Here are theirs:

But what board games would I pick?

Frosthaven

Now, this game isn’t out yet. But it also is the follow-up to a game that I already love. So this one is a bit of a cheat, but I’ve already beaten Gloomhaven. It was the first game I thought of because of the fact that this is going to be another game that takes 200 hours to play and even when I’m done with those 200 hours, I’ll probably still have other things I haven’t seen in the game. I for sure won’t have played all the side scenarios or solo character scenarios yet.

Plus, Frosthaven builds upon Gloomhaven in that it adds in city building. City building is not something that I knew I wanted in Gloomhaven, there is a lot going on. And you do increase the prosperity of the town and you keep track of that. But being able to build up your town, upgrading buildings, I am sure that when you’re done with 200 hours of the main campaign there will still be more that you haven’t found yet.

Now, I could go with other Kickstarter games on this list. But I don’t want to do that, because I also have other games on my shelf that need to get played or that I’d add to the list.

Dice Throne Seasons 1 & 2

Yup, Dice Throne Season 2 is technically an expansion. At least, that’s what I’m going with, so it counts for the list. If not, then We’ll go with Season 2 and bring in Season 1 Pyromancer duel box. But I love Dice Throne, this is a game that I’ve probably played 30 times already and there are still lots of combinations that I haven’t played.

Plus, this one is also a game that I can play with a lot of people. Frosthaven is a complex game, Dice Throne, I can probably teach it to most people. But it is also a game that isn’t too light. So that means that I won’t, for a long time, get bored of playing it. And even with 10 characters, say that’s all I’m allowed in these made-up rules, repeating a character I play every ten games, yeah, I won’t get bored.

Lords of Hellas with Dark Ages Expansion

Another bit of cheat game here. The Dark Ages Expansion is the Kickstarter expansion, but I do own it. It takes all the expansions and puts them into a single box, which means that there is more content for the game. But this is my list, so my rules, and Lords of Hellas is on the list. Lords of Hellas is an area control, statue building, monster fighting game, and it’s a lot of fun.

Plus, this game has one important thing to it, variability. Whomever you pick for your leader, that is going to determine what you go after, at least at the start. They give you a special power. And then as temples are built, you draft more special powers. You could play this hundreds of times and never get the same combination. Plus it’s a longer game, but not a campaign game. Though, likely we’ll see more campaign on the list.

Middara: Unintentional Malum Act 1 & 2

This one is a tough one to put on the list. I own Act 1. Act 2 gives more story, and I have yet to play it. What makes it hard is the fact there is an act 3. So now I have limited myself by the rules of one expansion to missing out on the end of the story. With that said, it seems like act 1 is a great story anyways because people have beat it now and might want more but aren’t complaining about a cliff hanger.

This is a big dungeon crawl style game, box size is similar to Gloomhaven in terms of volume. But this game has more story to it. So while it doesn’t have the characters that Gloomhaven does, it does have a lot to play through. Assuming that this takes 100 hours maybe 200 with two acts, and Gloomhaven took my group 3+ years to get through, between Frosthaven and Middara I now have 6 or 7 years of campaign games on my list.

Root and Riverfolk Expansion

This is another game that gets onto the list because it’s bigger and longer and because each faction plays differently. So with Root there are four different factions in the base box, I believe the Riverfolk adds in two more. So while you need potentially four people to play the game, Root is going to be one that feels different as you play with the different combinations.

Each factions being asymmetrical to the others also means that each faction will feel unique when you play them. And it gives me something to master as well. Once I’m really comfortable playing the Eyrie I can move onto playing as the Marquise d’ Cat and then the Vagabond. Each of those plays differently and will take time to master. So a lot of game play and a lot of learning for this game.

Village Attacks and Grim Dynasty Expansion

So, this is a game that is also in that waiting on the Kickstarter category, and I only have the base game coming. But I have played this game, so its not kind of cheating like Frosthaven was. This is a tower defense game where you are playing the bad guys. There are a few reasons why this one would make the list.

Firstly, the bad guys who are in the tower, there are several different ones, add in the second big Kickstarter, now there are a lot of them. So variability as to what characters you play as. Plus, like Lords of Hellas, you get to add more abilities as the game goes. It might not be as variable but it is close. And this is scenario based, so I can play a scenario one time and then the same character and a new scenario and the game changes, slightly.

