How To Play Forest Shuffle

In Forest Shuffle you are building out a forest in front of you of trees and creatures of all types. You might be getting butterflies and and beetles or foxes and rabbits, the choice is up to you. But you look to synergize what you are picking to score points.

To play out cards you are putting cards into a discard row and using them as resources. That discard row is filling up and wiping as the game goes along and as you draw cards. Drawing cards and reducing the draw pile is how the game ends. But back to playing cards, you pick a card to play from your hand and then discard the number of cards in the corner to be able to play it.

Trees you just add to your forest in front of you. But if you play down a creature or a feature of your forest, that attaches to your tree. And trees have four sides that you can attach cards to. The foliage, the base or roots and than either side. So you need to balance playing out cards to score with adding more trees.

Then you draw and play cards until you’ve hit the three winter cards. You won’t know when they show up. But once one or two of them show up, you know the game can end any time. When the game ends, everyone tallies up their points and whomever has the most wins.

Why Is It Getting Popular?

Let me start off and say, I like Forest Shuffle. So me asking this question isn’t me not getting why it is. And I think there are a few main reasons for it getting popular.

Firstly, a lot of people play board games digitally now. Not more than who play in person, but when you can play a game digitally, there is not as much of a time restriction. Especially if you can take your turn and then check later in the day to take your next turn. It doesn’t require you to just be sitting there. It is a chance for people

Another thing is that it is a nature theme. Nature theme games are very popular right now. The success of games like Wingspan and Meadow have shown that you don’t need a big nerdy fantasy theme to make people buy game. In fact, that is a turn off for some people. Nature is a more accessible and friendly theme. It might not be why some people game (or the only theme I want) but it does appeal to a broader audience.

Finally, Forest Shuffle is not a complex game. And I say that in a good way. It is one of two games I picked up with the same premise. It is play out cards to form a forest or tableau in front of you to score points. The other one is either version of Ecosystem, regular or coral reef. What you do on your turn is quite simple. However, what you do on your turn determines the points you get. So there are decisions to be made with how you want to score. It is a good game for simplicity of turns and decision making space.

What Might Not Work For You

But let’s talk about what might not work with Forest Shuffle as well. It is a similar mechanism to other games. I called out Ecosystem, but also Meadow you collect cards to build out a line of cards in front of you. Even Wingspan has you collecting birds and putting them into various habitats and scoring based off of that. So the mechanisms are not highly unique.

I think, for some the general mechanisms of those games across the board will not be what you want. For others, you like it, but the question is how many do you need. Do you need a third or fourth game that offers a similar experience to the other games. Now, it is a different complexity level than the ones I mentioned. Forest Shuffle is more complex than Ecosystem but less than Meadow or Wingspan. So it might fill a niche for you.

What I Want To See More Of In Forest Shuffle

Now, I won’t give a full grade on this. I want to see more in this game and I want to know how it will play after a number of plays. I bought the game, so I like it. Let’s just put it at that. But I feel l like it isn’t one I can give a fully grade to yet.

Mainly, how is Forest Shuffle going to play after five plays? I set five a a number, that is just arbitrary. But what I want to see is, if I play it a number of times, how does my strategy change? Can I have a strategy, I think I did the first game, or is it just luck with cards that come out. How do you balance grabbing cards or passing on cards to play out. What is the tempo of that?

There are a good number of cards in the game. And Forest Shuffle offers a lot of different ways to score. My question and this is the case with any game like this, will I see all the cards, and will there be enough variety to keep the game unique? If the game isn’t unique, than is the game going to stay fun to play.

Forest Shuffle could certainly be expanded. I expect if it does well in retail, not just BGA, that it is going to get expansions. More cards to mix in, or like Ecosystem, another box to play with and vary up the scoring as a standalone game. But that is my concern right now.

Do you like Forest Shuffle?

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The question is, what can make a game stand out, and how much does a game need to stand out?

Does Your Board Game Need to Stand Out?

The answer in my opinion is that it does. Though standing out can mean a number of different things. You need a game that immediately catches your eye with the box. This could be bright and flashy, or it could match the type of game that people expect for it. Euro games often don’t have the most striking boxes, but you know what is in them.

But generally, you want something that stands out on a shelf. If you can get someone to pick your game up off the shelf and look at the back, that is step one. And that might be enough to get a number of sales for the game.

