Games 20 through 11 of 2024

Now, first off, I do want to say, there are some games on the list that I don’t really enjoy. The bottom three I find to be poor or just okay, but let’s get to them.

20. Takenokolor

Takenokolor is a roll and write game where what you are rolling is the pens. However, the game itself is really simple and the choices are generally very obvious. They do have a few different “boards” that you can play on, but even the more complex ones tend not to offer that much more choice than the others. It feels like a very basic roll and write game with the gimmick that you are rolling pens. And even the added complexity doesn’t make the game more fun, it’s still very basic, just extra rules for the sake of extra rules.

19. Landmarks

Landmarks is a party style of game where one person is “it” and they are giving clues to lead the other players around a map. And the clues they give are one word based off of other words on the board. Basically, there are hexes, three of them have words on them, to start the game, and the clue giver gives a clue and the other players need to figure out where it makes sense to place that new tile. Does it make sense to connect to two words, or is the clue giver trying to keep you away from some.

Now, I said at the beginning that I wasn’t a huge fan of the bottom three. I think I want to try this one again. My hopes are fairly limited that it’d be a consistent hit for me, but I do believe, in the right group, this could be a fun game.

18. Odin

Odin is a card shedding game. Probably the best known card shedding game right now is Scout, which just broke into the Board Game Geek Top 100. Odin isn’t that, it’s a solid but simple card shedding game that works on a more basic principle than scout. You play out cards either as a bigger number of one color or a bigger number of a set of one number than the previous person did. Then you take one card to add to your hand from what the previous person played.

I think that this one is probably a 7 for me at 2 or 3 players if I were to rank it out of 10. But it plays higher than that. And at higher numbers than that it’s just very random. And you find lots of turns where you aren’t able to play and that might happen several rounds in a row. In Scout at least you are picking up new cards when you can’t play, here you are just left stuck with what you have.

17. Icecool Wizards

Icecool Wizards is not as good as Icecool. But if you want a smaller box and a bit more game play, there is an option for you. The core mechanisms remain the same. You flick around a penguin, but now you are trying to get elements to cast spells, basically set collection. And you do that by flicking your penguin over the elements and then flicking them over spells to collect those spells.

The one thing that keeps it from being up higher is that there is almost more luck than the basic game. What do you flip out for a spell, who knows. Now that balances out somewhat over the course of the game, but it’s just an extra element to the game that isn’t completely needed.

16. Festival

Next up we have Festival. I like games with fireworks, fireworks are fun. But Festival is just fine for me because it’s basically a pattern building game. And while I think it works well, it’s very abstract, and I’m just okay with abstract games. You take one of two tiles that’s visible and you’re trying to complete goals. But, instead of taking tiles you can reserve a goal as well because you can only score goals that you reserve.

Honestly, I think it’s the reserving the goals that bugs me about the game. It’s an extra turn that you take, and generally you reserve and score it the same turn. Unless you spy someone else going for it, you’re not going to waste a turn grabbing it early to then never be able to score it. It might be more exciting of a game if you just scored if you were the first to get it, though maybe a bit more deterministic, I see you one turn ahead of me for a goal, I pivot goals, whereas now you can steal it out from under another player.

15. Metrorunner

Next up is Metrorunner. This is one that I got to play at Gen Con and it’s a fun game. You are going around a rondel collecting cubes and trading them in to complete missions. It’s not that super unique a game, but I like that rondel mechanism in it. It feels different while still being an accessible and easy to understand and play game.

But the game has an interesting extra element to it. In Metrorunner you also have a sliding puzzle game in the middle. It reminds me of I believe it was called Pipes Dream where you connect one side of the board to another specific side with pipes. You do that here, but you do it with limited moves and only a few special abilities to help you. I won the game because I am very good at figuring out those puzzles, and you can do it a lot in the game.

14. Captain Flip

This one is a game that I’d love to add to my collection. I own 15 & 17 already, but Captain Flip is maybe the last one that I don’t own on the list. This is a fun game of drawing a tile, you see one side and that tells you some of the scoring that might be on that tile. And it is scoring that you can use and add to your pirate ship. But on the flip side is some other scoring and that scoring might be better. But, once you flip you are locked in on that side of the tile. So do you push your luck or not. It’s a very light game but a good time.

