great video with really awesome tips. i already had orchard. based on your tip I already bought "monster" it is instant hit with my 2year old. i have ordered all remaing ones. thanks man. i have played boardgames all my teen years and I believe i have learned a lot by doing so.
Great vid guys! For me I would have to say: Hadrians Wall. With a little thought it's possible to trigger absolutely massive turns which is super satisfying. Hero Realms (and by extension most deck building games of this type) If you can get the right cards into your deck/play, by the final stages of the game the amount of damage you can trigger is phenomenal. Very satisfying especially if you can heal yourself at the same time!
The LotR LCG is freaking fantastic. I love having the epic themed decks. In one game, I had a Dale deck and ended up with like 14 allies all with multiple attachments, so awesome lol
Cascadia is a 9/10 for me. I knew I'd enjoy the drafting and individual puzzle aspects of this game, but was pleasantly surprised to find much more strategy and complexity available than is immediately apparent. As you point out, it is only as complex as each player makes it, so it's perfect for any group. I also find the solo mode surprisingly engaging as it adds a new element of strategy since I know which pairs will be removed between each of my turns.
I also always play ambient music when playing AH LCG ❤ Last month I played a bunch of roll and writes. Super fun! But looking forward to more spooky games this month 🎃
Top three plays would have to be 3. Isle of skye Played last night and got to introduce it to my sister 2. Libertalia winds of galecrest Off the shelf of shame and played it twice this past month 1. Big boss I've played it maybe 4 times and has been a consistent hit with my group. Interactive and so fun to see what companies merge and how your investments make out. Top games I want to get to the table from the shelf of shame Keyflower, caverna, raiders of the North sea, Orleans and Western legends. Excited about all of these but need to take the time to get them played. One game at a time. Haha.
I have to do top three. 1. Terraforming Mars 3player game ended up being a 3 point game from 1st to 3rd. 2. Andromedas Edge played a couple of times in the month both were great plays. Quickly becoming a game that I enjoy more and more. 3. Clash of cultures Monumental Edition. My wife and I played it and had a great time definitely gave us the Age of Empires vibe.
Nice month of gaming! I am very interested in trying Andromedas Edge given how much I enjoyed Dwellings of Eldervale. Have you also played Dwellings of Eldervale? Any thoughts on the comparison of the two? -Daniel
@@RollsInTheFamily I have not played Dwellings of Eldervale. I thought about buying it multiple times but I had already backed Andromedas Edge. So I decided I didn’t need it. I would still love to try it if I have a chance.
I'll never get sick of hearing about AH:TCG! It's a great system and, like your said, so thematic. It also scratches that deck building itch I get from being a recovering Magic The Gathering player 🙃 September was when I hosted my annual all-day-game-day so we got a bunch of plays in (including new to me games). Legendary Encounters: Alien 3x High Society 2x Marvel Champions 2x New to me: Forest Shuffle, Fire Tower (surprisingly fun), The Guild of Merchant Explorers, and Hegemony. Hegemony was probably my favorite play of the month. It is such an interesting game and can't wait to get it to the table again!
My number three would be Dominion second edition. Found the original at Savers for 5 dollars, incomplete, so I got the second edition off of amazon. Number two and one I got at Goodwill for 7 and 8 dollars. Wildlands and Power Grid. I feel I've graduated as a board gamer from playing Ticket to Ride to Power Grid. Loved my two plays one at 2 player and the second at three.
Wow you've got the magic touch with thrift stores! I haven't had many great finds, though I did just pick up The Fox in the Forest for $3 which was a pleasant surprise. -Ryan
Sadly my friend let me borrow his copy and I never played it. I think I was too far into the hobby to get into it. Earth kind of got that nature itch for me.
Yeah it really depends on the situation. In a vacuum, both of us would choose to play Earth over Cascadia almost every time, but there are a lot of people in our life that enjoy Cascadia but would find Earth way too complicated. Always trying to find the games we enjoy the most for every gaming scenario! -Ryan
8:00 - I think that statement about confidence in being able to play this any game night was spot on. Theme, playtime, rules, strategy.... it threads that needle extremely well.
Haven't played either, but picked up Cascadia because it felt a little bit more relaxed and forgiving for the types of groups I'd be playing with. But have heard good things about both! -Ryan
@@RollsInTheFamily yeah i think i am just not a fan of relaxing game overall . Cascadia makes me wanna sleep lol. but Calico is very tight so i love it a lot more.
Morning brothers! I'm only two years into board gaming. This was the second game I bought in a game store, Carcassonne was the first. The best thing about Cascadia is my wife enjoys it. Score for me.
Thanks! We don't do a ton of reviews (and honestly, they are more of "in-depth recommendations" than reviews), but we have a lot of thought into how we wanted to structure them. 🙂 -Ryan
I really enjoy Cascadia! I have only played it 3-4 times so I don't know how it stands up to a bunch of repeated plays, but it is a fun brain burner. It can be a bit frustrating when someone hatedrafts your perfect pair, but the game is kind of set up so you are never super specialized into one animal or tile so everyone kinda wants everything. Have you guys tried Harmonies? I've found that to be a bit smoother while still retaining that same level of thinkiness. The tile drafting is a bit more random in that you don't have a resource like acorns to make strategic moves but that is complemented with another drafting pool of scoring goals. I found the individual scoring goals leads to a more solitaire-y style gameplay but meant that it was slightly easier in completing your ideal setup to maximize points.
