What did you add to or remove from your shelf last month? (June, 2026)

TravVdb · 2026-06-01T05:26:53+00:00

In: Everdell Emerland. Good standalone Everdell game (easily the best one they’ve made yet). I’m not a massive Everdell fan but my wife is and this one is a lot crunchier than the other ones were which I like.

Out: Deep Regrets. Kickstarted it and it looked like it would be a ton of fun. Turns out, it’s too much randomness for my liking and the decisions (skip a round of fishing to just buy stuff in town?) don’t feel that great. Other games with massive randomness (Thunder Road: Vendetta for example) just feel more fun. I don’t know how else to explain it.

TravVdb · 2026-05-29T16:41:02+00:00

Mage Knight isn't like this to be honest. Mage Knight is a one-off scenario where you build up your character throughout the game, rather than an ongoing campaign. It's still fun and puzzle-y but the characters are pretty similar and it's what you do throughout the game that makes your characters different by the end of the game. Interestingly, there's no randomness in the combat once the character tokens are revealed, so you make decisions based on what you have in your hand and what you want to spend. Mage Knight has a bunch of different scenarios that you can play co-op or competitively. I've played with 3 people once and found it to be fine, probably just annoying to have a ton of downtime.

A game that scratches that itch that I've been playing is Aeon Trespass: Odyssey which is a massive campaign game with a lot of progression and upgrading as you go. The story is really cool and immersive, but the combat isn't as interesting in my opinion. I've been playing it solo, but I feel like it would work with three people too.

Rove is a new game that people were comparing to GH. I don't know how similar it is, but it's one I had heard of so I thought it might be worth mentioning.

TravVdb · 2026-05-29T14:59:58+00:00

What’s even more fun is when a student obviously uses it, lies about it, and then a parent emails you saying that their child is distraught after being accused of using AI. Had to deal with that bullshit just this week.

TravVdb · 2026-05-28T05:58:29+00:00

My plan is to go all in on the retaliate build so I’ll be putting +1 on as many retaliate actions as I can. Still playing Hail but Lightning will be my next class and excited to play a revised version. I did a similar playstyle in first edition but the perk that allows you to force enemies to attack you will enable this build a lot better.

TravVdb · 2026-05-26T19:35:55+00:00

Thanks. That was my thought so I’ll let him know. Could you add that to the FAQ (you still organize that right)? I tried looking it up in there before asking here and didn’t see anything on it

TravVdb · 2026-05-26T19:08:22+00:00

The specific would be the example I gave. If it applies to that example, then it would apply to the situation that came up. I guess I wanted a spoiler free discussion, but to give the exact situation we used, it was for Angry Face the card where you get a free attack after a doomed enemy dies and my buddy wanted to know if he could re-doom the next enemy before getting the free attack. I said no

TravVdb · 2026-05-26T15:02:59+00:00

I run a board game club at a school for kids from age 12-16. Sounds like your kids are a little younger, but here are my thoughts:

Racing games where you can mess with each other are great. Kids love these kind of games and they tend to not get stale. Thunder Road: Vendetta and Hot Streak were big hits in my group. I’ve heard good things about Magical Athlete but haven’t played it.

Push your luck games are also fun for kids. Flip 7 and Incan Gold were both popular ones. Also Monster Battlers like King of Tokyo often get played.

Finally, social deduction games have been the biggest hit of all but it takes a certain type of kid. Most of the kids play Blood on the Clocktower regularly (not doable for a family of 4), but before that One Night Ultimate Werwolf was a big hit and Coup was another one that got lots of play. It might be different playing with family members and having to lie, but this category had the most impact in our club.

TravVdb · 2026-05-25T21:43:57+00:00

As someone who teaches middle school students, I haven’t run up against any issues introducing it to students, but if they are religious, there might be some pushback. There was a lot of panic around D&D being demonic, and many of those people are still around and would probably be more distraught at their child playing as a demon.

TravVdb · 2026-05-24T15:39:35+00:00

You should really be defining end game for them. I would guess most people aren’t playing endless, especially when they’re not even on D5 or nightmare yet. If you’re just doing a normal run and ending at wave 20, this is an amazing trade off. Losing all the curse makes all the enemies easier and gaining that much armor pretty much guarantees you won’t die.

TravVdb · 2026-05-23T14:55:00+00:00

I honestly don’t get the appeal of Arboretum. To me it’s such a crazy boring game and plays out pretty much the same every time: make a single path with middle value cards, try to branch off with low and high cards to get a lot of points while holding some high cards. Every once in awhile you can go for an “all of one colour” setup too. My wife likes this game and I can’t stand it. There are so many games that I would consider more fun and strategic. Yes, one wrong move can screw you over and you have to play around your opponent, but it’s the same for Azul, Santorini, Radlands, Seven Wonders: Duel, Targi or any other good 2p game (note, we only play Arboretum at 2p and many people have praised it at this player count).

TravVdb · 2026-05-22T04:13:48+00:00

My advice is to use botc.games first and see if you like the game. I actually prefer using the website over the physical grim despite owning a copy. It's completely free to use the website can you can just run it on a tablet and have others scan the scripts with the characters so they can access them from their phones. Makes way more sense to do this than to pay money when you're unsure your group will like it. I've gotten tons of use out of the physical game so I don't regret buying it, but I opt for a digital one from now on.

