We are really excited to be participating in the Tabletop Writers Guild Diversity Initiative Challenge. This post is our response to the Week 2 Challenge: Listicle.
Kids are awesome in so many ways, but there’s no denying that they come with big lifestyle changes. For a couple that games together, it usually means less time to play those mind-twisting, 2+ hour long games that were pre-kid favorites. We are lucky enough to have Nana (aka Sarah’s mom) take the boys for a Saturday night every once in awhile. Not only do they get some quality 1:1 time with Nana, but we get to do all those fun things that are otherwise tough with kiddos around like running errands and playing intense board games. Here is the second half of our top 10 games to play while the kids are at Nana’s house.
If you missed the first half of the list (and some honorable mentions) check it out HERE.
5. Ora et Labora
Designer: Uwe Rosenberg
Publisher: Z-man (and others)
Our love for feeding our family is evident in both our ridiculous grocery bill as well as the number of Uwe Rosenberg games on our shelves. Ora et Labora is one of his earlier big box games, and one of our first experiences with a “sandbox” game where there are approximately 42 million options to choose from per turn.
In Ora et Labora, players are monks developing land and constructing buildings to grow and expand their monastery. Players collect resources from a resource wheel rondel, meaning that the amount of each resource available changes on any given turn. Players use those resources to purchase buildings which can then later covert resources into more valuable goods that score VPs. Resources are also used to purchase settlement cards, which are essentially higher point VP buildings that serve no other function. The game ends after a series of rounds, or other conditions are met depending on player count.
Thematically, it’s so-so in that the theme exists but really any theme could be applied to the same effect. The magic of this game is in how many different strategies could be used to win. Re-playability for this game (as with several Uwe games) is in the fact that there’s many potential paths to victory.
Ora et Labora does offer a “short game” which can be played in about 60-90 miuntes, but we prefer to play the full or “long” version. Set up is a bear too (unless you dump everything chaotically on the table as in the image), so if we are committed to doing set up/clean up, we might as well play the full game.
4. Alchemists
Designer: Matúš Kotry
Publisher: Czech Games Edition (CGE)
Alchemists is a tricky game that hides brain-twisting deductive mechanisms behind a silly theme, cute artwork, and a neat app. It’s no joke. This game will make your brain hurt while you play and then later you’ll still be thinking about what you should have done and how you’ll do better next time.
Alchemists is a worker placement and deduction game where players are new alchemists honing their craft, skill, and knowledge. The theme integration is great and the thematic elements will be familiar to anyone involved in academia (seriously, this game gives Emily grad school flashbacks). Throughout the game players collect ingredients, sell potions, test potions on students or themselves, buy artifacts and publish or debunk theories based on what they have learned so far. Alchemists is unique in a number of ways, but one in particular is the app it uses to “test” potions (there’s a way to do this without the app, but this is not recommended). As potions are tested, players must share their results with the rest of the table. This allows players to start making deductions about which ingredients were mixed together to make the potion (think Clue if Clue turned your brain into a deductive mush).
Alchemists is played over 6 rounds. The final round is the exhibition where players must show what they have learned and establish their reputation by guessing potions correctly or incorrectly. Players with the most correct guesses gain the most reputation and win.
Credit: CGE
Alchemists is a game we played pretty frequently before having kids. Playtime is a minimum of 2 hours, longer if you’re teaching (or re-learning between plays) or if someone struggles with analysis paralysis. It’s an excellent game that we are so sad we can’t get on the table more often.
3. Trickerion
Designer: Richard Amann, Viktor Peter
Publisher: Mindclash Games
Trickerion is a heavy worker placement, simultaneous action selection game where players are magicians building their entertainment empire. They must learn and perform tricks, gather tools for their shows, and hire assistants. There is a bit of interaction as players block each other and leverage other players to set off their tricks.
Credit: BGG User @petervik
Trickerion is a game that will make your head hurt with decision making. It’s huge and so full of stuff that takes some time to see how it all fits together. But once it clicks, everything makes sense and the gameplay is fluid and keeps you on your toes. The artwork by the super talented Villő Farkas is gorgeous to boot (she also did the art for Anachrony, which made this list in Part 1).
Trickerion is a long game, playing at least 2-2.5 hours for us at two players. We tend to be pretty methodical players, so it might be possible to go faster but don’t hold your breath.
There are also a couple different versions of Trickerion that you can get: a base game with optional expansions, or the collectors edition that contains all the expansions/content for the game. If you plan to play this with two players at all, the Dahlgaard’s Gifts expansion is a must for the Duel of the Magicians module.
