Boardgaming in 2020: the year of the, uh, post-minis era? We can only hope!

My sister picked up the Scooby-Doo themed Betrayal game for her 11 year old niece, who loves both Betrayal at the House on the Hill and Scooby-Doo. Apparently, their playthroughs have been a huge hit - I’m looking forward to seeing all the theme changes and catching some good old fashioned villains in masks!

Well, well, well, look what showed up on my doorstep this morning. I bought these after assembling a list of two-player games that should appeal to my wife and I.

Originally I asked @Vesper if his store could track down a whole bunch of old, out-of-print stuff for me, but even though it turned out several of those titles would be seeing reprints soon(ish), I was able to snag these other beauties on my list immediately and avoid the wait.

I think I’m most excited to play Isle of Cats with my wife. I’m sure she’ll dig it quite thoroughly, especially the theme.

Too bad I can’t show her this stuff for another 6 or 7 hours.

One bit of research I didn’t do is see if any could be played solo. But but since I am right in the middle of setting up a game of Apocrypha for myself, I will have to check on the solo play possibilities in a couple hours. I’m about to defeat the last of the golem missions in the Golem campaign for Apocrypha.

There is a solo mode for Tiny Towns. Feels like more of a “practice mode”… which is good because the game can burn your brain!

Dice throne is so good. Looks like you got the one season 2 box that I don’t own.

Akrotiri is really good for a two player game. :)

I will certainly try solo mode a time or two to familiarize myself with the game to help make teaching it to my wife that much easier. I tried to get a nice variety of games so we weren’t replicating genres too much (like buying 8 tower defense games or something), and this is one seems like a fun competitive game that doesn’t require utter ruthlessness from its players like games we’ve played in the past (cough aggro & control decks in Hearthstone).

Yea, I’ve heard nothing but good things about it and I’m expecting it to be one of the easiest to pick up, learn, and start playing. I selected this particular box because season one is apparently being remade/upgraded sometime soon, and these characters looked most appealing for us to start with in the Season 2 collection. If the game is a hit I’ll certainly try some of the other boxes.

I keep hearing this. When rounding out the last entry for my list I was torn between Akrotiri or Quest for El Dorado (a game I think I’ve seen Tom(?) applaud a time or two in this thread?) and I chose Akrotiri only because it was specifically designed for two players. I do have Quest for El Dorado on my short list for the next batch of 2-player games I might pick up after we’ve had enough time to put our current games and these new ones through their paces.

Tiny Towns can be played in a surprisingly ruthless way (given its aesthetic), but certainly doesn’t have to be. And if you want to really prevent it, you can choose resources the same way as you do in the solo game (driven by random cards instead of player choice).

The Street Masters App is out now. I’ve never played the board game, but really liking this implementation. It’s got a really enjoyable combo of strategic choices and chaos. It nails this weird theme it’s got going. There’s a level where you can grab stacks of cash from a casino and throw them at opponents to stun them.

Blacklist is also putting out a Contra board game that looks equally absurd, totally befitting the IP. If the Street Masters app is successful, maybe we’ll get Contra: The Board Game: The Video Game.

One of the cool things about Kickstarters is that if you just put them out of your mind, they show up one day and surprise you!

-Tom

Hm, I wonder how long it will take until my copy shows up over here. Looking forward to it!

Haven’t so much as gotten a tracking number here, but I wouldn’t be surprised if they’re prioritizing pledges that just have the expansion as simpler. I’ve got the original promo pack coming and I think I pledged for the crate, too? That or the organizer.

I had no idea Jagged Earth was due out this year! Very excited to hear your thoughts @tomchick. The card previews over on BGG have me excited for it.

That could be the case. I already had the first promo pack, so my order was just Jagged Earth plus the second promo pack.

To be honest, I’m kind of skeptical at this point. 12 more gods? I love the Spirit Island design, but it’s a relatively streamlined set of systems, and wringing so much asymmetry out of 12 gods can’t have been easy. Now the number is doubled?

But I didn’t read any of the dev updates from the Kickstarter campaign, I don’t know the first thing about any of these new gods, and I don’t even know what these new systems are, so I’m going in completely blind. I will be happy to be wrong!

-Tom

Played Street Masters Board Game…it was fun for awhile…just too much stuff for me…I need more focused gameplay. Might try the app.

So I’m super excited there is a TI4 expansion coming and I can’t wait to play it, but I’m just not sure I’m going to buy it.

Maglev metro also looks cool

Barrage 5th player expansion stuff arrived… and it’s all F’ed up. I will never purchase another craino product unless it is from a store.

Recently, I’ve been trying to play more with my wife and daughter. One game that’s always easy to bring to the table is Vindication.

It remains one of my wife and my favourite games (daughter dislikes it).

You are a wretched human being who washes ashore on an island and is rescued by a local. From there, the game creates an interesting mix of resource management, engine building and the feeling of exploring that island. Every time we play, we work at victory a different way. Some starting companions and personal quests can synergise in a way that makes the game easier to win. But the game doesn’t overstay its welcome and you will likely be working on a very different path to victory next game. we generally find it quite balanced between us 2.

