Great Board Games - Recommendations and Discussion

Been playing Gloomhaven on Epic a bit (was free a while ago)

Pretty fun seems like it may be better on computer than irl to me

Been tough so far

A group of us played Lost Ruins of Arnak for the first time recently.

Initial impression was very good.

We got that gifted to us recently and I commented that dune imperium and it are very very similar games that came out the same time. I kind of have more fun playing arnak.

Clicking about on Instagram I saw this photo. Anyone know what game this is/how you play?

Sequence.
You have a hand kf cards that match spaces on the board. You play your card to play a token try and get [4 or 5??] in a row.

It may also have the name directly on 2 sides of the board. 😀

And it looks like a partnership game.

Nice one, thanks!
And thank you for not pointing out that I'm an idiot for only just noticing that the name is right there on the board...

2024 edition of my annual trip to the local board game convention.

2017 report
2018 report
2019 report
2021 report
2023 report

Thursday:

Got there a day early and played some stuff with the group I was sharing a room with again. It was Halloween, so some people brought some games with that in mind.

Zombie Fluxx (BGG link) – It’s Fluxx, but with zombies. The game is meh to begin with and I’m not sure the zombies haven’t made it worse. I guess it’s fine, but only because it was Halloween. First impression: C-

Dead of Winter (BGG link) - One of my roommates was hosting this the next day, plus it was Halloween, so definitely seemed appropriate to play. More fun that I was anticipating, because storytelling games aren’t really my thing. Survive, kill zombies, hope there isn’t a traitor, meet your personal goal. First impression: B

Also played Betrayal on the House on the Hill (again, because Halloween). Gave this a B- last year, which seems about right.

Friday:

Official start of the convention and on to stuff I actually signed up for.

Forest Shuffle (BGG link) - A cute set collection game about building a forest. Plant trees and put animals in them to score points. The unique element is that the animal cards have a left and right half or a top and bottom half, of which you can only play one side of that. Quick little game that shouldn’t take more than 45 minutes, but still felt like it had strategic depth. I don’t usually care about this kind of stuff, but the artwork on this game is incredible. First impression: A-

Sea Salt & Paper (BGG link) – Because Forest Shuffle is a relatively short game, he made it a twofer with this one. Another set collection game, but this one feels more like rummy. It’s a fine filler game, but certainly nothing more. First impression: C+

Heat: Pedal to the Medal (BGG link) – Every year, there is some game that seems to be the big sexy thing of that year with multiple people hosting. Last year it was Earth. This year it was Heat. It’s a racing game, but at it’s heart, it’s a deck builder. You play cards every turn that dictate how many spaces you advance. More cards sound great, but you can only go around corners so fast. Otherwise you get “heat” (trash cards). You can get rid of them, but only if you play fewer cards when you move your care. We had a group of 7 (somehow I won despite the fact that I was one of the only first timers). I’m really glad we had that big group. This was loads of fun, but I’m not sure I’d feel that way with fewer people. First impression: A

Cascadia (BGG link) – Some people were starting this after I had finished Heat. It’s a game from about 3 years ago that had a lot of hype. The hype is justified. Using hex tiles, build an environment and place appropriate animals in there. Each of the five animals has one of four cards that determines scoring, along with how well you build your terrain. A simple game that seems to have a ton of strategic possibilities. I really wish this was on Board Game Arena. First impression: A+

Saturday:

Apiary (BGG link) – A worker placement game from the creator of Wyrmspan, which is fine I guess. This is much better. Bees in space. You go to areas to explore planets, improve your hive, obtain resources…all the normal stuff that you do in a worker placement game. Every time another player takes the spot you are on, your bee upgrades and can do better things. Another game with fantastic artwork First impression: A

Container (BGG link) – An economic game that I was really excited to play, since it’s out of print and this may be the only time I’ll ever get a chance. It has a very weird mechanic that somehow works. You produce things and also ship out the other player’s goods to an island for auction. Unfortunately the host messed up little portions of the rules, but I’m not sure it made the game unfair. Would love to try it again. First impression: A-

Clank in Space (BGG link) – An offshoot of Clank, which I’ve never played, but apparently this is basically the same thing. It’s a deck builder where you travel around a spaceship and steal things. There’s a push your luck element, because the goodies that are deep into the ship are better, but eventually you have to run away and escape the ship. I can’t really identify anything specifically wrong with it, but it didn’t blow me away either.First impression: C+

Railways of the World (BGG link) – The Saturday night slot had really slim pickings for some reason. This seemed like the most promising of a whole bunch of games that had me shouting “meh”. Maybe these sorts of games aren’t my thing, but I’m not ever sure this reached “meh” level. A route builder where you take out loans to expand your network. Our host was not the best at explaining things, so I might not be being completely fair in my judgment here, but I would not feel like my life was incomplete if I never play this again. First impression: D+

