Everything including the kitchen sink... but with special attention paid to board games, Jesus Christ, my family, being a "professional" (and I use that word loosely) Christian, and the random firing of the 10% of the synapses I'm currently using.
Not only is this my favorite pirate game (though I will admit that Pirates on the High Seas has more actual blowing stuff up), it's also the best usage of the card-crafting mechanic John D. Clair dreamed up.
Tips & Tricks:
Don't be fooled by the pirate ship cube "tower" - there's much more to the game than who can get lucky here. (At the same time, having cannons is a good thing.)
Your early card buys will help dictate some of your long-term decisions... whether it is better for you to focus on exploration and island control or going "full pirate" and attacking merchant ships & fellow players.
The base game is solid... though it runs a little long with the full complement of four players. Where the game really shines, though, is when you add in the Saga expansions.
Extras
For a game with this many interactive elements, Dead Reckoning manages to make the solo mode work and work well. Each time I play, I’m fascinated by the balance between the various victory pathways and the variety in the system.
But as much as I enjoyed the base game solo, I’m infinitely more jazzed about playing it with the Saga and SeaDog expansions… the addition of a campaign mode for solo play coupled with the constant drip of story elements meant I had a two week Dead Reckoning festival on my gaming table last fall. This spring, I’m about halfway through the second Saga expansion… and I’m enjoying it just as much.
I finally got to play the Letters of Marque expansion... along with the new Port of Call box. Letters of Marque is for your hardcore Dead Reckoning players while Ports of Call does a nice job of adding variety to the game.
Imagine if the designer of Race for the Galaxy decided to take making a roll'n'move that both gamers & non-gamers could love... that combined some very Monopoly-ish elements with tactical board play. And then you can wake up & play it, because this is actually Tom Lehmann's first game design!
Tips & Tricks:
Despite initial appearances, all of the companies are viable options for strategies to winFast Food Franchise. (Some require you to open a second company - particularly those that grow quickly but don't generate cash from other players.)
That said, you must watch your cash flow - relative both to your own building needs and the increasing costs of paying your competitors.
Rookie mistake? Not advertising.
There are two expansions that exist (note: I don't use the word "available" to describe them): 2 more companies (Tacos Today & Noodles to Go)... and a set of old skool fast food worker hats for each of the companies.
I talked with Tom a few years back about the chances of this getting reprinted... he is continuing to try to make that happen, which will make a number of my friends very happy. (But don't hold your breath.)
This is the sixth of seven (7!) games designed by Tom Lehmann on this countdown.
Yes, it's another combination of worker placement and deck-building... but don't let that fool you. The gameplay is well-thought-out, the artwork/graphic design is gorgeous, and there are meaningful timing and resource management choices throughout.
Tips & Tricks:
Don't lock into a single strategy based on how the last game ended... the game situation can change drastically depending on player choices and the various random decks, so you need to be prepared to react to the game in front of you.
Sometimes, a card is more valuable for the move icon than the special power - one of the tricks of the game is making sure you realize when that is..
The double-sided board (bird temple and snake temple) is a really nice touch to vary up play and tactics.
Extras
The Expedition Leaders expansion is an excellent addition to the game - adding to the variety without overwhelming the game system. The specific special powers of each adventurer are well-balanced.
I played The Search For Professor Kutil solo campaign twice... and while I think it's excellent, you don't need the campaign to play a really enjoyable solo game with Arnak.
The Missing Expedition expansion takes the Search for Professor Kutil and turns it up to 11. The campaign can now be played solo or as a two-player cooperative game.
I added a rather extensive set of thoughts on the Twisted Paths expansion as well the Adventure Box storage system to Dale Yu's review on the Opinionated Gamers site.
Based on the recommendations of others gamers (especially fellow Opinionated Gamer Chris Wray), I splurged on the Everdell Complete Collection without ever having played the game. As you can tell by where I placed this on my top 100 list, I don't regret that decision.
Tips & Tricks:
Everdell is a combination of worker placement and tableau building... all in service to the creation of a world filled with anthropomorphic forest critters. The whimsical and beautiful card and board art makes the game even more enjoyable to play.
The seasons mechanic has a number of interesting strategic considerations - since by not moving into the next season, you block other players from certain worker placement spaces.
While the game will play five players, we've found it most enjoyable at 2-3 players.
My sons' favorite expansion is Spirecrest (which add the large animals and the trek across the mountains)... I'm partial to Newleaf (which adds the train station and all the visitors).
Timing is everything in Everdell...
