My Top 9 Board Games With Elaboration
I did a write up of my top 9 favorite board games. They
are in order of my favorites with the best at the number one position. Granted the top five
really are all so close and I love each one so much. It’s like when someone
asks you ‘what’s your your favorite movie?’ It kind of depends on the mood you’re
in. Are you in the mood for Max Max Fury Road, to watch things explode and the
world revel in its' utter insanity (KDM), or do you want to watch Tinkerbell and snuggle with your
three year old (Heldentaufe)? It depends on the mood.
I know it goes without
saying but I'm going to say it anyways. These games are my personal favorites,
that's it. It's ok that they are my favorites or that some of them you may hate
or not even heard of them. Furthermore, what makes them special to me is often
the memories I have associated with the games. Dice Forge was one of the first
games that my wife enjoyed playing with me. Santorini reminds me of times spent
with one of my best friends, my brother-in-law Clint and how much I miss him
now. Codex reminds me of time spent with my friend Gentry when I was going
through my rough faith issues and it was really just comforting to have some
unconditional friendship.
Here we go!
#9 Turing
Tumble
#8 Dice
Forge
#7 Heldentaufe
#6 Skulk
Hollow
#5 Puzzle
Strike
#4 Too
Many Bones
#3 Santorini
#2 Codex: Card-Time Strategy
#1 Kingdom
Death: Monster
As a disclaimer, I got paid nothing for
this nor do I stand to gain anything from any publishers or developers
mentioned. This write-up is something I have wanted to do for a long time.
Furthermore, I put links which I thought gave good graphical representations
for each board game below the games’ description. It may be a kickstarter
campaign page, it may be a publisher’s website. Whatever it is, it will be a
good overview/source of information about said game. As a last note, nothing on this post is monetized, nor will it ever be. I really just like board games.
Without further ado:
#9
Turing Tumble- This is definitely a unique game. In essence,
it is a programming game. What sets it apart is it is meant to be played single
player as a narrative driven story. The game is introduced via a high quality
comic book in which you journey as a young space technician woman who crash
lands without life support on a planet. After some discoveries, you are set to
programming tasks to fight for your life.
The gameplay takes place as you are presented with
these programming scenarios which have you set up a Plinko (The Price is Right)
style plastic stand in front of you, set a number of blue and red balls in the
top and then programmatically place different set pieces into the stand in
order to alter the path and direction of the falling balls in order to achieve
the objective you desire. Honestly, the game is difficult to put into words,
but if you saw it for about ten seconds you’d understand what the game entails.
It can be played single player, but I have actually
enjoyed playing it and figuring it out with my wife together. Whether or not
that was intended by the developer is irrelevant to me. It is what we have done
and we have enjoyed ourselves with it.
The game can get extremely difficult, but there are
solutions in the back of the book if that’s your thing.
The components are phenomenal and the in-box
organization is exemplary.
Play time: You can play a couple of puzzles or
scenarios in as little as fifteen minutes but some single scenarios may take
you multiple hours to figure out or even longer if you can’t solve them. The
book has something like 60-80ish puzzles so this is a game that will be played
campaign/narrative story style over the course of many many play sessions.
Games like it: Any programming game, but at the same
time, nothing is really like it because the programming in this game is
entirely kinetic with a lot of visual feedback and tactile delight. Maybe a
game like Marble Maze?
#8
Dice Forge- a 2-4 player engine building game in which you are
tasked with traveling about different islands to perform varying feats which in
the end, award you with victory points. The best part about this game is the
dice rolling. Lots and lots and lots of it. During the course of the game
however, you will be buying new die faces and placing them into your dice (you
are literally forging dice) so there is definitely a strategy/luck mitigation
factor that comes into play here. There is such a delight to changing your own
dice and rolling something you feel you created. It provides a nice tactile
feeling and satisfaction. 
I prefer this game at two players with someone who has
played it before. It is a favorite of my wife’s and mine. It takes us about 30
minutes from start to finish to play the game and it’s enjoyable every time.
