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Overview of Great Western Trail, 2nd Edition

Great Western Trail web story poster
Megan Ferrell | September 2, 2022
Great Western Trail web story poster
Overview of Great Western Trail, 2nd Edition

Overview of Moonrakers

Moonrakers tabletop board game box
Megan Ferrell | September 2, 2022
Moonrakers tabletop board game box
Overview of Moonrakers

Overview of Mariposas Tabletop Game

Mariposas board game - poster for webstory
Megan Ferrell | July 31, 2022
Mariposas board game - poster for webstory
Overview of Mariposas Tabletop Game

Kōhaku Tabletop Game in 60 Seconds Overview

Kohaku board game story cover
Megan Ferrell | June 26, 2022
Kohaku board game story cover
Kōhaku Tabletop Game in 60 Seconds Overview

Tabletop Board Games to Celebrate International UFO Day

World UFO Day Poster
Megan Ferrell | June 11, 2022
World UFO Day Poster
Tabletop Board Games to Celebrate International UFO Day

Conspiracy: Abyss Universe Card Game in 60 Seconds Overview

Conspiracy: The Abyss Universe board game webstory poster
Megan Ferrell | June 9, 2022
Conspiracy: The Abyss Universe board game webstory poster
Conspiracy: Abyss Universe Card Game in 60 Seconds Overview

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  • boardgamematrix

    Board Game Matrix is a board game discovery web app created by tabletop game enthusiasts, Megan Ferrell and Nicole Aue, for tabletop game enthusiasts.
    My partner and I stopped by @hoodriverhobbies on o My partner and I stopped by @hoodriverhobbies on our way back from a beautiful hike a couple of months ago. After some joyous perusal of their excellently curated selection of games, a fortunate coin toss resulted in our purchase of the game Wondrous Creatures by @badcometgames. When we got home, rather than play a competitive game against each other, we decided to learn the game together by playing the solo version as a co-op team. Now, I am kind of a tough sell when it comes to solo variants. I demand a high ratio of time and mental energy spent on my own turn vs the bot’s turn. And, I am happy to report that Wondrous Creatures’ automa delivered a pleasing user experience for both me and my partner. The theme is nominally about collecting adorable fantastical creatures, represented by purchasing creature cards from a trade row and playing them into a personal tableau. Creatures are fed/paid for with resources collected via worker placement. A worker is placed across 2 hexes on the main board to gain all adjacent resources. Placing a captain—a higher powered worker—will result in a special (and asymmetrical) ability. Creatures played into the tableau confer all manner of abilities, and the size of the creature deck is enormous. The game has a couple of superpowers: one is the totally compelling resource conversion and logistics puzzle behind the myriad choices a player can make on their turn, and the second is its replayability. Another cool feature is that the score track itself sort of doubles as a tech track, allowing players to do and get cool stuff when reaching certain point milestones. Reaching bonus goals does much the same thing. I like games that make me feel rich, and Wondrous Creatures makes me feel like I’m diving in Scrooge McDuck’s money bin. Wondrous Creatures has some Earth- and Everdell-like elements, but definitely feels like its own thing. We rarely play the same board game three times in a row, but we came back to this one at our very next opportunity, and then again after that. We really dig it! #wondrouscreatures #wondrouscreaturesboardgame #boardgamereview #badcometgames #tableaubuilding #workerplacementgame
    If Galaxy Trucker and Calico had a love child, it If Galaxy Trucker and Calico had a love child, it would be Fit to Print. It’s a weird, cute, and stressful game that induces… feelings. Out of the box, it’s totally adorable. I love the art by Ian O’Toole, which features anthropomorphic animals in early 20th century suits. The newspaper article “headlines” predictably extract a smile from me (for example, “Tortoise Sues Post Office for Unfair Dismissal” and “Twig Shortage Hits Nest Market Hard”). The gameplay, on the other hand, is brutal! Players take the roles of newspaper publishers trying to turn a profit by fitting the most articles and ads into their papers. But there are several virtually impossible feats (for me, anyway) to overcome in the process. First, players must compete to turn over ad and article tiles, which start face down in the middle of the play area, in a mad dash to find pieces that are compatible with their boards, personal goals, and tile placement rules. Second, players must stack the pieces they want on their personal desks, with fingers crossed that the pieces will fit on their player boards/newspaper when the layout phase begins. Third, newspaper layout begins. Article tiles come in green, pink, or blue. No tiles of the same color can touch. Players should place at least one ad but probably more than one to avoid going out of business. Points are deducted for unfilled spaces, AND for having too many articles to place. And, the size of the newspaper changes over 3 rounds, for the Friday, Saturday, and Sunday editions. So just when you thought you had a feel for about how many of each size and color of tiles you needed to make a profitable paper, the rules change. Further, just to make things more crazy-making, points are awarded according to the balance of positive/negative news stories. Arghhhhh! Well, in summary, I am a little less sane after playing this game than before. How about you? #fittoprint #flatoutgames #tilegames #fittoprintboardgame #animalgames #boardgamereview #boardgamelover
