My entire game collection - Rated, ranked, and with comments
**MOSHIN' JOSH** [Here to have fun!]
Canada
Cambridge
Ontario
"Sometimes game rulebooks are meant to be used as a guide - not chiseled into stone tablets as scripture. If using a specific rule makes a game more fun for you, then it is not only your right - but it is your duty to change it." --Rob Bell
“My opinion is that a game has its own life when published, and is really alive when players want to add their own house rules!” --Bruno Cathala
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All right, I'm taking matters into my own hands - if BGG won't allow me to separate expansions from the total number of games in my collection, I'm just going to have to do it myself. The GeekList format will allow me to combine the expansions in the same entry as the base game and, as games and expansions come and go from my collection, I can simply add or delete entries in this list to keep a running tally. Additionally, it will allow me to individually rank each game in my collection that shares the same rating.
And the timing is right. I recently spent several hours going through and updating all my game ratings and comments. Also, I don't expect much fluctuation in my game collection to happen for a while. My wife and I have focused our financial energies on paying off debts and saving for a down-payment on our first home, so there will be no new game purchases for the next several months. (Fortunately, I'm quite content with the great collection of games that we currently have.) Between that and being out of shelf space, I'm going to have to rely on trades to get my hands on new (or old) games that I really want (and on that note, I will mark any games in my collection that are available for trade - though you'll have to look close to the end of the list to find them - and will seriously consider any offer for an item that is currently on my Wishlist, so don't hesitate to send me a PM!).
A quick note regarding my personal rating system: I assign a "Game design" rating out of 5 (which attempts to objectively encapsulate everything from the physical components to the way in which the game mechanics work together), and a "Personal enjoyment" rating out of 5 (which is a purely subjective measurement of how much, or how little, I enjoy the game), to get my total out of 10. Thus, a game that has only an average fun factor but is very well designed (eg. Jamaica, Keythedral, Shear Panic) can get a high rating. Similarly, a game which is a ton of fun but suffers some design flaws (eg. Betrayal at House on the Hill, Cosmic Encounter Avalon Hill edition, A Lover's Touch) might not get as high a rating as I would like to give it.
The games on this list will be organized in the following manner:
1) By overall rating out of 10 (more specifically, the rating I give the game when it is played with all expansions that I currently own)
2) Where more than one game has the same rating out of 10, by the "Personal enjoyment" rating (although this will mean that the "party games" will tend to float to the top...)
3) Where more than one game has the same rating out of 10 and the same "Personal enjoyment" rating, by personal ranking preference (THIS is the hard part!)
These are only the game that I currently own. If anyone is curious to see the other 70-or-so game that I've rated and commented on, feel free to check out my game ratings (for example, my very favouritest game of all time for 4-6 players is currently not in my collection - mainly because it hasn't been released yet!). I toyed with the idea of creating a separate GeekList for the games I've rated but don't own, but after spending many, many hours creating this list over the past 2 days (thanks to being stuck at home due to illness), the very thought of doing it again is enough to send me into a panic attack.
So this list is mainly for my own benefit (and I expect I'll keep it regularly updated), but if anyone else finds it interesting, so much the better!
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**MOSHIN' JOSH** [Here to have fun!]
Canada
Cambridge
Ontario
"Sometimes game rulebooks are meant to be used as a guide - not chiseled into stone tablets as scripture. If using a specific rule makes a game more fun for you, then it is not only your right - but it is your duty to change it." --Rob Bell
“My opinion is that a game has its own life when published, and is really alive when players want to add their own house rules!” --Bruno Cathala
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Rating: 8/10
Personal enjoyment: 4/5
Game design: 4/5
This is a "first-impressions" rating based on a 2-player game, but I won't knock the game too badly for being seriously sub-optimal with just 2 (and I suspect even 3) players. Rather, I'm going to rate the game while pretending I've played with 4 players, which I'm guessing would be by far the best experience. So anyhow, there are few things more exciting amongst board game mechanisms than exploration and technological enhancement, and this game is all about those 2 things (as well as the far less exciting "money management"). With exploration being a pivotal part of the game, the luck factor seems like it could be fairly heavy, so it remains to be seen whether or not this will become frustrating. The components are great (although the figures are rather tiny) and the game is a beauty to behold when it's up and running. (The only thing I've replaced is the paper money with poker chips.) This is clearly not a "sit down and whip through a game of Nautilus" sort of game, but sometime when I've got at least a couple of hours free and exactly 3 more friends with me, I'm very much looking forward to playing this game again!
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27.
Board Game: Hive
[Average Rating:7.37 Overall Rank:115]
**MOSHIN' JOSH** [Here to have fun!]
Canada
Cambridge
Ontario
"Sometimes game rulebooks are meant to be used as a guide - not chiseled into stone tablets as scripture. If using a specific rule makes a game more fun for you, then it is not only your right - but it is your duty to change it." --Rob Bell
“My opinion is that a game has its own life when published, and is really alive when players want to add their own house rules!” --Bruno Cathala
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Rating: 8/10
Personal enjoyment: 3.5/5
Game design: 4.5/5
Wife's rating: 5.5/10
Whether it's fair or not, I'm going to compare this game to Hey, That's My Fish! (henceforth referred to as HtmF), because my main reason for picking up Hive was the truly shocking degree of fun I've had with HtmF. And while I was impressed with the game of Hive over-all, it didn't quite hit the same sweet spot as HtmF (and it's not just because I have an extreme aversion to insects in general!). That's not to say it isn't a fun game and doesn't have a lot going for it (such as it's portability and indestructability), because it is and it does. In fact, one thing that I loved about it was the fact that my wife (who is generally less strategically-minded than myself) cleaned my clock the first few times we played this. I do love a challenge, and I also love a simple, strategic, lovely-looking game, which is exactly what Hive is. And best of all, you can play this game on a table at a pub without worrying about the slimy, spilled beer stickiness ruining the components.
