Upgrading your Hobby

When it comes to the fairly modern phenomenon of commercially available board game component upgrades, your attention becomes equally drawn to the fact that game designers these days feel a growing need to differentiate themselves from competition through either some gimmicky component or other trendy game design feature. This is a perfectly natural progression to the design process, since it is only by standing out from the crowd that one can hope to get noticed. 

The issue however is that the more sophisticated your board game becomes and the more components you cram into your box, the more expensive the product gets going to retail. Personally, I feel that this matter has deteriorated (depends obviously on how you look at it) with the advent of Kickstarter games. Most Kickstarter products feel intrinsically premium in their overall design. In many cases designers will beef up products with a substantial number of upgraded components, frequently trading cardboard counters with all sorts of plastic equivalents, metal coins and, in some cases, neoprene mats instead of cardboard game boards. In doing so, the price of the product increases but since these games are aimed at fans, the latter are often willing to fork out the price. 

Yet before I dive into this subject matter any further, let’s consider where this all started. This is because to be fair, in the past people still upgraded their favourite games, or created souped up versions, just that they were all homebrew productions, carefully and lovingly crafted. I have seen gorgeous 3D renditions of such popular titles as Settlers of Catan, Talisman and others. All clearly the product of very artistic folk but not commercially available. If they were, they would most probably cost a fortune. If I were to speculate here, I think that it’s precisely these homebrew ideas that gave designers of kickstarter products ideas for embellishing their published games. Yet they weren’t the only reason I am sure, the crux of the matter I guess was that in order to add value to the rather pricey kickstarter products, designers had to offer something that went beyond standees or cardboard cutouts. 

Where does this leave the more mainstream (non-Kickstarter) offerings? In most cases these products are published in various formats, from an entry level, mass-market package that follows traditional production formats, to premium versions aimed at hobbyists. For instance, if you were to Google “Hanabi”, a popular set-building game, you would be surprised by the number of variations the search will come up with. At its most basic level, Hanabi is just a card game which may or may not employ counters to maintain tallies. As you go through your search results however, you will also find a version that comes in a tin box and another that has totally replaced the cards with Mahjong-style, chunky, plastic tiles. Obviously, the latter is significantly more expensive than the card-based sets.  

Now, the million-dollar question, does it pay to purchase a premium version of any given game? The answer is a bit complicated and must be summed up in two words, basically “it depends”. 

Some will argue that any board game is the sum of three key features namely: - 

• Gaming mechanisms and quality of play 

• Design and friendliness of the user interface and 

• Replay value. 

The first point, that is, gaming mechanisms and quality of play are indeed fundamental. If this aspect is spot on, minor design flaws (we are talking aesthetics not related to core game mechanisms) could be overlooked to an extent. As an example, I would like to point out the game Ethnos by CMON games. In terms of game play and replay value, the game is great, yet its design is minimalistic at best and generic when it comes to the fantasy art employed on the in-game cards. Do I still consider it an enjoyable game, definitely. This is because the user interface, though plain, is spot on and everyone knows what he or she should be doing next. While games like Ethnos could benefit from upgraded artwork, it would be more a “nice to have” in this instance. 

Yet there are games, which already have great design and artwork, but which would offer a better player experience if the quality of one or more components were upgraded. We’re not talking about components that would change the game mechanisms in any way whatsoever, other than from a tactile perspective. For instance, using metal coins when these are intended as the counter type within a game can be a very pleasant tactile experience for the players concerned.  

Companies like “The broken token” in the USA have in fact specialised in offering upgraded coin options for some of the more popular game titles including, among others, Lords of Waterdeep, Viticulture, Scythe and Seven Wonders. In most instances the upgrades can come with a steep price tag (when compared to the core game), so that they may not be for everyone’s pockets. Still, if you are passionate about a particular board game or other, having bought all available expansions, the next step could well be upgrading some or all its in-game components. 

Alternatively, components could be upgraded through other means if you happen to have the tools and artistic disposition. At the simplest level, players could decide to manually paint in-game miniatures to make them more appealing. This, if done properly, can add more depth to the pieces used in play, though care should be taken to ensure that any paint applied to the miniatures is durable and can sustain some measure of handling.  

If one were to take board game component upgrades seriously, 3D printers would be another way one could use to produce game tokens. Over recent years, the cost of entry-level 3D printers has dropped significantly. You can now find basic, 3D plastic filament printers, selling locally for around €200. The benefit of using these printers is that all you need to produce multiple copies of a given token, is a good 3D model file and plastic filament.  Once you load the file, all the printer requires is a clean environment where it can be left alone to perform its magic. The quality of the final product depends on the printer’s resolution as well as on the quality of the filament used. Both aspects need to be considered when purchasing these materials. 

