152) Gosu

In this game you're leading your hoard of goblins to defeat the other players armies. Each turn you can play a card, activate an ability, or draw cards. As the round continues you start to run out of options and once each player has passed the round ends and there is a great battle. Whomever has the most points (cards) on the board gets a point. Rounds are played until someone gets 3 points.

Fun art 

My start 

Our four player game 

Winning board

This is a fun little card game with interesting interactions and good game play. It's somewhat easy to learn and plays quite smoothly. All in all a solid game. My one complaint is that if one player has a bad draw they can be forced to pass early in a round and then is forced to sit and watch while other players continue to play. That was my experience this game although I was able to catch up (somewhat) in subsequent rounds to it did feel balanced in that regard. The other potential issue is that some colors (out of the 5 colors in the game) may be more powerful then others although I haven't played enough to know that yet. After our game I was excited about playing again so that is a good sign.

147) Mythotopia

Deck building meets Risk in this war game. Like most deck building games each turn have five cards in hand. Each card has multiple uses allowing you to acquire new cards, build things on the board, attack, or recruit new armies. Most of these actions result in points gained or lost by players. If a player has the required number of points for victory at the start of their turn they can declare the game over and they win.

Figuring out how to play

Our four player game

Stale mate

I think this game would be really fun if you're willing to put in the time (probably at least 3 plays) to fully grasp the way this game plays. The first game is rather daunting as we were all new to the game. You start by flipping up x number of this card type and then a different number of a different card type and then 16 of the other card type, then deal out these cards....and so on. That's just the set-up and as expected with games like this it took a few turns to fully understand the consequences of what we do on our turns. The game started to flow more smoothly once we got more accustomed to the game play. Unfortunately, at the end of the game only a small part of me thought "I want to try this again" where most of me thought "I'd rather spend my time getting good at other games". But, I do think if you have a group that enjoys war games with a more euro-game feel this game is perfect and I would highly recommend it.

145) Saga

In this game you're building up armies to conquer as many of the six different lands (colors) as possible. On each turn a player may collect victory points for the lands they control. Then they must play a card from their hand and they also have the option to purchase a card to put in their hand. The game ends when one player has played all the cards from their hand. Some end game scoring happens and then the player with the most points wins.

Getting ready to start 

My hand

Our four player game

Initially this game feels like it will ever end as it seems almost impossible to get rid of all your cards, but  somehow the end always sneaks up on me before I'm ready. I really like a lot of the mechanics in this game - my favorite being the play between the game ending when you play all your cards and having to return cards to your hand when you lose control of one of the land cards. My biggest dislike of this game is that if you forget to take your points at the beginning of your turn you don't get to take them. You'd think you would always remember to take points as thats how you win, but you can get so wrapped up in planning which card you play that it just slips your mind. All in all a fun game unlike others I've played before.

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.

135) Lagoon: Land of the Druids

An interesting tile building game where each tile with one of your workers on it grants you special abilities or actions. Each turn consists of you refreshing (flipping up) three of your workers. You then use workers to build new tiles, move to an adjacent tile, activate the ability on a tile you're on, or destroy a tile that you have a worker on. Using a worker causes them to flip face down and become inactive until the next turn. The goal of the game is to collect resources and destroyed tiles, which count for points at the end of the game. The trick is only certain resources or tiles are worth points based on which tile resource is most prevalent on the board at the end of the game.

Ready to start 

Mid-game tiles 

End game board

The potential for this game to be really awesome is there. The difficult part is figuring out how to make your pieces do what you want. Everyone playing felt very limited by the amount they could do. So often my pieces were in the wrong spot and there was just no way to move them to where I wanted. Each turn felt like an insurmountable struggle to get anything done. Part of that is learning how to play, but the more interesting part should be trying to solve the puzzles that each new combination of tiles presents. There is a bit of a learning curve, but it feels like once you figure that out this game will be really fun.

