How to Play Biblios

Biblios is played out over two phases. The first phase is the gift giving phase. In that, a player takes cards off of the deck one at a time. With each card they decide to add it either to their collection, an auction collection, or face up for the other players. Once they have done that for number of players plus one, doing each action once, or once per other player, the other players take face up cards in turn order. You go through all of the cards in the deck that time. This builds up the players hands.

There are three types of cards that you might get. Firstly there is money, that is used in phase two. Next up item cards, stuff for building out your library, that is for area control or area majority in the different colors. Finally there are churches. Those influence the value on the dice. The dice are victory points, all starting at three, for each area, color, of item. And the churches increase or decrease the value.

The next phase, is the auction phase. So all the cards that go into the auction pile are auctioned off one at a time with going around to different players leading the auction. If it is an item card or a church card you use money to bid. If it is a money card in the auction pile, you bid a number of cards to get it.

Then, after all that is done, all gifts given and cards auctioned, you check for majorities. The value on the cards totaled for each color determines who wins that color. Players take the die of the color that they won, and you add up the total on all the dice. Scoring at the end is fairly simple.

What I Don’t Like

One thing that is a neutral item for me, but I think is just okay is the giving of gifts. Now, the concept is very interesting. When do you pass on something good, maybe putting it into the auction pile, in hopes something better shows up? That is cool, and I’ll talk about that more. But there are a number of cards to go through, so the giving of gifts just takes a little bit. And the interest of it wains a bit over time.

I also think that the scoring might be a little bit too simple, or more the strategy for it. Now, with more players and a few cards out of the deck every game, it does mean you can’t math it out. I think the more i play it though, I’ll find that I want to be a bit more cutthroat with the game. Buying up cards that others might want or messing with the dice more. I just want something more for scoring, like a bonus of 3 points for the player with the most item cards, something like that. Or a point for every three coins left after the auction.

What I Like

On the flip side, I do like the gift giving part with the push your luck element. What card works be the best for you. At what point in time do you maybe throw away into the auction a really good card because you don’t want it, but you also don’t want to give it to someone for free. But once you do that, now you don’t have the ability to hide an even better card. It makes an interesting choice like in Grimm Masquerade, just more of it.

I also think that the auction is good. Mainly because different cards auction different ways. I like that you can put good coins into the pool, so a 3 coin shows up, I might bid two or three cards, maybe even four, to just get rid of cards for an item I won’t win. Or to get rid of 1 coins. But there is risk with getting ride of 1 coins because if you bid a 2 coin and only have a 3, you pay with the 3 and get no change.

Finally, I like that all the cards aren’t in the deck. Even at the max player count, some are still out though not many. That means that you can’t count cards, though it’d be impossible to get everything figure out. In a two player game, if no cards were out, you could count it all I guess during the auction phase easily enough.

Who Is It For?

Who is this for, probably anyone. The game is very simple when you get down to it. I could take this to my parents and get them playing it fast. And I think that while it is light, for heavier gamers it is going to make a good filler. Even for more casual players, this is a filler weight and length game.

Now, I talked that it takes a while to get all of the gifts out. It isn’t that it takes that long, really, it is more that it loses some of the interest as you go. After going through cards and picking how to disperse them, some players might flag on that a little bit. But then the game is so fast moving that it’ll get to the auction quickly.

It is also best at three players. So a good game for that play with parents sort of situation. Two and four are solid, but three is the sweet spot for me.

Biblios Final Thoughts

Biblios is a great little filler game. For me it worked quite well, even with the bit of slowness. It helps that not on your turn, you still get a card. That means you care what the other player(s) put down. And I like it with three because now two cards are out for the players. If you pick first, I hope you leave what I want. It creates a bit of tension that the game doesn’t have a ton of.

I do worry, though, about the staying power of the game. Is it going to go like Tsuro where I played it enough times that I moved on from it? I think that it might just after enough plays. Now, I am no where near that, and it is a lower player count. That means that I won’t use it as a filler as much as Tsuro, Criss Cross, or Second Chance.

