Dexterity Games Ranking

7. Jenga

Jenga is probably the dexterity game that everyone knows. Though, the next one on the list people won’t know the game but will know the concept of it. Jenga is a fun game, it is one that I consider to be a brewery game for me at this point. By that, I mean I love it when a brewery has a giant version set-up outside. It’s a fun thing to stand around and play with. I don’t need a copy in my collection, but it’ll be a good time playing it.

6. Slide Quest

Slide Quest, I like it better as a game than Jenga, but I’d probably be less likely to always want to play it. This is basically one of those marble puzzles where the ball rolls and you are tilting the board to try and get it to the end. Slide Quest is that as a board game with different maps that you can use as you progress. The concept is great for the game, the execution is solid, but the game play is just okay. But I’d pick it up if I found it very cheap.

5. Tokyo Highway

Tokyo Highway has been in my Top 100, and I think it’ll stay for this coming year, but it’s dropping a little bit. This is a stacking dexterity game, and one that is just gorgeous on the table. I like too how simple the game is, you either go up or down a level. And you want to cross under or over roads. Overall, it is a nice simple game with just enough stress going on.

4. Catapult Feud

Catapult Feud is now something so different. It’s not flicking, it’s not stacking, you are aiming and launching via catapult or ballista foam rocks at your opponents castle trying to knock down their troops. There are cards in this game, and those cards do add to the game element, but aren’t needed. What’s most fun, not surprisingly is just the launching of things.

3. Sonora

These top three I rank really highly. Sonora is a flicking game for part of it and roll and write for the other, and that combo works really well. You flick discs that are basically like rolling your dice. But you pick what number die you flick and you can try and set it up so that you get what you want. Add in the roll and write part where you fill in on the board, that part is amazing. Sonora puts almost any other roll and write with combos to shame with how many it has.

2. PitchCar

PitchCar is a flicking racing game around a track that you build. And building the track itself is a ton of the fun of the game. But if it were just that it’d be unfortunate. PitchCar, however, is a lot of fun with the flicking. What I really like about this and my top game are that you get excited when other players make a great shot. Yes, it might mean you don’t win, but an awesome shot, that’s amazing.

1. Icecool

Icecool, I doubt that it being #1 for me surprises anyone. This is just a blast of a game where one player (two in an eight player game) is a hall monitor. Everyone else are students skipping class to get a snack of fish. So all you are doing is flicking your penguin and trying to get it through a doorway. And then you rotate who the hall monitor is over four rounds until everyone has been. Really fun game and you can mess around with your shots more than you can with PitchCar.

Final Thoughts

Dexterity games probably won’t be for everyone. Flicking or stacking is a bit of a challenge physically. And for some people that is going to be right out. For other gamers, they will find it too silly. But if you can lean in and enjoy that silliness and lean into the excitement of a great shot. Really, I think that most people can enjoy Icecool or PitchCar, even if you aren’t doing that well in it.

And I am always on the lookout for more dexterity games. I have in my collection Flick of Faith, Catacombs, The Table is Lava, Crash Octopus and Rhino Hero Super Battle. I guess I could put Animal Upon Animal on the list, but that’s the toddlers game.

What is your favorite dexterity game?

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If you want to see the Top 10 games on the list live, click the notification bell on the scheduled stream. I hope that you can join me then and that you’ve enjoyed the previous parts of my Top 100 Board Games (of all time) 2021 Edition. Or, if you just found it, you can catch-up with the links below.

100 Through 91

90 Through 81

80 through 71

70 through 61

60 through 51

50 through 41

40 through 31

30 through 21

Top 100 Board Games 20 through 11

20. Super Fantasy Brawl

Super Fantasy Brawl is a two player (can be more but really two player) battling game where you are fighting to knock out your opponents characters and complete objectives to get trophies. The first player to get to five trophies wins the game.

This is not my normal type of game, two player only games tend not to hit my table as often. And head to head battling games are not ones I gravitate towards, but Super Fantasy Brawl is really good. All the characters play so differently, and you can create a team that does all sorts of different things. I think I have 9 or 12 different characters so you can have a ton of different teams of three.

I also like in this game that you can get trophies for knocking out other peoples characters, but they don’t go away. So it’s not too much of a blow. And you probably won’t win just be knocking out enemy characters. You need to deal with the objectives as well, if not to get them, to keep your opponent from getting trophies that way. And the game is easy to learn and play, which is great.

Buy On Miniature Market

19. Clank! In! Space!

A deck building game, Clank! In! Space! does a good job of not being too simple. In it, you are racing around a ship, hacking into consoles to get access to the treasure room, grabbing a treasure, running out, and hoping you don’t cause too much noise. Because Lord Eradikus is on the ship and if you clank about too much, he’ll find you and stop you.

This game works so well for me because there’s more going on in the game than just the deck building. How much do you push your luck and run into the treasure room. And some of the better cards you can buy in the game, that might combo with what you are doing can create more clank. When you clank you add a cube to a pool that Lord Eradikus will draw from when he actives. He might draw a neutral cube and nothing happens, but too many of yours drawn and Eradikus stops you.

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18. Deception: Murder in Hong Kong

I feel like I always put this disclaimer out there, I don’t love social deduction games, but I do love Deception: Murder in Hong Kong. Why, because it gives you something to talk about right away in the game. Most social deduction games build to the point where you are maybe hazard a guess as to who the “bad guy” is. Deception: Murder in Hong Kong does that from the start.

How? Well, the murder picks a weapon and clue in front of them. The forensic scientist knows what they are, but they can only send up reports to tell the detectives. So the report might be the murder location and the forensic scientist picks from a list on a tile which one makes the most sense. The game really starts and accusations start when that first piece of information is put out.

This is also a social deduction game where being in any role, forensic scientist, murder, accomplice, witness, or a just a regular detective is a lot of fun. Everyone is trying to figure out what the combo of clue and weapon is. And even the murderer, accomplice, and forensic scientist are trying to figure out the story either to direct people to the clue or weapon or away from it.

Buy on Amazon

17. Hanamikoji

We go from a big group game to a two player only game in Hanamikoji. I talk about this one a lot because I really love the game. It’s such a fast but thinky two player game. In it you are trying to win the favor of Geisha by giving them gifts. The game, however, is extremely clever in how you give them gifts.

There are only four actions you can do in the game and each player does all four once per round, alternating turns. You can save a card to give to a Geisha face down, you can discard two gifts face down, you give your opponent the choice of three gifts and they pick one, or you give your opponent the choice of two pairs of gifts, and they pick one. You are trying to win favor with four Geisha or 11 points worth of Geisha to win.

The game plays extremely fast, but the decisions are really tough. Giving something to your opponent is always a rough decision as to what you want to even let them pick from. I feel like what you do, though, is simple enough that I can pull it out with most people as a two player game.