Expansion: Hive: The Mosquito
Disclaimer: In no way do I endorse mosquitoes, or blood-sucking activity of any kind. In fact, I normally have an intense loathing for the little buggers, mainly because they love me so much (my theory as to why they seem to prefer me over other people has something to do with the same reason that, when I go out for an evening, I prefer drinks containing alcohol over non-alcoholic drinks - I reckon a mosquito is likely to get a better "buzz" off my blood). Having said all that, however, this is one mosquito (or two, rather) that I am glad to have. The mosquito adds an interesting new element to the game of Hive, but it is a very small element that alters the base game very little. It's somewhat over-priced for only 2 new pieces and the game is just as good without it, but for those "completeists" out there, you won't go wrong with this "sucker".
Expansion: Hive: The Ladybug
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**MOSHIN' JOSH** [Here to have fun!]
Canada
Cambridge
Ontario
"Sometimes game rulebooks are meant to be used as a guide - not chiseled into stone tablets as scripture. If using a specific rule makes a game more fun for you, then it is not only your right - but it is your duty to change it." --Rob Bell
“My opinion is that a game has its own life when published, and is really alive when players want to add their own house rules!” --Bruno Cathala
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Rating: 8/10
Personal enjoyment: 3.5/5
Game design: 4.5/5
I don't know who this Mr. Rhodan fellow is, but this is a great little game! It's portable, easy to learn, plays quickly, and has just the right mix of luck and strategy for a light, quick-playing game. And who doesn't love that good ol' "pick up and deliver" mechanism? It also appears to be quite well balanced, since in our first game I was poised to win but rolled poorly, which left the door open for my wife to win the game by a single point/Megagalex. The components are mostly decent, although the sun/scoring track is poorly done and I've taken the time to create a new sun/reference card and a scoring card, both of which are available in the files section. This is a perfect game for a gaming couple with an 11-month old in the house (ie. my wife and I). EDIT: I've increased the rating after further plays have revealed just what a tight, clever, and downright FUN design this is!
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**MOSHIN' JOSH** [Here to have fun!]
Canada
Cambridge
Ontario
"Sometimes game rulebooks are meant to be used as a guide - not chiseled into stone tablets as scripture. If using a specific rule makes a game more fun for you, then it is not only your right - but it is your duty to change it." --Rob Bell
“My opinion is that a game has its own life when published, and is really alive when players want to add their own house rules!” --Bruno Cathala
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Rating: 8/10
Personal enjoyment: 3.5/5
Game design: 4.5/5
So few rules, so easy to learn, so few physical components, yet what a completely unique and fun game! It's brilliant, in the way in which it utilizes the box and the magnets to create the playing surface! It's a super-fun filler, and one which I wouldn't hesitate to bring out with non-gamers. They way they did the "all vs. one" mechanic is really cool too, and it scales well with 2-4 players (although it's most fun with more than 2). If Fury of Dracula was the bigger, fatter, yet tattooed and unquestionably cooler brother of Galopp Royal, Pyramid is Galopp Royal's pretty, peppy little sister. She's a fun one to spend a bit of time with!
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**MOSHIN' JOSH** [Here to have fun!]
Canada
Cambridge
Ontario
"Sometimes game rulebooks are meant to be used as a guide - not chiseled into stone tablets as scripture. If using a specific rule makes a game more fun for you, then it is not only your right - but it is your duty to change it." --Rob Bell
“My opinion is that a game has its own life when published, and is really alive when players want to add their own house rules!” --Bruno Cathala
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Rating: 7.5/10
Personal enjoyment: 4/5
Game design: 3.5/5
So far, this game has been teasing me, since I've only been able to play it with 4 players. I can sense the great amount of fun that is to be had in this simple and quick-playing game, but it really needs a minimum of 5 players to be at all interesting. And yet this isn't too bad, considering Shadow Hunters is often described as the board game version of The Werewolves of Miller's Hollow, which clearly needs about twice that number of players to begin to get interesting. This game also suffers from ugly artwork (according to my very subjective tastes), and, according to at least one very experienced player of this game, it requires some tweaks to be balanced (which tweaks can fortunately be found in the "variants" forums). But most importantly, this game seems to succeed marvelously at being a quick and dirty "experience" game, where you're never quite sure who to trust (unless you're playing with fewer than 5 players...). [Edit: Yes, it is much better with 5!!]
Expansion: Shadow Hunters Expansion Kit
I haven't yet had a chance to try the expansion characters, so I don't know if the over-all rating for this game will rise at all, or if it will simply provide a bit more variability in play.
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**MOSHIN' JOSH** [Here to have fun!]
Canada
Cambridge
Ontario
"Sometimes game rulebooks are meant to be used as a guide - not chiseled into stone tablets as scripture. If using a specific rule makes a game more fun for you, then it is not only your right - but it is your duty to change it." --Rob Bell
“My opinion is that a game has its own life when published, and is really alive when players want to add their own house rules!” --Bruno Cathala
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Rating: 7.5/10
Personal enjoyment: 4/5
Game design: 3.5/5
Man, what a blast from the past! When I stumbled upon a complete copy of this game in a thrift shop, it instantly sparked memories of playing the old-school version in my childhood and I knew I had to get it. And when I finally had a chance to play it with one of my brothers, it was a riot! The newer, more "miniatures-like" rules are rather hit and miss, with the concept being cool but the measurement aspect being a little fiddly. I feel like a couple of house rules are in order, but it's a fun game nonetheless. It's perhaps a little graphically grotesque for its target market (eg. the chief Orc holding a knight's head), but the components (especially the weapons!) are top notch. I just have to find another copy at a thrift shop so that I can have more bricks to build bigger castles. And I need to pull out one of those catapults next time we play Torres...
