Hi friends!

Recently-ish I move to my own appartment with my SO and bought a 5x5 IKEA Kallax to store all my boardgames. Picture attached.

Unfortunately some games are just too big for the Kallax, I can't store them neither vertically nor horizontally. For the longest time I've just had them just on top of the Kallax freely, but recently we (finally) got an AC unit and they would block the airflow.

Currently they're sitting on the floor but I feel sad for them :P

I considered getting a small Kallax, like a 2x2 or something and put them on top, but seems a bit overkill and I'm not sure it would be aesthetically pleasing.

The 16th Annual Dice Tower Awards

Spoilers below, don't scroll down if you don't want to see the results!!

Best welcoming game

Winner:

• Flamecraft

Runner-ups:

• Akropolis

• boop.

• Ready Set Bet

• Trekking through history

Best expansion

Winner:

• Dune: Imperium – Rise of Ix

Runner-ups:

• Dune: Imperium – Immortality

• Star Wars: Outer Rim

• Viticulture World: Cooperative Expansion

• Wingspan Asia

Best party game

Winner:

• Ready Set Bet

Runner-ups:

• Blood on the Clocktower

• Feed the Kraken

• Green team Wins

• Phantom Ink

Best solo game

Winner:

• Return to Dark Tower

Runner-ups:

• Batman: The Dark Knight Returns

• Frostpunk: The Board Game

• Heat: Pedal to the Metal

• Wayfarers of the South Tigris

Best two-player game

Winner:

• Splendor Duel

Runner-ups:

• Beer & Bread

• boop.

• Caesar!: Seize Rome in 20 Minutes!

• War of the Ring: The Card Game

Best reprinted game

Winner:

• Cat in the Box: Deluxe Edition

Runner-ups:

• Castles of Mad King Ludwig: Collector's Edition

• Get on Board: New York & London

• Libertalia: Winds of Galecrest

• Return to Dark Tower

Best co-operative game

Winner:

• Return to Dark Tower

Runner-ups:

• CoraQuest

• Lands of Galzyr

• Nemesis Lockdown

• Star Wars: The Clone Wars

Best game by new designer

Winner:

• Akropolis

Runner-ups:

• Blood on the Clocktower

• boop.

• CoraQuest

• Starship Captains

Best game by small publisher

Winner:

• Flamecraft

Runner-ups:

• Blood on the Clocktower

• CoraQuest

• Planet Unknown

• Three Sisters

Best theming

Winner:

• My Father's Work

Runner-ups:

• Heat: Pedal to the Metal

• Nemesis Lockdown

• Return to Dark Tower

• Wonderland's War

Best production value

Winner:

• Foundations of Rome

Runner-ups:

• Endless Winter: Paleoamericans

• Flamecraft

• Return to Dark Tower

• Wonderland's War

Best artwork

Winner:

• Flamecraft

Runner-ups:

• Endless Winter: Paleoamericans

• Merchants of the Dark Road

• Trekking through history

• Wonderland's War

Best strategy game

Winner:

• Endless Winter: Paleoamericans

Runner-ups:

• Carnegie

• Planet Unknown

• Wayfarers of the South Tigris

• Woodcraft

Most innovative game

Winner:

• Turing Machine

Runner-ups:

• 3000 scoundrels

• Blood on the Clocktower

• Cat in the Box: Deluxe Edition

• Planet Unknown

Best game of the year

Winner:

• Heat: Pedal to the Metal

Runner-ups:

• Blood on the Clocktower

• Endless Winter: Paleoamericans

• Flamecraft

• Foundations of Rome

• Planet Unknown

• Ready Set Bet

• Return to Dark Tower

• Wayfarers of the South Tigris

• Wonderland's War

In order to promote discussion on Lemmy, I’m doing micro-reviews for my favorite boardgames by genre. Please join in, provide your reviews, flame me for my terrible taste or to suggest a category for tomorrow!

Today’s game is Targi

TL;DR

Score: 8/10

Positives:

• Fun puzzle to solve

• Rewards adaptability

• Easy to learn but has a lot of depth

• Cheap

Negatives:

• Somewhat repetitive

• Artwork feels dated

The Review

In Targi, you are a leader of the Tuareg tribe, the semi-nomadic people who inhabit the Sahara desert. You compete against a leader of another Tuareg tribe to have the most prosperous tribe. The theme on this game is paper thin. You're essentially trying to collect resources in order to fill objective cards and add them to your portfolio, which isn't particularly original. So why does this game stand out from the rest?

