Tis the season to buy more board games for your friends and family (and maybe even treat yourself)! Selecting the perfect gift can often be a Nightmare before Christmas, but worry not, Bitewing Games is here to guide you to some of the hottest games of the year for casual and hobbyist gamer alike.

Our selection criteria for this guide includes the following:

• The games have been tried, tested, and approved by us and/or trusted critics
• The games are generally available to purchase (links will be provided below to sites where you can purchase them)
• We won’t recommend anything from our past Holiday Gift Guides, but we still fully endorse those previous guides, so if you need even more recommendations then check out our 2020 Guide.

For your information, we receive no financial compensation, sponsorship, or advertisement money for this guide or these recommendations. The following are simply games we genuinely believe are great Holiday gifts. So why even make this guide? Well for one, we love to see this hobby grow. It means more games, gamers, and fun for everyone! Second, if you find value in our content, then we’d love to have you join our Bitewing Games newsletter! We use our newsletter to send regular updates regarding our latest content (like this gift guide) and publications (such as our Criminal Capers Collection of card games).

Let’s dive into the fun! Our 2021 Holiday Board Game Gift Guide is split into sections for your scrolling convenience (or you can click the link to jump to that section of the page):

• Gifts for the Casual Board Gamer
• Gifts for your Significant Other
• Stocking Stuffer Games (small & cheap!)
• Perfect games for your Holiday Party
• Gifts for the Hobbyist Board Gamer

Gifts for the Casual Board Gamer

Many people enjoy a good board or card game, but they don’t have the time or energy to invest in long/complicated games. The following games all play in roughly an hour or less and feature easy rules with stellar gameplay—perfect for any friends or family!

Kabuto Sumo – $34

If you’re at all familiar with coin pushing games found at the arcade, then you already understand the core mechanism of Kabuto Sumo. In this game, players are beetle wrestlers who try to push opponents out of the ring to win. This box is filled with chunky wooden discs and tokens of various shapes and sizes, and it features some of the most refreshing gameplay in years (click here to read my full impressions of the game).

This one features a kid-friendly mode, and competitive mode for adults, and works great from 2-4 players. In short, you can’t go wrong with making this Christmas a Kabuto Christmas.

Support the Publisher—Buy directly from Board Game Tables (this game is only available directly from the publisher)

Equinox – $40

Equinox is a fantastic card game from Reiner Knizia with a lovely presentation from artist Chris Quilliams. For those who aren’t aware, Reiner Knizia is the very same designer who invented our Criminal Capers Collection!

Here, players place bets on which mystical creatures they believe will last until the end of the game, and then they must play their cards wisely to keep their chosen champions alive! There is loads of replayability to be enjoyed here, as each session is crammed with cutthroat player interaction and uses only eight of the fourteen creatures and their unique abilities. You can learn more about why we love this game in my first impressions post.

Support the Publisher—Buy Equinox directly from Plan B Games

See current Equinox deals from online retailers

Hibachi – $30

If you’ve been looking to become a master chef, here’s your big chance!

Like Kabuto Sumo, Hibachi also features a mix of strategy and dexterity. This unique blend of mechanisms is one that I found to be quite engaging! 2-4 players take turns tossing their poker chips onto the large board, and they can buy or sell the ingredients that their chips land on. You can even aim for the smaller bonus spaces or knock opponent discs away from coveted spots. A precise flick of the wrist helps, but you’ll also need to play smart to manage your money wisely and outbid your competition.

All this is part of a race to complete three recipes first and win the game. It’s delightfully unique, it’s deliciously challenging, it’s Hibachi.

See current Hibachi deals from online retailers (this one is not available to purchase directly from publisher Grail Games)

Ethnos – $40

Don’t let the box art scare you off! Ethnos actually shares a lot in common with legendary family game Ticket to Ride. I admit that the visuals of this game could be more attractive and inviting, but what if I told you that I’ve introduced this game to dozens of people (friends, family, gamers, non-gamers) and ALL have LOVED it? It’s true! There’s a reason that Ethnos is in my top 50 games of all time!

Let Kyle share with you why this game rocks in only 7 minutes:

Support the Publisher—Buy Ethnos directly from CMON/Asmodee

See current Ethnos deals from online retailers

Chinatown – $45

I love a good game of trading and negotiation, and Chinatown is one of the best of this genre. Like Ethnos, this classic is a massive crowdpleaser. It features dead simple rules, wonderfully memorable player interactions, and satisfyingly clever possibilities.

The magic of Chinatown lies in the fact that you can trade anything however you’d like—property, tiles, money, favors, you name it! There is something so raw and satisfying about turning your worthless assets into profitable deals. But at the end of the day, the player with the most money earned from lucrative deals and businesses is the ultimate winner. This one is ranked #10 in my top 50 board games of all time, and it becomes an instant favorite for nearly everyone I show it to. Enough said.