    Sometimes I find co-op board games annoying. In pa Sometimes I find co-op board games annoying. In particular, I dislike games that are subject to quarterbacking or alpha-gaming. When I play a game, I want to have ownership of my decisions and the actions on my turn. I was pleased to discover that Sky Team manages to mostly preserve individual player autonomy, in addition to providing an addictive gaming experience. Sky Team is a 2-player cooperative dice placement board game in which players work together to successfully land a plane. One player assumes the role of pilot and the other plays as co-pilot. The two roles are of equal importance. Players each roll 4 dice in secret and place them in strategic order to clear the sky of traffic, maintain stability, manage speed, and eventually drop landing gear and brake. Players can talk between turns about strategy, but during turns, communication is verboten. This is partly how player autonomy is protected—when it’s your turn, you decide where to place your dice and in what order. The placement itself is where important tacit communication occurs. If you immediately place a die in the “concentration” area to get a cup of coffee, your co-pilot should probably deduce that you didn’t roll what you needed for this round and act accordingly. Intermediate and difficult scenarios feature fuel issues, icy runways, wind, and having to train an intern. Each comes with an extra dial or gauge to add beside the board. So many things to juggle! We have tried a scenario with the fuel gauge and it was manageable but I expect the difficult scenarios to be, well, difficult. We have had little time for gaming lately, but this is a great game to throw down on the patio table for a quick little after-lunch or after-dinner session. Ever optimistic that we will actually play the games we buy, we even bought the Turbulence expansion this week from @puddletowngames on a whim as we were running an errand in the neighborhood. It has penguins! Very excited for the penguins. #skyteam #cooperativegames #diceplacement #boardgamereview
    We played the beloved game Project L by @boardcuba We played the beloved game Project L by @boardcubator to a point where it became a bit stale for us. As Project L grew more predictable over time, we decided to help it grow and flourish by acquiring the Ghost Pieces expansion for it. Ghost Pieces really does “level up” the game. It adds 24 new, larger puzzles and 30 new black polyominoes in 3 shapes, each 5 units in size. The rules for the expansion are quite simple. As in Project L, players will acquire new polyominoes by completing puzzles using their existing polyominoes. In Ghost Pieces, the 5-unit pieces are acquired by completing the larger Ghost Pieces puzzles. That’s basically it—more Project L goodness with an extra layer of challenge. The larger puzzles are more difficult to parse at a glance, making puzzle acquisition decisions more agonizing. With the base game, the puzzles are so simple that players can assess very quickly how many turns a puzzle will take to complete with the pieces they currently have in their personal stash. Project L: Ghost Pieces expansion is a must-have expansion for us, to reduce predictability and refresh the base game. Definitely recommend to fans of Project L who don’t yet have this expansion. #boardgamereview #polyominogame #boardgames #projectlboardgame #projectlghostpieces #boardgameexpansion #tetris #puzzlegame
    Doomlings: A Delightful Card Game for the end of Doomlings: A Delightful Card Game for the end of the World is a quick, simple tableau-building and set collection game for 2-6 players. In Doomlings, players are playing “trait” cards into their personal tableau over the course of 13-16 “ages,” or turns/rounds. The rules of engagement change with each new round, with a lot of shakeup happening with the occasional “catastrophic event” ages. You may need to discard your whole hand, steal from opponents, or shrink your hand size, for example. There is a good amount of variety in the fun little characters and actions among the trait and age cards. There are five suits of traits with distinct flavors (and distinct flavor text!). Some are highly interactive and others tend to focus more on points. Ostensibly, you want to collect the cards that will give you the highest point value by the end of the game. But Doomlings is really more about process than points. If you’re like us and you tend to avoid being on the giving or receiving end of d-bag moves when playing games, you will have to get in the “what’s a little theft between friends, amiright?” frame of mind before playing Doomlings. You can gravitate toward collecting the more benign green and gray traits, but you are probably going to, at some point, be forced to steal or be stolen from. Kids will probably really enjoy this part! Mechanically, Doomlings is a lot like FLUXX, with some Unstable Unicorns thrown in. For us, it didn’t have a ton of strategic interest, but we are not really the target audience for this game. Its core audiences are likely to be mass-market gamers and party gamers. If you are looking for a very light, interactive, slightly sassy yet family friendly card game to play with party gamers or kids, Doomlings might be just the ticket. After watching the excellent and charming animated tutorial video on the publisher’s website, just about anyone could be playing within ten minutes. Review copy provided by publisher @doomlings. Opinions are our own. #doomlings #doomlingsgame #cardgames #boardgamereview #partygame