Expansion: Weapons & Warriors: Castle Siege Game
My wish came true - I found this at a thrift shop and now have a whole lot more components to add to the game! Okay, I realize that this is a different, stand-alone game and not an expansion, however my plan is to create a rules set that combines these two games into an epic game of castle destruction.
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**MOSHIN' JOSH** [Here to have fun!]
Canada
Cambridge
Ontario
"Sometimes game rulebooks are meant to be used as a guide - not chiseled into stone tablets as scripture. If using a specific rule makes a game more fun for you, then it is not only your right - but it is your duty to change it." --Rob Bell
“My opinion is that a game has its own life when published, and is really alive when players want to add their own house rules!” --Bruno Cathala
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Rating: 7.5/10
Personal enjoyment: 3.5/5
Game design: 4/5
A perfect racing game would simulate the physics and hazards of racing with a very simple rule set, would have a bit of a "push your luck" element where racing on the edge would come with greater risks, would not have any "runaway leader" issues but would allow players to interfere with/block each other, would have a variety of tracks to race upon, and would have fast and fun game play. "Formula De Mini" has a very clever "gear dice" mechanism and does a great job of simulating damage and the risks of going too fast in a simple manner, but contains too much counting of spaces, has not enough variability in track options and too few meaningful decisions, and drags on a bit long. "Um Reifenbreit" does an amazing job with recreating a bicycle race with simple rules and has a small variety of race routes to choose from, but it too has few interesting decisions since it relies mainly on dice rolls, and to get the most out of the game requires a lap around the full board with 4 players, which can drag on a little long. "Fast Flowing Forest Fellers" (FFFF), however, while it does have a fair bit of the "luck of the draw" with card play and no real "push your luck" element (other than taking chances with positioning near currents), but it has more player interaction than most race games I've experienced, it has a HUGE variety of river configurations that can be created (which creates high replayability), and, most importantly for a race game, it plays fast and fun while providing players with enough meaningful decisions to keep things interesting. It is wonderfully easy to learn, and doesn't overstay it's welcome (and if it does, you can only blame yourself for creating such a long, difficult course!). I'll see how the rating holds up over time, but it leaves a very good first impression.
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**MOSHIN' JOSH** [Here to have fun!]
Canada
Cambridge
Ontario
"Sometimes game rulebooks are meant to be used as a guide - not chiseled into stone tablets as scripture. If using a specific rule makes a game more fun for you, then it is not only your right - but it is your duty to change it." --Rob Bell
“My opinion is that a game has its own life when published, and is really alive when players want to add their own house rules!” --Bruno Cathala
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Rating: 7.5/10
Personal enjoyment: 3.5/5
Game design: 4/5
I'm not going to yak on too long here - this is a fun game that combines simultaneous action selection with route planning with pick-up-and-deliver with area control mechanisms (do those little sherpas ever rest? - get it - "Everest") to construct a well-functioning Frankengame. The components are lovely too, especially the wee Caravan Chiefs and the Envoys. If it has any flaws (and what game doesn't?) it's that the game really needs exactly 4 players to work well, those stupid Stupas are too small and don't stand out enough on the board, and in order to create the optimal play experience, the game itself requires some rules alterations... http://www.boardgamegeek.com/filepage/72396/squashs-himalaya... ...based upon the base game's advanced rules, the optional rules from the expansion, the excellent variant rules from BGG user Isamoor, and my own little variant tweaks. All in all, though, this one's a keeper.
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**MOSHIN' JOSH** [Here to have fun!]
Canada
Cambridge
Ontario
"Sometimes game rulebooks are meant to be used as a guide - not chiseled into stone tablets as scripture. If using a specific rule makes a game more fun for you, then it is not only your right - but it is your duty to change it." --Rob Bell
“My opinion is that a game has its own life when published, and is really alive when players want to add their own house rules!” --Bruno Cathala
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Rating: 7.5/10
Personal enjoyment: 3.5/5
Game design: 4/5
Sliders they may be, but sorry I am not - I will send your pawns flying without mercy! In a nutshell, this is a remarkably simple yet surprisingly fun dexterity game that can be enjoyed by adults and kids alike. In fact, it seems like it could simultaneously fill the role of dexterity game, party game, and filler game. For your pawn-sliding fix, it is one billionth the cost of a nice Crokinole board (roughly) and takes one millionth the time to set up in comparison to a PitchCar track (roughly). It would have been nice if they had thrown in a few more variations of the cardboard score boards, but there is still a decent variety of ways to play the game. I can't think of anything else to add that might e helpful. Sorry.
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**MOSHIN' JOSH** [Here to have fun!]
Canada
Cambridge
Ontario
"Sometimes game rulebooks are meant to be used as a guide - not chiseled into stone tablets as scripture. If using a specific rule makes a game more fun for you, then it is not only your right - but it is your duty to change it." --Rob Bell
“My opinion is that a game has its own life when published, and is really alive when players want to add their own house rules!” --Bruno Cathala
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Rating: 7.5/10
Personal enjoyment: 3.5/5
Game design: 4/5
Wife's rating: 2/10
This is a very fun game to play using a set of poker dice. It maintains the tension and bluffing aspects of a poker game, without having to worry about any betting, dealing of cards, or extremely long play time. Anybody who is familiar with the basic poker hands can have fun with this one.
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**MOSHIN' JOSH** [Here to have fun!]
