With some hot games getting a second print run and others making their initial splash, I’ve been able to try a fresh handful of new releases. It’s that time again to get candid with the cardboard by sharing my first impressions…

The Search for Planet X

1 Play

The Search for Planet X is not going to change anybody’s mind about this entire genre of puzzly deduction games, but it just might be the absolute best of the bunch.

This is one of the few tabletop games in the market where the required mobile app deserves more complements than complaints.  As we’ve observed in other great deduction games like Cryptid or Loot of Lima, the entire game can be broken for everyone if a player accidentally gives the wrong information.  In this case, nobody has the opportunity to ruin the game for everyone, because the app does all the hard work of dispensing information to each player individually.

The mechanisms are very clever as well, as you have a few options for what kind of information you want the app to give you, but they come with varying costs.  Cost in this case translates to time, and the more time your chosen action requires, the longer it will take for your next turn to arrive.  Time is spent by moving your observatory marker around the circular board, and the player at the back is the one who takes the next turn.

To reduce AP, the board also has a rotating shield that covers up half of the spaces and limits your options for which sectors you can investigate.  An exciting aspect of this rotating shield is that every time it reaches a theory symbol, players can each publish one theory which remains secret for a few rounds before flipping face up and being proven for points or disproven for penalties.  The game urges you to take leaps of faith and cut some corners in your deductions, because the benefits of correct theories far outweigh the punishment of incorrect ones.

In fact, the points from well-timed, accurate theories can potentially be enough to win the game without ever discovering Planet X.  Where most deduction games only reward the first deducer with the victory while everyone else is declared a loser, The Search for Planet X rewards all players constantly throughout the game.  The victory comes down to a tight margin of points that represent an accumulation of each player’s brilliant discoveries throughout the game.

Don’t be mistaken, The Search for Planet X still succumbs to the usual genre tropes of being a low interaction, brain-burning logic puzzle.  But for those who enjoy a good mental challenge, this one is the cream of the crop.

Current Rating: 8.5/10

Red Rising

1 Play

I wouldn’t call myself a Red Rising superfan, but I thoroughly enjoyed reading the original trilogy back in 2018.  I probably gobbled all three books up in less than two months.  Unfortunately, three years is plenty of time for me to forget all but the major plot beats.  To oversimplify things, I felt it was a better version of the Hunger Games.  Actually, let’s desimplify a bit… I don’t remember as much now, but I dug up my non-spoilery remarks on the first book that I posted on Goodreads after reading it: 

“Basically if you liked how the Hunger Games trilogy started (let’s be honest, book 3 was a let down), then there is no reason you won’t love Red Rising. It has a dystopian society with different classes of people (sort of like Hunger Games), but beyond that you will find an entirely different beast of a novel.

Red Rising is a brutal, blazing journey through an imaginative sci-fi world of futuristic Mars with an unstoppable force of a main character and his quest for justice against an all powerful organization—a story that I couldn’t put down.”

So with a New York Times Bestselling Trilogy as its theme, and the Stonemaier Games as its publisher, Red Rising is a juggernaut of an IP-based board game.  Despite my history with the IP, I typically don’t come into these types of games with many expectations.  What I appreciate most is when a design can evoke the feeling of its theme to where they feel inseparable.  And to me, Red Rising the book series is a story of passion, brutality, vengeance, and thrills.  Ironically enough, Red Rising the board game evoked the exact opposite feelings from its source material–namely apathy, gentleness, sympathy, and drudgery.

Those who are familiar with Stonemaier Games shouldn’t be surprised to find a low-interaction, conflict-averse design here, even with its conflict heavy source material.  And I don’t take offense from the gameplay actively rebelling against its inspiration.  All it means to me is that the theme can simply be tossed out the window like the core of a once-tasty apple so I can focus solely on driving the mechanisms at play.  Sure, maybe keeping both the red EO card and other gray cards in your hand is a bad idea because EO and gray people don’t get along well in the books or something… but at the end of the day, we’re just min-maxing points here.  Points points points, baby.

Players start out with five cards each and they spend the entire game perfecting their hand of cards to maximize their scoring potential.  Typically, you’ll deploy a card into one of four columns to trigger its deploy ability, then claim a card in another column and trigger the column bonus.  Column bonuses include moving up a point track, adding a point cube to a rectangle, taking a point gem, or stealing the point token.  Additionally, final cards in your hand are worth flat points at the top and potential bonus points at the bottom.  Those bonus points are usually positive, but occasionally negative.   Points points points, baby.

