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

My Trick-Taking Games

Let’s start out by just listing off the games. And these are the ones that I own and I maybe have played.

Played:
The Crew: Mission Deep Sea
The Fox in the Forest
Cat in the Box
The Fellowship of the Ring: Trick-Taking Game
For Northwood! A Solo Trick-Taking Game
The Fox in the Forest Duet
Scahdenfreude
9 Lives
Rebel Princess
Pumafiosi
Matcha

Unplayed:
Jekyll & Hyde vs Scotland Yard
Ghosts of Christmas
Jalape-NO
Lunar
Pies
FORK
The Six of VIII
No Loose Ends
Tricky Kids

The Unplayed Games

To start off with, the unplayed ones are staying. In particular Ghosts of Christmas, Tricky Kids, No Loose Ends, and The Six of VIII are ones that I really want to get played. I could say that maybe FORK, Lunar, Pies, some of those might be redundant to the other trick-taking games that I have in the played section. But the thing is, I want to get these played to know for sure. And the good think about trick-taking is that most of the time they are easy to get played.

The Played Games

Now let’s talk about the played games. And I think that I might mainly disappoint myself. But I think I’m going to be keeping most of them if not all of them. Because while a few of them do duplicate things, like cooperative play, I think they are different enough and fit different reasons to keep them in my collection.

Cooperative Trick-Taking

For the cooperative ones let’s talk about the difference. Firstly Fox in the Forest Duet is two player only. And it is not about winning certain objectives to advance. The other two are both about objectives. But with the Fellowship of the Ring Trick-Taking Game, that one is a “campaign” of sorts. Or at least it feels like it has more story to it. The Crew is a campaign as well in that you can ramp up the difficulty, but it is easier to jump into a higher level without feeling like you missed some of the game.

Bidding Trick-Taking

Now this is where a few things could maybe move over time. The bidding trick-taking games might feel a bit more the same. Right now I just think of two that are in the played section with 9 Lives and Cat in the Box. And Cat in the Box does something different completely where you can short suit yourself whenever you want because nothing has a suit. That is a step more than 9 Lives. But, as I play others that have that bidding for how many tricks you take, I could see 9 Lives leaving.

Two Player Trick-Taking

Finally, let’s talk two player trick-taking. And this is where I think I maybe should get rid of a game. I’m not sure that I need Matcha and Fox in the Forest and Fox in the Forest Duet. Now, the question is which one is going to stay. I think that Matcha is really interesting but it’s maybe a bit harder to teach. For that reason that is probably the trick-taking game that should leave.

Final Thoughts on my Trick-Taking Games

This is obviously not ideal. I want to clear out more games. Though this isn’t because I don’t want to keep all the games around. It is more a situation where I need more space for games and culling and going through my collection helps with that a lot. But smaller games are easier to justify. But with trick-taking, I want to go through this list again after I knock off a handful more of the games on the list. Because I think that a number of them might get culled.

Why will they get culled then versus now? Because I want to come up with what my favorite five to eight of them are. Some I know will always stick around, Rebel Princess for example, but others are good but I’m not 100% sold that they’ll stick around like Cat in the Box. But I want to spend more time with my trick-taking games, and then I’ll revisit them.

Next time I want to look at my drafting games.

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Top 10 Games to Buy at Gen Con 2022

10. Sagrada: The Great Facades – Glory

The only expansion on the list, I know that I’ll grab it. It is more fun for Sagrada and while I don’t play Sagrada a ton, it is a blast when I pull it out. Glory is going to give another twist on how to play it. And I like how they are doing the expansions. I wish that this was Sagrada Legacy but that wasn’t able to make it in time.

9. Scout

Scout is probably going to be one of the hot games. I say that because it just won the Spiel de Jahres. But I also am not sure how available it has been. Scout is a card shedding game where the cards have two numbers. And you decided at the start which set of numbers you want to use. But you can’t flip it to give you a perfect set-up, it is just how it is dealt. It seems light but intriguing.

8. Paint the Roses

Paint the Roses is going to be a bigger deduction game. Each player knows part of the puzzle to keep the Queen of Hearts from taking off their heads. But you can’t tell what that is, other players need to figure that out from what you are doing so that cooperatively you can get the garden painted and done. There is a deluxe version of this game that looks amazing.

