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

What Roll and Write Games Do I Own?

Two lists like every time. We’re talking of course, played and unplayed. It’s less likely that an unplayed game is going to be leaving the collection without having been tried first.

Played

• Welcome To…
• Cartographers
• Ganz Schon Clever
• Yahtzee
• Long Shot: The Dice Game
• Twilight Inscription
• Welcome to the Moon
• Railroad Ink
• Fleet: The Dice Game
• Doppelt So Clever
• Three Sisters
• On Tour
• Paper Dungeons
• Super-Skill Pinball: 4-Cade
• Bargain Basement Bathysphere
• Clever Hoch Drei
• Metro X
• Trek 12: Himalaya
• Sonora
• Super Mega Luck Box
• My City: Roll & Build
• Clever 4Ever
• The Isle of Cats Explore and Draw
• Patchwork Doodle
• Criss Cross
• Knister
• Delicious
• First Class Letters
• Mind Space
• Doodle Dungeon

Unplayed

• Hadrian’s Wall
• Dinosaur Island: Rawr ‘n Write
• Silver & Gold
• Get on Board
• Sagrada Artisans
• Welcome to Dino World
• Riverside
• Kokoro: Avenue of the Kodama
• Motor City
• Cascadia Rolling Rivers & Rolling Hills
• Pioneer Rails
• Fliptown
• Arabella
• Merchants of Magick: A Set A Watch Tale
• French Quarter
• Zombicide: Gear Up
• Boomerang
• Number Drop
• Vengeance: Roll & Fight
• Lantern Dice
• Astra

Unplayed Games

This list is massive for both played and unplayed. I’m not 100% sure that I own all the ones still that I have yet to play. In particular I think Arabella might have left the collection as might have Number Drop and Kokoro. But looking at that list, is there anything where I think it should just leave? The only one that jumps out at me is that I don’t think I need both Rolling Rivers and Rolling Hills. From what I know they are basically the same game.

There are a few others that I’d want to get played on the list to see if they stay. Those are the ones that I mentioned that I might not have still. Also Boomerang is another one that I need to see about. It looks like a simple little game so that begs the question of if I need to keep it. Getting all these little roll and writes is easy, but often times they need a more limited player count, which means that for game nights even though they are easier to learn games they are hard to get played.

Played Games

So what on that massive list is at the danger of going away. And I think there are a number of them that fall into that category of maybe are similar to other games.

Easy Leaving

In particular I think of games like Metro X, while it’s not too similar, it’s not a game that feels that different any time that you play it. And while I’ve enjoyed it, it’s been in my Top 100 Games in the past, it’s also something that is a less appealing on future plays. Bargain Basement Bathysphere is another one that is going to be going because it’s fine but I have played it.

Another one that might be a surprise is Welcome to the Moon. I thought it is a fun game when I played it and streamed it. But as a campaign game, I now feel like there is only so much interest in going back to it. I haven’t even gone back to it recently on Board Game Arena. And Welcome To… is more fun with the same main mechanism.

I also think that Twilight Inscription is leaving the collection as well. This is one where it could stick around because it is really different. But honestly I don’t want to teach it to someone. And I don’t want to learn it again. I really had a lot of fun with it at Gen Con and if someone is up for teaching me again I gladly will play. But at the same time, it’s that category of I don’t want to do that.

Easy Staying

There are a handful that are staying for sure, games like Railroad Ink, Cartographers, Sonora, Fleet, Three sisters, and Paper Dungeon are all games that I love. And with them also all of the “Clever” games. Yes, they are similar in some ways but they are different in other ways. So that is going to keep them around, plus I like them for that combotastic nature.

Isle of Cats: Explore & Draw is another one where it make it easy to keep. In fact it might be so easy to keep that it spells the end for Isle of Cats. But I want to play that one again at a higher player count. Because I like a lot of elements of the game. I think at two it is possible for it to just get out of balance score wise pretty quickly.

Questioning

So that leaves a handful that are in that questioning range. Some of them like Trek 12, Knister, and Criss Cross I know I like and are going to be kept as well. It is just less of an emphatic keep. Same can be said for at least some of Super-Skill Pinball: 4-Cade, though I might have sold expansions already and Super Mega Lucky Box.

The ones that I’m really thinking about right now are Delicious, Mind Space, On Tour and My City: Roll & Build. With all of them I enjoy the games. I think that Delicious is leaving because it is just simpler. Mind Space and On Tour are good, but in particular with On Tour it is not the best the score and I can always play it on my phone. So I think both of them are going to leave as well. And that leave My City: Roll & Build. I was through a campaign and half way through another. I think it goes because it is fun but I’ve played it.

What Roll and Write Games Do You Love?

Let me know your thoughts. Do you think that there are any of them that I should give another chance from what I’m talking about getting rid of. Just to recap that list:

• On Tour
• Mind Space
• My City: Roll & Build
• Delicious
• Metro X
• Welcome to the Moon
• Twilight Inscription
• Bargain Basement Bathysphere
• Cascadia Rolling Rivers or Rolling Hills

Send an Email
Message me on X at @TheScando
Visit us on Facebook here
Support us on Patreon here

Catch up on previous videos here

100 through 91
90 through 81
80 through 71
70 through 61
60 through 51
50 through 41

Top 100 Games (of all time) 2024 Edition – 40 through 31

40. Cthulhu: Death May Die

• Published by CMON in 2019
• Defeat a scenario and an Elder God before you are driven insane

Cthulhu: Death May Die is one of those great beer and pretzels games. Meaning that it’s pretty straightforward but mainly just a fun time. Who doesn’t like sitting around chucking a handful of dice, hoping you don’t go insane, and probably dying to whatever great old one shows up. The game gives you some story as well, but the biggest story elements are when you get that amazing roll right before you go insane, or when you can’t quite make it.

Buy Cthulhu: Death May Die

39. burncycle

• Published by Chip Theory Games in 2022
• The robots are on the run, can you sneak around and infiltrate the evil human corporations?

I love the theme on burncycle. There are games out there were the robots or something is taking over and the humans have to stop them. Here it’s the robots who are sneaking around and having to infiltrate. And I really enjoy how the system works. I like how you program out your actions and that chain of actions you can take degrades over time. So you need to balance changing it up to just wiping it. But if you wipe it, that pushes it closer to the corporation winning.