Image credit to @Arneji on bgg, source here

Cards are displayed in a 5x5 grid. The "outer" square of the grid are action spots while the "inner" 3x3 grid are resources/objectives. During your turn you will place one of your 3 workers in one of the available action spots. Then your opponent places their worker but they cannot place their worker in the same column or row than your wokers. After both players have placed their 3 workers, you place tribe markers (the cilinders) on the cards where your workers intersect. At the end of the round you get all the resources/objectives where you have cilinders and perform all the actions where you have workers!

I feel like deciding where to place your workers is an extremely interesting decision to make. It's a tense game because the moment you place your first worker your opponent probably is denied of every card in that column/row. However, if they understand exactly which card you want, they place a worker on that row/column to prevent you from intersecting it! They won't get that card but now neither will you. It's a cat & mouse game that rewards your ability to quickly ajust your strategy to the oportunities that present themselves at any time.

The game is very fast, easy to teach and enjoyable to play. It's a classic game from 2012 and its gameplay continues to feel innovative, different and unique. It's definitely something I think everyone should at least try once.

Context Information

I don't have anything on ScorePal :(

Suggested player count: 2 players, since that's the only choice you have :P

Honorable Mentions

• Hanamikogi - This is a "I split, you choose" 2 player game with some area majority in the mix. I honestly think this game is fantastic but I have had very low success in introducing it to other people. The game is very quirky, very different than everything I've tried. You force players to make hard and unintuitive decisions and I think that turns off some people. "Why would I split these cards, I want them all. How can I have them all?". Split wisely! I guess the art work and box doesn't help people get excited about it either.

• MicroMacro: Crime City - There is some debate about wether this is even game or just an activity but I don't really care about that. This game is absolutely brilliant. It's basically a "Where's Waldo" but with all timelines printed into a single map. Each mission points you to a crime and you have to trace back the map to understand what actually took place there. Where did the victim come from, what were they doing, who looked at them funny? I would put this game as the best 2 player game but it have felt weird for the best 2 player game to be a game where you can play with an infinite number of players. Wouldn't recommend more than 2 players tho! Get it!

In order to promote discussion on Lemmy, I’m doing micro-reviews for my favorite boardgames by genre. Please join in, provide your reviews, flame me for my terrible taste or to suggest a category for tomorrow!

Today's game is Spirit Island

TL;DR

Score: 9/10

Positives:

• Gorgeous artwork

• Theme fits great in the game

• Very thinky

• Tons of difficulty adjustments and scenarios

Negatives:

• The upkeep of this game is very high

• Prone to Analysis Paralysis

• Quarterbacking/Alpha gaming is nearly impossible but it's still really important to discuss how to approach each turn; Not everyone enjoys that

The Review

In Spirit Island you play as a magical spirit of the island. Your task is to protect the land and its native tribes from the colonizing invaders. The objective of the game is to wipe the colonizers or inflict so much fear they give up. If the colonizers spread too much or you run out of time, you lose the game.

Image credit to Richard on bgg, source here

This game is really special. The artwork is absolutely amazing and fits the theme really really well. The Spirits feel REALLY different from eachother, they totally change the way you play the game. Some Spirits are more focused on defending the land from colonist attacks, others are really good at killing enemy units and others play more of a supporting role.

At the start of game you are very weak. You have very limited range, and your starting cards are probably not very powerful. It quickly starts to feel like it's an impossible task and you're going to lose. Part of the island is going to be permanently corrupted and it's going to feel bad.

It's nearly impossible to be an alpha gamer in this game because your decisions are already too complex, you would be totally overwhelmed if you tried to control everyone else's. That said, while all actions can be performed simultaneously, it's very important to communicate your intentions with your team mates. Say you can wipe 1 of 2 possible areas. It's important to communicate that ability with your team mates because maybe someone else is more restricted than you and can only deal with 1 of those areas. Not everyone enjoys this interaction but I truly believe it's key to success.

