Top 3 Board Games That Need a New Edition

Just to set-up how I’m picking the list. I am picking games that I have played. I know that there are some games that are mainly unplayable as the rules are written. If I haven’t played it, I can’t judge that for sure. I know some people think Tainted Grail is the worst thing ever for the grind that was explicitly said to be part of the game (don’t get me started) but I like that game a lot. So I don’t think it needs a second edition of the core game.

3. Lost Ruins of Arnak

This one is pretty easy as to why I think it should have another edition and it’s not because there is a major flaw with the core box of the game. In fact, I enjoyed it pretty well playing what comes in the core box. But the first expansion gives you leaders with powers. That should be in the core box. It took the game from a 7 or so up to a 9 or 10 for me because it meant everyone was doing things a bit more differently.

Now, I don’t think this will happen anytime soon. Lost Ruins of Arnak is a new game that they are still coming out with expansions for. But, in my opinion, the leaders should be in that main box. Even if you want to start with playing vanilla Lost Ruins of Arnak, have it in the box for when you’re ready for the next step.

2. SeaFall

This one falls into having issues in a number of ways. The rules were not good, the game itself was too long, and sometimes, you just got the story out of order. But I like the idea of a pirate legacy game, even though this barely seemed like pirates. So SeaFall is one that could use a complete overhaul, well, kind of.

I do think that the bones are there for a good game. There are elements like getting crew, exploring, fighting, even the dice mechanics once you figured them out in the rules weren’t too bad, but it needs to be tightened up. Maybe reduce how much you can possibly do in a game. Introduce rules more slowly, something like that. They changed rules, but let’s start out with just exploring and then after a couple of games add in fighting.

The two big things are you need to shorten the length of the game. There is no reason, besides to allow you to find more, to extend the games by a point each time. The game is already long at the start, there needed to be a way to get more points at the start from the legacy decisions that you made. And it’d have been a great balancing mechanism.

The other thing is that story. Like I said, you can find it out of order. The game is played over a number of sessions, give me a booklet or a section of the booklet to find the stories. That keeps the story from coming out awkwardly and leave the players with more questions. I get the desire for open world, but that isn’t needed in this case.

1. Legendary: A Marvel Deck Building Game

This is a Marvel game that I will not get. Helps that a friend has or had a ton of it so I got to play it a number of times. But for me this is a game that needs to be rebooted because, in my opinion, the game really doesn’t work that well. You fight a boss, deal with henchmen, and generally feel like you’re not doing much of anything.

Marvel Champions is more of what I wanted, but I think there is room for improvement on Legendary and that both could be in a collection. Mainly, I don’t feel like a super hero when I played Legendary. That’s kind of the idea is you are a super hero(es) beating up bad guys. But it takes forever to get to the main bad guy, make the easier and throughout the game than a last second dash at the end.

And with the deck building, I feel like I’m collecting random heroes. Iron Man, Hulk, Black Widow, and Captain America all in the deck, I’ll probably have some of all of them. So everyone is playing basically the same team-up. I’d prefer a more generic set of cards, each hero can add some to it, but you play as a hero with a base set of that hero’s cards. Let me build up my hero and be a hero in battle. I don’t need to be everything. Let me grab a cool move, some intel, whatever it might be. But it is better than what they have now.

Final Thoughts

I could have come up with more. I actually almost push Smash Up on the list with just, make it into Marvel Snap. They are close, but Marvel Snap is so much better. And that one would really be changing the game, into a new game, versus being a second edition. I guess that Legendary might fall into that area as well.

But board games sometimes need that new edition. And, I would, if I ever had the time, go through SeaFall again and try and turn it into a better game. Try and make it something that doesn’t take four hours to play and a lot of that time not being interesting, in higher player count games. But that is for future me when I have future time, though, I’ll probably always be busy.

Is there a game you want to see a second, better, edition of?

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Cooperative Games Rankings

So just be aware I’m going to talk less about these games because there are a grand total of 52 that I ranked. Expect a sentence or two on each one of them.

52. FUSE

Fast paced game of rolling dice and then using them to try and complete enough cards to diffuse the bomb. I don’t love games that are only real time, and FUSE is only real time. It plays fast, but the game isn’t that interesting the more you play it.

51. Magic Maze

Another real time game, this time taking adventurers through a shopping mall. This one is more interesting because you need to work together more. But it’s going really fast without talking and sometimes it works and other times it doesn’t.

50. Forbidden Island

This one is a great introduction to cooperative gaming and gaming in general. It follows the standard, do something and then something bad happens. My issue is that the game is too easy and generally just an okay game.

49. Arkham Horror: Final Hour

Now, on the flip side of Forbidden Island, this game is hard as you try and guess some ruins to be able to stop ritual from happening. It basically takes Arkham Horror and tries to make it shorter. It succeeds on that, but it also just isn’t interesting. The couple clever things it tries to do are just misses.

48. God of War: The Card Game

And another game that was too easy when I played it. I wonder about playing a whole game if that would make it more challenging, but what I played was fairly boring. I also feel like the decisions weren’t that interesting in the game. Most of the time it was do the obvious thing.

47. Legendary: A Marvel Deck Building Game

I talked about this yesterday. It’s a fine deck building game. It is just too slow to get to the table and too slow to get to feeling powerful. If they were to come out with a second edition and make the game play ramp up faster, I’d probably like it a lot. But right now, the ramp is just too slow.

46. Forbidden Desert

I like this a fair amount better than Forbidden Island, it offers more to do and a more clever mechanism of figuring out where to get things. It follows that Pandemic formula for things of do good things and then bad things happen. Played it a few times, enjoyed it, and have moved on.

45. The Mind

This one is an interesting one. You try and play cards down in numerical order without talking. The concept is cool, and the game works, but only sometimes. This is one where it really depends on who is in the group. And I had some good times with it but moved on again.

44. Sword Art Online Board Game: Sword of Fellow

I need to try this one again, it’s been a little while. The concept isn’t bad, you are basically playing the boss battles from Sword Art Online the show, and it has the main characters. The downside is that the rules aren’t that great, and it’s pretty simple and lucky. That said, it is tiny, so I don’t mind luck as much.

43. Exit Games

Exit Games are fun, but any escape room game is always hard to rank. I’ve played less Exit Games, and I don’t love that you can’t pass it on. Granted, I did see it kind of work with them at Fantasy Flight Game Center (now GameZenter), but I don’t want to buy something I need to then replace.

42. Flash Point: Fire Rescue

This is basically Pandemic but with fires. You haven’t seen Pandemic yet on the list so you know it’s higher. I think that Flash Point: Fire Rescue might end up being one that I get. And that’s because it might replace base Pandemic for me, but we’ll talk about why later. Very standard cooperative game.

