Top 50 Board Games of All Time #30-21

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.

Monsters tend to be messy when obtaining meals, but if you knock meeples off the city board, you might be punished for letting food go to waste, costing you a tooth or letting other players take an additional action. After your two actions, you can eat unprotected meeples on the ground in your neighborhood, but you can eat only as many as the number of teeth you have. If you knock another monster to the ground, you break off one of its teeth, thereby keeping it from stealing your food! Meeples come in six colors, with the colors representing different types of inhabitants: blue (journalists), green (military), yellow (blondes), grey (old people), red (heroes), and black (businessmen). For each set of six you collect in your stomach, you score 10 points at game's end. You score points for collecting floors and teeth, too, and you can also score for achieving the goal on your character card.
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.
---
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.

After three rounds, players tally their awards and prizes to see who wins. Who will be the best architect?


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.

Top 50 Board Games of All Time #40-31

40. Metro


http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/559/metro


Via BGG:


Similar to Streetcar, Tsuro, Tantrix and Spaghetti Junction, this game has players putting square tiles onto the board to form rail lines. The major difference in this game, however, is that players are not striving to make short, direct routes like those sought in Streetcar. Instead, the object of the game is to make the rail lines as long as possible. Players start with a number of trains ringing the board. Whenever a tile placement connects a train to a station (either on the edge or the center of the board), that train is removed and the player scores one point for each tile that the route crosses, which can cause one tile to score multiple times if the track loops around. However, players score double for city connections, which are the stations in the center of the board.


Metro is one of my favorite tile laying games. I think it improves upon Tsuro. Trying to figure out how to make your route longer and avoid getting screwed over by another persons placement is part of the fun of this game. You want to get your train to the middle to score double points but don't want to get there too quick. It's fun if you like screwing over people and it's also fun if you don't. The only drawback I have with this game is that turns can take a while if everyone is seeing what every spot they can place track does every turn. Overall, a fun time though.




39. Tokido


http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/123540/tokaido


In Tokaido, each player is a traveler crossing the "East sea road", one of the most magnificent roads of Japan. While traveling, you will meet people, taste fine meals, collect beautiful items, discover great panoramas, and visit temples and wild places but at the end of the day, when everyone has arrived at the end of the road you'll have to be the most initiated traveler – which means that you'll have to be the one who discovered the most interesting and varied things.
The potential action spaces in Tokaido are laid out on a linear track, with players advancing down this track to take actions. The player who is currently last on the track takes a turn by advancing forward on the track to their desired action and taking that action. So, players must choose whether to advance slowly in order to get more turns, or to travel more rapidly to beat other players to their desired action spaces.
The action spaces allow a variety of actions which will score in different, but roughly equal, ways. Some action spaces allow players to collect money, while others offer players a way to spend that money to acquire points. Other action spaces allow players to engage in various set collections which score points for assembling those sets. Some action spaces simply award players points for stopping on them, or give the player a randomly determined action from all of the other types.
All of the actions in Tokaido are very simple, and combined with a unique graphic design, Tokaido offers players a peaceful zen mood in its play.


This is not the last of the Antonie Bauza games you will see on this list. Tokaido is a fun, light, relaxing game. I talked about this on my last blog about Gateway. The rules are simple, it's easy enough to teach. This is a fine gateway game. The expansion, Crossroads adds a little more to it and I prefer to play it with it because it gives you more stuff to do.


38. Caylus


http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/18602/caylus


Once upon a time ...
1289. To strengthen the borders of the Kingdom of France, King Philip the Fair decided to have a new castle built. For the time being, Caylus is but a humble village, but soon, workers and craftsmen will be flocking by the cartload, attracted by the great prospects. Around the building site, a city is slowly rising up.
The players embody master builders. By building the King's castle and developing the city around it, they earn prestige points and gain the King's favor. When the castle is finished, the player who has earned the most prestige wins the game. The expansion Caylus Expansion: The Jeweller was included in the 2nd Edition.
Each turn, players pay to place their workers in various buildings in the village. These buildings allow players to gather resources or money, or to build or upgrade buildings with those resources. Players can also use their resources to help build the castle itself, earning points and favors from the king, which provide larger bonuses. Building a building provides some immediate points, and potentially income throughout the game, since players receive bonuses when others use their buildings. The buildings chosen by the players have a heavy impact on the course of the game, since they determine the actions that will be available to all the players.
As new buildings are built, they stretch along a road stretching away from the castle, and not all buildings can be used every turn. Players have some control over which buildings are active by paying to influence the movement of the Provost marker. The final position of the marker is the newest building that can be used that turn. The Provost marker also helps determine the movement of the Bailiff marker, which determines the end of the game. Generally, if players are building many buildings and the Provost is generous in allowing them to be used, the game ends more quickly.


For as high ranked as this game is, I don't see it around much, which is a shame. Worker placement is among my favorite game types and this is a pioneer in that genre. I dunno if I'm a big fan of the Provost marker, but this game has a lot of stuff I like. Stuff that appears in later games on the countdown. I need to play this more.


37. Coloretto


http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/5782/coloretto


Game play in Coloretto is simple: Either draw a card to play to a row, or take a row of cards to add them to your collection. A row can have at most three cards, so at some point everyone is forced to take a row. Once all the rows have been claimed, players start a new round, drawing or taking once again.
What are you trying to do with these cards? Collect huge sets - but only in three colors as every color beyond the third will cost you points. Jokers are highly-prized as they always match what you want, and +2 cards provide sure points, giving you a back-up plan if everything goes south in terms of the colors you're collecting.
Once only a few cards remain in the deck, the round ends and everyone tallies their score, choosing three colors of cards to score positively while any other colors count against you. Each color is scored using a triangular number system: the first card in a color is ±1 point, the second card is ±2 points, and so on. The player with the high score wins!
A two-player variant is included with some versions of Coloretto, with the only change being that rows can have only 1-3 cards placed in them, depending on the icons on the row cards.


Coloretto is a nice simple card game. I like the set collection aspect. You are trying to collect as many card in a few certain colors as you can, but you might have to take cards that cost you victory points to get them. It's a good system of risk/reward and pushing of luck. It's a game I've considered getting as a nice filler I can teach non-gamer friends.




36. RA


http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/12/ra


Ra is an auction and set-collection game with an Ancient Egyptian theme. Each turn players are able to purchase lots of tiles with their bidding tiles (suns). Once a player has used up his or her suns, the other players continue until they do likewise, which may set up a situation with a single uncontested player bidding on tiles before the end of the round occurs. Tension builds because the round may end before all players have had a chance to win their three lots for the epoch. The various tiles either give immediate points, prevent negative points for not having certain types at the end of the round (epoch), or give points after the final round. The game lasts for three "epochs" (rounds). The game offers a short learning curve, and experienced players find it both fast-moving and a quick play.