There are also elements that remind me of Arboretum where only one person scores a color. However, Arboretum has more puzzling out what to do. And I think it is meaner because you know what everyone else has, or is at least going for, on the table. Biblios scratches some of that same itch while being much more accessible. And also less mean than Arboretum because of that.

My Grade: B
Gamer Grade: C
Casual Grade: B+

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Aeon’s End: The New Age

This is the one that I have some of the stuff for it. By that I mean that it’s a stand-alone expansion for Aeon’s End, like Aeon’s End: War Eternal and Aeon’s End: Outcasts are that I already own. Plus, I own Aeon’s End Legacy. So I must like Aeon’s End quite well, and you can see me playing it over on Malts and Meeples YouTube Channel.

This is a deck building game, which as we know, I like deck building games a lot. This one also does something that is a bit different from other deck building games. Normally you shuffle your deck of cards once you are through, but not so the case for Aeon’s End. Instead you are just taking your discard pile and flipping it over. This means that you can set-up your deck, if you put the cards in the right order.

I also like how this series has evolved over time. Aeon’s End: War Eternal is the second game in the series, and it’s a lot of fun. But Aeon’s End Legacy and Aeon’s End: Outcasts allow you to “unlock” stuff as you go along. In the case of Outcasts you aren’t adding stickers or anything, you are just playing through a story more so, so campaign versus legacy game. I really need to play the legacy game because I’ve had it for a bit and it is a lot of fun in the regular version. And theoretically you can mix and match a whole lot between the games.

Black Rose Wars

This one was a really interesting looking game which originally drew me to it. Everyone takes on a the role of a mage and is in a battle to start slinging spells, knocking down your mage and become the ruler of the mysterious Black Rose Lodge. This has some deck building as well as you learn new spells, but also combat, area majority, and more that is going on it it. The Dice Tower played through Black Rose Wars almost three years ago now, and it looked really interesting then.

What looked so especially interesting was the cards you add into your deck. They are not light weight cards and you build up to cards that carry more weight. These are some heavy cards and can do massive things, and that seem game breaking in some ways. But they are all game breaking in fun ways, so it’s if you can utilize them to the best of your ability and create interesting interactions better than everyone else can. Because what they get is going to seem game breaking as well.

This game says it has a 90 minute play time, so I actually like that as well. I have some fasters kind of area control and fighting games, but this one seems to have a lot to sink your teeth into which is what I was looking for. And as more skirmish type of games are doing, where you have heroes, you don’t lose the heroes ever, so you can jump back into the battle and you’re never out of it, even if the other players gang up on you for a turn to knock you out.

Two bigger games to end the year. I know that there is another small game that I’m going to want to pick up soon, Ohanami, that looks like a lot of fun, and that I hope will still be there at my FLGS next time I go. I was able to get a game to the table already this year, and I’m hoping for a whole lot more.

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The Collection

Numbers

A’s – B’s – C’s – D’s – E and F’s – G and H’s – I, J and K’s – L’s – M’s

N, O, and P’s

Not Alone

I am always looking for big group games that aren’t just light party games. And Not Alone definitely hits that where it has a one versus all. And I really like the one versus all aspect to it. I have a lot of fun playing both on the monster side and the crew member side. I think that I prefer to play as the monster as I keeping track of what everyone is playing down is a lot of fun and offers an interesting challenge. I also like that as the crew, though, you can talk amongst yourself, but the monster player always has to be able to hear it. So you can plan, and planning isn’t bad, but it lets the monsters know some of what is going on.

Status: Played

Onirim

Onirim is my go to solo game for one simple reason. It’s really small and doesn’t take up much table space. It was also the first game that I played solo, if I remember correctly. I’m not counting when I was a kid and I’d take stuffed animals through a game (can you tell I like board games). This game’s puzzle is really interesting, and I like the odd artwork that it has. If someone is looking for a solo game to try, this would be what I recommend first.

Status: Played

Pandemic

This is just base Pandemic, not the Legacy versions, which will be coming up next. Pandemic is a great game. It’s a gateway game that tells a story each time you play it, and while there is certainly a fair amount of mechanics too it, it is still an experience. I like in a cooperative game how you don’t have enough time to do everything. That’s really important because it keeps the tension for the game high and the replayability high because there is always more to do.