41. Legendary Encounters: A Firefly Deck Building Game

On yesterday’s list, it is one that I like the theme of. Firefly was a great show, and the game is playing through the episodes. The game isn’t that easy and the artwork is just okay. Again, the ramp speed doesn’t seem right for the type of game it is, but it’s better than Marvel Legendary.

40. Stuffed Fables

This is one that I had a good time when I played it, but ended up being one that I never wanted to come back to. The game has a cool story about a kid who has a blanket, I believe, stolen, and you play as animals going under the bed with all the broken toys to get it back for her. But the mechanics were not that well taught and things that changed up on each different storybook page were worse taught.

39. Legacy of Dragonholt

Another one that was in my collection and left. When I heard about an RPG in a box, I thought it was going to be great. And in all fairness, it is a fun game with a lot of story in the box. But the story and writing was just okay. The best I can compare it is that it was written like a YA novel, but not one of the great ones. I think the system was very good, but I wanted writing.

38. Marvel Battleworld

This is dumb little game. I know it shouldn’t be this high on my list, though we’re not even half way yet. It is just a game where you roll a die and advance a track. The fun of the game is buying blind packs and getting little Funko figures. So I have it this high because it’s a fun toy with a little game attached to it.

37. Ghostbusters: The Board Game

We’re still in the area of games that are just okay, but we’re soon to games that are still in my collection. I loved the minis in the game, and the translucent ones look cool. But the game play was just okay. While there were different scenarios, they weren’t bad, but it wasn’t all that interesting. I just wished there was more.

36. Elder Sign

Another one that left my collection, some of that was just because I had only the base game. I have heard that the expansions help improve the game, and add more to the story of what you are doing. The base game is basically a Yahtzee type game, and I wish that it played a little bit faster for what it is.

35. Legends of Andor

Story driven puzzle game, Legends of Andor is good. The reason that it left my collection is that I never wanted to just sit down and play through all of it. So when I did want to play it, I’d play through the introductory scenario again and I did that a few times. But I like the story and the mechanics are pretty cool.

34. Sword & Sorcery

I played this one a lot, I got through the base game and one expansion. And I do like this game. Once I played that, though, I got rid of it. Even though I had more characters to play with, I wasn’t interested in going back through. The story doesn’t branch enough for that. And I wish that you could retire characters like in Gloomhaven.

33. Castle Panic

I almost culled this game, and I might, the board is a bit dinged so the FLGS didn’t take it. But the game is still playable. We’re not here to talk about that, though. The game is fun, and it’s a very light tower defense game. I like that I can play it with almost anyone, and while you rarely lose, it feels like you might. If I don’t lose a cooperative game fairly often, though, I will move on from it.

32. Choose Your Own Adventure: House of Danger

This is a fun silly little game. I would say that it’s pretty much a solo game. Because you all play as one character and basically just do a choose your own adventure. You can make decisions as a group and pass around who is reading and rolling a die, but that’s how it’s cooperative. It is fun for that, though, because it’s so silly that everyone is laughing together.

31. Mysterium

Mysterium bounces all over for me. I think it was in my Top 100 games this past year and now with this ranking it wouldn’t be. If and when I play it again, it likely will move up. This is about figuring out who the murderer is. And there are rules about how that all works, but really it’s about giving clues as a ghost to everyone so they can figure theirs out. It’s cool concept that can get in it’s way with how it tries to be a game.

30. Unlock Games

The better escape room style board game. Unlock Games you don’t destroy anything, unless in a fit of rage. And I like how it counts down building up pressure versus Exit which is just see how long it takes you. And there are a lot of these with a lot of different themes. I want to play more, but it’s kind of a lot of a game night and works better with 3-4 people not 6.

29. Arkham Horror

This is the 2nd Edition, I haven’t played my 3rd Edition yet, but I need to. This is a grand epic game that takes forever to play. But it is a lot of fun. I felt like when I’ve played it that I get into what is going on in the game. The story is light, but the longer you play, the more story develops just from what you are doing.

28. Dead Men Tell No Tales

I like pirates, so that helps this game. And the supernatural twist on it is good. It again falls into that category of do some things and then bad things happen. What ended up causing this one to leave my collection is that it is that bit more. There are so many things to keep track of and the game isn’t as familiar, I didn’t pull it out over Pandemic.

27. Harry Potter: Hogwarts Battle

Another deck builder on the list, and one that I just got rid of as well. Why, because I own a lot of deck building games. This one I like the theme of it, and the mechanics are fun. The game gets a bit longer as you go, and I wish there were more characters in the base box. It’d be one I’d gladly get back when I have a group to play it.

26. Lord of the Rings: Journeys in Middle-Earth

It’s odd how many leave my collection, and this is another. And I actually just realized that I forgot to rank Star Wars: Imperial Assault which also just left. So this counts for both. They are great games, The apps work really well, and you can pick your preferred theme. These are campaign games with a nice sense of adventure, but because they are campaign games, that’s why they left.

25. First Martians: Adventures on the Red Planet

This one is still in my collection, huzzah. And it’s probably surprising because when it came out people didn’t love it. But I really enjoy this game. It is a tough cooperative game where you can play all sorts of one off missions with different focuses. Or you can do a mini campaign. And it has an app, not a great one, to handle a lot of the bad things that happen, which I like.

24. Pathfinder Adventure Card Game

I really should buy a copy of this game. I played a few times at Fantasy Flight Game Center and really liked it. But never picked it up, and then played a bunch on the app. There is story, campaign, deck construction, and a lot of cool card play. I prefer the game that this is based off of, but I’d gladly have both in my collection.

23. The Lord of the Rings

While some might argue this game is fairly abstract, where you are pushing up on tracks as you go through the story of the Lord of the Rings trilogy, I really enjoy this game. It is a very hard cooperative game, but it gives you rewards at just the right time. It’s one I haven’t played in ages, but now that I’m thinking about it, I want to play it again.

22. Dresden Files Cooperative Card Game

My favorite book series in a board game. When talking about this one, I always want to to point out that it is abstracted. And while the theme is there, it is mainly there if you know the books. I love picking out one of the books to play and then characters from that book and trying to beat the game. I like it best, I think at two, though three isn’t bad either.

21. Just One

Party game on the list, Just One is a great game. And I really like that we are getting a number of cooperative party games. Here one person is trying to guess a word, and everyone else gives them a one word clue. But any duplicate words cancel. Simple game, clever idea, don’t need to play for points, and always a blast.

