30. Takenoko
http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/70919/takenoko
Via BGG:
A long time ago at the Japanese Imperial court, the Chinese Emperor offered a giant panda bear as a symbol of peace to the Japanese Emperor. Since then, the Japanese Emperor has entrusted his court members (the players) with the difficult task of caring for the animal by tending to his bamboo garden.
In Takenoko, the players will cultivate land plots, irrigate them, and grow one of the three species of bamboo (Green, Yellow, and Pink) with the help of the Imperial gardener to maintain this bamboo garden. They will have to bear with the immoderate hunger of this sacred animal for the juicy and tender bamboo. The player who manages his land plots best, growing the most bamboo while feeding the delicate appetite of the panda, will win the game.
Takenoko is another good gateway game. It's got cute pandas, simple rules and the chance to say om nom nom over and over again. I find a farmer strategy works well in this game. A lot of the time, if you draw well, you can have other people do your farmer work for you. Tip: I would avoid the 8 point card where you need 4 stacks of bamboo on level 3. It takes so long to do between pandas eating, the fact that bamboo cannot move from a no pandas spot and timing issues. It takes too many moves to do if you actively plan for it, it is not worth it. Just let it clog your hand unless you can get there in a few moves.
29. Rampage ( Terror in Meeple City)
http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/97903/rampage
In Rampage, you arrive in Meeple City as a gigantic, famished, scaly-skinned monster! Your goal: Dig your claws and dirty paws into the asphalt, destroy buildings, and devour innocent meeples – in short: sow terror while having fun. The monster who has caused the most damage after the carnage finally ends wins the game.
The buildings in Meeple City are comprised of floor tiles and meeples, with the meeples serving as pillars that support the floors. Four wooden vehicles are on the ground in the eight neighborhoods in the city. Each monster, which consists of a wooden paws disc and a wooden body, starts in one corner of the game board. On a turn you take two actions from four possibilities, repeating an action if desired:
- Move: Pick up your monster body, flick the paws disc, then place the body back on the disc.
- Demolish: If your paws are on the sidewalk surrounding a building, you can pick up your monster body, drop it onto a building, then collect any floors that have no meeples on them.
- Toss a vehicle: If you're in a neighborhood with a vehicle, you can pick up the vehicle, place it on your body, then flick the vehicle at a building or another monster.
- Breathe: Even while away from sidewalks with no vehicles, you can cause destruction by placing your chin on your monster's body and blowing across the board.
In addition to the character card, each player has a power card and a superpower card unique to his monster, with the former lasting the entire game and the latter being a one-shot effect that's revealed only upon use.
Rampage includes rules for monsters that evolve over the course of the game, that lose points for meeples not in sets, and that want to combine two game boards to allow for play with up to eight players.
Rampage is just good 'ol fun. It's a set collection game for the most part, but it's more about being able to pretend you are a monster and destroy buildings and throw cars. The blowing action has never ever worked out for me. It is usually embarrassing how bad I am at that.
28. Macao
http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/55670/macao
At the end of the 17th century, Macao – the mysterious port city on the southern coast of China – is a Portuguese trading post in the Far East. The players take on the role of energetic and daring adventurers. Many exciting tasks and challenges await the players, whether they are a captain, governor, craftsman, or scholar. Those who chose the wisest course of action and have the best overall strategy will earn the most prestige at the end.
Macao lasts twelve rounds, and in each round players select one new card from a display specific to that round, two of which were revealed at the start of the game and others that were revealed only at the start of the round. The deck of 96 cards includes all sorts of special abilities, with the more powerful actions costing more resources to put into play.
One player rolls six different-colored dice, then each player selects two of those dice (possibly the same ones chosen by opponents), then places cubes equal to the number and color of the two dice on a personalized "ship's wheel." For example, if a player chooses the blue die that shows a 5, he places five blue cubes on the ship's wheel position five spots away from the current round. (A player can never claim more cubes than the number of remaining rounds).
Players rotate their ship's wheels each round, then use the cubes available to them in that round to perform various actions: activating cards selected in that round or earlier rounds, buying city quarters and collecting the goods located there, moving that player's ship around Europe to deliver those goods, acquiring gold coins, taking special actions with card previously activated, and advancing on a turn order track.
Players score points by delivering goods, paying gold coins, using the powers on their cards, and building in Macao. Whoever has the most points at the end of twelve rounds wins.
