Top 10 Board Games that Deserve a Second Shot

10. Bottom of the 9th

Bottom of the 9th is one of a few board games on the list that are Gen Con games. So what does that mean, it means that I got to demo those board games at Gen Con. And that is not always the best spot to do it. This one is lucky feeling. And I think that is going to be one of the common reasons why it is lower.

But I didn’t play a full game at Gen Con. So is there more fun interaction, I suspect there could be. Even if not in the game, Bottom of the 9th is probably a decently fun time with the right person that you are facing off against. It can become a game of just trying to get into that players head. And that, I think, could make the game more fun.

9. Lucidity: Six-Sided Nightmares

This one I think just didn’t work for me because it’s maybe not best at two players. And it isn’t going to be the only one of the board games on the list like that. But this is a push your luck dice game as you try and traverse nightmares. And you might even get turned into a monster.

That is something that I love the sound of. However, like I said, this is a push your luck dice game where generally bad things just happen. And you find that any control you have is very limited. For me that is the biggest letdown in the game. But I do think with more than two players, it is going to balance a bit more. One player still might run away with it, but it won’t feel as lopsided.

8. A Fake Artist Goes to New York

This one I already feel like I should rank higher. And for that reason it is lower on the list. To me, this is a pretty enjoyable hidden role game. However, I don’t love hidden role board games, unless there is more to go on than just social deduction. And A Fake Artist Goes to New York does give you a bit more of that.

Plus this is a fast game and easy to play. It is way less set-up than other hidden role games. It’s just drawing a picture and adding to it each time, but there is one person who doesn’t know what is being drawn. If you figure out who they are, the players who know what the image is get points. If not, the fake artist gets points. And it’s relatively easy to figure out who it is, but if that person can guess what the drawing is, well, they get points that way too.

7. Arkham Horror: Final Hour

This one I suspect is not a great game. But again, it is one of those Gen Con demo board games on the list. And we got to see how some of it works, but not spend enough time with the game. That’s the downside of a game that kind of fizzles immediately, it isn’t back at Gen Con.

In this game you want to interrupt a ritual. And to do that you need to figure out what the ritual is all while dealing with cultists. The game, I think, has a bit of mastermind feel to it, or simple deduction maybe (it’s been a while) where you figure out symbols that are part of the ritual or not. And then you need to correctly guess all of them. But at the same time you need to avoid being overrun by cultists which adds to the game. I like Lovecraftian games though, generally, so I want to try this one again.

6. Sword Art Online Board Game: Sword of Fellows

I only played this game a couple of times solo. And it is one that is actually still in my collection. It never left because I like the IP so much and it’s pretty unlikely we’ll get a ton more games in this IP. Though, Japanime Games did just crowdfund a new skirmish Sword Art Online game. I am interested to see that one, and probably pick it up, at some point in time.

But this one is a die rolling game. And I think that there are some interesting elements to it. Mainly, you face off against three bosses in the game, one after the other. As you go you level up your character and unlock new abilities. That is pretty simple and normal, but it brings in from the anime the “switch” mechanism. If you get a perfect hit, aka use up all your dice, you switch with the next person. And that person just jumps straight into their attack. The bad guy doesn’t get to deal damage to you. That is a fun thematic twist from an otherwise Yahtzee style game.

5. Fallout

Now, I own Fallout Shelter, and that’s not the one I’m talking about. Though, I need to play Fallout Shelter still. But I’ve only heard generally good things about that one. This one I’m talking about is the big Fallout board game where you are exploring the world, seeing story, maybe allying yourself with factions, and upgrading.

The issue I saw with this game is that it could get out of balance pretty quickly and there is just too much luck when it comes to pushing the end game. I went for one way of scoring, based off of my character, and things just didn’t line-up for that. What I’ve heard is that the expansion improves the game. I’m not sure it is going to be one of those board games on this list where I start to love it if I play it again, but I’d be interested to try again with the expansion.

