124-101

100 – 76

Unplayed Board Games 75 -51

75: HEXplore It: The Forest of Adrimon

Yes, this moved up slightly. Mainly because I missed it and I didn’t want to go back and adjust it a few spots. But I do think it could be higher. HEXplore It is an adventure style game, so one that I think I’ll like. And the Forest of Adrimon is supposed to be one of the easier to get into. It has some feel like another game that will be on another list in that it’s an RPG but a board game.

74: Formula D

Racing games, I’ve really been digging them lately. And in general I’ve liked them. I have TItans Race which I enjoy as a silly racing game. And Downforce which is amazing for racing and betting. But Formula D is the most involved and I really want to give it a whirl. I think doing something that simulates racing a bit more might be cool, though possibly slower in terms of game play.

73: Arkham Horror 3rd Edition

I am surprised how far down Arkham Horror 3rd Edition is. I like Arkham Horror 2nd Edition but I got rid of it because it is too long. So I suspect I’m going to like this version of it as well, and a shorter play time. So I need to get it to the table. But I think because it is familiar and because I have games like Arkham Horror The Card Game and Mansions of Madness, I feel like I might not need to play this as soon,

72: Fireball Island: The Curse of Vul-Kar

I bought this one when it was cheap at Target. Well, the price hasn’t changed, but the version of the game now at Target is a cheaper one, and I think smaller. This is when shipping was backed up so Target bought a bunch of Restoration Games’ stock. This is going to be a good and silly time. But I just need to find the time to play it. I don’t think game play will last too long for it.

71: Everdell

Everdell for a lot of people, I’d guess, is higher on the list. I know this is a well loved game, and the tableau and engine building it looks to offer seems great. Plus then the artwork is amazing on the game. I definitely notice that I’m a big fan of engine building games, and ones where they have some of those more euro mechanics to them as well. It’s lower for me just because it is a bit less thematic.

70: The Table Is Lava

This is a silly game. The Table Is Lava has you throwing cards onto the table, placing down meeples to get points. But when you throw you try and knock down other peoples meeples which is hilarious to me. I’m going to turn off the fan in the game room when I play this one because that might interfere with throwing cards. Should just bust this one and have a good time with it some game night.

69: Star Wars: Unlock!

The last of the escape room style games that I own. It’s higher than the Lovecraftian themed one just because of theme and being three games in one box. My wife and I need to play these because we both like Star Wars. And after the Olympics and before Moon Knight comes out, it’d give us something to do for a few weeks. I’ve heard they aren’t too challenging, but it’s still Star Wars, so I’m sure it’ll be fun.

68: Cockroach Poker

And a small game in Cockroach Poker, this is almost a classic filler game, if not one, at this point. You either tell the truth about the card you pass or you lie. And you don’t want to get sets. If you call the persons bluff and they were telling the truth, you get the card. If you can call and they were lying, they get the card. Or you can peek at it and pass telling the next person who you think it is. Clever idea, seems like it should be fun with the right groups.

67: Drawn to Adventure

By the name Drawn to Adventure might sound like a roll and write, and it is a roll and write. It’s about adventuring the best that you can. And you do it over several maps. The production is great, but one thing keeps it down the list a bit. The several maps makes me wonder how long the game will take. If it’s interesting enough, it being a bit longer won’t be bad, but we’ll have to see.

66: Matcha

This is a little card game that I don’t know a ton about. But I like the tea theme and I like the aesthetic. So why so high on the list? It seems to do some things that I like, and it’s a two player game. That makes it easier to get to the table. I like set collection and hand management. It’ll be interesting to see how the bluffing works.

65: Mariposas

A couple games about butterflies on the list, but only one on this section. Mariposas is about generations of butterflies flying up north and then returning back to the south for the winter. I like the idea and it’ll be interesting to see how it goes over. The pieces are solid and the mechanics seems simple enough. It’s more about the puzzle of getting as far north as you can but then being able to go fast south again.

64: Tannhauser

A grail game for me, Tannhauser is lower on the list, just because I think it might take me a bit to learn. But I love the World War II theme of it, plus a bit of a weird world setting as well. Plus, it’s another game that Sam Healey was a big fan of, and like I said, his and my tastes generally match pretty well. It’s hard to find, though, because it’s out of print, so I’m glad to just own it.

63: Air, Land, and Sea

A little lane battling two player card game. I actually have this one sitting at work waiting to get played. Probably will happen next week. It’s a short little game where you deploy out troops to try and win three different theaters of war, air, land, and sea. I don’t know that it’ll be my go to two player game, but it’d be nice to have on in the mix.

62: Shakespeare

A Euro game at the middle of the list, Shakespeare is about putting on a play. You do different rehearsals, build sets, get actors, and get costumes to do the best performance possible. It’s been in my collection for a while, but I don’t want to get rid of it. Even with the fact it’s a euro, I like the theme a lot. And I( think that it’ll be a puzzle that works for me.