Canada
Cambridge
Ontario
"Sometimes game rulebooks are meant to be used as a guide - not chiseled into stone tablets as scripture. If using a specific rule makes a game more fun for you, then it is not only your right - but it is your duty to change it." --Rob Bell
“My opinion is that a game has its own life when published, and is really alive when players want to add their own house rules!” --Bruno Cathala
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Rating: 7.5/10
Personal enjoyment: 3.5/5
Game design: 4/5
Wife's rating: 7/10
It's no wonder those floors are so fearsome, what with those blood slicks and body parts that sully them! Other than the decidedly fearsome aspect of this game, it is definitely a light and fun experience. Best of all, it can be played with up to 7 players (how many games can claim this distinction?), although it gets a little too chaotic with more players. It's a fairly light game, although not really short enough to be considered a "filler". The fun part is trying to work out how to draw the monster just the right way!
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**MOSHIN' JOSH** [Here to have fun!]
Canada
Cambridge
Ontario
"Sometimes game rulebooks are meant to be used as a guide - not chiseled into stone tablets as scripture. If using a specific rule makes a game more fun for you, then it is not only your right - but it is your duty to change it." --Rob Bell
“My opinion is that a game has its own life when published, and is really alive when players want to add their own house rules!” --Bruno Cathala
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Rating: [b]7.5/10
Personal enjoyment: 3.5/5
Game design: 4/5
Like Balderdash and other party games before it, this officially published game came from a popular "unofficial" game. And they've done a real good job with it! Everything from the booklets to the "dry erase" markers is very well produced and makes the game easy to play. My only real complaint is that I wish they had thrown small phrases into the mix, instead of just one- and two-word items. Otherwise, it's a fun and funny party game that can be enjoyed by any age from older children and up. There's nothing really original about the officially published version (except perhaps the scoring systems), but that's fine because the original game didn't need to be improved upon.
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**MOSHIN' JOSH** [Here to have fun!]
Canada
Cambridge
Ontario
"Sometimes game rulebooks are meant to be used as a guide - not chiseled into stone tablets as scripture. If using a specific rule makes a game more fun for you, then it is not only your right - but it is your duty to change it." --Rob Bell
“My opinion is that a game has its own life when published, and is really alive when players want to add their own house rules!” --Bruno Cathala
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Rating: 7/10
Personal enjoyment: 3.5/5
Game design: 3.5/5
Wife's rating: 9.5/10
This is essentially the same game as Time's Up! (which I rated 6/10), except the design is slightly better because it has the hilarious "posing" fourth round and apparently none of the repetitions of the same cards that filled the original game's box, and it's slightly more fun due to the fact that it makes much more sense to try to act out titles of movies, books, and songs rather than a bunch of obscure names. This is the game they should have made the first time around!
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**MOSHIN' JOSH** [Here to have fun!]
Canada
Cambridge
Ontario
"Sometimes game rulebooks are meant to be used as a guide - not chiseled into stone tablets as scripture. If using a specific rule makes a game more fun for you, then it is not only your right - but it is your duty to change it." --Rob Bell
“My opinion is that a game has its own life when published, and is really alive when players want to add their own house rules!” --Bruno Cathala
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Rating: 7/10
Personal enjoyment: 3/5
Game design: 4/5
I don't like The Settlers of Catan (although truth be told, I've never met them). I especially don't like playing Settlers with only 2 players. I'm also not a particular fan of most card games. So imagine my surprise when I discovered what a great little game this is, which is particularly pleasing since Settlers has always been one of my wife's favourite games. In a nutshell, it is a very clever implementation of Settlers in a small, portable, 2-player, card game format. The other cool thing is that there are several different "scenarios" that can be played. We've only tried the basic game so far and it felt just a little limiting in terms of the buildings that can be built, but it has us intrigued enough that we're looking forward to trying the others. I can imagine that the game will be at its most interesting when all of the scenario cards are mixed together. But for now, we're enjoying it, and I'm pleasantly surprised! Even the card artwork is quite good.
Expansion: The Rivals for Catan: Age of Darkness
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**MOSHIN' JOSH** [Here to have fun!]
Canada
Cambridge
Ontario
"Sometimes game rulebooks are meant to be used as a guide - not chiseled into stone tablets as scripture. If using a specific rule makes a game more fun for you, then it is not only your right - but it is your duty to change it." --Rob Bell
“My opinion is that a game has its own life when published, and is really alive when players want to add their own house rules!” --Bruno Cathala
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Rating: 7/10
Personal enjoyment: 3/5
Game design: 4/5
Wife's rating: 10/10
This is our first fantasy adventure game, and it has quickly become my wife's second favourite game, just behind her long-time favourite, The Settlers of Catan. And I kind of enjoy it too, despite it's high degree of randomness in the dice rolls, the discovery of the encounters, and the drawing of tiles from the bag; and its rather excessive game length for such a repetitive game. In a game like this, the randomness merely adds to the sense of adventure and excitement (and occasionally the frustration), as well as the re-play factor. It is a beautiful game, even if the artwork on many of the tiles is rather strange and slightly grotesque. It is also a game which has a lot of possibilities for variations and the possibility even for creating your own events, items, creatures, and quests. To be honest, we've never played this game without either the Under the Shadow of the Dragon expansion (I'm glad we had THAT rule book!), or the Die Rückkehr der Helden: Die Gralssuche expansion (the one that finally pushed this game from a 6 to a 7), however I suspect that playing the base game would be almost as fun, and would certainly shave off some of the rather lengthy playing time (which is possibly the biggest downfall of this game in my opinion). There just isn't quite enough variety of things happening to keep me interested for 4 or 5 hours in a 4-player game. However, I've gone to a LOT of work to create a playable variant that incorporates both the expansions that we own... http://www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/402460 ...and I am now much more satisfied with the game.
