Top 10 Games to Demo at Gen Con

10. The Hobbit: There and Back Again

I love the Middle Earth setting, but this is the only Middle Earth set game that is making my Gen Con to demo list. There is also The Lord of the Rings: Fate of the Fellowship. A “pandemic” style game in some ways. But I know more about that one. The Hobbit: There and Back Again, I don’t know much about it. I hope that it’s a fun and interesting game themed around The Hobbit. As board gamers, I think we have a lot of Lord of the Rings themed games that are good, but The Hobbit, not so much.

9. Crits & Tricks

Crits & Tricks is a fantasy themed trick taking game. I like trick taking so that is what drew me to this one right away. It sounds like each trick is a quest that you play out and that you win loot at the end of it. The theme founds fun and interesting. Or maybe each hand is a quest, so that is interesting and maybe as you progress through the quest, different hands, that is where the suit can change. Either way, I really like the sound of this trick taking game.

8. The Battle of the Divas

The Battle of the Divas is a game that jumped out at me because it is such a different theme for a game. I believe there is another game in this series from Salt & Pepper Games. But the idea is that it’s a two player back and forth game where you want to be the best opera diva. And it is based around actual historical opera singers, Callas and Tebaldi and their clash to be the best. So it is just exciting sounding as a very different game.

7. BattleForge: Berserker

Creative Games Studio LLC is the game company behind BattleForge. And I like the one game of theirs I’ve played. Though I need to play it more. And I am excitedly waiting for their next one Dante: Inferno to come. I think it might be shipping soon-ish. But BattleForge is a cooperative game again, which I love that they make cooperative games. But this one I don’t if it supposed to be a campaign. Either way, I want to know more about it as it comes out and Gen Con is going to be a great spot to demo it.

6. River Market

River Market seems kind of to be a third in the line of Creature Comforts and Maple Valley. Now, each of the games is different from KTBG, but there is a similar aesthetic. And the designer of River Market is Roberta Taylor who is the designer of Cafe Baras, a cafe capybara game. I think that game is light and fun, so I am excited to see what this game can be.

5. Tea Witches

Manny Vega and Sandara Tang are two people working on Tea Witches. If that seems familiar they also did the design and artwork, respectively, for Flamecraft. That’s the game about little dragons who help around town. So a new game with Sandara Tang’s artwork is always going to interest me. I don’t know much about the game play, but it’s tea, it’s witches, and the artwork gives me a vibe of Little Witch Academia, so I’m all in for it.

4. Camp Grizzly

Camp Grizzly is a game that is already out. And if you want to buy it now, it is going to cost you around $600 on ebay. What is this game? It’s a horror movie themed game, or horror themed game in the theme of classic horror movies set at camps. The artwork on it looks great, and I love horror films. So the idea of this theme is really interesting and exciting to me. And it is one that I did look, a year or ago or so, on ebay to see about getting it. But it is crazy expensive. So I think it is coming back to crowdfunding and when it does, I’m very interested.

3. Class of ’89

Paverson games is making a name for themselves. I have the game Luthier which is coming and that looks amazing. But their first game, Distilled, is really popular and is on my shelf to get played. Class of ’89, though, does seem like a little different game. This is a game about making a year book. And that itself sounds lighter as a theme. But it is also a theme that sounds like a ton of fun. So I want to know more about their next project. And I really hope that I like it because I really love the theme.

2. Viking Route

Viking Route I think was on my most anticipated games coming to crowdfunding or maybe coming this year. But now at Gen Con is the time to demo it. This is a ship sailing game but it uses a mechanism for navigating your ship that I think sounds great. What is that mechanism? Magnets. You play magnets around the board to move the ship and affect the way the compass is pointing. That mechanism is in another game that I own and I need to get played.

1. Mystic Curling Club

So after so many amazing sounding games, how is it that Mystic Curling Club is the top of the list? One word, curling. I love watching curling as a sport. And I want at some point in time in my life to do some casual curling. And yes, where I live doing some casual curling is a possibility because the Minneapolis/St. Paul metro has multiple locations with curling. But this is going to be a dice flicking game witch magical powers in it as well. This sounds silly and fun and I love the theme so it is easily my #1 game to demo at Gen Con.

Final Thoughts

As always, I wish I was going to Gen Con. I think that all of these games sound wonderful to play. And there are a ton of different and unique things among them. So someone want to check them out for me and let me know their thoughts?