Extras
The production of the Everdell Complete Collection is stunning - the only problem is how dang big the box is.
Picture above includes both Mistwood and New Leaf.
There are two solo modes: Rugwort (which is mildly entertaining) and Mistwood (Nightweave & her spider crew) that really shines. I’ve barely scratched the surface of the personalities, plans, and plots available in the Mistwood expansion.
BTW, Chris Wray posted a weeks worth of Everdell reviews that are a great read if you’re interested. (These reviews pre-date the newest expansions, New Leaf & Mistwood.)
designers: T.K. King, Dennis Northcott, & Koltin Thompson
Print Status
in print
Why It's On The List
Galactic Cruise isn’t a huge step forward in gaming innovation – it’s a worker placement game with a variety of ways to score in-game and end game points. But the design accomplishes that with such style and thematic integration that I was instantly won over.
Tips & Tricks:
The game has what I lovingly call “the Tom Lehmann curve”. Those of you who’ve played some of Tom’s designs (particularly Res Arcana or New Frontiers) have experienced it – where the pace of the game accelerates dramatically as we approach the end of the game. I’m not complaining – I actually like this arc in games instead of the tendency of some Euros to get slower and slower as the number of decisions required make each turn longer & longer. (I still have PTSD from my last game of Tikal where I spent the final 30 minutes watching other players attempt to min-max their action points for the final turn.)
The biggest "blocking point" in the game is the competition for customers - it's the most limited resource.
Speaking of customers, you can use assign customers to flights that you have not scheduled in order to grab the bonuses... sometimes, that's easier than other ways to get cash plus it ties up customers that other players want to use.
Don't get fixated on a single strategy - a lot depends on what is available and what openings other players are leaving for you.
Extras
I told my adult sons (whom I have brainwashed into being rabid board gamers) that Kinson Key reminded me of Paverson Games – small companies with new designers who knocked it out of the park with their first big game. (Paverson is the company behind Distilled, my favorite “new to me” game of 2024.) Both games sport excellent rulebooks, splendid quality production, smart use of GameTrayz storage to make the game easier to set up & tear down, and really enjoyable game systems. Both used Kickstarter wisely to fund their big games – and, honestly, these kinds of games from small companies is a best use case scenario for crowdfunding.
The solo system works really well - and it's a pleasure to play.
I wrote a review of the game & solo system for the Opinionated Gamers site.
Note: I received a discounted review copy (yes, that means I paid for shipping and some part of the cost of the game).
A slightly more gamer-y 7 Wonders-ish card drafting game of civilization building... but that description sounds like damning with faint praise. The major difference is that you’re drafting a set of cards that you then use as resources (discarding them) or construction (building them) - the interplay can be fascinating and fast-moving... with the right players.
Tips &Tricks:
Creating production is key to winning... but you can make a huge production engine that doesn't generate a lot of points if you're not careful.
Learn when to give up on a card - preferably before you've invested too much in it.
Easy to forget rule: when you discard a card in your construction area, the resource pictured on the card goes to your civilization card - it's not used on another card in the construction area.
The main expansion offers some really interesting cards to mess with producing and scoring... and does so without doing any damage to the base game system.
Warning: a single AP player can slow this game to a crawl.
I also reviewed the newest game in the Wonderful universe, a 1-2 player stand-alone named It's A Wonderful Kingdom. (Second warning: this review contains a lot of Princess Bride references.)
The solo mode is very good - especially when you use the scenarios.
My younger son is a savant at this game... the student has become the teacher.
Take the part I like best about Kingdomino (the drafting system), use it to drive a tile placement game with thematic scoring (like Carcassonne but without the arguments about which set of farm rules we’ll be using), and provided the proper components (big cloth bag, easy to read tiles, clever use of cards to add variety) to make a really enjoyable game experience.
Tips & Tricks:
The scoring has a number of elements... however, they all make sense AND the scoring track includes a reminder of all the rules in play.
Start with the Family game... the Advanced Game has some risk/reward elements that won't be clear until you've got a couple of games under your belt.
Extras
The first expansion (Putt of No Return) does some helpful things: it adds interesting new course tiles and investors, it provides two-layer par boards (a welcome addition), and it fixes my main complaint about the original game with new and better art for all the cards.
The second expansion (Minigolf Empire) adds a bunch of new land cards as well as a campaign game version. I'm glad I own it but don't consider it essential.
follower of Jesus, husband, father, "pastor", boardgamer, writer, Legomaniac, Disneyphile, voted most likely to have the same Christmas wish list at age 58 as he did at age 8
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