4. Celestia

Celestia is another convention board game. Though this one isn’t a Gen Con game. I learned and played this one at AcadeCon which is mainly an RPG convention. My wife and I had downtime between games and we decided to give it a try.

This is one of the games on the list where I know that I played it wrong. I think we rolled too many dice at the lower levels. So we never really progressed up as we went. And Celestia being a push your luck game, I think two players is probably not the right number. In fact on Board Game Geek, they recommend 3-6 players and really say it’s best at 5-6 players. So I want to try it again at a game night and see if it’s better. This is one that I might pick-up to see if it works for me.

3. Smash Up

I did enjoy this game. But it is a game that fell off some for me. I think that I should try it again. Because, I suspect that I’d still find enjoyment in the game. Or maybe more enjoyment now that I haven’t played the game in a while.

Smash Up is one of those board games with a great concept. You take two factions, you mix them together and then you battle for area control. But, I think that the game works at three. Mainly because three factions can battle over the locations. And then the number of locations as well. The game just feels too lopsided at times with two. One player might just get their combo or dinosaurs and bears to work perfectly while the other players wizard robots never get going. But at four, it’s a bit too much randomness.

2. SeaFall

This one might be shocking on the list. But I think with the right group of three players, none of whom have analysis paralysis tendencies at all, the game could be fun. I thought that there were some good ideas in SeaFall, and some fairly easy things to fix that could have made the game better.

But the biggest thing is that the game at five players is just way to long. Especially when I played it, there were a couple of people who loved to think heavily through their turns. So even though they had four turns before theirs, their turns would be as long as the three players who didn’t have analysis paralysis. So I think the game could be fun with three for me. Though, even I’ll admit, it is going to need to be the right three.

Side note, I’d love to see a second edition of this come out. And in the second edition the story be fixed, and game length, so that the story, being redone is more of a narrative progression. I think faster game length (so fewer points to win), progressing story, and balancing winning and losing combats would by relatively easy fixes to the game.

1. Nidavellir

The final game on the list is a bit of a cheat. But I came to realize as I played Nidavellir on BGA (Board Game Arena) for the first time in a couple of years why it maybe didn’t work for me. I think that there are some strategies in two players that makes Nidavellir not that fun. But at three players or more, I think it works well.

Nidavellir is a blind bidding game where you recruit dwarves into your group. Each type of dwarf is going to score a different way. Generally the more you have the more you score. But some of them the numbers on them matter as well. You also gain bonus dwarves as you fill in complete sets of dwarves. And these bonus ones often give you some really nice extra scoring or abilities. But one of the abilities is kind of broken in two players if you get it. So that just makes the game less fun.

It’s like I’ve said with some other board games. At two players it is prone to a run away leader issue. But at more players there is more of a balancing act that needs to be done. And I don’t find that with more than three, which sometimes can become too random, Nidavellir becomes too random. I think it still works well.

Final Thoughts

What are some games that you ranked poorly in the past that you think you should revisit. Now, know that my list is not all the games that I’ve ranked that low. And I think that there are some that I rank low that people would be shocked about. For example, I really dislike Concept and Dominion. Neither of them made the list for me to revisit them.

Let me know which ones would make your Top 5 or even just a couple you think you should revisit?

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How To Play Marvel Snap

Marvel Snap is a combination of two different things. It is deck construction and then lane battling. In a lot of ways, it is as much of a board game as it is an app game. We’ll talk about the app features and if they are worth it later.

In this game you create a deck of heroes ranging from 1 to 6 energy cost to play with. Then you take that into battle against other players. You try and gain majority of power, each character has a power, at two of the three locations out there. Many of the locations offer specific powers that bolster or hurt characters at the location, or change up how you can play characters. At the end of six rounds, gaining an additional energy per round, the person who controls the most locations wins.