Other Board Games Considered

So, I think those are the four. On the Tablenauts list, they had Sagrada which would be another really good one, and I did steal Root from them, though I think I’d have landed on that as well. Sagrada makes sense because your window, the dice, the powers, scoring, all of those things are variable. And it’s one that you can teach everyone.

I also considered Western Legends, it’s a sandbox game where you could decide to just gamble the whole time to get points, go out adventuring or become a bad guy. Since it is so sandbox, it means that it’ll have solid replay value. But the game doesn’t force variability on you like Lords of Hellas or even Sagrada, so didn’t make the list.

Reichbusters was another one I considered ,it has a campaign, and you can play it as a one off. I could have just gone with campaign games though, and I didn’t want to do that, because I like to play one off games as well. And I think that Middara and Frosthaven are just better campaign options.

And no roll and writes on the list. As much as I love ones like Cartographers, Sonora, or Ganz Schon Clever, they tend to change less. And even Welcome To… and taking a map that is different, the game play changes somewhat but not completely.

And Kingdom Death Monster, I didn’t pick that one because I’d never buy that one. Yes, it is a massive game and a campaign game, but I don’t want to put the monsters together. And the whole thing costs so much. Maybe if I played it, I’d be saying differently, but I haven’t.

What six games (with one expansion per game) would you pick? Let me know in the comments below or on Twitter.

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If it’s not obvious, I clearly love campaign games. I have a lot more on my shelf from Pandemic Legacy Season 0 to Midarra: Unintentional Mallum Act 1, to Destinies, all that need to get played. Plus there are more on the way including a massive game, Frosthaven, the follow-up to Gloomhaven. Yet, compared to a lot of gamers, I’ve played a lot of campaign games. So how do I get a consistent group together?

Talk About Campaign Games

Talk with people about playing a campaign game. It sounds obvious, but I think a lot of gamers forget to do this. I forget to do this with people who might be interested in a campaign game. I own many other games that aren’t campaign games, so I sit down and play those with a lot of people. People who might want to play a legacy game or a campaign game, but I don’t mention it.

Now, it does come with a balance. I have one friend who I could play a campaign game with, but I don’t. Why, because while we had fun playing Sword & Sorcery, I realized I wasn’t playing my other games as much. So now I game with him every other week, and it’s just pulling games that maybe don’t get play that much off the shelf. Heavier games that are a one off, or teaching him new games that I’ve gotten. So it is a balance, but if you don’t mention campaign games, people won’t know it’s an option.

Define a Schedule

This one is tricky, especially as you get older. When I was in college I probably could have gotten stuff together easier. Or played campaign games more often. If I’d played Dungeons and Dragons then, I probably would have played for an eight hour session every week, or maybe every two. Now my schedule doesn’t permit that. The same is true for the people I game with. We have work, other activities, and kids in some cases. All of those things eat into gaming time.

On the flip side, we now need to get it scheduled more than before which means that we play more consistently. When younger, it is easy to go months if you aren’t thinking about it. You play for hours, but when you stop, you might not play for a long time again. Because I need it on the calendar to know I can play, that means we have a consistent schedule.

For both campaign board games and Dungeons and Dragons, I play every other week. The Gloomhaven/Tainted Grail group meets every other Tuesday. Dungeons and Dragons is every other Thursday. I keep, or try to, them on opposite weeks. That means that the one player who overlaps doesn’t have two evenings in one week are taken up and the same for me.

It is important to define it also so people know the commitment level. A full Saturday once a month might be what you need, or even weekly. Figure out what works for you and your players.

Be Flexible

This goes against what I said, or might seem like it, but I don’t think it does. Flexibility is scheduling is important. There are different reasons that people cancel and flexibility is important for that. I’ve had my Dungeons and Dragons game shift by a week multiple times, and that is fine. We know the schedule, every other Thursday, and try and make that work, but adjust when need be.