61: Foodies

Foodies is one of three games that I own where you roll dice and everyone can do something. Space Base, higher on this list, and My Farm Shop, already played, are the other two. I previously have owned Machi Koro, and I want to buy Machi Koro Legacy when I have a group for it. It’s a mechanic that I like, but will Foodies beat out My Farm Shop? And could Space Base beat out both of them?

60: Papillon

Another butterfly game, and this one is higher, slightly because the aesthetic is cooler. Plus, I like some of how the game works. You build out different patches of flowers, trying to close them off then place butterflies on locations And those locations are an area control/majority battle. So the game seems really cool and offers different areas to focus on for strategy. Diversify across all flowers to get some points in a lot of spot. Or go for a lot of points in a few spots.

59: Valor & Villainy: Minions of Mordak

This is another one versus all game like Descent. But this one is newer and I’m getting the campaign or legacy version of this via Kickstarter with Lludwick’s Labyrinth. I do want to try this version as well as both the villain and the heroes and see how it plays. Mechanically I think it is interesting and I like the leveling up that you do in just a single scenario.

58: Flick of Faith

Two dexterity games now in a row. Flick of Faith reminds me a bit of Sonora, but just with flicking being the focus of it versus the roll and write aspect. You flick discs trying to get control of certain spots. And you have bigger discs that are harder to knock out of the way. And then there are god powers that change up how you play the game each round.

57: Rhino Hero Super Battle

The other dexterity game is about stacking. Three on this section of the list with The Table Is Lava. And this one definitely needs the fan off as you try and be at the top of the tower, or at least the highest up when it topples over. Unless, you knock it over, and then everyone else wins. Simple game, but I like simple and fun dexterity games.

56: Doodle Dungeon

Doodle Dungeon is a roll and write game, but the biggest box I have, well, up there with Sonora, and I own the Railroad Ink big box. But this is a dungeon crawling or creating game, which I think leans into the Boss Monster side of things. We aren’t the heroes, we’re the monsters in the dungeon trying to stop heroes. I need to look into this one more, but I think it’s going to feel like a much bigger game than a normal roll and write.

55: The Bloody Inn

A game with a morbid theme but one that seems like a lot of fun. In The Bloody Inn, you run an inn. But you find out that it’s more lucrative to kill off the people staying there, hide their bodies, and take their money. Who can do that the best, and will the police crack down on you? Card game but one that the theme while morbid is also funny.

54: Wingspan

Wingspan is not a game that I thought I’d own. But a friend got an extra copy, so we traded games. And I do think that I’ll like Wingspan. It’s a tableau building game about bird watching. That theme isn’t that interesting to me, but everyone seems to love the game. Family weight plus game, it might work well for a lot of groups. I am excited to try it for that reason.

53: Welcome To New Las Vegas

Another roll and write, we have four on this chunk of the list, one more to come. And Welcome To New Leas Vegas is a harder. That’s kept it on my shelf. One thing that I like about it’s predecessor Welcome To, is that it’s easy to play. I can teach that game to basically anyone. But will this one be too hard for my group. I need to try it and see.

52: Welcome to Dino World

The other roll and write is Welcome to Dino World. I like the idea of a dinosaur park. I didn’t grow up watching Jurassic Park and the sequels, but the concept is still fun. This one looks like a good time and you can have dinosaurs escape which every good dinosaur park should have happen. Because I’ll never ask if it should be done, just if it can be.

51: Camel Up

Final game is another racing game. Camel Up is kind of a classic at this point in time. Mainly because the game is goofy. You bet on who wins and the earlier you bet on it, the more you can win. But it’s hard to know who can win. The camels, as they race, stack. And the camel on top is in the lead. But if a camel on the bottom moves, they move the stack. So a camel can get lucky, move up to land on someone and then bound ahead again when that came moves.

Final Thoughts

We definitely had a few bigger games this time. And four roll and writes. But we’re still not to the big ones yet. The top 25, for sure, will be a lot of big games. And I do think that the roll and writes will be played on this section of the list. Plus some of the games like Matcha and Air, Land and Sea should be easy to get to the table.

Which game would you want to play on this section of the list? Which one should I play first?

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This is going to be a list article, with all my unplayed games ranked. But before I dive into that, I want to talk about some of the terms that I just used. Mainly shelf of shame and shelf of opportunity. They are the same term phrased in different ways. Let’s dive into them and then the big list of games to play.

Shelf of Shame vs Shelf of Opportunity

This is a term that I’ve heard thrown around for a few years now. The idea that games on your shelf have this title. First off, I think this is kind of silly. Games that you haven’t played don’t have a special spot in existence. Now, maybe they do have a special spot on your shelf, but they aren’t held in any sort of light. They are just a board game.

But the first term I heard is Shelf of Shame. The idea behind this is that you feel bad since you haven’t played all your games. This is silly. I go back to my talk about collection versus a hobby. Know what you have on your shelf. For me, board games are a collection and a hobby. That means it’s fine to not get to every game quickly. They are part of my collection. But I play them, as they are part of my hobby as well, and hobbies get used or worked on.