But out of all of these, the one that I want to try the most is Mystic Curling Club. But as I say that, I think I am apt to just buy that one for the theme no matter what. So I think that The Battle of the Divas is the one that I want to see and try the most because I am less likely just to buy that one sight unseen. Even then, if I can find it or it’s predecessor cheap, I think I may pick it up. I play games at two players fairly often, so a two player only game is pretty easy to get to the table.

What is your most anticipated game to demo at Gen Con?

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How to Play Cafe Baras

This game is quite simple in that you are trying to score the most points for the best coffee shop. You gain points for money that you have, but more for scoring on the menu items, returning customers, and special customers you get. Let’s talk about how all of them work in Cafe Baras.

Cafe Baras is a simple game in that you do one of two actions during the game. You either play out a card to add it to your menu. Or you play out a card as a customer’s order. If you play out a card to add it to your menu you pay the cost for the card and you add it to your menu display. This will add coffee, tea, snacks, food, aesthetic, or a few other things to your menu and cafe.

The other thing you can do with a card is use the bottom half as a customer order. You gain on point for symbol that you watch. So if they want a coffee, a snack, and a tea and you have at least one of each symbol you get three coins. If they love something, let’s say coffee, you get a coin per coffee symbol that you have.

That’s the main part of the game. You play a card and then you take a card. That loop continues until someone has three returning customers. Normally if a customer only likes some of what you have, you just get money. But if you match all three symbols and the aesthetic desires, you get to put them as a returning customer. After every other player has a turn, the game ends.

What I Like

This game is simple and I really appreciate that. I don’t need to spend a ton of time explaining how it works because it is easy to teach. The fact that you either play down a card for the menu or for an order and that’s it demonstrates the simplicity.

I also appreciate the special customers in the game. I didn’t talk about them in game play other than that they provide end of game scoring. Each special customer can be scored by the players if they meet the requirements. For example, the Abuela wants Yerba Mate and an Empanada on the menu. You get that, you get six points. Or if you get eight money, you get six points. And there are more than you play with in a game, so there is variety to that scoring.

The scoring is also fun in the game for the cards that you have. Some of the cards you play out give you end game scoring, all of them have points on the cards, or almost all of them do. But some of the cards will score better depending on certain other things. For example, you get one point per different tea that you play. If you play three different teas, each of them score you three points. But no card scoring feels better than the others, really. The game is very well balanced.

What I Want To See More Of

With the simplicity of the game and limited actions, I think the game is not going to always feel that massively different. So if you play it a lot quickly, the game is going to feel like you’ve played it a lot quickly. It won’t offer a consistently or massively different challenge. It reminds me of Diced Veggies in that way. But there is an element of that which is intentional. It makes the game easier to sit down and teach. So it’s not a major negative, just something to be aware of.

Who is Cafe Baras for?

This I think works in two different situations. Firstly, it’s a good game for people who enjoy lighter games or want to introduce people to games. Cafe Baras is a very welcoming experience and a very cute theme. Most people like something from a cafe. And Capaybaras are adorable. So that combination is going to be fun for a lot of people.

But for more serious gamers, I think this a fun filler. I can see it being a good game when you wait for another group to finish up a game. The game play is fast and it says 30 minutes, but I think it could go even faster if people know the game.

Final Thoughts on Cafe Baras

I like this game as a fun filler game. For me, this is a great game to kickoff or wrap-up a board game night. People are either still showing up or some people have left but we want to play a game still. The time frame is fast, the teach is fast, and it’s easy for someone to sit down and chat while it is being played. That’s the niche of Cafe Baras for me and that’s something I won’t say no to in my game collection because it means that it gets played.

Is it going to be one that I pull out when I want to play a heavier and thinkier game, no. But not all games need to be that. In fact, I find in my collection that I need more games that aren’t that because the heavier games get played once in an evening. And then next game night, another heavier game gets played. But Cafe Baras could get played each time.

Is Cafe Baras a game that interests you? Do you like the fun theme on it?

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

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Top 10 Wish List Board Games

The list of board games is 1 through 10 instead of the other way around. This is a mistake, but how I wrote it, so I didn’t want to redo it.

