Let’s talk about the games that are leaving or entering my collection, and why!  For “surge” games, I’ll stick with titles that are not recent releases as I already cover those in my monthly New Release 1st Impressions series.

PURGE:

PARKS & Tokaido

These games have quite a bit in common.  Both PARKS and Tokaido are gorgeous looking games about traveling or vacationing through scenic environments.  Both contain the chill mechanism of stopping along a one-way track to collect items or trigger effects.  Jumping far ahead guarantee’s that you’ll hit your desired spot, but you’ll be skipping lots of other good options along the way and leaving them open for your opponents.  

It’s rather unnecessary to possess both PARKS and Tokaido in one collection, yet here I am keeping neither.  While I can’t deny the appeal of their aesthetics and settings, I also can’t deny the weakness of their game-night appeal.  Neither game has made it to our table in over a year.

Perhaps what kills them for me is that their time-to-payoff ratio is a little lopsided for my tastes.  We have some comparably simple and chill card games that cram more fun into their shorter playtimes than either PARKS or Tokaido.  I’d say they’re both solid picks as family games, but we own plenty of other family games that I would play many times over before reaching for these.

SURGE:

The Knizia Flood: Ingenious, Yellow & Yangtze, Quo Vadis

As we prepare to publish our own Reiner Knizia designs, I’ve become increasingly keen on exploring the highlights of his portfolio.  I struggle to resist a good sale or interesting new release from the German designer who continues to entertain my gaming group.  Stay tuned for my thoughts on some of his newer releases, but in the meantime let’s talk about Ingenious, Yellow & Yangtze, and Quo Vadis.

Ingenious is touted on the box as “The Ultimate Family Strategy Game,” and for once I actually agree with a generic marketing description! Abstract games typically aren’t my go-to game style, but Ingenious really hits the spot.  This one takes the scoring mechanism of Tigris & Euphrates—where your final score is your color with the least points—and simplifies it down to placing hexagonal dominos and scoring matching colors. The elegant gameplay, layered depth, and breezy turns here shouldn’t come as any surprise to Knizia fans. Nobody makes a better tile-laying game than Reiner, and Ingenious is one of the many feathers in that ridiculously legendary cap.

Yellow & Yangtze has officially arrived at my doorstep (along with Whale Riders and Whale Riders: The Card Game).  And just in the nick of time, apparently, as this one is being dropped by the publisher this year.  With it’s spiritual sibling, Tigris & Euphrates, being my current #3 game of All Time, and Reiner’s other recent reiterations (Babylonia and Blue Lagoon) also being in my top 50, you could astutely predict that I’m thrilled to give Y&Y a try…  Thrilled enough, in fact, to already have my hand on my wallet holster for when the Yellow & Yangtze plastic and bamboo GeekUp tiles go on sale. 

Meanwhile, we’ve enjoyed a couple plays of Quo Vadis, a pure negotiation game from Dr. Knizia that originally released in the 90’s, yet I was able to track down a used copy for cheap.  Players progress their politician pieces on the board through a sequential network of committees. On your turn, you are usually requesting support from other players in your current committee to vote you through to the next committee, and often you have to sweeten the deal for others to get the votes you need. Points are awarded for voting others through and moving your pieces along certain paths, but your points are only valid if one of your politicians makes it to the final Senate position. A game this dry has no right to be so enjoyable, but here we are.  Quo Vadis is pure, simple, quick, tense negotiation in a smart, Knizian style.  I’m interested in exploring this one further to witness the possibilities.  Yet I don’t think I like the “special tokens” variant that Mayfair threw into the box.  They seem to detract from the tension of having to rely on others to progress forward.

PURGE:

Roll & Writes: Railroad Ink, Welcome To, On Tour

It was fun while it lasted, roll & writes!  Yet as I described in my recent impressions of Railroad Ink Challenge, I’m living the law of diminishing returns within this genre of games.  I used to believe that it was so cool how you could play these games with as many people as you had pads and writing utensils.  Although in practice, I’ve noticed that these tend to be the quietest and least interactive games you could possibly play at a party.  Low-interaction games such as roll & writes tend to take the wind out of the sails of interpersonal engagement, and I find these to be hollow forms of entertainment in group gatherings.

Most often, I’ve enjoyed these games in 2-player settings with my wife.  Yet we now own dozens of killer 2-player games that simply increase the opportunity cost of playing another roll & write.  But I haven’t shunned the genre entirely!  We’re still holding onto Super Skill Pinball, which does roll & writes better than the rest, in my opinion.  And for some reason, I haven’t quite convinced myself to get rid of That’s Pretty Clever…

SURGE:

Train Games: Age of Steam Maps, Stephenson’s Rocket Expansion, & Chicago Express

How many train games does one gamer need?!?  Ten, apparently.  Plus a bunch more maps for good measure.  I know what you’re thinking: I’ve already mentioned that I’m getting rid of Railroad Ink!  But don’t worry, I’ve preordered Iberian Gauge, so balance will soon be restored to the railroad collection universe.  I’m not so much obsessed with trains as I am obsessed with highly interactive games—and games with sprawling railroads and shared incentives lend themselves well to this dynamic.