I'm not too big on auction games, but I like me some RA. It's a well done game about pressing your luck. You have to play to what suns you have to spend and try and get the best value for your suns. It's exciting to see what tile is coming out next, especially if you are pushing your luck that there is not an automatic RA to end the round. There are many different ways to get points but you need a good mix of all of them or you lose or miss out on points. It's a good game to play for an hour and has a pretty good ios app.


35. Spyrium


Spyrium is set in an alternate world, an England set in a steampunk-based universe. Players build factories, needing workers to manage the production of a commodity previously unknown to us called "Spyrium". Producing Spyrium in one factory, then processing it in the next results in victory points (VPs) for that particular player. Alternatively, Spyrium can be purchased, but the material is rare and expensive, and players are constantly scraping for money.
Only those who from the beginning of the game manage to increase their regular income or their base of permanently employed workers (who can be used again and again to raise money) will be flexible enough to get their hands on the important end-of-game buildings to generate many VPs.
The circular nature of the game is flexible as each player can decide for himself when to move out of the placement phase and into the activation phase. With the two tracks in the game, those involved with delivery during the worker phase can then be used to raise money, to purchase an adjacent card, or to work on their own in an idle factory. All of these things are important, but in the end only the player who has dealt best with the lack of money, workers and Spyrium will win.


Spyrium is an interesting game. I feel each move has to planned out carefully. It's a game where money is somewhat tight. You have to rely on being near other people to pull for money. But keep your guy there for too long without scooping up the card you need you can be in trouble. You need to get a good system going to gain points. You need to create spyrium and then have a way to convert it to points. I like games where resources are tight, it creates more tension in the game. I also like games where you can have a shit ton of resources and score copious amounts of points too.


34. Forbidden Island


http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/65244/forbidden-island


Forbidden Island is a visually stunning 'cooperative' board game. Instead of winning by competing with other players like most games, everyone must work together to win the game. Players take turns moving their pawns around the 'island', which is built by arranging the many beautifully screen-printed tiles before play begins. As the game progresses, more and more island tiles sink, becoming unavailable, and the pace increases. Players use strategies to keep the island from sinking, while trying to collect treasures and items. As the water level rises, it gets more difficult- sacrifices must be made.
What causes this game to truly stand out among co-op and competitive games alike is the extreme detail that has been paid to the physical components of the game. It comes in a sturdy and organized tin of good shelf storage size. The plastic treasure pieces and wooden pawns are well crafted and they fit just right into the box. The cards are durable, well printed, and easy to understand. The island tiles are the real gem: they are screen-printed with vibrant colors, each with a unique and pleasing image.
With multiple levels of difficulty, different characters to choose from (each with a special ability of their own), many optional island formats and game variations available, Forbidden Island has huge replay value. The game can be played by as few as two players and up to four (though it can accommodate five). More players translates into a faster and more difficult game, though the extra help can make all the difference. This is a fun game, tricky for players of almost any age. Selling for under twenty dollars, oddly, Forbidden Island is a rare game of both quality and affordable price.
For those who enjoy Forbidden Island, a follow-up project by Gamewright titled Forbidden Desert was released in 2013.
From the publisher's website:
Dare to discover Forbidden Island! Join a team of fearless adventurers on a do-or-die mission to capture four sacred treasures from the ruins of this perilous paradise. Your team will have to work together and make some pulse-pounding maneuvers, as the island will sink beneath every step! Race to collect the treasures and make a triumphant escape before you are swallowed into the watery abyss!


Forbidden Island is a fantastic gateway game. If you want to introduce non-gamers into co-ops, this might be the choice. It's simple enough for people to get. Yes, as in any co-op there can be an alpha gamer problem, but since it's somewhat simple enough, new players can easily figure out what needs to be done. I like Desert as well, but I find this to be the more fun option. And it's short enough a game, that sometimes you can play again if you failed the first time.


33. Concept


http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/147151/concept


In Concept, your goal is to guess words through the association of icons. A team of two players – neighbors at the table – choose a word or phrase that the other players need to guess. Acting together, this team places pieces judiciously on the available icons on the game board.
To get others to guess "milk", for example, the team might place the question mark icon (which signifies the main concept) on the liquid icon, then cubes of this color on the icons for "food/drink" and "white". For a more complicated concept, such as "Leonardo DiCaprio", the team can use the main concept and its matching cubes to clue players into the hidden phrase being an actor or director, while then using sub-concept icons and their matching cubes to gives clues to particular movies in which DiCaprio starred, such as Titanic or Inception.
The first player to discover the word or phrase receives 2 victory points, the team receives points as well, and the player who ends up with the most points wins.


Concept is a great, new party game. It's interesting to figure out how to get your team to guess something just based on placing cubes near pictures. There are many different and creative ways to get your clue across. It's fun talking post game about how you would have went about someone's clue. It's more creative and works more brain muscles than a game of Pictionary or Charades.


32. Istanbul


http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/148949/Istanbul


There's hustle and bustle at Istanbul's grand bazaar as merchants and their assistants rush through the narrow alleys in their attempt to be more successful than their competitors. Everything must be well organized: wheelbarrows must be filled with goods at the warehouses, then swiftly transported by the assistants to various destinations. Your goal? Be the first merchant to collect a certain number of rubies.
In Istanbul, you lead a group of one merchant and four assistants through 16 locations in the bazaar. At each such location, you can carry out a specific action. The challenge, though, is that to take an action, you must move your merchant and an assistant there, then leave the assistant behind (to handle all the details while you focus on larger matters). If you want to use that assistant again later, your merchant must return to that location to pick him up. Thus, you must plan ahead carefully to avoid being left with no assistants and thus unable to do anything...
In more detail, on a turn you move your merchant and his retinue of assistants one or two steps through the bazaar, either leave an assistant at that location or collect an assistant left earlier, then perform the action. If you meet other merchants or certain individuals at the location, you might be able to take a small extra action. Possible actions include:

• Paying to increase your wheelbarrow capacity, which starts the game with a capacity of only two for each good.
• Filling your wheelbarrow with a specified good to its limit.
• Acquiring a special ability, and the earlier you come, the easier they are to collect.
• Buying rubies or trading goods for rubies.
• Selling special combinations of goods to make the money you need to do everything else.

When a merchant has collected five rubies in his wheelbarrow, players complete that round, then the game ends. If this player is the only one who's reached this goal, he wins immediately; otherwise ties are broken by money in hand.


You likely thought #32 would be Constantinople. But #32 is Istanbul, not Constantinople. I'll never not make that joke when playing this. Even though there is no game named just Constantinople. This game just came out this year and I really like it. I like games where you have to plan moves ahead. You have to find the most effective way to move through the bazaar to get you the most rubies. There are many different avenues to go down. The first time I played this it was pretty epic, all 5 of us got to 5 rubies on the exact same turn. 5 way tie! Tiebreaker was money and had little money so I finished 5th.


31. For Sale




 http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/172/sale




For Sale is a quick, fun game nominally about buying and selling real estate. During the game's two distinct phases, players first bid for several buildings then, after all buildings have been bought, sell the buildings for the greatest profit possible.