13. Adulthood

Adulthood is a game with a fun theme of being an adult, though, I’m already an adult and I think the game is more fun than real life. You have less taxes that you need to do in the game. But the game is all about how you spend your time and money. And the artwork is great and goes well with the theme because it just creates this fun experience.

I love how you might lose your job but you find a new one easily. Or you fall in love and get married and how you have a new action spot to spend time and money on. Plus you also are trying to play out other cards that are life experiences. If you do well with those, they are great way to score points, but a lot of them require that you have other life experiences first. No going to the PTA meeting without having a kid first. And who knows if you find that kid because it’s a big deck of cards you dig through.

12. Cafe Baras

Cafe Baras is a game with a really fun theme. You are Capybara baristas and you want to make your best coffee shop. So you buy items to put on your menu. Then you bring in customers who will give you money. And if you match everything a customer wants, you can get a repeat customer, which is going to give you points. Plus there are special customers. They score at the end of the game and only if you cafe meets certain things.

The game is from Kids Table Board Games and it is light. But because o that it plays fast as well. And it’s a pretty easy game to teach. I don’t think with a silly cute theme I’d want it to be longer. So Cafe Baras is a very fun time.

11. Stonespine Architects

And just missing my Top 10 for 2024 is Stonespine Architects. Though it is one of my most played games in 2024, at least in person. I really like this game because it’s all about building out a dungeon. And you want your dungeon to meet certain things. If it does you are going to get points. But there is an element of drafting cards to add to your dungeon. And then buying items to enhance your dungeon.

I also really like that you draft some scoring objectives as well. Players add three to the game as they play, each of them unique to that player. So while there are shared scoring elements, your dungeon is going to become more unique. And when cards don’t quite fit perfectly, well that might work for a scoring objective that you have.

Final Thoughts

I’m sure that I’m missing games that I played in 2024. Some because maybe they didn’t get rated from a quick play at Gen Con. Or maybe I just missed that date, but 2024 was a year where I got in a lot of fun games. And I also know that there are games from 2024 that I haven’t gotten to that I really want to play. In fact, I see one from where I’m sitting with Stamp Swap, and I know there are more as well.

What are some of your favorite games from 2024? But not you #1 game, bring that to Malts and Meeples tomorrow night as I stream at 9 PM Central my 10 through 1.

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Pros

• Aesthetic
• Player Count
• Price Point
• Deck Building
• Push Your Luck
• Solo

Cons

• Push Your Luck

The Page

The page is a sharp looking page. Artana is doing a good job of showing off their game. Though, with showing off the art first, I wish it was the rules. I probably will always come back to this, but in this case, they can show off the art and the rules at the same time. Especially since First in Flight isn’t about having a ton of minis.

I will say that the collectors edition, more about the page than the game, looks solid. Do I need metal coins, foiled cards, and to go from wooden meeples to plastic sculpts? I don’t know what I would. But they are nice luxury add-ons without it being more game play. As someone who generally isn’t interested in the collectors edition, I dislike it when I feel I’m missing out game content. Here, I miss out on some fancier pieces.

The historical nature of the game, as well is cool. It allows what looks like a fun game to also be a teaching game. Too many games that are educational or look that way, are just boring. This looks both educational and like a modern board game that will be fun to play. Genius Games also does this, and I’m glad to see more companies leaning into that.

The Game

The game itself looks interesting to me. As it appears to have a fair amount going on. With a rondel for action selection, or so it seems, pushing your forward. Plus then deck building as you try and improve your pilot, plane and hit certain goals.

Push Your Luck is not normally a mechanic that I love. But I think that it seems interesting in this case. But for some, it’ll be a bit more than they are looking for in a game. I like the fact that you mitigate those flaws in your deck through skills.

Back or Brick

Oddly enough, even though I have only good things to say about First in Flight, this is a Brick for me. Not because I don’t want it. I do want the game, but because I don’t feel the need to get it on Kickstarter. They seem to have retail plans and this is one that I’d love to try or get my hands on more before I would back it.

I suspect with the type of game it is. The deck building, the gorgeous look, and even the push your luck, it’ll be a game that I like But I don’t want to assume that is the case. Plus, looking at the number, I likely can get it for the same cost at retail, especially since I am not that interested in the collectors edition.

How about for you, is this a Back or Brick?

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Campaign Game List

Let’s see all of the games that I put on the list. We have several that are fantasy, really all are, one with more of an anime theme to it. And then we also have a legacy game on the list as well. Some are bigger campaigns, some are going to be more focused on shorter stories. But let’s see what they all are.

