Obligatory Favorite Games 2015 Edition Post Part II: My Favorite Games: Honorable Mentions

This is the second part of a four-part (or maybe five-part!) series on favorite games.  If you missed it, my wife, Em, guest-blogged for the first time on my site listing her favorite five games.  I quite enjoyed this post and to be honest what quite pleasantly surprised by her list.  I knew her top game, but other than that I was very interested to see what she chose.  Check that post out at the following link: 

http://www.alittlelatetothetable.blogspot.com/2015/03/favorite-games-2015-edition-post-part-i.html

That was the first post in the series.  This post will focus on my honorable mentions, and the next couple of posts will be my top 10 games!  Lastly, I may do a fifth post that would focus on some games that I expect will crack the list either soon or closely in the future.  Understand, this is the first time that I (and my wife as well!) have made a favorite games list.  We have now been seriously into the hobby for about a year and it has been great!  That being said, understand that my list may still be very fluid as there are so very many games that I want to play and haven’t yet.  With that caveat out of the way, here are the honorable mentions that just missed my top 10 list.

#5 – Samurai Spirit (Funforge)

Samurai Spirit is a beautiful little co-operative game by the fantastic Antoine Bauza.  To be honest, I was a little worried when I first heard about this game that it would just be a re-skin of Bauza’s other fantastic co-op, Ghost Stories.  That being said, after getting and playing this game, it is nothing like Ghost Stories.  As a matter of fact, I think (at least for myself) that Samurai Spirit has more tactical and strategic decisions than Ghost Stories.  Because of this reason, I place it just ever so slightly ahead of Ghost Stories on my personal list.  This isn’t taking anything away from Ghost Stories; it is just saying how much I love Samurai Spirit as a total package.  Other high points of this game include the size of the game (much smaller shelf space and super portable!),  the beautiful artwork, and the fact that it plays anywhere from 1-7 players!

#4 – Zombicide (Cool Mini Or Not)

The next game on the honorable mentions list is Zombicide by Raphael Guiton, Jean-Baptiste Lullien, and Nicolas Raoult.  This game is just pure Ameri-trash (or Ameri-thrash) fun!  Cool Mini Or Not really hit a sweet spot with this game.  Cool Mini Or Not funded this game on Kickstarter a couple years ago and now have two other large box expansions (these are also stand-alone game) that have made millions of dollars on Kickstarter.  The expansions are Zombicide Season 2: Prison Outbreak (the one I have) and Zombicide Season 3: Rue Morgue.  Along with the large box expansions they have a couple of small box expansions in Zombicide: Toxic City Mall and Zombicide: Angry Neighbors.  Each of these adds different types of zombies and a few different mechanics.  Then, because this isn’t enough, they have multiple sets of zombies and Kickstarter-exclusive survivors that you can add into the mix.  All of this just makes for a super fun package that I pull out when I just want to roll some dice and kill some mindless drones of zombie attackers!

#3 – Quarriors! (WizKids Games)

Quarriors is the next game to slide its way onto my honorable mentions list.  It was developed by the fantastic Eric Lang and Mike Elliott and effectively created a deck-building game that doesn’t use cards.  Quarriors is the first game to take the ideas of a deck-building game (using your weak cards to buy and use better cards) and create a dice-building game.  Now, instead of cards, you use custom dice to roll the currency of the game (called quiddity), and then use that currency to buy bigger and better creature dice.  This game is just fun!  My wife and l love to play this game and have just introduced a friend to it.  Needless to say, he loved it as well!  We would love to get some of the expansions (Quarriors! Quarmageddon, Quarriors! Quest of the Qladiator, and Quarriors! Quartifacts to name some of them) to add to the number of creatures and custom die!  The newer Dice Masters’ games (which we have yet to try) are based off of the ideas that Quarriors was created on.

#2 – Takenoko (Bombyx/Asmodee)

Takenoko is a lighter game by Antoine Bauza and is the second game to be on this list.  This game has some tile-placement, some set-collection, and some slight area control that are all shoved together into a game with absolutely beautiful artwork.  This was one of the first games that I used to really get my wife into the hobby and it is now on her top 5 list!  Basically, you take two actions during your turn in order to grow brightly colored bamboo (beautiful wooden pieces that connect together) with a little gardener miniature, eat the bamboo with a cute little panda miniature, and/or spread out the gardens with tiles-placement.  While doing these actions you collect and score cards with set-collection.  This is just a fun game that we use to get new players into the hobby!  I can’t wait till my daughter is old enough to play games because Takenoko will be one of the first we use to get her into the hobby.  Also, as a random aside, we will be getting a new expansion for this game around Gen Con 2015 that includes a female panda and little panda baby chits.