See current Chinatown deals from online retailers (this one is not currently available directly from publisher Z-Man Games/Asmodee)

Gifts for your Significant Other

Want to give a game that says “I love you?” How about a game that you can enjoy together over and over again? We’ve got you covered with these recommendations:

My City – $35

If you follow Bitewing Games and the content we put out, then you understand that we are physically incapable of recommending My City enough. This masterclass polyomino legacy game from Reiner Knizia is featured in:

• My top 50 games list
• Our recent podcast discussion of games we’ve been playing
• My interview with designer Reiner Knizia himself
• My Top 10 Reiner Knizia Games article
• My deep dive article into what makes games refreshingly replayable
• My Battle of the Polyomino games article (spoilers: My City won)
• My top 15 board games of 2020 list
• Our top 10 Family Games podcast episode

…You get the picture. Now for a warning: don’t let the above list trick you into setting your expectations 300 miles high. The truth is that My City is simply an easy to recommend game, and it’s especially good for couples and families. My wife and I loved playing through it at 2 players, and this one scales all the way up to 4. I can think of few holiday activities better than cozying up to the table with some hot cocoa, a loved one, and My City.

See current My City deals from online retailers (this one is not currently available directly from publisher Kosmos)

Riftforce – $30

Riftforce is one of the few games on this list that I personally haven’t tried yet, but that’s only because it hasn’t yet been released to retail in the US (at the time of this writing). But worry not, this one hits stores in October and is available directly from the publisher today!

I’ve already preordered my copy, and that’s because Riftforce is already released in Europe and pleasing consumers and critics alike. It even earned itself a spot on my most anticipated games of 2021 part II list. This game takes some inspiration from the likes of Battle Line (Schotten Totten) and Air, Land, and Sea where two players duel across multiple rift spaces as they play cards onto their side of the rift. The interesting wrinkle here is that players assemble their own deck of four asymmetric guilds from the ten that come in the box.

Crafting and executing the right combo at the right time will be key to victory in this simple, strategic 30 minute card game.

Support the Publisher—Buy Riftforce directly from Capstone Games

See current Riftforce deals from online retailers

Royal Visit – $25

Who doesn’t like a good tug-of-war? Royal Visit is a gorgeous new version of a classic Reiner Knizia tug-of-war game where two competing players attract guards, a jester, a wizard, and the king himself toward their end of the board by playing cards of a matching type. Each figure has its own interesting traits and abilities, and the ultimate goal is to get the king into your castle.

We’re big fans of this game at my house… we even played it again last night, twice! I dive into the nitty gritty details of Royal Visit with my first impressions post here.

Support the Publisher—Buy Royal Visit directly from Iello

See current Royal Visit deals from online retailers

Summoner Wars (Second Edition) – $50

If asymmetric dice combat chess is more your gift receiver’s style, then Summoner Wars fits the bill. The second edition of this much beloved game is a more polished and perfected version that released this year. Play cards onto the grid-based board, slide them from one space to the next, line up to attack your opponent’s cards, and bring down their summoner using your unique abilities! My first impressions of the game have shown that this is absolutely the way to go for those who prefer meaty yet streamlined dueling.

Support the Publisher—Buy Summoner Wars (Second Edition) directly from Plaid Hat Games

See current Summoner Wars deals from online retailers

Caesar!: Seize Rome in 20 Minutes! – $30

Here we have another hotly anticipated, soon-to-be-released game that is indeed titled “Caesar!: Seize Rome in 20 Minutes!” This one comes at us from one of my favorite designers, namely Paolo Mori, designer of Dogs of War, Ethnos (mentioned above), and Blitzkrieg. Blitzkrieg is an especially notable one here, as Caesar is the spiritual sibling to this critically acclaimed game, and its real title is Blitzkrieg!: World War Two in 20 Minutes (see the resemblance? ;).

Now listen here, I know what some of you are thinking: “I have zero interest in war games.” I get it, I was thinking the same thing when I first encountered Blitzkrieg. But even more than being a war game, Blitzkrieg is a tactical tug-of-war game (much like Royal Visit), and Caesar takes much of the same DNA of Blitzkrieg and turns it into an area majority game.

The elegance of these games lies within their turn-by-turn structure… simply place a tile onto the board (from your three tile options that are hidden behind your screen), resolve the effects, and draw another tile from your bag. This formula makes for one of the most tense and engaging 20 minutes out there. It’s why Blitzkrieg is also in my top 50 board games of all time.

Support the Publisher—Buy Caesar directly from PSC Games

See current Summoner Wars deals from online retailers

Stocking Stuffer Gifts

The stockings were hung by the chimney with care, with hopes that small games would be placed in there. These ones are both conveniently compact and blessedly affordable. And they pack a punch!

Durian – $23

You can never go wrong with a stocking stuffer gift from publisher Oink Games. Their tiny, charming rectangular boxes were practically born to be nestled in stockings and hung by the chimney with care.

Durian is one of the best new Oink game releases of recent years about taking fruity orders and calling the grumpy gorilla boss on your co-workers. It’s simple, it’s fast, and it’s hilarious. We’ve enjoyed it so much that it even made my Top 15 Games of 2020 list.

Support the Publisher—Buy Durian directly from Oink Games (note to US buyers: you’ll need to select the Japanese language option… it comes with an English rulebook as noted in the description)

See current Durian deals from online retailers

Schotten Totten 2 – $15

Whether you’re a fan of the original Schotten Totten (aka Battle Line) or have never heard of those wacky words, Schotten Totten 2 is an excellent little 2-player game that should be on your radar.

