How To Play Foodies?

In Foodies you are building out a food court of five different nationalities of food. All in order to have your food court gain the most popularity. You start with nothing, but you add more and more carts to your food court as you go. Each of them being activated when their number is rolled and them helping you gain more popularity until someone passes 20 points (in a two player game) and you trigger end game.

Each turn the active player rolls a die to activate one of nine locations in their food court. Players then take their coin or popularity for activating that spot. But the player who rolled the die gets to spend their coins in order to get another cart for their food court. Then the next player repeats the process.

As you place down a cart, you want to consider what is around it. Carts have stars on some or all of the sides. And as you place them onto your three by three grid you want to line up the stars because when you activate one of them, you gain more popularity. So there is an element of strategy where you place the carts that you buy.

And with the carts, you also consider the goals of the guest chefs you can get in. Some of them you can use any time 4 coins for a popularity. The others each player can score once. It might be four carts from one nation or three pairs of two carts from different nations. Each of those giving your three popularity. Until someone passes twenty popularity and then the round finishes so each player has the same number of turns.

What Doesn’t Work?

This is a very light game. Now, that is a negative because it’ll give the game limited shelf life, most likely. You roll and a die, get coins, by the thing that fits into your goal the best, and repeat the process. The biggest decision that you really make is trying to optimize a little bit of scoring. And making sure you line-up as many stars as possible. But those things are very obvious.

And another thing, while I like that you rotate the different nationalities so that you get different combinations each time you play, what you get from them is very limited. You basically have one resource in the game, coins, and you are trying to get two things, coins and popularity. The game would benefit from more choices around what you can get. There are menus, but your ability to get them is very limited.

What Works?

The speed that this game plays at is great. Turns go by really quickly. And with a few exceptions, I don’t need to think about what you are doing. The two exceptions are US and French foods where you want to have the most to get either money or popularity when you activate them. And that is barely glancing at what someone else is doing. But a two player game, taught and played two last night, took maybe just over and hour. So the game goes very quickly. But I suspect it might slow down a bit with more players.

I also think that while the variety of what the nationalities do work on a few basic things, I like that they give variety or variability. And it isn’t just the nationalities, you can swap out chefs as well. That does give you a lot of replayability before you repeat something. Now, on the flip side, it doesn’t actually feel that different, but for a gateway game, it is accessible and variable.

Who Is It For?

Foodies is for, well, a foodie who is interested in gaming. Or it is a good one for someone who wants to get into board games. If I were to compare this to other games, Machi Koro, Valeria: Card Kingdoms and My Farm Shop, I think it’s the second least interactive. Now, that can be a good thing with gateway games. It means that the player learning only needs to think about what they are doing.

And comparing it to My Farm Shop, also not interactive, I think that Foodies is a little bit simpler. And for some people that will work better. Plus, the theme, which I don’t think is bad on My Farm Shop, the Foodies theme is going to be more appealing. Most people like going out to eat, so it hits an accessible theme.

My Final Thoughts on Foodies?

Foodies is a fun theme for a game. And I think that it is a game a lot of people are going to enjoy. But like a lot of games in the genre, I think for me, I want there to be more. Machi Koro gave me good combinations and building up and engine but the engine was generally similar each time. And that had more cards to it, Foodies is going to do the same thing the more I play it. In fact, I don’t think it’ll be sticking in my collection.

Now, that isn’t to say that Foodies is a bad game, I find it fine. I think I probably prefer Valeria: Card Kingdoms out of all the ones in the genre that I have played. And Dice Forge for a game where I collect stuff on your turn. But in that case you are rolling your own dice. Foodies is going to, however, be a very good gateway game about engine building, and one that anyone can play. That’s what is tempting me to keep it in my collection.

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

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What Board Games Are Leaving?

So two updates from last time to start us off.

Second Chance

I said there was a decent shot that one ight get a second chance, and sure enough it did. Second Chance is back on the shelves. It’s one my wife is tempted to play solo, and it’s a roll and write that she can easily teach. So, as a small game, it’s back on the shelf.

