Meeples YouTube channel, subscribe, and click the notification bell. That’ll let you know when I go live or schedule a video.

Send an Email.
Message me directly on Twitter at @TheScando
Visit us on Facebook here.
Support us on Patreon here.

Ranking My Drafting Games

12. 7 Wonders

I know, this one is going to be very high on some people’s lists. And I get it, it’s a very solid drafting game and I like it a lot. But it doesn’t work great at two, and I have played it at that number a few times. I know, I need to play 7 Wonders Duel. For me, this game is a great pure drafting game, the theme doesn’t intrigue me that much, and often I want more going on.

11. Cat Cafe

This is another one that is just good, but it’s not a bad roll and write. In Cat Cafe, you draft dice to determine what you do. It’s a simple part of the game where you use the die you draft and one that is left at the end. It determines what cat feature you add as well as where on the cat trees you put them. It’s a nice little system and a cute game.

10. Magic: The Gathering

This one is tough for me to rank. Mainly because drafting in Magic: The Gathering, is a lot of fun, but I haven’t done it in ages. And I don’t plan to do it for a long time. It’s a good way to play some more relaxed magic, if you are playing with friends. I think that besides Commander, drafting or sealed are my favorite ways to play magic.

9. Truffle Shuffle

Truffle Shuffle is a board game that makes a good two player drafting game. It has the grid or layout for cards that you draft from, and you open up other cards. The game play is simple, take a card, and then you can put down a set of cards, kind of in poker hands. The poker hands give you points, plus there are some special power cards as well. If you want an easy game to play, Truffle Shuffle is a good drafting game.

8. The Isle of Cats

The Isle Of Cats really focused on drafting in a great way. Yes, it is a game about putting out cats onto a boat to rescue them, but the drafting matters so much. You draft scoring missions, you draft cards that allow you to rescue cats, and other types of cards as well. And what I like is that as you draft cards, you need to pay for them. So you wont keep all of them. But which ones do you keep, because you also have to bribe the cats with fish. It’s a clever system.

7. Draftosaurus

And in Draftosaurus, you are drafting dinosaurs, probably the most unique thing to be drafting. Especially because we see dice, and we cards, but these are dino meeples. You basically are building out a dinosaur park putting dinosaurs in spots that will give you points. In a lot of ways this feels like a roll and write to me, but with dino meeples. The game plays really fast and easy and is a lot of fun.

6. Sushi Go Party!

I thought that Sushi Go Party might be higher when I started ranking, and it’s not that I don’t like the game as much anymore, but it’s more that there are a lot of fun drafting games. Sushi Go Party is adorable, and a lot of fun. The anthropomorphic sushi and other foods are cute. And I like how the drafting works. That you draft over rounds, but you score and reset at the end of each. Except for desert, and those only score at the end of the game.

5. Ohanami

Slightly above Sushi Go Party! is Ohanami, another simple drafting game, but one that I love to pull out. The game is so easy to play. Ohanami has you drafting two cards and putting them into any of three columns. The trick is that the columns and cards added, always need to increase or decrease. It’s a really fun puzzle, not that hard a one, and I like how scoring works, in that scoring grows over time.

4. Roll Player

Now we have another die drafting game, but in Roll Player you are drafting dice in order to build out an RPG character. This is a theme that I really love. I don’t get to play D&D, but I’ve rolled up a lot of characters for fun in my time. I just get to run games. And Roll Player does a good job of simulating that and getting equipment and spells. It’s a cool idea that I want to play more of, and some good drafting.

3. Sagrada

But better die drafting for me is Sagrada. Sagrada is a little bit simpler but not too simple. You draft dice to build out a stained glass window. But you have specific scoring conditions that you are going for. And a hidden scoring condition. The game also scales well with some of the things that come in the 5-6 player expansion. So I like it can play that big a group.

2. Blood Rage

Blood Rage looks like a dudes on a map game. And there is that element to it, you are vying for control of areas to get increased prowess in combat, more action points, or to be able to put more dudes on the map. But the game shines when it comes to drafting. Drafting is how you determine your strategy. And it is how you become more unique as you go. You might focus on getting monsters. Or you might want to improve your troops or to let them die. A lot of great options and good decision making that comes from drafting.

1. Lords of Hellas

Finally, Lords of Hellas. The drafting in this game isn’t a huge part, but at the same time it is very impactful. You start out with a leader/hero power but otherwise you’re the same. Then as temples are built, you draft new powers. So being the one to build a temple gets you first pick, so there is a rush to get some of them built at times. And those abilities can really shape what you’re going to do, because they might make you better at defense, fighting monsters, or building more temples.

There are a lot of things that are cool in Lords of Hellas. And the drafting isn’t the biggest part. But it is a part that keeps the game feeling fresh. Everything feels powerful, and you kind of want to draft them all. But how can you draft what’s going to be best for you?

Final Thoughts

I really enjoy drafting in most games. Some of them like Ohanami, Sushi Go Party, and 7 Wonders mean that you’re all playing at once. That is one feature that I really like. Other times you go separately but then it creates tension for what is going to be left for you. And there’s probably one, maybe two things that you really want.