Expansion: Under the Shadow of the Dragon
This expansion makes the world of Return of the Heroes even more interesting by adding several different types of terrain that add various challenges to travelers, as well as adding a whole new victory condition in the form of the dragon. Of course a whole lot of smaller items and a few more characters are added too, which all adds to the variety of the adventures. I've never played without this expansion even though it seems to create a tediously long play time, because the extra elements it contributes seem to outweigh that negative aspect. Of course, if you're really concerned about play time, this expansion can also apparently be played as a stand-alone 2-player game. ---Since we play it strictly as an expansion, I have not made it a separate entry in this GeekList.---
Expansion: Die Rückkehr der Helden: Die Gralssuche
I like this version of Return of the Heroes (RotH), and find it a little more interesting than the "beat up the big baddie" winning condition of the base game. Sure, there aren't nearly as many interesting things to discover and work through as you find in the base game with the Under the Shadow of the Dragon (UtSotD) expansion, and the German language thing is a bit of a hurdle, but it is a quicker game (a HUGE plus: RotH + UtSotD = a game that drags on far too long) and you actually get to bring some companions with you on your quest (although I feel that more could have been done with those). The search for the Grail aspect is very well implemented, and I like the fact that if you fail to find it, you're not right out of the game (you were simply looking in the wrong spot!). I do miss the board elements from UtSotD, and I think I'll work on a variant that incorporates those and some extra tiles (although by doing so I'm sure I'll increase the game length again!). And does anyone else think that the new female thief character is downright hot? (Okay, that is now officially the geekiest thing I have ever said...)
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**MOSHIN' JOSH** [Here to have fun!]
Canada
Cambridge
Ontario
"Sometimes game rulebooks are meant to be used as a guide - not chiseled into stone tablets as scripture. If using a specific rule makes a game more fun for you, then it is not only your right - but it is your duty to change it." --Rob Bell
“My opinion is that a game has its own life when published, and is really alive when players want to add their own house rules!” --Bruno Cathala
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Rating: 7/10
Personal enjoyment: 3/5
Game design: 4/5
Don't let my rating of 6.5 throw you off - this game fills its niche perfectly. It's a dice game that actually has some strategy (which isn't to say that luck isn't still a big factor), that can be enjoyed by casual gamers who enjoy throwing the bones, and which is almost fast-playing enough to act as a filler for a group of more "serious" gamers. In fact, just last night (editorial note: it might not be "last night" by the time you're reading this) we played Dice Town with a couple of fairly hardcore gamers and they immediately requested to play it again. What it is not: a Liar's Dice variant. Don't let the poker dice fool you - this game has very little in common with Liar's Dice. The game components are mostly excellent, with a few very annoying exceptions. There really needs to be more General Store cards (and a larger variety of cards would be nice too), since players just end up cycling through the same small pile, and the text at the top of those cards, indicating when the cards can be played, is so tiny that I thought I was going to have to run upstairs to get my reading glasses. Also, I think I'll replace those little dollar bills with poker chips. As for the game balance, we've had some very wide ranges of scores in the games we've played and I think that some strategies might be fairly weak. For example, focusing on collecting gold is apparently a recipe for getting your ass kicked... But overall, it's a fun game (if someone doesn't roll five 10s to beat the four aces that you thought was a shoe-in for best hand) that is easily accessible to a wide range of players.
Expansion: Dice Town: The Indians
We tried "The Indians" expansion last night. One player took the Indian die early in the game, and no one else thought it would be worthwhile to attempt to take it from her. I was going to say that this die seemed to have a minimal impact on the game play, but now that I'm thinking about it, it has occurred to me that the player who had it won the game by a single point. Interesting - did she win as a result of clever game play, or did that die give her just the edge she needed, or both? Since this expansion doesn't add much to the game I'm going to rate it the same as the base game, but it's a fun little addition and I'm very glad to own it.
Expansion: Dice Town Extension
This is one serious expansion! With a second option available at each location, it adds a lot to the game in the form of some tough decisions for the winner of each location. I particularly enjoy the edition of the outlaws - nice touch! My only complaint is that they could have included more cards. We ran out of the river cards and had to reshuffle the deck, and we also ran out of the outlaw cards on the last turn of the game. The Indian die is another fun little element, although I had already previously obtained that mini expansion. And based on a single play with 4 players, the expansion seems to be very well balanced, since 3 of the 4 players finished within about 5 points of each other, with the 4th trailing way behind. Overall, it's a well thought out expansion that can be added to the game or left out, depending on the currently desired play experience.
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**MOSHIN' JOSH** [Here to have fun!]
Canada
Cambridge
Ontario
"Sometimes game rulebooks are meant to be used as a guide - not chiseled into stone tablets as scripture. If using a specific rule makes a game more fun for you, then it is not only your right - but it is your duty to change it." --Rob Bell
“My opinion is that a game has its own life when published, and is really alive when players want to add their own house rules!” --Bruno Cathala
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Rating: 7/10
Personal enjoyment: 3/5
Game design: 4/5
After my wife and I unintentionally killed Carc - http://www.boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/27391/guilty-of-meeple... - we attempted to resuscitate it with Carcassonne: The City. I enjoyed it, but it didn't rekindle the Carc spark for my wife. However, this edition has proven to be a hit, and I find it to be the best iteration of Carc yet. It adds a couple of elements borrowed from some of the original expansions, it adds the interesting element of surrounding the temples, it adds the important feature of the Ark to balance unlucky tile draws, and it does all of this in a simple, quick-playing package. However, it has finally occurred to me after all these years that Carc is simply lacking in meaningful decisions since most tiles have very few optimal positions in which to lay them. And if players use a 2- or 3-tile hand variant, the analysis paralysis could kick in, leading once again to excessively long games. But overall, I'm quite happy to own this version of the game.
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**MOSHIN' JOSH** [Here to have fun!]