    I grew up playing all sorts of variants of Rummy. I grew up playing all sorts of variants of Rummy. We played Gin Rummy, Horserace Rummy, Crazy Rummy, and Canadian Rummy. As with many card-playing families, the rules passed down to us across generations are like a game of “Telephone” many sources removed: the way we play is very separated, if not divorced from, the official rules that you might find on the Bicycle cards website. Rummathon Royale is like a conglomeration of all of our generations of house rules and variants compiled into a single game. Rummathon Royale has 12 rounds, though players could choose to play fewer rounds for a shorter game. Each round, players need to complete a specific “sequence”: a group of sets and/or runs of various sizes, numbers, and colors. Each player is assigned a task list that is unique to them, so while player 1 is working on assembling a set of 3 fours, a run of 5, and 6 cards of the same color, for example, player 2 may be trying to gather a pair of nines and 2 runs of five in any color. Starting with a hand of 12 cards, players will take turns by drawing from the deck, playing a rude card on an opponent (add a requirement to completing their sequence, making them skip a turn, etc.), playing their sequence, or playing on an opponent’s sequence in order to go out. Players who have gone out can move onto the next round/sequence even if their opponents are still working on their sequences. When moving into the next round, players can spend 10 points per card to draw additional cards toward completing a sequence. The graphic design is imperfect in a few ways, but we do have a prototype. The rulebook has been revised in newer versions since the prototype we received, so it is possible other improvements are being made. We enjoyed Rummathon Royale. Completing a unique sequence each round adds a “mini-campaign” element to an old classic. There are also a lot of swings, which can make the game feel like a compelling horserace. If you like card games, check out Rummathon Royale when it comes to crowdfunding. Preview game copy provided by @rummathonroyale. All opinions are our own. #boardgamereview #rummathonroyale #cardgames #rummy #boardgames
    I backed the game Diatoms on Kickstarter and I am I backed the game Diatoms on Kickstarter and I am glad I did. In Diatoms, players are scientists making artistic microscopic patterns out of single-celled algae. Diatoms is like Calico plus Lanterns plus Ingenious. In phase one of each round, players are trying to place hexagonal tiles into a common play area by matching colors on all touching sides. At least 3 sides must touch in order to score, because the resulting intersection of the 3 tiles will be evaluated for which shapes (and in what color) will be earned. Players will earn one or more of five different shapes in one or more of five different colors. The color and shape is based on the number of sides and which color(s) on the newly placed tile matches with the intersection(s) where the placed tile meets surrounding tiles. Then comes a second phase: the newly acquired tiles must be placed on your player board to create a pattern. Symmetry in color and shapes is rewarded, as is shape variety. But what’s most important is collecting as many tiles as possible to place on your board. This is because of quantity thresholds for getting points by having a minimum number of tiles in a specific color. The production is cool. I dig the iridescent box and components. The multilayer player boards are very nice, and the petri dishes for storing the tokens are a nice thematic touch. If you like pattern-making games, Diatoms will probably feel like an old friend that you haven’t seen for a while—it’s familiar, but it has some new things to show you. We are enjoying getting to know this new and enticing yet familiar game. #diatomsboardgame #diatoms #boardgamereview #patternmakinggame #tabletopgames #25thcenturygames
    Time has been very short lately, but we finally ha Time has been very short lately, but we finally had a chance to play the board game Nocturne, which I backed on Kickstarter last year. In Nocturne, players are fox mystics casting spells of escalating strength on one another in an effort to gain the best potion ingredients… which sounds a lot more thematic than it actually is. On a turn, players will place a bidding marker on a tile in the 4x4 grid in turn order, staying orthagonally adjacent to the previous bidder. When players give up or can’t bid higher, the winning bidder claims their tile. Tiles form sets for points and can be applied to spells/contracts for extra points. I enjoyed the grid movement aspect of the game. A cool feature is that, with some slick manipulation of bids, players can sometimes set themselves up to capture multiple tiles in a single turn. Planning to gather the right tiles to fulfill a spell requirement, and to get spells to fulfill, is a legit challenge. Nocturne manages to pull off an impressive variety of different mechanisms, including set