Gameology Blog - Gamer's Hub Online
𝐆𝐚𝐦𝐞𝐨𝐥𝐨𝐠𝐲 𝐒𝐭𝐚𝐭𝐮𝐬 𝐔𝐩𝐝𝐚𝐭𝐞 + 𝐅𝐀𝐐
𝐖𝐞 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐜𝐮𝐫𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐥𝐲 𝐨𝐩𝐞𝐧 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐚𝐬 𝐧𝐨𝐫𝐦𝐚𝐥While it pains us to have to make this type of announcement again we wanted to be as upfront with our valued customers as possible. Gameology is still currently operating as normal out of our warehouse however we are taking all necessary precautions and following all current advice from the government to keep both our customers and staff members safe. Later today we will be putting up a video demonstrating some of the extra measures we have taken to protect our customers who choose to visit us in our retail store. The following FAQ should help in clearing up some of the common questions we have been receiving from customers. 🅕🅐🅠 𝗜𝘀 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝘀𝗵𝗼𝘄𝗿𝗼𝗼𝗺 𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗹𝗹 𝗼𝗽𝗲𝗻 𝘁𝗼 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗽𝘂𝗯𝗹𝗶𝗰?Yes our showroom is still open to the public however we are taking precautions for both the safety of our patrons as well as our staff by providing all needed cleaning and disinfectant materials to our staff and only allowing a certain amount of customers in the store at any given time. 𝗜 𝗵𝗮𝘃𝗲 𝗮𝗻 𝗼𝗿𝗱𝗲𝗿 𝘁𝗼 𝗽𝗶𝗰𝗸 𝘂𝗽 𝗳𝗿𝗼𝗺 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘀𝗵𝗼𝘄𝗿𝗼𝗼𝗺, 𝗖𝗮𝗻 𝗜 𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗹𝗹 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝗰𝗼𝗹𝗹𝗲𝗰𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀?Yes you certainly can. We are handling all click and collect orders as per usual while maintaining heightened safety standards. 𝗜 𝗵𝗮𝘃𝗲 𝗺𝗮𝗱𝗲 𝗮𝗻 𝗼𝗿𝗱𝗲𝗿 𝗼𝗻𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗲 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗱𝗲𝗹𝗶𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘆, 𝘄𝗶𝗹𝗹 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗹𝗹 𝗯𝗲 𝘀𝗲𝗻𝘁?Yes absolutely, we are still posting out all national delivery items ordered through Gameology.com.au. Orders are still leaving the Gameology Warehouse on time as per normal however we do ask for customers to be patient in the delivery times for their order as we had previously seen extended delivery times from Australia Post. 𝗜 𝗵𝗮𝘃𝗲 𝗺𝗮𝗱𝗲 𝗮𝗻 𝗼𝗿𝗱𝗲𝗿 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗻𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗹 𝗱𝗲𝗹𝗶𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘆, 𝘄𝗶𝗹𝗹 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗹𝗹 𝗯𝗲 𝘀𝗲𝗻𝘁?Currently we are still posting out all international orders as per normal however we do ask for customers to be patient in the delivery times for their order as we had previously seen extended delivery times on international orders. If there are any other questions that you have in regards to your order please contact our customer service staff either via Facebook chat or here: https://www.gameology.com.au/pages/contact-us
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⏰𝗚𝗮𝗺𝗲𝗼𝗹𝗼𝗴𝘆 𝗧𝗼𝗽 𝟲 𝗞𝗶𝗹𝗹𝗲𝗿 𝗙𝗶𝗹𝗹𝗲𝗿 𝗚𝗮𝗺𝗲𝘀⏰
Everyone needs those small games for when you're looking for a game to get your mind started before a marathon game night, or maybe a game for a small breather in between heavy games, or even a game to introduce people into the hobby. Whatever the reason, this list of great filler games are perfect for those moments when you just need to relax with a small, uncomplicated, 20 minute game. 1) Dont Get Got A game of getting got, gaming guests and going too far with alliteration. Don’t Get Got may be one of the best filler games there are purely due to the fact that you are always playing. No, you don't understand, there is no escape. Once you start, you don’t stop, there's no getting off this train of social trickery and deviance. It is a wonderful game to play in the background of your other games, by itself, or really anytime you want to live in complete distrust of those around you. In Don’t Get Got, players are given 5 unique objectives, all of which are attempts to make your opponents do a certain action, speak a certain phrase or react to something you initiate. If you can successfully manipulate another player, you NAILED IT. Two more and you win. BUT if they get suspicious of your interactions they may ask “Is this part of the game?”, a question that will make your spine shiver and spontaneously develop scoliosis. When asked this dreaded, unforgiving, malevolent question, you must sigh, groan, cry, hang your head in shame as you answer a meek “...yes…” At that point you’ve failed it. You can no longer attempt to complete that objective, you can no longer attain that point and you can never return home. The utter shame in failing an objective especially when you’ve created a master plan of subtle nudges, and small insignificant hints that build to that moment of victory only to be dashed by that one horrible question is soul-crushing. BUT conversely asking that question and seeing the face of defeat, seeing their eyes gloss over with regret, it's one of the purest joys on this earth. Full of distrust and shame, Don’t Get Got is an evil and beautiful game. Check Out Dont Get Got Here! 2) Unstable Unicorns WANT UNICOrNS!? OF COURSE YOU DO?! EVERYONE DOES! WHAT KIND? FIRE ONE? STABBY ONE? THE GOOD OL’ BARFING RAINBOW ONE? DOESN’T MATTER WE HAVE IT ALL HERE AT UNSTABLE UNICORNS! WHERE PLAYERS MUST BRING 7 UNSTABLE UNICORNS INTO YOUR STABLE-I just now understood that joke, that's clever, stable the unstabled unicorns haha. Unstable Unicorns is an adorable but also secretly, an incredibly aggressive game. The game works as a simple pick-up and play where players will draw a card from the central deck and then play a card from their hand. Sounds easy enough? Draw unicorn cards and place them down right? WRONG! At any given moment another player can play a “NOPE” card which completely invalidates your turn, or maybe they may play an upgrade card to make all their turns immune to attack cards, or maybe they may play a downgrade card against you that magically turns all your unicorns into PANDAS, INVALIDATING THE LAST 20 TURNS! As turns pass, you can feel the game corrupting you, filling your soul with malice. Eventually you want to win out of spite for the other players, not for the game. So if you like hiding your rage behind undeniably cute and wacky unicorns, this coincidentally might be a game for you. It is rage inducing but annoyingly fun. Check Out Unstable Unicorns Here! 3) Dungeon Mayhem Like most wonderful, amazing, beautiful, and super intelligent people, I love Dungeons and Dragons but it’s a little cumbersome when you’re deep into the hobby. There’s battle maps, grid boards, books, shields, and dice. If only there was a way to hold it in my pocket, and were just cards, and didn’t revolve around a campaign, and was completely competitive, and wasn’t like Dungeons and Dragons at all and was more like a super simple filler card game with a very transparent D&D theme. But wait THERE IS! This terrible infomercial-ey setup is brought to you by DUNGEON MAYHEM! Dungeon mayhem is probably the filler-iest game there is in the known universe. It’s small, portable, and uncomplicated. It literally takes 2 poorly made sentences to explain the entire game. Draw a card, the play cards ranging from attack, defend, heal or cards that allow more cards to be played, then discard all played cards. Last player with health points remaining wins. That is all. There isn't much more to say. The fun is nice and polite, the game is so quick it's hard to be too heartbroken about being eliminated. There’s not much to say. Pick it up, it's pretty good. Check Out Dungeon Mayhem Here! 4) Welcome To... As a perfectly normal Gameology Collaborator, sequestered in my “definitely-not-a-supply-closet” office with a small mail slot where I slide these game posts out of in exchange for Catan pieces, I one day dream of being a small to mid-range real-estate developer. And as I do not currently have a means of “leaving”, I must live out my wildest fantasies of building reasonably priced, suspiciously similar, beige houses through the game “Welcome to…” In this not-stop-adventure of adding minor amenities to a small upper-middle class estate players will duke it out to see who can be the undefeated champion of property development. To play, players will reveal 3 cards from the decks, each portraying a particular house number with a corresponding amenity. Players will then choose one combination to add to their neighbourhood, each amenity added increases the point value of all of that particular luxury you've placed in your neighbourhood. Thus players will compete to see who’s luxuries will be worth the most points at the end of the game by either specialising to gain the maximum point value of a luxury, or by diversifying and getting small points over many different luxuries. It’s almost too exciting, that description alone is enough to cause a surge of adrenaline running through a small, 3 year old child. Will you add a pool to house number three and completely challenge your opponent in a one-on-one fight for dominance on the pool track? Maybe you’ll put trees on a street and increase the value of an entire street of houses! There is never enough action in “Welcome to..”