Board Game Review: Fairy Ring

 

Board Game Review: Underwater Cities

John can be very impulsive sometimes. One day, he showed up to our usual Friday night game night with a new game that he'd seen at the FLGS and bought immediately because he thought it looked interesting.

Well, we played it that night, and again a couple weeks later. The game in question was (of course) Underwater Cities by Vladimir Suchy from Rio Grande Games. It turned out to be an interesting fusion of worker placement, economic development, and resource management. Normally, these are three game mechanics for which I don't care. But oddly enough, this game combined them in a way that made me not hate it.

But I'm getting ahead of myself. Let's do this properly, shall we? Here are the numbers:

Board Game Review: Draftosaurus

If you're looking for an adorable variant on a card-drafting mechanic, then look no further. Draftosaurus by Antoine Bauza, Corentin Lebrat, Ludovic Maublanc, and Théo Rivière, published by Ankama, is a very simple card drafting game, but instead of drafting cards, you're drafting dinosaurs!

Players take on the role of zookeepers looking to populate their parks with newly cloned dinosaurs. Each player wants to get the best combination of dinosaurs possible to make their dino-zoo more interesting to patrons than the other parks' owners.

Before we get any further, let's take a look at our numbers:

Board Game Review: Multiuniversum

John found a game that he really enjoyed when we went to Geekway to the West last year. It's called Multiuniversum, and it was designed by Manuel Correia. It was originally published by Board & Dice, with a second edition published by Last Level, and the current edition is from Grey Fox.

The premise is that scientists working on creating portals to alternate universes have succeeded in creating those portals, but now must shut them down before horrors from those other universes emerge into ours. You score points by closing portals, as well as gaining bonus points, set-collection style, by gathering data from the universes as you shut down the portals.

Let's take a look at this little game, shall we?

Board Game Review: Blokus

In the midst of the revolution in which a number of amazing companies produce some amazing new games and many small companies produce many more amazing games, it's easy to scoff at the large 'mainstream' companies who continue making games which are intended to appeal to the general public instead of the board game community. But that doesn't mean that some of their games aren't really good.

This is the case with Blokus (pronounced BLOCK-us), created by Bernard Tavitian and published by Mattel. Though it bills itself as a family game, it holds a surprising level of depth and strategy. It is a refreshingly thinky game that is easy to learn and play, but contains intense tactical challenges.

But let's not get ahead of ourselves! We'll start as we always do, with the numbers:

Casinos: Gambling vs Board Games

An ex-girlfriend of mine once told me that I think too much. At the time, I remember thinking this was a strange complaint; thinking, after all, is how we solve problems. It's what separates us from animals; it has enabled all the progress (and, granted, a lot of the problems) that we experience today. Without thinking, we wouldn't have modern vaccines, computers, space flight, air conditioning, or any of the other modern conveniences that have made life livable.

Bear with me. This will be pertinent in a moment.

I recently went to a couple of nostalgia-based concerts. By which I mean, a couple of bands from the 70s and 80s were performing live, and the Dork Spouse or I wanted to see them, so we bought tickets and enjoyed listening to some music from our childhood.

Both concerts were performed in casinos. Aside from a short time at a family function hosted at a casino many years ago, I had never before been in a casino in my adult life. As I walked through the casinos to get to the events hall where the concerts were held, I found myself contemplating the nature of gambling and the people who play these sorts of games.

Board Game Review: On Tour

Sometimes you find a game that surprises you with its depth. What appears to be a simple fluffy game with no appeal turns out to contain some hefty decisions and require intense thought. On Tour, by Chad DeShon and published by Board Game Tables Dot Com, was one of those games. When I first saw it, I was unimpressed with the theme, and didn't think much of it. But when I actually sat down to play it, I was shocked at how much fun it is.

Sure, it's not going to be a serious game for a heavy Friday night game session with the hardcore gamers. But as a party game, or a light filler, it is unexpectedly satisfying! I might not have ordered a copy for myself, but I received a voucher for a discount, and felt it was worth having at that price.

So let's take a look at this game, starting with the numbers:

Board Game Review: Decrypto

One of the new games I got to try at Geekway this past May was an interesting game called Decrypto. John's daughter discovered it, and insisted that she and her friend play it with me and John. It was a fun game, and I bought a copy so that the Dork Spouse and I could play it with our friends Gemma and Caroline. So I think I should review it for you now.

Decrypto, by Thomas Dagenais-Lespérance and published by Le Scorpion Masqué and Iello, is a teams game in which you want to communicate a code number to your teammate(s) without the rival team discerning the number.