Then came the term Shelf of Opportunity. Shelf of Shame is very negative, and opportunity sounds much better. But I, again, find this not much better. Yes, they are games that you play eventually. And yes, it spins it in a positive light. But both terms keep a focus on the fact the games aren’t played.

What Do I Call Them?

I call them what they are. Board games to be played. A board game is just an object. In labeling them either way, it places power on that object. Yes, one puts it in the light of a game being an opportunity for something new, and new exciting opportunities are good. But it leaves the pressure on actually playing the game.

Like I said, I play games. I buy games. Board Games are a collection and a hobby for me. I own games that might take a long time to get played. Campaign games where I play one at a time or two, and I am already playing two. Those wait for when I have time, and that is okay. I feel like the label places a cloud, no matter what label, over the games, and in the end of the day, games are just games.

If I never play a game in my collection and it collects dust for five years. I shouldn’t feel bad about leaving that opportunity out there. I most definitely shouldn’t feel shame. It is a game and I play games. So I play other games and not the game that is sitting there. I am still enjoying the hobby without playing every game I own.

So Why Write This Out?

I gave myself a challenge at the beginning of the year. Not because I feel guilt about games that I haven’t played. But because it is fun to play games. And I want to play games, I want to experience new games, and I want to cover new games.

For me, my challenge isn’t to get all the games off the shelf. It isn’t because I feel like I miss out on an opportunity. And I care not about shame from it. For me it’s about trying new things and almost making a game out of it. If I don’t make it by the end of the year, I don’t care. I play these for fun.

Unplayed Board Game List

Let’s Talk About the List

124 Games on it, and my goal is to get it down below 100 by the end of the year. You add in a bunch of Kickstarter games coming in, and you can see why it is a big list and also a challenge. And of course, then, there are campaign games on the list. If we look at campaign style games, I think we’re sitting at 14 on the list. And that is a lot of games to play through a campaign of, so that isn’t going to happen. Though, with Sleeping Gods coming off the list to start the year, it will some over on Malts and Meeples.

There are also some kids games on the list. Right now, I don’t think I will play those this year. Monza looks fun, but the toddler isn’t quite ready for it. But the toddler is also three, so who knows, maybe by the end of the year, we can play those games a bit more. But right now I’m not expecting to.

I also think it’s important to note that a lot of big games are at the top. Those are the ones that I’m most excited to play and cover. And some of them should be getting played soon. Probably after this weekend I’ll be lining up a time to get started playing Roll Player Adventures.

To go along with that, there are a lot of solo games as well. I could play, in the top 20, around 75% of them solo and some of them are solo only games. So I need to start knocking those out first, because they are high on my list. That won’t be how I get under 100, though.

Final Thoughts

I think that it is fine to challenge yourself to play your unplayed games. I think it is fine to limit how many unplayed games you own. When that becomes the focus or the obsession, I think that is when we start to lose the focus on what we are doing. Or when tie to it other emotions, like shame.

When I see people post about clearing their shelf of shame, I am sure it feels good for them. But on the flip side, in the comments, you see people feeling guilty about their unplayed games. I am not that way. I don’t feel guilt over that. And you shouldn’t either.

This is an odd article, I wanted to talk more about the games, and I will soon. But before I could do that, I think it is import to talk about the shame or guilt that can be thrown around in the hobby. Not always intentionally malicious but always harmful.

Also, let me know what game you think I need to try first. What is your favorite on the list that I have too low, or that you know I would like or should try?

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Downforce

Downforce is a racing and bidding game where players are bidding for ownership of cars, and then betting on those cars, or any of the cars to win the race. The game has three different points as the cars move along the track where players bet.

Cars move around the track as players play down cards in turn order. Each card will have the cars moving some amount, and it might not just be your car that moves. A card might move the blue, green, and red cars, 4, 2, and 1 spaces respectively in that order. The trick is that the track can bottle neck in some places, and cars can’t go through other cars, so the order cars moves matters, either to block some cars or to get them through.

The winner is the player who has the most money at the end of the race. You lose money for how much you paid for your cars. You get money if they place and for your bets. We had people in the negatives in the first game and in the second game someone had $28 million. So massive range in scores.

What Doesn’t Work?

I like this game, let’s start with that, but I think out of the base box there is one thing that doesn’t work too well. And that is the car powers. The car powers are cool and something to keep track of. So players forgot them. But the issue I have with them is less remembering them more so the fact that there are six of them and six cars. That means that every power is going to get used. I want more powers, I want there to be eight to ten in the base box. If you use all, you can wait to bid on your favorite power. With ten, there would be question to which would show up.

What Works

This is a very light and fast game. I know there are bigger ones out there, but I like that this is a racing game that wants to feel like a race. A lot of racing games give you moments of adrenaline rush but this one, everything that happens matters and is fun to play around with. So I could see pulling this out, auctioning off the cars and then doing a few races, almost NASCAR style, see who wins the most money but also who does best overall in the races in an evening.