1. Violet and the Grumpy Nisse

This one just sounds fun. It’s a two player trick taking game. I really love the sound of this as the two players kind of fight against each other for the tricks and each of them has some unique things for it. Right now it’s hard to get. I believe it was on crowdfunding, but I’m not sure it’s ever gotten a wide release.

One of the people is playing Violet, a girl who is on a journey to meet a friendly troll. Unfortunately she is going through the woods of the nisse, Torech who is not happy with that idea. He wants to stop her and get her light to go out and make her travel as hard as possible. I just love the idea and sound of that as a thematic trick taking game.

2. Nova Aetas Renaissance

This one I get to blame on Meet Me At the Table. I think that’s the only one that I can blame on them. There are others that will definitely get blamed on other YouTube channels. This one looks like a blast as you take a team of characters up against the enemies. I get a real Assassin’s Creed vibe to it, but it’s not that, there is an Assassin’s Creed Game. I like the story of the game and I like the “fun” that it looks like.

One thing that I really dig is how the action point system works. You move your characters along a rondel determining how many of their actions that they use. Some of it might be used on movement and some on fighting. They have to go up to the point where the next enemy is. But you can potentially work it to get a couple of turns pretty quickly. For me that’s a really fun concept and twist on a dungeon crawler. But it’s also still a dungeon crawler, tactical game, when it comes down to it.

3. Rove

This one I won’t be able to write much on. It’s still coming to crowdfunding and I’m very curious about it. What I know , and I don’t know much about the game play, is that it’s from a designer who made The Crimson Scales, a fan made expansion for Gloomhaven. They then built out something much bigger, their own epic campaign and fantasy game. How it is going to work mechanically, I’m not sure. But I think that this was supposed to fund on Crowdfunding last year, now it’s supposed to be this year. But I like it when companies are fine delaying to get it right.

4. Euthia: Torment of Resurrection

I passed this one by twice on crowdfunding, I kind of regret it. But Euthia looks like a lot of fun. It’s a competitive, cooperative or solo sandbox RPG style game. Competitive I don’t care that much about. But cooperative and solo, I care about those. Plus it’s now been picked up by Steamforge so that increase the chances that I might pick it up. It’s not a cheap game, but then again how many campaign games are. For me this would go onto a list of campaign games that need to be played.

5. Aeon Trespass: Odyssey

Aeon Trespass: Odyssey is another campaign game and another huge game. I want to find this one, but like Euthia, I’ve passed on it twice. It’s again one that I really want to play. From what I can tell it’s an epic boss battling style of game more than a dungeon crawler. Do I need another huge game like this, I don’t. But it’s one of those that if I find it used, I’ll pick it up. Right now I want to just get Kingdom: Death Monster started up or Oathsworn in that boss battler area.

6. Mind Up!

I watched this one played on The Dice Tower, so another one that I can blame on a YouTube channel. Mind Up! Looked like a lot of fun because it’s just a little card game that does some simple things. All your doing is playing out cards to get other cards. Which one you get depends on where your number falls into the order of cards played. After that it’s all about set collection and seeing how many points you get for getting cards of the same color.

I really want to get this one because I see it as a small and fun filler game. I love to find games like that, and it doesn’t eat up too much space on my shelf which is a good thing. As I’ve talked about before with Sea Salt & Paper, if a game is a small box filler game, it tends to stick around in my collection.

7. Café Baras

A coffee shop with capybara’s, I’m in. It is super cute sounding and from KTBG (Kid’s Table Board Games) it is going to look very nice. See everything I said about Mind Up being a small filler game, that is the same with Café Baras. From what I can tell, this is a hand management game about fulfilling orders. Cards are multiuse, which is fun and offers some solid tension, and well, did I mention that there are capybaras in the game?

8. Witchcraft!

This is a successor to a game Resist. Resist is not one that I’ve played, but one that looked interesting as a solid experience. Witchcraft, however, just sounds more interesting to me. And it is a solo only game, which I like as well. This one I can also blame on The Dice Tower for me being interested.

The mechanisms also sound interesting. I like the sound of doing some deck building and hand management in the game. But also with push your luck elements to it. I want to know more about how this one plays. Because how it looks, both mechanisms and aesthetically look intriguing.

9. Ancient Knowledge

Another one for the list of blame it on the Dice Tower is Ancient Knowledge.  Ancient Knowledge is a civilization building game. That’s an area of board gaming that I’d love to play around in more. Ones where you are building up tech trees and advancing what you are doing. And how Zee and others on the Dice Tower talk about Ancient Knowledge it just sounds really good.