20. Cross Clues

Another party game, I told you there are a few, Cross Clues I like just a little bit better. Though, last time I played it I was so tired that I messed up a few times. Here you are giving a one word clue to get people to guess the intersection of two words. So it might be day and octopus, what word is between those two? Eight might be a good option. Simple and a lot of fun again. You can play real time, 5 minutes, see how well you do, we never do that.

19. Pandemic

Here are all the Pandemic games. And I have to say, I don’t know that I need to play base Pandemic again. Pandemic Legacy games just kind of ruined it for me. Still in my collection, but like I said, I might get Flash Point and replace it. If I want to play Pandemic again, I’ll play legacy, I think.

18. Village Attacks

A bigger tower defense game, I am still waiting for my Kickstarter to come in. It funded in 2019. But I am excited for it when it does. Village Attacks has you playing as the bad guys with the villagers coming with pitch forks and torches. You might be grotesque or horrifying, but the theme is just funny to me, so while it’s a dark game, it doesn’t come across.

17. Arkham Horror: The Card Game

I really need to play more of this game, it’s another one that I just really love. Arkham Horror: The Card Game, is the living card game (LCG) from Fantasy Flight, and it’s so cool how they can do so many different things with the game. Great card play and fun deck construction that I want to do more of. I prefer it two player, I think, but it’s good solo as well.

16. Similo

Final party game on the list, but not final light game. Similo is game where one person is it. That person is giving clues of either a card being like or not like the secret card. Then the rest of the players eliminate cards. Simple concept for a game and a ton of fun, especially to mix decks. How do you tell players that a chicken is or isn’t like a vampire or medusa?

15. Apocrypha Adventure Card Game

This is the game that the Pathfinder Card Game was based on, though the Pathfinder one came out first, it’s confusing. But I like the dark theme of this one, there is warfare going on between supernatural forces, and not everyone can see it, but you can. So how can you stop it in the different scenarios. Good game, great art, and my sort of them. Horrible rule book.

14. Say Bye to the Villains

Definitely the hardest game on the list, at least in terms of winning. The play is simple, spend time to improve your stats, look at what a villain is doing, and hope that you can win when you run out of time. And there isn’t enough time to do everything in the game. I’ve come so close to winning so many times, I’m sure eventually I will.

13. The Reckoners

Pretty high on the list for limited plays, but I love the theme of the game. The Reckoners by Brandon Sanderson is a great series. And I love the game play, it’s tough, even on easy, but it has a lot of good choices. And you feel like you can do a lot on your turn as you roll dice and every face on the die is probably something you need.

12. Marvel United

Marvel United is a pretty easy game, but I love it a lot. In the game you are playing down cards to stop a super villain. As superheroes you all work together. So the last card you played, if I’m next to go, I’ll get to use as well. The villains also feel so different in this game, and while I have everything for it, the grab and go get it to the table is great.

11. Letter Jam

A game that just made me realize I forgot to rank Hanabi, I play a lot of cooperative games, Letter Jam is a game where you are trying to guess your word. But you can’t see the letters that make up your word. Only through clues and words given by other players can you infer what your letters are. There is some good strategy in figuring out what are good clues. Loads of fun and one that I think a lot of people will like.

10. TIME Stories

The highest escape room style game on my list, though this one has more going on than that. I really like TIME Stories for the puzzles that it gives. I haven’t played all of them yet, and I have heard that some are weaker than others. But every one that I’ve played thus far I really enjoy.

9. Roll Player Adventures

I’m really excited, I get to play into a campaign of this in February. Roll Player Adventures is my highlight from GenCon in 2019. Getting to playtest it was great. In the Roll Player universe, this takes characters you might have rolled up, or pre-made ones, and lets you take them on adventures. The adventures are fun, and the combat is interesting. It’s a lot of choose your own adventure and so good at that.

8. Mansions of Madness: 2nd Edition

Another Lovecraftian game, and another cooperative one. All of Fantasy Flights games in their Arkham Files line are cooperative. Mansions of Madness is app assisted and so much fun. Like Arkham Horror The Card Game, the game can be so different depending upon scenario. Some might have you stopping a ritual in a mansion, others exploring a town. One that I want to play more of to see what else they can do with it.

7. Sleeping Gods

You can watch me play this tonight, Jan 26th, on Malts and Meeples. Sleeping Gods is a big adventure game that I’m playing solo right now where you are the Manticore, a ship, and sailing around with crew that go on adventures. The game has an amazing aesthetic and story. Even though the story isn’t linear, it works well. And the world it’s set in is really cool.

6. Marvel Champions

I like Marvel a lot, and for me Marvel Champions is the best Marvel game. The different heroes feel like that hero, and you can take them up against any bad guy. While Marvel United you play as one hero they are a bit more generic. And Marvel Champions gives you that alter ego side, so you push and pull to keep the villain at bay. And there are so many heroes and villains already and there can be so many more.

5. Aeon’s End

Another one I talked about yesterday. Aeon’s End is a cooperative deck building game where you try and stop a nemesis. A great solo and two player game. There are so many set-ups and so many cards for it. Now this does include Legacy as well, which is a great introduction to the game. And I like that the randomness in the game isn’t shuffling your deck, it is turn order and what the monster does.

4. Xenoshyft: Onslaught

Another deck building game, this one is Starship Troopers and tower defense. I like how collaborative the game is. I build my deck, but if I have an extra troop and you need one, I can give it to you to defend your part of the base and it goes into your deck. It allows everyone to really balance out what is going on and have a chance, which is good, because it’s a tough game.

3. Detective: A Modern Crime Board Game

I feel like this one I talk about and always describe it in a way that doesn’t sound that fun. But in this game, I feel like I am a detective. It’s a bit like a detective TV show, but fun is how I put it. You get into the case and the theme and if you allow yourself to be immersed in figuring out the story going on it is a great time.

2. Tainted Grail

Another one from yesterday, Tainted Grail is an amazing story adventure game. You take these characters and build them up through a grim dark storyline. And the writing on the game is just so well done. In terms of thematic games, I feel like this one might top my list, though, not my favorite cooperative game.

1. Gloomhaven

For my favorite cooperative game, no shock, it’s Gloomhaven. I love this game. I love the leveling in this game and the card play in this game. And I love that you retire characters and get new ones. I think that the mechanics are amazing and the story is interesting. But overall it leads to a great cooperative experience.

Final Thoughts

I’m guessing since I missed Hanabi and Imperial Assault that I likely missed others. And I also found it interesting how many I’ve gotten rid of. I think a lot of that has to do with me having so many I’ve played. It means that they are fighting for playing time. So only the top ones stick around. Especially when you get down to campaign games, for those it’s even a tighter field because of Kickstarter games coming in and time.