Given the investment necessary I think that only genuine board game hobbyists will really consider going to such lengths. If you love a particular game, chances are you will go out of your way to get the best version of that game. Consider Chess boards for instance, you can well enough play with a €15-30 set but you will find hardcore chess players willing to spend thousands on a luxury set and custom table. I think that it is all about the enjoyment you derive from the game itself as well as the disposable cash you are willing to spend on your hobby. The more enjoyment you derive whilst playing, the more likely it is that you will spend money to get the best possible experience. 

Given the reality of today’s global situation, no discussion on this topic can be complete without discussing the logistics behind purchasing and getting any upgrades. Due to the global pandemic and now, very unfortunately, also because of the disruptions that are being experienced in relation to the war in Ukraine, global transport logistics have suffered a heavy toll. As a consequence shipping goods around the globe has become increasingly expensive. Getting single items to your home has never been costlier. I will talk on a personal level here and say that my board game purchases from abroad have gone down to zero over the past 24 months. At the moment, I am more likely to tap into the local market and purchase goods from local suppliers, who still somehow manage to keep costs per item low by aggregating their shipping. For now this stratagem appears to be working for the local importers as the prices are indeed competitive and comparable to online prices.

Yet having said all this, it all really comes down to personal taste and the pleasure one derives from playing a well presented and upgraded game. Clearly, if board games are not your thing, or you just happen to be a casual player, then upgrading games will not appeal to you. If on the other hand, you do consider yourself a hobbyist in addition to enjoying board games in general, then upgrading game components will definitely add to the experience. 

Two Player Games

Whoever happens to be moderately interested in board gaming, will tell you that player count can be a serious matter when it comes to what games you can actually play. From my own experience, even putting together four players over a number of regular sessions can be problematic. Thankfully with the richness and variety of games out there, issues with player counts can be mitigated.

The still ongoing pandemic, which began in 2020, brought the matter of player counts and the impossibility of meeting up during the various lockdowns, to the fore. Even gamers who had a network of interested players, who could therefore engage in playing diverse titles, found themselves unable to continue to pursue their hobby on account of social distancing. This meant that many found themselves limited to playing exclusively with members of their own family or perhaps with those in their same bubble. For these reasons they tended to favour games with lower player counts and, in most instances, that meant either two-player games or solo games.

Solo games deserve a blog of their very own, given the growing body of titles that are now available. For the purpose of this blog however, I will focus on two-player games and particularly on titles I own. 

From personal experience, 2-player games are games I have played with some regular frequency over the years. The reason is simple. At home it was mostly me and my sister, which meant two-player games were easier to bring to the table. Ironically while my father and mother pushed board games in our direction from an early age, they seldom joined us in the games. I felt that the message back then, was more along the lines that games were for kids and that adults had more lofty aspirations. Obviously that was a whole lot of hullabaloo. 

It was thanks to my aunts and uncles from my mother’s side of the family, that I learnt the real value of group card and board games. Mostly it was cards, but we did also indulge in very animated, neverending games of Monopoly, as well as a slew of other board games like Draughts, Chess, Ludo and Snakes & Ladders. It wasn’t easy, growing up, to bring more than two players to the table. The situation improved somewhat later in life, during the earlier years of my marriage when we hosted numerous game nights. Then came the kids and it was back to struggling just to keep some semblance of a social life going, let alone organising game nights. That’s a pretty normal situation from what I have heard.

Thankfully, I now have a six-year-old who, with some help, can indulge in games that are technically beyond his years but which he follows through and plays enthusiastically. It’s thanks to him that I have been able to explore some modern titles, when COVID practically wiped out any possibility of holding even an occasional game night. 

So without much further ado, let’s go through some interesting titles which I own and which either work better with two players or are intended as two-player games.

To be clear, I will not review the game mechanisms or gameplay in detail, just the salient features which make each title unique or better suited as a two player activity.

When I sifted through my collection, I was quite surprised to find that I have a substantial number of board games which are either two-player by design, or work well as two-player games. The point is that given my current tally of titles, recalling which board game works best as a two player game, requires going through the titles and recalling past matches that can justify my claim. I will start with those that are two-player by design.

7 Wonders Duel, is the first game I would like to quote from my collection. It is strongly derived from the original award-winning game, 7 Wonders, but game play has been heavily streamlined to favour the two-player format it advocates. There are fewer boards and more cards in this two-player variant and the emphasis is on using a witty, card blocking mechanism that allows access to only a handful of cards during the drafting process.  More cards become gradually avialable once those exposed are taken by the players. The objectives are still essentially the same, though the science, military and civic paths to victory are somehow better presented.