The next part of this question is do you need to stand out with game play and components, and what does that even mean? The short answer, as we’ll dive into what it means coming up, is that maybe you need to stand out. Not all games need to stand out, but you need to match the standards expected. Beyond that, you can certainly help your game with both of those.

What Can Make Your Game Stand Out?

Theme

For me the first thing that I think of is theme. If your theme is different, not only will the box probably catch my eye, but also it’ll keep me around to see how that game works. But it isn’t just that, it is also for more standard themes. If you do a fantasy game, how do you not fall into the trope of fighter, rogue, wizard, cleric? Or if you are doing a space game, how is it not Star Wars?

Examples

First Rat

First Rat never would have caught my attention except for the theme. And even then, with the company the game is coming from, I have nothing really against them but their games don’t catch my attention, I wouldn’t have been that interested. But the theme of a rat building a rocket ship to go to the moon meant that I’d be willing to try it.

And I am glad that I did, but that’s not really the point. The point is that you took a game with basically some resource gathering and victory points and put a weird theme on it. And when I got into the mechanics, I realized that I really enjoyed the game. The theme definitely helps. If this were just pushing up a track to get resources to trade at a Medieval market, I would be less interested.

Gloomhaven

Gloomhaven is an example of a theme that is pretty common. It is fantasy. But Isaac Childres built a world that is completely unique to Gloomhaven. The characters are all different and it feels like no fantasy that has been done before.

But it also doesn’t feel like it’s trying to be that. Let me give an example, theoretical, of how this works. It has characters who can heal, but they aren’t the cleric. It has better tanks, but they aren’t a barbarian for a fighter. Each of them does something that feels different than your classic D&D tropes. And it does that without making itself too confusing or convoluted. A lot of fantasy games go with grand fantasy names and a backstory that doesn’t matter that much.

ISS Vanguard

ISS Vanguard is a game that actually isn’t in my hands yet. It will be soon, but it isn’t yet. This does fall into that epic space game. But it isn’t so much the good versus evil that you end up with in Star Wars. It probably is closer to a Star Trek where there is more exploration.

But what feels different about this one is that exploration. You travel throughout this galaxy or area that you’ve decoded a signal to. The call is making you want to know more, but the directions are less clear. ISS Vanguard is all about exploring space and figuring out everything that is going on. Plus maintaining your ship, keeping crew happy, everything like that as well.

Etherfields

Etherfields is very much a world that is completely different than anything out there. A world where you dive into your dreams and nightmares and are exploring. This would again fall under fantasy, but in such a different way than your standard high fantasy settings or epic fantasy settings like Lord of the Rings.

Etherfields pivots a long ways away from the standard which I think is good. It is going to draw people in because it feels completely different. It doesn’t need to walk that line of fantasy that we know and the fantasy that it is. Being it’s own thing so completely means that it doesn’t need to build off of anything that we know.

Components

Components are another way that you can stand out. This could be a mountain of plastic minis, it could be amazing nature artwork, it could be a volcano. Whatever it is, when you flip over to the back of the box and see it, it catches your eyes. Some of these fall into the next category, the Gimmick, so I’ll talk about those then. But there are plenty of games that stand out because of the pieces that they have in the game.

Examples

Wingspan

Wingspan is an easy one to put on the list. Firstly, there is all of the amazing artwork. This is an example of a cover that immediately draws you in. But going along with that, it isn’t just on the cover. All the cards show off Beth Sobel’s artwork. And all of the birds are different, so there is a ton of artwork. Then you add in the eggs and the bird house dice tower. The game gives you great components.

Century: Golem Edition

Century: Golem Edition is another one that gives you amazing components. I wanted to come up with a game that has metal coins in the box, and Century does. And I could talk about the artwork here as well. But the artwork isn’t the other component that immediately draws you in. In Century Golem Edition you are collecting games. And the game pieces are vibrant and fun tactilely to play with. Collecting those and trading them around really makes the game stand out.

Marvel United

Finally, I mentioned minis, so if you want a game with a lot of minis, Marvel United is a way to go, especially if you backed the Kickstarter. Chibi minis might not be everyone’s style, but I enjoy them. And I think for a light, family weight, easily accessible board game, they work great. So if you get everything, you can play as whatever hero you want. And for a fan of the IP, that is easy for me to want them all.