What is your favorite cooperative game?

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Deck Building vs Deck Construction

So let’s talk about this really quickly because one game that isn’t on this list is Gloomhaven. Though, you do add cards to your deck throughout the whole of the Gloomhaven campaign. And there is another one on the list, no spoilers, where you do the same thing. But it’s done in a different way.

Deck Building allows you to add cards to your deck when you can purchase them. And while you might be able to do things to manipulate how many cards you have in your deck, those rules aren’t as in place. In some of them you might need a lot of cards in your deck.

Deck Construction, on the other hand, allows you to focus your deck. You decide what you want to put into your deck and keep in your deck. Often times there are rules as to how you can even construct your deck. Gloomhaven only allows you to have a set number of cards. Or Magic: The Gathering, in standard, you can have a 60 card deck, no more, no less.

The Rankings

14. Dominion

I know that Dominion would top a lot of people’s lists. But for me, Dominion is not that interesting a game. The mechanics are perfectly fine, but it’s just deck building for the sake of deck building. It is just the mechanic for the sake of the mechanic. And it doesn’t look good on the table. Plus, Dominion misses on one big thing for me. A person who can look at all the cards and figure out the best strategy before the game starts will win. I like a bit more randomness in my deck building so it’s more on the fly decisions versus from the very start.

13. DC Comics Deck-Building Game

This one I haven’t played in so long. I remember it being perfectly fine but nothing really stood out to me. Add in the fact that DC Comics don’t interest me that much, mainly because there are too many comics overall to keep up on, and it is low for me. I would play this one again, but it is mainly a forgettable experience.

12. God or War: The Card Game

Another one that falls into this category, God of War was just a dud when I played it at GenCon. The game play seemed too easy and the decision making space was so limited. I get that it was a demo scenario, and maybe the game is more challenging, but I like a cooperative game challenging. This I felt like I’d win 75% or more of the time, and that doesn’t interest me. Plus, how you got the cards was just okay. You divided them amongst the group, and did it cooperative, but the choices were limited. It barely, if at all, qualifies as a deck building game.

11. Legendary: A Marvel Deck Building Game

Now to a theme that I love, but one that is really low on the list. Legendary: A Marvel Deck Building Game should work for me, but it misses on three things. Firstly, the game set-up is way too long. Some of that is too much stuff for the game. The other part is just it’s too complex with it’s set-up. Then the game takes too long. You take forever to start being able to hit the boss. Finally, the theme is missing for me. I want it to feel like a super hero team-up. But when you have cards of five heroes, and I have cards of those five heroes as well, it doesn’t feel like that.

10. Legendary Encounters: A Firefly Deck Building Game

Another Legendary game from Upper Deck, and this one I like a bit better. Mainly because the balance feels better. The scenarios, different episodes, are fun to play through. And while it does have the same thing as Marvel version where we are all playing all the characters, it just works smoother. I think having less stuff makes it play faster and be faster to get to the table.

9. Harry Potter: Hogwarts Battle

This is one that I’m bummed I never got to play through the whole game. I could have kept Harry Potter: Hogwarts Battle in my collection. And it might come back to my collection later. But it wasn’t getting played, and in terms of campaign games, I felt like it wasn’t going to be one that I came back to any time soon. The game is fun in that you unlock things as you go along. So not a legacy game, but a resettable campaign which is cool. And it took you through the books.

8. Cry Havoc

Another one that left my collection, and this one it is because I have Root. Cry Havoc and Root do different things, but I’d prefer to teach and play Root if I’m going to play an asymmetric game. Combat is really cool where you put your troops on a track to determine how it goes and then manipulate it with cards. And the deck building is interesting as you use them in combat, for powers, or to do basic actions. So card uses were really cool in the game.

7. Clank!: A Deck-Building Game

Now we start to get into the heavy hitters and games still in my collection. Clank! A Deck-Building Game is a wonderful time. It is a nice light deck builder, but one that isn’t only deck building. You build up your deck as you adventure down into a dungeon. All the time you are trying to do it as quietly as you can so the dragon doesn’t find you. But some of the better cards make you go clank. It’s a great push your luck game with a nice theme.

6. Ascension: Deckbuilding Game

Ascension goes back to being a pure deck building game. But I like this one so much better than Dominion. Firstly, there isn’t a fixed market. That means that I need to think about and adjust my strategy on the fly. And there is fighting monsters. Yes, everything can give you points. But in Dominion, everyone works towards the same points, here, someone can focus on getting cards for points or for combat, or do both.

5. Aeon’s End: Legacy

This is almost cheating, because it maybe should be combined with an entry coming up. But I do think that Aeon’s End Legacy and Aeon’s End are two different games. At least until the legacy experience is done. I really enjoyed my time with Aeon’s End: Legacy, and I do think it’s a great game. If you want to learn Aeon’s End, I would recommend you play this before you dive into the base game. But once you are done and you play against other nemesis, the game will seem easy.

4. Clank! In! Space!: A Deck-Building Game

Another Clank! game on the list. I prefer Clank! In! Space!, because it is even goofier than regular Clank!. And I do think that I like the space theme better. Plus, the game play is better for me. It adds in two changes. Firstly, how the game ends, there is no longer a timer, it is just until the players all get out, or Lord Eradikus takes them down. In Clank! it is a set number of rounds. And I like that you need to unlock the treasure room. It means there is more than just rush in grab treasure and rush out.

3. Aeon’s End

Later this year when I do my Top 100 Games (of All Time) 2022 Edition, I might combine this with Legacy. But I do think that the base game, or any of the expansions are better. Aeon’s End is a great cooperative deck building game. I like that you don’t shuffle, if you are good, it adds to the challenge. I also like how different the breach mages are and how different the nemesis are. It gives the game a lot of good challenges. Plus there is so much content to dig into.

2. Xenoshyft: Onslaught

I’m trying to remember, I’m not sure I’ve ever beat Xenoshyft: Onslaught. I think maybe one time. But I have come close a lot of times. This is another cooperative game, and you defend a base from waves after waves of bugs. Yes, this might sound like Starship Troopers the board game. I would say it is, but maybe slightly more serious. I love the challenge, and I like how each different area you can play has different powers and abilities.

What pushes this game ahead of Aeon’s End for me is how you can help others. I might draw a hand where I hold three weapons. But I only need two. I can give you that card to equip to one of your guys. Your line of defense getting weak, I can drop a paratrooper in. I’m getting some tough monsters, you can throw a grenade. It is highly cooperative and I love it for that.