The next are the various deck builders which have “realms” in their title. These include the perennially popular Star Realms, then Hero Realms, Hero Realms - Ruins of Thandar and Cthulhu Realms.  All four are deck builders with roughly the same gaming mechanism at their core.The best among them must be Star Realms, with all the subsequent add-on and stand alone packs that came out under this title. These titles are squarely 2-player games, though it is technically possible, for instance, to play Star Realms as a four-player game though the game does become unwieldy.

Epic is a living card game (LCG) which borrows some elements from Magic the Gathering (MtG) but does away with the latter’s Land cards. It is a two-player game which offers a series of rather quirky tropes, mish-mashed into one game. The artwork is derivative at best, there is some attempt at a story but it somehow becomes irrelevant the moment you sit down to play. Not one of my favourite two-player games but it is definitely designed to be so.

Legend of the 5 Rings Card Game is another LCG in much the same vein as MtG but which then leverages an honour and dishonour track. The game’s theme is clearly inspired by mediaeval Japanese history, though the designers stirred away from turning this into a historical game. This game is strictly two-player, comes with some exceptionally beautiful artwork and a rather complex gaming structure. Players can achieve victory through diverse paths, a military win is only one of the options. A lovely game and one I wish I could play more.

Onitama is a two-player chess-like game where pieces are ascribed 5 moves from special cards drawn at the beginning of the game. The moves are shared between both players ,making this a very interesting game. 

Othello or Reversi as some might know it, is a simple territory/area control game for two players. Ingenious and simple in its own right, this is a classic two-player game. 

Quarto is a board game that uses an interesting mechanism whereby you offer the next move to be played to your opponent. Very pretty to look at and deceptively simple but can be an intriguing puzzler for two. 

Tsar is one of the most innovative, two-player games I have come across in a long while. There are four types of pieces on the board and you win by either depleting one of the opponent’s, or else by forcing your opponent into being unable to make a legal move. 

Stratego is an old game where essentially two armies are lined up in front of each other but  neither side initially knows the nature or position of their opponent’s pieces. Strictly a two player and one which feels like playing a two-player version of  the old Windows Minefield app. 

Hive is a truly unique abstract strategy game, played with hexagonal tiles and no true board to speak of. The theme is insect-based and during their turn each player will place new tile pieces onto the gaming area, or move those already in place, in order to completely encircle the opponent’s queen bee. Hive can be a very short, intense tactical game but one that is fairly easy to teach and bring to the table.

Mastermind is an old, 70’s, code-cracking game which never really went away. It’s a delightful brain teaser for two, with either players taking turns being the code-maker or code-breaker. 

I bought The Royal Game of Ur from the British Museum souvenir shop way back in 2006. This two-player game  is considered one of the oldest games ever discovered complete with rules to go with it. It is essentially a race game much in the same vein as Parcheesi or Ludo. This game found its way into my collection more as a sort of curio that intrigued me at the time. Here was what I considered the ultimate proof that board games have always been part of who we are as a species. Furthermore it also proved to me that board games were not simply intended for kids, but a social phenomenon that had been enjoyed by lay people and royalty throughout history. 

No list of two-player games would be complete without a mention of Backgammon. This is a classic, two-player game I really love and enjoy playing. I will be dedicating a future blog exclusively to this game so there will be that. Backgammon brings a good blend of tactical play and variance, which allows game progression to flow along at a good pace. When you’re in a match you feel totally immersed in the gameplay and the roll of the dice and calculated risk-taking add vibrancy to the overall challenge. 

The last two-player, abstract strategy game on my list is Dao. Dao is as simple as they can possibly get. Players have four pieces to play with and they must achieve one of four possible configurations on the board in order to win. A good example of a game where less is indeed more.

Now I would like to have a look at games which are intended for two or more players but which in my opinion play better at a two-player count.

Nmbr 9 is a polyomino style game where players draw pieces and place them simultaneously into their respective tableau, the higher you stack the piece the more points you earn.

Santorini is an abstract strategy game but dressed up in an attractive theme. Nominally you can play with up to four players but it’s at two players that this game really shines. Players take turns to either move their worker pieces or build a level on an available adjacent building space. Players can then climb up onto the levels they build, with the player first up on the 3rd level winning a match. This game is strategic and does require a measure of forward planning. While each turn is quick, playing with more than two players makes the game a bit more distracting. This is why I normally recommend playing this as a two-player game.

Next, I think I should follow through with the Ascension series of deck building games. Ascension is a game I love and understand. I have two Ascension packs from the series with the second (Rise of Vigil) being marginally more interesting in my opinion. This game can be played as a four player game but suffers from the same issues as other similar deck builders. Each player turn toward the end of the game becomes increasingly longer, forcing the other players into lengthy downtimes as they wait for their next turn. At two-player, the wait can be tolerated but as soon as that player count goes up to three or four, player downtime becomes stifling. 

