We would like to shine some spotlight to Tabletop RPG and Board Games publisher that we feel have a history of creating hidden gems or have a new project that may not so well know but deserving of attention. Our first publisher spotlight is Bandit Camp who have created several Tabletop RPGs and their current Kickstarter is for a new print run of Wicked Ones & it's expansion Undead Awakening.
The co-founder of Bandit Camp is Ben Nielson who also created Wicked Ones and has agreed to answer a few questions.
Ben: My name’s Ben and I made the game Wicked Ones and co-founded the studio Bandit Camp with a few friends. It’s hard to say that any one game is my favourite, but I’ve been really big into fiction first gaming for some while now - so I’d have to say Blades in the Dark there. In general, I like to play characters that can use complex systems in games - whether that be crafting, spellcasting, hacking, etc.
Ben: In Wicked Ones, you play as a group of monsters that band together to build a dungeon. It’s more or less like Dungeon Keeper, but a tabletop RPG. You actually draw the dungeon out on paper and then leave it to go on raids, bringing back loot to build up the dungeon more. This inevitably causes blowback, leading adventurers into your dungeon - which you have to ward off with traps, minions, creatures, and so on. That portion of the game, especially, is very boardgame-like.
Ben: Undead Awakening takes the game completely out of the dungeon and instead you wage a battle across three fronts (domains) - the Horde, Corruption, and Horror. The horde represents how powerful your undead army has grown. Corruption is the land itself twisting and getting infused with your dark energy. Horror is your effect on the minds of your enemies. These three domains are measured with ratings, so as an easy example, if you’re Saruman’s Orcs in LotR you have a huge Horde rating as you’re coming up on Helm’s Deep, but a really low Horror rating as they’re obviously not all that scared of you and put up an epic defense.
But that’s just on the mechanical side - really, the biggest shift is that the game is about creating horror movie moments, not leaning into monastery fantasy tropes. It really is a completely different experience.
Ben: Blades is a game about a group of scoundrels banding together to carve out a piece of a small city - a lot of that vibe is already very “monsters in a dungeon”-like. The biggest thing there is maintaining the boiler pot that they live in. You have to fight for every piece of turf you get and there’s always a price. It’s a grind against that, just like dungeon life.
As far as Dungeon Keeper, the inspirations are rather clear to see - building tunnels, adding specific rooms with functions, backgrounding a lot of the busy work with dungeon imps, and so on. The biggest change is that in WO, there is nothing like a Dungeon Heart, instead isolating the player characters in the 2nd floor Sanctum while their minions and traps try to ward off invaders before the big boss fight at the end.
Ben: It really is the dungeon - you build it out, drawing pathways and rooms, adding traps, locks, tricks, creatures, and roaming minions. All of these have mechanics attached and the adventurers that invade all have different abilities. No two playthroughs of the same dungeon ever go the same. The dungeon itself functions like a Rube Goldberg machine or incredibly complex game of mousetrap. I think it scratches that boardgaming itch very nicely.
Ben: This is very simple - it’s all very well laid out in the book. Read the GM best practices, read the player best practices, read about how to handle smooth narration and the flow of information (these are sections in the books), then tackle the GM advice guide - about 10 pages full of GM advice.
There’s also a session 0 / session 1 guide in the book that acts as a game tutorial mode (for both the GM and the players) - so you don’t need to know everything. At the end of that session 1 guide, you’ll have been introduced to all of the major concepts.
Ben: The biggest thing really was the implementation of the 2nd floor Sanctum as a way to push player characters to the very end of the dungeon. Players control their characters, but also minions, traps, and so on. There’s a mechanic we implemented, called the Sanctum, which basically plot-locks the PCs into a position deep within the dungeon. “Dungeon Logic” (our guidelines for not angering your minions) dictates that the rulers let weaklings die first - it makes no sense for the top guys to be risking their own necks. The sanctum is actually a rule that completely prevents them from leaving that end-of-dungeon room and instead letting the dungeon itself have all of the spotlight.
Prior to the sanctum revelation, we had this weird guerilla warfare like dungeon defence where PCs would bunch up at the doorway and fight backwards, room by room, towards the end of the dungeon. It just felt all wrong, didn’t follow the tropes at all.
Ben: As it’s a fiction first system, you can really do anything that makes sense. There is no turn order - it’s more cinematic. You take the focus and state what you want to accomplish and how you’re gonna try to go about doing it. You and the GM work together to determine how effective/risky it might be, then you make your roll. Once that’s done, the narration starts - and the player is the one narrating almost all of this. They’ll have so much information about the scene at this point that they’ll be able to paint a pretty vivid picture whether they fail or succeed. The GM’s job is to keep the camera and action around the PCs moving, coming up with interesting consequences for failed rolls, and tossing wrenches into their plans. But the players are very much in the driver’s seat when it comes to combat usually, which feels right for a game that’s so much about aggression on the players’ part.
Ben: Surprisingly little…that storm has mostly been weathered and we don’t have an ENORMOUS order coming in. We’ve been given soft guarantees by our printer and shipping that everything should go fairly smoothly compared to the last 6 months. My advice, really, is to use trusted companies whose reputations are at stake - you can depend on them when they tell you things. It’s worth the extra cost instead of going on Alibaba and just finding the cheapest solution.
Ben: Starting out is like stumbling around in the dark, hoping to find your way through that door with the pile of money on the other side of it. My advice is to start risk-light… use print-on-demand (via DTRPG), avoid Itch (they drive no traffic towards your game - DTRPG will drive traffic), and don’t make your dream game right out of the gate. Make something smaller that you don’t care as much about - it won’t feel so bad when it doesn’t do so well and you can use it as a learning experience. Your second or third game is going to make money if you enjoyed making the first one.
The other easy one is - Start a Discord server. Find playtesters by going on Reddit’s LFG or use Roll20’s game finder… run small campaign arcs, one-shots or up to 3 sessions. Then go find more players. All of these people you should be directing to your Discord server - you’ll end up creating a small group of people that (hopefully) had fun with your game and know about it. They can talk about it when you ask for feedback and discuss it with new arrivals. The ideal scenario is to run 2 games a week, one with the same group always - your solid playtesting group. The other game is this rotating one-shot/few-shot group. Then when it comes time to Kickstart, you’ll have 20-40 people already there ready to help jump in and spread the word.
Ben: It’s not a simple game by any means and takes a few sessions to get all of your group on board, but once people get a handle on the mechanics, get their minds wrapped around fiction-first gaming (You think “What does my character want to do now?” instead of looking at the sheet to find “What can my character do now?”), and the world and story get moving, the game just sings. The entire game is designed to just keep pushing things forward towards whatever culmination is coming - one which you all build together as you develop your evil Master Plan.
Ben: The easy and most honest answer is Relic, the Shadow of the Colossus-inspired game that I’m developing right now. I make games that I want to play, so I get really excited about my own games. They’re always my favourite and other games (which I voraciously read, but rarely play) never take that away…
But as for games that aren’t mine - I’d like to play Mausritter. I want to find someone who’s GREAT at running some very typical OSR and play in some of that, maybe Old School Essentials. The writing in Wanderhome is beautiful and I love reading that book. I don’t think I’d like to play it, but I’d like to give it a try anyway, though. I just backed Notorious on Kickstarter, a solo game about playing as a bounty hunter - that theme really hit well with me. I’m probably most excited to read through that right now.
I’ll stop myself there… I could write pages and pages about games that excite me (and that I never have time to play) :)
We really appreciate Ben taking the time to answer our questions and we hope that Wicked Ones & Undead Awakening sounds interesting to you. If it does then check out the Kickstarter to find out more information and if you are a Tabletop RPG player than check out our Meeple Dungeon collection where you can find a unique t-shirt or dice accessories for your next RPG session.
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Our first FLGS spotlight is Shuffle Board Game Cafe, where they also stock several Meeple Design Minimalist Style Posters.
The owners are Andrew and Chris, who opened their doors to BGG’s in 2021 and are based in Bury St Edmunds, UK. Andrew is one of the owners of Shuffle Board Game Cafe and he kindly let us pick his brains to tell us more about the store.
Andrew: Myself and Chris, the owners of Shuffle, both got into board gaming in a similar way. We were lifelong video gamers first. For me I got given a copy of Catan for xmas which got played pretty regularly. This eventually led to me searching for local board game groups on social media. I joined a local group that met in a pub just outside of Bury St Edmunds in Suffolk. This quickly became the highlight of my week with my eyes being opened to so many new games week after week! Chris had a similar journey that led to us being a part of the same board gaming group. He heard about a turn-based co-op zombie survival game, aka Zombicide, that sounded like exactly the kind of video game experience he was looking for, so he picked up a copy and then never really looked back.
Andrew: Shuffle is open 6 days a week from Midday till late. We are based in the centre of a lovely market town called Bury St Edmunds in Suffolk.
We offer a typical board game cafe experience where you pay for access to a large library of board games (Currently approx 400 and growing) to play in our relaxed and inviting cafe environment. Our team have pretty extensive knowledge of the games on offer and can teach a large qty of them and are always on hand to make recommendations to suit parties of various sizes, ages and abilities.
We also offer events in store like our Shuffle Social open gaming evening, TCG nights and a D&D night which are part of our regular schedule. On top of that we have one off events such as tournaments and pre-release draft events for TCG card games.
Andrew: Sooo many things!!
I had a wealth of experience in retail management in a variety of different businesses. I actually started the journey of opening Shuffle as a franchise business. I met with the franchisees and was in the process of looking for a location for a site for this. Somewhere along this path myself and Chris met for a drink and a chat about how he would like to be involved as a passionate local gamer with a lot of experience in the hospitality industry, an area that I wasn't as familiar with. We started working together to get the franchise business up and running but it proved very difficult to find premises… as well as the fact that this was during a national pandemic! As the process carried on I slowly started to see that if this passion project for us both was going to truly be what we wanted to be we would have to cast off the shackles of any big business and instead go fully independent. This is also something that Bury St Edmunds is well known for so we felt it was a great fit for the local market town centre vibe.
Both Chris and myself have always had a clear vision that Shuffle should add to the local board gaming landscape. We have always worked closely and have a good relationship with our local FLGS called Lorfords and were conscious to not hold or push events that clashed with our old gaming nights to detract attention away from them. The vision has always been to try and create a fantastic space to enjoy your already beloved hobby of board gaming or discover it all anew with the help of some super passionate and friendly folks.
Andrew: As a town that already has an established FLGS we have found that we can complement each other pretty well. We have introduced a lot of new people to the hobby and raised awareness of modern gaming in our local area alot. We regularly send people back and forth between the two places. For them, having a place where customers can try before you buy and discover new games without a big financial investment is helpful. For us we are happy to return the favour by sending our customers down the road for the games we have in the library that we don't currently stock.
Andrew: As previously mentioned a lot of our customers are discovering games for the first time so they are not overly concerned with BGG hotness or cutting edge gaming. We find a lot of classics as well, as party games that are easy to pick up and play, go down very well in the cafe. A few that spring to mind are Drop It, Herd Mentality, Ghost Blitz, Kluster, Diamant, Splendor, Azul, Dinner in Paris, Photosynthesis and so many more.
Andrew: I won't speak for Chris in this regard but for me it is definitely deck building. I have a strong fondness for Valley of the Kings and recently played Tyrants of the underdark for the first time which is a great hybrid of multiple mechanics including deckbuilding.
Andrew: For me it would be a group of around 10 people with a big bunch of medium weight strategy games (Think Azul). Plenty of drinks and snacks and a chance to play games with everyone that has attended.
Azul Inspired Premium Cushion available from meepledesign.com
Andrew: For me the fondest memories are from when we gather in the shop outside of trading hours. We had a few staff training/team building days before we opened where we played a lot of the games in the library and all got to know each other better on a personal level. I felt like I had finally created a place that I would have loved to work in when working for other companies and it was so great to see this group of people we had put together getting on so well.
Andrew: I think the best way to experience a board game cafe is to have some vague ideas about your taste in games in mind but let the staff recommend and teach you something new. They will know their library best and having someone run through the rules and hold your hand for the first few turns is the easiest and best way to learn a new game in my opinion.
Andrew: I am currently really enjoying a few games of Oath with some of the team. Not mechanically the best game but it's great fun if you all get involved with the generated story and world building aspect of it.
Chris can never pin down a favourite game but it's a fair shout that if it takes 45+ mins just to read the rule book and about 4 hours to play he is likely to be a fan.
We really appreciate Andrew taking the time to answer our questions and we hope that you get a chance to visit Bury St Edmunds & Shuffle Board Game Cafe soon. Check out our store if you are fans of any of the games mentioned by Shuffle Board Game like Azul, Splendor or Photosynthesis.
Photosynthesis Minimalist Board Game Art Poster available from meepledesign.com
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If you have never heard the term FLGS before then you are in the right place. FLGS stands for “Friendly Local Gaming Store” which is a physical location dedicated to selling everything related to Tabletop Gaming.
Read more of Meeple Designs guide to FLGS.
]]>Now you know where your closest FLGS, the obvious thing to do is check out the store but what do you do once your there? If it is your first time in an FLGS, here are our top tips for making the most out of your visit:
We’ve been over how to make use of your FLGS so if you are a regular frequenter then here are a few tips on what not to do at your FLGS:
If you didn’t already know, Meeple Design is based in the south coast seaside city of Brighton, United Kingdom. We are fortunate to have several different board game store options in the city and below are our picks:
It's great to be close to a FLGS but even if it is a little bit of a journey they are usually worth the trip. FLGS’s can offer a different experience for everyone from people at the start of their tabletop gaming journey to seasoned BGG veterans. Follow our guide and tips whether you want to buy a game, show off your gaming skills, make new friends or contribute to the environment in your store and you will get the best possible experience. You never know, we might even see you at Dice Saloon one day.
Check out our store for products that complement your favourite FLGS bought game like our minimalist board game posters or new equipment upgrades for your next adventure like our stunning gemstone dice.
]]>So gather some friends, dim the lights, light a fire, play some mellow music, pour the hot chocolate...or whisky, grab a snuggly blanket and settle down for a Hygge evening with our top suggestions for Hygge friendly board games.
]]>But...Hygge is about creating intimacy and cosiness, taking pleasure in soothing things and togetherness. It is an experience, a feeling of safety, being shielded from the world, whether you are with a group of friends, family, partner or simply enjoying a cup of tea by yourself. For more information on the Danish way of life, check out The Little Book of Hygge - The Danish way to live well - By Meik Wiking.
Board games fit into the Hygge ethos as they are a social activity which allows you to create common memories and strengthen relationship bonds and in addition, for many of us who grew up playing board games, there is that sense of nostalgia of more simpler times. It is also a great opportunity to put down our phones, switch off from technology and be in the moment!
So gather some friends, dim the lights, light a fire, play some mellow music, pour the hot chocolate...or whisky, grab a snuggly blanket and settle down for a Hygge evening with our top suggestions for Hygge friendly board games.
Players: 1-4
Playing time: 30-120 mins
Age: 12+
Calico is a good alternative to Patchwork if there are more than two players or if you would like to play solo. Like Patchwork, Calico is an abstract strategy puzzle game, where players are trying to build the best patchwork quilt. However, with Calico, each quilt has a set pattern to follow and players are not only trying to create colour and pattern combinations that are aesthetically pleasing, but also attract the cuddliest cats!
Players: 1-4
Playing time: 30-45 mins
Age: 10+
Gloomhaven is a cooperative, campaign-driven dungeon crawl board game, with developing characters and extensive scenarios. Within the game, players work together to battle monsters whilst also advancing their own individual goals, as they progress through a series of adventures unlocking new content as they go. The game has an individualist element to it, inviting players to create their own story. Gloomhaven is a great game to play in those winter months, when you are more inclined to stay inside evenings and weekends to play board games, particularly as it is very easy to become immersed into the fantasy world of Gloomhaven and find yourself craving you next game. We ourselves used last winter’s Pandemic lockdown as an opportunity to complete our campaign! (see our blog post - Our ‘Gloomy' Christmas.
Players: 1-4
Playing time: 60-120 mins
Age: 14+
Players:1-4
Playing time: 30-120 mins
Age: 14+
Players: 2
Playing time: 30 mins
Age: 14+
Players: 2-3
Playing time: 30-60 mins
Age: 8+
Amazing Greystones to Bray Cliff Walk in Co Wicklow, Ireland
For several reasons, that we are all well aware of, the number of people going on staycations has increased over the last 1+ years. By a staycation I am referring to a holiday in your home country rather than travelling abroad. Personally we have always enjoyed holidaying in our home country and as a British nationals who have been living in Ireland for the last 2 years, 'Staycationing' allows us to explore a country which is new to us.