If you don’t want to lose a card from your hand by deploying it, you can instead take the scout action which has you reveal a new card from the deck to place in any column and gain that column’s bonus.  This action is basically the unwanted child of the game.  But boy did I become well acquainted with this little guy.

Most the cards I was able to acquire into my hand contained deploy abilities such as, “Move an orange card from this column to another column” or “If you deploy this card on top of a red card, then gain it.”  Yet I found these abilities to be so situationally specific (especially considering the deck contains at least eleven different colors) that they were relentlessly useless.  My most frequent decision made in this game was as follows:  Do I cling onto this card for another turn in hopes of its deploy ability becoming useful by mere chance, or do I trash it now to pick up something else that I don’t care about?  

I also found the very act of reading these cards—spread across my hand and sprawling across the board—to be quite the chore thanks to the text-heavy deploy abilities and bonus point objectives.  With all of these colorful, wordy cards, it’s a bit like gathering around fresh vomit from a sick unicorn who confused the library for a buffet.  Only, that actually sounds more interesting than Red Rising.

I can’t recall any standout moments between my opponents and I… probably because we were too busy reading, squinting, craning, calculating, and peeking.  And what was all that hard work and strategery for anyways?  The last player simply used his final turn to steal the point token—you know, that certain special way to score points we were talking about—and cause a 70-point swing from an opponent to himself.  Of course, this thief had no way of knowing that the cards in his victim’s hand where set up to score this poor sap 45 points by possessing the special token at the end of the game, plus another 10 points from the token itself.  Nope, this victory-stealing decision had nothing to do with the winner’s brilliant play or the victim’s costly mistake.  Instead, it had everything to do with plain, simple chance.  But in the end, we all got tons of those juicy, sweet points points points, baby.  And that’s all that matters, right?  Oh, and those fancy game pieces, of course.

As usual, Stonemaier Games does a pretty production with the Red Rising components here.  Our friend treated us to his deluxe copy which features dense metal player tokens, colorful individual card stands, and a custom plastic insert.  Although it’s worth noting that the card holders are flimsy enough that all of us knocked our entire stand of cards over at some point during the game (some of us more than once), and two sets of the player colors are nearly identical shades of gold.

To be clear, I appreciate the folks at Stonemaier Games for their unmatched customer service, community support, and genuine passion within the industry.  I don’t begrudge them, their games, or their fans.  I think their fearless leader, Jamey Stegmaier, is a standup guy and a brilliant businessman.  With my ever-changing preferences, I’ve simply found that Stonemaier’s style of games has lost its luster for me.  Viticulture + Tuscany remains the only Stonemaier survivor in my collection, and Red Rising claims the title of being my least favorite of the bunch.  Is Red Rising a bad game?  Who can say? I imagine it’s probably great for most Stonemaier fans. All I know is that it’s bad for me; but I can heartily recommend the books to any who are interested!

Current Rating: 3/10

Blitzkrieg: Nippon Expansion

1 Play

I love the Japanese faction (mainly due to Godzilla) and adore the new map included in this expansion to one of my favorite games of all time, Blitzkrieg.

The US map completely changes the flow of the game in a fascinating and unique way.  Instead of having multiple “campaigns” or rows in a particular theatre of operations where the top campaign must finish before the next one down opens up,  this new board has oodles of theaters with only one campaign each.  The tug of war tracks are thus shrunk down into tiny but furious battles where a big knockout carries its momentum forward into the next theatre (the cube starts out 1-3 spaces in the direction of the previous theatre’s victor).  The winner of the theatre also gets to decide where the cube goes next, thus opening up more space bonuses and giving their opponent first dibs on them.  I really dig the huge ripple effect that one theater victory can have.

My only complaints are about the special weapons tokens: 

First, why don’t these two new tokens have their movement values on them?!  Put “1/3” on the Partisans token and “1” on the Inspired Leadership token.  Simple as that. 

Second, the rules don’t clarify how the Scientist should be used on the new map, but we just assumed that the Scientist can be played onto any theatre of operations (including those that haven’t been started yet) as long as it hasn’t be won/closed.  

Third, the Partisans token is the worst special weapons token in the entire game—it’s basically an army token with either a value of 1 or a value of 3, both of which are worse than every other token which either has a higher value or a unique effect added.  So I’m not sure what the point was of adding The Partisans to the game.