The next triplet of titles I would like to talk about are Splendor, Cities of Splendor and Splendor - Marvel. These titles work well at player counts of up to 4 but if I must be sincere about it, I prefer playing these at two or three players at the most. At two players the game is highly tactical with players having a somewhat clear picture of what the other is trying to achieve as well as how he or she is trying to achieve it. However, as soon as another player enters the mix the game complexity increases, on account of an extra layer of variability introduced by the new player. Keeping tabs of what two other players might be trying to achieve before you get your turn can be difficult. At four players, the game becomes chaotic, at least for me. While I love Splendor, I still feel it’s best played as a two-player game.

 

MTG - Battle of the Planeswalkers is another desktop brawler, where players meet on common terrain, unleashing their planeswalkers into a battle royale of sorts. Theming is strongly derivative from Magic the Gathering but this is not MTG. It is possible to battle it out with up to 5 players, each taking control of a faction, but the truth is that at higher  player counts the game feels a bit messy. Two or perhaps three players at most work best. I prefer it at two though I am sure some will disagree.

Dungeon Mayhem and Dungeon Roll are the next two games I believe work best as two-player games. Dungeon Mayhem is more of a player brawl with a fantasy theme. Players get their own character packs and then slog it out until only one player remains. You can play it three player or four player I guess, but two player is more where this game is at. 

Dungeon Roll uses a deck of monster cards and special dice in order to simulate “delving” through a dungeon. Cards as well as loot earned during the delve can help you manipulate the custom dice in order to best the monsters faced. It’s very simple at heart but when one player goes through his turn, the other becomes the dungeon keeper, so to speak. While the dice are nifty and the theming is fairly good, it’s definitely not one of my go-to games. Still it is a two-player game and designed to be just that.

I would like to conclude this blog with some considerations of what I believe should make a good two-player game. First of all, the actions taken on each turn need to be intuitive while still allowing for interesting choices and decisions. The theme, if present, needs to be well integrated into the gameplay and not slapped on almost as an afterthought. Very importantly, there should be minimal downtime. Games with overbearing downtimes, or those which invite protracted contemplation between turns are not what I find enjoyable. Finally, a good two-player game should be complex enough to engage thought but light enough to allow for social interaction.

Until next time, have a good one!

Top 10 most popular games played in Q1 2022

 This is a quick review of the most popular games, with the most recorded plays on BoardGameGeek during the first three months of 2022. The data itself is interesting in that it seems to highlight the ongoing popularity of certain board games that have been around for a few years now. In order to come up with the top 10 later in this article I have limited myself to the top 20 played games during the months of January, February and March.

Once I pooled this information, I next sorted each game by frequency, selecting only those that made the top 20 in all of the three months analysed. This gave me a total of 14 titles which I tabulated. Next I took note of the positions they occupied each time they featured in order to rank them better. The resulting table (towards the end of this blog) was an interesting mix of new and old titles. 

Brief Game Reviews

#14 Starting off at number 14 we have Ark Nova. The game is fairly new, released in 2021 and scoring 8.7 on BoardGameGeek. The theme feels quaint, you’re managing a zoo with the objective of owning the most grand and successful establishment. The design looks lovely and the gameplay interesting. I will admit that the theme would not be something I would look at, but this game really looks intriguing. One thing is for sure, it is definitely garnering the attention of the board gaming community and, I feel, is new title to look out for as the year progresses. 

#13 The next title at number 13 in the BoardGameGeek list of most played games, is Magic the Gathering. Magic The Gathering (MTG) is a collectable card game originally designed by Richard Garfield in 1993, this game will be a whopping 30 years old next year and it’s still going strong. While many will argue that you need a bankroll if you intend to play this game competitively, it still somehow manages to reel in new players. It is these players who in turn keep this Collectable Card Game afloat, with its publishers Wizards of the Coasts, in turn churning out new sets and expansions on a regular basis. A quick check confirmed that the latest core set edition is currently the twenty-first which was published in 2021. As an aside, the first time I got onto the “Magic” bandwagon mostly out of curiosity, was way back during the seventh edition, released in 2001. Following that I bought some boosters as well as a  fire-themed deck from the Champions of Kamigawa expansion which was released in 2004.  After another long hiatus, I then picked up more duelling decks and boosters from the fifteenth Edition released in 2016. Since then, I must admit, that I have cooled down considerably when it comes to MTG and apart from playing a few dozen games on the MTG Arena platform, my live play has since become non-existent. In truth, I nowadays stay away completely from CCGs (Collectable Card Games) as I find these too demanding in terms of the time and money you need to invest in order to remain competitive. 