The Heroes

Let’s start out by talking about the heroes in this game. I didn’t mention it, but a lot of the heroes have powers. For example, Quicksilver, a 1 cost card, always starts in your hand, because he is fast. Scarlet Witch swaps out a location after a specific round. Hulk just has a ton of power so he smashes.

I think that Marvel Snap does a good job with the characters. They all make sense with their powers, and some of them just don’t have special abilities. Generally if you have a power your cost and power are at a 1 to 1 ration or worse. If you don’t have a special ability you have more power. Hulk, for example, costs 6 and has 12 power.

Now, not all special abilities are created equal, though, those that aren’t tend to be more powerful. Some characters, Rocket, Star Lord, Gamora, all gain attack based off of the other player playing a card at their location. But not just at the location, but at the location the turn that character comes out. Others, like Captain America, give more generic on going abilities, like +1 power for each other card at his location.

The Locations

The other important factor in the game are the locations. I like them a lot in the game because it changes up each battle. Some of them are simple, every hero here gets +5, that’s not really anything special. Another, when it’s flipped, gives you a copy of another players card. Of course, they get a copy of one of yours.

One thing that is interesting is how the locations reveal throughout the game. On turn one, only the first location is known. Then turn two the next one flips and the final one on turn three. Yo can play blind to them, but it might mess up your plans if you aren’t careful. Or you might sneak a 1 cost card onto a location that only can have four or higher cost cards. There is a risk to placing it down blind, but sometimes that risk is worth it.

The Deck Construction

Deck Construction is a very important part of this game. You have a limited number of cards to put in a deck and a limited number of them that you can see. It is like Magic: The Gathering, in that you want enough low cost cards to get them them out early game, but not too many that you never draw your bigger more powerful cards. It is about find that balance.

The app makes deck construction fairly easy. But it does fall into an issue I have with digital Magic: The Gathering. When you are on an app, you can’t see all your cards as easily. Granted, with Magic, I used their database and a site you can build decks in conjunction with each other when I had decks for it. But with the digital deck building, it is a bit trickier.

It offers ways to search and filter cards. But until there is a nice built up database with search features, deck construction is going to be a bit slow. It isn’t bad early in the game when you don’t have many characters, but you add in characters quickly as you go.

The App

So, Marvel Snap, is an app game. That means it is going to do a few things. Firstly, it’s going to try and sell you stuff. Right now, there are not ads that pop up for other things. I doubt there ever will be. But there are adds to get people to buy in game things. The most notable is a season pass. It isn’t a bad price and does offer more unlocks and new characters. But if you don’t do it, it means that you likely are falling behind a little bit in collecting characters.

One important question I have is how those characters then will be released. In an app game I play a lot, Star Wars Galaxy of Heroes, characters can be bought before they become farmable. What is that time table for Marvel Snap? If I miss out on Miles Morales now, do I need to wait a year to get him later? Or is it that I’m getting him a month earlier with the season pass? There is a balancing act for the company to get people to buy, but also not turn people off from the game.

And finally the unlocks or upgrades to characters. One of the ways you push up in the game and get more and new things is upgrading your characters. But are you really? Your character doesn’t get better, it just gets more “rare”. It’s an artificial thing in the game that only matters if you want fancier artwork, it is cool. But mechanically it doesn’t matter, it mainly just unlocks more things as you go.

Final Thoughts on Marvel Snap

Now, I say final thoughts, this probably more initial impressions. Why, because I wasn’t in the beta and the app just released yesterday. But I do have some concerns with the app. It is a game about getting characters you want and then deck construction. Most likely some characters, especially early on characters will lose value over time to play with. And the whole, unlock a 3D picture of what is already solid artwork isn’t reason enough to play with them.

I also really want to know the cadence of how characters are released. I bought the initial Season Pass, but I doubt I will buy anymore. It is a situation where I was curious about it to start and I wanted to know for coverage. But I try not to spend much if any money on app games. So now that Miles Morales or the next season pass character, when can I see them. Or are they always kept behind that season pass? If they are, that’ll kill the game.

