Hey all! After finding myself on BoardGameGeek and looking at different people’s posts about what they’ve played, I’ve decided to do the same for my blog. Every month (hopefully) I will take the time to just list what I’ve played during the month, how many times I’ve played them and maybe a short blurb about these games as well. I will just start from last month, July 2015, and will try to make these posts earlier in the month, but this first one is a little late. I will order the games on this list from the most played to the least played. Enough of the preamble, on to my games played in July of 2015.
Statistics:
Total plays in July 2015 – 36
Total unique games played in July 2015 – 16
New games played in July 2015 – 3
Most plays of a single game – 9
Viceroy
Designer – Yuri Zhuravlev
Publisher – Hobby World/Mayday Games
New to me
First play - 7/21/14
Total plays in July 2015 - 9
Viceroy is a card drafting, bidding, tableau building and set collection game. My wife and I just received Viceroy from a Kickstarter in July and we have thoroughly enjoyed it thus far. I think this will be a mainstay in our collection as it really hits the tableau building mechanic that I am a huge fan of. It also has an interesting bidding mechanic that we enjoy and doesn’t take longer than 35 minutes for a 2-player game. These things make it and easy game to get to the table when we don’t have much time but want an interesting game with a ton of choices.
Paperback
Designer – Tim Fowers
Publisher – (Self-published)
New to me
First play – 7/4/15
Total plays in July 2015 – 7
Paperback is a pretty straightforward deck-building card game. We got this game in July when we decided to buy it for a friend who loves word games and books. We decided (of course) to get the game for ourselves as well since we were ordering it for her already. This game is probably, as of now, our favorite deck-building game. It uses letters and costs to build words and buy better letters with better powers. We have loved the co-operative variant as well as the competitive game. This game will never leave our collection as it is a perfect, small-box card game that we adore thus far.
Roll for the Galaxy
Designer – Tom Lehmann/Wei-Hwa Huang
Publisher – Rio Grande Games
Total plays in July 2015 – 3
Roll for the Galaxy continues to be one of our favorite games, especially when we only have 30 minutes or so. It is a wonderful dice/pool-building game that uses dice rolling and tableau building. Not much to say about this game except that we always enjoy it!
Ashes: Rise of the Phoenixborn
Designer – Isaac Vega
Publisher – Plaid Hat Games
New to me
First play – 7/31/15
Total plays in July 2015 – 2
Ashes: Rise of the Phoenixborn is an expandable,
2-player, head-to-head, battle card game that takes some influence from other
LCG’s and battle card games (i.e. Magic: The Gathering) and builds upon said
influence. This game uses custom,
colored dice to roll for resource payment that is needed on the cards. You start with a phoenixborn character (each
has different health, spellboard and battleground figures and a different
starting ability) and build your deck from there. Plaid Hat has actually included the cards for
6 complete and different starting decks for each of the 6 phoenixborn included
in the base box. This is possibly my
current, favorite game. I am loving each
character’s personality and am looking forward to deck-building and
card-drafting this game! Also, the art
by Fernanda Suarez is absolutely some of the best I’ve ever seen in a board
game!
Imperial Settlers
Designer – Ignacy Trzewiczek
Publisher – Portal Games
Total plays in July 2015 – 2
Imperial Settlers
Designer – Ignacy Trzewiczek
Publisher – Portal Games
Total plays in July 2015 – 2
Imperial Settlers is a card-drafting, hand-management, tableau-building game that is in my top 2 (maybe even is my top now?) games. This game continues to be one of mine and Em’s favorite games and it always a blast when we pull it out. We have mostly played this 2-player but are starting to teach it to friends and they are enjoying it as well. These games were played with the Why Can’t We Be Friends expansion. Since these plays I’ve actually gotten the Atlanteans expansion and it is awesome. More on that next month!
Munchkin Loot Letter (Love Letter)
Designer – Seiji Kanai
Publisher – Alderac Entertainment Group
Total plays in July 2015 – 2
Ah, Love Letter, or rather, our version, Munchkin Loot Letter. If you haven’t heard of this game, it pretty much single-handedly started the microgame revolution that is currently sweeping modern boardgames. This is simply 18 cards and some cubes and a great bluffing mechanic that makes for some fun game nights with this simple filler.