#12 Next one up, at number 12, is Spirit Island. This game by board game designer R. Eric Reuss and published in 2017 is doing quite well and is considered a solid game, scoring 8.4 on BoardGameGeek. Spirit Island is cooperative but definitely not one of the lighter titles out there. Still if you are keen on co-op and have several sessions of Pandemic under your belt, you should definitely be giving this one a try.

#11 I was quite frankly, amused and pleasantly surprised to find Splendor creeping up into this list at number 11. This game by game designer Marc Andre, originally published in 2014 is still doing quite well, eight years down the line. This is one of my all-time favourite games and one which is very easy to get to the table and introduce to new players. Splendor has sold over 200,000 copies globally.

The Top 10 Games

So here we are with the top 10 games, most played games, for the first quarter of 2022. I will go through the titles in a countdown fashion, starting with a review of the number ten title and then on upwards to the number one game on the list.  

#10 Gloomhaven is an episodic, campaign-type, roleplaying game with some seriously good production values. Designed by Isaac Childres and published in 2017, it is considered one of the best RPG’-style dungeon crawlers in a box. A co-op game at heart, this intriguing game comes in a monumental box with tonnes of content. It will require the biggest table or surface you can throw at it...and more important a gaming group committed to play through the various campaign scenarios with you. Here I would like to add that in 2021 the same designer came up with a lighter prequel of sorts called Gloomhaven: Jaws of the Lion. It is an interesting, standalone experience which allows casual players the opportunity to experience Gloomhaven without the overheads and bulk of the original game. I understand that Gloomhaven ticks all the right boxes but I was quite intrigued that this sequel did not feature higher up in the BoardGameGeek most played lists. This in view of the fact that Jaws of the Lion is currently ranked fifth in their overall ranking of games, with Gloomhaven, notably (and with reason) taking top honours at number one.

#09 7 Wonders Architects (2021) is a fairly new game derived from the original 7 Wonders. Many consider this iteration as a “light” version of the original game and, from what I have seen and read, I tend to agree. Regardless, it comes with great design values and new players appear to be loving it. It is also the recipient of the 2022 As d'Or - Jeu de l'Année, so definitely noteworthy. 

#08 7 Wonders Duel is another 7 Wonders spinoff originally published in 2015. This seven-year-old game is a two-player variation of the original,  which takes a fraction of the space of its older brother. It packs a satisfying, meaty and involving game that goes down well with fans of strategic games. Personally I would like to play it a bit more often as that is the only way to fully appreciate the beauty of this modern classic.

#07 Lost Ruins of Arnak is one of the games on my wish list. This game was released in 2020 so that it will be one of those games which will be forever linked to the COVID pandemic. It scores a solid 8.1 on BoardGameGeek  and offers a combination of gaming mechanisms I love, such as deck building, drafting and worker placement. It’s not too complex to teach, as can be attested by the video review by Tom Vassel of the Dice Tower. The deck building aspect is quite straightforward and, while the number of decisions demanded appears to be limited, the board and player interactions result in an involved and satisfying experience overall. If you would like a better idea of how this game pans out, try watching a playthrough on Youtube. 

#06 Terraforming Mars, by designer Jacob Fryxelius and published in 2016 is enjoying a resurgence of sorts thanks mostly to the 2021 followup, Ares Expedition. In this game players take the role of rival corporations all seeking to make Mars habitable while reel in on the commercial success of their venture. Personally, while I did buy the digital adaptation for PC, I am still undecided as to whether this should be part of my physical board game collection. Ares Expedition, which came out in 2021 appears to be a tighter and more streamlined adaptation, with an easier ruleset than this original work. However, Terraforming Mars still scores a solid 8.4 on BoardGameGeek

#05 & #04 The Crew: Quest for planet nine and The Crew: Mission deep sea, both by designer Thomas Sing, appear to be enjoying a steady popularity as the first quarter of 2022 comes to a close. The game fits what is essentially a trick-taking card game, into a thematic adventure, the former in space and the latter deep under the sea. Both are cooperative-style card games spanning several scenarios straight out of the box. In both games, players get to play a number of missions towards their final game objective. Still, I am a bit wary of the multi-mission structure, which is why I haven’t personally committed to buying either of these two very popular titles. The only aspect that might swing me the other way and actually lead me to buying these titles, is that they aren’t particularly expensive in addition to not taking up a lot of room on the gaming table. 

#03 Wingspan, by game designer Elisabeth Hargrave, has been killing it for the past three years now, its popularity and position on the list proves it. In this visually stunning game, players are bird enthusiasts trying their best to attract birds to their wildlife preserves. Two expansions have already been released for this game, one centred around European birds and the others around Oceania. Rated an 8.1 on BoardGameGeek, Wingspan is a deep game offering many choices during the course of a game. Still it’s easy to teach and thoroughly engaging. According to Stonemeier games, Wingspan has sold over 750,00 copies globally since 2019.