Much like its predecessor, ST2 is all about playing chicken against the player across the table from you by forming poker-style sets of cards from your hand (runs, sets, sums, etc.). This sequel is unique in that the competing players have asymmetric roles, objectives, and abilities. The defender must protect their wall and keep the attacker from breaking through. Check out my first impressions of this clever card game here.

Support the Publisher—Buy Schotten Totten 2 directly from Iello

See current Schotten Totten 2 deals from online retailers

Illusion – $13

From Wolfgang Warsch, the designer of many popular games including Wavelength, Quacks of Quedlinburg, The Mind, and That’s Pretty Clever comes another excellent little card game.

Illusion is a tense game of arranging a growing row of cards in sequential order by the amount of one color shown on each card. The moment you feel that another player has added a card to the wrong spot, you can use your turn to challenge the sequence and reveal the backs of the cards that quantify how much area each color takes up. If your challenge is correct, then the previous player takes a penalty. If your challenge is incorrect, then you take the penalty!

I can personally vouch for this as a great stocking stuffer of optical illusions, because it’s exactly what I received and enjoyed last Christmas! I’m a huge fan of its captivating core, brilliant rules, and dramatic reveals.

Support the Publisher—Buy Illusion directly from Pandasaurus Games

See current Illusion deals from online retailers

The Crew: Mission Deep Sea – $15

We here at Bitewing Games are massive fans of The Crew: The Quest for Planet Nine. You can find both my written review and Kyle’s video review of this cooperative trick-taking masterpiece.

Mission Deep Sea is the standalone sequel to our 2020 darling, and word on the street is that this one is even better. You’ll be able to get a whole lot of game out of this $15 box when it hits stores this fall. We can’t wait to try it!

Support the Publisher—Buy The Crew: Mission Deep Sea directly from Kosmos

See current The Crew: Mission Deep Sea deals from online retailers

Parade – $20

Kyle and I very recently had a podcast discussion about this quirky little Alice in Wonderland themed card game called Parade. It features gorgeous art, tough decisions, and elegant gameplay. You’ll be adding a card from your hand to the back of the parade and strategizing which colors to avoid and which colors to claim. Much like the other suggestions in this category, this one is a treasured gem on my card game shelf.

Support the Publisher—Buy Parade directly from Z-Man Games/Asmodee

See current Parade deals from online retailers

X-Trayz from Game Trayz – $2.32

Here’s a little stocking stuffer bonus for you. If your gift receiver has any bitty games that they play frequently, these trays are perfect for convenient storage and speedy organization.

It’s always satisfying when a setup merely consists of removing game trayz from the box and opening the lid. I love to fit these trays into my favorite game boxes including Concordia (for the wood resources), Dogs of War (for the cardboard tokens), and Yellow & Yangtze (for the point cubes). For games where I can’t fit the trays inside, I usually have some spare ones on hand to make for a cleaner table presence during play.

Check out all the X-Trayz options at the BGG Store.

Perfect Games for your Holiday Party

While people can never be replaced as the life of the party, a good game can help take that party to the next level. Here are our suggestions to help make your party fun and memorable…

Don’t Get Got – $22

Imagine a game where each player (up to 8 total) is given a wallet containing six secret missions they must complete. These missions challenge players to creatively trick each other without drawing suspicion.

You see, Don’t Get Got is one meta game that can be played in the background during a party, a game night, a holiday get-together, you name it! If someone calls you out on your mission attempt, then you fail it, but you’ve got six objectives total and the first person to complete three wins! I personally can’t wait to try this game of harmless and hilarious pranks… just waiting for the right occasion!

Support the Publisher—Buy Don’t Get Got directly from Big Potato Games

Skull – $20

Alongside our own upcoming Soda Smugglers, Skull is one of my favorite bluffing games thanks to its pure, tense gameplay for 3-6 players. It even earned itself a spot in my Top 10 Filler Games list (as well as the previously mentioned Parade and The Crew).

The rules are as follows: either add a coaster to your own stack facedown, or place a bid for how many coasters you think you can flip over without revealing a skull. Raising the bid sends out a signal to your opponents that your stack is safe and free of deadly skulls, but is it a false signal? If others call your bluff and leave you high and dry as the winning bidder, then your planted bluffing bomb can backfire!

It’s loud, funny, and fantastic. Just like any good party should be!

See current Skull deals from online retailers (not currently available directly from the publisher)

Bristol 1350 – $25

Bristol 1350 is a gorgeous game of wagon racing and Black Plague dodging from our friends over a Facade Games. This is the fourth game in their Dark Cities series featuring magnetic book boxes and social deduction in a grim period of history that allows 2-9 players.

I had the chance to help play and test Bristol 1350 back when it was a budding prototype, and the final production certainly packs a punch!

Support the Publisher—Buy Bristol 1350 directly from Facade Games

See current Bristol 1350 deals from online retailers

Sidereal Confluence – $70

I’ve got to be honest with you here… this one is absolutely not suited for your average Holiday Party. Sidereal Confluence is best for a tabletop gaming party where everyone comes expecting a meaty, strategic board game experience.

But boy, this one makes for a heck of an experience. Like Chinatown (recommended above), players will dive deep into simultaneous, real-time negotiation of anything and everything on the table. Only here, things are much more sprawling and complicated. Sidereal Confluence plays with up to 9 people, which is why it landed a spot on our Holiday Party board game recommendations. Just make sure you have an extra large table if you’re gathering 9 to play.

