BOARD GAME GEEK PROFILE2021 (and 2020) Games Played
These are the games played in 2021 that are “new to me.” Several were published in the last year, with the rest being less than 2-3 years old. So, as a bandwagon rider with the “Cult of the New” this favors recent games, check my Games Collection page for thoughts on a wider range of older games. The ratings are on a 10 point scale and will be followed with more in-depth reviews as I go along. Those with no reviews are either on the ‘on deck circle’ or have not been played enough to have a solid rating. I did notice that nothing on here has dice chucking, so I’ll look to make amends on that front.
As a side note, Glory To Rome remains the best game I’ve played in the past year, as normal. But I’m hoping Fresco gets back to the table. (ed. Note: It did in Feb 2021!)
Winter Kingdom [7.5/10]
Frankly, I think Kingdom Builder works on its own. But this version streamlines the board game aspect and then blows up the Dominion aspects. You are “deck building” your own cards to turn what was a pick a card and play it turn into one that is modified by multiple factors. So, that’s good. But in the end, I still will go with Kingdom Builder, especially if playing with a lighter game group. Which seems to me to not be the intention, it feels like Winter Kingdom is supposed to be the more accessible game.
Wing It: The Game of Extreme Storytelling [7/10]
The Apples to Apples model at play here but the two decks are arranged for storytelling. The deck of Situations sets up a few sentences of a situation, typically detailed and with a tall-tale feel to them (…and as I was driving on the highway all the sofas I was carrying in my truck flew out of the bed onto the road!… ). The judge reads the situation and then each player, using three of the five Resource Cards they have in their hand, come up with a solution to the situation. In turn, each player reads out their story, the judge then picks the one they liked the best. I like that the decks for this are creative without being the sole source of the fun. Despite the CaH/A2A format, it reminds me more of Off Your Rocker or even Storycubes, as the players have some room to breathe and create. Judging is still entirely subjective, which is not everyone’s cup of tea.
Stolen Paintings (Quick Rating 7/10)
A social deduction, party game. The ample 200 card deck of classic paintings is shuffled and 24 paintings are displayed. An egg timer gives all players a too-brief minute to scan and memorize the gallery. Then players close their eyes and are the “Detectives.” The player whose turn it is, is the “Thief” and she selects 1, 2, or 3 paintings from the gallery to be “Stolen” and discards the rest. She places these stolen paintings along with enough cards from the face-down draw pile to be able to establish an Art Auction of 8 paintings. Each painting is given a number from 1 to 8 and she notes which ones are her stolen paintings. Then - eyes open! - and the detectives mark on their sheets which ones they think were stolen (they saw in the gallery). Points are gained for being correct, lost for being wrong, and the thief gains points for fooling each detective. Rinse and repeat until everyone has a couple turns as the Thief, total scores and you’re done.
It’s as simple as that, the pictures are Western Art classics, most will recognize a Van Gogh here and there, and those more versed in art history will undoubtably recall many of the card sized reproductions (and if you don’t a painting key comes along with the game with artist, name, and date information). The game is created by Bruno Faidutti, who is famous in the game world for for Citadels and Incan Gold, but around this house for Isla Dorada. Faidutti has kicked out a lot of card games, usually where he explores a specific mechanic and develops game play around it. For this one he mentioned that it was inspired by real-life art detectives who’s best defense is simply to memorize stolen paintings and then look for them when they pop up at art auctions. He converted that into game play in a manner which is true to the objective; memory is the key. For the gamer in us, there is some meta-play at work, selecting 3 paintings will give you more chance to earn points on fooling others but will allow for more point opportunity. The thief selecting less than 3 will keep detectives guessing as they lose points if they guess 3 are stolen and the thief only took 1. As it is a game designed by an old pro (and published by Eagle-Gryphon, also noted for quality games and components) the details are solid and well play-tested. The timer is spot on; we had a round where the egg timer froze undetected for a few seconds and that round all the detectives did very well. All-in-all, a fun social game, it’s a party game in the same sense as Codenames and Dixit, the scores remain manageable and unlikely stars emerge from those who display freakishly good memory. Which, by the way, is not me, I’ve never been good at these type of games, or Concentration style picture matching, but it’s still a lot of fun.
