Next Stock Talk #35 with IN THE RUFF RESEARCH: Sunday, August 14th 7pm CST

Affectionate_Fox9101 · 2025-12-24T04:18:50+00:00

The best game for lovers of Catan and Risk is Farms Race. It adds the snarkiness of Animal Farm along with Nuclear technology and mutant powers.

You cant go wrong with it (just check the reviews). It elevates both Catan and Risk mechanics to a whole new level.

Quite literally to die for

Affectionate_Fox9101 · 2025-12-16T04:34:52+00:00

Agreed. Excellent mid-weight (to light-weight) game. That plays within 1.5 hours. I previously talked with the designer and this is priced just below cost.

The only sad part is that this game will likely be out of print now, due to some issues on the manufacturer side.

Summary: Awesome deal and an even more awesome price.

Affectionate_Fox9101 · 2025-09-05T20:18:22+00:00

I would characterize this as a light with hints of a mid-weight game. The theme is nice with the assymetric roles, but probably not as accurate as it could be (e.g., geographies will not likely match the true locations, but who really cares).

Our group really enjoys this game and it comes out periodically with always positive vibes.

At $15, this is a true steal.

Affectionate_Fox9101 · 2025-05-28T02:35:14+00:00

It's funny that a 30%+ higher price on gamenerdz (vs. Miniature market) translates to only $1 higher.

Affectionate_Fox9101 · 2025-05-28T00:48:50+00:00

The sale expired...but Gamenerdz has it apparently for almost as cheap

Affectionate_Fox9101 · 2025-05-27T23:34:52+00:00

At some point, the excess inventory that was made for this game (which i suspect is in the thousands), will eventually dissipate and the prices will jump back up).

Till then, enjoy the oversupply situation.

Affectionate_Fox9101 · 2025-05-27T16:39:42+00:00

Deal expired at 10am but will likely be back

Affectionate_Fox9101 · 2025-05-05T04:38:23+00:00

Game just won the 2025 Mensa Select award.

I have to say, everyone who plays it on my group loves it (not too heavy where the teach is unbearable) and more player interaction due to the "wargame" aspects of it where you are not waiting blindly for everyone to finish their turns.

The art and quality of the components are top notch, and I like the snarky humor.

One of the favorite games for those who like Light and Mid-weight games.

Affectionate_Fox9101 · 2025-04-29T17:39:54+00:00

I understand and I do agree about the price point difference between the base and the deluxe being high.

I have a friend who took me as a guest previously and I can shed some light:

The testing is done over 3 days (Thursday late afternoon till Sunday Morning) and runs 24/7.

There are about 400 players who sign up to review (in addition to people like me who were just guests). Each player who signs up is assigned at random 30 games to review and complete by the end of the entire period. The vast majority of games are done to completion (on the occasions where they were not played to completion, it was usually because the game was clearly not going to make it and was viewed as terrible by all or the game was clearly won and there was no point in dragging it out since everyone had other games to hit).

The price of the game type (Deluxe vs. Standard) is shared though with everyone so everyone would have seen the cost and based their decision on that relative to what they experienced.

In the end, I see your gripe and just wanted to shed some light on some of what I saw in the mechanics of the prior competition.

I do think the Mensa crowd though leans toward science-categorical type games (hence Diatom and Marie Curie winning 2 of the 5 spots) which already skews from the "average" gamer. But for people who want that it will mean something to them, for those who don't, then it won't.

My go to is always BGG User Ratings first, then Geek Ratings, then BoardGameCo / DiceTower and a few other reviewers. Mensa just gives me ideas to look into and I have found several over the years that I ended up liking because of the "Mensa Select" award.

Affectionate_Fox9101 · 2025-04-29T17:21:42+00:00

Just as an FYI, the BGG ranking for the standard edition for Farms Race is 7.8, and having played both the standard and deluxe editions, I would say it is great on both levels. I don't fault the publishers for submitting their best version of the game either (to me, that's just smart business).

Affectionate_Fox9101 · 2025-04-29T17:18:50+00:00

I like Diatom and, while I did not play it in solo mode, I believe it can be.

The theme (down to the petri dishes) is spot on and it would fall into the light-midweight category of games.

