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.

151) Poo

There's no surprises here, when you read the name and see the box you know exactly what your getting into. Each player takes the roll of a monkey who flings poo at other players. On your turn you play a card and draw back up to five cards. Cards allow you to fling poo at other players, clean poo off of yourself, or provide special actions or abilities. Additionally, there are defensive cards that can prevent players from throwing poo and even toss it back at them. Once a player has accumulated 15 poo they are out. Last person standing wins.

Thats exactly how I felt 

My hand 

Help for everyone 

Some cards

The only redeeming value to this game is using m&m's for the poo counters. Each time you clean yourself you get a little snack and it never gets old to make fun of people for eating poo. Apart from this the game isn't that enjoyable to me. The amount of random luck is monumental. Players for the most part choose who they want to attack so if everyone gangs up on you you'll probably lose. Also, some players will draw the cards they need and others wont. Because of this the game doesn't fall that high on my list of games I enjoy.  

149) Pandemic Contagion

This is a fun take on Pandemic. Each player takes on the roll of a disease and attempts to infect as many cities as possible. Points are awarded throughout the game and at the end of the game based on how much of your disease you've gotten on each city. Additionally, each city has a population and when everyone in the city is diseased the city is destroyed and points are awarded. Players spend their turn evolving their disease, infecting cities, or drawing more cards to fuel future actions.

After my first turn 

Infecting different cities 

Four player game

I really enjoyed this game, but I question if the re-playability is there. I think after 5-10 plays this game may start to feel a bit stale, although this is my first play so I should reserve judgement. Some things I really enjoyed: The theme and game play mesh really well together. I also really like the mechanic of trying to be involved at least a little bit in infecting each city. Sneaking in a few extra points by placing just a few cubes can make a big difference. Finally, I really like that on your turn you want to do everything. Anything you do is beneficial and builds on itself, the trick comes down to figuring out which action will lead to the biggest benefit.

All in all a solid game that I highly recommend trying at least once.

148) Sentinels of the Multiverse

In this game all players take on the roll of a comic book hero and work together to defeat a villain. Each  player takes their turn by playing one card and activating one power. Then the terrain takes a turn by flipping a card that can be good or bad. Then the villain takes their turn by usually flipping over more enemy cards and dealing damage to some or all players. Play continues until all heros are eliminated or the villains lose, usually by taking the required amount of damage.

Team guns 

Four player game

Our enemy

Bonus 

The best aspects of this game are the flavor and replayability. There are so many different villains and hero decks that each game can play out vastly different then the next game. Each game offers a unique puzzle that everyone must work together to figure out.

This game has three major downsides in my mind. First, is the amount of time you spend waiting for other players to take their turn. As players become more accustomed to how to play the game the turns may speed up a bit, but if you take a quick turn you can be waiting a while before your next turn comes around. The second downside is how fiddley the game is. At times its really hard to remember how all the cards interact and affect one another. They have pieces to help alleviate this, but when each card is affected by a different card (or cards) and they're all dealing damage to different players based on different conditions...well something is bound to be missed. Finally, if you don't draw the correct cards you may not have any effect on the game. My deck was all about having guns, but I didn't draw a gun until turn 4. This meant that my first three turns were inconsequential.  Doing nothing on your turn only compounds the feeling of waiting too long for everyone else on their turns.

Despite all my criticism I would recommend trying this at least once. Lots of people really love the game so it can't be all bad.

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.

146) Evolution

In this game you're creating and protecting various creatures you control. This is a card driven game where you use cards for their ability or discard cards to improve your creature, activate special abilities, or even to create another creature. All your creatures start out as herbivores, but certain cards turn them into carnivores and you can start attacking (eating) other players creatures. You can only eat as much food as your population allows and food can become scarce. The player who eats the most food over the course of the game is the winner.

Upgrade options 

My first creature 

Our four player game 

End game score

I enjoyed playing this game although it didn't leave me wanting to play again. A big mechanic is destroying (eating) creatures that other players have spent time building up. I'm not a huge fan of this mechanic and often try to turtle up and hide in games such as this. I felt like in our game the balance between carnivores and herbivores was largely skewed towards the herbivores having a big advantage. I would guess that multiple plays would lead to a more balanced game as players start to learn the different abilities, but in our game the carnivores often had no other creatures to eat and were essentially worthless investments. Additionally, when a creature did become weak enough to start getting eaten, each player with a carnivore would attack that player, which felt a bit unfair that the weakest player is the one that continues to get attacked. I don't think this game is for me, but I would encourage you to give it a try for yourself as there are a number of fun interactions and mechanics that I think a lot of people would enjoy.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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).

128) Cardline (animals)

This is one of many timeline games, which range from history to pop culture to animals as seen below. Each version has you guessing the correct order for cards in your hand based on categories, in this case you could choose length (height), weight, or life span. On one side of the card the categories are hidden and thus you don't know the card values until you attempt to play the card. On your turn you get to play one card somewhere along the line of cards such that the chosen category fits in order from low to high. If you're correct you play the card. If incorrect you discard that card and draw a new one. The first player to get rid of all their cards wins.

Comes in a nice tin.

Correctly played cards

Tuna is longer then me? 

A pelican is longer then a gazelle. Hmm.

This is a fun game that can sometimes surprise you as seen in the two bottom pictures. It's a light game that acts as a good starter game. It's easy to learn and everyone is involved and interested in each other players turn. I would certainly recommend this game (or others in the series, although I haven't played them).

124) Chaos & Alchemy

A fairly straight forward and quick card game. The goal of the game is to get cards out in front of you totaling 10 points. On a players turn they get actions equal to 1 + the number of successful dice rolls they have. Actions are used to draw or play cards and failed dice require a player to discard cards. Each card has a special ability that influences the game in different ways.

Starting set-up is easy enough

My starting hand 

Our four player game

Some cards I managed to play

Unfortunately this game failed on multiple levels. My over arching dislike is the amount of luck involved in this game although more specifically: In our game the player going last had most of his cards taken by other players leaving them at a huge disadvantage before even getting a turn in the game. On top of that, the player to the right of the last player influenced the dice on multiple turns, which meant that the following player had to roll 6's in order to get additional actions. This essentially left the last player having no good cards to play and no actions to recover from the deficit. This was all decided before this player had any ability to do anything in the game. That by itself is enough to discourage future plays.

Additionally, there is the issue of complete random luck of what you draw on your turn. Everyone is drawing from a shared pile of cards. Some cards will be better then others. The player that wins will often be the one who randomly draws the better cards.

If you can't tell already, I'm not a big fan of this game and wouldn't recommend this one.

122) Times Square

A fun two player game where you're playing cards to move different characters towards your area. On your turn you can play as many of one color card as you want and are able to. You move the corresponding piece/s based on the cards and then score points based on a number of situations. The ultimate goal is to get one of the green figures to your area.

Just getting started 

Red piece is on the move

The game so nice we played it 6 times in a row. The game as a whole works quite nicely together. The special abilities of the characters provide a nice balance. I was surprised that one player could get so far behind and still claw back into the game. Each game is a new puzzle based on the cards you draw and I would recommend giving this a try when you have the chance.