Despite my wordy complaints, they are ultimately minor gripes to a worthwhile addition.  The Nippon Expansion is still a MUST OWN because of that insane map (and Godzilla, obviously).

Current Rating: 9/10

Railroad Ink Challenge

3 Plays

The new Railroad Ink Challenge won’t change anyone’s minds about Railroad Ink or roll & writes in general, but it is a noticeable improvement to the original games.

In particular, the special buildings allow for some nice small combos and incentives while the objective cards add in a little hint of competition and variety. When a route is drawn onto a space with a special building, that building triggers an immediate use-it-or-lose-it benefit. Residences grant points, Universities grant an extra free special intersection, and Factories grant an immediate duplicate of one of the white dice. The objective cards award more points to those who complete them first, and they range from filling in an entire row or column to connecting a specified number of exits with a single network. There are also 3 objective cards specific to each set of expansion dice.

Lush Green and Shining Yellow each have two unique expansions: one simple, one complex. For my tastes, the simple expansions (making forests for Lush Green and spreading cacti for Shining Yellow) are a bit too simplistic and similar to really stand out. Especially when compared to the River and Lake expansions of the Railroad Ink: Deep Blue Edition, these new ones somewhat pale in comparison. Yet with the added complexity that the new “Challenge” features provide, perhaps these toned-down expansions are justified.

On the other hand, the Canyons expansion of Shining Yellow provides quite an interesting wrinkle where players are allotted 12 total canyon bridges and must be careful not to get too ambitious over the 7 rounds of play, or they may find themselves boxed in by their own greed. We’ve yet to try the second expansion for Lush Green.

Ultimately, there’s no compelling reason to fork over the asking price for another entire set of Railroad Ink, yet here we are owning everything (thanks to the enticing Kickstarter), so we’re trying to enjoy the expansions and variations until they grow old. While my wife continues to enjoy the challenge that Railroad Ink provides, I find myself growing increasingly tired of roll & writes in general.

I find the act of playing a solid roll & write enjoyable in the moment yet forgettable and borderline regrettable after the game has concluded. Even with the competitive objective cards that Railroad Ink Challenge adds to the formula, I find these types of games to be the least interactive experiences in my entire collection. Each play of a roll & write feels like a lost opportunity to engage with everyone else at the table within a more compelling game.

The expansions are the main thing keeping Railroad Ink alive for me. They keep me from getting too bored with the formula and motivate me to try the ones I haven’t yet played. Yet the roll & write fatigue is getting real after roughly 70 plays across a dozen or so games in this genre.

Current Rating: 6/10

Barrage

1 Play

After being taught Barrage and playing through it once, I still don’t know what some of those resources are called, but I sure had a great time!

Barrage is hits the sweet spot for heavy-complexity gamers who love to roll up their sleeves and wrestle in the mud of cutthroat interaction.  The rules themselves aren’t too unwieldy or overwhelming, rather the struggle to achieve objectives efficiently is where Barrage starts to cook the brain.  Like many tight Euros, you’ll spend most of your turns trying to scrape every last morsel of progress out of your stuff; only in Barrage, everybody has their clawing fingers reaching into the same small, barren barrel all at the same time.

You may spend an entire meaty round (out of 5 total) building up a gloriously lucrative dam only for an opponent to come in next round and start rerouting all the water that was flowing into your energy cash cow from upstream.  When water is in short supply (and money, and resources, and action options, and workers, and building locations), every move you take can have devastating effects on opponents.

Barrage certainly isn’t as punishing of a game as something like Age of Steam or Bus, though.  There are plenty of paths one can take to accomplish their goals.  Players can seek to increase their recycling resource pool, speed up their resource washing machine, fulfill contracts for bonuses, purchase wildly powerful construction upgrades, restock their money supply, load up on more water to trickle down now or later, and more.  But every action, every decision, comes with a heavy opportunity cost and often a steep entrance fee, so you’ll frequently have to plan out multiple upcoming turns.

Beyond the solid asymmetry, tight economics, and deliciously brutal dynamics, Barrage carves out its own special thematic niche with the stacking dam tokens and overflowing waters and spinning resource wheel.  These standout features are the frosting on an exquisite cake.  Just be aware that this is a rich cake indeed, and those who prefer games that are gentler on the brain and feelings may struggle to get through this dense slice of strategy gaming.