Add mini expansions in the base box you can mix and match to your taste (Treachery is a must. We like the pets one too), a full blown expansion (Alliances and Leaders, which are planning to integrate in our next play) and another expansion coming to Kickstarter later this year. I don’t think this one is at any risk of getting stale for us.

I also got to play a comfort food (usually solo) game for me: Maximum Apocalypse.

I’ve finished the zombie apocalypse storyline and have just gotten started on the mutant one. I’m using the Pandemic variant from the Gothic Horrors rulebook for extra motivation to keep remote spawns under control. Otherwise, those monster token can quickly overwhelm the board and run out.

It all started so well with my hunter providing the recon and subsistence, while the engineer recycled cards and provided surgical drone strikes. But by the end of the game, it had all gone horribly wrong. My hunter was starving and chased by mutants, both characters were about to take lethal damage. The map was completely overrun with monsters. I only survived because the shelter I had to bring supplies to prevents damage on the turn you land there. Close!

I also decided to bring back to the table some games I haven’t played in a while. The first one is an oldie (2011) and a goodie: Fortune and Glory: The Cliffhanger Game.

The game requires a lot of table space and takes quite a while. But you can’t argue with Indiana Jones made game. It has nazis, mobsters, temples deep in the jungle and mysterious artifacts that bring forth the dead. Or any other combination of artifacts and temples, ass they are all randomly generated every game. And they always sound pretty cool.

When you fail a test to get to the thing you are chasing, your turn ends immediately and a cliffhanger occurs. The card you failed has an extra challenge you will have to wait until your next turn to try and survive. Were you crossing a rickety bridge? Well now it’s collapsing! Will our hero survive? Find out next turn!

I started solo, but my daughter had a lot of fun helping me run the turns (the turn rules are a bit… quirky and convoluted at times). So much so that she took over one of the characters and played through with me for the second part.

We took care of the mobster menace and will be taking on the nazis next game. I’ve now also acquired the Treasure Hunters expansion to add personal goals and more dangers to overcome. We’re both looking forward to it.

The final game I played is one I believe most people here would not know existed or have completely forgotten about after a bit of drama regarding a failed Kickstarter delivery back in 2013-2014.

Does the name The Doom That Came To Atlantic City ring a bell? the project was acquired and salvaged by Cryptozoic after the original production run failed to deliver.

When the game is first set up, it kinda looks like the end of a regular, yet Cthulhu themed, game of Monopoly.

But wait, don’t run away yet! Yes there are dice and a board very similar to Monopoly and a (Mi-)Go square and even something that looks like property cards. But the game, while light, is also a different experience.

You are not capitalists trying to bankrupt other players. You are Elder Gods with asymmetric powers (and the ability to acquire more during the game) trying to use the power of your cultists to destroy the world by opening gates to your dimension, or fulfilling a Doom conditions.

All the while, you are razing properties, opening gates (that allow you to mitigate dice rolls by jumping from one to another), collecting and sacrificing cultists and house tokens which are the currencies of the game and stealing from the other Elder Gods. It is still a lightweight roll and move game, but it has a lot more game than Monopoly, more luck mitigation and asymmetric powers and end game conditions. It’s also a much shorter experience.

We didn’t expect much bringing it back to the table, but we actually had quite a bit of fun with it. The take that element is strong, but you can’t get bankrupted. As for the components and production values, you get 8 different playable Elder Gods, each with their own mini (that’s begging to be painted now that my wife and daughter are into that) and player cards, oversized game cards, cultist meeples, …

If you are curious, you can see the minis here: https://youtu.be/Agc9dsr6EZk?t=346

The Chants and Providence cards also are humorous and well illustrated. They add a lot to the atmosphere of the game. It’s very well made for what was essentially a failed project.

It will no doubt hit the table again.

Has anyone else played old games that hadn’t hit the table in years recently? How did they hold up for you?

Fortune and Glory has the worst rulebook of any board game I own. There’s a fan made version of it on BGG which is quite a bit better, but it still an annoying game to learn. It can be pretty fun if you like “Ameritrash” games, but when I’ve played it the other players have had more fun than me since I’m trying to make sure we play it correctly.

Vindication is pretty great, though. Nice mix of story/theme and mechanics. It’s one of those games where my enjoyment is not too strictly linked with how well I do.

Fortune and Glory is unashamedly Ameritrash and all the better for it. It embraces the dice rolling, the cheesiness and the tidal wave of components and cards taking over the table. The result is the best representation of a 30ies serial I have ever played. It also plays great in a group where you can laugh at the misadventures of your fellow players.

Initially, I played it competitive, but I have since switched to co-op, which is much more fun for us. We can get invested in the dangers the other players face and help them.

As for everyone having a good time playing the game and not needing you to worry overly much about the rules, there are 3 essential flowcharts to download and print as player aids:

That’s what my daughter was using to play without having read the rules and we managed fine with me having read them once before. Those are really useful.

As for Vindication, no details on this one yet, but I’ll likely be backing Day 1 when it comes to Kickstarter (planned for Q4 2020 at the moment):

Wyrmwood table kickstarter moved to 2 pm. It’s gonna sell out fast

Question for you with Fortune and Glory. Have you played the competitive version of the game with AI bosses. I’m curious how that is. It might be a variant. I’ve heard good things, but just haven’t had a chance to try it.