7. Planet Unknown

Planet Unknown is another game that I expect to be flying off the shelves or from the booth. This is a game that was on Kickstarter and has a cool thing with a tile board that rotates. On your turn you rotate it to pick a tile that you want but everyone else gets to pick a tile from in front of them to add to theirs. A cool concept that I think could make for a fun game.

6. Nightmare Productions

Speaking of a fun concept, Nightmare Productions is a game about making horror movies. Now this is not a new game, but it is the first time that Trick or Treat Studios is putting it out and the first time that I know of with only a horror theme. The only horror theme makes it more interesting for me as you try and make your best movie possible. One that I want to checkout and because of the theme probably buy.

5. Marvel: Remix

Marvel: Remix is a reskin of Fantasy Realms with Marvel. I am interested in plain old Fantasy Realms but Marvel: Remix is a theme that I like better. This is basically a small combo building game to give you the most points at the end of the game. You do that by adding or removing cards from your hand. Not sure completely how it works, but looks like a good one.

4. Long Shot: The Dice Game

Another one that I guarantee will be hot. And one that is already out and has been for a little bit. But it hasn’t been consistently easy to get your hands on. This is a roll and write horse racing game where you bet on horses and it just looks like a nice light fast and fun game. I really haven’t heard anything bad about it, maybe some okay reviews but nothing bad.

3. Cat in the Box

Cat in the Box is a fascinating sounding trick taking game. In this game you are playing standard trick taking, you predict how many tricks you can win, and you get points for that. But cards never have a color, at least not until they are played. Then all of a sudden they have a color, and you can declare yourself out of suit at any time, but be careful, because that might create a paradox.

2. Cartographers Expansions

I guess there is one more expansion on the list, Cartographers is getting three new maps. I think if you pre-ordered them they have already shipped. Do I need these? Probably not. Will I get them, most definitely. I love Cartographers, one of my favorite roll and write games, I think it got bumped to #2 or #3, but we’ll have to see when I do my Top 100 games of all time this fall.

1. My Father’s Work

Finally we have My Father’s Work. My Father’s Work is a big game, one of not so many big games on my list. Oathsworn isn’t on there because I backed the Kickstarter, otherwise it would be. But My Father’s Work you play as a mad scientist, but not just one, three generations as you try and pass down knowledge, deal with the villagers and complete your machines, monster, whatever it is. It is scenario based with an app, and while it is heavily Euro mechanics, I think it looks so fascinating. I could see this one being popular, but it is fairly expensive.

Do You Have Gen Con Must Buy?

Let me know what you want to buy. I do want to swing by the Shadowborne Games booth to see Oathsworn, of course my copy will be showing up today. And same with Batman: Everybody Lies, but I might wait on that one. And The Librarians just missed the list, I thought the game was fun, didn’t back it on Kickstarter, and now I want to see what the final production looks like. There are a whole lot more games as well I can imagine being hot, Final Girl and Ark Nova likely will move fast as well. But let me know what you want to pick up over on Twitter.

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Silver

This is an interesting twist of a game. In it you are trying to score as few points as possible. That isn’t interesting in and of itself, but how you do that is kind of cool. Each player has a village in front of them. A village is five cards all face down, and you know two of them. You try to get rid of cards and lower the value of the cards that are in your village. Eventually someone calls for a vote and you score.

This is played out over four different rounds of villages and at the end, the person with the fewest points wins. Some cool things are the powers that the cards have, and also that to call for a vote you need less than five cards in your village. To get rid of cards you need to trade in two cards of the same number for another card. So you plan out a lot in this game and hope for the right cards.

Cartographers

There’s a roll and write on the list, no shock there. A lot of them come in nice small packages. And Cartographers does as well, though now there is a big box. In Cartographers you are making a map, hence the name. But it is a heavier and more thinky roll and write than a lot of them.

The big reason is how the scoring works. You score for surrounding some things and getting coins, but most of your scoring will come from the scoring cards. Cartographers is played over four seasons and each season scores two of the scoring cards. Spring scores A and B, and then you wait all the way until winter which scores D and A before you score A again. So how much do you focus on A to start, and how do you balance the scoring. And there are monsters which are negative points and fun as well.