Canvas (BGG link) – Found some people I know that were trying this out. A light game where you take 3 transparent slides and make a work of art. The art is just glorified flavor text, as each panel has information at the bottom that tells you how it scores. Mechanism is creative and is simple enough for children to enjoy. A fun filler game. First impression: B

Sunday:

Dune: Imperium - Uprising (BGG link) – This is a standalone sequel to a 2020 Dune game. In preparation for this, I watched the movies, but you don’t need to know anything about the Dune universe. It’s a worker placement plus deck builder. You place your workers (as long as you have a card that says you can go there, and as long as no one else is there or you have a spy), execute the action and finally buy things. At the end of each round, there is a fight for a prize. The original is a top 10 BGG game and one of the other players said this was even better. I can’t judge that, as I’ve never played the original, but I can say that this one is outstanding. Seems well balanced too. If you go first, you have first pick of locations. If you go last, you get to see how the fight is developing. It fits the theme really well, although part of me wishes it wasn’t associated with Dune, as that makes it basically hopeless of ever getting on Board Game Arena. First impression: A+

Rats of Wistar (BGG link) – While we were waiting for a convention ending raffle that my ride was participating in, someone was setting up this game and asked if we wanted to give it a shot. It looks like a kids game but is clearly way heavier than that. You send your mice out into a farm in search of goodies. Seems promising, but the person explaining was SO SLOW at both explaining and playing that we just had to bail. I’d try this again, but JFC not with that host. First impression: Incomplete

And that ended my convention. Had a fun time and am looking forward to next year, which is thankfully the weekend before Halloween.

Container is good

Good write up, tho I like Railways of the World

I got the Container 10th anniversary jumbo edition kickstarter back in 2017 and still haven’t gotten a chance to learn it and play it. Gonna bring it to next convention and have someone teach me.

It's very possible I'm being a little unfair to it because of subpar host and the fact that I only picked it because there was nothing in that time slot that interested me. (There were like 5 games in the Apiary slot that I would have tried if they were in the late Saturday slot)

Still though, I can't imagine a second playthrough even under the best conditions would ever make me love it.

2025 edition of my annual trip to the local board game convention.

2017 report
2018 report
2019 report
2021 report
2023 report
2024 report

Thursday:

Got there a day early again:

Ticket To Ride: London (BGG link) – Played this while waiting for our hotel room to open up. It’s Ticket To Ride, but shorter. It’s a fine way to pass 10 minutes. First impression: B-

Things in Rings (BGG link) – A party game where you have cards of “things” and have to assign them to a Venn diagram of whether or not it fits the categories of word (e.g. 7+ letters), attribute (e.g. can float) and context (e.g. is usually found outside). It’s a fun game that might actually translate well to a forum. First impression: B+

Friday:

Official start of the convention and on to stuff I actually signed up for.

Pulsar 2849 (BGG link) A dice drafting game about flying through space. Visit planets and pulsars, build gyrodynes (whatever those are) and gain technologies. Point salad style game where there are many paths to victory. Instantly loved this one. First impressions aren’t everything, but this is the best first impression I’ve had in a long time. First impression: A+

The Red Dragon Inn (BGG link) – Draw cards and play them to try to eliminate the other players through drunkenness, fighting or monetarily. I’m not super-big on these player elimination games where you directly target other players. I guess it was fine, but it felt like King of Tokyo but worse. First impression: C-

Finspan (BGG link) – The third entry in the -span series of games. It’s better than Wyrmspan, not sure it’s better than Wingspan. I don’t need high player interaction to enjoy a game, but I was hoping there was a little more. That said, the actual game play runs very smoothly and I did have fun. First impression: A-

Ohanami (BGG link) – Found some people playing this and decided I could play one last thing before going to bed. A quick set collection game where you must play numbered cards in one of 3 piles, always either going higher or lower than the highest or lowest card for 3 rounds. Blue cards are worth the least, but they are scored every round. Whereas gray and pink cards are only scored at the end, but can get big points. It’s a pretty solid way to pass 15 minutes. First impression: A-

Saturday:

Mystic Vale (BGG link) – A game I got from a board game trade last year. Figured I’d learn how to play this year. It’s a deck builder where you add parts of cards into sleeves to improve the card’s abilities. It’s a cool concept done adequately. Didn’t blow me away or anything , but I’ll try it with some friends sometime soon. First impression: B

