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Top 5 Real Time Board Games!
Board games are relaxing. Board games are something to play on a chill rainy day, where you can really take your time and think out your moves. All of the above is true, however, there exists a genre of board games that blows all of that out of the water. Real time board games. As the name suggests, these are games where you are encouraged to be as quick as possible, usually because you’re up against a timer. What’s great about this genre of games is that it provides a sense of frantic urgency, much like you’d find in a video game, but without sacrificing the tactility and strategy that characterises the medium. So with that, here are five real time board games to get your adrenaline pumping! * 1) Magic Maze You are already likely to be familiar with this wildly popular real time game, but we would be remiss not to mention it! In Magic Maze, a group of adventurers have had their weapons stolen! Their only choice now is to ransack a local shopping mall and get out before time runs out! In this cooperative game, players can control all four of the heroes. However, they can only move each hero in one direction. Perhaps you’re in charge of moving the pawns up, but if you want them to go left, that’s all on another player. Oh, did I forget to mention? This game is played entirely in silence. If you want a player to do something, instead of talking, all you can do is take the large red “attention” pawn and place—or frustratedly bang—it in front of them until they get the message. And oh boy, when that pawn gets placed in front of you and you can’t figure out what your teammates want you to do or which pawn they want you to move? Instant stress! However, it’s a fun kind of stress and frenzy that is truly unique to Magic Maze. If you want a board game where you can silently yell at your friends, you have got to try Magic Maze. 2) We’re Doomed! If your group prefers more of a party game, the perfect real time board game for you is We’re Doomed. In this semi-cooperative game, the world is ending! In only 15 minutes, 4-10 players, acting as leaders of different governments, will have to build a rocket and get off this planet! To win, all you have to do is survive. Simple, right? Well… To build this rocket, players will have to contribute nondescript white tokens known simply as ‘resources’. However, depending on how many resources are contributed over the 15 minutes, your rocket might not...have enough seats. Because here we look at the other commodity in this game: influence. The more influence you have, the more important the world thinks you are and therefore you will be let onto the rocket first, taking up valuable seats. So this game is just contributing resources and gaining influence? Sounds boring. Good thing that’s not all this game has to offer. Those resources that you use to build the rocket? Yeah, instead of putting them towards the rocket in the common pool, you can instead save them up. If you accumulate enough, you can spend them to nuke another player. Just completely take them out of the game. It’s hilarious. We at Gameology played this at our staff Christmas party and it was a resounding hit, even with the few of us that don’t play board games. Our retail manager even got nuked in our last game but that’s a story for another blog post! To summarise, We’re Doomed comes highly recommended from not just me, but the whole Gameology team. 3) Captain Sonar Think of the classic board game, Battleship. Now, just imagine you have to actually, you know, run the ships. Or at least one of them. A submarine to be exact. Captain, Chief Mate, Engineer, Radio Operator—you need them all to keep your sub running and hunt the enemy sub. Maybe it’s not quite like Battleship, hm... In Captain Sonar, 4-8 players will split into two teams, each controlling one submarine. They will sit on opposite sides of the table and assume one of the four command roles. Perhaps you’re the Captain, deciding where your team’s submarine will move. Perhaps you’re the Radio Operator, listening into the other team’s Captain, trying to figure out where they are. Maybe you’re the Engineer, trying to keep the ship from sinking while preparing torpedoes for battle. Or maybe you’re the Chief Mate, charging the various gadgets in your submarine and deploying them as necessary. It’s like team cat-and-mouse, blending hidden movement with the tension and urgency you can only find in a real-time game. This game does have a rather demanding player count but if your gaming group is on the large side, Captain Sonar is ideal with a full eight players! However if this looks a bit too complicated, or you prefer a smaller player count, there is also a simpler 2-4 player version available called Sonar Family. 4) Galaxy Trucker From the designer of Codenames comes Galaxy Trucker, an underrated gem of a real-time game. In this strange space game, you are racing to build a spaceship from frantically scavenged components after which you will have to send them into space and cross your fingers that they survive the onslaught of galactic hazards. Basically, Galaxy Trucker is a real-time tile-laying game. During a round, all players will simultaneously start grabbing tiles from a face down sprawl in the middle of the table, flipping them over and deciding, as quickly as possible, where to put them in their spaceships—or whether they want them at all! You need engines for the ship to fly, but the engines need batteries, and what about cannons and cabins and cargo holds? And then, you move to phase two—actually flying the ship. Here is where you will use your engines and your cannons and your cargo holds to zoom through a series of randomised cards, blasting enemies, picking up goods, and making money. This game first released in 2007 and hence, it has that kind of retro feel to it. The art style might be appealing to some, but to others, it might appear outdated. However, if you’re looking for a real-time game that gives you a sense of progress and personal achievement, Galaxy Trucker with its mechanics of building and improving your own unique ships, scratches that itch nicely. 5) Pendulum From the publishers of board game heavyweights, Wingspan and Scythe (yeah, I bet you‘ve heard of those games before), comes Pendulum, the quietly underappreciated real-time worker placement game. Yes, you heard me right—worker placement. In Pendulum, players are nobles vying to be the next ruler. Much like any other worker placement, you must gain different resources, move up different victory tracks, and expand your provinces. Unlike many of the other games on this list, Pendulum is rich and complex, slightly heavier. The decisions you are making are much the same as a typical Euro game—but you have to make them in real time. In Pendulum, time is treated more like any other resource than something to race against. Like a resource, you must spend your time with care and thought. Yes, there is an element of quick thinking and frantic decisions, but far less than in the other games on this list. However, like Captain Sonar, Pendulum does come with a turn-based variant that is thorough and fleshed out. Some people actually prefer the turn-based variant over the real-time one, depending on what mood they’re in, and it’s wonderful that this game gives you that option, especially when you’re learning the game and the real-time seems a bit overwhelming. With Pendulum, you are getting both an innovative real-time Euro game and a beautiful traditional worker placement, all in one beautiful box. * Buying Guide In summary, if you’re looking for... Something frantic and cooperative? Magic Maze. A party game where you can nuke your friends? We’re Doomed. A team version of Battleship? Captain Sonar. A tile-laying game in space? Galaxy Trucker. A worker placement abstract game? Pendulum. And there we have it! Our top 5 real time board games! What do you think? Did we miss anything? Let us know in the comments below!
