Author: Bill H

Here they come, I’ve tried to pick games that are likely the most attractive to the IBGC crowd, as well as the hottest new buzz games. Some will be here now, some soon, the odd one may be hard to get (I’m looking at you Agility).

Agility

Its a game about training and adopting dogs for dog shows. Its two player only, and the quiet buzz around this one is building. Its by the same design team that did Morals, which was very well regarded but very hard to attain. You play cards to get resources you need to train and get that wonderdog, but the same card also gives you the action you take, which might not necessarily be the one you want. It looks really neat and there are no dog related games out there…I just hope we’ll be able to get it in for you!

Harry Potter: Hogwarts Battle

Finally a decent Harry Potter game…apparently so. Its a co-operative deck building game in which you try to defend Hogwarts in the final battle against the forces of Voldemort.

Deception: Murder in Hong Kong

A 20 minute deduction game in the vein of One Night Werewolf, but with a lot more going on. The murderer in the game will select a “Key Evidence” and “Means of Murder.” They will tell that to the Forensic Scientist only who will give clue cards to try and help the investigators figure of those two bits of information. The murderer and their accomplice will try to subtly throw them off the trail through misdirection. If the investigators figure out the two pieces of evidence they win, else the murderer escapes.

Potion Explosion

Its Candy Crush the board game with knobs and bells added on. Beautiful box, marbles that slide down like in THAT game. You are trying to collect the marbles to make potions when you connect a set of one colour, they explode and you you get them too. Complete a potion and you can drink it (don’t literally do it, marbles are a choking hazard, for sure) and you get a special power. Light, but apparently a lot of fun. Also, its from Cool Mini or Not, weird.

Seafall

Here’s the blurb:

“SeaFall is a 4X-inspired game (without player elimination/extermination) set in an “age of sail” world reminiscent of our world.

In SeaFall, the world is starting to claw its way out of a dark age and has begun to rediscover seafaring technology. Players take on the role of a mainland empire that consults with a consortium of advisors to discover new islands, explore those islands, develop trade, send out raiding parties, take part in ship-to-ship combat, and more. As in Risk Legacy and Pandemic Legacy, co-designed by Rob Daviau, SeaFall evolves as the game is played, setting their grudges into the history of the game and building a different narrative at every table as players open up the world.”

You’ll either love it, or think that seems like a lot of work…

Cry Havoc

It has lots of miniatures, very asymmetric powers, lots of upgrades and killing of your opponents. Another reason to never play Risk again.

Clank!

Another deck-building game, but this time crossed with a dungeon crawl…sounds quite fun. It does have player elimination, but that’s usually your own fault by pushing your luck and taking too much of the dragon’s loot and getting eaten!

Codenames: Pictures

Its Codenames, but with pictures, not words, nuff said.

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Honorable mentions also go to:

• Star Trek Ascention
• Lotus
• Captain Sonar

Its a weird year for this category (the connoisseurs game i.e. a bit more complex than family games). Legacy style games get the nod for the first time. Both TIME Stories and Pandemic Legacy are one time through games and then you are finished with it. Isle of Skye is a more traditional game, but a very good one at that. Who do I think will win, find out later…?

Isle of Skye

The IBGC staff LOVED this one. Its a really solid Euro style game that plays well from 2-5 and offers a bunch of tough decisions bashed into a 45-60 minute game.

Pandemic Legacy

The #1 rated board game in the universe, its rise has been bonkers and the reception amazing. You play Pandemic until the games tells you to stop playing it like you used to and then all kinds of crazy stuff happens that I can’t tell you. You do get on average, 18 plays out of this game before its done and  then you can frame the board posterity sake. Season Two is coming soon…

T.I.M.E Stories

Go back in time to try and solve a mystery. You have 30 time points to spend to figure it out before you are whisked away and have to try again. Its very unique and original (A decksploration game), the base mystery usually takes about 4 plays to crack and is an extremely satisfying experience. 3 more stories are now available as well which are just the cards you need for a new adventure.

Recommended Games

These games can’t win, but the judges thought they were dope, so gave them a little nod of love!

7 Wonders Duel

7 Wonders was a pretty bad two player game, this one is really good though. Its been on the table a lot at the cafe and offers a lot of replay and strategies for such a little game. Strongly recommended for two player fans.

Blood Rage

Whaaaaaaat, this game has tonnes of over-produced miniatures, those games never get a SDJ mention. Well, don’t let the minatures fool you, this is a Euro game at its heart, with card drafting and area control the main mechanics. Its a good game, just don’t expect any dice rolling.

Mombasa

Same guy who made Isle of Skye did this one too (he also won the KSJ last year with Broom Service as well!). Its the heaviest of all the games. It’s a very well designed game that some say lacks a little theme, but if you like your games with lots of decisions and low luck, it’ll be right up your alley.