I also really like the card play in this game. The fact that you do every movement on the cards is great. And they have to go in a certain order makes it a puzzle. There are cards that only move one car 5, or the special card that allows for a movement of 8. But then there are cards that move all six cars from six spots down to one spot. So you can create traffic jams if the order is right.

I also really like the powers in the game. I just said that they didn’t work for me, but really, it is just the number of them that doesn’t work. What I want is more of them. So I will probably get the expansions, if they add them, but also for the added in tracks. But something that makes you feel unique is great.

Who Is Downforce For?

Honestly, this is a game for everyone. The game play is simple and fast. People who don’t get gaming will likely get this. The trickiest thing to understand is that you don’t only think about your own cars. In fact, I rarely bid on my own cars. But even when you are done racing, you still care about all the cars on the board. So this is just a great game in my opinion for families, or as a filler for gamers.

In fact, I think the idea of turning it into a cup, or series, is great for gamers. Add some more to the game, play on all the tracks and just enjoy it. It falls into that category of with Formula D and Pitchcar where since they are racing games, might as well do them a bunch. But Downforce is the most accessible of all of them because Formula D adds in more to keep track of Pitchcar is dexterity.

Final Thoughts

This is such a fun game and I had such a fun time playing it. I am going to be getting the expansions, I just want more maps and more fun for this game. I don’t think you need more maps, but I want to do a 6 race series just because that’s going to be fun. And really, my negative item for this game is barely a negative. It’s just, like I said, I want more. I wouldn’t even mind if the different color cars had a special ability, so a car ability and a driver ability or something like that, though, that might make the game more complex than it should be.

Last thing I’ll say is that Downforce isn’t so much a racing game as a betting game. Or maybe more it’s equal racing and bidding. And the bidding, especially early on is just luck. But maybe there is more than luck to what you are doing.

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

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Formula D

Formula D, if my last Malts and Meeples video had audio, you’d know is a racing game that I want to see a legacy version of. It is based off of a Formula 1 style racing and has a ton of different tracks. I think I have six different tracks for it right now. I can almost do a campaign right now. Right now, I can race all the tracks and assign points for how people finish. The better you do or more consistently you do, then you’ll win it all.

How I’d Make It Work

The legacy element is generally the most challenging for a game. How do you add in new things to make the game change and grow? While it doesn’t have to be a major player in the game, I feel like there are interesting things that could be added. There are a few things that come to mind:

• Adding in weather for changing track conditions
• Fighting over sponsorships
• Crew and driver upgrades

Really only the upgrades to crew and driver would give it a legacy feel to it. I think that you’d be able to use it as a campaign style game as well. You can play the legacy version learning and unlocking the new things as you go. But once you are done, all the drivers and crew have a generic non-upgraded side that you can use for a campaign, so you can race season after season.

Homebrewers

This one might seem a little bit odd because it’s a small and light game about brewing beer. The main mechanic, however, is engine building. And I think that it could lead to some clever legacy elements as you play, more in the style of Charterstone where the story is less important than the mechanics. The unique character powers and ingredients that you use would be the focal point of the legacy element.

How I’d Make It Work

I hinted at it already, it is all about the player boards and ingredient cards. You would be brewing through several years worth of competitions and there’d be basic stuff, like much equipment for brewing you had or what your basic special power is that are there from the beginning. Then there would be a few legacy elements to drive it.

• Ingredients
• Brew Set-up
• Special Power
• Judging

So the big three are those upgrading of cards or player boards. You could unlock better scoring for further into your brews by upgrading the cleanliness of your set-up. Or you could improve how your special power works so it is even better. And upgrading ingredients would give them a more powerful affect like giving you more money, moving up on a different track better or further, something like that.

But the game would be driven by the judging. Think of it as following the current beer trends. The judges one year would want all IPA’s, that would give you the most points, and maybe savory ingredients to add to the beer. But you’d get that one judge, the one who has their finger on the future pulse, who is also interested in stouts or fruit. That way you know what might be coming up for what to keep or plan for the next year.

Super-Skill Pinball: 4-Cade

Of course I found a way to put a roll and write game in here. I love roll and write games, but it was harder than it might seem. A lot of roll and write games are very abstract. Super-Skill Pinball is one of the roll and writes that is least abstracted. For that reason, it is easier to see how it could become a legacy game.

How I’d Make It Work

It is going to have to be completely about scoring the most on each board. And in the base game there are four boards, so would it just be a four game legacy game? I don’t think it would be. You likely won’t get your best score the first time around. So instead, I would make it 8 to 12 total games.

• Trick Shots
• Special Powers

The idea behind trick shots is that you can unlock shots that you are better at. Shots you do one time per game and generally will get you out of a stick situation. Think of hitting the same bumper twice. Something like that would build upon how you can play and score. But a one time power isn’t going to break the game completely, it’ll just enhance a ball.