I have heard some people complain about this game
saying ‘it ended just when it was starting to get good’ to which I’d respond ‘it
was good the whole time and ended on a high note.’ Which is the way every
engine building game should end. This also lends to the replayability. There
are many different strategies to be employed in the game, and those strategies
will change drastically whether or not you add a third or fourth player.
I will also add that the organization insert is
perfect, and the art and graphics in this game are fantastic.
Play time- 30 minutes
Games like it: Rattlebones, but Dice Forge is better
in every way.
#7
Heldentaufe- I will be surprised if anyone has heard
of this game. It is the ideal of what Kickstarter should represent: a completely
indie game developed by a few people, that would otherwise never see the light
of day were it not for crowd funding. It had something like a $37,000 USD
funding level and only made around $43,000 USD. Thank the Nether Realm it
funded.
Don’t let the name fool you, the game is entirely in English
(and has multiple translations, French and German if I’m not mistaken). The
title is German and means something to the effect of ‘baptism of the heroes’
which would more readily be interpreted in English as ‘The Heroes Baptism by Trial’.
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In Heldentaufe, you will select one hero out of five starting heroes,
each having slightly different abilities or starting stats (more health, more
move speed, more inventory space, having a starting sword, and having the
ability to brew potions at one higher level than normal). You will then start
exploring a hex based overworld wherein you will find apple orchards, mushroom
glens, fishing ponds, trading posts, and a boatload of other cute stuff, as well as portals to the Nether Realm. More on the Nether Realm in a bit.
Players will always have ‘missions’ in the form of
cards that are secret to the other players. These missions are a means to get
more ‘monster teeth’ which is the games form of victory points, but in a more adorable style. Missions are also a means to get better stat items like boots and rings
and potions and weapons.
Each player will have a certain amount of action
points each turn to do actions like move and attack. This amount of action
points is based off of your boots or movement speed. It’s a very important
stat.
The goal of the game is to be the first to get a
certain number of Monster Teeth and come back to the starting point of the
game. When this happens, that person is declared the winner.
One worthwhile way to get monster teeth is to enter
the Nether Realm via a portal (discovered via exploring the overworld) and
fight monsters. The monsters will be the same every game in the form of art and
placement, but will vary with regard to their health and attack power as these
are randomly selected at the start of every game. When a monster is killed, it
is gone from the Nether Realm until all
players are out of the Nether Realm at the same time, at which point, the
Nether Realm will respawn all of its monsters. When a monster respawns (if it’s
been killed) it will come back stronger! It will either have more hit points or
more attack power, but this stronger version will also reward more monster teeth making it a desirable
target. Monster hunting in the Nether Realm can be an excellent method to get
monster teeth fast and is necessary, in my opinion, to winning the game. To what
degree you want to fight however, is up to you.
Heldentaufe, is an excellent, light, easy to learn,
quick game that is full of adorable art work, charm, personality, and
phenomenal components. It is ripe for home brewing content. I did create an AI
flow to make it more random and dangerous when multiple players are in the
Nether Realm at one time. I also explored but never finished a campaign style
game where you had to find a magic beanstalk and ascend to ‘cloudland’ (forgive
the genericness of the name, it’s a WIP) and fight a giant lightning monster,
making it more a coop than a pvp, but I never finished it.
Heldentaufe has some of my favorite artwork and
components out of any game I own. I love it and will never get rid of it.
Play time: 45-60 minutes
Games like it: Maybe Hexplore It (I haven’t played it,
but it is hex based and has a lot of exploration in it) but it would be
considered way more complicated than Heldentaufe. Perhaps City of Kings in its’
exploration aspect. However, as a whole, Heldentaufe is what I would consider a
fairly unique game.
#6
Skulk Hollow- This game has gotten a little buzz over
the past couple of months since its delivery, and rightfully so. It’s good. It’s
a head to head asymmetric two player game that captures the feeling of Shadow
of the Colossus. But instead of controlling Wander and Argo, a player controls
a band of mischievous and resourceful foxes, and the other player controls a
giant colossus. It is as good as it sounds. As a lover of Shadow of the
Colossus (I’ve beaten the game something like 15 times both on PS2 back in the
day and the remastered version on PS4), Skulk Hollow is a dream come true and
Eduardo Baraf realized the idea into board game format very well. 