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Top 5 D&D Campaigns & Sourcebooks
So you’ve got all the D&D basics—Player’s Handbook, Essentials Kit, some dice and a miniature or two—but where do you go next? With the myriad of campaigns and sourcebooks available, which ones do you choose? In this blog, we will be covering our top 5 campaigns and sourcebooks for the legendary RPG, Dungeons & Dragons. 1) Eberron Rising from the Last War With a campaign and a setting all in one book, Eberron Rising from the Last War brings a lot to your RPG table. It offers all the info you need to run your own campaign in the steampunk-esque world of Eberron, complete with magic-fueled technology and maps. However, if you don’t want to make your own campaign, it also comes with a premade campaign. If you’re a player, there’s plenty of new content for you too, including the artificer class, 16 new race and subrace options and a new way to flesh out your characters called the group patron that provides a shared background for your whole party. Plus, just look at that alternate art cover! 2) Mordenkainen’s Tome of Foes If you love D&D, you probably already have the Monster Manual. If you’re getting tired of the same old monsters from the basic book, prepare to have your mind blown by Mordenkainen’s Tome of Foes. Adding 120 new monsters and their stat blocks, as well as a new playable race and 11 subraces, it offers value for players and DMs alike—in the same vein as Volo’s Guide to Monsters. With notes on the tricksy relationships between different races and factions in the D&D world, as well as more challenges for high level players, Mordenkainen’s Tome of Foes is a great sourcebook to expand your D&D games. 3) Tyranny of Dragons Tyranny of Dragons contains 2 campaigns in one book—Hoard of the Dragon Queen (meant for levels 1-7) and The Rise of Tiamat (meant for levels 8-15). Both of these were originally published separately but are now condensed into one glorious bindup. However, that’s not all this book has to offer. While some other campaigns require additional sourcebooks to run, Tyranny of Dragons requires only the basic rules, the book itself and a handful of free downloadable supplements. With its gorgeous limited edition alternate art cover, what’s not to love? 4) Tales from the Yawning Portal In my experiences playing D&D, I have rarely found the time and commitment for a full-length campaign. Life just gets in the way! If you’re like me and want to play some D&D but are strapped for time, Tales from the Yawning Portal is the book for you. Within this book are seven of the most popular dungeons from the long history of Dungeons and Dragons. With each dungeon able to be completed in just a handful of sessions, this is a great book to pick up if your group is short on time, or if you would like extra mini adventures to supplement another adventure! 5) Xanathar’s Guide to Everything Think of Xanathar’s Guide to Everything as an expansion to classic 5E D&D. Much like a board game expansion adds new mechanics and features, Xanathar’s offers up dozens of new ways to customise your characters and worlds. With over 25 new subclasses and racial feats, your characters can be more nuanced and unique than ever before. Even if you’re a DM, this book offers fresh inspiration on things to do within a campaign as well as a new variety of magic items and spells. And there we have it! If your D&D experience ever feels a little bland, pick up one of these books for fresh ideas and inspiration! Do you have any other campaigns or sourcebooks you would recommend? Let us know in the comments below!
Romantic Board Games for Valentine’s Day!
It’s that time of year once again—love is in the air, chocolates are on sale, and we express our endless appreciation of our partners, those patient and steadfast heroes in our everyday lives. Whether you are spending Valentine’s Day with your significant other or just hanging out with your friends, here are some of our top picks for romantic or love-inspired board games! * 1) Fog of Love Pitched as a rom-com as a board game, Fog of Love is a treat as sweet as a box of chocolates. In this 2-player blend of roleplay and strategy, players will be puzzling through the various stages of a budding relationship, hoping to fulfil secret Traits and Destinies that may or may not align with their partner. At the core of this game are the various meters you and your partner will be swaying from one side to another like a pendulum—Gentleness, Sensitivity, Sincerity, etc. Every turn, you will play scene cards, each one often presenting a choice that will sway these meters and your character’s personal happiness in different directions. Will your choices align with your partner’s? Do you want them to? There’s real opportunity to get into the roleplay of it all! When you pack up the game and leave the table, you won’t be leaving with merely a victory or defeat—you’ll be leaving with a story, a story of fireman Raoul and social media manager Gina, star-crossed lovers who fought at IKEA and never really recovered, or accountant Francine and clown Martina, destined to descend into heartbreak from the first glance. However, despite how beautiful and romantic it looks on the outside, this game is more fun to play with people you aren’t romantically involved with. Playing with a real-life partner, there is a chance that your real-life romance might interfere with the fictional one. With platonic friends, it might be easier to roleplay some ridiculous character and have a laugh. Note: There are lots of different box arts to choose from! The game within is all the same, it’s just the box that’s different. 2) Love Letter If you’re looking for a light simple game with a love-inspired theme, look no further than Love Letter. In this simple deduction game, players are attempting to deliver their love letter to the Princess via various people in the royal palace. Players begin the game with one card each, then, on their turn, draw one and then play one. They then use the ability of the card they played to attempt to deduce or eliminate other players. Perhaps you play the Guard, whose ability is to guess the card another player is holding. If you get it right, that player is eliminated from the round. When the deck runs out, check the number on each remaining player’s card. Whoever has the highest has successfully delivered their letter to the princess and receives one favor token. Rounds continue until someone has received enough favor tokens to win the princess’s heart! This gorgeous 2019 edition features revised and diverse artwork from the artist behind Citadels, screen printed tokens and enough cards to play with 6 players! Plus, it all tucks away into a little velvet bag, making it super easy to transport and store. Love Letter is not revolutionary. But at under $20, it is a light deduction game, perfect for a relaxing Valentine’s Day. 3) Marrying Mr. Darcy Perhaps you are planning to spend Valentine’s Day curled up on the couch with a Jane Austen novel or binging the new Netflix period drama, Bridgerton. Could I perhaps tempt you then with a Pride and Prejudice inspired card game? In Marrying Mr. Darcy, players will have to improve and upgrade their heroine to attract a suitor. Throughout the game, players will be drawing cards (aka attending Events) to increase their points in various traits--cunning, wit, beauty, and so on. At the end of the game, you will enter the Proposal phase and attempt to secure the most desirable match using the points you have accumulated throughout the game. Marrying Mr. Darcy is light and frivolous, much like the Regency-era society its fiction is based on. Similar to Fog of Love, you can find much fun in the roleplaying—pop on a British accent, whip out a lace fan, and have your Elizabeth Bennet marry Mr Bingley instead of Mr Darcy! Go nuts! With its lovely pastel artwork and marriage theme, this is the Valentine’s Day choice for a Jane Austen fan. 4) The Fox in the Forest Duet All of the board games I have mentioned so far are competitive. If you’re looking for a cooperative game to play with your partner this Valentine’s, take a look at The Fox in the Forest Duet. Though the original The Fox in the Forest is also 2-player, The Fox in the Forest Duet is unique because it is 2-player AND cooperative. If you have ever played a trick-taking game like bridge, this game will be as familiar to you as a warm cup of milk. Except for the fact that you don’t always want to win every trick. And you can’t discuss the cards in your hand. Herein lies the puzzle. In this game players must work together to move through the forest. If they can collect all twenty-two gems before they leave the forest, they win the game! The Fox in the Forest Duet is just as heartwarming as it looks. That feeling of satisfaction when you figure out what card your partner wants you to play is so very fulfilling, like in any cooperative board game. Plus, just look at that artwork. It looks like it’s straight out of a children’s fairytale book. If your partner is one to be apprehensive about fantasy or sci-fi themed games, The Fox in the Forest Duet should appeal to their tastes nicely. 5) Escape Room: The Game (2 Players) And here’s our wild card—Escape Room: The Game. Think about it: escape rooms are a great bonding experience. You have to work together and work quickly to solve problems and puzzles within a time limit. What better to help strengthen your relationship this Valentine’s Day? Each box contains an introductory game and two 60-minute games, each with a different theme. Here at Gameology, we sell two different boxes—one featuring a prison and an asylum, and the other with a house on the lake and a story about a little girl. If you own the 4 player version of this game, you can use the decoder from that, otherwise, you can download a free companion app to help you with these rooms. These games are praised for bringing the escape room experience to your table with such a small price point. Tactile, immersive and teamwork-focused, if you and your partner enjoy escape rooms or puzzles, these 2 player boxes are a great Valentine’s Day board game to pick up. * And there we have it! Our top picks for board games to play this Valentine’s! What do you think? Did we miss anything? Let us know in the comments below!
