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modboy's 111 games to play this year!
John Squires
United States
Brooklyn
New York
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(2006 is over so I can now publish the final results of this list and start working on 2007!) Thanks to all those who played games with me this year.
These are the games I hope to play this year -- wish me luck!
I didn't want it to be just a list of games to serve my own purposes. Hopefully you'll find something you haven't heard of yet that interests you. I consider myself to be a gamer yet it's silly too see how many highly touted games I've yet to play. As I play the games I'll let you know my thoughts. You may notice I've already played a handful already.
The list has three major categories MUST play, REALLY want to play and would LIKE to play.
If you're planning a trip to NYC feel free to drop me a line. If I'm available, and you pass my intuitive not-a-freak check  , I can introduce you to one of my gaming groups.
The final stats:
MUST: 33/39 played = 84.6%
REALLY want: 23/38 = 60.5%
LIKE: 22/34 played = 64.7%
OVERALL: 74/111 = 66.7%
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1.
Board Game: Demono
[Average Rating:6.10 Unranked]
John Squires
United States
Brooklyn
New York
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(MUST) I've been intrigued by this game for quite some time. It's Order vs Chaos & they each have different goals. There aren't too many asymetrical 2 players around (Netrunner is a favourite). I don't expect the gameplay to be brilliant but the beauty & originality of this hard to find gem should make for a fun experience.
PLAYED 06/24/2006 (sisteray): It's demonic chaos versus fascist order in a highly original, assymetrical, 2-player tile-layer that works well both thematically and tactically. My biggest concern is the time the game takes to play: I thought it would be one of those 30-45 min games but it can last well into 90 minutes as both sides are trying to break through an epic war of attrition to meet their lofty victory condition. The production value for this is top-notch as each double-sided tile contains it's own unique art.
How did I do... well, I started as order but then had a difficult time trying to figure out how to create enough forward moving production-momentum. It was late at night and my mind was starting to get bogged down. Finally sisteray & I flipped sides and he showed me how the machine works. Order probably has more to think about but Chaos might be the funnest side to play as they're just trying to kill the parents, burn down the businesses & schools, corrupt the policemen and technicicians and reprogram the robots. I never thought penguins could be so evil!
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John Squires
United States
Brooklyn
New York
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(MUST) I'm excited to see what Kramer does with this mish-mash of mechanics: tile laying, card drafting & connections. The pieces look cool (animals) and so do the many scoring & money making opportunities.
PLAYED 12/18/2005 (sloehand, Larry Chong, dr glaze): This was better than I thought it would be. For a game with such depth it clips along quickly. I love the turn angst (hoping players won't screw you over) & there are some real strategic & tactical choices to make. This one will see repetitive plays.
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John Squires
United States
Brooklyn
New York
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(MUST) Surely not a gamer's game but looks like something I might really enjoy. There's hand management, screwage, a colourful board & a cool looking theme of destruction (I love Survive!) .
PLAYED 05/06/2006 (clarabow, sisteray, Natus): A fairly light tactical game with a great theme and two parts: Part One has players placing their villages around Pompeii. When Vesuvius erupts Part Two begins and players are trying to move thier villagerrs out of Pompeii before the lava flow consumes them in flame. The basic mechanic is safety in numbers: when placing one gets to place extra villagers if placed where others exist. When moving players can move as far as the number of villagers on the space moved from.
During my first play I'd say I "won" the placement phase having added the most villagers to the board. However, I think I finished in last as the other players took delight in burning my poor pieces and dropping them into the volcano. Clarabow won with the strategy of moving the villagers closest to the exits out first. I, on the otherhand, was trying to move my villagers from the center of the board first into areas where they would receive a larger movement bonus. I learned the hard way that this game is all about the bottom line. Certainly a game not to be taken too seriously.
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John Squires
United States
Brooklyn
New York
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(MUST) Mixed reviews for this game: some say it's too chaotic & difficult to come up with a long-term strategy. However, the artwork & theme (fetishes) really make this a must play for me. It's a stock / set collection game which allows you to play with multiple boards at once (there are 3 boards you can play with).