Mechanics

Let’s not overlook mechanics. There are a number of games that come out with a mechanic that just feels different. Some of these again border on gimmick, but they are important to the game, and generally not the only game that uses them. But a slight twist on a mechanic can make a game stand out.

Examples

Cartographers

Cartographers does two things that I think make it unique for a roll and write game. The first is not totally unique to it. But the idea of how it scores. You score two things for spring, then one of those things and a new thing for summer. But when you get back to winter, you score one of your objectives from sprint again. So you kind of plan out your scoring a little bit as you go. And not everything scores every round. But also, you write on your opponents board as well as your own. When a monster comes out, you figure out the bad spot where to place it.

Gloom

Gloom is another example of two things, neither which is highly unique, but still are enjoyable. In Gloom you try for the fewest points possible. That is fairly unique. You want your family to die the worst deaths with the most negative points possible. Gloom also uses transparent cards. So you layer on these negative effects on your own or positive on your opponents. You still see your character through the cards, and the negatives that you’ve played before. Other games do this, but I enjoy it a lot in Gloom.

Gloomhaven

Gloomhaven makes the list in a couple of different categories. But for mechanics, it’s all about that card play that you do. You pick two cards to play. One you will use the top half, generally an attack. The other you will use the bottom half, generally movement. But you want to pick with flexibility. Because the situation at the start of a round, as monsters and other players go, might not be the same at the end of the round. Plus, it is just a dungeon crawl without chucking a handful of dice.

Gimmick

Another way is by a gimmick, and this is kind of the last one. Gimmicks in board games can be great, or they can hide the fact that there might not be much game there. So a gimmick can be a bit of a risk. There are three games I can think of passing on because I wasn’t sure about the gimmick in them. Two haven’t fulfilled yet from crowdfunding. The other one I backed the second time it was on there.

Examples

Canvas

Canvas uses that clear cards, something that I put in as a mechanic. But it is also a gimmick, one that is needed for some games. In Canvas, it is needed for the mechanics of the game as you try and layer symbols to complete pictures and score points. It also creates really wild pieces of artwork which counts for a lot as well. At least in terms of the fun of the game.

Potion Explosion

Position explosion on the other hand is really a toy piece in the game. A little chute that drops marbles down into a tray in different columns or paths. Then you pull out the marbles trying to get like colors to hit and collect those. And you put them on potions to make those positions. The whole thing of the game is there there is toy factor, but the game has a lot of fun game play as you combo potions you’ve made into being able to complete more potions.

Ice Cool

I probably could have put only dexterity based games on the list, but that isn’t fair. By their nature they tend to have more of a gimmick and more of that toy factor to them. Ice Cool, though, really stands out as having a gimmick to it because the boxes are the board. You take off the lid and there are more boxes inside. You put them together in such a way that you have a school. It is unique and fun.

Final Thoughts

Anything you can do to get a game noticed is probably not a bad thing. Though, some companies take it too far. It is important to put out a game first. But there are things that can be done, sometimes that are ignored, to make a game stand out more. And get more people to pick it up off a shelf to try and play it. That is really the most important first step is getting it in front of the people who will be interested.

What are some things that have made a game stand out to you? Any games that had the perfect packaging but then were a dud?

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124-101

100 – 76

Unplayed Board Games 75 -51

75: HEXplore It: The Forest of Adrimon

Yes, this moved up slightly. Mainly because I missed it and I didn’t want to go back and adjust it a few spots. But I do think it could be higher. HEXplore It is an adventure style game, so one that I think I’ll like. And the Forest of Adrimon is supposed to be one of the easier to get into. It has some feel like another game that will be on another list in that it’s an RPG but a board game.

74: Formula D

Racing games, I’ve really been digging them lately. And in general I’ve liked them. I have TItans Race which I enjoy as a silly racing game. And Downforce which is amazing for racing and betting. But Formula D is the most involved and I really want to give it a whirl. I think doing something that simulates racing a bit more might be cool, though possibly slower in terms of game play.

73: Arkham Horror 3rd Edition

I am surprised how far down Arkham Horror 3rd Edition is. I like Arkham Horror 2nd Edition but I got rid of it because it is too long. So I suspect I’m going to like this version of it as well, and a shorter play time. So I need to get it to the table. But I think because it is familiar and because I have games like Arkham Horror The Card Game and Mansions of Madness, I feel like I might not need to play this as soon,

72: Fireball Island: The Curse of Vul-Kar

I bought this one when it was cheap at Target. Well, the price hasn’t changed, but the version of the game now at Target is a cheaper one, and I think smaller. This is when shipping was backed up so Target bought a bunch of Restoration Games’ stock. This is going to be a good and silly time. But I just need to find the time to play it. I don’t think game play will last too long for it.