Not Available

16. Welcome To…

The first of four roll and write games on this section of the list. Welcome To… has long been one of my favorites in the genre. In it you are creating your perfect neighborhood. You are getting all the house numbers ready, putting in pools and parks, and building white picket fences.

Every turn everyone is playing as well, which is really nice, so there is little to no downtime in the game. It’s also fun because you are trying to optimize how you are scoring points. And the three objectives that can give you points also gives you a good direction to go in the game. This one has a fair number of rules but that makes it interesting because it’s a bigger roll and write game.

Buy on Amazon

15. ICECOOL

This game is just silly fun. It’s one that I love to pull out for a game night because flicking penguin high school students around a board to try and get fish and avoid hall monitors is a lot of fun. The game is simple, get through doorways and get fish which are points. Or all the hall monitor, hit the penguins students to get their student ID and get points.

ICECOOL works with all ages and really with all groups that I’ve played with. It’s just a silly good time for people who have been drinking or for families to get to the table. And the board, which is the box, that builds out into this big 3D board is just great. Add in ICECOOL 2, which is the same game, you can now play on a massive board with eight people.

Buy on Amazon

14. Sonora

Another dexterity game, but also another roll and write game. In Sonora you are flicking discs onto a big board. The board is split into four areas, one for each part of the roll and write portion that you fill in. The discs have numbers which determines what number of things you fill in on that roll and write portion.

What I l love about this game is that it’s full of combos. If a fill in a spot in the upper right, that might then let me fill in something in the lower left, and that might let me fill in something in the lower right. So the whole filling in things is a really interesting and fun puzzle to optimize what you are doing. And it’s always fun to complete a combo and feel smart.

Buy on Amazon

13. Railroad Ink Challenge

Another roll and write game as well. Railroad Ink was already on the list, but I prefer Railroad Ink Challenge. Why, because of the challenge aspect. Much of the game is the same, you are trying to connect routes, get long stretches of road and rail and fill in the middle. But the challenges add in a nice twist and something to focus on.

The challenges are basically objectives. It might be something like, have a full row or column filled in by round 4, and that’ll give you 4 points if you’d done it by then, fewer the longer it takes you. Or fill in nine spots to create a square. It just gives you something else to go for and think about in the game. And it’s already fairly challenging even without the challenges. I just like the extra challenge, direction that the game gives you in this version.

Buy on Amazon

12. Super-Skill Pinball: 4-Cade

The final roll and write game in this section, Super-Skill Pinball: 4-Cade is the most thematic roll and write that I have played. It somehow manages to pull off the feeling of playing a pinball machine. You get points for bouncing off the bumpers and knocking down targets. If you knock down a full group of targets you get a bonus and you’re just seeing how high a score you can get.

I like that the game comes with four different boards, as well. There is a circus one that is just a simple pinball machine. The Cyber Hack board gives you a secret location where you are doing a run and hacking into the machine for more points, but also a press your luck for how long you stay up there. Each board feels different and really fun, and having little pinballs you move around the board to keep track of where you are at is great too.

Buy on Miniature Market

11. Xenoshyft: Onslaught

Finally, we have Xenoshyft: Onslaught. This is another deck building game and a tower defense game. I call it Starship Troopers the board game because you are defending your base from wave after wave of bugs. And you are doing that cooperatively, which is fun. And it does a cooperative thing that I don’t see in other deck builders or cooperative games.

You are all setting up your defenses at the same time. So, I might have five troops but only room to put out four of them, and you might have only a single troop in your hand. I can give you one to put in your lane of defense to stop the wave of bugs coming in that side. And you can use grenades from your hand to help deal with bugs on someone else’s lane as well.

Plus, you get money every single turn. So even if you shuffle horribly and end up with no money in your hand, at the start of each turn you get money to add to your hand and deck. So you are always able to improve and add to what you have. And what you buy that turn doesn’t go to a discard pile, you can play it immediately.

Buy on Amazon

The Next 10

So no stream next Wednesday. It’s the day before Thanksgiving, but to go along with that, two episodes of Hawkeye are coming out that day. That means that I have some TV to watch for the 10 Minute Marvel podcast. Instead, the Top 10 are going to be coming out on December 1st at 8 PM Central Time.

If you want to know when I am going live, you can subscribe to Malts and Meeples and click that notification bell. That’ll let you know whenever I go live. Once I’m done with my Top 100 list, my schedule might be changing, depending on a few things, so clicking the notification bell will let you know for sure when my streams are happening.

Which of these games do you like the best, or would you want to play?

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Thank you everyone who joined me on the stream, that is the reason it was so much fun. But it was also fun to pick a topic and really dive into it. I liked being able to talk about how I pick board games for game nights, and then some tangents on different types of games or picking a group for a particular game. And to end it up, I did a review on three dexterity games that I have in my collection.

The Video

The Beer

Last nights beer of choice was another Tart Ale from Surly. Their Supreme series is really good and very summery. I am excited for it to be warm enough to really enjoy them. Last night I drank the Mango Supreme Tart Ale which I like better than the Grapefruit. Mainly it feels more summery and is unique from say an IPA which can also taste like grapefruit.

Quick Reviews

The three reviews were for dexterity based games. Sonora is a flick and write game that feels more accessible than other roll and write games because of the dexterity aspect. Tokyo Highway is a stacking game that looks like art but doesn’t have a ton of deep choices. And Ice Cool is a flicking game that tends to work for the whole family and any group.

Upcoming Topics

I want these bi-weekly Monday streams to be topics that are important to board gaming. So I do want input on them. What do people want to see for topics? Would you be interested in top 10 lists, I am interested in doing those. What topic would you like to see for a Top 10? And did you like the format of the reviews, do they work for you, let me know?

And just in general, do you want to see streams where I talk about topics or is gaming more fun? I know it was 5 people live watching me yesterday and I had fun interacting, whereas gaming depends more on the game. Let me know what you thought of that aspect as well.

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10 – Criss Cross

This was one of the first roll and write games that I picked up. I saw it on the Brothers Murph YouTube channel, found here. I really like the simplicity of this game, and how it plays so incredibly fast. All you are trying to do is get like symbols in columns and rows, which is easy enough to do in one of them, but in both can be a bit tricky. And the more you get the more points it is. The main thing you have to pay attention to is that you aren’t blocking yourself into a single spot in two places on the board because you have to place the rolled symbols adjacent to each other. This one also works really well over Zoom or some other meeting software. You can find my full review here.

9 – Metro X

The newest game to the list is Metro X, this one I just wrote my review about yesterday, you can find it here. I like how this game makes you think for something that is pretty straight forward in what you are doing. I think that it works well solo as the game is really a multi-player solitaire as a lot of these games are. Some of the excitement that comes from the game is seeing what cards are going to be flipped over, especially when you really need a skip or maybe that free space card to show up way more often than they do, or they show up at the wrong time where it really doesn’t help you that much. And the components are really nice for the game.