collection, contract fulfillment, bidding, and grid movement. It is well-edited and neither under- nor over-produced. It also features lovely art by Beth Sobel (which is disrespected a bit by the low print quality of the tokens—but I am willing to look away because the game was so inexpensive). Yet, I felt something was missing. While I don’t generally mind an abstract game, in this case I had been sold on the theme of the game when I backed it on Kickstarter, only to discover that the theme was just facade. I did not for a second feel like I was playing a mystic, let alone a fox mystic, or that I was creating potions or casting spells. I moved around a grid and collected tiles for points—that’s pretty much it. Nocturne is not a bad game, but it is not what I thought I was getting based on the marketing. Have you played Nocturne? What did you think? #firstimpressionsfriday🎲 by @kay_plays_games #nocturneboardgame #boardgamereview #tabletopgames #bethsobel #biddinggame #flatoutgames #alderaceg
    My partner and I think of ourselves as a formidabl My partner and I think of ourselves as a formidable team when we play a co-op game. But Spirit Island, a board game we rented from @portlandgamelibrary, outsmarted us on our first couple of attempts. In Spirit Island, players represent spirits of nature who, in conjunction with the Dahan (island inhabitants), work to ward off colonizers from an island. Each round, colonizing explorers drop onto a certain territory type on the island map. The next round, any explorers who have not been eliminated will build towns or cities. The round after that, remaining explorers, towns, and cities will ravage the island. In so doing, they may destroy the Dahan in that region, deploy blight, or eliminate players’ spirit presence from that region. Because spirit actions can be delayed until after the colonizers ravage, it’s key to aim actions at upcoming rounds in addition to the current one. For us, the eventual winning spirit team consisted of Spread of Rampant Green, paired with Lightning’s Swift Strike. The latter spirit’s ability to occasionally bestow speed upon the powerful abilities that can be acquired by the former allowed us to eliminate the colonizers handily. (Along with some experience under our belts, of course.) If we could go back in time and play for the first time again, we would choose to not use the recommended starter decks or limit ourselves to the “low complexity” spirits. We were much more effective when we were able to draft cards that we felt suited our spirit’s abilities as well as the conditions on the island board. While our first play was bewildering and our second unlucky, our third play felt like I think the game is supposed to feel: challenging but not impossible. Eliminating the colonizers was a satisfying experience. Have you played Spirit Island? If so, what are your favorite spirits to play as? Also, shout out to @greaterthangames for replacing three cards that were casualties of cat mischief, free of charge! What amazing customer service. Thank you! #firstimpressionsfriday🎲 by @kay_plays_games #spiritisland #spiritislandboardgame #boardgamereview #cooperativegames #strategygames
    We rented the deckbuilding game Clank! In! Space! We rented the deckbuilding game Clank! In! Space! from @portlandgamelibrary because we heard it was a rollicking good time. (Who can resist flavor text like that on the raygun-wielding humanoid-alien-cat Space Pirate card: “Everyone relax. I’m only here for your ice.”?) In Clank! In! Space!, players move stealthily through the spaceship of the evil Eradikus Prime in order to hack the ship’s computers, steal an artifact and auxiliary loot, and haul ass back to an escape pod before all their “clanking” noise alerts the bad guys to their presence. Our game got off to a slow start, partly because early on we kept drawing enemy cards to replace cards we had purchased from the trade row. The only way out was to clutter our already weak starter decks with FAZR cards (i.e., fighting cards) until eventually we drew two or more at once to defeat the enemies and turn up new trade row cards. Once the game got going, I enjoyed the racing feature. Mazing potential paths in and out of the Command Module and to the Cargo Bay was a delightful puzzle. I was last off the ship, but had enough healing ability and loot to squeak through with a surprise win, one turn away from sure obliteration by Eradikus Prime. Incidentally, the board layout, premise, and goal reminds me of a fantastic but obscure, vaguely sci-fi themed Atari 7800 video game I used to love as a kid: Impossible Mission (IYKYK). So I was particularly attracted to the game for that reason, but I also thought many aspects were really well done, especially the humorous card art and flavor text. Faction ability was relatively unuseful, since few faction cards actually had faction-related abilities on them. Some cards had questionable utility in general. We came across very few cards that allowed for deck-culling, which kept our decks less than stellar for much of the game. Glad we got to try this one, though I prefer a deckbuilder that ramps up a little faster, and in which I can hone a leaner-and-meaner deck. Are you a fan of the Clank! Games? #firstimpressionsfriday🎲 by @kay_plays_games #clankinspace #pauldennen #spacegames #boardgames #boardgamereviews #deckbuildinggame #racinggame #dungeoncrawler
