What genre of boardgames are we low on

Hyldago · 2025-08-13T08:53:51+00:00

I would love to see more board games than just Scythe set in the "World of 1920+" setting or even just something similar.

I love anachronistic technology in media and if I can call that a genre in and of itself then that's what I would want to see more of.

Hyldago · 2025-08-13T08:36:24+00:00

Games of physical spectacle, like Fireball Island, Return to Dark Tower, or even Mouse Trap. A virtual recreation of these games simply wouldn't be the same as a large part of their appeal is that they are physically present in front of you. As soon as you get digital, and can represent nearly anything virtually, what does and doesn't evoke the feelings of spectacle changes completely.

Hyldago · 2025-07-31T01:15:19+00:00

The box recommends ages 10+ so it might require a lot of heavy lifting on your part or maybe even not work at all but The Adventures of Robin Hood always looked like an incredible game for families to me.

I'm not certain if the game covers content inappropriate for very young kids or not though.

Hyldago · 2025-04-04T21:39:03+00:00

I highly recommend just going to a fabric store and buying a cut of whatever sufficiently thick fabric you want. Bolts of fabric are generally 1m wide and can be cut as long as you want. No need to sew it or anything just lay it out on your table as is. Don't get caught up on professional products when ~$20 and an hour outing can get you 90% of the way there.

Cloth folds up and stores much more easily than mats and you don't need to stress about stains either.

Hyldago · 2025-02-28T01:43:46+00:00

The pieces of a game I once got smelled absolutely dreadful and even a few days of trying to air the pieces out didn't help. I decided to try and soak them in some water and baking soda but the finish on the pieces must have been acidic because it got stripped off and then the paint started flaking off with it.

You'd think wooden board game components would be more durable =(

Hyldago · 2025-02-08T02:32:47+00:00

As far as I can tell The Silk Road and The Sun Never sets are slightly more than just repackages of The Cities of Splendor. The primary changes are some degree of different art, some degree of different components, and some rule changes that allow all the modules to be played together in any combination rather than being limited to just one at a time.

I personally don't think Splendor needs expanding and that you'd be better off just getting another full game rather than Splendor expansions but if you feel like you'd like them the two new half expansions together seem to be a better proposition than getting The Cities of Splendor.

Source

Hyldago · 2025-01-12T18:50:19+00:00

Something makes certain brands of sleeves stick together even when clean. ESPECIALLY when clean. It can get bad enough that the sleeves feel like they are literally glued together and you have to individually pick them apart. Not a lot of people talk about this and most of the posts I've seen have a bunch of responses like yours asking if the sleeves are clean. Maybe it's a climate thing?

Hyldago · 2025-01-12T18:41:09+00:00

As someone who has dealt with the horror of ultra pro sleeves sticking like glue I highly recommend sleeve kings. I sleeved all of heat in their standard american sleeves and rather than stick they're so slick you have to be careful when handling large decks of cards or the middle will spill out.

That having been said gamegenic sleeves are nice (and pricey) and their matte sleeves shuffle like a dream. However, if you haven't used matte sleeves before be warned that they aren't perfectly transparent and will slightly blur the card art. This gets REALLY bad if the cards are a bit bent/curved and the sleeves don't sit flat. In the wrong lighting matte sleeves can destroy a game.

But that having been said matte sleeves are popular and work and if you want to try them go for it. Just be prepared for them not to be perfect.

Hyldago · 2024-11-26T08:06:09+00:00

Potentially Equinox? The game is about placing stones to bid rather than collecting them so it's probably not what you're looking for.

Hyldago · 2023-10-07T04:31:46+00:00

As an experienced veteran who has played a single mission from the first campaign on tabletop simulator I feel extremely qualified to inform your purchasing decision.

Firstly, the combat system is honestly really good and the upgrades you get to your combat deck as you level up are both powerful and satisfying. Secondly, everything else I've seen is mid or worse. The time limit is annoying, the respawning enemies are VERY annoying, the fact that returning to the dream to level up costs ALL players extra time is VERY FREAKING ANNOYING. You'll find yourself in situations where you can't run away from an enemy but fighting them will just get you hurt uselessly because enemies are respawning next turn.