Ohanami

Ohanami is a great little game that is very simple to play. You draft two cards and you add them to any of three columns in front of you. The cards need only be higher or lower than the numbers in that column. While it might be very simple, there is some strategy in the scoring. Certain cards score in certain rounds. And the further you get into the game, the more cards score. So getting some cards early improves the value of them versus later in the game.

Ohanami plays well at all player counts, 2 through 4, but the game play does change. A two player game offers much more strategy in what you draft. You draft two cards out of a 10 card hand, then pass, and when you get your first hand back it’ll have six cards. So you can plan and try and strategize to take cards your opponent might want more. Versus with four players you get the first two and last two from a hand.

Medium

Medium is the party game on the list. And it is a fun one. You take turns and are paired up with another player. You play down a card each and then try and come up with the same word that goes between them. If they don’t match, then the new words are used to match.

The game is really clever and can be really tricky. Or you can try and play down two words, since it’s one person and then another person who picks their word, to make it easier. I like to make it trickier, but that’s just me. And it’s a good one for a lot of players because it pushes people to think about the other person they are playing it and leads to a lot of laughs.

Claim

Claim is the trick taking game on the list. The Crew is another one that people will think of, I just haven’t played it. Claim is a two player trick taking game that is played over two hands. The first hand is trick taking to build your hand for the second hand of the game. Then you are trying to collect majority in the different suits and whomever has majority in most wins the game.

Claim is a very fast trick taking game and it’s one with a few expansions to it. The expansions basically add more suits. Why, because suits are different fantasy races. And each has their own powers. The dwarves, for the second hand, the loser collects them. Zombies are used for scoring from the first hand. So it changes up the game a lot in a good way.

More Stocking Stuffers

There are a lot of great games. I have some on my solo list that can work as well. Especially stuff like A Gentle Rain or Orchard. But if the person already likes CCG’s (collectible card games) or LCG’s (living card games) packs for both of those would work really good as well, so Marvel Champions.

What are some of your go to stocking stuffer/small games? Are there any that you want to get?

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Patchwork Doodle

Now, as you’ve seen, I enjoy roll and write or flip and write games. The mechanics of them are generally pretty interesting, and compared to a lot of board games, they tend to be more zen in playing them. And Patchwork Doodle seems like that as well.

In this game you are filling polyomino shapes to create a patchwork quilt. You’re looking to make the largest square area on your quilt that is completely filled in. You get the size of the square, so 4×4 is 16 points, plus any additional rows to the square (or columns). So if you had a 4×6 area for your scoring, you’d get 4×4 plus 2 additional points for 18. This is done three times and you fill in more and more as you go. You also then, at the end of the game have to subtract any spots that aren’t filled in on your board, so if you’ve filled in all but 8 spots, that is 8 points that you lose. The highest total score is the winner.

In concept, this reminds me a lot of some other games that I have, like Second Chance or even Cartographers where you are filling in as much of an area as you can. What I like about this is that what shape you fill in is going to be known but you don’t know for sure what shape you’ll use, because there will always be one, or maybe two, left over at the end of each round. Plus, there are some simple special powers that you can use if a shape doesn’t work for you. I’m really excited to play this one soon because it seems like a pretty and relaxing game.

Fox In The Forest Duet

So I know less about this game, as I have Fox in the Forest, but I haven’t played it yet. Fox in the Forest Duet is based off of that trick taking game, but it’s different because while Fox in the Forest is a competitive trick taking game for two players where you are balancing the tricks taken so that you don’t take too many, Fox in the Forest Duet is a cooperative trick taking game.

In the game you are trying to take tricks to move your token along a path and collect gems with a total of 22 gems being needed for a win over five different rounds. You do this by taking tricks and the winning card will have fox feet on it and that’s how far you move forward and if you land by a gem you collect one. So it’s a balancing act of knowing when to play out a really good card to move to the right spot and when to let the other player take the trick because it’ll move things well for you. I like the idea of this balancing act where you don’t always want to take a trick because it might not be better for the group, and it’s a quick trick taking game. Too many trick taking games that try and do something clever or add in more theme end up being bloated and taking so long doing the same thing over and over again that it isn’t fun to do anymore after a couple of rounds, whereas this is going to play much faster.