A lot of these types of games you build to doing more and more and more. That’s the case here, but as time passes, some knowledge is going to be lost to the past. So the engine that you are building is always changing and you need to plan for those changes as the knowledge disappears. I like the sound of that so much, because it requires a good adaptive strategy and things move on.

10. Hoplomachus: Remastered

Finally, a Chip Theory Game, and I debated if this one would be my #10 on the list. Hoplomachus: Victorum is a game that I own. And it’s a solo only game, I need to learn the rules and play it. It’s kind of a campaign like experience from Chip Theory Games. And generally, I like the other Chip Theory Games that I’ve played. I really like Burncycle. And I think that Too Many Bones offers a ton of fun and is one that I want to dig into more.

Hoplomachus is more of a battling game and a battling arena for head to head combat. And on Board Game Geek, most people do prefer it at two. But it offers solo play and I want to try it. Unlike the others, because I own Hoplomachus: Victorum, it’s less likely that I’ll pick this one.

Final Thoughts

Right now, who knows when I might buy one of these board games. It isn’t high on my list to add in new games to my collection. Some of the small ones, or Rove which is yet to go to crowdfunding, are the most likely. But I want the chance to checkout any and all of these if I can over the next few years. For some of them, though, that might be a little bit.

Of these board games, which is the most interesting to you? Which is the one that you’d buy first and add to your collection?

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Beat the 8 Ball

Beat the 8 Ball is a game of timing. In it you have an eight ball that is spinning down a funnel. Your goal is to beat that eight ball and get points. So when it starts spinning you just release your ball and beat it, not that hard. Well, it’s trickier because you need to release it after someone else does, or everyone else and beat the eight ball. If you don’t beat the eight ball you lose points. If you’re the first person to beat it, you get no points.

The gimmick of the game, this big setup of a contraption for releasing the players balls and the funnel for the eight ball is cool. And I like the scoring of the game because it does make there be pressure. There is a skill element or a recognition element to the game. The more you play, the more you’ll know when the eight ball is going to drop. The downside is that this game could go on for a long time. It didn’t take too long for us, but if people are riding that line too closely no one will hit 10 or -10 to end the game. Or at least it’ll take a while.

Diced Veggies

You’re using dice as veggies to complete recipes and score you points in Diced Veggies by Kids Table Board Games (KTBG). To get your veggies you are using a cleaver to cut them off of a block of veggies (dice) in the middle. That’s the gimmick of the game. With the added twist on how you can cut the veggies, mainly that you can’t have more than 10 pips worth on the dice you cut.

Other than that, it’s a pretty straight forward collection game to fulfill orders or recipes in this case. And the recipes are easier or harder and give you a varying number of points. Plus you can play “hype” cards which augment a recipe. So I might have to discard another die to get a bonus four points. Or if all the dice I use on a recipe are the same value it’ll give me more points per die on the card.

My one concern about this game is the longevity of it. That’s probably true for Beat the 8 Ball as well. The game is simple and I’m not sure that the strategy will massively change over time for Diced Veggies. The upside is, it’s really easy to teach, learn, and play.

Fun Facts

Finally a cooperative party game from Repos Productions. I’ve talked about them before because they made Just One and So Clover, to great cooperative party games. While those are more game, more strategy to them, Fun Facts is more like a fun ice breaker than a game. In Fun Facts you put down a number answer to a question, like how seductive are you 0 to 100. And each person on their turn is trying to add it to a row of everyone’s answers so it’s in the right order.

Then you score points for the lowest to highest and all of them in the right order between. And you play that out over eight rounds. The gimmick is the dry erase boards, which nice raised edges so it won’t slide and erase. It’s also that trying to know your fellow players and how they’d rate themselves.

It’s a fun game because the players control the fun. And it’s about the “You’d spend that much to go to a park with actual dinosaurs?”. Or “After that weird look you gave me I assumed I was more seductive than you.” Jokes around the table but also getting to know people. And I think it’ll work longer because a lot of is it controlled by the group of players versus the game.