Current Rating: 8/10

Article written by Nick Murray. Keep an eye out for his first published design, Social Grooming, which will debut in a Kickstarter bundle alongside two games from critically acclaimed designer, Reiner Knizia! Don’t miss out on this killer filler bundle coming in 2021! Subscribe to the Bitewing Games monthly newsletter to stay in touch.

The post Candid Cardboard: 1st Impressions of Red Rising, The Search for Planet X, Barrage, and more! appeared first on Bitewing Games.

It’s been nearly a year since we received the last of 2019’s thousands of board game releases.

I waited until nearly May to make my top games of 2019 list, and I’ve since discovered loads of great games, some of which would have even made my top 10 of the year. The sad truth is that there is simply not enough time to keep up with all the best new board games that are constantly pouring down on the industry. Especially not if your FONYO (Fear of Neglecting Your Own) keeps you coming back to your under-played collection.

I recently heard some content creators squirming over their top 10 games of 2020 lists due to the overwhelming amount of great designs. I’m always surprised when content creators are declaring their best games of the year when that year hasn’t even ended yet. Unless you are Tom Vasel, you likely haven’t played every noteworthy release of the year, even months into the following year. A quick glance at my want to play list on BGG reveals that I’ve only scratched the surface of 2020’s bangers, and it’s going to take me many months yet to even come close to trying everything that has caught my eye.

So rather than make a premature 2020 list, I feel inclined to revisit the many board games of 2019 that I’ve tried. I considered updating my top 10 games list, extending it to top 15 or 20, or even ranking all of the games I’ve tried against each other, but none of those options had a strong appeal to me. Instead, we’re gonna separate all these games into 5 different categories: Lovers, Keepers, Dumpers, Flingers, and Seekers. Let the fun begin!

Lovers

Games that I’m still CRAZY about.

I’m a bit of an explorer when it comes to my hobbyist gaming habits. This is mostly due to the curious designer within. Sometimes it results in me playing hot potato with certain games (see Dumpers below), but it’s all worth it when I find an absolute gem that I love. The following are my cream of the 2019 crop (in no particular order):

• Pipeline– I recently talked about how Pipeline made a poor first impression at our table, but eventually we came around to its brutal economics. What can I say? I guess I’m a glutton for punishment. But with a little practice and a lot of thinking, you’ll go from scraping oil out of the bottom of the barrel to drowning in gallons of that greasy goodness.

• Blitzkrieg!– Paolo Mori is quickly becoming one of my top designers. His quick and accessible Ethnos has long been my favorite gateway game, and his difficult to obtain Dogs of War is what I asked Santa for this Christmas. Blitzkrieg deserves a spot among his greatest hits thanks to its elegant back and forth battles between 2 players at war.

• The King’s Dilemma– I finally tracked down a copy and can happily report that it was worth the wait. If you enjoy bluffing, bidding, and negotiation all wrapped into a light role-playing package, and if you can track down a group of 5 people to join you, then this is a must-play legacy game.

• QE– I now own a crap-load of auctioning games. It’s a testament to QE’s uniqueness that it firmly remains a title that I get excited to play. I love myself a golden opportunity to mess with other people’s heads and sneak away with the victory.

• Watergate– A zesty but simple tug-of-war 2-player game, certainly in the same ballpark as Blitzkrieg. I love ’em both. If you’re a big fan of this game, then the Geek Up bits coming in Q2 2021 might catch your interest.

• Babylonia– If you’ve got a soft spot for Knizia tile layers, like me, then you really should be getting yourself a copy of Babylonia. This one feels like a hybrid between Samurai’s tense tile majorities and Through the Desert’s dangling carrots and snaking connections. The big differences here are that points are constantly/instantly awarded, unique abilities/bonuses are up for grabs, and decisions have a much wider ripple effect.

• Maracaibo– This is the sole lover of 2019 that I don’t own. I had a blast trying it out for the first time. Yet Maracaibo fills the same niche as Great Western Trail, and I don’t even give GWT enough table time. I would recommend this one to anybody who appreciates an epic heavy Euro.

• The Crew: The Quest for Planet Nine– This game probably deserves a spot in my top 10 games of all time. That’s how addicting and delightful it was to play through its 50 cooperative missions. I still stand by my review and declaration that this is one of greatest card games of all time. Thank goodness Kosmos has announced a sequel for next year!