When 'Staycationing' we generally look for accommodation with a decent table as, just like at home, that table isn’t for eating but also for some serious board gaming. With the rise of websites such as Airbnb it is easier than ever to find the perfect place with space for all your board gaming needs. Nothing beats going for a nice long walk in the countryside, or a day exploring a new city and then returning to back to your holiday accommodation for some tabletop gaming. But taking account of being tired after a day of walking/ exploring, this can influence our game selection for our trips. For a trip away for just the 2 of us here are 5 games we often select for taking on our staycation trips and the reasons why:
We always try to be realistic with our game choices, although sometimes we do let our hearts and over excitement get the better of our head. Main points of consideration for us are; how much space do we have in our luggage (luckily for us our next staycation we will be driving so plenty of room for board games), the table size at our accommodation, and what activities will we likely be doing which could impact the games we actually want/ have time to play. For instance if we are going on a 10 mile hike every day then a new game or heavy game, like Trickerion, probably isn’t the right choice as I am almost certain we would be too tired to properly enjoy it. Therefore the above board game list is balanced with mid weight games that we have played a lot so do not need to learn and are also in normal sized boxes with smaller or lighter games that we can easily play in the evenings. On to the list:
This game is on my personal top 5 games blog so I won’t go into detail regarding the game itself as you can read my thoughts in the blog post. The reason we often bring it away with us is because at this point we have played GWT around 10 times so it doesn’t take too long to set up and get into the game. It provides an experience in which we have enough 'play throughs' that we don’t need to spend time figuring out the different strategies while still being deep enough that we definitely haven’t discovered or tried everything there is in this game. There is also enough variety in the set up that it provides a slightly different experience each time we play it. One point to consider is that it does take up a decent amount of tablespace, so we only bring it when we have a good sized table to play it on. Also there are a number of different components so if you are worried about dropping and losing bits then it probably isn’t the best game to take.
One of the first games in our collection when the only board game mechanic we really knew was roll & move. This was a perfect gateway game into the world of tabletop gaming. There are a bunch of different themes to choose from, ours being a slightly tatty Adventure Time copy. The reason it has stayed for long enough in our collection with enough plays to get tatty is that most importantly it is fun to play, even at 2 player count, and secondly is everything we need to play is in a small drawstring bag. On trips where our flight has been delayed for hours it has been Love Letter which passed the time and on our staycation trips it is easy enough to play a couple of games before bed or take it out with us to play if we are chilling out in nature.
The first couple of plays of this didn’t go too well, as only I was really enjoying it and I thought it might be leaving our collection quite quickly. However, at home and on trips away, it has turned into a Meeple Design favourite. It can be played with up to 4 players but at its core it is a 1v1 duel style game which has a Yahtzee dice rolling mechanic. Each turn you roll your dice, which are unique to your chosen character, aiming for a certain combination of die faces which allow you to attack your opponent or buff your character. It plays quickly, is in a relatively small box and most of the pieces for your character, such as dice, cards & tokens, are contained in their own box. If we have had a long day out and are tired then this is the perfect game that we can pull out to play a few rounds and have some fun. There are also enough character combinations to allow for variety and enjoyable repeat plays throughout a staycation.
Another small box game that basically consists of just a deck of cards. It is purely a 2 player game which plays a bit like poker so involves a lot of bluffing. In between both players is a boundary wall made up of 9 stones and on your turn you play one card on your side of 1 of the stones, with a max of 3 cards being played at each side of each stone stone. The aim is to build a higher ranking of 3 cards then your opponent at each stone with the winner being the first player to claim 5 stones or any 3 adjacent stones. That pretty much sums up the rule book so, as a running theme, it is easy to play but also every game is completely different. There is always a winner and because the games are so quick we generally play best of 3. It's another game that even after a long day we never mind playing it due to easy set up with simple rules, to the point that all we refer to now is the player aid showing the different card combinations.
Our final staycation top pick is also another small box game. The difference between 7 Wonders Duel and the others is that it is a slightly longer & larger experience. As hinted at in the name of the game, it is a 2 player only game played across 3 ages and like the original game you draft cards for your civilization. What we like about 7 Wonders Duel, is that each age has unique cards and you set them up in a different formation for each age. You then draft cards from the formation, slowly revealing the new levels of the formation. This way of drafting is intriguing as you can only see some of the cards in the formation with the rest face down, so there is sometimes an element of risk taking a random card. There are also 3 ways to win during the game which adds a nice element, as its important to pay attention to your opponent's turns. Overall it's a great game to take away if you don’t have much space for board games but still want a slightly more complex experience that you generally get from bigger box games. I also find the box a bit oversized so you can always put the components in a couple of baggies to save even more space.
Honourable Mentions
I won’t go into too much detail for these 'honourable mentions', but I feel like I have to cheat by adding 2 more games to the list, as they both make great 2 player staycation games.
The first is Race for the Galaxy, I love this game and even better is that it is basically just 2 decks of cards with a couple of thin player aids which makes it very easy to take away.
Second is Hanamikoji which is 2 player card game and is packed into a tiny box. It's simple and quick but the game amazes me with how difficult the choices are on each turn despite the fact that you only have a choice of 4 actions which decreases each time you use one. Its published by EmperorS4 games and I feel like I really need to try more of their games.
We would love to hear from you - comment below.
]]>Meeple Design is a company centred around creativity and working through the pandemic has been difficult at times. Fortunately for us, we are able to play board games at least once a week and our favourite hobby can be an excellent source of stress relief, helping maintain general health in a number of different ways. To highlight various ways that board games can help improve our creativity and health, Eva Benoit has provided the below top tips with some useful links so carry on reading to get started.
For many, creativity comes as natural as breathing, while for others, it is a process that needs some refining. However you choose to use your creativity, it is important to keep the stream of great ideas and thoughts flowing. Many people don’t realize that playing games is a great way to help develop your creative process! Here are a few tips to get you started in the right direction.
While maintaining excellent physical health is essential to your well-being, it is also appropriate to exercise your mind as well. When you allow yourself time to focus your attention on games and puzzles, you activate your critical-thinking skills. Sharpening this skill set alone will provide you the benefit of making clear and rational decisions.
A lot of times, when you are faced with a creative drought, all you really need is redirection. You simply need to find a task to hone in on, while releasing stress. Playing a game such as solitaire will allow you a break from exertion while subconsciously putting your brain to work. As you are thinking of strategic ways to place the cards, you are also training your brain to think outside of the box while allowing new ideas and new ways of thinking to present themselves. If you are bored of Solitaire then you can continue to engage your brain and with problem solving skills with solo board games such as; Friday, Spirit Island or The 7th Continent.
Jigsaw puzzles are also a great way to enhance your creativity especially with board gamification like the recent release from The Magic Puzzle Company which includes a surprise upon completion of the puzzle keeping your brain engaged until the very end. Puzzles allow you to look at the bigger picture as you try to piece everything together bit by bit. Subsequently, your mind will begin to present ideas to you that you otherwise may have not considered. Puzzles give you the opportunity to expand your problem-solving skills which in turn can help develop your creative thinking process.
Playing video games is also a great way to enhance your creativity. On top of that, video games can relieve stress and improve decision making skills. When playing video games, make sure you have all the necessary equipment including a stable Wi-Fi connection and high quality gaming headset.
Playing board games is also a great way to enhance your creativity. On top of that, board games can relieve stress and improve decision making skills. You will gain passively from the numerous health benefits just by playing board games for fun and whatever your primary reason for playing all you need is a copy of your favourite game.
When you are looking to improve your creativity by playing games, you may prefer to do it alone or play with or against others. When you opt to add competition, your creativity will sprout as you think of ways to one-up your opponent. Friendly competition through crunchy board games like one of the Meeple Design favourites Brass, which forces you to think broadly, which is an important creative skill to possess. Whether as a result of the Pandemic or due to distance from your gaming group it is now easier than ever to play remotely with your friends and family to engage creativity from competition.
Should you choose to play games alone, this grants you the opportunity to have a moment to regroup and gather your thoughts. Perhaps time away from your co-workers or a crowd is just what you need to thrive creatively.
Playing games is a fun yet effective way to harness your creative thinking. If you’re in a creative rut, instead of giving in to frustration, repurpose that energy into a leisure game of choice. The mental timeout will grant you the clarity you need in order to rebound. You can always keep your favourite games close to play by via your phone, computer, or set up to on your table to play the physical version of the board game. When you feel yourself headed in the direction of a creative slump, give yourself a break by playing a game!
]]>As the Meeple Design website has been live for some time now we thought it was about time we added the obligatory 'favourite board games' post. It should give an idea about our thought process behind buying new board games and hopefully a bit of insight into why we started Meeple Design. This will be for my top 5 games and Hannah will write her own list for her top 5 games. I am sure the list will be different and even if there are crossovers I think the reason we like the games will vary as well.
Next on my list is Great Western Trail....
]]>It is difficult to pick my favourite 5 games, as there are so many that I enjoy playing and a few that I need to play more of before I can confidently say they are among my favourite games. The 5 games that I have picked are partly because they play well with 2 players and I play most often with 2 players, even pre-pandemic. It is quite clear from the 5 games that I have picked that I am a big fan of euro style games.
In order to provide a bit more detail about each game and why I like it, I will be publishing an article for each game (Check out the other articles on our blog page). They are in no particular order as it was difficult enough to narrow down to only 5 games. My top 5 games are:
Great Western Trail came out the same year as Terraforming Mars, so had a lot of competition, and both games were in a lot of peoples 'top 10 of the year'. Actually the reason I was aware of it and purchased it, was due to it being featured on Man vs Meeples top 10 list of 2016. Although very different games, the one thing they share in common is that they are fairly heavy Eurogames which, in my opinion, have a stronger theme than a lot of other heavy Euro games.
It is set in the Old West but the focus isn’t about bank robbing and shootouts, instead you take control of a Cowboy Rancher who is driving herds of cattle across the Great Plains of America to Kansas City. Selling the cattle at Kansas and then repeating the process all over again. Like other good euro games it uses the theme to perfectly blend it’s main mechanics of; tile placement, building management, point-to-point movement, and worker management, together. Each of the separate mechanics are not too complex to teach or understand in isolation but learning the iconography, how they interlock together and the number of different mechanics, is not an easy task which means that GWT is certainly not a gateway game. However the whole game is about repeating a loop from the start of the board to Kansas, optimising your engine round by round. Therefore despite the multiple decisions you have to make during the game it never throws everything at you at once reducing the likelihood of Analysis Paralysis and after the first loop it starts to become more intuitive, so that by the end of your first game you feel like you have a stronger understanding of the rules compared to other similar heavy games.
So what do you actually do during each loop around the board? Every player starts each game with an identical deck of cattle cards with the aim of the game to make it to Kansas with as many different breeds of cattle as possible, where you send them off to another city by train. The central part of the board being the key element that you move around during each loop. Each turn you can move your cattlemen 3 spaces along a simple pathway with several diverging routes. Each space is determined by whether there is a building, hazard or Native American reservation on the board so you can simply ignore empty spaces. These spaces slowly fill up over the course of the game with additional player-purchased ‘private’ buildings and hazards & Native American reservations at the end of each loop. Stopping on the buildings allows you to take actions such as selling cards, adding more buildings to the board, advancing your train on the top track of the board, recruiting staff, acquiring objective cards to earn additional points and improving the quality of your cattle breeds.
It is the building stops along the board that allow players to work towards their point scoring objectives. Improving their engine little by little each time they make another journey to Kansas. Along the route are neutral buildings that can be used by all players and private buildings, of which each player has a stack of 10, allow only the player that placed them to take the action associated with the building. Any other player that stops at another player owned building can only take basic actions, of which there are several, which can be improved throughout the course of the game, and they may also have to pay money to their opponent for the privilege of being let past. Placing buildings along your route essentially improves your engine throughout the course of the game giving you more options and potential stops. Also along the route you might encounter hazards (rockfalls or floods) or Native Americans both represented by tiles that in most cases, cost money to pass.
Every player starts identically with the same cards, buildings available and their own player board. The individual player board is where players; recruit workers improving the actions you can take moving around the board and allowing you to take one time special actions (which with clever play you can actually use multiple times) and can purchase upgrades such as increasing movement, improving your basic actions or increasing your deck limit. Like with other aspects of the game there is a seemingly daunting amount of iconography which is actually intuitive once you get used to it as it is used across all aspects of the game.
The final, and in some ways most important, aspect of the game loop is your train represented on the train track at the top of the board. Throughout the course of the game you can take multiple actions to move your train along the track with the option to move into stations which allows you to give up one of your enquired engineer workers for permanent bonuses and additional end game scoring goals. Once your cowboy finishes his long and probably arduous journey, avoiding rocks and making sure his cattle isn’t stolen, then you end up at Kansas city. The different breeds of Cattle you have in your hand at this point determines how far along the train track you can transport them, however if your train hasn’t reached that city then you have to make up the difference in stops in revenue deducted from the sale of the Cattle. Where do the Cattle go once they arrive at their destination? Lets just say they go to a loving home and leave it at that!
It is arriving at Kansas which adds new hazards and Native Americans onto the board as well as workers to the marketplace which in turn progresses the game towards the final round. GWT is definitely a point salad style game with our games typically ending over 100 points per player.
The variation of mechanics had the potential to muddle the game, bogging it down in different systems causing Analysis Paralysis but I found them to blend together perfectly being well balanced. The game progresses quickly and the end creeps up suddenly on you. However it is also perfectly timed from the point of view that it allows you to build your engine making use of it fully for a loop of the board. I love the fact that there are different elements that you can choose to focus on but unlike some other Euro games you aren’t penalised if you don’t choose to focus on a single aspect. Another aspect of this game that I feel is underrated is that often the rules for heavy Euro games are difficult to grasp until you have played 2 or 3 times. Not so with Great Western Trail, due to the gameplay loop you quickly learn the rules and mechanics, as you are repeating the same actions round to round while adding on additional nuances as the game progresses. After the initial slog of getting through the rule book, my wife & I were able to gain a solid grasp of the rules by the end of the first game which doesn’t always happen with us. Lastly for a Euro game the theme and mechanics fit surprisingly well together which isn’t to say that a different theme couldn’t be wrapped around it but I find it difficult to imagine what would work as well as being a Rancher.
Despite being in my top 5 there are negative aspects to the game. The player board is annoying and if you nudge the table it could send the markers on the board flying, having you struggling to remember where they were placed. Maybe more egregiously for some people, is the brutal scoring (at least at 2 player count)! Point scoring is hidden throughout the game with no scoring tracker around the edge of the board like in many other Euro games. This should make for some nail biting conclusions while everyone is tailing up their scores however, in reality, you often have a good idea around ¾ of the way through regarding who has won and the slightest misstep can cause a big difference in end game scoring. This isn’t to say that you never have tight conclusions. For Hannah and I, this isn’t an issue as the action of playing Great Western Trail regardless of winning or losing is hugely fun for us. Plus, as a positive for Hannah, it is usually me that loses! So I guess I just need to improve my game play (although that probably applies to Board Games in general rather than being limited to Great Western Trail). I would recommend that anyone who is a fan of Euro games should play Great Western Trail at least once and if you like it there is always the expansion to add to your collection as well, which we have yet to play.
As fans of Great Western Trail we have created our own Meeple Design Minimalist travel style and silhouette posters to decorate your gaming space with, as well as unique apparel designs to wear to your board game sessions. All of which are available exclusively from Meeple Design - check them out here.
**Our blog is supported by fans of Meeple Design. If you buy through a link, we may earn an affiliate commission.**
]]>As the Meeple Design website has been live for some time now we thought it was about time we added the obligatory 'favourite board games' post. It should give an idea about our thought process behind buying new board games and hopefully a bit of insight into why we started Meeple Design. This will be for my top 5 games and Hannah will write her own list for her top 5 games. I am sure the list will be different and even if there are crossovers I think the reason we like the games will vary as well.
Fifth and final on my list is The Castles of Burgundy
]]>It is difficult to pick my favourite 5 games, as there are so many that I enjoy playing and a few that I need to play more of before I can confidently say they are among my favourite games. The 5 games that I have picked are partly because they play well with 2 players and I play most often with 2 players, even pre-pandemic. It is quite clear from the 5 games that I have picked that I am a big fan of euro style games.
In order to provide a bit more detail about each game and why I like it, I will be publishing an article for each game (Check out the other articles on our blog page). They are in no particular order as it was difficult enough to narrow down to only 5 games. My top 5 games are:
In my opinion this is the worst looking game in my top 5. The artwork is generic, component quality low and colours look low saturation. In its defence, when in stock, the standard edition is a relatively low price game and for your money you get a lot of game. There are tokens a plenty and it is an extremely rewarding Euro game. Based on its looks, I can completely understand why someone would overlook it, I don’t even think the more recently released deluxe edition remedies the components quality or art. However, The Castles of Burgundy is designed by the prolific Stefan Feld which should be more than enough to indicate that this is a quality game. Although I am yet to play other Stefan Feld games, something a really need to remedy with this game making it into my top 5.