Aeon’s End: Legacy of Gravehold

Starting of with Aeon’s End: Legacy of Gravehold. This is the continuation of what has happened before in Aeon’s End. Kind of an arc from Aeon’s End Legacy, two big box standalone games, and now Aeon’s End: Legacy of Gravehold. You can see how the game plays down below, as I played Aeon’s End Legacy already. That said, I’d be really happy to play the new one.

Why do I want to play this one? Firstly, I know that I love the game already. My game play includes Aeon’s End, Aeon’s End: War Eternal, and Aeon’s End Legacy of the five, now six, games of the series. And I really love Aeon’s End Legacy as a jumping in point for the game. It teaches you how to play the game so nicely. The story was there, but the game was a lot of fun. So I want more of that from Aeon’s End: Legacy of Gravehold. On the flip side it is one that I’ve kind of already showcased.

Folklore: The Affliction

Next up we have Folklore: The Affliction. This is going to be an RPG like board game. You get a character with a class, and you take them on adventures. I picked this one up because it seems to do a lot of things I like in RPG’s. And it’ll give me a chance to be a player in the game instead of always the dungeon master.

The darker theme of this game drew me in. Now, it doesn’t seem too dark, but it’s about werewolves, vampires, ghosts, and things like that. Those, I really don’t consider too dark, but more it seems to lean into a grittier and more violent world. I’m playing Roll Player Adventures that has some of that stuff, but has a much lighter tone. So I am curious to see the whole story of all that I have for this game.

HEXplore It: The Forest of Adrimon

HEXplore It is a series that I was only so interested in after watching a play through. I think I saw for the Sands of Shurax, and the game does seem fun. You go around, you find some adventures to go on, and you level up your characters.

This one interested me, though with that more grim forest setting than it did with the desert setting for some reason. And I am curious to see how the characters work for this game. It appears to be an interesting system without the heavy narrative driving direction of the story. It is more about the adventure and story that you find along the way.

Middara: Unintentional Malum Act 1

Now, if we want to talk about a game with a ton of story, most definitely Middara: Unintentional Malum does the trick. This is the game that gives me the anime feel. You are from Earth, but you have a connection or genes that connect with this other world. And brought through a space gate, of sorts, you are transported to this new world where things are very very different than Earth. The themes and artwork might not be for everyone, but I am very curious.

Having an anime dungeon crawler seems like a no brainer for me. I really like anime, and I really like dungeon crawls. As for streaming this game, I am worried about fitting it all on the camera, or on the table, as there is a lot to it. That said, I still really want to get it to the table to dive into and experience the story.

Pathfinder Adventure Card Game

Now for a game with a very different scope. Pathfinder Adventure Card Game is just that, a card game, but like something like Arkham Horror: The Card Game or Apocrypha (which it is based on), this one uses cards as locations and builds up challenges for the players.

I am really interested to see what is different in the second edition compared to the first. I do have the pirate base game for the first edition as well. So I could play either. I know that it’s a system I find interesting and have had fun with. There is even a solid app that I should maybe download and play with again. But it tells a lighter story than some with good deck construction fun in the game.

Perdition’s Mouth: Abyssal Rift

I wrote about this one not to long ago, and this is another very dark dungeon crawling game. That said, it is an interesting take on it, and has some very nice components. It is also going to be very different than a lot of the games because it is nice a dice chucker. Instead, it builds it’s combat all around a rondel action system.

Each character has action points, and that determines how far they can, if they want, move around that rondel. However, action points are used for other things as well, which means that moving too far isn’t always the best plan. It is a really interesting puzzle with simpler mechanics than a lot of dungeon crawl games. But that doesn’t mean it doesn’t have depth, because picking the right options and setting up turns is tricky.

Solomon Kane

Finally, but not least, we have Solomon Kane. This is going to be a big story driven adventure game from Mythic Games. In Solomon Kane you play as virtues who are helping Solomon Kane go around through stories trying to keep the darkness at bay and figure out what he needs to do.

There are a lot of good reviews on this one, and I am very curious about it. Part of me wants to hold on a little bit, because I need to reach out to Mythic Games to get the updated rules and cards for the game. I didn’t back this on Kickstarter, I got it on eBay so that means I don’t automatically get it, at least not without contacting them. But this feels like a very different story and way of handling things in a game.