Now, there are more valid reasons for being flexible sometimes. If someone keeps on missing because they just don’t feel like it that day and that causes you to cancel, that isn’t being flexible. That’s them not being interested and they can be dropped from the group. Likely, campaign games weren’t for them. But lie things, working overtime, a kid who is under the weather, car troubles, those sorts of things need to allow flexibility.

Know Your Campaign Players

Finally, know who your campaign players are. I talked about before how I have one person I game with regularly not with campaign games. He’s played them with me before, but doesn’t always love a long campaign. He dropped out of Dungeons and Dragons recently because it’s too long for his focus and style, which is fair. Dungeons and Dragons is a massive commitment. I’d play a shorter campaign board game with him, and have with Sword & Sorcery, but I know he isn’t my big campaign game player.

On the flip side, I’ve played Tainted Grail: The Fall of Avalon and Gloomhaven with the same two people. And that’s taken us years to get through, I think coming up in February will be four years of us playing games. Gloomhaven took up most of that time, but Tainted Grail will as we wait for Frosthaven. I know I can campaign game with them.

I also had a group I played Pandemic Legacy games with, but I don’t think I’d campaign game with them anymore. They were always hard to pin down in terms of scheduling. And lately, they’ve been even harder. One of them was part of the Charterstone group and even with just one, they were still hard to nail down for that. So I moved away from playing campaign games with them. Knowing who will be consistent enough is important.

Are They Worth the Effort?

Clearly for me they are worth the effort. Campaign games give great experiences at the gaming table. They are completely different than playing a one off game because the story emerges around you most of the time. There are twists and turns that simple cannot exist in a regular game.

That isn’t to dismiss other games. Normal single session games still give very good and I still play them a lot. There is just something about a campaign game and a shared experience that is different. This can be a legacy style campaign game or just a campaign game, either are very good. And you get to know that feel of the group you are playing with. You know all your styles and really develop how you play a campaign game.

Have you gotten through a campaign game or are they on your radar? Have you found a good group to play with?

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The Games

Well, no spoilers like last time, the list will be at the bottom for those who don’t have time to watch the whole video. But let’s talk a bit about how I picked these games. This is a bit different than a lot of lists. The other two I’ve done, they were cooperative games and small box games. A game is either in a small box or not, though small can be debated. And a game is either cooperative or not. Or at least it has a cooperative mode anyways. For this list, it was my choice of what I had on my shelf.

There was an even split of cooperative and competitive games on the list which surprised me. And if you know my taste in games, there were five campaign style games on the list. Though, that’s only half the list, I thought I might have picked more. And there were some games that I left off the list that definitely could have made it.

So they are honorable mentions that I didn’t mention, but Forgotten Waters and Dice Throne Adventures are two of the top ones on that list. Lost Ruins of Arnak , Yggdrasil Chronicles and Detective: City of Angels also could have made the list. I skipped games like Vienna Connection because while I haven’t played it, I have played Detective: A Modern Crime Board Game which is the same system.

The Beer

Last nights beer was a local one again. This time from Lift Bridge brewing, it was a Kolsh beer, Lemon Bar flavored. It is an okay beer. I saw lemon in the name and I was excited for it, but like the pink lemonade beer that I had from Tin Whiskers a stream or two ago. While a lemon bar should be sweeter, the sweetness basically overwhelmed the lemon flavor. The lemon should have been a stronger punch of flavor with a sweet finish versus what it was to make it a more enjoyable drink. Still, for a hot summer day, I think it’d be a solid option, just not the first one I’d reach for.

The List

1. Nemesis
2. Dwellings of Eldervale
3. Middara: Unintentional Mallum Act 1
4. Clank Legacy: Acquisitions Incorporated
5. Reichbusters: Projekt Vril
6. Solomon Kane
7. Deep Madness
8. The Reckoners
9. Kohaku
10. Heroes of Land, Air, & Sea

Upcoming Streams

So a few options for what’s coming up next. No Monday stream next week, but I’m thinking some reviews and maybe a topic instead of a Top 10 for my next stream. So let me know what topic sounds good.

And on Wednesday, I think my plan is to play Railroad Ink Challenge, but I had so much fun playing Aeon’s End last Wednesday that following that up, I mght actually start playing Aeon’s End Legacy two handed for a bigger playthrough. Let me know your thoughts on that, I as I learn how to play it, I might have some polls for whom I should play as.