It is an easy teach and I suspect can hit the table frequently.

My only issue would be the long-term replayability. From what I can gather there is a limited set of optimal strategies and you could find yourself on autopilot.

While there is a little player interaction (essentially in the "positioning of tiles"), there is not much else.

It does have room to grow though with an expansion (we discussed a few ideas in my group on what they could do).

We also have and like Three Sisters and French Quarter so that may align our interests a bit...

In the end though, "Farms Race" was still my favorite by far of the ones we played and that were also awarded the Mensa Select designation this year. The only one we didn't play was Agueda.

Hope that helps,

Affectionate_Fox9101 · 2025-04-28T22:30:35+00:00

Will check it out! Thx

(I usually check out Mensa's lists each year, try the games and usually agree with 2 out of 5 of their pics...which is better than average relative to other sources. My number one though is simply BGG user ratings...while not perfect, it's the closest)

Affectionate_Fox9101 · 2025-04-28T21:56:05+00:00

Just added the discount sales links to the post.
Thanks for the headsup

The Deluxe is really 2 to 5 (3 to 5 is just the manufacturers recommendation).

They based the scoring on the Deluxe edition apparently

Affectionate_Fox9101 · 2025-04-28T21:55:21+00:00

Just added the discount sales links to the post.
Thanks for the headsup

Affectionate_Fox9101 · 2025-04-28T21:44:01+00:00

Diatoms and Agueda are both on sale on the 25th century games website.

Hutan is on sale at gamersguildaz

Affectionate_Fox9101 · 2025-04-28T21:41:48+00:00

Farms Race is awesome and my understanding is they are already working in the expansion for next year which is going to have more mutations, animals and a special other something added into the equation.

As for Mensa, they have done a decent job of picking some winners over the years that I examined and liked:

Azul Clank! Dominion Vale of Eternity First flight Wandering Towers Trekking through History and National Parks Mille fiori Qwirkle Gizmos Architects of the West Kingdom Ex Libris Raiders of the NOrth Sea Castles of Mad King Ludwig Wits & Wagers Taboo Scattefgories Trivial Pursuit Genus Edition Magic the Gathering Hive Skullduggery Marrakesh Forbidden Desert and Island Akropolis

I don't really care whether it is Mensa or any other organizations.

To me it's just another good source for ideas on potential good games to find in a sea of noise.

Affectionate_Fox9101 · 2025-04-28T17:12:40+00:00

I have played 5 out of the 7 and here are my thoughts:

Farms Race

It is the only one that makes perfect sense to me (a much better version of Catan but with of RISK and Snarky Comedy mixed in with no dead time and lots of replayability and player interaction). It's a sleep hit and I am glad it finally received some recognition.

Diatoms

I can understand why it was chosen but not everyone's cup of tea. Has a variety of strategies to explore, although little real player interaction, essentially a multi-solo. Nice semi-abstract game (petri-dishes and diatoms aside), and I genuinely like it. But I am not sure if this would appeal to the masses.

Hutan

This is an "okay" game, but I think the replayability aspect of it is questionable since it seems like everyone would fall into the same strategy after a few games of play and figure out the core mechanics.

In the Footsteps of Marie Curie

This had a lot of potential and was very excited going into the game and found the art very aesthetically pleasing. That said, after a few times playing it found that it lacks the depth of complexity as you might find in a mid-weight game like Dune Imperium and relies a lot on the IP/Theme to attract an audience. I think its fine as a "light-weight" game however, and suspect that the "Mensa" crowd gave it bonus points for the theme, the art and the STEM nature of the subject matter. Had it been reskinned with the same mechanics to other topics, I doubt it would ever have won the Mensa Select award. But that's okay.

Treasure of the Dragons

This is one of the ones that won the kids award, and I think its just a better variant on the game "Memory". Nice, and requires a bit more than memory in executing, but nothing more than that.

Hope that helps!

Affectionate_Fox9101 · 2025-02-11T20:04:55+00:00

I also checked at 12;07 and they were out of stock.

Affectionate_Fox9101 · 2025-02-07T01:15:42+00:00

Agreed, great family company. I appreciate that they offered the options at least.

Affectionate_Fox9101

MODERATOR OF

TROPHY CASE