In The Castles of Burgundy, each player takes on the role of a French aristocrat using resources to improve their province which, being a Euro game, is obviously expressed by scoring more points than your opponent. Each player has a player mat representing their province consisting of a hexagonal grid where new resource buildings or landscapes can be placed or stored. The 2 to 4 players share a central board which contains the tile supply of province upgrade tiles and goods, and the points track. The centre of the board contains the various upgrade tiles, in different colours representing the different types of upgrade, and next to the upgrade tiles are the goods storage squares. Goods are stacked into 5 piles of 5 at the top of the board which also act as the round tracker. The game is divided into 5 phases with 5 rounds each. Also contained on the board is the turn order tracker, with the token the furthest to the right indicating the start player. At the end of the 5th phase and the end of game scoring phase, the player with the most points is the winner.
At the start of each round, players roll their 2 dice. The current start player rolls an additional white die, which adds a single good tile to the goods storage square as per the value indicated on the white die. Once the goods tile is placed then players can proceed with their turn, taking 2 actions (1 per dice). The actions available to the players are:
This is the first Euro game that we bought and one that we continue to play regularly. In my opinion, it requires the perfect amount of strategic thinking which is informed by the dice you roll. In a lot of ways the dice values you roll determine the strategy you go with during the game, which is great as it encourages you to try out different strategies each play. This could be annoying, but in The Castles of Burgundy every strategy is quite strong, & more importantly fun, and there are multiple ways to influence the dice roll. Some people may disagree with this point, but I think that there is a good amount of player interaction. You can’t directly impact a players board however the tiles you take can have a huge impact on your opponent so it is beneficial to try and be aware of your opponents game plan.
The only negative, I already mentioned, is that the artwork and component quality are not great but then the game is a relatively affordable medium weight Euro game. Also the turns are fast paced and you can play through the 5 phases surprisingly quickly, but that is at 2 player count. It has never been a game that I have wanted to play with more than 2 players as I think the downtime between turns could be a bit much, which seems to be another negative that other people often comment on. There are other Euro games that are much more suited to playing with 3 or more players.
As fans of The Castles of Burgundy we have created our own Meeple Design travel style and silhouette posters to decorate your gaming space with as well as unique apparel designs to wear at your next board gaming session. All of which are available exclusively from Meeple Design - check them out here
**Our blog is supported by fans of Meeple Design. If you buy through a link, we may earn an affiliate commission.**
]]>Meeple Design are starting our board game crowdfunding monthly round up starting from game releases in June 2021. Summarising all the relevant and known tabletop gaming information in one place from release dates, Kickstarter linkes and most importantly the game information. Part two continues with games with a confirmed release date of 16th June up to possible June releases, dates could still be subject to change. Our 2 picks are:
Meeple Design are starting our board game crowdfunding monthly round up with the June 2021 game releases. We will be summarising all the relevant and known tabletop gaming information in one place from release dates, Kickstarter links and most importantly the game information. There are a large number of June releases so we have split the article into 2 parts. Part one started with games with a confirmed release date of 1st June up to 15th June, dates could still be subject to change.
This is Part 2 which covers games with confirmed release dates from 16th June u to games that may launch their campaign in June.
Each month we also pick out the games that, based on our preferences, stick out to us. Based on our preferences, in the second half of June the 2 games that we will be paying most attention to are (with further information about each one below):
2 Minutes to Midnight
An asymmetrical game for 1 to 2 players focussed on the Cold War from 1941 to 1991. It’s aiming to be a sandbox style game with a historical focus that can take up to 7 hours, if you play the full campaign. There are definite Twilight Struggle vibes here, from the board layout, Cold War focus and chits, so it could be for fans of that style of game.
Coalitions
Set during the Revolutionary and Napoleonic wars, Coalitions provides a historical recreation while also allowing you to create alternative histories throughout the game. In the game, you control one of 6 factions, taking 1 of 6 actions with the aim of reaching the top of the political ladder or controlling Paris using a combination of your military might and diplomacy skills.
Ro Sham Bo
Back for a second attempt at funding, Ro Sham Bo is an abstract 2 player game inspired by Chess. In the game, you are trying to defeat your opponent by either; initiating a direct attack using rock, paper, scissors rules, with the playing pieces being instantly recognisable as the relevant hand gesture, or stalling your opponent to collect artefacts, which grant you abilities to use during the game giving you an advantage over your opponent.
BattleFish
Battlefish is a capture the flag game for 2 to 6 players with an interesting combination of secret unit deployment, deck construction and card driven combat. Based on the BGG page the game is aiming to be strategic and also humorous. As a bonus, the artwork definitely has an Earthworm Jim vibe.
Arkosa
A science fiction game in which all players are aiming to build the best bunker, trying to attract the best colonists keeping them happy and fed. The game is played over 3 rounds with a playtime of around 25 minutes per player. There isn’t much information about the gameplay, although there does seem to be events sprinkled throughout the 3 rounds that introduce effects that players have to contend with. It has a unique art style and the concept reminds me of Fallout Shelter or Dungeon Keeper so it could be one for fans of that style of game to keep their eye on.
Winterhaven Woods
There isn’t much information about Winterhaven Woods but Featherstone Games previously published a family game called Open Oceans which has some really adorable artwork that appears to be carried across to their new game. The campaign starts soon and preview copies have been sent out so there should be more information about it soon.
6: Siege The Board Game
6: Siege The Board Game is a 2-4player, asymmetrical tabletop game with miniatures, based on Ubisoft’s acclaimed tactical shooter video game, Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six: Siege. Gameplay is fast and frenetic, allowing players to feel the tension of a cinematic assault with simulated real-time gameplay. Players control a team of 5 operators (all attackers or all defenders), with each Operator boasting different gadgets and abilities. Building your team of 5 is a very rewarding step of the game, offering endless possibilities and strategic choices. As the attacker, you will use your explosive arsenal to tear down walls and obstacles to reach your objective! As the defender, you will shape the battleground to your advantage and seek to thwart your opponent’s plans by denying them chances to attack.
Big Game Night
By backing this Kickstarter, you will get two unreleased AEG games, Ten and Whirling Witchcraft, plus a special bonus. This Kickstarter is only open to US backers.
Graphic Novel Adventure Season 4
Season 4 of the wildly popular graphic novel adventures from Van Ryder. Each graphic novel contains puzzles and challenges set around different themes. Past ones have included; pirates, theme parks, cowboys and Sherlock Holmes. It should be exciting to see what they come up with next.
The Zorro Dice Game: Stunts and Allies
In this game, you are trying to prove your worth to become the next Zorro. It uses Yahtzee style dice rolling, which you use to collect sets of heroic feats. The Kickstart is for the second expansion in the series which adds allies which level up throughout the course of the game.
Kroma
Kroma is a colour-blending strategy game for 2-3 players. Gameplay takes place on a triangular playing board, with a light behind it, so that you can better see the colours created by the game pieces during play. On your turn, you draw a playing piece from the bag —you may feel for a desired shape, but will not know the colour of the piece — then place that piece in any legal location on the board. Pieces come in yellow, cyan, and magenta, and initially you must play these pieces on the lowest level of the game board. If you can play a piece so that it's entirely supported by other pieces, then you can play on the second level of the board; by doing this, you can create the secondary colours green, orange, and purple — and this is what you'll need to do to win.
Start Them Up
Play as one of our talented entrepreneurs and go on an adventure! Alone or in a team, carry out your wildest projects and create the most beautiful community. But be careful, you will experience a whirlwind of emotions to reveal the entrepreneur within… or not!
Valor and Villainy: Lludwiks Labyrinth
Valor & Villainy: Lludwik's Labyrinth is a 1-6 player co-op adventure game, where a band of noble heroes from The Order Without Borders must pursue the Mad Imp Lludwik into his terrible Labyrinth to quell the threat of a demonic invasion. Lludwik's Labyrinth is both a stand alone full co-op game, and a fully cross compatible sequel to Valor & Villainy: Minions of Mordak.
The Great Race
Place yourself in the 1930s, at the wheel of your halftrack, where you will experience the most incredible human adventure. The Great Race will take you across continents, to face countless dangers and difficulties. You may have to take reckless risks to finally cross the finish line to the cheers of the crowd. Your crew consists of mechanics, scouts and an escort that you will have to mobilize to accomplish the impossible. The Kickstarter is for an upgraded reprint of the game.
Ryder: The Card Game
A game where luck is cast aside in honour of memory, strategy and, after some time, skill. Set in the time of knights & wizards. Battle your friends to earn the most gold for your treasury before the reserve runs out. Each player has 4 cards dealt to them, face down and takes it in turns to combat their foes around the table. You may look at your cards but cannot move the position of them. You select your cards to attack other players face down cards and then begin the process of endeavouring to remember where all the cards are, who to attack and what skills to play on opponents to mess with their game plan. Designed to remove the "Luck" element of card games and instead grant the winner victory via superior memory or strategic skills.
The Millennium War
First point is that there definitely seems to be some Kingdom Death Monster influence from the box cover, the layout of the rule book, to the board art style however, in general the gameplay is completely different and the art style is much more colourful & nowhere near as dark. This is a MOBA style board game and for those of you who haven’t heard of MOBA, they are a genre of video game in which two teams compete against each other aiming to destroy each other's main structure. It isn’t the only MOBA style board game but this does seem to be the most ambitious implementation of it. There are 35 different characters to choose from and various epic monsters that you can fight throughout the battlefield. As expected each hero has unique skills & stats which introduce a hybrid chess mechanic, whereby you have to pay attention to the movement and range rules specific to the hero. Also the base game is a standee version with some miniatures such as the structures, and additional acrylic standees will be provided as a Kickstarter exclusive with unique chibi style artwork for the characters. The miniatures are available as an all in pledge which have interchangeable parts and smart dials to track the hero stats. Altogether this seems like a very interesting package but it is a first time project so I will be reading the rules in depth, checking shipping rates and looking at the timeline before considering backing this project.
Villagers: Shifting Seasons
Shifting seasons is an expansion for Villagers which was also funded through Kickstarter. It adds new modules to the card drafting base game allowing events to be added with new villager cards and a new villager type. The expansion also adds solo rules for all those that love a solo play option.
Battle Peak
In Battle Peak, 2 to 4 players take control of wizards and duel each other with the aim of being the last wizard standing. It is played over a hexagon grid with an action point system used to play 1 of 20 different spells against each other.
Thunder Rolls
Thunder Roll is a stock car racing game using dice placement. At the start of each phase players roll their dice and place them to gain track actions & Thunder cards. In the following phase each player programs their Thunder cards to give their car movement and drivers unique actions. The game plays with 1 to 8 players and there are several tracks which also determine the length of the race. A game can either be played as a one off race or as part of a race season, which is 10 to 14 races.
Wild Assent: Lavon Rising
A Gamefound project which is for a reprint of the base game and the Shadow of the Silvestrem expansion. It’s a miniatures game for 1 to 4 players which contains rules for several different game modes; co-op, competitive and a story driven campaign. It includes a mixture of card driven combat, dice rolling and card drafting. The miniatures look detailed and unique, complemented by stunning artwork.
Storm Chasers
Storm Chasers is a hand management, tile manipulation game for 2-4 players. In Storm Chasers, players manipulate the weather across region tiles to maximize their film footage of Thunderstorms and Tornadoes, as they sweep through regions. In a turn, a player can use cards, in their hand, to benefit themselves or to affect other players. They can move from one region tile to another to increase the number of regions they will view when a storm is activated. They can flip/rotate tiles to create longer storm fronts, maximizing their potential income, and change the type of storm to strategically meet their goals. Players can clear rubble left from previous Tornadoes, and complete special assignments to earn additional income. A player's turn ends by activating a storm using a card from their hand. Income or loss of income due to damage are subsequently dealt to each player who is affected by the activated storm. But players should be careful not to get to sure of themselves. The competition is fierce, you never know when a competing storm chaser might surprise you by adding an unanticipated challenge.
The Paradox Initiative
Paradox is a well regarded game that came out in 2016 that features mechanics such as card drafting, set collection, and resource management, then adds a Bejewelled-like grid of colourful disks for each player to manipulate. I’m sure the new version will expand on the originals gameplay but, in my opinion, the most appealing aspect is the list of 18 artists that are working on the game which include; Andrew Bosley (Everdell), Ian O’Toole (On Mars) and Kwanchai Moriya (Dinosaur Island). It will be interesting to see how the artwork is incorporated in the game that keeps it cohesive.
Skyrim - The Board Game
There isn’t much information about this game at the moment and although it was announced to launch in June on Gamefound I believe it will be delayed. Since the announcement of the Skyrim game, Chip Theory, have also teased that they are working with Bethesda on an Elder Scrolls game.
Hollywood Racers
I believe June is the month in which Cosmo Duck will announce the launch date of Hollywood Racers. It appears to be a fun looking 'take that' style racing game in which each turn a player can either move, repair or use their vehicle's ability. There are multiple tracks with different rules and the winner is the first player who crosses the finish line with both of their vehicles. On the official forum thread on the BGG page they have announced that a deluxe edition (Directors Cut) will be available that includes metal miniatures for all the vehicles in the game.
Floating Floors
The first dexterity game on the list. You have to create a path way to the target for your ninja by balancing floor tiles while at the same time trying to sabotage your rival ninja's path. The draft Kickstarter page is already live, if you wanted to find out more information about the game
Iron Forest
Another dexterity game from the creators of Ice Cool. It uses the same box in a box system to create the playing board and also features a second level that you have to launch your piece to. It is a team vs team game between the forest defence system vs the animal mechs. The playing pieces that you flick are actual mech miniatures and it appears to build on everything that makes Ice Cool one of our favourite dexterity games. We are looking forward to seeing more about this Kickstarter.
*** Please note that we are not affiliated with any of the companies listed above or received payment in any form and this article represents our own personal opinion & research. All the information and dates may be subject to change ***
]]>Path of Light and Shadow was originally released by Indie Boards & Cards via a successful Kickstarter campaign back in 2017. Although it was a success making $130k (with a target of $30k), it did only reach 1,809 backers. Going relatively low under the board gaming radar, despite being well received by everyone who got a copy of it. Maybe this is because, despite it being an area control game, it has a distinct lack of plastic miniatures or a presentation which at least at first glance seems like generic high fantasy.
Either way, Path of Light and Shadow is back for a second campaign which is a reprint of the base game and adds an expansion so we want to (spoiler alert) spread the love for this great game.
]]>Path of Light and Shadow is an area control game, set within a fantasy land divided into realms and provinces. As the leader of one of the 4 houses, you have to take the land back from the Tyrant Queen. To be honest I didn’t even realise there was a Tyrant Queen until I started writing this review, as she does not make a appearance in gameplay. What does come through is, you are a warrior trying to take over the world, or in this case small provinces belonging to the realms.
The game plays out as a pseudo deck builder, area control and civilisation builder game. In which, your central actions are determined by your hand and deck of cards. Each turn you play cards from your hand, typically for either the 'strength' or 'Labour' value of that card. Predictably the attack action allows you to attack the province that you are in, which may be controlled by an opponent or a neutral realm. When attacking a neutral realm you need to beat the defence value, which is visually represented by the number of defence towers. To determine your attack value, you use the largest strength value to determine the number of dice you roll and then add up the strength number the other card/s played to the roll outcome. This doesn’t slow down combat much and interestingly brings in an element of luck, as you can underplay cards in the hope of a good roll. plus certain die faces cause 'ruin' which destroy defence towers equal to the ruin value rolled. Meaning that, if you inflict ruin, even if you failed the conquest it makes it easier to be successful on a future turn and reduces the number of points that your opponent gains in scoring if they control the province.
The Strength value of cards can also be used to cull cards from your hand or discard pile, removing them from the game completely with the number of cards you can remove being equal to the strength value of the card you played.
Alternatively, during your turn you can build structures on your player board by playing cards for their labour values. The structures are divided into the different factions and each one you build (there are 20 in total) provide a passive ability with the last level of each faction building giving you game end scoring bonuses.
Lastly, cards can be used to promote another card from either your hand or discard pile. Every card has its own upgrade path and cost which is usually an strength or labour value. Upgraded cards have higher strength and labour values but also the special abilities usually change, so upgrading a card is also about choosing when you can part with the ability of the current card. The special abilities on cards can apply depending on what actions you used them for, or you can use a card for its specific 'action' ability instead of using the cards attack or build value.