Our Most Anticipated Games of 2021!
Every year the catalog of board games grows and grows and 2021 looks to be a great year of new board games. Here are some of the most exciting new games coming to Gameology in 2021. 1) Frosthaven Gloomhaven: Jaws of the Lion wowed us last year with its easy entry into the Gloomhaven franchise. In 2021, Isaac Childres is bringing us Frosthaven, a new big box, 100-scenario campaign that stands alone from the original Gloomhaven. Adding more to do outside of combat, like mysteries and seasonal events, as well as a crafting system, Frosthaven promises a massive adventure for fans both new and old. 2) Creature Comforts This family weight worker placement game about adorable animals preparing their homes for winter swept Kickstarter in 2020. And for good reason. The sweet theme of building cosy items and the soft colourful artwork are absolutely gorgeous and the light complexity of the worker placement makes it suitable for all ages. Could Creature Comforts be a new gateway board game? We can’t wait to find out! 3) Canvas Another Kickstarter darling of 2020, Canvas places players as painters competing to win awards at an art show. What’s so exciting about this game are the transparent cards that, when layered over each other, form a unique painting! Around the same complexity as Century: Spice Road, we are hoping this will be another beautiful but strategic gateway game to introduce to our friends and family. 4) Philosophia: Floating World It’s no secret that I’m a fan of deck-builders. Philosophia: Floating World is not only a deck-builder, it is also a fully simultaneous sandbox game! Not only does the unique blend of genres have us excited, it’s also set in feudal Japan where you can build beautiful pagodas, fight ancient monsters, or even learn ancient wisdom. 5) Tainted Grail: The Fall of Avalon Though this is a game that was released a couple of years ago, we at Gameology will be receiving our Kickstarter editions, complete with all the stretch goals, in 2021, and we couldn’t be more hyped. Promising a branching narrative that pushes the limits of non-linear storytelling, meaningful character development, and secrets that can take multiple playthroughs to discover, Tainted Grail: The Fall of Avalon is a whole world in a big box and we can’t wait to dive into it. 6) Renature Beloved by Tom of Shut Up and Sit Down, Renature is a puzzly area majority game...but with dominoes! In Renature, players will place animal dominoes alongside a brook to replant the surrounding land. However, though simple on the surface, we are intrigued by the strategic decisions that arise when deciding where but also when to place each of your dominoes. 7) Welcome To 2nd Edition Welcome To, one of the best roll-and-write games to date (and one of our retail manager’s favourite board games) is getting a second edition in 2021! The original game is beloved for its quick playtime, flexible player count, and lo-fi roll-and-write gameplay and we are so glad to be bringing back this true classic. And there we have it! Our most anticipated board games of 2021! What board game are you most looking forward to in 2021? Anything we didn’t cover? Let us know in the comments below!
What to Play Next - Board Game Recommendations
If you’ve come into our Gameology retail store looking for recommendations, one of the first things our staff probably ask you is: “What other games do you like?” I’ve probably asked you (yes, you, reading this) that exact question! However, if you have never been to our retail store before, here’s a blog post full of board game recommendations based on what you already like! * If You Like...Catan You’ll Like...Bohnanza or Little Town If the trading and high level of player interaction is what you and your gaming group love about Catan, you’ll love the card game, Bohnanza. Your aim of the game is to plant large quantities of a specific bean variety (eg: chilli beans) and then harvest them to make the max amount of money. However, the trick of Bohnanza is that every turn, you are dealt two bean cards and, unless you can trade them away, you will be forced to plant them in your fields, harvesting your poor chilli beans before they had a chance to grow up. And here’s where the trading comes in. There’s shouting, undercutting, bribery--made all the more hilarious when you realise you’re arguing over derpy looking beans. If you love board games that, like Catan, get people looking not completely at the board but at their fellow players, Bohnanza will surely be a hit. However, if your love for Catan stems more from the resource generation aspects, you might find more luck with Little Town. This adorably small worker placement game places you as a team of builders and architects, tasked with collecting resources and money to build a town. Each turn, when you place a worker, you gain resources from all the surrounding spaces—similar to how Catan grants you resources depending on the tiles surrounding your settlements. With the resources you gain, you can create buildings. The interesting part is that both you and your opponents can utilise these buildings. Small and light but still strategic, Little Town melds the resource generation of Catan with worker placement, making it a perfect next step. If You Like…Ticket to Ride You’ll Like...Power Grid or Takenoko If you’re looking for a jump in complexity from the humble Ticket to Ride, look no further than Power Grid. In Power Grid, your goal is to supply power to cities—and do it better than your opponents. Will you power your city through free, but low-power green energy? Will you go all out and get uranium power plants? Or will you go the classic route with coal and oil? Each turn, you will bid on power plants for your company, buy the resources you need to run those power plants, and build out your network. There are a lot of more phases in a game of Power Grid than one of Ticket to Ride, but the reason I recommend this game is because you require the same kind of spatial mapping between cities, planning where you want to expand to next. The difference is in this game, you’re routing power, not trains. If you’re starting to get tired of Ticket to Ride and are willing to invest the time to grasp some new mechanics, Power Grid will be an extremely rewarding and strategic experience. Maybe Power Grid sounds like a bit too much right now, but you still want something offering fresh mechanics. Here, I will