For Sale is a great, short game. It's a game about correct timing and predicting when people will play certain cards. It's simple to teach but also can have a decent about of strategy in a small package. Again another game when getting the best value for your moves is the way to win. I do enjoy short filler games along with my meaty Euros.

Gateway 2014: The Unauthorized True Story

GATEWAY 2014 BLOG


Another holiday weekend, another board game convention. 3 times a year, at the LAX Hilton, there is a Strategicon convention. 4 days of nothing but board games (also war games, miniatures, RPGs,CCGs and a small video game section but who gives a crap). Just kidding. But I'm basically playing board games for 4 days straight. Here is the run-through of my con:






FRIDAY or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Enjoy Bomb Squad


3:00 Yabba Dabba Do, I'm leaving work and off to the con. Just have to run some errands and I'm there. I park about 3/4ths of a mile away from the hotel. I decide since I have free Uber credits and it would only cost me 4 dollars of that to Uber over. Uber driver was nice, told him I was headed to a board game convention. He make- a 5 stars. #harmontownreference




5:00: I arrive at the con. I check stuff out for about an hour. Check out the dealer room, see if there is anything going on in open gaming. Awkwardly hang around the start of the first Terra Mystica qualifiers. Nobody is playing Darklings, which is a surprise. It's a tournament, play an overpowered race if given a chance! Grab some chicken fingers at the con's own snack stand. I'm not paying 6 dollars for a hot dog! I have one rule in life, I don't pay more than 2 dollars for a hot dog. Ever.




6:00 Tokaido: My first event of the con. Tokaido is an easy, relaxing game. The theme is you are a tourist in Japan on the East Sea Road. Gameplay is basically you move your piece to an area that gets you something (souvenirs, nice views, money, encounters, temples, etc.) and the furthest back person is the next to go (so if you walk to far ahead, you won't have a turn for a while). Spoiler Alert: It will appear in my next Top 50 post. This game went alright, taught some new people the game. I finished 3rd with a heavy temple strategy because I had the dude who everytime you go to the temple, you place a coin there for free.


Boardgame Geek link: http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/123540/tokaido




7:00 7 Wonders Expansion tourney: This is the reason I didn't play Friday's qualifier for Terra Mystica. That and I didn't want to spend half my con just playing that and Castles. This 7 Wonders expansions tourney was super interesting. Leaders and Cities together is enough fun ( because Cities doesn't get a lot of play) but the dude running it had a huge stack of leader boards. 5/7 boards were ones I have never seen or heard of. They were all fan boards. Mine gave me the ability to give 2 loss tokens per military loss, plus one point per shield end game. So obviously I have to do a military strategy. The leaders drafting section is where my game fell apart. I stupidly pass a leader which turns loss tokens into shields to the person next to me. The person next to me has a leader board in which he starts with 3 loss tokens!!! Even if you read this with no knowledge of this game, you can already derive that that's like the worst move in board game history. So I struggle to tie him in military for the first two ages. I get 15 points on my last wonder but I'm nowhere close to 1st or 2nd. That play basically cost me 12-14 points, which might have been enough to get me into the next round. I will for sure play this next con.


9:00 Bomb Squad


It was suggested to me that I try Bomb Squad. It has similar mechanics to Hanabi, in which you cannot see your cards and it is a co-op. As a team you are a robot trying to deactivate bombs. You have to play cards that move the robot along a board and cards that deactivate bombs and open doors. As with Hanabi, you can only say one kind of clue, like these cards are move or these cards are red. The difference is you only have 15 minutes and have unlimited clues. So you can tell someone every card they have in their hand in theory. Whether that is a good idea, I don't know. You also play cards face down, so the person playing it doesn't know if it was the correct card played, you have to also go on other cards people played. Then there is battery, and that is where discards come in. You have to discard for battery. If you do not have enough, the robot cannot do their actions. So efficiency is important in this game. It's fun, fast paced and stressful. But a good stress.


10:00 Bruges


It's a Feld, so I was there. Just an event though. I did a heavy canal strategy, which I usually do not do. One card forced my hand as it basically gave me one free canal each round. I got that in the second round, so I easily got to the end of both canals for 23 points total (7+6 for canal end bonus, 6 points for mid canal bonus, 4 point furthest on canal bonus). A card that got me to get rid of 2 threat markers for an action instead of just 1 also gained me 10 points. I ended up with 52 points and the win. 1st place ribbon, baby!




SATURDAY: I played a Green 5 to the judge


9:00AM Castles of Burgundy qualifier


I have finished 3rd in the Castles tourneys at the last two cons. Both castles finals were one of the few final tables that I thought I played well in, instead of doing my usual choke sessions. So I was feeling confident about this one. But I don't know, I scored the second lowest I have ever scored, 201. I thought I was playing fine but I think my problem was taking too many actions on getting workers. It seemed like I was burning through workers the whole game, because my dumb dice were not close enough to have them do what I wanted them to do. Plus the fact I did not have mines for most of the game. The others took the mines in the first few rounds before I had a chance to get them. So I had no silverlings flow going, which cost me chances to get tiles. You might say my opponents were playing "mine" game with me, which I usually wouldn't "mine" but this is a tourney. I wanted to get to the finals to play against David Mines and have those 20 dealer dollars be "mine".




12:00PM Hanabi Race


My gaming crew seems to basically play two games half the time, this and Terra Mystica. My friend AJ decided to run a speed Hanabi event. The rules are regular Hanabi rules. You have 15 minutes, you can restart anytime you want, just time keeps on going. So if you have a bad first draw, just restart. There is also a judge looking out for "cheating". First rule break is free but then escalates each time. I played a green 5 ( i.e. a 5 dollar bill, if you didn't get the joke) before the match to Patricia the judge so she let me slide. Not really though. Our team of Chris, Steve, Sam and myself won with 24 on rainbows. We were in the zone the second go through but we broke the rules on rainbows ( which is an automatic restart) accidently. So we had to start over with only 7 minutes left. Very fun event and hope to see it become a tourney soon.




1:00 PM Fleet ( Open Gaming)


I've heard good things about Fleet and decided to try it. I liked it, it's a pretty good card game. I should do more open gaming in which I try new games from the library. But I also love the competition of the tourneys. There's just so much to do it's hard fulfilling both. New goal for next con, play more new stuff I cannot elsewhere.




3:00 PM Love Letter tourney


I like Love Letter, it's a nice short filler game. I had a maybe 10 year old girl at the table. My reaction with kids at the table is, that's cool they are trying to hang with the adults. But some of these kids know their shit. The first round was super close, it came down to the last cube as we were all tied at 4.