Age of Steam and Stephenson’s Rocket both made my top 50 games of all time.  I couldn’t resist the opportunity to acquire more maps from them.  In both cases, these expansion maps mix up the feel of the core gameplay and help to keep players from getting too comfortable.  I already shared my most recent experience with Eastern US map of Stephenson’s Rocket from our recent board game marathon, and even more recently I had the chance to try the German map of Age of Steam.

I’d say the German map is a safe board for relative newcomers to stray from the starting map.  Some interesting wrinkles include hex spaces that contain specific, expensive prices for building track on them.  The high price tag spots general stick to the edges of the map and block off foreign terminals that can receive specific colors of cubes.  Additionally, the Engineer action is completely different—it now cuts the price of one of your track builds in half rather than increasing your building limit from three to four tiles.  The German map was an interesting change to what we’ve been playing up to this point, and I’m eager to explore the many other maps of Age of Steam.

Finally, Chicago Express is a cube rails style game from 2007 that shares much in common with the likes of Irish Gauge.  Each player takes their turn by selecting an action—auctioning a share of one railroad company, expanding the rail system of a company they own shares in, or developing one of the boards hexes.  For those of you who are familiar with Irish Gauge, this sounds eerily similar, right?  Well the key differences are that money spent on shares for a railroad company goes into that company pool, and those funds are used to expand the rail system.  No money in your company means no opportunity for expansion.  Additionally, these three action options are represented by meters on the board, and whenever a player takes a chosen action, they move the dial up on that action meter until it reaches its highest space.  At that point, nobody else can take that type of action, and once two meters are full, this triggers a dividend phase and a reset of the meters.

I had a great time with my first play of Chicago Express, so when I saw a local Facebooker post their copy for sale at a reasonable price, I just had to bite.

PURGE:

Letting go of Classics: Catan, Dixit, Clank, Sushi Go, & Deep Sea Adventure

Although it was now several years ago, my most recent play of Catan was the fastest ever.  We had invited our friend over for dinner and a game night.  After choosing our settlement and road starting positions and getting into the initial turns, our friend suddenly stood up, ran to our restroom, and puked everywhere.  And that was the end of Catan night.

Since then, I’ve found many more games to love, and Old Faithful Catan never really called to me.  I’ve only recently come to terms with the idea of booting it from my collection.  Part of me thinks it would be neat to keep it around for my kids to show them the game that took the world by storm.  But at the end of the day, I’ve got PLENTY of other accessible games I’d rather teach and play with them.

Dixit is an interesting one.  This is a likeable, colorful game that thankfully renders Apples to Apples obsolete.  Instead of one judge randomly determining their favorite card of the round, players are cleverly incentivized to deceive opponents while deducing and voting for the correct card.  Meanwhile the storyteller of the round must avoid giving a clue that is too hard or too easy.

You’d be hard pressed to find someone who hates this game, yet it feels like Dixit has been overshadowed by newer titles.  Mysterium uses these same types of visual cards, but also allows for collaboration, discussion, and debates.  Mysterium also raises the stakes with an all-win or all-lose premise.

Decrypto has the same interesting balance of giving clues that are neither too easy nor too hard, but it ratchets up the tension with 3 clues per round that become an increasingly thinner tightrope to walk with each successive round.

Wavelength has the same freedom of giving any kind of clue (a word, a sentence, a sound, etc.) but follows it up with a much more interesting discussion and dramatic reveal.

The above mentioned games also do a better job at discouraging inside joke clues compared to Dixit, which is probably one of its greatest weaknesses.  After taking a break from Dixit for several years and finally giving it another go, I can see why this one has been collecting dust on my shelf.  The predator has become the prey; the Apples-gobbling Dixit is now the obsolete game thanks to Mysterium, Decrypto, Wavelength, and many more.

Sushi Go always felt a little more bland than its colorful art style implied, and it never really clicked with me when I felt that 7 Wonders or 7 Wonders Duel did the same thing better.

On the other hand, we got a kick out of Clank from our first few plays of it.  The push-your-luck concept of deciding how deep to venture into the dungeon for greater treasures at the risk of succumbing to the dragon was highly amusing.  The problem is that we never made it past those first few plays.  I think the messy rulebook and setup were partially to blame.  The other thing that hurt Clank was us owning another deck-building board movement hybrid, The Quest for El Dorado, which has received many more plays thanks to its cleaner, tighter, and smarter design.  Despite my fond memories of our plays of Clank, I realized it was time to say goodbye when I noticed our last play was nearly two years ago.

Funnily enough, Deep Sea Adventure contains the exact same concept as Clank of venturing deeper for greater rewards but at a much higher risk of not making it back to the surface.  Of course, being an Oink game, it strips away everything else that Clank offers except for that core concept.  Yet after thoroughly enjoying other all-time greats from publisher Oink including Insider, Startups, A Fake Artist Goes to New York, and Durian, I just didn’t feel that Deep Sea Adventure reached the same heights of memorable, engaging fun. 