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With that said, I have a bunch of cooperative games sitting on my shelf and coming via Kickstarter. In fact, I probably have enough on my shelves to make a Top 10 games that way, but I am going to include what I have in Kickstarter and coming that way as well as what is on my shelf.

Let’s get to the list:

10 – Etherfields

This is one that I’m glad I backed from Awaken Realms, but while they normally get me with their theme, like Lords of Hellas and Tainted Grail, Etherfields theme of going through dreams was just interesting, it didn’t blow me away. The game play, however, seemed cool, and now I know that Awaken Realms does amazing story. I think what drew me to the game, the game play and deck building still is strong there, and I’m still excited for when I’ll get my copy in.

9 – HEL: The Last Saga

This is the game that really put Mythic Games on the map for me. I’d looked at Reichbusters and Super Fantasy Brawl when they were on Kickstarter but I hadn’t backed them. Same with Joan of Arc. But HEL: The Last Saga, that just looked too cool for me to pass up. This one takes you through a campaign of Viking explorers trying to find out what had happened to the rest of the clan that had gone on ahead. Definitely seems to have a dark element to it that can lean into horror, which I love.

8 – Uprising: The Curse of the Last Empire

This is one that was on Kickstarter but I didn’t end up backing on Kickstarter. Instead, I backed it with a late pledge because the game just kept coming back to me as I one that I wanted to play. Uprising is a 4x game and those are rarely cooperative. And the players are trying to stop two AI controlled enemies. But for the players to get the win, each of the player factions needs to finish ahead of both of the AI factions. So everyone is playing their own faction, and everyone needs to beat the enemy. That idea is just so unique.

7 – The Reckoners

Well, we are onto one that I have in hand now. And I’ve had this one in hand for a little bit, I just need to get it to the table. This one game takes place in one of my favorite book series, The Reckoners by Brandon Sanderson. Basically the Reckoners are a team who tries to take out super powered people. Because all the super powered characters turn bad. But, of course, these are normal people trying to take on powered people, so that isn’t going to be that easy. This game uses dice and just seems really challenging and fun.

6 – Folklore: The Affliction

Another one that I own and this one I’ve had on my shelf for a while. It’s one that I’ve wanted to try streaming but just haven’t gotten to yet. Folklore: The Affliction has you fighting monsters and basically playing an RPG like game. You even use more RPG like dice than a lot of games do. The story just seems fun though, it doesn’t try and go too weird with anything, you are just dealing with werewolves, vampires, and ghosts, more of the normal things the best that you can.

5 – Middara: Unintentional Mallum Act 1

I recently did an unboxing of this game over on Malts and Meeples which you can find here. This is another massive dungeon crawl sort of game. It is even generally a fantasy style game. But the game leans heavily into anime artwork and feel of the game. This is a massive game, I think everything that I have probably is about the same size or slightly more than Gloomhaven, so you know the game is big. The theme and style is just different enough than most that I’m really interested in it.

4 – Solomon Kane

This is another kind of campaign game. I say kind of, because it has a lot of mini campaigns in it. Solomon Kane was originally a collection of short stories by Robert E. Howard who was also known for writing the Conan: The Barbarian stories. Solomon Kane was a bad guy who became a good guy who now fights the forces of evil in the world, of the super natural variety.

That theme is just cool, but how do you now end up with the player who is Solomon Kane being more powerful than anyone else in a cooperative setting? You do that by not playing as Solomon Kane. Instead you play as different virtues who are leading Solomon Kane through the stories, keeping him away from darkness. Really cool and unique idea for a game.

3 – Frosthaven

Now, a lot of people probably thought that this would be number one, and really, all my my top 5 are ones that I really am excited to play. Frosthaven is just a little bit lower because I have played all of Gloomhaven. Do I want more of that game system, absolutely. Does the town building sound cool, most definitely. But, I have already played Gloomhaven, so I want to try a few more of these campaign games before Frosthaven comes in. It’s one of those things where I’m already super confident I will love the game, because I know the core of it, so I’m less excited than some other ones.