!! Check Out Welcome To.. Here! 5) Anomia Do you have great hand-eye coordination? No? How about just eye coordination? If so, then boy is this game for you. Anomia is a game of shouting the most random trivia at all your other friends. The best description of this game is that it’s essentially the mental version of SNAP! You look for matching symbols and instead slapping down with force, you flex your cognitive capabilities but yelling a word related to the topic depicted on the matching cards faster than your opponent. Anomia truly shows who is a quick thinker, and who doesn’t know what an invertebrate is. There isn’t much to this wonderful filler game, players will draw and reveal a card in front of them an artful flourish if they're any fun and everyone will compare the depicted symbol on the revealed card. If it matches the symbol of their previously drawn card, both the active revealing player and the matching player create a clash of cognitive capabilities. Each must look at the topic written on their opponents card and say a related word to the topic: (Body Part = nose, Genre of Music = Rap, Type of Fish = Nemo). The first to say an acceptable word wins and scores a point. The game ends when the deck is exhausted. The game is fun but it does tend to reveal who are the quicker thinkers with an obvious advantage. BUT THATS OKAY, just ostracize them AND KEEP THE GOOD TIMES GOING. Check Out Anomia Here! 6) Lost Cities ADVENTURE TO UNCOVER UNKNOWN RICHES AND ANCIENT RELICS IN LOST CITIES! That’s actually a bit too dramatic, it’s a counting game with a bit of push-your-luck but it's simple and fun, making it a wonderful filler game for 2 players. In Lost Cities, players will assume the role of competing archaeologists looking to uncover digs across the world (simultaneously somehow). As omnipresent beings, players will slowly uncover relics of varying qualities, each with its own numerical value...that can only be scored in ascending order. Which means, thematically, if you find a full, intact fossil of an ancient paleolithic Dragon-bird early in the game and score it, you're now too snobby for any of those smaller fossils and unceremoniously throw them in the trash for your opponent to scavenge with glee. Mechanically, Lost Cities is a simple card drafting and card placement game similar to Arboretum. On a given turn, you are either taking cards from the deck or community supply piles, or playing cards into your dig sites. But here's the thing. Each dig site you open will cost you 20 points at the end of the game--unless you manage to play enough cards, meaning find enough fossils, in that dig site to turn a profit. If that wasn't enough, there are also wager cards scattered throughout the deck that multiply your dig site scores--whether they are positive or negative. Do you place that wager on your red dig site, only to find your opponent is holding all the red cards you need in their hand? Do you open all the dig sites or just stick to one? How do you balance risk and reward? Become a weirdly specific omnipresent being of archeology and find out! Check Out Lost Cities Here!
𝐆𝐚𝐦𝐞𝐨𝐥𝐨𝐠𝐲 𝐓𝐨𝐩 𝟔 𝐂𝐨-𝐎𝐩 𝐆𝐚𝐦𝐞𝐬 𝐑𝐞𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐝𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬🥏️
Grab your best gaming partners and get ready to take on the world. Well a very hyper specific world localized entirely within an awesome board game. May you see them? Heck yes! Check out our top 6 Co-Op Game Recommendations. 1) Spirit Island BE A GOD! Rain hellfire, direct raging rivers, creep into dreams and make nightmares, and inspire your native worshippers into a crazed frenzy to attack evil imperial powers in SPIRIT ISLAND. My favourite cooperative game for you and your friends that everyone should own. I understand the opinion of an unknown Gameology Collaborator may not mean much to you but it should, I’m an omnipotent deity. You don’t know if I’m lying. You can’t see me! In Spirit Island, players will assume the roles of ancient spirits whose beloved island and loyal native followers are being invaded by imperial powers, ripping the island for its resources and polluting the poor island. You must help your natives and cooperate with other spirits to save them and yourself. The ancient island gods in Spirit Island all have completely different traits and powers, making this game a very impressive asymmetrical game, whereby no 2 players will play the same way. One player may be a god of fire, who may be able to burn away individual settlers but may struggle against large cities. Another player could be the Ocean Spirit who may be able to cause immense tsunamis but will be unable to deal with inland threats. There are so many combinations of Spirits, and even more combinations of spirit powers that there is no way to adequately describe the intricacies and depth of this wonderful game in a 200 word description. I didn’t even have room for jokes. BUY THIS! Check out Spirit Island here 2) Descent: Journeys In The Dark Hate a particular friend? Want to single them out in a socially acceptable manner? Want to go a bit further and kill them with your real friends? Well that’s what happened to me in DESCENT: JOURNEYS IN THE DARK! In this all-against-one, grid-based combat, narrative-driven, campaign-based, dungeon-crawling, dice-rolling, hand-managing, smart-mechanic-sounding game, you and your friends will team up and defeat beastly barbarians and grizzly gobins, all played by that one friend you have ostracized. Maybe that one friend who says they're not hungry but will eat some of your pizza without chipping in (we see right through you Matt). In Descent, players will go on an adventure with your classic (some would say generic, but they are wrong) fantasy archetypes. As per usual, you’ll have warriors to fight, maim and deal huge damage, healers to revitalise and support your allies, Mages to produce powerful spells and cantrips and finally Scouts to... scout, I guess? Joking aside, these archetypes are greatly expanded on in the Descent universe, allowing for incredibly complex and unique classes within each archetype. The game also allows for completely cooperative play if you don't have a “least favourite” friend. In this mode, all players choose and develop their characters through several unique narrative campaigns. So be friends or don’t, either way it's a bunch of fun. Check out Descent: Journeys In The Dark here 3) Dead of Winter - A Crossroads Game Time for some ghoul-grabbing, undead-dodging, zombie-zlamming fun in Dead of Winter! In this Crossroads game you and your friends will scurrage around abandoned hospitals, gas stations, and once joyous schools to look for precious commodities like a can of beans and a single bandage, all whilst dealing with moral dilemmas like. These fun-time events include: should you save your pre-apocalypse elderly neighbour from a zombie horde and risk leading them to your settlement? What about those childhood keepsakes that you left in what is now a zombie-infested apartment complex? Do you go in and retrieve it? Is it worth a bite? These and many more cheerful, moral puzzles are available now! In all seriousness, this is a gritty cooperative game of looking for the basic essentials to keep your settlement alive. You will need a steady supply of food which is almost always not enough, daily objectives are harsh as they force you and your companions to go outside the safety of your home to look for medical supplies, tools or even weapons to protect yourself. And to make matters worse, there is a betrayer among you, a player who seeks to undermine the settlement for their own selfish ends. The end of the game is based on a variety of different win conditions but the most important factor is the morale of your settlement, without enough morale your fellow survivors will give up completely and end the game, leaving the betrayer the only victor. Can you survive the new wasteland of the walking dead? Or maybe you’re the betrayer and must stealthy undermine the rest of survivors without being discovered and exiled? Check out Dead of Winter - A Crossroads Game here 4) Pandemic Its a bit on the nose, so lets be brief... I bet you’ve heard that word a lot in the past few months. Coincidentally, it’s the name of our next cooperative board game. Team up with your totally qualified friends and family as disease specialists working to eradicate the corona--I mean, the generic plague sending the whole world into chaos over toilet paper. If you’ve ever played the popular video game Plague Inc, this is the opposite of that as a board game! (Basically you’re those annoying blue cure bubbles). In Pandemic, every player gets their own unique role, each with different abilities and strengths. Make your dad the Medic and your girlfriend the Operations Expert and pray that they can get along for long enough to beat the corona--I mean, the generic plague--before time runs out and humanity is extinguished. Check out Pandemic here 5) Fury of Dracula If you liked the description of Descent but weren’t fond of a campaign-driven game, well here's one just for you. Another all against one, except being ostracised is part of the setting. In Fury of Dracula a single player takes control of the good-natured Count Dracula as he galivants around Europe, desperately trying to avoid capture from the completely unprovoked, vicious, and