    Everdell is my favorite board game. Its beauty, st Everdell is my favorite board game. Its beauty, strategic depth, and end-game crescendo stole my heart in 2018 and I have been wedded to it ever since. But, we hardly ever play it. It takes hours to play and requires a good night’s sleep to partake in its strategy properly. Enter Everdell: Duo to save the day. It’s a 2-player game in the Everdell universe that feels somewhat like its parent game squished into a shorter experience. Our first game took about an hour (not bad for us!). In Everdell: Duo, players represent either the tortoise or the hare, dueling to build the best little city in Everdell. Each turn, players will draft cards from the Meadow or draw from the deck; play a card into their City tableau; or place a Tortoise/Hare worker at a resource gathering location. Just like Everdell, the Duo version is loaded with strategic choices and variability. The tortoise/hare theme is ingenious; players alternate going up a time track that affects not only which actions the other player can take on their next turn, but also how many actions of a certain type will be available each round and who will get more of those types of actions. It’s really quite juicy. Many of the same cards from Everdell are found in Duo, often with different abilities. For example, some cards that were once punishing (like The Fool or the Pirate Ship) have been repurposed. Other changes include eliminating the hand limit, and liberalizing construction/critter pairings. The cards and board in Everdell Duo have been minified and the entire game fits on ⅔ of a standard card table. No giant Everdell tree here! I miss the larger card art and the table presence of Everdell, but Duo is still a good looking game. We have only tried the competitive version so far, but we are very excited to try the co-op campaign and the challenge mode. While it’s not quite as immersive and satisfying as the original Everdell (it’s not meant to be), we will turn to Everdell Duo when we want Everdell flavor with fewer calories. #firstimpressionsfriday🎲 by @kay_plays_games #everdellduo #everdellboardgame #boardgamereview #strategygames #boardgames #everdell @starlinggames
    Cosmoctopus was an impulse purchase. While in a bo Cosmoctopus was an impulse purchase. While in a board game store last year, my partner picked up Cosmoctopus, read the box cover, and decided we were leaving the shop with it. We later learned Cosmoctopus is a parody of the Cthulhu mythos, a universe with which we are neither particularly enamored nor familiar. While some of the game’s inside jokes may have escaped us, the concept of a cult based around a cosmically powerful octopus is inherently funny and we appreciated the humor throughout. At the time, we didn’t even notice that Cosmoctopus was designed by Henry Audubon, designer of Parks, which is one of my partner’s all-time favorite games. I see the design resemblance to Parks in the punishing worker placement, the breadth of action abilities, and the resource limits. But Cosmoctopus has its own strong identity. The addition of a racing mechanism, card drafting mechanism, and emphasis on engine building makes Cosmoctopus feel less constraining than Parks. The goal of Cosmoctopus is to be the first to collect 8 tentacles to summon the Great Inky One. Typically this is done by sacrificing various resources in a particular sequence as indicated by a Constellation card. Other methods include paying resources to purchase a Hallucination card that bestows a tentacle, or buying Forbidden Knowledge with a big chunk of a single resource. I found Cosmoctopus to be both frustrating and compelling, as many good games are. Some cards are more valuable than others for their relative price. If you score enough of those cards at the right times, you’ll be set. But with a trade row of only 3 cards, you might miss out on those to other players. The worker placement tile grid is similarly tight, with 12 possible locations and a potentially expensive movement cost. And then there is the cheeky aesthetic: The plastic tentacles contain unique organic shapes to represent an octopus in motion. The cards and tiles contain “vintage” artwork, ostensibly referencing the pulp fiction that inspired the theme. #firstimpressionsfriday🎲 by @kay_plays_games #cosmoctopus #boardgamereview #henryaudubon #cthulhu #enginebuildinggames #racinggames #paperfortgames #luckyduckgames
    Stratego was one of my favorite board games when I Stratego was one of my favorite board games when I was growing up. In fact, I still have my brother’s copy from childhood that he didn’t want anymore. So when given the opportunity to play and review the modernized version, Stratego Classic by @jumbo_games, I was giddy with nostalgia. Stratego is a 2-player game of tactics, grid movement, hidden information, and memory. The objective is to capture the opponent’s flag pawn, which will require first discovering its location through inevitable sacrifice of your pawns. What’s new in Stratego Classic? -Improved box and insert -Reversed numbers on pawns (the most powerful character, the Marshal, is now a 10 instead of a 1) -Updated cylindrical pawns -Inclusion of some female soldiers on pawns -Differentiated art on pawns (unique art for opposing factions and also within a certain rank) -Cards that create more randomness and hidden information Stratego Classic feels comfortably familiar, yet the addition of cards really