Top 10 Anticipated Crowdfunding Games Arriving in 2025

10. Knitting Circle

This one is lower on the list because it’s not as much my type of game. But I could say that about the predecessor to the game, Calico as well. And I really like Calico. Now the two games are quite different, one is about quilting and one is about knitting. But beyond that, there are more differences as well as you are trying to complete various scarves and things like that in knitting circle to score the most points.

One element that I do like is that it is thematic to knitting. I’m not an expert when it comes to knitting so I’ll get it wrong, just from what I know it is thematic. And I appreciate too, that it lets you “mess up” as that is also thematic. Now that sounds slightly mean, but to miss a stich somewhere, that might happen, so this game has that as an element to it. I find that just fun and unique.

9. FLOE

FLOE was one that I hadn’t originally planned on backing. But when I watched The Brothers Murph play it, I knew it was a game that I was going to like. There is a bunch going on, worker placement, adventuring, and more to basically get resources and turn in those resources to improve what you can do and get points, if I’m not mistaken. What drew me in with it is the fun theme for it. And that idea of the adventure in the game. Plus the artwork adds to that as well.

8. Marvel Dice Throne: X-Men

It might surprise some people that a Dice Throne game is so low on the list. And honestly, I am very much anticipating this one. I love Dice Throne, it’s a top 10 game of all time for me, but because that, I own everything for it. And because I own everything for it, I’m anticipating it just a bit less than I would be some others. Also, I could just put down Dice Throne, I backed the new one as well, and I expect that’ll come out in 2025 as well.

But for the X-Men I’m just really excited for it for the characters. Yes, there is Deadpool, and I get why they added him as an extra character. He is going to be a wacky one to play, once in a while. But I’m way m ore interested in the other characters. And I think it’ll be obvious why, if you listen to 10 Minute Marvel, you know that I love Gambit and Rogue, so two the characters, and then Psylocke in there is a great character as well. Sure there is Wolverine, who I know a lot of people will love, but he’s lower on my list to play.

7. Super Squad High

Now another one that is a bit out there. But this one really drew me in for some reason. I think it’s because you can set most stories in a high school setting and no matter who it is, vampires, wizards, or superheroes, it’s going to make an interesting story. And then of course, this is a board game with that theme, which is interesting to me.

I also like that there are some interesting ideas behind it. Yes, you play as heroes trying to figure out which one of your classmates if the villain responsible for the crime wave, that makes sense. But you need to do things like still go to school with it, so you need to balance your time between schoolwork, fighting crime and your dating life, because there is a dating element to the game as well. I hope it’s a fun, silly, and thematic game.

6. Spire’s End: Rangitaki

The next game in the Spire’s End line, and you’ve seen my play Spire’s End and Spire’s End Hildegard on Malts and Meeples before. This is one that I like how the designer keeps on taking new stabs at choose your own adventure story games with some combat and other mechanisms in them. Plus the artwork on all the games are just amazing.

I think some of it too is the thematic world of the game. It’s very deep in this shared world that has been created across all of the games. I want to know more of what happened before, and while it seems like Spire’s End might be the finishing point, there is a lot of story that can be told as to how the world got there. And Hildegard does a good job of telling part of that story, so I’m hopeful that Rangitaki will continue to tell more and build on it.

5. Dragon Eclipse

Next up is the one Awaken Realms game on the list. I am tempted to put down Grimcoven as well, but I think that could sneak into the start of 2024, which is why I didn’t. Plus I am also very excited for Dragon Eclipse. And I know that it has started shipping out, the date says 2024, but I think it’s really a 2025 game. Maybe, if someone is lucky, it’ll show up in 2024, but I don’t know that is even possible.

This is a one to two player card battling game where you get dragons and battle them to capture more dragons. Does this sound a bit like Pokemon, it should. But you get to build up a deck of cards and use your dragons. And while it’s not a narrative driven game, there is some campaign element to it or story element to it for the thematic setting of the world. This is totally one I plan to stream on Malts and Meeples, when it comes in.