SURGE:

Picking up some Classics: Agricola, Bohnanza, Keyflower

Meanwhile, I’ve acquired a few new-to-me classics thanks to some irresistible deals.  Agricola is one such game that we finally got around to playing after spending a few months on our shelf in shrink-wrap.  As expected, this is a rock-solid Euro.  It certainly contains less rules than designer Uwe Rosenberg’s A Feast for Odin, but it’s also a less forgiving game.  It’s such a tight game of meager earnings that my wife found it to be more stressful than enjoyable, so hopefully I’ll find someone else to continue to play it with.  For me, the thing that puts Agricola above the thousands of other worker placement games that have been published since is the meaningful variety of the cards and impactful tightness of the board.

Speaking of Uwe classics, I also picked up a copy of Bohnanza that has yet to hit our table.  It’s a simple negotiation game with wacky beans that I have a vague memory of playing and enjoying one time several years ago.  Unfortunately, our intended plays of family-weight games has been a little bit backed up for the past year between anti-social COVID protocols and moving around for work.

And while we’re on the topic of classic games, the much-loved Keyflower landed a spot in my collection at last.  It took a wide breadth of critical acclaim and a gut-purchase Deal of the Day to get me to do it, but I’m excited to see what this unique worker placement game has to offer.

PURGE:

Saying goodbye to old friends: Dice Throne, Dragon Castle, Aerion

I can offer some comfort to my wife, Camille, in the fact that in the past few months I’ve sold and traded away more games than I’ve acquired.  So we’ll bookend this post with a final batch of purged games, specifically some old friends that we’ve enjoyed over the past several years.  Aerion was the first primarily solo board game that I ever purchased, and it was fun to see how a simple, challenging puzzle can hit the spot when I’m in the mood to sit at my kitchen table alone.  This is a solid dice game of managing probabilities and mitigating risks to assemble your flying machines before resources are depleted.  I didn’t quite explore all of the expansions and variants in this box, but I never had a bad session of Aerion.  With Under Falling Skies recently entering the fray, I simply found Aerion to be the less interesting of the two and an unnecessary possession for how infrequently I play solo games.

Dragon Castle hit our collection back when we were surfing the wave of abstract drafting games including Azul and Sagrada.  While its a solid offering in its own right, complete with chunky Mahjong tiles and an attractive presentation,  it is another game that never made it past our initial plays over two years ago.  The only reason it’s survived in our collection until now is because I wanted to give it one last play to be sure I was ok with dumping it.  But when I have an entire two years to make that happen and my reluctance keeps me from spending even one more hour with it, I finally had to accept that it doesn’t belong on my shelf.  Ultimately, Azul is the best of the bunch, so I’m ok with discarding the rest.

I’ve spoken much about Dice Throne recently after colliding with the recent expansion, Dice Throne Adventures.  In some ways, Adventures was perhaps a spoiler for the entire Dice Throne series for me.  Yet it was also one of the few Kickstarter campaigns I lost my hype for between pledging and receiving the rewards due to my changing tastes.  Revisiting the system’s latest offerings merely confirmed my fears that Dice Throne was no longer for me.  But that’s ok! 

The good news is that board games typically keep a great resell value, and when one doesn’t satisfy, there’s always another one around the corner ready to entertain its participants.  I’m happy to see my departing games find a new home and excited to see what adventures await in my recent acquisitions.

What games are you purging from or surging into your collection? Share with us in the comments below!

Article written by Nick Murray. And speaking of adding new games to one’s collection, 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 Purge & Surge: Games Recently Leaving or Entering My Collection, and Why appeared first on Bitewing Games.

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.

Not much of a reader? You’re in luck! This post also exists in podcast form shown below. Happy listening!

It’s about time to kiss (or more appropriately, kick) 2020 goodbye! As we hopefully look forward to a new year of long-awaited returns to normalcy, what better way to get hyped than to peek behind the curtains and get a glimpse of the most exciting board games to come!

I’ve cooked up quite the list with a variety of promising titles that might just deserve a spot on your wishlist. Several of these games were also explored in my Kickstarter Case Study: How to Win Backers and Fund Projects. Let’s see what’s on the 2021 menu…

Oath: Chronicles of Empire and Exile – Q2/Q3 2021

We might as well start off with my most anticipated game of 2021. Cole Wehrle’s magnum opus is right around the corner. With the publishing passion of Leder Games, the artistic flex of Kyle Ferrin, and the design chops of one of the industry’s hottest designers, we’ve got a recipe for success in Oath. Along the lines of Root and Pax Pamir, Oath is a highly strategic, cutthroat, and political game that best suits a group of regular players.

This title innovates upon legacy and campaign designs by taking the results of one game and integrating them into the objectives and setup of the next. Nothing is scripted or predetermined, rather the game organically follows a meta narrative controlled entirely by the decisions of the players. The ripple effect of players’ actions will be felt by all for games to come, and they can even keep record of this fascinating history in the Chronicle Session Journal (included in the kickstarter copies or likely to be available directly from Leder Games).

Kemet: Blood and Sand – Summer 2021

The area-control darling, Kemet, has been an established favorite for nearly a decade now. In 2021, Matagot will be releasing version 2.0 with a completely revamped presentation, improved rules, and new gameplay. Matagot’s legendary dudes-on-a-map trilogy has proven its worth to me with the incredible card-drafting Inis and solid auction-style Cyclades; Kemet is the remaining classic that I have yet to try, and Blood and Sand appears to be worth the wait.

