That looks real real good. The tension mechanic is itself really cool in light of the 3v3 nature of the game. Pushing tension too hard could limit your teammates’ opportunities to prepare for the coming war.
This is… interesting.
Close to a great idea, but I don’t think campsites are a great fit. Best fit would be a farm resort. There are these places dotting the map all over PA and NY where cheap motels operate on family-owned farmland. They market themselves as agricultural tourism. You go and live on the farm, get to see the animals, get to go to the big farmhouse and eat locally-sourced meals, and spend the bulk of your time sitting around the pool or hanging out in the clubhouse. This place is a good example: https://www.lukans.com
These places mostly are a big hit for family reunions. You go, cut yourself off from distractions, are well fed, etc. You know what else that’d be great for? Getting a large group of gamers to hunker down and play a ton of board games.
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Some friends and I go to a cabin in the woods every year around October (upstate NY, in the Catskills near New Paltz), and it’s basically four days of campfires and apple picking and boardgames. I highly recommend it! I usually don’t get to play longer / more mechanic-heavy games with this group, but the lack of distractions means we can get pretty beefy games going (and grill beef while we’re at it).
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So this
Led to this
Which led to this
For the past three years, Bezier has been putting out excellent updates for older games that always get completely overlooked by BGG. People give Restoration Games a lot of attention for this, but Ted Alspach has been doing some totally unappreciated work touching-up games that are less than 10 years old (with damn good box inserts that actually function even when the box is tipped or jostled!)
Favor of the Pharaoh is an excellent update of To Court the King. I have 17 recorded plays, but have never seen anyone else carrying or playing this game at any convention.
Chris’s rating: 8
BGG average: 6.86
BGG rank: 1098
BGG Num Owned: 2882
Colony is a similarly excellent reworking of Age of Craft, a game where Anthony and myself both have the second highest number of recorded plays on BGG (behind Jeroen from Splotter). I am 100% convinced that half of the low ratings on this come from people who have never destroyed a building for more resource dice. The other half are from people who don’t like that you can destroy buildings for more resource dice.
Chris’s rating: 7
BGG average: 6.71
BGG rank: 1694
BGG Num Owned: 1811
New York Slice is a rework of Piece 'o Cake. I have never seen a copy anywhere other than the copy I bought on day one. New York Slice Legacy would never happen because people don’t seem to know it exists.
Chris’s rating: 7
BGG average: 6.91
BGG rank: 1316
BGG Num Owned: 2201
Bezier’s cash is all in One Night Ultimate Werewolf (22667 owned), Castles of Mad King Ludwig (21410 owned) and Suburbia (20471 owned) at this point. I don’t mind, I just hope they keep doing 30-45 minute family games too.
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You must be living in a weird area because all three of the games you listed are super popular with boardgamers in DC, where I live, and also in upstate NY, where my old gaming friends live.
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60 minute breakdown of the best card game ever.
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https://frontrowcrew.com/geeknights/20100720/chicago-express-and-roll-through-the-ages/
It’s choo choo time. (I’ve played CE a few times but never owned it - the others were collateral damage)
Spiel des Jahres noms are out.
Kinderspiel des Jahres
Emojito
Funkelschatz
Panic Mansion
Spiel des Jahres
Azul
Luxor
The Mind
Kennerspiel des Jahres
Die Quacksalber von Quendlinburg
Ganz schön clever
Heaven & Ale
Are your favorites on the list? Which nominations are surprising to you?
Sonderpreis
Pandemic Legacy Season 2
Azul in SdJ instead of KedJ is a bit surprising. I think it’s smart to bring back a special award for Pandemic Legacy S2 because it 1) needs to be acknowledged, and 2) doesn’t fit into the recent history of SdJ picks at all. Season 1 felt out of place in 2016.
I have only played one SdJ game and one KedJ game; if I were on the jury Azul and Heaven & Ale would be my picks by default. The Mind and Ganz schön clever got a lot of buzz before and during The Gathering. Luxor & Die Quacksalber von Quendlinburg are still unreleased in English and no one is boosting them (yet).
Take a look at the designers:
- Azul (Michael Kiesling)
- Luxor (Rüdiger Dorn)
- The Mind (Wolfgang Warsch)
- Die Quacksalber von Quendlinburg (Wolfgang Warsch)
- Ganz schön clever (Wolfgang Warsch)
- Heaven & Ale (Michael Kiesling, Andreas Schmidt)
It’s a good year to be Michael Kiesling (who is currently one SdJ behind frequent collaborator Wolfgang Kramer) and a hell of a coming-out party for Wolfgang Warsch.
Adding the “recommended” selections:
SdJ Recommended
- 5-Minute Dungeon
- Facecards
- Majesty
- Memoarrr!
- Santorini
- Woodlands
KedJ Recommended
- Clank!
- Pioneers
I’m not at all surprised to see Azul up for the SdJ and not the KdJ. I don’t see any reason to consider it a kids game.
Whoops - I typed KdJ for everything up there when I meant KedJ
I can think of no more appropriate partnership than Cryptozoic and Rooster Teeth, which is now a thing.
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Coming soon red v blue the deck building game. /sarcasm
How much blood are they going to try to squeeze from this stone? Is Vast the new Carcassonne?