Status: Played

Pandemic Legacy (Seasons 1, 2, and 0)

I love Pandemic Legacy in each version that I’ve played. In fact I’ve played Season 1 twice and had a blast with it the second time that I played it as much as the first, and that was playing it solo. Pandemic Legacy games, while you can’t play them again once they are done, are just such amazing gaming experiences. They add in story to the game of Pandemic, and definitely have an evolving ruleset that you need to remember. If I could go back and play it again for the first time, I would because the twists and turns, while not that shocking always, are really good. And I’m excited to go and play Pandemic Legacy Season 0 sometime soon.

Pandemic Legacy Season 1 and 2: Played
Pandemic Legacy Season 0: To Be Played

Papillon

The second butterfly game on the list, this one also has you building a garden and amazing looking 3D flowers. This is an area control/area influence game, a drafting game, and just has a great table presence. I had a lot of fun punching out everything and putting it together. I picked this one up because when I can get it played, it’ll sell itself with the 3D flowers and with the butterflies that are on clothespins.

Status: To Be Played

Parade

A small game, this one is a great filler that has some strategy to it. In it, with it’s pasted on Alice in Wonderland theme, you are trying to get the fewest points possible. But you are taking cards that are lower number or the same color as the one that you play down, but only so far along the path. It’s an interesting puzzle that has a mechanic that I really like. If you end with the most of a color, those cards are worth 1 point each, instead of face value. So you can shoot the moon a bit in a color, as long as you don’t get too many and end up with a low score. So it adds in good strategy to what is a small game.

Status: Played

Patchwork Doodle

I love roll and write games (or flip and write) and this one is an interesting game about making a quilt. What is really interesting is that you score points based off of the largest solid square you’ve made in your quilt. So compared to some polyomino style flip and writes, this one has you really wanting to keep things tightly packed together. And you are moving around placing the different shapes to build your quilt in less of a flip and write way and more of a rondel, which is unique as well.

Status: To Be Played

Phase 10

A mass market game hits the list again. Phase 10 is a game that kind of has that got me into the hobby and one that I grew up playing. I know this game has issues, mainly that someone could get stuck on Phase 1 for 10 rounds, and lose the game just like that. Now, that’s almost impossible, but it could happen, and that’s no fun. The game that I don’t own, Five Crowns, does something similar to Phase 10 but fixes that problem. I still have it in my collection though because it’s a classic and it’s easy to pull out and teach.

Status: Played

Photosynthesis

This is an abstract tree growing game that I need to play more of. I love the way it looks on the table, you have 3D trees, and I like the that the sun rotates around the board. What drew me to the game, besides the look, is that rotating sun and the fact your trees cast shadows. So you get less points to use if your tree is being blocked from the sun by another tree that’s taller or the same height possibly. This means sometimes you end up with great turns, but if things go poorly, or I place a tree just right, you might get no points to spend on actions. It’s a mean game if you want it to be, but that’s a lot of the fun.

Status: Played

Point Salad

A point salad game is any game where you have a million different ways to score points. If you put a piece down in spot X, you get 10 points. This takes the concept and makes it into a little filler card game. On your turn you draft either a scoring card or two vegetable cards. The point card might say that you get five points per pair of tomatoes that you have. So you’ll draft a lot of tomatoes. But if another tomato scoring card comes up, I can take that, or I can draft a vegetable from that row, causing it to flip over. The game is clever, it scales well, and you do score a ton of points, especially possible at higher player counts.

Status: Played

So three letter there, but not a ton for each of them. You might be surprised that I didn’t add Q in as well. But that’ll wait for another day. What’s your favorite game starting with the letters N, O, or P? What game do I need in my collection starting with those letters?

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So, what is a Dungeon Crawl?