2 – Roll Player Adventures

Such as Roll Player Adventures, I am really excited for this one to come in this summer. Roll Player Adventures builds upon some of the systems in Roll Player and turns it into an RPG. You are going through stories and adventures using interesting dice placement and other rules to defeat monsters, and play through stories making interesting choices. I have demoed this one, it was at GenCon in 2019, so I’m excited to finally get this game into my hands.

1 – ISS Vanguard

Finally at #1, we have ISS Vanguard. An Awaken Realms game, this looks like it’s my type of space game. It is going to be a bit messy, like Awaken Realms games are, but a ton of fun. What is really interesting is that the game is in two parts. There is a phase where you improve and do upgrades on your ship, research new things and keep crew members happy and healthy. Then you also go down to planets to explore them and find out their secrets and the secrets of this call that drew you out to these planets.

Honorable Mentions

I could do a number of honorable mentions. I have The 7th Continent on my shelf that I need to play and Mage Knight. There is Robinson Crusoe. On Kickstarter I have The 7th Citadel that I’m looking forward to getting. Also on Kickstarter I have Zombicide: Undead or Alive and Primal: The Awakening all backed as well. Even other games on my shelf like Shadowrun: Sprawl Ops and a little one like The Fox in the Forest Duet are ones that they want to try. And just missing the list is Deep Madness as well. Really,

I have so many of these games that I want to try I could have done a Top 10 I’m waiting on and a Top 10 that I have. Maybe coming up here, I’ll look at what I have on my shelf, cooperative and competitive and do a Top 10 of ones I want to try and then try and get through them this summer.

What cooperative game are looking forward to getting to the table?

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The Games

So two games that I unboxed yesterday. The first was Extension 6 for Pitchcar and then Middara: Unintentional Mallum Act 1, which was the bigger part of the stream. Two very different games that I’ll talk about quick here.

Pitchcar Extension 6

So Pitchcar is a flicking game, in fact, I wrote up a review about it yesterday which you can see here. I already had a bunch of stuff for it, but I decided that I wanted more. Getting more stuff for Pitchcar basically means that you can create more different and creative tracks. This one adds in a few pieces that I’ve already seen with a thin track and some jump pieces you can put in. Definitely just means we can create a trickier course and a bit longer course or us to crash repeatedly on, but that’s the fun of it.

Middara: Unintentional Mallum Act 1

This game is a totally different animal. It is a massive dungeon crawling game, but it is a little bit different. You can see a lot of the content in it, but the box is shorter but wider and longer than that of Gloomhaven. So another crazy large box. But the theme is different as well. In Gloomhaven and the likes of Sword & Sorcery, you have standard fantasy. Middara is definitely fantasy, but they give it an anime twist to it.

The artwork in the game is amazing. It has strong anime influences on it. Now that does mean that you end up with some fan service at times, but it doesn’t seem to be a predominant part of the game. If it was everywhere, I would be less interested in the game. The sculpts are good, not as detailed as some, but there are a lot of them. You can see how many I unpack, like I said, it’s a lot of them.

But what really blew me away was the books. Gloomhaven has a decent sized adventure book, Solomon Kane has a lot of small adventure books, MIddara has one huge adventure book. I think it was just shy of 500 pages. Now, I could read that all, and I might as I go along, or I can use the Foreteller app which has full narration for it, as well as games like Gloomhaven and Frosthaven when that comes out. I like that more of these massive adventure games are creating narration.

The Booze

So last night I didn’t end up having a beer. I started sipping on an Old Fashioned during the GloryHoundd “Should You Back” stream and decided just to stick with that. Of course, I got to talk some about what I’m drinking. This time it was about the different types of Old Fashioneds that you see around. Mainly talking about the simplicity of the normal Old Fashioned which is just whiskey, bitters, and simple syrup. I don’t want any Maraschino cherry in my Old Fashioned, maybe an orange peal.

Next Week

So next week will be a stream free week unless I decide to do one on Monday. I am busy on Wednesday evening, so no stream happening then. The following week I plan on getting back to Arkham Horror: The Card Game and sipping a beer. So I’ll see you in two weeks as the following Monday is Memorial Day so no stream that day most likely either. Keep an eye on my Twitter and Facebook for upcoming streams.

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