Support the Publisher—Buy Sidereal Confluence directly from WizKids

See current Sidereal Confluence deals from online retailers (I recommend you get the remastered edition pictured above, not the older version)

Decrypto – $23

Word clue games, such as the mega-hit Codenames, are all the rage these days, and for good reason! They’re usually social & casual, and they allow for creative personalities to spill into the gameplay.

Decrypto is one such game that is among our Top 10 Family Games and absolutely worthy of any party game collection. Two teams face off over multiple rounds as one player from each team crafts a code of clues that is easy enough for their team to decipher yet too tricky for their rivals to decode.

I’ve played it on over a dozen different occasions and still find it to be a killer experience. It even currently reigns supreme as the #1 ranked party game on Board Game Geek.

See current Decrypto deals from online retailers (not currently available directly from the publisher)

Rorschach – $30

Not two weeks ago I had the pleasure of trying Rorschach, the new family-friendly party game from Capstone Games and Deep Print Games. I’ll be sharing my full first impressions of this amusing little box next month, but here’s a little teaser for now:

In Rorschach, players are divided into two teams, and each team takes turns offering up a test subject who must connect three words to three inkblot images.  This is performed by placing tokens facedown onto the image cards that match the tokens which designate each topic card.  Then the group must guess which images the test subject connected to which words.  

At first, the inkblot images almost look roughly the same.  Merely a symmetrical smudge of black ink with some corners here or some squiggles there.  But thanks to the three face-up word cards which players are forced to use, the mind begins to fill in the blanks with details and silhouettes and settings that transform an incoherent mess into a tangible topic.  And it is within the cycle of these inkblot images starting out seemingly meaningless, irrelevant, and unrelated, but slowly coming to life with the help of one’s imagination that we find the magic of Rorschach.

Support the Publisher—Buy Rorschach directly from Capstone Games

See current Rorschach deals from online retailers

Gifts for the Hobbyist Board Gamer

Finally, we arrive at the meatiest section of all. No holiday board game gift guide is complete without solid recommendations for hobbyist gamers. If your gift receiver knows their Langs from their Knizias, their worker placements from their tableau builders, or if one of their favorite things to read is rulebooks, then these are the games for them…

Oath: Chronicles of Empire & Exile – $120

Much like Cole Wehrle’s other designs (Root, Pax Pamir, etc.), Oath is a game that is best suited for 4 or 5 gamers who love diving deep into a single design to explore its intricacies. If your gift receiver is one who never spends more than a couple plays on the latest hotness, then I suggest you keep on scrolling.

With the right group, Oath is a fascinating exploration of political powers, dynasties, and historiography. Players will spend sessions as Chancellor, citizens, and/or exiles competing to gain control of the kingdom through various objectives. Beyond the stunning production and whimsical artwork on display, every decision made by players has innovative ripple effects that influence the current game state as well as future plays. After only a few plays, this has quickly become one of my all-time favorite games.

Support the Publisher—Buy Oath directly from Leder Games

See current Oath deals from online retailers

Hansa Teutonica: Big Box – $50

On the opposite end of the spectrum from the shiny new Oath, here we have a tried and tested classic game which was recently reprinted in a regular sized box but titled Hansa Teutonica: Big Box. Despite its drab appearance, this game resides among the very best Euros thanks to its quick tempo and poignant player interaction. It’s so good that when I ranked my top board game releases of 2020, Hansa Teutonica: Big Box was number one!

On the surface, you’ll be placing out your merchants and establishing trading posts. But beneath it all you’ll be trying to outfox your opponents and take advantage of every little opportunity they give you to become the world’s greatest trader. This big box version provides plenty to explore with more game board maps that provide their own interesting wrinkles to the compelling core.

See current Hansa Teutonica: Big Box deals from online retailers (this game is not currently available directly from the publisher)

The Search for Planet X – $45

Perhaps your gamer prefers puzzly deduction over sprawling campaigns or classic Euros? Well then The Search for Planet X might just be perfect for them! Here you’ll use the help of a phone app to dole out clues to players in a smooth, flawless system where you can only blame yourself for any deductive errors.

Another benefit to this game is that each player can start at different difficulty levels (with more or less clues), thereby evening the playing field against more experienced players. It’s a fun puzzle to crack that comes highly recommended by yours truly.

Support the Publisher—Buy the Search for Planet X directly from Renegade Games

See current The Search for Planet X deals from online retailers

Beyond the Sun – $85

If there is any game on this list that is least likely to disappoint your gamer, it’s Beyond the Sun. That’s because this game has been the most popular new release I’ve shown all of my gaming friends. This futuristic, sci-fi game lets players develop technologies, colonize planets, and build an incredibly satisfying economic engine.

It was number fifteen on my top games of 2020… but since making that list, it has only gotten better with each play, and an updated version of that list would rank Beyond the Sun much higher. Between the collaborative tech track and aggressive planet board, there is something here for everyone.