Drawback is the downtime in rounds. When a player becomes the Thief they must lay out 24 cards while everyone else is not looking. Not a big deal but this could be a minute of lost focus, and you need to keep from having a table of drink refills, bathroom runs, and phone checks. The real mechanic flaw is after the Detectives have scanned the cards for a minute. The Thief has several tasks at that point while the Detectives have their eyes closed. They must: Pick their 1-3 cards and remove them from the gallery. Clear the gallery paintings and place them face-down off to the side. Select paintings from the draw pile to add to their stolen paintings to get to 8. Arrange them on the table as an auction, and assign numbers using tokens to each painting, 1 to 8. Note on their score card which painting are the stolen ones. The problem is, for different people that can take a different amount of time. If you are efficient you can cover that in a minute and it is eyes open, but we had players where that could take three minutes. The unintended consequence is that the longer you take, the longer the memory can fade for the Detectives; resulting in a “slow is better” outcome. Now, it shouldn’t be a big deal in a social party game, but it is something clunky to note when playing. We set a phone stopwatch to give 75 seconds for the thief to do their tasks, and that seemed to be a decent sweet spot.
Curiously, this would seem to be a game best set for an online version on Board Game Arena or Table Top. Each remote player sees the gallery for a minute then it disappears for the Detectives, the Thief picks their 1-3 thefts and the system produces the gallery. Scoring is done automatically. That would appear to me to be a very good implementation of tech to make a game better, it might even be enough to make this a go-to virtual game on any platform.
Dinosaur Island (Quick Rating 8.5/10)
So much different things going on. Worker placement, scarce resources to choose, more to do in each turn that you can do, and enough mystery about the final score that you feel like you’re in it always. Actually, trailing is a strategy as it gives you better resource selection. Great artwork, great tie-in to the theme. Jurassic Park in a box, without the licensing.
The Quacks of Quedlinburg (8/10)
A great example of push your luck, chaos, wrapped in a neat theme, and quick, accessible game play. Grab tokens out of a bag may not be a post-COVID good idea at a game convention but when your playing with your ‘bubble people’ it doesn’t matter. I like a game which has a little bit of head-spin when first teaching the rules, but has a set it / forget it turn engine which means most people can pick it up while they play. So you have a gamer’s game decision piece around using your powers and timing; but then you reach into that bag and it’s all Incan Gold press your luck. Can be played two times in a row without a major time commitment.
Calico (8/10)
It’s a great way to match a theme to an abstract, reminds me of …and then we held hands. Both take an abstract game mechanic and drop a theme that aligns perfectly to the game’s objectives. Ok, maybe not as perfect with Calico, I’m not sure how much cats align to specific comforters, but this is a great simple game. Match patterns from tiles to different objectives. Tension comes from the availability and drafting. By the last couple rounds you’re no longer worried about the cats but about how your whole objective plans are getting blown sky high. Very, very accessible, plop it on the table and the most casual gamer will pick up the idea quickly. Serious gamers will plot out a turn one strategy, but both have the table evened by their own spatial ability to recognize the patterns and work towards that goal. Sadly, this is not playing to my strength, I’m not the winner of this game often, but I still want to play. That’s a pretty strong endorsement?
Pictures (7.5/10)
Nice party game, that has a 3D Dixit feel to it. In a casual group, this is a perfect fit for being unique, creative, and fun. The scoring system in these type of games can always be a downfall, but it works with the way they handle it here.
Unmatched: Cobble and Fog (8.5/10)
Jack the Ripper vs Dracula vs Sherlock Holmes vs Dr. Jeckel. The asymmetric powers all work nicely here. Easy to learn, quick to play.
Jurassic Park: Danger! (6.5/10)
Carpe Diem (8.5/10)
Well balanced and designed, as you would expect from Stefan Feld. You may not drift too deep into the theme, but you appreciate the choices on each turn, how resource scarcity makes you watch what everyone else is doing, and the various paths to victory.
Sierra West (7/10)
I want to like this one so much; it has worker placement, role selection, a neat mechanic with the placement of the action cards. But the achilles heel on the first couple of plays has been the lack of an ending point. You make choices in a game like this because resources are limited and you know you can’t do everything. But when the game lasts a couple turns too long you soon realize you can do everything; clean up any missed objectives, max out on various goals. If you outmaneuvered your opponent on a resource early you can see them make up the misses in the final turns.