Each turn you can move your character on the board into an adjacent province and provinces with ports are deemed to be adjacent. The position of your character is crucial as you can only use an attack action in your current province, in addition, at the end of your turn you draw 1 or 2 cards from the realm deck that corresponds to the realm you are in. The realms contain 3 different classes of card, 2 of these are factions differ per realm and the last is the wandering Numarai, which is the only card which has a random upgrade path, i.e. you draw from a face down deck when promoting a Numarai card.
There is an additional track that any of your actions can and usually will impact. The 'morality track' with Cruelty and Mercy going from 1 to 12. Your morality level can impact your card abilities and grant you additional points for every mercy or cruelty earned past 12.
The game is played through 3 years with each year being made up of 4 phases. At the end of the fourth phase of each year, the end of year scoring phases is based on the defence value of provinces occupied and realms controlled. After year 3 scoring there is the end of game scoring in which you add the point value of your promoted cards and any end game scoring from level 4 structures that you have built.
I’ve not really touched on the components because there isn’t much to talk about. The board is clear and the art looks good with the provinces being big enough to accommodate the tower pieces. A big bonus is that there is a 2 player specific map, which keeps the game tight. The player boards are one of the best components, as they are dual layered which keeps the cubes in place. The dice are the other impressive component, they are big, chunky and very satisfying to roll. Your character is represented by a mini, which is slightly fragile but they are functional. I maybe would have preferred them to be a little sturdier with more detail, as they are the only miniatures in the game. Finally, I mentioned that the artwork initially appears to be generic high fantasy based on the box art and the starter cards. However the card art is great, especially for the Numerai, which is a nice bonus when you start playing but, in my opinion, it would have been great if the box art could have accentuated this more to make it stand out to new players.
Now it sounds like there is a lot happening in this game with all the different systems and multiple uses for cards. However each element is distilled down, making it easier to learn and apply in game, while also adding strategic complexity. For instance, at the start of the game you draw an additional unique starter card. You draw a card which benefits your attacking strength so decide to follow a conquest heavy strategy for the game. Then in deciding which cards you should look to obtain in your deck you could focus on 'Hordes of Zurd' which are an strength heavy faction and 'Hallax Guildlords' which provide utility in your deck, usually for the cost of victory points. You could combine different combinations of cards as they all work to some degree and so far we have found all the factions to be extremely well balanced.
The random elements of the game include; the dice rolling during conquests and deckbuilding, both of which I love. You can mitigate your luck during conquests by playing more cards, however that reduces the number of actions you can take in the turn, so there is a brilliant mix of risk versus reward. For the deckbuilding you are drawing random cards from realm decks, which could be annoying, but actually can encourage you to try different strategies from game to game. Plus you know the upgrade path for each card so you can generally turn a card into something that will be useful to you.
If it wasn’t obvious, I really enjoy this game; I love the combination of mechanics used in interesting ways and like the deckbuilding where you aren’t buying specific cards to add to your hand. The game has similarities to a larger epic game but actually takes place on a small map, with not much plastic and takes about 1 hour with 2 players. Its rare to play a game that feels this sprawling, but actually fits on your table and the best thing about it is that from the 2nd play onwards it is so quick to set up & put away back into the box once you have finished. There are multiple routes to winning which don’t all necessarily focus on the confrontational aspect of area control, although a little confrontation is unavoidable if you want to win, and every action you take is rewarding. It will remain a permanent part of my collection, although I will caveat my opinion with the fact that I have only played at 2 player count and there is the possibility that with 4 players there may be some long downtime between turns.
I felt this was a good time to share my thoughts on the game as there is currently an expansion on Kickstarter called Path of Light & Shadow Solstice, which I will be backing, with a reprint of the original game. The expansion adds more cards for existing factions as well as a new faction and some new mechanics with a board extension. Basically it seems to add more of what I love about the game, but will share my thoughts of it when I receive it and get a chance to play it.
]]>As the Meeple Design website has been live for some time now we thought it was about time we added the obligatory 'favourite board games' post. It should give an idea about our thought process behind buying new board games and hopefully a bit of insight into why we started Meeple Design. This will be for my top 5 games and Hannah will write her own list for her top 5 games. I am sure the list will be different and even if there are crossovers I think the reason we like the games will vary as well.
Fourth on my list is Raja's of the Ganges
]]>As the Meeple Design website has been live for some time now we thought it was about time we added the obligatory 'favourite board games' post. It should give an idea about our thought process behind buying new board games and hopefully a bit of insight into why we started Meeple Design. This will be for my top 5 games and Hannah will write her own list for her top 5 games. I am sure the list will be different and even if there are crossovers I think the reason we like the games will vary as well.
It is difficult to pick my favourite 5 games, as there are so many that I enjoy playing and a few that I need to play more of before I can confidently say they are among my favourite games. The 5 games that I have picked are partly because they play well with 2 players and I play most often with 2 players, even pre-pandemic. It is quite clear from the 5 games that I have picked that I am a big fan of euro style games.
In order to provide a bit more detail about each game and why I like it, I will be publishing an article for each game (Check out the other articles on our blog page). They are in no particular order as it was difficult enough to narrow down to only 5 games. My top 5 games are:
Compared to my other 5 favourite Euro games, Rajas of the Ganges is not as mechanically complicated, it doesn’t have as much variability and the engine building aspect isn’t as epic. Despite this it makes it into my top 5 list, so why? Well sometimes I don’t want to play a Euro game that takes 1.5 hours or longer, I want a strategic game which I can play in 45 minutes or less. Hannah and I can get through our turns quicker in Rajas of the Ganges than almost any other game in our collection, which isn’t to say you don’t have to make decisions through the game it's just that once you choose a path to focus on then your turns become about focussing on the optimal actions and there is less that your opponent can do to disrupt your turn, at least when playing at 2 player count. All of these factors contribute to it being the most played game in our collection, highlighting just how much fun we have playing it, which I feel makes it worthy of its place in my top 5.
The scoring mechanic of Rajas of The Ganges is the most unique aspect of the game as there are 2 tracks; one for fame and one for money, Money is easier to score than fame. Each track starts at opposite ends slowly moving closer together throughout the course of the game and once they cross paths each player, other than the person who triggered the end game, has a final turn. The winner is the player who has the markers past each other by the highest amount. Compared to many other games, it gives an extremely visual representation regarding roughly how long is left of the game. As with most good Euro games your engine does ramp up in the second half so, if you aren’t paying attention to your opponents score markers, the end can still creep up on you. When this happens to me, I always feel that I have nobody to blame but myself, rather than the game end being wrapped in some obscure requirement.
So how do you score points? Rajas of The Ganges is predominantly a dice and worker placement game in which you take actions on the main board using your pool of workers and dice, held on your personal ‘Kali Statue’ board. In addition, each player has their personal province board where new lands can be added.
On the main board there are a number of worker spaces split into different sections where, to take the action, a worker, dice and/ or money has to be used. There are 4 different coloured dice and each time you gain one you roll the dice for a random value so that the colour and value rolled act as the resource for placements spots.
There are the quarry spots which allow you to take a build action adding a land tile onto your province by spending dice of a certain colour and value. The rules for placing the land are straightforward, the tile must be placed adjacent to another land tile ensuring that the roads are linked. Connecting roads to the edge of the board gives you a one time bonus; either fame, money or dice. The tiles themselves contain either structures, the primary way to earn fame when granted immediately when the tile is placed, or markets, earning you money when you take an action at the market.
At the market you can collect money for goods in your province, of which there are 3 types. Either by gaining money for each unique good that you have in your province or by scoring for the same type of goods, the number scored is determined by the value of the die face you sacrifice.
All actions at the palace require that you spend a worker to; reroll all your dice on the Kali Statue, sacrifice a specific colour dice to gain 2 of another specified colour, or spend a die of specific value to gain a misc action. The actions can be quite powerful; either ensuring you are the starting player the next round, gain you fame or money, gain karma allowing you to turn dice to the opposite side, move on the river track, improve already placed lands, or upgrade one of the 3 structures allowing you to score more points when you place that specific structure in your province.
Lastly there is the harbour which allows you to spend a die with a value of 1, 2 or 3 to move along the river track. Each step on the river track provides a bonus which if you advance far enough can be a great way to score some late game points. If you aren’t playing the variation rules then the river track is also one of 3 ways to gain an additional worker, each player can gain up to 2. The other opportunities are by passing a specific point on the fame or money track.
With the multiple different worker spots on the main board, along with the five trackers and the personal province board, it sounds complex but it all really does blend together really well so that it only takes a play through or two to get a good understanding of how the game works. For me, it's actually by adding the additional tracks and boards that move it beyond being a simple gateway worker placement game, I’m looking at you Lords of Waterdeep. I would bring this out to play with a group who hadn’t played a worker placement game before as I really think that the only difficult part to grasp is the iconography and scoring tracks but it adds so much more strategy than Lords of Waterdeep.
Most of the strategy does involve choosing which scoring tracker you want to focus on, but at the same time you still can’t completely neglect the other scoring tracker. This will determine whether you are focusing on structures or markets in your province and what stops you want on the river track. There are also additional small variations & modules, that you can introduce after you play your first few games and rules for mixed groups of new vs experienced players which allow the experienced players to start with a handicap. Like with all worker and dice placement games, it can be annoying when your opponent takes a spot that you were eyeing up or you just aren’t getting the dice rolls you want but despite this it is a strangely relaxing game. It's nice to have a game that I can pull off the shelf, set up and play without referring to the rulebook every 5 minutes, allowing me to evolve rather than revolutionise my strategy with each subsequent play.
One small point on the components; they are great. The colours of the dice stand out and are satisfying to roll. The artwork is great, with the board in particular, being very visually appealing and the tokens & tiles are good quality.
The only real negatives are that, with the exception of the scoring tracks, Rajas of The Ganges doesn’t do anything fundamentally different versus other euro & worker placement games. Maybe my enjoyment of it is enhanced by the fact it was the first worker placement focused game I played and, although there is some variability in the setup of tiles and tokens I don’t feel that this changes the flow of the game in any significant way.
If you are looking for a new worker placement game I couldn’t recommend Rajas of the Ganges highly enough. Even if you are new to worker placement I would still consider this as the rules might be more complex than other gateway worker placement games, but I think this will keep you more engaged longer term.
As fans of worker placement games we have created our own Meeple Design travel style and silhouette posters inspired by worker placement games which you can decorate your gaming space with as well as unique apparel designs to wear at your next play session of Rajas of the Ganges. All of which are available exclusively from Meeple Design - check them out here.
**Our blog is supported by fans of Meeple Design. If you buy through a link, we may earn an affiliate commission.*
]]>Meeple Design are starting our board game crowdfunding monthly round up starting from game releases in June 2021. Summarising all the relevant and known tabletop gaming information in one place from release dates, Kickstarter linkes and most importantly the game information. Part one starts with games with a confirmed release date of 1st June up to 15th June, dates could still be subject to change. Our 2 picks are:
Part 2 will be released next week and cover games with confirmed release dates from 16th June and include games that may have there campaign in June.
Each month we also pick out the games that, based on our preferences, stick out to us. Based on our preferences, in the first half of June the 2 games that we will be paying most attention to are:
It's a fast paced card game with the aim being to get rid of every card from your hand. There are different cards with varying effects which offer a 'take that' element. It seems that it's aiming to be a fun party game offering suggestions of alternate ways to play to keep it fresh.
Monsters of Murka: Chromatic Gamut
Monsters of Murka is a campaign setting for 5e DnD based on a high fantasy parody version of New York City. Chromatic Gamut is the second expansion and introduces new classes, monsters, items, backgrounds and more. The expansion has a focus on the LGBTQIA+ community with the world of Murka. The base book is available on DriveThruRPG so you can check it out before backing the expansion.
Ruthless: Tall Tales
Ruthless is a deckbuilding pirate game in which you play cards from your hand to form poker combinations. The player with the strongest crew wins the round and gains points. After which you buy more cards for your deck. After 5 or 6 rounds the player with the highest score wins. Tall Tales is an expansion which will add more card types and also a solo mode to the game. The base game has good artwork on the cards but the expansion really steps it up with the additional card types.
Adventure Tactics: Adventures in Alchemy
Adventure Tactics: Adventures in Alchemy is an expansion to Adventure Tactics: Domianne's Tower which is a campaign-driven, cooperative tactical combat game. You choose from 1 of 5 classes and fight your way through a branching campaign. During the course of the campaign you level up, unlock new equipment and new classes. The expansion will add a mini campaign which includes new enemies, classes, items and non player controlled allies. One point of note, the base game has a very high 8.4 rating from 236 people so it is clearly highly regarded by the people who own it.
Fall of the Mountain King
A prequel to In the Hall of the Mountain King which was a 2019 release funded on Kickstarter. Where the original game was themed around trolls rebuilding their kingdom, the new game is about the Gnome attack which forced the trolls from their homes. The main mechanisms of the game listed on board game geek are action points, area majority and drafting. If the first game is anything to go by then this should have good artwork and components with a 'puzzley' aspect to the gameplay.
Pot-YUCK! The Card Game
In Pot Yuck you are a dishwasher trying to work your way up into becoming the Head Chef. It is a party game in which you are playing card combos to try to come up with the worst possible food combinations. Adding spice, food and methods you may decide that onion cheesecake or catfish waffles are your secret weapon to becoming the Head Chef. It would probably be a restaurant I skipped, but it does seem like a fun party game.
My Singing Monsters
Based on a video game of the same name set in Monster World, it is a strategic worker placement game which tasks you with breeding the ultimate singing monster. There will be 5 islands to explore with over 50 monsters to collect and breed. You start by choosing 1 of the 5 different characters, gradually building up your abilities throughout the course of the game. Interestingly the game is intended to be accessible for everyone, so while the rules start simple there are several modules that you can add, introducing new rules and gameplay mechanics, allowing you to build up to a full on strategy game.
The Binding of Isaac Requiem
The Kickstarter is an expansion for The Binding of Isaac with over 200 brand new cards but will also feature a reprint of the base game and limited edition merchandise. I played a lot of the video game that this is based on and it is one of the best rogue lites. However I have never played the board game version. Let me know in the comments if it captures the feeling of the video game.
Fossil Canyon
A set-collection card game developed in collaboration with the Field Museum of Chicago in which you are a fossil-hunting palaeontologist with the goal of constructing complete dinosaur skeletons that attract visitors to your museum. For us the jigsaw puzzle scoring method looks interesting and makes it stand out from other set collection games.
Dwar7s The Lost Tribes Expansion
Dwar7s is a hand-building, resource management game with tower defence elements. The Lost Tribes is an expansion to Dwar7s Winter which was a stand alone game in the series. Featuring good artwork and miniatures the game definitely has table presence. More importantly it is well received on BoardGameGeek.
Squaring Circleville
Circleville is a town in Ohio, USA named after the circular portion of a large Hopewell earthwork, upon which it was built. After complaints and a petition from the townsfolk, about the circular roads, the decision was made to rebuild it as a more conventional grid. In the game, you are tasked with deconstructing and then reconstructing the town of Circleville. Moving round a rondel, you take various actions getting permits to perform work with the aim of building the best Square.
Moonstone: The Arising
The Arising is an expansion to Moonstone which is a skirmish game for 2 or more players. The game plays on a 3x3 table with around 10 to 12 models in total. We haven’t played the game so can’t speak to the rules, but what is clear is that the models are very unique and remind me of fable whimsical style fantasy characters. The expansion book adds in campaign rules with narrative progressing the Moonstone storyline and scenarios.
Heroes of Barcadia
If you want a dungeon crawler with a difference then this might be the game for you, as it also involves drinking. Alcohol is not required and you can just as easily play with your favourite juice (apple & raspberry for me). Players move around a randomised hex tile fighting monsters, using power ups and obtaining loot cards. Health is represented by the liquid left in your player cup and for each bit of health lost you drink some of your beverage. The game also features great cartoon style artwork representing the heroes and monsters as well as having pun heavy names for the characters and items. Let's hope the tiles are spill resistant!
Lonely Undead
If you were a fan of the video game Stubbs the Zombie then this could be the board game for you. Play as a lonely zombie shambling around town turning others into your new Zombie friends. Each player takes control of their own Zombie with unique powers, but you have to be careful as the human you attack is only revealed once you have attacked them and they have varying power levels. The game plays out on a square grid board with different decks representing supplies you can find around town and standees for the characters.