8 – Second Chance

Another one of the first roll and write, or really a flip and write, that I got. Second Chance is a lot of fun and a very peaceful game. I don’t think there are that many board games that I would consider to be really peaceful. Now that isn’t to say that I don’t fine most games to be pretty relaxing or destressing anyways, because I just love games, but Second Chance is really peaceful, which is great. You flip two shapes, and everyone places them on their board, and then repeat that. It is peaceful as you doodle on your board, filling in the shapes that you’ve placed, and while you can plan ahead a little, most people don’t too much. Just a good game overall that you can find my review of here.

7 – Twice as Clever!

There are going to be a number of games from this series by Wolfgang Warsch. While there are older roll and writes out there, Yahtzee missed my list but an obvious forefather, this line of roll and writes definitely brought them into the board gaming spotlight. You are rolling dice in all of them, picking one, setting aside anything lower, repeating the process until you don’t have any dice to roll or you’ve used three dice. Then the other players pick a die to use from those that you didn’t. This version is my least favorite just because I feel like it’s a bit more complex, but mainly for complexities sake. This one has combos but it doesn’t feel like the combos do as much.

6 – Super-Skill Pinball: 4-Cade

A newer game to me, though not as new as Metro X, this one has a theme that I was really excited for. I like playing pinball machines, though in 2020 it hasn’t happened as often. So when there was a roll and write pinball game coming out I thought it’d be interesting. I’ve written some opening thoughts on it here, but I want to play it more to give it a full review. What works so well for me is the flow of how you fill in spaces. There are the bumpers in the upper section that you can just ping around on for a while, but once the ball drops out of that, it will start falling, so you need to figure out, best you can, how to control that fall, hitting the sides along the way, before you flip it back up. Point scoring is nice and easy, for the most part, and the components are really good.

5 – Clever Hoch Drei

The next of the series by Wolfgang Warsch , and actually the most recent of the roll and writes, Clever Hoch Drei, which I’m getting from Germany, has been a blast to play. This one returns you to a ton of combos in the game, something I feel like is missing slightly in Twice As Clever. But it actually has some really interesting choices in it with how you fill in the sections. I like that this and Twice as Clever also incentivize going for specific things, like rerolls or plus ones, to get even more bonuses. The main mechanics stay the same as well, so it makes teaching it easy if someone already knows either That’s Pretty Clever or Twice as Clever.

4 – Cartographers

I almost missed this one when I was ranking my roll and writes because I have it on another shelf. This one is set in the Roll Player world, which really doesn’t matter. It’s about making a map, but that’s fairly weird how that works or doesn’t work, because there are monsters on the board. But it’s still a lot of fun. There are two things that stand out to me, the first being the scoring system where you play through four seasons and in the first season you are scoring objectives A and B, then in summer, B and C, but when you get to Winter, you are scoring D and A. So each thing gets scored twice, and you have to balance how much you go for scoring, because if you push hard for B in rounds one and two, you might not score as many points later. I also find the monsters interesting. It makes the game less multi-player solitaire because your opponents place the monsters (unless you’re playing solo) and they are going to try and place it in the worst spot possible for you. You can find my full thoughts on Cartographers here.

3 – That’s Pretty Clever

The first and my favorite for the roll and writes that are part of what currently sits at a trilogy of games. I fully expect that there could be more because they are certainly popular enough. I like this one for a couple of reasons better than the others. Firstly, it was the first that I really played of them, which there is a nostalgia factor. But I also like it because it is the simplest. It makes it the easiest to teach in a lot of ways, and playing it over Zoom works well because while it takes a minute to draw out the board, it can be done easier than the others. The dice mechanics are the same, and overall, just a game design that I really like. You can find my full review here for more information on the game.

2 – Sonora

Now, for something completely different. Flipping cards or rolling dice to fill in stuff on the boards is common and normal, Sonora, by Pandasaurus Games, is a flicking game and then you fill stuff in. I think it might be possible to get good at the flicking aspect of it, but you don’t need to be great. No matter where you end up with flicking, you will score points, and that’s fun, and you can generally land it into the large area that you want, you might not get double the area if you can’t flick as well. This game is all about the combos when it comes to filling things in, and there are four areas to do it in. If you wanted, you can really focus on one area, or you can diversify to some extent, and the scoring seems really balanced in all of them. Definitely a really fun game to checkout, and you can find more about it here.

1 – Welcome To

Finally, my number one, still, though, I think that all of the top 4 could be my number one on any given day, is Welcome To. I really like this game, and I’m not even always that great at it. I like building my perfect Stepford neighborhood, with it’s white picket fences and most definitely not anything crazy that will go wrong there, but that’s for someone else to deal with, I’m just building Helmouth on a Hell Mouth, a pet cemetery and probably more cursed things, and that’s just the flavor I add to the game. This game has a lot of different ways to score points and you can push your luck as well, but there’s also strategy as you consider how many of each number have passed by, I always seem to find something else that I want to think about or try in the game each time that I play it. I’ve had this one in my Top 100 games since I’ve played it and it’s stayed strong, you can see why I love it so much here.

Now, I have a few more roll and writes on my shelf to try. I have the Red Box for Railroad Ink, Booomerang, Floor Plan, Welcome to New Las Vegas, and Patchwork Doodle all to try as well. And I had two, Cat Café and Yahtzee that just missed the list. Yes, I still do enjoy the original, Yahtzee, as well, though that game mainly plays itself now.

What is your favorite roll and write game?

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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 – Q and R’s – S’s – T’s

U through W’s

Unicornus Knights

I picked up Unicornus Knights a while ago because it seems like an interesting and bigger cooperative game. I like the concept of it as well where the is a character traveling around the board, the princess, which is run by the game. You then play generals who keep her path clear so that she can make it to her goal. You defeat bad guys, deploy troops, recruit more heroes, things like that. It’s one that I was able to get on sale, so I picked it up. I hope to get it to the table after it’s been on my shelf for such a long time, but I’m always interested in a cooperative game.

Status: To Be Played

Uno

I’m not 100% sure why I have this game still. Uno was a game that I played a lot growing up, even then I knew the game wasn’t great. But we played it because it was the only thing to play. I got it when I started building my collection and it just stays because it’s a classic I guess. I don’t have a ton redeeming to say about Uno because it’s basically just a take that game that we know. And I’m not a big fan of take that games.

Status: Played

Village Attacks: Convention Exclusive Organised Play Pack

This is an expansion, I know, an exclusive one from GenCon. I’m putting it on the list because I do have the game coming from Kickstarter, fingers crossed this year. I really liked my playthrough of this, though the group I was playing with was kind of odd. It’s fun to play a tower defense game where you are the bad guys and are trying to keep the villagers, with their pitchforks at bay. I like how it has scenarios as well, but it isn’t really campaign based.