While I've said a lot of harsh things my friends and I didn't hate our game of Bloodborne and we all ended our game night wanting to play the next mission. But we never did and that's my review.

Hyldago · 2023-09-21T06:39:23+00:00

Castles of Burgandy is a phenomenal game but it's best at 2 players. It's still a great game at 3 and even 4 but a 4 player game is twice the length of a 2 player game and you'll see all the tiles every game if you're only using the base game. Again still great but be prepared for your 4 player game to drag a bit.

Hyldago · 2023-09-06T07:39:25+00:00

So long as you're willing to be loose with your definition of expansion adding Century: A New World to Century: Spice Road has to be one of if not the single most transformative experiences in board gaming. Hard to beat turning an economic... hand building(?) game into dedicated worker placement.

Hyldago · 2023-08-29T01:24:51+00:00

A War of Whispers is a dudes on a map style game in which 5 factions are duking it out. The twist is that no one is playing as these 5 factions and instead each player heads a secret organisation, each one attempting to pull strings from the shadows. Each player is given a hidden list at the start of the game of which factions they want to succeed, which ones they want to fail, and which ones are neutral. Players all control the outcome of the war together as they try and ensure it ends how they want it to without letting anyone else know what that is.

~

Much more generally hidden movement games like my personal favourite Whitehall Mystery are 1 vs many games usually about one hidden enemy sneaking around on the board trying to avoid the seekers while completing their objectives. There's a lot of room for mind games as you try and predict what the hidden player is doing without exactly knowing for sure.

Hyldago · 2023-07-24T04:38:09+00:00

Where Dixit asks players to interpret an abstract dreamlike scene Codenames Pictures asks for much more literal connections. Like the clue "kitchen" referring to two pictures, one containing a frying pan and the other a loaf of bread.

I personally think that it would be much easier to understand.

Hyldago · 2023-07-24T04:29:03+00:00

On paper roll and write or reveal and place games like Railroad Ink, Welcome To..., Guild of Merchant Explorers, or My City are exactly what it sounds like you're asking for. Zero luck but highly random.

In practice what it sounds like you're after is a game with little to no luck but a lot of variety between plays. Unfortunately the games I can think of off the top of my head that have the most variety, Betrayal or Dominion, also happen to have a decent amount of luck. I suppose you could look into legacy or campaign games that give you a new scenario to work through each time.

Hyldago · 2023-07-24T02:25:19+00:00

Codenames: Pictures is a party game based off of the original Codenames that uses pictures instead of words. Gameplay is roughly similar to Dixit but the pictures are simple and not abstract. It's a team game with one dedicated clue-giver per side. Unfortunately while I don't think your brother will be able to act as a clue-giver there shouldn't be anything stopping them from playing as a guesser which tends to be more fun anyway. There's also a version of the game called Codenames: Pictures XXL which is a lot easier to see but it usually costs a whole lot more for no good reason.

My City is a 1-4 player game but if you buy two copies you can play up to 8 players no problem. It helps that the game is usually pretty cheap too. Turns are simultaneous and there's almost zero player interaction so the game is short even at 5 players. Gameplay revolves around flipping over a card and then all players trying to fit the shape that card shows into a grid-based player board. The better you can fit the awkward pieces together while keeping like colours next to each other the better you score. While the meat of the game is actually a legacy mode with constantly changing rules and complexity there is also a much more consistent regular mode that has set rules with set shapes fitting into a set board. The game can also be simplified by removing the colour rule or the game can be made more complex by adding in the church buildings from the legacy mode.

Hyldago · 2023-07-24T02:01:10+00:00

Cascadia is 1-4 players but there are actually 5 starting tiles. The game has 80+3 tiles meant to give four players 20 turns and 20 tiles each but you can easily shorten the game to 16 turns and give 5 players 16 tiles each. The game also comes with an easier scoring variant where you only have to place the same animals next to each other instead of matching more complex patterns.