But my concerns are more app based and how the company wants to make it’s money. The game play itself is a lot of fun. I liken it to Smash Up, but I think that other things, Land, Air, and Sea, for example are also good examples of a lane battler. It just has some of the randomness in powers that Smash Up has. But I like it much better than Smash Up, because I curate my deck.

The final thought is that I’m glad it is an app game not a physical game, but I wish it was a physical game. As an app game, I can most likely free to play eventually get most everything. But I’d love to get this to a physical table. I’d love to have the cards and build the decks. It’d just cost me more money because, well, it’d be a TCG (Trading Card Game) and buying blind packs would cost me money.

Have you tried Marvel Snap? Let me know your thoughts down in the comments below or over on Twitter.

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Anhk: Gods of Egypt

This is the last of Eric Lang’s “trilogy” of games, Blood Rage, Rising Sun, and now Anhk. This one I thought about on Kickstarter, but I’d just come off of Marvel United so I didn’t feel like I needed to back it. It was an interesting looking game and I like the Egyptian deity theme. I’m curious as to how it plays and if it’s one that should pick up. I didn’t back it on KS as well because I didn’t feel like I’d miss out on the exclusives that it had.

Akreis

This one might have been on last years list, but it’s one that I’d love to pick up. Just came to KS at the wrong time for me to back it. It’s a legacy style Egyptian themed game, and it looks fun. I like the minis in it, I like how they are leveraging almost an ICECOOL type thing where you have pieces of the box that are the board, so it’s not just flat tile pieces. I wish I’d had more of a chance to check it out at GenCon 2019.

Dawn of Madness

Pretty sure that this is another one that came to Kickstarter first, but it is from the same company that did Deep Madness a deep see themed horror game. This one is also a horror game, so I’m really interested to see what comes out with it, and might pick it up if they have any sort of webstore or way to get it. The aesthetic on it looks amazing.

Cubitos

Tis is a fun looking game from AEG that I heard about on Tantrum House’s YouTube channel as one of them had it as one of their top games in 2020, which is when they got to play it but for the rest of us it comes out in 2021. I like the idea of a racing game, and while I have a few, this one looks like it has a pretty fun look to it, and I’m just curious as to what it’ll be like.

Descent: Legends of the Dark

This new massive Descent game looks amazing. I love that it’s fully cooperative, I love that it has app integration, and while it is a spendy game for sure, I am really interested in how it will play. When Fantasy Flight talked about it, it looked really good, and I like the concepts behind it. I also like the artwork a lot, though I know some people don’t. And I like the app a lot, I am curious to see how much more it can bring to the game than the Journeys in Middle-Earth and Mansions of Madness app brings to that game.

Smash Up: Marvel

Now, I have previous owned Smash Up and I got rid of it. I love Marvel, so which will win out. I don’t have Marvel Splendor yet, even though that has a Marvel theme. I want to give this one a try though, because it’s not that I didn’t like Smash Up, it was just that Smash Up wasn’t that great a two player game which is what I was playing it at most. Maybe the Marvel theme will get me in.

Lost Ones

This is one that I had backed and then didn’t back on Kickstarter from Greenbrier Games. I think that this game looks really good, and I want to try it out, but the KS version that I would have gotten would basically have been the same as the retail version, or so it seemed, so it was one that I recommended but passed on. I do have a little concern about replayability, but the concept and world is so cool.

X-Men: Mutant Insurrection

Now, another Marvel themed game, and a game that I’ve kind of played before as it seems to have similarities to Elder Signs. I thought that the base Elder Signs was just fine, but I ended up selling it. This is one that again I’m curious about, but I’m a bit worried that if I get it, it might be lackluster. I’m hoping that this is something I can try before I’d buy it. And again, this isn’t because Elder Signs was bad, it was just that we’d played the base game a handful of times and seen what it had to offer.