Status: Played

Welcome to New Las Vegas

I like my flip and writes, roll and writes, draft and writes, and flick and writes. When a sequel to Welcome To… came along, I knew I was going to be interested in it. This one instead of building a neighborhood, you are putting together downtown of Las Vegas, getting golf courses, hotels, and shows built, and more. This one is a step up from Welcome To… from what I’ve heard, but still really interested me because of how much I love the first one.

Status: To Be Played

Welcome To….

See above for blank and writes. Welcome To… is, as I describe it, about building your perfect stepford neighborhood, with white picket fences everywhere to meet the demand of your neighborhood. You do this by building fences, parks, pools, and more. The game is fast and plays well with any number of players because everyone is doing things at the same time. It’s one of my favorite if not my favorite of the blank and write games.

Status: Played

Western Legends

A game that I’ve wanted for a long time, Western Legends is an open world western game where you can become an outlaw and rob the bank, but watch out for the other players and the Marshall who might try and bust you. Or you can go down the good path, take cattle across the land, prospect for gold, or just play a hand of poker. And if you ever die, you can just decide to go down a different path. I love the concept of doing anything and that doing anything will get you points, which is what you need to win the game, can you just do it better and faster than everyone else?

Status: To Be Played

Wits & Wagers

A go to group game, Wits & Wagers makes trivia games fun. In this game, you don’t have to get it right, you just have to bet on the person who does, or gets it closest at least, without going over. Players put down a numerical guess to some question, they’re sorted by number and people bet on which one they think is right. If you get it right, you get a payout, if you get it wrong, you get nothing. But then you go again, and you can bet on whomever you want, so if it’s a sports question and I know more about sports than you do, bet on my answer, or maybe you know what year an album came out or would have a better idea than I would, so I’d bet on yours. Super simple but fun trivia game.

Status: Played

WWE Legends Royal Rumble Card Game

Last game starting with W is all about the WWE. The Royal Rumble is the best pro wrestling pay-per-view. This is a take that game, like Uno, but unlike Uno, this one is a silly game where you are trying to get your opponents, through card play over the top rope. When that happens a new wrestler comes in to take their place, so no player is every eliminated until the end of the game. Because the Royal Rumble is a last man in the ring event. I really want to play this one with wrestling friends who we watch the pay-per-views together, hopefully sometime in this upcoming year.

Status: To Be Played

That’s is for U through W. A number of games in there, and a handful of expansions that I didn’t mention. V is the closest letter to not having a game in it, but I’m counting Village Attacks expansion because it is there. What game should I checkout that begins with U, V, or W? What are the best games for you starting with each letter?

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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 – Q and R’s

S’s

Sagrada (and Expansions)

I wish that I had backed Sagrada on Kickstarter, not because there is anything special with that edition really compared to what I have, but because I like the game that much. This dice drafting game just works and looks amazing on the table. The theme of stained glass windows appeals to most everyone, even non-nerdy gamers. And the concept of taking a die and placing it into your stained glass window makes sense. Add in that the dice look amazing in the windows because they are translucent, it sells the game even more on the table.

Status: Played

Santorini

I don’t always love abstract games. But Santorini looks great on the table, and that counts for a lot in a game, in my opinion. Especially for a game that is abstract. The simple game play helps the game be even more appealing. You are just moving a piece and building a level. The goal is to make it to the third level of a building, which is simple enough. And when the game becomes too simple, you can add in god cards which give players powers.

Status: To Be Played

Say Bye to the Villains

I like extremely tough cooperative games. Say Bye to the Villains fits that mold perfectly as I have yet to win it. But for me, I don’t see that as a negative, mainly because we are always close to winning. None of the games feel like we’re too far away which is saying something considering how many times I’ve played it. It also helps that the game play is simple enough. You are just playing cards that eat up time, and the game isn’t too long either. For some people it would be a negative, but for me, it’s a good thing. It feels like there’s always just one more thing to do in the Say Bye to the Villains than you have time for.

Status: Played

Scattergories

I have a game from 1988 on my list. And yes, I play Scattergories still. Scattergories is a party game that works well since it depends on the players creativity but not on in-jokes. It also works well over Zoom which has gotten it played several times this year. The game is simple and everyone understands what is going on when played. Scattergories isn’t a game that I’ll pull out all the time, but people have fun when it is pulled out. And it’s a game that everyone knows because it’s been around so long.

Status: Played

Scrabble

If you thought Scattergories was old, think again. I have Scrabble in my collection as well. Scrabble being published in 1948 might make it the oldest game in my collection. I still enjoy playing Scrabble, though. I prefer regular Scrabble to the “quick” Scrabble or Banagrams. The main reason is that Scrabble has more strategy and tactics than those do. In Banagrams it is purely pattern recognition and while I am good at it, it isn’t as fun. I prefer to think about how I might be setting up my opponent in Scrabble and the strategy that comes with that.

Status: Played

SeaFall

I wanted to like SeaFall so badly. And it’s funny that I do have a copy of it still. I was gifted a copy that a friend got for cheap. SeaFall promised that it was going to be an epic seafaring game where the story unfolded as you explored. Instead, we got a story that was a mess and complicated but only because it didn’t unfold in order. Compared to other Legacy Games, story happened much more randomly and the games themselves took too long. I wanted a game that told epic punchy story about adventure on the high seas. And, I think that is possible within SeaFall, how the story works, though, needs to be reworked.

Status: Played

Second Chance

I like flip and writes as I’ve said many a time before. Second Chance is a simple flip and write. You try and fill as much of your square as possible and that’s it. To do that you are putting in polyomino like shapes onto your board. If you can’t place one of the two shapes, you get a second chance card, a card only you can use. If you are able to use it, you stay in the game and continue playing. If not, you are out and count up the empty spaces you have left. The game is that simple. But it works well because it gives a chance for people to be creative in how they fill in the shapes. You doodle on them so you can tell what is filled and what isn’t, or create patterns. And that part of the game is really a lot of fun. Plus, the game works for everyone since it is so simple.

Status: Played

Sentinel Tactics: The Flame of Freedom

Honestly, I ordered this game on accident. I thought I was ordering another expansion for Sentinels of the Multiverse, but I ordered Sentinel Tactics. Thankfully I ordered a standalone game, not an expansion for Sentinels Tactics. Sentinel Tactics still takes place in the Sentinels of the Multiverse world, but is a tactical game, as the name implies. You move chits around a modular board playing through scenarios that have you trying to beat a villain. I hope it’s good, I know one person who said it was interesting, if not, I got it on a steep sale, so I can always use it to get store credit at my FLGS (Friendly Local Game Store) for a game I want.