1. Tainted Grail: The Fall of Avalon

Finally, this is the one I was talking about when I was talking about deck building versus deck construction. And in all fairness, I don’t play this for deck building. I play Tainted Grail for the story. But you do deck building, spending XP to get random card draw and then picking between them to add to your deck. And while you can remove cards from your deck whenever, there aren’t a lot of limits on how many you can have, just how few you can have. It’s a small part of the game, but making a great combat deck can be a challenge.

Final Thoughts

There are a lot of deck building games that I still want to play. In particular, I want to play Clank! Legacy because I love the theme for that one. And I know there are more deck building games out there to try. It is a mechanic that I really love, like roll and writes, so I don’t think I will ever complain about finding new favorites to work into the rotation. I’ll probably do deck construction games here soon, because I do like them as well, though I own and have played fewer.

What are your favorite deck building games? If you’ve played Tainted Grail, would you consider it one? Let me know in the comments below.

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The List

This list was a little bit tricky to put together. I think I have generally valid reasons for not liking these games, though some more than others. Or often, I know that they are solid games but they just aren’t the game for me. I did leave a few off the list that I feel like I didn’t give a fair shake to, or something like Cards Against Humanity which I liked as a fine game. It just has a very limited life to it.

1. Concept
2. Codenames
3. Dominion
4. Forbidden Island
5. Legendary: A Marvel Deck Building Game
6. Red Dragon Inn
7. The Resistance: Avalon
8. Spot It!
9. Tsuro of the Seas
10. Dr Eureka

I’m sure that I have some on that list that you really like. Dominion, Codenames, The Resistance: Avalon, Legendary: A Marvel Deck Building Game, and Concept, I know people like those a lot. And, I think I do have some valid reason for them, though you likely will disagree with them.

The Beer

The Key Lime Supreme from Surly Brewing in St. Paul, Minnesota. This is a really enjoyable beer. It’s what I’d call crushable. I can get through three or four of those pretty quickly if I wanted to. They are especially good for a hot day. It also isn’t too tart, it’s more like drinking a nice tart lemonade than something like Duchesse where it has almost more of a vinegar flavor to it.

Upcoming Streams

So, I will try and get all of these onto the calendar so you know what is coming up. But I want to, I think next Monday, do the follow-up Top 10 to this past one. 10 Games that I like that I’m probably wrong about.

Wednesday, 8 PM Central, I, of course am playing more Aeon’s End Legacy. I’m excited to dive into the next chapter of that game.

And I talk at the end of the video of wanting to do a Pub Meeple Ranking Stream. The idea for this would be to stream, probably on a weekend, and just chat with people while I go through and do my Pub Meeple rankings for my played board games. To be determined when this would happen, probably a Sunday evening would be my guess.

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If you are enjoying the podcast, please consider leaving a rating and review. We are on iTunes, Google Play Music, Stitcher and Spotify. I checked and saw that we have two five star ratings on iTunes, so I really appreciate that. Those ratings help more people find the podcast and join in the #10MinMarvel community.

If you want to suggest a topic, have a question you want answered, or have a thought on a previous topic, you can get a hold of me in the comment section of this post. But also on Twitter using #10MinMarvel or tweeting it at me, @TheScando. Thank you for listening.

These rankings are the opinion of yours truly, and if you don’t like them, that’s okay. We all have different tastes in games and that is great. There are some games that I’ve only played as a demo, and I felt like I got enough of a feel to put them on the list, thanks GenCon for all the demos. These are living rankings so next year I’m sure that things will change, so I’ll probably be doing another one next year. Thanks to Board Game Geek for letting me enter/rate my collection and games I’ve played. Thanks to Pub Meeple for creating a tool that pulls in those games that I’ve rated and creating a ranking tool. Again, the numbers and names will be linked to Cool Stuff Inc and Amazon if you’re interested in the games.

90 – Carcassonne
First classic game on the list, I’d say. This is a tile laying game that has been around for a long time, though, not as long as games like Clue and Monopoly that didn’t make my top 100. In Carcassone, you are trying to connect roads together and build cities, monasteries, and farms. All of these things give you points and when all the tiles have been played you tally up any final scoring and the person with the most points wins. What’s interesting about this game is that as you complete cities and roads where you have placed a knight or a robber, which are just meeples, you get those meeples back, so you are trying to balance getting a lot of points in a single road or city, and not having all your meeples on the board so you miss scoring.

89 – Dead of Winter: The Long Night
So, this is technically an expansion. But it’s also technically stand alone, so I’m placing it on my list because you don’t need Dead of Winter to play it. In this game, like Dead of Winter, you are protecting your base against zombies, however, they add in a few things, like a bandit module, a building module, and a Umbrella Corporation, I mean Raxxon, expansion. This game adds more to a game that already has a bunch of stuff going on in it, hence why it’s a bunch lower than the original, plus, it’s just hard to beat the original. I’d definitely play with any of the expansions though.

88 – Splendor
We’re going away from a more thematic game and going into a game that is purely tableau building. The “theme” of this game is that you are a gem merchant who is buying single use gems to get other gems that you have all the time, okay, that doesn’t make sense. But that’s what you’re doing in the game. Some of the gem cards that you’ll buy will have points on them, and the first person to 15 points wins. This is a great introductory tableau game that looks nice on the table. The game comes with a bunch of cards but what most people notice are the power chips that represent the single use gems that you’ll be getting early in the game. They are nice and weighty and give the game a good tactile feel. This is game that I’ll always play and have a good time with, there are other games higher on the list that fit a similar niche that I prefer though.

87 – Stuffed Fables
Your girl has had her favorite blanket stolen, and as her fearless stuffed animals, you are going to go into the depths of the world under the bed to get back that blanket without waking up the girl. This is a very cute game with cute stuffed animal minis. It’s what is known as a storybook game where you flip to different pages in the book, depending on what you do, and play through different chapters of an adventure by playing through the little scene that is in the book. Stuffed Fables definitely is focused for children, though feels like it’s a bit too complex for most younger children that the story targets more so. The game looks great though, and because it’s cooperative, you can work together as a group, which would be how you can get younger gamers to play and understand what is going on. Eventually this will be something that I play through with our baby.

86 – Legends of Andor
We’re into one of the first story driven fantasy games on the list. I’ve played this one a few times, and what is interesting about this game is that killing monsters causes the story to progress faster. Each round advances, and eventually you run out of turns, and you’d lose the game, but if too many monsters get to the castle, you lose the game, if you kill too many monsters and use up the rounds, you lose the game. This is a fun fantasy puzzle story game, because beating the monsters isn’t always hard, but knowing when to beat the monsters and when to focus on story elements, it’s a challenge. There are a bunch of different scenarios in the game, all of which seem interesting, and there are a bunch of expansions for it. It’s a big fantasy game, but at the same time, it’s not a complex fantasy game, so it’s a good introductory one for younger gamers.