4. The Elder Scrolls: Betrayal of the Second Era

Chip Theory Games now almost always holds my interest. I like Burncycle and Too Many Bones from them a lot. And I want to get Cloudspire to the table, I’m just not sure when I will. So when they announced an Elder Scrolls game with the the Too Many Bones system, I was interested.

I am not a big Elder Scrolls gamer, so it is not completely the theme that drew me in. But as people spoke about it, they talked about how it took the Too Many Bones system and made it simpler. Plus there is a campaign element to it as well that I like. There is in Too Many Bones as well, but this one is going to show a bit more story around it I believe.

And from what I know the leveling up is going to be a bit more dynamic in how you do it. By that I mean that Too Many Bones you wanted to get base stats a lot. Here I think you can choose between base stats or abilities.

3. Witchbound

This is one that I got to demo at the very start of it. And I really like this game. It is a point and click adventure game about becoming a witch. I get a bit of Kiki’s Delivery Service, maybe a bit of 8-bit adventure games too. But it isn’t an 8-bit artwork game, the artwork in it is amazing actually. And there is a lot that you can interact with.

I think that some people are going to find this game too simple. You find numbers on the board and combine them with different lines of dialog or actions. That is about it, so you need to figure out the puzzles of how things work to succeed. There is combat, there are mini games of sorts, I believe, but it is mainly the setting. This world is vibrant and exciting to play in. And the theme that there were witches, but they are gone and you become one, it’s a fun story idea.

2. Arydia: The Paths We Dare Tread

Next up is one that I know I am going to get this year. It is on the ships now and reviewers are starting to get some early copies. This is a game that was long in the making. And it is actually one that I didn’t even back at the beginning on Kickstarter. I like the looks of the game and I did back then, but it was competing with a lot.

There is one particular element that brought me to backing the game. Or really, I think I should say that it is three. It is the fact that you play the game at three different levels. There is this bigger world map where you travel around for your adventure. Story happens there, but it’s kind of on this grander traveling level. Then you get down to a ton or something like that. And you interact with people and things like that there. But finally, you get down to a tactical battle level. You interact with movement and enemies and do the standard dungeon crawl. But the three together is great.

1. Rogue Angels

Finally, I have hope that it comes this year, but it’s been so anticipated for a long time. And it is one that I know the work is happening, so I’ve never had a concern that it might not happen. I left a game off the list that I want to get, but it’ll get here when/if it gets here. But Rogue Angels is an amazing story driven tactical space dungeon crawler. So of course it is the top on my list. And the story in the game is great. You can see my play it multiple times on Malts and Meeples as well.

One thing that I really like about it is how you play out actions. You put out cards and they have a cooldown on them. So if I use my great gun, it might mean that I now need to wait a few rounds before I can get it back. But I can also rest to move things down faster, but that means giving up an action when I could be doing something else.

I also like how the enemies activate. It is simple to do. But with that said, the enemies are not easy and you can easily get swarmed under if you stay in place too long. And I like that there are yellow and red enemies, so two different groups that will activate. Yellow then red and back and forth. But if you take out all of one color, the other is going to go at double speed, so you sometimes want to avoid taking out one group completely otherwise the other might just come in and wipe you out because they’ll arrive faster.

Final Thoughts

Like I said, there are more I could put on the list as well. I won’t go into them, but it’s one of those things, it’s tough to wait for the games. I feel like I should give a reminder here. Crowdfunding games will get there when and if they get there. Very few, I’d say this even wasn’t Mythic Games intent, companies go out of their way to screw over their backers. But it is like anything that requires creative ideas, it’s going to take time to get right and to get it to where the person wants it to be.

And for me, it’s doubly so with the games I back. I back games that are big with lots of story. So it might be a nice long time before they come out like Rogue Angels, Witchbound, which hasn’t been that long really, or Arydia: The Paths We Dare Tread.

What is the game that you anticipate most coming in from crowdfunding in 2024?