Buy burncyle

38. Sonora

• Published by Pandasaurus Games in 2020
• Flick your disk and score in combo-tastic ways

This is a roll and write game where instead of rolling you are flicking disks around. That is a fun little twist on a standard roll and write. And then your sheet where you are filling things in, it’s combo city. You work in one area and you almost always are getting a bonus for another area. And as you get further into the game the more you can stack those bonuses and chain into more bonuses. Yes, this game has luck with the flicking and you might be knocked out of where you want to be, but it’s good chaos and combo fun.

Out Of Stock

37. Comic Hunters

• Published by Spin Master ltd, Arcane Wonders, and Bucaneiros Jogos in 2020 and 2024
• Can you build out the most interesting and influential comic collection

Comic Hunters is a unique game in that it gives you a number of things to do, but it manages to use so many different ways of drafting. That is one of the coolest parts of the game, along with the fact that it’s all Marvel comic covers and characters. But you score for collecting different characters, a lot of a character, first appearances, first issues, epic fights or even more. And it’s a good game to teach as well because you teach how you get comics into your collection and then when each draft comes up you teach it then and only then.

Buy Comic Hunters

36. Sushi Go Party!

• Published by Gamewright in 2016
• Draft the tastiest collection of sushi and other yummy foods to score points

Another drafting game, but Sushi Go Party just does standard drafting. And I like how it works in this one. The variety in the game isn’t from the drafting but how everything scores. Some things like dumplings want you to get as many as you can, or then there is tofu where you want two, no more. And in Sushi Go Party you can really change up the different combinations of foods so that the drafting experience is different each round.

Buy Sushi Go Party!

35. Trek 12: Himalaya

• Published by Pandasaurus in 2020
• Climb mountains as you create sets and runs of numbers in different ways

This game might feel like a pretty standard roll and write game. The idea of creating a set or a run based off of what is rolled, that isn’t that odd. But how you get to your numbers is where the fun puzzle of the game comes in. You might add the numbers together on both dice, you might pick the lower number, etc. But you only pick each of those ways to get the number a limited number of times. So you need to be smart how you manipulate the dice and build out your mountain.

Buy Trek 12.

34. Marvel Zombies: A Zombicide Game

• Published by CMON in 2023
• Fight as zombies and take a bite of Marvels biggest heroes.

Based on a comic run, Marvel Zombies has you play as the zombie heroes who have been turned. You try and complete objectives before SHIELD and the other heroes can take you out. Or you can flip the table and play as heroes against zombies, the choice is yours. This is another great beer and pretzels game. You ride that edge of trying to push your hunger up so you can roll more dice, but not get too hungry so that you become a mindless zombie for a little bit just caring about getting brains.

Buy Marvel Zombies.

33. The Isle of Cats: Explore and Draw

• Published by City of Games in 2022
• Can you rescue the most cats and score the most points in this roll and write style game?

This is the better version of Isle of Cats. I enjoy Isle of Cats and I know there is a duel version coming out which might make it better again. But the Explore and draw version is just so much fun. I especially enjoy the method in which you fill out your boat. There are columns of cards, some with more cats and some with more scoring objectives. You decide which column to use, but if you take too many cats, sure you get some points, but you miss on the scoring bonuses. If you just grab scoring, well, not enough cats and you won’t score enough points. It’s an easy roll and write to learn with fun complexity.

Buy The Isle of Cats Explore and Draw

32. Sleeping Gods

• Published by Red Raven Games in 2021
• Explore a mysterious new lands, find totems and try and wake the gods.

This is an amazing sandbox game of exploring a huge world, finding out the mysteries of the world, all while trying to find totems and get back to your own world. I love how this game gives you a whole crew to play with, but each crew member is part of the ship moving around. So there are unique things people can do, but you decide and build out so much of that. And the artwork and story are just great for this game. I want to play the sequel and the small version soon as well.

Sleeping Gods is sold out, but you can get Sleeping Gods: Distant Skies here.

31. The Great Split

• Published by Horrible Guild in 2022
• Divide up riches and try and end the game with the best collection

I Split – You Choose is a mechanism I didn’t know that I’d love so much as I do. And The Great Split is just an I Split – You Choose game. You get a hand of cards that have different things like books, artwork, money, and you need to decide how to split them up. You split them into two and then you pass it to the person on your left. They pick one of the two sides and you get the other. You do the same thing with the cards you just got passed. Then you just collect, try and get contracts, and push up the tracks the best that you can. It’s a simple but very fun.

Buy The Great Split.

Upcoming Streams

Just a reminder on my streaming schedule. It’s not just all my Top 100 Games (of all time).

• Monday night, time varies, I play different small solo games, though I might be looking to start up a campaign again. And generally the streams do start between 8 and 8:30 PM central time.
• Wednesday at 9 PM central is going to continue my Top 100 Games (of all time) 2024 Edition for another six weeks. After that expect this to be when I play my small games. Only 5 more weeks left of my Top 100 Games, then likely this will switch to smaller solo games and video games.
• Friday at 9 PM central my wife and I are streaming a playthrough of Baldur’s Gate 3. Join us for the adventure of Nina and Kaerok and see what choices we make.

The best way to know when we go live, though is to subscribe and click that notification bell. I can’t promise, and in fact it’s pretty unlikely, that I’ll have events to click on ahead of time. Though I do want to get better at it. I hope that you can join a stream and hop into the chat. And let me know what games in this list are your favorite or that you want to try.

Send an Email
Message me on Twitter at @TheScando
Visit us on Facebook here
Support us on Patreon here

Top 5 Board Game Companies I Always Checkout

5. Awaken Realms

No surprise that Awaken Realms makes the list. They’ve made two games that I really like in Tainted Grail and ISS Vanguard. And while I did sell my copy of Etherfields, I am still regularly tempted to track it down and get a copy of it again. And I need to play my copy of Nemesis. Not all Awaken Realms games are for me. When they did STALKER, that one didn’t interest me. Or they do fancy versions of euro games, also not that interesting. But whenever they announce something new I’m curious.