4:00PM Game Show: I've got a secret


I like the game show guys. They put on a good show. Press your Luck, Remote Control among others are highlights of some of the cons. I loved it when they had a 24 hour marathon and hope they do it again, even though I barely slept that night. Well one of them is getting married, and this seemed to be a show that set up the wedding that was coming after. I would have stayed for the wedding, but I didn't want to have to leave in the middle, so I left before. I pretty much just hung around the con until 7PM when I ran 7 Blunders




7:00 7 Blunders


I was going to run 8 hours of games this con. It was going to be a 7 Blunders tourney, a 7 Blunders: Leaders event, and a Waterdeep expansion event. However, two things happened. One, I forgot to sign up events until last minute. Two, there was too much on the schedule I wanted to do. 7 Blunders is a favorite of mine. I decided to run 7 Blunders as I want to spread the game out. If someone plays in my tourney and then teaches the game to their group then I've done my part. I lot of the players hadn't heard of the variant and were interested. I got 28 players to come out for it. I think it's because 7 Wonders is super popular ( the mega tourney on Monday gets 50 players) and the novelty of low score variant gets the lookieloos. The game works amazingly well as a low score variant. There are so few rule changes to make it work. It's the same game but an entire new game. I could go on, but it will be in the later post on the top 50. So I ran the event, and since I run the event, I'm last priority for a seat. 12 minutes after 7 we are about to start. There are 27 people so I fill the last slot at the 4th table. But then some guy shows up, and even though he's 13 minutes late, I don't have the heart to not accept him. I want the game to spread, the more the merrier. But then this guy ( the same guy I sat next to in the 7 Wonders expansion tourney, who I helped throughout that game as he had only played 7 Wonders once before) offered his seat to me. I declined but he insisted because I had been a help to him before. So I was in. I had the Halicarnassus wonder, which allows you to go through the discard. I like to build resources in this game as they are not worth points and as in regular 7 Wonders, I like to have access to get any of the cards Age III. Most people assume trading in for 3 but not having a legal play is the way to go, but chasing that can get you into hot water and make you build cards that are bad for you. The Halicarnassus wonder can be good depending on the discard pile. At the end of Age II I was at 0 points between the cards with points and my negative military. In age III I use my wonder 3 times. I got really lucky there was somehow 2 resource cards in the discard pile. 2 zero point plays and a military card that netted me none as well! That wonder couldn't of went better. I had a score of 13 which is the lowest score I have ever seen. The next lowest ever was 14 once then a 17 and an 18 I once had. I had half the score of 2nd place. So I thought I had good momentum going into the finals but I finished 4th with a bad score of 42. Just as well as I'm not eligible for dealer dollars. Got the tourney bumped up to a medium because of player count. Very happy with how this turned out.




9:00 Terra Mystica qualifiers


Like I said, this is the one game ( besides Hanabi) that gets more play in our group than any other. I would say on average at least one of us is involved in some Terra Mystica game 3 times a week. Not to be cocky, but we are usually the best people at the game at the con. Last con we had I think 7 of the 10 semi finalists. However, none of got first or second for that matter. It's my fault for letting that dude have Mermaids. He got all 8 dwellings out in the first round! So we were dead set on having one of us take the crown. So this opening round I had Ehren at my table. Ehren, a good friend but a formidable opponent at Terra Mystica. Luckily, he already qualifies because he won the tourney before so I would get in if I placed 2nd to him. Darklings gets around to me. I told myself before, just play Darklings unless it's a horrible setup for them. I know what to do with them, and how to win with them. It was a semi decent setup for them so I picked them. 5th round was dwelling bonus and 6th round was trading post bonus. I had it set up so I would be able to play 5 dwellings in the 5th round and 3-4 trading posts in the last round. I scored around 30 points each of those rounds to give me the win with 142. Off to the next round!


11:30 Game Show - Remote Control


Out of all the game show things, Remote Control maybe my favorite. It's basically all pop culture questions and it is a fun format. I meet up with Sam, Deb and Patricia there. Me and Sam and some other dude get picked to play. Sam's a worthy opponent, he knows some shit but was no match for me when I get a Simpsons, Seinfeld and a How I Met Your Mother category. Nobody would have had a chance with that draw. I also dominated sports by not even knowing who was in the NBA finals. I dunno, Lebron James? is somehow the right answer.  I win 5000 fake dollars, so I bought the three of them a fake dinner. I could have bought the entire room a fake dinner, but I'm a cheapass.




SUNDAY: SEAN JUICE


10:00AM TERRA MYSTICA SEMIS


 That guy who got 8 dwellings out with mermaids at the last con and won was in the semis. When I was walking in the con with Deb and Chris we saw the guy in front of the hotel, just staring at a Terra Mystica board. We were like he's studying the board! Or was he just trying to skyke us out? This guy knows his shit. He knows every best placement for every race for every setup. If any of us were to lose, it would be to this guy. There were two tables in the semis. Me, Ehren, Peter and this guy ( name was TJ) were one table. The other table was Chris, AJ, John and some other dude. We had good odds, but TJ is a formidable opponent. They put out the setup. It went 1st round: stronghold/sanctuary bonus 2nd round shovel bonus 3rd round town bonus, 4th round SH/SA bonus 5th and 6th both trading post bonus. Horrible setup for my two best races, Halflings and Darklings.
Ehren had 1st pick, Peter 2nd, me 3rd, TJ 4th. This missing tiles were three power +1 shipping, six coins, and 4 coins cult bump. So TJ starts saying 3 races are good with this setup. I figure one might be Alcamists because money will be tight with the missing tiles. Wasn't sure what the other two were yet. Ehren picked Giants, who are usually weak, but he has won with them before. Peter picked Alcamists. So I'm thinking of my race. Darklings are out and I wouldn't have picked them anyway due to no dwelling bonus rounds and a too early digging round. Halflings aren't that strong but I know how to play them well. TJ had mentioned they had already taken two of the races that he would considering strong here. So I kind of also didn't want him to get a race he thinks he dominate with. Didn't want to do the same thing I did last con and pass him the race he dominated in. So I'm considering the Swarmlings because of the two late TP bonus. The only thing I'm worried about is the costs as Swarmlings everything costs more. I decide to go with it. Turns out that was the third race TJ was talking about. He was then at a loss of what to pick. He went with Engineers. Everything went well for me in this game. I built my stronghold, which gives me free Trading posts each round. Early one of my starting swellings had its route blocked so I abandoned it much like I did the day before with Darklings ( I only had one town that game, I decided to concentrate on other stuff). But this time I felt like I needed two towns, there isn't enough points with swarmlings without it. So I decided I had to bridge from my original dwelling then ship to get dwellings down for the other town ( and use the ability to build TP each round, as there were no neighbors in that section). 3rd round I was lucky to get a bridge to complete my first town. Grabbed shipping just because it got me 3 extra points as I had the shipping VP title. 4th round I just set myself up to have a huge last two rounds. Built a bunch of trading posts at 6 points each, not to mention grabbing a TP bonus tile, a second town, and the shipping bonus which I upped my shipping to 3 for 9 points plus, 3 shipping ended up getting me a last dwelling to scoop 2nd longest road. I think I played my best this round, and on a race I'm only ok with. I ended up winning with 139 and advancing. Peter got 2nd and advanced and two former champions ( Ehren, TJ) were out.