#1 – Carcassonne (Z-Man Games)

Finally, the game that just missed my top 10 is Carcassonne.  This is a tile-placement, area control and worker-placement game by Klaus-Jurgen Wrede that is now considered a modern classic.  Em and I got this game while we were on our anniversary trip this past year and it has become a favorite of both of us!  It is the number 2 game on Em’s top 5 list, just getting edged out by the fantastic tableau-building game, Seasons.  This game has you taking small tiles and creating a country landscape and scoring points as you finish specific areas.  I would also like to make a note that I love the artwork on the older edition of this game over the newer edition of the game.  I love the sparse artwork of the original and personally think that the new edition’s art is too busy.  Again, this is just personal preference, but I do think that this should be noted for those looking to buy this game.  This is a light-weight, gateway game that is fun for heavier gamers as well.  We break this game out to people who have never played and they all seem to really like it as well!  Again, on a side note, this game has tons of great expansions including (but not limited to) Inns & Cathedrals, Traders & Builders, The Princess & the Dragon, The Tower, Abbey & Mayor, Hills & Sheep, and more.  I love this game, and it is one I could see jumping higher with more plays and expansions!

There you have it.  These are the games that just missed my top 10.  In no way does this make these games bad, as a matter of fact, I love them all!  What it does mean is that I have 10 games that I love more.  Stay tuned for my next couple posts as I reveal my favorite 10 games.  Until next time, game on!

Obligatory End of 2014 Post Part VI: Top Interests of 2015: Top 10 List (Part II)

Alright! Here we are at the end of the top 10 list for my hot games of 2015! This post will contain the games 1-5 of my top 10 and these games are all must-buys. Actually, out of these five games, I’ve already pre-ordered or Kickstarted two of them and a third I’m just waiting for a new shipment to be delivered to CoolStuffInc! 

This is the sixth installment total of my “End of 2014” series. If you’re curious or haven’t read the previous posts, feel free to click on the links below and check them out! Again, if you’re not sure why a game is here and not on the 2014 list, just check out one of the honorable mentions posts and I go over my prerequisites for a 2014 versus a 2015 game.

Honorable mentions of 2014: http://www.alittlelatetothetable.blogspot.com/2015/01/obligatory-end-of-2014-post-part-i-top.html

Games 6-10 of 2014: http://www.alittlelatetothetable.blogspot.com/2015/01/obligatory-end-of-2014-post-part-i-top_13.html

Games 1-5 of 2014: http://www.alittlelatetothetable.blogspot.com/2015/01/obligatory-end-of-2014-post-part-iii.html Honorable mentions of 2015: http://www.alittlelatetothetable.blogspot.com/2015/01/obligatory-end-of-2014-post-part-iv-top.html

Games 6-10 of 2015: http://www.alittlelatetothetable.blogspot.com/2015/01/obligatory-end-of-2014-post-part-v-top.html  

Now that the precursors are out of the way, on to the main event! This will be my top 5 games on my top 10 list of hot games in 2015. I am super-excited about these games and 2015 is already shaping up to be an interesting year of gaming! With all that being said, as usual, if you have any questions/comments feel free to comment below or on my BoardGameGeek handle, LateToTheTable. Without further ado…the top 5! 

#5 – Fields of Arle (Z-Man Games)
Fields of Arle is a new farming simulation game that was released at Essen Spiel 2014 to great critical acclaim. This game was designed by the uber-popular Uwe Rosenberg and distributed in the United States by Z-Man Games. This is an interesting game to go over. Rosenberg is well known for his fantastic design work and is beloved as one of the best designer in the gaming community. His games Agricola, Caverna, and La Havre are just some of the most popular Euro-style games in distribution. In total honesty, I’ve never played any of his designs but I guarantee this will be the first! This is third game I spoke of earlier that I’m just waiting to be restocked at CoolStuffInc. This is the biggest 2-player-only game that Rosenberg has done and it just looks every bit of amazing! I can’t wait to get this game and get it on the table with my wife, I think she’ll end up loving it just like I’m sure I will! 