Blooming Industry
The Tulip industry may not sound like it is hugely relevant to modern society but I find it fascinating and many people believe that there are a lot of similarities between the Tulip boom in the 1600’s and crypto currency in the present day, with speculation in the market driving huge value. Blooming Industry is about the Tulip boom with the aim of the game to harvest, transport, and sell tulips from your farms to the market. While ensuring that the price is high when you sell as Tulips decrease in value, as ones of the same colour are sold. There are 3 phases; Gather, Harvest and Farm, with multiple possible actions in each phase. It's a colourful tile laying game in which you have to build connections in your farm. We are definitely keeping an eye on this one as the relatively simple rules seem to allow for some strategic gameplay. Plus we love the theme!
Deliverance
It's a dungeon crawler that pits angels against demons. We don’t often play dungeon crawlers, but Deliverance seems to have some unique ideas such as dice rolls that if successful provide additional actions on top of the base action and increasing game difficulty by adding talents to enemies. The character & board artwork looks good and I believe they are offering a choice between a standee and miniature version, which is good to see regardless of whether the game is from a new or established publisher.
Overstocked
A light game that can be played in 20 minutes, about stocking your warehouse with the most in demand toys. Each round you play a card to either stock your warehouse or increase the central pile which increases the demand. The game ends when everyone has played all cards from their hands and players score points for most in demand toys.
Traps
A roll n’move game in which you are an adventurer trying to escape the jungle before your friends. Laying traps and using your special abilities in order to survive and be the first out of the jungle. I expect this to be an easy going fun game with rules that can be taught quickly and strong 'take that' elements to the gameplay.
Skeptics
It is a cooperative, dice rolling game, where players explore potentially haunted locations to prove the existence of ghosts. To succeed you must find evidence of the haunting by revealing the ghost at midnight and completing the icon sets of the ghost. Once the ghost reveals itself, you must contend with the environment which starts to work against you, with fires starting and lights going out. The base game has 6 ghosts and 2 locations to provide variety. Originally the project was on Kickstarter in November 2020 but the funding goal was not reached. It isn’t clear what is new or different in the relaunch but presumably they will rework the price of the KS or the stretch goals.
Battle of Gog
Battle of Gog is an abstract strategy game with multiple paths to winning. The map is built during set up using 36 3x3 tiles providing fresh gameplay experience with every match. During the game you will be gathering resources, buying upgrades and playing treasure cards.
AracKhan Wars
A tactical card game played out on a grid battlefield in which you play your cards too. Each deck is made up of 23 cards which are a mixture of monsters that can be placed on the battlefield and spells to cast on your opponent. At the end of the ninth round both players count the value of their cards on the battlefield and the person with the highest value wins. The stand out factor on this game is the artwork and if the different deck types are balanced with a variety of options for deck builds, then this could be a solid game.
Alien Petshop
Ever wanted to manage your own cosmic petshop? If so, then this could be the game for you. It is an engine building game with dice placement and set collection. The gameplay loop has you buying pets and workers which are represented by dice, rolling your ‘workers' and then assigning them so that your pets have offspring or you can engineer new traits for your pets. During the course of the game you have to deal with hazards and collect pet traits to score more points. The great thing about Alien Petshop is that there is an easy mode which allows you to play the game with younger shopkeepers.
Edict: Solar Contention
Edict is an economic space exploration, each player controls 1 of 5 powerful corporations aiming to establish a commercial empire in space. Edicts specify how many resources must be delivered to Earth in order to be fulfilled and advance the game. Once the Edict is fulfilled, players are able to recruit new people to their team to gain abilities and then a new Edict is revealed. Once all Edicts are revealed the game is over and the player with the most victory points wins.
Bushido The Card Game
This is a relaunch Kickstarter, as it was cancelled the first time round in 2020. As the name suggests you play as a Samurai in this push-your-luck, set collection game. You roll dice which you allocate to virtues trying to learn enough virtues to impress one of the Daimyo and win the game. It’s Yahtzee style in that you can roll dice up to 3 times sticking with what you roll or rerolling to try and obtain a higher scoring virtue.
First Ascent
The aim of First Ascent is to become the most skilled climber by acquiring gear and establishing the best route up the mountain in this, medium weight, rock climbing-themed strategic board game. It's a route building game with 10 asymmetrical characters and a mixture of mechanics including card drafting and set collection. The team behind the game are rock climbers so it seems likely that the game will be true to the real world sport and maybe even make me feel like I could tackle Mount Everest, probably not but regardless the game is definitely intriguing.
Forests of Pangaia
The concept of Forests of Pangaia reminds me of Photosynthesis as the game revolves around growing your own forest and contending with other players for territory. Starting with a seed and growing your individual trees throughout the course of the game. It should have good table presence as the trees will be added throughout the course of the game with additional stacks being added to the tops of the trees representing their growth. The gameplay mechanics do appear to be significantly different to Photosynthesis with a modular board made of different terrain tiles with varying element attributes.
Adventures in Oz 5E
Adventures in Oz brings the World of Oz to the 5th edition Dungeons and Dragons ruleset. There will be new character classes, spells, items and player races. With Oz heroes and villains as NPCs and several modules included. The best part is that you can download an open playtest PDF from their website for free to decide if you want to back the project.
*** Please note that we are not affiliated with any of the companies listed above or received payment in any form and this article represents our own personal opinion & research. All the information and dates may be subject to change ***
]]>Whilst in theory you can never have too many board games, for the majority of board game fans there is a limit on storage space and board game funds, therefore it is necessary to somewhat limit the collection to select games!
There is always an element of risk when backing a game on a crowdfunding platform, especially if it is a new game, as you won’t know whether it was worth it until it arrives. The below list of questions aims to help those who enjoy backing Tabletop gaming projects via crowdfunding, but need some help when it comes to deciding which games to back, to avoid their home becoming a hoarder style board game fort. Yes I know this sounds awesome, but the reality would be very impractical!
This is a question to really dig deep to find the answer, as there are lots of Tabletop games on crowdfunding sites with some amazing looking miniatures. Mythic Battles:Ragnarok for example. So it is important to look beyond the detailed figures / structures and consider the actual game.
Is it a game that has earlier editions released? If so, is it a well reviewed game and what do the reviews say about it? If any negatives or limitations have been highlighted with previous editions, such as issues with game play, have these been addressed in the new version, for example with updated rules or new features?
If this is a completely new game, carefully read the description of the game and play, check to see if there are any early preview playthrough reviews of the game, either on the project campaign page or on YouTube, that can give you an idea of what the game plays like. Although be aware in relation to the YouTube channel you watch as often the channel is sponsored to do a preview video, if this is the case there will be a disclaimer during the video. Finally, after doing your research, ask yourself ‘If there were no miniatures, would I still want this game?’
A follow up question to this first question or if the game doesn't include fancy miniatures….
It is important to consider how much game play you would actually get from the game and thus is it worth the investment (money and precious board game shelf space). Several important factors to consider when realistically thinking about whether you would actually get much play from the game are; player count, game play time (including set up), type of game and level of complexity.
The stage you are at within the Board Gaming hobby is likely the first determining factor as to whether you should even consider crowdfunding a game in the first place. If you are new to the hobby, still developing your collection and tastes, then many of the following questions you will still be finding answers to. You may be backing a game you cannot know whether you will like it, so take into consideration that crowdfunded games can take a significant amount of time to be delivered, so now may be when your money would be better spent starting your collection with established games. We definitely made this mistake early on backing games like Dark Souls and after playing realising that, in general, we are not fans of dungeon crawler type games (Gloomhaven being the exception, of course!)
Consider the player count, is the number of people that can play, the number in your typical board gaming group? If not, when would you actually be able to play the game? For example, Tony and I have only a few select games that are 3+ players, as we tend to get games that can be played 2 players or more, as the majority of our Tabletop gaming is the two of us. Therefore, when considering a game that does not have a two player mode, we need to think about the people who we tend to play games with and which groups would enjoy this game. As we have friends with differing board game experience and likes, we need to consider this as well as, will the game be quick and easy to teach to others?
Time it takes to play the game - Is the game a relatively quick pick up and play game, that you would get a lot of play from or is it a game that requires more of a time commitment? If a longer time play, how often do you and your tabletop gaming group have the time to invest in a lengthy game? Will this impact significantly on when and even if you are likely to play this game? If like us, you live with your board gaming partner and/ or spend a significant amount of your free time devoted to your board game hobby, then a long play time is likely not to phase you, but you may have other commitments that keep you from being able to submit to a long board game adventure.
Important factors to consider when thinking about how much game play you will get from the game, is the type of game and level of complexity of the game.
What type of game is it? Card drafting, worker placement, deck building, area control, skirmish, story driven, abstract game, dungeon crawler, party game, legacy, etc. Have you played other games of this type? Did you enjoy them? If yes, check with yourself, do you really need yet another deck building game, for example, do you already own a similar game to this but with a different theme? Is there enough different elements to this game to make it different to the others in your collection? If you have not played this type of game before, it may be worth trying out a few at your local Board game café or from a friends collection, to see if you like the game elements, before backing an expensive crowdfunding campaign. However, crowdfunding projects can sometimes be a cheaper way to get a new board game which can be more expensive once it hits retail, so could be a good way to try new types of games!
If you are new to board gaming, or mainly play with less experienced players, ask is this a starter player level game or a more complex game for seasoned players? It depends on preference of course, but it can be useful to start off with less complex or starter games, before moving on to more advanced games with complex rules and features, as diving straight into one of these could be off putting and result in the game collecting dust on the shelf. But likewise, if the game is too simple with few added dimensions to the gameplay, this could get boring very quickly, if you enjoy more evolved game play.
One final point to consider is what is the resale value of the game? I do not advocate treating crowdfunding projects as an investment, as you should only buy games that you intend to play and it is impossible to truly know what the after market value will be. However if you don't like the game then it is always good to know that you can at least get your money back. The main points to look at are; is the game coming to retail, does it include a lot of exclusives and does the company have a good track record in producing well received games?
As a backer, would you be getting anything special? Or could you just wait until the game is available as a retail version? Often when backing Tabletop games on crowdfunding platforms the project campaigns are full of perks and goodies. Benefits often include Deluxe features, stretch goals with backer exclusives, opportunities for extra add-ons, ‘early-bird’ prices, or bundle deals that are not available for retail versions, and therefore make it worthwhile backing the crowdfunding project. For example, the recent Everdell expansion release on Kickstarter did not include backer only stretch goals however it did offer a ridiculously good bundle deal for the; base game, all the expansions and the brand new expansion, which would have cost you a lot more if bought separately at retail. Or the Brass campaign, which allowed Backers the opportunity to purchase Deluxe versions of Brass: Lancaster and Birmingham, which are not available outside of Kickstarter
So ask yourself, is it worth backing this game via this crowdfunding project, am i honestly likely to get a lot of game play from this game and therefore, is it good value for money for me and good use of my (likely) limited board game storage? Could I avoid the buyers remorse by resisting an impulse buy and waiting for the retail release? Or is this project just too irresistible to pass?!?!
Here are some of our favourite Designs inspired by Board game Crowdfunding Projects we backed;
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From its inception in 2009, Kickstarter has grown into the biggest crowdfunding platform on the internet. The use of Kickstarter by Tabletop Game publishers and the gaming community has contributed to the success of the platform with companies such as CMON, helping establish Kickstarter as a popular platform for Board Games with their game Zombicide in 2013. Many companies, such as CMON and Awaken Realms, have directly benefited from Kickstarter’s popularity within the board game community which is reflected by their growth into two of the most recognised publishers within the gaming industry. Part of the reason that board games have been so popular on Kickstarter is directly related to the ‘non essential extras’ which have quickly become expected extras. By going down the crowdfunding route, it has allowed companies to increase the production quality of their games far beyond what was normal for traditionally released games, which has also become necessary to enable the projects to stand out. This has had a knock on effect on games released outside of Kickstarter, with the standard production quality typically improving. However, this has had an impact on the cost of Board Games with the average price increasing.
Up until now, if you are a consumer or creator, alternative options have been limited with the most well known being IndieGoGo. However, these other platforms currently lack the traffic that Kickstarter gets, don’t have a strong affiliation with Board Games and typically come with more associated risks when backing projects.
The new crowdfunding platform on the block, GameFound, created by Awaken Realms, is looking to become the #1 destination for Board Game crowdfunding and is aiming to be up and running by June or July 2021. One of the disadvantages of using Kickstarter is that whilst it allows you to promote your project, it then requires a separate pledge manager to enable backers to modify pledges and to calculate shipping costs per country. Gamefound was created as a pledge manager but they are now beginning to allow projects to be crowdfunded through the platform, effectively providing an all in one solution to Board Game publishers & designers.
Of course, it will be no easy task to attract companies to move to Gamefound from Kickstarter, which has the established traffic and customer base. However, the main points of differentiation between the two platforms is that Gamefound:
Some of these features are easier to implement for Gamefound, in comparison to other platforms, this is because it is dedicated to Board Games therefore the development can be more focussed. These features are a necessity in order for Gamefound to compete with the behemoth which is Kickstarter. Creators choosing to use Gamefound over Kickstarter, will need to carefully consider whether a decrease in traffic could result in lower backer numbers and if that is the case if the lower fee’s that Gamefound offer will offset a loss in backer revenue.
Gamefound is off to a good start as a crowdfunding platform for Board Games with ISS Vanguard from Awaken Realms achieving funding of $4.9 million and Robinson Crusoe collector's edition reaching its goal in less than 20 minutes achieving total funding of $2.2 million and the following big projects announced in February that will be coming or have already funding via the platform:
Personally I prefer the Gamefound platform over Kickstarter as I am only interested in backing Board Games and the additional features allow for greater ease of use for backing Tabletop Games. We will almost certainly see Kickstarter develop similar features over the coming years, however Gamefound will be able to have a greater focus on the Board Game market therefore I believe they have an opportunity to develop & add additional features more suited to the gaming community due to their greater understanding of the Board Game niche and be able to introduce the changes quicker, which should attract both creators and backers to the platform.
I am looking forward to seeing the Gamefound projects in 2021 and we will keep you updated via the Meeple Design blog, with more information regarding projects that appear on Gamefound.
]]>We are so pleased to be creating & selling officially authorised designs for Tabletop Tycoon games and are very excited about the potential for new designs featuring Tabletop Tycoon's current & future games. We currently have several authorised Everdell and Alien Frontiers posters and T-Shirts available in our featured Tabletop Tycoon collection.
]]>We both enjoyed playing board games as children (for me it was Cluedo and game of Life, for Tony, Mandarin and Go for broke), so when at some point one of us (probably me) suggested playing a game (possibly, Lord of the Rings risk or maybe Game of Life… but definitely not monopoly as we established early on, our compatibility in our dislike of the game), we had a really fun time. We found that we have similar values when it comes to playing games, i.e. reading the rules all the way through before play, then following the rules, being sensible in allowing someone to undo a move if it's before the other person has made their move, and importantly, we had strong views on no cheating! Leading to lots of laughs with no disagreements!
Our collection started to grow, mainly with second hand board games we found in charity shops or mainstream family games we could get on offer on the highstreet. In particular, we enjoyed Game of Knowledge, a trivia game from the 1980s which was particularly challenging as a lot of the questions are now outdated, so required you to answer as if stuck in a time warp! During this time of rediscovering our love for board games and the early development of our emerging identity as a ‘game couple’, we were living at my parents house, whilst waiting to move into our first home together, camping over at our soon to be renovated flat at weekends, so playing board games was a great way for us to spend time together as a couple whilst our TV and other belongings were packed away.
Once we moved into our first home and had more space, we started to develop and nourish our gamer couple relationship/identity further by acquiring new games, experimenting with a variety of different types of games, such as Ticket to Ride, Small World, Pandemic, Tokaido and Dinosaur Island. Tony began to; learn the language, like ‘worker placement’, ‘euro game’ & ‘card drafting’ and watch YouTube board game channels. He also discovered Kickstarter! Whilst, i just said ‘Yea I liked playing that one!’ or ‘Ooo this one looks interesting, it has pretty artwork!’.
As mentioned, Tony and I have similar values in terms of playing board games, but we also have similar ability level in relation to playing board games. This means that often games are very close and that our ‘wins’ are more or less equal (not that it is about the wining, as we both can enjoy games, even when we are not very good at them!). Although we have similar ability, we do have different strengths and there were certain games that I would usually win (Castles of Burgundy, Terraforming Mars, Imperial settlers) and games that Tony more often won (Mr Jack, Photosynthesis, Cryptid) Tony’s strengths are in abstract puzzle games whereas mine are more in relation to resource management euro games.
Having a similar ability, experience but some differing skills in relation to board games, also means that we enjoy playing Co-op games, such as; Pandemic Legacy, Gloomhaven, Ghost stories, Onirim. It’s not all one person taking the lead during the games, we can think through actions together, working collaboratively, so that one person isn’t doing all the thinking with the other person being dragged along! (Not wanting to get ‘too deep’ but it may be that practicing ‘problem solving’ in a board game context, has helped us with communicating effectively with ‘real world’ problems in our relationship?!?! Maybe board games should be introduced as a new form of couples counselling!)
