And if you want to know the criteria that I’m using, or the conversation starting point, you can read that article here.

My Tableau Building Games

As normal, we split it into games that I’ve played first and then games that I haven’t played yet in my collection.

Tableau Building Games I’ve Played

• 7 Wonders Duel
• Lord of the Rings Duel for Middle Earth
• 7 Wonders
• Splendor: Pokemon
• The Castles of Burgundy
• Arkham Horror The Card Game
• Marvel Champions
• Dwellings of Eldervale
• Forest Shuffle
• Res Arcana
• Meadow
• Space Base
• Faraway
• Castle Combo
• Furnace
• Aquatica
• New Frontiers
• Jump Drive
• Ancient Knowledge
• Starship Captains
• Village Rails
• Call to Adventure: Stormlight Archives
• Cafe Baras
• Terraforming Mars: Ares Expedition
• Pixies

Tableau Building Games I’ve Yet To Play

• Everdell
• 3 Ring Circus
• Ark Nova
• A Feast for Odin
• Revive
• Beyond the Sun
• Targi
• Endless Winter: Paleoamericans
• Vale of Eternity
• Expeditions
• Fantastic Factories
• The Bloody Inn
• Raising Robots
• The Witcher: Path of Destiny
• Andromeda’s Edge
• Earth

What Stays and What Leaves?

This is a tough list to really do because they are so unique. A lot of the time there is a pretty big difference between a scoring tableau game and an engine building tableau game. So as I’m looking at the list, it’s hard to say that I should keep this one or another one. Plus sometimes they didn’t really do a great job of putting like games on the BGG list. For example, Terraforming Mars, on the list, Ares Expedition, not on the list. New Frontiers is a tableau building game, but Jump Drive wasn’t part of that list. So I hope that I caught everything, but I’m sure some where missed.

What Is And Easy Leave?

So when we look at the list the ones that I have yet to play, those are generally going to stay. That means that we’re looking at what I’ve played for easy games to leave the collection. It’s not an easy list to pick from. I only have one that is an easy leave from the list. And that is I’m going to be getting rid of 7 Wonders Duel. Mainly because I own Lord of the Rings: Duel for Middle Earth. Yes, they are different, but I’m most apt to pick the Lord of the Rings themed one to play.

The other one that is going to leave is 7 Wonders. Now that might be surprising, but I bought I copy and I just don’t play it. If I want a big group drafting game, I go with Sushi Go Party! For that reason while 7 Wonders offers something quite different, it just isn’t going to stick in my collection.

What Is An Easy Stay?

Now for easy stays, I definitely am keeping Lord of the Rings Duel for Middle Earth and then both of the LCG’s on the list from Fantasy Flight Games. I know that I want to keep one of Dwellings of Eldervale and Andromeda’s Edge, but having not played the latter, I don’t know which I want to keep. I’ve heard the latter is the better game, but I like the theme for the former more so.

Space Base, Forest Shuffle, Castle Combo, Castles of Burgundy and Ancient Knowledge easily make the list as well. As does Call to Adventure: Stormlight Archives.

Everything Else

Now let’s touch on everything else and this is where I need to find a few to cut. Do I need Jump Drive in my collection if I play it on BGA so much? I had actually put it in the too sell pile but then I brought it back. And I want to keep it and New Frontiers because I really like both of them. So they stay, though with Jump Drive, it’s tempting because of BGA.

One that it tough for me is Meadow. I like Meadow a lot, but it’s also one that I play less often. I think that this means I just need to play it more to keep it in the collection. The same can be said for Res Arcana. I need to play it more because I really do love that game.

Furnace is going to leave the collection, I’ve decided. Mainly because it’s okay at two players. And I think that I am most apt to play it at two players. Because of that it should leave the collection I think. Another one that I love the theme of but thought the game play was okay so it’s going to leave is Cafe Baras. Mainly it’s super cute, but a bit too simple for my tastes. Even as a game to play with my kid, it’s not quite interesting enough.

So The Tableau Games That Are Leaving

Just to recap we have Furnace, which I really enjoy but less so at two. Cafe Baras is a bit too simple and 7 Wonders Duel is a game that has been replaced by Lord of the Rings: Duel for Middle Earth. And 7 Wonders is getting kicked out because it’s the secondary drafting game for big groups for me.

I think that there will be others to leave once I play more. But it’s tricky getting all the tableau building games to the table. Some I maybe shouldn’t keep, like Res Arcana just because when will I play it again.

What is your favorite tableau building game?

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In area control players are trying to control portions of the board for some benefit. This can be to win the game, it can be that they get a resource if they control the area, or it can allow them to acquire currency or victory points. To do this, you are looking to have either all or the majority of the pieces in an area.

Like I saw saying, the classic example of this mechanic is Risk. In Risk you are getting armies, taking them to conquer areas of the world hoping to eventually reach world domination and hold every area. You do this by rolling dice to see if you can defeat your opponent and push your armies out as far as you feel is safe so that when your next turn comes around, you can get more armies and push things out further in your march to victory.

As I was saying earlier, for some people, this mechanic can be considered mean or less fun to play because it encourages confrontation. If you have the majority or the area completely controlled, I might want it to help me win the game, so I’m going to directly interact with your pieces and negatively impact your plans. What can happen in games like this is that someone will take the early lead in the area control and then will have the other players gang up on them to help prevent them from running away with the game, but that can feel very mean to the player who is getting ganged up, and this is something very common in Risk, because there are just some positions that are extremely strong.