Hibachi – Fall 2021

Hibachi flew a bit under the radar when it recently launched on Kickstarter, but it appears to be firing on all cylinders as a family-friendly set collection dexterity game. The design is a reimplementation of 2010’s Safranito that retains the core fun it presented.

Players toss poker chips onto a large board in an attempt to center the poker chip’s hole over ingredients and bonuses that will help the fill orders. The catch is that your poker chips are also used as a sort of blind auction for drafting order and other privileges. The value of your chips will stay face-down as you toss them onto the board, so a combination of skillful tosses and wise chip selections will ensure that you come out on top when the chips are flipped and the ingredients are claimed.

Grail Games promises that the leftovers from this Kickstarter will go to retail (or you can late pledge here), so keep your eyes peeled come Fall 2021 if you’re hungry to jump in on this fun feast.

Coffee Traders – May 2021

Capstone Games has gone all out with their debut of Coffee Traders. This heavy economic Euro from the makers of Wildcatters boasts over 650 deluxified, colorful components including wooden donkeys and plastic coffee beans! More importantly, the design promises a meaty, interactive competition within the sprawling coffee industry of the 1970s.

While we’re likely to see a more affordable, standard version of the game down the road, it’s hard not to get behind such an ambitious, beautiful project spearheaded by a highly capable publisher. If you can’t get enough sprawling Euros in your life, then this one is a no-brainer for any group of 3-5 players.

Whale Riders – Spring 2021

Dr. Knizia is on another hot streak spanning back to 2017 with the likes of Quest for El Dorado, Babylonia, My City, and more. Whale Riders brings us another team up of old faithful designer Knizia, ever stalwart artist Vincent Dutrait, and the consistently solid publisher Grail Games.

In this economic race, players must decide how to spend their 2 actions each turn as they ride whales along the arctic coast. You can sail ahead to claim the greatest treasures for yourself, but you’ll be missing out on golden opportunities along the way.

Next year, if you find yourself in need of a simple strategy game with enough subtle tension to satisfy everyone at the table, then you’d be hard pressed to bet against Reiner Knizia.

Undaunted: Reinforcements – August 2021

For fans of the Undaunted series, Reinforcements is the modular expansion you never knew you always wanted. This title will include new scenarios, units, and rules to keep the fun rolling. Compatible with both Undaunted games, this expansion even provides 4-player and solo modes for owners of either version. While the details are still sparse, this series already earned its right to the title of Undaunted when it initially debuted among the top board games of 2019. Undaunted will go down as one of my all time favorite deck builders thanks to its elegant flow and painful decisions. I’m thrilled to have more reasons to dive back into this excellent system.

Anno 1800 – Q1 2021 (English Version)

While the game setup isn’t exactly easy on the eyes, Anno 1800 doesn’t need to look amazing when it boasts the design talent of Martin Wallace, creator of Brass: Birmingham and Age of Steam.

Anno 1800 is based on the popular PC game from Ubisoft, but I’m more interested in what Mr. Wallace has done to create a city building tech-tree game. The German version is already on the market, and early buzz around this medium-weight Euro is positive.

Switch & Signal – 2021 (English Version)

Speaking of German games that have yet to make it overseas, Switch & Signal is a cooperative train game from one of the designers of Undaunted: Normandy. This game is as simple and accessible as Pandemic, yet thankfully it is not another Pandemic clone. Switch & Signal sees players guiding trains across a map of Europe or North America to deliver cargo to its destination before time runs out. Each turn involves deciding how to spend your cards to move trains, adjust signals, and switch tracks to keep engines along the most efficient paths possible.

There’s no official date for when this game hits North America, but we can safely assume that Kosmos is planning to localize and release it sometime next year, as it debuted in Germany just a few months ago.

Don’t Get Got: Shut Up & Sit Down Special Edition – Apr 2021

Don’t Get Got is a clever party game that has been around since 2018. It received high praise from popular critic site Shut Up & Sit Down in their highly entertaining review. Thereafter, Big Potato Games reached out to the funny folks at SU&SD and pitched a collaboration for a special edition which successfully funded on Kickstarter this year.

Don’t Get Got is a meta-game that can be sneakily tucked into the background of a game night, group party, or work environment. Each player receives a small wallet with unique objectives that typically require harmless but ridiculous tasks. These tasks span from “Get a player to compliment your hair” to “Make up a word and get a player to ask what it means.” The catch is that if players suspect foul play, they can call you out on your odd behavior and cause you to fail that mission. The first player to complete three missions wins the game.

I’m hoping to receive this game while I’m still at my General Practice Residency program with 7 other dental residents, where the setting is ripe for getting got!

Ra (New Versions)- 2021

Ra, one of all-time greats of the auctioning genre, has been criminally out of print for years. It’s a game that perfectly mixes agonizing auctioning with precarious push-your-luck mechanisms. 2021 is the year where that changes. Dice Tree Games is a South Korean publisher known for its deluxe productions of Knizia classics including Modern Art and Winner’s Circle, and they have a version of Ra ready to release seemingly any day (the game is listed as a 2020 planned release).