See current Beyond the Sun deals from online retailers (this game is not available directly from the publisher, and it is expected to have a retailer restock in October)

Iberian Gauge – $40

It’s hard to resist the allure of a good box cover, and artist Ian O’Toole knows how to bring out best in a cube rails game. Iberian Gauge comes to us hot off the assembly line from the creators of Irish Gauge (illustrator O’Toole, designer Amabel Holland, and publisher Capstone Games). For those who aren’t familiar, cube rails games tend to feature simple rules (only 1 sheet of paper), shared incentives, stock opportunities, and network building goodness.

Iberian Gauge features an interesting balance of railroad investments and expenditures where the money you pay for stock becomes that company’s budget for expansion. The mix of strategy and tactics within this Iron Rail series (Iberian Gauge being the third in the series) has never failed to engage me. This one will surely make for a slim & slick gift.

Support the Publisher—But Iberian Gauge directly from Capstone Games

See current Iberian Gauge deals from online retailers

Article written by Nick Murray. Outside of practicing dentistry part-time, Nick has devoted his remaining work-time to collaborating with the world’s best designers, illustrators, and creators in producing classy board games that bite. He hopes you’ll join Bitewing Games in their quest to create and share experiences that, much like a bitewing x-ray, provide a unique perspective and refreshing interaction.

The post 2021 Holiday Board Game Gift Guide appeared first on Bitewing Games.

In this podcast-exclusive episode, Nick and Kyle discuss their top 10 family board games. With Nick having a million cousins and Kyle doing nearly all his gaming with siblings, parents, and his spouse, we’ve put plenty of titles to the test with our “non-gamer” family members.

Find out which board games are guaranteed to please at your next family gathering!

If you like what you hear, why not subscribe to the Bitewing Games Podcast through your favorite Podcast app?

1:10 – What do we mean by “Family Games?” 
4:12 – Blokus
5:18 – Camel Up (Second Edition)
8:00 – Bohnanza
10:05 – Chinatown
13:18 – The Mind
15:15 – For Sale
18:03 – The Crew: The Quest for Planet Nine
21:57 – Crokinole, Klask
24:52 – Ticket to Ride
26:05 – Condottiere
28:52 – On Tour
30:25 – Wavelength
33:27 – Ethnos
36:28 – Kingdomino
38:05 – Love Letter
41:02 – 7 Wonders, Sushi Go Party
42:57 – My City
47:26 – Between Two Cities
50:26 – Codenames, Decrypto
52:10 – Another teaser for our upcoming publications!

That’s all for our Top 10 Family Board Games! We’ll be back next week with our regular blog post & podcast episode! What are your favorite games to play with family and friends? Share with us in the comments below!

The post Top 10 Family Board Games appeared first on Bitewing Games.

So how is this board gaming industry still even a thing?  Is there more to it than… winning?  Of course there is!  You know that, I know that.  Perhaps in games of pure luck, there really is nothing fun about losing.  But when we begin to mix other elements into the game… the interesting friends, the dynamic strategies, the dramatic moments… that’s when the finish line fades and the journey prevails.  Let’s take a look at some of the many games that hurt so good.  In other words, let’s explore games that are fun to lose, and most importantly, why:

Close, Intense Battles for Victory

These kinds of losses are perhaps the most fun, at least for me.  When I feel that victory is within all of our grasps, and even when I’m not crowned champion, I love a good battle to the death.  I’ve encountered it time and time again in tightly designed titles including Inis and Pax Pamir (2nd Edition).  It’s what puts these games among my all time favorites.  You can never count a player out, because there is always a route for them to make a wrecking-ball comeback.

Competitive Races

Along the same lines, I love a close race.  When the winning objective is clear—reach El Dorado first in The Quest for El Dorado, or fill your mat first in New York Zoo—yet the competition is tight.  The games I just mentioned have provided multiple instances where opponents were one good turn away from claiming the victory.  It’s the kind of roller coaster of tension that I love taking again and again.

When You Are Proud of what You’ve Built/Accomplished

I love it when a game allows the players to approach its challenge in unique and creative ways.  Often times, the path you pave can be even more satisfying than reaching the finish line first.  You see this all the time in games like Junk Art, where players must stack wildly different shapes as they build their own teetering works of art.  Men at Work is another obvious example, as one player may not win the overall game, but they’ll pull off the most challenging task of all (to the “Ooos” and “Ahhhs” of their opponents).  More recently, I experienced this with our first play of Curious Cargo.  My wife ended up kicking my trash (nearly doubling my score), yet I was still mighty proud of the tricky network I had built and the maneuvers I had pulled off.

When the Strategy you Execute Plays Out Beautifully, and Somebody Still Outwits You

Pax Pamir (2nd Edition) is one of my absolute favorite games.  It quickly rose to the top of my list despite me losing the game over and over again.  I believe it took me 6 or so plays (even with less experienced people) to actually win the dang thing.  Despite my struggle, I loved every session of it.  Pax Pamir is the kind of game where the strategies and tactics are seemingly endless, and I’m always scheming up new plots to swoop in and win a dominance check (a scoring phase).  Often, I can get at least one of these schemes to pay off each game, and thereby position myself in the lead.  Even when my crafty opponents manage to snatch the victory from my salivating jaws, I still have a satisfied belly from the tasty schemes I hatched.