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And checkout the Stocking Stuffer games holiday list as well.

Two Player Games

Hanamikoji

The only two player only game on the list, but Hanamikoji is the first one that pops to mind when I think of two player games. This is a game of influence as you try and win the favor of Geisha by giving of gifts. The theme might not be up your alley there is also Jixia Academy which is the same game and a different theme.

Either game, Hanamikoji or Jixia Academy, is simple to play. You get four actions and you do one each turn. After both players have done all four of their actions you see if someone has the favor of four Geisha or eleven points worth of Geisha.

So what are the actions? You either keep one gift hidden that you’ll use to influence favor. Or you’ll put two gifts face down that won’t be used. You give your opponent the choice of three cards, they pick one and you get two to give as gifts immediately (and revealed). Or you create two groups of two cards, and your opponent picks one. That’s the game, it’s about trying to get that combination right or letting your opponent make tough decisions that influence or show you what to do. Or trick your opponent into taking that you want them to.

Dice Throne

Now we’re onto Dice Throne, a game that some people might say is only a two player game. I think it works at higher player counts with the newer king of the hill rules. But Dice Throne, as a two player game, is a head to head battle game. And how do you battle, you roll dice. You are looking for straights or different combinations of symbols to do damage.

That might sound simple, and I think the first couple of times you play, it is easy to think it’s just the luck of the dice. But you get combat points to use as well. Those combat points (CP) are used to play out cards which is wherein your strategy lies. The cards offer different things, clearing off negative status your opponent might have placed on you, changing up your attacks, or manipulating the dice. So it’s a push and pull of how you try and hold back your cards and actions as you play the the game.

It’s not the thinkiest game, even with that, but there is more going on than you’d think of just rolling the dice and hoping to get lucky. And it’s also very fun because you get a lot of different characters to play with. There are your fantasy characters like dwarves or paladins. But you can mix that with the gunslinger or an artificer. And now they even have Marvel sets that you can play with as well.

Marvel Champions

Speaking of Marvel, this transition was not intentional, we have Marvel Champions. Marvel Champions, again, can be played with more. But I like Marvel Champions best as a solo or two player game. Why, too much downtime others. Marvel Champions is a game for the person who wants to play as a super hero and feel like their hero. There are other superhero games out there, but Marvel Champions, for me, captures it best.

In this game you try and stop a villains scheme. To do that, you need to be your super hero self, but when that happens they stop scheming. Instead their now trying to just knock you out. That means that you need to spend time going between being your super hero version, let’s say Spider-Man, and your alter ego, Peter Parker, so you can heal up. But when you are Peter Parker, you don’t want to blow your cover, so you can’t stop their scheming.

It’s a cool balance that brings in the super heroes moves as well as allies for them. I really like that balance of pushing to be the best hero and getting in their and just punching the villain down. But then also letting them work on their scheme so you can heal back up. It’s a good thematic element to the game.

Magic the Gathering (or other TCG)

This one is a bit of a catch all and the example I give is one that I don’t mind at all playing at higher player counts. Magic the Gathering is a great trading card game. A lot of trading card games, I’ll put Lorcana and One Piece on this list as well, are two player games or best that way.

Most of them give you pretty simple objectives that might be similar in a few ways. It’s either reach a certain number before your opponent or take out your opponents health fastest. But there’s too much to go over for all of them, so I’m going to drop some links in for you to checkout.

Magic the Gathering

Lorcana

One Piece

Spire’s End: Hildegard

This is another game that can be a two player game or a solo game. It’s meant to be a solo game, but I think that it’d be very good two player as well. It’s kind of a choose your own adventure story experience. But done through a deck of cards that plays through chapters. Spire’s End is also another solid option for this.

The big reason that I think this would work is that I like my story games as a two player experience. Not all the time, but it’s very fun to share a good story with other people. Spire’s End Hildegard gives you a lot of story with some dice rolling and that’s basically the game.