PLAYED 01/07/2006 (Gola, sisteray, Dan R., Larry Chong, dr glaze, clarabow, IngredientX, {Jack Mack} ): We got this on the table at The Second Coming of Gola. Played with 2 boards and I thought it was a really fun resource-management racing game. My biggest complaint was that it ended earlier than I expected & I would have loved to have kept going (should have played for second & third). Ingenious design as each city (board) has the same stocks but different stock systems. You don't know the value of the stocks in the other city until you travel to it via ferry. Nor do you know what commodities the store-owners are looking for. When you're ready to ferry to the other city you literally take all of your commodities, money & fetishes and walk over to the other board and sit behind (to the right) of the player who's currently taking their turn. You have to collect 3 fetishes to win but cannot collect your second fetish in the same city you collected your first one in. Remember it's a race game so a large number of players in one city slows down the turn cycle. The rules can seem overwhelming at first but it's really a simple game with a ton (20, or so) of icons to learn ... just print out a few player-aids an you'll be up & running in no time.
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John Squires
United States
Brooklyn
New York
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(MUST) I'm always up to try a new card-filler & have had my eyes on this for the last 2 years. The artwork looks really cool & I rarely get to play any Japanese designed games. Now I can finally find a copy.
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John Squires
United States
Brooklyn
New York
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(MUST) Tilsit's come up with a new line of colourful, light, fun looking games recently (this game along with Skaal, Maka Bana, Key Largo & Kanaloa). I've been waiting to try them out. This one's an interesting combination of mechanisms: programmed moves with pick up & deliver. One reviewer describes it as a combination of Robo Rally & Elfenland.
PLAYED 01/07/2006 (sisteray, IngredientX, clarbow): Fantastic -- the best programmed moves game I've played. When you deliver goods to cities you can spread your influence in 2 of 3 categories: economic (expand your yak herd), religious (build a stupa in that city), political (send delegates to connecting towns). I love how the victory conditions demand a balanced spread of influence types on the board: first whoever has the least amount of religious influence is eliminated; second, whoever has the least amount of political influence is eliminated; finally of those left whoever has the most economic influence is declared the winner.
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7.
Board Game: Java
[Average Rating:7.08 Overall Rank:307]
John Squires
United States
Brooklyn
New York
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(MUST) This entry applies to either Java, Mexica or Tikal. I'm a fan of Kiesling & Kramer and I like the action point system of Torres. I've been warned that these games allow players a lot of action points & quite a bit to think about often leading to to analysis paralysis. I don't doubt the designs I just need to see if I have the patience.
PLAYED (Tikal) 03/21/2006 (sloehand, Jonbone, jcrim13): Well-designed, thoughtful game has players exploring the jungle. The big problem some have with this one if that each turn players receive 10 action points to spend that can bog down into analysis paralysis. I haven't had this issue as I've only played on SBW, which seems to be a perfect fit for such a game. The gameplay is challenging as each player is vying for a limited number of points which are earned by both collecting treasure and having the majority at a temple when the board is scored. My favourite mechanic is that each player takes turns scoring: which means that even though you have a majority at a temple you may want to add more explorers to it to keep others from scoring it on their round. Additionally, you may want to place an explorer on a temple that you won't score (because of a tie, etc.) to force others to use their valuable action points in order to score it on their turn. Their really are a ton of ways to spend your action points and ultimately it's a contest in efficiency. I haven't yet tried the auction variant which some gamers will insist on using as it adds a new stategic dimension & removes the luck of the tile draw.
Won my first game but then got creamed in the second match as I probably placed my camps too early only to find that my opponents were more than happy to place the volcanoes and low-scoring temples around them (not to mention they made it expensive to move out of the camps).