134) Valley of the Kings

This is a set collection game combined with the deck building mechanic. It plays very similar to dominion where each turn you have five cards in hand. Each card can be played for money or its special ability. You can buy cards from the bottom row of the pyramid (seen in picture two). The twist is that on each turn you can take a card from your hand and remove it from the game. This card will then be scored when the game ends. Some cards are worth a set amount of points, but most cards belong to a set of like colored cards and you get a lot more points for each additional card in the set that you collect.

Setting up the game 

Available cards for purchase 

My hand 

End game score

This game felt a lot like a deck management game rather then a deck builder, which was a unique twist. The built in ability to remove a card from your deck every turn made for some interesting choices, especially in the first few turns when money is fairly tight. It did feel like some cards were overly powerful and could break the game, but after only one play its very difficult to know this for certain. The one annoying thing is that you're constantly shuffling your cards. My deck size remained around 10 cards the entire game and I was able to draw my entire deck most turns so I was constantly shuffling. Apart from that it was very fun and I would happily play this again.

130) New England

In this game you're buying tiles to place on the board and cards that give you points and occasionally special abilities. Each round players select a turn order/price per item bought token in turn order. Then in order of highest token value to lowest players may purchase up to two items currently available for purchase (which each cost the value on their token). Once this is done the start player shifts and the market is reset.

Initial placement 

The bits 

My early game action 

Getting down on their level 

End of our four player game

A fairly easy game to learn with a moderate level of strategy. It's perfect when you're in the mood for a lighter game although there are still meaningful decisions to be made throughout the game. A lot of the skill in this game comes in knowing when to spend your money, which directly relates to which turn order token you take. All in all a good game that I recommend playing, but do realize that (at least for me) this is a game I only pull out once every few months as it would get a bit boring if I played it more frequently.

129) Quilt Show

In this game you're attempting to build the fanciest (and most expensive) quilt. If successful you'll win first place and collect lots of money. In order to do this a player collects cards which then allow them to buy quilt pieces (tiles). Once a certain number of tiles have been purchased players build and reveal their quilts for judging. This is repeated a few times and at the end of the game the player with the most money wins.

Getting set up to start.

Just getting started

Building quilts was never easier

All the glory of a two player game

I love the theme of this game, unfortunately the game itself falls a bit flat on multiple levels. First, the card draw mechanic makes you believe that having wild cards would be valuable as taking them is more expensive, but in reality card quantity is much more valuable. Second, it felt backwards that buying less valuable (2 point) quilt pieces was more valuable in points per card spent then the more expensive quilt pieces. Third, there is so much luck involved in which quilt piece you flip up next. It seems so unfair when one player buys tons of cheap tiles and the next player is stuck buying less efficient and more expensive tiles. And finally, the quilts you build are generally fairly ugly. Despite these tiles looking like they belong together in a certain way you are never rewarded for what your quilt actually looks like. The game only cares about if you have the correct color or shape and what the point value of the tiles is, not whether you're able to arrange them in a certain way or make a neat pattern.

I should note that we played this as a two player game and it may be a bit better with more players, but I think the above issues would carry through to more players and because of this I wouldn't recommend this game (which makes me sad because I so wanted this to be an awesome game).

125) Stone Age

I can't believe its taken me this long to play this game! This is a classic worker placement game where you're gathering resources, buying cards and buildings (huts) to gather in-game and end-game points. Just don't forget to feed your people at the end of each round.

Individual player board 

Shared center board

Two players got all 8 relics!

This is a great game that I highly recommend playing. It has just the right amount of planning ahead, being preparing for future turns, and tension with other players potentially taking the spot you wanted. The one issue some people have with the game is there is a starvation strategy in which you choose to lose points each turn by not feeding your people. If done correctly, the benefit of not having to use workers to get food every few turns pays off in your ability to gather more of everything else. I love this strategy as it adds a new twist to the game, but it doesn't lend itself to the overall theme of the game. Regardless of this the game is amazing, and despite having dice, I still love this game so give it a try if you haven't already.