Right now I’m waiting on Dragon Eclipse because it seems like a fascinating game that I really like the aesthetic of. And then they have a huge open world RPG type of game coming to crowdfunding later this year, also excited for that one. And they also have a one shot boss battler type of game with the Grimcoven as well, so many games that I’m intrigued by. Not always the cleanest games, but always something epic.

4. Chip Theory Games

Chip Theory is another one that makes a lot of epic games. But not with a lot of minis, instead with chips as the name suggests. I’m always intrigued by what they are putting out, though I rarely jump on their games right away. The only one I did right away was Elder Scrolls game that they have coming. And that was because it was a system that I knew already as it borrows from Too Many Bones.

But their games all offer something different and unique. And I also appreciate that almost all of their games can be played solo. One that I want to get to the table more after having an amazing time at GenCon playing it is Burncycle. I love the system of that game and the challenges of managing the burncylcle so that you can get the actions you want taken care of. It’s a tough balancing act of a game with a bunch of rules to learn to start, but not that bad when you get into playing it.

3. Open Owl Studios

Next up is Open Owl Studios and their games just really hit with me. Stars of Akarios has been one of my most fun gaming experiences with a big epic tactical space combat to getting down on planets and exploring the story. There are elements to that game that work so well for me. And then there is Mythwind a cozy game that feels like something different. It isn’t a game that I’ll binge all the time, but once that I will come back to a lot because it’s just easy to sit down and play. They call it a cozy game and it really is that.

Then there is Stonesaga their next one coming out. It helps, probably, that I know one of the designers. But he reached out to me because he knew it would be my type of game. And it really is. And I’m not sure what they have coming after that, there was just a reprint and expansion for Mythwind. But whatever it is, I trust that there will be a unique experience playing the game, because that’s what their games feel like to me.

2. CMON

Honestly, an odd one on the list, but I’m always paying attention to CMON. I could combine CMON and Steamforged here because I follow both of them for similar reasons. They both make beer and pretzel style games. Often that means grab a handful of dice and chuck them. But they also get a lot of interesting IP’s. CMON keeps on putting out Marvel games. And I know a lot of people will say it’s a cash grab. There is an element of that, but the games are also a ton of fun. Do I need all the characters and alternate sculpts, definitely not. But I want them, and like I said the games are a lot of fun.

CMON is also easier for  me to pass on. They revisit a lot of things. So when I hear something new is coming out, then I look to see if it matches something that I already have. And rarely do I replace it. Zombicide Undead or Alive go replaced by Marvel Zombies, but that’s because of the theme. I’d not replace Marvel Zombies with the newest Zombicide style game. I just pick the one that is best for me.

1. Pencil First Games

Finally we have the oddest one on the list. All the rest, easy to see what is similar. Big games, sometimes story and epic in nature. But Pencil First Games put out the first game that I crowdfunded and it’s a cute game. I got rid of my copy, but now they are putting out games that I really enjoy. Floriferous is the biggest, but then games like Skulk Hollow as well are great.

Why I’m always checking out Pencil First Games is that they tend to put a lot of interesting decisions into a package that isn’t too big or too complex. They are a company that is 100% on my radar for those games that are easy to travel with, easy to teach, but still really engaging. And while there are other companies who do that which I find their games interesting as well, Pencil First Games has a special place in my heart.

Honorable Mentions

Two honorable mentions, only. I thought about more, and maybe I should have done a Top 10. But the two are Cephalofair Games and Serious Pulp. I didn’t put them on the list because for both of them it’s a specific game line that I’m interested in. Obviously Gloomhaven, one of my favorite games. And you can see me playing The 7^th Citadel over on Malts and Meeples YouTube and I’m loving the game. But they have their lanes for their games and generally stick with them.

Who Do You Keep an Eye On?

Alright, a few more bonus board game companies. 25^th Century Games, Reggie Games, Indie Boards and Cards with Astro Knights and Aeon’s End, Roxley Games, though that’s mainly for Dice Throne, and Dire Wolf with their Clank games. And Thunderworks, probably should be a true honorable mention. Like I said, I could have done a top 10board game companies.

But let me know who you keep an eye on. I still even kind of keep an eye on Fantasy Flight Games. But for them it’s a bit more specific. I care about games in their Arkham Files line and if they do anything new with their IP’s like Marvel, Star Wars, or Lord of the Rings. They are a company that I wish I could keep an eye on more, but it’s been so hit or miss lately.

Let me know who it is for you down in the comments below. Is there a board game company that stands out?

Send an Email
Message me on X at @TheScando
Visit us on Facebook here
Support us on Patreon here

Top 5 Board Games of 2023

5. Trailblazers

Let’s start out with Trailblazers. This is a fun route building game as you create the pathways for hiking, biking, and kayaking out in the wild. Each of them needs to start and end at the rental or trailhead locations for their respective one. To get a biking trail you need to start and end at the biking trailhead, for example. And the question is how long can you get your various routes, because you can connect up to four trails to each trailhead.

Mechanically this looks like card drafting. You pick out two cards from your hand and then you add them to the trails that you want. Each of them has different overlapping routes so you can connect them in a few different ways. But, of course, these cards don’t only have a single type of trail on them, they can have multiple types. So can you get them laid out right, though, you can overlap nor to trail types need to match. For a full biking trail, though, it needs to only be biking path on that trail.

4. World Wonders

Next up in World Wonders from Arcane Wonders and actually a Brazilian company. World Wonders is a game about building up an ancient society and getting the conditions met to put a wonder on your board. Well, it’s a tile laying game where you need tiles arranged in certain ways to get cool wooden wonders which give you points.

I like this game a lot for it’s action system. In World Wonders you get money each round. And that money goes for buying roads or buying buildings, mainly. But the big thing you can buy with your money are the wonders. The wonders are one of the main ways that you get points. You do for surrounding tiles you’ve played as well, but it is mainly for the wonders. To get a wonder, though, it costs all of your coins. So however many you have left, that is going to be the cost. It’s a great question of when you are going to make the jump.