The special powers, those are going to be a bigger deal. You unlock them as you play and then upgrade them. These are the unique player powers that will give you more options in what you can do. An ability might be something like “The Tilter” where you can avoid a tilt more times. Or someone could get a small tilt and they never have to worry about a tilt of a difference of 1, which allows them to micromanage their game more.

Eventually, the best combined score on all four boards is the winner, but if you win on a board you can still feel good about being the best there.

Zona: The Secret of Chernobyl

This game pits you against other players as you fight monsters, race against the game, and try to be first to unlock the secret of Chernobyl. And I think it’d be a cool legacy game. Mainly because there can be a number of things, story objectives, that you can play around with. This is like Pandemic Legacy in that way, instead of going for points, it is the first person to kill seven monsters at first, keeping it very simple. Then the story unfolds about what has happened and changed the lands until you are diving into the depth of Chernobyl, trying not to die, and eventually save the lands. Of course, keeping the competitive nature of the game.

How I’d Make It Work,

I gave some hints up above, but I like this one as an objective story driven experience. Whereas the rest might create story and moments as you play, they aren’t going to be as story driven. This one is going to have you doing more and more as you try and survive the harsh lands game after game after game. Of course, there are other legacy elements as well.

• Character Upgrades
• Changing Objectives
• Items You Can Keep
• Emerging Story

I definitely see there being a ton of story potential. But there is more than that. I always go back to making unique characters or character powers. In this case you choose the area to upgrade in. You upgrade stats, health, and of course give yourself more unique powers. You can be a better killing machine or ignore that to get better at delving into the ruins. To add in with that, you can upgrade how much you can carry between games, so can keep more items or different items that you find along the way.

Galaxy Trucker

This one is an odd one, but one that I think would be awesome to have as a legacy game. In this game you are building ships in real time to fly through space, pick up cargo, and sell it. All the while, your ship is being bombarded by meteorites, attacked by pirates and generally falling apart. The whole feel of the game is that you slap the ship together and see what happens and then repeat the process. Which sounds odd for legacy, but I think could work.

How I’d Make It Work

Like I said, this one is an odd one. But there do seem to be a few areas that you could turn this into a legacy game, one of the biggest is adding in captains. Captains are going to be your main way to upgrade your ship. You upgrade them, get extra energy for your engines, shields or guns, or maybe you can fit more aliens or people onto your ship. That’s the first big way.

• Unique Captains
• Unlock new ship tech/tiles
• New Threats

The basics of the game would stay the same, but it would just add in complexity as you go along. That is the hallmark for most legacy games. Since you are grabbing tiles as fast as you can, this would just unlock new tiles as you go. It’d almost do unlocks more like Risk Legacy you could go a couple of games without having something unlock but when certain conditions are met, like half the ship falling off or delivering 30 credits worth of stuff, new threats and tiles would get unlocked. Also like Risk Legacy, I’d just track winners, not points, so the person who wins the most wins the game.

Which Would You Want To Play?

I need to ask myself that question as well. Which one would I like to play the most as a legacy game. I think it is going to be Formula D, that game you could pretty easily turn into a campaign game already and I’ve had that thought for a while that it could work that way. But Zona: The Secret of Chernobyl is super high as well. I think from a story perspective that would be the best one from them all. I am mainly just shocked there isn’t a legacy racing game out there.

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From the Miniature Market Sale

Aeon’s End Expansions

We’re starting with something that wasn’t even on sale. This is just more of the small box expansions for Aeon’s End. I love this game, and I think it’s going to be one that I just start playing through all the content I have here coming up soon. The cooperative card play and deck building is fun. All the different mages are really good. And the Nemesis can play so differently.

But I got a lot of different expansions for it:

• The Void
• The Depths
• Shattered Dreams
• Buried Secret
• Into the Wild

Downforce

I’ve been enjoying racing games and the concept of racing games recently. Downforce has actually been on my radar for a long time, because it’s a different type of racing game. I have Formula D which is a big racing game with a lot of dice rolling. I have Camel Up which is a light racing game, and Downforce is more like that. In Downforce you bid on cars that are your car, but you also bid on other cards during the race. What is interesting about the race is that you spend your cards to move all of the cars, not just your own. So I play a card that moves green and blue forward five, red forward three, and pink, purple, and brown forward two (all colors are made up). It’ll tell me what order to move them forward in.

And you bid multiple times during the race. The better you do early, the more points you get at the end. But with the cards in your hand, you know some of what is going to happen. So you can manipulate it potentially to your advantage. Seems like a fun, light, different type of racing game.

Not Alone: Sanctuary Expansion

This is a a one versus all game that actually works well with a large number of players. The person who is the one plays as the planet and monsters on it that the all have crashed on. They are trying to survive long enough to get off of the planet. I am not totally sure what the Sanctuary Expansion adds. More locations is the most likely thing. This game is just fun, and I love the cooperative planning that can happen. It doesn’t always happen, but the all can talk about where they want to go. They must talk in ear shot of the one, but as much discussion as they want is allowed. Really excited to try some of the new expansion stuff for variety in the game.