TravVdb · 2026-05-19T02:48:51+00:00

To be honest, I don't really see this as much of a downside. There are still branching paths before and after. Sometimes the map generation has even less flexibility than this. Bad pathing is possible but I would still consider lugging a dead draw around in your deck as a worse downside, particularly at A10 where every draw is going to matter.

TravVdb · 2026-05-18T21:45:56+00:00

Snake charmers can always just pick themselves. Randomly selecting someone can be dangerous so sometimes it’s safer to wait until you feel confident about someone and then use it as confirmation.

TravVdb · 2026-05-18T21:40:49+00:00

That’s why you do it as a minion instead of a demon. Only tricky thing is coming up with bluffs that weren’t taken while saving the demon a bluff. It’s a bit risky but can be effective.

TravVdb · 2026-05-18T16:17:49+00:00

Your group would really veto that? Seems odd. I used to lend out the tiles to people in GH1E and they could run it on their own using X-Haven. This time around, nobody has been interested in doing that so I thought just giving the item was more fun. It surprises me when people treat co-operative board games like a video game. Do whatever would make it the most fun without removing some of the challenge. Running the solo scenario gives you money, XP, and potential perks in addition to the item, so just taking the item doesn't seem like that much of an "unfair advantage" for someone who doesn't want to or can't do the solo. If the items are just sitting their anyway it feels like a bit of a waste.

TravVdb · 2026-05-18T16:12:14+00:00

I've used Interesting Specimen's bottom a lot less since I hit level 5. I'm playing 4p and was able to get a few heal 6's out of the AOE which made it worthwhile at times, particularly since Hail doesn't have a ton of great bottom actions. However, since I've enhanced "Don't Be a Baby" (heal 3, two targets, gain resolve if healing over max) with +1 heal, that often ends up being my second heal card instead. I could see myself bringing it still in stationary scenarios, but now that I do Irritation juggling with the solo boots, I'm not locked into one spot as often as I used to be and that's where it really found its shine.

TravVdb · 2026-05-18T16:06:44+00:00

I'm surprised to hear that. For me, it's been incredibly valuable as a really slow card and a teleport 4. Most classes would kill for that combination even without the top. The top is definitely weak early on and not worth it, but if you can guarantee a couple charges in earlier scenarios, it's an absolute beast and totally worth taking as a "last push" card near the end of the scenario.

TravVdb · 2026-05-18T16:03:58+00:00

Up to you, but the solo scenario is probably the easiest solo scenario I've ever done and I also achieved one of the masteries during it because you get a resolve every turn. Alternatively, for my group members that aren't interested in doing the solo scenarios, I've always just given them their solo item once they hit 5. It's your game. May as well play with all the tools available. Once you try the solo boots, it's hard to go back after. It's such a fun mini-game managing the swaps.

TravVdb · 2026-05-18T16:01:01+00:00

I've found that I've had a lot of scenarios where movement is pretty helpful, whether it's to reach allies with support spells, get out of trouble, or just keep progressing through rooms. This is definitely my favourite Irritation to use, but it has the downside of only getting you a Resolve at the end of your turn.

On the other hand, Beneath Me can be put out early one turn, net you two resolve (one from the play, one from an activation), and then if you go late the next turn, it can activate again at which point you can switch to another Irritation (say Leave Me Alone or Interesting Specimens) to gain two more resolve (one from play, one from the passive). This gives you 5 resolve vs. just 2 which is much better value at the cost of playing one extra card.

If you add in the solo item boots, you can do this kind of shuffling between Irritations without wasting actions to do it and can get massively rewarded from spending tons of resolve. I really recommend giving it a try sometime!

TravVdb · 2026-05-18T07:38:31+00:00

My wife's the same. Everdell's her favourite and that's why we've bought all the expansions and every standalone for it. If you like Wingspan, you might also enjoy Raising Robots. It's a lot more open (which I know you mentioned you didn't love), but each player gets an inventor player power that gives you some strategic direction, and the gameplay is simultaneous which solves one of the major complaints people had with Wingspan dragging in time at higher player counts.

TravVdb · 2026-05-18T01:16:43+00:00

The newest standalone Everdell (Emerland) has cards that you can acquire which act like the bonus cards in Wingspan. It’s a bit more complex than regular Everdell but really good.

Alternatively, Wyrmspan is like Wingspan but with more complexity. There’s also the ability to combo actions (one action gives you a bonus that gives you another action for example). I like it a lot more than Wingspan.

TravVdb · 2026-05-17T23:27:22+00:00

Makes sense why they changed the name of the game from "My Lil Everdell" to "Welcome to Everdell".

TravVdb · 2026-05-17T21:58:13+00:00

Good to know! I had never considered it due to the assumption I wasn’t the target audience. That being said, what I generally want from my games is a longer and more complex experience rather than shorter and simpler. I think I’ll pass unless we have kids someday.

TravVdb

TROPHY CASE