Obligatory End of 2017 Post Part IV: Top Interests of 2017: Top 5 List

Now we’re trucking along!  This post will take a look at the games that hit my top 5 list of ones that came out in 2017 that I haven’t yet had an opportunity to play.  These games all look really interesting for one reason or another and I really want to get a chance to try them out.  Before I move into the list feel free to check out the previous three posts in my “End of 2017” series.

Obligatory End of 2017 Part I: Final Statistics from 2017

Obligatory End of 2017 Part II: The “Late-ies” Awards (Best of 2017)

Obligatory End of 2017 Part III: Top Interests of 2017: Honorable Mentions

Alright, now that everyone is caught up let’s move on to the meat of the post.  These are my top 5 interests that I haven’t played from 2017.  Thanks so much for reading and I hope you enjoy!

#5 – Ex Libris (Renegade Game Studios)

Ex Libris is a card game that takes place in a fantastic library.  The game is designed by Adam P.McIver and published by Renegade Game Studios.  The game uses card-drafting, set-collection and worker-placement as its primary gaming mechanisms while the players are creating their personal libraries.

This competitive game finds the players taking on the role of a fantastic creature who is building up their personal library in order to impress the mayor and village counsel to take on the role of the prestigious Grand Librarian.  The players will each take a character (with custom meeple included!) and get a special power as they use worker-placement to gain different cards that will help them to create their library.  This game has one of the coolest themes I’ve seen and just seems to be different which I love.  The mechanisms seem to be solid and I love a good card-drafting/set-collection game so I’m very interested in trying this one out.

#4 – The 7^th Continent (Serious Poulp)

The 7^th Continent is a card game that places players on the newly discovered seventh continent where they’ve been cursed.  The game is designed by Ludovic Roudy and Bruno Sautter and published by Serious Poulp.  This game uses hand-management, modular board layouts and storytelling as its primary gaming mechanisms while the players are attempting to survive the dangers of the new land.

This co-operative experience finds the players taking on the role of an explorer as they are returning to the seventh continent in order to find a way to lift the curse that has befallen them on their prior visit.  The cool part of this game is how the island builds up and how the players must control their deck of cards which also equals their life.  If the deck ever runs out the players will lose and die on the island.  However, the players can explore different parts of the island and find their way to an answer for the curse that has wrecked havoc on their lives and thus win the game.  I’m very excited to try this one out although I’ve been shy on pulling the trigger on the Kickstarter projects due to what I find to be a high price for a box of cards.  In the end it’s all about the gameplay so I’d love to try it out!

#3 – Anachrony (Mindclash Games)

Anachrony is a boardgame that places players in a post-apocalyptic world that is about to be hit by a comet and make things even worse!  The game is designed by Richard Amann, Viktor Peter and Dávid Turczi and published by Mindclash Games.  This game uses worker-placement, variable player powers and an action point allowance system as its primary game mechanisms while the players are attempting to survive the coming apocalypse.

This competitive game has the players take on the role of the leader of a specific faction who has their own goals/agendas within the game’s systems.  The players will use their workers in a two-tier system where they can use their own buildings and places within the city or place those workers in exosuits and travel out into the wasteland to harvest/find resources.  The players may use a clever “loan” system that plays out like they are gaining resources from the future in order to survive the coming cataclysm.  However, the players must “payback” the resource before too long or they may create anomalies in the time line.  I love the theme of this game and adore worker placement.  The art is amazing the production is fantastically done which puts this game on my top 5 interests list at number three!

#2 – Keyper (HUCH!/R&D Games)

Keyper is a boardgame set in the same world as Keyflower and Key Market.  This game is also designed by Richard Breese and released by HUCH! and R&D Games.  The game uses worker-placment, set-collection and tile/board placement while the players build their villages.