evil gang of vampire hunters. The dastardly vampire hunters must hunt the poor Count by investigating cities until they spot a clue or hear a rumour and then the chase is on! Each hunter is equipped with a special ability that will make tracking, chasing or fighting Dracula and his minions easier. To combat these pestering pursuers, Dracula must spread false rumours or leave less-than-friendly traps to damage or delay the pursuing players just long enough for the Count to peacefully spread his influence across Europe, raise his army of the dead and bring eternal night. Can you successfully save your undead army from the grips of undeniably racially-motivated hunters and bring about a utopia for you and your vampire kind? Check out Fury Of Dracula here 6) Dungeons & Dragons The best game with the most rules but they're all optional! This is a game of just do whatever you want, live your wildest dreams, live your darkest nightmares, be a flail snail. Why not? There’s no canon if you don't want it, there's no story if you don't need it and there's no boundaries if you can imagine it. There are standards though, bards are flirty, barbarians are dumb, swashbuckling paladins are overpowered, and nobody likes the Dungeon Master. Dungeons and Dragons is an amazing game of Pretend but it's for adults so it costs money, there are rules, and time commitments. BUT once again, that’s optional! Grab a cheap starter set, some like minded friends and enjoy chaotically destroying a meticulously crafted world that took all night to plan by your Dungeon Master. There is no set structure in Dungeons and Dragons, there are merely recommendations. You and your friends will ultimately decide how combat works, how turn order plays out and what your objectives are. This is a game that is completely under your control, that doesn’t even necessarily need dungeons or dragons, you could have a world of just robot kittens oppressing the human race. This unlimited freedom may be daunting to new players and yes, the core mechanics are a bit of a read but with a group, it becomes a learning experience for everyone. You will all collectively struggle, fumble, misread rules and accidentally create illegal characters but the only strict goal is have fun, be lost in the world you craft together, and forget that half the real world is on fire. Check out Dungeons & Dragons here
✋𝗖𝗵𝗲𝗰𝗸 𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝗚𝗮𝗺𝗼𝗹𝗼𝗴𝘆'𝘀 𝗕𝗘𝗦𝗧 𝗧𝗲𝗮𝗺 𝗚𝗮𝗺𝗲𝘀!✋
With restrictions starting to lift its time to gather your teammates for a good ol'fashioned board game showdown. To that effect we have gathered our top list of best board game battlegrounds to test you and your friend's teamwork (or lack of!) And let us know down below any of your favorite team games that we might have missed, we always love to hear your suggestions. 1) The Resistance: Avalon King Arthur wants to go on his crusade and needs to send his soldiers on missions but who can he trust? Arthur’s court is filled with spies and minions of Mordred, can you decide who can be trusted. In The Resistance: Avalon, players will be secretly and randomly dealt roles to decide their allegiances, during this phase the player with the role of Merlin will be able to use his magic to know who is a betrayer, though this information is only revealed to him. Players then must decide who can be trusted to go on Arthur’s many missions. If a minion of Mordred is selected to go, they may sabotage the mission to fulfil their objective or they may decide to assist the mission to remain undetected and garner trust among Arthur’s allies. If 3 missions are sabotaged, the minions of Mordred win and lay ruin to England. If 3 missions are successful the servants of King Arthur win but Mordred is a sore loser and hidden among his minions is the Assassin. After the servants of King Arthur win, the assassin reveals themselves and has one chance to guess who has taken the role of Merlin. If they are able to correctly guess, the assassin kills Merlin and the minions steal the victory. This game is one of the best social deception games due to this mechanic. Merlin and his allies are given an incredible lead throughout the game as Merlin is able to identify betrayers but he cannot reveal this information as that would identify him to the rest of the group. So therefore, forces Merlin to be sneaky, the assassin to be clever and all other players must always convince each other they are on the same team. All this tension and deception make for a great but terrifying game of wit and secrecy. Check out The Resistance Avalon Here 2) Decrypto In the same vein as other word association games like Codenames, or Word Slam, Decrypto is a game of breaking codes, and coming up with ideas. And I’m all out of ideas. In Decrypto, you and your crafty code-master agents must secretly unscramble codes without letting the enemy team do it as well. Each team will be equipped with a state-of-the-art, high-tech, cardboard card holder to hold their key words. One member of each team will be designated the Encryptor and must use all their knowledge of mathematics, algorithms and general statistical analysis to formulate intricate and complex algorithms – No I’m kidding, all you do is say code words that relate to the given key words. But we wary, the enemy is listening in to your communications and will be tracking your given code words every round and eventually compiling a list of previous code words. If too many code words are too similar, keywords can be deciphered and your code can be broken. Check out Decrypto here 3) Wavelength From the creators of “The Mind” and “Monikers” comes another mind-reading classic. In this game of psychic-guessing players must be on the same wavelength haha. Now that, that’s been said we can move on. The hook for Wavelength is in its very unique Dial Wheel. The entirety of the game revolves around this wheel. Wavelength puts players into 2 teams to see who thinks in the most similar way. To play, each team will draw a category card that reveals a spectrum (e.g. hot-cold, quiet-loud, ugly-GAMEOLOGY COLLABORATOR), this spectrum is shared amongst both teams. Once drawn, a single player will spin the wheel to see where the target location lands, based off this location, that player will provide a clue word after closing the dial’s shield. For example, on a spectrum of quiet-loud, a brilliant mind may give the clue: Coffee! (IT WAS A GOOD CLUE, SEAN! LEAVE ME ALONE). This will lead to profound, and insightful discussions on the volume of coffee, and scholarly questions such as: how loud is coffee? Is it as loud as tea? Does the addition of milk make it louder or quieter? Until finally, they will come to the obvious realisation that you’re trying to relate it to the sound of a kettle (WHICH IS LOUD, SEAN!!). Passive aggressive, hidden messages aside, once your clues are given, players on your team must turn the needle dial to where they think the target location is. BUT BE CAREFUL, as with all games that I write about, that cant be all there is. There must be a twist. The clues you give are heard by your opposition team as well. And they may venture a guess to where the target location is, whether it be more to the left or to the right of your teams guess. If they guess correctly they may sneak some points in when it’s not even their turn. So be careful, be crafty and don’t cross your wavelengths. Check out Wavelength here 4) Captain Sonar Have you ever played a boring game of Battleship and thought “Wow, I wish this was more chaotic, loud, had an overall feeling dread, was a 2 to 8 player game, and called ‘Captain Sonar’”? Well if so, do I have the game for you! Take control of the USS Incapable as you and your crew of friends control, repair and barely keep your submarine un-afloat in this game of tactical hide and seek. In Captain Sonar players will divide into two teams to pilot and maintain competing vessels, both seeking to destroy their opponent before their submarine succumbs to the wear and tear of the anticlimactic underwater warfare. Players will assume the many different roles of the Submarine Crew ranging from the Captain to steer the ship, to the engineer who stresses over all the damage the rest of crew do. Throughout the game, players must track their opponents through sonar scans and other special abilities. But watch out, every time an action is conducted, it creates stress and damages on your ship. If enough stress is applied on your ship, you are forced to surface to conduct repairs, leaving you and your crew exposed and vulnerable to attack. Every crew member has a role and each role is wonderfully unique and collaborative with other crew members. Are you ready to tackle and overcome the greatest threat of the Seven Sea’s? The looming threat of doom? The thing all sailors of war fear? Can you be a … PRODUCTIVE TEAM? Check out Captain Sonar here 5) You Got Crabs Do you have crabs? Want them? Now you do, in this unnecessarily mature-themed game of crab collection. In this super simple go-fish-esque (?) kind of game, you and your friends will pair up and try your darndest to horde crab cards until you have 4 of a kind. Sounds too simple? You’re right, this needs more rules. When you have 5 of a kind, you must tell your partner but without talking, or making sounds, and without letting outsiders know. “But