Yet another Feld is on this list. The game, much like Trajan has an interesting mechanic behind it. The amount of cubes you place on your wheel position is what you can do. The way you handle that is important to the game. If you don't place them correctly, you won't get what you want. Much like in Trajan. There is so much to do and think about, which is why I love me some Felds.
27. Ginkopolis
2212: Ginkgo Biloba, the oldest and strongest tree in the world, has become the symbol of a new method for building cities in symbiosis with nature. Humans have exhausted the resources that the Earth offered them, and humanity must now develop cities that maintain a delicate balance between resource production and consumption. Habitable space is scarce, however, and mankind must now face the challenge of building ever upwards. To develop this new type of city, you will gather a team of experts around you, and try to become the best urban planner for Ginkgopolis.
In Ginkgopolis, the city tiles come in three colors: yellow, which provides victory points; red, which provides resources; and blue, which provides new city tiles. Some tiles start in play, and they're surrounded by letter markers that show where new tiles can be placed.
On a turn, each player chooses a card from his hand simultaneously. Players reveal these cards, adding new tiles to the border of the city in the appropriate location or placing tiles on top of existing tiles. Each card in your hand that you don't play is passed on to your left-hand neighbor, so keep in mind how your play might set up theirs!
When you add a new tile to the city, you take a "power" card of the same color, and these cards provide you additional abilities during the game, allowing you to scale up your building and point-scoring efforts.
Ginkopolis is a fine game, it's a great combination of card drafting and area control. One of the things I like most about the game, is that it is not always obvious who is going to win. One move in the last round can chance everything. Change a spot's color or make a huge move to get majority in a area can switch things around drastically. Having a good engine is good in the game, you want to do the actions that will not only get you an action but more resources and points.
26. Love Letter
http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/129622/love-letter
All of the eligible young men (and many of the not-so-young) seek to woo the princess of Tempest. Unfortunately, she has locked herself in the palace, and you must rely on others to take your romantic letters to her. Will yours reach her first?
Love Letter is a game of risk, deduction, and luck for 2–4 players. Your goal is to get your love letter into Princess Annette's hands while deflecting the letters from competing suitors. From a deck with only sixteen cards, each player starts with only one card in hand; one card is removed from play. On a turn, you draw one card, and play one card, trying to expose others and knock them from the game. Powerful cards lead to early gains, but make you a target. Rely on weaker cards for too long, however, and your letter may be tossed in the fire!
Obviously this is the best party game of 2013. Not really, I don't consider this a party game, but for a cheap, easy, short game there are few that are better.
25. DC Comics Deck Building Game
http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/125678/dc-comics-deck-building-game
Batman! Superman! Wonder Woman! Aquaman! The Flash! Green Lantern! Cyborg! The Justice League of America is ready for action – are you? Fight the never-ending battle for truth, justice, and peace in the DC Comics Deck-Building Game!
To start the game, each player chooses one of the seven over-sized hero cards, each of which has a special power, and starts with a deck of ten cards. Each turn, a player starts with a hand of five cards and can acquire or conquer the five types of cards in the game: heroes, villains and super-villains, equipment, super powers, and locations. To defeat villains, you'll need to have power – but when a super-villain is defeated, a new one comes into play, attacking all the heroes while doing so. Make sure you've acquired defenses – like superspeed or bulletproof powers, or The Batsuit equipment – to protect yourself from harm.
Craft your hero deck into a well-oiled machine to take on the most vile villains in the DC Universe in your quest for Victory (Points)!
With deckbuilders, a lot of the time I like a simple one. Get some power, buy some cards, use them to get points, etc. DC Comics is pretty simple. Yes, the theme makes no sense. So I'm the Flash and I'm using the Batmobile to defeat Aquaman's Trident? But I just find the game fun, as well as it's counterparts which are mostly the same game ( LOTR, Mortal Kombat, etc.)
24. Notre Dame
http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/25554/notre-dame
The players take on the roles of the heads of influential families in Paris at the end of the 14th century. In the shadow of the Notre Dame cathedral, the players compete for prosperity and reputation. Each family controls one of the 3 - 5 boroughs that surround the site of Notre Dame. As head of his family, each player tries, through clever use of his action cards, to advance the power and prestige of his family, but penalties are assessed on those who do not take care of the health of the people who live in their borough. The player with the most prestige at the end is the winner.