Canada
Cambridge
Ontario
"Sometimes game rulebooks are meant to be used as a guide - not chiseled into stone tablets as scripture. If using a specific rule makes a game more fun for you, then it is not only your right - but it is your duty to change it." --Rob Bell
“My opinion is that a game has its own life when published, and is really alive when players want to add their own house rules!” --Bruno Cathala
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Rating: 6.5/10
Personal enjoyment: 3/5
Game design: 3.5/5
Wife's rating: 7.5/10
Man, how can you have 300 stunningly beautiful mythological miniatures and not have a large, lovely board for them to run around on, or even a decent combat system for them to fight with? Having been a bit of an Age of Empires addict on the PC in the past, I was certainly expecting something different from this game. But once I was able to set aside my expectations, I realized there was a pretty decent and intricately complex game in there. It is a marvelously designed game which is very nearly ruined by a combat system that just plain sucks (which becomes even more clear when you see the number of battle variants that are in the forums for this game, including my own: http://www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/312322), and which adds far, FAR too much time to the game length (to the point where, in one 4-player game, I was just wishing it would be over already, even though I ended up winning the game). I don't often get angry when playing games, but there is something truly infuriating about successfully out-guessing your opponent in unit selection, having overwhelming odds in your favour, and not being able to roll a single bloody six! The simplest fix you can do for this game is say that die rolls of 5 or 6 count as a hit. But stay tuned, because I've got a HUGE variant in the works that will take all those lovely little plastic creatures and gives them a hidden world/map to explore. Now if only I had any computer graphic design skills at all...
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**MOSHIN' JOSH** [Here to have fun!]
Canada
Cambridge
Ontario
"Sometimes game rulebooks are meant to be used as a guide - not chiseled into stone tablets as scripture. If using a specific rule makes a game more fun for you, then it is not only your right - but it is your duty to change it." --Rob Bell
“My opinion is that a game has its own life when published, and is really alive when players want to add their own house rules!” --Bruno Cathala
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Rating: 6.5/10
Personal enjoyment: 3/5
Game design: 3.5/5
Wife's rating: 9/10
Perhaps it's the Dutch blood in me, or my love for all things Anabaptist, but I tend to agree with the assessment on the front of the box, that it is "A vonderful goot game". This is definitely my kind of card game - fast, furious, and marginally violent (surprising considering its popularity with the Mennonites - although the fact remains that I have seen blood drawn while playing this game, especially when opponents don't keep their fingernails neatly trimmed, or trim them to a nice jagged point). It is one that requires speed, lightning reflexes, concentration, and the ability to watch several things at once. Therefore, it is not recommended if you're tired at the end of a long day and looking for a nice, relaxing game with which to unwind. And while it can be played with 2-4 players (or more if you have more decks), the optimal number is definitely 4.
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**MOSHIN' JOSH** [Here to have fun!]
Canada
Cambridge
Ontario
"Sometimes game rulebooks are meant to be used as a guide - not chiseled into stone tablets as scripture. If using a specific rule makes a game more fun for you, then it is not only your right - but it is your duty to change it." --Rob Bell
“My opinion is that a game has its own life when published, and is really alive when players want to add their own house rules!” --Bruno Cathala
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Rating: 6.5/10
Personal enjoyment: 3/5
Game design: 3.5/5
Wife's rating: 10/10
Here we have the Monopoly of the Modern Age of board games - roll the dice, possibly collect some resources, negotiate with the other players, perhaps build a house or two, and move along to the next player. [Edit: Not that any of those elements are at all bad,- I just mention them for the sake of comparison. And just to further spell out the obvious, the other aspect of the Monopoly reference is the massive and hugely important impact both games have had in kick-starting their respective eras of board gaming.] Indeed, I hesitate to speak negatively about a game that is of such importance to the world of board games, and that is indeed my wife's personal favourite board game. After all, it's probably not an exaggeration to state that Settlers was largely responsible for the rapid rise in popularity of German games, as well as for introducing, or at least re-introducing, many of us to the hobby of gaming. But that being said, I was never very impressed with the game. Sure, it has some fun elements of gathering resources and spending them to expand your settlements, but the fact that you are so much at the mercy of rolls of the dice really takes away the fun of it (unless you have the "Event Card" expansion, which actually isn't as good an alternative as you might think). Add to that the fact that a player can get blocked in right from the beginning of the game (I've played a few games where I sat and did very little all game, watching helplessly as other players expanded across the board), and you can end up with a pretty frustrating playing experience. (For proof that it is not the fact that I often do poorly at this game that influences my decision to give it a poor rating, see my review of Fury of Dracula, among others.) On its own, I rate Settlers a 5/10, but played with just the right combination of expansions, that rating rises to 6.5. Mind, you can save yourself the trouble and expense of purchasing all the expansions and just get The Settlers of the Stone Age, which in my mind is a much more fun stand-alone version. Or better yet, for a game that feels similar to Settlers but is much better (in my not-so-humble opinion) go with Keythedral.
Expansion: The Settlers of Catan: 5-6 Player Extension
It's hard to say whether adding more players, and therefore more competition, adds to the fun factor or the frustration factor of the base game. It isn't hard to say that adding more players increases the time required to reach the all-important game ending and move on to a more fun game. Although I suppose it's nice to have the option of being able to include more players, especially when playing some of the larger Seafarers scenarios. I haven't tried playing with the new rule of doing a build phase after each player's turn, but I reckon that using this rule would reduce a player's risk of getting caught with more than seven cards in hand, eliminate the down time between turns, and perhaps make the game go quicker and reduce the possibility of getting boxed in before your turn comes around... okay maybe I should try it. It just didn't seem like the way the game was meant to be played, perhaps because I'm used to the down time of the larger American games of conquest.