recommend Takenoko. At its core, Takenoko is a cute game about growing bamboo. Each turn, you will have a set amount of action points to spend on performing a variety of actions—be that irrigating a piece of land, growing a certain colour of bamboo, or even moving the panda to a plot of land and eating the bamboo! In Takenoko, what’s similar to Ticket to Ride are the goal cards you get throughout the game. Where in Ticket to Ride, your goal might be to connect London and Paris, here, your goal might be to have the panda eat four pieces of pink bamboo. Though this game has a different feel to Ticket to Ride, it offers a small jump in complexity while retaining a light-hearted theme that will appeal to kids. If You Like…Codenames You’ll Like...Concept or Mysterium Park Codenames is such a good board game because of how neutral it is. You can play it with people of all ages and it’s fit for all occasions and moods—whether that’s Christmas with the whole family or a simple weeknight. If you’re looking for a game similarly easy to get to the table, Concept is what I would recommend. Put simply, it is charades as a board game. Each turn, a team of two players choose a word from a secret card that the other players need to guess. Then, they start placing small cubes on the variety of icons on the board. Perhaps the word they need to guess is coffee. They might place a cube on the icon signifying food or drink and then another on the icon featuring the colour brown. Like Codenames, Concept has the same opportunities for clever clue-giving and subsequent fun discussions, bundled in a simple and inoffensive package, making it the perfect recommendation. If your group wants something a little more thematic though, your perfect next game is Mysterium Park—the newly released mini version of classic thematic co-op game, Mysterium. Where Mysterium can be tedious to set up and explain, Mysterium Park simplifies that with a setup quite similar to Codenames. In Mysterium Park, the fairground’s director has mysteriously disappeared. A ghost now haunts the park and a group of psychics are called in to help investigate its cryptic visions. Using only beautiful but strange illustrations (similar to those in Dixit), the ghost must communicate with the psychics and help them rule out potential suspects and locations, until they have narrowed it down to the true killer. Like both Codenames and Concept, Mysterium Park will have your group in deep discussion over cryptic clues. With its beautiful artwork and similar playstyle to Codenames, Mysterium Park is definitely one to put on the wishlist if you love Codenames. If You Like…Secret Hitler You’ll Like...Spyfall 2 or Human Punishment Social Deduction 2.0 For a social deduction game that’s a little lighter and shorter than Secret Hitler, try Spyfall 2. In Spyfall 2, a variety of location cards will be laid out in the centre of the table. A location will secretly be chosen and everyone will be dealt a card with that location on it and the job they have in this location. All except one person, whose card will simply read: “Spy”. This player will have no idea where everyone else is. Then the questions start. Players must ask each other any questions they can think of—from “What are we wearing today?” to “Why is the sky blue?”—trying to suss out who the spy is. Spyfall 2 is a brilliant next step from Secret Hitler because it encourages creativity and cunning in both the questions you ask and who you ask. There’s also a nice opportunity to roleplay your character—whether that’s a lion tamer at the zoo or a bouncer at the jazz club. Perhaps you want your social deduction more complex. For that, the perfect game for you is Human Punishment Social Deduction 2.0 (ignore its mouthful of a title). Rated 7.9 on BoardGameGeek at the time of writing, this is a social deduction game that goes beyond being a simple party game. It’s described as being more of a social experiment than a simple board game. Unlike many social deduction games where your role is fixed, in Human Punishment, your allegiances can change many times throughout the game. However, instead of there simply being a binary of good guys and bad guys, Human Punishment features Humans, Machines, Outlaws, the Legion and the Fallen, all of which have interactions and alliances far more complex than simply “I don’t like them, they should die”. A rich and tense experience, Human Punishment is the game to get if you want more from Secret Hitler. If You Like…Risk You’ll Like...Small World or Small World of Warcraft Now, this might be cheating a little bit since technically, Small World and Small World of Warcraft are the same game. But I think it’s such a great recommendation after Risk that I had to put both versions in. Honestly, I don’t love Risk. The randomness of the dice rolls, the boringness of your units, it all feels a little outdated for me. However, Small World changes all that by giving you more consistent combat but, more importantly, wild, fun and wacky units to play with. In both Small World and Small World of Warcraft, you are trying to claim as much land as possible to earn the most coins. But if you want to take over the land, you’ll need units. In Small World, units are a randomised combination of a race and a trait. Perhaps you have Stout Amazons one game, but the next you’ll have Mystic Amazons. Each trait and race has their own power that, when combined, make for hilarious results. Even more interesting though, is that you aren’t stuck with the same units all game. Over the course of the game, you can acquire new units, putting your previous armies in decline. Don’t be scared though: if you love the satisfaction of claiming your opponent’s land and killing their units in Risk, you still get that with Small World, but with much more variety and fun. If you love the World of Warcraft theme, Small World of Warcraft is the obvious choice, but even if you aren’t a WoW fan, it might be worth getting this version because of the refined rules and mechanics that come with the newer version. However, even with the original version, you are getting a quick, competitive area control game that scratches the same itch as the classic Risk. And there we have it! Our board game recommendations based on what you already like! I hope this helps you and your gaming group find the perfect next game to play. Do you have any more recommendations to add to our list? Leave them in the comments below!
