142) Agricola: All Creatures Big and Small

Another version of agricola that is way better then the original. All the complications have been stripped away and you're left with a beautiful two player worker placement game where your primary goal is to breed as many animals as possible. Of course to do this you're going to need buildings and fences and resources as well as expanded farming territory.

Ready to start 

Shared central board 

Multiplying animals

This is a great two player game where you're racing to build up your farm faster then the other player. Many worker placement games have a moment of reckoning where you have to pay a price at the end of the round such as feeding your workers. I this game there is no such requirement, which means you can expand and grow and build with reckless abandon. I think that is the strong point of this game for me in that you always feel rewarded because you're always building and gaining more. And, it also has awesome ani-meeples that provide endless enjoyment. I highly recommend playing this game.

141) Morels

In this game you're collecting mushrooms as you travel through the forest. On your turn you can add cards to your hand or play cards for end game points or immediate 'money'. At the end of each players turn a card is removed from the line-up and one or two new cards are added. The goal of the game is to collect sets of the same mushroom and then cook them in a pan (playing cards from your hand). Of course there are all sorts of bonus cards that can change your hand size, give you more pans, or even count as double of a given mushroom. When you've gone through the deck once the game ends.

Ready to go mushroom hunting 

My hand 

End game scoring 

Cool artwork

I really enjoyed this game. It's very tight to the point where you're counting cards and trying to remember what is left in the deck. It's a great balance of collecting the cards that benefit you and trying to thwart the other players plans. For a two player game there is quite a bit going on and we both enjoyed this one.

140) Space Beans

This is a fairly simple drafting game that is very similar to bohnanza. The game starts with all but one person having cards in hand. The start player draws two cards then chooses as many cards in one color as they want to lay in front of them. The first color is face up, but a second color can be started face down on subsequent turns. Once the cards are played the remaining cards are passed to the player with no cards and play continues clockwise. Players can score their played cards by keeping the highest value card in their pile that does not exceed the total cards in that pile and discarding the rest.

Just as fun as it sounds 

4-player game 

Some planted space beans 

Fun artwork

I really enjoyed this game as a light starter game. It's easy to play, easy to teach and the drafting mechanic and set collection work really well together. I recommend giving this a try.

139) Hero Quest

The original dungeon crawl game. In this game there is one person who runs the game and controls all enemy units. Everyone else is playing against this one person. The game has multiple scenarios so each game will play out differently. Generally, the heros are moving around the dungeon killing enemies and searching for and attempting to complete their objective. Along the way they'll find gold and equipment that is kept from one round to the next. Gold can be spent between games to buy various items.

The box is this awesome! 

Ready to start 

Dungeon master plotting against us 

Cool pieces 

More cool pieces

All in all a fun game. My one major complaint is there is no built in clock. The movement of the heros is limited by a dice roll, but when there were no enemies on the board the heros could just cycle turns until they had the board state the way they wanted it. This can lead to some long drawn out parts in the game where the dungeon master is not doing anything. Despite this, if you like dungeon crawl games this is certainly worth a play or two.

138) The Speicherstadt

In this game you're collecting cards that will give you points and money during and at the end of the game. Each round six cards are flipped up for bidding. The start player places one of their meeples on a row above one of the cards and play continues clockwise until all meeples have been placed. Then each row is resolved from left to right. The player who played first in a row (closed to the card) can buy the card at a cost equal to the number of other meeples in the row. They can also opt to not buy the card and take their meeple back to their supply.

Angling for the best position

Some cards I collected

End game

This is a fun game where you're always wishing you had more money. It had a good balance of cards and had fun tension in players always wanting to buy more then they can afford. I really enjoyed the process of buying cards based on how many people and when people bid on different rows. This game is on the lighter side and fairly easy to teach. It plays relatively quickly and we all had a good time playing this one.

137) Russian Railroads

There is so much going on during this game. Trying to even scratch the surface of the rules would be daunting, but more generally, you're placing your workers on a central board, which allows you to manipulate your own board. There are multiple tracks to focus on and you're going to want to try and do everything, but it would be wise to focus on a few to start.

Ready to start

Worker placement

Personal player board

End of a 4-player game

I do love everything this game has to offer. Games that make you want to do everything at once are great. They often force tough decisions and its rare that you're completely blocked from everything you want to do. This game is also complex enough where I feel like after my first play I've barely scratched the surface of what this game has to offer. I look forward to playing again and if you enjoy heavier euro games then this is one for you.

136) Saint Petersburg

In this game you're slowly building up your cards, which provide increasing amounts of points and money each round, thus allowing you to purchase more and more stuff. There's four different turns in each round which correspond to the different colored cards (green, blue, orange, rainbow). Each turn new cards of the appropriate color are turned face up, players have a chance to buy cards, and then (with the exception of the rainbow turn) each player is paid money and points depending on the cards of that color he/she owns.

Part way through the game 

Close-up of my team 

End of a 3-player game 

This game is really easy to learn and I really enjoyed playing when I first got it. Unfortunately, now I think there is only one strategy towards victory and whomever does that strategy best (or gets lucky on card flips) is going to win. Conversely, if one person doesn't do that strategy then more often then not the person directly after will easily win. I almost never pull this game out for play because of this. If you're sitting down with a group of people who have never played, then the first few games will be fun, but once someone figures out the winning strategy this game quickly loses its charm.