Specter Ops

This is the one that I missed in the video. It’s one that I want to play, but I think that other people I know own it. Plus, it’s a one versus all game, harder to get to the table. And while in theory I like the idea of a hidden movement game, I haven’t played any yet. So maybe I should keep it for that reason, but it is leaving the collection.

Unicornus Knights

Now onto the new ones. Unicornus Knights is one that I picked up pretty cheap a while ago. And I did that because of Sam Healy liking it on the Dice Tower. And I won’t lie, the concept is interesting. You are shepherding the princess around, letting her fight and win when need be but keeping her from taking damage and avoiding spots at others. I tried to learn this one a while ago, and it is intriguing still, but I know I’m not going to play it over other newer games.

Nidavellir

Speaking of newer games, the next two are pretty new. Nidavellir just didn’t hit for me. I wanted something more after a couple of plays, I felt like I understood the game. And Maybe Thingavellir would help, but I’m less than certain on that. It just feels like a good, accessible, set collection game. But I have other games like that. Yes, the bidding is different than say Sushi Go Party’s drafting, but not enough. And not enough variety for me.

My Farm Shop

This is another one that I had fun with, but I had a feeling wasn’t going to stick. And after a handful of plays, it just felt too much the same. Now there are ways to change it up, but not enough. The game is very simple in a Machi Koro style or roll and everyone gets something. So you build up your engine and turn good into coins and points. Is it better than Machi Koro, maybe, but then again I don’t have Machi Koro in my collection either.

Upcoming Streams

There was no drink, so section for that.

But I did plan on streaming tonight. However, I am not sure that is going to happen. Family is coming into town tomorrow for the holiday, which is why no streaming on Wednesday. But there is still more to get ready for them.

But following week, I’ll be back with some streaming. I plan on doing at least two streams the following week. If you want to know when I go live, you can go to the Malts and Meeples YouTube channel, subscribe, and click the notification bell. That’ll let you know when I go live or schedule a video.

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124-101

100 – 76

75 – 51

Unplayed Board Games 50 – 26

50: Arboretum

This is an abstract game about planting trees. What interests me so much in this one is that you play out cards to build up your arboretum, and you score points for having trees go in ascending order. But in order to score a type of tree, you need it in your h and at the end of the game. So do you risk it that you might not get a tree of the type you need in order to complete a longer route and score more?

49: Call To Adventure: The Stormlight Archive

Call To Adventure comes in a few different flavors. There is the base game which is generic fantasy. That has an expansion for Patrick Rothfeuss Kingkiller Chronicles. And while I do like that series, I knew there was a Stormlight Archives version coming out, so I waited for it. I love the setting of the game, and I think a game where you are building up your characters story is cool.

48: 7 Wonders Duel

I got this one a while ago using store credit after a trade. And the game I think is going to be fun and probably better for me than 7 Wonders which I think is just okay. This does a lot of the same things, drafting, fighting, and science, but all in a two player package. And you can win by doing more than just getting points. Though, points are one way to win. Get one of each science card, you automatically win. Push the combat all the way to your side, automatically win. I like that a lot.

47: The Dragon Prince: Battlecharged

And now we’re back to another IP (intellectual property) that I really like. The Dragon Prince is a great show. And this is a two player battling game. You put together games of characters to face off against each other in battle. Looks some like Super Fantasy Brawl with card play determine a lot of what you do.

46: Paper Dungeons: A Dungeon Scrawler Game

It’s one of a couple roll and writes on this part of the list. Paper Dungeons as it says is a Dungeon Scrawler. So it is going to give you a bit of that dungeon crawling feeling all while being in a roll and write package. I hope that between it, Doodle Dungeons, Deadly Doodles (which I know I like) and Drawn to Adventure, I’ll have some fun adventure focused roll and writes.