As the game goes on you will be spreading your influence across the island and acquiring new and more powerful cards. You will start to feel like a god and the game starts to feel easy. It's quite an interesting arc, really. The game comes with a ton of difficulty adjustments but the arc always seems to be the same: you start miserable and thinking the game is impossible but you clutch it out and win when game is nearly over.

I really love the hard decisions in this game. You want to save the entire island, you want to kill every colonizer, you want it all to be perfect. That's not going to happen, the game is designed for that not to happen. You're going to have to make sacrifices and try your best to deal with the threats while gaining some much needed power. I love that aspect of the game. The Spirits are really unique with clever little names. My favorite spirit is "Ocean's Hungry Grasp" and it's so fun because your gameplay neatly simulates the ocean waves. It's amazing.

The one thing that knocks a point out of this game is the "invader phase" upkeek. Spreading colonizers and disease is a REALLY boring step and very prone to errors. It doesn't seem too much in the first couple of turns but it really starts to become a dreadful task that you perform every single round. For this reason, I really don't recommend the first expansion. You need to add even more stuff to add to the board and has yet another upkeep step. There's a Steam adaptation of the game which probably solves this problem but I tend not to enjoy digital adaptations of boardgames.

Context Information

Number of Plays: 15

Suggested player count: 2-3 players, 4 is fine if everyone knows how to play and no one suffers from AP

Average playtime: 2.5 hours

Win-rate: 93.3%

Honorable Mentions

• Aeon's End: The New Age - Really fun deckbuilding game with the unique novelty that you DO NOT shuffle your deck. Once you play all your deck you simply flip it, no shuffle. Great game. There are a ton of Aeon's End games, I played The new Age and The Outcasts. I recommend The new Age, felt like a better game.

• The Crew: The Quest for Planet Nine - Trick tacking games are played a lot in Portugal. Every family owns a deck of cards and everyone can play "Sueca". This game feels like cooperative "Sueca" and we had a blast playing it. I also played a bit of the second one but I find the simple design of the first one a lot better.

• The Shipwreck Arcana - Forgot to mention this one! This is a very clever cooperative deduction game. Small box, small prize, amazing game. It's a solid 9/10 for me as well.

In order to promote discussion on Lemmy, I’m doing micro-reviews for my favorite boardgames by genre. Please join in, provide your reviews, flame me for my terrible taste or to suggest a category for tomorrow!

Today's game is Lisboa

TL;DR

Score: 8/10

Positives:

• Very nice artwork and iconography

• Player boards are very high quality

• The theme fits nicely into the game

Negatives:

• Game is too heavy for my personal taste

• Sometimes it feels like complexity was added for complexity's sake

The review

I'm not the biggest fan of Heavy weight boardgames and I haven't been explosed to that many of them. Take this one with a huge grain of salt.

In 1755 there was a HUGE earthquake in Lisbon that caused a wave of tsunami and fires that lasted more than 3 days. It completely destroyed Lisbon. This game is about the reconstruction of Lisbon after these tragic events. Being a portuguese that lives in the outskirts of Lisbon I imediately backed the game. Ironically, the warehouse where Lisboa copies were store burned down.

Unlike previous reviews, I'm not going to give a rules overview, because it's just too much. If you're at all interested in the game, I feel it's mandatory that you watch Paul's How to play video. You and everyone you're playing with. Yes, its mandatory.

Image credit to Rafaël Theunis on bgg, source here

You might be fooled into believing this game is simple because the premise seems simple. You play a card in your board, replacing an existing card if necessary, do the associated action and draw a card. So simple. Wrong!!!

I had a really hard time grocking this game. Doing an action is "simple" but formulating a strategy that maximizes points is, in my personal opinion, very intimidating. You can remove rubble from the city, open a shop, sell goods, trade with the nobles, mess with the treasure value, influence the clergy, gain influence, buy ships, recruit state oficials, sponsor an event, open public buildings... There's so much stuff to do!

Say you want to open a shop. You probably want a place it in a spot with not much rubble, because spaces with rubble cost more money. When you place a shop you remove rubble cubles, which have different colors. You get bonus from clearing a full set. Each spot also has a one time-bonus. If there are public buildings in the same row or column of your store, and match your store's colors you get wigs (victory points). Then, you remove a wooden house from your player board which may unlock a new special ability.