This competitive game has players building up their particular village in order to score the most points possible.  The players will use their different meeples (Keyples) which stand in for different jobs in the village to get different resources.  The players will get to draft some building tiles and place them on their personal village boards which will give them different spaces to place their Keyples.  The place where this game has really piqued my interest is in the country boards.  These are made so that they flip to different mixtures of the squares depending on what season it is.  I’ve had my eye on this game since it hit Kickstarter last year and I’m really excited to try it out!

#1 – Altiplano (Renegade Game Studios/dlp games)

Altiplano is a bag-building game set in the South American highlands of the Andes.  The game is designed by Reiner Stockhausen and published by dlp games and Renegade Game Studios.  The game uses bag-building, action-point allowance system and variable player powers as its primary gaming mechanisms as the players attempt to turn lower priced goods into higher priced ones for point scoring.

This competitive game has the players building up their bag of resources so that they are able to turn them into higher scoring resources.  The players start off with a few resources and can use them in different boards to convert them.  The players will also look to get silver and different lands that they can also use.  This game has been on my radar for some time as I am very intrigued by the idea of a bag-builder along with the engine building and this looks like the best version of those ideas.  I am really looking forward to when this game is released and can’t wait to try it out!

Alright, there you have it!  These are my top 5 game interests from 2017.  While I haven’t yet had the chance to play these particular games I’d love to get the chance in the near future!  Keep on watching the blog as I’m about to move into my top game interests from 2018.  These are all games that I’m interested in that haven’t come out yet this year or ones that I haven’t yet gotten a chance to play.  Thanks so much for reading and I hope you enjoyed.  Until next time, game on!

Obligatory End of 2017 Post Part III: Top Interests of 2017: Honorable Mentions

Alright, back to my “End of 2017” series.  This post is one I do every year and this one is no different.  I like to take a look back at the year and find some of the games that I missed that I’d really like to try out at some point.  Some of these are games that I would really like to own and others I’m just interested in trying out to see how they are.  This post will take a quick look at 12 different games that I haven’t yet played from 2017 but I would really like to try out.  My next post will take a look at the top 5 games from 2017 that I’m interested in trying out and will go a little more in depth than these ones.  I may end up getting some of these games at some point and then again maybe I won’t…I guess we’ll see eventually!  Before I move onto the post feel free to check out my previous two posts in the series which take a look at my final gaming statistics from 2017 and also my yearly “Late-ie” awards.

Obligatory End of 2017 Part I: Final Statistics from 2017

Obligatory End of 2017 Part II: The “Late-ies” Awards (Best of 2017)

Alright, now with that out of the way we can go ahead and move onto the main part of the post.  These are the honorable mentions that make my list but don’t quite make the top 5.  Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoy!

Alien Artifacts (Portal Games)

This is an engine building, hand management game from designers Marcin Senior Ropka and Viola Kijowska.  The game looks like a really fun card game with multi-use cards which is one of my favorite mechanisms in a game.  I’m looking forward to trying this one out.

Heaven & Ale (eggertspiele)

This is an economic, tile-placement, farming game designed by Michael Kiesling and Andreas Schmidt.  This one looks like an elegant Euro-style game where you want to balance your cloister’s garden and harvesting resources for points.  It looks like a really good game by an excellent designer.

Lisboa (Eagle-Gryphon Games)

This is an economic, tile-placement and hand-management game designed by the great Vital Lacerda.  He is known for heavy Euro-style games and this one looks no different.  Players will control their cards and help to rebuild the city of Libson, Portugal.  This is one I’m really looking forward to.

London: Second Edition (Osprey Games)

This is a hand-management, card-drafting, tableau-building game designed by Martin Wallace.  This is the second edition of the original and it looks so amazingly streamlined and amazing!  The card-drafting in this particular game looks amazing and so elegant and I’d love to try it out!

Nusfjord (Lookout Games/Mayfair Games)

This is a worker-placement, economic game from the master designer Uwe Rosenberg.  This game is one that interests me simply due to the pedigree of its designer.   I love that this is a shorter Uwe game and it looks like a ton of fun.