The Gameology Quick Guide to Sleeving Your Games
Sleeves. Those little plastic thingies that protect your cards. With such a huge variety of brands and sizes and thicknesses, where do you begin? If you’re looking to start sleeving your games, this is the guide for you. The Purpose of Sleeves So...why do we sleeve games? Well, the obvious answer is to protect the cards. But what does that really mean? Cards, especially those that are shuffled or handled frequently, can soon show wear and tear, often so slowly you don’t realise until it’s too late. Frayed edges, oily fingerprints, water damage, bent corners. All these are what players try to prevent with card sleeves. If you are a TCG player or collector, this is particularly important as it ensures your valuable and highly sought-after cards are protected because at this point, they’re basically investments. Even for board gamers, sleeving is important. Sometimes board games go out of print or are just incredibly expensive or difficult to replace. Sure, if a copy of UNO gets messed up, it’s easy and cheap to replace. But your Kickstarter edition board games with exclusive promo cards? I don’t even want to imagine the horror. Of course, sleeving is not for everyone. Some people enjoy seeing the history and age of the cards as they play them, the same way that people enjoy seeing well-worn books. It speaks of the enjoyment and time surrounding the game. However, if you are someone that wants to start sleeving your games, read on. Check Size and Quantity The first thing you need to do is determine the size/s of the cards in the board game you want to sleeve and also how many cards there are. This can be done easily with websites like Sleeve Your Games, or by printing out a size chart from sleeve companies like Mayday Games (https://www.maydaygames.com/products/mayday-games-sleeve-finder) or Board Game Sleeves (https://www.boardgamesleeves.com/). Some games even have the sleeves you need listed on the back of the box, usually in some kind of colour code for a specific brand. If you come along to our retail store and bring a card from the game, we can even help you size it in-store. Usually the card size will have a name like Standard American, Mini European or Yucatan. Sleeve companies can be inconsistent with what dimensions they write on their sleeve packaging, but in general, all cards of a certain size (eg: Mini Euro) will fit sleeves labelled as that size, despite minor differences in measurements. If you can’t seem to find the correct size and its name, try checking the cards against other games in your collection or online. If the cards are the same size as another game, particularly a popular one like Dixit, Catan or Magic: The Gathering, that can help you on your search. Determine Budget After you’ve got your sleeve sizes and quantities (eg: I need 150 sleeves in European size), the next step is determining how much you want to spend on sleeving your game. Sleeves can range from dirt cheap to even more expensive than a big board game! Some things you might want to consider when allocating your budget are: How important is the game to you? Is it a game near and dear to your heart? Was it the first board game you ever bought? Was it expensive? How much are the cards handled during play? Is it a deck-building game with lots of shuffling? Or do the cards simply sit on the table in a tableau? Do they get passed between players often? Is it important if a card gets damaged? Will it reveal information that is meant to be hidden? Will it throw off the balance of the game if you removed a single card? Here are some personal examples to help you contextualise these questions: Dominion - Despite the fact that this is my favourite board game, it involves a lot of shuffling and I have invested a considerable amount of money into it and five expansions, I have not sleeved Dominion. Why? Because there are so many cards that even with the cheapest sleeves, it would cost well over the price of a new copy of the base game. Since the cards that get ruined fastest are the base game cards, I would prefer to buy a new base game with that money instead of buying sleeves. Nemesis - This was the first game I sleeved, mostly because it was very expensive. I cannot fathom the idea of having to buy a brand new copy of Nemesis, so I would prefer to spend an extra bit of money now, instead of well over $200 later. Plus, the cards are mostly black so wear and tear would be extremely obvious. Villagers - This is a medium-weight card game. I think it’s a pretty good game, but it’s nowhere near a favourite. Why did I sleeve it? Because the cards are white. I feel a lot safer now bringing it to my friend’s house and eating snacks while playing because I am no longer worried about snack smudges. Assess Your Options There are so many sleeve brands it can be incredibly overwhelming. When I first started working at Gameology, I was overwhelmed too. What I have compiled here is a quick list of some of the brands we sell, divided into categories with estimate prices to help you make your choice. Tier 1: Inner Sleeves These include: Ultra Pro Pro-Fit sleeves KMC Perfect BCW Inner Sleeves Often priced: up to $6 per 100 sleeves Very thin and ultra-fitted to the card, these only come in standard size (like MTG and Pokemon) and are designed to go on trading cards before placing them inside a larger “outer” sleeve. Where most sleeves leave 0.5-1mm of plastic around the card to cushion it, inner sleeves fit tight, leaving the top edge of the card basically exposed. Recommended for double sleeving and for standard size cards that don’t get much play. Tier 2: Thin Sleeves These include: Mayday Standard (usually their 100 packs) Sleeve Kings Ultra Pro Board Game Sleeves Lite Often priced: up to $10 per 100 sleeves Thicker and more comfortably sized than inner sleeves, the benefits of these sleeves are that they protect, without adding too much bulk to the cards. They come in a wide variety of sizes and are much cheaper than their thicker variants. Recommended for games with lots of cards or games where the box does not allow much room. Tier 3: Thick Sleeves These include: TCG Outer sleeves (like Ultra Pro Deck Protectors and KMC Hyper Mats) Mayday Premium Dragon Shield Arcane Tinmen Board Game Sleeves (both the regular and non-glare variants) Fantasy Flight Gamegenic Ultra Pro Board Game Sleeves Often priced: up to $20 per 100 sleeves Unlike the thin sleeves, these will add considerable bulk to your cards. Decks can double in size when sleeved with thick sleeves. However, if you are looking for ultimate protection, these are the way to go—though they will cost you. Recommended for games where you want max protection. * And there you go—a quick guide to start sleeving your games. Do you have any other sleeving tips or insights? Be sure to leave them in the comments below!
Getting Started with D&D - What to Buy!