45: Yggrasil Chronicles

This is a bigger box game, some of that though, is because it comes with a tree. One that you put together, and then it’s a cooperative game where you are trying to protect Yggdrasil, possibly, my knowledge of this one is limited. But the game looks like a lot of fun, and I know that the original is really challenging. Plus a giant 3d tree that rotates is cool.

44: Forgotten Waters

Forgotten Waters is a campaign game that I wish I played already. It’s gotten bumped down the list a little just because I’m playing more in person. But it was a good one that could be played via Zoom. In this game you are pirates on a crew working together through an adventure. There is voice acting for the story, and overall just seem like a fun time. And it uses the Crossroad card system from Dead of Winter that I love.

43: Mythic Battles: Pantheon

Definitely a big game here. I don’t have the whole Kickstarter, just the base game and Pandora’s box and that is a lot. It’s another one of those head to head battling games, like The Dragon Prince or Super Fantasy Brawl. This one is pitting Greek gods against each other. And what really intrigues me about this one is how you can pick up trees, as a god, and use them as a weapon. So the terrain is very much in play.

42: Catacombs & Castles

We go from an epic minis game to a one versus all dungeon battling game where you flick discs. And that is what intrigues me. I like dexterity games, and Catacombs & Castles seems like a lot of fun. It also seems a bit more complex, otherwise might be higher on the list. But I think if I learn the game it’ll be pretty easy and fast to teach.

41: Adventure Land

While I’ve gotten a lot of games based off of Sam Healey’s reviews on the Dice Tower, I have less based on Tom Vasel’s but Adventure Land is one. In this game you are taking out adventurers trying to get treasure. And they move across the board right and down. That means if a treasure shows up to the left or higher on the board, you might not be able to get it. So how to balance that out getting the best treasure, but still hanging back?

40: Space Base

This falls into that category of Foodies, Machi Koro, and My Farm Shop. A game where you roll dice and no matter what you get something. I like those games, and this is supposed to be the most gamer version of that. It gives you a lot to think about and you can build up some powerful combos while you try and get points. And you have more tracks to control and keep track of.

39: Chronicles of Crime

This is a deduction based game that I’m confident I’ll love. Chronicles of Crime, from Lucky Duck Games, uses an app that you can scan cards with to interrogate them and so you can actually look around the crime scene. The concept is cool and while the cases sound a bit less in depth than Detective: A Modern Crime Board Game, it might work better for some people because of that.

38: Fleet: The Dice Game

Roll and write game and actually dropped further down the list than I’d have guessed. Fleet is a game about building up your fishing fleet and scoring as many points as you can. I’ve heard that it’s great for combos, which I love in roll and write games. And it’s also more complex. I think that it is going I’m going to play solo pretty often.

37: Raiders of the North Sea

Possibly the highest true euro game on the list, Raiders of the North Sea has you building up your crew and taking them out to plunder lands. What intrigues me so much about this one is that your turn you put a meeple on, and take a meeple off. You can’t do the same one twice in a row, so it gives some interesting strategy to the game. And as you push out further and plunder, you lock some meeples to those locations, but get stronger ones back.

36: Horizon Zero Dawn

Based off of the Playstation video game, Horizon Zero Down doesn’t take you through the story of the game, but it puts you out on hunts against monsters. I’m excited to see how this game works, I really like the video game, but need to play it more. And I like the idea of just going out on a hunt, and it being a scenario and then done. It’s a bigger minis game, but not a campaign.

35: Reichbusters: Projekt Vril

Now we’re onto a campaign and Reichbusters is one that I picked up because it looked like so much fun when GloryHoundd YouTube Channel played it. And I think it’s going to be amazing. I need to get the errata cards taken care of, but sneaking into bases in WWII and finding all sorts of crazy experiments going on, it’s very Hellboy. And that theme is just fun, plus it’s not just kick down the door and shoot the board game.

34: Bloodborne

Another video game board game with Bloodborne. Another one that it is a bigger game but doesn’t play over a massively long campaign. I believe this one comes together over three different plays. Or it might just be that’s how the chapters, that are in the box, come out. Still, fantasy, fighting monsters and bad guys. Story going on, and from CMON, I suspect I’m going to enjoy this one.