does change it up. Say you used a Scout (rank 2) to force your opponent to reveal the rank of one of their pawns. It’s a 6. You move in to attack your opponent’s 6 with your 7, knowing you will be victorious. …But wait! From their current hand of cards, your opponent plays a defense card that raises the rank of their pawn by 2! Their 6 is now an 8 and has defeated your attacking 7! I am used to having “perfect” information in Stratego, once I have performed sufficient recon to reveal the ranks of my opponents’ pawns. Having imperfect information, whether about where my opponent’s pawns will be or what their rank might be requires a change in strategy and keeps me on my toes. My opponent beat me in our first game by playing her cards shrewdly and aggressively. I will take cues from her for our next game! Stratego Classic delivers on creating a fresh take on a classic game with interesting new decision spaces. We would recommend checking this version out, especially for Stratego fans. It’s available from @target. Game provided by publisher for review purposes. Our opinions are our own. #firstimpressionsfriday🎲 by @kay_plays_games #jumboplay #strategoclassic #stratego #boardgamereview
    The most succinct review I can provide for the boa The most succinct review I can provide for the board game Glow is an echo of my partner’s pithy summation: “This game is just so… French.” Ostensibly, Glow is about bringing light back to a world that has gone dark. However, the aesthetic maintains its gloom throughout the game: the black and white ink illustration by Vincent Dutrait is fantastic, but the sad eyes of the miserable creatures that players recruit as their companions are a bit of a downer. Additionally, the game overall feels more like mitigating negative conditions than maximizing growth and positive outcomes. In Glow, players draft Companion cards that confer various abilities. Often, drafting a companion will also result in drafting a variable number of dice to be rolled that round, which will trigger card abilities and board movement abilities. Card abilities are sometimes positive and sometimes negative. Sometimes they are worth points, a die re-roll, a movement token, or fireflies that can earn points at the end of the game; sometimes they subtract from your point value at the end of the game. Or, they may place a hex on another player. Other times, a Companion will be sent to the graveyard, which may provide a benefit—or a punishment. Before we rented Glow from @portlandgamelibrary, I warned my partner that my recon had indicated it was a dice chucker. She wanted to rent it anyway, largely compelled by the box cover art. Can’t argue with that. And what a dice chucker it was! We experienced very little player agency, being the passive subjects of random dice rolls throughout the game. We also felt unmotivated to move around the board to set up camp, because the costs seemed greater than the benefits. The game ends with a whimper after 8 rounds. There is no race to make camp on the board first, synergy among companions doesn’t coalesce, and the end of the game feels as random as the dice rolls. We were unprepared to make our own meaning out of the strife and gloom presented in this game. I guess we needed to summon our inner French existentialists to resonate with this one. #boardgamereview #glowboardgame #lueurboardgame #vincentdutrait #boardgames #dicegame #carddrafting
    We rented The Quest for El Dorado board game from We rented The Quest for El Dorado board game from @portlandgamelibrary because we like deck-building games, and to an extent, we also enjoy racing games. It doesn’t hurt that my partner is a huge fan of the Indiana Jones franchise. In The Quest for El Dorado, players use cards from their hand to advance along a track composed of contiguous hexes representing territory types including water, jungle, caves, and others. When players reach a cave, they can obtain a treasure from it that can be used for later benefit (such as an additional move, an additional card draw, deck culling, etc.). The movement mechanism in the two-player version of this game reminded me a bit of the classic game Chinese Checkers. For example, players will sometimes end up taking a circuitous route toward El Dorado to avoid certain pitfalls like spaces that require more movement ability than the player has in their current hand, and to avoid spaces that are already occupied by their opponent. Just like in Chinese Checkers, players must get all of their explorers to El Dorado to win, so it’s important to not let the second meeple get left too far behind. The level of replayability should be fairly high, given map and card variability. During our first game, we played with the recommended map setup. We changed up the map for our second session, which resulted in different card purchases and strategies. And as with any deck builder, luck is another factor. The Quest for El Dorado has won several awards, and been nominated for many others. I can see the reasoning for the nominations. Obviously the game garnered attention because of its designer, Reiner Knizia, but the genius of this game is its simplicity. It’s easy to learn and intuitive to play. Yet, every turn feels consequential—because it is. We had a great time with this one and are glad we got to check it out. Have you played The Quest for El Dorado? #thequestforeldorado #racingboardgame #deckbuildinggame #reinerknizia #boardgamereview #boardgameaddict #boardgames