Final Thoughts

Firstly, here is the poll again now that you know more about all of the games.

But let me know your thoughts on what I should play. There are a number that I am interested in, and I think all, while being covered are going to be interesting ones to get to the table. And I’d love to start knocking out some of these campaigns that I can play solo. Especially before the likes of Frosthaven, ISS Vanguard, HEL: The Last Saga, and Isofarian Guard come in to add themselves to the mix as well.

I really probably need to stop getting more campaign games. But I did just add Middara Acts 2 and 3 through the pledge manager re-opening. So even more campaign to play. And I know I skipped mentioning other ones that I have backed as well, or that I will be backing Rogue Angels when it comes back to Kickstarter around the start of August.

Which one do you think I should stream?

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Simple But Deep Board Games

10. Black Sonata

One of two solo games on the list. Black Sonata is about figuring out who the “dark lady” was in Shakespeare’s sonnets. But it is really fascinating because it is a solo game where the dark lady moves around in basically a hidden movement sort of way by an AI deck of cards.

What you do as a player is try and get ahead of the dark lady so that you can look for her, and basically find out clues about who she is not. So your turns are pretty simple. You move, or you search a location. But figuring out that pattern of where they are going is challenging. And then it is a Mastermind style puzzle, or so it feels, to figure out who the lady is. I really enjoy that puzzle aspect, but simple game to hit the table.

9. Century: Golem Edition (Or Spice Road)

This one is not a cheat having two games on it, Golem Edition and Spice Road are the same game. I prefer the Golem Edition because it looks better, and I like that. But this is a game that is about building up an engine of cards in your hand. But how you play is extremely simple. Mainly because you do a single action on your turn.

On your turn you pick up the cards you’ve played, you get a card, you play a card, or you get a golem. You never complete more than a single action a time. And turns fly because of that simplicity of all the actions and the single action. But when you get a card, how much you pay for it, how it works into your engine, all of those things make a very rich but simple game.

8. Quarto

This, I get is one that has depth to it but not one that I like. The game is pretty simple, you are trying to get four in a row. But you pick what piece your opponent is going to play. So you want to give them something that’ll set-up you with the options that they have left to give you. It’s a cool idea that I enjoyed the couple of times that I played it, but it didn’t grab me enough.

Still, for a lot of people, this is going to give them that feeling of outthinking their opponent in a game. Basically making your opponent give you a win. But all you are doing is either placing a piece of picking one for your opponent to place.

7. Potion Explosion

This one is maybe one of the less simple on the list. But what you do on your turn, or at least on every turn is very basic. You pull a marble and then any like colors that hit. Then you put them into a potion, trying to complete them. That is very simple and fun action for a turn.

But where the game is more complex or offers interesting decisions is when you get your potions done. Now they give you powers, and how or when you use a power offers great decision making space. Especially when you can chain a few potions together to complete a potion and then use that potion to complete another potion. It offers that nice combo and cleverness feel a game with depth in it’s decision making should give you.

6. The Fox in the Forest

I could have a number of trick taking games on the list. Matcha, The Fox in the Forest Duet, and others, but I just put The Fox in the Forest on the list. This is a two player trick taking game where you are trying to take some tricks, but not too many. Because if you “shoot the moon” you get no points. And if you just get a few tricks, but slightly too many, it reduces your points a lot.

It becomes a question of how you can give your opponent just enough tricks so that they score poorly and you can score well. Or to trick them into taking all of the tricks. And since it isn’t a one and done sort of game, it allows you to develop more strategy based off of your opponent as time goes on.

5. Letter Jam

Letter Jam is almost a party word game. But it isn’t because you need to figure out how to give good clues. Let me explain, in Letter Jam everyone has a scrambled word in front of them, or the letters for it. Unscrambling wouldn’t be too bad if you could see the letters. But you can’t see your own.

Instead, you have one facing away from you that everyone else can see. And they give clues, in the form of a word, by putting down chips in front of other people’s letters to help you. For example, if I have an R in front of me and someone else has an F, O, and M, you could give the clue FROM or FORM. But one clue is better than the other because FORM could be FOAM as well. So how do you give the best clue to get people to know their letter?

And everyone needs to give clues too. So that adds to the challenge. I have a word, you have a word, and everyone does. So you need to give clues to help me, and I need to give to help you. It’s a very clever design that seems simple to start, but offers a lot of depth.