33: Time of Legends: Joan of Arc

And another big box game. Time of Legends: Joan of Arc is almost a miniatures game more in the lines of a Warhammer where you takes two armies up against each other. But it does away with all that measuring. And it comes down to scenarios, there are characters, NPC’s, that you can interact with. And it’s time of legends because it takes the legends from the Joan of Arc time period and historical records, so it can add in dragons and things like that.

32: The 7th Continent

The 7th Continent has been on my shelf for a while. And I need to get it played before The 7th Citadel comes in, because I suspect I’m going to like that one better. In The 7th Continent, you wake up on a continent cursed, and need to explore and find a way to break your curse. I’ve heard that the first one is tough and takes a lot of time to play. Mainly so you learn the continent, but as you do the other ones, you have more of an idea of where to go.

31: Dinosaur Island: Rawr ‘n Write

The final roll and write for this list, and might be the final one overall. Dinosaur Island is a big game about building out a dinosaur park with a lot of euro mechanics. The Rawr ‘n Write is similar in that you’re building out a park. And you are trying to breed dinosaurs, it just does it in a roll and write version. So I’m very excited to give it a go. Supposed to be a heavier roll and write as well.

30: The Crew: Mission Deep Sea

The Crew is a cooperative trick taking game where you have limited communication. And while there is a space version, the Mission Deep Sea is supposed to help improve a few things. Mainly because you have missions, Mission Deep Sea makes them variable. The space one they are set. I like trick taking, and I need to play more of them.

29: Land vs Sea

Land vs Sea is a tile laying game where you are trying to complete areas of land or sea. But I care about completing land areas where as you care about sea. And the tiles are four sided, so having two in your hand gives you a lot of options. I wonder if this might replace Carcassonne when I play it. A tile laying game, but one that seems like it could be simpler.

28: Heroes of Land, Air & Sea

Now we’re back to a big game with Heroes of Land, Air, and Sea. This is a massive 4x game where you’re taking over lands, exploring new locations, fighting your opponents and building up your power. Twilight Imperium 4th Edition is a massive 4x game as well that I’d love to play set in space, but Heroes of Land, Air, & Sea just spoke to me as a 4x game I wanted to own.

27: Champions of Hara

Champions of Hara is a pretty big game, and one that seems like it will be quite unique. It seems unique because all the characters seem unique, and I like that about it. It has a fantasy feel to it, but it isn’t fantasy in the normal way. And I believe that you play the game in two parts. The first part is competitive. Then the second part, really second game, is cooperative where you work together to complete the winner of the first games story.

26: Floriferous

Final one for this part of the list is Floriferous. A set collection flower game, this one looks amazing. The artwork is great, and I like the mechanics, or how they sound. You basically draft cards from the columns. But as you draft, you place your pawn next to the spot. So the higher in the column, the next round, is going to go, then the next. Plus you are drafting scoring cards, great ways to get more points, but you’ll go last in the next round.

Final Thoughts

One more list of this, and then you’ll know about all the games i need to play. I actually had a game night this past weekend and I didn’t play any new to me games. I did have a few pulled out. But with the group, and player count, not all of them would have worked.

This part of the list also had a lot of big games in it. And while some of them might be harder to get to the table, even something that is more campaign like Reichbusters, you can play on off scenarios. So I should be able to get a number of them to the table. And some of the roll and writes, probably all of them, can be played solo.

Which one should I play first from this chunk of the list?

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But, enough about that, let’s get to the games.

Orchard – 34 Plays

So this game alone is going to push me over the finish line for the year, maybe even with a month to spare. I really like Orchard, and I really like Orchard because it is such a simple solo game. And it doesn’t take up much space. You are overlapping cards to get matching tree colors which allows them to grow and produce more fruit. It is one that I can play while having a baseball game or a football game on in the background. Really, this game just works.