Paper Tales (Catch Up Games/Stronghold Games)

This is a card-drafting and hand-management game designed by Masato Uesugi.  This game looks great!  I love card-drafting as a mechanism and that is basically what this game it pasted on top of beautiful artwork.  I am really looking forward to trying this game out and will probably buy it when it gets a wider release.

Path of Light and Shadow (Action Phase Games/Indie Boards& Cards)

This is a hand-management, area-control, civilization game designed by Travis Chance, Jonathan Gilmour and Nick Little.  This game looks absolutely beautiful.  I love the art and the aesthetics of the game and think that is probably what has really drawn me in.  I usually don’t love area-control games but I think I would dig this one.

Reworld (eggertspiele)

This is a tile-placement, hand-management game designed by the power duo of Michael Kiesling and Wolfgang Kramer.  This is here mostly due to the duo of designers and how great they are.  Every game I’ve played by these two guys has been elegant and fun so I’m wanting to try this out.

Riverboat (Lookout Games/Mayfair Games)

This is a tile-placement, card-drafting and set-collection game designed by Michael Kiesling.  This game hits my radar because of the graphics and art of the game along with the designer.  Anything Kiesling does will at least get a head turn from me.

Santa Maria (Aporta Games)

This is a tile-placement, dice-rolling, farming game designed by Eilif Svenson and Kristian Amundsen Østby.  This game has gotten rave reviews across the board and has dice-drafting in it which is one of my current favorite boardgame mechanisms.  These are just a couple of the reasons I’m looking forward to trying it.

Sentient (Renegade Game Studios)

This is a set-collection, card-drafting and area-control game designed by J. Alex Kevern.  This game seemed to come out of nowhere right around Origins this past year and really got a bunch of buzz around it.  I love the idea of how “mathy” this game is and would really like to try it out.

Yamataï (Days of Wonder)

This is a set-collection and route-building game designed by Bruno Cathala and Marc Paquien.  This game really hit my radar because of the publisher, designer and how absolutely beautiful it is.  This game just looks beautiful and is so very eye-catching.  Besides looking great, the game looks like it is a bunch of fun to play and look forward to trying it out.

Well all, there you have it.  These are just some of the games from this past year that are on my radar and have me very interested in trying them out.  I am looking very forward to checking out some of these games and already have plans of purchasing one or two of them.  The next post that I should have up in the next few days will be my top 5 game interests from 2017.  Thanks so much for taking the time to read and I hope you enjoyed!  Until next time, game on!

Obligatory “What I Played In…” Post Part XXXIII: March 2018

Alright!  We’ve made it through the first quarter of 2018 and it’s been a solid start to the year.  This past month was very good and we were able to get some great plays and some new games to the table.  We were able to get over 50 plays for the month and 28 different games!  We also got some new games to the table that we’ve really enjoyed!  My March edition of my 25x5 challenge went live recently so feel free to check out how we’re doing!

2018 25x5 Challenge Post (March 2018)

Woot!  I feel like we’re really starting to truck along in our different challenges and are looking forward to how we continue to do.  Now let’s move on to the main part of the post.  Thanks so much for reading and enjoy!

Statistics:

Total plays in March 2018 – 53

Total unique games played in March 2018 – 28

New games played in March 2018 – 6

New games acquired in March 2018 – 4

New expansions acquired in March 2018 – N/A

Most plays of a single game in March 2018 – 5

Azul

Designer – Michael Kiesling

Publisher – Plan B Games

Last play before March 2018 – 2/21/18

Total plays in March 2018 – 5

We got 5 total plays of this game this past month and it was awesome!  I love how very simple this game is to teach and play but still has such strategic/tactical depth.  This is an absolutely amazing abstract game that has been lovingly and beautifully produced.