71: Everdell

Everdell for a lot of people, I’d guess, is higher on the list. I know this is a well loved game, and the tableau and engine building it looks to offer seems great. Plus then the artwork is amazing on the game. I definitely notice that I’m a big fan of engine building games, and ones where they have some of those more euro mechanics to them as well. It’s lower for me just because it is a bit less thematic.

70: The Table Is Lava

This is a silly game. The Table Is Lava has you throwing cards onto the table, placing down meeples to get points. But when you throw you try and knock down other peoples meeples which is hilarious to me. I’m going to turn off the fan in the game room when I play this one because that might interfere with throwing cards. Should just bust this one and have a good time with it some game night.

69: Star Wars: Unlock!

The last of the escape room style games that I own. It’s higher than the Lovecraftian themed one just because of theme and being three games in one box. My wife and I need to play these because we both like Star Wars. And after the Olympics and before Moon Knight comes out, it’d give us something to do for a few weeks. I’ve heard they aren’t too challenging, but it’s still Star Wars, so I’m sure it’ll be fun.

68: Cockroach Poker

And a small game in Cockroach Poker, this is almost a classic filler game, if not one, at this point. You either tell the truth about the card you pass or you lie. And you don’t want to get sets. If you call the persons bluff and they were telling the truth, you get the card. If you can call and they were lying, they get the card. Or you can peek at it and pass telling the next person who you think it is. Clever idea, seems like it should be fun with the right groups.

67: Drawn to Adventure

By the name Drawn to Adventure might sound like a roll and write, and it is a roll and write. It’s about adventuring the best that you can. And you do it over several maps. The production is great, but one thing keeps it down the list a bit. The several maps makes me wonder how long the game will take. If it’s interesting enough, it being a bit longer won’t be bad, but we’ll have to see.

66: Matcha

This is a little card game that I don’t know a ton about. But I like the tea theme and I like the aesthetic. So why so high on the list? It seems to do some things that I like, and it’s a two player game. That makes it easier to get to the table. I like set collection and hand management. It’ll be interesting to see how the bluffing works.

65: Mariposas

A couple games about butterflies on the list, but only one on this section. Mariposas is about generations of butterflies flying up north and then returning back to the south for the winter. I like the idea and it’ll be interesting to see how it goes over. The pieces are solid and the mechanics seems simple enough. It’s more about the puzzle of getting as far north as you can but then being able to go fast south again.

64: Tannhauser

A grail game for me, Tannhauser is lower on the list, just because I think it might take me a bit to learn. But I love the World War II theme of it, plus a bit of a weird world setting as well. Plus, it’s another game that Sam Healey was a big fan of, and like I said, his and my tastes generally match pretty well. It’s hard to find, though, because it’s out of print, so I’m glad to just own it.

63: Air, Land, and Sea

A little lane battling two player card game. I actually have this one sitting at work waiting to get played. Probably will happen next week. It’s a short little game where you deploy out troops to try and win three different theaters of war, air, land, and sea. I don’t know that it’ll be my go to two player game, but it’d be nice to have on in the mix.

62: Shakespeare

A Euro game at the middle of the list, Shakespeare is about putting on a play. You do different rehearsals, build sets, get actors, and get costumes to do the best performance possible. It’s been in my collection for a while, but I don’t want to get rid of it. Even with the fact it’s a euro, I like the theme a lot. And I( think that it’ll be a puzzle that works for me.

61: Foodies

Foodies is one of three games that I own where you roll dice and everyone can do something. Space Base, higher on this list, and My Farm Shop, already played, are the other two. I previously have owned Machi Koro, and I want to buy Machi Koro Legacy when I have a group for it. It’s a mechanic that I like, but will Foodies beat out My Farm Shop? And could Space Base beat out both of them?

60: Papillon

Another butterfly game, and this one is higher, slightly because the aesthetic is cooler. Plus, I like some of how the game works. You build out different patches of flowers, trying to close them off then place butterflies on locations And those locations are an area control/majority battle. So the game seems really cool and offers different areas to focus on for strategy. Diversify across all flowers to get some points in a lot of spot. Or go for a lot of points in a few spots.