Ohanami – 5 Plays

This is such a good little game. It’s one that works well at the lowest player count, two, and the highest, four. I will say, this game changes drastically between player counts, though. With more players it is more relaxing and casual. You draft 2 cards from a hand of ten, so you can’t plan. When your hand comes back it’ll have two cards that you need to take. At two players, I can look at what someone has an optimize my drafting strategy. I can leave cards I might want because I know you won’t take them.

Tainted Grail: The Fall of Avalon – 4 Plays

We’ve finished playing Tainted Grail: The Fall of Avalon. And we’re going to jump into the two expansions coming up here pretty soon. This is one of the best gaming experiences I’ve had. Is the game play the best, probably not, but the story it tells is so amazing. And with how we played it, we could certainly go back and play it again and find even more. Which is really cool because we got a lot of play out of the game.

My Farm Shop – 3 Plays

This was a Pop-Up GenCon game that I picked up because it is very easy to get to the table. I do wonder how long it’ll stick in my collection. While I like it, the more I’ve played it, the more I can see how light it is. I did a TableTopTakes on that very recently that you can see here. But I do want to play it more. I want to play it with three or four players because while two is fu n, it can limit the game a little bit. I think it might be stronger with more.

Downforce – 3 Plays

Now this is a great game that I was really glad to play at the the start of this month. It’s a racing game, but it’s a racing game where bidding matters as much, if not more, than how well your car does in a race. I really want to set-up a “season”. It’d be pretty easy to do and I think would be a lot of fun. I have all the tracks for it, and going through all of them once would be very interesting to do and see how strategies might change.

HexRoller – 2 Plays

A new game to the collection, I got it played twice over a work lunch. This is a very fast roll and write and I’ll be writing up a review on it soon. The basic idea is that you are trying to connect numbers, fill in groups of hexes, and generally just score the most points that you can. But how you score points is interesting and how the dice come out is as well. You are rolling seven or eight dice and playing groups of numbers which feels different.

Unfathomable – 1 Play

Another Pop-Up GenCon play, as is the next game. Unfathomable is the new version of Battlestar Galactica (BSG). It’s a big social deduction game or hidden traitor game. I really enjoy it because it feels a bit more streamlined than BSG. I’m not sure it is that much but with BSG you had two expansions that could be mixed in. And it’s never a bad thing when you can spend a chunk of a game just blasting away at deep ones.

Descent: Legends of the Dark – 1 Play

The final Pop-Up GenCon game, I wanted to play this one not because I wanted to know if I’d like it, but because I already knew I would and I wanted to learn how to play it. Game play, it turns out, is very easy to do. And the game play is interesting. It’s an app driven game that causes the map to emerge as you go. And I really like that about the game. It gives you that fog of war as your characters race to complete their goals and not die.

Aeon’s End Legacy – 1 Play

This will likely be the final play of Aeon’s End Legacy for a while. I did see my FLGS has a recharge/reset pack for this legacy game. I could see, if I got a group, buying that and playing it again. But another very good gaming experience. I knew I’d like it because I like Aeon’s End and legacy games. Now I need to figure out what to stream after my Top 100 list is done. It might be some smaller solo games until 2022 and then dive into another new campaign.

PitchCar – 1 Play

Finally, I played PitchCar again. This time I didn’t put in the loop or a change of elevation, but it was still fun. I really like the loop but that can slow down the game. You get stuck at the loop and now it takes a few rounds for people to really progress. On a flatter course it feels more like a racing game as you speed around. Definitely shortens the game time. Doesn’t make the game better or worse, just, mainly faster.

Yearly Gaming Stats

So let’s start out with how close I am to the goal. As of today, which is a few days after the end of the month, I have 66 plays left in 88 days. Two other ways to put it are that I’ve gotten 299 plays under my belt and am 82% of the way done with the challenge. For the year, I have two games that I’ve played over 25 times (Tainted Grail and Orchard) , six more th an 10 times and 7 more than five times. I think that Orchard might break the century mark. I’ve also played 66 different games. 15 of those different games are roll and writes.

