During the holidays, many visit with family and friends to celebrate. What better way to enjoy each other's company than to play board games. I noticed several posts online of games received as gifts and played over the course of this past week. This is a commentary on games I got to play and general thoughts. aGames and the Holidays It just seems like a natural pairing. When family and friends gather, games get played. Sure its fun to just sit and reminisce about the good ole days ... but eventually everyone wants some activity. Board games provide activity while allowing or in some cases increasing social engagement and interaction. This past week I got to play some cooperative video games with my wife and two sons on the Nintendo Switch. We played "Mario and Sonic 2020 Olympics" and "Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3". Though these weren't board games, both allowed for us to play together on a single screen. We had a lot of fun, at times raising our voices at the screen and laughing with and at each other. I also played some video party games. "Use your Words", "Drawful" and "Fibbage". All social games played on a TV or console which allow you to use your phone or tablet to log into an online server and play together. We played these social games along with my dad and sister. The six of us shared a lot of laughs. I have to say that of these games, "Use Your Words" is my favorite. For more information about this game click here. Of course I got to play some board games as well. While our friends Don and Shannon were visiting, we played "Potion Explosion", "Champions of Midgard" and "JAWS". We usually play games when we get together and we had played each of these games at least once before. Much different experiences were had with each. We have played "Potion Explosion" many times. It's probably one of our favorites. This game is a clever strategic game that uses a unique marble dispenser from which players draw marbles (ingredients). When drawing a marble from the dispenser, if it causes like colors to clack together, you get to also pull all the marbles of that color which in turn could cause more marbles of the same color to clack, and so on. Placing these marbles (ingredients) on special potion tiles attempting to complete potions. Though this game seems like it is pulled straight from mobile video games, it is a really fun board game with clever use of a gimmick in the form of this marble dispenser. A lot of fun and surprisingly good amount of strategy. I had taught my wife, Don and Shannon "Champions of Midgard" once, about six months ago. This was an opportunity to play a second time. Of course, I had to give a once-over on the rules, but everyone seemed to pick it back up rather quickly. The game was close all the way through and different players surged ahead at different times in the game. I really like the combination of worker placement and dice rolling for battles. It satisfies both my Euro-game and American-style game itches. I ended up winning in the end, however it was definitely not a runaway win ... Don was very close! The third game the four of us played was "JAWS". This is a game that Don and I learned to play while at Gen Con this year. We liked it enough that Don purchased it. We had played one previous time with Shannon and Brenda (my wife) and it seemed to not go over so well. We thought, in part due to the extra time needed to explain and teach the game, thus dragging out how long it took. This time was our second chance. The first act played rather well, however JAWS (Don) got the better of us and went into the 2nd Act with the maximum advantage. We had difficulty in the second act, but ultimately made it very close. It came down to a couple dice rolls at the very end ... and JAWS (Don) ended up winning. Shannon stated she just didn't like the game, even after a second try. She was baffled at why Don and I like it. Needless to say... it looks like this one is not going to get further plays with this group of four, however Don and I may break it out in the future to play with just two or with others. The holidays aren't quite over. We still have the New Years holiday this week. I hope to get to play more games this week and definitely excited to play into the new year. I hope you are able to play games with your family and friends as well. Happy New Year to all! Please continue to keep your eye out for new blog posts and ...
Game on!
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I don't play enough of the latest hotness to really rate the best games of the current year. I play a lot of games that have come out within the last five years and replay my favorites to gain more experience, however, I do like seeing other posts about top 10 lists and find them interesting. So many different top choices by different individuals. This year I thought I'd try my hand on a smaller scale with a Top 5 games of 2019 that I've played. As I mentioned above, I don't play a lot of the most recent game releases. My list will only be comprised of those that I have had a chance to play or demo at least once while at a game convention etc... If you are wondering why I didn't include a particular game ... I probably just didn't get a chance to play it.
So, there you have it. The top five games I had a chance to play in 2019. I want to squeeze in a couple honorable mention games that nearly made this list:
In this post I give an overview of some recent games played. I am not going to go into great detail on any. I will offer my general impressions and opinions as appropriate for each game.