I’m really interested in both of these games because they do stuff that I like. Have you played either of them before, do either of them sound interesting to you?

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But before that, let’s talk a little bit about why you build up a collection of board games. For me, clearly I love board games and having a variety of board games brings me joy. I like being able to pull out so many really different games and play them, but also to just look at them on my shelf, mess around with the pieces and learning the rules. It also gives me joy because I get to introduce other people to the board game hobby as well because I have so many games. I can pull out a game for any occasion, whether it was the board game club that I started just before Covid-19 hit so it’s been on hiatus, or if it’s playing with family, or introducing someone to gaming. Now, that’s why I have a diverse collection of games, but that also is something that won’t work for some people, some people simply do not want to play complex games or they don’t want to play party games, and therefore you might not have as much in your collection. So when building up your collection target games that you’ll love and games that you’ll enjoy that work for your group. If you only play with casual gamers, you’ll probably want to focus your collection more on games that’ll fit their play style. If everyone hates party games, no need to have one in your collection.

Let’s talk about the three different types of games that I think make a strong collection.

1 – Games You Love

This part is pretty obvious. Your collection should have a lot, probably the majority, of games that you like to play. This is whatever type of game you love, maybe you love heavy war games, or euro games, or ameritrash games, campaign games, dungeons crawls, sci-fi, deduction, trick taking, whatever it might be, most of the games in your collection should be games that you love. Most likely, if you love these games, you’re going to have a few people to play them with, as part of your gaming group. These are the games that I’m using, thus far, in the board game club, so not my campaign games that I love, though I do have a group for that, but stuff like Blood Rage, Lords of Hellas, Dead of Winter, Clank! In! Space!, bigger and a bit meatier games that we can sit down and just spend an evening playing those games. These won’t be the games that you play the most, most likely, but that’s fine, these are the games that you always want to play.

2 – Gateway Games

This is a pretty small part of your collection, these are games that you use to introduce people to hobby gaming. Best known are the Ticket to Rides, Dominion, Carcassone, Small World, and Catan. But find what works for you and the ones that you enjoy. Having a few of these slightly more complicated games than your typical mass market games will allow you to get more people into hobby gaming. You wouldn’t want to start someone off with Blood Rage if they don’t understand area control and card drafting strategies, but Small World and Sushi Go Party! and now they have a basis for potentially playing Blood Rage. Make sure that you do enjoy the ones that you have, you might be sitting for a while in this part of your collection with some gamers as they get to explore and discover new games and strategies as compared to the mass market games, and consider outside the normal games. Something like King of Tokyo is great that isn’t mentioned as often as the big five I mentioned above, but works well and is familiar in some ways to Yahtzee, or something like Century: Golem Edition is easy to teach and play and newer.

3 – Big Group Games

Now, with board game nights, there’s kind of a tipping point of around eight people to ten people where you can start to split into multiple groups. But even then, sometimes you want to play in a big group. I also like these bigger group games for kicking off or winding down a board game night as people start to leave and you go from a couple of groups into a single group. This category of games has stuff like Criss Cross, Welcome To…, Just One, Scattergories, Deception: Murder in Hong Kong, Sushi Go Party!, and more that can handle a pretty good size number, and they don’t take that long. They are almost filler games, but for a bigger group, and I could have probably put a fourth category of filler games, but I also like just using the higher player count games with lower player counts if I need a filler. These games are meant to get played quickly to start off a game night, played by people who don’t want to play a heavier game, or just played for the whole game night if that’s what everyone is feeling or you don’t have enough people to split into two groups easily.

Now, obviously, your group and your tastes will get different mileage out of the different types of games. You might just have it planned out that you don’t need filler games. When one game is full, the next person there just starts setting up the next game until more people show up. But that’s going to be up to you. If you know you need a more well rounded collection, those are the three categories that I would look at filling out your collection with. All this keeping in mind that your collection is to bring you joy, so with Gateway Games and Big Group Games, you can fill in a few that you like or can tolerate if you need them. If you hate all gateway games, don’t have any in your collection, that is okay, same with group/filler types of games, but think about the group that you play with, and make your decisions based off of that.

Do you have a mix of games in your collection? Is it only games that you like, do you find that you need group games or gateway games?

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