Just from the simple action of building a shop you can see there's a lot of decisions involved. You don't just open a shop, you need to prepare the way to building a shop. The shop's spot is critically important. Clear the rubble, maybe get some public buildings before, match the color, choose the right one-time bonus that you actually need, unlock the special ability that you actually need. You can see how each action has this BIG ripple effect. Everything interacts with a lot of moving parts. It can be overwhelming. It WILL be overwhelming.

I do appreciate how everything neatly works together. Aside from the cleric portion of the game, I think everything makes a lot of mechanical sense. The rulebook makes a good job on not only explaining the rule/mechanic but also it's historical context and the reason it exists. I think this game is fantastic, I will go as far as saying that this game is an absolute masterpiece. For those that really enjoy very complex, very intricate, very tight and decision heavy euro games... This one is probably going to be high on your list.

For my personal tastes I find it overwhelming. We all had to watch Paul's video before each play, everytime. While I really enjoyed the experience of playing it, I never actually did great and I always end up exausted. Both from playing and from answering questions all the time.

Context Information

• Number of plays: 4

• Suggested player count: 3 players, with 4 you have a lot of downtime

• Average playtime: 2.5 hours

• Win-rate: 0%

• Mandatory Paul's rules video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i8oObfAR8SY

Honorable mentions

• Vinhos: Deluxe Edition - Only played it once but I found it to be much, much more approachable. At least I found it easier to formulate a plan.

• Terra Mystica - A bit too dry for my taste but I enjoy the purple resource management. Never tried Gaia's project

• Barrage - I only played it 2 times (don't own it) but I think this game has a lot of potential. The flowing water part is quite interesting.

• Anachrony - I don't usually enjoy time travel, I don't think a boardgame can capture that feeling but this game is still fun.

In order to promote discussion on Lemmy, I’m doing micro-reviews for my favorite boardgames by genre. Please join in, provide your reviews, flame me for my terrible taste or to suggest a category for tomorrow!

Today's game is Solenia

Score: 8/10

Positives:

• Easy to teach

• Feels like a classic euro game, with very unique elements

• Very clever card use

Negatives:

• You can get really screwed with unfortunate card draw

• Low player count is better, in my opinion

The review

Solenia is a planet that no longer has a day-light cycle. Instead, half of the world lives in darkness and the other in constant sunlight. Your job is to go around the world and deliver goods to both emispheres. People in day-cities will want goods only available in the dark half and vice-versa. All players control a single airship that will be going around the world, collecting and delivering goods.

Image credit to Cindy Hauri on bgg, source here

During your turn you will have 3 cards in your hand and you will play one of them. You place the card in any place adjacent to the airship (airship space included). All cards contain a number on the top, a hole in the middle and a bonus portion on the bottom. When you place the card on the map, a resource will be visible through the hole and you will get X amount of that resource, X being the number of the top the card. When you place a card with the number 0 on the top, you don't get any resources but the airship moves forward! After the airship moves, the last portion of the board is removed, flipped and placed as the first portion of the board. If it was a night portion, it will now be a light portion! This is a fantastic idea to simulate movement around the globe. If any cards were on the portion of the board that was removed, their owners gain the "bonus portion" of the cards. Typically these will be aditional resources. The game ends when you run out of cards.

So how do you get points? Similar to other games such as Century: Spice Road, you have objectives tiles that you must fulfill. There are always 5 day-city objectives and 5 dark-city objectives. In order to complete a dark-city objective you must deliver the depicted goods to a dark-city (eg: 1 wheat, 1 wood), and in order to complete a light-city objective you must deliver the depicted goods to a light-city (eg: 2 stones, 1 water).

I think Solenia is yet another hidden gem. The game is very light, short, approachable to people from all ages and feels like a proper euro. This is an excelent gateway game to euro games. The theme is fantastic, going around the world is implemented in a really creative way. The gameplay itself is not particularly revolutionary, fetch and deliver goods has been done a thousand times. The game has merit on the simple way it delivers its premise. The cards with a hole in a middle? I had never seen that before, what a clever and simple way to give me a meaningful choice. When you first move forward with the airship and flip the last portion of the board feels like an Eureka moment "oh wow, we're actually moving around the globe". It's a bit boring when everyone decides to move forward at the same time and you have to do it over and over, for that reason I would recommend lower player counts, 3 at most.

