Great Board Games - Recommendations and Discussion

2024 edition of my annual trip to the local board game convention.

2017 report
2018 report
2019 report
2021 report
2023 report

Thursday:

Got there a day early and played some stuff with the group I was sharing a room with again. It was Halloween, so some people brought some games with that in mind.

Zombie Fluxx (BGG link) – It’s Fluxx, but with zombies. The game is meh to begin with and I’m not sure the zombies haven’t made it worse. I guess it’s fine, but only because it was Halloween. First impression: C-

Dead of Winter (BGG link) - One of my roommates was hosting this the next day, plus it was Halloween, so definitely seemed appropriate to play. More fun that I was anticipating, because storytelling games aren’t really my thing. Survive, kill zombies, hope there isn’t a traitor, meet your personal goal. First impression: B

Also played Betrayal on the House on the Hill (again, because Halloween). Gave this a B- last year, which seems about right.

Friday:

Official start of the convention and on to stuff I actually signed up for.

Forest Shuffle (BGG link) - A cute set collection game about building a forest. Plant trees and put animals in them to score points. The unique element is that the animal cards have a left and right half or a top and bottom half, of which you can only play one side of that. Quick little game that shouldn’t take more than 45 minutes, but still felt like it had strategic depth. I don’t usually care about this kind of stuff, but the artwork on this game is incredible. First impression: A-

Sea Salt & Paper (BGG link) – Because Forest Shuffle is a relatively short game, he made it a twofer with this one. Another set collection game, but this one feels more like rummy. It’s a fine filler game, but certainly nothing more. First impression: C+

Heat: Pedal to the Medal (BGG link) – Every year, there is some game that seems to be the big sexy thing of that year with multiple people hosting. Last year it was Earth. This year it was Heat. It’s a racing game, but at it’s heart, it’s a deck builder. You play cards every turn that dictate how many spaces you advance. More cards sound great, but you can only go around corners so fast. Otherwise you get “heat” (trash cards). You can get rid of them, but only if you play fewer cards when you move your care. We had a group of 7 (somehow I won despite the fact that I was one of the only first timers). I’m really glad we had that big group. This was loads of fun, but I’m not sure I’d feel that way with fewer people. First impression: A

Cascadia (BGG link) – Some people were starting this after I had finished Heat. It’s a game from about 3 years ago that had a lot of hype. The hype is justified. Using hex tiles, build an environment and place appropriate animals in there. Each of the five animals has one of four cards that determines scoring, along with how well you build your terrain. A simple game that seems to have a ton of strategic possibilities. I really wish this was on Board Game Arena. First impression: A+

Saturday:

Apiary (BGG link) – A worker placement game from the creator of Wyrmspan, which is fine I guess. This is much better. Bees in space. You go to areas to explore planets, improve your hive, obtain resources…all the normal stuff that you do in a worker placement game. Every time another player takes the spot you are on, your bee upgrades and can do better things. Another game with fantastic artwork First impression: A

Container (BGG link) – An economic game that I was really excited to play, since it’s out of print and this may be the only time I’ll ever get a chance. It has a very weird mechanic that somehow works. You produce things and also ship out the other player’s goods to an island for auction. Unfortunately the host messed up little portions of the rules, but I’m not sure it made the game unfair. Would love to try it again. First impression: A-

Clank in Space (BGG link) – An offshoot of Clank, which I’ve never played, but apparently this is basically the same thing. It’s a deck builder where you travel around a spaceship and steal things. There’s a push your luck element, because the goodies that are deep into the ship are better, but eventually you have to run away and escape the ship. I can’t really identify anything specifically wrong with it, but it didn’t blow me away either.First impression: C+

Railways of the World (BGG link) – The Saturday night slot had really slim pickings for some reason. This seemed like the most promising of a whole bunch of games that had me shouting “meh”. Maybe these sorts of games aren’t my thing, but I’m not ever sure this reached “meh” level. A route builder where you take out loans to expand your network. Our host was not the best at explaining things, so I might not be being completely fair in my judgment here, but I would not feel like my life was incomplete if I never play this again. First impression: D+

Canvas (BGG link) – Found some people I know that were trying this out. A light game where you take 3 transparent slides and make a work of art. The art is just glorified flavor text, as each panel has information at the bottom that tells you how it scores. Mechanism is creative and is simple enough for children to enjoy. A fun filler game. First impression: B

Sunday:

Dune: Imperium - Uprising (BGG link) – This is a standalone sequel to a 2020 Dune game. In preparation for this, I watched the movies, but you don’t need to know anything about the Dune universe. It’s a worker placement plus deck builder. You place your workers (as long as you have a card that says you can go there, and as long as no one else is there or you have a spy), execute the action and finally buy things. At the end of each round, there is a fight for a prize. The original is a top 10 BGG game and one of the other players said this was even better. I can’t judge that, as I’ve never played the original, but I can say that this one is outstanding. Seems well balanced too. If you go first, you have first pick of locations. If you go last, you get to see how the fight is developing. It fits the theme really well, although part of me wishes it wasn’t associated with Dune, as that makes it basically hopeless of ever getting on Board Game Arena. First impression: A+

Rats of Wistar (BGG link) – While we were waiting for a convention ending raffle that my ride was participating in, someone was setting up this game and asked if we wanted to give it a shot. It looks like a kids game but is clearly way heavier than that. You send your mice out into a farm in search of goodies. Seems promising, but the person explaining was SO SLOW at both explaining and playing that we just had to bail. I’d try this again, but JFC not with that host. First impression: Incomplete

And that ended my convention. Had a fun time and am looking forward to next year, which is thankfully the weekend before Halloween.

Container is good

Good write up, tho I like Railways of the World

I got the Container 10th anniversary jumbo edition kickstarter back in 2017 and still haven’t gotten a chance to learn it and play it. Gonna bring it to next convention and have someone teach me.