Pros

• Look of the game
• Weight of the Game
• Price
• Pretty Pretty Dice

Cons

• Luck factor

The Page

This is a company that understands how kickstarter works, and they’ve done a good job on their game page. They have nice images and the game really pops visually when looking at it. I like that the how to play is at the top of the page, I only wish there was a little bit more detail than the rules prototype link and a link to a video. It talks about how the caskets can benefit the players in multiple ways, but doesn’t say more than that. Otherwise, everything is laid out really well and looks interesting to me.

The Game

The game itself, like I said, I have a general idea of how to play it, and it looks like a game that would be one that would work well for my gaming group. There’s some push your luck, it seems fairly light, so I think that all would work well.

Visually, as I keep on saying, this pops on the table, so I think people would be interested in it for that reason as well. And kind of like with food, you consume board games first on their looks a lot of the time, and this one looks like a feast.

Again, I will come back to the how to play section, you get a general idea of how the game works, but it should have more information. We’re seeing a lot of what you can do, but not any of the why or why it matters. And there are some elements, like the “ofrenda” that are mentioned as something that can be used, but nothing more than that. Either do or don’t tell me what I component does or what an element is, don’t just toss it out there as it’s something but we won’t explain it like it feels.

Back or Brick

For me, this is a back. And I’ll probably do the one to get myself access to the pledge manager just to decide because I know there are a few more games I’m interested in this year. That said, what sells me on this game is their attention to detail with the artwork and how everything seems to tie correctly into the Mexican culture and they are very careful about that, but with all of that, they still created a fun game, it isn’t just a history or culture lesson. I think that the game group would enjoy the push your luck and manipulation of the caskets that seems to be in the game and it feels like while there is luck there’s also a fair amount of strategy.

How about for you, is this game a Back or a Brick?

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Vintage Copies of Books – So, books will show up multiple times on the list in different ways, but I think that there are different types of books you can pick up for that fantasy fan. And one of the cooler ones is vintage books. Getting an older copy of Lord of the Rings, even if it has a little bit of wear and tear on it is going to be awesome for a fan of Lord of the Rings, because the vintage covers and just the feel of the books is different. Or, it could be any other vintage sort of fantasy book, but there’s just something about having that almost collectors type book, that fantasy book lovers will really like.

Box Sets of Books – Here’s the other book thing. Box sets of books are also that other book lovers collectible thing. Again, box sets are the pieces that you can put on the shelf and show off. It also means that you can give them something they might not buy, for example, if they were picking up the Harry Potter books as they went along and they were published, they could have a mismatched set, but most book lovers will spend their own money on more books, not making a consistent collection, so you could give them that as a box set, so it is consistent, and it’s something that they’ll likely love.

Fantasy Themed Artwork – Now, this is a bit iffy to put on here, simply because, while Superhero artwork you can know has a recognizable superhero on it, fantasy artwork is all over the map. So, I would lean towards artwork that is based on something. So, Lord of the Rings or Harry Potter are good examples here. There’s going to be artwork that has been done depicting both of those stories, and if someone is a fan of that story, they’ll appreciate the artwork more so. That said, maybe the person has some obscure story that they like and there isn’t artwork on it, I’d be hesitant to suggest picking up large artwork, but postcard size stuff that is work appropriate and they can put up in a cubicle, that would work. Just don’t go with anything too large that they might not like because it’s just not their style.

Fantasy Themed Magnets – Fairly specific with this one, but I’ve found that a lot of people have pretty boring magnets, if they have many magnets on their fridge. Or they might again be using them at work in a cubicle. This is where you can go with the more generic fantasy, because, again, it’s smaller. And especially going with a cute art style or maybe a chibi art style, those work for a nerdy person’s fridge. If the person has a beer fridge or a wine fridge you can put magnets on, getting the hobbits drinking pints in chibi form would be great, in my opinion, for something like that. Or maybe, the person doesn’t want chibi but loves Dungeons and Dragons fantasy, get them dragon magnets. This also has the advantage of being something if you get a magnet that you can use as a stocking stuffer.

