Top 5 Allplay Games

5. Chomp

This one is just a fun little game. I like the simplicity of picking a car and trying to create dinosaur herds. Of course you need your dinosaurs not to die off, so that is a whole element of the game. But the game is, like so many Allplay games, fast to play and easily to follow and learn. That’s a hallmark of their games, and I won’t mention it again because it’s true for all of them on the list. Chomp works because it’s a fun system with fun cards and a fun theme. It’s not the thinkiest, but not all games need to be.

4. Mind Space

Next up is Mind Space. One area that Allplay has only a couple of forays into is roll and write games. But The ones that they do are a lot of fun. Mind Space is about mapping your mind, though the theme doesn’t really matter. It’s about putting various colors onto the board to score points. Of course there are rules as to how you place and you get bonuses as some points in time.

One element that I really enjoy about the game is the flowing system of cards. Shapes hop onto the flow and then each round progress one spot further down. So you know that a shape might be getting close to going off the flow so you need to grab it now if you need that color. Of course, you also need to hope that the color you want is the one rolled there.

3. Mountain Goats

This one I need to play my physical copy, but I love playing it on Board Game Arena. The game play is simple, you just roll dice and climb up paths with your mountain goats. When you get to the top, you get points. When another mountain goat gets up to you, it bumps you back down.

This is just a filler game, but it’s one that’s fun. And I said I wasn’t going to mention it again, but that’s what Allplay does well. I think it works especially well here in Mountain Goats because there’s the excitement of how long can you stick at the top and keep getting points before you get knocked down. And you can stay up longer, because it’s a longer climb on smaller points, but of course, it might be better to grab the big points instead.

2. River Valley Glassworks

This one is new as of this year. But I really like River Valley Glassworks. I think that it works as a solo game. And I think that it works at two or at four or at five. Every player count works well. And that is not something that can be commonly said about games. Most of the time they find a spot they work the best, and there might be an ideal, but there isn’t a bad player count.

The game is simple, put down a piece of glass and collect adjacent glass. But it’s so much more than that as you need to plan out your scoring attack. You score columns and rows. But which you focus on, and how much you focus on both is the question. And the scarcity of glass colors as well is fun. Plus the shapes mattering to collect glass and colors matter when placing it on your board. There is a bunch going on for a fast game.

1. On Tour

My favorite is the other Allplay roll and write that I can think of. And this one is about making a route, low to high, for your band to travel. It’s a fictional band, but you’re basically trying to place dice combinations, 1 to 100, on your board so that you can make a pathway that is always getting higher. The concept is simple, but the game play and execution is a ton of fun.

It’s one of those games, too, that I like where at the beginning you feel like anywhere works. You place a number do, you feel like you can connect it. At the end of the game as decisions become tougher, you also have fewer spots to play. So it’s that nice balance of when the game could lock up, you already find yourself limited in options.

Final Thoughts

I really enjoy Allplay for the most part. A few games I find just to be okay. Kabuto Sumo is an okay game. Big Top, I think I could have fun with that, but it wasn’t my favorite. But games I like such as Pollen, Dandelion and others miss the list. And there are still others like Couture and Ghosts of Christmas that I want to play really badly. Or a whole mess of trick taking games as well from them.

Of course, not all their games are going to be for everyone. But for me, they are very consistent. And I think that consistency is going to tell you if you’d like them or not. Because once you play one or two, you’ll know what type of games they are. And you will find out if Allplay is a company for you.

What’s your favorite Allplay game?

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Top 10 GenCon Games

So, this list is going be games that I don’t own. I loaded this up and I immediately saw Kohaku, but I already own that. It’s a gorgeous looking game that I still need to get to my table. But beyond that, I didn’t put these in a super specific order, it is just the 10 that are jumping out to me. Also, note that if you are there, not all of these games might be there. In 2019 the list was fairly off, and with shipping I suspect that some won’t be here.