Let's start with the usual numbers:

PinkFae Archive #53: Board Game Review: Power Grid

In this, the penultimate entry from the PinkFae Archives, we have the last board game review I wrote for that site. It was originally published on 11 February 2017.

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In my quest to play eighty of the top 100 board games, I have finally been able to play Power Grid. I first heard of this game when I read the Cracked article 6 Board Games that Ruined It for Everyone. That article lists Monopoly as the worst board game of all time. Perhaps it's only fair to say it's the worst widely known board game of all time. But the article goes on to recommend Power Grid instead. The article states:

Power Grid is everything Monopoly should have been. You're genuinely aiming to build a monopoly, earning ever-increasing fountains of money, but you still have to spend every cent to stay ahead of the competition.

I've only been able to play once, but I already know I need to own a copy for myself. Let me explain why.

Let's look at some ratings:

Board Game Review: War Chest

When I went to Geekway to the West back in May, I won a copy of the game War Chest by Trevor Benjamin and David Thompson, published by Alderac Entertainment Group, in the play-to-win drawing. I think the time has come to review that game for you!

The premise behind the game is that a grizzled warrior gives a gift to a young prince to help him prepare to be a great leader in times of war. The gift was a War Chest, a crate of tokens used to play a game designed to help the future king learn to adapt to the constantly shifting conditions in a battle.

War Chest is that game.

Let's start as we always do: with some numbers.

PinkFae Archive #50: Board Game Review: Five Tribes

This week's entry is another one from the PinkFae Archives. It was originally published on 21 January 2017.

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 A couple of weeks ago, I was looking through the top 100 ranked games on Board Game Geek. I noticed, to my dismay, that I had only played about seventeen of them. That was when I decided I needed to fix that. So I made a new year's resolution for 2017. Before the end of this year, I want to, at some point, be able to say that I've played at least 80 of the games on BGG's top 100 list. This led to me playing Five Tribes with some friends last week.

I'll talk more about this resolution on my other blog, where I'll also keep track of how many I've played. But for now, I will use the opportunity to review a wonderful game. At first, I was hesitant to try it, based on the relevant episode of Tabletop. I have learned that I need to be less reliant on that series. Games that look uninteresting to me turn out to be a lot of fun. That was the case with Five Tribes; I really liked it. So let's see why, starting with the numbers:

PinkFae Archive #48: Geocaching Game Designer J Keller (Interview)

This article is another entry from the PinkFae Archives. It was a follow-up to archive #47, the board game review of Geoquest. This article was first posted on 7 January 2017.

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Last week, I posted a review of the game Geoquest. This week, I have the privilege of sharing an interview I was able to do with the creators, geocaching enthusiasts J Paul Keller and his son Jason. Unfortunately, the audio recording I made of the interview did not record Jason's input, so his dialogue will not be included. However, pretty much everything he said was reiterated by his father, so don't feel like you're missing out on anything just because his words don't appear below!

PinkFae: So what made you guys decide to make this game?

J Keller: We love games, and we're pretty active in geocaching. I think we ended up looking for one, and there wasn't anything out there, and we thought we could probably do that. It kind of evolved about ten years. We made a prototype, and it was fun, and it started getting better and better, so we thought, 'Let's see if we can actually do this.'

PinkFae Archive #47: Board Game Review: Geoquest

Today we have another board game review from the PinkFae archives. This one is for a game released through Gamecrafter called Geoquest.

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One of the advantages of living in the early 21st century is that there are print-on-demand services available for just about everything you might want. Games are no exception; through the Gamecrafter website, anyone can design and sell their own board or card games! This means that if anyone wants to play a game based on a certain topic, but such a game does not exist, they can make their own. Such is the case with the new game Geoquest.

J Keller and his son Jason are board game enthusiasts who wanted to find a game that captured the enjoyment they get from their other hobby, geocaching. They were unable to find such a game, however, so they created their own. It's only just recently become available on Gamecrafter, but they were kind enough to send me a copy. I was able to play with some of my friends, so today I will review it for you.

And as an added bonus, next week, I will post an interview I had with the creators! Until then, we start as always with the ratings.

Board Game Review: Azul - Stained Glass of Sintra

Last year, I wrote a review of the popular game Azul. Not long after that, they released a sequel in which, rather than tiling the walls of the building, you're installing stained glass windows. Needless to say, when I got a chance to play it at Geekway to the West earlier this year, I took it. And I really enjoyed this game. It's similar enough to the original that it definitely feels like it's in the same family, yet different enough to justify owning both.