Lego – Yup, there are plenty of fantasy Lego sets out there, some generic, and then Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter. Sorry for you Game of Thrones fans, no Lego sets. This is another display type thing, or if they are younger kids, something that can be played with. But in our house, we have a Hobbit Lego on one shelf and a Hogwarts up on top of another shelf. So, you can go small or big with this, but Lego is a bit on the spendier side of things with the larger sets. It is a lot of fun to put together, and if someone has time off over the holidays, it gives them something fun to do through their time off.

Video Games – Woo, another generic category, but there are a lot of fantasy games out there. You can go retro if they have an older system or a Retron system and get them things like the original Zelda or Final Fantasy. Or, there are middle aged games (not games in the middle ages) like the original Dragon Age that have been ported over to the newer systems, but if someone still have an XBox 360, you could find it for that. There are so many fantasy games out there, figure out if the person you are giving the gift to like the more sword and sorcery style games, more story driven games, fighting, whatever it might be, and you’ll probably be able to find something unique for them. And if they are already a video gamer and have a lot of them, you can look towards more of the indie titles and there are a lot of interesting fantasy games out there.

Classic Fantasy Movies/TV Shows – When I say classic, I more so mean old ones. Find the fantasy movies or TV shows that people might not remember from back in the day. I’m sure there are plenty of good lists out there, or you could find the B-Movie classics in the genre as well. Definitely a lot of them you can check out, and if they are more of a classic one, the cheesy nature of them works better versus a modern cheesy story. Now, you still end up with some of them being too cheesy or dated poorly in other ways, so do a bit of research, but you can probably find bluray or DVD collections of them that would have a good variety as well.

This list is a bit more generic, so I apologize because it’ll make you do more work tracking stuff down. But fantasy is a bit broader than the board game topics and even broader than superheroes, because, while there are indie superheroes out there, most people think Marvel and DC. I tried to suggest some ideas that are a bit more specific for Lord of the Rings fans or Harry Potter fans, but there’s so much in the fantasy realm that it’s hard to cover some of the broader stuff. For that reason, if the person loves reading, books is always a great option, next time you see their book shelf, look at it and find what books might work there.

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To start out with, there is one thing that I really look for in a game, though not every game, but Theme is extremely important to me. Theme helps me get immersed in the game, and while I really can lean into tactics of the game and the strategy, without a good theme, though, I’m less likely to pick up again, and if the theme doesn’t come through, I’m not that likely to continue playing a game. If it’s just a puzzle, once I’ve figured out the puzzle, even if that puzzle is variable, I’m less interested in playing it again. That’s a lot of the reason that I don’t like Dominion. You are just finding the puzzle in the collection of random cards you’re going with, and that’s it. The theme could be about trading coins and it wouldn’t make a difference for the game.

And within theme, there are certain things that I’m apt to be more interested in. I’m a huge fan of Fantasy, Horror, and Sci-Fi. Thankfully, there are a ton of games with those themes. Now, let me say, I’m not a fan of Medieval games with a light fantasy sprinkling on it, but really you’re trading cubes. I want fantasy, and I like a slightly darker fantasy. Things like Gloomhaven and Sword and Sorcery, yes, they are epic fantasy, but they have some odd things going on that don’t just make it the standard heroes rushing in and smashing everything. I’m excited to get games like Apocrypha to the table, because it’s a dark urban fantasy setting. And with horror, while I don’t mind something like zombie horror, I prefer that Lovecraftian style of horror or campy horror. Which, isn’t always the best, because Kristen claims I don’t need 8 different Lovecraft horror games, I suspect that’s wrong, but I also don’t get all of them to the table that often. With Sci-Fi, I don’t know that I have any subset that I love more than others, I think that I have a harder time finding Sci-Fi games that really excite me because a lot of them can end up being cube pushers, and I’m really looking for that theme or that continuing story.