Adventure Ink: Five Factions of Filigree

This was one that I heard about last year and it sounded cool. This game is a legacy game and it just seems cool. I like legacy games a lot, and I think that the mechanics all sound really interesting to me. It is a cooperative game as well, so you don’t need someone running the monsters or story, which is basically expected at this point. And it can be played as one off sessions as well, which is fun.

Hibachi

Another game that I backed and then did on Kickstarter, this one again added some but I don’t know that I needed more for this dexterity game. I love the theme of Hibachi with dexterity and the animal chefs are cute. I could see picking this one up and it being a hit for game nights for sure, but not one that I needed to grab off of Kickstarter.

The Libarians: Adventure Card Game

Another tough one for me, I played it at GenCon and I liked the game quite well. I thought it was a fun deck building, action point management game. I love the theme, but then on Kickstarter, I just couldn’t pull the trigger. I’m still not sure that it did enough that felt that cool to me, or that it looked good enough to really sell itself on the table, it’s a weird thing. But I kind of want to give it another go, because I did enjoy my playthrough.

Hanamikoji: Geisha’s Road

I don’t know much about it, other than it keeps the same theme and similar style of artwork to Hanamikoji which I love. So I am hoping that this one is equally as brain burning, fast, and enjoyable. And it’s against about winning favor and influencing where the Geisha go by giving them gifts, to which restaurant, so I’m excited for it.

Unmatched Marvel

So a game that I haven’t owned before is getting a Marvel theme. I was interested in Unmatched before, mainly as a two player game of some head to head tactical combat, but while the boxes they’d put out sounded fun, they weren’t up my alley, Marvel, of course is, and I like that it’s not hte standard heroes, there are two of them announced and one is Hell’s Kitchen, which is a great theme and fun characters.

And that’s a lot of games that I’m interested in, a lot of them I really want to check out and I’m hoping if GenCon happens in 2021 in person that I’d have a chance to wander around, try out a bunch and see what they are like. There are definitely a lot of cool games, a lot from Kickstarter, that are coming out, and this is nothing compared to what will actually come out in 2021.

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While putting together this list, I found it more challenging than putting together the deck building/deck construction list. I think that while I enjoy area control or area influence, given their more confrontational nature, they don’t tend to get to the table as often so it’s harder for me to come up with them off of the top of my head. And toward the bottom of the list are games that I’ve enjoyed, but might not be in my collection anymore.

10 – Smash Up
This is a game that I actually dropped from my collection for a few different reasons, but I don’t think that it’s a bad area control game. The idea of pairing two random factions together, finding their synergies, and creating a strategy to get points and have the control of these locations when the score works really well. And the game play itself is simple which made it pretty easy to get to the table quite often. It’s a good sort of game for people who are intimidated by the bigger games later on in the list, but want more than just a simple take that style game.

9 – Carcassone
Yes, technically there is area control, and it’s in two parts. First it’s for a city, if you are in a city and someone places down a connecting piece, they can’t also place in that city. But the farmers are also area control for scoring at the end of the game. While I don’t think the area control comes across heavily in the game, there is a bit of that, especially with the farmers, that can make a difference in end game scoring. But when most people thing for Carcassone, they rightfully so consider it more of a tile laying game. Did I mention this was a harder list to make?

8 – Risk Legacy
I don’t have regular Risk on here, pure control all the areas for the game to end is not enjoyable to me. But with Risk Legacy you still get more resources for controlling more areas. And by controlling your opponents HQ, that also brings you closer to victory. The legacy nature of the game is fun as well, while it isn’t as heavily a story as some of the more modern board games, it does provide enough to open up and the games are fast enough that it’s a good time. If you want to play the first (or at least one of the first) legacy games, Risk Legacy is really enjoyable.