#02 Azul is one of those games you bring out when you want something that’s enjoyable, appealing and easy to teach and get started. I have to admit that I gave this one the slip on account of encountering and buying its successor Azul: Stained Glass of Sintra which came with a few improvements over  the original game. Since then various other stand-alone follow-ups to Azul made it to the market, but none seem to have enjoyed the popularity or the staying power of the original. Azul has sold over two million copies since it was first published.

#01 Marvel Champions: The Card Game, by Game Designer Michael Biggs and published in 2019, is currently enjoying a wave of popularity, piggy-backing on the success of Marvel themed movies and associated merchandise. Many are touting it as a sleek and enjoyable cooperative card game, where players take on the personas of their favourite superheroes to defeat infamous villains and earn victory.  

So that’s the top 10 list of the most played board games, as compiled by Board Game Geek. It’s always interesting to see what games are being played and how popular they remain over time. Some games make a big splash when they first come out and then fizzle out within a few months to a year. The above games have all shown some serious resilience in their own right, earning their place in the above list.

If  you have any questions about any of the above games, please do not hesitate to get in touch and I will try to get back to you as soon as I can.

Board Games based on established or popular IPs

When designing new games, themes are always at the fore of a game designer’s mind. Designers may have a brilliant set of game mechanisms, perhaps backed by sound mathematical or logical principles, but if they get the theme wrong, the game could potentially suffer. From my experience with this hobby, there is seldom, however, a good or bad theme per se, but rather a well-timed or badly timed one.

I am here referring to themes which are in their turn derived from established intellectual properties or IPs. Timing in this sense, is more about timing the release of such games when their IP is enjoying highest visibility. This could be following the release of a related movie or the publication of a book or an anniversary related to that same IP.

To further elaborate I will use a board game by a renowned game designer, Reiner Knizia. Knizia is an icon in the industry and a PhD in mathematics. When he talks about games or writes about them, people usually listen. Knizia is a German game designer born in 1957, who has designed several games to date, as well as published books on card and dice games. If you want to have a taste of his game designs I have included two book titles at the end of this blog. In 2000 he published what was to become his best selling game, Lord of the Rings (LOTR), the board game. 

The game itself has some very interesting game mechanisms such as the corruption track where the heroes, in this case the hobbits of the shire, battle the dark lord Sauron through four distinct scenarios, with the sole objective of destroying the one ring. The track itself is very visual with, on the one hand, the “light” side where the hobbits strive to remain, and a “dark” side where Sauron’s ominous tower of Barad-Dur stands at the start of a game. Throughout the course of the various scenes, the hobbits will progress towards or away from the dark side. Likewise the tower will progress towards or away from the hobbits. If  at any time the two meet then the hobbits fail in their quest and the game is lost. 

This fascinating board game also pre-dates the popular board game Pandemic by 8 years, as well as other similar co-op games.  It was among the first board games to introduce cooperative play in a modern game format. The hobbits (albeit the players) win or lose together, depending on whether the ring bearer completes his ultimate quest or not. 

Yet while the chosen IP was an established one, which went down well with fans of JRR Tolkien, what really brought the game to the attention of mainstream gamers must have been its close proximity with the release of the first instalment of Peter Jackson's LOTR magnum opus. In fact Jackson had started filming all three LOTR movies in New Zealand precisely  between 1999 and 2000, with the first instalment of the trilogy (The Fellowship of the Ring) subsequently released in 2001. Knizia, in this sense, can be said to have pre-empted the flood of other LOTR themed games which followed, by placing his creation first out of the gates.

Seen from the standpoint of 2022, as I write this blog, cooperative games have since advanced in leaps and bounds. Pandemic, for instance, introduced a dynamicity that you will not find in Knizia’s earlier game. It caters for diverse starting configurations, through randomly assigning the positions of the various starting pieces. Yet these modern co-op games, as thematic as they may be considered, do not require to follow a fixed plot, in a specific sequential, episodic order. This was the brilliance of Knizia’s creation; he translated the book’s original plot into a sequence of events (or scenarios)  whose order never changes. To the extent that this adopted stratagem aligns with the novel, it also makes learning how to play LOTR sensibly more challenging than, say, playing Pandemic or other modern co-op games.

Timing games to coincide with the release, or popularity, of movies linked to specific IPs is a rather common tactic in marketing board games. One other such game that comes to mind is Marvel Splendor.