That’s another big thing that I really like, I like Story Based games. Now, that can fall into a few different categories. There are games where you are playing a one off story/scenario where you have an objective that you’re trying to complete. I find that sort of game okay. It’s definitely not my preferred type, but if the scenario is strong, I’m cool with that. I prefer campaign or legacy style games. Now, not all legacy games are story based but they often still keep the pretense. Charterstone which is a fun game theoretically has a story, but in reality, it’s the loosest of threads holding it together. And I’m going to say that I prefer campaign games where you don’t end up destroying stuff, because I have a couple of copies of Pandemic Legacy Season 1 that I had a blast playing and I’m not sure I want to get rid of, but what am I going to do with them? I should just harvest them for parts. Thankfully, there are a ton of campaign games out there, and now there are more legacy games that once you’re done with them, you can continue playing them. Charterstone is a great example of this, but there’s also games like Betrayal Legacy, Aeon’s End Legacy, and Clank! Legacy that allow you to continue playing them. And while I’m less likely to play them once the main story is done, it’s nice that it’s not just a one time investment.

Now, I mention that Charterstone doesn’t have much story to it, and I don’t think it really has much theme to it, but if the theme is light, there are ways to make it feel like more than it actually is. The biggest way to do that, and another thing that makes me interested in a game is Great Artwork/Bits and Charterstone has both of these. The art is consistent and nice and you feel the lightness of the world that Stonemaier Games created through the artwork is great. And the coins in there are amazing, and the little tuck boxes and magnetic boxes are nice in the game. So those aesthetic pieces are very important. Or there are games like Clank! In! Space! where there are some nice pieces, but the cards don’t have the best artwork, but I like it because the art references something and sometimes you just want to figure out what the joke is that is on the card. Another example of a game that has great pieces but not a great story/theme is Century: Golem Edition where it’s a good engine building game, but there’s no theme. The art is just amazing and the pieces, the coins and gems and gem cases are great. That game just looks good on the table.

When a game is that more abstract style, I can enjoy heavy strategy games, but I tend not to be great at thinking five turns ahead or twenty to the end of the game, so I don’t always do the best, I might think two turns ahead, So for those more abstract games, I prefer Family Weight games. And I have a lot of family weight games in my collection, some that are more introductory games like Catan, Ticket to Ride and Carcassone, but there are some very abstracted ones like Photosynthesis and Century: Golem Edition that I have as well. Now, Photosynthesis is probably heavier than family weight, but go back to that aesthetic paragraph, that’s where it belongs. But Century: Golem Edition is a great example of a game that is a family weight strategy game that looks amazing and is very abstracted away from the looks. Like, why does it matter that you’re getting gems to trade gems, but the strategy is still simple enough that it’s fun and I can pull it out with any group. Sagrada is another game like that. And there are reasons why I have Azul over Sagrada and that’s because the theme, while not there, is easier to sell than Azul, even to myself.

I haven’t even touched on mechanics, and really I’m cool with a lot of mechanics. I like Area Control, Cooperative, Deck Building, Action Points, Engine Building, Drafting and so many more I’m sure. But if I were to pick one that stands out above the others that I love, that would be Variable Player Powers. I love it when I have a character that does something slightly different than other people. Some of the reason that I like it so much is that it allows me to be slightly different and unique than everyone else in the game. And it means that I have to think about my strategy in a slightly different way than everyone else. That means that every time that I play the game the game is going to feel different or could feel different. I enjoy it when it’s fully asymmetric like Root or Cry Havoc, but those are harder to teach because they can be completely different as to how you play. So games like Small World where you have different races and powers that get put together, that’s great because you feel unique multiple times during the game. Though, that makes the game very light in Small World, so games where you have one that you’re playing with throughout the game is great, that’s one thing I love in Xenoshyft: Onslaught, because I have a unique starting deck and unique powers throughout the game.

Now, that’s a lot of information, but I wanted to write this because of my TableTopTakes for Dominion yesterday and just thinking about some of the responses from Board Game Geek that I got when posting it there. Some very good ones and some that basically just said, “You’re wrong in every sentence” without providing any reasoning for saying that. When I do a review and give my ratings, I try and think about the game as to why someone might like it as well, and while a grade will suffer if I don’t like it, I try to base it on more than just that. And really, I do like most games, there are just some that I’m going to gravitate towards and overlook flaws in the game because it’s my type of game. Plus, there are some games that I’ll read a 30 page rule book for because it’s my type of game and if it’s not my type of game, I’m less apt to get it.