25th Century Games, best known for its Splendor-like 2017 release, Space Explorers, is a US-based publisher planning to release an English version of Ra in Summer 2021 as well. Details are sparse, but this release will be one to keep an eye on for anyone looking to jump into this masterclass design. I reached out to Chad (25th Century Games) and learned that he’s aiming to “create the nicest quality and visual art version of the game to date.”

It sounds like a fantastic way for new fans to jump in or old fans to update their copy. Although for those who already own a copy (Alea, Rio Grande, or Uberplay versions in particular), Board Game Geek will be offering delectable Geek Up bits in the spring! All hail the year of Ra!

Tutankhamun – Jan 2021

Speaking of 25th Century Games, they’ll be releasing another Knizia design that has been refreshed and revitalized in Tutankhamun. Players travel down the Nile and collect artifacts in a race to 30 points. The rules are easy enough for any friends or family, simply move your boat downstream and collect the tile you stop on. The key is to have majority in artifact types and lunge for the special power tiles when the timing is right to end up on top.

Dead Reckoning – May 2021

Dead Reckoning is nothing short of ambitious. This mega-project from AEG and John D. Clair (Space Base, Mystic Vale) takes their card crafting concept to the next level. Transparent cards will be combined, flipped, and rotated within sleeves to create a deck-building experience that sends players on a 4X (eXplore, eXpand, eXtort, eXterminate) journey through piratism.

It also features a wildly creative combat system where cubes are dropped onto a battleship that sends them cascading across a battle board, giving a cannonball-like effect that determines the result of the attack by where the cubes land on the board.

This game has so many mechanisms and pieces crammed into it that I’ve opted to leave it on my radar and wait to strike if the reviews come in overwhelmingly positive. It won’t be simple or cheap, but it promises quite the epic adventure.

Kabuto Sumo – June 2021

BoardGameTables.com is back at it with another novel design and gorgeous production. Kabuto Sumo is inspired by coin-pushing arcade games and real-life rhinoceros beetle wrestling. That’s pretty stinking awesome if you ask me.

Players will be shifting the push platform around the sumo ring to line up their move of pushing a piece into the ring in hopes of shoving opponent beetles off. This combination of physics, tactics, and dexterity promise to be a breath of fresh air for any game night. The world can never have too many refreshing dexterity games, and Kabuto Sumo is teed up to be the next one.

So, You’ve Been Eaten – 2021?

That’s right, the game is titled So, You’ve Been Eaten. With a name like that, it has to be good!…. Right?…

After initially rearing its head and riding high on the hotness wave of BGG, news on this title seemingly vanished… like it had been eaten. But more recent updates indicate that they’ve been quietly cramming even more tasty content into the game as they prepare for a Kickstarter launch.

The game claims that it is for 0-2 players. You read that correctly, zero players. A bold miner takes on a massive beast by burrowing into its intestines for crystals as the beast’s immune system fights back. Players can take on the role of either the miner or the beast… or neither?… in a 1v1, 1vGame, or GamevGame showdown.

Bristol 1350 – April 2021

The Dark Cities games have always taken the bones of a classic social deduction game and dressed them in various thematic mechanisms. From witch trials to pirate mutinies to wild west bank robberies to now escaping the Black Plague.

I’ve already played Bristol 1350 plenty of times leading up to my written preview of the design. The timing of this plague-themed game is uncannily coincidental, but the design has been a blast ever since I first tried it two years ago. I’m looking forward to experiencing the full vision that Facade Games had in mind for this quick, engaging gem of a deduction game.

John Company (Second Edition) – 2021?

Wehrlegig Games, the publisher of Pax Pamir (Second Edition), is cooking up their next project in John Company (Second Edition). Designer Cole Werhle’s most recent update reveals that the design has received a complete overhaul to help streamline the rules, focus on the game’s strengths, evoke the period art, and presumably deluxify the production. This heavy political economic romp is sure to be a strategically engaging and historically informative exploration of the British East India Company.

Railroad Ink Challenge – Q1 2021

One of our household’s favorite roll & writes makes an explosive return with Railroad Ink Challenge. The Shining Yellow and Lush Green editions promise player interaction, special structures, and new dice to help keep the puzzle fresh and interesting for series veterans. The development team has also cooked up a cornucopia of extras from an Epic game board to loads of expansion dice.

Iberian Gauge – Summer 2021

Like the previous two games in Capstone’s Iron Rail series, Iberian Gauge already exists among many other cube rails options. These cube rails games possess a common thread of stock investment, railroad expansion, and shared incentives. The key differentiator with the Iron Rail series is that publisher Capstone handpicks a solid design from the many options, gives it the Ian O’Toole makeover, and brings it to the masses. These slim, gorgeous boxes contain a single sheet of rules but pack a huge punch in roughly 1-hour of fun.