So now, let us look at Azul: Stained Glass of Sintra by Michael Kiesling, published by Next Move Games. I'm going to approach this review as if you've never even heard of the original, just in case there's anyone out there who is brand new to the Azul family. I ask that everyone else bear with me.

We start, of course, with the numbers:

PinkFae Archive #44: Board Game Review: Widow's Walk for Betrayal at House on the Hill

Today's entry is another PinkFae Archive. This one is another board game review, but unlike most of the reviews I've written, this one is a review of an expansion. It is thus far still the only review I've written for an expansion. It was originally published on 3 December 2016.

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Back in 2004, Avalon Hill released an innovative board game called Betrayal at House on the Hill. A friend had a copy, and I got to play it, and loved it so much I bought a copy. It became popular, and many of my friends loved playing it. It soon went out of print, though... but demand increased. So in 2010, they released a second edition, with improved parts and corrections. It continued to be popular. So everyone continued to wonder why such a popular game had no expansions. Earlier this year, they announced the first expansion: Widow's Walk.

This review is going to be a little different. Instead of reviewing the game itself, I'm going to review an expansion. If you're not familiar with the base game, you can read my review over on my other site.

Board Game Review: Charon Inc.

John recently mentioned to me that he missed having a copy of Charon Inc. by Emanuele Ornella and Fred Binkitani, published by Eagle-Gryphon Games. He had had a copy previously, but had lost it recently. So I felt moved to buy him a copy. He was so excited when I gave it to him that we played it that very night. I'm so glad we did, because I really enjoyed it. Now I will review it for you!

The premise of this game is that players represent CEOs of mega-corporations exploiting Pluto's moon Charon for mineral resources to build various buildings, which score victory points. And with that, let's take a look at the ratings!

Board Game Review: Architects of the West Kingdom

I've posted before about the reasons why I don't like worker placement games. I find that I don't like feeling like I have no good options available to me; most worker placement games limit the actions I can take, either by restricting how many tokens can occupy a single space or by providing me with a very small number of tokens to place. Often both. So when I see that a game is a worker placement game, I tend to be reluctant to try it.

I am pleased to report that Architects of the West Kingdom does not suffer from these annoying factors. I was pleasantly surprised by this game, and I ended up enjoying it quite a lot. So for today's entry, I will review this game. Starting, as we always do, with the numbers:

PinkFae Archive #38: Board Game Review: Steve Jackson Games Triple Threat

This week's entry is another board game review from the PinkFae archives. It is also an entry in the series of articles on Gen Con 2016. It was originally published on 22 October 2016.

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For my last entry about Gen Con, I'm going to do three board game reviews in one article. Why? Partly because the games are all short and simple. Partly because they're all from Steve Jackson Games. Partly because it's time to finish up the Gen Con posts and get on to something else! So we're going to look at the three games they demoed at their 'Play New Releases' table: Simon's Cat Card Game, I Hate Zombies, and Bill & Ted's Excellent Board Game.

The Ratings

Here are the ratings for all three games.

Board Game Review: Ginkgopolis

Not too long ago, I got to try out a game that you may have heard of. It's called Ginkgopolis, by Xavier Georges, from Z-Man Games. I had fun learning it, and am anxious to try it again, now that I know how to play it! See, it's... not quite an area control game, and not quite a deck-builder, and not quite a resource management/building game... but it's got elements of all of those things, all crammed together in a most intriguing little mechanic!

But I seem to be getting ahead of myself again, as I am wont to do. So let's pause for a moment and take a look at the numbers:

PinkFae Archive #35: Board Game Review: Tell Me a Story

This week's entry is another PinkFae Archive, this one being a review of the game Tell Me a Story from Escape Hatch Games, by Kirby Atwood, Cody Faulk, Brent Woodside, and Kayla Woodside. It is also an installment in the series I wrote about Gen Con 2016. This article first appeared on 1 October 2016.

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A brand new company called Escape Hatch Games had just released their first game a month or so before Gen Con. As I was wandering around the exhibit hall, I saw their booth, with the name of this first game proudly displayed on a banner behind them, and I knew I had to check it out. I stopped to ask them about it, and they did a quick one-round demo with me, and I knew I had to have it. Last week, I finally got to play a full game for the first time with three of my friends. It was epic. So now I shall review for you, my loyal readers, the wonderful game called Tell Me a Story.