Gameology Collaborator, how is this possible?” I hear you ask. Through non-verbal signs of course! The absolute joy of this game comes in the incredible creativity that can be found in the creation of your secret signs and the ridiculous paranoia when trying to discern the signs of other crab hoarders (Croaders?). A slight brush of the hair with the right hand, a tug of the right ear, BOTH at the same time? You’ll be wracking your brain if the signs are genuine or a ploy to bait you into false accusations. Come have some fun and share crabs amongst your friends in this CIA body-language training game. Check out You Got Crabs here 6) Mysterium Ever wanted to greet some ghost? Have a social séance? Mingle with the mangled? Well, look no further than the creepy and beautiful Mysterium spooky noises. Brought to you by the makers of beloved classic: DIXIT. In this harrowing, hollowing, heck of a good time, you and your fellow psychics are going to the local haunted house to investigate a …. Murder! more spooky noises But this isn’t some kind of basic Cluedo ripoff with amazing art and even better blog post writer, this is its own game, with its own ambitions and mechanic hooks. When you arrive at the haunted house, players will be struck with visions, a stunning array of colours and images in the form of artistic Vision Cards. These visions will be the way the ghost of the murdered victim will seek to communicate with the psychics. The ghost will be played by another player, who will seek to provide investigators with clues to point them to different suspects. The detail in these cards will reveal to investigators the suspect, the murder weapon and the location of the murder. If the correct combination is found for each individual player, the investigators can move onto the Endgame to find which of the suspects the murderer is. This ghostly, ghoulish, and sinister setting is wonderfully alleviated with its beautiful art, and the high quality production of its components. So close the curtains, light some candles and whip out the Ouija board, its murder mystery time with Casper the Ghost. Check out Mysterium here
Something New! A Brief Introduction to Living Card Games!
What is a LCG? A Living Card Game (LCG) is a term coined and trademarked by Fantasy Flight to describe several games in their expanding library of card games. LCGs operate as normal Trading Card Games (TCG) but differ in the way expansions, packs and new releases are distributed. Unlike TCG, new releases for LCGs are sold in set, predefined packs with no difference between packs of the same release. Without discrepancies between packs of the same collection, there is no rarity in cards and players will always know the contents of the packs they purchase. To assist you in choosing a game and its expansions, here are brief descriptions of some popular LCGs and the expansions for them in order of release. Arkham Horror Arkham Horror is a cooperative adventure game based on H.P Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos. In Arkham Horror players take on the role of paranormal investigators, gathering clues and solving mysteries around the world starting with the haunted streets of Arkham. Players will collect items fight off horrifying abominations, and uncover the secrets of the many dark corners these Lovecraftian horrors call home. Through the course of the core game and the many other narratives, players will acquire new skills, allies, items, weapons, and spells. Arkham Horror’s many and compelling stories’ twists and endings will have players replaying their investigations to see the other possible outcomes based on different decisions made in the game. But be sure to investigate thoroughly with each play through to avoid being defeated or driven insane with each new horror. The many expansions listed below take players through different narratives and new investigations that continue to unfold with each new cycle update. The Dunwich Legacy cycleThe Path to Carcosa cycleThe Forgotten Age cycleThe Circle Undone cycleThe Dream-Eaters cycleThe Innsmouth Conspiracy cycleStand-alone scenarios Check it out here: Arkham Horror LCG Legend of the Five Rings Set in the realm of Rokugan, a fictional and fantastical land based on the culture and designs of feudal Japan, players must face against rival clans for honour and control. In Legend of the Five Rings, players must duel with both militaristic and diplomatic means simultaneously. Despite the war, treachery and deception, clans are still bound to certain rules of warfare and must remain within those boundaries as swords and spies are not nearly as important as honour in the land of Rokugan. Legend of the Five Rings is a dueling LCG, whereby players must construct two different decks: a Dynasty Deck for the players’ provinces, strongholds, and characters and a Conflict Deck which contains, a players’ recruits, tactics, and upgrades. The game is played in steps and rounds to ultimately destroy their opponents Stronghold Province, reach an honour threshold, or deplete the opponent’s honour. In addition to the core set Legend of the Five Rings, has many expansions in the form of cycles. Each cycle contains different themes and the packs released in the same cycle are made to play together though this is not completely necessary. Included in each cycle is a narrative that continues with each pack to further involve you in its in-depth story. Clan PacksImperial CycleElemental CycleInheritance CycleDominion Cycle Check it out here: Legend of The 5 Rings Android Netrunner The cyberpunk-iest game you’ll find, Android Netrunner has technologically augmented speed hackers, breaking into giant mega corporations stealing their credits and uncovering their dirty secrets. In Android Netrunner, players face off, each either taking the role of a Mega Corporation protecting their secrets or a tech savvy hacker trying to breach through the Corporation’s many security systems. In this asymmetrical LCG, players will have completely different styles of play, the very layout of the game will be vastly different for both sides, so an all in one strategy is impossible, therefore making the deckbuilding aspect of this game even more crucial but also potentially more creative. To win in Android Netrunner, a Corporation must research and gain agendas which are worth a specific number of victory points, in turn, Hackers must break into a corporations many servers and uncover these agendas, effectively stealing the agenda’s victory points. To combat this thievery, Corporations must fund and implement data fortifications of varying degrees and complexity in the form of ICE. ICE is used to stop Hackers from entering into servers and may seek to deal damage to attacking hackers. Hackers must stay ahead of the corporation’s fortifications by upgrading their hardware and thus gaining new abilities. By not only gaining abilities but by creating a scheme and plan of attack players will gain entry into various servers and wreak havoc for the poor Mega Corporation. If you’ve ever wanted to be in control of a soulless Monopoly, or a cyborg hacker who whispers “I’m in” to themself, this is the game for you. GenesisSpinLunarSanSanMumbadFlashpointRed SandsKitara Check it out here: Android Netrunner The Lord of the Rings A cooperative adventure card game, the Lord of the Rings LCG, places players in the shoes of adventurers striving to stem the reach of Sauron and his armies of Mordor. In the core set of the Lord of the Rings Card Game, 1-2 players (or up to 4 players with an additional core set) will choose one of 4 starter decks for their collection of heroes. Players will then work together to tackle scenarios and will complete them if they are able to overcome all the stages in the quest deck. During a scenario, the encounter deck, filled with challenges and dangerous fiends, will attempt to damage players’ heroes and raise a player’s threat level. This threat level determines the level of risk a specific player has taken on and if a player’s threat level exceeds 50, they are eliminated from the game. The adventures told in the game are not retellings of previous adventures from the books or movies but completely new ones that allow players to customise their fellowship with new heroes, artefacts and alliances. This also means there are new enemies and new threats to encounter. For the heroes players bring into their fellowship, players will be able to customise their abilities, traits and play style through customisation of player decks, and with over 200 cards available in the core set players can customise their fellowship almost instantly. So gather your heroes and prepare to fight. Shadows of MirkwoodKhazad-dûmDwarrowdelfThe HobbitHeirs of NúmenorAgainst the ShadowThe Voice of IsengardThe Ring-makerThe Lord of the RingsThe Lost RealmAngmar AwakensThe Grey Havens Check it out here: Lord of The Rings The Card Game
💸𝐆𝐚𝐦𝐞𝐨𝐥𝐨𝐠𝐲'𝐬 𝐓𝐨𝐩 𝟖 𝐁𝐨𝐚𝐫𝐝 𝐆𝐚𝐦𝐞𝐬 𝐔𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐫 $𝟓𝟎💸