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Players play as well-off Parisians in the 15th century who wish to improve the importance and appearance of the city quarter around the famous Notre Dame cathedral. The primary game concept is original, but simple, card play players use to permanently improve their influence in the quarter. However, turn after turn, round after round, players must make choices that can have major implications. If one does one thing, then the other can't be done. Concentrating on one aspect means automatically ignoring another, which, above all others, is particularly dangerous in the case of the gradually approaching plague....
After 9 exciting rounds and about 75 action-filled minutes, Notre Dame is over. The 'maitre' who has made the most of his cards and has garnered the most prestige points is the winner.
Another Feld, more interesting mechanics. The more cubes you place on a action spot the more you can do that action. I think I fell into a strategy that seems really strong if not prevented. I put one cube on gaining more cubes, most of the rest on getting money. Avoided the rest. Halfway through take the card that switches 3 cubes to another spot and put it on points. Gets you a bunch of points each turn if you able to do the points action. The losing two points and a cube for letting the rats doesn't effect you much if you score like 10-15 a round. Good thing no one reads this blog otherwise I'd never win doing this again. #hatasgonnahatedraft
23. Helios
http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/154182/helios
In Helios, players are high priests in a distant world of the sun god AHAU, and the power of the sun drives everything in the game as players try to build temples, expand cities, and make their civilization flourish.
Development can succeed, though, only if you've secured a supply of the limited raw materials available, and the more that you've built of your temple, the more expensive the remaining parts will be. Glass manastones are the game's currency, and with them you can acquire people, increase the number of points you'll score, and more.
Helios is semi complex game that plays in a short time. It's a good hour long time game. It has multiple ways to win. Each time I've played this I've tried a different strategy. I found that the three strategies (build few but go around the sun a lot, heavy resources and heavy temple) could be somewhat equal if played right. I scored the most with temples, but I made some misplays with the others which might have been just as successful if played right.
22. Blueprints
http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/140933/blueprints
In Blueprints, players are architects who must use different colored dice to build three different structures from blueprints, with the dice providing different advantages to you. In the game, each round progresses like this:
- Discover your blueprint.
- Each turn, choose a die and place it in your building.
- Reveal your building, tally your points, then discover who wins the awards and prizes.
Blueprints is another great filler game. It's simple, short and fun. Something I have yet to describe a game as on the countdown! Strategy for me is to try and get multiple awards per turn and always pay attention to the in demand materials. I wish someone would run a tourney of this at the con. I think I have a chance at this game to win some sweet dealer dollars.
21. Ticket to Ride
http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/9209/ticket-ride
With elegantly simple gameplay, Ticket to Ride can be learned in under 15 minutes, while providing players with intense strategic and tactical decisions every turn. Players collect cards of various types of train cars they then use to claim railway routes in North America. The longer the routes, the more points they earn. Additional points come to those who fulfill Destination Tickets – goal cards that connect distant cities; and to the player who builds the longest continuous route.
"The rules are simple enough to write on a train ticket – each turn you either draw more cards, claim a route, or get additional Destination Tickets," says Ticket to Ride author, Alan R. Moon. "The tension comes from being forced to balance greed – adding more cards to your hand, and fear – losing a critical route to a competitor."
Ticket to Ride continues in the tradition of Days of Wonder's big format board games featuring high-quality illustrations and components including: an oversize board map of North America, 225 custom-molded train cars, 144 illustrated cards, and wooden scoring markers.
Since its introduction and numerous subsequent awards, Ticket to Ride has become the BoardGameGeek epitome of a "gateway game" -- simple enough to be taught in a few minutes, and with enough action and tension to keep new players involved and in the game for the duration.
No doubt about it, Ticket to Ride is one of the best Gateway games out there. I still enjoy it and all it's versions. This entry is really for the Ticket to Ride series. Marklin, India, Europe and Team Asia are among my favorites. Base game is good too as it's the only one where I don't have to spend 5 minutes looking to see where my routes are. I think I set a record for myself in this game with a -30 point game. Someone blocked me for getting to a place where literally 3 routes needed it to achieve. So I just turn after turn decided to Hail Mary and hope to pick up a bunch of routes I already completed. But I did it too much and got a -30 score.
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