Now leading up to this, I wasn't even sure I would play a final table. I was super pumped up to try Feld's latest Aquashphere at 2PM. But looking at the lineup of people and the momentum ( and also the fact I had yet to earn a dealer dollar) I decided to play!


1:00 TERRA MYSTICA FINALS


It was a stacked final table. The final table couldn't of been better if it was written. Me, Peter, John and AJ.  Some backstory first. You see, Peter and John have this back and forth friendly rivalry in which each proclaims that they are "world champ" whenever they beat each other. So AJ once posted a poll on Facebook asking who the world champ was. And surprise surprise, the vote came down 2 votes Peter, 2 votes John, and 3 votes me! So obviously, that makes me the "People's champ". So the two world champs, the peoples champ and the guy who brought them all together with game nights at his place. It's a storybook final table if I ever seen one. It would also settle who the real champ is. Of course, if AJ wins, nothing is settled, and he can rest easy knowing he beat 3 "champs". This round was different. John B. (GM) decided to use the pre selected race auction rules. He also put it to a vote if we wanted to use the not released expansion races. I voted yes because I would of liked a chance to use Shapeshifters, who are more overpowered than the Darklings! AJ also votes yes, but John and Peter vote no. It comes down to a terrain flip. Base races it is! The race choices were Darklings, Halflings, Giants and Dwaves. I knew I was going to at least bid VPs to get Darklings, but knew I could get Halflings if I lose a bid. I ended up getting Darklings for 6 VPs which I think is good value. I played well, but I was power straved the whole game as my only neighbor was Peter and he didn't go to the spots I thought he would with Dwarves until late. I still made a lot of points on dwellings and stuff. But my power did not move once in 30 minutes which is weird. It gave me free reign over the one section of the board to terraform a bunch, as I had good priest income. I was doing pretty good. But sometime during the last round, I had realized that I didn't think I could top John even if I got longest road. Peter was out of it by then, so my new goal was just to beat AJ for 2nd. I have been to 16 final tables and never placed higher than 3rd, so at least getting second would be huge for me. For most of the last round I thought I had 2nd sewn up. AJ was unable to build the 3rd town he wanted as he was a few coins short. He needed to build a trading post but had no neighbors to get it cheaper in the area the potential town would be. Until... John just trying to lay more dwellings down for longest and points placed one near AJ, not even realizing it would effect anything. All of sudden ( I missed it too), AJ was able to build a town. A town that got him 9 points plus 5 points for town bonus. Not only that it got him a priest to use that was able to get him from 2 points on the blue track to 8 points! So a 20 point swing!! Which was more than enough to take him from 3rd to 1st. Moved John down to 2nd and me to 3rd. Getting longest road wasn't enough to get me out of 3rd and my streak of no top 2's stayed going.


3:30-5:00 SEAN JUICE


I brought some of what people called "Sean Juice" to the con with me Saturday and Sunday. As I had Terra to think about, I hadn't drank any, but the end result of Terra drove me to drink it, lol. Honestly, it was a great fun, no tension final and I was happy whoever won it, which is nice.


5:00 Dominion Expansions


I was interested to try out some expansions I have not played. Well first game, I got Seaside, which I just played the other week. The game was pretty annoying as the Pirate Ships made everyone lose their coppers, so people barely had money ever. Go it dragged on since it was harder to buy providences. People had combos that were basically I play my whole deck every turn which is always annoying to me. Game dragged on for like an hour and half and after I was like screw this, I'm doing something else this is killing my buzz.


7:00 PM Feedback Forum


Feedback forum is a great way to learn how conventions are run and you get to voice you ways to improve the con. If we can get work to get the con to be better each con, it only helps our enjoyment. So I am glad to voice my opinion and sit through a forum for the betterment of the con. Who am I kidding, it's for the FREE PIZZA!!! So I get there, there's no pizza. I'm like ok. They are bringing out at the end so there is no one who comes in for free za and then bounces. That's cool. But it's the end of the forum and they were basically like "oh, we aren't doing free pizza anymore" WTF. I have a new topic of discussion, "I want my f-ing pizza!"


8:00 PM Game Show: The Weakest Link


So I joined a game of The Weakest Link. The first two rounds I was statistically the strongest player both rounds. The third round I messed up and got two wrong. Whatever, my past performance should get me through this vote. Everyone voted me out! I think they were just using me getting two wrong as an excuse to get their threat to win out. It's pretty much the only reason. People from the audience came up to me later and were like "they shouldn't have voted you out". Ok, only on person did, but still.


9:00 PM Lords of Waterdeep


Lords of Waterdeep used to be my favorite game, I've kind of got worn out on it. I still enjoy it. I am the self proclaimed best Lords player in LA so I have to play this. I have never won a Lords tourney. I made the final table twice, but blew it at the finals twice for a 3rd and 4th. So, I needed to live up to my moniker. I actually had only played Lords once in the past 4 months, so I thought I would be a bit rusty. But my first game went really well. I was the Commerce/Skullduggery Lord. I completed a 2 points per Commerce quest first. Then went on a chain where I would complete a skullduggery quest that got me money to complete a commerce quest which got me black cubes ( rouges) to complete a Skullduggery quest. So I got out to an early lead and got two Mandys played on me, the last one cost me 12 points, but it wasn;t enough and I won. I was on to the finals to possibly blow it again.