• A Feast for Odin: Mini Expansion 2– Before this expansion, I looked at the shorter (6-round) version of A Feast for Odin as a joke. Why would somebody shorten this sprawling game by a single round and miss out on the big 7th round climax? This expansion changed that entirely. It essentially trades the uneventful first round of a 7-round game for an interesting, highly variable setup with an exciting head start for everyone.

• Inis: Seasons of Inis (expansion)– Inis is one of my all time favorite games, and this expansion was well worth the investment. Particularly the extra Epic Tale cards and area tiles, the harbors and islands, and the 5th player addition.

• Mandala– Mandala is as good as simple 2-player cards games get. I rank it right up there with the likes of Jaipur, Lost Cities, and Battle Line.

• Pax Pamir (2nd Edition)– Between you and me, Pax Pamir might just be my #1 game of all time. After plenty of plays at a wide range of player counts, it is still that good. This is a deluxe strategy gaming experience in a deservedly deluxe package.

• Age of Steam: Deluxe Edition– Speaking of all time greats, Age of Steam is a newer title on my radar (with only two plays so far) and it’s already knocking on the door of my top 10. That’s right, if you’ve been counting, we have three releases from 2019 that are worthy to be among my 10 best! That’s a good year, my friends. Of course, I may be cheating considering that Age of Steam and Pax Pamir originally released in years prior. At any rate, this is the perfect blend of punishing economics and crafty interaction for those with a blood-thirsty appetite and thick skin.

• Undaunted: Normandy– My wife and I finally closed out our campaign of Undaunted: Normandy, and it was the bomb. This is the kind of deck builder that made me realize I didn’t need Dominion anymore. We’re looking forward to diving into the next one, Undaunted: North Africa.

Keepers

Other games that have survived the purge of 2020.

Now, obviously the Lovers mentioned above are Keepers. But there are plenty of other 2019 releases that I enjoy breaking out when the setting is right. The following games are great options that have thus far survived my purging ploys.

• Aerion- I’m not much of solo gamer, but Aerion eliminates all of my personal barriers to entry. This puzzly little game has a quick setup, minimal bookkeeping, and addictive gameplay loop that I intend to see through to the end of its several included expansions.

• Cairn– Cairn is one of those abstract games that is good enough to keep around yet forgettable enough to not get to the table. In other words, we’ve only played it once so far, but it was solid.

• Caylus 1303– This updated classic absolutely pummels your average worker placement game with its refined balance, deep interaction, and juicy tension. Just don’t set your expectations for something exceptionally unique.

• The Quest for El Dorado: The Golden Temples– I would not recommend this standalone expansion to somebody who has never tried the excellent Quest for El Dorado, but it does make for an interesting change of pace on its own and an epic journey when combined with the base game. More thoughts here.

• Azul: Summer Pavilion– I’ve weighed and measured Summer Pavilion against its siblings and found it to be a more gentle, gamer friendly version. At the end of the day, vanilla Azul is my go-to thanks to its more dynamic player interaction.

• Dice Forge: Rebellion (expansion)- I haven’t played Dice Forge in over year, which tells you a lot about how it fares against the rest of my collection. Rebellion does add a whole lot of interesting variety for fans of the game, and I’m hoping to explore the rest of it soon.

• Horrified– There are far too many Pandemic copy-cats out there, but Horrified remains one of the best. It’s a fun one to break out with non-gamers that presents an undeniably charming theme.

• Men at Work– I always get a kick out of Men at Work whenever we break it out. Nothing beats Crokinole as far as dexterity games go, but Men at Work is an excellent option that puts Jenga to shame.

• On Tour– While it isn’t my favorite roll & write, On Tour is one of the easiest to break out and teach others. It’s a nice, easy way to start out a game night as players discover how far they can stretch their strategies.

• PARKS– I suspect that if I was forced to play PARKS enough, it would get the boot from my collection. There’s just not a ton of meat here that I frequently crave. But as a gorgeous, pleasant game, I’m ok with breaking it open every now and then.

• Trophies– A quick, simple, and pretty party game of quick thinking. This is the kind of solid stocking stuffer that I would recommend to anyone. That’s why it landed a spot on our Holiday Board Game Gift Guide.

• Unmatched– This series becomes more and more fun as you explore the variety of characters and pit them against each other. Who wouldn’t want to see Bruce Lee take on 3 raptors?! I’ve talked about some of the newer sets here.