When an Opponent Shoots for the Moon and Wins Against All Odds

You have to respect the moon shooters of our hobby and the games that give them those tiniest of windows to hope and victory.  When I see an opponent, fresh out of reasonable options, shooting for the moon, I always give them an internal salute.  Everyone knows that they have the slimmest shot of victory, but the key is that they still have a shot… and you can’t help but root for the underdog.  Speaking of Root, this game’s Dominance Cards are a great example of shooting for the moon.  You’ll see one player just barely cross the 10-point mark as their opponents are closing in on the 30 point victory.  Suddenly, the 10-pointer plays out a Dominance Card, removes their score marker from the track, and declares that they will win on their next turn if everybody else doesn’t stop them.  Respect.

My utmost respect also goes to those folks who bet on the camel in last place winning the race of Camel Up.  To those in Lords of Vegas who choose to gamble all of their money at the enemy’s casino in a desperate attempt at a comeback, we salute you.  To that one wild Space Base card that is extremely hard to complete, but when completed it automatically declares its owner the winner (throwing out the whole points-based objective), I tip my hat to you and the player who lassos you up and rides you into the sunset of victory.

When You Set a Perfect Trap and They Still Manage to Escape

Two of the greatest dexterity games on the planet include Crokinole and Klask.  Perhaps one of the most underrated features of these games is the ability to set traps for your opponent.  In Crokinole, that involves planning and positioning your discs in the hardest to reach spots for your opponent, who must at least touch your disc in order for their shot to not be a scratch.  For Klask, that involves nudging the magnetic biscuits onto your opponent’s half of the board, surrounding them with booby traps that are hungry to latch onto their pawn.  Putting my opposition in these situations never ceases to delight me.  Yet I’ve seen people pull off mission: impossible by executing the perfect shot and turning the tables on me.  Touché, good sir/madame.  

When the Players are the Most Entertaining Part of the Game

It’s hard to be mad about losing a game when your friends harnessed its mechanisms to surprise and entertain you.  Games such as Wavelength (my all-time favorite party game) and A Fake Artist Goes to New York never fail to provide this type of experience.  Even when our team is falling hopelessly behind in Wavelength, I can’t help but laugh when our group ranks black licorice only slightly less unpopular than child labor.  Even when an innocent teammate is epically failing at proving their innocence in Fake Artist, I can’t help but appreciate their pitiful attempt at drawing a meaningful line.

When a Game Lets You Feel like a Genius

Deep down, I think I only ever wanted to be a wheeler and dealer.  Chinatown gives me what I’ve always wanted.  Chinatown is game where I get to dangle carrots in front of my opponents, carefully selecting the right carrot at the right time, to lure them in to my schemes.  Those moments when I can use the hot garbage under my ownership and convert it all into golden geese through crafty trades and clever negotiations make me feel like an absolute genius.  After that, it doesn’t matter all that much whether I win or lose the game, because in my heart, I’ve already won.

The same can be said of Decrypto, a game where players must give clues to their teammates that are neither too easy for their opponents to crack nor too hard for their comrades to misunderstand.  As the rounds march on, players are forced to be increasingly creative to keep the opposing team swinging and missing, and this game of cat and mouse can be even more satisfying than the victory.

When You Feel Yourself Improving

I love a great cooperative game that teaches and strengthens a group through their failures.  Games like The Crew: The Quest for Planet Nine and The Mind are perfect examples.  Typically, when friends gather around the table to give one of these a go, everybody is out of sync, inexperienced, and/or rusty.  But after fumbling through a few rounds, the collective skill level at the table rises and the team finds a nice groove.  Things get even more interesting as the challenge ramps up and the players must increase their focus and determination to succeed.

I get the same feeling of growth and improvement from sprawling titles such as A Feast for Odin and deep puzzles such as Curious Cargo.  These games provide plenty of new paths to explore to help keep one from getting too comfortable.  Even when the scores are tallied and my total isn’t at the top, I love seeing the progress in my strategies and abilities from one game to the next.

When Rounds are Quick and Addictive

It’s hard to get salty about a loss when you only have a minute or two to wait before you’re back into the next round of play.  This is what makes Love Letter and Skull such addicting fillers, aside from being great fun, of course.  Shortening the playtime is one of the best ways to compensate for a high-luck or high-punishment mechanism (such as player elimination or luck-of-the-draw).  Eliminations and poor hands become funny instead of painful.

When Losing Earns You a Meaningful Pity Prize

Nobody likes being the loser of the group, but everybody likes prizes.  A meaningful pity prize can be a great way to dampen the blow of losing.  In My City, a competitive, polyomino legacy game, the player(s) who lose the round are often awarded with a bonus that permanently improves their board or tiles.  This functions as both a catchup mechanism and an exciting opportunity.

Tournament at Avalon takes a similar approach, but in a much more dramatic way.  This is the type of trick taking game where one person usually becomes the piñata of the round that everyone else takes a big swing at.  Only when this player-piñata is struck in Tournament at Avalon, instead of spewing out candy from their gaping wounds, they end up spewing out vengeance.  You can explore my review of the game for further details, but the long story short is that whoever is in last place (or close to last) from round to round gains more abilities and powers for them to gleefully unleash on their enemies.  Sometimes it pays to be in last.