And I like the tile placement in the game. It’s fairly restrictive in how you can place them. You either need to play it next to a road or another tile. And wonders don’t count as tiles. So you need to think about how you’re placing everything. And how you can reduce gaps in your placements to try and get things surround. And the tiles also offer advancements, going up tracks. As you push up those tracks that can trigger the end of the game. Which is a nice alternate end.

3. Tesseract

Next up we have Tesseract, a game that I had an amazing time with at Gen Con. The group of people I played it with were a ton of fun. And Tesseract is the type of cooperative game that I really enjoy. It’s a cooperative game where each player has special powers. And that is something I very much like in games. But beyond that, it is a game where you can lose in multiple ways, much like Pandemic.

In Tesseract, you play as researchers who are studying a tesseract cube that came to Earth. And you need to solve it’s puzzle before it all disappears and, well, destroys the Earth. It’s a bit absurd and mainly mechanical. But it works on the Pandemic like system of do a number of actions and then bad things happen. How do you beat it? You need to place out one through six of four different colors of dice. To do that, you need to play it from a run or a set. It’s very mechanical that way.

But I still really like how it plays out. There is always pressure. And each player has their own special ability. What I am able to do on my turn is unique from what you can do. So you need to work together to get everything taken care of. And there are elements of the game, like trading dice, that do help with that. And I like that as you get closer to the end game and the game winning, but you complete columns of dice, let place all four fours, you get boosts to help you. It’s a really rewarding system.

2. Forest Shuffle

Next up we have Forest Shuffle another nature themed game. Forest Shuffle is one that I really grew to like at Gen Con and was really happy to get my hands onto it. It’s a tableau building card game of building out a forest. That’s the basics of it, you have a hand of cards that you balancing playing cards from and paying for those cards with cards from your hand, with drawing up more cards. I like that system.

Then the scoring itself is a real mixed back of what you can do for scoring. Almost everything you play down gives you points. You have the most trees in your forest, well, there is a card that scores points off of that. One of the birds scores points for the bugs you have, another for the diversity of birds, or a tree for how many of that tree you have. It’s a ton of points everywhere.

And I think it’s really clever how you get those point cards into your tableau. You play them around the tree cards. The trees each start their own separate little part of the forest and on each side you can play something out. But you are generally limited to one card per side. You are able to play out more, but only if the animal or card says you can. And each card you play next to a tree is split in two. You got a left or right or up or down. So if it’s split vertically it can only go on the top of the tree or bottom. And that covers up half the card which is clever.

1. Marvel Zombies

Finally, this is more the type of game that people think of when they think of the board games that I like. And it makes my #1 for that reasons, Marvel Zombies. Now, I don’t have the giant Galactus, but I wish that I did. It just costs so much money. But Marvel Zombies is a Zombicide game of dice chucking fun. In a normal Zombicide game you play as people fighting zombies. You can do that here, but the main draw and core box has you playing a zombies fighting heroes.

This game is a simple game in a lot of ways. It’s just going out and fighting zombies (or heroes/SHIELD agents) with some objective. And the more you take out, the more objectives that you get, the more everyone levels up. To do that you chuck a handful of dice, if you’re rolling a lot, and see if you hit. Or you move around a board and then, of course, you spawn more zombies.

Marvel Zombies is not a thinky game. There is a little bit of strategy to it, but not too much, it’s more about that fun of running into a room as the Hulk, rolling a bunch of dice, and smashing a lot of good guys. Or when a swarm of SHIELD Agents shows up with Thor either running away to try and complete an objective, or maybe taking in a whole team of zombies, everyone playing, and seeing what happens.

What Was Your Favorite from 2023?

Now, I think I could give a number of honorable mentions. But I am not going to do that because like I said, I plan to do the next five board games for 2023. I will say, I think that my big board games that I played in 2023, like the campaign game ones, all came out earlier. Often times, I find, that a big game comes out in a year, I get it and then it takes me a bit to get to it. But that’s why I do a Top 10 Campaign Game list sometimes as well as my Top 100 Games (of all time) each year.

There are a lot of great board games that came out in 2023. Which is your favorite? Is there one that you think I should try out?

Send an Email
Message me on Twitter at @TheScando
Visit us on Facebook here
Support us on Patreon here

Four Incoming Crowdfunding Games

Let’s go from little to biggest. The little ones, no issue fitting on the shelf, the biggest one, well, I’ll find a spot for it.

Fork

FORK is a little trick taking game, I believe, if I remember correctly, it stands for Fox, Owl, Rabbit, Kale. And that determines who wins the trick. Plus there is a terrain type, so if I have a creature, let’s say Owl, or the matching terrain type I beat one that isn’t.

It looks like a pretty simple trick taking game, but there was a twist that intrigued me, and more of a twist than just being the declared terrain type that sets up the trump suit. If I remember correctly, you might be able to block someone taking something if you played a Fox when they played a Fox. The foxes chased each other away or something like that I feel was the twist. I’ll have to see when it comes in.

Fliptown

Fliptown is going to be a roll and write (or flip and write) game where you are in an old west setting. The aesthetics of this one drew me in, especially because you determine what you do with playing cards. And each round three playing cards are flipped out. One of the cards, you choose, determine which of the boards you are on. Another the action you take, and the third the poker hand you’re building.

I like this idea of needing to think about these three areas. It adds in a bit of complexity to the game. And while it offers you more choices than Welcome To… does, at least with how you divide card actions, it offers a lot of choice like Welcome To… And I like the look of that in the game. Some roll and write games provide good choice, others, a bit less so.

Roll Player Adventures – Gulpax’s Secret

Now the one crowdfunding game on the list that is here already. A Roll Player Adventures expansion. If we hadn’t just started Vampire the Masquerade Chapters, I might be going back to this right away. But this is a whole new campaign for Roll Player Adventures with an updated rulebook. Though, compared to some games, I haven’t heard that this is a massive change to the rulebook, probably clarifying some.

This campaign takes place prior to the events of the main Roll Player Adventures. So that is always a bit of a question mark to me. How will it make you feel like you have choice and agency. It isn’t possible to do anything that’d affect the main game, unless they built that into it and you’d want to then replay the main game. So I hope that they do a good job of making it feel meaningful, but not like it’s undone what we’ve already done.