So over the years, we have played more and more games and our collection has grown, we have outgrown some of the starter ‘gateway’ games that we enjoyed at the beginning of our relationship and have discovered lots and lots of new ones! There are few weekends that we don't play at least one board game, and we will always take games away with us on holiday, even if we can only fit in a couple of small games such as Love letter (great for the airport in case of any delays), Schotten Totten, 7 Wonders Duel and Architects of the West Kingdom.
It was our enjoyment of Board games that inspired us to create Meeple Design. We wanted to share our passion for tabletop games, pay homage to our favourite games, and create a shop especially for Tabletop gamers, with products designed by board gamers for board gamers.
My view is that the emergence of tabletop gaming provides other positive benefits. Analog gaming is so hands on, that in my opinion, it helps create a sense of community, whether between groups of friends or in the wider gaming world. It is this sense of community that gives the hobby attributes that can bring people together and bring out people's altruistic traits. The hobby can encourage positive interactions between others allowing board gaming to be a great wrap around for charitable events. Even in a direct sense board gaming is often used by non-profit organisations as a form of therapeutic activities which can also help reinforce positive character development.
There are many charitable organisations that use Board Games in one form or another to provide a platform and introduce a community to the organisation that they support. At Meeple Design we had the opportunity to support 2 such events that raise money for different organisations, Game for the Cause and CAPA Cup. The organisers of the 2 events were able to answer some of our questions about the events and organisations they support. We will have 2 articles providing more information regarding both events.
I look forward to the work of both of these events over the next several years and to the next decade of positive contributions that the Tabletop Gaming community can help make.
]]>We had a very ‘Gloomy’ Christmas indeed! The Pandemic restrictions meant that Tony and I had a quiet, cosy Christmas at home just the two of us, this gave us a lovely amount of time to continue with our Gloomhaven campaigns!
]]>For those of you who are yet to discover the wonder that is Gloomhaven,
it is a cooperative, campaign-driven dungeon crawl board game, with developing characters and extensive scenarios. Within the game, players work together to battle monsters whilst also advancing their own individual goals, as they progress through a series of adventures unlocking new content as they go. The game has an individualist element to it, inviting players to create their own story. It can also be played Solo. Gloomhaven is designed by Isaac Childres and published by Cephalofair Games.
Despite owning the game since it was first released in 2017, we only started playing at the end of October last year. As we are currently restricted in what we can do in the outside world due to Pandemic, we have been able to complete a couple of scenarios each weekend. We have enjoyed the varied scenarios and characters, I particularly have enjoyed building up my characters abilities and equipping them with new items. Tony managed to retire his first character (Cragheart) just before Christmas, moving on to his new Brute Character (imaginatively called Toe-Nee). Feeling jealous, I became determined to complete my characters personal quest so that I also could have the experience of retiring and playing with a new character. However, you don’t need to ‘retire’ a character, in order to create and play as another character, this is a great way to test out and discover your favourite.
I really enjoyed my first Tinkerer character. Initially when we started playing I found that I was hanging back, allowing Tony’s Cragheart character to concentrate on attacking. Whilst I supported with healing actions and smaller ranged attacks, as well as collecting coins and treasure. However, over time my Tinkerer gained stronger action cards from leveling up, became equipped with some complementary items and had built a strong Attack Modifier deck from ‘perks’. He soon became more able to hold his own, and there were a number of occasions he led us to victory after his Cragheart missionary team mate.had become exhausted. This also meant that once the Cragheart companion retired, my Tinkerer was able to take on more, whilst Toe-Nee the Brute was trying to find his feet!
This weekend, we completed the ‘Find the cure’ scenario which allowed my Tinkerer to retire, I have now created a new Spellweaver character (Niamharya), I am itching to start the next campaign with her, try out the new cards and develop a new play strategy!
Warning - Gloomhaven is a very captivating and gripping game! You may find yourself craving your next campaign, planning strategies, and daydreaming of quitting work to just immerse yourself in the world of Gloomhaven! When you start referring to yourself and teammates by your character names, you know it's time to take a break!
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After a year of staying home and playing board games, like us, a lot of you will be looking for some new and fresh games to add to your collection or anticipating the arrival of those Kickstarter games that may have been delayed! Here are a few of the Kickstarters and new games that we are looking forward to in 2021!
We are particularly looking forward to this sequel to Gloomhaven. We backed Frosthaven on kickstarter prior to actually playing Gloomhaven, a potentially risky investment I know! But luckily and predictably we have really enjoyed the co-operative epic adventure campaigns of the game. With Gloomhaven, there are definitely enough varied scenarios, characters and gameplay elements to ensure that the game does not become stagnant or repetitive, therefore with Frosthaven we are hoping for another 100 hours of varied and engrossing game play!
Frosthaven is a stand alone campaign within the Gloomhaven world, with the same gameplay but introduces some new aspects including resource gathering and town building. All characters from Gloomhaven and Gloomhaven expansions can be played in Frosthaven.
One big change between the two games, that we are particularly looking forward to, will be the scenario book. Instead of the contents and environment of the scenarios being visible from the start, as with the Gloomhaven, the Frosthaven scenario book will reveal less details at the start of the scenario. The details of the monsters and obstacles within a particular room only being revealed as the new door is opened, creating an unknown quantity to the adventure.
If you did back Frosthaven on Kickstarter, then the game is due to start being delivered to backers in July 2021. Frosthaven is also available for Pre-Order on Kickstarter.
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/frosthaven/frosthaven
This strategy board game in which factions fight for world domination and to end Tsukuyumi’s (A Dragon God imprisoned in the moon) influence, was originally released as a standee only game. This new publication by Grey Fox games, includes detailed miniatures and token upgrades.
The game has an elaborate and engaging backstory. Following the moon, containing the trapped Tsukuyumi, crashing to earth causing the mutation and evolvement of the creatures of Earth and with humanity in decline, the factions of new races fight for control. Each player uses their faction's unique strengths and abilities to gain dominance over earth and fulfill their faction's individual goals in the post apocalyptic struggle.
The game was originally designed for 3-5 players, however a 2 Player mode was later added, which is different from the regular game as the standard scoring is replaced by a faction specific scoring scheme. Each player therefore focuses on reaching their own highest score points by fulfilling score requests, whilst trying to prevent their opponent from fulfilling their score requests. The selection of both factions remains essential, as with the 3+ player game.
This is a game that we have long anticipated, having backed it on Kickstarter back in early 2019, and we are sure it will be worth the wait! Although, to be honest, I am mainly just excited about the faction of evolved Whales! The miniatures look awesome!
(The ‘Lords of the lost sea’ faction is included in the expansion).
Following a year delay, the games is due to be shipped to backers in February 2021 and is also available for Pre-order on Kickstarter.
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ragnarocks/tsukuyumi-full-moon-down
Oath: Chronicles of the Empire and Exile is described as an innovative strategy game, where 1-6 players influence the course of history in an ancient land. Over the course of the game, players interact, develop and seek control over a shared tableau that represents the lands.
The majority of players begin the game as Exiles, powerful figures living on the edge of polite society. An Exiled player can win the game by directly challenging the Chancellor's power or by attempting to fulfill a ‘new Vision’. Whereas the Chancellor player wins the game by maintaining their control of the empire. They may choose to make offers of citizenship to one or more Exiles, these new citizens will help the Chancellor maintain control, but the Chancellor will need to be careful, as citizens may also pose a threat to the Chancellor's power.
It's an intriguing game as the consequences of one game impacts future game play, such as changing the availability of certain resources and actions for future players or by altering the game’s core victory conditions. This is likely to add to the games replayability and keep things interesting.
Copies of the game are due to be shipped to Kickstarter backers January 2021, with the game due for retail release in Spring 2021.
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/2074786394/oath-chronicles-of-empire-and-exile
Darwin's Journey is a euro style worker placement game, for 1-4 players, in which you follow Darwin's famous adventures in the Galapagos islands. Players study the disciplines such as exploration, correspondence, and discovering specimens in order to contribute to scientific knowledge of biology and complete their own individual short & long-term objectives.
The base game comes with all the unlocked stretch goals, which includes a digital soundtrack to the game and unique illustrations for the special actions. The collectors edition comes with upgraded coin, tokens and components, as well as the Fireland expansion and the unlocked collector's Edition stretch goals.
Currently available for late pledges on kickstarter with estimated shipping November 2021.
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/gonab/darwins-journey
Flourish is a quick to learn and quick to play card drafting game in which players create their own beautiful and tranquil gardens. Flourish can be played with up to 7 players, but additional players does not add to the play time of approximately 20mins. Flourish can be played competitively or cooperatively, as well as solo, which adds variety to the game play.
Flourish looks to be a great 'quickie' game, with enough depth for avid board gamers and great to play with new or non board gamers. The passing and placing nature of this card game, suggests that it would work well as a party game for those that want something more than your usual 'make the best offensive sentence' type card game.
The artwork is also very beautiful, i would not expect anything less from the creators of Everdell.
The signature edition, which comes with the Friends & Follies expansions, is currently available on Kickstarter for late pledge and is due to be shipped March 2021. In addition, Tabletop Tycoon will donate a game to Toys for Tots for each game sold through this campaign.
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/starlinggames/flourish-signature-edition
Let us know in the comments section, which games you are most looking forward to in 2021!
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New Year is a time for reviewing the past year and making new resolutions for the year ahead. It has been a hard year for a lot of people and we wanted to say Thank you to all of you for supporting our shop during this difficult time.
Here, at Meeple Design we have some exciting plans for the year ahead, including expanding our online store with new product ranges and designs, so keep an eye out for these on the store.
Our New Year Goals: Tony and I have also been thinking about our own personal board game related goals for 2021. My ‘New Year's resolution’ is to ensure that we end 2021 with no unplayed board games in our collection.
I am sure we are not the only board game fans, who find themselves adding more board games to their collection whilst still having some unplayed games. 2020 gave us the opportunity to play a lot of new games from our collection, as well as replaying others.
This year I am determined to play those few ‘New’ games left unplayed, this includes; The 7th Continent, The City of Kings, Dinosaur Island - Totally liquid expansion, Ghost Stores - The black secret expansion, and Kingdom Death Monster (Although this is reliant on Tony finding time to construct the figures!).
This list will also expand, as it does not yet include the games we backed on Kickstarter that we have arriving this year! Expect some reviews later in the year!
Tony’s New Years resolution is simply to play more board games!
The Meeple Design website has almost been live for a year now and during that time we have been focussed on our designs but are also finding time to update our blog with more regularity. We thought it was about time we started our obligatory favourite board game post. It should give an idea about our thought process behind buying new board games, I will admit that sometimes we like something shiny, and hopefully a bit of insight into why we started Meeple Design.
Second on my list in Brass: Lancashire!
]]>It is difficult to pick my favourite 5 games, as there are so many that I enjoy playing and a few that I need to play more of before I can confidently say they are among my favourite games. The 5 games that I have picked are partly because they play well with 2 players and I play most often with 2 players, even pre-pandemic. It is quite clear from the 5 games that I have picked that I am a big fan of euro style games.
In order to provide a bit more detail about each game and why I like it, I will be publishing an article for each game. They are in no particular order as it was difficult enough to narrow down to only 5 games. My top 5 games are:
We backed the Kickstarter of the Brass reprint and have Brass Lancashire & Birmingham. Lancashire is currently my favourite of the 2 purely because my wife and I have not yet played Birmingham. Before backing the game, I watched a Shut Up & Sit Down review of the original Brass. My impression from watching the review was, that they seemed to enjoy the game, but found it very dry and could be seen as somewhat boring. So..... seemed like the perfect game for my wife and I. On top of this, the Kickstarter reprints were deluxe editions featuring new artwork with poker chip style money.
The game is set during the industrial revolution with gamers playing as cotton entrepreneurs vying to establish their various industries and delivery network. Like most good Euro Games the winner is the player who gains the most victory points during the course of the game. Each turn, players take 2 actions achieved by playing cards from their hand. The cards available list locations on the board or a specific industry which allow the player to choose 1 of 5 actions. These options are; laying an industry tile, building a delivery link, developing one of the industry tiles already placed, selling cotton or taking out a loan.
What makes Brass: Lancashire unique is creating the delivery links. These are important as you can only build new industries on locations which you have a link to. Furthermore to build certain industries you need coal, available from coal mines that have been placed on the board, and in order to use required coal from mines there must be a link from the mine to the spot that you want to build an industry. The route does not have to be made solely of your colour links, this adds an additional layer of strategy trying to determine where your opponent will place their links, in order for you to optimise your turns and money. The resources available from iron works and coal mines is also unique, at least compared to other games I have played. The resources on these locations are limited, any player with a link to coal mines can use the coal and in the case of iron you can use any iron that is available, which provides 2 key points to consider; do you need the resources to construct other industries and once the resources are used you can flip the tile which provides you points at the end of the game so maybe you want other people to use the resources so you can flip the tile. The final point to consider when using actions to place links, once the first deck of cards has been used that triggers the end of canal era and all the canal links are removed from the board. The game then moves onto the next stage, progressing from canal to railway links. Railway links work much in the same way as canals except they are more expensive to place, you can place 2 in one turn and,or obvious reasons, you can not place them in canal spaces
As an action, you can take out loans, which in Brass you most certainly will need to and the timing of taking this action is extremely important. Loans are either 10, 20 or 30 which reduces your income by 1, 2 or 3. Later on in the game it is more difficult to increase your income level therefore it can be wise to take an earlier hit on your income in exchange for money to build your industry. There is also opportunity to sell cotton, which can trigger the flipping of the cotton factory tile to create a Port, which can grant your opponents points. Alternatively, if there are no ports or only opponents ports to sell to, you can instead sell to the ‘distant cotton market’ which adds a risk/ reward element giving only you points but can also mean you are unable to sell the cotton at all, and therefore unable to flip your own cotton factory.
One of the elements that makes Brass: Lancashire one of my favourite games, is the relatively simple ruleset. There isn't a deck of unique cards, there aren’t 101 different rules & sub rules but there are difficult decisions that you have to make on every turn based on a relatively simple rule set. This can lead to analysis paralysis for some people so if you prefer easier going games or don’t enjoy playing with people who suffer from AP then the game isn’t for you. I also agree with the review I mentioned earlier from Shutup & Sit Down that the game is dry both theoretically and the fact it is a heavy economic style game. With the theme of the Industrial Revolution, it is a game that some may consider boring. However, I consider it to be an almost perfect game deserved of a place in my top 5 favourite games. My wife and I will play Brass: Birmingham soon and maybe that will displace Lancashire on this list or maybe we will look both equally for different reasons. Either way I will post my thoughts as soon as I get an opportunity to play it.
As fans of Brass in general we have created our own Meeple Design travel style and silhouette posters to decorate your gaming space with as well as unique apparel designs. All of which are available exclusively from Meeple Design - check them out here.
**Our blog is supported by fans of Meeple Design. If you buy through a link, we may earn an affiliate commission.**
]]>At Meeple Design we are playing Board Games every week. We like to provide our weekly game reports, which we record on ScorePal, with thoughts to help you make decisions about what games may be suitable for you and so you can see how our opinion develops over time. Check out our Instagram where we post pictures of the games set up to get a better idea of how the components and art look.
This week we played BANG! The Dice Game, Downforce, Flow of History, Century: Golem Edition, Roll Player and Sushi Go Party!
]]>Time for our weekly gaming report and this week we played 6 games, all at 4 players (that's right, we do have friends)! Compared to the usual weekly posts, I won’t go into as much detail about each game as there are a few to get through and some we have covered before.
Original BANG! was a card game, which I have not played it and probably never will as I have heard from several sources that the dice game is better than the card version. It's a straightforward yahtzee style dice game which is great for big groups as it plays from 3 to 8. Every player is one of 4 hidden roles either Sheriff (who reveals themselves at the start of the game), deputy, renegade and outlaws with each role having their own specific goal to win the game. The more players the more hidden roles and the better the game. Once you die you are out of the game, but its not a long play so player elimination is not a huge issue in this game. You role each of your 5 dice up to 3 times with each side performing a different function such as attacking other players or restoring health. It’s a fun game which we played 3 times and I was able to win once as the outlaw. This is also a great game to play with non/new gamers, as it easy to pick up and is quick to play!
