Month: December 2024 (Page 10 of 11)

“Be a part of the first Martian colony, striving to be the best contributor.”

Link: https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/184267/on-mars
Playing Time: 90-150 minutes
Weight: Very Heavy
Genre: Worker Placement
Designer: Vital Lacerda
Players: 1-4

Compete with other players to build the best colony on Mars. This will require building habs, supplying them with water, power and oxygen, and then mining the crystals that make the endeavor worthwhile. Upgrading your colonists is vital. You must also manage your relationship with Earth. The trick is that you can only focus on one of these two things at a time, based on whether or not you’re on the surface of the planet or in the space station orbiting above.

Vital Lacerda is a brilliant designer who makes VERY heavy games. Everything you do in a Lacerda game likely has several secondary effects that trigger, that are easy to miss if you’re not paying attention. In general, my group doesn’t play stuff that heavy anymore, but the games that do tend to be the ones that have the most grounded themes. And On Mars is probably Lacerda’s best game.

“Find a crew. Find a job. Keep flying. Cross the ‘verse to complete jobs and get paid.”

Link: https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/138161/firefly-the-game
Playing Time: 120-240 minutes
Weight: Medium
Genre: Open World Ne’er Do Well Simulator
Designer: Aaron Dill, John Kovaleski, Sean Sweigart
Players: 1-4

Lead a crew of vagabonds across the galaxy in a sandboxy experience where you try to complete missions, run from reavers and avoid scrutiny of the law. There have been a lot of licensed games over the years, but few have succeeded at letting you just LIVE in their respective worlds. Firefly does that, letting you chart your own path while fully immersing yourself in a world that DRIPS with browncoat flavor.

The core of the game is simple. Recruit crew, travel the galaxy and pick up jobs. Some jobs are more illicit than others, offering greater rewards in exchange for more police scrutiny. And the reavers are always lurking somewhere.

Firefly was a mainstay of this list for years before it ultimately fell off because it wasn’t getting a ton of play (it’s a longer game, and longer games hit the table less frequently). Also, it takes just an absolutely ridiculous amount of table space. But it reemerges this year, thanks to the release of the gorgeous big box 10th Anniversary Collector’s Edition, which reminded me of how good this game is. If you know a medium-to-heavy who is a big fan of the ‘Verse, this game merits a closer look.

“Take back the streets of your city in the ultimate edition of the insurrection game.”

Link: https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/356768/bloc-by-bloc-uprising
Playing Time: 60-120 Minutes
Weight: Medium
Genre: Cooperative
Designer: T.L. Simons
Players: 1-4

In Bloc by Bloc, players are working cooperatively in order to try to take control of the city. The Man (represented, in a nice touch, as white cubes) is trying to keep you down, and to take over the city, you’ll need to crash barricades, flip cop cars, turn random items into improvised weaponry and attend secret meetings. If you’re successful, you’ll ‘occupy’ the district, flipping it over from it’s black-and-white side. Thus, as your revolution spreads, you’ll bring color back to the world (another nice, subtle touch).

Bloc by Bloc‘s ranking is a lot lower than it used to be. That said, this is called ‘The Insurrection Game’ for good reason, and there’s a good chance the subject matter will…. raise in relevance in the next four years. Stay tuned!

“Continue the work of a mad scientist over the course of three generations.”

Link: https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/328866/my-fathers-work
Playing Time: 180 Minutes
Weight: Medium-to-heavy
Genre: App-assisted worker placement
Designer: T.C. Petty III
Players: 2-4

It’s the Victorian age and your dad just took a long walk off a short pier. While sifting through his papers, you discover some unsettling stuff, and I’m not talking about his Victorian porn stash. He had grand plans for some… unorthodox scientific experiments. Like reanimating corpses, the secrets of teleportation, or perhaps finding a workable use-case for NFTs in gaming. Grim stuff.

In My Father’s work, you and the other players will continue continuing the legacy of your various families. This is a game played over three generations, as each generation tries to build upon the legacy of the one before it.

I’m not normally a fan of app-assisted games, but in this case, it definitely adds a lot. The game is a worker placement game, but the table is given various goals, and hitting them can drastically change the game. . If, for example, the table jointly decides to spend some time being benevolent philanthropists, this may result in a new hospital being constructed — which other than being a boon for civilizing your pathetic little backwater, also might create a new worker placement location – such as a new place to acquire corpses for your… ongoing studies.

The game drips in flavor, the components are excellent, and it’s a novel and interesting setting. Games can tend to be a little long, and I’d advise playing with 3 or fewer players to keep things snappy, but if you always wanted to step into the shoes of a Victorian mad scientist, this is a tough one to beat.

“Will you maintain balance or give in to darkness in the battle of Hyde and Jekyll?”

Link: https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/297129/jekyll-vs-hyde
Playing Time: 30 Minutes
Weight: Light
Genre: Trick Taking
Designer: Geonil
Players: 2

Each player takes the role of one of two halves of one man’s split personality, with each player trying to take full control. The way that they’ll do so is with a trick-taking game, where Jekyll is attempting to pursue balance and moderation, whereas Hyde is trying to push things to the extreme.

How they get trick-taking to work in a two-person duel is quite ingenious. The game is played across three hands, and in each, Hyde earns points based on the difference between the number of tricks taken by the players. Thus, if both players take an equal number of tricks, it’s a good round for Jekyll, whereas if Jekyll takes every single trick, it’s actually a good round for Hyde. This simple twist turns all of your normal trick-taking strategy on its head.

There are several other gameplay tweaks that keeps the game fresh. This includes having only three suits, and having a constantly shifting priority order for which suit trumps which that you can manipulate. It also includes giving each suit a superpower that can be activated by playing a potion instead of a suited card. Overall, what you’re left with is a devilishly interesting two-player game that fits a lot of quirks in a little tiny box.