59: Valor & Villainy: Minions of Mordak

This is another one versus all game like Descent. But this one is newer and I’m getting the campaign or legacy version of this via Kickstarter with Lludwick’s Labyrinth. I do want to try this version as well as both the villain and the heroes and see how it plays. Mechanically I think it is interesting and I like the leveling up that you do in just a single scenario.

58: Flick of Faith

Two dexterity games now in a row. Flick of Faith reminds me a bit of Sonora, but just with flicking being the focus of it versus the roll and write aspect. You flick discs trying to get control of certain spots. And you have bigger discs that are harder to knock out of the way. And then there are god powers that change up how you play the game each round.

57: Rhino Hero Super Battle

The other dexterity game is about stacking. Three on this section of the list with The Table Is Lava. And this one definitely needs the fan off as you try and be at the top of the tower, or at least the highest up when it topples over. Unless, you knock it over, and then everyone else wins. Simple game, but I like simple and fun dexterity games.

56: Doodle Dungeon

Doodle Dungeon is a roll and write game, but the biggest box I have, well, up there with Sonora, and I own the Railroad Ink big box. But this is a dungeon crawling or creating game, which I think leans into the Boss Monster side of things. We aren’t the heroes, we’re the monsters in the dungeon trying to stop heroes. I need to look into this one more, but I think it’s going to feel like a much bigger game than a normal roll and write.

55: The Bloody Inn

A game with a morbid theme but one that seems like a lot of fun. In The Bloody Inn, you run an inn. But you find out that it’s more lucrative to kill off the people staying there, hide their bodies, and take their money. Who can do that the best, and will the police crack down on you? Card game but one that the theme while morbid is also funny.

54: Wingspan

Wingspan is not a game that I thought I’d own. But a friend got an extra copy, so we traded games. And I do think that I’ll like Wingspan. It’s a tableau building game about bird watching. That theme isn’t that interesting to me, but everyone seems to love the game. Family weight plus game, it might work well for a lot of groups. I am excited to try it for that reason.

53: Welcome To New Las Vegas

Another roll and write, we have four on this chunk of the list, one more to come. And Welcome To New Leas Vegas is a harder. That’s kept it on my shelf. One thing that I like about it’s predecessor Welcome To, is that it’s easy to play. I can teach that game to basically anyone. But will this one be too hard for my group. I need to try it and see.

52: Welcome to Dino World

The other roll and write is Welcome to Dino World. I like the idea of a dinosaur park. I didn’t grow up watching Jurassic Park and the sequels, but the concept is still fun. This one looks like a good time and you can have dinosaurs escape which every good dinosaur park should have happen. Because I’ll never ask if it should be done, just if it can be.

51: Camel Up

Final game is another racing game. Camel Up is kind of a classic at this point in time. Mainly because the game is goofy. You bet on who wins and the earlier you bet on it, the more you can win. But it’s hard to know who can win. The camels, as they race, stack. And the camel on top is in the lead. But if a camel on the bottom moves, they move the stack. So a camel can get lucky, move up to land on someone and then bound ahead again when that came moves.

Final Thoughts

We definitely had a few bigger games this time. And four roll and writes. But we’re still not to the big ones yet. The top 25, for sure, will be a lot of big games. And I do think that the roll and writes will be played on this section of the list. Plus some of the games like Matcha and Air, Land and Sea should be easy to get to the table.

Which game would you want to play on this section of the list? Which one should I play first?

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This is going to be a list article, with all my unplayed games ranked. But before I dive into that, I want to talk about some of the terms that I just used. Mainly shelf of shame and shelf of opportunity. They are the same term phrased in different ways. Let’s dive into them and then the big list of games to play.

Shelf of Shame vs Shelf of Opportunity

This is a term that I’ve heard thrown around for a few years now. The idea that games on your shelf have this title. First off, I think this is kind of silly. Games that you haven’t played don’t have a special spot in existence. Now, maybe they do have a special spot on your shelf, but they aren’t held in any sort of light. They are just a board game.

But the first term I heard is Shelf of Shame. The idea behind this is that you feel bad since you haven’t played all your games. This is silly. I go back to my talk about collection versus a hobby. Know what you have on your shelf. For me, board games are a collection and a hobby. That means it’s fine to not get to every game quickly. They are part of my collection. But I play them, as they are part of my hobby as well, and hobbies get used or worked on.