Sleeping Gods – Q1 2021

Sleeping Gods was on our most anticipated games of 2020 list, and it’s back again for another round of hype! The good news is that this cooperative exploration adventure is right around the corner, with fulfillment planned to begin in January. Players will be chipping away at this epic adventure a little bit at a time, and they can save their progress and pack it back into the box at any time. I spoke more about how Red Raven convinced me to back their project in my Kickstarter Case Study: How to Win Backers and Crowdfund Projects.

The Crew: Mission Deep Sea – March 2021

Ooo baby, designer Thomas Sing is dipping back into the well in an effort to satiate my unquenchable thirst for more of his brilliant cooperative trick taking. All we know thus far is that we’re going from space to sea, but hopefully Mr. Sing still has a few more tricks up his sleeve to mix up the formula. Either way, I’m all in on this sequel to one of the greatest cards games of all time.

Publishers To Watch

That’s right, we’re not done quite yet! Many publishers like to play their cards close to the chest, meaning that there are surely more hype-worthy games waiting to be announced and planned to be released direct-to-retail than the 19 we’ve already covered. We’ll point you toward a handful of publishers that have been on hot streaks recently and show no signs of cooling down.

• Capstone Games: At the time of this writing, I’ve had the chance to try ten of Capstone’s releases of 2018-2020, and they have all been killer games. 2021 releases will include Coffee Traders, Iberian Gauge, Pipeline Emerging Markets (expansion), and more.

• Leder Games: Most famously known for the deceptively charming and deeply asymmetric war-game Root, Leder Games is banking on their next mega-hit being Oath. But with Oath development wrapping up, they’ve shared that their next big project will be another Root expansion featuring militant factions of a Rat warlord and Badgers (expect a Kickstarter in Q1)! Patrick Leder is also working on his own spin on Twilight Imperium known as Void Lich. And who knows, maybe we’ll get a Fort expansion as well…

• Boardgametables.com: I’ve found that the best approach to take with Boardgametables.com’s publications is to expect the unexpected. They’ve brought us a band touring roll & write, an unchained auctioning game, a thinky pirate treasure deduction game, a trio of pretty fillers, and soon a coin-pushing style dexterity game. Whatever they cook up next, it’s sure to be unique and well-produced.

• Eagle-Gryphon Games: With recent killer deluxe versions of Rococo and Age of Steam, heavy hitters like On Mars, on upcoming refreshes such as For Sale Autorama, Eagle-Grypon games is not a publisher to be dismissed.

• WizKids: WizKids has been bringing their A-game recently with the incredible Sidereal Confluence: Remastered Edition, spicy Tournament at Avalon, and juicy Super Skill Pinball 4-Cade, all from 2020 alone. I’m hoping they have just as good of a lineup for 2021.

• Grail Games: This Australian publisher has earned a spot on my radar because of their ability to dig up and dust off the underdog games of yesteryear. Thanks to them, I’ve been able to discover and enjoy Knizia classics including Stephenson’s Rocket and Medici, and I’m excited to try Yellow and Yangtze and Whale Riders. Outside of Hibachi, they have many more exciting plans in the works for 2021 and beyond, including a Yellow and Yangtze expansion, an updated version of cult fan-favorite Fjords, and a two-player climbing card game known as ChuHan from the designer of Race for the Galaxy.

• Osprey Games: This publisher is based in Great-Britain and has drummed up at least 1 killer title every year for the past few years. Those games include Cryptid, the Undaunted series, The King is Dead (Second Edition), and more. They certainly deserve our attention for whatever else they have in mind for 2021 besides Undaunted: Reinforcements.

Designers to Watch

We’ll top this post off with a list of designers that, much like the above mentioned publishers, are on hot streaks of their own. Whenever I catch wind of a new release coming from one of these creative folks, my ears always perk up:

• David Thompson: I’ve talked plenty about David’s upcoming Undaunted Reinforcements and Switch & Signal, and that merely scratches the surface of David’s designs that are hitting the market in 2021. Others include War Chest: Siege (an expansion to Undaunted-like abstract game, War Chest), Soldiers in Postmen’s Uniforms (a WWII inspired solitaire game), Sniper Elite: The Board Game (a hidden moment design based on the video game series of the same name), and Dire Alliance: Horror (a cooperative/competitive tactical deck builder). And those are just the ones we know of. Needless to say, he’s certainly one to keep on the radar.

• Paolo Mori: We’re big fans of Ethnos, a family-weight area majority game that was #8 in my most recent top 50 games of all time list. We’ve also been digging 2019’s Blitzkrieg, a 2-player tug of war game that made a fantastic 1st impression and still holds up after several more plays. There’s no telling what Paolo will do next, but odds are it will be amazing.

• Alexander Pfister: This is the legend who brought us the excellent Great Western Trail, Isle of Skye, Maracaibo, and much more. His latest release, CloudAge, should probably be among the list of games up above seeing how the North American shipment appears to be delayed into the new year (thanks for nothing, Covid!). Regardless, the man is a machine who continues to impress with his designs. I expect to see another big one from him in 2021.

• Wolfgang Warsch: From The Mind to Quacks of Quedlinburg, from Wavelength to That’s Pretty Clever, you know him, you love him, he’s Wolfgang Warsch! After seemingly bursting onto the scene in 2018, Wolfgang has been on a design rampage ever since. Hopefully he hasn’t run out of steam for 2021. You can do it, Wolfgang!