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IBGC’s Prediction: Pandemic Legacy. The fact you play this game at least 12-24 times (replay-ability is a factor in deciding the winner) and it creates such a strong group experience that sticks with you will give it the nod over Isle of Skye.

Game of the Year in English. Its aimed at families and people who like the lighter games, with some nice strategies that don’t melt the brain. Previous winners are games such as Ticket to Ride, Camel Up, Hanabi and Colt Express last year. The Kennerspiel des Jahre is for the meatier games and we’ll talk about them in a later post.

Codenames

The blurb: “In Codenames, two teams compete to see who can make contact with all of their agents first. Spymasters give one-word clues that can point to multiple words on the board. Their teammates try to guess words of the right color while avoiding those that belong to the opposing team. And everyone wants to avoid the assassin.”

Most predict this is a sure fire, slam dunk, bet your house on it winner. Its hard to disagree, I love the game, everyone I play it with loves it. It plays well with all ages from young to old. Its a fantastic twist on the traditional word games with totally different experiences depending on whether you are the spymaster or team member. The downside is that you really need at least 4 to play it and ideally 6 or more. Vlaada Chvatil is my fave designer ever, so I hope he gets it if only to see people butchering his name.

Karuba

The blurb: “This is a tile-laying race game with players starting with boards that are identical, and one player drawing tiles that they all will use. They race to get their explorers to temples first and earn points. Along the way they can collect additional points by collecting items off the paths they create.”

This is a very strong year in my opinion and in any other year this would be a sure winner, in fact I have a sneaky suspicion this one may juuuust nick it out from under Codenames feet. Its a really addictive, super puzzley little game that is very simple to learn. Its HABA’s (traditionally a kids game company) first entry into the family market and by Rudiger Dorn a designer that has been around for years and been nominated numerous times, but never won before. Will this be his Revenant!

Imhotep

The blurb: “In Imhotep, the players become builders in Egypt who want to emulate the first and best-known architect there, namely Imhotep. Over six rounds, they move wooden stones by boat to create five seminal monuments, and on a turn, a player chooses one of four actions: Procure new stones, load stones on a boat, bring a boat to a monument, or play an action card. While this sounds easy, naturally the other players constantly thwart your building plans by carrying out plans of their own. Only those with the best timing — and the stones to back up their plans — will prove to be Egypt’s best builder.”

Phil Walker-Harding is becoming the light family game king. He also did Sushi Go! and recent cafe hit Cacao. Its not been released in English yet, but they have rushed it to North America after getting the nomination, so very soon. Reviews have been very positive, with people likening it to Splendor with its ‘one action from 4’ choices, but with a lot more going on. It may be a little bit too much for the SDJ, but for the people who like their light games a little heavy, a solid choice.

Recommended:

These games didn’t make the final 3, but were in strong consideration for the award

Spyfall – awesome party game with thinking and lots of laughs

Animals on Board – great family game for 7-12 year old range, plays best with 4 players, nice price as well.

Die Fiesen 7 – No idea, awaiting Englishification. Its by the Cockroach Poker guy though.

Krazy Wordz – Make weird words about planets or something, again no idea.

Qwinto – We made our own version of this to try it. Really good little dice game. Looking forward to Englishification.

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IBGC predited Winner: Karuba, I said it earlier in the year and I’m not going to change my mind now…

Onitama

2-player games are always in demand. Simple rules and a lot of depth are important and this one, the third game added to Tom Vassel’s Dice Tower Essentials line (Sheriff of Nottingham and Royals are the other two) definitely has both. The first thing we thought when we heard about this one was, ‘hmmmm, sounds a lot like the Duke.’ If the designer said he wasn’t inspired by that game in making this one, we would say ‘YOU’RE A BIG FAT LIAR!’, possibly allowing a little bit of spittle to escape just to emphasize the point! That’s OK though. The Duke is great, but a little fiddlier to learn and teach, this game streamlines things a lot.

Game play

The object of the game is to either:
a) Capture your opponents Master
b) Move your Master to your opponents pagoda (the starting spot of their Master)

The board consists of a 5*5 grid, with each player starting with their Master and 4 students on the back line. In each game you will randomly select 5 cards from the 16 available. Two are handed to each player and one placed  in the middle. The two cards in front of you depict the moves you are able to take (all your pieces will move the same way). When you take a move, you switch the card you used to move with the card in the middle and then your opponent will take a turn, switching their card after they are done.

Thoughts

That’s it. You only have 5 total ways to move per game. The strategy is there. You need to watch carefully what your opponent can do and what you are enabling them to do when you give up a card. Each game play differently depending on the cards available, but they are quick and intense, lasting just 15 minutes or so. If your not a fan of abstract, chess style games, this probably won’t get you excited. For everyone else though, this one is a little gem. The box is amazing (I mean coffee table nice) and the theme fits really well with the game.