7 – Root
There is one major downside to Root, and that is that teaching it takes a while, won’t be the last with that, because each faction plays asymmetrically. But it’s a good area control game where you are fighting over the woodlands, but that isn’t purely how everyone wins. The different factions get points by doing different things, all the while needing to keep the cats in check who are really about area control. Each faction plays so differently that without playing it often you’ll need to do the teaching of the rules, but if you can get it to the table, it is really interesting and lots of interesting options

6 – Cry Havoc
The other game that can take a bit longer to teach. This game is also asymmetrical, so you need to explain some of the players what their factions are best at. But this game is all about controlling games, and the more that you control on the alien planet, the more points that you get. It makes an interesting game because while the faction that’s the Pilgrims doesn’t care much about having many areas, they still need a few to be able to produce games to score points, but they can bunker down. The combat in this game is interesting as well and actually has a tiny bit of deck building to it. While it has some of the looks of a dudes on a map games, it also has some strong euro style mechanics.

5 – Small World
This is the intro to area control game. I like this game for it way better than Risk because Risk can go on a long time, Small World plays fast and is a lot of fun. In it you mash up a race and power combo and start taking over the lands. However, the board is small enough for each player count that soon people will start attacking you, so you need to put your race into decline, the next turn grab another race and start attacking with that one. This game is a ton of fun and simple to teach because you aren’t counting up troops, building a die pool, playing cards, and rolling dice to determine a winner, it’s just if you can put down two more pieces of cardboard than area already in that space. It works well, it’s a lot of fun, and while the game can last a little while if you’re playing more than three, turns are still pretty fast, it’s just that there are more of them, and it’s not a heavy strategy game, so the time goes faster because you can chat.

4 – Lords of Hellas
So, this one wasn’t in my top 100 when I did that at the end of last year because I hadn’t played it yet. It was a bit of a trick to figure out where I wanted to slot it, but this seemed like the best spot. Lords of Hellas has a bunch of different ways to win, but two of them deal with area control. First you can control two regions which can be up to eight smaller areas, or you can control five temples. There’s some interesting combat in this that is done through card play, and while there are other ways that you can win, you definitely need to be paying attention to areas that you are controlling or other people are gathering up, because when various events happen in the game, you can really benefit from controlling temples. This is again a dudes on a map game, but one that doesn’t have all the ameritrash feeling to it with dice chucking.

3 – Star Wars: Rebellion
Probably the most ameritrash game I have on the list, besides Risk Legacy. It’s a two player game where one side is the Empire trying to find the Rebels base, and the Rebels are trying to do missions to subvert the Empire’s control and if they can weaken it enough they win. But a lot of the game is big land and space battles for areas where you are trying to wrest control of a planet from the other side so that they aren’t able to produce as many ships and troops. The game has a good cat and mouse feel to it as the Empire spreads out trying to find the Rebels, and it feels like Star Wars original trilogy. Just the pieces that we weren’t seeing because the movies are so focused on a handful of characters, this is the stuff that was going around that.

2 – Hanamikoji
Another two player game, that surprised me, and I was also surprised when I realized that this is definitely an area influence game. In Hanamikoji you are trying to put influence over various Geisha and win their favor by giving them gifts. If you can get either four to your side or eleven points worth of Geisha you win the game. It’s a fast game and an interesting game because it’s played with a small deck of cards. And each player only doe four actions per round, and the same as the other people. You either pick a card to keep face down, discard two face down, put out three and your opponent picks one, or put down two sets of two and your opponent picks one. It is interesting because in some ways you’re forcing your opponent early to make decisions for you because there’s enough hidden information to make a fully puzzled out decision.

1 – Blood Rage
I think that this game would top a number of peoples lists, as it’s been a game that’s been hard to find for a while. In this game you are fighting over and around the world tree to improve how many action points you get, how much glory you get in battle, and how many troops you can have on the board. The game does a whole lot more than that as well because you are also upgrading your troops and drafting cards at the start of each age. So it might be possible that you don’t want to actually have any of the areas with a Loki strategy, but you do want to bump up some stats, probably, because that gives you points as well, so there is a good reason to do some area control.

