Obligatory Favorite Games 2015 Edition Post Part I: Em’s Top 5 Favorite Games List (Guest Blogger)

Yeah, you can tell we really take life seriously around here!

My husband has been asking me to write this guest blog post for at least a month at this point, so today I finally found the time to sit down and give it a shot. First of all, you should know that until last year I was never into tabletop games. My best friend Becks can attest to that fact, since she had to bribe/threaten/bug me constantly to get me to play a game with her when we were kids. Part of that reason is that I never won…ok, I won ONE game of Trivial Pursuit in our entire 20+ years of friendship. That tends to turn one off to games. We also would go through these weird stretches where we were obsessed with one game…Monopoly comes to mind. Please don’t judge me too harshly, I was in middle school at the time! 

Anyway, my interest was piqued in modern boardgaming when my husband introduced me to Munchkin, which he’s talked about on this blog several times. We really enjoyed playing it and then he eased me into Heroclix, which preyed on my love of all things superhero/geeky. We started actively buying modern boardgames and setting up date nights just to play, then it branched out into our own little monthly game group. Before I knew it, I was into tabletop gaming. I even watch some of his favorite YouTube channels on the topic.

I thought I’d give you all a glimpse into my Top 5 Games thus far, just for kicks so check them out below: 

Takenoko

#5 – Takenoko: This is one of the first modern boardgames Aaron introduced me to after our first foray into Munchkin and Heroclix. He knew the panda figure and artwork style would hook me in, and it totally did. I love how entry-level this game is; it has a simple mechanic but still allows an element of strategy. We routinely use it as our go-to intro game to newbie tabletop gamers and everyone has loved it so far, we even gave it as a gift to friends of ours this past Christmas! 

Dungeon Petz

#4 – Dungeon Petz: I love this game. I can’t even really tell you why, it just is so much fun to play! This was the first worker-placement game that Aaron taught me how to play (by the way, he is insanely patient and good at explaining new games to the less experienced of us, thanks babe!) and I was surprised how quickly I picked up on the rules and feel to the game. The artwork is fun and being able to raise the cute/insane monsters in order to compete on the auction block was definitely unique to me. Whenever we want a fun game that might take more than an hour or so, I always vote for this one.

#3 – Pathfinder: This game is addicting. I’ll admit it, I am completely hooked. We even brought this game with us on our anniversary trip this past year and played it constantly! I had never gotten into a game where you actually build your character through multiple rounds. It plays on my love of the “choose your own adventure” mechanic and I like the cooperative element. This was the first cooperative game I was introduced to and as a bizarrely competitive person; it probably was a good thing for the health of our marriage for us to try the cooperative approach. My character is Merisiel, by the way, and she totally kicks ass. 

Carcassonne

#2 – Carcassonne: So simple, yet so complex when it comes to strategy, I could play this game all day. We just recently started getting some of the expansions, so those have been fun to throw into the mix. I still love just the classic straightforward original version too. This was my first real introduction to a map-building concept (other than Takenoko) and as someone who angrily hates puzzles, it was so freeing to be able to have a mellow puzzle-type mechanic, but with so much freedom to build where you want.
 

Seasons

#1 – Seasons: I. Love. This Game. Even though I’ve lost the last 2 times I’ve played (which irritates me, believe me!), I can’t not put this game as my number one. The artwork pulled me in, then the strategy hooked me completely. This is our go-to game when we want to play but aren’t feeling anything specific. I love it and we recently were able to teach it to a friend of ours, which was the first time we played with more than 2 players. It was crazy! And I lost pretty badly…but I just can’t get enough of this game.

Of course there are more than 5 games I really like, Quarriors almost made the list, so did 7 Wonders and Elder Signs. I’m thinking this time next year it’ll be a lot harder to narrow my list down to 5!

So, as my husband says…until next time, game on!

Family Game Night #7

A few weeks ago we have our 7th family game night! Sadly this one only consisted of me, Em, and Dave because two other had to bow out due to previous engagements. Even though there were only three of us it was still a blast!

Em chose to go with some really good appetizers for this game night (not that she ever cooks anything bad) and everyone enjoyed them immensely. The first thing she went with was a jalapeno bacon popper. They had bacon cream cheese in them and then were wrapped in crescent dough and baked in the oven. These were my personal favorites and we tore through them! The second appetizer was a roasted butternut squash dip. This had goat cheese in it and we ate it with crackers. It was delicious! Then, in honor of the fall season, she made a batch of deviled eggs that looked like little pumpkins. Lastly we had some brownie cheesecake bites as a dessert appetizer. You can find the recipe for the brownie bites at my wife’s blog at A Tastymess. After filling out stomachs with delightful food and some Dogfish Punkin Ale leftover from our last game night (thanks Sean) we moved on to the gaming portion of the night!

The first game we chose to play was Sentinels of the Multiverse released by Greater Than Games. This is a wonderful card game where everyone chooses a hero and goes up against a villain in a particular environment. The amazingly cool thing about this game is that each hero deck feels completely different from the next! It makes this game very thematic as you’re attacking the villain. Also, each of the villains and environments that you go up against feel very different and thematic.

To begin with we chose to go up again the villain Baron Blade. He is a psychotic villain who hates the hero Legacy (a Superman-like character) and just wants to defeat him. His current plan leads him to create a ray to pull the moon into the Earth and destroy everyone, including Legacy! Like I said, he’s a psycho. We chose to take the battle into the environment entitled Ruins of Atlantis. This is a water-heavy (obviously) environment that lightning users thrive in. After the villain and environment was chosen we each picked our characters.

Em went with her favorite character, Wraith. She is a Batman-style of character who uses weapons, martial arts, and her intelligence to defeat the enemies. She is a damage dealer who is good with protecting herself. Dave went with Legacy, the Superman-style hero. He is good with protecting and aiding his fellow heroes. Lastly, I chose to go with Tempest, an Aquaman-style hero. He is an alien who is great a dealing lightning damage and healing his fellow heroes. We took these three heroes and were able to destroy Baron Blade with very little difficulties. It was a ton of fun and it is great to see how new people respond to this game as it’s easy to learn and fun to play!

Carcassonne Unboxing

Carcassonne gameplay

After finishing Sentinels we moved on to Carcassonne. This was all of our first time playing this game and we all loved it! This is such a simple tile-laying game where you are connecting roads, cities, and fields and placing meeples (wooden people tokens) on these roads, cities, and monasteries in order to score points throughout the game. It is a simple, quick game that absolutely anyone can learn and play and enjoy. I would highly recommend this game for new gamers! In the end, Em schooled us and one by a fairly large margin!

Dave's breakdancing meeples

Traditional "usie" catching Dave by surprise this time

As usually, we had a great game-night and I can’t wait for the next one. I have Diamonds, released by Stronghold Games, coming soon from CoolStuffInc and that may be on the docket for our next play. Any comments or questions, just hit me up in the comment section. Until next time, game on!