Hopefully that helps clear up some of why I don’t like Dominion or why I love some games that might be less popular, Xenoshyft: Onslaught for example. Obviously, everyone is going to have their preferences and I hope that I can somewhat divorce myself from mine when I look at a game, but that’s certainly not possible to fully do. But beyond that, I’m curious to know what other people look for when they look to buy a game or what intrigues you about a game to get you to pick it up?

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In The Lost Expedition, you are trying to traverse of a number of land cards, number depends on difficulty, while keeping your guides alive and not being killed by a venomous spider or fall into a ravine. Your travel is split into two phases, morning and evening. Each player is given a handful of cards, in depends on number of players, but generally four. During the morning phase, you go around playing cards from your hands and placing these cards in numerical order. While the game is cooperative, you can’t talk about the cards you have in your hand, you can however, talk about the cards you are traveling on during the day. This allows for some strategy and planning but doesn’t let a single player drive the game. Then, as a group, you discuss your options and work your way down the path of cards played. You do the same thing in the evening, but instead of the cards being played in numerical order, you traverse them in the order that they are laid down.

These cards are the way that you win the game. However, you always are trying to balance the resources on the cards, so that you don’t use up the health on your guides. When a guide dies, they are gone, and when all of the guides die, you lose the game. The cards give you a few different resources, like shelter, bullets, food, directions, and jungle knowledge, as well as advance you. But these cards are generally a lot worse than they are good. Most of the time you are spending a resource that you want to keep for later in the days travels, but it’s better to do that then to spend the health and exert a guide. But it could be more than that, some of the cards give you an option to just kill off a guide, maybe to advance on the track to the lost city of Z.

The cards have some other interesting mechanics as well. They might add random cards to the end of the half days travel, but they  might also remove a card, allow you to reorder a couple of cards, or even skip over a card. But will they be in the right spot that you need them? Or maybe you end up having to add two cards to the line because you need the good affect the card offers, or because it isn’t optional.

That’s the other fun mechanic in the game. There are three different sets of instructions on the cards. The yellow boxes are always required (with one exception, but for the swap ability, it is never required to be done). There are red boxes on cards, and whenever there are red boxes, there are multiple red boxes. These you pick one to do and you don’t do the others. Which is good, because if you had to do all of them you would die. Finally, there are the blue boxes. Blue boxes are completely optional, so you have to determine if you spend a resource, is it worth it for what you’ll likely be getting back from a blue box?

Finally about the game itself. It is a fun game to look at. The art style on the cards is reminiscent of the Tintin comics and has an older feel to it. The components have also been done really well in this game. Which is nice, because beyond the cards, there isn’t much to this game. A few cardboard pieces to keep track of resources, the bullets, health, and food and a couple of meeples to mark your progress on the daily trekking and your progress in the game.

So, is this a good game or not?

The Lost Expedition is a fairly simple game with nice mechanics behind it. Easy mode for this game is actually quite easy, so I don’t recommend it on easy besides for learning the game. While the concepts are tricky, the game has a nice light weight puzzle like aspect to it. It also allows each person to have to puzzle everything out themselves, there can’t be an alpha gamer running the show for everyone. That is really nice as well, because that can ruin the cooperative experience of some games. And a final thing that I like about the game is the speed that the game plays. Because the rules are light and simple, it’s quick for people to pick up, and while you do have some choices to make in the game, generally you have a good idea of what you are going to do, and there isn’t much downtime between playing cards. Then working your way through the days travels is also a group puzzle activity.

Overall, I think this a good game, and very good game for the mixed level of gamers. It allows, during the travel phase, a chance for the more logic focused players to really be able to puzzle out how to get through the whole track without spending resources too poorly. But at the same time, the playing the cards and the concepts of the game are simple enough that people can pick up quickly. The artwork is also huge in this game, it can also pull people in a whole lot more that might not be big gamers.

Overall Grade: B+

Gamer Grade: C+

Casual Grade: A