This is going to be a good game if you and the person you’d play it with, or the people who would play it together really like story driven games. And the aesthetic, while unique, really makes the game pop. It’s what drew me to the game, and for a light, mechanism wise, but fun story wise game, Spire’s End Hildegard really works.

Ascension: Deck Building Game

Finally, another game that you can definitely play with more. But I’ll say this about Ascension, I really like it at two. Deck building games generally move pretty quickly if you know what you’re doing. So you can play with more people who know what they are doing. But when you have multiple people who are needing to learn every card, it can drag on.

That is much less of a problem at two players. The game goes fast with two players in a good way. You get your turn, you play out your cards and you go. Even if you need to double check everything, the downtime isn’t that bad.

I think you could substitute other deck building games in here as well. Dominion would be another one that I think works well, or Aeon’s End. Basically anything that keeps the game moving in terms of deck building. I think that Ascension is more interesting than Dominion and simpler than Aeon’s End which is why it’s the one that makes my list. But if you want to go cooperative, Aeon’s End is a great choice.

Final Thoughts

There are a number of two player games that I need to play. I own 7 Wonders Duel, the most popular two player only game and I just need to get it played. So I don’t think that you can go wrong with that.

I also think that there are a lot of games that work well at multiple player counts. You can see that on my list I have a number that can play at higher counts. But they might be best at two or, often times, they just work really well at two. So if you don’t want to lock yourself into a two player games that only play two, there are still a ton of good options out there.

Do you have one of those that sounds the most interesting to you? Is your favorite game to play with two on the list?

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Top 5 Horror Board Games

Again, no particular order, but let’s see the ones that made the list.

5. Tainted Grail: The Fall of Avalon

Almost didn’t put this one on here. I own other games that are maybe more horror and less fantasy. But Tainted Grail: The Fall of Avalon created a world of both. It’s very grim dark in terms of fantasy with monsters, wyrdness, and more popping up around every corner. It definitely dabbles into the horror elements with the creatures that the wyrdness has twisted.

4. Spire’s End

Spire’s End, or Spire’s End Hildegard make the list as well. Both really are similar in what the world does. Greg Favro creates a world of unknown and horrific monsters. While also giving you a nice, simple game to challenge yourself with. Things don’t come easily for your characters, but the rules generally let you get into the game quickly and start playing and seeing what is happening.

Probably the truest horror in terms of how the story is written. It’s impressive how it develops the horror throughout the game as you don’t know what is going on. And I still have a lot of game and story to explore in both of them. Plus the artwork is amazing.

3. Betrayal at House on the Hill

A classic horror themed game at this point. Yes, it does have it’s problems where either the person who is haunting or the other players will have a massive advantage in the haunt. But when it works well, which it does, it’s an amazingly fun time.

In Betrayal the game is split into two parts. First part everyone is exploring the house, together, but not together. You want to find good items, increase your stats and well, search until you trigger the haunt. But, you don’t know when that is going to happen. And when it does, one of you at the table is going to be the betrayer. So now what’s the new condition for the betrayer to win the haunt or the other poor characters to defeat the betrayer?

2. The Night Cage

This one sounds like an abstract game, and The Night Cage really is. But it’s an abstract game with horror at the heart. Players wake up in a labyrinth that they can’t stand up in. With only a candle they need to explore, find keys, and all get to an exit portal together. But no two players can share a spot, and monsters are lurking.

Plus, the game is counting down. As you explore and your candle no longer shows off where you’ve been, now those locations go away and the labyrinth will be different. So the pile of tiles is dwindling as you search. And you never know when that monster will pop up and steal your wax and light, leaving you fumbling in the dark.

1. Arkham Horror LCG

This one is on that horrors edge as well. Is it a detective fantasy story? Kind of. Are there elements of Lovecraftian horror through everything that you do, absolutely. And that’s where it makes it onto the list. The game offers you adventure as you explore Arkham or other locations. And you need to be setup to defeat monsters and cultists, and progress the story with finding clues. All of this to stop something, a ritual in the base box, from happening.