Downforce is from Restoration Games, who are great! They take popular older games where the mechanics, components of the game or both haven’t aged particularly well and revitalise them for a modern board game audience. Downforce is a racing and betting game where the game is divided up into 3 parts; firstly, the auction where you are bidding on cars & powers which will be your car during the race, the race itself where you play cards from your hand to move your car & opponents cars and lastly, the race with 3 betting stages. The game can be cut throat but you can bet on other players' cars so although it definitely helps your final score if your car/s can win the race it doesn’t mean you're out of the game if you get stuck at the back of the pack.
You can play with up to 6 players and I think at any player count from 3+ it works great, even with 2 players it is fun but it isn’t quite as hectic and it’s easier to lose badly. We played 2 games and I lost 1 & won 1. In terms of strategy, all you can do is make sure you remember to use your power as it can make a difference, use your best cards at the right time and remember that sometimes it's beneficial to your final score if your opponent finishes higher up.
This is a 3 to 5 player game, although there are rules for a 2 player variant included but they seem tacked on rather than the optimum way to play. It is a bidding game where you add resources underneath a card as your bid (Invest) or you can pay the number of resources that another player has placed under a card to buy (Snipe) that card. In doing so you pay the number of resources directly to the player, add their bid to the supply and then that player takes half of the resources in the supply. If it makes it back to your turn and nobody has 'sniped' the card from you, then you can complete your bid to take the card. These cards can provide you additional resources or actions and get added to your tableau to form your nation. There are 5 ages of cards to work your way through which represents the ‘Flow of History’. The mechanic is good and works well but to me feels like part of a larger game and would work well as a way to buy new cards into your hand. The theme is interesting although many themes could be applied to this mechanic and it would still work. Arguably the theme could have been slightly more bombastic which could have made the game more engaging. It isn’t a bad game but I feel it will be difficult to get to the table when we don’t often play with 3 or more players so when we do there are other games we would prefer to play.
I came last with 20 points to the winners 25 so not a devastating loss, although usually only 1 player finishes higher than me when I play games.
We included a basic overview of Century in another post so won’t go into it in detail again. There isn’t a huge difference to the game with 4 players except that you play until someone gets 5 point cards rather than 6 and it can be more difficult to get the gem & point cards that you need so you have to be more aware of what the other players are doing. It works just as well with 2 as it does with 4 and the game is so quick it doesn’t seem to slow down at higher player counts.
We played 1 game and the score was 80, 65 (to me), 61 and 59 so it was close between everyone that finished 2nd to 4th. The people we played with enjoyed it so much that they ordered their own copy!
If you do not like maths then don’t play Roll Player. The basic concept of the game is that you are creating your RPG/ D&D character. To simplify the game, you do this by rolling dice and adding them to your character board. At the beginning of the game several aspects of your character such as race and class are randomised. These aspects determine what score you need each stat to be to score points, which colour dice you need on each spot on your board and whether being good, evil or a bit of both will get you more points. Throughout the game you are placing dice on your board, taking special actions associated with placing dice on the attribute and buying cars from the market which modify dice, give you skills or provide new ways to score points. It is a dice heavy game with a focus predominantly on what you are doing rather than your opponent as the main ways you can interact with your opponent is by buying a card or taking a dice you think that they might want.
We played 1 game in which the score was 35, 27, 26 (to me) and 23. Winning or losing is determined by making effective use of your attribute skills, buying the right cards which support your character skill and recognising early which attributes you won’t be able to match so you can work to mitigate the loss of points. Unfortunately I failed to achieve either of these 3 points particularly well as I focused too much on my character skill and then brought cards to mitigate attributes I was unable to match then forgot about them so wasted actions. This is a favorite of my wifes so I am sure I will have a chance to improve at it.... and probably lose more games to her!
There is Sushi Go then there is Sushi Go Party! If you do not already have the game then get Sushi Go Party! It takes everything good from the first game, namely the simple & fun card drafting mechanic, and adds more cards and a board making it even better. The whole game is based around card drafting, in Sushi Go you start with 9 cards then you take 1 and pass the rest on to the player on your left. Keep doing this until you have 9 cards in front of you. The cards score points in various different ways such as by collecting sets, scoring x number of points outright or finishing with the highest of a certain type of card. It is quick so you can change up the sets of cards in between games and easily play 3 or more games in an hour.
We played 9 games of which I won 2, although we did get rules slightly wrong in the first game…...which I am still counting as a win. There is some luck in the game as it depends on which cards come up and how well you do is impacted by what your opponent decides to pick, however for such as quick game you do also need to think strategically and be aware of what sets of cards you are playing with, for instance if there are several set collection cards, then focus on 1 set rather than trying to get sets of every card type. We don’t currently have this game in our collection however if you are a fan of card drafting or want to learn more about the game mechanic I would recommend purchasing this game……..and not the standard game, get Sushi Go Party!
Let us know in the comments if you have any tips for us and your opinion on the games we played.
**Our blog is supported by fans of Meeple Design. If you buy through a link, we may earn an affiliate commission.**
The Meeple Design website has almost been live for a year now and during that time we have been focussed on our designs but are also finding time to update our blog with more regularity. We thought it was about time we started our obligatory favourite board game post. It should give an idea about our thought process behind buying new board games, I will admit that sometimes we like something shiny, and hopefully a bit of insight into why we started Meeple Design.
First on my list in Terraforming Mars!
]]>It is difficult to pick my favourite 5 games, as there are so many that I enjoy playing and a few that I need to play more of before I can confidently say they are among my favourite games. The 5 games that I have picked are partly because they play well with 2 players and I play most often with 2 players, even pre-pandemic. It is quite clear from the 5 games that I have picked that I am a big fan of euro style games.
In order to provide a bit more detail about each game and why I like it, I will be publishing an article for each game. They are in no particular order as it was difficult enough to narrow down to only 5 games. My top 5 games are:
There are 4 phases each round; 1) player turn order changes 2) draw new cards into your hand 3) take actions by playing cards, converting resources, claiming game end point objectives or using cards in your tableau 4) gather resources based on your production and terraform rating. One of the reasons I enjoy the game so much is that the phases are fairly straightforward to pick up but the complexity is in the cards. Every card in the game is unique with a wide range of effects and you need to ensure that you are creating effective synergies in the cards you choose to keep and play. In phase 2 every card you choose to keep costs you credits, there aren’t many games that I have played that make you consider whether you even want to keep a card in your hand, let alone then paying the cost to use it. If you get a great card early on that is expensive to play, do you keep it knowing that it will be a while before you can play ?! But there is no use playing that expensive card if it doesn’t work well with cards that you have already played. Terraforming Mars is a slow burn game where in early turns you aren’t actually able to do that much but as you progress and build your resources, you feel as if you are able to take epic turns where you can perform all kinds of crazy combinations. It is also a rare game in that you feel like you are able to take several turns where your engine is in full flow, in a lot of other euro games I find that the game ends just as your engine is getting started.
As with every game there are always some negatives and I would be remiss not to point them out, even in the games that I love. Terraforming Mars is an expensive game, but the components do not reflect the cost of the game. The player boards are used to store resources and track your production values of each resource however they are made if flimsy cardboard and unfortunately do not do a good job of tracking production values as they markers are easily knocked. There are cubes to denote different values of resources which look great but unfortunately the paint on the cubes easily scratches off. The card stock quality is not great, although there are a lot of cards, the artwork on the cards is inconsistent. Nevertheless, I am personally a fan of the artwork used but it is a mixture of drawn artwork and seemingly stock pictures easily found on the internet. There was a recent Kickstarter with deluxe components and there are shops on Etsy that you can purchase some good game upgrades from, such as player board overlays. We will be adding an article for our favourite board games with the our recommended game upgrade purchases so watch out for that. However, overall I would say the quality of the game play more than makes up for the component quality and I have no problem spending a bit extra money on Terraforming Mars.
Finally, there are many expansions available for Terraforming Mars. Some change the board, add sideboards with extra rules or additional cards/ corporations. The only expansion I currently own is Prelude which adds additional corporations and speeds up the start of the game, giving everyone a unique bonus at the beginning of the game, essentially removing the early engine building aspect. I have not played with the expansion yet but heard it speeds up the game due to the removal of the initial engine building aspect.
As fans of Terraforming Mars and Sci-Fi in general we have created our own MeepleDesign travel style and silhouette posters to decorate your gaming space with as well as unique apparel designs. All of which are available exclusively from Meeple Design - check them out here.
**Our blog is supported by fans of Meeple Design. If you buy through a link, we may earn an affiliate commission.**
]]>At Meeple Design we are playing Board Games every week. We like to provide our weekly game reports, which we record on ScorePal, with thoughts to help you make decisions about what games may be suitable for you and so you can see how our opinion develops over time. Check out our Instagram where we post pictures of the games set up to get a better idea of how the components and art look.
This weeks it's Imperial Settlers and Race for the Galaxy.
]]>Imperial Settlers was a Christmas present from my wife which was one of the earlier board games we purchased. It has always been a favourite of mine as; the rules are straightforward, there is a lot of choice and the components are very good quality, especially the different resource pieces. The game is a card game where each player is setting up their newly formed town and it works really well with 2 players. With the base game there are 4 different factions (Romans, Barbarians, Egyptians and Japanese) and there are of course expansions which provide additional faction base cards, as well as new factions to add to the game. We do not own any of the expansions and are still finding the base cards interesting.
The game lasts 5 rounds and there are 4 phases each round. Phase 1 is drawing new cards, phase 2 is collecting your resources (generated from your faction deck and production cards on your tableau), phase 3 is the action phase and phase 4 is the clean up for the next round. In the action phase you can spend resources or workers on various things such as placing a card in your tableau, activate action cards in your tableau, gaining new resources and attacking other players. The rounds play quickly with each player having unique cards and actions to perform based on the faction they are playing as.
Although this is one of my favourite games that does not mean that I win with any regularity. As with most games we play, my wife definitely has the higher win percentage. However I have played as the Barbarians several times and am starting to learn how they play. The strategy which has been successful for me is to focus on producing workers, building cheap faction cards and razing the cards in my hand for the resources I need. You can use the workers and card actions to gain new cards for placing in your tableau or razing. Using this tactic I won the game 65 points to 54 victory points.
Despite having brought many new games since we first played Imperial Settlers we still play it quite a lot. This is partly due to us both knowing the rules almost off by heart but for the short game time there is also a lot of tactical choice for a game with a small amount of components. Like a lot of our games we have only played 2 players and I could not imagine that it is better at a higher player count. This game will continue to get play time and, in the future, we might even get some of the new factions.
As it is one of our favourite games we also released a poster design inspired by the board game which is available now from our store.
Race for the Galaxy is a hugely popular card game where, like Imperial Settlers, you are building up your tableau in front of you. This time with planets and scientific developments. I love this game but, considering it is not much more than a deck of cards, it is overwhelming on the first play.
The game lasts around 7 to 11 rounds and each round consists of 1 or 2 actions, although there are advanced rules for 2 players which we have not yet tried. The actions taken are determined by the players who each have a hand of 7 identical action cards and at the start of the round you place an action card face down. You reveal the cards and these are the action or actions that both players take during the turn. There is a basic action that both players perform and a bonus action that only the player who played the card performs. In the game there are 5 actions but 2 of the actions have 2 different bonus actions hence why there are 7 cards in total. Cards are only used in 3 ways, either as a resource which are put face down on your production cards, to pay to place cards into your tableau or to place into your tableau. This is where it can get complicated as each card in your tableau can provide additional benefits to taking particular actions and there is a lot of iconography which explains what the additional actions/ benefits are. Once you get used to the iconography it isn’t too complicated but the first few games can be a slight visual overload. I have heard the dice version, Roll for the Galaxy, does simplify the iconography a bit but I like the card version so might not try the dice version for a while.
In a way this game reminds me of quicker Terraforming Mars, which is in my top 5 games of all time, as the game is heavy card based with the cards having a big impact on the actions you can take during your turn. Although there is no board in Race for the Galaxy and the game end conditions are more straightforward. The game end is triggered by a player having 12 cards in their tableau or when all the victory point tokens are gone, of which there are 12 per player.
I have yet to win at Race for the Galaxy and lost our most recent game 39 points to 24 points. To be honest I can’t really comment where I went wrong as part of the game is learning the different cards and what combinations could work together so that you can improve in future games. Although I don’t think I focussed heavily on one particular strategy as I had a card in my tableau which provided end game point scoring which I didn’t make heavy use of and I had production planets which I never really fully utilised. This is another game which I have heard works better with 2 players as it plays much quicker than at higher player counts and much like Imperial Settlers I can understand as it feels like a head to head game, similar to a TCG. This is another game that I am sure will appear again in our weekly play reports in the near future.
Check out our poster design inspired by Race for the Galaxy which is available now from our store.
Let us know in the comments if you have any tips for us and your opinion on the games we played.
**Our blog is supported by fans of Meeple Design. If you buy through a link, we may earn an affiliate commission.**
At Meeple Design we are playing Board Games every week. We like to provide our weekly game reports, which we record on ScorePal, with thoughts to help you make decisions about what games may be suitable for you and so you can see how our opinion develops over time. Check out our Instagram where we post pictures of the games set up to get a better idea of how the components and art look.
This weeks its Altiplano and Lord of the Rings The Hunt For The Ring.
]]>We didn’t release a play report last week as we were too tired to play Board Games, it does happen sometimes. Although we did play a couple of games of Love Letter, which is often our go to quick game that we like to play.
Altiplano is a worker placement bag building game which is predominantly focused on point scoring by building up resources. The unique worker placement in this game is that the board is made up of different locations randomly laid down in a circle. Each player has one worker and has to move them to a location to use its action and moving costs resources. It introduces an additional element that you need to optimise your resources and placement to make sure you can get to the different locations in that turn.
I have only played this at the 2 player count with my wife and we have played more than the 2 games that we have recorded on ScorePal. This is one of the few games we own that I consistently win at so obviously it is a favourite of mine. Nevertheless, my wife still enjoys this game, in part due to her determination to one day win. The game is mainly about deciding early one what you want to work towards, partly determined by missions which earn you a considerable amount of points during end game scoring and optimising your actions & resources to achieve your key goals. The bag building element does bring a tactical element to the game as you need to be flexible and adjust your plans as you go, but in general this game doesn’t favour players who aim to achieve multiple point scoring opportunities. Also, I feel that most of the actions you take will score you the majority of your points in the last couple of turns.
I managed to maintain my win record in Altiplano winning 100 to 77 points with this game being much closer than when we have played previously. Which does make me think that I am going to lose at this sooner rather than later…..maybe we won’t play it for a while. Overall the game is a favourite of ours as it focuses on building up resources, has the fun bag building element to it and isn’t confrontational, actually it doesn’t have much player interaction at all with 2 players. However I couldn’t imagine enjoying it as much with more than 2 players as it would slow the game down slightly and part of what we like is the fact that, despite being quite complex, it is still a fast paced game. We won’t have a chance to play with more than 2 players for a while but users on board game geek voted the best player count is 3 so maybe one day we’ll try it.
We brought this game when we attended Tabletop Gaming Live in London in 2018 and to our shame it has been sitting on our shelf since then. It was our first play but technically we didn’t play a full game of it as it is made up of 2 parts. The first part of the game impacts how the game starts in the second game. Each game has a different set of rules and as it is quite a complex game we only had time to learn the rules for the first half of the game.
This game is a hidden movement game where one player controls the fellowship aiming to get Frodo to Mordor across the 2 games and the other player controls the Nazgul trying to stop Frodo. In part 1 the player controls Frodo directly secretly planning out their route to 1 of the 3 possible exit points, within 16 moves. The main reason the rules take time to grasp is due to both players having different goals and turn structures. Once you learn the rules it is actually quite straightforward. The player controlling Frodo plans their route out and can play ally cards on their turn whereas the player(s) controlling the 4 Nazgul move the pieces on the board and use dice to take different actions. Playing as Frodo is unique due to the hidden movement and really the mechanic that makes the Nazgul turns interesting is the dice pool that you use for actions. The dice have to last three turns before they are rerolled and as their are 6 dice with a total of 12 Nazgul moves you need to use them at the right moments.
I comfortably lost the game to my wife, who got Frodo safely to Bree without me ever having any real idea of where Frodo was during the game. My main mistake was forgetting that the Nazgul could perform a free search action every turn that didn’t require using a dice. If I had used the search actions then I have no doubt that I will still have lost as hidden movement games are definitely not my forte. Although maybe the loss would have been less severe. We are both looking forward to playing again and are aiming to play part 1 & 2 on the same day. It's worth noting that there is an option to save your state of play at the end of game 1 so you don’t have to play both games in one go but we choose not to do that as it was our learning match.
Let us know in the comments if you have any tips for us and your opinion on the games we played.