85 – Lord of the Rings
This is the classic Fantasy Flight game where you play as up to five Hobbits traveling to Mount Doom to throw the one ring in. Yes, you read that correctly up to five Hobbits. If you have five players, one person can play as Fatty Bolger. Who is Fatty Bolger, he’s the hobbit who they invite along after add in Merry and Pippin but who declines, if you’ve read the books you’re apt to remember him. This game feels fairly thematic, but mainly feels like a puzzle as you try and play combinations of cards to advance through different locations before time runs out. It’s not a very heavy game, but there are interesting choices, and anyone can hold the ring, so Sam does, always, because he’s steadfast and hard to move. They made a lot of expansions for it as well. If you don’t want a big card game or a big minis game for Lord of the Rings, this is a fun option.

84 – Pandemic Legacy Season 2
We’ll see Season 1 higher on the list, but I did enjoy my playthrough, just not as much as the first season. I won’t go into spoilers, because this is a legacy game, but Pandemic Legacy Season 2 has a bit less direction while having a few clear things to do as well. It’s confusing with how I wrote it, but it still tells a good story. I feel like with the story, though, you’re waiting for the twist to happen like there was at some point in time in season one. What is cool about this one is that the mechanics are different, but they still feel like Pandemic. I’ll be playing through this at some point in time on Malts and Meeples, so if you want spoilers, that’s where it’ll be. Even though it’s a story driven legacy game, I feel like there’s plenty that you can play again with it after a bit of time. Downside is that to do that, you need a new version of the game.

83 – Legendary: A Marvel Deck Building Game
This is a massively bloated game at this point with 20000000000000 different expansions, and that is only using half the characters that Marvel has. In this game there is a villain whom a group of players with hero cards are going to attempt to defeat. It’s pretty standard in how you deck build with a changing market, but it gives you some interesting things like trying to build up enough damage to take out the villain enough times, while also trying to keep a handle on the different henchmen that are coming out. What makes this game tricky is that there are literally too many options now for the game. If you just pick what Marvel superheroes you like, you might end up with a group of heroes that don’t synergize at all, and then the game is going to take way longer than it should be build up the combos that you’re generally looking for in deck building games. However, if you just have the base game, you have enough to keep yourself busy for a while. This is a game that I’ve grown to like more as I’ve played more deck building games.

82 – Arkham Horror 2nd Edition
Yes, this is not the new edition, in fact, the new edition that I’m stoked to try, it’s not on my list, because I haven’t tried it yet. It’s sitting on my shelf just waiting to get played. But this is the massive older version where you are going around Arkham and adventuring and closing gates, fighting monsters, and then probably losing for up to six hours. Like I said, it’s a massive game and that’s without any of the expansions. I’ve really only played this once, and not even my copy, but it was blast, it’s just hard to carve out that much time. I am probably going to keep this game, because it’s the first massive epic game I bought, but also because it seems different enough from the 3rd edition that I probably have room on my self for both. If you like that older grind of a game, this one still holds up well, and there are tons of expansions for it, but you’ll also need a giant table for it.

81 – Dead Men Tell No Tales
I was hoping that this game would replace Pandemic in some ways or be another cooperative option, and I think that it almost does that, but you’ll see where Pandemic falls on my list. In Dead Men Tell No Tales, you are a group of pirates who are going onto a ship that is haunted by ghosts, on fire, and has a skeleton crew, but you’re willing to brave all of that, because the captain will make you walk the plank, and there’s treasure on this burning ship. You take your turn, dealing with fire, taking out those skeletons, trying to build up so you can fight the ghosts, but doing all of that while the ship continues to burn, and you hope that it doesn’t get too bad so that you can’t get to where you need to. It’s like Pandemic in that you have a ton of things that you can do and you never feel like you have enough actions. Or that your actions won’t do anything, and that’s one cool thing about the game, if you only have two useful actions out of your four or five, you can pass your unused ones to the next player so that they can get more done. If you want something that’s cooperative and the theme seems more interesting than Pandemic, I think you’d enjoy Dead Men Tell No Tales.

We’re through another ten, I’m planning that next week, besides Wednesday which will be Halloween focused, I’m going to continue going through my top 100, otherwise it could take a while.

What game from this section looks the most interesting to you? Is there one that you’ve wanted to play? Is there one that would be higher on your own list?

Share questions, ideas for articles, or comments with us!

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I’ve laid out one of the reasons why people play games solo, but I want to talk a bit about why I play games solo. First, board games don’t need to be a social activity, in fact some games you are playing by yourself just at a table with a bunch of other people at it. These games don’t have much interaction already, so the social aspect is just the table talking. However, there are some games that simply don’t give you time to talk to people more than just a little bit because you are going fast and trying to concentrate that you couldn’t carry on a conversation if you wanted.

Also, sometimes it’s hard to find time/people to play those board games with. There are games like Arkham Horror and Twilight Imperium that are all day events. You can’t get games like these to the table all that often, and then there are games like Dead of Winter which might be faster, but aren’t fast by any means. Dead of Winter still seems to take most of an evening whenever you play it, so while that’s easier to get to a table at two hours as compared to six, it’s still a good commitment for a lot of people. And even if you have the time to play a game like Arkham Horror, you might not have other people who have time to play it.

So when you need your board game fix, and you need that stimulation or reset for your brain after a busy day, solo gaming is a strong option. Most of the games that can be played solo don’t have a simple rule set that just allows you to only play with a single player and none of the rules change making the game either too hard or too easy, instead they have their own variant rules that keep the game balanced and challenging, or have been made specifically for a single player.

So what are some options for single player games, are there any good or interesting titles out there?

Onirim

This is a game that was specifically made for a single player though I believe there is a way to play with two players if you want. It’s a fairly simple game. You play as someone who is trapped in a nightmare and are trying to collect all the doors to be able to escape the dream. The game is a card game and you are trying to match sets of different colors as you play cards from your hand to find these dream doors. However, there are nightmares lurking in the deck trying to stop you from escaping. This game has a pretty small footprint and doesn’t have anything more than a deck of cards and a little nightmare token that isn’t needed to play the game. So it’s an easy one to take along somewhere if you are waiting at somewhere that has a small table.