From My FLGS (All Systems Go)

Marvel Champions: Galaxies Most Wanted

I love Marvel Champions. The game is just a ton of fun and offers so much content already. This is the second campaign box that they have put out. The first, Rise of Red Skull is a pretty simple and straightforward campaign, but the Guardians of the Galaxy focused one, with Groot and Rocket is supposed to be more complex. I am really excited to see everything that is in it. And I am really excited for the Guardians of the Galaxy to be coming to Marvel Champions.

Pitch Car

Finally, we have Pitch Car. This game has been on my radar for ages, and I was glad I was able to find it used. Pitch Car is not a cheap game, especially with expansions, because it’s all particle board and nice quality. Pitch Car is another racing game but really different from Formula D, Downforce, or Camel Up. In Pitch Car, you flick your car around the track. Everyone takes a turn flicking, trying not to fly off of the track and do amazing shots and jumps, banking off the walls. And what I picked up wasn’t just base Pitch Car.

The person had traded in three expansions as well. So I also got the long straights, the More Speed More Fun expansion, and the Stunt Race expansion. This is enough to build a pretty massive track. This will definitely be one of the first games that I get out for in person gaming. A lot of games work via Zoom, but dexterity games not so much. Pitch Car and Ice Cool will be two that are going to be a lot of fun when playing in person again.

Which Would You Want to Play?

Let me know in the comments below which you’d be most interested in playing. For me, I think that it has to be Pitch Car right now. The prospect of gaming in person is just so exciting after it being so limited for over a year. And Pitch Car, the concept and the tracks just seems like a ton of fun. It might even be a game that I take to a board game store and let people know when it is going to be there to come try and play.

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Plus, I unboxed some more board games. I talked about a lot of them in the Point of Order from this week. But I got to bust them open on stream and take a look at the pieces. There are a number of fun games in there, let’s take a quick look at which ones they were.

Formula D – Tracks

I got two new tracks for the game Formula D. This is a car racing game where you are in charge of a car and taking it around a track, rolling dice to see how well you do. If you go too fast around the curve, bad things can happen, but you need to know when to push your luck, and when the throttle down. These tracks just give more configurations to race in than compared to the base box. Also might be turned into a legacy game or a tournament by myself.

Deep Madness: Devourer of Worlds

Another epic monster, mainly because I swung my my FLGS to drop off a few things to sell. You can find out about that in the Point of Sale article that also went out on Monday. Just another monster to fight against in this cooperative scenario based survival game. As a refresher on the theme, there is a deep sea base, for mining or exploration and research, I forget which, but things start to go wrong. Monsters start to come in from another dimension and the base goes coms silent. You are part of a team sent to checkout what has happened and stop anymore more bad from happening. Needless to say, bad things will happen. Because the epic monster Devourer of Worlds isn’t a nice guy, even with a name like that.

Dice Throne: Season 1 & 2 Painted Minis

Really a highlight for me. These minis are awesome and 100% not needed. The base game comes with standees and the standees just move around the board in Dice Throne Adventures. But the painted minis look so cool on the table and I’m really excited to play with them.

Cthulhu: Death May Die

I love my Lovecraftian games. Mainly because I like Lovecrafts writing in theory, but in all fairness, most of it isn’t that interesting to read. When put into a larger narrative like you get in a game like Arkham Horror (3rd Edition or LCG) or Mansions of Madness you get a better and more interesting story. While this game also has story similar to the mythos that has been created in those games, it’s from a different company, CMON. And this one has a whole lot more dice chucking in it. I kind of like that it is scenario based and it’s going to be easy to get to the table, though there is a fair amount of set-up it seems, and get into the game throwing a lot of dice.

Lost Ruins of Arnak

Last one that I opened up on stream. Lost Ruins of Arnak is one of the hot games coming out of 2020. In fact, it’s really hard to find. I grabbed a copy from Barnes and Noble online when it basically was impossible to find anywhere else. This game is a Euro style game with worker placement, but it also has deck building. I like the theme with it being a adventure type of theme with Indiana Jones vibes. That isn’t a theme that shows up too often in board games, and I wish it would show up more. I get that adventure can be hard to do well, so I’m curious to play this one that makes it more about the mechanics than possible some story.

The Beer

New Holland Brewing Company was the creator of last nights beer, Dragon’s Milk Solera. Dragon’s Milk is a line of beers from New Holland that are all strong ales. They sit around 10-12% depending on the one. Solera refers to how it was barrel aged. The taste is solid, while regular Dragon’s Milk has more of a caramel flavor to it, this definitely leaned more towards stone fruits like plums or dark cherries. I don’t love that flavor as much, but it is still a solid beer. It definitely makes it a slower sipper with the flavor profile.

That’s everything that I unboxed and played last night on Malts and Meeples. Marvel United was a lot of fun to get to the table. And I’m hoping that maybe at the end of the month or the start of next month I’ll be able to do a bit unboxing for all the expansions when they are delivered.