Final Thoughts on the Board Games with a Gimmick

Sometimes a game has a great gimmick. And sometimes the gimmick is the game. For all of these board games, I do think that there is thought put into the game aspect of what is going on. And that makes it fun. Fun Facts has the least game, but it’s a fun party game. And it has as much game as most party games. The other two give you simple board games to play. And I think that might be a downside, they might be too simple in the long run. But I can say, after playing each game, I’ve had fun with each one.

Which of the board games sounds most fun to you?

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Artisans of Splendent Vale

This is a game from Renegade games that is coming up on Kickstarter in September of 2021. This is a cooperative story driven game with a diverse cast of characters. There was a lot of attention placed on characters that you might not see in a normal fantasy setting.

The Designer, Nikki Valens, has worked on a lot of different games that I like. They have led the designs on Mansions of Madness 2nd Edition and Legacy of Dragonholt, both which are very good games. And this looks like they have taken some of both of those and created a cool and unique world. Not much on game play in the video, but one, because of Nikki Valens pedigree as a designer that I’ll checkout on Kickstarter.

Skybound Announcements

Tidal Blades 2

Tidal Blades 2 coming to Kickstarter this fall. It is going to be more of a dungeon crawl. It takes the characters from Tidal Blades and then now they are coming on a dungeon crawl adventure. It’s the same designers but not the dice building, dice progression system. More of a deck building style of game. Tidal Blades didn’t interest me too much, but a cooperative dungeon crawl set in that world, I’m very interested. The universe is really interesting for sure.

Kim-Joy’s Magic Bakery

And then a game Kim-Joy’s Magic Bakery. It’s an interesting thing because Kim-Joy is a baker who was on the Great British Bake-off. She definitely has a nerdy flare to herself and her life, so Skybound and James Hudson have met her and are working to create a game with her. It is a cooperative game, a bit of The Crew but also a bit of Kitchen Rush without a timer to rush you.

Boruto: Naruto The Next Generations The Board Game

So this is based off an anime, Boruto which is the sequel to Naruto from Blacklist games. Another cooperative game, and this one is a boss battling game. You get to play as characters who are senior ninjas and the junior ninjas so you can have a wide variety of combos to play with. And you are spending energy, shakra, and the cards you play give you as a group more shakra to spend to play more cards and stronger cards.

Unmatched Battle of Legends Vol 2

This is a continuation of what is showing up in Unmatched. This game has been put out by Restoration games. They are known for taking old games and modernizing them, and Unmatched has been massively successful for them. This is a tactical battling game where you are playing out cards to move, attack, and defend against another player. It’s a game that I haven’t played yet, and I think it looks solid, but I do want to try the game before I buy it. This includes Bloody Mary, The Monkey King, and more. Coming out later in 2021.

Flamecraft

Card Board Alchemy is announced a new game about dragons who are baking bread. This is a dragon placement game as they placing dragons around town. It’s small dragons who are making food, at the forge, or brewing potions, it could be a lot of different places. The artwork on this game is amazing. I feel like I know it from where, but I would need to look it up. This looks like a super cute game and it’s coming to Kickstarter in August, definitely looks like a cute game. I hope that it’s easy to play because that aesthetic is amazing.

Galaxy Trucker

This is getting a new version. They are putting out a free expansion, Rough Roads that was out before. But they are making it for the new version as well. They have been putting out small and free mini expansions that can be downloaded for a lot of their games throughout 2020 and 2021 to give more small content to their games. This seems like a nice refresh.

Portal Games Announcements

Million Dollar Script

This one is a party game from Portal games. I am not super interested in this one. While the theme is interesting, I just don’t know about making movies. You are trying to come up with scripts for movies, which I like, but I’m not sure how well it’ll work. I think that it could be funny sometimes, but it feels pretty standard. But you are creating the movie really well. I think that it looks like one which will be great sometimes and bad others, which is the type of party game I pass on.

Dune: House Secrets

This one I am super excited for. It is a Dune game that uses the Detective: A Modern Crime Board Game. I love that system because it can offer so much. And it means that they can tell a really interesting story. Dune is an interesting theme for me, because I like the book pretty well. I think that the world of Dune is very fascinating. This is one that I’m pretty sure I’m going to pick up. I’m waiting for Portal Games to do their pre-order. I could order it from a store, but Portal tends to do pre-order bonuses. July 12th is when the pre-order opens up.