Game Played: Architects of the West Kingdom
Player Count: 2
Number of plays recorded on ScorePal: 2
We brought this on holiday last year from a fantastic board game shop in San Francisco called Gamescape. Despite owning it for over a year this was only our second play of the game. Architects of the West Kingdom is a worker placement game set in medieval times where you take on the role of a royal architect tasked with constructing landmarks. The winner is the player with the most Victory Points at the end of the game. It focuses on resource collection, with variable powers based on your starting player and various apprentice cards you can recruit throughout the game which grant you new actions or passive abilities. You can also uniquely impact your end game scoring through the various buildings you construct.
The rules are quite simple, however it is a complex game with a lot of choices including, the different abilities you can gain, various ways to score points and the 'virtue' track, which can impact your actions during the game and your victory points at the end based on your position on the track. There is also an interesting mechanic whereby you can capture the opponents workers and then place them in prison, to gain additional resources and restrict your opponents available amount of workers until they use actions and resources to get them back. This is perfect for our play style as it introduces an element of player interaction without that being the main focus of the game.
I managed to stop my losing streak against my wife by winning 46 points to 38. We finished the game equal in almost all areas of end game scoring but what gave me the win was that I finished at the top of the virtue track gaining me 7 points compared to my wife who, as I suspected, lacks virtue losing 3 points at the end of the game. Hopefully we can get this game to the table again so I can get another win.
After my crushing defeat last week we decided to get this one straight back to the table. In this game I took control of the wicked Maleficent while my wife took control of the deceitful Jafar. The rules remain unchanged regardless of the character you control, however each character has cards that are unique to them which generally impacts or is directly linked to their game winning objective. For example Maleficent can play curses to locations on her board which have powerful effects but different actions in the game can cause them to be discarded and to win the game Maleficent must have 1 curse in each location. These differences change the game just enough for it to be interesting on each play.
This weekend's game was much closer between us both and on various occasions we each thought we were on the verge of winning only for it to be prevented on our opponents turn. In the end the deceitful overcame the wicked and my wife had racked up another victory.
Fireball Island was published by Restoration Games who revitalise popular older games. This started as a dice rolling game with the main feature being the Vul-Car in the middle of the board which spews marbles out. The Restoration Games version has been modernised replacing the dice rolling with card play, adding more ways to win/ score points and adding more marbles which make everything better. Despite being modernised it is still a simple and light game to play which is exactly why we played it on Sunday as we didn’t want to play anything to long or heavy.
We have played with 5 players before and I would definitely recommend the game with higher player counts. It is still interesting with 2 players as there are additional rules, one of which is each player controls 2 characters. This ensures there are still targets to aim at and adds an extra element of danger as you don’t want to hit either of your characters.
At the beginning of the game you are dropped off by helicopter onto the Island. During the game you travel around the Island collecting treasure and trying to avoid being hit by fireballs (Marbles). Once a player collects the required amount of snapshot cards and returned to the helicopter landing spot, the helicopter returns and all players have two more turns to get back to the helicopter and receive an additional reward. I missed a scoring rule which meant that I didn't try to make it back to the helicopter at the end. If you don’t make it back to the helicopter then you don’t gain points from collected snapshots that you gain as you’re moving around the island. As a result of this oversight I lost.... again, 66 points to 45 points. Fireball Island is a fun game and a good way to end a weekend of board games.
If you like Fireball Island: The Curse of Vul-Kar check out our Poster inspired by this amazing game.
Let us know in the comments if you have any tips for us and your opinion on the games we played.
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We backed Path of Light and Shadow on Kickstarter in 2018 when our games collection was still relatively small. It's an area control game with a focus on deck building. You only have one 'hero' on the board and the area or 'realm' they are in indicates which deck you can take cards from & also the area that you can try to take control of. The deck building aspect combines with a tech tree that each player has and your deck of cards represents the warriors & workers in your kingdom. Throughout the game you can upgrade structures on your tech tree and upgrade or 'promote' the cards in your deck both of which you need to play cards to do. In the game you score by upgrading cards & structures and by controlling areas on the board.
During the game I followed an upgrade heavy route building new structures, that at level 4 provide additional end of game scoring, and upgrading cards for the abilities and end of scoring points. Only conquering the areas that I felt I needed to score some points and stop my wife from dominating the board. My wife followed a conquer heavy path only upgrading her cards and structures that she felt would help conquer more areas.
The game finished with another loss for me, I scored 147 points and my wife 227. We generally play games with a small amount of interaction where we are focused on building our own engine during the game and that is how I played this game as well. That strategy does not work at all as you need to be reacting to your opponent conquer actions more regularly and for me, I need to adopt a more confrontational play style than I usually would.
Overall this is probably my favourite deck building game I own as I love how the deck building impacts the board state, whereas a game like Dominion is completely focused on the deck building aspect. Although this is only my third play my only potential criticism of the game is that it is not very interesting to see what another person does on their turn and with 2 players this is fine but with 3 or 4 I wonder if the downtime would be a bit too much? Not that it matters for a while as we are only going to be playing max 2 players for the foreseeable future.
I would really recommend this game but unfortunately the game only had 1 print run which has made it difficult to pick up at a reasonable price and will likely mean that as time passes it will get even harder to find a copy. I hope there is a Kickstarter reprint of this in the future as more people should play it and it deserves an expansion.
Villainous is a Disney game where, as the name suggests, you control the villain. This was actually our 3rd play of this game although only the first time we have recorded it. Despite the fact that each villain has their own game ending objective, the game is quite simple and light so a nice easy game to play on a Sunday. I played as Ursula and my wife as the Queen of Hearts.
It is partly luck based as the speed at which you can win is dependent on the drawing the right cards but with 3 different spaces to choose from on your turn, each with 2 to 4 actions per space, you obviously need to make sure you are choosing the right actions to take on your turn. In this game I started with almost perfect cards however my wife used the 'fate' action to add heroes to my board from almost her first turn. Having heroes on your board covers the top 2 actions in an area, meaning you can only use the bottom 2 actions on that space. This limited what I could do for the whole game and for the 4th game in a row I eventually lost.
A previous match we have played lasted over an hour and this is when Villainous overstays its welcome as you are performing similar actions every turn and stop feeling a sense of progression that you would have with other heavier games. It becomes more of a grind about who will get the cards they need first to win the match. This match lasted less than 30 minutes which is when the game shines and you end wanting to play another game. Although following from this devastating defeat we decided to stop and watch some Stranger Things instead.
Let us know in the comments if you have any tips for us (or me as I lost both games) and your opinion on the games we played.
Follow us on Instagram @meepledesign for more images of our play sessions, of the Board Games set up and we post information about any competitions we are running.
We hope you enjoy these weekly reports and, unfortunately for me, I have a feeling that it will just show how often my wife beats me at games.
This is a new edition to our collection as I bought it as a Birthday present for my wife. We played this with a friend last year and my wife loved it. There are 2 different versions of the game, Golem edition & Spice Road. The game is great but for us it's the artwork of the Golem edition which makes it super interesting.
The rules for the game are explain on one double sided sheet, so is quick and easy to learn, with the aim of the game being to use crystals to gain the point scoring cards and coins. You generate crystals in the game by playing cards to harvest or trade crystals. There are 4 actions you can choose from to perform on your turn; to play a card to gain crystals, purchase a points card, take a new card into your hand or 'rest' place the cards you have played back into your hand. It really is a simple game to play and explain the rules too which makes it a great entry level game for non gamers. Despite it being a good entry level game it is still a fulfilling gaming experience and the set up allows for varied game play.
During our most recent game, I felt I was winning throughout the game however on reflection I think I spent too many turns in the beginning gaining new cards into my hand and some of these I did not end up using. Also, although there is no hidden information, towards the end I did not pay attention to the crystals that my opponent had and I ended up missing out on a high points card. We ended the game level with 88 points each but tie breakers are won by the last person who took a turn, which was my wife, so I lost. So far I have yet to win against my wife at this game, but I will persevere!
Great Western Trail has been in our collection for a number of years now but haven’t recorded all of our plays on ScorePal. We bought this as we are big fans of point salad eurogames which have lots of different strategies to attaining points. GWT has some great mechanics that interlink really well together and help fit with the theme. The game involves herding your cattle from Texas to Kansas City by moving your cattlemen along the board stopping at buildings to take different actions which include; buying new cattle (deck building), hiring different types of workers, building new buildings to add to the trail or moving your train along the route to Kansas City.
In this recent game, I spent my time buying new cattle types as they earn you victory points at the end of the game and money during the game when you arrive in Kansas City. I am a big fan of optimising my deck in deck building games, which the cattle element of this game is, so I started removing cards from my deck around the midway point of the game so that when I arrived at Kansas City I received more money for having different cattle types in my hand. Unfortunately I spent too much time focusing on this rather than taking other actions that would earn me victory points and this, with some other bade decisions, that contributed to me losing the game. On the board is a worker market with a maker that moves down as you add more workers each time you visit the cattle market, the game end is triggered when adding a worker pushes the token off the bottom of the track. Our game lasted slightly longer as we purposely added fewer workers towards the end which added a couple of extra turns to the game. If I ended the game earlier perhaps I may not have lost by such a large margin as the final score was 173 points to my wife and 131 to me.
If you like Great Western Trail check out our Poster inspired by this amazing game.
Let us know in the comments if you have any tips for us (or me as I lost both games) and your opinion on the games we played.
]]>2-4 players-aimed at aged 14+, play time 3-4 hours
‘The epic conflict between the galactic empire and the rebel alliance’…... And it is epic! This game is a great way to fill your time during the pandemic, as this game can take between 3-4 hours to play. But it is easy to get so engrossed in this fantastical epic space based civil war that you don’t notice the amount of time that has passed. On one side player/s endeavor to take control of the empire and discover the hidden rebel base, by unleashing the galactic empire’s extensive military to wipe out the rebel alliance, through brute force, whilst on the other side the player mounts a full-scale rebellion using guerrilla tactics and sabotage to evade or undermine the opposition. The game allows you to use iconic characters to attempt secret missions to aid your objects.
You get a lot for your money with this game, not only in the length of game play as mentioned, but they manage to squeeze lots of good quality components into the box including over 150 plastic miniatures, as well as cards, markers, custom dice and 2 play boards! Due to all of the components, set up does take a while, along with going through the ‘learn to play' booklet, but once you get going you are well rewarded for your initial patience. The many and differing components and also the two roles, adds some unpredictability and variety, which ensures no game is the same as previous ones, which makes it a great game to play again and again!
1-4 player, aimed at ages 12+, play time 90-120 mins
This is a resource management game set on Mars. Each player controls a corporation and are competing to transform Mars into a habitable planet, through spending resources and using innovative technology. The game play is broken down into 4 phases and allows players to buy and collect project cards, build up production, place cites, oceans, greenery, and reach milestones and awards before your opponents. Through their actions players aim to increase their terraform rating gaining victory points, and once all three global parameters (temperature, oxygen and oceans) are at a level that makes Mars habitable, the game ends!
This game does have a variety of elements, which can make it initially tricky to pick up the rules, but if you have played other resource management games you are likely to pick it up quicker as many of the elements/ phrases will be familiar, but either way once you start playing the reference cards and symbol guide help you learn how to play the game. During our first play through of the game, we found the card drafting of project cards the hardest in relation to deciding which cards to keep before we were familiar with the cards of the game flow, but it was still very enjoyable and soon became a favorite during our second play! One small downside is that it can be tricky to keep your resource cubes in place on the player boards, however there are player mat overlay options available.
Another plus with Terraforming Mars, is that it has a single player variant - so great for those in lockdown on their own or with people who don’t like board games (weirdos).
Also, just in case things go very bad here on earth, you can treat this as practice for terraforming the real Mars if we need to relocate!
1-4 players, Aimed at ages 14+, each scenario can take 2-3 hours.
This is another game that is great at filling time during the pandemic lockdown, as the series of different scenarios provided, create an epic adventure with over 100 hours of game time! Gloomhaven is a cooperative, campaign-driven dungeon crawl board game, with developed characters and extensive scenarios. Within the game, players work together to battle monsters whilst also advancing their own individual goals, as they progress through a series of adventures and unlock new content as they go. The game has an individualist element to it, inviting players to create their own story.
Although this is a very complex and detailed game with a lot of different elements, the comprehensive rule and scenario books teach you how to play as you go, guiding you through playing scenarios, interacting with monsters and using character ability cards. The components of the game are good quality with thoughtful art work, which add to the sense of mystery and adventure and include; 18 character miniatures, books, tokens, cards, tiles, an impressive map board, ‘tuck boxes’ and even stickers!
For those of you who had already started your Gloomhaven adventure but are not living with your teammates, people have successfully played Gloomhaven remotely, using google hangouts, zoom or skype, with the aid of the Gloomhaven helper http://esotericsoftware.com/gloomhaven-helper. There is advice online about managing the logistics, from people who have played in this way!
Gloomhaven also has a solo player mode, so perfect for those living on their own or those that need a little bit of ‘me time’ during lockdown! The big box sequel to Gloomhaven, Frosthaven, having just been funded on Kickstarter becoming the top funded board game on the platform. Once you've finished Gloomhaven you might be able to move straight onto Frosthaven to carry on with this epic adventure.
2-5 players, aimed at ages 12+, play time 60-90 mins
In this game players take on the role of the viruses invading a patient’s organs. Bringing a whimsical and humorous take on this very ‘on point’ topic. Players secretly choose mutation and zone cards and place their viruses, the aim is to gain the most points by competing with opponents to control the zones of the body.
The board, cards and placing pieces are colourful, fun and include appealing art work, all of good quality. The rules initially appear a little overly complex, but actually the game is relatively easy to pick up particularly after the play through of the first round, and the board helpfully includes a visual play guide to remind you of each step.
Within the game, players' choices can really impact each other and create unpredictable events, so you may think you have developed a great strategy and predicted the moves of your opponents, only to find when the cards are revealed, that your plan has been ruined! Extremely frustrating…..but in a fun way! There are also a variety of ‘event cards’ which also gives you something additional to consider each round, keeping it dynamic.
The only slight downside (which my husband finds more annoying than I do!) is the two player variant. If playing with two players there is a 3rd dummy player, which works well, however on the step track on the board there is no reminder of the step one variant, so players need to remember that before selecting their cards, to first draw cards and place the dummy viruses, which is not required in the 3+ players game.
2- 4 players - aimed at ages 14+, play time 60 min
This recommendation, is likely not to be a big surprise as there has been a significant rise in Pandemic board game sales since the lockdowns have begun, so clearly others have had the same idea! There are a variety of Pandemic games, but i have chosen Pandemic Legacy, as i really enjoy the evolving story element of the game. Like the other Pandemic games, Players work together, aided by their individual specialist roles and skills, to fight a pandemic, coordinate a response and find a cure. Teamwork and communication are essential and players share knowledge to discover cures and set up treatment centers as they travel around the board. However, it is a race against time, as each turn the infections spread around the world, causing chaos and players must cure all four diseases before the infection rate becomes out of control.
What the Legacy game adds to the base game is that players have 12 months (12-24 games) to eradicate the infections, however the impact of each month (game) remains on the board (so any fallen cities remain fallen for the duration) and the outcome effects the next month. At the end of a month (game) players have access to ‘upgrades’ to help them fight the diseases, however there are also rule changes which can either help or add additional complexities to the game! So just when you think you have the infection under control a twist will make you rethink and keep you on your toes!
It is a very dynamic game, which involves destroying cards, changing rules, adding stickers to the board and mystery boxes! That does mean that you can only play through the entire Legacy game once, however if you do finish it before the end of lockdown, there is a series two to jump straight into!
Pandemic Legacy, allows for beginners to start by playing the basic Pandemic game a few times to become comfortable with the rules and actions, before moving on to the Legacy game, where your result impacts how the game progresses. The new rules are added in gradually to help you keep up and the rule book is comprehensive and easy to follow. This does mean that if there is longer a gap between games, it is easy to pick up from where you left it. However, I would recommend completing it with only a short gap between games to get the most from the Legacy story element of the game, making it a perfect game to play during the Pandemic lockdown. Also a good way to remind ourselves how quickly viruses can spread and why it is so important to do what we can to stop the spread!
**Our blog is supported by fans of Meeple Design. If you buy through a link, we may earn an affiliate commission.**
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We have big plans for Meeple Design in the future including; developing our Blog so it becomes a great resource for Board Gamers, adding new designs to our existing products, expanding our kid's range, creating Board Game accessories and adding a home & living range to our store. Obviously this isn't going to happen overnight so we want our fans to come with us on the journey by following us on Social Media and signing up to our newsletter.
Also, we want to give back to our favourite hobby by supporting the people, designers & charities that do great things within this ever-developing space. Over the coming weeks & months, we will be excited to share our plans.
We hope you carry on following us as there are some great idea's coming and we look forward to speaking to you all again.
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