Publisher Portrait: Horrible Guild

Horrible Guild was founded in 2014 by Lorenzo Silva. Back when it was founded it was known as Horrible Games, but in 2019 they changed their name to Horrible Guild. This Italian board game company is known for making innovative and different games, which I’ll be talking about shortly. Horrible Guild is another company that does a lot of their initial funding for games on Kickstarter, but they have more of a retail presence than a Kickstarter only game company. You can find more about them on their website, here.

What Are Their Games Like?

So, I mentioned this above, but Horrible Guild really tries to create unique games. Now, not all of these games are small, but a lot of them fall onto the lighter side of board gaming. But because they are lighter, that gives them a really good chance to be creative in what they are doing.

Horrible Guild is probably best known for the game Railroad Ink. This was a roll and write that hit the markets towards the front end of the roll and write craze that we are still actively in. Now, a roll and write doesn’t sound that unique and it isn’t, but it is a good demonstration of the quality that Horrible Guild puts into their games. It came with dry erase boards and markers instead of sheets. And the dice are nice and chunky that you are using not just your standard dice. This is something that is consistently throughout all their games. They really give a ton of toy factor to what they create.

Board Game Spotlight

Railroad Ink/Railroad Ink Challenge

I have been talking about this game a lot lately. That’s mainly because there was an app that came out for Railroad Ink Challenge, and it’s great. But also the game is a ton of fun. I played it recently over on Malts and Meeples. But this game is really worth talking about, especially because in the Challenge version, it gives you a lot of think about. And because it is the game that put Horrible Guild on the map for them. Railroad Ink is all about connecting routes, making long roads and train tracks, and nothing that revolutionary. However, it takes what we already know and leverages that.

Then Challenge adds in a whole lot more, well, challenges. Basically timed requirements where if you get them done in time you get more points. Plus a few more places to score points. In some ways Challenges is less punishing because you can score points with towns and double up the use of dice. But it’s more punishing because you now have those goals or challenges you’re going for. And those sometimes don’t match well with the dice, or what how you started. Do you want to score well there or go more for routes. Both version, though, a ton of fun.

Potion Explosion

When I think Horrible Guild, though, this is the game I think of. And that is because this game has so much toy factor. It is like playing an app game, but as a board game. In Potion Explosion you pull out marbles and they drop down , if you hit two of the same color together you get those two as well. It can create a great chain reaction that is so satisfying. But beyond that, it also has fun combo game play. You use the marbles to make potions. You use the options to get more marbles. It’s not complex, but out on the table it looks like so much fun, and its good for a wide variety of gamers.

Similo

This game is arriving in the mail today. I have yet to play it, but it is a big one for them in that Horrible Guild has a ton of expansions for it. What is drawing me to the game is that it’s a cooperative party game. Now, cooperative party games are becoming more common, but this one seems like a lot of fun. It has almost a bit of a Codenames element to it. One player is it and they have a secret card, out of 10 on the table, they want you to guess. And then a handful of cards to give you clues. They can’t say anything but with the cards they play, they tell you if it’s similar or different. Then the other players need to eliminate cards. Super simple, but super fun looking.

Tiny Turbo Cars

Finally I have one that I backed on Kickstarter. This one hasn’t shipped yet, still in production and development. But this one again has that amazing toy factor. You race cars across the living room floor. Well, the board game version of a living room floor. But the toy factor element, a little controller, that you program how your turn is going to go is just amazing. It’s a sliding puzzle and it looks like an RC controller. So you slide it to create that program in real time. I am so excited to get this one in.

Final Thoughts on Horrible Guild

As I talked about at the end of the video on Malts and Meeples on Wednesday, Horrible Guild is a company that I really pay attention to now. I just like their stuff. They make really fun games, generally really accessible games, and sometimes that’s what I want. I clearly love massive board games like those that Mythic Games and Awaken Realms put out, but I can’t only have that in my collection. So Horrible Guild gives me so many unique and fun twists on games that I’d have never thought of.