Mainly this game is just a really well balanced experience. There are some characters you can get to make you better or that have better cards. But that doesn’t ever make the game feel too easy. And Arkham Horror gives you ways to make it harder and really level it not to the story you want, but how hard a challenge you want.

Final Thoughts

I want more good horror games. I own a few more that I’d put into that range and a few that I need to try. Deep Madness would be the big one. Or Solomon Kane and Darkest Dungeon might also fall into that category as well.

But as I said a couple of days ago. Horror is a genre that I want to find more games. And when one comes out I’m interested in. And I will check it out, and a lot of the time I’ll be disappointed. Why, because a lot of them go with the gross and gore side of horror. Because elements like jump scares, or good psychological twists are hard to build into a board game.

What’s your favorite horror themed board game?

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Lunch Time Gaming At Work

I’ve started a new job so this has gone away, for now, but maybe once a week at my old job, I’d bring in a game and we’d play it. It was just a nice chill time and it was fun to introduce people who maybe hadn’t played many board games, some new board games. Plus it was a chance for me, and I need them, to play a game that I hadn’t played before. Biblios and Arboretum stand out as some of the favorites of the group. And then there were some duds like the Copenhagen: Roll and Write, or Hexroller. They were worth trying, but not great games.

GenCon

I could break this down even further, but the whole experience was amazing. And I can’t wait until the 2023 GenCon. But having some people I knew there was fun, and I got to chat with them some. Plus then Discord communities. I got game with people from Man vs Meeple and Tablenauts and their discords and it was just a great time. Plus I got to play so many different games. GenCon is an amazing experience every time and I think that I found a rhythm that I like for being there. Though, we’ll have to see what might be fun to try next year.

10 Minute Marvel

This one is more recent, but getting a co-host for 10 Minute Marvel has been amazing. Yes, it makes more work for me editing, but it’s just to have a scheduled nerdy Marvel conversation every week. And I want to have more of them, maybe without the editing all the time. But it was great to get a co-host and a friend to go to the movies with and just dive into all of the fun nerdy stuff. And I’m excited to see all the new stuff coming out and talk about that as well.

Getting a Gaming Table

It feels like it’s been longer but that was this spring that I went through, found a lot of games to sell, sold them, and got a gaming table. I love my gaming table. It makes playing campaign games so much easier since I can leave it set-up. I sometimes wonder if I could leave one game set-up on one half and another on the other half. But then again, a lot of them take up more than half of the table. But I basically always have whatever campaign game I’m streaming set-up on there.

Stars of Akarios

Speaking of Streaming, Stars of Akarios. I figured I’d like the game, but I didn’t realize I’d like it as much as I did. The game is just great, the story is fun, and that tactical space combat really shines. So an easy pick, it was hard to take it down. I kind of wanted to continue, but also, it is good to show off more games than just one.

The Dragon Prince, Locke & Key, and Stranger Things

I put them all in one because, well, they are all Netflix shows. And all of them are some of my favorites. I feel like I’m probably missing a show, but these three were great. Locke & Key ended strong. The Dragon Prince, it had been a bit but used it as a chance to watch the whole series again. And while, Stranger Things, Season 4 was the best one since Season 1, and I think it’s really close between those. There were just a lot of really good and fun shows that Netflix put out. And then GBBO is always good, but I kind of consider that to be a little bit of a different thing.

Campaign Games

Technically Stars of Akarios would have fallen into this group, but overall I had an amazing time with campaign games. Sleeping Gods, even though I played it wrong, was so much fun. Tainted Grail, we finished up the second campaign and are into the third. Pathfinder Adventure Card Game was great. Spire’s End and Spire’s End Hildegard have been a ton off un. Even the weird campaign from Paper Dungeons was a lot of fun to play through. So lots of campaign style games that were fun.