• Kramer & Kiesling: Like Peanut Butter and Jelly, Wolfgang Kramer and Michael Kiesling have been tearing it up together for years with classics such as Tikal or Mexica and more recent releases including our Holiday Board Game Gift recommendation, Renature. Not that they actually need each other, as Mr. Kiesling is the genius behind Azul and Heaven & Ale while Mr. Kramer is mastermind behind El Grande and Downforce. Indeed, these gentlemen should already be on your 2021 watchlist.

• Cole Wehrle: I started this entire post out with Cole’s upcoming design, Oath, and quickly followed it up with his returning hit, John Company (Second Edition), so you already know where I stand here. He’s both a lead designer/developer at Leder Games and he runs Wehrlegig Games with his brother, so anything coming from either company is going to have his fingerprints on it. Why do I appreciate his handiwork so much? Aside from him owning two spots in my top 10 games of all time, I’ve found Cole to be more interested in creating immersive experiences than tossing out gimmicky, shallow designs. He’s churning out arguably the most fascinating designs in the industry with the help of many talented colleagues. Keep it coming, Cole!

• Ryan Courtney: Ryan is the newest published designer among those on this list. In fact, his first game, Pipeline, was categorized as a Lover in my recent revisit of the best games of 2019. His other design, Curious Cargo, continues to impress as well. The man takes “thinky” to the next level, and I’m there for whatever he cooks up next.

• Uwe Rosenberg: It’s breeding!… It’s polyominoes!… That’s right, it’s Uwe Rosenberg. Uwe is one of the all time greats in the industry, and his most recent hits, including New York Zoo and Nova Luna, prove that he’s still got it. He’s always a safe bet when heading into a new year of releases.

• Reiner Knizia: Alongside Cole Wehrle, Reiner Knizia is my absolute favorite board game designer. I own and love more games from Dr. Knizia than any other designer (15 and counting)! He’s best known for his decades old evergreens including Tigris & Euphrates, Lost Cities, and Ra, but he’s been on another hot streak with recent bangers including Babylonia, My City, and Quest for El Dorado. This man is the Willy Wonka of board games, with over 600 titles to his name. Of course they’re not all going to be amazing at that kind of output, but the sheer number golden designs that have come from this one mind is staggering. I’ll take three more decades of Knizia releases, please and thank you.

Hungry for more board game hype? Then continue on to PART TWO of my Most Anticipated Board Games of 2021!

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 Most Anticipated Board Games of 2021 appeared first on Bitewing Games.

What do critics think of the roll & write game, Railroad Ink? Dive into The Metagame: Railroad Ink Review Roundup for a one stop summary!

Critic Reviews

Note: The numerical ratings below represent individual critics’ opinions based on the BGG rating scale.

Quintin Smith: 9

Shut Up and Sit Down: Recommends

There’s no mid-review turnaround here waiting to pull into station. Railroad Ink is just great. It’s pretty, it’s accessible, it’s got some depth, it’s delightful, it’s moreish… it’s just a wonderful little box!

Shut Up and Sit Down

Richard Ham (Rahdo): 8.306

“Everything that one would enjoy about roll & writes is here.”

Rahdo Runs Through

JonGetsGames: 8

Dan King (The Game Boy Geek): 7.5

The Game Boy Geek: Saxophone Serenade

Zee Garcia: 7

Dice Tower: Seal of Approval

“By roll & write standards, this has quite a bit going on in it. So I do enjoy it. It is, production-wise, lovely, and, gameplay-wise, really deceptively interesting and engaging.”

Zee Garcia

No Pun Included

“I think it’s clear that I like Railroad Ink very, very much, but this is where I have to come clean… If you don’t have Welcome To and Ganz Schon Clever, you should get those first simply because they are better games.”

No Pun Included

Players

• 1-6 Players (1-12 when combining editions)
• Great At: All player counts
• Best At: 2 players. Real life competition with minimal down time. 

Complexity

• Age 8+
• Family Rating: A
• Non-Gamer Friendly Rating: A+

Play Time

• Play Time: 20-30 Minutes
• Setup + Tear Down: 1 Minute
• Teaching Time: <5 Minutes

Nick’s Railroad Ink Review

I’ve thoroughly enjoyed every time I’ve played Railroad Ink. I think having multiple editions to the game hurt its ranking and prominence on BGG (as most people probably only own and rank one of them), but maybe it was a great decision for sales, who knows.

Railroad Ink plays fast enough and different enough to grant multiple plays in a row. The theme of route building fits the roll & write mechanism perfectly. The included expansions are a fun way to mix things up between each session. It works great with any player count, although you may have to wait a little longer sometimes if you play with slow players.

We enjoy the expansion differences between the Blue and the Red, but most people won’t need to own both to be content. If you don’t enjoy roll & writes, Railroad Ink isn’t going to change your mind. That said, Railroad Ink is currently our favorite roll & write in the Murray household and earns a spot in my Top 50 Games! 

