124-101

Unplayed Board Games – 100 through 76

100: KeyForge: Call of the Archons

KeyForge has been on my radar for a little bit, mainly because the concept sounded interesting. It’s almost a TCG (trading card game) but you can’t build decks. All of them are prebuilt but also are different. And it’s a two player head to head game, take out monsters, get keys, and first to a number wins. They were on sale around Christmas, so I figured it was time to pick up a few decks to give it a try.

99. Vault Wars

This is one that I backed on Kickstarter because I find the concept funny. And I suspect that the game play is going to be easy enough to get it to the table with my gaming group. Vault Wars is basically fantasy Storage Wars. You bid to get the best vaults to get you the most points or money by the end of the game. I hope it’s a goofy good time.

98. Mage Knight

Probably should be higher on the list, but I’m intimidated by the rules for this game. It is notoriously hard to get to the table and learn. But it’s also supposed to be one of the best solo games out there. And while big solo games can be tricky to get tabled for me. I feel like I need to give it a try.

97: Shadows of Kilforth

This one I bought because Rolling Solo did a play-through of the predecessor to this game, Gloom of Kilforth. It’s a fantasy game and one that kind of has a story emerge as you go. But you play as a hero going out into this dark fantasy world, fighting monsters, getting cards of companions and equipment to see if you can defeat the boss in the end. I like the ideas of the game, I just need to play it.

96. Sentinels of the Multiverse

Sentinels of the Multiverse is on the list for an odd reason, or this low on the list for an odd reason. In 2020 at the Holidays Greater Than Games had a crazy good sale for Sentinels stuff. So I got all of it, or most of it. And I think I paid $75 for all of it. So very cheap. But now I have all the stuff, and it’s a bit intimidating to pull off the shelf. I just need to do it and play it. Because super heroes and super villains are my jam for board games.

95. Narabi

This is a little card game that is hard to explain. You are trying to get all the cards into ascending numerical order. But with that, each card is only allowed to move in a certain way, or has a movement rule on it. So it becomes a puzzle where you can share limited information to swap cards around to see what they can do, until you get it into order. A cool puzzle of a game idea where you see how fast you can do it.

94: Quadropolis

This is an older game that I just got. But Quadropolis is one I’ve had my eye on. It’s a city building game that looks simple but intriguing. I really like the mechanics of how you determine what tiles you can get to add to your city. And Days of Wonder, while not everything is a smash hit for them, has made some of my favorite accessible games like Ticket to Ride, Small World, and Five Tribes.

93: Jamaica

Jamaica, when I heard about it, I knew I wanted to try. But it is not a game that has always been easy to get. When Fantasy Flight Game Center, now GameZenter, was clearing off their demo wall to rebuild it better, it isn’t better, they sold the games. So, I need to do a piece count and then play this, but it’s a pirate racing game, that sounds like a fun time, assuming the pieces are there.

92: Heaven & Ale

Normally I don’t get Euro Games, but again, a sale. Also, one of the reviewers I follow, Ryan from Man vs Meeple, is a big fan of this game. So that recommendation and a euro game about brewing beer, I was interested. And I say that I normally don’t get euro games, I don’t, but I don’t dislike them. So I need to do my best monk brewing beer impression sometime soon.

91. Silver & Gold

Silver & Gold is a roll and write game, another one that I need to try. And one that I think will be a lot of fun, because you get to fill out cards throughout the game. So like Super Mega Lucky Box, you get to use dry erase markers on the cards. And it has this treasure hunting theme, but is more of a shape filling in game. I think it looks like one that is easy enough to learn but still interesting to play.

90: This War Of Mine

I’m intimidated by this game, much like Mage Knight. I’ve heard it it hard to learn. But more than that, this is a game about a fictional war and trying to survive in it. The concept is cool, but also a dark concept. And it’s tough to want to sit down and play a game with story that you know you probably won’t survive. Especially if it’s a harder game to learn and get to the table. But the concept sounds very intriguing and different to try.

89: Boomerang

Not the last time you’ll see a Boomerang on the list. A roll and write game. Won’t say too much about it, looks like a good puzzle of a game, like the one you’ll see coming up. This version just doesn’t look at nice as the other.

88: Descent: Journeys in the Dark

Descent is an interesting one, and this isn’t the big box version of the game that just came out. This one has been out for a little while. But it’s interesting as I do want to play the game, but I mainly got the game so I could practice painting minis. That is something I that I need to get back to doing, and we’re getting close to the point where I might be able to prime them outside. But I do want to try the game, because fantasy dungeon crawl, I like those.

