Saturday, December 30, 2017

Obligatory Favorite Games 2017 Edition Post Part VI: Josh’s Top 10 Favorite Games List (Guest Blogger)

***Hey all...Aaron here again!  This post is being taken over by one of my best buddies, Josh.  We've been regularly playing games together for over a year since Em and I moved back to Indiana.  Enjoy his top 10!***

When Aaron asked if I’d write a guest post outlining my favorite games I played this year, I had to stop and consider what method I’d use to rank them. This is the first year I’ve been tracking my plays, and I had a surprising amount of data to work with. I was floored to discover that I’d played 104 separate games this year, and wound up only a few plays short of a 10x10. It took some time to narrow it down to 10.

First, a little about me: I spent much of my free time in the past 20 years playing video games and long-running RPG campaigns. I’ve always enjoyed tabletop games, and have always enjoyed the heavier side of gaming. In 2017, in an effort to reduce the number of hours I spend in front of various screens, I took up solo board gaming in a big way. I do some multiplayer gaming with Aaron’s group, and I’ve been running an open-invite weekly group for just shy of a year now, so I see a diverse palette of designs.

I ended up using a variety of determining factors to put together this list, but the final criterion was subjective enjoyment. It seems to be reflective of my broad preferences in tabletop games, despite the somewhat disjointed methods I used to pare things down. Let’s dive in!


Mechs vs Minions came out of nowhere this year. While I’m not a fan of MOBA video games, I’m familiar with League of Legends, and it was very cool to see a company like Riot put their resources into what turned out to be an incredibly fun game. The rules were a breeze to learn and teach, and there’s a good depth of strategy for each of the scenarios - I’m still only halfway through the stack of dossiers, so I’m looking forward to seeing the difficulty ramp up.


This was another surprise--when Aaron cracked open the box, I was expecting something completely different from a medium-heavy rondel game. I’m not sure I’ve found a go-to strategy in this one yet, but one of the marks of a great game is when it’s just as fun to figure out as it is to execute a competent strategy. I’m looking forward to playing GWT plenty more times in 2018. Maybe someday I’ll actually make it to San Francisco.


One of the few small-box games on my list, Villages of Valeria is the second installment in the Valeria series, and so far is my favorite of the three. I’m still in love with the Mico’s fantastic character artwork, and while it doesn’t quite have the depth of several other games in this list, the mechanics make up for it. I love how smoothly the game flows, with follow actions allowing every player to stay involved. Multi-use card play is quickly becoming one of my favorite mechanics, and Villages of Valeria nails it beautifully.


Spirit Island is one of the least-played games that made it into this list--this is mainly due to its recent release date, as well as the large number of new games that we brought back from GenCon 50. However, every time we’ve played, it has proven itself to be one of the most engaging games I’ve run into. It combines some of my favorite elements: area control, great card play, and a unique theme. I know we’re all excited to bump up the difficulty on this one, as well as dig into the expansion content, so I’m fairly certain Spirit Island will have a spot on next year’s list.


I was reluctant to pick up Terraforming Mars after seeing it in person at GenCon 2016. The complaints about the artwork and component quality are well-founded. However, I spotted it for a price I couldn’t refuse and gave it a try after months of hearing about how good the gameplay was. I ended up playing it solo almost every night after buying my copy. The engine-building card play combined with the tile placement is extremely engaging. I’m looking forward to more multiplayer sessions of this one, and the expansion boards seem to ensure that there’s plenty more to dig into
.

Whew. We’ve cracked into the top 5! While Hoplomachus wasn’t my first introduction to Chip Theory’s offerings, once I knew it existed I fell in love with it. Hoplo got its hooks into the side of me that enjoys a simple wargame, pushing me out of the rulebook and onto the battlefield. This is one game that is not only viable for solo play, but works wonderfully as a co-op. I haven’t spent much time in head-to-head battles, but I haven’t found a need to. Like all CTG games, Hoplo is a pleasure to experience.


I was fortunate to have an early shot at this behemoth. Aaron was one of the few pre-order customers that wasn’t caught up in the first print shortage, and we’ve hit this one hard from day one. The combination of card mechanics and dungeon crawl is something I never knew I needed, but Gloomhaven delivers with a serious level of intensity. We have yet to lose a scenario, but almost every single session has been a close call. The character development and story have not been particularly engaging for me, but the mechanics of this game overshadow everything else about it. There’s just no comparison: Gloomhaven is an absolute masterpiece of design.