So right now it’s looking good. But I know that I’ll likely need get a number of plays this month and before Thanksgiving because the holidays might put a damper on a late gaming push.

Which game would you want to play out of Octobers list?

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My Farm Shop

Let’s just start out by saying that this game compares to Machi Koro, if you’re familiar with that game it’ll help with some of the mechanics. In My Farm Shop you are getting goods to then sell for coins, which are your victory points. You have 10 different areas on your board all which correspond to numbers, 2 through 12 actually with 2 and 12 sharing the same space. These are your farm plots where you can grow things, or where you get your yarn, honey, milk, or eggs. You trade in those goods to get coins, which are your points. But how it works is interesting.

On your turn you roll three dice. You use one of those dice to get a new field. These are the spots where you get your goods or coins. So you can upgrade a spot which gives you an egg to give you two balls of yarn instead. And then the other two dice will activate one of those fields, hence the 2 through 12. There are a set number of cards that go onto the board and as you finish off that pile the game ends. The player with the most points wins.

What Didn’t Work

This game generally works. There isn’t that much randomness to it really for a dice game. And while some people can have better luck, there are ways to mitigate that luck if you want to, which I’ll talk about in what I like. I do think that this game might be too simple for a lot of gamers. I’d put this at a complexity level with something like Splendor. And Splendor is a game that is still in my collection and I’ll play, but has run it’s course for me.

There is more decision space, I think, with how you build your engine up, but it’s not that much more than with Splendor. The choice you make is generally pretty obvious, which is fine. It falls into that category of a nice welcoming game, but one that might have a limited shelf life for a lot of gamers.

What Works

Let’s start with the one thing I teased, the die mitigation. I didn’t talk about it, but there are burlap sacks in the game. Another resource you can get. They are used to modify the dice just for you. So you want card #4 for your engine, but you don’t roll a four, you can reduce a five to a four or a three up to a four. Or a nine is getting activated but you really need to activate eight, so you can spend a burlap sack adjust down to an eight. It makes the burlap sacks important.

I also like that early in the game you can always activate everything. At the end you might have a dead turn, but for the most part what you start with just gives you stuff. Even later in the game, you need to decide how to spend those burlap sacks to try and optimize your engine. So you are always paying attention. If you aren’t rolling the dice, those other two dice still do activate what you have.

The game speed is also very nice. Now, I’ve only played this at two players, it will be longer with more people, but I don’t know it’ll be that much longer. Plus since you are always engaged it makes the game more interesting. And with more people points will be higher because you’ll activate more things, which will be satisfying because it’ll push the points higher. I like it when a game might be longer but rewards you by allowing you to do more.

Final Thoughts on My Farm Shop

This game isn’t going to be for everyone. When I say that it is light, it is a very light game. This is one that I think my wife will like, I think I can play with my parents, and it’ll go over well. The game is easy to teach and easy to play. That said, for heavier gamers, this game is going to be too light. For me, I can see this one getting played with the right groups. It’s also a nice filler sort of game when you don’t want too simple a filler.

Overall, it is a good game. It is also a good game at a good price. There are a fair amount of pieces in the box without it having a $50 price tag, which you’d expect for a box that size. I think that for a casual game night this will be a hit.

My Grade: B-
Gamer Grade: D
Casual Grade: A+

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But there were some sales from different publishers and online retailers. And I did go to Pop-Up GenCon and while Dinosaur Island Rawr ‘n Write wasn’t available, there were some interesting looking games that I picked up.

My FLGS

Marvel Champions – Nebula

Yup, I am still keeping up to date with Marvel Champions. It is fun to do so and the game is still fun to get to the table. Am I getting it to the table as often as the content comes out, absolutely not. But am I still getting everything for the game, I most certainly am. That means that one of these days I’m just going to have to play through a number of the characters I haven’t gotten a chance to play with yet. And you can add Nebula to that list.