Status: To Be Played

Sentinels of the Multiverse (and Expansions Galore)

What, this game comes after Sentinel Tactics alphabetically, who’d have guessed. I picked up the base game used from my FLGS. Sentinals is a game that I’ve wanted to try for a while because of the superhero theme. Then when Tom Vassal played it on a What’s Appening stream for the Dice Tower, I decided it looked good enough to pick up. Then, Black Friday rolled around and Greater Than Games had a massive sale. So I picked up a ton of expansions for it, almost a literal ton. I believe it was 17 expansions for it, plus Sentinel Tactics. I still need to get it to the table, and I plan on starting just with the base game, but I love the superhero world and the comics that come with some of the boxes.

Status: To Be Played

Shadowrun Crossfire: Prime Runner Edition

I picked this one up recently as well. Shadowrun Crossfire first came onto my radar when I played it at Fantasy Flight Game Center off of their demo wall. I knew when I played it that I’d pick it up eventually. I really like the world of Shadowrun. A world where big corporations are running things, and hackers go on runs to try and get data and take them down. The cyberpunk setting works really well for me. I know there are some knocks on the game with how slowly characters level up, but I am still excited to play through it’s campaign.

Status: Played

Shadowrun: Sprawl Ops (with Cooperative Expansion)

This game was a bit of a mess getting it from Kickstarter. The shipping company messed up royally, and while we did get cool extra boards, the creators who were doing updates were not professional about everything. I don’t have any issue with the publisher Catalyst Game Labs, but with Lynnvander Studios, I’d be hesitant to back any of their projects again. The game looks amazing and has a great cyberpunk aesthetic, though, so I am excited to play it. And the game comes in a massive box, where even the box looks awesomely cyberpunk.

Status: To Be Played

Shadows of Brimstone: City of the Ancients

I have some beefs with this game, though it is still on my shelf. The main beef I have is that it sucks to put together. All the little minis come in a lot of pieces and are not easy to put together. This sounds like it’s been rectified to some extent in other prints of this box. However, the game itself is a lot of fun. It’s a weird west game where you are pushing deep into a mine to try and complete objectives. But there are monsters in there, and you might stumble into a whole other world if you aren’t careful. I want more time to play it, but I have to reassemble my minis first, which might be a good winter project, assuming I remember how they go together.

Status: Played

Shadows of Kilforth: A Fantasy Quest Game

I have mentioned a few places that have caused me to pick up games and Shadows of Kilforth is one of those game. This fantasy game with an Eastern flare to it, was one that I saw the original, Gloom of Kilforth played on the Rolling Solo channel on YouTube. The game play looked interesting, so when a sequel showed up on Kickstarter, it felt like a good game to back. I still think it will be, I just need to get it sorted and ready for the table. This game is one that I should be able to play solo on Malts and Meeples in the new year sometime.

Status: To Be Played

Shakespeare

I’m ashamed of how long this game has been on my shelf without getting played. My wife picked it up for we as a gift, and as a game that she’d also like the theme of. But it’s euro game, so I don’t get those off my shelf as much. I am interested in it as I like the theme of putting on a play. Getting costumes, actors, sets, and more ready sounds like a lot of fun, I just haven’t played it yet. I am excited to try it still, I just need to sit down and learn the rules so we can get it to the table.

Status: To Be Played

The Siblings Trouble

I picked this one up off of Kickstarter because of how much I had enjoyed Lift Off! from the same design and company. This one is a light RPG like game that is targeted for families with kids. It is meant to be a way to get that RPG feel without having as much of a ruleset as something like Dungeons and Dragons does. I’m waiting until the toddler is old enough to play it with us because the game looks very cute.

Status: To Be Played

Silver: Amulet (and Coin, Bullet, and Dagger)

Silver: Amulet was a game that I got to try at GenCon in 2019. The game has a puzzle feel to it as you are trying to score the fewest points in your village. The twist comes with being able to swap out two cards for one card, if the cards are the same number. Add in a lot of powers on your cards, and you have an interesting puzzle. And then to top that all off, you don’t know what most of your cards are at the start of the game. The amulet, coin, bullet, and dagger all do different things, so depending on which version you play there will be a unique special power. And the cards you play with between the games can be mixed together, you just need one set of each number to make it work.

Status: Played

Silver & Gold

Roll and write, you know the drill. I like them, and this one does something cool. You fill in spots on cards, which seems bad. But the cards are dry erase, so you can play with them over and over again. It is a clever twist as you start to do set collection with them and score points off of which ones you have filled in. You still make combos though. If you cross of a treasure spot, that allows you to fill in another spot on any of your cards, and there are palm trees that are worth points as well. Super small sized game, but looks to pack a lot of game into it.

Status: To Be Played

Skip-Bo

The section of old games apparently. Skip-Bo is a classic game that I grew up playing less than I’d want in some ways. Fairly often for a simple card game Uno would be the game picked. But Skip-Bo had more interesting game play to it than Uno does. I like figuring out how to place your discards in the most optimal way possible, and sometimes stopping early to try and lock an opponent from being able to play easily. Now, the game can drag because of poor card draw, but it is generally quite fast.

Status: Played

Skulk Hollow

A two player game that was on Kickstarter. Again from the same company as Lift Off! Skulk Hollow is an asymmetric two player game. One person plays as the fox kingdom and the other as the old guardian that has awakened. The fox player needs to get onto the guardian, since it is to too large to beat otherwise, and take out it’s different actions. The monster generally has it’s own objective, but can by taking out the fox leader. The game has simple card play but is very tactical in nature and the box comes with multiple leaders for the fox and guardians for a ton of replayability.

Status: Played

Skull

The first time I played Skull, I wasn’t sure how much I liked it. It had weird coasters that you played with, and it was a push your luck sort of game. However, the more I played it, the more interesting it became, how did you successfully bluff someone into picking from your pile which has a skull in it, when that will bust you if you get stuck with the bid. The bluffing is what makes this game, it doesn’t have a lot of strategy to it, but if you can bluff and read your opponents you’ll do well in this game. And the coaster shaped “cards” are still weird.

Status: Played

Small World (and Small World Underground)

Small World was one of the gateway games for me that got me into the hobby. I like how it has Risk elements, but it’s actually fun. It has a lot of attacking and defeating your enemy, but in a fun way. You aren’t rolling die like in Risk, the battles are determined just by if you have enough pieces of cardboard to beat an area. The powers and races make this game work though, because something like undead ghouls or flying halflings are just silly, and you can get some great combinations, like commando elves or flying sorcerers that can put a bit of a target on your back. Game is a lot of fun every time I play it, which is about once a year.