Mechs vs. Minions: Mission #10 As you may have read in previous posts, my neighbors and I have been playing through all the missions in Mechs vs. Minions. We've been stuck on the final mission for months. Each time we break it out we attempt to beat this level. We get one or two attempts in each game night... and each time we've come up short. This past week we broke Mechs vs. Minions out again. We took extra time at the beginning to review our learnings from past attempts and to discuss our basic strategy. Something must have clicked, because this time we finally defeated the Boss Mech. We were focussed and fierce. It seemed like things went more smoothly than normal. What a fun time! If you like co-op games and the action programming mechanism, then this game is a must play. So well designed and the production quality is through the roof! For more information CLICK HERE to link to the entry on Board Game Geek. Mystic Vale While at my friend Troy's game night I got to play Mystic Vale. This is a deck-building game which ads the interesting element of card crafting to it. Deck building games are card-based games in which each player starts with a similar base deck of cards and over the course of the game ads new cards, making their decks unique. Players typically try to pair cards that work well together and hope to bring them out of their deck in a timely fashion to perform combos and optimize each turn. In this game all players start with the same 20 cards. The back of the cards is the only difference with each player having a different color. So what is "card-crafting"? Mystic Vale ads this crafting element to diversify each player's 20-card deck. Clear cards are drafted from the middle of the table, having image/text covering one third of the card. The clear card is added to the existing card to create a new combination within the card sleeve. Cards can have up to three different additional cards added. This is a clever alternative to your classic deck-builder. Take a look at the photos I posted to get an idea of how this looks/works. I really liked how the game plays. Victory points are gained on some cards when played and more cards are available for purchase with additional victory points. I'm over-simplifying it, however that's the gist of it. We played with the expansions which added a day/night component and new leader cards. If your looking for a unique card-based game that resembles a deck builder but does it in a different way, then jump all over this one. Its fun to build your cards and see how you can create combos within the same card sleeve. To learn more about this one CLICK HERE to link to the Board Game Geek entry. Betrayal at Baldur's Gate Many are probably familiar with Betrayal at House on the Hill. In 2017 Avalon Hill published a Dungeons & Dragons re-skinning of this classic adventure game. I got a chance to play this version for the first time at Troy's game night. I have to say... I heard that they made a few improvements to the game from the original... and they were right! This is truly the same base game mechanics, however with a few tweaks made to improve upon past weaknesses. The new version takes the Dungeons & Dragons theme and replaces the haunted house with the city of Baldur's Gate. Instead of a main level, upstairs and basement, Baldur's gate includes the city level with Buildings and Street tiles as well as a Catacombs level. I'll list some of the changes/improvements as I remember them.
I had a lot of fun playing a variety of games this past week. I'm glad I could share with you my experiences and thoughts about one I've been playing for a long time, one with a new theme plus rules revisions and one new game with a unique game mechanism. Please share your thoughts and comments by posting in the comments section. I'd love to hear from you about your experiences with any of the three games. Keep checking out my gaming blog posts and...
Game on! Recently, I had the opportunity to play Roll for the Galaxy for the first time. In this post, I'll share my quick overview and thoughts about the game. Once again, while at my friend Troy's, I got to play a new game. Though it was released in 2014, this game is new to me. Roll for the Galaxy is a strategic dice game based on the popular board game, Race for the Galaxy. Not your typical light, family dice game. Roll for the Galaxy takes Euro-style board game elements and masterfully executes the mechanics with dice. Players roll dice to advance their empire by expanding to new worlds, creating new technologies, populating the planets, etc... Eventually one player will go on to have the most advanced intergalactic empire, winning the game. Overview of Roll for the Galaxy As I alluded to above, there's a lot more going on in this game than just a simple family dice game. This is not your re-skinned Yahtzee! clone. Each player starts with the same base player mat on which to build their tableau of tiles. Each also receives a special two-piece home world tile with its special "power" and starting colored die, as well as one additional starting tile. Currency in the game is used to recruit units (dice)... the more money you spend, the more dice can be rolled. Each player has a privacy screen to roll behind. Players use a cup in the color of their faction to roll their available dice. Dice are then assigned. Each player secretly elects which action they wish to take by placing one die on the card and places the other dice under their matching action/phase symbols. Once the privacy screens are removed, each player reveals the action/phase they selected for the round. These phases are noted by large action icon cards on the table. This action selection process is interesting because it may allow for players to gain additional actions if other players chose an action/phase in which they had extra dice allocated. Going in order of the phases each player places dice on cards and/or performs the actions indicated by the selected phase.
Thoughts and Comments
Roll for the Galaxy has a lot to offer. This game is much more in-depth than it appears at first glance. I really need to get a couple more plays under my belt before I provide a definitive opinion. I will say that I would like to play again. The choices and action selections offset the luck of dice rolling nicely. There's a wild emblem on the dice that sometimes saves you from having to take an action/phase you didn't need. I've heard many say that they prefer this dice version to the larger/longer board game version Race for the Galaxy. This Euro-style dice game has the kind of decisions that keep me interested and wanting more. There is a definite "engine-building" aspect to the game as players select and play tiles in their tableaus that could create a victory-point machine. There's not a lot of player interaction. You don't steal any resources or cause damage to other players, however the phases each player selects might allow other players to gain additional actions that round. The victory point pool and tile limit for end-game conditions create a race that requires players pay attention to each other's progress as well. After my initial play, I have to say that I really enjoyed Roll for the Galaxy. I recommend trying this game if you get the chance. There's an early learning curve, however by the end of your first game you should feel like you have an understanding of the gameplay and mechanics and be ready to truly tackle strategy in following plays. At least that's the way I felt. A fun and strategic space-exploration themed game. I'm ready to play again, right now! To read more about Roll for the Galaxy on Board Game Geek click here. Leave your comments on the post and let everyone know what you think of this one or how it compares to Race for the Galaxy. Keep watching for more gaming posts on King's GameNight and... Game on! |
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