Play time- 45-60 minutes
Games like it: any asymmetric two player head to head
game, but the theme is completely unique, which is part of what attracted me to
the game so. The theme and componentry are simply bangarang.
#5
Puzzle Strike- A head to head dueling game in which you
are basically playing competitive and interactive Tetris. This game is based
off of a video game called Super Puzzle Fighter. In the video game, each player
has a Tetris style screen into which gems of varying colors are falling. When
you match up gems they form larger gems. At some point, players will have gems
that they can use to activate the large gems they’ve created and hurl them at
their opponent. It is tug-of-war style battle Tetris. Some of you may also
recall the Super Nintendo Entertainment System game called Tetris Attack. Also
very similar.
Puzzle Strike readily captures the feeling these games
invoke. Each player has a board in front of them onto which ‘gems’ will
continue to pile up. Players will gain money each turn and will be able to buy
higher amounts of money as well as different skill chips from the bank. These
new chips then get added to each players discard pile after which they will be
cycled into their deck and drawn in subsequent turns, just like a deckbuilder.
But it’s not a deckbuilder. It’s a bag builder with poker style chips.
Chips can then be played on later turns to take those
gems in your own pile, and throw them at your opponent. When your opponent gets
overloaded with gems (10 or more at the end of their turn) the game is over.
Play time: 30-60 minutes
Games like it: Dominion and other deckbuilders, but
the fighting gem mechanics are really unlike any other board game I’ve played.
It’s unique.
#4
Too Many Bones- I don’t think this game needs much
introduction. You have adventure and RPG mechanics, it can be solo’d, and it
can be a romp with three others. It was the game that allowed me opportunity to
meet the best gaming group I’ve known to date. There is so much delight in this
game that it will likely never NOT be on my top x list of board games. 
Play time: 1.5-4 hours- there’s a wide discrepancy
based off of how many players are present, and how many people are new, and
what kind of tyrant you set out to eliminate. You can play a solo game in an
hour if you know the game very well. If you’re playing against baddies that you
don’t play against often, in a longer campaign style, this will increase the
play time to as long as you want. Also, if you play solo with multiple
gearlocs, the complexity will ramp up quickly leading to longer playtimes.
Games like it: Hmmmmmm… RPG style dice driven
adventures. I honestly can’t really think of any games really like this. It’s
unique. There is however a game hitting kickstarter in a couple of months that
reminds me a lot of Too Many Bones in its art style and componentry. It is
called Dawnshade.
#3
Santorini- One of the first kickstarters I ever received and
probably the most played game I own. It is simple to learn, hard to master,
requires constant critical thinking and evaluation of god weaknesses and
exploits in order to win. The componentry is simply splendid. I have had two
games for which I have had commissioned parts to be painted: Kingdom Death
Monster and Santorini. I love this game. It is a quick and fun two player game.
Of note, Santorini was the first game I purchased
which was published by Roxley Games. In my experience, any game Roxley touches
turns to gold. Graphically and mechanically, they are masters of game
production. A+ game publisher.
Play time- 5-15 minutes per game. In the hundred and
fifty or so games I’ve played a couple have gone 20-30 minutes but these are
outliers.
Games like it: Chess and Onitama.
#2
Codex: Card-Time Strategy- Codex is a head to head dueling card game
in the vein of Magic: The Gathering. As someone who has played a small amount
of Magic, I will say first that I like Magic, and second, Codex is better.
Codex is better because it takes the tried and true formula of what makes Magic
so good, and improves upon its weaknesses, those being, landlocking,
topdecking, having a constantly evolving meta due to being a living card game
wherein new cards are constantly introduced, being collectible (some people
like this which is of course part of the addictive element of the game, I
personally see it as a major flaw and turnoff in any game), and of course the
price entry to be competitive.