PLAYED (Mexica) 03/28/2006 (milksheik, sisteray, MKUltra): Another impressive K&K action-pointer which feels original even though it's just another area-control game. Players each have 6 action points to spend but play doesn't bog down as points are usually spent in a combination of one move. Players can found a district, add to a canal, add a bridge, move or build (the buildings come in different sizes and each floor to the building placed costs an action point & counts for a control point in that district. The game excels because of both the defensive considerations (much fun in blocking your opponents after they've spent action points moving to a paricular district) and that the entire board is scored twice (halfway through and at the end of the game) so buiding that occurs in the first round is culmulative. The play of Mexica felt more like Torres than Tikal.
Won my first two games but each match was extremely close (and fun!). The second victory was by one point.
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John Squires
United States
Brooklyn
New York
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(MUST) The archaeology theme sounds intiguing. I've read complaints that there may be too much luck involved but it's hard to create an exploration / discovery game that doesn't have luck. It can't be any worse than Goldgeier.
PLAYED 04/30/2006 (dr glaze, mrs glaze, sisteray): I'm most impressed by how well the gameplay fit the archaeology theme. Players compete in a two year span to uncover the most ancient relics. Movement and actions take time in weeks and time is managed in a mechanic similar to that in Neuland. One can travel around the major European cities go learn more about the ancient digging sites (improving efficiency, etc). Once a player goes to a site to dig they can decide how long to dig for. Time spent digging added to modifiers determines how many cards they turn over. Each card will either be bunk (dirt) or contain an artifact. The dirt cards are added back to the deck for that particular site (making the odds tougher for the next player hoping to find something there). Victory points are earned by gathering relics and by displaying the best relics at exhibits: players who arrive at the city where the exhibit occurs, on the day it occurs, with the artifacts that match the exhibit's theme can compete. The advanced rules help clean up some of the luck players found fault with in the original rules.
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John Squires
United States
Brooklyn
New York
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(MUST) I've only played two Breese games & loved them both. However, I still haven't tried out anything from the Key series. I'll undoubtedly like this one too. Is it Catan without the dice? Probably not.
PLAYED 01/24/2006 (milksheikh, sad_otter, sisteray, sloehand): Magnificent mix of mechanics, player-interaction and screwage. Initial placement is a crucial & enjoyable part of the game. The bid is interesting because each round only one person wins it. The winner determines which player is going to choose the first work-order marker. Bidding correctly might just be the key to success as the placement of your workers determined by the order marker is how one gains resources. Resources are tight and there are some tough decisions but nothing that'll make your brain explode. An overall great experience, my biggest complaint would be that it ended too early. Bit of controversy in my group (at least from me) whether the law cards should be face up or face down (I suggest the latter). Looking forward to trying out the expansion.
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10.
Board Game: Kreta
[Average Rating:6.97 Overall Rank:530]
John Squires
United States
Brooklyn
New York
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(MUST) Dorra does area control with variable powers; players determine when scoring occurs. I've enjoyed Dorra's other designs, especially For Sale & Amazonas, I'm probably going to love this one too.
PLAYED 6/28/2006 (derk, sisteray, ): You can probably tell by this disjointed entry that the verdict's still out on this game although my initial play left a sour taste in my mouth... Dorra has put out a respectable area-control game in Kreta. I appreciated the hand-management which allows players to either place or move their various pieces in order to score or farm (for VPs). The map & majority battles are great. I like that multiple regions around an intersection score each round but I didn't enjoy the randomness of where scoring occurs. Knowing that scoring can occur anywhere should lead one to a flexible strategy. There are about 35 intersections & 11 will score during the game. The issue that irked me was when regions that were well-defended by my opponents scored multiple times in a row. Of course I could "try" to compete in those scoring areas but it's a large map and a) it can be very costly to try to overcome somebody's majority especially since there's a good chance you may not succeed b) odds are somewhere else on the map could be scoring next.
There's also an interesting choice which I would like to explore in a future game. Does one keep their static pieces in hand (so they can be thrown down later in the game when it's too costly or difficult to move other pieces to a scoring area) or play them early since different areas can score multiple times and you can place in the best positions before they're taken by others (best, in this case, isn't always what's going to score but what has the "odds" to score the most).