Then came the term Shelf of Opportunity. Shelf of Shame is very negative, and opportunity sounds much better. But I, again, find this not much better. Yes, they are games that you play eventually. And yes, it spins it in a positive light. But both terms keep a focus on the fact the games aren’t played.

What Do I Call Them?

I call them what they are. Board games to be played. A board game is just an object. In labeling them either way, it places power on that object. Yes, one puts it in the light of a game being an opportunity for something new, and new exciting opportunities are good. But it leaves the pressure on actually playing the game.

Like I said, I play games. I buy games. Board Games are a collection and a hobby for me. I own games that might take a long time to get played. Campaign games where I play one at a time or two, and I am already playing two. Those wait for when I have time, and that is okay. I feel like the label places a cloud, no matter what label, over the games, and in the end of the day, games are just games.

If I never play a game in my collection and it collects dust for five years. I shouldn’t feel bad about leaving that opportunity out there. I most definitely shouldn’t feel shame. It is a game and I play games. So I play other games and not the game that is sitting there. I am still enjoying the hobby without playing every game I own.

So Why Write This Out?

I gave myself a challenge at the beginning of the year. Not because I feel guilt about games that I haven’t played. But because it is fun to play games. And I want to play games, I want to experience new games, and I want to cover new games.

For me, my challenge isn’t to get all the games off the shelf. It isn’t because I feel like I miss out on an opportunity. And I care not about shame from it. For me it’s about trying new things and almost making a game out of it. If I don’t make it by the end of the year, I don’t care. I play these for fun.

Unplayed Board Game List

Let’s Talk About the List

124 Games on it, and my goal is to get it down below 100 by the end of the year. You add in a bunch of Kickstarter games coming in, and you can see why it is a big list and also a challenge. And of course, then, there are campaign games on the list. If we look at campaign style games, I think we’re sitting at 14 on the list. And that is a lot of games to play through a campaign of, so that isn’t going to happen. Though, with Sleeping Gods coming off the list to start the year, it will some over on Malts and Meeples.

There are also some kids games on the list. Right now, I don’t think I will play those this year. Monza looks fun, but the toddler isn’t quite ready for it. But the toddler is also three, so who knows, maybe by the end of the year, we can play those games a bit more. But right now I’m not expecting to.

I also think it’s important to note that a lot of big games are at the top. Those are the ones that I’m most excited to play and cover. And some of them should be getting played soon. Probably after this weekend I’ll be lining up a time to get started playing Roll Player Adventures.

To go along with that, there are a lot of solo games as well. I could play, in the top 20, around 75% of them solo and some of them are solo only games. So I need to start knocking those out first, because they are high on my list. That won’t be how I get under 100, though.

Final Thoughts

I think that it is fine to challenge yourself to play your unplayed games. I think it is fine to limit how many unplayed games you own. When that becomes the focus or the obsession, I think that is when we start to lose the focus on what we are doing. Or when tie to it other emotions, like shame.

When I see people post about clearing their shelf of shame, I am sure it feels good for them. But on the flip side, in the comments, you see people feeling guilty about their unplayed games. I am not that way. I don’t feel guilt over that. And you shouldn’t either.

This is an odd article, I wanted to talk more about the games, and I will soon. But before I could do that, I think it is import to talk about the shame or guilt that can be thrown around in the hobby. Not always intentionally malicious but always harmful.

Also, let me know what game you think I need to try first. What is your favorite on the list that I have too low, or that you know I would like or should try?

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The Collection

Numbers

A’s – B’s – C’s – D’s – E and F’s – G and H’s – I, J and K’s – L’s

M’s

Mage Knight Board Game

This is one of the most popular solo board games out there, which is why I picked it up when I could used. This is not the ultimate edition that has all the expansions, just the base game. From what I know of it, it’s a quite heavy game made even heavier by a fairly poorly written rule book and a tutorial that kind of tries to teach you the game but doesn’t do a great job at it, but it was a lot of things that I like, Deck building being one of them and it is said to have an RPG like feel as well. It’s one that I need to spend some time learning and get to the table.