Samurai Spirit is a co-operative card game that is designed by the fabulous Antoine Bauza of 7 Wonders, Ghost Stories, Hanabi, Tokaido and Takenoko fame. This has a similar feel to Ghost Stories but plays completely differently. It is much more card-based than Ghost Stories and Em and I tend to prefer it over that one. It is a wonderful (and very quick!) co-operative experience with some great art to boot!
Brew Crafters
Designer – Ben Rossett
Publisher – Dice Hate Me Games
Total plays in July 2015 – 1
Brew Crafters is a worker placement game that evokes the Uwe Rosenberg classic, Agricola. This game continues to be one of mine and Em’s favorite worker placement/action selection style games. Every game of this has been close and Em took her first win in our last match. A great, tight game with a fantastic theme!
Dice Brewing
Designer – Filip Glowacz/Ireneusz Huszcza
Publisher – Board&Dice/Stuntkite Publishing
Total plays in July 2015 – 1
Dice Brewing is a fun dice-rolling, set-collecting game out of Poland. My wife and I picked up this game when it was offered in the United States by Stuntkite Publishing. It is a fun dice-rolling game where you then use the dice to “brew” different beers. It is a second craft beer-themed game that we own and it feels completely different from Brew Crafters.
Forbidden Island
Designer – Matt Leacock
Publisher – Gamewright
Total plays in July 2015 – 1
Forbidden Island is a co-operative, set collection, grid movement game that was designed by the Pandemic designer, Matt Leacock. This is a simple game that has been very enjoyable to us and also to friends who have come over. Leacock created a slimmed down version of Pandemic with a variable board and great production values that creates a great “gateway” game for those not used to modern boardgaming.
Ghost Stories
Designer – Antoine Bauza
Publisher – Repos Production/Asmodee
Total plays in July 2015 – 1
Ghost Stories is a co-operative, dice-rolling, variable boardgame created by the fantastic Bauza. This game is one mean bugger! You take your monk and attempt to hold back an onslaught of ghosts as they attempt to haunt a village. A very fun, very challenging game.
Onirim
Designer – Shadi Torbey
Publisher – Z-Man Games
Total plays in July 2015 – 1
Onirim is a 1-player (can be played 2-player co-operatively) game that uses set collection and hand management mechanics. This is one of my favorite solitaire card games out there. It is simple and beautiful and just provides a good time.
Sentinels of the Multiverse
Designer – Christopher Badell/Paul Bender/Adam Rebottaro
Publisher – Greater Than Games
Total plays in July 2015 – 1
Sentinels of the Multiverse is a co-operative, hand management game that continues to be my favorite superhero game. I still love playing each of the different heroes and how their decks play completely differently from each other. This is a great game whose only drawback I’ve found is the crazy amounts of shuffling.
Space Hulk: Death Angel: The Card Game
Designer – Corey Konieczka
Publisher – Fantasy Flight Games
Total plays in July 2015 – 1
Space Hulk: Death Angel is a co-operative, hand management game in the work of Warhammer 40k. This game has been a go-to solo game for me as my wife is a little “meh” about it. That is quite alright because it is a wonderful solitaire experience!
Star War: Imperial Assault
Designer – Corey Konieczka/Justin Kemppainen/Jonathan Ying
Publisher – Fantasy Flight Games
Total plays in July 2015 – 1
Star Wars: Imperial Assault is a wonderful dungeon crawler set in the Star Wars universe. If you like Descent and the Star Wars universe then there is no reason not to own this one! Plus, as a bonus, it also comes with rules for a skirmish game. My wife, my friend Sean, and myself are all going through the campaign with me in the role of the Imperials. It is a ton of fun!
Takenoko
Designer – Antoine Bauza
Publisher – Bombyx/Matagot/Asmodee
Total plays in July 2015 – 1
Takenoko is a tile placement, set collection, pattern building game by the prolific Antoine Bauza. This was a game that really caught my wife and I from the very first play. Between the cute panda art, the fun but simple gameplay, and the fantastic board that you can build, this game will always stay in our collection as one for us and also for new boardgamers.
And that is the end! As I stated earlier, I hope to do this new series of posts once a month. I found this post a very interesting exercise and hope you all did too. As always, let me know if you have any questions or comments. Until next time, game on!
No comments:
Post a Comment