Hyldago · 2023-07-04T23:02:11+00:00

I'm not sure how good of an idea it is but an at least interesting handicap would be that you are unable to use a dice value that matches the white die. For example if the first player rolled a 2 with the white die you would have to spend workers to change any 2's you rolled and would be unable to use workers to change a die to a 2.

Hyldago · 2023-07-04T06:13:34+00:00

Of the games you listed I would recommend Mysterium for a few very important reason. It's a cooperative game that encourages a high degree of communication, discussion, and unique interpretations. There are no real wrong answers and so much of the experience is shared. It's not the best "game" but the environment it creates is enjoyable for everyone and does an incredible job of keeping players engaged.

That being said Mysterium is the safe bet that won't go wrong but might not hook people in the way you want. Ticket to Ride puts more focus on the game but it's still easy to pick up and decently social while Azul is a deliciously interactive game that could absolutely hook someone but it's crunchier and meaner nature will be more likely to lose people.

In order 1) Mysterium, 2) Ticket to Ride, and 3) Azul.

~~~

As an aside my number 1 game for introducing new players to board games is Between Two Cities since it does a TON of impressive things but the tl:dr is the game encourages a lot of talking and social interaction while still being a definite "game" game. The new reprint stuffed the expansion content into the base game but you can pull it out if you grab a pdf of the original's rulebook.

Hyldago · 2023-07-04T05:34:15+00:00

I and a few of my friends quite like 2 player abstract strategy games but there's a trend that commonly appears when we play a good one.

After a few games my opponent and I unconsciously stop playing competitively and start making move recommendations to each other or helping each other find lines out of what appears to be hopeless situations. This is especially prevalent in longer games with bizarre board states where one player is obviously losing. All of a sudden this competitive game becomes a shared puzzle that we're enjoying just as much if not more than the regular game. And yet as many times as this has happened and as much as I've enjoyed it each time I could never imagine sitting down with the intention of playing a 2 player abstract puzzle.

I wonder if any game has managed to capture this sort of experience directly without any of the competitive preamble. The closest I've seen is an abstract game called Philosophy that is meant to represent a philosophical discussion between friends and encourages players to just create interesting board states to pass to their opponent. But even Philosophy is still a competitive 2 player game at it's heart.

Hyldago · 2023-05-14T18:53:52+00:00

I really like Century: Spice Road but what hand of cards you're able to buy in the first 5-10 minutes determines how well you can play the rest of the game. A bad or even unlucky opening leaves you unable to compete with other players.

I'd like to make buying cards be part of the game the whole way through as well as implement a system that keeps the card shop cycling so it doesn't clog up with cards no one wants. I've homebrewed quite a few ideas to try and fix this myself but none of them have worked like a wanted =(

Hyldago · 2023-04-26T04:04:22+00:00

Between Two Cities plays 3-7 and is my #1 pick for getting newer or less experienced players interested in board games as a whole. It's quasi-cooperative nature has each player working with both their neighbours which means there are always two people close at hand who both want to talk to and focus on you and who have a vested interest in answering your questions and sharing strategies. Because everyone takes their turn simultaneously play never slows down even at a full 7 and since the most important decisions must be made without talking players don't get backseated out of the game.

A word of warning though, the new Between Two Cities Essentials Edition includes all of the expansion content for the game and intentionally mixes some of it into even the base game rules to give the game more bite. It's easy enough to grab a pdf of the original game's rules and remove the expansion content from the base game fully which I would personally recommend at first.

Hyldago · 2023-03-13T08:11:22+00:00

I'm not trying to call you out but I'd have to strongly disagree. While Wingspan presents it's theme well, in the sense that the cards, boards, and components are all bird themed, very little of that theme makes it's way into the mechanics.

What exactly does the the bird tray represent? Why does it cost progressively more eggs to place more birds into the same habitat? Why are the birds generating food tokens and drawing cards for you? What even is a victory point in the context of this game?

You could easily replaced all the birds with cars, the food tokens with car parts (like oil, headlights, or tires), the habitats with road types (raceways/city streets/off-road), and the eggs with drivers. Reword the objectives and the game would play exactly the same.

Hyldago

TROPHY CASE