To an outsider, Dungeons & Dragons seems impossibly complex. The barrier for entry appears an insurmountable wall, armored with rules and barricaded with the game’s long history. But today, that all changes. Today, we’re here to tell you about five products that will help you get started on your D&D adventure! 1) Starter Set The cheapest and easiest way to start playing D&D is to pick up the Starter Set. In fact, this was actually what my partner and I bought when we first started playing D&D. Contained within this box are: Five ready-to-play characters Six RPG dice One mini-campaign (The Lost Mines of Phandelver) One rulebook One blank character sheet Something I get asked quite often by customers in the Gameology retail store is, “What’s the difference between the Starter Set and the Essentials Kit?” (see below). Well, for one, the Starter Set is cheaper. But for me, the most important difference is that the Starter Set comes with five premade characters, with their character sheets already filled out for you. One of the most fun and exciting things about D&D is getting to make your own character and be as creative as you want. However, when you are new to the game, this level of possibility can be very intimidating (it was to me!). With the premade characters, it ensures you get into experiencing a real D&D session as quickly as possible. The included campaign is also fairly straightforward—awesome for new DMs. 2) Essentials Kit The newer, fresher version of the Starter Set is the Essentials Kit. In this kit, you get: A 64-page rulebook (including 1-on-1 rules for playing D&D with just a DM and a single player) One campaign (Dragon of Icespire Peak) 81 multipurpose cards in a tuckbox (used for magic items, sidekicks, conditions, etc) 6 blank character sheets Set of RPG dice One double-sided map One Dungeon Master’s screen Though slightly more expensive than the Starter Kit, this Essentials Kit is great value for money and definitely the preferable option if you would prefer creating your own character over starting with a premade one. The included rulebook contains rules and tips for character creation, unlike the Starter Set rulebook. If you are looking to be the DM in your group, this is packed with useful stuff for you in particular, like the DM screen to keep your notes secret and have a handy reminder of the rules, and the cards to help with the more fiddly aspects of running a campaign. Great value for money and a solid choice for your first step into the world of D&D. 3) Player’s Handbook Ask anyone: the Player’s Handbook is the essential rulebook for D&D. Even if you are looking to be a DM, you need this book. Contained within are all the core rules for D&D, everything from creating and levelling up characters to exploration and combat to spells and equipment. This is the foundation of knowledge that every D&D player has. Though it’s quite large and intimidating, you don’t need to read the entire thing. Treat it as an ultimate reference book and you’ll be smoothly sailing through your adventures. 4) Dungeon Master’s Guide If you’re going to be the DM for your D&D group, this is the book you need. Overall, it is excellent for DMs looking to create their own campaign, but even if you are running a pre-written campaign, it provides a deep dive into the rules and flow of D&D, from the perspective of a DM. Where players can bumble and fumble their way through the first few games, as a DM, you need to keep track of a lot of rules and most importantly, keep the session flowing. The Dungeon Master’s Guide, with its nitty-gritty ideas and notes, will give you the tools you need to be a great DM. 5) Core Rulebook Gift Set But...if you’re looking to go all out and dive straight into the deep end of D&D, your best bet is the Core Rulebook Gift Set. Packaged in a thick and luxurious textured slipcase, this gift set contains what I call the trifecta of D&D books: the Player’s Handbook, the Monster Manual, and the Dungeon Master’s Guide. Even though the image on the covers is the same as on the versions of these books that are sold individually, these gift set versions actually have a really cool matte-metallic finish, making them feel ultra-luxe. This gift set also comes with a DM screen to round out the collection. With this kit, you’ll be set for any campaign you embark on. BONUS: RPG Dice Set If you’re going to play D&D, you’ll need some RPG dice. If you bought the Starter Set or the Essentials Kit, you’ll already have a communal set, but eventually, you’ll need/want your own. The Oakie Doakie sets come in a variety of colours and finishes and contain all the RPG dice you’ll need to start playing D&D. However, if you really want to customise your dice set, come along to our retail store! There, we sell single RPG dice so you can mix and match to create a custom set! And there we have it! Our top recommendations for products to get you started with D&D! We wish you all the best on your adventures! Got any other recommendations for new D&D players? Let us know in the comments below!
To Cap Off 2020 - Top 10 Games of the Decade
Where were you a decade ago? Were you graduating university? Getting married? Having your third child? Here’s a better question: Were you even playing board games ten years ago? This last decade has been a period of flourishing growth for board gaming and its community. So as our tumultuous 2020 comes to a close, let us reflect on ten of the best board games this decade brought us and why I love them so much. Spirit Island Creative, ethereal spirits and asymmetric cooperation. Playing Spirit Island is something truly beautiful. At once deeply strategic and thematically rich, the two, sometimes three, hours it takes to play feel like mere minutes. And that makes sense for a game about spirits who have existed on this fictional island for longer than time can chronicle. The asymmetric spirits play beautifully off each other in cooperation, with each spirit’s strengths filling in another’s weaknesses. A strong blend of asymmetry, cooperation and theme that, like the spirits themselves, will stand the test of time. Pandemic Legacy: Season 1 Bringing the legacy mechanic to a franchise with a legacy of its own. For a while, I was under the impression that all legacy games were long and heavy, laden with complex strategies that would take hours to wrap my head around. In 2015, Pandemic Legacy: Season 1 released and introduced the legacy mechanic to the thousands of fans of the original game. Preserving the core of Pandemic gameplay, but adding lasting impact to each of your choices, Pandemic Legacy: Season 1 lets players form their own stories in the familiar cooperative game. Will your scientist survive the whole story? Will London fall to the virus? In Pandemic Legacy, you’re simultaneously the authors and the characters. Decrypto No other party game makes you and friends feel quite as clever. Word games are among some of the most common party games but there’s something special about Decrypto. Maybe it’s the components—red-scrambled cards which you slide into your screens to reveal secret words. Maybe it’s the mechanics—not only do you have to guess your own team’s secret codes, you have to try and intercept the others. Or maybe it’s the feeling you get when you write a clue like “the poetry of crashing waves in springtime” and watch your team’s eyes light up in realisation while the other team descends into confusion. Yeah. That’ll be it. Underwater Cities Traditional and classic, but finely crafted—like a vintage cheese. It’s not the flashiest of board games. It’s kind of long, the only pretty things are the city dome components, and it often pales in comparison to Terraforming Mars. Heavy and strategic, part worker-placement, part hand-management, Underwater Cities is a Euro-style game, quite solitary, full of miniscule choices that build up into big results. But there’s something devilish in those details—how each turn, you both place a worker and play a card that matches the space’s colour. How the green actions are powerful but the matching cards are weak, and vice versa for the orange. How you need to balance the need for steel to build cities with the need for kelp to keep those cities alive. Out of all the games on this list, this is probably the most traditional—it’s just a city builder with worker placement. But the intricacies of those mechanics and the fine balance between the various elements, that’s what makes Underwater Cities shine. Wingspan The bird-themed board game so beautiful I wrote my final university essay on it. With the aesthetic and artwork to appeal to non-board-gamers and the inherent satisfaction of an engine-building