Letter Tycoon

Are you like me? You like word games but wish it wasn’t just about the words, because you don’t know all 106 two letter words and feel sadly proud when you manage a 5 letter word. Well your savior has arrived! Letter Tycoon is a word game and a strategy game in one.

Game play

You are trying to make the most money. You do this by making words and by investing in letters in order to make money off your opponents words as well. On your turn you try to make a word from the 7 letters in your hand and the 3 in the middle of the table. The longer it is the more it pays out. You can then take your money and invest in one of the letters in your word, e.g. your word is CANDY, you may now buy any of the letters C A N D Y if they are available. The more commonly occurring letters cost more and the least frequently seen ones have special powers associated with them. From that point on, every time one of your opponents uses one of your letters, you get a payout. Refresh your hand back to 7 letters and the next player goes. Keep going till one of you reaches a certain amount of money invested in letters and add up all your cash and letter stock values. Most money wins.

Thoughts

Its a word game and most of us enjoy word games. However, its not purely about the words, which gives us non-word people a bit more of chance against the Scrabble boffins. You can’t always make the word you want, because it doesn’t contain any letters you want to buy, or it pays out too much to your opponents. In other words there are still interesting decisions to be made outside of the word game, but it IS still a word game, don’t get me wrong there. However, if Scrabble is the only game that your Dad wants to play, ever, then maybe you can twist his arm to play this one. Oh and it also looks really pretty as well….word!!!

This game was nominated for the Game of the Year back in 2007 and imagined a   couple of very unique mechanisms which caught the eye of the gaming world. One of those ideas has been used fairly frequently since in games such as Tokaido and Patchwork.

In this game you are archaeologists travelling around Europe looking to obtain knowledge about 5 historical sites and use it to try and dig for ancient artifacts to put on shows in the classiest joints around town. In this game you have 2-3 years (depending on # of players) to do this. The actions you take cost time, better actions cost more time and the player on turn is the one who is furthest behind on the time track. They will keep taking turns till they overtake someone on the track, who will then take turns and so on (this is the one copied by Tokaido et. al.)

There are 3 main actions that you can take:

• take a card form the pool of 4 cards. They give you knowledge to help you dig (more about that later), the ability to travel quicker as well as a host of other abilities. Each card has a time cost as well as a location which you have to move to to take it, which also costs time. Managing your time is a huge part of the game (and life I’ve been told).
• take part in a dig. This is where you put all that knowledge to good use. Each of the dig 5 locations is represented by a bag. In that bag are a bunch of artifact tiles worth a variety of points, joining them in there are a large quantity of dirt (tiles, not literal dirt, gamers are way too anal to cope with dirt in their games), worth between 0 and 0 points. Each player has a very groovy time/knowledge wheel calculator thingamejig. They input their knowledge and the wheel tells them how much time they can spend to pull tiles from the bag. Lots of knowledge means you can spend less time to pull a lot of tiles and vice versa. When you take the tiles, you keep the artifacts…and the dirt? You throw it back in the bag, so later excavations at the site have a poopier good stuff to bad stuff ratio, bummer man.

• put on a show. If you have the right combination of pretty things, you can put on shows to impress your peeps for points. Everybody loves old, shiny stuff right?

Keep going till everyone runs out of time. Most points wins. That’s it. It’s really a pretty simple and fun game. So why have most of you never heard of it?

Well, like many things in life, luck and timing are a factor. There are a lot of games in this world and you often need the right set of circumstances to rise to the top, but I think that bag draw, which in many ways is a brilliant mechanism hurt the game. Luck is great in some ways, but in others it can wind you up like a watch. Serious gamers can easily get their knickers in a twist and when they put all that thought into a game only to lose because of some bad bag pulls. And when they get mad they write bad reviews. Yes, that can be infuriating if you go into this game with the attitude its a more serious game than it is. It is a family game though, and should be treated as such. The nice thing about this game is that you can play with your kids (10+) or your non-serious gamer friends and try your best and still lose even though you are in general a better gamer than them. You’ll still win more often than not, but you don’t have to tone it down so you don’t crush them and make them never want to play with you again. Not only that, the components are amazing, that wheel is so cool and in my opinion the bag draws are exciting. Its hilarious when someone draws a big pile of dirt and exciting when you get a haul a great artifacts. So, suck it up and smile when the reverse happens to you, its all part of the fun of the experience. Many games in this world have fairly pasted on themes, but not this one. It goes all out to try and capture that feeling of archaeological exploration (I imagine anyway, having never archaeologically dug before).

Its in our library and available to try, so lets dust it off and give it some love again.