I think derk shared my opinion (or vice versa) when you put all your energy into something that's not going to score you just kinda lose interest.
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John Squires
United States
Brooklyn
New York
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(MUST) Another new Kramer & Kiesling? Area control & airplanes? Got to try it!
PLAYED 12/18/2005 (sisteray, Dan R., Larry Chong): This one didn't disappoint. You usually need to work with your opponents in order to score. Movement on the board is fairly free-form but you have a limited number of resources so optimization and opportunity are key. The windmill is the new Castillo. This one fits in between Web of Power & El Grande.
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John Squires
United States
Brooklyn
New York
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(MUST) This one has mixed reviews but I can't wait to try it out since I loved Oltremare. I think I can get past the ugly map.
PLAYED 11/14/2006 (sisteray, sad_otter, derk, MKUltra): A mish-mash of mechanics (area control, player powers and auctions) a tight economic system and card-management (helped by drawing the right cards) all add up to an OK game. I definitely want to give it another try considering we played two rules incorrectly (as interpreted from the rulebook: a) players DO get money on the final round b) cards spent on cities ARE placed in front of you to add to your influence (rather than discarded). One thing going for it is the quick play-time but you have to balance that with a few frustrating features (mainly due to card draws).
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John Squires
United States
Brooklyn
New York
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(MUST) Build the best civilization using: resource management, deduction & screwage. Should you go for quantity or quality? Some complain about the play time but I can't wait to get this one on the table.
PLAYED 01/10/2006 (Jonbone, sad_otter, (Lev & a woman who's name I cannot recall): This one definitely hits the sweet spot. It's sometimes tough to decide how strong you should be influence-wise (Will of the People); the mechanic which sucks your opponent's townspeople into your city, destroying their unpopulated buildings. You'll need enough food from harvesting to feed all of your citizens (and any new ones) otherwise you'll pay a strong penalty.
My second play of this was very difficult. I had a tough time making decisions... one thing I forgot to mention above is that the game can be extremely unforgiving but that's something I appreciate with this one. Truely a great design.
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John Squires
United States
Brooklyn
New York
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(MUST) A light building game with bluffing that's a mixed bag with reviewers. However, I've been wanting to try this out since I first read about it last year. Tiki's & huts ... I really need a vacation!
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15.
Board Game: Medici
[Average Rating:7.18 Overall Rank:223]
John Squires
United States
Brooklyn
New York
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(MUST) One of the Knizia classics I haven't tried yet. I can finally play this: my friends refused to purchase/play the ugly American edition. I love a competitive high-stakes auction game.
PLAYED 02/10/2006 (sisteray, dr glaze, glanfam {Jan, Mike}): Probably the best auction game I've played. I appreciate it's purity and enjoy the tough decisions with the card flips and once around bidding. I was starting to forget what a great designer Knizia once was.
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John Squires
United States
Brooklyn
New York
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(MUST) I have about 5 unplayed Adlung-Spiele games. This may be the deepest game they've published & my friends love it. Don't let the small box fool you. I'd like to try Verrater at some point too.
PLAYED 07/18/2006 my b-day! (Natus, sisteray, sad_otter): A fun commodity collection game where players take on different roles to captain ships or stage a mutiny. Whomever controls the ship decides where it's going to sail to which is important. Goods are sold to one of two islands each turn (the island of departure and the new island (decided by the captain). VPs are earned by having majorities when goods are sold. Fairly deep for a small "card" game.
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John Squires
United States
Brooklyn
New York
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(MUST) An economic building game that should push my min-maxing capabilities. Some say it's a stripped down Roads & Boats -- but perhaps they've abstracted too much?
PLAYED 01/02/2006 (sisteray, dr glaze, Ollie1976): Kinda hurts the brain a bit. It's a race to build technologies but it really demands analysis because there are a ton of steps required to earn a technology and players can try to lock you out of those opportunities which could potentially be extremely costly. Quite the puzzle. I enjoyed playing but this is one of those once or twice a year games. Must say the turn-order / action point mechanism was the second best mechanic of the year right behind Antike's brilliant rondelle.