Status: Played

Sonora

I’ve talked about roll and writes, and flip and writes, even a draft and write, but I haven’t mentioned my flick and write. Sonora is a combotastic [blank] and write game. To start your turn you flick disks around a board which determine who much you get to put in certain areas. Some of them are simple race to completion, others have you putting pieces in like they are Tetris, or filling in dots, or closing off sections of the board. It has a ton going on, and if you get the right things, you then get more to fill in other areas and it can repeat even more. It is extremely satisfying.

Status: Played

Specter Ops

A game that I picked up used, but that was on my radar for a long time. Spector Ops is a one versus all game, but the one is hidden. They are moving around to various objectives trying to get them all. The concept is so interesting to me. I want to play both sides of it, see how well I can hide where I’m at and see how well I can deduce where someone else is going. It feels like it should be a good and challenging experience.

Status: To Be Played

Splendor

Splendor is a light and small engine building game. You are collecting gems to get cards that have permanent gems and sometimes points. And you can use those permanent gems to get even more cards which games on them and the process repeats until someone has 15 points. The game is really simple to play, the theme is not there, but that’s okay. It is meant as an introduction to engine building and it works for that. Not one I want to play all the time, but I keep it on the shelf for what it is.

Status: Played

Star Wars: Destiny

Fantasy Flight Games foray into collectible card games. It was a fun game because it wasn’t only card it was nice chunky dice as well. And I like the Star Wars theme better than say, Magic the Gathering. The issue is that the game isn’t quite as good, and people didn’t get into it as much. Destiny is now a retired game, but one that had a good following and people were sad to see leave. What I think worked well was that none of the cards were rarer than the others. So you got good stuff all the time. That was part of what killed it as well, Magic works because it has a massive secondary market for it for FLGS’s, Destiny had none.

Status: Played

Star Wars: Imperial Assault

The Star Wars dungeon crawl. This game does one thing that I really wish the Lord of the Rings: Journeys in Middle-earth did, and that is that it is adjacent to the main story and the main characters. But I can’t play as Luke Skywalker or Darth Vader, those are characters who just make appearances. But out of the base box, you are still playing around the original trilogy storyline. The game also has an app, so it can be one versus all, but it can also be fully cooperative. I need to play it more because I’ve liked the plays I’ve had.

Status: Play

Star Wars: Unlock!

The unlock games are basically escape room games in in a box. And the Star Wars: Unlock! game is a game that is an escape room in a box with a Star Wars theme. I like these games because they are very puzzly and can give you an experience while you play them. I’ve heard that the Star Wars: Unlock is a bit easier than some of the other ones, but I’m fine with that as it’ll be more accessible to more people. I want to play this over the holidays, and that’s the one downside, once you’ve played an unlock game once, you can’t play it again because you’ll know how it goes, still $30 for three hour long experiences in a group isn’t bad.

Status: To Be Played

Stipulations

I talk about this game a lot, mainly because I really like it was a party game. Stipulations asks the question, what horrible thing will your friends come up with. If you have the super power of flight, what’s the stipulation, or the dream job of being a movie actor, what is the stipulation. This game does what most party games do, it ends up with a lot of in jokes, but it is a fun time and compared to something like Apples to Apples which is basically always clean or Cards Against Humanity which is always dirty, Stipulations can be tailored to those whom you’re playing with.

Status: Played

Super Fantasy Brawl

I’ve decided that I really like games that Mythic Games puts out, or at least in concept. Reichbusters looks like a fun twist on a dungeon crawl, and Super Fantasy Brawl seems like a really accessible two player fighting game. The game has chunky minis that look great, and simple but interesting card play. I like that you play three cards on your turn and those cards have to be of different colors, but each character, of the three you have doesn’t correspond to a color, so if you get a red and a yellow card for one character, you can activate that character twice, from my understanding. I really want to give this one a whirl as it has an epic table presence for a fairly simple seeming game, rules wise.

Status: To Be Played

Super-Skill Pinball: 4-cade

You know the drill, I love my roll and write games. And I like the theme on this one a ton. I like the idea of playing a pinball machine and seeing what the high score is that I can get on it. I like the mechanics of how the ball can bounce around and how it will only bounce certain ways and generally down. You are also trying to bounce it up higher and complete combos on things, just like in real pinball to get even more points. And it’s called 4-cade because there are 4 different machines that you can play.

Status: To Be Played

Sushi Go Party!

This was another early game for my collection as it was on Wil Wheaton’s Table Top show. It is a card drafting game, a mechanic that I quite enjoy, with set collection as well. The game works well, even though with new players you sometimes have someone get off on what they are drafting. Sushi Go Party! also gives you ways to change everything up, so that you can have different combinations of foods on the menu. The game has a very cute table appeal and is just a hit basically all the time.

Status: Played

Sword and Sorcery (plus Expansions)

Sword and Sorcery is a classic dungeon crawl game. This one is pure Amerithrash dice chucking fun. I like how much mitigation you have, but only mitigation in having multiple symbols to use on the dice and being able to reroll dice. My knock on this game is that it is almost a little bit too easy at times. You get great weapons for completing things and now you are hitting really hard and can take down monsters fast. Granted if you roll poorly no matter what you’ll do poorly. I wish it had a bit more of a story to it, but overall, the story isn’t too bad and the game is meant to be mainly a dice chucking dungeon crawl anyways.

Status: Played

Sword Art Online Board Game: Sword of Fellows

I love Sword Art Online, one of my favorite anime, and I’ve watched it multiple times. I am also working on a game idea based off of some of the isekai themes from it. But this game is a bit sad, the anime is big and epic, this game is tiny. it does get some things right, mainly the combat of switching in and out and not letting the bad guy go feels like it matches the theme. I need to play this one not solo, because I think it might be better that way and have less upkeep for one player. I’m hoping some day we’ll get a truly epic Sword Art Online board game.

Status: Played

So that’s all of the S’s, there are ton of them. I hope that you were able to stick it out, hte rest of the list will be a lot shorter. There are so many good games in the S’s as well and a lot that I need to play. Which one should I play first? Do I have something that seems like it’s missing to you? I’m guessing people will say Scythe, which I owned, but got rid of.

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Ganz Schon Clever is probably one of the more influential games in terms of putting the roll and write craze over the top. There had been games before like Qwixx that were out there, but Ganz Schon Clever hit the market and took off because it made a game that was interesting and challenging and put in so many combos into the game. So many combos. In this game, you are playing a number of rounds, 4 to 6 depending on player count, more rounds for less players. On your turn you roll six dice, you can then use one of the dice in one of the five sections. Each section corresponds to one of the dice colors and then there is a wild die, the white one, that can be used in any section. The trick for what die you’ll use comes down to the fact that any dice that are of a lower value than the one you select go onto a platter (this will be important later). Then you roll the remaining dice again, repeat the process, and do it all one more time. At that point in time, all the other players can pick and use one of the dice on the platter. Then the turn passes, next person goes, and so on and so forth. Doesn’t seem that challenging, but there are so many interesting things in it, as each section scores differently and can then let you activate other areas, possibly chaining even more things together.