2. A Feast for Odin
Desginer: Uwe Rosenberg
Publisher: Z-Man Games (US)
Surprise! Another Uwe game. A Feast for Odin is a big box worker placement and polyomino (think tetris) game from Uwe Rosenberg. In A Feast for Odin, players are Viking explorers gathering and upgrading resources, emigrating, raiding, or doing one of the approximately 4 bazillion actions available to you. Seriously, there are 61 action spaces on board and you place multiple workers in a round. It’s the ultimate sandbox.
Credit: Board Game Geek
In addition to all that nonsense, you’re also completing a polyomino puzzle (again, think tetris) on your player board. As you complete your puzzle, you gain resources and income. Oh, and you better not neglect the puzzle, because every space not covered by a tile is -1 point at the end of the game.
This game has a similar format for most Uwe games in that there are many paths to victory. The first time we played, everyone tried something completely different and yet it all seemed to generally work out for them and the scores were fairly tight. Be careful, though, that also means it might be hard to tell who is winning until close to the end.
A Feast for Odin is an epic game in every sense of the word. Gameplay is at least 2 hours at 2 players and longer with more. Even just learning the game is a multi-hour fare.
Fun fact: we traded for this game at a Con of the North and ended up carrying it around all day because we were too lazy to walk it back to the car (in our defense, it was blizzarding because Minnesota). It weighs approximately 1000 lbs, so if you want to lug it around a Con we suggest you bring a cart.
1. Gloomhaven
Designer: Isaac Childres
Publisher: Cephalofair
Now you might say, “Sarah and Emily, you are totally cheating by choosing the BGG #1 pick for your list! Be more original!”
Ok, yes, you’re not wrong. But there’s a reason Gloomhaven was the game everyone raved about when it was first released in 2017 and remains steadfast in the #1 spot ever since. It could be described as D&D in a board game, taking the essence of everyone’s favorite RPG and turning it into something new and perhaps more approachable. For people like us who never really “got” D&D (we did try, but luck/dice-heavy games can end in unrestrained rage), Gloomhaven had all the fun of awesome characters, storytelling, and video-game like “leveling up” but in a fairly approachable package. We’ve played this game with non-gamers and it actually has a surprisingly low barrier to entry for how terrifyingly full the box is. The art by Alexandr Elichev, Josh T. McDowell, and Alvaro Nebot is also super cool.
Gloomhaven is a campaign-driven dungeon crawler for eurogamers. In Gloomhaven, players play as any one of several fantastical creatures, each with their own strengths, abilities, and weaknesses. Throughout the campaign, players cooperatively explore the large map, conquering new “dungeons” in a flexible story. Along the way the characters collect gold and items, gain experience (level up), and complete individual goals. Some characters might retire to make way for new characters that are “unlocked” by completing certain missions.
To compare this game to D&D perhaps isn’t entirely fair, since it’s not really a role playing game. It’s led by a story and players’ actions are “limited” to game mechanics (as opposed to the wide world of an RPG). Although no one is stopping you from reading the story or the actions in what you imagine is your character’s voice.
On their turn, players play two cards from their character’s deck and complete one action from each. Combat is resolved with cards and card modifiers, making you feel more in control of the game.
Gloomhaven is a beast to set up and clean up. We try to play multiple “games” (aka dungeons / scenes) whenever we have it out, so this becomes a full day event for us. It’s also hard NOT to play more than one scenario at a time because you want to follow the story, progress your character, and get closer to achieving your personal objective.
That being said, some of the levels can be reasonably quick, so if you have restraint you could potentially get this one in on a school night.
Gloomhaven is a beast of a game, and recently Isaac Childres has recently released an additional game in the same world – Gloomhaven: Jaws of the Lion. We haven’t played it yet, but it’s said to be an even more approachable and streamlined version that sounds awesome.
Players choose based on the number of actions they have available. They may be taken in any order – do not need to do all civil actions before taking military actions
- Civil Actions – Take a number of actions based on government type and card bonuses. All actions have inherent cost of 1 unless otherwise noted.
- Draft cards from card row
- Cost 1-3 actions
- Leaders (green) – give special abilities or scoring opportunities
- Action cards (yellow) – one time bonus
- Tech (blue, gray, red, brown, orange) – ongoing bonuses and scoring
- Wonders (purple) – ongoing bonuses and scoring
- Cost 1-3 actions
- Play card from hand
- Promote workers
- Build buildings
- Upgrade buildings
- Destroy buildings
- Complete a stage of wonder
- Change government peacefully
- Change government via revolution
- Draft cards from card row