So I'm at the final table with AJ ( who tore up this con. Terra Mystica and Takenoko wins among others) and three other dudes. One of the other dudes seems to know his shit and other two just seem there by having a good first game. I get the choice between the lord having 5 per quest over 10 or 3 for just any quest. I choose the 5 point one, but I think I might have chosen the 3 point had I looked at my starting Intrigue cards. When I did look at them I noticed something great. The OPEN LORD card!!!! It was like the heavens dropped down this card into my hand! Now I don't believe in God per say as someone who is in Heaven looking down upon us. But this had to be divine intervention. The Open Lord card basically keep you from getting attack cards played on you. It is super OP to have, especially at the start of the game. I also don't have to worry about hatas raining down Mandys on me. So I decide I'm going to go for my quest in my starting hand which will give me 3 buildings for free. However, it took me a while to get the resources for it and when I did it, the building weren't good enough. I think that is only a good value card if there are like a bunch of 6-8 cost buildings when you use it. I felt I wasted it on 4 cost buildings. So I was just going to try and get easy 10-15 point quests and a lot of them to get my bonus. But then I decide to go for the 40 point Warfare as I had built a building which produces 4 orange or black for 2 coins and the 4 Orange place 2 and 4 black place 2 building were in builders hall, possibly to get built by the guy who I knew had to be builder lord. I knew if those buildings came in play I could get that and the skullduggery 40 point quest I picked up the next turn. I knew it would take me most of the rest of the game getting them because of the purple and white costs involved with them. I had set up a move with the Ambassador to make certain I was able to get both 4 cube buildings one at the start of round 7 which would give me enough time to complete another quest after the two 40 point ones. Because the thing is, completing both 40's would only get my score to around 123, which IMO is not enough to win in a Undermountian expansion game. I knew I had to have one more 10+ quest. AJ then played a bribe agent to take the ambassador away, and I was crestfallen. Until we noticed bribe agent is actually an attack card! So nevermind! I don't know what comes over me, but I was a nervous wreck for the last two rounds. I knew I was close, but even though everyone at the table seemed certain I would win, I wasn't sure. I thought for sure the one guy was near me in points and would have more lord points. I needed to get one extra quest after the two 40s or I felt I would be in 3rd. Again. I don't know, when I'm tense I feel like I'm actually like an asshole. I get up from the table and pace a lot. I stormed off over the ambassador move thinking "oh no, I wasn't a move when moves are super tight for me to win". I feel I talk to much and worry and become annoying and obnoxious. Anyone there think I was being obnoxious with my actions? It was all nerves. I set goals for myself, and I have failed at this goal 16 times and it meant a lot to me. Especially since 3/4 of the time I felt I blew it instead of just not getting enough to win but playing my best. Especially when it came down to last move. There was only 1 place ( that I saw, there was actually 2) to get a white cube on the board and I needed one white cube to win the game in my estimation. I needed it to get a 10 point quest. 4 people had to go before it was my last turn. In my mind if one person went on the ?/orangeblack spot , I could not get it. I would be third and might have to wait months to place first in a tourney. So I walked away from the board, I could not look at the board. I said let me know when its my turn. I didn't;t want to hear people telling someone to go to that spot. I got back and one more person was left to place. This guy took for fucking ever to place his last guy. He was in 5th place. I wanted to yell out, just place the guy already. Jesus Christ, its not going to matter. In my mind it was one spot he couldn't go to. So I pace around some more, as I am wont to do. Finally he places a guy, not on that spot. I place my guy right away on the white spot so there is no way he has a change to redo his move. I mean I didn't have to worry as the spot that you trade in two cubes for 3 also nets me one white cube. But where is the tension in that story? I complete that quest and it is enough to win me the game! After 2 years of cons and 17 final tables I finally did it. I had won a tournament! And in the game that got me into Euros and really cemented me in the hobby. The game in which I had lost heartbreakingly at before, the game I'm known for being good at and loving. It couldn't have been better that this was the one I won.




MONDAY: I've never had this many dealer dollars!


9:00AM 7 Wonders MEGA


I finished at the final table of the MEGA at the last two cons. I had Giza wonder 5 out of 6 times during that span. I lost Orccon's final table because I did not plan well and didn't have access to build the last two parts of the Giza Wonder. The next con I lost a close one where I finished in 4th despite being only 5 points behind the leader. I had some mo' after the Waterdeep win so I was feeling good. But nope, I was out in the first round. All the planning in the world doesn't matter when you are never given good cards to play. I usually have to miss half the auction because I'm in the finals. Looks like I'm making that one time.


With an hour to spare, the guy who ran the 7 Wonders expansion tourney asked me if I wanted to play a game of 7 Blunders. My plan for 7 Blunders had worked. It is catching on, catching on enough people are playing pickup games of it! Hopefully it spreads, it feels nice to maybe have given something back to the gaming community. I won that pickup match with a score of 26, no 13 but still good.


11AM Auction and Dealer Room


The auction is always fun, I usually end up buying a few games I can get for 3 or less dollars. They usually are party type games like True Colors. However, this time I have 29 dealer dollars!! I can get an actual game! But there was nothing really too exciting there. I decide to go to the dealer room to see if I can get any deals. I ended up getting Bora Bora and 7 Wonders Leaders for 55 dollars. 29 of which I used dealer dollars for. So in my mind, 15 per game after dealer dollars I would have to spend anyway.


1AM - 7PM Winding down


So played some games of Hanabi with Sam and Patricia then we bounced from the convention area as it was waaaaay to cold there. We then decided to go to a Thai place after the longest game of the expansion to " What are we playing next", "Where are we eating next?" It was great Thai food, great company and a great end to an awesome weekend of gaming. I'm sad I have to wait until February to do it again.

Top 50 Board Games of all Time 50-41

Welcome to a new list I will never finish! As you know, I am a board game addict. I game at least 3 times a week ( usually more). I once famously gamed 21 days in a row. There is some controversy on Day 17 but I had meeple in hand at 11:59 that day so... I hold the record for Strategicon final tables without a win ( or a second place for that matter) with 17. I also never stop humblebragging about it. So without further ado, here is the list:


Honorable Mentions


Alhambra - a classic
Snake Oil - a better version of Apples to Apples or CAH for me. Way more creative and fun
Coconuts - you make monkeys flick coconuts into cups. Why is this not in the top 10?
Guillotine - simple game, solid filler
10 Days series ( USA, Asia, Africa) - Solid short filler, not on the list because of a tragic one card from winning AJ's tourney flashback.
Viticulture - solid worker placement about wine making
Roll Through the Ages - solid dice game
Glen More - as my game groups resident alcoholic, I had a heavy whisky strategy
Bruxelles 1893 - Solid Euro
Android Netrunner - I see the hype but I don't think I can get into as some people do. Still a good game.
Transamerica - Ticket to Ride lite, solid filler
Eniment Domain
Atlantis
Forbidden Desert - Co-ops usually aren't my favorite but I like these series of games
Cash and Guns - you get to point orange foam guns at people. I always tip the gun to the side because I'm cool like that
Guildhall
Hawaii - Tom Vassel is wrong on this one




50. Augustus

http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/137297/augustus


Via Board Game geek
In Augustus, you vie with your fellow players to complete "objective" cards for special powers and ultimately for victory points. Each card has 2-6 symbols which you must populate with legionnaire meeples in order to complete the card. These symbols are drawn one at a time from a bag, with all players gaining the benefit equally, but interestingly, the bag contains more of some symbols than others.
So the pivotal skill you'll deploy is in making your choice of which three objectives you'll start the game with (you're dealt six) — balancing potential difficulty of completion against value of the reward — and then which of five available objectives you'll add to your plate each time you complete one of your three. The game ends when someone completes seven objectives.


So Augustus is basically a gamers version of Bingo. My mom plays bingo more than I play board games so maybe it's in my genes. But it is fun and you get to yell out "Ave Caesar". I like anytime you get to yell out something. That's like 90 percent of the fun of Sorry! Because its not the game play. Why am I hating on Sorry!? Am I becoming a board game snob?


49. Once Upon A Time


http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/1234/once-upon-time-storytelling-card-game


Via BGG
Once Upon A Time is a game in which the players create a story together, using cards that show typical elements from fairy tales. One player is the Storyteller and creates a story using the ingredients on her cards. She tries to guide the plot towards her own ending. The other players try to use cards to interrupt her and become the new Storyteller. The winner is the first player to play out all her cards and end with her Happy Ever After card.


Nice, fun creative game. It's a storytelling game. The fun comes in figuring out how to get the story to make sense with the ending you are given and how to play the cards. They are in the forest? How am I going to get them back to the castle? My ending has them having a feast at the castle! But the other player established that the Queen had all food banished from the land!