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18.
Board Game: Tempus
[Average Rating:6.63 Overall Rank:683]
John Squires
United States
Brooklyn
New York
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(MUST) Martin Wallace is the hottest designer right now, IMHO. It's a civ building game that I'm sure to like. Interested to see how his fog-of-war mechanics play out.
PLAYED 07/07/2006 (siseray, Dan R., [Gary]): Wallace's civilization-themed war game is extremely elegant. The technological track, use of terrain types, fog of war (idea cards), action selection and the simple combat system all work together seamlessly. Although the defender has an advantage in battles the attacker has much less to lose, thus encouraging attacks. I like the rubber-banding technological track as it gives players an edge in an extra ability for a game turn but more importantly it encourages movement around the board. As per usual you're not going to be able to do everything you want to do on your turn so players must choose actions efficiently. Wallace has put out some brilliant games recently and this is one is tops.
My first game was really close. I won over sisteray by one point and Dan R. was only a couple of points behind him. Being in the lead during the end game is a tough task. It took me an hour to scrub off the target that had been painted on my back.
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John Squires
United States
Brooklyn
New York
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(MUST) Days of Wonder knows how to produce games that are thematic, fun and bits-worthy (whatever that means). A lot of pirate games are lame, which is a shame. This one , although not deep, should be fun (bring your peg-legs & parrots). Will get around to playing Blackbeard too, some day.
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John Squires
United States
Brooklyn
New York
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(MUST) Another K&K classic. I can't wait to try this one out. Unfortunately some of my friends don't like the game because it's too clinical. Others complain it's multi-player solitaire. I need to find somebody who owns this one so I can make up my own mind.
PLAYED 12/12/2006 (Jonbone, sloehand, travistdale, MKUltra): So excited to get this on the table before the end of the year! After all, it's been the year of the Kramer for my gaming group (BrooklynEuroGrognards) and it would have been a shame to not have played one of his masterpieces. It's the ultimate strategic-planning game. I've observed that it's perfect for 5 (makes the auction phase much more tense which is where most of the interaction is). I also found that it's one of those games where my biggest challenge is my own puny brain. I feel like my biggest competition is myself (probably why many people mention there's a bit of solitaire in the game). The trick is to choose a strategy early (right after choosing your People "goal" cards) and then try to stick with it as long as the auctions permit you to. Travis squeaked out a well-deserved win with his Jester's strategy (he had 4). Spencer & I tied for second (I tried a builder strategy & he had a good combination of everything along with a couple of extra end-game Bonus cards.
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John Squires
United States
Brooklyn
New York
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(MUST) Crayon-style games usually don't make it onto the radar of the larger gaming community. This one's meant to have a lot of depth. The card play sounds interesting because they effect two of the players.
PLAYED 12/05/2006 (Jonbone, sisteray): A very cool game that is divided into distinct phases. In the Inca round players get money (building resources) and the last place player gets extra income from the first place player. In the Sun phase turn-order is changed then in turn-order, using a unique mechanism, cards are laid down between two of the players. The cards played are culmulative until the round ends. So on the second phase you'll need to deal with the culmulative results of four cards (since you're between 2 players x two phases). Cards will help or hurt you. In the People phase players build roads and construct something (for victory points). There are some tough trade-offs between getting points, which can move you to first place and cost you income OR gaining more income (by conquering territories). The road-building is much like a crayon-rail game but instead of setting up deliveries on a route you're just connecting to cities, etc. Of course, there's plenty of room for blocking other players. In the Sapa Inca phase players gain victory points (based on the cities, temples, etc. they're connected to.) Overall, I found that there's a lot to think about and a ton of tough choices. Looking foward to trying it with four players (should be a nasty game without much wiggle-room on the board). Oh, also looking foward to giving the champ, Morgan, his comeuppance.
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John Squires
United States
Brooklyn
New York
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(MUST) A light, clever game from Dorra. It's got dice but supposedly the dice-mechanics add to its charm. Can't wait to get my hands on those lovely Ravensburger bits.