Munchkin Loot Letter

Designer – Seiji Kanai

Publisher – Alderac Entertainment Group

Last play before March 2018 – 12/13/17

Total plays in March 2018 – 5

Steph and I have taken to pulling this game out when we have some downtime and playing a few rounds.  This is the perfect game for just playing quickly when we have a small amount of time and area to play on.

Bunny Kingdom

Designer – Richard Garfield

Publisher – IELLO

New to me

First play – 3/3/18

Total plays in March 2018 – 4

Okay, this game is surprisingly good!  It is so much more fun than I’d have thought and everyone I’ve played with/taught the game to has absolutely loved it!  This is such a solid card-drafting game with a board element and I am glad we ended up buying it!

Gaia Project

Designer – Jens Drögemüller/Helge Ostertag

Publisher – Z-Man Games

New to me

First play – 3/10/18

Total plays in March 2018 – 4

This is a game that I got for my birthday and I’ve played it solo 4 times already!  I can’t wait be able to teach this game to other people but to be honest it has been an absolutely amazing experience just with the solo play thus far!  I love what the Automa Factory does with their solo variants and will at least check out every game that they do work for in the future.

Pandemic Legacy: Season 2

Designer – Rob Daviau/Matt Leacock

Publisher – Z-Man Games

Last play before March 2018 – 2/4/18

Total plays in March 2018 – 4

We got in 4 more plays of this game this past month and they were awesome!  As much as I loved Pandemic Legacy: Season 1 I think I may actually enjoy this one even more!  I love how much change there is on the board and the exploration that really opens up during the game.  I am looking forward to our next session!

Gloomhaven

Designer – Isaac Childres

Publisher – Cephalofair Games

Last play before March 2018 – 2/1/18

Total plays in March 2018 – 3

Woo hoo!  We were actually able to get in 3 plays of our campaign this month.  We have a Gloomhaven night on Thursdays and February was a busy month and we weren’t able to meet but 1 time.  This past month was great and we were really able to cruise through some missions and have a blast doing them.

Sentinels of the Multiverse

Designer – Christopher Badell/Paul Bender/Adam Rebottaro

Publisher – Greater Than Games/Sentinel Comics

Last play before March 2018 – 2/27/18

Total plays in March 2018 – 3

I got in 3 more plays of this fantastic card game this past week and it was awesome.  This is one of those games that I’ll pick up and play anytime I have some time to play solo.  It is a game that I’ve played a ton solo but not a whole lot with others.  I really need to try to get it to the table with other players as well so they can see how good it is!

Aeon’s End: War Eternal

Designer – Kevin Riley

Publisher – Action Phase Games/Indie Boards & Cards

New to me

First play – 3/6/18

Total plays in March 2018 – 2

This was one of the games that I got for my birthday in February and I have really enjoyed it!  I played it once solo and once with Em and she really enjoyed it as well.  I really like how it is a deck-builder, co-op game where you never shuffle the deck.  Instead, you flip the deck directly over when you’re out of cards and continue on.  This gives players more control of what is where in their deck.

Kanagawa

Designer – Bruno Cathala/Charles Chevallier

Publisher – IELLO

Last play before March 2018 – 9/7/17

Total plays in March 2018 – 2

One night this past month Josh and I got together and played a bunch of smaller games a couple of times and had a blast!  This is one of the games we played and he learned it really quickly.  We split wins and had a blast playing it.

Kingdomino

Designer – Bruno Cathala

Publisher – Blue Orange Games

New to me

First play – 3/23/18

Total plays in March 2018 – 2

During the evening where Josh and I played a bunch of different games we pulled this one out for the first time for either of us.  Josh picked this up and we really wanted to try it out.  I can totally understand why this game won the Spiel des Jahres as it is a wonderful and simple game.  I love games where you can teach them quickly but they really feel like you’re making important decisions during the play.