Marvel Splendor is a reskinning of an earlier game called simply Splendor, released in 2014 and designed by Marc Andre. The original Splendor (2014) offers a simple resource building mechanism, which starts off with a finite resource of gem tokens, which players need to secure in order to buy increasingly valuable cards. The more valuable cards are themselves worth victory points, with the game’s objective being to be the first to score 15 points before all other players. These same concepts and goals lay at the heart of Marvel Splendor, albeit with a few twists. The gems are now “infinity stones” and the first player to secure one of each type of stone (represented through captured cards) wins the “infinity gauntlet” and the game. The game also includes a special 3-point award token, that moves to the player who would currently have the most Avengers among his or her claimed deck of cards. 

Basically Marvel Splendor is just Splendor with some very unique Marvel related artwork, and actually proved the critics right when they say that Splendor does not have much of a well articulated theme. Mind you, the game is good, but the theme employed fits loosely over the core game mechanisms, making it rather simple to switch themes as in this case. 

I’d like to end this review of board games, based on established IPs, by going over games that were built around the Dune saga by Frank Herbert. One can say that Dune is to Sci-Fi what LOTR is to fantasy. The 1984 movie rendition by David Lynch was received poorly in its time, but having said that, the movie itself was a product of its time. I will not go into what were its failing points, nor its merits, it’s beside the point in this instance. What that movie did do was bring the original book to the fore, as it were. Having said that, back in 1979 Avalon Hill published what I believe to be the first Dune-based board game. Closer to Lynch’s version of Dune, Avalon Hill then published a second edition of this game as well as two expansions. The game itself was a lengthy affair but one cherished by board game aficionados. For several years the board game went out of print right up until 2019 when a new publisher, Gale Force 9, once again published the game while tweaking the original ruleset. Once again this IP-based reprint was published close to the release of a related movie, in this instance Denis Villeneuve’s interpretation which has since received rave reviews as well as won 6 oscars (Best Score, Visual Effects, Cinematography, Production Design and Film Editing). As might be imagined, other publishers and game designers were equally quick to come up with Dune-based titles with two of the more interesting being Dune Imperium and Dune: a Game of Conquest and Diplomacy. 

Dune Imperium, which I happen to own, is a product of modern board game design, incorporating diverse gaming mechanisms which have found favour among board game enthusiasts. This version in fact includes deck building, worker placement and resource management. The design is strongly influenced from the movie visuals and the characters in-game are artistic renditions of the actual actors themselves, including Timothy Chalamat (Paul Atreides), Oscar Isaac (Leto Atreides), Jason Mamoa (Duncan Idaho) and others. The success of this game, its theming and timing can be appreciated by the fact that it is currently ranked 15th on BoardGameGeek. While the game itself is unquestionably interesting, the question beckons, would it be as successful if the movie hadn’t been made? Would it have been published at all? 

In truth this synergy between IPs and board games has existed for as long as modern board games have been published. While the end products may not always be memorable or long lived, the fact remains that a subsection of the board game industry does tend to  lean on the popularity of established IPs to sell their games. 

I would like to leave you with a couple of questions. The first must be, how important is theme for you when you decide to purchase a game? Also, do you like games that rely on established IPs for their core theme? Feel free to drop me a few lines, I would like to hear your take on the matter.

Reference and Links

Books by Reiner Knizia

Dice Games Properly Explained (ISBN 978-0-9731052-1-6)

New Tactical Games with Dice and Cards  (ISBN 978-0-9936880-1-0)

The Right Game for the Right Crowd

Ever got hyped about a game, following an online review perhaps, bought it and then felt totally at a loss when you table the game to dismal feedback from your fellow gamers? If this has happened to you, you are not alone. The truth of the matter is that with the huge diversity of board games available on the market, matching the right game to the right crowd can be difficult.

Let us say you want to establish what might work best with your chosen crowd, first you need to take your own board game collection into consideration. For starters you need to establish the player counts catered for by your various games. If, for instance, most of your games cater for 2 to 4 players, then you don’t really have any party games to speak of. With player counts ironed out, you next need to determine the type of games you have in your collection by identifying their key gaming mechanism. 

Most modern games exhibit one or more gaming mechanisms at their core but they will always have one overarching mechanism that dominates. For instance, games like Carcassonne are principally “tile laying” in nature but then Carcassonne also happens to be a “worker placement” game, where you use meeples to lay claim to certain features on the board and earn points. Other games like the classic Risk or Kingdom Builder, are more focused on territory or area control. These are but two examples but there are obviously much more out there. Each mechanism will add or, in some cases detract, from the spread of possible choices available to a player. In many ways the complexity of a game can be considered to be directly related to the number of available decisions or choices throughout. 

Another aspect you may need to consider while preparing for a gaming session, is whether your crowd is highly competitive, enjoying cutthroat action while playing board games, or whether they are more drawn to non-confrontational styles of gaming. If the latter is the case, then games following a “last man standing” model should be avoided. Furthermore euro-style games such as Tokaido, Lords of Waterdeep and the various Pandemic-style, cooperative games, will prove definitely more popular. 

