Well, dear readers, once again the holidays are upon us. You might be thinking, “What can I get that one obsessive board game fanatic?” Or if said game fanatic is you, “What can I get everyone else to slowly start to convert them to the board game way?”
Fear not! For I have roused from my slumber to bring you a variety of games to check out in this hour of need! Games for all walks of life! Games for all seats and tables!
Casual Games
These are games for those slow moments in life. Maybe it’s at the beginning of a game night, while you’re waiting for everyone to arrive. Or at the end, when the night is winding down. Perhaps you need a game for those in between moments. No matter what, these games are small, light, and straight-forward.
Codenames and Codenames Duet
What better way to relax with your friends then by stepping into the role of SPIES! The original game had you divide into teams of with one person from each team becoming the SPYMASTER. Each turn, the team is given a single word clue to try and sort out who their spies are from a set of 25 words. Duet slims the rules down so you can play with 2 people (it fits up to four): now everyone is on the same team and will take turns providing the hint to get everyone to guess.
Mint Works
This game streamlines everything about a worker placement game into the size of an Altoids tin. Yes, really. You spend mints to gain mints, to acquire plans, and turn those plans into buildings. The stack of buildings is big enough that it’s unlikely to run through it in single game and provides a refreshing amount of variety every play through.
Family Games
Fun for the whole family! These games are a little bit more complex but still maintain those straight-forward rules and concepts. The game space will be larger, though, to allow for more strategic depth. These games should play under an hour, are easy to pick up, and thoroughly enjoyable!
Kingdomino
Time to assemble your kingdom! A land of prosperity! And hopefully more prosperous than anyone else! In Kingdomino, you will build a 5×5 square grid from 12 double space tiles and your castle. Each space on a tile contains one of six biomes/environments (hence domino) each of which may have crowns on them. You will want those crowns. Be careful though! Once you put down a tile, you can never pick it up again and your grid must be 5×5!
Azul
Azul pits its players to be the best wall decorators of them all! Each turn players will take turns drawing one type of tile to add to their board. This is tricky because to actually score a tile (and add it to their wall), a player will need to collect a full set of that tile. Any tiles that the player can’t place or doesn’t want to place in a set turn into negative points at the end of a round. This allows blocking moves by taking away the tiles someone needs to complete a set! Or make them take so many tiles that any points they gain will be completely offset! Plan ahead and pay attention to what everyone else is after!
Forbidden Sky
Quickly try and complete the circuit so that you and your team may escape off a desolate sky platform on a rocket! This is the latest episode in Matt Leacock’s Forbidden series and introduces some twists and new exciting developments! If you want to read more, go here.
Hardcore Games
Now we’re getting into the real meat of it. These games are heavy. These games are dense. Here you will find complex rules. Here you will find far reaching strategic impact. Here you will find games that can take up an entire night of gaming.
Terraforming Mars
Take the roles of corporations hurrying to be the most important player in the soon-to-be existing Martian economy! After all, the company that provided the most to turning Mars into habitable space is the one everyone will look to. Terraforming Mars is all about building up an engine that lets you shatter past whatever challengers you may face. With 6 different types of income, over 200 projects to build, three different terraforming targets, and a variety of corporations to choose from; there is no one path to victory.
Spirit Island
The Cooperative Settler Destruction Strategy Game as its tagline says. Play as a powerful spirit on an island discovered by invaders. Awaken you’re power and force them to flee before it’s too late. This games biggest draw is that every spirit has a playstyle that is completely different from each other. Every game will have its own challenges and path to victory depending on which spirits everyone chose. The game also comes with invader powers and scenarios to increase the difficulty when the time comes for more challenge.
Everdell
Ah, the idyllic forest, full of furry woodland creatures. In this worker placement game, you will take control of one of four tribes of critters seeking to build the grandest city. You will collect resources, flesh out your city by playing cards, and advancing through the four seasons. There are two things to note: First, that you only reclaim workers when you advance to the next season. Second, that you do not have to wait for any other player to advance yourself. This means you can play at your own pace, whether that is to slowly build out an engine or to rapidly chain bonuses to get to the end.
Personal Recommendations
Here are some games that don’t quite fit into any of those categories but are still worth checking out.
Gizmos
Concept: A bunch of teenaged Tony Starks are competing at a science fair. And yes, they each have a box of scraps.
Build gizmos, chain their effects off of each other, score the most victory points! Plus, the marble doohickey is rather interesting.
Photosynthesis
A beautiful game about growing trees that shows you just how cutthroat nature (and you can be). That’s right. Cutthroat. Trees.
ROOT
Root: A Game of Woodland Might and Right
Asymmetric Woodland Warfare. As nice and relaxed as Everdell is, this game is conniving and glorious. Maintain your dominion over the woods as the Cats. Regain your former glory as the Eyrie. Rebel against both of these brutal overlords as the Alliance. Or play as an RPG character just wandering about this setting as the Vagabond. Each faction has different goals. Each faction has different mechanics. Each faction is here to win. (You’ll have to hunt in actual physical game stores for this one or just wait until next year.)
Hello, dear reader!
I’m not sure what you intended to find when you clicked through to my writer profile, but welcome none the less! I’ve been a fan of games since I was a child and, somewhere along the way, I picked up an interest in the design of games: how the mechanics are interacting and presented to the players. Sometime since then, I managed to acquire some _opinions_, wretched things that they are, and I can do naught but share them with all of you!
In my reviews, I want to give you a sense of what the game plays like. That way you can make a decision for yourself on whether this would be a game that you would like. I will also call out if I find something interesting and clever or whether it falls flat, of course.
Happy reading! -Chris Galecki
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