48. Among the Stars


http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/110277/among-stars


Via BGG
Among the Stars takes place in a war-ravaged galaxy where the warring alien races have declared peace in the wake of a threat with the potential to destroy them all. An Alliance is established to build space stations throughout the galaxy in order to promote trade among the races, strengthen diplomatic relations, and defend against this impending threat. Each player takes the role of one of those races trying to build the greatest space station. Through card drafting, the players select locations, and use these to build their station, scoring victory points based on the placement. The construction lasts four years, and alien race with the most points at the end wins.


It's basically 7 Wonders with a building mechanic. I've only played this once and I'm itching to play this again. Card drafting is up among my favorite game mechanics. It adds to 7 Wonders but I still prefer 7 Wonders as you will see later. Once more people have this game expect to see me run Among the Blunders at next years con. I need to come up with a better name for the 7 Blunders version of the game.


47. Skull & Roses


http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/92415/skull-roses


I'll just have Shut Up & Sit Down describe why this game is good


http://boardgamegeek.com/video/42566/skull-roses/opener-skull-roses-fresh-pizza


46. Jaipur


http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/54043/jaipur


Jaipur, capital of Rajasthan. You are one of the two most powerful traders in the city.
But that's not enough for you, because only the merchant with two Seals of Excellence will have the privilege of being invited to the Maharaja's court.
You are therefore going to have to do better than your direct competitor by buying, exchanging and selling at better prices, all while keeping an eye on both your camel herds.
A card game for two seasoned traders!
When it's your turn, you can either take or sell cards.
If you take cards, you have to choose between taking all the camels, taking 1 card from the market or swapping 2 to 5 cards between the market and your cards.
If you sell cards, you get to sell only one type of good per turn, and you get as many chips from that good as you sold cards. The chips' values decrease as the game progresses, so you'd better hurry ! But, on the other hand, you get increasingly high rewards for selling 3, 4, or 5 cards of the same good at a time, so you'd better wait!
You can't sell camels, but they're paramount for trading and they're also worth a little something at the end of the round, enough sometimes to secure the win, so you have to use them smartly.
Jaipur is a fast-paced card game, a blend of tactics, risk and luck.


Jaipur is one of the best pure two player games out there. I have logged a lot of plays on this on boardgamearena.com and for good reason. The game is about timing. When to sell your goods, it's a balancing act. The max hand size of 7 leads to people not being able to hoard. I like to take a lot of camels so I have flexibility. 2 player games don't usually get a lot of play, but if there is two of us and this is available I'd suggest it.


45. Vikings


http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/27173/Vikings


Via BGG:
Vikings is a fast economic game. Despite the nominal "Viking" theme, no actual exploration or pillage is involved.
The resources in the game consist of coins and several types of ship tiles, island tiles and meeples. In each of 6 rounds, a random set of 12 tiles and 12 meeples becomes available. Players take turns buying and placing pairs of meeples and tiles. There is no direct player interaction, only indirect contention for resources during the buying phase.
The most unusual aspect of the game is the pricing wheel, which pairs meeples with tiles and sets their prices.


Vikings is a game that was a late addition to the list. Sorry Eniment Domain, Vikings took your slot. The price wheel mechanic in the game is pretty cool. On my first play I had way to many boatwains wasting space so I ended up getting lapped. But a game your lose heavily on that you want to play again, that is a signal of a good game.


44. Wits and Wagers


http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/20100/wits-wagers


Via BGG


Trivia for People Who Don't Know Stuff!
Not a trivia buff? It doesn’t matter! Each player writes a guess to a question such as “In what year did the bikini swimsuit makes its first appearance?” or “How many feet wide is an NFL football field?” and places it face-up on the betting mat. Think you know the answer? Bet on your guess. Think you know who the experts are? Bet on their guess. The closest answer pays out according to the odds on the betting mat. Strike it big and you’ll be cheering like you just hit the jackpot!
Wits & Wagers is a trivia game that lets you bet on anyone’s answer. So you can win by making educated guesses, by playing the odds, or by knowing the interests of your friends. It can be taught in 2 minutes, played in 25 minutes, and accommodates up to 20 people in teams.


Wits & Wagers is my go to trivia game nowadays. It is good for people that don't know trivia as well as they can guestamate numbers. I'm good with facts involving numbers and years so I'm pretty good at the game. My big hubris in this game is even locking up a win I put it all in on something I'm kind of sure on to get like a 400 plus score.


43. Say Anything
http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/33604/say-anything


Via BGG:


Say Anything is a light-hearted game about what you and your friends think. It gives you the chance to settle questions that have been hotly debated for centuries. For instance, "What is the most overrated band of all time?" or "Which celebrity would be the most fun to hang out with for a day?" So dig deep into your heart or just come up with something witty - this is your chance to Say Anything!
How to Play
1) Ask a question from the card you draw. Ex:
- If you could have a "BIG" anything, what would it be?
- What's the most important invention of the last century?
- Which website would be hardest to live without?
- What's the best activity for a first date?
- What's the worst thing to say to a cop after getting pulled over?
2) Everyone else writes an answer and throws it face-up on the table as fast as possible. No duplicate answers are allowed!
3) Secretly choose your favorite response using a genuine state of the art SELECT-O-MATIC 5000 (see pictures).
4) Everyone else has two betting tokens to bet on which answer you chose. They can bet both tokens on one answer or split them between two different answers (just like in Wits & Wagers).
Who Will Like This Game?
Say Anything is a pure party game. It was designed to get a party started as quickly as possible by prompting people to talk about interesting things and to make ridiculous statements. Although it was designed by the makers of Wits & Wagers, it is a much lighter game. Wits & Wagers can be played strategically or as a boisterous party game, but Say Anything can only be played as a pure party game. If you are looking for great social interaction and lots of laughs, then you will probably enjoy playing Say Anything.


Second game in a row that I own and with good reason. This party game, as with most party games, is great with the right group of people. Of all the games that share the Apples to Apples mechanic this is one of the best. Well Dixit is better but slightly. Spoiler Alert: It's #42!


42. Dixit


http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/39856/dixit


One player is the storyteller for the turn and looks at the images on the 6 cards in her hand. From one of these, she makes up a sentence and says it out loud (without showing the card to the other players).
Each other player selects the card in their hands which best matches the sentence and gives the selected card to the storyteller, without showing it to the others.
The storyteller shuffles her card with all the received cards. All pictures are shown face up and every player has to bet upon which picture was the storyteller's.
If nobody or everybody finds the correct card, the storyteller scores 0, and each of the other players scores 2. Otherwise the storyteller and whoever found the correct answer score 3. Players score 1 point for every vote for their own card.
The game ends when the deck is empty or if a player scores 30 points. In either case, the player with the most points wins the game.
The base game and all expansions have 84 cards each.




Dixit has this reputation for being the most respected party game. Hardcore gamers like Dixit or at least respect it. It has great original artwork that can be interpreted in many different ways. It also tests peoples minds and creativity. I usually lose by saying some obscure pop culture reference that I think one person would know then nobody gets it.