Final Thoughts

I don’t think that 2022 was completely a normal nerdy year. I have a four year old now and that means that some nerdy things happen less often or at least getting out for them does. On the flip side, I got to do GenCon and I got to play a lot of Tainted Grail and get a lot of games in. So it’s been a very fun and fulfilling year of nerdy things. And I didn’t even touch on the anime that I’ve watched, not all of which have been great. But there are a good number of fun ones of those as well.

I am really looking forward to what 2023 has as well. Like I said, we’ll talk about some of those things coming up. But it’s going to be another fun year. And hopefully you’ve had good nerdy things happen to you in 2022 as well.

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The Games – Spire’s End and Trek 12

Was Spire’s End Ending Satisfying?

Let’s start with talking about Chapter 6, so spoilers ahead. I managed to handle it pretty well. I didn’t have the full mask, not sure how to get it, but that meant that I had a tougher fight. Now, I maybe actually didn’t handle it better, I maybe died when I had one character left. But I didn’t just want it to end. And that last combat, less hard than you’d think.

I did appreciate that they tried something new there. And I think that the system worked well. And that it’s easy enough to sit down and jump into that combat without spending too much time learning it. If it were more new rules or more complex rules I think it’d work less well. Though, I do think that a memory game is pretty simple.

Trek 12

This is really a weird game for me. I wanted to talk about it again because I do think that it’s worthwhile mentioning it every time. The solo mode is not that great for this game. Now, maybe with the campaign part it’ll make more sense. But I don’t love it because it’s playing the game a 2nd time and it’s just extra busy work. I don’t like extra busy work in a game, especially solo. I want to be able to sit down and play.

So I play it like a normal game of multiplayer where I fill out one board and see what score I get. Instead of doing their special rules of filling in another one I just see what score I can get. And then I just compare it to what high scores I’ve gotten before. It’s basically the same thing, but a whole lot more fun.

Upcoming Streams

2023 isn’t too far away, and that’ll kick off some new games. On Wednesdays I’m planning on playing Lands of Galzyr. So look forward to that getting kicked off at 8 PM Central next week. And then on Mondays, 8:30 PM Central, I’m not sure, I think I’m going to be picking out some smaller solo games again. And the plan is likely to rotate through those.

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The Game – Spire’s End Hildegard

So, as you saw, I didn’t make it out of Chapter 3 again, and that’s not a major issue with the game. I was hoping to push through further, see a different part of the story, and well, at least make it to the final town to see what happens. So I want to talk about the difficulty level.

I think the harder difficulty level of the game makes more sense for Spire’s End, versus Spire’s End Hildegard. In Spire’s End Hildegard, yes, we’re playing a character who can go off and adventure on her own, but, she’s also supposed to be more of a kid. The story itself is still weird and twisted, but it feels less dark. So Spire’s End, I think the harder survival makes more sense, though, I also think that in Spire’s End, you have more ways to mitigate things.

And that’s where the trick comes in with Spire’s End Hildegard. I feel, now, after a few sessions that the combat is notably harder. Though you have more ways to mitigate, there is less, the enemy could just get really lucky and take you out in two turns. If Hildegard’s track is eight and the enemy, like that last one, is rolling 7 total dice between three attacks, it’s unlikely that you’ll last more than three rounds.

Now that might be my fault, you need to use block more. But using block is very costly and doesn’t slow down the enemy as much as one would hope. Assuming I used it correctly and it doesn’t block the whole attack. But I’m pretty sure that it just blocks one symbol and they can double up on it. So in that case, it makes sense to race to try and take them out.

I wish there was an easier way to do combat, or that things to finesse your dice, those targeting cubes, were handed out more often. I think you could double how often you get them, and it’d still be a hard game. And I even guessed right sometimes to make it easier on myself, but it’s still a very hard game.

Upcoming Streams

So, next week, as I talk about in the video, Monday is the end of Spire’s End. Wednesday is going to be a random solo game. All this leading into , in January, starting a Lands of Galzyr playthrough. So we might look at Lands of Galzyr, unbox it, and pick a character on Wednesday.