Sometimes even when money gets tight you cant fight the urge to splurge on a new board game. Well never fear, even when pinching those pennies we have a list of our top 8 games under $50 to give you and your family and friends an epic gaming night without breaking the bank. And let us know down in the comments below your favorite game-on-a-budget and we will feature our favorite review in the article. 1) Dungeon Academy A game of adventure, death and 30 second planning, Dungeon Academy puts players into the shoes of early learning adventurers, trying their hand at navigating dungeons, stealing loot and brutally murdering relatively peaceful monsters whilst under the influence of mana potions. Playing little chibi warriors of adventure and glory, players will navigate through a 4x4 room dungeon, slaying monsters, pillaging loot, all whilst barely scraping by. The game begins by literally constructing a small dungeon by folding and attaching paper walls together to create a 3D model. To generate rooms, 16 dice are rolled and placed perfectly to fit in your newly constructed dungeon. The faces of the dice show what is in that room, it may be monsters, potions or even treasure. Once the dice are rolled players are given between 30 and 60 seconds depending on the chosen difficulty to map out their little adventures path through the different rooms. This is where chaos reigns in Dungeon Academy. With only 30 seconds to choose, players don’t have time to calculate the optimal path for points and survival and thus players will often take a path of least resistance and score little points or a path of most resistance and will not be able to score points at all because they will be defeated. The game relies on this time trial to force players into quick decision making, Allowing for reckless and often hilarious miscalculated mayhem in Dungeon Academy. Check out Dungeon Academy here! 2) Onitama Onitama is a chess-like strategy game, whereby players will control 4 pawns and a king. The objective of the game is to topple your opponent’s king by moving onto its occupied space on the 5x5 board. Onitama is a simple two player game with a very simple goal, what makes Onitama interesting is its movement mechanics. At the beginning of the game 5 random movement cards are chosen at random from a deck, 2 are dealt to each player and the fifth is placed on the side of the neoprene play mat included in the game. On a player’s turn they may move any one of their pieces as indicated by one of their 2 movement cards. Once a players turn is over they will swap their used movement card with the extra fifth card set aside from earlier. This will continue until a player has used one their pawns or king to take their opponents king. This abstract movement mechanic is deceitful in its simplicity as there is strategy in limiting how players will move and how movement will never be the same twice in a row. Not only will players have to manage their area pieces area control but also when to use their movement cards and when to save it, if only to deny the other player of a sneaky diagonal move. Check out Onitama here! 3) UNLOCK Series This is not a single “under $50” game but all the Unlock Games (except for one) are under $50 so I’m counting it. Unlock is a series of escape room style puzzles where players will navigate through differently themed adventures and stories by peering through keyholes, uncovering secret passageways and trying but failing to guess 4 digit passcodes when you eventually lose your spirit and have gone into overtime. Unlock is a colourful, beautiful and clever as each different scenario is made by a different person and the art for each adventure is perfectly matched and equally unique as it is also done by a different artist each time. You could honestly just collect them as the art for these games is just fascinating to go through. As for gameplay, fans of Escape Room or Exit games will feel at home in the many types of convoluted but equally clever puzzles, most of which will have you saying “how did I not see that 5 minutes ago? Arrghh” more times than you can count. There are aspects that may seem daunting but players will quickly come to love, such as the companion app for your phone. With this, youll be able to track your time, enter key passcodes and gently guided through the a-maze-ing scenarios of Unlock. The different adventures are concise but thought-provoking which I think makes for a great but not overwhelming cooperative experience. Check out all the Unlock series here! 4) Throw Throw Burrito Described as the game of “Weaponised Mexican Food” Throw Throw Burrito is a fun and undoubtedly dumb game of Go Fish and Dodgeball. In Throw Throw Burrito players will try their darndest to collect a full set of matching cards to earn points. If the matching cards you collect have burritos on them, you must quickly grab one of those super squishy burrito babies and chuck them at another player. If they are hit, they lose points! There are many different burrito cards to collect. Most of them initiate mini games such as • Burrito war where the table turns into a free-for-all battle royale of burrito throwing mayhem. • Burrito duel, where two players duel out just as they did in the Old West, except with burritos instead of guns and heelies instead of spurs. • And SO MUCH MORE Let’s be honest this is not an epic game of strategy and planning, this is a dumb fun game of throwing non-destructible soft toys at your friends and doing cool combat rolls to avoid a point deducting burritos. What’s not to like? Check out Throw Throw Burrito here! 5) Bohnanza A game of bartering, greed, and shouting over your friends to get your bids in. In Bohnanza, players will assume the roles of humble bean farmers just trying to plant, grow, and finally sell beans of varying rarity to score victory points. Going around the table, players will draw a hand of cards and these are “planted” in the player’s field in whatever order they were drawn in or placed on top of another bean card of the same type, simulating growth in your bean crop. The aspect of Bohnanza that creates tension, strategy, and absolute carnage is in the bartering phase of the game. Once beans are planted, the active player then draws 2 beans from a deck, these beans may be traded with other players. What isn’t sold must be planted in the owner’s field and if you don’t have space left you must uproot and prematurely sell your young beans thus costing you a larger sum later on. Thus providing an incentive to get rid of your cards so you don’t overcharge other farmers. The desperation of players trying to greedily horde all the green beans or the coveted coffee bean is hilarious to watch but horrible when it’s your turn to shout madly over another player during a chaotic bidding war. The game continues until the deck is run out 3 times and then players are forced to revaluate their decorum after 45 minutes of possibly regrettable screaming matches. Check out Bohnanza here! 6) Tiny Epic Mechs Have you ever wanted to wear epic power armour, pilot an giant death machine and fight for absolute dominance against your friends and family? WELL NOW YOU CAN, except it’s not giant, there’s no death, and it’s kind of cute BUT it is still EPIC. This is TINY EPIC MECHS a game of spot on naming conventions and king-of-the-hill style combat. In Tiny Epic Mechs players will skilfully weave their power-suited characters around an arena with grace and speed through programmed movements. Once everyone has finished moving, everyone starts shooting until enemies are defeated and ammo is wasted. Weapons can be found throughout the game and since weapons are one use only, you better stock up unless you’re looking to be outgunned. To gain victory points, players must deal as much damage as they can and gain the crowds favour and if you’re particularly crafty, hop in the battle mech become a target for everyone else and get even more points if you can survive. So come on, race in, and fight for glory, honour and tiny cardboard victory tokens. Check out Tiny Epic Mech here! 7) The Bloody Inn Time to be bad people doing bad things at The Bloody Inn. In this game you are members of a quaint but stingy, farmer family who seek to make fortune in running a small inn but don’t be fooled by the cute concept, this is just a façade hiding the fact that you are all scoundrels, rapscallions and knaves of the worst kind. To begin playing, players will welcome numerous guests into their humble lodgings, once settled and asleep the players begin their devious and murderous plan for victory and wealth. These plans take place through 2 of the 5 available actions: Bribe a guests into being your accomplice, build a structure in which victims may be buried under, kill a guest, bury a victim under a structure to claim their coin purse, and finally launder money as to not arouse suspicion on your ill-gotten gains. Players must juggle murdering victims and being able to successfully bury them to gain points but be wary, if any room contains a police officer and an unburied victim, the murdering player must sacrifice precious coins to the local gravedigger to hastily fix their mistake before they are found out. Can you be the better murderer? The worst of the worst? The Inn Keeper Killer? Or will you flounder and have panic attacks over all the dead bodies you’ve left lying around on the floor? Check out The Bloody Inn here! 8) Players Choice As is becoming the norm we just love to hear what YOU the player has to say - Either leave your own review for a game under $50 in the comments below OR on whatever post lead you here and we will choose our favorite for other to see with fame and fortune to surely follow.