41. Luna


http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/70512/luna


Via BGG


"The end of her regency is nigh. It's time to clear the way for a new bearer of the burden. She will keep a wary eye on the novices representing their Orders and trying to win her favor. Eventually, she will have to come to a decision. Which Order will prove itself worthy to decide on her successor? There will be a new Moon Priestess and she will bear the title: LUNA."
"LUNA" is the title of the Moon Priestess, and before her very eyes, each of the up to four Orders competes for the right to decide on her successor. The players are the heads of the Orders who try to convince the Priestess of themselves. Over the course of six rounds, they need to collect as many influence points as possible by skillfully placing their novices to achieve that goal.
The players move their novices over seven islands surrounding a temple island. The novices are placed according to the "worker movement" principle, i.e. they aren't placed at the beginning of a round, but instead start where they ended the round before. Thus, novice movement is an important part of a round: Only if you're in the right place at the right time, you'll gain the deciding influence points. You'll have to build new shrines, work at the temple, and participate in the Priestess' divine services. But don't forget to recruit additional novices or win the favor of the local Priests; these are vital means to prepare and combine the diverse actions.
LUNA: In the Domain of the Moon Priestess is a challenging tactical game with strategic and interactive elements that takes about 20-25 minutes per player. The different placement of the islands and novices at the beginning of the game creates a different feeling each time you play and opens up new strategies.


Luna is my least favorite Feld ( that I've played). And it's number 41 favorite game ever. I am such a Feld fanboy. Point salad is my favorite kind of salad. They are many different ways to get points, the mechanics are pretty cool in this game, but not as interesting as some other Felds that I'll get to in the future. I like it and would totally play it but I'm not like heavily push it like the others.

Top 6 Board Games of 2013

This year I became obsessed with board games. I play board games at least 3 times a week. As of this writing I have gamed 8 nights in a row. I have a problem. With that, this is my Top 6 of 2013. Why 6. I decided only to rank the games I really liked, that fall in the category of games I try to get played. I have a 5 tier rating system as follows:

• Games I try to get played
• Games I say "yea I'll play that" (in a chipper voice) - Space Cadets: Dice Duel, Augustus, Forbidden Desert, Cinque Terre, Via Appia are 2013 examples of this
• Games I say "sure I'll play that, I guess" - Compounded, Ladies and Gentlemen, Pixel Lincoln
• Games I'll play if theres no other possibility or will play because eh, its short enough- Coup
• Games where I'm like "no thanks" I'll wait for another game to finsh

There two games that technically came out in 2012 on the list, one because the American version came out this year (so that's the excuse to use that one) and one because it was late 2012, and I wanted some competition with what would be the runaway number 1.

6. Bruges

http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/136888/bruges

I think Stefan Feld is one of my favorite designers. Castles of Burgundy is my 3rd favorite game of all time (behind this years top 2!) So yea, this game, so many different things to do with one card, and different ways to score. I have only played this once, but I assume it has a lot of replay to it. It somehow has depth, isn't too difficult and isn't too long. I feel you get a lot of play within an hour. However, I would say it should be slightly longer.

5. Blueprints

http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/140933/blueprints

Blueprints is a good, light, short game. You are basically using dice to build buildings and trying to score points or achieve an award to score points.  It's fun, has a decent amount of strategy to it. As with most dice rolling games, your staregy might change with the dice rolls. The fact that the first time I learned it, was with way the wrong rules on how to score, so much I was like "the scoring system seems unfair" but still thought it was a good game speaks highly of it.

4. Bora Bora

 http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/127060/bora-bora

Explanation of the game via Board Game Geek:

In Bora Bora, players use dice to perform a variety of actions using careful insight and tactical planning. The heart of the game is its action resolution system in which 5-7 actions are available each round, the exact number depending on the number of players. Each player rolls three dice at the start of the round, then they take turns placing one die at a time on one action. Place a high number on an action, and you'll generally get a better version of that action: more places to build, more choices of people to take, better positioning on the temple track, and so on. Place a low number and you'll get a worse action – but you'll possibly block other players from taking the action at all as in order to take an action you must place a die on it with a lower number than any die already on the action.

Three task tiles on a player's individual game board provide some direction as to what he might want to do, while god tiles allow for special actions and rule-breaking, as gods are wont to do. The player who best watches how the game develops and uses the most effective strategy will prevail.

So its another Feld on my list. Again there is so much to do in this game and the them totally works for it. You can't do all the strategies possible but you can't avoid some. Avoiding priests hurt me in this game. Avoid building buildings and you miss out on a lot early points and fire bonuses. And you have goals every turn also! It will cost you points and end game points to not get them every round. Again, only played it once, but want to play it much more.

3. Trains

http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/121408/trains


It's Dominion with a board. However, I like it better than Dominion. And I like Dominion. The Waste cards, which give you extra cards that do nothing in your deck, are a nice addition. The waste cards come whenever you do something that helps you with points such as building rails on the board, getting points cards and placing stations. You have to balance the points you are scoring with it with the waste you are getting. The different combos of cards that are available per game can change the strategy. I've played it 5 times and am still interested in playing it more.

2. Lords of Waterdeep: Scoundrels of Skullport

http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgameexpansion/134342/lords-of-waterdeep-scoundrels-of-skullport

Whhhhhaaaaaaat???? But Sean, you are the self proclaimed best Lords player in Los Angeles? How is it number 2? Didn't you say that the expansion adds greatly to the already great base game. How you would only really want to play expansion for the most part? That the corruption mechanic adds a new complexity to the game. How Undermountain is even better than Skullport, due to the interesting plot quests and ways to get and play interesting intrigue cards. Yes, I did say all of that and the top 2 games are basically almost a tie. Lords is a game where you can develop complex strategies but the game is easy enough that I can teach it to new people. This is the one game I own on this list.

1. Terra Mystica

http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/120677/terra-mystica

Surprise! So why did this game top Lords? One, it is a better game. Lords is a pretty standard worker placement. Terra Mystica is more complex. Like many games on this list there is a lot of different ways to get points. Terra is just a very well made game. Even if I didn't like playing it, I would say its a very well made game. But I love playing it. The game has given me a challenge. I have finished 2nd in 3 games in a row. All came down to me just having to make one small different move. You have to apply how one move will effect the other in this game. You have to try and take advantage of the bonuses each round. You have to build long routes, you have to build cities. But you also have to get high on the cult track! The power cycle is important as if you treat it right, it can give you many more moves. The first game I played, I had really bad power cycling so much as on the last turn I finished and was able to play a whole short party game in the space of time my opponents used on their last round. I've gotten better since then and I love it even more. There is also 14 different races to choose from all which offer different interesting ways to play the game. Like I said with this game I have the challenge of finally getting a damn win in it. Maybe that is why it is number one at this point and time. I'm enjoying this challenge, it makes every move exciting and the game exciting and thrilling. This game is what board games are about to me, super fun, while also giving me a challenge.