Expansion: Catan: Seafarers
This Settlers expansion increases the fun factor without adding more complexity. It does so in three ways: first, by including those rare but potentially valuable wild-card resources - the gold hexes, second, by adding the always exciting element of exploration (will that be a resource-producing land hex I turn up, or another blasted water hex?), and third, by including several scenarios which allow you to choose the type of game you want to play. Of course, there is also the option of creating your own scenarios. So while the luck factor is not diminished any, at least the game play feels a little more wide-open.
Expansion: Catan: Seafarers - 5-6 Player Extension
The Seafarers expansion lends itself well to adding more players due to the very large boards that can be created in some of the scenarios. So go nuts!
Expansion: Catan: Cities & Knights
When I first played this Settlers expansion and got my brain wrapped around some of the confusing new elements (okay, it's no Advanced Squad Leader, but compared to basic Settlers there's a lot more going on here), I was somewhat relieved to discover that the game had a little more depth in the form of several more options for game play. Mind you, for those players (such as myself) who aren't huge Settlers fans, it also adds considerably to the game length. Still, I can't think of any game that WOULDN'T be improved by adding knights and a barbarian horde (are you listening, Balloon Cup?).
Expansion: Catan: Cities & Knights - 5-6 Player Extension
What the heck, if you own Settlers with the Cities and Knights expansion, you might as well get this one too so that a couple more friends can get in on the game and drastically increase the game length.
Expansion: Catan: Event Cards
Really the only thing that this deck of cards has going for it (although it could be a negative, depending on your opinion about the role of dice in games) is the fact that it greatly reduces the potentially frustrating luck of the dice in Settlers. A couple of the special events are also interesting, although more than 1/3 of the cards don't have any special event whatsoever on them (I suppose you could make up your own if you really wanted to). So this is pretty much a take-it-or-leave-it expansion, depending on your personal opinion. For myself, playing with just the base game and the Event Cards would actually decrease my Settlers rating to 4.5/10.
Expansion: The Settlers of Catan: The Great River
The "Great" River doesn't really add much to, or take much away from, the original Settlers, but simply adds another option for a bit of variety. And for what ought to be a very simple expansion, it's brief rules description certainly creates some unnecessary confusion.
Expansion: The Settlers of Catan: The Fishermen of Catan
Unlike some of the other Settlers expansions, this is a fun little addition which doesn't add undo complexity or game length. Also, it helps to mitigate the luck factor ever so slightly for those who just aren't getting hold of the right resources. And as far as fun factor goes, it's more fun than actually fishing, that's for sure! Still, if I want to collect fish, I'd much rather play Hey, That's My Fish!!
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**MOSHIN' JOSH** [Here to have fun!]
Canada
Cambridge
Ontario
"Sometimes game rulebooks are meant to be used as a guide - not chiseled into stone tablets as scripture. If using a specific rule makes a game more fun for you, then it is not only your right - but it is your duty to change it." --Rob Bell
“My opinion is that a game has its own life when published, and is really alive when players want to add their own house rules!” --Bruno Cathala
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Rating: 6/10
Personal enjoyment: 3/5
Game design: 3/5
Wife's rating: 7/10
This is a game that, even more than most other games, requires a very specific group with whom to enjoy it. And most certainly to a greater degree than the vast majority of games, it is the people playing this game that make it or break it. I can see it appealing to a rather specific niche audience, with all others really having a strong dislike for it. (Have I just said the same thing 3 times in a row?) But for those who enjoy weaving a good yarn and improvising some tall tales, this is a great way to spend a little time with a group of two or more people. In fact, it is sometimes more fun to sit and listen to another player's story than to win the game yourself. My two chief complaints about this truly unique game are: I wish the base game had come with more cards, and I feel like they could have done a much better job with the illustrations on the cards.
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**MOSHIN' JOSH** [Here to have fun!]
Canada
Cambridge
Ontario
"Sometimes game rulebooks are meant to be used as a guide - not chiseled into stone tablets as scripture. If using a specific rule makes a game more fun for you, then it is not only your right - but it is your duty to change it." --Rob Bell
“My opinion is that a game has its own life when published, and is really alive when players want to add their own house rules!” --Bruno Cathala
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Rating: 6/10
Personal enjoyment: 2.5/5
Game design: 3.5/5
Wife's rating: 9/10
This is the version of Ticket to Ride that finally captured my interest enough that I could think about replaying it without worrying about becoming quickly bored. It returns to the simplicity of the original edition, while adding the new layer of the passengers. These little train riders add another form of tension and competition that elevates it slightly above just being a card-collecting game. All that being said though, I still much prefer that gorgeous-looking Railroad Tycoon (the game, that is, not the tycoon himself) for my train game fix.
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**MOSHIN' JOSH** [Here to have fun!]
Canada
Cambridge
Ontario
"Sometimes game rulebooks are meant to be used as a guide - not chiseled into stone tablets as scripture. If using a specific rule makes a game more fun for you, then it is not only your right - but it is your duty to change it." --Rob Bell
“My opinion is that a game has its own life when published, and is really alive when players want to add their own house rules!” --Bruno Cathala
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Rating: 6/10
Personal enjoyment: 2/5
Game design: 4/5
Wife's rating: 6/10
My favourite memory of this game was playing it at a pub in Australia with my girlfriend (now my wife) and my cousin. (Unfortunately my memory isn't good enough for me to recall whether the pub was in Sydney or Perth.) The cuteness factor (of both my wife and this game) is high - why roll dice when you can roll pigs? It even comes in its own very handy traveling case, making it easy to slip into your pocket and carry it to and from the pub (although to be honest, while I'm at the pub I'd much rather be playing billiards or darts, or even Hive, if possible). The game itself is your very basic push-your-luck style game, much like Diamant except it plays better than Diamant with fewer players.
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**MOSHIN' JOSH** [Here to have fun!]