Arkham Horror LCG

Not to be confused with Arkham Horror the giant board game, which you might be able to play solo, Arkham Horror the LCG is still Lovecraftian themed, but instead of a big board, you are playing cards and building up your investigator to try and complete the various scenario you are playing through. These scenarios are why it is called an LCG or Living Card Game. The game can be played without buying any additional cards or story packs, but once you’ve played through it, you might want to play a different story. So you can buy a pack of cards that has a new story for you to investigate. The game has a strong puzzle feel to it as you try and balance resources, race against the clock to complete the story, and what you do in a previous part of the story, they are generally three chapters, can influence future chapters. This game doesn’t have to be played solo, and can be played by four people if two sets are combined, but works really well as a solo game.

Legacy of Dragonholt

Another Fantasy Flight game, this one is a RPG like game. You design your character, giving them abilities that you’ll use as you go through a scenario. As you read through the scenario, you make decisions and use your abilities to open up options. Like Arkham Horror LCG, your decisions can effect future games. This is what gives the game a legacy feel. I’ve only played through a single scenario with this game as I think that Kristen would like it quite well, and it’s a game that can be played with a greater number of players. So should I consider this a solo game? I think that it is, not just because it has the option, but because the game has replayability so that playing it as a group certainly wouldn’t prohibit you from playing it again. Just going through the first scenario, there were plenty of story chunks that I didn’t read and plenty of story bits that I won’t know.

Dresden Files Cooperative Card Game

It’s a handful of a name, but a really fun game. The Dresden Files Cooperative Card game takes you through the Dresden Files. There is a scenario for each book and a ton of different characters from those books to play as. It also gives you an option to create your own missions for even more replayability. What makes this interesting is that as a single player game, you can play with up to four, you play with three characters and have less cards to beat the game with than most other player counts. Yes, you have more knowledge than with a lower player count, but it is still challenging. The game has some very nice resource management, and the fact that the story board is set-up randomly each time means that playing the game twice won’t unfold the same. It’s a well developed game where it’s almost always close at the end and you’re just hoping for the last thing to go your way.

There are a lot more that can be solo played games as well if you’re interested at jumping in. A lot of the Legendary Games, Buffy, Aliens, Firefly, and Big Trouble in Little China can be played solo, and these more story based ones flow better than the more generic Marvel one that I had a review of saying that I didn’t like it all that well. Robinson Crusoe is another game that is about resource management that takes you through different challenging scenarios. You’ll find that a lot of cooperative games have a solo option because you’re always working with a little bit of open information and working together as a team. Even a massive game like Gloomahven can be played as a solo game with a variant to help you make it more challenging. I also have sitting yet to be played Apocrypha and 7th Continent for solo gaming.

If you’re looking for a way to unwind after a long day or just looking for more board gaming in your life, consider solo board gaming as an option. What games have you played as a solo game?

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Since You Are Using a Deck, Does it Play the Same Every Time?

No, it really doesn’t. With some games, like Dominion, you often play with different sets of cards, and each card has different abilities. With the Legendary and Teen Titans deck-building games, you play with certain groups of heroes and villains, so the cards come up differently and are generally randomized as well. And with games where you build your own deck, such as Magic the Gathering or Netrunner, they are coming out with new cards regularly, so once you’ve played with some cards for a while, you get new cards to play with. The downside to this is that every time you want to change up and get some new cards, you have to shell out more money. So any of these games can end up being expensive.

How Much Variety is There Between Deck Building Games?

While they aren’t completely you’ve-seen-one-you’ve-seen-them-all, a number of the games do play pretty similarly. The Teen Titans deck-building game is a simplified, more streamlined version of the Legendary game from Marvel. And Dominion doesn’t fall that much out of line with the rest of them. Magic the Gathering seems like it has limited options, if you look at the competitive players, as there are certain decks that will always be stronger than others, but if you play casually, you have a plethora of cards to chose from and can really flavor the game to your own playing style. That has to be a choice made by all the players whom you are playing with, however, because otherwise, someone can just run away with it.

Which Deck-Building Games Would You Recommend?

I can’t speak to Netrunner, but it is a very popular game that holds tournaments. The nice thing about Netrunner is that it is cheaper to get into than Magic the Gathering, as they don’t make cards rarer than other cards, so no cards have a premium price mark-up. But Magic the Gathering is a great deck-building game to get into for several reasons, the first being that you can really tailor it to how you want to play. A while back, Sam wrote an overview article on the different colors of Magic decks and how they play by themselves. Each of them give you viable routes to win, and each of them have some things they aren’t as good at. So by combining colors and figuring out what aspect of the game you really like, you can build up very interesting decks and do so cheaply. The important thing about keeping Magic the Gathering as a cheaper hobby is to play it casually, because once you start playing seriously, it can drain your wallet fast.

The Teen Titans deck-building game is another I would really recommend. It plays a lot like a comic book, and it keeps it simple. There is a feel to it  (more so than Legendary) of that comic book story as you are playing, which is what you want when dealing with superheroes. It also seems to play faster than the Legendary game, which is nice, as Legendary can really stretch out if you get stuck in a bad spot. An upside that Teen Titans has is that you are playing cooperatively, as with Legendary, and the players try to defeat the villain together, so that is a nice aspect.

Dominion is the real classic of the deck-building games, though. With all of the expansions, you have the ability to never repeat a combination of cards. It plays quickly, the rules and interactions are simple, and it is a lot of fun to play.

But one fun and random game that should not be overlooked is Red Dragon Inn. The best way to describe it is that you are a bunch of D&D-esque adventurers who are between quests. You go into the tavern and decide to gamble and drink the night away with the treasure that you had gotten on your last quest. All of the different characters you can play are absurd, and it is made even more fun if you, in real life, have a drink in your hand and are doing voices for the character that you are playing. The premise is also absurd; you are trying to keep from getting so drunk or having your fortitude drop so much that you eventually fall asleep on the table — because the last one awake is probably going to get all the money from gambling.

What is a deck-building game I’ve missed that you really like?

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Start Simple and Fast

This is pretty straightforward — find games that are easy for people to pick up and play through quickly, and start off the night with them. It is very rare that everyone shows up to game night at the same time, so don’t plan on it. Know some ten-minute games that you are going to be able to play while people show up. Games like Fluxx, We Didn’t Playtest This At All, Tsuro, and Zombie Dice are all fast and easy games that people can pick up quickly, and ones that don’t take too long so that people who show up later aren’t just sitting around waiting for others to finish their game.

Know the Rules

It’s pretty obvious that you are probably going to want to try some new games during your game nights. But it’s smart to test-play them, or at least go through the rules and pieces, so you know what you are doing before you try to teach someone else. I have a couple of games that I want to play, Five Tribes and Ghostbusters, but without having played them before, they aren’t good game night options. Instead, with the games that work with two players, my wife and I will play them first, and with those that aren’t, we’ll have a smaller group of friends over to play them. But the better you can know the rules beforehand, the easier it is for other people to jump into a game with you.