4. Floriferous

A drafting game, kind of, a set collection game, and a game where you are building up different scoring things. But how you draft is what makes this game so clever and gives it depth. Turn order for each round of drafting, since you pick from a limited set separately, is based off of the person who took the highest thing from a column the time before.

Let me explain that a bit more, in a two player game you have three rows. Two or them are flowers and one is a scoring card. The scoring card is always at the bottom. If I pick-up the scoring card, for my pick, that means that next time, since I’m at the bottom of the column, I pick last. So if there is something I really want in the next column, I would want to pick the highest thing in the column, just to guarantee I go first next time. But if you don’t get enough scoring cards, now you aren’t scoring many points.

3. Under Falling Skies

The next solo only game on the list. A few can be played solo, Under Falling Skies is a combination of Space Invaders meets Independence Day. That it in and of itself sounds pretty cool. But how does it play, what is simple about it. The game is basically rolling a bunch of dice and placing them so that one is in each column to activate things. That is pretty straight forward for what you are going to do.

The depth comes in with how you place the dice. The higher the number, the more the alien ship in that column descends. And if too many hit land you lose the game. So you need to blow them up, and you can do that by putting dice onto attack spots. But that then eats up other things you can do, and that also causes a ship to descend.

So you need to think not only about what power the die is going to give, higher means more, but also what it does to the ships. And you also still only have one die per column. And once you place it, it locks in. So if you aren’t careful, you end up placing a dice in a less than ideal spot with your last placement.

2. Calico

The top two were two that I instantly thought of. Calico is a very simple game with massive brain burning tendencies. In Calico you are making a calico quilt to get cats to sleep on your quilt. You score points by getting like colors adjacent for buttons. Patterns in certain groupings to attacks cats. And finally there are scoring tiles on the quilt that give you points based off of both pattern and color combinations.

That is a fair amount for scoring, but your turn is simple. On your turn you place a quilt tile onto your board and take one of the three available. But because the scoring overlap where you’ll use tiles for a button or cat in your quilt scoring. You really need to think through and plan out what you want to do. It’s a brain burner of a game. But I love it, and I love the limiting it puts on you, so you might be hoping for that one last tile you need to get pulled from the bag.

1. Hanamikoji

Instantly thought of this game, Hanamikoji is a simple game but such a brain burner. You want to win the favor of Geisha by giving them gifts. That isn’t that complex an idea, and the game gives you actions that you take to put gifts in front of the Geisha. But how you do that creates a fascinating puzzle of a game.

You must do all of the four different abilities. So whether that is putting one face down that you use at the end of the round, or discarding two face down that only you know are hidden, that limits what you know and your opponent. Plus then the other two actions are much trickier to figure out. You need to give your opponent the choice of one of three cards, you use the other two. Or two sets of two, they get one, you get the one they don’t pick.

And while those decisions are very tricky to make. There are so few of them that it doesn’t make the game too complex to play. You’ll just be worried about what is going to give your opponent what they need. And try and read their brain to see what it seems like they have.

Final Thoughts

I think I had about 25 games in my list that I sorted. There are some games that once I was further into them that are big games that now I realize are pretty simple. I’m going to mention Gloomhaven and Perdition’s Mouth: Abyssal Rift. These two didn’t make the list that I sort, but once you learn the core loop of the game, the card play in Gloomhaven and Rondel with card play in Perdition’s Mouth, they aren’t that difficult.

But that is only once you get to that point. Because if you play either of those games enough, you just know what the status effects do. But to get to that point with either of those games is going to take time. You need to learn the symbols and learn the game. But the core loops are simple and give great depth of game play. So they don’t quite make the list, but could fall into that category.

Just missing were the likes of Photosynthesis, Sonora, Hats, and Orchard. All of them have pretty simple base mechanics. But the optimize what you are doing and your scoring, you need to think a few steps ahead.

What are some of your favorite simple but deep games?

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How to Play Perdition’s Mouth: Abyssal Rift

There is a lot going on in this game, and I want to do it justice, but there is just too much to talk about everything that is going on. So let’s just go over the basics of what happens. Perdition’s Mouth is a cooperative dungeon crawling game. Players take on the roles of heroes, from tanks, to spell casters, rogues, and more trying to get through either a campaign or one off scenario.

