 |
| The Start of a Dominant Species Game... Or Candy Evolution Saga? (If the franchise was in other hands...) |
Darwin on Ice
The very first new board game I tried in 2013 (according to my rather flaky board game geek-logging - and a little bgg scraping script) was the fabulous Dominant Species. Pros: Excellent theme(!), and relatively fast paced gameplay. Cons: A potential flaw is that maybe a bit too many points are scored at the very end of the game - something that can potentially lead to Analysis Paralysis when it is nigh… |
| Still early in Love Letter. But someone knows already something about someone. |
Velvet Bluffing
One of many Japanese game-discoveries of the year was Love Letter. An excellent quick to learn filler of a bluffing game with only 16 cards that fit in a little ultratransportable velvet pouch. Pros: Quick to play, quick to pick up, easy to bring Cons: Rather a lot of luck involvedMonsters, monsters, monsters… In Japan
In the train from Düsseldorf to Essen, yes Essen!, I was introduced to a… stripped down, materialwise, version of King of Tokyo, an excellent push-your-luck dice game designed by Richard Garfield of Magic fame, spiced up by a fun power-card buying mechanics, and a fascinating concept where basically you keep wanting to put yourself in a situation to be beaten close to pulp... Anyway, this wins "Slapstick Game of the Year". (In competition with Martian Dice and SmashUp.) Cons: The main downside, for me, is that players knocked out are, well, knocked out. And that can potentially happen early - especially for new players. (And of course this has quite a bit of luck involved...)Gaiman, Chtulhu, and Sherlock Holmes… and more!
 |
| Restaurationsts plotting to restore. |
(BTW; As BGG points out, the short story the game is based on can be found freely available here.)
Faster Forward Through the Ages
 |
| Building a nation - from some cardboard and a limited amount of wood. |
Double Layers of Anoraks
 |
| End game of Trains. I promise you - it is more fun than it looks! |
Probably the best game I didn’t try in Essen this year, but received considerable buzz - and was played extensively in the player lounges at our hotel, was Trains. (I remember thinking it looked rather scary and dull - seemingly millions of different train cards all over the place and not very inviting graphics, but oh, how wrong I was.) One could (or should) argue that it leans heavily on the mechanics of Dominion. Maybe too heavily. But I’d say it differs enough to merit it's own place in my collection. It has interesting strategic decisions to take based on the board - in addition to the deckbuilding itself, excellent theme, fun(!) waste management (yes, that does sound like an oxymoron), and no buy limit. All this in less than an hour of play. Perfect in this modern day and age, so this might be the best game I played in 2013 that I actually can get to play regularly...
Mystical Terraforming of Tree Vomit
 |
| Friendly terraforming among friends. |