    “Take that!” “Oh yeah? Well then take THIS!” If adversarial banter over an ever-changing game of tactics appeals to you, you might like The Grimm Forest. The goal of the game is to be the best little piggy developer of the Grimm Forest, building structures of straw, wood, and brick faster than your cousins (your opponents). Each round, players blindly bid on a building material. The number of each available material type waxes and wanes depending on what was leftover from the previous round and on special effects being applied by players’ “fable” cards and “friend” cards. For example, playing a “wolf” fable card will destroy all resources in a bid location of the player’s choice, after everyone has already placed their bids. Ouch. The minis in this game are either fun to play with or instill dread, depending on who’s getting to place them. When they are invoked by a fable card, they are placed on a building resource location and do something destructive. The dragon will lay flame to all the resources on the selected player’s board. Bummer if you’re the selected player and you had gathered a bunch of stuff for maximum flexibility… guess you shouldn’t have been so effective at resource collection if you didn’t want to watch your plans roasted in flames! So at this point you’re probably gathering that this is a ridiculously mean game. Well, it is. Not every card is mean, but the most effective ones are. But the game is also silly and you learn quickly that strategic planning isn’t rewarded nearly as well as tactical response. It’s a bit like Fluxx with the constantly changing conditions and reverse-super-action-cancellation-boomerang effects of the cards. The official player age on the box is 14+, but this is hogwash (pun intended). The best audience for this game is probably 8-12 year old kids. It’s not a bad game. It has great toy factor, and building the houses, when you actually get to do it, is satisfying. But it’s not really a game for (most) adults. Have you played The Grimm Forest? #firstimpressionsfriday🎲 by @kay_plays_games #boardgamereview #thegrimmforest #timeisner #boardgames #boardgamephotography #biddinggames
    I am chilling on a beautiful October day, playing I am chilling on a beautiful October day, playing Six Second Scribbles by @gamelygames outside with my partner and mom. What a great opportunity to post for #boardtober2024 by @getintogames, with the theme of “chill” by @boardgameangel! Six Second Scribbles is an incredibly simple and fun drawing game. We learned it and were playing in just a few minutes. In one minute, players draw as many items as they can from a card listing ten items that fit a specific theme (such as “Things that begin with the letter M” or “Halloween Costumes”). Then, when time is up, players give their drawings to the player at their left or right for guessing the item being represented in the drawing. The artist and guesser each score one point per correct guess. The drawing and guessing are both entertaining. My mom was laughing so hard at some of our dumb drawings she had tears running down her face! Also, the game uses non-American English, so none of us had a fighting chance at guessing a word like “ice lolly,” which is apparently the same thing as a popsicle? Or “auberguine,” which is apparently the same thing as an eggplant?? Every such instance resulted in more laughter. Did we cheat and give ourselves 3 minutes? Yeah, totally. And still, none of us got all 10 of our items drawn in that time. I wonder if a truly 6-second scribble would be dicipherable to the guesser? We were too timid to try it on our first play, but would love to give it a go after some practice. We also have only played the “easy” cards, which tend to list tangible items (think “object” category in Pictionary) rather than concepts. This game will definitely get a lot of play with friends and family over the upcoming holidays, and we’ll have opportunities to test out the harder cards. My mom was already looking ahead to getting the expansion pack. Hey, Christmas is coming! Six Second Scribbles was provided by the publisher for review. All opinions are our own. Do you like drawing games? #sixsecondscribbles #drawinggames #familygames #partygames #boardgamereview #gamelygames
    We rented Trailblazers from @portlandgamelibrary b We rented Trailblazers from @portlandgamelibrary because we love hiking and thought the theme and gameplay sounded appealing. Our predictions were rewarded! Trailblazers is a lightweight puzzly path-building game in which players create trails that loop from and back to their kayak rental site, bike rental site, and campsite. Across 4 rounds, each turn players will play 2 path cards from their hand of 8 cards. Then they will pass their hand to another player. The last 2 cards each round will be discarded. Each of the first 3 rounds, players will place a new site out of which matching trails can be initiated (blue rivers for kayak sites, pink rock trails for bike sites, and brown dirt trails for campsites). There are a few tricks to this game, including careful hand management each round, relative placement of sites, choosing which bonus goals to reach for, and the one that sometimes tripped me up: making sure each card placed actually can result in a loop and won’t box you in. If you’re used to playing Tsuro, you’ll have to fight the tendency to avoid loops. We