Canopy (BGG link) – One of my roommates got this in a trade. It’s a two-player game about building a forest complete with animals, weather and sometimes disasters. Reminds me a lot of Forest Shuffle (though Canopy did come first). I like Forest Shuffle better, but this is quicker and still good. First impression: B

Pipeline (BGG link) – An economic game about refining three different types of oil. You buy pipes to build a network to most efficiently get the oil to market. I was a bit apprehensive, as this is rated 3.9 on BGG for complexity, and that’s quite a bit higher than games I usually like that are in the 3.2 range. I was struck by how off that complexity rating is; it’s really not that heavy, though it’s unforgiving if you make some mistakes early. Gameplay is pretty smooth and moves quickly once you get going. First impression: A-

Yokohama (BGG link) –Signed up for this months ago and the host asked if we could move the time (WTF?) and suggested Friday morning. (Double WTF, the convention isn’t even official until noon). Anyway, since I was there, I agreed but asked where. No response. Went to the registration desk Friday morning and there was another person asking about it. No one had a clue. So arrived at the time it was initially slotted for and found no one there. Explained our situation to the head staff member. He tried to contact the host, but to no avail. Host is banned from hosting for next year. First impression: ???

So with nothing to do, I walked towards the vendor room and in the hallway there was a tournament starting. So I figured I’d watch, but they had an odd number of participants, and I was the only pure spectator, so they asked if I’d join. I said I’d never played before. The group liked that. So now I’m playing…

Rock Em Sock Em Robots (BGG link) – The participants were a lot of fun, screaming and cheering as if this was a real fight. Somehow I won 3 games and made the finals. Couldn’t bring home the oversized championship belt though. The game is objectively terrible, but I had a blast. I might actually sign up for it next year. First impression: D for the game, A+ for the experience

Tightrope (No BGG link) – A game from a local publisher that they were playtesting. It’s a circus themed game were you communally add cards to the tightrope if they meet certain conditions. It’s not quite ready for prime time, but I think I gave them some decent ideas. The concept has potential. First impression: Incomplete

Still had time, so wanted to see if the host was running a 2nd game of…

Blood on the Clocktower (BGG link) – Been enjoying this one a lot at the local board game café. It’s a social deduction game that has been taking over recently. I lost as evil. Was the marionette and didn’t know until the end. Can’t give a “first impression” rating, but I’ve never had a bad time with this one.

Sunday:

Stupor Mundi (BGG link) – One of about 9000 games in the genre of “trading and castle building in Europe several centuries ago”. This one is better than most. Has a unique mechanic where you can build or destroy the emperor’s castle and economy depending on what your goals are. Neatly combines deck building and tech trees. First impression: A

And that ended my convention. Had a fun time. Sucks I didn’t get to play Yokohama, but damn that Rock Em Sock Em tournament was fun. Pulsar 2849 kicked ass too. Will probably pick that one up.

Yokohama was one of my fave games tho I haven’t played it in years. It’s like Istanbul on steroids. It’s on BGA if you ever wanna play.

Mystic vale app is done well

Plays better than the table top version

I'll check out the BGA tutorial sometime this weekend.

BTW, never saw any sign of that Luthier game you were talking about.

Suggestions on good 2-player games that are extremely compact/suitable for travel?

I should add, up to 4 players is fine but mainly looking for stuff that works well with 2.

Card box sized games:

2 players:
Jaipur: 2-player only card game with decent decisions to make; lots of give and take

3-4 players:
Splendor: pure engine builder game that casuals can quickly get into. If take out of box and put cards in card box and chips in ziplock then can be pretty small. Plays fine 2 player tho splendor duel is a bit better 2-player and not much bigger in footprint.

For Sale: just cards, auction game

Werewords: small box, uses app to moderate it; 21 questions with wolf and seer roles

Arboretum: just cards; building tableau of trees to score more points than opponents

2/3/4 players:
Qwinto, Qwixx, That’s Pretty Clever: dice games with small pad of paper, each with slightly different rules and good replayability. Can even get the score pads as apps on phone to get rid of paper, so really just need a few dice of different colors.

Qwixx: g, r, y, b, w, w dice
Qwinto: y, p, o dice
Pretty clever: b, g, y, o, p, w dice

If you use red for purple or vice-versa and an orange for a white then you can play the 2 Q games with just pretty clever’s dice and their apps

Forest Shuffle is pretty good. Patchwork. Lucky Numbers. Lost Cities. Battle Line.

Thanks, will check those out. Noticed That's Pretty Clever in my search, also a card game called Sea Salt and Paper.

Seven wonders duel

Imohtep duel

Caverna duel

Wingspan really trying to maximize how much money they can make with all the spinoffs.