I Need This Board Game...

# of Players: 2-5 Playtime: 30-60 Minutes Core Mechanic: Network Building/Set Collection Theme:  Trains Type: Family Euro Weight: Light Year:  2004 Rating: 7.5* When I first played Catan, I thought everyone should play Catan. Then I eventually discovered heavier games, like Agricola and Power Grid, and at the time never wanted to go back to the simplicity of Catan. I began a campaign of pushing heavy games and disregarding lighter, gateway ones. However, as I have played more games, I have come around to gateway games and understand and appreciate their position in the industry. Ticket to Ride is one such game, and although I might prefer heavier train games like Steam, this game is no slouch either. This game is part set collection and part network building, all themed around trains. At the start of the game you are given three Destination Tickets, of which you need to keep at least two. If you are able to connect two cities shown on a Destinatio...

These new mini-reviews for expansions for already reviewed games will not be rated. Instead, I will provide a short description of what the expansions add to their respective games and offer brief thoughts on whether these are worth it. I also will not be adding it to any collection and will leave it to the reader's discretion. First up is Through the Seasons, a mini-expansion for Agricola. I don't actually have this expansion as it was given away as a promo before I even knew Agricola existed. However, I did print it out and tried a couple games with it as I was looking new ways to spice up Agricola. Through the Seasons comes with a new mini-board depicting each of the four seasons. Each season comes with a new action that can be taken and also tweaks some of the existing actions. At the start of the game, a random season is selected for the first round and the seasons are subsequently rotated through each of the following rounds. The actions and tweaks are thematic fo...

# of Players: 1-4 Playtime: 30-60 Minutes Core Mechanic:  Hand Management/Push Your Luck Theme:  Medieval Type: Card Weight: Medium Year:  2015 Rating: 8* I was originally drawn to this game because of the Klemens Franz art, which is typical of almost all games he does the art for, but was very put off by the name. It's so tongue-in-cheek that I never gave the game a second thought until I tumbled upon one of Rahdo's lists where he mentioned that the campaign expansion, Longsdale in Revolt, completely revolutionized the game for him. The small form factor was appealing to me, so I decided to check this game out and was particularly interested in the campaign. It is a fun mix between an engine-builder and a push-your-luck game, but I think I was swept into the hype of the campaign and left thinking it was not as amazing as some were making it out to be. I will explain the base game before moving onto the two campaign expansions. As is typical wit...

The Middleweight Collection - 6 Games ($210 CAD/$175 USD) Worker Placement: Agricola: Family Edition ($50 CAD/$40 USD) Role Selection: Puerto Rico   ($40 CAD/$35 USD) Tile Placement: Castles of Mad King Ludwig ($55 CAD/$45 USD) 2-Player Abstract: Hive ($25 CAD/$20 USD) Filler: Love Letter ($10 CAD/$10 USD) Jaipur ($30 CAD/$25 USD)

# of Players:  1-4 Playtime:  2-3 Hours Core Mechanic:  Worker Placement Theme:  Medieval Type: Euro Weight:  Heavy Year:  2011 Rating: 9* By the time this game came out, both Agricola and Le Havre were two of my favorite games and because of this, Uwe Rosenberg was probably my favorite game designer at the time and likely still is. Therefore, the hype I created for myself surrounding this release was massive. In the end, this game was full of ideas that were new to me at the time, including the tile placement, production wheel, and interesting worker placement mechanics, but there was something about the game that held it back from hitting the same highs that his previous games did. As with most, if not all, Uwe Rosenberg games, the winner is the player with the most victory points. The game is played over several rounds with each round consisting of five phases: return workers if possible, rotate production wheel, settlement ...

The Collector Collection - 10 Games + 1 Expansion ($280 CAD/$215 USD)   Worker Placement: Farming: Agricola ($65 CAD/$50 USD) + Farmers of the Moor (OOS) City Building: Le Havre ($80 CAD/$60 USD) Role Selection: Puerto Rico ($40 CAD/$35 USD) Tile Placement: Castles of Mad King Ludwig ($55 CAD/$45 USD) Party: Wits & Wagers ($35 CAD/$25 USD) Network Building: Power Grid ($40 CAD/$35 USD)   2-Player: Abstract: Hive Pocket ($25 CAD/$20 USD) War: Twilight Struggle ($60 CAD/$40 USD) Filler: Love Letter ($10 CAD/$10 USD) Jaipur ($30 CAD/$25 USD)