87: MonsDRAWsity

We go from a big fantasy game to a small fantasy game, a party fantasy game. MonsDRAWsity, has one person a monster that they look at and then describe. Everyone else draws the monster. And I believe, the person with the closest drawing wins. It’s a drawing party game, but one that looks silly and fun.

86: WWE Legends Royal Rumble Card Game

Speaking of silly and fun, I’m a professional wrestling fan. It’s true, I mainly just watch the pay-per-views with a group of friends. And the Royal Rumble is the best one. This one is a take that style game where you try and be the winner of the Royal Rumble. Your guy gets tossed out, you get a new one, and the last one standing wins. Clearly I already know the group I want to play this with.

85: Shadowrun: Sprawl Ops

I really like the world of Shadworun. This cyber-punk future where corporations run everything. And you go on runs, hacking into systems, and exposing dirty secrets, great idea. And I’d love to play in a Shadowrun RPG campaign. This is a board game version, and it’s about setting up for a run. I have a massive box of stuff, but how the runners of the Kickstarter handled distribution, there were lots of problems, I’m less excited to play it.

That’s probably not a great reason not to play it. I think that it looks like a fun game. I still love the theme. It’s just harder to get into wanting to play it. Though, I did get the cooperative expansion, so maybe that’d be an easier way to get it to the table.

84: Boomerang: USA

I told you Boomerang would be back. The first, more logically, it set in Australia, but using the system, the designer made more versions. This version just looks nicer than the version I own of Boomerang. Either way, I need to play one or both. And then decide which one I want to keep, if I keep one, because I doubt I’ll want both of them.

83: Palm Island

I don’t know why this one is still on the list. Mainly I think because I play Orchard most of the time when I want a small solo game. Palm Island is a solo game that fits in the palm of your hand. It’s a resource management style game, if I remember correctly. You are trying to build up your engine to get more cards flipped around to flip more cards. I need to give it a whirl.

82: Blueprints

Blueprints is one that my FLGS recommended to me. It’s an abstract game about getting dice to build buildings. This falls into that category of a game that looks like it’ll be an interesting puzzle every time you play it. And I like those games where there is a good puzzle to it. Will the puzzle last a long time for me, we’ll have to see.

81: Specter Ops

Specter Ops is a hidden movement board game. One player is infiltrating a base to get to different objectives and then get out. The other player(s) are trying to figure out where they are and take them down. I like the concept and the theme of the game. This one is just the matter of learning both sides so I can teach it.

79: Crash Octopus

From the company that made Tokyo Highway, a dexterity game that I love, Crash Octopus is another one. This one is about flicking treasure to your ships and balancing the treasure on them. It seems like a silly game and one that will, like Tokyo Highway, look cool on the table. I want to see if it works as well as Tokyo Highway does for my gaming group.

78: 6 nimmt!

I don’t think the first time I heard about 6 nimmt! was from an anime, Afterschool Dice Club, but that is where I learned the most about it. This is a card game about trying to avoid taking points. I picked it up on sale when I got No Thanks! and both of the games kind of fit into that same mindset of figuring out clever play. I hope that this one works as well for my group as No Thanks! did.

77: InBetween

Two of the last three I got because of Sam Healey liking them on the Dice Tower. His and my tastes in game often overlap because we both go towards bigger, Amerithrash style games. The two on this part of the list are not that. InBetween is a two player game that feels, from what I can tell, like Stranger Things. One player is trying to get everyone to one side, while the other player is trying to flip them into the “upsidedown”.

It’s not actually a Stranger Things game. But the theme definitely has that vibe to it, and I think it came out about the same time. So theme wise, I like it. And as a two player game, I should be able to get it to the table.

76: Heroes of Terrinoth

This is another game that I saw on Rolling Solo’s YouTube channel. And it also looks good, card play game from Fantasy Flight, I liked how you level up in the game. And I like that you can pick from a variety of heroes. It isn’t a dungeon crawl game, but it almost has that feel. You pick a scenario, you can move between places, and you fight monsters. Plus you level up to improve how you can do things, which was cool.

75: Codinca

The final Sam Healey recommended game on this part of the list is also small, and it’s abstract. So that’s probably why it hasn’t gotten played. I’m bad about playing my abstract games, even though I normally like them. Codinca is a game where you want to create a pattern.

Final Thoughts

We’re still not into a ton of the big board games. But I do think this will be a section where I can get a lot of games off of the list. Stuff like Boomerang USA and Boomerang, Silver & Gold, Codinca, and Blueprints, all of those shouldn’t be hard to table.

On the flip side, I’m also going to be a bit surprised if I do get This War of Mine or Mage Knight to the table as part of clearing off games. I am very intimidated by both of those rule books. And I’m generally the one learning how to play the games so I know I can. But those two look like beasts to learn and with not great rule books, probably tough to get rules right.