Marvel Zombies

Finally the monster among the group, zombies being the main monster in this game. Though from the zombies perspective the humans are monsters. This is a game that I got to play twice at CMON Expo and it was a great game both times. And I also got to win one time and then lose another time, so it wasn’t just an easy game.

I really like playing as the zombies and needing to take out bystanders and hordes of SHIELD agents who are trying to mess you up. And each superhero zombie has their own unique powers as well which I thought was fun. The progression of the game is great as well. It makes me wish that I’d backed it at the level with the giant Galactus.

But I also am glad that I didn’t. I got basically everything else except Galactus. I think there is a special character pack that I didn’t get. It was some specific artist and I thought, that looks fine but I don’t need it at that price. Even with not getting those things, it’s still coming in two boxes, and I mean shipping boxes. And those boxes will not be small, in fact they will be quite huge, so I need to find a good chunk of space.

Too Many Games, No Enough Space

Each of these games, I am excited to have come in. Some of them are going to be easier to get to the table than others. Marvel Zombies is going to be one of them that is harder. Or at least it is going to be harder to get all the content of that to the table just because there is so much content for it. And Gulpax’s Secret is going to be harder as well as a campaign game.

But FORK and Fliptown I hope to get to the table soon. And I realized that another game is getting close. It isn’t shipping yet, but Twenty Strong from Chip Theory Games just asked me to confirm my address. Since that happened, that is getting close as well. Maybe should have been a list of five games.

Which is the one that you’d want to play first?

Send an Email
Message me on Twitter at @TheScando
Visit us on Facebook here
Support us on Patreon here

Eagle-Gryphon Games

Tumbling Dice

This is one that has been on my radar for a long time and I wasn’t sure where to buy it. But it’s a cool looking, pretty big game, that is really simple. You take turns rolling a die down a track. And once everyone has rolled their dice, whatever dice are on there and the face they it is on determine how many points you get. Is it a serious game, not at all, but it looks fun.

And the further that you can roll it down the higher a multiplier you get. So if you have a 4 at the top it’s worth 4 times 1. If it’s at the bottom it’s 4 times 4. Of course, you might roll a one as well.

I went with the Tom Vasel method from the Dice Tower, too, I bought some roll playing dice sets. And I’ll probably make up some more as well. That way you aren’t just rolling 4 four sided dice. You can roll the full set of seven dice and get crazy numbers if a 20 lands on the times 4.

Miniature Market

This was over a couple of orders. Miniature Market did sales throughout the month of November, plus then Black Friday sales.

Imperium Legends

This was the one from the first order. It’s a solo game, or multiplayer that I’ve heard good things about. I mainly grabbed it because it was solo and I wanted to try it. I’m not sure it’ll be a solo game for me, because I’ve also heard okay things about Imperium Legends from some reviewers who I tend to match up with taste wise. But on a sale it was worth a try.

Dragonscales

Dragonscales is another one that I’ve heard some about and I’m not sold that it’s for me. But it was on a good sale and in this case it was the last piece to get to free shipping. It’s a push your luck game, and I am hoping to find one that works well for my group I do have Can’t Stop that I need to try as well. But Incan Gold worked okay, we just have some people that really like to push their luck.

Chronicles of Avel

Chronicles of Avel I’ve seen on shelves for a while, not like a super long time the game is pretty new, but every time that I see it, I want to buy it. It’s a lighter more family focused adventure game. And the artwork on the game looks amazing. And it’s supposed to be a lighter game, really good Board Game Geek rating, that gives you the same upgrading and creating characters to play, but for the whole family.

Paw Patrol Spot It

This actually was the main reason that the Black Friday order from Miniature Market happened. I have a kid who loves Paw Patrol, and Spot It is a game that he might not quite be ready for, but I would guess in the next six months we could start playing it. I think Spot It is fine, but to get a version that he’ll love and we can play together as a family, I’m all for that.

Ascension Gift of Elements

I’ve been eying this one for a long time as well, Gift of the Elements has been on sale a lot. I don’t think that I need to get all of Ascension, but I have two other expansions and I want to add this one into the mix. Why, because I think the stuff it can add in looks cool. Really what I’m noticing about Ascension right now is that I need to get it back to the table again. I really love it as a basic deck building game.

Journey Through the Radiant Citadel

And this is D&D adventure book. I don’t tend to buy those, but part of me is wanting to pick them up and grab story elements from my own campaign. Plus it was the alt art book cover. If this one doesn’t work for me, I can trade it in, or I can glean what I want from it and then trade it in. But in terms of adventures, the book seems more interesting than some.

Lone Shark Games

Thornwatch

I know Lone Shark Games for one game, Apocrypha. I actually forgot that they had made more. And this one is with Jerry Hawkins from Penny Arcade. It has solid ratings but again, it was really cheap, cheap to the point with very cheap shipping that it felt bad not to give it a go. I want to know if it has that Penny Arcade humor in the game and if it’s going to be a fit for me, because the cover and description make it look like something I should enjoy.

Snowdale Design

Lands of Galzyr

I blame, directly, Meet Me At the Table, YouTube channel for this one. He had a really good playthrough of one game, and this looks like a choose your own adventure big game, with fun tests and characters, that I love. And it doesn’t just look like that, but it also looks relaxing. A lot of the big games like it tend to offer big decisions and big consequences, whereas Lands of Galzyr offers you good choices but the stakes, at least early on, don’t seem as high.

Brotherwise Games

Call to Adventure: Epic Origins

I almost backed this one on the Kickstarter. And yes, ordering it later means that I missed out on some of the exclusives, but it was also cheaper. And I don’t care too much about the exclusives I missed out on. But I do want to get the game to the table, and I want to see what it adds in, as a standalone game.

Chip Theory Games

Too Many Bones + Tink Bundle

Too Many Bones and Chip Theory got me on this one. It is a good way to start building up the collection. I have Undertow. And I backed the last one that Gamefound that they had about a year ago for two new characters. Now I’ll have a ton of characters to play with and explore the weird world of Too Many Bones.

Amazon

Get on Board

I almost picked this one up at GenCon this year. iello brought it over to the US. But it’s a roll and write, sort of game. There is a main board where everyone is creating bus routes to pick up and drop off people. But you don’t want to overlap with other people and other routes because then you are creating traffic and slowing things down.