Scythe

Designer – Jamey Stegmaier

Publisher – Stonemaier Games

Last play before March 2018 – 3/18/17

Total plays in March 2018 – 2

I borrowed this game from Josh this past month because I was really interested in trying the solo game.  I love Automa Factory which is a group who creates solitaire variants for different games and really started by working on Stonemaier Games’ projects.  This was a blast and I’m glad to say I loved this variant as well!

Bohnanza

Designer – Uwe Rosenberg

Publisher – AMIGO/Rio Grande Games

Last play before March 2018 – 2/13/18

Total plays in March 2018 – 1

They guys and I pulled out this game during a gamenight this past month and played a round of it.  I absolutely adore this game; it is one of my favorite card-only games.  I think this is a brilliant design and enjoy every play of it!

Century: Golem Edition

Designer – Emerson Matsuucchi

Publisher – Plan B Games

Last play before March 2018 – 2/24/18

Total plays in March 2018 – 1

We pulled this out one night during a gamenight with Josh, Jeff, Dean and Steph.  This was a great round (as are all of this game’s rounds!) of the game and in the end the game was actually ended in a tie with Steph winning the tiebreaker!  Man do I ever love this game!

Charterstone

Designer – Jamey Stegmaier

Publisher – Stonemaier Games

Last play before March 2018 – 2/13/18

Total plays in March 2018 – 1

We got in another round of this game this past month and we are now half-way through.  This has been such a fun game and I always look forward to the next time that we are all able to get together to play again.

The City of Kings

Designer – Frank West

Publisher – The City of Games

New to me

First play – 3/8/18

Total plays in March 2018 – 1

Josh got this game from a Kickstarter project this past month and we made sure to pull it out and play a round of it.  This game is seriously awesome and I can’t wait to play it again.  I may end up pulling out some money and throwing it at the upcoming reprint Kickstarter which should being going live very soon.

Dinosaur Island

Designer – Jonathan Gilmour/Brian Lewis

Publisher – Pandasaurus Games

Last play before March 2018 – 2/2/18

Total plays in March 2018 – 1

I pulled this game out with Em and Steph this past month.  It was the first time Steph had played and the second time Em had played.  I love this game!  The girls did great and Em was able to pull out the win with her Herbivore heavy build with Steph doing really well and barely missing first.  I pulled up in last place but was very few points behind as well.  This is an awesome game that I can’t wait to play again!

Harvest

Designer – Trey Chambers

Publisher – Tasty Minstrel Games

Last play before March 2018 – 12/22/18

Total plays in March 2018 – 1

Em and I pulled out and played this great little worker placement game this past month.  I ended up drafting a character I had never tried before as did she.  I was able to take this round relatively easily with the Troll, Plowdor.  I love how different the characters are in this game and find every play to be fresh and fun.

Imperial Settlers

Designer – Ignacy Trzewiczek

Publisher – Portal Games

Last play before March 2018 – 4/26/17

Total plays in March 2018 – 1

This is one of our 25x5 games for the year so we decided to pull it out and play through it.  This is still one of my favorite games and this round solidified that.  I love every play of this game and find it to be quite a gorgeous design.  I ended up winning the round with the Japanese as Em just wasn’t able to get her Roman engine going as efficiently.  I look forward to our next play!

Mechs vs. Minions

Designer – Chris Cantrell/Rick Ernst/Stone Librande/Prashant Saraswat/Nathan Tiras

Publisher – Riot Games

Last play before March 2018 – 5/6/17

Total plays in March 2018 – 1

Josh, Jeff, Dean and I pulled this game out at a gamenight this past month and played through Operation: Burning Vengeance.  This is such a good co-operative experience and a legitimately good programming game and I’m happy with every play I get of it.  This is another 25x5 game for us so, bonus!

Pulsar 2849

Designer – Vladimír Suchý

Publisher – Czech Games Edition

Last play before March 2018 – 2/24/18

Total plays in March 2018 – 1

This is still a pretty new game for us.  We decided to pull it out once this past month at a gamenight and play through an advanced round.  This game is quickly moving up my favorite’s list and is definitely one of my favorite dice-drafting games.  I love how “thinky” and deep this game can get with the myriad of decisions that are presented to the players.  I look forward to my next play of this brilliant design!