Catacombs and Castles

This is a series of games, Catacombs, that I’ve been interested in. Why, well, some of it is because it’s flicking. But it’s a flicking Dungeon Crawl game which is just really unique seeming. One person plays as the monsters and kind of sets up the dungeon for a scenario/battle. The players pick heroes to take into the dungeon. On your turn you flick, play down cards that allow you to flick special things and more. The example would be flicking some tiny discs as you unleash a volley of arrows. Cool idea, seems like silly fun.

Miniature Market GenCon Sale

I said that I could blame this on GenCon and this is only the first part of it.

Root Expansions

I’ve been tempted to dive into Root for a long time now. I have loved it when I’ve gotten to play it. And I hope that I can get a group, somewhere, sometime to consistently play it. Root is an asymmetrical war game of woodland creatures. The artwork is cute and the game play is challenging. What makes it so interesting is the asymmetry but also makes it harder to table. It isn’t like Merchants Cove where I just need to know what my character is doing. I need to know all of them. This means it takes a long time to teach.

Nidavellir

A game that I know about from a lot of hype, it is being added to my collection. Now, I know hype isn’t the only reason to buy a game. I own The Mind which was much hyped and it is not a good game, it is a fun activity/filler, but not a good game. Nidavellir, though, seems to have a lot of game to it. It is a bidding game with set collection. But it does an interesting thing where you start with the same coins, but instead of bidding, you can upgrade your coins. So now you might be the only person with a 10 coin. Do you bid with that or upgrade some more.

Pop-Up GenCon

All the pop-up GenCons took place in game stores. And the one that I went to was at the GameZenter. The GameZenter has a pretty odd name, but a nice game collection. Plus there were a few new games for GenCon.

My Farm Shop

This is one that was there especially for Pop-Up GenCon. The game itself was very interesting. It reminds me of Machi Koro with how it plays. You roll dice and things get activated for everyone. But you have more choice and can manipulate that. Two of the three dice will determine what is activated. The other one will determine what card you add to your tableau. Smart concept for a game that plays very fast.

Everdell

Another game with woodland creatures, this one is a bit nicer. You are building your engine to score points. Kind of like My Farm Shop you’ll have a tableau of cards in front of you that can reach a certain point. This game is not that mean a game though, which I like about it. At least in theory, because it really is not the type of game I normally gravitate towards. But the aesthetic has been drawing me in and I feel like it’ll be a welcoming game to play. I am excited to try it and see what it’s like.

Unfathomable

This one is just a pre-order at this point. But I believe that it is supposed to come out next month. I think it was even supposed to be out in time for this event. But of course, with shipping it got delayed. And that is okay for me because I don’t to have it immediately. The game, though, is a lot of fun. it is a good version of Battlestar Galactica, which it is based on and also is a very good game. It’s a pretty big game, but I’m excited to get it to the table when it does come in.

That’s All The Games

It is a number of games but I’m quite excited for all of them. I think that I’m most excited to get Unfathomable to the table. It was a ton of fun playing at the GameZenter with three of us, but I’d love to play with a bigger group. And also in a spot where it is a bit easier to hear everyone. Very good game that worked better than BSG did for me, maybe some because I was on a pretty equal footing versus playing with experienced BSG players.

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Pop-Up GenCon Itself

Honestly, it was just fun to game with strangers again. Yes, it wasn’t the same as GenCon, but I got to sit down on three separate occasions and play games that were new to me with complete strangers. And not only that but to play out at a game store again was just fun.

It’s one of those things that I don’t think I’d completely realized how much I missed. There is just a level of excitement and fun being around people who are excited to be gaming. They are excited to try new stuff, see new games, and just have a good time. The energy is infectious in a good way. And I’m someone who really loves being around people so just being around excited gamers is amazing.

The Games

Don’t worry, I’m going to talk about all four of the games that I played there, plus the ones I saw, but I didn’t want to make them each their own thing. Because I got to play four new games to me.