A dungeon crawl game is generally going to be a one versus many or game versus many sort of game where the players are going through a dungeon and clearing out the monsters in that dungeon while also trying to possibly complete additional objectives depending on the scenario that is given. Generally you’ll have your character, the monsters, and anything else important on a map and you’ll use in the scenario. Generally these sorts of games are going to have a fair amount of combat. This combat can be done through card play but very often Dungeon Crawl games are going to have you rolling a bunch of dice to see if you hit or how much damage you do. That will be how you defeat traps and sometimes you’ll use different skills for things like overcoming obstacles or disarming traps as well.

One thing to note is that when we say Dungeon Crawl, it doesn’t have to be a dungeon per se. There are games out there where you’re going through a mine in the old west or fighting through a lab to get some secret plans. Dungeon Crawl definitely comes from fantasy and RPG roots but it’s something that’s been placed onto a lot of different settings. The term really refers to the idea that you enter the scenario at one point, you fight the monsters or bad guys, and you complete the objective.

Dungeon Crawls also generally fall into the broad category of Ameritrash games. This means that most Dungeon Crawl games are going to have some higher level of luck to them. Most often this will be in combat where you are rolling dice to see if you hit or not. For some people this can be off putting because if they roll poorly they might not be able to do anything about it. But a lot of these games also have something known as dice mitigation. This basically means that you have ways to manipulate the dice, either by rerolling them to see if you improve your result or the ability to change the face of the dice. Also, I would say, a lot of these dungeon crawl games have moved away from a simple pass or fail on an attack. Yes, an attack might not hit, but even on a miss they generally try and supply some sort of benefit.

Let’s talk about some games that fall into the style:

Gateway Games

Mice and Mystics – Now this is one that I actually haven’t played but that I’m quite familiar with, and I think provides an interesting feel and a good introductory point for a dungeon crawler. This game is not a massive game like a lot of dungeon crawlers are and the theme is really targeted towards kids and families, which is ideal for a gateway game as that means that it is going to be rules lighter. In this game you play as a band of mice who are fighting off monsters and completing a storybook of quests and missions. This works well as well because everyone is working cooperatively together against the game.That means that for younger players or people who might not be following all the rules, it’ll be easy to help them mid game, just don’t end up taking their turn for them.

Medium Weight

Mansions of Madness 2nd Edition – Now, I think the 1st Edition is hard to find at this point so I probably don’t need to specify, but I still like to anyways. In this game it’s a more story immersive dungeon crawl as you are going to a location to complete a specific story driven element on the game. You’re trying to solve the mysterious goings on at a mansion, or people disappearing at the seaside, or maybe even there might be some time travel. But there is something going on. This is another fully cooperative game as there is an app that directs you in what you need to do for the monsters and how the board changes as you reveal new map tiles and explore finding cultists, monsters, or clues that you need to stop the disappearances or ritual. This game has more complex rules, though most of your actions are pretty simple, but the app with the game makes it so that it walks you through a lot of stuff that could be a potential downfall. It’s a really fun game with a lot of expansions and scenarios.

Heavy Weight

Gloomhaven – Now, I was tempted to put Gloomhaven as the medium weight game on my list. I do not think that it is highly complex, but compared to Mansions of Madness and Mice and Mystics, it is more complex and just because of the volume of stuff in Gloomhaven, it is way more intimidating. This one, unlike Mansions of Madness which is one off scenarios, is a massive campaign game as well as you go through scenarios which are intertwined together to create a massive story of monsters, mystery and destruction. In this one the combat is less random because you have a modifier deck that you are using. Yes, you could still hit your null and do no damage, but you can improve the odds of doing well as you level up your character.

There are a ton more Dungeon Crawl games out there, I mentioned wild west, Shadows of Brimstone, if that theme is more interesting, there’s Reichbusters about being a crack team going in and basically fighting Nazi zombies. Or you could play through missions in Star Wars: Imperial Assault around the events of the original trilogy or play as Gimli and Legolas in an adventure in Lord of the Rings: Journeys In Middle Earth. So there are Dungeon Crawls for everyone out there and some are very complex and have massive rule books, while others are more simple.

What is your favorite dungeon crawl game? Are there any that stand out to you as being better than the rest? If you haven’t played a Dungeon Crawl game, what’s keeping you from playing one?

Share questions, ideas for articles, or comments with us!

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