That is on a joint main board but then you each have your own board that you are filling in things on that are tracking who you pick up, points that you are getting and possibly other abilities. I like that it has roll and write elements but overlaps more.

Abyss

Abyss is one that I wanted to demo at GenCon, though maybe was a good thing I didn’t or I’d have been tempted to buy it then. Plus Abyss has great artwork, and I think I’d have been disappointed if I bought it when it came out because it looks so epic. The game itself is a smaller game in what you are doing and now knowing that, I think it’s the type of game that I’d enjoy.

Mansions of Madness Expansion

In this case, I finally decided to grab an expansion for a game that I love and is in my Top 10 Games of all time. This is just going to add in a little bit more that I can play, give some new tiles new characters things like that. Definitely makes me want to get Mansions of Madness to the table again though.

Dice Conquest

I thought, when I first looked at it that Dice Conquestjust looked like an okay game. And I suspect I don’t find it amazing but will find it fun, and for a game that I can play solo, I’m excited for that. I always want to find small footprint solo games, and Dice Conquest, while it can be multiplayer, is also small footprint for solo.

In this game you are rolling dice, you standard D&D combination of dice, and fighting off monsters, taking damage and trying to make it through the dungeon. Or at least I think of it was a dungeon, where you will then face off against the big bad guy. Each monster is a bit different, and the characters have unique powers, so it should offer fun repeated plays.

All Systems Go

Cascadia

Cascadia is one that I’ve known that I want to try. I actually went into my local game store not to get this game, but the used game I was interested in was already bought. And I have been wanting to try this one. I like Calico, from the same company, which has simpler game play but more punishing.

I am hoping that Cascadia is still easy enough and with the expanding board will work well for a nice relaxing and fun game to play. To me, I think I’ll enjoy that it has a good amount of variety as well. It might lack the tension that I’ll get from Calico but be more relaxing to play.

Thousand Year Old Vampire

I also grabbed this solo RPG book, Thousand Year Old Vampire. I’ve heard about a handful of times and a solo RPG just sounds interesting to me. You are a vampire and it is basically giving you prompts and things like that which you can answer. It might not be for me, it is mature in theme as you’d expect from a vampire, but I want to give it a try.

OOMM Games

Stars of Akarios Minis

Final item on the list is minis for Stars of Akarios. I love Stars of Akarios, and the standee ships are cool. But to have minis for them, for the enemies since your characters have minis already, is going to be awesome. It’s just going to make the board look more epic, and I’m not going to lie, I kind of want to get it back tot he table when it comes in.

Final Thouhts

It’s a lot of games coming in for sure. And some of them are already here. Plus some Kickstarter and Crowdfunding games that I’ve ordered are starting to come in. Mainly I had Tiny Turbo Cars show up a couple of weeks ago. And I just got confirmation that Zombicide Undead or Alive is on it’s way as well. Plus I know Frosthaven is shipping so there are a ton of games.

In fact, there are enough that I’m actually going through and rearranging my game shelf, sorting things again, and possibly finding some to trade away because I need to get more room on the shelf for everything. I’m disappointed though, I have some time off, and Ikea doesn’t have a 4×4 Kallax available, otherwise I’d run and get one of those to get even more shelf space to use.

Which game out of these would you try and get to the table first? I suspect the first might either be Get on Board or Tumbling Dice.

Send an Email
Message me on Twitter at @TheScando
Visit us on Facebook here
Support us on Patreon here

The $1 Crowdfunding Pledge

Let’s talk about the $1 pledge level. Why do I pledge at that level sometimes, and how often do I get more?

So what is a $1 pledge? It is basically a cheap way to get the updates on a Kickstarter campaign. With Gamefound you can follow along if you subscribe to it. But Kickstarter, is is $1 and often times it gives you access to the pledge manager as well.

The nice thing about a $1 pledge is that you don’t need all the money at once. If both Final Girl and Marvel Zombies run at the same time – they did – then you don’t need to give both of them a couple hundred dollars right at the same time. You back $1 now you can get one now and save up for the other one later.

But how often do I back for $1, once in a while, and I’d say maybe 2 out of the 6-7 that I did that with, I ended up adding in the pledge manager. One, for sure, that I did was The Witcher: Old World. And I believe there was another that I added. I don’t care enough, most of the time, to do $1 and get the updates.

The Drink

A Negroni again. It’s such a good drink, again a warm day and one that is nice to have on a day like that. But a good drink to have stuff around for. It is really one that I like to sip while grilling as well. On a hot summer day it is refreshing and with some ice in there, it doesn’t feel water down when the ice melts.

Upcoming Streams

Tomorrow I’ll be streaming, I think my plan is more Paper Dungeons. So join for some fun to play along. I’m still working my way through that campaign.

I talked about this on the stream, and maybe I’ll talk about it more tomorrow. But I am getting a gaming table with a topper. That will allow for me to leave a bigger campaign game set-up on the lower level and put the top on when I want to play something else. So once that comes, I am going to be getting back to streaming a larger game.

Send an Email.
Message me directly on Twitter at @TheScando
Visit us on Facebook here.
Support us on Patreon here.

Not Going To GenCon Before 2019

I’ve only been to GenCon once in 2019, though I guess I did the digital version 2021. And while the digital was fun, I’m really looking forward to getting back to GenCon this year. Even if the year isn’t fully normal. It is just such a good board gaming experience. And while I don’t need to get every game, I am excited to see new games always.

Not Backing Vampire The Masquerade – CHAPTERS

This is probably my biggest regret in terms of a game that I didn’t back. Mainly because I didn’t look into it that much. I saw Vampire the Masquerade and moved on from it. But the game looks amazing. Quackalope has a great playthrough of a scenario and it makes me want it even more. I like the choose your own adventure elements then going down to the table level to fight monsters and interact with things. Just great looking campaign that I really want for the game and story.

Backing Zombicide: Undead or Alive

This one I am still very excited for Zombicide: Undead or Alive. I love weird west as a theme, which I talked about on last nights stream. And there aren’t that many weird west games out there, to add in zombies to the mix, and I’m interested. Why I’m regretting it is that Marvel Zombies is a thing. And a thing and theme that I like better. Plus, in Marvel Zombies you can play as zombies or as heroes. There is a decent chance that I will just trade or sell my pledge when it comes in.