Let’s do a quick run down of how each section works. In yellow you cross off a number, and for rows and the diagonal that you complete you get some bonus, like crossing off a spot in another section or adding a number. The columns when filled in give you points. In Blue, you always take the total of the blue and white dice and fill in the corresponding number, the more spots you fill in, the more points you get, and filling out rows or columns gives you bonuses. In green, you fill in from left to right and the number has to be greater than or equally to the number i the circle to cross it off, the more you fill in, the more points you get, and if you make it to certain points you get a bonus. Orange is the easiest, it’s just the number on the dice, and then there are bonuses that you get for filling in certain spots, but you have to work left to right. There are also a few spots that double or triple in yellow. Finally, there is purple, in purple you go left to right and the number must always be greater than the previous number, so you could go something like 1, 4, 6. When you put in a six, you can start over again, and there are a ton of bonuses in purple. Finally, there is the fox bonus. The fox bonus shows up in each section and for the fox, you score the number of foxes you’ve made it to times your lowest score, so you can’t just skip one section, because then your foxes would be X time 0 which would give you no points.

Really, that’s probably enough to get going on the game and be able to play it. The game is simple, but there is strategy. Plus, you do get some other bonuses that I haven’t mentioned yet. You can unlock rerolls, you can get +1 that you can use to use an extra dice after people are done rolling, and you can just fill in a spot of your choice in round four. So sometimes you can use the +1 die to chain into something else and fill in a few spots, or maybe the filling in a spot will do that for you.

Like I said before, this game is pretty simple to learn. But to master it, you need to figure out the strategy for it. Sometimes you’ll want to reroll just because to use the die you need to, or want to, will lose you too many dice. Saving the +1’s towards the end can also be a good strategy because you can use them to combo more sooner, but sometimes I’ll spend a +1 to get a +1 when it’s a harder +1 to get than others, if that makes sense. So there is way more going on than just rolling dice and putting down a number, and scores can vary wildly.

Now, if you don’t like luck, there is luck involved. You might roll all ones, reroll and roll all ones again. It’s improbable, but not impossible. Or someone else might be consistently rolling higher numbers so they can score the orange and purple sections better. But with that said, since the game is fast, and since you are using dice that someone else has rolled, it is possible that you’ll get to use better dice, or if you don’t, the game will be over quickly and you can try again. The luck factor though might be a turn off for some, but I do think with all the combos that it is hard to get completely locked out of the game and doing well at all in it.

I’m also looking at this as a big fan of a lot of roll and write games. There are a number that I’ve talked about before, such as Welcome To… Second Chance, Criss Cross, and Cartographers, all of them great games, and a number that I like better than Ganz Schon Clever, but one thing that Ganz Schon Clever does differently from all of those is the combos. With those there might be other variability in the game, but you never will get that really satisfying chain of doing one thing and then doing another and another because of that first thing that you picked. Sonora, the flick and write, has that comboing if not more going on it, but that’s one of the only others I’ve played that does that.

Overall, this is clearly a game that I like a lot. I think that the play is pretty clever (the English translation of Ganz Schon Clever is That’s Pretty Clever). I like that the game plays pretty fast, I think slightly longer than the box says, but with that game speed, you never feel like you have much down time since you are doing things on other people’s turns as well. It scales well, and the rules are easy enough to teach that I think I could with most people, with just a few reminders during the game.

Overall Grade: A
Gamer Grade: A-
Casual Grade: A

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Heaven and Ale

This is a game that normally wouldn’t be the type of game that I gravitate towards. It’s a Rondel (I’ll explain) and more of a puzzle euro game all about getting your timing right, but the theme is beer. And I like beer, and I play games while drinking beer, so beer making while drinking beer seems right to me. So what’s a rondel. a rondel is basically an action path that you can go on that is circular. Depending on the game, you can go as far ahead as you want, but most of them limit how far you can go. When you go ahead, that means that you can’t go back, so say I can skip over two actions, that means, if I can move ahead three and there are ten spaces, it’d take several rounds before I could get back to one of those actions that I’ve skipped, 3 or 4. So you have to think how much it’s worth moving head and how much it makes sense to hold back. It’s a different direction than my normal theme forward games, but I like the puzzle aspect that it brings to it.

Papillon

A game about butterflies, because I only have Mariposas so I clearly need more games about butterflies, but this one is very different. In this one you are drafting rows of flower plots, and placing it so you have matching sides together. You then are trying to create large areas to score as well as set it up so that you can get butterflies, and place them on beautiful looking 3D flowers for an area control aspect of the game. This game has an amazing look on the table, and I think the complexity of the game is right for a large variety of gamers. The theme is also very friendlier than a lot, people will like butterflies more so than sci-fi or fantasy. Now obviously butterflies won’t be a theme that draws everyone in, but it won’t push them away as well.

Boomerang

Have I said recently that I like roll and writes, in fact, there’ll be a bonus roll and write at the end. But Boomerang is one that I had heard about a while ago and just don’t know a ton about. This one is a bit more a flip and write than a roll and write, but you have a bunch of different cards you use to fill in things on your board. The game looks pretty simple, pretty fast, and like it should hit the table. It is also different because compared to a roll and write, or flip and write, this game has card drafting in it. Card drafting, or drafting in general, is a great mechanic. I like that I now have several games that are flip and write, some that are unique rolling and writing and others more classic rolling and writing, plus games that have big boards, flicking, and now I’ll have a drafting and writing game as well.

Foodies

Another game that I’ve had my eye on for a long time. Foodies looks like a fun fast engine building game that is going to be on a weight similar to something like Homebrewers, where there is a bit more going on than the likes of Splendor, but easy enough to learn. In Foodies you are buying foods to build up your menu, and you place them into a grid, then you’re rolling dice and depending on what is rolled you can activate different spots and get different things, like money, or victory points, whatever it might be. What I like about this one is that it keeps you engaged even not on your turn. If someone else is rolling, you still get to activate on your menu board what was rolled. And the dice adds in some variability, but they didn’t want you to get nothing for an empty spot, so you might get a coin if it’s rolled as compared to more if you have a menu item there. The art is nice and the theme is great for this one.

Xenoshyft: Onslaught – Game Night Kit #1

Don’t ask me what’s in this, but it was $4 and more content for Xenoshyft: Onslaught, a game that I really like. I’ve almost pulled the trigger on this several times, but I was debaging if I needed a mini expansion, turns out when it’s $4 I do. It basically adds in a few new equipment cards and things like that to add even more variety to the game and a way to set-up some special things. I think it’ll be a fun edition to a game that I really need to get to the table again.

Finally, the bonus one.