Queen’s Dilemma

Horrible Guild is announcing something super generic, but they are teasing the Queen’s Dilemma. They came out with The King’s Dilemma, a legacy game that I really need to play. It is a fascinating sounding game where you are making decisions trying to influence the king and it’s highly story driven. You play around the table discussing and making deals and trying to pitch things. This is one that I really need to play, like I said, so that when the Queen’s Dilemma comes out I’ll be able to play that one as well. It looks like they are building upon what they’ve already done. Also, I love Horrible Guild’s stuff that I’ve played thus far.

Paint the Roses

Another Wonderland based game. This is a theme that has been done a lot because, well, it’s free for public use. This is a cooperative game all about building the perfect garden from North Star Games. The art doesn’t look too bad. It sounds generic to me. But of course with the Queen of Hearts as your employer, she is going to be executing you. So she’s only handing out pieces of the puzzle to how to build the garden out.

So there is an element of cooperative deduction which is interesting. This seems like a try before you buy for me. You can’t discuss what your secret card is. But it is fun because you can discuss what you think other people’s whims, the secrets, are openly. And the whims might change throughout the game. The Queen of Hearts is very fickle.

Detective Rummy

This is a game from WizKids. It is a successor of sorts to Mystery Rummy. This is not a game that I know anything about. But it is a series of cases that you can play, so I am interested. I like games where you are trying to solve something. But the word rummy just throws me off as to what it is. I’ll need to look into Mystery Rummy to see how that plays and keep an eye out for more information on this one.

Machi Koro 2

I like Machi Koro pretty well. However, I got rid of my version of the game because I want to play the legacy version. It seems like a simple game that I and my wife could play as a legacy game for a little bit. Machi Koro 2 is interesting, however, I have Space Base, a game that uses similar mechanics that I need to play. This will likely be one that I want to try before I buy. Though, if you haven’t played Machi Koro, it is a great gateway and family game. This is coming out from Pandasaurus.

They are saying that this should be a bit more challenging for people who want to find a little bit more. The big change is that they have added in a wide variety of landmarks to build in the game. That means that you will have a different set than I will. I really like that because in Machi Koro you might be building too much that is just the same. The variety wasn’t there for me. This seems to be a simple change that just adds in more variety. And they will be in the market versus in front of a player.

Power Plants

This game comes from Kids Table Board Games (KTBG from here on out). I actually haven’t played anything before from KTBG but people tend to like their games a lot. And I am interested in their game Creature Comforts. This game isn’t about power plants producing electricity, but powerful plants. The style looks pretty nice and coming to Kickstarter this fall. Not much more about it in the video, just a visual tease.

Pegasus Spiele

Fire & Stone

This game is from the creator of Carcassonne, which is a great gateway style game. If you haven’t tried it, I definitely recommend it. This game has you trade resources and expanding across the globe. This doesn’t seem like my type of game completely, but I am interested because of the designer, Klaus-Jurgen Werde. I am thinking this will be a try before I buy.

Carnegie

They are bring this game to retail. It originally was on Kickstarter. Another Euro style game that isn’t high on my list of games to play. This one, though, being more available will make people who missed out on the Kickstarter happy. I’d play this one but I doubt it’d ever make it into my collection because it is a heavy weight Euro game.

Bonfire: Trees and Creatures

This is a modular expansion to Pegasus Spiele’s game Bonfire. In fact, there are three modules in there. Yet again another Euro game, this is one where if you already like the game, it’ll give you more to play with. Another that I’d play but it’s not up the alley for me as a gamer. It also lets you play a 5th player which is always a worry to me for a bigger Euro game because they can sometimes take way to long between turns depending on players.

Arcane Wonders

Onitama – Light and Shadow

This is an expansion for Onitama. It adds in a ninja. The ninja can move in secret which is a big change. I kind of still want to get Onitama as a simple abstract game, but I also know that I don’t play abstract games all that often. For fans of the game, though, this is going to be cool for you. The shadow play version has the ninja, and the light play version gives you an asymmetrical starting position.

Viral – The Hive

This is an expansion as well for Viral. Viral is a game where you play as disease that are going throughout the body. It basically adds in more viruses that you can play and viruses that are asymmetrical and can grow as you go. Viral is one that was interesting for me to play, but it kind of fell off my radar. I’m not sure that this pushes it back onto the map for me, but if you want a silly themed area control type of game, Viral might be a good one to checkout.