Whoops, how did this get in here? I happened upon an episode of the Heavy Cardboard podcast that put this Euro in a very favorable light. In addition, I’ve spent a good portion of my life making furniture, so the lumber milling theme was an easy sell. Lignum is a perfect example of my favorite sort of low-luck game - it’s unforgiving but not overly so, resources are tight, good planning is critical, and it uses a variety of clever mechanics that mesh well together. My favorite part of Lignum is the mind game that ensues when choosing which grove to cut. Last time I played it, the metagame shifted constantly as we all jockeyed for position each season. The resource path is brilliant, and the slow burn of transporting and milling lumber fits perfectly with the theme. Not recommended for players prone to AP, but absolutely recommended for players who want every decision to be critical. If this game had a solo mode, I would play it weekly. Indefinitely.


I like rolling dice just as much as I like pushing cubes, and Too Many Bones leaves no question as to what it’s about. TMB is a perfect one-session distillation of everything I love about the dice-rolling side of RPGs. The sheer variety of character build strategies, tailored to the nature of the diverse villains, with CTG’s standard of component quality, PLUS a perfect solo footprint...there is nothing quite like it. Keep it on Greenhorn difficulty, take some time to read through your character sheet (which are much-improved for version 2), then start rolling dice. This game takes slightly more time to get the rules nailed down than Hoplo, but is unbelievably rewarding of those efforts. I averaged two plays per week of this one after I picked it up, and it’s unlikely to get a layer of dust anytime soon. There’s a reason why this game put Chip Theory on the map.


I found out that KD:M existed when a buddy of mine told me his cousin was working a booth at GenCon 2015 and that we should try to grab a beer together. While the con is always far too hectic for us to catch up outside the convention center, I’ll never forget the experience of walking into the Kingdom Death booth that year. Every single display case packed with creepy miniatures had me wondering what the hell this was all about. After backing the v1.5 Kickstarter campaign, I spent the latter part of 2017 finding out.

In the 2.5 months I’ve had the giant black box in my possession, I’ve played 29 lantern years’ worth of it, and I can confidently say that there is nothing else like it. While the theme isn’t for everyone, there’s nothing I love more than a game that tells a story, and somehow KD:M manages to build a vivid nightmare world around you without actually spelling it out. As each campaign progresses, tiny parts of the Monster world are revealed, not in paragraphs of box text, but snippets of descriptions and story events, leaving the players to explore the darkness alongside the survivors they control.

This game offers the best of both my favorite worlds - luck swings like a cold, dark hammer, crushing the life out of your precious survivors, while the warm light of the settlement offers an incredible depth of strategy, allowing the players to mitigate the swings of the dice and scratch out an existence in this terrible world.

Kingdom Death: Monster is not without its flaws, but nothing else comes close to capturing what it accomplishes on all fronts: storytelling, tactical combat, and deep, long-term strategy. It’ll take some doing to unseat this as my #1.

There it is - my top 10 for 2017. If you’ve made it this far, it’s probably worth checking out my list of honorable mentions. These are games that would be potential contenders, but didn’t receive enough play time for me to nail down a solid opinion.

Honorable Mentions:
Dinosaur Island - 2 plays and wanting more. Fantastic theme.
The Ruhr - 2 plays - I think I’ll eventually love this as much as Lignum.
Clank in Space - 5 plays - now that it’s been added to the Renegade app, I’ll be playing this one a lot. It gets better every time.
Sagrada - 7 plays - it’s light and fun - not sure that it’s a top contender, but it’s a great filler so far.

Next year’s list may be longer--we’ll see. Here’s hoping for another good year!

Thursday, December 28, 2017

Obligatory Favorite Games 2017 Edition Post Part V: Em’s Top 15 Favorite Game List (Guest Blogger)

***Hey all, this is Aaron.  Taking over the blog for this post is my wife, Em.  Enjoy her top 15 games and her writing as it is 100% better than mine!***

So this year I decided to write a Top 15 list instead of a Top 10 partly because I played a lot more games this year and partly because I didn’t feel like whittling down my list to 10 games. It was stressing me out, so tah dah - my top 15!

#15 - Bohnanza


This little game is one of my favorite go-to small games. The only reason it’s ranked this low on my list is because we can’t play it well with 2 players. I love the trading aspects, the social tension and the weird competitive streak it cultivates while you’re growing beans of all things…”to bean or not to bean”!

#14 - Dice Forge


This might be the only game on my list that Aaron and I don’t actually own (yet). Our friend Josh picked it up and I was immediately hooked. I’m a dice junkie so it really appealed to me from the get-go, not to mention I hadn’t played any game that allowed you to customize your dice before. Lots of fun, and I look forward to many more plays of this dice crafting game in 2018.