Looking at the list, I think that Small World is the only one that is purely area control, though I should say as people will think of it. I think that Hanamikoji is also basically just area control. Looking at what Board Game Geek has for area control, I know that there are some more that I want to try. Twilight Imperium is a massive game with a lot of area control in it, though not just that, that feels like something that I’d like. I also have Scythe on my shelf that I haven’t played yet which seems like a fun game with some area control in it as well. Same with Cyclades, a game that I picked up a while ago but haven’t been able to get to the table yet.

What are some of your favorite area control games? Based off of the ones that I’ve rated in my Top 10, what are some that I should checkout?

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5. Risk Legacy
Yes, I could have put normal risk on the list, but I think that Risk Legacy is a way more enjoyable game. You could win a game of Risk Legacy by conquering the whole world, but you don’t need to, so it takes a game that can be a long slog and having players getting knocked out early, and turns it into a shorter and more focused game where someone might be knocked out, but they won’t be out completely. The dice are still extremely fickle, and with all the games higher on the list, there are ways to mitigate the dice, if there are even dice. Spoiler, only one more of them has dice. I don’t mind dice in a game, and in a shorter game like Risk Legacy, it works. There isn’t a ton to unlock in the game, but what you do unlock is fun, and creates some interesting choices as to what to play.

4. Cry Havoc
A game that I’ve only gotten to the table once, and it has a bit of a euro game feel for something that is heavily focused on area control. It is fun because the different actions trying to get gems on the planet all work differently. The Pilgrims don’t care about controlling as many areas because they score points better off of gem production. Whereas in a four player game, the Trogs just swarm out over the board very quickly, but can get spread thin if the player isn’t careful. Each faction handles area control just a bit differently, but they all seem balanced which is great.

3. Star Wars: Rebellion
While arguably a better game tactically than the next game, Star Wars: Rebellion does have the downside of being a two player game. There is a lot more going on in Rebellion than just area control as well, but controlling certain areas, getting troops built and deployed in areas that you do control, especially as the Empire really helps you lock down the position of the Rebels. With that, you also have the option of trying to slow down production by sabotaging different planets. This game has a lot going on in it, but it works really well and feels like an epic Star Wars struggle between the Rebels and Empire.

2. Smallworld
The silliest game on the list, but Smallworld really has a nice streamlined area control mechanic. It really does push for a ton of conflict, and that’s fine, because you are swapping out race and power combinations throughout the game, Mary might attack Tom to start the game, but in a few turns, Tom will be attacking Mary and destroying all of her troops. It does a good job of making the combat and wiping another player off the board seem not personal. The goofy theme and fun combinations does really help that aspect of the game as well.

1. Blood Rage
To me, Blood Rage might not do area control the best, but put together in the package of the whole game play, it’s area control and everything work extremely well. I also like that it’s area control can be known in some ways, but there are strategies that are fine if you die because you get more points or because you can take something from your enemy as well and as the player you get to decide how you want to focus in on area control. But you can’t lose all the time because you’re letting other players get points for upgrading their troop totals, action points, and other things.

What games could fall on a honorable mention list, and I really only mention some of these because they have a little bit of area control:

King of Tokyo – Technically you are vying for control of Tokyo. However, this simple dice chucker could just have you win without going into Tokyo at all, and there is only one area to control.

Carcassonne – Another one that doesn’t have much area control, you could argue that the original farmer rules are area control, because it’s who ever has the most farmers in an area.

Smash Up – Definitely are control, but I just got rid of my copy. Not because it’s a bad game, but because there are a million expansions. Also, it’s a game that seems to sit with a sweet spot of three players and more or less makes for a less enjoyable experience with it.

What are some other area control games that I should check out? I have Scythe sitting on my shelf waiting to be played, so eventually, I wouldn’t be surprised if that makes the list.

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