The downside to drafting can be that people hate draft. And I don’t think that hate drafting is bad, but if that’s all someone is doing, it can be an issue. Mainly because it can ruin the run of a game. But when drafting is done well, and people are trying to optimize their own score, it is great.

Send an Email.
Message me directly on Twitter at @TheScando
Visit us on Facebook here.
Support us on Patreon here.

Draftosaurus: Marina
Draftosaurus: Aerial Show

You can see my full thoughts on it here, but let’s talk a little bit about how it works here. Draftosaurus has you drafting dinosaurs from a handful of meeples. You then place them into pends to score points in certain ways. Some might need as many dinosaurs of the same type as possible. Others want you playing down pairs of dinosaurs or unique dinosaurs into the pen. You are only limited in where to place the dinosaur you pick by area of the map that the dice is rolled for. Unless, you roll the die, then you can place it anywhere.

Draftosaurus is a really fun drafting game. I like that it’s not card drafting. That is extremely common in board games like Sushi Go Party! and Seven Wonders. Draftosaurus gives it more of a tactile feel because the dinosaur meeples are great. The Aerial Show and Marina add on small boards and new dinosaurs that you can play with. it creates more spots to place dinos and just more variety to the game. I like that Draftosaurus already has a double sided board but more things will be lots of fun.

Werewords

This is a social deduction style of game. I don’t love most social deduction games. They basically turn into people talking until the group decides on person is lying based off of little to no information. At least for games like The Resistance and One Night Ultimate Werewolf. However, I really love Deception: Murder in Hong Kong because it has more things going on and gives you something to work off of.

Werewords is a word guessing game, basically 20 questions, and the goal is to come up with the word, but one person can be asking bad or misleading questions if they are the werewolf. I forget all the details of how the werewolf can win, I think by keeping people off track with questions for a certain amount of time. And the rest can win by guessing the word or figuring out who the werewolf is.

You can only ask yes or no questions and the person who is “it” gives out tokens for the answer, So you can see who has asked more questions that lead down the right path maybe or the wrong path to help figure out the werewolf. Granted, it is possible that the person answering the questions is the werewolf, in which case they can lie in their answers. But make it too obvious they are doing that, the rest of the people guess they are the werewolf.

This just feels like more of a game than a lot of social deduction games, so I’m excited to give it a try coming up here soon. And I want to see if it scratches that same game and social deduction that I get from Deception: Murder in Hong Kong as well.

Which of these two looks the most interesting to you?

Email us at nerdologists@gmail.com
Message me directly on Twitter at @TheScando
Visit us on Facebook here.
Support us on Patreon here.

So let’s start with the numbers and get those out of the way, it’s probably going to be one of the shorter sections, though I might combine a few numbers, like P and Q together because I’m guessing I don’t have a ton of Q’s.

7 Wonders Duel (And Pantheon)

This is the two player version, the way it should be done of 7 Wonders, in fact, 7 Wonders no longer lists itself as a 2-7 player game, but a 3-7 player game, because the 2 player game in the original 7 Wonders wasn’t that good. In this one you are still drafting cards, but you are doing so from a layout of cards on the table, as you draft cards, you unlock other cards to be drafted which you can then put in and will help you build your wonders and score points. The differences aren’t a ton, besides the layout of cards to draft from versus a hand of cards, but there are two main ones. If someone gets every different type of science card, they win the game. If someone gets enough military power, they win the game. Otherwise, it comes down to points at the end of the game. I like how that little twist is pretty clever because it means that you can’t ignore military completely and you can’t ignore science completely, which is a bad plan anyways.

Status: To Be Played

The 7th Continent

This is a massive adventure, exploration game where you wake up on the 7th Continent and you are cursed. You need to go around and deal with the story elements that you find on the land in order to break the curse. This game takes up a lot of table space and has an okay written rule book. It, like the one above, is one that I need to play. I have messed around with it a little bit, but I haven’t dove into the game play fully. It has an interesting mechanic where you are pushing your way through what could be considered a health deck trying to get successes to complete challenges, but if you hit a curse, it resets it, and you hit it a second time you are dead. So you need to balance that push your luck and hope to find everything you need. But to solve the curses you are always exploring the same continent. From what I’ve heard, the first curse should be played or attempted a couple of times, and it’s very long, because it tries to get you around the whole continent. And even if you don’t beat that first one, then move onto the shorter ones.

Status: To Be Played

8-Bit Box

This is another too be played, I’m so bad at this right now. I picked this one up because the concept is such an interesting idea. This game basically gives you four different games. They are all kind of based off of 8-bit video games that you’d find on a Sega System or NES or SNES. The game components are used across all of them, with just some specific components for each game. It’s a clever idea that seems like it’ll bring some nostalgia when you play it, but it’s also clever because of how it manages to reuse so many of the pieces. There is an expansion for it as well, but I want to play what’s in the main box before I get the expansion and get more games for the system.

Status: To Be Played

Which one should I get to the table first, I’m thinking 7th Continent, but I could probably get 7 Wonders Duel easily to the table as well? What is your favorite of the games on the list?

Email us at nerdologists@gmail.com
Message me directly on Twitter at @TheScando
Visit us on Facebook here