game, Elizabeth Hargrave’s Wingspan is a true beauty. While playing, you’ll often find yourself gazing at the intricate illustrations, reading off the little facts on the bottom of every card. The elegance of the theme even extends into the smoothness of the engine-building mechanics, how filling your wildlife preserves with different bird varieties feels like preparing to take flight, accelerating with every action. A wonderful blend of elegance and engine-building. One Night Ultimate Werewolf A reimagined, app-driven classic. I have fond memories of playing the traditional social deduction game, Mafia, in high school drama class. We would sit in a huge circle in the theatre and the teacher would act as the Storyteller. Most of the time I just sat there while other people killed and healed and investigated, but I loved the concept. Years later, at a board game night, I played One Night Ultimate Werewolf. With its app, short playtime and dozens of hidden roles, it felt at once familiar and fresh. This game takes everything that sometimes sucks about the traditional Mafia or Werewolf and makes it fun and modern. A great reimagining of a classic. Nemesis A semi-cooperative chonker loaded with tension and minis. At first glance, this game might look like a bloated Kickstarter board game packed with unnecessarily fancy components but not much substance. But something I realised in my first playthrough is that there’s a reason we like nice components, beyond simply aesthetic. In my playthrough with my boyfriend, the first time we ran into the Queen alien and plopped her humongous miniature onto the board, taking up the entire hexagonal room tile and completely dwarfing out itny human minis, I’ll admit it, I was actually kind of scared. Rolling the noise dice and getting the icon that makes you place the thick yellow plastic noise markers in every surrounding corridor, each one making a faint but ominous click, fills you with genuine fear to leave that room. Even the rulebook comes with an introductory short story that walks you through the flow of the game! Nemesis is a game of atmosphere and tension that’s completely worth the price. Scythe Mechs are sick. When my boyfriend was first getting into board games, Scythe was one of the games he was instantly drawn to. I mean, just look at that artwork. Those beautiful paintings integrate mechs like they were always there, just part of history like any other war machine. Something Scythe does incredibly well is balance scale and flexibility. Though it may look like a wargame on the surface, with its giant mech minis, there are many ways to win in Scythe, many of which are not at all violent. Additionally, Scythe does something similar to Wingspan in that its theme—dieselpunk 1920s Europa with mechs—offers a smooth gateway into its mechanics—area control and resource management. An eye-catching and well-constructed game, both inside and out. Azul Strategy, sophistication, and handfuls of stunningly tactile tiles (clink-clink). If you’ve ever felt Azul’s colourful tiles rolling between your fingers, you’ll know the appeal of tactility in board games. In an abstract game like Azul, these tiles help you link the strategy in your mind, to the board beneath your fingers. As you build up your wall of tiles and patterns, you can get lost in both the warm colours and the strategies of placing those warm colours in specific rows and columns. It’s this mix of tactility and abstraction that make Azul a perfect little gateway game. Gloomhaven The RPG that weighs as much as a car tyre—both mentally and physically. I wince every time I have to pick this game up. And yet, there is no denying that Gloomhaven was one of the most popular board game releases in the last decade, holding the number 1 rank on BoardGameGeek for years on end. This is a game that could become a lifestyle. It could become your routine to play some Gloomhaven every Saturday night, or every single night. With 100 scenarios and an average of 180 hours of gameplay, it’s like a video game RPG! It’s undoubtedly a commitment but its unique cardplay combat, plethora of sealed packets to open up, and compelling world and story make it undeniably worth it. - And so the year—and the decade—comes to a close. Take a moment to reflect: what were your favourite games of the decade? We welcome your comments below! Here’s to another great decade of board gaming!
2020: A Year in Review - Best New Games
Though 2020 has been a tough year, one thing that kept us going was board games and the new releases that came out despite the pandemic. Walk down memory lane with us as we recount 5 of the best new games from 2020. 1) Gloomhaven: Jaws of the Lion This standalone storybook campaign game I lovingly call “mini-Gloomhaven” was undoubtedly one of the best new releases of 2020. While we all suffered through the long lockdowns (plural), this 25 scenario campaign, designed to be more beginner-friendly than its heavyweight predecessor, was the perfect thing to play with roommates and partners to keep the days rolling. With its easy setup, thanks to the storybook maps, and its gradual tutorial, Gloomhaven: Jaws of the Lion left its mark on board gaming in 2020. 2) On Mars This big box strategy game from the master of heavy board games, Vital Lacerda, graced our table this year with brain-melting complexity and a demand for our table’s real estate. The board is, quite frankly, ginormous and the brainpower tax immense, but I say all this with the utmost respect because On Mars is a cerebral experience. Though from afar this game might just look like a bigger Terraforming Mars or a mishmash of mechanics, the tight weave of those mechanics is what grants On Mars a spot on this list. 3) Fort A common complaint with my most adored deck-builder, Dominion, is how it can slog with any more than 2 players. You can spend the entirety of everyone else’s turn just sitting there, thinking, “...is it my go, yet?” But like a breath of fresh air, Fort is a deck-builder that thrives on player interaction. In Fort, players are kids trying to make friends, eat pizza and build the best fort. But with its thematic mechanics where you can claim other players’ friends if they don’t play with them, or benefit from the actions they noisily and publicly play (as kids do), it solves many of the issues that deck-builders suffer from. And with that iconic artwork by Kyle Ferrin (also the artist for Root), Fort was a small but mighty 2020 release. 4) Mariposas The new butterfly-themed light strategy game from Elizabeth Hargrave, designer of the sought-after Wingspan, released in 2020 to once again bring unique and original themes into board gaming. Taking place over three seasons, in Mariposas, whose name constantly evokes nostalgia for the Barbie movie with a similar name, players will guide monarch butterflies from Mexico across northern America and back again, evolving through multiple ephemeral generations. Like 2019’s Wingspan, 2020’s Mariposas is a gateway game with a sophisticated theme and gorgeous production. 5) Mysterium Park And now for the wildcard of the list—it’s the late 2020 release, Mysterium Park, a lighter version of its 2015 counterpart. With its simplified setup and smaller box, in many ways Mysterium Park is Mysterium-lite. At its core, gameplay is the same, with one player as the silent ghost and the others as investigative psychics to whom the ghost can only communicate through cryptic (but gorgeously illustrated) vision cards. By retaining the heart of Mysterium but placing it in a smaller, easier to pick up package, the elegant theming of Mysterium can be appreciated anywhere by anyone. And there we have it! Five of the best new board games of 2020! What do you think? Did we miss anything? Let us know in the comments below!
