15) Zeppeldrome

Currently this game is not available for purchase although you can search for them on kickstarter and pre-order your copy. I was lucky enough to play a sneak peak of this game at a Sasquatch game festival. My initial reaction is that this is a mash-up of Salmon Run and Roborally, but, for me at least, this game does a better job of implementing the core mechanics of these games. In short this is a racing game where you're playing a route, using actions to modify your route or other players routes, and then executing the result. Of course the board is also presenting hazards that you need to work around.

Blurry picture of the box

Green wins

All the game components

Beware the falling lemmings

This is generally a style of game that I'm less interested in, but the game play is so elegant and smooth that I would highly recommend this game. It's really easy to pick up and has a lot of player interaction. There's also fun flavor to the cards and a good theme as a whole.

14) Trans Europa

This is a quick, easy, light game that everyone seems to enjoy. It's a great filler if you only have 15 minutes to play. There is some strategic thinking, but I think a lot of the strategy comes in figuring out where people are going and capitalizing on having others build routes towards the cities you need to complete.

Shuffle them up

A few turns into a game

So close you may as well be on that train

City requires for one round

When in doubt play with the pieces

13) Citadels

This game is a double edged sword. It always sucks you in because there are such good mechanics, but then makes you stay well past your welcome in games that last for-ev-er. Just looked up the estimated play time and was surprised that its 90 minutes. Thankfully the game I played here was much shorter, probably due to there being only 4 players, all of whom knew how to play (or picked it up very quickly) and the fact that the warlord was rarely used successfully.

Just getting going

4 player game

My final buildings...not enough to win

I really enjoy selecting a new role each round with special abilities and I enjoy trying to figure out which roles other people will take to maximize the use of the attack cards. On the other hand, 3 of the 8 cards in the base game are attack cards, which can really slow the pace of the game. Overall there isn't enough game here to warrant the 90 minute play time and thats why I'm usually wary of playing this one.

12) The Castles of Burgundy

Yay, finally get to play this game I got for Christmas. As this was everyones first game we all used the starter boards, but I'm excited to try out the other board choices. I love games where you're building up your own 'city' and there was so much of that, as well as a constant scoring of points, which really makes it feel like you're doing a lot. The mechanics and game play are so simple, yet there's so much to think about and plan for on each turn. And saving one of the highest complements I can give for last: This is a dice game that I really like.

Just getting going

Third of the way through the game

Everything for a 4 player game.

Who needs to be first player...not black

End game board

And black wins...

...because of 40 points in sheep

This game is great fun and I can't wait to play it again soon.

11) Blokus

This game is great because it takes seconds to explain the rules and it offers great strategy and geometric planning. After a little while you start to see the board differently; and the diagonal avenues through other colors start to stand out. As the game progresses it becomes a great balancing act of trying to defend open spaces and trying to move into other players areas.

A few pieces waiting to fit on the board

Early game = get rid of the pieces I like the least

Mid game = spread out as much as possible

End game = hope people don't blokus you

All around this is a great game that anyone can pick up almost immediately and have a good time with.

10) Caverna

Caverna: The game that took everything I didn't like about Agricola out and left everything I did like in. I can now be a happy farmer and not a confused farmer.

So many good things

And yes, on the far left there are 48 unique buildings just waiting to be built.

Animeeples, Wheatmeeples, Gourdmeeples, Treebranchmeeples

And yes, they are as cool as they look.

My end of game board

There's so much to this game, but after having suffered through a couple games of Agricola, this wasn't that hard to pick up and almost felt intuitive. This was a learning game for us and now that I have a better idea of what the buildings are and how the game flows (you have to feed your people almost every turn!) I'm excited to give it a second and third and fourth....play.

9) Firefly (The Game)

I suppose with a 2 hour (*cough* 5 hour *cough*) game you're bound to have lots of pictures. This game had so many good aspects to it and one really really horrible game functionality.

Ready to start

Picking up guns at Silverhold

This money is too awesome to spend.

3 hours later I was the first to accomplish a goal

Was it Harken's Folly or our own folly for choosing this objective?

Oh behave

These misbehave cards basically ruined the game for us as a whole. One player had multiple rounds of watching other players almost breeze through these cards as he slowly lost everything over the course of three failed attempts to complete a mission requiring these cards. This occurred about a third of the way through the game and his game was basically over after that. Not only did these cards ruin the game for one player, but they also determined the winner of the game. The player in the lead was two turns ahead of everyone else, but, based on the un-luck of the draw was stymied until another player was able to catch up and win. I think any game where one player can draw cards that say "you fail this turn regardless of your prior preparation" and another player comes along draws cards that say "you pass without having to meet any requirements" will leave a bad taste in your mouth.

It all fits...barely.

Despite all of that we were still willing to give this game another shot. There was just too many things that we enjoyed: hiring crew, buying and equipping weapons and abilities to your crew, the random dinosaur 'active player' token (I know, I know, its thematic), going on missions and delivering goods. And having all of that fit so so perfectly into the flavor of the show/movie was just perfect. So the next time around we'll choose an objective that doesn't require those misbehave cards and we'll do everything in our power to avoid them.