board-games

Four days, 28 miles of walking, too much money spent, and a lot of great games at Gen Con 50.

Mombasa #

• 2 plays with 2 people
• New to me

I’m not sure what I was expecting with this game. It languished on the shelf for a while, largely forgotten about due to its bland cover and four player maximum (my game group nights have been growing). It was about to go up for auction when I walked my wife to try it out with me.

Scythe #

• 1 play with 5 people
• Played before

This was the third time I’ve played the game and the first time where it wasn’t truly a blowout for the winner. I’m happy to see that the scores can be a bit more balanced than previously thought and I’m still enjoying the game quite a bit. It’s smooth, easy to teach, and absolutely beautiful. There’s some interaction, but not too much for those that want to build up their territory and earn points more peacefully.

The Voyages of Marco Polo #

• 1 plays with 2 people
• Played before

This is a game that seems to get forgotten about in our house for no good reason. Both my wife and I really enjoy the variety offered in this game along with the decisions you have to make. Rolling poorly isn’t a death knell, and you can typically come back from poor decisions. That being said, the game is rather quick and doesn’t overstay it’s welcome.

Sons of Anarchy: Men of Mayhem #

• 1 play with 3 people
• Played before

I’ve only played Sons of Anarchy a few times, but I’ve enjoyed it those times. It’s an interesting combination of dice, worker placement, and area control that I haven’t seen in this combination elsewhere. Also, the complete lack of victory points and desire for cold hard cash makes for an interesting difference from most games on the market.

Through the Ages #

• 1 play with 2 people
• Played before

As we figure out how to play with wars and aggressions, our scores are slowly working their way up to peaceful-game-level scores. This game is so odd to me, that I’ve played it as much as I have in such a short time and the game takes hours to play. Most of my games have been online and that obviously helps, but even still, there’s a good number of face-to-face plays as well.

Food Chain Magnate #

• 1 play with 2 players
• Played before

I haven’t played a “full” game of this yet, but the more I play it, the more I like it. In the game, you’re building org charts, producing marketing campaigns (to drive demand of goods), and then satisfying demand (to make money).

Raptor #

• 2 plays with 2 players
• Played before

The more I play Raptor the more I appreciate how clever it is. Your choices are limited, but difficult and picking the right card is never as easy as looking only at your hand of three cards. Once you have a few plays under your belt, you’ll start to look at what your opponent has played and know what they need, with that in mind, you can play cards that directly counter those needs: know your scientist opponent needs more scientists on the board and he’s played his 6? Play your 2 so it’s a wasted card. I feel like this one has more depth the more I play it and I really appreciate owning it.

Russian Railroads #

• 1 play with 3 players
• Played before

I’ve played Russian Railroads before, but I hadn’t played the German Railroads expansion before, so I suggested playing a game online this week with my co-workers. I like the few changes made to the base game, but I realized that the game doesn’t do enough for me to bother keeping it. It’s a straight efficiency puzzle and I’m realizing over time that those kinds of games are interesting at first blush, but become old quickly for me.

Istanbul #

• 2 plays with 2 players
• Played before

This was a game that my wife asked me to buy and taught me to play. That’s reason enough in my book to keep it and play it from time to time, but I do enjoy the choices I have in Istanbul: the path to take, the actions to use, how to reclaim your assistants and what to do with your wisecracking family member who always seems to end up at the police station for one reason or another.