Gameology Statement On Extended Shipping Times
At Gameology, we are doing everything possible to keep delivering during the coronavirus pandemic and get your games into your hands. With our business adapting to the challenges the current pandemic presents, our standard practices of delivery have been impacted. Unfortunately, Australia Post are experiencing significant delivery delays due to limited flights, hygiene and social distancing requirements (such as one person unloading a loose load trailer which halves productivity) and an increase in parcel volumes as more people shop online. We are committed to continuing to work hard to make sure we are sending out orders from our warehouse on time as we always have and understand the current delays are causing frustration. We have been advised by Australia Post that they are continuing to make rapid improvements to adapt to this situation and better both their communication and delivery methods. We ask that you please be patient during these times, as while Gameology is getting your orders out on time and is always willing to chase up an order that seems to be taking longer than expected we are finding that there are cases where we can only wait for Australia Post to perform their service under these tough circumstances. From The Gameology Team
👦𝐆𝐚𝐦𝐞𝐨𝐥𝐨𝐠𝐲'𝐬 𝐓𝐨𝐩 𝟏𝟏 𝐁𝐞𝐬𝐭 𝐅𝐚𝐦𝐢𝐥𝐲 𝐆𝐚𝐦𝐞𝐬 👧
Some of the best times I have had playing board games was sitting down as a kid with my family and a game of Monopoly but as time has moved on board games have evolved so we have put together our list of absolute classics for any family board game night. Let us know what games your family absolutely loves down below and help others get inspired for their family gaming sessions this Easter 🐰 1) Magic Maze Easily the loudest game with no talking allowed, Magic Maze is a chaotic flurry of team coordination with no communication. In Magic Maze players must guide 4 adventurers in a mystical maze seeking specific treasure and the exit before time runs out. Since players are able to see the entire map as they traverse the multitude of randomly placed rooms there should be no issue, right? The challenge in Magic Maze is in the movement of characters and team coordination. Each player at the beginning of the game is given a movement card, displaying a direction (N, S, E, or W), and/or an interaction ability which allows for movement through special obstacles. These cards allow players to move any of the 4 adventurers in the specific direction that is shown on their card. The only way to communicate in Magic Maze is through a special wooden token that can only be used to (gently) knock against the table. Thus combining these mechanics with no verbal communication makes the game a hot mess of silent irritation as players strive to gain the attention of others and direct their focus to specific characters. Check out Magic Maze here 2) Telestrations There’s not too much to say about Telestrations, it is a game of just reckless hilarity. The core concept of the game is adequately summarised in its tag line: “The telephone game sketched out”. In Telestrations, players will first gain a word to draw. Once drawn out on their sketchbooks, the players will pass their sketches to their neighbouring player who will then guess the word based on the previous players drawing. They will write the word and pass it to the next player, who will in turn draw the word and the cycle will continue until each sketch has made it around the table. The fun in Telestrations isn’t made by the amazing drawings people can create but the awful ones, with awful guesses. The joy when you find out your humble pigeon drawing has been misinterpreted as a duck and then further misinterpreted as a car and eventually ending in a final guess of “Boulder” is funner than it should be. Check out Telestrations here 3) Dixit A beautiful game with cards depicting abstract and artful images, Dixit allows players to weave their own narratives into this humble and simple card game. In Dixit, players sequentially gain the role of the ‘Story Teller,” and must describe a short tale in the form of a sentence, (this tale may be as abstract as they like) to describe one card in their hand. After hearing the tale, all players secretly place a card in the centre that is somehow related to the Story, the Story Teller shuffles these cards before revealing them to hide the owners’ identity. The players must then try and guess which of the revealed cards belong to the Story Teller. Players collect points if there cards are incorrectly chosen by other players or if they correctly guess the Story Tellers card. If all or no players guess the Story Teller’s card, all players receive 2 points and the Story Teller is awarded none. Otherwise, 3 is scored for both the Story Teller and correct players. This strange scoring method is the hook in Dixit. Story Tellers must craft an intricate narrative that is imaginative, abstract and obscure enough to deter most players but still be undemanding enough to lure one or two crafty individuals. Check out Dixit here 4) Queendomino Queendomino puts players in place of Royals looking to expand their kingdom in this game of tile drafting. Queendomino utilises the same concept as its predecessor: Kingdomino, in that players draft tiles to connect to their castle and kingdom by matching a drafted tile’s side to one previously placed. The placement of tiles to matching ones provide points that grow exponentially with every connecting tile. Unlike Kingdomino, Queendomino introduces new mechanics and levels of complexity, through its addition of knights to tax your lands, buildings to promote prosperity and dragons to torment your enemies. By having the most knights on the board, players may also win the Queen’s favour and by doing so acquire buildings at a discount but watch out because players may also bribe the dragon that lives nearby with their taxes to scorch opposing players lands and take away buildings. Queendomino is a fierce game where players must keep track of their actions, turn order, and most importantly tiles to stay ahead of other kingdoms and the dragon. Check out Queendomino 5) Munchkin Get ready for some door kicking, dragon slaying, feeble help-asking renegade fun in Munchkin. In Munchkin, players assume the roles of adventurers parading from room to room seeking loot and fighting monsters to gain levels. First player to slay enough monsters to upgrade themselves to level 10 wins the game. Munchkin is played in a series of rounds until a player wins. In these rounds, players kick open doors to reveal monsters, curses or special abilities, then rummage around the empty room for loot. Players may also look for more monsters to fight during this phase but make sure you don’t bite off more than you can chew, if players encounter a monster with a high enough level they may just take all that gear you’ve been hoarding. When encountering powerful monsters, players may choose to ask for help from other players, in exchange for a share in the acquired treasures after the battle. Asking for assistance will occur many times in this game, the trick is to not give your opponents too many opportunities to save you or else you may make them too powerful. Check out The entire Munchkin Range here 6) BANG Ever wanna shoot your family? Same, so saddle up, pick a role, and join in for some wild western fun. In Bang, players take the roles of wild western sheriff and their deputies, the bandits they pursue, or ignore all the rules and be the solo renegade. The goal? Try to eliminate each other before your team is wiped out. At the beginning of the game, players will be given secret roles, these roles will remain secret even from their fellow allies, so half the fun is trying to discern who is on your team and who is the snake trying to blend in. Throughout the games, players will gain new upgrades to increase their guns’ range, increase their health, and much more. As well as these upgrades, players will garner bullets, these are more precious in gold but be careful not to shoot your friends. There are 4 different roles in Bang, all with completely different objectives. Sheriffs, must eliminate the renegade and bandits, the deputies share this goal and must protect the Sheriff at all costs. The bandits must eliminate the Sheriff regardless of who is in the way (bandits still get rewards for eliminating other bandits). Finally, the renegade wants to be the new Sheriff, and so seeks to be the last man standing. These roles and how players must employ teamwork and social deception is the key to winning. Check out Bang here 7) Word Slam A very simple word association game, there is not much to say, actually you cant say anything in this team, communication game. In Word Slam players are split into teams, a player on that team is designated the Storyteller who has a secret word, and must use a series of the provided 105 explanatory cards to weave a narrative that will lead your teammates to that secret word. Each of the explanatory cards has a random verb, adjective, noun or preposition. The game is played simultaneously for each team and thus teams must race by placing as many cards down as they can until their team can guess the secret word wins. Word Slam is as simple as it is fun, a great game for families who love to compete and yell simultaneously. Check out Word Slam here Players Choice Thanks to Kayne for this epic review of not 1 but 3 games - You are a champion! 