Fort [7/10]
The theme is neat but not felt throughout the game play. Neat mechanics, you’ll think of Glory to Rome, but with enough of its own going on to make it unique.
Dominion Menagerie [8/10]
I will try to keep this from being too much of an “inside baseball” write-up, Dominion is a deck building engine and has 13 expansions since the base game come out in 2008. Menagerie is the latest and adds some new mechanics to the Dominionverse. Played great with the base set, which is how I like to introduce an expansion; and I found a few new favorite cards in the bunch. Mastermind with its three actions was lethal versus me when we played with Seaside and it was mixed with a Pirate Ship and we had some Prosperity big money cards. Sanctuary was a nice spin on the market cards, but my favorite is Stockpile. Cost three but gives you a gold (+3) on your turn but requires you to place it in Exile. My fortune was found in one game where my opponent didn’t catch the recycling I was doing with the card and I was able to bring back three from Exile with one purchase. That’s +12 for the cost of 3 and adding 4 “gold” to a hand gets you buying anything. Exile as a new function is great, and I want to continue to play with the feature, but be advised it’s like any game add-on that allows you to “do more.” You can break a rule that is only to your benefit; you clear dead weight from your hand and can gain back the ones you need to purge. Horses are added and were fine; the first game with them we cycled through horses on every turn, but in the next game, with the same 10 Kingdoms, we barely touched the horses. I like the Events, glad to have them back, we especially liked the big money ones, the Gold an Duchy for 8 (“Enclave”) was a big hit, whereas the 5 Horses (“Stampede”) pile went untouched. I think “Banish” would be a decent option if you manage to have 4 Gold in your hand (Stockpile card?) and multiple Victory Cards. Ways (a new mechanic) were less successful but seems like a decent option to put on the table, providing an alternate action for a Kingdom Card with actions Way of the Goat and Way of the Camel look like good options for building a efficient hand. Overall, easy to play, interesting additions, and when you’re on expansion #13 (and what? about 500 different Kingdom Cards?) that’s not bad. This doesn’t break the base game in any radical way, so it’s not meant for “I want to play Dominion, but I want something different” feel of Alchemy or Nocture but just gives you more options to the base Dominion.
The Isle of Cats
Double Agent
Canvas
Praga Caput Regni (7.5/10)
I will lead with a hot take: Praga is like…you took one of those Queen Games with a Super Mega Enormo Box edition that includes like 20 expansions, like Fresco, Alhambra, Kingdom Builder, etc., and you play it with all the expansions at once. Praga is a med/heavy weight board game loaded with chits and icons and game play includes action selection, tile placement, advancement tracks, and a partridge in a pear tree. The initial learning curve comes (for me) from the iconography which makes it language independent but I admit a pang of Anglophile as I wish these things were language dependent, at least with English. Once you get the icons/symbols down, and it does happen, it’s just a scalable learning curve, you’ll find a game with rinse and repeat turn orders, pretty simple to understand after you’ve gone through a few rounds. The game’s weight comes back though, as easy as some of the turns may be (hey! I mined some gold! Turn over.) you will need to then wrangle each of the six basis actions, along with possible upgrades both with the actions and in earned upgrades, what resources you will collect with each action and how you can then trade those resources in on various tracks to increase both your options on turns but also your end game VP’s. The gold window gained via an egg you got via the action wheel can be paired for an additional action or to gain blue or red corner bonus tokens to help you gain VP’s if you advance on the road and complete the bridge but also advance along the Hunger Wall and or Cathedral. And that’s not even taking into account your mines, technology, and Charles University. So, yea, a beginner game will likely end with “oh, yea I should have done x and y in order to earn z.” Let’s pause to point out, this is all very excellent, a true if you like this sort of thing than this is the sort of thing you will like. I want to play some more. It is an investment in time and effort, and there is a solo variant I haven’t played but might make for a decent learning tool. All of the components, the scoring options and paths to victory, are in the base game. In that sense this is where the 20 expansion Big Box comparison comes in. Praga does not have a “skinny” version, you jump right in to the deep end needing to look for opportunities on multiple tracks and though that results in a rocky start, for anyone who will only play Fresco with a half dozen expansions, this game provides a decent burn brain and that “satisfying not satisfying” feeling that even when you do well, you could have done better.