A lot of modern board games try and balance this out. Some of the examples I give will make it so that the confrontation is much more common but not as negative in the game. Or some games now balance it out by saying if you don’t have the majority, you get some lesser option or the leftover option from the person who has the most selects from. This helps keep the game from feeling as mean and as personal because either everyone is always in the midst of the conflict, or the conflict isn’t as directly negative as because you still get some reward. This really makes area control more appealing to a general gaming crowd and can remove the memory of old childhood fights while playing Risk.

Gateway Game

Smallworld – This game is one of those that is conflict all of the time. In this game you are collecting coins, which are victory points at the end of the game. To do this, you just look at the number of areas that you are controlling at the end of each round. So you are regularly fighting for areas on the board. But with Smallworld, a 2-5 person game, the map size changes depending on player count in order to keep the conflict level high. So on a three player game, you are guaranteed to be running into your opponents. Beyond that the race and trait combination that you select at the start of the game isn’t the one that you have the whole time. So maybe your commando pixies were good to start, but as your opponents start to attack you, you can put the pixies into decline and get a new race and start attacking your opponents with that race. So it’s a balancing act that keeps you in the game and in conflict throughout the game. But because there is so much conflict no one generally feels ganged up on.

Medium Weight

Hanamikoji – Now this game is actually pretty simple as well, but I really like it as a thinky two player area control/area influence game. In this game instead of a chunk of land like so many area control areas, you are trying to win the favor of Geisha. To do this, you have to give them gifts. What makes this game interesting is how the mechanics work. Each player has a total of four given actions that they can do, and they can do them each once per round. Each player gets four turns during a round, so they can either set aside a gift that their opponent won’t see, discard two gifts that won’t be used for influence, show three gifts, of what their opponent can take one, or create two groups of gifts that their opponent can see and their opponent picks one. The game plays extremely fast but offers more interesting and important decisions than a lot of larger games do as you try and puzzle out what your opponent might have based off of the choices that they give you.

Heavy Weight

Blood Rage – In this Vikings themed game, you are fighting with the power of the Norse gods backing your clan. You do this by spending action points and upgrading your troops and completing missions. To complete these missions and to get more action points for turns, glory for winning in battle, and other things, you need to control an area. However, conflict will arise as you raid an area and the opposing clans can come rushing in and try and stop you from being able to take it. This one is about grabbing that control each round and trying to get control of Yggdrasil so that you get improve in multiple areas. This game does a good job of balancing out winning fights and getting control of those areas and losing because of what is known as the Loki strategy. Loki is all about tricking people and gaining victory points that way. Definitely a good game all around with a lot of different objectives you can go for and an area control game that can allow you not to have to be purely in the conflict and you can still do well.

There are so many options for area control out there, these are just a few that I like a lot and that work well for a good variety of people. Area control or influence doesn’t have to be as swingy or give as many options for a run away leader as something like Risk did so it shouldn’t lead to hurt feelings like straight up conflict games can. What are some of your favorite area control games?

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Smallworld is won by having the most money at the end of a given number of turns; each board specifies the number of turns. You get money by holding territories, but the board isn’t quite large enough for all the players, so conflict is sure to arise. So instead of a slow and steady march amassing troops through Europe, you take turns running your troops through your opponents’, getting your coins, and then having the same done back to you. Another thing that makes Smallworld better is that while you might start out the game playing Flying Halflings, once you’ve expended your troops, you can put them into decline. A race in decline still gets you money, but are easier for other players to take over, and then on your next turn, you pick a new race. So you could start the game a Flying Halflings, become Seafaring Giants, and end the game as Alchemist Wizards.

So I’ve started to touch on the other aspect that makes this game unique — the combinations of races and abilities. For example, with Flying Halflings, flying is the ability and Halfling is the race. These are split onto two different pieces of cardboard, so that means that the races and abilities vary from game to game. So one game it might be Flying Halflings, and the next week it might be Seafaring Halflings and Flying Sorcerers. This means that each time you play it, the game is going to be different. And after you’ve played it enough, there are expansions. So you can add different races and abilities like Leprechauns or Pixies. The ability to replay this game over and over again is high because of this.

Another cool feature of this game is the fact it comes with four different boards. Each of these boards is for the different numbers of players that you can have. The two-player board is smaller and has fewer territories, and the five-player board is twice as large, with a higher density of territories. This is another great feature, because it forces there to always be conflict. Doesn’t matter if you are playing two players or five players; you will start running into the other player(s) sooner rather than later.

So with all of these things, you can see how the game might be related to Risk, but instead of a marathon of hurt feelings, this game flies through in a limited number of turns with just enough strategy to keep you focused on the game, and it’s simple enough that most people will be able to pick it up quickly. And while a very enterprising player will kind of know who has the most money, as long as people don’t sort their money it’s anyone’s game. I would highly recommend it as something that new gamers would enjoy, that seasoned gamers can break out for a fun time, and that can bring those two groups together easily.

Overall Grade: A

Casual Grade: A

Gamer Grade: B+

If you’ve played Smallworld, what is your favorite combo of ability and race?