Let me know what smaller solo game you might like to see. I have some thoughts, it just depends on how much work it is for me. Because, I can always go back tot he table with a solo roll and write I’ve played before. Or I have some other smaller box solo games to try as well. Let me know suggestions in the comments below.

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The Game – Spire’s End

So, I wanted to touch on basically how dark Spire’s End is this time. And I’ve talked some about story but is Spire’s End too dark? Does Spire’s End Hildegard give you enough that is creepy but not become too dark? It’s an interesting question because, I think that for some people Spire’s End is going to be too dark.

Spire’s End really leans into that darker side of things. There is a lot about blood, destruction, things like that which are going on. And it’s happening consistently throughout the story. Now, does that mean that it is too dark for me? And how would I phrase it to others?

For me, I don’t see it as too dark. It is an interesting story that is being told. And I appreciate that it feels unlike basically anything that I’ve played before. It’s also not like stories that I’ve read before.

So while I don’t mind it, I can also see why people might. There is body horror written about. This whole idea of blood everywhere, ooze, etc. is not a pleasant one. And even for me, I think that sitting down and playing all the chapters in one sitting would be a lot. I’d still do it, but I’d want a pallet cleanser. So, if you don ‘t enjoy horror and dark, this isn’t for you.

Spire’s End Hildegard, on the other hand, while it has dark and plenty of creepy. It isn’t dwelling on it as much. And I like that about it. There is an innocence to Hildegard. That might get shaken throughout the story, but it is fun. And the whole game is lighter when it comes to tone.

Upcoming Streams

So Wednesday, I want to get through a bunch of Spire’s End Hildegard again. Maybe even into or through Chapter 3 so that I can wrap up another play through by the end of the year. 8 PM Central is when I will start that stream. And the following week, Monday at 8:30 PM and Wednesday at 8 PM, I’ll be wrapping up the year with more Spire’s End and Spire’s End Hildegard.

Starting next year and not on the 2nd, that’ll be a topic or random stream, but on Wednesday the 4th, I’ll be streaming Lands of Galzyr from Snowdale Design. It’s one that I think will be a fun solo game and a pretty relaxing game to play as well. I still need to clean up Chronicles of Drunagor off of the table before that can happen. But I’ll have time to do so.

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The Game – Spire’s End Hildegard

So spoiler ahead, I lost Spire’s End Hildegard in Chapter 3. I missed a boat, had to try and catapult myself onto it, and I failed. It is a fun way to fail, and that ended the game there. Then I actually went and lost twice more as I started up with Chapter 1 again, went down a new path and fought some thugs and well, I missed my shot twice.

Let’s talk about those two losses not the one in Chapter 3. The one in Chapter 3 I felt like that one was my doing a little bit. I spent some time shopping and delayed when I might get onto the boat. But the two in Chapter 1, they felt less impactful. In fact, you can watch in the video, I just reset and play again with the challenge I was trying to complete. I don’t start the whole chapter again.

Why is that, because the loss didn’t feel earned. The package gets stolen from me that I’m going to deliver. Nothing I can do about it, and then I get a challenge that isn’t too easy to start, though not too bad. I definitely rolled poorly and maybe could have done more to succeed sooner, but I didn’t. But to just straight up lose in Chapter 1, it feels off. Give me the chance to fix it, fail forward more in Chapter 1. Make my going in the future harder, don’t just end the game there as the experience then is lacking.

Upcoming Streams

Tonight I am going to wrap up Spire’s End. That is at 8:30 PM Central time, as always, on Malts and Meeples. Join me then to see how that game and story wrap up, it might happen fast, if it does, I’ll have a game ready to go. And then on Wednesday at 8:00 PM Central, Spire’s End Hildegard. Let’s see where the story takes me this time.

Next Monday I don’t plan on streaming. It is the day after Christmas and I might have time, or I might just want to relax. The Wednesday I will stream as I’ll be back at work and into the normal schedule, just know that for streaming coming up.