Canada
Cambridge
Ontario
"Sometimes game rulebooks are meant to be used as a guide - not chiseled into stone tablets as scripture. If using a specific rule makes a game more fun for you, then it is not only your right - but it is your duty to change it." --Rob Bell
“My opinion is that a game has its own life when published, and is really alive when players want to add their own house rules!” --Bruno Cathala
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Rating: 4.5/10
Personal enjoyment: 2.5/5
Game design: 2/5
My wife is the Tetris fan, not me, so I wasn't expecting much from this game. But I ended up being pleasantly surprised despite my low overall rating - it's actually quite a fun little filler. The first read-through of the rules left me thinking that there wouldn't be any interesting decisions to make and the game would pretty much be played on autopilot, however each game tends to have a few surprisingly agonizing decisions to make. The rules also left me thinking that a RoboRally-style timer system, whereby the other players would have 30 seconds or so to place their pieces after the first player had done so, would be required in order to add some sort of excitement to the game. However, while I still think it would spice things up a bit, I no longer believe it would be necessary. One thing that IS strange about the rules is that the game tries a little too hard to BE Tetris, with rules stating rather unnecessarily that shapes must be slid down from the top of the board and cannot be slid sideways when moving them down. As for the game components, they are about as cheap and flimsy as can be, but on the positive side, the "mini" version is nice and portable and would be very easy to bring along to a pub or cafe. I do wish they had included more "special scoring" boards such as those that are available in BGG's "Files" section, since only 2 boards are included in the game and the basic board is rather boring after the first play. But all in all, it's a quick playing, slightly challenging game that I'm looking forward to playing with my wife at a coffee shop some day.
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50.
Board Game: Eclipse
[Average Rating:8.34 Overall Rank:6]
**MOSHIN' JOSH** [Here to have fun!]
Canada
Cambridge
Ontario
"Sometimes game rulebooks are meant to be used as a guide - not chiseled into stone tablets as scripture. If using a specific rule makes a game more fun for you, then it is not only your right - but it is your duty to change it." --Rob Bell
“My opinion is that a game has its own life when published, and is really alive when players want to add their own house rules!” --Bruno Cathala
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hamburg
New York
nice list Josh. Very thorough and informative.
Bourne
Lincolnshire
Good bloke, interesting games, great geeklist - you make BGG more fun that it'd otherwise be...
Thanks
Ps In a previous life on BGG I used to be Culverboy...
Cambridge
Ontario
Good bloke, interesting games, great geeklist - you make BGG more fun that it'd otherwise be...
Thanks
Ps In a previous life on BGG I used to be Culverboy...
Thanks so much for your very kind words, User Formerly Known As Culverboy!
Josh, your list suggests that you are really only familiar with the recent games (maybe the last 10-15 yrs?) the huge number of games, mostly now owned by Hasbro, but produced by the likes of Avalon Hill, SPI, GDW and Victory are just off your radar. I can't believe that this is lack of interest, given you include two HYW games. However you don't include Kingmaker, or any of the various games on Canadian history. Is it because you don't know about them or does the 'low quality, complex rules' mean you don't look?
Note: Chess is way over 500 yrs old, but it had variant rules. The standard rules originated in 19th cent London, but versions existed in India back to antiquity.
PS. Clue/Cluedo is far better than Monopoly.
PPS. Diplomacy isn't on this list??
Cambridge
Ontario
Josh, your list suggests that you are really only familiar with the recent games (maybe the last 10-15 yrs?) the huge number of games, mostly now owned by Hasbro, but produced by the likes of Avalon Hill, SPI, GDW and Victory are just off your radar. I can't believe that this is lack of interest, given you include two HYW games. However you don't include Kingmaker, or any of the various games on Canadian history. Is it because you don't know about them or does the 'low quality, complex rules' mean you don't look?
Hi Jon. I turn 34 years old in a month, and as I briefly described in my profile, I've been playing board games since I was a wee lad (having grown up with 3 younger brothers and no television). I have fond memories of playing games such as Ikusa, Escape from Colditz, and Kingmaker with my family. And my dad is an old grognard, and I can recall playing some of his old Avalon Hill war games, such as Flat Top and Waterloo (in simplified versions, I'm sure) with him.
As a direct result of my dad's influence, I am an avid reader of military history, particularly pertaining to (but not limited to) the Hundred Years War and the Second World War. Over the past few years I've tried to get into hex-and-counter war gaming. I started by purchasing Men of Iron, Volume I: The Rebirth of Infantry and then Warriors of God due to my interest in the Hundred Years War, but I ultimately traded both of them away after discovering that they really weren't my cup of tea. Having decided to give it one more shot, I finally struck gold with Conflict of Heroes: Storms of Steel! Kursk 1943. It is easy to learn in steps, the scenarios play quickly, and the components are gorgeous.
When it comes to board games, I generally prefer a fast and furious approach (with a few exceptions - War of the Ring, Conquest of the Empire, etc.) This is all the more true now that I have a 7-week old baby boy at home and what little gaming I still get in is done in short spurts. And I've already been thinking ahead half-a-dozen years to the type of simple, aesthetically-pleasing, high "toy factor" games that a young boy would enjoy, and realizing that I'm still just a young boy at heart!
But meanwhile, I can only envision adding a few more games per year to my collection, and hopefully I'll be selling or trading games faster than they come in so that I can trim it down somewhat.
That's an interesting note regarding the current standard rules!
True. I should probably give Clue a rating, since I've played it enough in years gone by. It is my fondness for Clue that prompted me to purchase Mystery of the Abbey, although I was ultimately disappointed with it and traded it away. I'm hoping to have better luck with the soon-to-be-released Mystery Express.
Nope - never played it. I'm not overly fond of games that have a high diplomacy factor since it can lead to endless arguments and deal making, and I'm guessing that Diplomacy has a high diplomacy factor.