Buying Scythe

This one is interesting, I’d guess for some people, because people love Scythe. And I very well might love Scythe, when I play my friends copy. I picked it up and I never played my copy and it wasn’t high on my list of games to learn. So I got rid of it, and I’m fine with that, because I know people who have it. It’s just one that I probably wouldn’t have bought in the first place.

Backing Satanic Panic

Now, this is probably the only Kickstarter that I backed which will never fulfill. The guy who is running it showed back up again for a little bit in the fall but then disappeared yet again. Satanic Panic is a role playing game that basically is a D&D style system, if I remember correctly, set in the 80’s during the Satanic Panic that happened. So it’s a fun idea, but it was a game I supported for the creator, and needless to say I’m not pleased. Nor do I ever expect to see a finished product. At least I didn’t back it for a physical book.

Doing Single Wave Shipping on Etherfields

This one I do regret, but only a little bit. I’m not sure how much Etherfields I’d have played to this point. Etherfields is a big Awaken Realms game where you explore through dreams. That sounds amazing, and I’m really excited to get it, but another campaign game. So it might be better that I waited on it until it was all coming at once. Still, the game looks really cool, and the endless slumber mode, I think that’s what it’s called looks great.

Backing Village Attacks

This is another one where I kind of regret it, and I kind of don’t regret it. I mainly regret it because it’s well delayed at this point. It is a game that I really like. Village Attacks is a great tower defense where you play the bad guys dealing with the villagers. The game is a lot of fun, but man, the game is delayed. And not only is it delayed, the communication is really lacking. I knew it’d be the case, the longer it goes, the more frustrating.

Final Thoughts on Board Gaming Regrets

I honesty feel like that isn’t too many. Now, a number of the early games I backed on Kickstarter, I have moved on from those. But I don’t feel bad about backing then. Eduardo Baraf and Pencil First Games is a great company and makes fun games now, Planet Lift Off, that was even a fun game. But I moved on from it as the first one I backed.

I also don’t regret backing so many big campaign games. I have toned that down some, but there’s always something new and cool out there to checkout. So now I’m being more discerning. But backing Chronicles of Drunagor, ISS Vanguard, Frosthaven, Isofarian Guard, and more, I don’t regret that at all. I will eventually play those games, and that is exciting to me.

What is something you regret passing or getting in the board gaming hobby?

Send an Email.
Message me directly on Twitter at @TheScando
Visit us on Facebook here.
Support us on Patreon here.

What Is the Teburu System?

So, this I originally saw, through a window, at GenCon 2019. Basically it is a gaming system where the bases of characters, dice, possibly even cards, though The Bad Karmas and The Curse of the Zodiac, the first game, uses digital cards. I will talk about the game in a little bit.

The board is a pad that you can overlay other boards on, I’m guessing chipped so it knows which board it is. Then when you move pieces around, it knows where you moved and lets you know if it’s a legal move or not. When you roll dice, it knows what you roll and automatically applies damage. Basically, it is a system meant to take away from the house keeping of what the game needs to know or you normally tell the game.

What Interests Me?

So, I know for some of you, you heard technology and were immediately out. That is fine, this article is meant more for the people who are interested in how technology can assist your game. There are a few things about this that interest me for sure. Mainly games that are heavy on house keeping, how this might improve the experience with them. I don’t know that a Gloomhaven would be feasible, but something like Zombicide, I could see it helping.

The first thing I want to know is how consistent the software is. I am always hesitant to back something that is technology because, the consistency of new technology is suspect. The company was planning on launching I believe in 2019 or 2020 and held off until now. Some of that might be because of COVID for sure, but late 2019 was before that, so they clearly wanted the technology right. And how much of a drain the technology is. Will I need to plug in my phone for my character, how fast does it burn the charge?

I also want to know what other games are coming to the system. I know that Sword & Sorcery is being developed by the company and Ares Games. And they have their own game, The Bad Karmas and The Curse of the Zodiac. And I know Sword & Sorcery has a fair amount of bookkeeping that you need to do as you play. So I think it could help with that, but the sprawling map, I wonder how that would work, I have some questions. And I want to know what else might be coming.

I do like that they have an SDK. For non-programmers, that basically means that people will be able to develop for it. It isn’t something that only Xplored will develop for. They might have their own team that does a lot of it to start, but more developers will come over time. And more companies can do it themselves for a launch of a game. Or offering two versions, a Teburu version of the game that comes with fewer components but requires you have the system.

What Concerns Me?

It’s new technology and new technology needs to be adopted to be useful. The stuff that interests me, the whole idea of less bookkeeping, games maybe with fewer components, that’s great. But will there be games for it? I am glad to see them working with Ares Games on Sword & Sorcery, but I wish they had 10 or 15 games right now that they could say would be coming to the system. Maybe as the campaign goes they will announce more.

I am also always very wary of new technology. It’s great that it is coming out. I think that it’s a way that companies could possibly save on number of components and maybe even cost of components. But will the technology be able to handle a wide variety of games. Or is this something that is meant only for a few games. And how long will it last. If I buy a Teburu I want to know it’ll last for 10 years, minimum. But will it travel well? Will it charge well and hold that charge in two years? It’s things that can only be tested so much.

Is Teburu A Back or Brick?

It is a brick for me, and I am excited about the system. I do not buy first editions of new technology. I haven’t with video gaming systems, phones, anything, it’s not worth spending to be on the cutting edge. Plus I want to see that the technology works like they say it will in the wild. Game plays by content creators are great, they help me know what it is, but that is still less than in the wild.

If they are still running fine after a year and they do another crowdfunding campaign, I might be interested in it then. Plus, by then I hope to know more games that they might have on the system. Because The Bad Karmas and The Curse of the Zodiac looks like a fun game, but one game, and not that complex a game isn’t enough for me to buy it right now. And Vampire: The Masquerade and Sword & Sorcery, I am less than excited right now with what’s been announced. Not to knock those games, but it won’t get me to back it.