When You Take Down Others With You

We’ll conclude this topic by looking at two more games: one that is still in the oven and one that has stood the test of time.  Bristol 1350 is a game that I had the pleasure of previewing through many play testing sessions during its development.  It’s a roller-coaster of a social deduction game where a few select players secretly start with the black plague, doomed to succumb to its wrath, and they are striving to bring down every other healthy player with them.  While it is absolutely thrilling to make it through the game healthy and unscathed, the opposite end of the spectrum is plenty of fun as well, even when you catch the plaque mid-game and must pivot to a new objective.  This is one form of losing that I look forward to experiencing more when it officially releases next year.

But when I think of losing with dignity—going out with bang, if you will—perhaps the best example that comes to mind is the battle mode in Mario Kart 64.  Yes, you know what I’m talking about.  That moment when you lose your last balloon and transform into a mobile bomb.  Few things in life are as good for the soul as when you kamikaze your bomb into an unfortunate player and their last balloon.

This concludes our exploration of games that are fun to lose, and why! Which games do you enjoy, despite your losses, and what keeps you coming back for more pain?

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!

The post Hurt So Good: Games that are Fun to Lose appeared first on Bitewing Games.

There is something so satisfying about finding the chinks in an opponent’s armor and crafting a master plan around this vulnerability…  Like when your friends go all in on the leading blue camel of Camel Up, so you do everything in your power to slow down the blue camel and speed up the underdog red camel.  Or when you observe that your spouse will spare no expense at winning a certain category in an auction game like QE or Modern Art, so you gleefully jack up the bid knowing you have no intention of purchasing the item.  Or when your buddy starts throwing down oak trees in a game of Arboretum just as you acquire a high value oak into your hand, so you quietly keep it tucked away among your cards like a dagger waiting to be plunged.

Things get even more interesting when the actions of those around the table force you to adapt your strategy and pivot your plans.  When the opposing team in Decrypto starts to catch on to your clues, forcing your team out of their comfort zone and onto thin ice with increasingly precarious clues.  Or when your rival applies the military pressure in 7 Wonders Duel as they draft more cards to march the red token down the track toward your demise. Or when you are playing The Mind and your gut tells you it’s time to play that 62 in your hand, but as you slowly reach for it you feel your blood pressure rise as you notice that a teammate is thinking the exact same thing about the card in their hand.

I don’t believe that a game that lacks player interaction is a poor design, but I can’t ignore my preference toward games with player interaction.  I like the puzzly challenge that a good tabletop game provides, but I love when that challenge morphs, evolves, and transforms according to the personalities and brains of my opponents and/or teammates at the table.  

Whether it’s the hilarious discussions that Wavelength evokes, or the shakey alliances formed within Pax Pamir 2e, or the deceptive cooperation among pirates on Treasure Island, or the tightly intertwined closed economy of Brass: Birmingham, I never tire of adapting to the players around me.  A game with high player interaction is a game with high replayability and balance built right into its core system, because the game can take on an evolving meta with the same group and a transforming meta with different groups as they scramble to keep runaway leaders in check and allow underdogs to fly under the radar.

This hunger for such interaction is one reason why I just couldn’t get into mega-hits like Terraforming Mars, as each player spends most of the game focusing all their attention on their hand and player mat.  In games like these, it can even be difficult to tell when one person’s turn has ended, as nobody has any major reason to pay attention to other players besides something like late-game public objectives. Of course, I always have room for a good multiplayer solitaire in my collection when it contains so many of my other favorite flavors like a savory thoughtful production.

Click on to check out Tabletop Tastes #3: Savory Thoughtful Production

Looking for more highly interactive games? Give one of these a try:

• Cooperative Interaction: Horrified, Pandemic Legacy Season 1, Hanabi
• Euro-style Interaction: Concordia, Caylus 1303, Great Western Trail
• Drafting Interaction: Azul, 7 Wonders Duel, Inis
• Auctioning Interaction: Isle of Skye, For Sale, Ra
• Cutthroat Interaction: Root, The Estates, Arboretum
• Team-based Interaction: Tortuga 1667, Codenames, Captain Sonar

How salty do you like your player interaction? What games contain your favorite form of interaction?

The post Tabletop Tastes #2: Salty Player Interaction appeared first on Bitewing Games.

Introduction

I dove into the deep end of the board game community over a year ago. With helpful guides including Shut Up & Sit Down’s recommended games, The Dice Tower’s Top 100, Board Game Geek (BGG) rankings, Geekbuddy comments, and more, my hunt has led me through the “Cult of the New”, Cult of the Classic, and many games in between.

I’ve played and purchased more board games in the past year than I have in my entire life, and it has been a blast! The true catalyst that launched me into the hobby was when I discovered a passion for designing board games during the summer of 2018. My experience learning and playing new-to-me tabletop games has been one of both research and adventure, discovery and inspiration. As I’ve sought to feed my creative drive, I’ve also uncovered an explorative hunger and developed a personal palate. Playing board games and creating board games are cyclical interests for me that have consumed much of my free time since they began.

So while I feel my understanding of the board game industry is well researched and experienced on one hand, I realize my complete amateur status on the other. Perhaps my perspective will offer you something new to consider, and I certainly hope you won’t hesitate to offer me suggestions as well.  

If you feel we may have similar tastes, and you have a BGG account, please feel free to add me as a Geekbuddy! I’m always eager to hear what you fine folks think of any games I am curious about, and I’ve found the Geekbuddy tool to be invaluable in narrowing down my wishlist. It’s also possible that your suggestion for me is already on my wishlist, so check out my most anticipated new-to-me games list!