10. On The Rocks

I almost backed this one on Kickstarter. And I’ve almost bought it from Miniature Market a few times. Why, because the theme is just fun, I like the idea of mixing up drinks. I also like that you are picking groups of marbles to store or add to your drinks. It feels like a good combination of something like Azul and Potion Explosion but with a theme that more people will enjoy. The reviews on it thus far have been pretty good, so it’s on my radar to pick-up.

9. Kabuto Sumo

I always need to put a dexterity game on the list. Kabuto Sumo though is kind of a different sort of game. You will be up around the table doing bug sumo wrestling as you push discs onto the board to try and knock off your opponents disc. Silly game but man does it look like a lot of fun. But I’ll say decide for yourselves and checkout the videos that Man vs Meeple did as well as Tablenauts, which I have below.

8. The Dragon Prince: Battlecharged

This is one that I’ve talked about before. It’s really one that I want to checkout mainly because I love The Dragon Prince. The show is just amazing and I love it. That said, a skirmish game, while I do trust the company, Brotherwise Games, to make a good game, it is still a skirmish game. I’d love to try this one, but I think it’s going to be a good game.

7. Mazescape: Labyrinth

Escape room games are all the craze. The fact that this one has “scape” at the end of it means that it’s going to be some sort of an escape room style game. But to add in a Maze, now I’m very interested. I loved mazes growing up, I still love them now. And while the mazes on kids playmats at restaurants are fine, I imagine this is going to be more like the mazes in Labyrinth of Time and other video games, which is going to be cool.

6. Dinosaur Island Rawr ‘n Write

Out of all the ones that I think will be at pop-up GenCon, this is the one I said I was looking forward to most. I love my roll and write games, so this isn’t the only one on the list. It’s building a dinosaur park, I’m interested in it for sure. I’ll hopefully be getting this one myself, but if you think it sounds interesting, I’d probably check it out pretty quickly at GenCon.

5. Sleeping Gods

BGG (Board Game Geek) has it listed but I imagine this might not be a ton of copies. In fact, this would be one that I wouldn’t be shocked if it wasn’t there. But I really want to get this game, and I think most people will like it. It takes the world style of Near and Far and Above and Below and puts it into a cooperative game. But a game that has a ton going on and a ton of great views. I really want to get my hands on this one, but it isn’t that cheap. Right now I’m kicking myself for not backing it on KS.

4. Dungeons & Dragons: Dungeon Scrawlers

Another roll and write on the list. I like the idea of this one, a Dungeon Crawler with Dungeons and Dragons tied to it, that sounds cool. I just hope that it isn’t too simple (or too complex). Some things like character class specific powers for your hero, that sounds cool. But I’m not sure if it’s in there or not.

3. ArchRavels

Honestly, I’m mainly curious about this one because of the theme. And not because I love the theme so much but because it is an odd and accessible theme. And my wife likes to knit, so it’s maybe a theme that would interest her more. She doesn’t love a lot of games, by that I mean she won’t suggest or pull of the shelf a lot of games. But this might be one if it is easy enough that she’d want to play and learn.

2. Picture Perfect

This is an odd game. In it you are drafting characters and items to set them up to try and match up your picture as closely as possible. At the end you take the picture with your phone and compare it to your card. I don’t know precisely how this all works, but it’s one that I’m really interested in. Why, because it’s weird. That said, it’s one that I’m really interested in trying it. I’d definitely need to play it before I’d buy it.

1. Windward

Finally a game that has been out for a little bit, at least to Kickstarter backers. This one GloryHoundd has a playthrough of it, and game looked interesting. Things like sky whales and going out on your sky ships to get them, that is cool. Another that I really want to try before I’d buy it. But the theme is interesting, the mechanics seem good, and I think it should be a fun game.

All The Games

If you want to see a list of everything that Board Game Geek has complied, you can go through the whole list here. Right now it’s a pretty solid list and I have it filtered for the ones that will be for sale. You can clear that filter and see all the demos, or you can wait for tomorrow. I’ll be posting the demos that I’d want to try.

Let me know what game you’ll be picking up at GenCon, or if you were going, which one you’d want to get.

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