65) Catan: Cities and Knights

This game is super popular for many reasons. Number one would probably be that its most people's introduction to longer strategy games and that creates a soft spot in ones heart. Also, it has city building, exploring, resource management, and so many other things that are just awesome in a game. People just love this game and you have to give it credit for that. My goal here is to give this game a fair shake, because I'm not really that big a fan.

Ready to start

Blue road, green road, game over?

Cryptic wheat

Fiddly-bit heaven

I think my number one complaint about this game is that you're rolling dice to determine whether or not you can do things on your turn. There's more to it then that (probability and trading savvy), but if your numbers are rolled less frequently then other players numbers you probably lose, and there's always that person sitting there not getting the good rolls who gets to watch everyone else play. I'm sure there's other things that I don't like about this game....but, if you haven't played this game then go play it, because its the roots that have allowed countless people to become gaming nerds and there's no arguing with that.

64) Carcassonne: The Discovery

This is a nice take on the standard version of Carcassonne. Basically you're placing your people on different land forms and then trying to complete and score them. The main difference from the standard version is that after placing a tile you have the choice of either placing a meeple or removing and scoring one of your meeples already on the board. The one complaint I would have is the scoring is not very intuitive. After a few turns everyone starts to pick up on it, but it is a bit more complicated then it needs to be.

A couple turns in

4-player game

Mountain meeple

The final map in all its glory

For me, I only need to own one version of Carcassonne and I'm happy its this one. I really like the standard version, but have played it enough as to where this is a nice twist on a game I already enjoy. If you already own prior versions of this game I wouldn't recommend buying this because the game play and strategy are largely the same. But, its always nice to be able to pull this one out as a 'new' game that  still feels like an old friend.

63) Glory to Rome

This is a neat game with a bit more depth then you initially expect. In this game, the first few turns were spent figuring out how the game works (as is true for most new games) and the latter half was spent trying to recover from those early decisions. One thing I did notice is the first 2/3rds of the game is spent fighting for every last resource and card and advantage. You then reach a tipping point and all that hard work begins to pay off. People start having ridiculously awesome rounds and the end is just around the corner.

For the glory. 

Getting started

Forum and Sewer for the win

Cards everywhere.

Once again, the joy in this game is in looking for and executing awesome combos. The buildings you build and the clientele you hire fuel these combos and allow you to put together some sweet turns. I also really like that there are so many different paths to victory and this just makes me want to play again to try out a different strategy. Overall a fun game that I look forward to playing again.

62) Smash Up

Quick and easy game with tons of re-playability. There are a bunch of different themed sets of cards. Each player gets two sets of themed cards to make a deck. Players then play actions and minions in an attempt to conquer various bases worth points.

The box says it all 

My deck ready for action 

Ninjas and plants!

Who doesn't want a dread gazebo.

I would recommend this game as a light card game that teaches card interaction. It does feel a bit random in that you have limited control when it comes to planning ahead. Players have so many ways to destroy, steal, move, and otherwise just mess with the cards you've played, which limits the amount of strategy one can have. The board state is often completely different at the the start of your turn then it was when you finished your previous turn. Despite this, the anticipation of the ultimate combo that blows everything out of the water would keep me coming back for more. So, thumbs up this one for a quick filler game.

61) The Cave

Get your spelunking hats on! There's nothing better then flipping over random tiles and seeing what goodies they contain and this game has no shortage of this. During the game you send you're explorer out to discover new parts of the cave. Beware though, you only have so much oxygen and will need to head back to base to restock before you run out.

Backpack is all packed up

Almost done exploring

End game loot

End of a two player game

This game is quite fun and the them is spot on. There were a couple of rather confusing parts, the most obvious being marking and remembering the depths of certain parts of the cave. We ended up playing a two player game and each player stuck to their own part of the cave. I think the game would have a lot more player tension with more people fighting over all the treasures in the cave. I look forward to trying this one again with more players.

60) Clans

Another quick and easy filler game. Each person is secretly assigned a color and the goal is to have your color score the most points throughout the game. On your turn you move all the huts from one location to an adjacent location. When this results in the huts having no adjacent huts that group is scored.

Just getting started

The board in all its glory

Very mobile huts

End game

This game is great as a quick filler that doesn't require a lot of thought. Initially it can suffer from some AP as there are so many moves and no clear signal that one move is better then another. As people start to realize this the game speeds up and subsequent plays would be quick. Overall its quick to learn and its fun having the mystery of not knowing what colors each other player is.

59) Quantum

Surprisingly, another dice game that I enjoyed. Most of the dice pictured are actually space ships moving around the galaxy and conquering planets. There is some rolling in combat and when ships are destroyed, but success in the game is based more on strategic play rather then what you roll.

Set up and just starting 

Player board with a couple casualties

Four player setup

Red vs. Blue

I really enjoyed this game and would play it again, but I feel like as you play more you'll be able to see in advance when a player is close to victory and the other players would be able to prevent this player from winning. It's never a good feeling to do really well at the beginning and then have everyone gang up and successfully prevent you from progressing towards victory. I haven't played enough to know for sure that there aren't other paths to victory. Hopefully I'll get to test this sooner rather then later.