123) Tragedy Looper

This is a unique puzzle solving game where one player takes on the roll of running the game while the remaining players try and solve the puzzle. In the game we played we were trying to figure out who the key person was and then prevent them from dying. The player running the game is trying to kill the key person. Each turn players play cards that allow characters to move or gain experience or fatigue. After cards have been resolved characters perform special actions, which may include different characters getting killed off. When the objective fails the game is reset and the players have another chance to try and figure out how to win.

Anime Theme

Set up and ready to start 

There's been a murder

This game is different from other games I've played. It was a bit of work to figure out what was going on, but once we got into it it was a fun puzzle to solve. A huge bonus is that we played one of many different scenarios, meaning there are tons of new game versions all within this one game. I'm looking forward to trying this again.

121) Blueprints

In this game each player is secretly building a 6-dice structure based on their blueprints. There is a common pool of dice and each round a player selects a dice from this pool and replaces it with another random dice. The selected die gets added to your building. Once all players have selected 6 dice the structures are revealed and scored. Each color dice scores slightly differently and there are bonus score cards.

Getting set up 

My secret building 

Successfully completed this one

This game felt fairly unique and had an interesting use of dice. This game may suffer a little bit from players getting lucky off of good dice rolls or players that go first getting their choice of obviously better dice, but there are enough different goals that this is mitigated a bit. There is some strategy, but after a couple plays I can see this game getting a bit redundant. Thats compounded by the fact that there's only so many ways to stack six dice and while there are lots of different blueprint cards they are all basically the same. Unfortunately that makes this game a bit repetitive.

119) Sumeria

A fun game where you're changing the strength of different areas based on the movement of your pieces. The board is divided into 9 areas, but only the three highest areas will score at the end of each round. On your turn you can add one of your pieces to the board, remove one of your pieces, or move one of your pieces along roads to the next open city. When your piece enters a new region on the board that region will move one step higher in the race to score. Removing a piece bumps a region lower. Your goal is to have more of your pieces in the areas that score then the other players.

Set-up and ready to start

My feelings about this game: "Uruk"

Collecting victory tiles

Despite being a step behind every turn this game was enjoyable. One of the players stated somewhat accurately that the turn before the scoring round is a bit predictable as the optimal move is usually obvious. I feel like my major downfall was trying to plan too much in advance rather then being more flexible and reactive to what others were doing. All in all a fun game to bring out every once in a while.

117) Pastiche

This is a unique game where you're collecting paint colors to successfully recreate famous works of art and score points. On your turn you play a tile to the central shared area. Any colors on the played tile that are adjacent to another color(s) produce different colored paint. You can then trade colors with other players, combine colors to create new colors, and hopefully paint some of your pieces of art.

Art galore

Trying to paint these masterpieces

Nearing the end of a 4-player game

A fun game that I enjoyed playing. My main complaint is when playing a tile I never felt like I immediately knew what I was making. There is a very handy reference sheet, but even at the end of the game I was spending a fair amount of time just figuring out what I colors I could make. This and a card trading mechanic similar to Settlers of Catan can make for some drawn out turns. Despite this I enjoyed playing and anyone who enjoys art will especially like this one.

111) This Town Ain't Big Enough for the 2-4 of us

This is a neat tile laying game that feels a lot like Carcassonne. Each player is a different color/symbol. On your turn you play a tile, score any new completely fenced areas, and draw a tile for next turn. The scoring is interesting in that you're only scoring points for colors/symbols that have less presence in the enclosed area then you do.

Incase you thought I made that title up

Tiles with fences

Scoring track

I like this game largely because it was a mental challenge trying to figure out how to have the most of my color in areas, while still having other colors present to score points. I can imagine this game could become overplayed and it could become fairly easy to find the optimal plays. But, having only played it once, I'm excited to try it again. One more positive is that I never felt like I drew a dead tile. I always had somewhere to play my tile that was working towards a goal.