Pros:

• Juicy, puzzly, thematic roll & write fun
• Quick and easy to break out and play
• Gorgeous production and art
• Interesting replayability with included expansions

Cons:

• Above average potential for AP (analysis paralysis) compared to other roll & writes
• Must buy each edition to get all the expansions or to play with more than 6, but on the other hand, it costs less if you only care to own one edition
• Some may not like the more random, chaotic nature of the meteor expansion (in the Red Edition)
• Zero player interaction, but that’s par for the course in roll & write world. Note: there will be more player interaction in the upcoming versions.

Verdict

The post The Metagame: Railroad Ink Review Roundup appeared first on Bitewing Games.

We all have our own preferences for how to have a good time.  Some prefer to savor the peaceful moments of serenity, while others hunger for the rowdy and wild.  For many, our appetite consists of a wide spectrum that allows room for variety and mood.

Hobby gamers likewise have their own individual palates for tabletop games.  The more games they sample, the further their taste buds develop. With enough exposure, one can begin to recognize a pattern between their experiences.  The bitter taste of a dud becomes repulsively discernible, and the sweet familiar aroma of a hit can reach the nostrils of hype before a cardboard box even hits the table.

After basking in many blasts and enduring some busts myself, I’ve begun to identify what exactly makes one game sing and another game flop for me.  The most recent board game taste I’ve acquired, or perhaps more fittingly discovered, is that of objective tension.

Spicy – Tension of Objectives

I love when a game provides a framework that allows for spicy tension.  This framework can take many forms…

• The end-game elimination of the highest overall bidder in Q.E.
• The suspense of needing to remove your opponent’s disc from the board while strategically placing your own in Crokinole
• The round-ending emergence of the third dragon card from the draw pile of Ethnos
• The game-ending placement of a player’s sixth star in Scythe
• The anticipation of drawing the perfect tile in Carcassonne
• The pressure of earning more points in your weakest category of Tigris & Euphrates.

To me, games that completely lack tension feel less like games and more like activities.  There’s nothing wrong with gathering a group of friends for a tension-free activity, as such things can foster creativity, strengthen relationships, and make memories… but none of those things are unique to gaming.  Indeed, the thing that sets a game apart from most other activities is the tension.

Now on the surface, it may seem like a game requires player interaction in order to have tension.  How can the rope be taut if there is no tug of war? Well, it’s funny, because I didn’t notice my preference for tension until I recognized it in one of the most solitaire genres of all: the Roll & Write.

I discovered my need for tension after trying Cartographers and coming away underwhelmed from the experience.  This is a solid game that has received plenty of positive buzz from many gamers that I usually agree with. We’ve thoroughly enjoyed trying the most popular roll & write style games from Railroad Ink to Welcome To, from That’s Pretty Clever to On Tour.  Cartographers appeared to have all the right ingredients plus even more: some player interaction, variable scoring objectives, variable setup, etc. Coming into the game, I figured these unique elements would make it stand out among other great games in the genre, but my hopes were dashed after giving it a go.

What do Railroad Ink, Welcome To, That’s Pretty Clever, and On Tour all have that Cartographers doesn’t?  I believe the answer is: TENSION.

Railroad Ink, Welcome To, and On Tour all have the tension of pushing your luck, adapting your strategy, and straining for the “just one more” of objectives or bonuses.  This tension is palpable thanks to the balance between obvious risks and tempting benefits. That’s Pretty Clever has the tension of selecting one die for yourself while giving up other dice to your opponents, of deciding when to save or spend your abilities, of being enticed to do everything.

Cartographers somehow lacks this similar tension. It trades tension for a continual stream of points across a too wide canvas of options and possibilities.  Where players quickly understand what to predict, what to bet on, and what to desperately hope for in the above mentioned games, Cartographers was too random and unknown for us to really take risks or bask in payoffs.  I don’t mean to put down a clearly well-made game. But, I’m always interested in defining and discovering the reasons why a game does or doesn’t work for me. Ask me about any of my top 50 games, and I’ll describe to you the fiery tension it provides.  I might also be able to tell you about memorable wins and salty losses with family members or friends, especially if the game is highly interactive.

Click on to explore the next episode of Tabletop Tastes: Salty Player Interaction

Looking for more tension-filled games? Check out one of these:

• Cooperative Tension: Mysterium, The Mind, Hanabi
• Bluffing Tension: Skull, Tortuga 1667, Treasure Island
• Dexterity Tension: KLASK, Junk Art, Men at Work
• Quick-Thinking Tension: Trophies, Magic Maze, Insider
• Strategic Tension: Brass: Birmingham, Viticulture, El Grande
• Conflict Tension: Inis, Root, Pax Pamir (Second Edition)
• Deduction Tension: Love Letter, Cryptid, Deception: Murder in Hong Kong
• Racing Tension: The Quest for El Dorado, Downforce, Clank!
• 2-player Tension: Jaipur, Combo Fighter, Onitama
• Push Your Luck Tension: Ra, King of Tokyo, The Quacks of Quedlinburg

Tell us about your tabletop tastes!

What are your favorite tension-filled games? Do you like the spicy heat that tension can provide, or do you prefer a cool, chill experience? Comment below!

The post Tabletop Tastes #1: Spicy Tension 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!

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