#13 - Kanagawa


I win this game a lot. But I swear I’m not including it on the list solely based on my love of winning. It’s a beautiful game, I love the artwork and the mechanics of building a painting. The multiple ways to build your pallet and create your own work of art make it fun to replay regularly.

#12 - Unfair


This might be my brother-in-law’s new favorite game, but aside from that, a card-based game where you build your own amusement park? Sweet. On top of that, the themes are ridiculous in a good way - you could end up with a Robot Ninja Gangster themed park or maybe a Vampire Jungle Pirate theme is what you’re going for. You can play it super mean and sabotage the crap out of each other’s parks or take the mellow route and just enjoy a good build.



This is a game I wish we had gotten to the table more this year and it’s definitely on deck for more plays in 2018. The artwork alone sells it for me, but I love the worker placement mechanic in this context. It’s fun to try to build up an engine to get the most lucrative deal for your mutant weirdo of a pet while trying to keep your goblin workers alive, what more do you need?



Love love LOVE this game. Dice rolling, battling, magic, all the good stuff is there. Plus new decks and expansions are rolling out more regularly now so I plan on playing it even more in 2018. Personally, Rin Northfell might be my favorite deck with Victoria Glassfire as a close second. We’ll see how the new decks stack up!



This might be my favorite dice-based game. I love that there’s literally no downtime while players make their decisions, the tableau building is a lot of fun and you get to roll a freaking TON of dice in your own little cup. #win



This might be the mellowest game on my list, even more mellow than Tokaido where you’re just competing to have the best vacation... it has Patchwork-esque qualities (of course) but I like the point system and the freedom of this tile laying game a little better. Plus it’s pretty and makes me want to just have tea in a garden somewhere.



Kiki’s Delivery Service in board game form anyone? Witches delivering potions all over the map, trying to beat out your competitors and guess which witches and druids they’re using so you don’t end up with a dud of a turn...all good time to me. Plus this pickup and deliver-style game has really fun artwork!



Storytelling games are one of my favorites and this one only seems to improve upon the concept of Above & Below, which I also enjoy. I like the choose your own adventure feel to the game, the way you can customize a character depending on your choices and meet your own goals throughout the game.

#5 - Tokaido


Will I ever not love Tokaido? Unlikely. We have the deluxe edition and can enjoy the mellow tinkling spa-sounding music while we play and compete to have the best vacation. I love the replayability of this game and that it’s fun with 2 or more players. There are so many variables and ways to win, I don’t anticipate it dropping off my list anytime soon.



My favorite 2-player card game by a HUGE margin. I love 7 Wonders, the original, and the adaptation to a 2-player version is fantastic. We added the Pantheon expansion this year and it almost makes it seem like a new game each time we play.

#3 - Seasons


This was one of the first modern board games Aaron introduced me to several years ago and I still love it, if for nothing more than the awesomely chunky dice! Seriously though, the game is excellent, the card-drafting + dice-rolling is a winning combo for me about 99% of the time with board games and with the expansions, Seasons is a game we play over and over.



Don’t even care that it’s a “gateway” game...it’s awesome. I love all the maps (except India which is one I’VE NEVER WON...damn mandalas…) and can’t wait to get my hands on Rails & Sails and France/Old West to round out our options when we bring this game to the table.



Pandemic Legacy Season 1 was high on my list last year and we just started playing Season 2...there really isn’t anything about this game I don’t like. I love the whole legacy concept and the Pandemic Legacy series is so much fun to play. It’s tense, ridiculous, full of strategic options, and again, that fantastic “choose your own adventure” mechanic I love in a storytelling game. Looking forward to many MANY more plays of this game and already anticipating Season 3!

Obligatory Favorite Games 2017 Edition Post Part IV: My Favorite Games: Top 30 List (Games 1-5)

Woot!  Here we go, we’ve finally reach my very favorite games!  This post will take a look at my top 30 favorite games list and will specifically look at my top 5 games!  These games are so amazing and in my mind is just the epitome of the type of games that I love.  I was surprised to see that there are also two former Kickstarter projects in my top 5 which just goes to show that many different games are being released after being funded on these crowd funding platforms.  It is nice to see that Kickstarter is actually helping some really good projects see the light of day that may never have done so it they’d have gone through traditional means.  That being said, feel free to check out my previous three posts in the series before we move on to my top 5 games! 




Alright, now that we’ve taken a look at the past few posts let’s move on to the next.  Now we’ll begin looking at games 1-5 of my top 30 favorite games.  Enjoy!