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Cthulhu: Death May Die

The biggest box of them all is for Death May Die. Now, do I really need another game with a Cthulhu theme, probably not, but is this one I’ve wanted for a while? Yes it is. This game, if it had been at my FLGS (Friendly Local Game Store) when I had my free game up to $100, I probably would have picked it up over Heroes of Land, Air, and Sea, but I’m happy, because I have both now. Death May Die is different from the Fantasy Flight Arkham Games in that it’s more of a dice chucker. You are getting in there, getting madness and hoping to stop things from falling apart. Original a Kickstarted game from CMON, it was known for having a giant Cthulhu add-on buy, which can’t be used with the game, but looks awesome. I didn’t get that, which I’m fine with, but the base game, I’m excited to try it and most likely go mad and die.

Aeon’s End Expansions

Now for the “get to free shipping” part of the Point or Order, I got two more of the small expansions for Aeon’s End. Now, I’d feel bad about it, but I love the game, and I need to play it way more. The expansions add little tweaks to the game or new content to play with. Between the two expansions, I get two new mages, and three new nemesis to face off against. The only thing that they don’t give you is a better storage solution for when you have everything. I am hoping some day I’ll get it all down to one or two boxes. Aeon’s End is a game that I’ll eventually get most things for but one that I will get them over time, don’t need them all now.

Formula D: Track Expansions

Two track expansions were what I picked up from the garage sale. Now, there were some other interesting games, but I had primarily gone to see if the Battlestar Galactica was there. It was not, and he had sold it for $150, which was more than I’d have paid for it anyways. But, since the person running the sale set times for people to show up, I felt bad about not buying anything. And he had two expansion tracks for Formula D, a dice chucking racing game that I want to play. I got the base game shortly before the pandemic, if I remember correctly. It hasn’t gotten to the table. These tracks give the game more variety, which will be fun.

Deep Madness: Epic Monster

I swung by my FLGS again, and I’ll tell the story below. When I do that, I generally pick up something, though yesterday I dropped off a bunch to sell as well (see Point of Sale Article coming out today as well). But they still have expansions that are hard to find for Deep Madness. You basically have to get them used. As long as they are there, I will slowly pick them up. Do I need more for the game right now, the answer is no. But when will I see them again, who knows. Deep Madness is one that I should play on Malts and Meeples soon. And I think more monsters in a game is never a bad thing, except being bad for my winning percentage.

Dice Throne Adventure Painted Minis Season 1 and 2

Join me for story time. I was browsing Facebook, scrolling through like one does, on Saturday. I’m part of the Minnesota Board Game selling and buying group and I happened to see that someone was selling Dice Throne Adventure for $70. But it wasn’t just Dice Throne Adventure, it had the Season 1 and Season 2 minis for the game characters and the painted ones from the pledge. Are they need for the game, no, but do they look very cool, generally yes. I had wanted to get them during the Dice Throne Adventure Kickstarter, but getting the Treant vs Ninja duel pack, and just the cost of Dice Throne Adventure, I decided I shouldn’t. The two seasons of minis, as an add-on, cost $70. So when I saw them for the same price, plus getting Adventure for $70, it seemed like too good a deal to pass up. I knew I could just turn around and sell or trade the Adventures immediately, and store credit is just easier than selling it myself. So now I am really happy to own those painted minis, will it cause the game to hit the table more, probably not, but will it look cooler when it does, most definitely.

Which of these games looks the most interesting to you? Have you had any awesome purchases recently?

I think I am most excited to get Dice Throne Adventure to the table now with the minis.

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You can find my whole collection here.

Numbers

A’s – B’s – C’s – D’s

E and F’s

Escape the Room: Mystery at Stargazer’s Manor

This is an escape room style game in a box. So the fact that it’s on my shelf/still owned should tell you the play status. I was given this one as a gift, and I’m excited to play it, but I haven’t gotten to it yet, mainly because I like escape rooms but I like playing with with 3-4 other people so that you can all puzzle through the game together. Right now that’s a bit tricky, and most often when I had game nights prior to Covid we’d have a larger group, and larger groups don’t work a well with escape room style games. I am still really excited to play this game though, I do enjoy escape room game a lot.

Status: To be Played

Fae

This is an interesting game, I like it because it has a hidden element to it. In this game you are trying to get the most points for your color of druid, you do that by moving them around on the board, grouping them together and then pulling them off of the board. But it’s done in an interesting way where you have a certain color of druid and it’s hidden, so you can try and get it so that your druids are pulled off in the highest scoring rituals to return from the fae realm, but if you do that, it might be too obvious so someone else might then tank the rest of your druids, so you want to score well, but not too well, all while trying to figure out what color of druid the other players might have in order to keep them from scoring too much. The game is simple, looks decently well n the table, and has a nice bit of a puzzle to it.