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The Game – Spire’s End

Honestly, we’ve covered all of the big points thus far with the dice mechanic and replayability of the story. When it comes down to it, Spire’s End is a pretty simple game, same with Spire’s End Hildegard. So let’s talk about it compared to other solo experiences.

I think that both of the games fall into an interesting category for me. They are small enough where I’d consider just pulling them out and playing them. The amount of room they take up isn’t that much. But with that said, there is a lot of story and a lot of reading, which makes it harder to land on when I would play them.

It has a small footprint, like I said, but unlike a game like Orchard or Dice Conquest where I can play them wherever, I need the head space for Spire’s End. It isn’t a game that I would play at the bar. And that is fine. But at the same time, it’s not a bigger campaign that I’d be apt to stream. It is great for some time like right now. It is a filler option for me to stream. But in my normal life, it is large enough that I need to carve out space for it.

That to me is an interesting combination. And while I really like the game, it isn’t going to explode in plays like Orchard has because of that fact. But because it is simple, it’ll probably be one that I carve out time once or twice a year to sit down and play in an evening.

Upcoming Streams

So streaming for the rest of the year, I don’t think that I am going to miss a day. The 26th is the one that’s most up in the air as if I will stream or not, but I expect that I will. As for what is getting streamed. This Wednesday at 8 PM it’ll be Spire’s End Hildegard. And next Monday at 8:30 PM, central, it’ll be Spire’s End and finishing that up. In fact, in the next just over a week, a week from tomorrow, I’ll be finishing up both versions of Spire’s End. And if things go poorly for Hildegard on Wednesday, it might be sooner.

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Spire’s End Hildegard Replayability

One question that is fair for story driven games is how replayable are they? Because once you’ve seen the story, does it branch enough for you to come back again and play it. Or will it be the same story over and over and over again?

That is an issue with something like TIME Stories, a game that I really enjoy. You go on a run, and if you fail, you do it again. But the story doesn’t change. Now there is reason for that, you know where to go and can make the run faster. But at the same time, you do it twice, it isn’t bad, three times, it starts to repeat a bit more, and you try and optimize it as much as you can to go as fast as you can.

For Spire’s End and Spire’s End Hildegard that is much less of a problem. The first chapter of Spire’s End Hildegard, I went through less than half of the cards. And this time, I maybe used a quarter of them. So chapter two is going to offer me a ton of new choices if I come back. There were areas that I couldn’t do because I didn’t have an item. And there were areas that I skipped over because I did have an item. And there is a conversation that I didn’t use, but I suspect might be an option as well.

The game does a good job of giving you enough story that it makes sense. Plus, I think it probably keeps a few cards generic enough so that no matter how you get to them, you always make it to that particular card. But how you get there, it offers a lot of options.

Bonus Game – Dice Conquest

Not a review, yet, but I suspect this is one that is going to get into the rotation of solo games when I want a small one, like Orchard, or I still need to play Grove. Dice Conquest is a simple game, roll the die, use it the best that you can. That works great, and the monsters, well I can see them getting very familiar work well. I know I’ll want more monsters eventually, but I don’t need them because they come out randomly.

As for the luck in this game, obviously this game is very lucky. You roll dice and then place them with minimal ways to interact with them. You can reroll but that doesn’t always help. But I think the game does two interesting things. Firstly, if you’re playing solo it keeps the game so short and fast it’s easy to knock out.

Secondly, with more players you would have more powers in the mix. I suspect that the game would slow down a lot at that point. But it’d become less lucky because you’d be able to activate more critical hits. Or you could activate more special abilities which would give you a bit more control. And it’d probably change it from being a light, fast filler game to more of a puzzle, which could also be good.

Upcoming Streams

So I can keep this simple again. Next week, barring something like Frosthaven coming in (it hasn’t shipped yet), it’ll be more Spire’s End at 8:30 PM central on Monday. And then on Wednesday, Spire’s End Hildegard at 8 PM central. I hope that you can join me for them and always feel free to toss in suggestions when I come to a choice. I need to get better about pausing to see.

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