Players, on their turn, use action points to move around a Rondel and select the action that they want to do. This can be move, charge, attack, a special action, rest, defend or a combination of those or variation on those. And that is the characters action for the turn. It means you can really plan out everything that you are doing, and you know how much you can do because of how many action points you have. Those are what you spend to move around the Rondel or move across terrain.

Then after the players go, the insectoids and cultists go. They also have a Rondel which determines what action they take. And unlike the player characters who activate a Rondel action, the cultists and insectoids activate all of them they pass over. So you can get some really big turns of spawning monsters, them moving and attacking.

In the end, the players goal is to get their characters off of the map and ready to move onto the next scenario, if you are playing the campaign version.

What I Didn’t Like?

The rule book for Perdition’s Mouth: Abyssal Rift is just okay, and this is the revised edition. The issue with it is somewhat that there is a lot to it. And there is a lot to it without there being an index at the end. Give me an index to find things quickly while I’m playing and learning the game. The game itself is pretty easy to follow when you play. But the rules could be done better for learning.

That’s my main negative. I do think for some, the darkness of the theme will be too much. It leans into that Kingdom: Death Monster thing where it is dark and shocking for the sake of being dark and shocking. For me, it doesn’t bother me that much, I get that this is supposed to be a grim and dark world. But at times, it seems like a bit too much.

What Did I Like?

I really like that all the characters are different in the game. In my campaign I ran a tank and a caster. The caster has less defense, less healthy, but some more powerful abilities, especially with movement. And in a game where you want to get out of the scenario, not always kill everything, movement is good to have. And of course, a caster can attack from range. The tank needs to get in there and take those hits when they can. And it feels like a good balance of characters.

I also like how simple the enemies are to activate. You flip a card and see how many spaces they move on their Rondel. And then you activate them pretty easily. So even though they might move a random number of spots on the Rondel, you can kind of guess what they might do. And then a card flip for an attack modifier makes it simple to play them. You don’t need a ton of rules to figure out what each enemy does.

I also like that characters use cards to boost their actions. And you play them out from your hand. But the enemies use a modifier deck. It means as a player, I can pick precisely what I am doing. But as the enemies attack me, I don’t know what they are going to do exactly. It is the right level of randomness. I know mainly what the enemies will do, but sometimes they’ll get through and do more than expected.

But, you can see more thoughts on Perdition’s Mouth: Abyssal Rift in the video I did on it below:

Who Is This For?

Dungeon crawler fans and euro fans. I think if someone is looking to move the more perfect information Euro style games, this might work very well for them. Because Perdition’s Mouth is a game where you do know almost all the information.

I also think this will work well for people who want that darker game like Kingdom: Death Monster, but don’t want the massive commitment. The fact you can play a one off for Perdition’s Mouth is nice. And then if you want a campaign, you can have one, but it isn’t hundreds of hours to get through it.

Final Thoughts on Perdition’s Mouth: Abyssal Rift

I do have quite a number of things I like about the game. But one negative, and it’s not a negative of the game, but more so of the space, which I haven’t mentioned. Perdition’s Mouth is a dungeon crawl game. So when I look at it, I need to compare it to other dungeon crawl games. And I do think this one is good, but it isn’t upper echelon for me.

On the flip side, it likely will stick in my collection for at least a while, because of one big thing. I can play it as a one off. It is nice for a few reasons, you don’t have the randomness, but the big one is I can pull it out and play without committing to a big experience. If I want to, I can play a short campaign. Gloomhaven was 150-200 hours of my time, Perdition’s Mouth will be less to play a campaign.

Finally, and this could be in the things I like, I do like the no dice. That’s one thing that I’ve found is that something like Sword & Sorcery compared to Perdition’s Mouth, I don’t miss the dice at all. I don’t strongly dislike dice, but it offers a more interesting long term puzzle for the game.

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

Notes:

Generally for casual gamers, I am going to rate these bigger and heavier games lower. I think a casual gamer learning this would be a difficult experience. I also think that Perdition’s Mouth with an experienced teacher and casual gamers wouldn’t be too bad. But purely everything being done by a casual gamer, it’d be hard for them.

Also, Thank You to Dragon Dawn Production for sending me a copy of the game to review.