#4 – Dice Brewing (StuntKite Publishing)
Dice Brewing is a new dice heavy game that was released at this past year’s Essen Spiel. This game was designed by Filip Glowacz and Ireneusz Huszcza of Board&Dice and is being distributed in the United States by StuntKite Publishing. I have already pre-ordered this game from StuntKite’s website and it should be shipping out around the end of February or beginning of March. I am really looking forward to this game. It is a dice-building game where you use your dice as different ingredients in order to brew beer. As you go further in the game you can brew better beer and add different ingredients to create larger victory point scores. I am a huge fan of good, craft beer and of course I’m a huge fan of dice, so this is a match made in heaven! Along with dice-chucking, there are other mechanics that allow you to change the dice rolls, get new dice, and replace existing dice. This adds a level of skill and tactics to the luck factor of rolling dice. We even loved the idea of this game so much we pre-ordered a copy for my brother-in-law’s birthday, as he’s a beer brewer. 

#3 – Viceroy (Mayday Games)
Viceroy is one of the few games that I have ever chosen to Kickstart. This game was designed by Yuri Zhuravlev and will be distributed in the United States by Mayday Games. Viceroy was originally created in Russia and published by Hobby World. After becoming a huge hit at this past year’s Essen, Mayday Games decided to pick it up and put it up as a glorified pre-order on Kickstarter. Due to the low price and extras that were reached in stretch goals, I decided to go ahead and order the game. This game looks like a somewhat lighter fair, card game where you are trying to build a “pyramid of power” with the cards in your hand. You use “gems” to buy these cards using a blind bidding mechanism. Then you are able to match colors and get more gems and better powers as you continue to build up your pyramid of cards. This game just looks like it is going to be a beautiful and fun card-based game that I should be able to easily teach to others. As long as everything goes well, people who funded this game should be seeing their copies sometime in mid to late March. 

#2 – Pandemic Legacy (Z-Man Games)
Pandemic Legacy is a new game that will be out in August of this year. It is designed by Pandemic creator, Matt Leacock, and Risk Legacy creator, Rob Daviau, and will be distributed in the United States by Z-Man Games. To be honest, if you have any great love of modern boardgames, then you have probably heard about this game. It takes the uber-hit, Pandemic, and combines it with the new Legacy-style of boardgame where each decision made creates lasting effects on the future of the game. When a character dies, they are dead forever. When a certain event happens, it will make waves in the future plays. This sounds absolutely amazing! I love the idea of progression in games, and it has become a much more popular trend in modern boardgaming. This takes an already beloved game and adds the idea of the progression to it to make an even more interesting game! I can’t wait for this one to be released, and it may be another that I’ll bite the bullet on and pre-order. 

#1 – SeaFall: A Legacy Game (IronWall Games & Plaid Hat Games)
SeaFall is going to be the third game to be created with the “Legacy” tag added to it. It is currently being designed by Rob Daviau and will be co-published by IronWall Games (Daviau’s game company) and Plaid Hat Games. This game just looks like it is going to be amazing! It is a 4X-style game (explore, expand, exploit, exterminate) with an open-world sense where you takes ships and explore a mostly unexplored map. It takes place in a time similar to the Dark Ages where you are taking your civilization out to explore the seas. However, this is a different age where there appears to be magic and fantasy about. You are able to focus in a certain style of play in SeaFall. You can be a trader, an explorer, a warmonger, and probably even more specialties to be announced as the game gets closer to release. This game takes the Legacy title seriously as you change the board and the way the game is played with each decision that you make. These continue with you throughout the 10ish plays where you’ll actually change the board and play of the game. After you are done (in the same way as Risk Legacy is and Pandemic Legacy will be) you will have a game that is specific to the way you have played and you will be able to take each of the civilizations and play them the way that you have created. Also, it seems that each of the “X’s” is a legitimate way to win the game. If this game is even half of the ideas that Daviau has put out there, then this game has a very real chance of being one of my favorites! Sadly, I’m kind of cheating by putting it here as it probably won’t be released until 2016…but I guess that just shows how excited I am for it!  

Well, there are the final games on my top 10 hot games of 2015. I am incredibly excited for these games and two of them should be on my table in a month or so! My next post (seventh) in the “End of 2014” series will be a wrap-up and review of 2014 as a whole. Considering it was my first year of serious boardgaming, I’m excited to write this one! After that I’ll do a few posts on my top five or ten games. Then, hopefully I’ll be able to convince my wife (check out her foodie blog at www.tastymess.org) to do a guest post on her top five games. It’s going to be a great year! Until next time, game on!