I don't know why this game didn't take off, I think it checks all the boxes for a successful game. It's pretty, light, enjoyable, on the cheaper side, unique. I play a lot of euro games and obviously this isn't going to feel as satisfying as a Brass: Birmingham game... but my mother isn't going to play Brass, is she? This? This she can easily play and enjoy. Definitely worth checking out.

Context Information

• Number of plays: 9

• Suggested player count: 2-3 players at most

• Average playtime: 30 mins

• Win-rate: 66.67%

• Dice-tower video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SsTgVa0pNeo

Honorable mentions

• Century: Spice Road - I can’t believe this game is only rank 308. Engine building at family weight? Count me iiin.

• Furnace - This game feels way heavier than it's weight implies. The rules are simple but the gameplay feels deep. Still, it's a fantastic engine-building game with a VERY clever bidding mechanic. I think Furnace is a better game than Solenia, but I don't think my family would be able to enjoy it.

• Chinatown - My friends tell me that this game transforms me into a different person. Not sure I would call it an euro game but I had to put it somewhere. This is a negotiating game, you're going to spend the entire game trading locations with other people or selling them for money or both. Check this one out!

In case you didn't know, beehaw.org decided to defederate both lemmy.world and sh.itjust.works. You can read about it here. Essentially it means beehaw.org users can no longer see my posts/comments, it's like they shadow banned my entire server. Thanks to @donio@feddit.de for messaging me about it. I have created this account on feddit.de just to post these reviews, hopefully it reaches our fellow boardgamers in all servers.

Today's game is an underrated gem: Menara

TL;DR

Score: 8.5

Positives

• Very easy to teach

• Cooperative

• Fun for both casual & experienced players

• Sliding difficulty is well ballanced

• Everyone wants to take a picture at the end of the game

Negatives

• Table bumps can prematurely end the end, it's always sad

• Can be frustrating if one person wants to play "mission impossible" on every turn

The review

Menara is one of my most successful gateway games and I definitely recommend it to everyone who enjoys dexterity games.

At the start of the game you randomly draw 3 odd-shapped tiles, called Temple Floors, to create level 0. The Temple Floors have small colored circles on them. During the course of the game you will be placing pillars on these circles. Red pillar goes on red circle, and so on. The objective of the game is to end the game with 4 levels of temple floors, excluding level 0.

Every player has 4 colored columns (depends on number of players and difficulty) and there is a community camp which hosts 6 columns. At the beginning of your turn you can swap your columns with the community camp as you wish. It's important to coordinate with your team and try to distribute the colors among everyone else. Then, you draw a card from the easy, medium or hard pile and perform the corresponding action. The most common action is fairly simple: place a column. All you have to do is place one of your columns in a base with the same color. Easy, right? Well, I'll let you discover the tricky ones by yourself :) If all the circles of your temple floor are occupied you stop your turn and place a new Temple Floor on top of whatever columns you want. Hopefully you added a new level and you're closer to the goal!

At this point you're probably thinking this game is super easy. I assure you, it is not. The game does not end after you made it to level 4. Oh, no. During the course of the game you'll find that you draw a card and the action is impossible to perform. Maybe it asks you to put 2 columns but unfortunately you don't have circles matching your column's colors. Then, the target goal increases by one level. Now you need to make it to level 5. The game only ends when you're either: out of cards, out of columns or out of temple floors. You lose the game if any floor falls.

This game is currently ranked #783 but I think it's one of the best dexterity games out there. It's very easy to teach, very intuitive. You draw a card and place a couple of columns. Easy. What sets it appart from the competition is the cooperative aspect of the game. It REALLY makes everyone very engaged with the game. No one wants to see the whole structure fall and everyone is trying their best. Quarterback/alpha gaming is basically not a thing. People can throw you hints on how do balance the floors or something but you're the one who's gonna have to do it, no one can play for you. The game get increasingly tense with time as the strugle starts to wiggle, everyone starts like controling their breathing to prevent anything from falling. It feels great to succeed in this game and at the end of the game everyone is gonna take a picture of what you built!

Context Information

I only log games with scores so unfortunately I don't have any logs for Menara

Suggested player count: 2-3 players is best, 4 players is also great but you wait longer

Win-rate: Well below 50%

Honorable mentions

• I'd really like to try Crokinole, seems like something I'd enjoy. Unfortunately it's super expensive :(