PLAYED 12/08/2006 (travistdale, mdale, sisteray): Finally got to play this and was not disappointed. A clever game where players are racing to different islands and receive payouts based on who gets/got to the island first. First players take their money (which is equal to VPs) and offers it on their boats (to pay for a captain and ship crew). Then each player rolls three dice (which determines movement). The brilliant and equalizing factor is that you assign the dice to the other players' ships. The highest die assigned to each ship earn the captain's payment so in effect you're bribing the players to place their best die onto your ships. It can actually be a pretty mean game and you're always making decision towards how much you want to help your opponents (tradeoffs between helping the ship your in the most competition and taking their money or not). There's also some defensive manuevering on the board. A fun time and let me not forget each die has a range of 1-5 and Puke (Puke isn't assigned to a ship).
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23.
Board Game: Ra
[Average Rating:7.60 Overall Rank:48]
John Squires
United States
Brooklyn
New York
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(MUST) Another Knizia heavy-weight (although his games are never really that heavy). Auctions & lots of set collection. Another classic many of my gaming friends don't like but as above, I need to try it out. How else am I going to understand the fuss ... what do they know anyway?
PLAYED 01/15/2006 (dr glaze, mrs glaze): Played at the good doctor's house with doctor and mrs glaze. As per usual Knizia has multiple ways to score. However, I really want to try this a few more times to determine if this time he's gone too far. In Ra there are about 15 ways to score with straights, sets, negative points for not collecting certain items, end-of-round and end-game scoring, etc. The money is tight, and played similarly to the money in For Sale, players are given just 4 bidding values to use each round. The money you bid with is recycled and added to the next auction (although when you win money in an auction you cannot use it 'til the next round). There's some chance in this one as you're trying collect items that may never come up. Players must diversify, keep track of what their opponents are collecting & set themselves up for scoring opportunities. I have to say that my first play was enjoyable although I felt plenty of angst watching the tiles come up that seemingly only helped my two opponents. The Glazes are two of the most hospitable people I've ever met but they won't think twice about crushing you when it comes to game time. One thing I learned was that you cannot be too cheap in this game ... you're much better off winning 2-3 auctions per round rather than hoarding all the high money chips.
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John Squires
United States
Brooklyn
New York
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(MUST)
(or Shogun) Henn's wargame. I've yet to throw-down on the cube tower. I've played some great euro-war-games (Wallace) & this one is highly toughted with some well-executed planning & movement mechanisms.
PLAYED 03/20/2006 (sloehand, MKUltra, Natus, jcrim13): A tough war game that features simultaneous action selection. One does't know in which order actions 6-10 are going to occur in or which event (of 4 each year) is going to occur. Scoring only happens twice so it's a contest of efficiency and knowing when to screw over your opponents (if you do it too soon you may have a full blown vendetta against you and since it's a quick game you'll probably lose to the others that aren't involved). The dice tower is great in that you know how many cubes will be thrown into the tower but you don't know who's cubes will come out of it (you cannot count on "odds"). The tower is seeded early on in the game with cubes from each player and the neutral farmers. Wars are vicious and ties (when an equal amount of cubes roll out of the tower) result in the whole area being destroyed.
I've only played this on SBW and am looking forward to seeing the true dice tower in it's true glory.
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John Squires
United States
Brooklyn
New York
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(MUST) Recent purchase. I really wanted to see what transpired before Power Grid. Some people even like this one better.
PLAYED 11/06/2006 (dr glaze, sisteray): We played this in honor of Dr. Glaze's birthday. It's a very impressive 2001 design and is actually really just Power Grid except there's more opportunity to screw with your opponents' position (making their routes more expensive by defensive manuevering) due to the crayon-rail board AND the payouts are much tighter (diminishing returns). Of course, these features also adds more time to a game that I would otherwise prefer over the later design.
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. Somebody really needs to develop a shower game. Lucky for me I run with a clean crowd.