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Heaven and Ale

This is a game that normally wouldn’t be the type of game that I gravitate towards. It’s a Rondel (I’ll explain) and more of a puzzle euro game all about getting your timing right, but the theme is beer. And I like beer, and I play games while drinking beer, so beer making while drinking beer seems right to me. So what’s a rondel. a rondel is basically an action path that you can go on that is circular. Depending on the game, you can go as far ahead as you want, but most of them limit how far you can go. When you go ahead, that means that you can’t go back, so say I can skip over two actions, that means, if I can move ahead three and there are ten spaces, it’d take several rounds before I could get back to one of those actions that I’ve skipped, 3 or 4. So you have to think how much it’s worth moving head and how much it makes sense to hold back. It’s a different direction than my normal theme forward games, but I like the puzzle aspect that it brings to it.

Papillon

A game about butterflies, because I only have Mariposas so I clearly need more games about butterflies, but this one is very different. In this one you are drafting rows of flower plots, and placing it so you have matching sides together. You then are trying to create large areas to score as well as set it up so that you can get butterflies, and place them on beautiful looking 3D flowers for an area control aspect of the game. This game has an amazing look on the table, and I think the complexity of the game is right for a large variety of gamers. The theme is also very friendlier than a lot, people will like butterflies more so than sci-fi or fantasy. Now obviously butterflies won’t be a theme that draws everyone in, but it won’t push them away as well.

Boomerang

Have I said recently that I like roll and writes, in fact, there’ll be a bonus roll and write at the end. But Boomerang is one that I had heard about a while ago and just don’t know a ton about. This one is a bit more a flip and write than a roll and write, but you have a bunch of different cards you use to fill in things on your board. The game looks pretty simple, pretty fast, and like it should hit the table. It is also different because compared to a roll and write, or flip and write, this game has card drafting in it. Card drafting, or drafting in general, is a great mechanic. I like that I now have several games that are flip and write, some that are unique rolling and writing and others more classic rolling and writing, plus games that have big boards, flicking, and now I’ll have a drafting and writing game as well.

Foodies

Another game that I’ve had my eye on for a long time. Foodies looks like a fun fast engine building game that is going to be on a weight similar to something like Homebrewers, where there is a bit more going on than the likes of Splendor, but easy enough to learn. In Foodies you are buying foods to build up your menu, and you place them into a grid, then you’re rolling dice and depending on what is rolled you can activate different spots and get different things, like money, or victory points, whatever it might be. What I like about this one is that it keeps you engaged even not on your turn. If someone else is rolling, you still get to activate on your menu board what was rolled. And the dice adds in some variability, but they didn’t want you to get nothing for an empty spot, so you might get a coin if it’s rolled as compared to more if you have a menu item there. The art is nice and the theme is great for this one.

Xenoshyft: Onslaught – Game Night Kit #1

Don’t ask me what’s in this, but it was $4 and more content for Xenoshyft: Onslaught, a game that I really like. I’ve almost pulled the trigger on this several times, but I was debaging if I needed a mini expansion, turns out when it’s $4 I do. It basically adds in a few new equipment cards and things like that to add even more variety to the game and a way to set-up some special things. I think it’ll be a fun edition to a game that I really need to get to the table again.

Finally, the bonus one.

This one came because I had some games to sell, in fact, we’re going to have a new post also coming today called Point of Sale which is what I am selling back to my FLGS because I don’t need it on my shelf anymore, and why.

Twice as Clever!

I’ve recently been on a kick playing the Ganz Schon Clever app a lot, and I’ve actually gotten in five games of Ganz Schon Clever as well. But Twice as Clever! is the follow up to Ganz Schon Clever and there’s actually a third out now as well. While Ganz Schon Clever is fun and simple, Twice as Clever adds in a whole lot more challenge to the game while keeping the mechanics very similar. The new additions are a lot of fun and create a really good time playing in the app. I need to get this one to the table soon as well.

Which is your favorite of these games that I ordered?

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Deranged – This game from HobbyWorld out of Russia is still in demo/beta phase, but the quality of the production seems like it’s very close to done. And it was one of the games on my radar from before the con. I liked this idea that you were having to get rid of curses to escape this town. But you also had another secret objective. But there’s a chance that you’re going to end up becoming “deranged”. Basically, there’s a chance that you’re going to turn into the monsters that you’re trying to avoid in the town, and the only way to save yourself is to kill a human. The game play was a lot of fun, and the game plays quite quickly. It was one of the highlight demos from the con.