So without further adO, I present to you my current Top 50 Games!

#50 Roll for the Galaxy

Recommended for: Gamers

I seem to like this game more every time I play it. Always engaging and interesting with loads of variety. The rules and symbols can seem intimidating at first, but the player shields contain basically all the information you need to play the game (and remember the rules). Very well done production.

I realize how popular Terraforming Mars is, but Roll for the Galaxy is my preferred space engine builder thanks to its zippy play time, better production, and higher fun factor.

#49 Skull

Recommended for: Everyone

Skull is a game of bluffing filtered down into its purest form. I love those moments when I can get on a roll and make my opponents feel like I am reading them like a book.

If you enjoy bluffing games like Poker, but you want a game that throws out everything but the good old bluffing, then Skull is for you!

#48 Takenoko

Recommended for: Everyone

Fantastic family game. We absolutely love the theme and components; the presentation is a home-run. The feeling of watering bamboo tiles to build bamboo towers and moving the Panda to eat bamboo comes together so nicely.

The event die is interesting in how it encourages players to adapt their strategy on each turn.

There is definitely a significant amount of luck involved in drawing the right or wrong objective cards (especially late in the game). This can make some plays quite frustrating for competitive players.

The Takenoko: Chibis expansion helps with mitigating some bad luck and adds some really interesting mechanics to the game, so I would suggest getting the expansion if you enjoy the base game.

#47 The Quest for El Dorado

Recommended for: Everyone

There’s something about this game that is so slick, streamlined, and satisfying. Perhaps the obvious answer is: Reiner Knizia. I love how this deck-builder makes you plan ahead and consider the long-term consequences of buying all those machete cards when a dense area of water and villages lie ahead in the distance.

There’s also something to be said of a game that contains all the essential rules on the thin rectangular player boards, making for an easy-breezy teach leading to an epic, tense race.

The Quest for El Dorado has served as a major case-study and inspiration for the snowboarding deck-builder that I’ve been designing myself.

#46  The Fox in the Forest

Recommended for: Everyone

I grew up playing Rook from time to time with relatives. Having an auction based on your hand of cards always felt like such a clever way to mitigate luck in a trick-taking game. It never occurred to me that losing a trick could be just as much fun as winning a trick.

Enter The Fox in the Forest. I love how players can spend early tricks baiting their opponent, testing the waters, while late tricks find them desperately struggling to balance their wins and losses. Man, I need to play this again.

As I’ve been designing a trick-taking game inspired by hot air balloon competitions, The Fox in the Forest has been instrumental in helping me refine the mechanisms of my design.

#45 Startups

Recommended for: Everyone

I picked up Startups very recently (thanks to the fine folks at SU&SD), and found it to be delightfully similar to Arboretum. Both games reward clever hand management among calculated discards and well-timed plays. Startups is certainly the milder of the two, but still a solid card game I’m hungry to play again.

Startups is also my introductory game to Oink Games; their minimalist design and production is actually quite charming, in my opinion. I stumbled across Startups in a random board game store while out of town, and now Insider is next on my list to try. I’m also quite familiar with the famous A Fake Artist Goes to New York, although I haven’t played it, as it shares some similarities with a party game that my wife and I have in the works.

#44 Dominion (Second Edition)

Recommended for: Everyone

Dominion reminds me of a good bowl of vanilla ice cream. It’s nothing flashy, but it’s a fine-tuned base of deck-building that seemingly goes well with almost anything. Sometimes it’s just nice to go back to some smooth, quick simplicity and bask in Old Faithful.

To me, this game has plenty of tension within the decision space of cards to purchase and cards combinations you hope to draw; but for those looking for more player interaction, it seems that the later deck-builders it inspired fill this need better. I’m particularly enamored with Arctic Scavengers adding in the option to save a card for combat (even as a bluff) rather than play or discard it; this particular mechanism fits perfectly into my snowboarding deck builder design of storing cards as a snowball stash.

#43 Watergate

Recommended for: Everyone

Watergate captures and streamlines the element of tension that I’ve so come to love in my favorite games. This is the only game that I don’t own and haven’t played multiple times (yet), but it left a massive first impression with its novel historical theme and focused gameplay. I love that the cards have multiple uses and provide a deeper decision space beyond just deciding which card to play but how to play them.

#42 Deception: Murder in Hong Kong

Recommended for: Everyone

Deception takes the ever popular Werewolf/Mafia style of social deduction gameplay, combines it with the basic premise of Clue, and gives it just enough mechanical framework to satisfy everyone involved. The cognitive deducers can feel clever as they narrow down the probable weapon and key evidence, and the social influencers can steer the discussion and cast suspicion.

#41 Decrypto

Recommended for: Everyone

Decrypto blows the ever popular Codenames out of the water for me. I love how the clues you offer contain long-term consequences. The game forces you to think outside the box by avoiding new clues that are to closely related to old clues. One of my favorite moments is during a tie-breaker when teams must guess the exact words of their opponents.

If you enjoy Codenames, you have gotta try Decrypto!

Next Page: Games 40-31

The post Top 50 Board Games: Nick’s Cream of the Crop appeared first on Bitewing Games.