Status: To Be Played

Magic: The Gathering

This was one of the games that kind of got me into modern board gaming again, or helped me diversify my gaming because the group that I joined in with. Magic is a good deck construction game that I don’t get to play all that often anymore. In fact, I sold off the majority of my cards, but I still had to keep a few decks around because I know that eventually I’ll play it again, especially Commander. I think I kept three or four commander decks around because that style of playing can be expensive, but you only need one of each card in the deck. And it allows you to deck build in more interesting ways.

Status: Played

Mansions of Madness: Second Edition

I like my Arkham games from Fantasy Flight, but Mansions of Madness: Second Edition is my favorite. The game play is really enjoyable as you are playing through an app guided scenario. Since it’s app guided, it means that the game will be different each time that you play it, or could be, which is a lot of fun as well. And the scenarios are really different, some have just trying to stop a summoning in a mansion while others have you running around trying to escape a town that’s been already taken over, and there’s a scenario with time travel as well. Fantasy Flight has done a lot of things with the game which gives it a lot of replayability.

Status: Played

Mariposas

Last years big hit of a game was Wingspan from Elizabeth Hargrave, and she followed it up this year with Mariposas. Mariposas is a game about butterflies and their migratory patterns, which doesn’t sound that interesting, but the game play itself looks very interesting. You push as far north as you can all while sill needing, in the last season, to get all the way down to warm weather again to score more points. So it’s a push and pull of which objectives you want to get and which ones might be worth passing on because of how you’re set-up. It seems like clever game play and is an interesting theme, though not the only butterfly themed game that I have.

Status: To Be Played

Marrying Mr. Darcy

Sometimes you just want to play a light filler game about finding your ideal suitor in Jane Austen’s classic Pride and Prejudice. And sometimes you mix in the undead expansion if you want to play Pride, Prejudice and Zombies. This game is one that my wife actually picked up on Kickstarter, and it’s been a hit at the table. The game, I will say overstays it’s welcome a little bit considering how simple it is, but it does always provide good laughs as you try and set-up your best match and hope not to end up an old maid. The humor in the game is solid as well, it is just a bit too long for what it is.

Status: Played

Marvel Battleworld

Marvel Battleworld is kind a game. In a lot of ways it is more collectible than anything else, but not really being collectible. You are rolling dice to defeat enough locations before Thanos gets them. But the game is mainly about these Thanos Stones, something made up for the game, which are basically just a blind bid pack. You crack them open when you beat a Thanos Stone location and you have a new hero that you can play with. The heroes do look great, and the game play is meant for kids, so it’s not a knock on it, it’s about getting you to buy more packs for the kids in hopes that they get their favorite character, like frog Thor or cat Captain America. And there are rarer packs to sucker in the adults. But it’s a fun five minute little game thing, which is what it looks like.

Status: Played

Marvel Champions

Continuing the run on Marvel games we have the game that if I split it up into expansions as well, it could have been it’s own post. Marvel Champions is a deck construction card game where you are taking a hero up against a villain in a scenario, or multiple heroes in multiplayer. This is another Fantasy Flight game and is a living card game, which means that they are releasing new things for it all the time. I have 11 expansions for it, but you don’t need them all, or really any, there is a lot to play with in the base box, and after that you can just pick and choose your favorite heroes to get. What I really like about this game is that you go back and forth between your hero and alter-ego side, so Spider-Man and Peter Parker, for example. If you are in the Peter Parker form, the bad guy won’t attack because they don’t know who you are, instead they’ll scheme a way. But on the flip side, they attack and scheme less, so you need to balance it out so that you can beat them.

Status: Played

Marvel United

The final Marvel game on my list, this one is a simple cooperative game (all the Marvel games are cooperative). But Marvel United has amazing Chibi figures. This game has a ton more expansions coming with it sometimes in 2021, but just the base game is enough to get started with. This is a very straight forward game of dealing with a bad guy who is scheming away. But it has a really cool twist. On your turn you play down a card and use it’s actions and the ones from the card played before you. So it is that super hero team-up feel that people think of from the Avengers films.

Status: To Be Played

The Mind

The Mind was everywhere last year. It was a simple game that showed up and was very polarizing. Some people consider it less a game and more of an activity while other people say it’s a great game. For me, it’s an okay little bit of filler. In the game you play down cards in ascending order, not that tricky. But you can’t speak, so you have to be in everyone else’s head trying to guess what they have and wait it out before you play. I’ve only played The Mind a little bit, and I don’t need to play it that often. It’s an okay sitting around and drinking game, but overall just an okay time and it will fall flat at times.