Which one should I play first?

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GameZenter Sale

There’s only been one spot that I’ve bought from and that was the GameZenter. They did a Holiday Sale much like they have done as the Fantasy Flight Game Center, but they had even more games that people would want to buy. Yes, there were stacks of games such as Gen7 from Plaid Hat Games that didn’t do well that they are trying to get rid of. I almost picked it up because it was so cheap. But I got a number of other games.

Journey: Wrath of Demons

This is a game that I feel like I should know more about it than I do. I’ve been looking at this one for a long time because, we’ll it looks cool. I like the Asian theming on it, and I believe in particular Chinese, so what keeps on drawing me to it is the look of the game.

The game itself, I don’t know that much about, besides I keep seeing it on sale. The ratings on BGG (Board Game Geek) are solid at a 7.0 but there also aren’t a ton of different rankings. But the theme and and cooperative nature of the game are interesting. Plus you enhance your characters skills and I’m always for a game that you can level up your character as you play.

Starship Samurai + Expansion

This one was in the category of it’s just too cheap to pass up. The game was on sale for $10 plus the expansion was $5. That just meant that I was going to grab it because it has mechs in it, and if nothing else the mechs are cool looking. Another one that I mainly got because the box looks cool and the minis look cool. It’s an area control sort of game, which I do like at times. I hope that there is enough going on besides that, but if not, it was cheap and I can trade it in.

Mesozooic

This one I also didn’t know much about until I read the back and knew that I wanted it for sure. Mesozooic is a drafting card game, I like drafting games. Something like Blood Rage uses it in a bigger game but Ohanami and Sushi Go Party use it in basically card games. But this has a twist on it, you draft cards, and then you build a dinosaur park in a timed limit to score the most points possible.

That seems like a completely chaotic game and is going to be a blast. I hope that the game is very light and I imagine that it will be. Because this is a theme of game I can see playing with a lot of people. And at this point in time has everyone made a dinosaur park themed game?

Keyforge

Now, for the game that I know the most about, at least of the ones that I haven’t played, I’ve kind of played the last things on the list. Keyforge is a head to head almost collectible style of card game. But it isn’t like Magic: The Gathering, in that you don’t buy packs for cards and build a deck. You just buy a deck and all the decks are unique. And you aren’t trying to lower a planewalkers life total, you instead are trying to forge keys.

This one I’ve wanted to try for a long time. But at $12 per deck, it’s harder to get into than Magic because Magic while being way more expensive in the long run, is also way cheaper to grab a pack of off the store shelf. But on sale I got two decks and the starter box that has the tokens for tracking things all for $20, I figured, might as well do that and try it out. I want to see how it plays since all the decks are different.

Clank: Upper Management + Adventuring Party

Now, this last one, I’ve played Clank before, and I like the game. Clank is a fun push your luck deck building game that feels like it has more going on. The Upper Management Pack can be used with either regular Clank or Clank Legacy. It is based off of the Penny Arcade characters of Acquisitions Inc. I just wanted to get those characters I love from their D&D game.

The Adventuring Party is kind of a similar feel in that it gives you more characters to play in Clank. But it does one thing that I kind of like in deck building game. In a lot of deck building games you start with the same deck and it’s only as you add in cards do you become unique. Xenoshyft: Onslaught does this well with a unique couple of cards. The Adventuring Party gives you a unique starting deck which can influence how you play, so I’m curious to try it.

That’s It So Far

So I say so far, why, because I’m looking at a Black Friday Sale right now on Miniature Market. Companies like Ludus Magnus Studio, Lucky Duck Games, Pandasaurus Games, Eagle-Gryphon and more that I’ve seen. And I know that All Systems Go, another local game store is going to be having a sale as well. I might try and swing out to there on Small Business Saturday. So if you are looking for a board game for the Holidays you might want to check out the sales that are happening now.

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So, I’m going to do what I did with Frosthaven when that was announced and talked about on videos, I’m doing a video breakdown. This Fantasy Flight In-Flight report is normally a big deal, kind of a kick-off for Gencon to find out what Fantasy Flight has coming up. This time they had to do it digitally and while that didn’t work properly, we do have the video up on Youtube.

We start off with basically a video package of all the games that Fantasy Flight has and has had and is working on fairly actively.

Then we get an introduction to the video by Chris Gerber, the head of FFG Studio.

We’re getting deep dive live streams starting today for the new games, expansions, etc. now through Sunday.

John Shaffer was up next talking about miniatures games.