My Farm Shop

This is one I actually knew about because I’d seen it on the Dice Tower. They played through it live and did a review of it. The game looked fun to me so when that was one of the official Pop-Up GenCon games I wanted to play it. And I have to say it is a very good game. I actually ended up picking it up.

The game is a style that I like, which is in the veins of Machi Koro. If you’re not familiar, each turn you roll some dice and activate something. Your opponents also activate stuff on your roll as well. In Machi Koro what activates is limited. But for My Farm Shop you always activate something. So you roll three dice, one determines what card you get and two determine what is activated. The turns go really fast and you are always engaged doing something.

Unfathomable

Another one that I knew about but I hadn’t seen played. This game I know I’ve talked about before because it’s the new version of Battlestar Galactica. It’s a big game and also a hidden traitor game.

Normally I don’t gravitate towards hidden traitor games. Not because they can’t be fun, I do like Dead of Winter and BSG. But something like Shadows Over Camelot I thought was just okay. I want more game going on with it, otherwise it feels too close to social deduction.

Because Unfathomable builds off of what was done in BSG, I thought I’d be interested. We got to play a whole game, the hybrid won. But it was a blast. The core of the game is very similar to BSG, but I felt like it make a ton of sense how it worked. With BSG, there was just more going on with two expansions making the game very big. This keeps some of the expansion stuff, but trims off some of the fat.

Catan (Yard Game)

This one is not a real game. Well, it kind of is one but not really. It plays like bags but you are aiming for areas to get resources. Then you use resources and are racing to 4 points. The person at the end of the round when someone makes it to four who has the most points wins.

Super simple game, but it is fun. They have little figures for wood, wheat, brick, ore, and sheep, as well as the robber. So you get double resources if you throw the right figure into the right spot. And the nice thing too is that the game maybe took 15 minutes, maybe 20, with four players. But it’s more a convention game versus a real game, not one you can go out and buy.

Descent: Legends of the Dark

Finally, I got to play a game I already own. Descent: Legends of the Dark is a big dungeon crawl, app assisted, adventure of a game from Fantasy Flight. I unboxed it a bit ago on the Malts and Meeples YouTube Channel, which you can see here. But I hadn’t gotten around to learning the rules or getting to the table.

It was a great way to learn the game, I will say. That’s one of the best things that I really like going to conventions. Even with games that aren’t new you can get to see them and play before you buy them. Now, some games, Descent, I knew I wanted to get. But it was fun to actually play it. I really like the mechanics of the game, we definitely got some things wrong, but I can see bringing this game to my table pretty soon here.

World of Warcraft Pandemic

This, I thought, is an odd mash-up. But I thought it was really interesting to learn about it. Because it’s kind of like Pandemic Legacy Season 2 feel to it. And because while it feels like a Pandemic game from the mechanics it is going to play differently. In this game you are trying to survive and complete quests.

I think that’s the really interesting part, from what I remember some quests were in Pandemic Legacy Season 2, basically paying cards into completing things in specific orders. It makes a lot of sense for a World of Warcraft Game. Eventually you need to go fight a big boss as well. Very clever looking game and very accessible.

I also like it made the lose condition easier to track. The game funnels everything into the “outbreak” track. If you can’t place a figure, that’s an outbreak, your character dies, advances an outbreak, and outbreak happens, advances the outbreak. It’s only when that track, which is still short, hits the end that you lose. It’s one of those simple things that to me makes it more accessible for new gamers. You still need to pay attention to everything, but only the one spot causes the game to end.

Final Thoughts

I hope that they keep Pop-Up GenCons around. And I hope that I don’t go to one for a long time. Why, because this just makes me want to go back to GenCon. This year wasn’t the right year to go back for me for reasons I’ve talked about before. And it might not be right for you. Or maybe GenCon itself isn’t right for you. So I hope they keep the pop-up GenCons for the people who can’t make it to regular GenCon. And hopefully, next year, I’ll see you at GenCon.

Did you attend GenCon this year, let me know your thoughts. Or did you do a Pop-Up GenCon, how did yours go?

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