Status: Played

First Martians: Adventures on the Red Planet

This is basically The Martian the board game as you try and survive on Mars as your space base falls apart, events happen, and all of that while trying to complete your goal to win the game. This game has an app which is okay, but needed, for keeping track of the ship status, and for a wider variety of events that can happen, some of the events are just a bit too crazy. I like this one though because it does feel tense as you try and keep everything working and complete your objective. There is a campaign mode that I want to play as well sometime.

Status: Played

Five Tribes

Five Tribes is a great looking game that uses a mancala style movement of meeples on the board to create one big puzzle that you’re trying to figure out and optimize your way through. This game is what you’d call a point salad game, get blue workers off the board, get coins, which are points, get more vizers than someone else, points, get collected sets of different items, points, get to place a camel on a tile, points, get a palace or a palm tree on the tile, points. And while there might be more optimal plays, it’s fun to try to get the points in different area in different games. This one works really well with all player counts, and the way they make it work for 2 is really good.

Status: Played

Floor Plan

A roll and write all about building a house, and trying to do so in a way that pleases the real estate agents or whomever it might be that the scoring cards are for. This, of course can create some really weird houses. But I like this one in concept because it is making a blue print/floor plan for a place. It reminds me a bit of what I like about Cartographers and Welcome To… that you are building out something that makes a lot of sense versus the more abstract roll and write games like Criss Cross and Second Chance. I hoped to see this one and try it at GenCon last year, but no luck, wasn’t there, but I’m excited to have it in my collection now.

Status: To Be Played

Folklore: The Affliction (and Dark Tales Expansion)

This is a an RPG in a board game. You have standard RPG like dice that you’re even rolling. But it takes place in a DM’less system and a dark world with lots of werewolves and vampires, you know the monsters that can cause afflictions. The game has two parts, one is more story driven where you are basically getting your next quest and the other is more of a tactical combat portion of the game. This is one that I got introduced to by Rolling Solo YouTube channel and I’m glad that I picked up, I just need to actually play it.

Status: To Be Played

Foodies

This is one that a playthrough of the game on the Dice Tower sold me on it as a light engine building game. You basically are building our a restaurant menu in order to impress some food critics or meet certain criteria, but you are also rolling a dice which then allows you to activate certain spots on your menu. It’s a 10 sided die and your menu is a 3×3 grid, so as you add in food items you can upgrade what you are getting when things are rolled. It seems to fall into that level of something like Homebrewers which I love a lot as well as a nice simple but fun engine building game.

Status: To Be Played

Forgotten Waters

This pirate themed storybook game comes from Plaid Hat Games. And pirate themed and the story book actually both really drew me to it. It also has a nice app integration which has solid voice acting on it for some of the story elements which is fun as well. I haven’t played it, but I’ve heard it works well over Zoom or other digital platforms, I mainly haven’t played it because I think that my wife would like it and right now we’ve been doing a little bit less gaming obviously due to Covid with other people and Forgotten Waters plays up to 7, I believe, so I’d love to play through it with a group of people.

Status: To Be Played

Formula D

I’ve wanted to have a racing game for a while, so now of course I have two with Formula D and Camel Up. While Camel Up is a lighter and sillier racing game, Formula D has you shifting gears around corners, trying to adjust your speeds just right, push your luck at the right time, and see if you can be the first one to the finish. This game has a ton of maps, though my used game is a base game copy and doesn’t have the additional maps you can pick up. This one is just one that’s always seemed like an interesting challenge to play and could have some solid stand-up moments as people push their luck around the turn.

Status: To Be Played

The Fox In the Forest and The Fox in the Forest Duet

I’m lumping these two together though there is a major difference between the games. The Fox in the Forest is a competitive trick taking game where as Duet is a cooperative trick taking game. But both of them are trick taking and based off of the same theme. In the competitive game you are trying to take as many tricks as you can and get right up to that threshold where you haven’t taken too many. Fox in the Forest Duet is a game that’s a balancing act as you try and collect tokens over some number of hands, and there is a fox that moves around on the board toward the person who won the trick based off of the number of paws on the card, so can you coordinate well to keep from going off the edge of the board and losing potential scoring spots.

The Fox In the Forest Status: To Be Played
The Fox In the Forest Duet Status: To Be Played

Fruit Picking

This was game that I got to try digitally from Korean Board Games during the online GenCon this year. I liked the game a lot as a simple puzzle of a game to figure out. In it you are moving around tokens from various plans to get seeds into the store house to buy cards to complete basically an end game set collection. You can also buy cards to block someone from winning. But you have to plan it out right because to buy a card of a fruit type you have to be able to mancala your seeds around to end up on the right spot. I like how the game has changing puzzle as well because where the fruits are on the board can be different every game.

Status: Played Digitally

Now we’re back to another section that I need to play more games form. The fact that there are a few campaign style games definitely meant that I would have less played. I really do need to et back to streaming on Malts and Meeples as that’ll help me get through my backlog and I do want to do it more. Right now motivation has just been hard.

What’s your favorite game that starts with E? And F? What do you think I should checkout in those letters?

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