Be Ready to Explain the Rules

This comes down with the previous rule. It is important to be able to explain the rules. Last game night, we played Seven Wonders. I’d played the game before, but I’m less familiar with it than the person who brought it. I could have explained the rules, but he was going to be better at explaining them.. And with some games, you can go through and explain the rules and people still won’t completely follow. So what do you do in that situation? If people aren’t getting the rules, pass on the game until you are more confident. Or if there are a few people who are sitting in a row who are familiar with the game, have one of them start, so that those who haven’t played will get a few chances to see how it’s done. For some people, hearing the rules is harder to follow than just watching a few turns. And be willing to play slowly and explain as you go if you need to.

To go along with this, tell the story of the game as you start. For example, Pandemic is a game where you are CDC members who are trying to stop the spread of diseases across the world. Forbidden Island is a game in which you are a group of adventurers, like Indian Jones, who are trying to track down lost treasures before the island sinks. As you can see, that pulls people in quickly, and makes it easier to explain the rules when it’s done within the framework of a story.

Don’t Have Surprise Rules

Especially in competitive games, if there are funky or tricky rules, go through and explain them. People might not remember them perfectly, but if it isn’t explained and you suddenly pull out the rule and use it your advantage, that isn’t going to give you a fun game night. A good example of this would be if there are some reasons why a player couldn’t do something. It’s annoying to find out that there is a certain situation where your brilliant plan can’t work.

Have Fun

The most important rule is that you’ve got to have fun. Even if you are a competitive player, don’t let that ruin your fun or other people’s fun. Board games should always be about hanging out with your friends rather than just about beating them in a competition. If you have some friends who are more competitive, pull out those more cutthroat games when playing with them, but for a lot of board game nights, you won’t have that type of group. You need to find the balance and play cooperative, fun, or more Euro-style games. Keep it simpler, and when you really want to play those more competitive games, invite over people whom you know can handle it.

So what would a good board game night look like?

We Didn’t Playtest This At All – start with this fast game that people can be added into easily. It’s a draw-a-card-play-a-card game.

Smallworld – After you have a few people, find a game that is goofy and good fun. Smallworld doesn’t take too long and is easy to pick up. And because of the style of game it is, even though there is a competitive aspect to it, people don’t get mad about it.

If you have some time and enough people, split into a couple of groups and play more serious games. For those who like cooperative games, something like the Lord of the Rings Board Game or Pandemic would be a good choice. Those who want to play a more complex or difficult board game could choose something like Dead of Winter or Legendary.

Zombie Dice or Tsuro – Finish up with another game during which people can leave anytime. The easier games are great to wrap up on, and then people can still leave when they are having fun.

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Today, we’re continuing on the topic of board games — Kristen and I host a board game night every second Saturday; our most recent one was this past weekend, and this time, we played Legendary. Legendary is a deck-building game in which you team up with your fellow players to defeat an evil mastermind.

As a deck-building game, Legendary is similar to games like Dominion. But unlike Dominion, it’s played either cooperatively or as one player vs. all the rest (in the latter setup, the single player takes on the role of the Mastermind). As players of Legendary, you are higher-ups in S.H.I.E.L.D and are recruiting your superhero team. You are going up against a mastermind and trying to stop them from completing their evil scheme. In our game, Blade, Captain America, Daredevil, Doctor Strange, Elektra, and Iron Fist were the heroes we could recruit. We were going up against The Kingpin as the Mastermind of our game, who wanted to take over the Daily Bugle, and for some reason, we wanted to stop him.

On each turn, the player whose turn it is flips over a villain card and adds that villain to the city. There can be up to five villains in the city before one of them escapes. Next, the player looks at their hand of six cards, which they can use to either recruit other heroes to join their team or play the heroes they already have to fight against a villain who is in the city. Or, if it is a really good turn and they draw well, players can use their cards to fight against the Mastermind. The heroes you buy can combo off of each other to improve how hard you can hit or how much influence you have for recruiting heroes. These are the basics of game play, and you are constantly adding cards to your deck as you go, trying to make it stronger and better so you can build up enough points to punch the Mastermind.

This is a fun game, albeit one that starts off kind of slow. During your first handful of turns, you spend a lot of time building up your deck. Once you’ve done that, the turns start getting longer, but at that point, players can do a whole lot more per turn. In our case, while we did end up defeating the Mastermind, our cards didn’t combo off of each other all that well, so it took a long time to build up enough cards to make something happen. The slow speed of the game, especially early on, is one of its weaknesses. It is so hard to hit the Mastermind that you feel like you might as well have skipped the first five rounds and just added heroes to your deck.

However, you are playing with superheroes, which is a lot of fun. As someone who has read a lot of recent comic books, I know who so many of the heroes in the game are, and in our case, I noticed that we ended up building a team of heroes who were all somehow related to Hell’s Kitchen (Daredevil’s area of New York and the area that Kingpin often has his hands in), which made our session work well thematically. And all of the friends in the group we played with are as nerdy as we are, so we were able to talk about recent movies and shows featuring the heroes from our game, and got to give some of the group a lesson on characters who were new to them, like Iron Fist.

But even though the game revolves around heroes, the gamemakers missed out on the one thing that could have made the pace of play a non-issue. If they had built in a story element to the game, you wouldn’t even notice that the first few turns are slow. As it is, there is a Mastermind who can do a little bit, but often doesn’t make all that much sense story-wise, and the scheme, while cool, is always the same for a big part of the game. If the Mastermind could change tactics and take different actions, it would feel like you are playing out a comic book story. For example: the group stops the Kingpin at first, but he comes up with a new plan, and they have to stop him again as it builds up to his ultimate scheme. It would be a lot of fun that way, would teach players about some of the bad guys from Marvel, and would make the game more engaging for those who don’t know as much about the characters and how they interact within the world of the comics.

Overall, I really do like this game. It’s built for someone like me, though that means it wouldn’t necessarily be as appealing to a casual player. I love the complexity of the combos and how the heroes interact. However, the combos in this game are more complex than those in Dominion, and while you can help your teammates strategize how best to play their turn, I think that Dominion is more fun overall, and certainly faster to play. But as I said, I really do enjoy this game. I have fun playing it and figuring out how to build the best deck of cards that I can. But there is a definite learning curve and a steep time commitment involved with playing this game. It’s one that’s probably best to play with a group of more serious gamers, or with people who really like games that are built more on logic than on luck.

Overall Grade” B-

Gamer Grade: B+

Casual Grade: D+

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