𝗕𝗲𝘀𝘁 𝗴𝗮𝗺𝗲𝘀 𝘁𝗼 𝗽𝗹𝗮𝘆 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗳𝗮𝗺𝗶𝗹𝘆 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗖𝗵𝗿𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗺𝗮𝘀
We all know the horrors of seeing family at Christmas and having to fend off mundane questions from in-laws and distant uncles. You know something that makes family gatherings (in any season) more palatable? Food. But also board games (plus they’re non-perishable). To prepare you for the holiday season, here are our top 5 games to play with your family this Christmas—or any family event! 1) Mysterium Perhaps your family is a fan of Cluedo, but there’s that one cousin that’s just too good at it and always wins. The 2-7 player cooperative deduction game, Mysterium, might be just the game for you. In this thematic party classic, one player acts as ‘The Ghost’ and the other players are psychics called to this house to investigate who murdered this person and turned them into a ghost. Each psychic will be following their own line of questioning, identifying a suspect, location and weapon from information the ghost gives them. The catch? The ghost is not allowed to talk throughout the entire game. The only way they can communicate is through cryptic but beautifully illustrated ‘vision cards’. Since everyone at the table is working cooperatively to solve the mystery, there’s little risk of saltiness. Though the ghost cannot talk, the players can, and you and your family will discuss these mysterious images, wondering whether the ghost meant for you to choose the barber (because of the scissors in the image) or the gardener (because the card is green). With gorgeous components, from the moody DM-style ghost screen to the crystal ball shaped player pawns, Mysterium’s atmosphere and cooperative play will bring the family together. 2) Decrypto Just like Mysterium was a fresh family alternative to Cluedo, Decrypto is a fresh take on Codenames. Like Codenames, Decrypto is a team-based word game, however—in my personal opinion—I think it’s even better. Each team will get a high-tech screen with red plastic-covered slots to slide in word cards. Though the word cards at first look like garbled red images, slide them into the slots and the red plastic will reveal your team’s four secret words. It’s a little touch, but one that perfectly matches the ‘high-tech’ aesthetic of the game. Say your secret words are ‘France’, ‘wolf’, ‘coffee’ and ‘man’, in that order. Each turn, one person on your team will draw a card with three numbers on it and look at it secretly. Perhaps their code is 3-4-1. So now, they say to their team, ‘morning, moustache, art’. The team will look at their secret words, associate the clues with the numbered words, and hopefully (if they’ve interpreted it right), say the code ‘3-4-1’. It’s a little more complex to explain than the easy-to-pick-up Codenames, but the extra effort is absolutely more rewarding. Because, oh, I forgot to mention, the other team is listening to your clues and they can attempt to intercept you and guess your code (and vice versa, of course). So, yeah, you could use ‘Eiffel Tower’ as a clue for France, but that would make your code very, very easy for the other team to intercept! The fun of Decrypto is trying to make clues obscure enough for the other team not to guess, while at the same time, not confusing your own. It’s a family must-have, in my opinion. 3) Sushi Go Party My mum ADORES this game. When my family and I go on camping trips, this is the game we bring. We play it around the breakfast table, we play it after dinner, we play it in the mid-afternoon, it’s just the perfect, light family card game. So what is Sushi Go Party? In this adorable little game, you and your family will be at a sushi train restaurant. As the sushi whizzes past, you are trying to grab the best combination of sushi to score you the most points. I absolutely love how this game imitates the movement of a sushi train. Each turn, you will choose one card to keep from your hand of cards and pass the rest along! Each type of sushi scores differently. Too much eel will score you negative points, but just the right amount will score 7! If you have more maki than everyone else at the table, you get 6 points! If you put wasabi on your nigiri, that’s triple points! Though Sushi Go Party does have a smaller non-party version, I highly recommend this bigger tin as it contains more sushi varieties and hence, more replayability. What’s also great about Sushi Go Party is that it introduces the card-drafting mechanics, potentially opening your family up to playing more strategic card-drafting games like 7 Wonders or Bargain Quest in the future. 4) Bohnanza This set-collection game is severely underrated. Yes, the art is a little old-fashioned, but Bohnanza itself is a surprisingly hilarious game of bidding and yelling. In essence, all you are trying to do in Bohnanza is grow and sell large quantities of bean varieties. Each turn, you must plant the first 1-2 cards in your hand into your two available fields. Then, you reveal the top two cards of the deck and you decide whether you want to keep them, in which case they get planted directly into your field and you must harvest whatever was already there, or trade them away. It doesn’t matter if you were setting up to plant the next three chilli beans in your hand, if you don’t trade away those beans in front of you, you’re forced to plant them. And here’s where all the fun of Bohnanza is. More often than not, those cards you have to reveal off the top of the deck are cards you do not want. But other players might want them quite desperately. Maybe Aunt Lisa is going to offer you two chilli beans for that one stink bean in front of you. But your dad can give you one chilli bean and take both the stink bean and that cocoa bean in your hand that you don’t want. Let the chaos and the arguing ensue. Though Bohnanza is a confrontational game, it is backed by strategy. Since you’re always watching other people’s trades, wondering if you can jump in and get rid of some of your unwanted cards, there’s no downtime! Playing up to 7 people, Bohnanza is a chaotic card game that, if anything, is hilarious to watch your family play. 5) Pandemic All the games we’ve covered on this list so far are more party-oriented games. Games that are fairly light and breezy to play. That changes here. For a more strategic and ‘board game-y’ experience, look no further than the cooperative crisis-management classic, Pandemic. 2-4 players are working together as members of the Center for Disease Control, tasked with stopping outbreaks of four diseases across the world. Once all four diseases have been cured, you and your family win the game. At the beginning of the game, each player will select a role, from the Scientist to the Researcher to the Dispatcher, each with their own unique ability. Each turn, you perform four actions, which involve anything from curing a disease by spending five cards of the disease’s colour to flying to a research station across the board. Then, you draw up cards from the player deck and reveal infection cards to see where the diseases spread to next. The theme is a little on-the-nose for what’s been happening in 2020, but regardless, Pandemic is a revered cooperative strategy game that’s heavy enough to provoke strategic thinking and problem solving, but light enough that even kids can play. Buying Guide In summary, if you’re looking for... An atmospheric cooperative deduction game? Mysterium. A clever team-based word game that’s not Codenames? Decrypto. An adorable card-drafting game approved by my mum? Sushi Go Party. A chaotic game of bidding over beans? Bohnanza. A strategic and cooperative game about curing diseases? Pandemic. And there we have it! Our top 5 board games to play with family this Christmas! What do you think? Did we miss anything? Let us know in the comments below! 2021 Update 6) Paris Travel to Paris during the La Belle Époque Period, just after the World's Fair, and the construction of the Eiffel Tower, where prestige and architecture rule. In Paris, players are tasked to purchase some of these magnificent Parisian buildings in order to make a profit and invest in the development and upkeep of some of Paris’ most iconic buildings and landmarks Paris is a medium-weight Eurostyle-game with straight forward gameplay, short player turns, and an ingenious point-salad-like mechanisms. You mainly score points by obtaining the right buildings and collecting the right bonus cards. The simplicity, elegance, and art makes this a wonderful game for your family to crowd around and enjoy this Christmas. 7) Tumble Town If you're looking for something less refined and more dice stacking fun, then look no further than tumble town. In Tumble Town, players become the mayors of their own western township. Players must strive to build the latest and best buildings for their settlers, with each building providing a different ability. These abilities work (or don't work, depending on player skill) to create an engine to ultimately score you more points. Tumble Town is a simple and wonderful engine building game that will have any avid board gaming family pleasantly surprised. 8) Steampunk Rally Fusion Play as a Standalone or alongside the Original Steampunk Rally, Steampunk Rally Fusion utilises newly-discovered Fusion technology and time travel to make the zany race a little zanier! Take on the role of ingenious inventors from history. Draft cards to invent your racing contraption. Power your creation's abilities with combinations of steam, heat, electricity, and Fusion dice. Use cogs to augment bad dice rolls and upgrade certain machine parts. Smashing through damaging terrain spaces may cause parts to fly off your machine, constantly forcing you to adapt your strategy and discover new card synergies. Perfect for the overly competitive family who loves to dabble in dice rolling madness!