If you don’t have the time to quiz your fellow gamers in advance, you would be best served by having a diverse library of games spanning as many mechanisms as possible. This would obviously allow you to adjust your offering based on who you will be hosting during your gaming session. However given that you cannot own all the of games in existence, you need to choose your games carefully. Above all you need some specific criteria that will allow you to choose your games smartly. For this reason, I am suggesting that you should have a spread of games that cater for at least the following criteria:-

1. Game duration - Here  I advise having two types of games. Short, interactive games with a duration anywhere between 15-20 to 45 minutes and medium duration games with play times ranging anywhere from 60-90 to 180 minutes. Personally, I think that you should refrain from acquiring games with longer play durations or those which need to be played over several sessions. Unless you can get a game group to commit to regular sessions, long multi-session games will end up become a waste of space in your collection. Another aspect you need to take seriously into account is how familiar your gaming group happens to be with a particular game. It stands to reason that if a game is brand new, players will need to first digest the rules and then learn to apply them during the course of a game. Even a derivative game, based on an established and previously played game, will have rule variations that will need to be learnt. For this reason, if you intend to bring a new game to the table which says, on the box, that it can be played in 45 minutes, make sure you add on at least another 30-45 minutes to the overall game time.

2. Rulebook Complexity - You should have in your collection, games which have terse, one to four page rulesets, in addition to games with more elaborate (though hopefully easy to understand) rulebooks. The former, especially if they also happen to have short to medium game durations of say up to 45 minutes max, would make for excellent ice breakers. In some instances these will be the games you will play exclusively, especially if your fellow gamers tend to be casual players who aren’t into playing longer games.

3. Cutthroat versus Euro-style games - Games can be divided between what I call cutthroat games and euro-style games. Cutthroat games are usually of a type where, if more than two players are involved, players will be gradually eliminated from play before the end of the game. We can also call this kind of game the “last man standing” type, since at the end of the game, the sole surviving player is crowned the winner. Euro-style games on the other hand tend to focus on point scoring, allowing all players to remain in play till the very last round. You will here appreciate that you have to carefully gauge whether your gaming group prefers old school cutthroat games (Monopoly comes to mind), or whether they tend to prefer player engagement and staying in play till the end. Either way, it would be best if you have both types represented in your collection.

4. Competitive versus Cooperative games - This is another distinction which you should like to have represented in your collection. One may argue that all games are intrinsically competitive, it is what encourages players to even learn how to play them in the first place. Yet some modern euro games cater for cooperative play, where players can actually work as a team to overcome obstacles set in place through clever game mechanisms. A flag bearer of this genre is Pandemic, this game is in fact considered the quintessential cooperative game. Yet there are other cooperative games other than Pandemic and I am sure you will find several. For example Zombicide by CMON games comes to mind.

When it comes to theming in board games, matters get a bit more complicated. To begin with, themes in board games are neverending. You will find games which focus on exploring reality, some that have strong historic resonance, others still, that draw their inspiration from sci-fi, steampunk or fantasy settings. Whether or not a theme will work with a play group will depend significantly on individual tastes. If your game group is made up of folk who just love fantasy, a D&D or Lord of the Rings themed board game will most likely be a hit. If on the other hand, your game group isn’t too keen on war themed games or on history in general, bringing games to the table like Brass Birmingham or Axis & Allies will not go down well. As a general rule of thumb, simpler, elegant or well presented games are easier to bring to the table than, say, those with complex designs that utilise a plethora of tokens or come with some heavy number crunching as part of their design. 

I think at this point, I have covered most of the matters you would need to consider, to make sure that you bring the right games to the table. However I have left one final matter till the very end. This will make or break any gaming session, since it will more certainly impact the games you will actually play. I am here talking about available time.

If you are planning a board game session, make sure you know exactly how much time you have to play a particular game. Are all your fellow gamers aware of the duration and can they stay on till the end of a game? These are important questions because no one likes seeing a perfectly good game break up on account of one or two killjoys, who were either reluctant to commit in the first place, or who suddenly notice (in the thick of things) that they happen to have other commitments to tend to. 

If you plan to make an evening of it, make sure you have ample time for food consumption, preparing the gaming area, bringing the board game/s out and actually playing the game. If this means meeting up early to get the food over and done with, make sure that all are on board with the idea. It also helps if you have one or two guests who are willing to help you set up the game as this will greatly reduce preparations allowing for more gaming time in the long run.

I sincerely hope that this little exposition has offered you a good insight into the hobby, especially if you happen to love board games and sharing them with family and friends. If there are any questions you might have and wish to ask, please feel free to get in touch and I will gladly try my best to answer them for you. Until my next blog, have fun playing board games!