Link: https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/162886/spirit-island
Playing Time: 90-120 Minutes
Weight: Heavy
Genre: Cooperative Territory Control
Designer: R. Eric Reuss
Players: 1-4

There is a legitimate criticism that most territorial control games are about colonization. I’ve never particularly cared about that line of criticism – I LIKE filling out a clean map in a Civilization-like game, take my social justice warrior card away – but the designers of Spirit Island sought to reverse that experience, and make a game about DECOLONIZATION and there’s no doubt that the result is a completely novel and interesting game experience.

Spirit Island is a cooperative board game that scales smoothly between player counts (the island grows and shrinks based on player count). You play as elemental spirits of the island, which has been discovered by filthy colonizing explorers and soldiers, who threaten the simple lives of the mushroom-hut-dwelling natives. The job of the players is to work together to drive them back into the sea.

Most cooperative games are somewhat simple, as they tend to be popular things to put on the table when someone brings their non-gaming friend or partner to game night. Spirit Island isn’t that – it’s definitely a meatier experience for a heavier crowd, but if you have a table full of people who are heavier gamers who would still rather not beat up on each other, this game is going to be squarely in the strike zone.

“What’s your bid? Bid on promising property bundles, then sell properties for checks.”

Link: https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/172/for-sale
Playing Time: 30 Minutes
Weight: Light
Genre: Auction
Designer: Stefan Dorra
Players: 3-6

For sale is one of the true classics of the industry, a quick filler game about flipping real estate. Game proceeds in two phases. In the first phase, players compete in a simple auction mechanic to acquire real estate. In phase two, they turn around and sell what they bought – competing in a different competitive mechanic. The end result is a simple, fast and elegant game that scales well to high player counts.

“Strategically grow your ecosystem card engine with unique flora, fauna, and terrains.”

Link: https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/350184/earth
Playing Time: 45-90 Minutes
Weight: Light-Medium
Genre: Tableau Builder
Designer: Maxime Tardif
Players: 1-5

In Earth, you’ll be building your own ecosystem. While it is largely a card-based game, it’s heavier than it looks. In many ways, it’s reminiscent of tableau builders like Ark Nova and Terraforming Mars. And yet, it’s much simpler than THOSE games.

On your turn, you’ll be doing one of four actions, but the end result is that you’ll mostly be trying to acquire soil in order to plant plants in a 4×4 grid. How you arrange these plants matter quite a bit – you’ll want to place your cards in ways that create synergy with each other. Results of doing so are things like planting sprouts (the cubes) or vertically growing trees, which both help you in the endgame.

The reason why Earth stands above a lot of other similar nature-themed or tableau-building games is a game mechanic called the lesser action. Every action you take also results in everyone else at the table being able to take a lesser version of the same action. Did you just take the plant action, which allows you to plant 2 cards in your tableau and draw 4 cards and keep one? Great, that means that everyone else gets to plant 1 card and draw 1 card. This not only speeds up the game, but it also keeps you paying attention when other people are going. You may find your entire planned turn has to be rethought by the time your next turn comes – but only because everyone else accidentally gave you what you were looking for! Merry Christmas!

“19th century capitalists manipulate the market and manage their industrial empires.”

Link: https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/318084/furnace
Playing Time: 30-60 Minutes
Weight: Light-to-Medium
Genre: Engine Building & Auction
Designer: Ivan Lashin
Players: 2-4

About as naked an engine building game that you’re going to find. Players play as 19th century robber barons, trying to build a financial empire. They’ll do this by taking turns bidding on various pollution-spewing industrial sites which can generate resources, and convert those resources to more valuable resources, such as money. We like money.

The auction system, though, is the real reason this makes the list. Each player is given four discs numbered from 1 to 4. On their turn, they’ll place one of their disks on one of the factory cards (no duplicate numbers), and when all bidding is done, whoever has placed the highest number will be able to use the card to expand their industrial empire.

BUT all other players who placed a number there get ‘compensation’, where the amount of compensation is multiplied by the number placed. Thus, I may drop a 3 on a card, hoping and tempting an opponent to overbid me with a 4, because getting 6 coal is way more valuable to me than the card itself. The compensation completely upends normal auction dynamics, adding an entirely new dimension to the experience.

Furnace isn’t perfect. It can feel a little dry, and for a small filler game, it is capable of generating more than its share of Analysis Paralysis in those who are prone to it. But if you like the idea of a very novel auction mechanic tied to a very straightforward engine construction game, Furnace may well be right up your alley.

“Gather resources to develop a harmonious village of woodland critters and structures.”

Link: https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/199792/everdell
Playing Time: 40-80 Minutes
Weight: Midweight
Genre: Tableau Building & Worker Placement
Designer: James A. Wilson
Players: 1-4 Players

Do you like furries? Not, like, kinky furries, more like charming pastoral Redwall furries. Well, if so, then allow me to introduce you to Everdell, a beautiful game with a whimsical art style, gorgeous components, and of course, a big honkin’ tree.

Everdell is a worker placement & tableau-building game. Each player is trying to build their own 15-card village, where they try to assemble certain sets, acquire resources via worker placement locations and claim objectives. As they build their tableau, they’ll unlock new powers and worker placement locations.

Everdell is a solidly midweight game, with several expansions, all of which are actually pretty good but each of which will nudge the game a little past midweight towards heavy. It’s one flaw is that there’s a little too much of having to pay attention to cards your opponents have (which can be difficult across a large table) – but caring is usually not make or break for your strategy. Still, this is a charming, attractive and thoughtful game that always seems to go over well.