Codex solves these issues by having everything in the
game as a one-time purchase, not introducing new cards (meta is established
since there are no new cards introduced), having deckbuilding and cycling
elements into it (eliminating top decking), the ability to ‘tech’ cards at the
end of every turn (a mechanic in which you select two cards you want to play on
future turns and add them to your discard pile, which will eventually cycle to
draw pile and be able to be played), and the ability to hire workers which give
you your gold income every turn which is akin to land power and which also
thins your deck to prevent bloat.
As someone who watches a lot of professional StarCraft
2, it is clear where the inspiration came for this game and even how certain StarCraft
strategies can be employed in the game and are represented by the different
factions. It is even possible to analyze a recently played game of Codex and
say ‘this turn right here, this play, this is where the momentum of the game
turned’ much like a lost battle in StarCraft.
Things that StarCraft and Codex have in common: Base
building (each player starts with a home base which has 20 hit points,
destroying it is the objective of the game, each player also has the ability to
build new buildings and new tech buildings allowing the player to play more
advanced creatures and cards), turtling and rushing down, having a ‘patrolling’
or ‘roaming’ force, and workers that get resources.
As for the cons, there are a couple which
unfortunately keep it from hitting the table as often as I’d like.
The learning curve is a bit steeper than other games.
There’s just a lot of moving parts going on. And anyone who has played the game
even once or twice will have a clear advantage over someone who has never
played resulting in a likely win. This may or may not sour some from returning
to the game if they handle defeat poorly. It is similar to Magic in its rules
and intuitiveness, but the keywords are different and some rules are different.
So Magic players trying it may think that they can do something when they can’t,
and that may bug them.
In summary, Codex: Card Time Strategy is a game that I
would love to play once a week for the next ten years to fully explore the strategy
and depth it offers. It is a game best enjoyed by players of a similar skill
and knowledge level of the game’s mechanics, OR by those who are okay losing in
order to gain that knowledge and eventually be more skilled in the game. Think
Friday night Codex league.
Of note, the game can be played multiplayer but I
would never play it this way. It was designed to be played head to head.
Playing it three player would be like playing Magic three player.
Play time is about 45-60 minutes for experienced
players and up to two hours for first time players.
Games like it: Magic: The Gathering, Android
Netrunner, and Starcraft (video game.)
#1
Kingdom Death: Monster- Also a game that needs no
introduction. I primarily play this game solo and the stories it creates are so
fantastic that the goodness of the
game can’t be overstated. This game is very polarizing I’ve found. Some people
love it to the point that they worship it and the creator, and some people find
it very distasteful and strongly dislike the gameplay. It even seems like
sometimes people dislike because a lot
of other people dislike it... ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ I love the game but by no means is it flawless.
It is still a game that has flaws, but the gameplay and experience are so damn
good that I am able to easily overlook the flaws.  |
| Antelope's gonna go ham on the maple syrup. |
I will address one issue here though. The randomness.
I usually strongly dislike pure randomness in games, because it’s not really a
game at that point. There has to be some element of player control for it to be
fun. In KDM, there is some degree of
luck mitigation in the form of rare rerolls and planning your gear grids. There
still remains bad ‘luck’ that can befall players and their settlement. The mindset
I take to this is I am simply along for the ride that is living in this eerily
beautiful hellscape of a dark nightmare land in which everything is trying to
murder you. And because I realize I’m just along for the ride and I’m not there
to meta the hell out of the game and WIN IT, I thoroughly enjoy it when a giant
deranged antelope with a mouth on its belly eats one of my survivors whole when
I try to cut it with a measly 8 inch dagger.
KDM has near infinite replayability to the point that
it’s daunting. Some day when I have a gaming table with an inset surface, I
imagine that this will remain set up for months on end while I escape from the
rigors of my stressful job to adventure in this world.
Play time: Each lantern year can be played in maybe
2-3 hours. This is a campaign game, meant to take 25-30ish sessions until you
reach the end of a campaign, but you may ‘game over’ much sooner than that.
Games like it: Aeon Trespass: Odyssey (recently
kickstarted) and Oathsworn (mere days left until launch of kickstarter) and
perhaps Middara in that it is a heavy campaign game with long lasting
consequences (the themes couldn’t be more different.) As far as video games,
this is Monster Hunter World incarnate, albeit with a nightmare reskin.
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