• Updated Points for building team for X-Wing
• Working on solo rules for X-Wing
• New ships coming out in September
• New Tie-Fighter and Rise of Skywalker ships in October
• Four new ships from the Clone Wars, including Jango Fetts ship, available in November
• X-Wing product stream today at 3 PM Central

• Two force wielding characters, Anakin Skywalker and Darth Maul for Legion
• Release for the characters in November
• More options for Clone Wars teams as well
• Four new droids for core units
• Republic gets more clones to add to their side
• These have a January 2021 release date
• Legion Live stream Saturday at 4 PM Central – GenCon Twitch Channel

• Announcing Clone Wars coming to Armada!
• Cool little teaser video for what is coming
• Obviously we are getting Galactic Republic and Separatists
• Faction specific pack for Galactic Republic, kind of an introductory box for new players if you want.
• Republic Fighters expansion pack
• Separatists fleet starter as well
• Separatists Fighters as well
• Dials pack basically is the additional stuff you might need for a bigger set
• Upgrade card pack to standardize their upgrade cards
• All to be released in December
• Live Friday at 9 AM Central

That’s it for miniature announcements, that’s a lot of them. And now I’m very tempted by the Armada Clone Wars Starters.

Now board and card game announcements –

• Talking about Mass Mutations which was just released and talking about the features in that
• Keyforge Dark Tidings is announced, a new Keyforge Set
• 250 brand new cards in it
• Introducing a new house, The Unfathomable, sounds
• Replacing House Dis
• High and Low Tide Mechanic to add a new mechanic
• Will be a push pull to keep the High tide on your side
• Evil Twin Decks, dark reflections of an existing deck
• Altered evil twin versions of the normal cards from the existing deck
• Dark Tidings is coming February 2021

• Arkham Horror Time
• The Arkham line is going to Innsmouth
• Underdark Waves and Innsmouth Conspiracy for Arkham Horror and Arkham Horror LCG already announced
• Announcing Arkham Horror LCG mythos packs announced
• Bless and Curse tokens in Arkham LCG
• Vehicles added
• Begins in November
• War of the Outer Gods scenario pack
• December release date
• Aconyte Books releasing more stories, mentioned in this section

• Journeys in Middle Earth time
• Talking about Shadowed Paths Expansion that’s already been released
• Two new products
• Haunting of Dale digital campaign is going to be available in the app
• Dwellers in Darkness figure pack
• Both are set for release in October
• Hinting that in 2021 Middle Earth is Going to War

• Legend of the Five Rings
• Temptations Cycle Announced
• Resolves around each clan having something that they’ll go after no matter the cost
• Adding in a Dire keyword
• Starting in November for the release cycle
• Two new Role Playing Products
• Fields of Victory and Blood of the Lioness
• Rules for mass battle for military themed campaigns in Fields of Victory
• Blood of the Lioness is an adventure book
• March 2021 for the RPG release
• These will be the last two released by FFG
• More on that on Noon Central on Friday stream

• Marvel Champions, what I have been waiting for
• Reminders that Hulk is releasing in August, plus Rise of Red Skull in September, and October Kang
• New Heroes, following Kang release
• Ant-Man, Wasp, Quicksilver, Scarlet Witch
• Ant-Man and Wasp – Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch synergize
• Next campaign expansion, Galaxy Most Wanted
• 5 new scenarios and Rocket Raccoon and Groot
• The Collector and Ronan the Accuser n Galaxies Most Wanted

• Expansion for Twilight Imperium 4th Edition
• Prophecy of Kings
• This is new mechanics and things
• 7 New Factions
• Forty new system and hyperlane tiles
• Player count can expand up to 8 players
• 3 new leaders for every faction
• And new mech units adding fire power to planetary battles
• And many new extra cards
• November release date
• More information Unboxing Friday at 3 PM Central

• New Marvel game announced
• Dice game to complete missions, showdown against villains, etc
• Mutants in the game as the characters you’ll be playing
• Marvel X-Men: Mutant Insurrection is the name of the game
• Cooperative game for 1-6 players
• It has Gambit in it, that’s all you really need to know, or at least I do
• Rogue, Storm, Cyclops, Wolverine and More
• 8 different plots, each featuring an iconic X-Men threat
• Release in Q1 for 2021
• Demo Sunday at 9 AM Central live stream

• The End?
• Massive massive massive massive Descent Box! Descent 3rd Edition Teased!

So, clearly there is a lot that’s been announced, including two new games, though the one was just teased with Descent at the very end, in a fun way. But I’m excited mainly for more Marvel Champions and Marvel X-Men: Mutant Insurrection as well, because I want to play Gambit.

What announcement has you the most excited? I’m really tempted now by some of the new Armada stuff announced, and all of this makes me want to get Arkham Horror LCG and regular Arkham Horror back to the table to catch-up to where they are now. And if you don’t have time to watch the video, at least look at the last few seconds to see how massive that Descent box is!

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