Dumpers

Games that I dropped like a hot potato.

Many of these games made a strong enough impression for me to purchase and enjoy them for several plays. Others were a train wreck right from the get-go. Either way, I eventually found myself ok with never playing them again, and those that I owned were traded or sold away thereafter.

• Point Salad- Like a well-made salad, this game is tasty, addicting, and not completely filling. After a few plays, it doesn’t provide much incentive to keep returning for more. But for $15, it was fun while it lasted.

• Res Arcana– This is a solid design that any engine builder super fan should put on their radar. Unfortunately, we didn’t love it because the game feels like a ho-hum resource converter. Res Arcana was ultimately unable to escape the shadow of its own genericy.

• Wingspan + European Expansion– The presentation initially knocked our socks off, but our many plays over time demonstrated the law of diminishing returns. Wingspan contains a pretty narrow track for decisions and strategy; most turn actions will feel on-the-rails, for better or for worse. As a gateway engine builder, I can’t deny that I enjoy playing it. But as a game night go-to, it now struggles to do more than mildly amuse.

• Tapestry– I wish Tapestry had spent more time in the development oven. The fun factor of a session of Tapestry can vary just as much as the strategies and Civilizations themselves. Cutting certain elements, balancing others, and increasing players’ abilities to truly interact with each other on the map could have gone a long way to make Tapestry a consistent hit. Ultimately, I’d rather not roll the dice on how fun a 3-hour game will be.

• Tiny Towns– A solid bingo-style spatial puzzle that lost its luster after five plays. My City is also a quick, accessible Bingo-style game about building a town for points within the confines of a spatial puzzle… and frankly, it blows Tiny Towns out of the water. But to its credit, Tiny Towns can be played with up to 6 players!

• Jaws– An amusing, highly thematic experience that gets bogged down by an excessive setup, rules-to-depth ratio, downtime, and duration. Act 2 especially dragged on and thereby felt weaker than Act 1. Played it once and had no desire to play it again. But I still respect that shark meeple.

• Bruxelles 1897– I enjoyed how compact and dense Bruxelles 1897 is for a strategic, Euro-style card game. It makes me wish more games would follow suit by trimming the fat and getting to the juicy center. My only complaint is that the game lacks legs to get it beyond more than a few interesting plays.

• Cartographers– This award nominated flip & write lacked the tension that I love to experience in my favorites of the genre. More thoughts here.

• Dead Man’s Cabal– Some interesting decisions, a fairly solid production, but the turns with many steps (simple as they may individually be) are prone to regular AP leading to longer down time and slower turns. The game also seems to lack any true sense of progression or change over the course of its long playtime… what you are doing on the first turn is practically the exact same as what you are doing on the last turn. This makes Dead Man’s Cabal feel as though it overstays its welcome. It quickly got the boot from our collection.

• Era: Medieval Age– A hefty price tag for fancy parts and pieces amount to a glorified spreadsheet roll & write polyomino Yahtzee game. I admire its production ambition but can’t get past its clumsy execution. Too much time is spent reading spreadsheets, moving pegs, or arranging dice and not enough time is spent playing a game.

• Funkoverse– Shameless cash grab of an unimaginative game with an IP pasted on top. There was absolutely nothing in the game design that made it feel like the IP we tried (Batman). The gameplay of Funkoverse itself consists of mind-numbingly basic dudes-on-a-map mechanisms and offers no reason to exist. The bland design is just veiled behind colorful funkos and meaningless variety. Unmatched is a much better version of this.

• Rune Stones– A generic resource converter. While the deck building aspect of the game certainly works, it doesn’t fully embrace any of the mechanism’s strengths. Rarely do you feel rewarded for slimming your deck or punished for bloating it. Most of the differentiating traits between the cards just blur together into a dull, samey mush. Not for me, but I can see why others may enjoy it. Kyle has a very different opinion from me on this one, so it’s worth giving his video review a look!

• Tricky Tides– I was quite impressed with Tricky Tides. The artwork and presentation is what drew me in, but the interesting combination between pick up/deliver and trick taking is what really sold me on the game. My main downside would be that the game takes way longer than advertised. We would simply rather play a meatier game if we are doing a 4 player game for 90 minutes.