8) Takenoko ‘Takenoko’, I simple and beautiful game about growing a Bamboo garden for the emporer to visit, the most impressive gardener is the winner! Which sounds easy, until a particularly hungry Panda comes in to eat all your hard work! With hidden objectives, easy rules and amazing components, Takenoko is a must have and my pick for #1 family boardgame. 2-4 players, about 45-60 minutes to play. 9) Machikoro ‘Machi Koro’, Build your town, throw some dice and steal other players money, all for the sake of being the first to build your 4 amazing landmarks. Machi Koro Is perfect for any family gane night, incredible simple, fast and fun for young and old alike! Machi Koro is alot of fun packed into a wonderfully colourful box. 2-4 players, roughly 30 minutes per game. 10) Ticket To Ride ’Ticket to ride, there is a reason this game is so popular, one of the highest selling games, ticket to ride will have you building train routes across countries all while trying to hinder the other players from doing the same. Ticket to ride is accesable to most ages and has excellent, easy rules with great replay value. Definetly a must have for all Family orientated boardgame collections. 2-5 players anywhere from 45-90 minutes realistically. 11) Your Choice! That's right we are once again reserving this slot for the people! Write your review of your favourite family game not on this list in a comment either down below or over on Facebook for your chance to be immortalised in the Grand Gameology Compendium for the rest of time. Board Games, now more than ever, are an amazing way to spend quality time with your partners or family, so grab a game or 2 and get rolling!
👉 𝐆𝐚𝐦𝐞𝐨𝐥𝐨𝐠𝐲'𝐬 𝐓𝐨𝐩 𝟭𝟭* 𝐇𝐢𝐠𝐡 𝐫𝐞𝐩𝐥𝐚𝐲 𝐕𝐚𝐥𝐮𝐞 𝐆𝐚𝐦𝐞𝐬 👈
At Gameology we are all about giving customers the best bang for their buck and there is no better feeling than buying a game that you are able to keep coming back to and replaying for years. There are so many games we can think of that have multiple play sessions with friends burned into our memories that we can't stop coming back to but for now, we had to limit it to 8 to get you started. 1) One Night Ultimate Werewolf A game of mystery and social deception, One Night Ultimate Werewolf pits werewolves against helpless villagers. Players assume the roles of these villagers or werewolves. To win, Team Werewolf must remain undetected and ensure none of their fellow conspirators are caught. As for the villagers, they must ensure they accuse the correct person of lycanthropy. This may seem to be simple enough goal but the complexity lies in the incredible variety of roles players can choose for both werewolf and villager teams. Each role allows for a unique ability to confuse villagers, reveal identities or just simply cause chaos for both teams. One Night is an incredibly quick party game, only taking a maximum of 20 minutes, but with the large variety of different roles and combinations, this is a game with immense replayability and that’s not even considering all the expansions that add even more roles, mechanics and teams. Check out One Night Ultimate Werewolf Here 2) Smash Up Smash Up Mixing Dinosaurs with Zombies or Star Trek Characters with fairies, what's your winning combo? In Smash Up players choose 2 decks from an ever-growing line up of popular fictional themes, and ‘shufflebuilds’ them together to create a winning combination. Each faction is unique in specialty and abilities so choose carefully. Once chosen players will summon minions, play actions or apply upgrades and downgrades until they are finally able to destroy Base cards. The player with the most crushing power gains the most victory points. Smash Up’s diverse range of factions from popular fiction make every game and deck unique, so you never have to play the same way twice. Check out Smash Up here 3) FLUXX Fluxx is a quick party game for 2 to 6 players, in Fluxx there are only 2 rules, pick up and play a card. To win in Fluxx, players must skew the win conditions in their favor. Each card played alters the win condition and if a player already has achieved the specified goal, they win. This constantly changing dynamic makes Fluxx competitive and constantly changing game, and as such, ensures the game will never be played the same twice. Check out FLUXX 4) Scythe A Stonemeier gem, Scythe is asymmetrical tile domination game for 1-5 players (1-7 with expansions) with some of the greatest art to have ever graced a board game. Set in a fictional 1920s Eastern European ground war, players will each take control of a nation’s army, workers, key figure and Giant Battle Mechs. Players must gather resources, build their armies and infrastructure, and strive to control the coveted Factory Tile in the centre of the map. Though technically a domination game, domination is merely a means to an end, as to win in Scythe players must balance their popularity and economy, and try to accomplish 6 of the 10 objectives in the game Check out Scythe here 5) Crokinole A game of dexterity, Crokinole is a beautiful combination of precise skill and wild, erratic, sometimes even destructive flicking, In Crokinole, players will either duel or face-off teams of 2, flicking their small wooden tokens gracefully across the board towards the centre. In pursuit of the centre hole, players will also be trying to knock opposing pieces out of play to deny points being awarded. The satisfying sound of a wooden token knocking a piece out of play after floating silently over the board cannot be properly expressed in this post, and the added glee from seeing the opponents aguish cannot be properly expressed in words. As a dexterity game, the game will alter depending on the pieces present and the strategies players must come up with in response. Check out Crokinole 6) VOLT Smash, grab, shoot, and destroy in this Robot Wars board game adaptation. Volt pits players against each other in this gladiator style, fighting board game. In Volt, players are given the option to add or remove complexity. For players new to the game, there is an easy-start option whereby players will be able to play the game with only its core mechanics. In this mode, players will race around a number of completely unique maps collecting victory points to score. To hinder other players, robots are able to shoot and ram into the opposition, and if enough damage is dealt the damaged robot is eliminated. In its more complex form, for experienced players, Robots can acquire upgrades and in so doing, adds new and game-changing mechanics. In this mode, players will have to factor in opponent's shields, new weapons, and upgrades. Do you have what it takes to destroy the competition? Check out Volt here 7) Race for the Galaxy Playing mega, galactic civilizations, players must attempt to bring planets and their advancements into their monopoly. In this card game of strategic hand management, players will attempt to gain resource-rich planets, technologies, and social developments to further build their empire and score points. Planets themselves provide game-ending victory points, resources harvested from planets vary in rarity and thus value and provide players with bonus points. Finally, the technologies and social developments give players new abilities and bonuses from their turns. These different aspects of the game by themselves create an interesting game but the real jewel of Race for the Galaxy is in its simultaneous phase and turn order. In Race for the Galaxy players secretly choose which of the 7 game phases they would like activated for that turn, and in doing so opens that phase for all other players. By finding the balance between what you need but simultaneously denying a phase for other players is the goal to synergising your strategy and thus achieving your victory. Check out Race for the Galaxy here 8) Players Pick I enjoyed so much last week reading everyone's reviews of their favorite 2 player games I thought it would be a good idea to bring it back and Shout out to Navin Gulavita for his review of Star Wars Rebellion in our best 2 players game selection it has me excited to give it a go myself. Just like last week to get yourself featured in the Gameology library from now until the end of time just leave a comment down below or over on the Facebook post here: and give us a review of your favorite high replay value game. 2021 Update 9) Quest Quest is a quick, modern, and dark twist on the already highly re-playable "The Resistance: Avalon". Players can no longer vote to approve teams and making this a much quicker and more elegant game.For those who are not familiar, in The Resistance: Avalon, players are dealt secret roles and are placed in 2 teams, Merlin's Followers and the Minions of Mordred. Merlin and his followers must discern who among them is evil and Mordred's Minions must discern who holds the role of Merlin and sabotage quests. Each round, players vote on who must go on quests to help the realm. In The Resistance: Avalon in a group of experienced players, the voting is a great way to extrapolate information and do mini bluffs, but if any players aren't incredibly knowledgeable in the game it always had the ability to throw a kink into the game or else be non-essential. In 2020 we have all know how important it is to make everything essential! Quest streamlines the game, making fast fun and undeniably re-playable. 