What is your favorite Horrible Guild Game?

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The Games

You can find a more detailed description of all the games in yesterday’s Point of Order article.

Potion Explosion

Potion Explosion, and expansion, are a potion brewing game with some great toy factor to them. You pull out marbles which causes other marbles to drop and you’re strategizing to get matching marbles to hit because then you get to take those as well to brew your potions. May the best brewer of potions win.

The Quacks of Quedlinburg

More brewing of potions in The Quacks of Quedlinburg. This time you’re trying not to have your potion blow up in your face. Quacks is a bag building game where you push your luck over several rounds trying to draw out the most ingredients and get them into your potion without busting. Will you go for that one more ingredient to push you ahead?

Heroes of Land, Air, & Sea

This is a big 4X game (explore, expand, exploit, and exterminate) where you take the roles of different fantasy races vying to be the best heroes in land, air, and sea. Full of minis and epic adventure, this game will take a while, but the experience will be a memorable one.

The Beer

Last nights brew was King Sue by Toppling Goliath Brewing Co. out of Decorah, Iowa. This is a double IPA, and I’m hit or miss on a lot of double IPA’s. As I talk about in the video, it can end up being too sweet for me, but this one keeps a nice bitter punch to it, in the lines of a grapefruit flavor, which I really like.

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Potion Explosion and The Fifth Ingredient Expansion

Potion Explosion is a game that I have played before. And it is a game with some of the best toy factor out there. In Potion Explosion you take marbles out of a tray. Every turn you get to take one, if removing a marble causes two like colored marbles to hit, you get to take those, and if that causes two to hit, you take those. It’s kind of like a matching app game. You use the ingredients, the marbles, that you take to complete potions, because of science. These potions give you powers, so it might be to steal someone else’s stored ingredients, it might be to take a marble of your choice, or you can make all your stored ingredients into whatever ingredient you want for the turn, and there are more as well. That is a great part of the game and offers a lot of things to think about, and you are doing all of this the pursuit of points. But, what really sells this game is just the fun toy factor. Picking out marbles, them hitting together, picking those out, and it happens again, that is just so much fun to chain everything together.

The Quacks of Quedlinburg

This game is one of the hotter and bigger games in the past few years. I thought about getting it before now, but generally have passed because I wasn’t sure I wanted a push your luck game. Kind of like Potion Explosion, you are quack doctors creating your potions. You put as much as you can into your pot without the potion going poof. To do that, you draw tokens out of your bag, adding them to a track, trying, with the white colored ingredients to not cause everything to blow up. You can stop whenever you want, but the further you progress in your potion, the more points you will get. This game plays over several rounds, and you buy more ingredients for your bag to draw out and to hopefully get you to the point where you are scoring a lot of points. This one generally is just right on that edge of, I know I’d like it, but do I want it. I decided, to help get to my free game, that it was time to make the jump and pick up The Quacks of Quedlinburg.

Heroes of Land, Air, & Sea

Now we are to the free game. Heroes of Land, Air, & Sea. Another game that has been on that list of games I really want to get, but it’s expensive. It’s a $100 game, so why not pick it up for free. This is a fantasy 4X game. The biggest 4X game is probably Twilight Imperium by Fantasy Flight, but this one, in a fantasy setting, really just caught my eye. And I want to try a game where you are all against each other in an epic battle as you eXplore, eXpand, eXploit, and eXterminate. Plus the game comes with awesome minis, and will look great on the table. I won’t lie, I’m a bit intimidated by how big the game is, but I am very confident that I will love it. Just the amount of tactics that will go into this game and the different paths that can lead to victory, this game looks awesome. Granted, I won’t be able to play it for a bit, it’s a bit much to just play with my wife, but I can’t wait until I get it to the table.

Which of these games seems the most fun? Do you have any experience with them? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below.

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