Great Western Trail is a deck-building, hand-management and tile-laying game that is designed by Alexander Pfister and published by Stronghold Games and eggertspiele.  This game puts the players in the role of a rancher who has to repeatedly herd their cattle from Texas to Kansas in order to drop them off and pick up money.  The game uses a bunch of different mechanisms to create a game that is absolutely amazing!  The players will be buying cows out of a market and building up their deck in order to have higher cost cows which they will sell at Kansas City and ship off to different cities.  There are several different tracks on the board that the players will manipulate and help them score a bunch of points with what they are doing.  Oh man do I ever love this game.  The more I play this game the more I think it is an absolutely incredible design and just want to play more.  I’d highly recommend this game for anyone who likes a meaty boardgame with a bunch of different mechanisms put together into a beautifully cohesive experience.



Gloomhaven is a hand management, co-operative campaign game that is designed by Isaac Childres and published by Cephalofair Games.  This game puts players in the role of a mercenary with a different race and class from the other players.  They come together and are approached by a character in the game who wants them to go on their first mission.  From here the game begins and creates this absolutely amazing experience that could continue for some 90 different scenarios if you go through all of the content.  This game takes some of the ideas of dungeon crawlers but really creates an almost Euro-like experience as there is heavy hand-management instead of dice rolling.  The players will choose two cards and use the top portion of one and the bottom portion of the other and then discard them until they “rest” and get them back.  This deck of cards is also the character’s life points which make the game an amazing puzzle and a fantastic co-op.  I would highly recommend this for any group who likes their dungeon crawls with a bite and more Euro-style.



Too Many Bones is a dice-rolling, dice-building and storytelling game that is designed by Josh and Adam Carlson and published by Chip Theory Games.  This game puts players in the role of a gearlok which is a fantastical creature somewhat like a mix of an elf, and gnome and a dwarf.  These creatures are going out from their home to adventure.  Along the way they’ll meet a whole bunch of enemies and will have a chance to level up their character in between each game.  This gives each of the gearlocks a greater chance to have more skill dice and to roll more during their turn.  Besides the absolutely awesome gameplay, this game also has incredible production.  I love the mixture of the awesome custom dice for each gearlock along with the great poker chips with the enemies on them.  This game has just captured us and has become one of my favorite games in such a short time!  I’d recommend this game to anyone who loves rolling dice and loves a great co-operative experience.



Ashes: Rise of the Phoenixborn is a dice-rolling, two-player, head-to-head card game designed by Isaac Vega and published by Plaid Hat Games.  This game puts the players in the role of a Phoenixborn which is a powerful character who knows different spells and has control of different units during the battle.  I like to say that this is my Magic: The Gathering.  I love how the game uses dice for the character’s mana and has three different icons spread along the six sides.  These different icons stand for the basic symbol, the class symbol and the power symbol and they are used to pay for cards and units to put on the battlefield.  This game also has a clever way of using certain units where they have conjurations.  These are placed onto the player’s spellboard and then can be activated to conjure up a specific unit depending on which book they are using.  This is an awesome way of getting different units onto the battlefield without having them in your hand.  This is an amazing game and I would play it anytime I was asked!

#1 – Seasons (Libellud)



Seasons is a dice-drafting, card-drafting and hand-management game designed by Régis Bonnessée and published by Libellud.  This game puts players in the role of a wizard competing in three-year tournament.  The players start by drafting cards from their hands in order to create what will hopefully be strong combinations.  The players then take turns rolling and drafting the season dice in order to gain different elements which they will spend on the cards in their hand.  There are four seasons that take place over the three years of the tournament after which the players will score and the most points wins.  This continues to be my favorite game.  I may not play this one for a while but every time I play It I remember how great it is and how much I love the combos one can create.  This will always remain as a favorite of mine.  I would highly recommend this to anyone who loves a combo heavy card and dice game.

Woot!  We’ve made it to the end!  These five games are absolutely wonderful and I would recommend anyone at least try them out!  I hope you all enjoyed these four posts of my top 30 list.  Keep an eye out as I will be posting my wife’s top 10 list in the next couple of days as well as my buddy Josh’s and possibly my cousin Jon’s.  Until next time, game on!

Wednesday, December 27, 2017

Obligatory Favorite Games 2017 Edition Post Part III: My Favorite Games: Top 30 List (Games 6-10)

Now we’re really starting to truck along!  This post will take a look at games 6-10 on my top 30 list.  These games are ones that I would always play (time allowing of course) if I was asked and would suggest them at any time to play!  I love these games and have a feeling most will stay on my favorite’s list for some time.  Before we move on to the list feel free to check out the previous two posts in the series.