Status: Played

Munchkin: Zombies

If you asked a lot of people what some of their first games to get into board gaming were, I’d expect a lot of people to say some version of Munchkin. I played base Munchkin first, but the version I got was Zombies. In Munchkin, you are kicking down doors and fighting monsters while everyone one else is trying mess you up. The game is very much a take that game and for that reason isn’t going to be for everyone and really isn’t even for me anymore. I keep it on the shelf because it is a good introductory weight game, and nostalgia at this point.

Status: Played

Alright, that’s all of the games that I own which start with M. There are a number of them, though not as many as starting with L. What is your favorite game that starts with the Letter M? What game should I add to my collection starting with M?

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So the question, then becomes, how do you buy games and not end up getting a bunch of games that you don’t like and then you either have to sell them through something like Facebook Market Place, or you sell them to your FLGS, or give them away to a friend who might like them better.

I’ve written on this topic before, but I think that it’s one that is worth coming back to and that deserves a bit more of a deep dive into it. Because there are a number of things that you can do to determine what games might interest you, and while this might only be a couple of parts, I do want to spend the second part talking about some of the online resources that I use to figure out and what I really enjoy about them.

Beyond those online sources, I’ll talk about that a lot in the next article about the reviewers, actual plays, game teachers, etc. that are really good, there are plenty of other ways to narrow down what games you should purchase.

#1 – Play Games

Now, this one is a catch-22, I realize that. You can’t play games if you don’t have games but that might mean you’re getting games that you don’t like. Thankfully, if you’re in a bigger town/city, a lot of FLGS have either demo games, rental games, or a game library. Play different types of games there, see if you can demo a game that you’re interested in. If that doesn’t exist as an option for you, if other people in your area have some games, play those. This does two things for you, if you play something or demo something that you’re interested in, you’ll be able to determine if you like the game for buying, but that’s a fairly specific situation and it might be that you can’t demo or play a game. But playing games also helps you know what you like. Maybe you like Ascension as a deck building game, but Clank! In! Space! was too complex for you. Now you know that you like the lighter more streamlined deck building game. Playing more games helps you get a better idea of what you look for in a game and what parts of the game that you really like. In the Ascension and Clank! In! Space! example, maybe you don’t like Ascension as well and you realize that deck building isn’t the part in Clank! In! Space! that you really like, it’s the push your luck or the combos or something else.

#2 – Ask For Advice
I’m going to give you three good spots for asking for advice. Your friends, FLGS, and BGG. First, ask people you know, they are going to know your taste the best. Also, they’ll know what they have, so everyone in the group doesn’t need to have Wingspan, for example, but if they know you like engine building games they might recommend something like Res Arcana for you to add. An FLGS is going to be able to help some as well, though they are going to know what is newer and hotter or what’s been on their shelf for a while. But if you get familiar with people at your FLGS, they should be familiar with your tastes and they should ask questions and be able to give advice. So for example, if you say that you like engine building games, they should be able to give you some options. Finally, BGG (Board Game Geek) is useful as well. Not only can you use it for rating games and showing people what you like for them to help give you advice, but it has a built in recommendations feature. For example, going to Wingspan will give you some things like Welcome To.. and other games. Now, the returns are diminishing because your friends will know you best.

#3 – Online
Now, I’m going to talk about who I really like online coming up here, but I want to talk about a few different things that are useful online. First, there are rules videos. These teach you how to play the game. But it also shows you the components and too often the back of board game boxes don’t really tell you enough about how a game works. There are also actual plays, play through of whatever board game it might be. These tend to be a whole lot longer, because you’re literally watching someone play the game. Whereas with the rules overview you get an idea of how the game theoretically works, and actual play will show you in great detail, if you can sit through it. Finally, there are reviewers as well. A lot of them go over some of how the game is played and how it feels to play the game before they give their thoughts. Unlike the other two, this one has much more of a subjective nature to it. So going from rules videos to actual play to a review you’re getting more and more subjective. However, the other two can be much drier than a review, so often reviews give you a better feel and in a shorter amount of time than an actual play.

Those are going to be the top three pieces of advice that I have for buying board games, and figuring out which ones you’d like. I’m going to come back to #3 – Online, next week to talk through various sites and content creators that can be useful when thinking about what you might like. How do you generally pick what game to buy?

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