10) Galaxy Trucker 2nd Edition This may be a little sneaky putting this game in the 2021 Update seeing as the original came out in 2007 but look at that art and wonderful vibrant colours. Admittedly this edition doesn't change anything substantial in terms of rules and mechanics but with such a fun game why fix something that's not broken? For the uninitiated, in Galaxy Trucker, players build their trucks in real time, scrounging together garbage provided to them by the loving corporations. Once built and assembled, players must race through a circuit encountering a multitude of events ranging from space pirates to new planets rife with precious resources. All the while trying to keep their Galaxy Truck together. In this game players will laugh and cry as pieces of your ships are slowly torn away from meteorites and blast cannons and you all desperately try to keep your craft afloat. Each time you play you'll think of better ways to assemble your ship and hold on to your dear credits. 11) Calico Unlike the other games on this list Calico is not one of the quickest games but that's not to say it isn't incredibly re-playable. In Calico players will be assembling bits and pieces into a luxurious quilt. The quilt will score based on aesthetic appeal. But more than that, depending on how you arrange your quilt pieces, you can attract CATS to your quilt. Each cat is picky about how they like their quilt arrange and how many pieces but depending on how much effort you choose to put into your quilt you will be happily rewarded with some high point kitties! Calico keeps you playing with fun modular objective tiles that change the way you play depending on how you've chosen to arrange your starting tiles. Thus making it so no two games are the same!
🃏 𝐆𝐚𝐦𝐞𝐨𝐥𝐨𝐠𝐲'𝐬 𝟖 𝐁𝐞𝐬𝐭 𝟐 𝐏𝐥𝐚𝐲𝐞𝐫 𝐁𝐨𝐚𝐫𝐝 𝐆𝐚𝐦𝐞𝐬 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟎 🃏
One of the most common questions we get here at Gameology is can you recommend me a game for just 2 players?Whether it be yourself and your partner, housemate, sibling or friend these games are all designed to bring the most out of the 2 player experience.So without further ado (and in no particular order) please check out Gameologys top 8 recommendations for the best 2 play board game experiences.Also, let us know what we might have missed out in a comment below, we are always looking for more recommendations for games to play ourselves and would love to hear from you ✌ 1) War of the Ring War of the Ring is an incredibly heavy and strategic war game, with multiple ways to win and countless strategies. War of the Ring is easily one of the best area control and tactical world domination games. One player controls the vast armies of Mordor, trying to search for the Ring of Power and corrupt its holder or, dominate and overrun the cities of Free People of Middle Earth. The other player controls the many races and armies of the Free People of Middle Earth, as well as the Fellowship of the Ring. This player must strive to get Frodo to Mount Doom before he and the rest of the Fellowship s corrupted. Failing that, the player must also defeat the armies of Mordor to claim victory. The War of the Ring is a complex war game, with various avenues to victory for both sides. The complexity is only increased with the addition of diplomacy and corruption mechanics which ensures plenty of replay value. Check out War of the Ring here 2) Boss Monster A play on the conventional story of dungeon crawling adventurers fighting monsters and getting loot, Boss Monster puts players in command of the actual Boss Monster and their dungeon. In this game, players compete to see who can make the most enticing but also the most dangerous dungeons to lure and defeat aspiring “good guys.” By managing the balance between enticing enough rooms brimmed with loot (GLORIOUS LOOT), and the strength of the monsters that dwell in these rooms, players will try to lure adventurers and hopefully defeat them before they can reach the final room and defeat their Boss Monster. Check out Boss Monster here 3) Dominion Dominion is a brilliant deck and engine building game where players must gain, discard, remove, and buy cards to create the most effective deck to purchase victory points. When there no more victory points to buy, the player with the most wins. The concept and thematics of this game are relatively simple, but the complexity of card abilities and the countless combinations that can be made, make the game incredibly competitive and satisfying. Though made for up to 4 players, this game plays best at a fast pace with 2 players. Check out Dominion here 4) 7 Wonders Duel In 7 Wonders Duel players will compete to build the better civilisation while simultaneously sabotage their opponents. In this civilisation building, combo denying, card drafting game, players will progress through three ages (rounds). To win, players will will garner new technologies to advance their society, draft military units to conquer their opponent, or even build prestigious buildings to garner enough victory points to steal victory. Maintaining a balance of these different aspects and assuring the opponent is unable to, is key to building your society and wonders. Check out 7 Wonders Duel here 5) Tatsu Tatsu is a game of dueling dragon armies. Utilising 3 different kinds of dragons, players attempt to outmaneuver their opponents and destroy opposing forces before they can recoup their numbers. Tatsu is a strategic chess-like game for 2 players, incorporating dice and different token abilities. Takes around 30 minutes to play. Check out Tatsu here 6) Keyforge Keyforge is a simple two-player game of collecting resources to forge keys and win the game. Simple in concept, Keyforge is a unique take on trading card games as the decks you gather are not manually built or traded but are bought premade and unalterable. Each deck is made completely unique, with a new collection of cards, and a new randomly generated title. The incredible variation in decks allow for ridiculously powerful decks but also ridiculously bad decks, the luck factor may seem intimidating but honestly it only adds to the fun. The cards themselves are playful, colourful and full of special abilities that range from the mundane to the game-changing. Check out the entire range of Keyforge here 7) Arkham Horror A cooperative adventure game, Arkham Horror has players take the role of paranormal investigators traveling the streets of Arkham in the midst of the roaring twenties. One of the 8 ancient ones is chosen and it’s up to players to stop them from entering their small world. By fighting monsters, creating allies, and acquiring a multitude of skills, weapons and items, players will advance through the games’ compelling narrative, closing the portals to dark dimensions that threaten to tear their small town apart. Check out Arkham Horror here 8) Star Wars Rebellion Shout out to NavinGulavita for his review of Star WarsRebellion This game is essentially the original trilogy of Star Wars contained in a box. From hero and villain led missions, strategic decisions, mass productions of troopers and vehicles, epic ground+space battles, planetary conquest there is very little that is not in this game. The Galactic Empire is searching the galaxy one planet at a time to find and destroy the secret rebel base whilst the Rebel Alliance are trying to survive long enough and achieve objectives to bring sympathy and support to the cause. If you are a fan of Star Wars, strong theming, clever game mechanics, war and area control gaming, then this is the game for you!
