board-games

Elysium #

• 1 play with 3 players and 1 play with 2 players in the past two weeks
• Played before

I’ve mostly played Elysium with 3 or 4 players, so it was nice to finally be able to try the game with only 2 players. With 2 players, it’s definitely a much faster game since the number of cards drafted stays the same. Also, I feel like your choices open up quite a bit as each player can develop an individual strategy.

The Duke #

• 1 play with 2 players this week
• Played before

This is one of those games that just doesn’t get to the table nearly as much as I’d like since it’s two players only. It takes what I like about chess (its strategy and different movements) and removes what I don’t like (its static setup). I like that a piece’s movement changes after moving and that each piece does something slightly different. I do find myself looking up the very short rules since I don’t play it often, but if you played quite a bit, this would be a 10-20 minute game each time.

1775: Rebellion #

• 1 play with 4 players this week
• Played before

This is a game that just doesn’t get played nearly enough for my preferences. It’s one of the few team games I own and it’s about the only way I can play a war game. If you haven’t played it before, it’s a very light area control board game where you have four players that represent the colonial militia, the Continental Army, the loyalist militia, and the British regulars. Each faction has a certain birthdays. Those guys have a number of hit symbols, flee symbols, and blanks. The British regulars are the strongest and they have the most hit symbols and no flee symbols. On the other hand, the militias are pretty weak with there two hit symbols and to flee symbols. However, to make up for the weakness of the militias they get three dice whereas the armies get two dice. In addition, you get to replace those fled armies later.

Star Realms #

• 5 plays with 2 players
• Played before

If you’ve played Ascension then you’ve also played Star Realms for the most part. They’re both simple deck builders with two different kinds of currency: one used for buying new cards and one used for attacking. Both have a center card row with five cards face up and both have cards on the side that are always available. The biggest difference between the two is that in Ascension you only attack monsters in the middle row and one monster that’s always available and in Star Realms you’re attacking the other player(s).

Star Wars: Armada #

• 1 play with 2 players
• Not played before

This game was underwhelming and I’m happy about that. I purchased Star Wars: X-Wing near when it came out. I bought the extra ships and expanded it to the point where I needed a big Plano box in order to store all of the ships and even that didn’t fully contain it. I also bought the fancy acrylic templates. I later realized that I never played the game and it was just collecting dust, taking up space, and it represented an expense that I wasn’t happy with. I was much happier when I sold it.

Warhammer 40,000: Conquest #

• 1 play with 2 players
• Played before

There’s a lot to like about Warhammer 40,000: Conquest. It’s a customizable game done by Fantasy Flight so you know that it’ll be well supported, have fantastic art, and likely enjoy a long life. It’s a Games Workshop property so you know there’s lore behind everything and if you’re a fan of that universe it’s likely all here. It’s an Eric Ltang designed game and he’s been hitting it out of the park lately with well designed games coupled with a relatively simple ruleset. Yet, I have my reservations.

Mage Knight #

• 1 play with 2 players this week
• Played before
• Part of my 10x10 Challenge

Mage Knight is a tough game to get to the table with other players. It has a lot of rules and weird conditions that you have have to account for (I’m thinking of you combat). The other conundrum with other players is the time between turns. Planning out your turn is often a matter of a single card here or there and miscalculations can be a problem as players have to pick up their whole hand of cards after making a mistake.

Arcadia Quest #

• 1 play with 3 players this week
• Played before

Arcadia Quest is a game that the middle schooler in me wants to play. You find a few friends, lay out a map, select your heroes, load em up with some weapons, and start killing each other while taking out a monster or two. Chuck some dice, find some weapons, and take each other out. Then respawn. That’s right, death is not permanent in this game, though it can be a big setback.

Beasty Bar #

• 1 play with 4 players
• Not played before

Beasty Bar came recommended from the folks over at Fortress Ameritrash as a nice little filler with some take-that action in it and I can say it delivers.

The basic premise if you have animals and you want to get them into a nightclub. Each animal will manipulate the line in their own way. Once there are five animals, the two in front get in and the one all the way at the end gets kicked out. You’ll end up playing all twelve of your cards, though the last few cards may not matter.

Five Tribes #

• 1 play with 2 players
• Played before
• Part of my 10x10 Challenge

Five Tribes is a perennial favorite around the Baker household and for good reason: there’s a lot of interesting decisions to be made for a relatively short game. My wife and I are pretty competitive with it and scores are always relatively close.