Homebrewers – I brew my own beer, or I have in the past, and I have never been that interested in the theme of brewing beer in a board game before. But I saw this one on the table, and it looked simpler than some of the other ones, so I decided to demo it. It was a lot of fun. The game is basically an engine builder, where you try and balance brewing four different types of beers, but you can make them better by adding ingredients to the beer that will gain you more money or cause your beers to score better at the summer beer festival and Oktoberfest. So you’re trying to build up this engine that is going to make your brewing as efficient as possible. The game also plays really fast, which was something that I was worried about with a lot of engine building games.

Bottom of the 9th – Not a new game, but an interesting little baseball game. Instead of having to play 9 innings, this game basically just puts you in the pressure situation of dealing with pushing a run or two across to win the game in the bottom of the 9th inning. The game plays fast, and offers some luck, but also some decision. I’m not sure that the game is for me, simply because I don’t have someone whom I’d play it with all that often. But the concept of the game was interesting, and it seemed to work well for what it was supposed to do.

God of War – One of the bigger games at the con, this was one that we actually tested out fairly late and we waited in time to get demoed. God of War is based on the video game(s) and you take on different characters as they fight against the hive of dark elves. The game offers some interesting choices for deck building, and has something I like, which is that you add cards you get to the top of your deck, so you aren’t waiting for them to randomly show up. The demo game, was, unfortunately a bit easy, which was intentional, but that meant that while you got a feel for the game, it was hard to tell how challenging the actual game would be. I liked the theme, and I liked how it played, but I’ll be curious to see as reviews come out, how hard the game actually is.

Final Hour – If games of Arkham Horror and Eldritch Horror are too long, Final Hour focuses down on that last battle with the cultists as all you’re trying to do is figure out what the ritual is, before time runs out. This game is supposed to play in two hours, and I can see it playing in even less than that once you know what you’re doing. It’s really a puzzle game as you try and figure out what two symbols are missing from the board, but with a couple of interesting mechanics in it. You get a random, I believe, action that you’re going to take, and you have two different parts, move/attack or move/search, but you don’t know which one you’ll take for sure. Because the first two people in “initiative” get to move/attack and last two move/search. But you might not have the low number card you want to go faster and attack, so you’re move/search hurts the team. The game seemed like it would have some nice pressure to it. Not sure if there’s room in my Lovecraft collection for the game, though.

Dreams of Tomorrow – Not all demos are good, unfortunately. This one is hard to know what I actually think about it. There were two factors that made it hard to really demo this game. The first was that the person who got us into the demo was way to aggressive about it. We almost felt trapped into doing it, and then the person who was running the demo was clearly done running demos of the game. The concept was interesting, you’re trying to create a series of dreams to give you points but really to send back in time to stop the world from being destroyed. But while the rondel mechanic (taking actions in a circle so that you can’t get to some actions right when you want to) was interesting, the game itself was more of an abstract puzzle with a few little twists to it. I don’t think, even with a good demo I would have loved this game, but the demo definitely made it worse.

Letter Jam – So, this is a game that I was excited for going into the convention. And because of that, we actually ended up demoing it twice. The reason for that is that the first person we demoed with was clearly done with running demos, either for the day, but it seemed like for the con, on day one, and one of the people was not that interested in actually playing it. Letter Jam is a cooperative game, and the person who I was there with, didn’t realize that until half way through. But the concept for the game, a Hanabi/Mastermind style word game, is interesting, so we decided to try it again a couple of days later. We actually avoided getting into the first demo to get into because it was the same person doing the demo as the first time, but the group we had for the second time and the person running the game, which isn’t something that’s needed for the game, did a great job, and it was so much more fun. At that point it was sold out though, otherwise I would have probably come home with it.

Zona – Another game that I really wanted to see on the table. This game is very interesting as you fight monsters and search for secrets to be the first to get into the vault around Chernobyl. So it’s an alternate world with monsters and magic, but a ton of fun. You have dice that you rolled for combat, but there are ways to mitigate them. The game was also interesting, because the people demoing it were only taught the rules, since the rule book was still in Polish and cards had just gotten translated into English. The aesthetic and game play, though, were a lot of fun, from what we got for it, and I want to see a more finished version of the game, but if it plays like it did, I think it’s a game that I’d want to get.

Now, I know that there are so many more games that we demoed at the convention. There was a wrestling game, Just One (for the fun of it), Iron Forest to see the prototype, and more. Like I said, we could have just done demos the whole time and it would have been a blast.

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