This one came because I had some games to sell, in fact, we’re going to have a new post also coming today called Point of Sale which is what I am selling back to my FLGS because I don’t need it on my shelf anymore, and why.

Twice as Clever!

I’ve recently been on a kick playing the Ganz Schon Clever app a lot, and I’ve actually gotten in five games of Ganz Schon Clever as well. But Twice as Clever! is the follow up to Ganz Schon Clever and there’s actually a third out now as well. While Ganz Schon Clever is fun and simple, Twice as Clever adds in a whole lot more challenge to the game while keeping the mechanics very similar. The new additions are a lot of fun and create a really good time playing in the app. I need to get this one to the table soon as well.

Which is your favorite of these games that I ordered?

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This game is split into two parts and six rounds. The first half of each round players are flicking discs onto a board, depending on the number of the disc and where it lands, at the end of the flicking phase, you will get to use it on the second part of the round. That is where you are using the number and location to determine actions on your player/scoring board. The game has you doing a few different things, four in fact, depending on the area where you flicked your discs. The first one, the lizard, is simply filling in areas as fast as you can based off of the total number on the discs that you’ve flipped, the bigger area you fill in, the more points you get when you complete it and the better bonus you get if you’re the first person to complete it. The eagle is a bit trickier, you are using the numbers you flicked into that section to fill in cross out and then circle spots for either bonuses or scoring. Then in the fox, you are tetrising in pieces to get points by covering up cacti, and the more you get of a given type, the more points you get, plus you can circle bonuses as well. Finally with the rabbit, you are totaling up the discs in the area and using them to cross of intersections which will allow you to connect vertices which again gets you points for cacti you’ve surrounded as well as bonuses. After six rounds, the player with the most points wins.

So, we know from my Top 100, which is going on now, I like roll and writes and flip and writes, so how about a flick and write, does the flicking part work for me? I’d say yes, I think I can get better at it, I got good at ICECOOL, but I think that it works for me, it’s a fun randomization aspect of the game. I almost wish there were more ways to lock in a disc once you’ve flicked it, other than hitting the middle wild spot, but there are bonus double spots on the board and I do like trying to knock other people off of them. My flicking was bad enough that I think in two games I only hit the double once. That said, I was always in the games. So while the flicking is important, utilizing the bonuses on the sections most effectively and you can really create massive combos is just as important. So I think that both parts of the game works well.

I think another thing that works well is that this game has little to no downtime. Sure, it might take a minute to get back to flicking again, but the flicking portion of the game goes fast. And then when filling in your board, you are doing that all at the same time, minus the lizard just because with the lizard the first person to complete a section gets a bonus. So everyone can go at the same time and while my scoring, if I don’t do many combos and get bonuses might go faster than yours, generally it isn’t a massive time difference and you’re not waiting for one person to do theirs, then the next, and then you. I think that’s a smart thing we’re seeing in a lot of roll and flip and write games is that they are trying to keep down time between turns to a minimum and Sonora does that as well.

If I had a knock against the game, I do think that the discs you are flicking could be slightly higher quality. They are wooden, which is nice and screen printed, but they are very light, just for me, I wish they had a little bit more heft to them. And the biggest thing, I wish that they had the numbers on both sides. It’s possible for the disc to flip when you shoot it, so you are having to reach in and flip it over so everyone can see, and probably moving it slightly. I think that the extra heft too would keep them from flipping as much or flying off the board as much, but then again, they do give you reflicks for it it does fly off the board, or maybe lands where you don’t want it to stop after you’ve flicked it.

Overall, this is a really fun game. I think that I’d say it’s a bit more complex than some roll and write games, but not too complex. Once you learn what each section does the game really goes fast, and I think playing two rounds for learning rounds is about all that you need before people really start to get it. There is strategy to the game, and I think that any of the different options are going to give you a chance to win. There are a few different ways that you can play it, you can play long, regular, or short games, and you can play basic or advanced rules, and I like the advanced rules where you can’t just flick to the section in front of you, you have to bounce off of something to either stop in that section or bounce back into it, it adds in some more strategy. Really good game and something that feels similar but different in the [blank] and write genre.

Overall Grade: A
Casual Grade: A
Gamer Grade: B+

Is this a game that you like, one that sounds interesting to you?

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Greenbriar Games

So first I ordered from Greenbriar games, during Gencon use the code GENCANT to get 50% off your order. The game I ordered from there was Champions of Hara, this game is a competitive and cooperative game with two different parts. The first part each player race to protect the lands of Hara from monsters and rifts that are opening and completing goals in order to get a wish of their fulfilled. This can be done with combat of both monsters and the other players. The second part is that the winner gets their wish and then they have to, along with the other players deal with the fallout of that wish. This game just seems like a lot of fun as you level up skills and get new cards to play giving your already unique character even more unique things to do. I like that it has the two modes as well.

Checkout a playthrough from GloryHoundd that sold me on this game:

Cool Stuff Inc

So Cool Stuff Inc normally has a big booth selling random games as well at Gencon even though they aren’t a game development company. As a sale they have a code GENCON5 to get 5% off your order. Since I’ve bought a fair amount from them, I also got an additional 3% off my order.

The first game I am getting is Sonora a flick and write game from Pandasaurus. In this game you are doing two main things, you are flicking disks around a board to try and land in specific areas. These areas then translate into what you are filling in on your board. What seems fun about this game is that you can strategize some with your flicking or knock people out of a spot where you’d want, but then when filling in things on your board, you have a ton of different options which can then lead to getting more things filled in on your scoring sheet. There are four different areas there and four areas on the board, and each scores well, and you can really focus in on a single area if you want or maybe two, and score well in those, but if you try and do everything you might spread yourself too thin.

I’m also getting Dig Deeper and LA Crime expansion for Detective: A Modern Crime Board Game. I have really enjoyed my playthroughs of that game, and we’re going to be getting back to it shortly, so I just want to get some more games in of it, and I think more cases are going to be great for it. I like that these are smaller box expansions as well, so I don’t need to get everything for it again, I can just get more content without it feeling like a whole new game. I’ll let you find more of why I love that game here.

Finally, I got Camel Up. This is a camel racing game, but one that is light and silly. On your turn you can guess who will be the lead camel at the end of a round, you can put a booster or something to back-up a camel on a track, you can bid on who is going to win or lose overall, or, you can roll the dice. When you roll the dice, you shake a pyramid that has all the camel color of dice, plus a die for the two crazy camels, and whatever die falls out falls out. So there’s a lot of randomness with that, but what makes it even sillier is that the camels can stack on top of each other. So if the blue camel ends up on top of the red camel, and then the red camels die is rolled it moves with both itself and the blue camel on top of it, and whatever camel is on top is the leader. It’s a silly game, but it can play a large number of players, so I think it’ll work well for game nights coming up.

Which of these games seems the most interesting to you? Do you have any of them in your collection?

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