played with the expansion that scores for critter meeples placed on path cards of completed loops. Different animals placed on a completed loop score at a greater rate the more unique animals occur on the loop. We did not get a chance to play with the Adventurers expansion, which features meeples of bicyclists, kayakers, and hikers. Guess we’ll have to rent it again! Connecting the paths is pleasing, and I love playing with the animeeples. I would call it cozy, except that it can be just a bit too punishing to put in that category… let’s call it “cozy-adjacent.” We liked this game. It’s easy to table and easy to teach. Our friend liked it enough after playing with us that she wanted to buy it. I wonder which one of us will break down and buy it first? Have you played Trailblazers? #firstimpressionsfriday🎲 by @kay_plays_games #boardgamereview #trailblazersboardgame #bitewinggames #abstractgame #boardgames #naturegames #animeeples
    Because we like cats and card games, we were pleas Because we like cats and card games, we were pleased to have the opportunity to preview the game Catopomp by @dchowswag, which is coming to Kickstarter mid-Q1 2025. In Catopomp, players are cat psychopomps guiding souls to heaven or… the other place! Catopomp feels like a traditional card game, with some fun additions. The primary mechanism will feel familiar: shedding cards with sets and runs. During a turn, players will play a card or set of cards onto the table from their hand (heaven) or their personal discard tableau (hell domain), then discard a card into their hell domain (if playing from their hand). The next player will need to better the previous player’s cards. Cards are numbered 1-8 (or 1-10 with 4 players). A single 10 is beaten by a pair of any number, a pair is beaten by 3 of a kind, and 3 is beaten by 4. Sets of the same number beat out sequential runs of the same number of cards, and higher number of cards (up to 4) will always trump smaller number of cards. So, a single 1 is the least powerful, while 4 tens is the most powerful hand. There are some twists and strategies to consider. You’re trying to get rid of all of your cards—both heaven and hell cards. Cobbling together a strong hand as the number of cards available to you diminishes becomes challenging. Choosing what to discard to help yourself later is one strategy, but other players can stick one of their hell cards into your hell domain if you pass on your turn. This considerably gums up the works! Additionally, each player gets 2 dice, whose face values can be used to augment the number of one of their cards. The game ends when a player has lost both of their soul gems (meaning, they have lost 2 rounds). 💎 We enjoy this game. The art is charming, and the theme, while abstracted, is amusing. If you like traditional card games with a twist, there is a good chance this game will appeal to you. Catopomp was provided by the publisher for review purposes. All opinions are our own. The Kickstarter page is up if you want to follow the campaign and read the rules! Find the link at @dchowswag’s profile. #boardgamepreview #boardgamereview #catopomp #catopompboardgame #cardgame
    We are beginning to see a pattern in Elizabeth Har We are beginning to see a pattern in Elizabeth Hargraves’ board games. We already expect them to be heavily thematic, educational, and scientifically accurate. And now, we are also seeing that they are consistently original and distinct from one another. Those calling Undergrove “another cozy nature game” have clearly not played. Undergrove is a brutal game of area control and capture of common resources. Over the course of the game, players play mushroom tiles featuring various abilities into the common forest. They can place their seedlings at the corner of a mushroom tile to use its abilities–regardless of who played the mushroom tile. Players can also seize carbon played by other players into the common forest to feed their own seedlings. (Try as you may to set yourself up to feed your seedlings by playing carbon into the forest, someone will inevitably take that carbon. Your carbon. Or, so you thought.) It’s a game about symbiosis, yes; but the main lesson is that trees in a forest are in fierce competition for resources, even as the forest is constantly producing them. Maybe the area control board in Wingspan: Asia was foreshadowing for Undergrove, but I didn’t see this one coming. It’s a brilliant game: engaging, competitive, tense, strategic, and impressively thematic even as the gameplay feels somewhat abstract. I have never played anything quite like it. I adore Wingspan, but for those who wished Wingspan was a little more interactive, a little fiercer, Undergrove delivers. The “Mycologist” edition (deluxe Kickstarter edition) comes with all-wood components and tiles. From a tactile and aesthetic standpoint, it rocks. I would pay to swim in a ball pit full of those wood tokens. I also love the mushroom field guide featuring Beth Sobel’s art. Being printed on thick linen paper, it’s conceivably sturdy enough to use as an actual field guide in the forest (saw a bunch of these mushrooms hiking at Mt Hood this week too). Have you played Undergrove? #firstimpressionsfriday🎲 by @kay_plays_games #boardgamereview #undergroveboardgame #boardgames #areacontrolgames #mushroomgame #elizabethhargrave #environmentalgame #mushrooming @alderaceg
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