Roll for the Galaxy

Designer – Thomas Lehmann/Wei-Hwa Huang

Publisher – Rio Grande Games

Last play before March 2018 – 2/19/18

Total plays in March 2018 – 1

Em and I pulled this game out and taught Zach how to play one night when he came over for games.  This is such an incredible game and I really hope they decide to make ever more expansions to make the game even more replayable!

Sushi Go Party!

Designer – Phil Walker-Harding

Publisher – Gamewright

Last play before March 2018 – 12/13/17

Total plays in March 2018 – 1

We pulled this game out at a gamenight where we had 5 players and needed some good games that played at this player count.  We decided to teach this and had a blast.  This is just a solid card-drafting game that I can pretty much teach to anyone and they all enjoy it!

Ticket to Ride

Designer – Alan R. Moon

Publisher – Days of Wonder

Last play before March 2018 – 2/27/18

Total plays in March 2018 – 1

As I know I’ve said on occasion, anytime I get to play this game in a month makes me happy.  This is one of those games that I just enjoy every play of even though it isn’t the deepest or most strategic game I have.  I just think that the game is simple and it is fun and anyone can compete for the win no matter their level of play.

Too Many Bones

Designer – Adam Carlson/Josh Carlson

Publisher – Chip Theory Games

Last play before March 2018 – 2/20/18

Total plays in March 2018 – 1

Josh and I pulled out this wonderful game this past month and played with Boomer and Nugget and took on The Goblin King.  We were able to make it through and get to him fairly quickly and then held back a little as we leveled up.  The first round we played him we were too low in initiative and were crushed.  However, we manipulated the baddie queue a little and were able to defeat him the second time around.  I love this game so much and can’t wait to get my hands on Undertow.

Via Nebula

Designer – Martin Wallace

Publisher – Space Cowboys

Last play before March 2018 – 2/2/18

Total plays in March 2018 – 1

We were deciding what to play one night when Em said she wanted to play this one.  We pulled it out and proceeded to play a round and she ended up getting some really good buildings and doing a great job exploiting with her workers.  This is such a good game.  I love that he was able to distill the essence of an 18xx game into a family-style game.

Viceroy

Designer – Yuri Zhuravljov

Publisher – Hobby World/Mayday Games

Last play before March 2018 – 4/11/17

Total plays in March 2018 – 1

This game is another that is on our 25x5 this year so we decided to play a round.  I was able to get a pretty decent engine rolling and ended up getting some pretty good points by the end of the game.  I love this game and look forward to the expansion that should go back to Kickstarter sometime this year.

Whistle Stop

Designer – Scott Caputo

Publisher – Bézier Games

New to me

First play – 3/10/18

Total plays in March 2018 – 1

This is another game that I got for my birthday and we pulled it out to try it for the first time this past month.  This is a super fun tile-laying and pick-up-and-deliver game where the players are taking their trains across the country and getting as many points as possible.  I look forward to playing this one more!

Yokohama

Designer – Hisashi Hayashi

Publisher – Tasty Minstrel Games/OKAZU Brand

Last play before March 2018 – 7/16/17

Total plays in March 2018 – 1

Here is another of our 25x5 games that we got to the table this past month.  I love this game and was really glad to be able to get it to the table.  This is such an elegant design and I really want to play it with the full complement of 4 players eventually!

New game acquisitions in March 2018:

Aeon’s End: War Eternal

Bunny Kingdom

Gaia Project

Whistle Stop

New expansion acquisitions in March 2018:

N/A

And there we go!  It was a really solid month of gaming this past month and we got in some great plays of new games and old games alike.  We are really starting to truck along in our challenges for the year so I’m excited to see where that goes.  Thanks so much for reading and I hope you enjoyed!  Until next time, game on!