ALS: Critters at War

A new version of the game is coming out of Air Land and Sea. Not one that is on my radar. War themed games aren’t all that interesting and adding in critters isn’t all that interesting to me. The artwork does look nice, but a two player push and pull on three battlefronts could be fun, but isn’t really for me. Another one that I’d probably enjoy if I played it but won’t be one that I pick-up.

Picture Perfect

You are trying to set-up the perfect photograph. It’s an interesting sounding game about trying to set-up the perfect picture where each character has three things they desire to have in that perfect picture. You are trying to figure out the information but events keep happening that might give you more information or mean that you need to share some of the information that you’ve found. In the end you snap an actual picture with your cellphone. The concept is interesting but a try before you buy just from the sounds of it for me.

Mortum

This has a lot of things that I like. It is a cooperative storytelling and deduction game. All three of those things are really cool for me. It’s a grim setting in medieval Europe. The base game has 3 scenarios that all tie together. I probably will end up getting this one because, like I said, it has three things I really like. I hope that the game works well, and with a lot of Detective: A Modern Crime Board Game left to play from expansions, I might wait for reviews on this one.

Leylines

This one is further out from Arcane Wonders. The artwork looks quite cute on this game. It sounds like a resource gathering game and then getting victory points. In terms of the look, this seems way better than most euro style games, but for me it probably won’t be one that I pick-up.

Dune Imperium: Rise of Ix

Dune Imperium from Direwolf was one of a few worker placement and deck building games to come out last year. I have Lost Ruins of Arnak on my shelf waiting to be played, and I didn’t get Dune Imperium just because aesthetically this didn’t look as interesting. Now, they are both getting expansions. But I’m talking about Rise of Ix here. This one should be an easy buy for Dune Imperium fans as well as some just Dune fans who I know. While Portal is putting out the Dune game for me, this is one that I want to try and maybe own.

Wild Tiled West

Another game from Direwolf. This one is just a little sneak peek. We can safely say it’s an old west themed game, a tile laying game. And well, that the artwork is cute with it’s animals in hats. Beyond that not too much information on the game as this was just a little bit of a tease. This one is coming sometime in 2022.

What Am I Looking Forward To?

So what am I looking forward to most out of all of these? Dune: House Secrets has to be high on the list because it’s based off of a Top 10 game for me, or at least Top 20 game for me. Plus the Tidal Blades 2, the world is so cool in that game, and a dungeon crawl is more my speed. And then finally Queen’s Dilemma, yes, I do need to play King’s Dilemma first, but I love a good legacy game and I’ve heard nothing but great things about King’s Dilemma.

Which are you looking forward to most?

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Pros

• Theme
• Aesthetic
• Mechanics
• Game Difficulty
• Price and price options

Cons

• Theme

The Page

I love this page, they do a great job on it and honestly, I could just look at that artwork all day. Shawna JC Tenney’s artwork is just beautiful and it fits so well for the theme and the weight of the game. This is not a heavy Euro, you are not fighting for spots on the board in hopes that you’ll be able to do what you want to.

They also have a ton of previews for the game as well. And I know it says reviews in there, but assume that anything on a Kickstarter page is always going to be more of a preview. If it were a review and it was negative, they won’t put it up on the page. So maybe checkout Board Game Geek for reviews. But that’s about the only knock that I have on the page.

The Game

This is a company with pedigree for creating good and interesting kids games and family weight games. And this game looks like it falls in line with that. The mechanics are pretty standard Euro but with a bit of dice rolling to supplement what you are trying to do. I like the idea of crafting things and building up a tableau of things in front of you to score points.

What it also does, and I commented about it above is that it’s friendly in your worker placement spots. There are generally three types of worker placement games, ones that don’t limit where you can go, ones that allow you to bump someone from a spot – generally giving them a benefit, or ones where only a limited number of people can go. This one is the friendly type where anyone can go anywhere which really does help keep it in that family weight game.

Back or Brick

For me, this is going to be a brick. Now, that seems weird considering how much I’ve been positive about it. But I’m looking for a spot for it on my shelf. Will it replace those introductory family weight games that I already have, I’m not sure. Is it one that will get played much right now or even in the next few years as I have a 2 year old, not a kid who is ready to learn a game like this, I don’t think it will. I think this is probably a really good game that most people will enjoy, and I think if you back it you’ll like it, for me, this is just not the right time for me to back a game like this one.

How about for you, is this a back or a brick?

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