How about for you, is Teburu and The Bad Karmas and The Curse of the Zodiac something you’ll be backing? Does the system interest you if it had other games on it?

You can find out more on the system here.

Send an Email.
Message me directly on Twitter at @TheScando
Visit us on Facebook here.
Support us on Patreon here.

The Pledge Levels

Marvel Zombies has three pledge levels. I expect to see a fourth show up probably tomorrow. An all in sort of level, maybe even two or three more show up. They’d likely be, all in game play, all in everything, and maybe an all in game play without Galactus. And I’d kind of be cool with that.

But as it stands, right now there are three pledge levels. You have the Undead Pledge at $130, the Resistance Pledge at $240 and the Galactus Pledge at $410. So none of the levels are all that cheap, plus there are a number of additional add-ons including Sentinels, Fantastic Four, Alternate Sculpts, and plastic tokens.

What Comes With Each Pledge

At the Undead Pledge level, you get the basic Marvel Zombies game where you can play as the zombies. You also get all applicable stretch goals, and good news, all of them are applicable to that level right now. Generally, CMON will add in a couple of stretch goals for specific levels in order to get people to increase their pledges late in the campaign. They haven’t done that yet.

At the Resistance Pledge level, you get basically another base box. This allows you to play more of a normal Zombicide experience as the heroes. It also is the box that focuses more on the X-Men. So adds in some value, but the X-Men Resistance box is supposed to be coming to retail. What that means is that you can get everything there, possibly cheaper, if you want, at least cheaper shipping wise.

Finally at the Galactus Pledge you get a 25″ or so tall Galactus, a big guy anyways. And that’s the big addition to that pledge level. It’s also the only way that you can get Silver Surfer. Galactus is a playable piece, though, basically an entity that is going to eat up the board and spaces as he goes along.

The Marvel Zombies Add-Ons

So, like i said there are a number of add-ons as well that we should talk about. Because a lot of favorite characters or interesting characters are available in the add-ons, which of course is going to increase your price.

Extra Dice – $10

This just makes it easier on you as a player or group of players. If you think you are going to play it solo, I don’t think that you need extra dice. But if you’re planning on play with four or six players, you may want more dice. I don’t believe that one set of dice per person is needed, but one for each side of the table, that’d be good.

Plastic Tokens – $30

This just comes down to taste and how much you think you’ll be playing it. Extra tokens and plastic tokens are nice. It means that you don’t have to worry about the tokens wearing out. And some tokens that are more common, having more of them, for each end of the table isn’t bad. But for me, this is a luxury add-on that I don’t care that much about.

Artist’s Special Editions – $25

Now we have some special sculpts for some of the characters. These are just different sculpts that you can play with for different heroes. Like an Old Man Logan sculpt. Those things are cool, but they don’t add new characters, it’s just different sculpts of existing characters. For me, if I was a painter and I wanted some really cool things to paint, I’d consider it, but I’m not so it’s a pass for me.

Sentinel Strike – $40

Now we get into game play ones. If you want to get the Sentinels from the X-Men comics, this is where you can do that. But more so, if you want to play as Charles Xavier in human or zombie form, this is where you need to get him.

Guardians of the Galaxy Set – $40

Then the Guardians of the Galaxy, and if you were to get any of the add-ons, I think this is best bang for your buck. It comes with a lot of fan favorite characters with the Guardians. It comes with Skrulls, those will matter more in the future of the MCU. And it’s heavier on the heroes than some of the other ones. Plus it’s at the $40 price point.

Hydra Resurrection – $50

Now, if you want to get a whole lot more, Hydra Resurrection is good as well. It comes Hydra troops that you can spawn. Now, this one does have more than the Guardians of the Galaxy set, but less kind of favorite heroes, I think, in some ways. And some of the minis you’re going to get are going to be those Hydra troops.

Fantastic 4: Under Siege – $50

Finally, the Fantastic Four, and I’m not sure if we’ll get any more add-ons. This seems like about the right amount, but if there is, it’ll be at 1 PM today. But this is going to add in even more heroes to play around with, the Fantastic Four, and some interesting bystanders with Agatha Harkness, more comic accurate. Again, like Skrulls, Fantastic Four are going to be more important coming up here in the MCU.

Where is the Value?

So, if you add up everything, $410 + another $245 in add-ons. And if there is another add-on it’ll be happening today. But before shipping you’re looking at $655 and shipping in two waves is going to be $100 in the US, more elsewhere.

Marvel Zombies is an extremely steep Kickstarter, but, there are some options to make it cheaper on yourself. Firstly, just getting the Undead Pledge is going to be a whole lot cheaper. $140 and the expansions isn’t that bad. Assuming X-Men Resurgence comes to retail, which they say it will, then the value is better. That shipping is much cheaper. Plus, you can add-on the different expansions and get stuff that way. It’d still be about a $450 all in pledge.

What’s My Marvel Zombies Pledge

Let’s face it, for a lot of us, we want the game because it is Marvel. And that’s why I’m willing to shell out some money for it. But the question is, how much?

For myself, I am not going to be getting the plastic pieces, extra dice, or alternate sculpts. That saves about $65 overall on the price. I expect I’m going to want to play it a bunch, but not enough that I’m going to be too concerned about the tokens wearing out. I have other games by CMON and it hasn’t been an issue.

Plus, right now I am not in for the giant Galactus. I might end up backing that later, but I am not sure on it. The whole price is still pretty high, $180 for add-ons and $240 for the two boxes, that’s $420 right now and $65 on shipping. So $500 for what I’m likely to get. Or near that and that’s going to be a lot of stuff. I think it’ll be about 200 minis, plus the game play.

Would You Back Marvel Zombies?

Now, there are plenty of reasons not to back. Not even looking at price there are a lot of reasons. You might not like Marvel, this makes little sense for you. There are other Zombicide versions out there for you. You don’t like Zombies, well, Marvel United which has been to Kickstarter already from CMON might be for you.

But everything I’ve researched on game play says that this is a very good game. And the minis, if you are a painter, are going to be amazing. So is it the right game for you to back? Let me know in the comments?

Send an Email.
Message me directly on Twitter at @TheScando
Visit us on Facebook here.
Support us on Patreon here.