• Tussie Mussie– A simple, beautiful game of I Cut, You Choose that doesn’t provide a compelling reason to keep coming back for more plays. That’s obviously a tough ask for an 18 card game, but Sprawlopolis (from the same publisher) manages to pull it off.

• Welcome To: Outbreak Thematic Neighborhood– This one is a hot mess. Deep Water Games was clearly going with quantity over quality on these expansions. It seems they were in such a big hurry to crank these out that they didn’t bother to properly test, polish, and streamline this expansion. The rulebook is unclear, the added gameplay poisons the base game’s fun, and the graphic design muddies the visibility of your writing.

Flingers

Games that were amusing to try at least once.

I’m blessed to have some good friends who possess solid collections and a knack for teaching their games. Most of these are games they’ve introduced me to that made for a fun night.

• Paladins of the West Kingdom– A nearly solitaire game from a publisher I’m lukewarm on… all the more impressive that enjoyed this play. While the novelty of Architects and Raiders felt overshadowed by their blandness, Paladin’s blandness is overshadowed by its juicy arc. Not one I would buy, but I wouldn’t mind playing it again.

• Taverns of Tiefenthal- I can see why this is thought of as a spiritual sibling to Quacks of Quedlinburg. Taverns largely benefits/suffers from the same strengths/weaknesses as Quacks. On the other hand, Taverns quite possibly beats out Quacks for me because bad luck is much less punishing, strategic options feel more numerous, and the theme is even more charming.

• Animal Kingdoms– Solid, simple gameplay. Very easy to teach, but enough meat on the bone for interesting decisions. The kind of game you can play with anyone. Not sure if it would hold interest beyond a few plays, but it was fun to try at a convention.

• Last Bastion– Improves on the rulebook, production, and gameplay of Ghost Stories, yet still feels largely the same. Last Bastion/Ghost Stories is an engaging cooperative game that plays best at a rapid pace with experience players, but doesn’t reach the heights of my favorite co-ops because so much of the game comes down to luck of the dice.

• Tuki– From the publisher of Azul. Tuki is an amusing real-time dexterity game we tried at a convention, but not exceptional enough for us to throw down money on.

Seekers

Interesting games that still elude me.

Whether they haven’t hooked me enough to convince me to open the wallet, or they require a ideal setting that my current situation can’t provide, these are the games that hover over the fringe of my radar and elude my reach.

• Isle of Cats– This is the big game that was missing from my Battle of the Polyominoes comparison. Drafting + polyominoes + psychedelic cats certainly sounds interesting!

• Detective: City of Angels– We weren’t huge fans of Chronicles of Crime. While amusing, it was ultimately not as satisfying as a board game without a screen; and it honestly feels kind of pointless to play with other people. Detective: City of Angels appears to be the game we wanted out of Chronicles.

• Dune- A heavy, Shut Up & Sit Down approved war game that works best at 6? Sign me up! ….Anyone?….No? *Sigh*

• Nova Luna– I’m sure I would enjoy this one, but it seems so similar to Rosenburg’s Patchwork (aside from the polyomino tiles) that I struggle to justify the purchase. Can anyone convince me to bite?

• Rail Pass– A real time cooperative dexterity game where you pass trains that are carrying physical goods to each other causing a jumble of brains and arms. Best of all, when you want to pass a train along, you have to communicate by saying “Toot toot!”

• Barrage– A heavy, nasty economic game of controlling water flow with dams for power. The overwhelmingly positive critical acclaim surrounding this one tells me it is certainly worth a go!

• Shobu– An elegant, abstract game of pushing stones off wooden boards. I’ve heard good things about this one, and the presentation is just classy.

• L.L.A.M.A.– A simple Knizia card game is always going to catch my attention. If I were in a supremely casual setting perfect for a light card game with kids and/or grandparents, I imagine this would hit the spot.

• Medium– While I usually opt for something with at least a hint of strategy, this appears to be a light, funny party game I would enjoy. Two players hold a unique topic card and must simultaneously blurt out the same word that connects the two topics, that is if they are on the same wavelength.

This concludes my walk down memory lane of the best board games of 2019! Can you think of a Lover, Keeper, Dumper, Flinger, and Seeker from 2019? Share them with us in the comments below!

Article written by Nick Murray. To learn more about his tabletop gaming tastes and preferences, check out his blog series: Tabletop Tastes: My Favorite Flavors in Board Games. To follow his designs as they come to fruition, subscribe to our newsletter and follow Bitewing Games on social media!

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