Now that you’re all caught up we can move on with the post.  These are games 6-10 on my top 30 favorite games list.  Enjoy!




Sentinels of the Multiverse is a hand-management, co-operative card game that is designed by Christopher Badell, Paul Bender and Adam Rebottaro and published by the Greater Than Games imprint, Sentinel Comics.  This is an amazing co-operative card game where each player takes on the role of a superhero.  Each of the superhero decks is completely stand-alone and feels amazingly thematic as they play totally differently depending on who you’re using.  This is a game that I can’t really get enough of and love that I can play it with other people or just solo play it when I’m in the mood to try out different teams.  On top of being just a fun game, this one also has a ton of expansions and even has a new one coming out sometime in 2018.  This keeps the game almost infinitely playable as you have not only a ton of heroes to choose from but also villains to fight and environments to fight in.  This is an amazing game that I’d recommend to anyone who wants a highly thematic and highly replayable superhero game.




Roll for the Galaxy is a dice-rolling, tableau-building, engine builder that is designed by Thomas Lehmann and Wei-Hwa Huang and released by Rio Grande Games.  This game is an absolutely amazing dice-rolling and mitigation game where you get to roll a bunch of dice and use them on different planet and technology tiles.  When the players get these tiles they go into their empire and give them different benefits depending on what they got.  The planets generally give the players more dice to be able to roll and use while the technologies give them different powers to use during different actions.  Speaking of actions, this game has the brilliant action selection where the players will choose an action that they want to use in the round and if the other players choose it as well then they can “piggy-back” on the action and use it as well.  We absolutely adore this game and I wouldn’t be surprised if we see it on Em’s list as well.  I’d highly recommend this to anyone who likes dice-rolling/mitigation and tableau-building.




Pandemic Legacy: Season 1 and Season 2 are hand-management, set-collection and co-operative games designed by Matt Leacock and Rob Daviau and released by Z-Man Games.  These games are Legacy-style games where the board and rulebook and characters constantly change depending on what happens during the previous rounds.  There are stickers that are placed on boards and cards and writing that happens on different components along with cards that are ripped up and never seen again.  These elements create a game that constantly changes and makes the decisions that the players make during the game even more important because the game will be forever different.  Besides the Legacy mechanisms, the game is based on the fantastic co-op Pandemic which is one of the best gateway-style games out there.  I’ve included the whole series because I actually want them put together as they really weave an interesting and compelling story together.  This will forever be one of my greatest gaming experiences.




Imperial Settlers is a card-drafting, tableau and engine building game designed by Ignacy Trzewiczek and released by Portal Games.  This game gives players controls of a specific empire which they will then attempt to build up and gain the most points possible.  This game uses one of my very favorite game mechanisms, the multi-use card.  The players will have hands of cards that include common buildings that can be used by any empire and faction-specific buildings that can only be used by that specific empire.  The players will then choose to either build the cards into their empire or “raze” it to gain some resources which they will be able to use at a different time.  The buildings that they place into their empires will give them different powers, productions and actions that they can use to further their faction and gain points.  Along with the gameplay, the factions that are included play completely differently from each other.  This gives the game a ton of variability and makes it more interesting to play.  My wife and I love this game and it will probably stay in my top 10 for some time.  I would highly recommend this game to anyone who likes really clever card play and hand-management with a smidge of civilization and engine building.




Ticket to Ride is a route-building, set-collection train game designed by Alan R. Moon and released by Days of Wonder.  This game has players taking a color of trains and attempting to connect routes across the different country maps that are available.  In my opinion this is the ultimate gateway game.  This game is so perfectly accessible for players of all age and also players of all skill levels.  I love how I can get “serious” and “heavy” gamers to the table along with casual gamers and everyone has a ton of fun with this game.  While my wife and I really enjoy some great heavy games, this is one of our most played because we just have fun with it.  Along with the fun of the base game, they’ve included a ton of map expansions while adds to the variability and replayability of this already wonderful game.  Em and I will always love this game and we’ll grab any map expansions that come out.  I would literally recommend this game to absolutely anyone as I think it is that good.

Well, there you have it.  These are games 6-10 on my top 30 “of all time” favorite games.  Next up will be my top 5 favorite games so come on back in the next day or so to see what they are.  Also, my wife, Em, should be getting her top 10 up sometime shortly after as well as my buddy Josh and possibly also my cousin Jon.  Thanks so much for reading and I hope you enjoyed!  Until next time, game on!