I Need This Board Game...

# of Players:  2-4 Playtime:  1-2 Hours Core Mechanic: Action Selection/Tile Placement Theme:  Gardening Type: Family Euro Weight: Light-Medium Year:  2011 Rating: 7* Takenoko to me feels like the gateway jack-of-all trades. First, it has a cutesy theme that really helps to draw new gamers in - who doesn't want to control a bamboo-loving panda? Second, it introduces a wide variety game concepts in an easily digestible package - a bit of action selection, tile laying, secret objective - making it a good stepping stone to more complicated games later on. Third, there is a fair bit of interaction and can become a bit cutthroat at times, making it a bit more appealing who don't like the solitaire feel some other euro games emanate. Fifth, pandas - pandas, pandas, pandas. The winner of the game will be the player who scores the most victory points by completing secret objectives. The end game is triggered when one player completes t...

# of Players:  2-5 Playtime:  1-2 Hours Core Mechanic:  Role Selection Theme:  City Building Type:  Euro Weight:  Medium-Heavy Year:  2002 Rating: 9.5* When I first started playing modern board games, the three games at the top of the BoardGameGeek All-Time rankings were Agricola, Puerto Rico, and Twilight Struggle.  Having already played Agricola and with minimal interest in a two-player Cold War simulation, I decided that my next game would be this "classic" shipping game, considering it was already a few years old. This is a relatively straightforward role-selection game where the starting player picks a role to do an action with a bonus, and then everyone else gets to perform that action as well, but without the bonus. Then the next player picks from the remaining available roles, and so-on until the round ends. Unpicked roles get a doubloon (coin) added to them as incentive to be picked the next round and the game conti...

# of Players: 2 Playtime: 0-30 minutes Core Mechanic: Tile Placement Theme:  Insects Type: Abstract Weight: Light-Medium Year:  2001 Rating: 8* Place a tile or move a tile you've already placed. Protect your queen. Surround your opponent's queen. That's it. Very simple rules but underneath these rules is a very deep and tactical experience. This abstract tile placement game has held off most newcomers and as of this review sits just outside of the Top 10 Abstract Games and Top 200 Games of All-Time on BoardGameGeek over 15 years since it's release. Impressive. This game is themed around a hive of insects protecting its own queen and attacking the enemy's (by surrounding it). As mentioned already, you and your opponent will be alternating turns, either placing a new hex tile into hive or moving an old one, until all six sides of one queen is surrounded either by friend or for and loses the game. With the exception of the first tur...

# of Players: 1-4 (up to 6 with 5-6 Player Expansion) Playtime: 2-3 Hours Core Mechanic: Worker Placement Theme: Farming Type: Euro Weight: Heavy Year: 2007 Rating: 10* This is the game that began it all. Well, not really, but more on that in another review - let’s just say that this game opened my eyes more than any other and has stayed near the very top of my favorite games ever played. I purchased it based on the recommendation of a friend and from that first play, it was unlike anything I ever experienced. The theme of the game is farming, which as a new gamer at the time did not seem like it would make for a fun game. However, looking back there seems to be a game for every theme and I think I sometimes prefer abstracted themes where I have to fill in some blanks rather than ones doused in characters and environments. Over 14 rounds, you will use your family members (two to start) to take actions, which include growing grain and vegetables, raisi...

Just under 10 years ago, I played my first "modern" or "euro" board game. This game, like it was for many people exposed to this hobby, was Settler of Catan, now simply known as Catan. I was instantly taken aback by how different this game was compared to what I thought board games were and had to go out and get a copy for myself. And the expansions. Shortly after this, a friend introduced me to Agricola and some research led me to discovering the BoardGameGeek website and and a seemingly endless number of board games that I just needed to have. In the ten years since, my collection has expanded vastly while Catan now sits dusty on a shelf in another house. This collection expansion is more of a collection explosion. Especially over the last year or two, the number of high profile games being released is amazing with many new games breaking into the Top 100 on BoardGameGeek each year and displacing old favorites. Kickstarter has given rise to extreme hype for...