We haven't tried Harmonies, there are definitely a lot of games released in the past several years that fit in a similar niche! Always harder to go out of our way to try games that are a lot like something we already have and enjoy, but I typically give it some time, and if certain ones are still getting buzz and rising in the rankings, then I'll often give it another look. Too many games haha! Especially for gamers like us that prefer playing our favorites many many times over playing all the new releases. -Ryan
Top picks here! I've had a great time playing My Castle Panic, UNO (Super Mario), Rhino Hero, Dargon's Breath, and Dragomino with my 3yo thanks to your video here! Keep up the awesome work. Looking forward to your 4 year old list. 😀
Aww this warms my heart haha! Planning on doing the 4 year old edition before the end of the year, as well as adding a full living guide for kids games to our website. 👍 -Ryan
Disappointed in every board game RU-vidr promoting all these non-interactive games. People that love games enough to make a board game channel seem to prioritize a clever puzzle than the interaction with other humans. This isn’t just a knock against your list but every channel I’ve watched lately. Let the family’s have a little conflict. I do like the inclusion oh Heat, Ticket to Ride, 7 Wonders Architects, space Base, and it’s okay to have a few of the low Interaction games. I would add First Rat, Caesar’s Empire, Carcassonne, The Quest for El dorado, Kingdomino Origins. I think Kingdomino and Cascadia are similar but I prefer the drafting and puzzle in Kingdomino
Haha sorry to disappoint, but there's also a reason those kinds of games tend to be so popular! I think especially when talking about more accessible or family games, there is a higher chance that someone in the group is conflict-averse, which tends to make these kinds of games safer bets, and we have introduced them to a variety of groups to great success. But I think you have some fantastic suggestions there! Some of those would have likely been included if we went beyond 10 games. Fortunately, we are spoiled for choice with modern board games so there are plenty of choices that cater to every preference of player interaction. :) -Ryan
If you still crave the OG YuGiOh experience you should check out their new Speed Duel box series. It's basically YuGiOh - The Board game. Each box comes with 8 sets pre-constructed decks that are evenly matched against each other and don't contain any of the crazy summoning mechanics of modern YuGiOh, only older cards. No booster packs needed!
Man it would be a super nostalgic experience haha, but if we're being honest, modern board gaming has really replaced the more traditional TCG itch for us. But that sounds like a great product for those that just want to play and not necessarily collect! -Ryan
On Tiny Towns I tried out the variant in rulebook where you draw 2 cards to get random resources and then everyone gets to choose one. I found I enjoyed this play better than base game method.
Hadn't heard of that variant, it sounds interesting! Definitely beefs up the decision space a bit and more flexibility to potentially achieve higher scores, I could see it working really well. -Ryan
A few games that I own and I like a lot but seemed to get overlooked in my top lists are . . . 1. Crown of Emara 2. Raiders of Scythia 3. Circadians First Light
Played Dungeon Petz a loooong time ago, don't remember much of my thoughts on it. Cuba Libre (and COIN games in general) are ones that I would love the opportunity to try, but I would never be able to get to the table if I owned haha. -Ryan
For the right person that enjoys word puzzles and deduction, it really is an excellent experience. Just have to find more people who will play it with me haha. -Ryan
I’m my opinion Tiny Towns is the best “private puzzle” game there is, the “consolidating” of cubes into buildings means there’s more of a sort of “time dimension” to the puzzle. It badly needs a digital edition, would be addictive as hell on a phone or tablet.
Could you also do games for older kids / adults where the 2 year olds can be entertained by the components too? We have echidna shuffle which works really well for this- he “plays” moving the large echidnas, and putting spare bugs in spare stumps. Any others like this??
This is a great question and I'm having the hardest time thinking of good examples! One route would be something like Quacks of Quedlinburg or Space Base where you can let a kid handle drawing the chips or rolling the dice, but then you resolve all the other decisions. Marvel United is another I've enjoyed with my 4 year-old, it is fully cooperative and we play with open hands so I can help with most of the decisions, but he loves spiderman and other marvel characters so he enjoys moving the minis and imagining the battles that are happening. -Ryan
Ooh I've played a lot of these! Wrymspan is definitely a step up from Wingspan in complexity, but I do love the dragon theme. We've been playing a lot of Twilight Inscription lately, but we've got a dusty copy of Time Stories I really want to dig out.
Nice, have you played any Time Stories before? The experience kind of fizzled out for us as the scenarios went on (I think we played the first 5), but the first few were really memorable experiences that we enjoyed. -Ryan
Better late than never! Warning that sacred grove has probably kicked my butt more than any other set haha so don't get discouraged if it's a little rough. -Ryan
Been a fan of your channel for a short time but always enjoy the content! My fav plays of the month were libertalia winds of galecrest (off of my shelf of shame finally), xenoshift dreadmire and original mixed together, and lords of water deep with scoundrels of skullport expansion. All a great time! 🙂 Games that I hope to kick off my shelf of shame sometimes soon would be raiders of the North sea, keyflower, massive darkness 2, and Caverna. Western legends is the new one coming in so I'm anxious to get that one played as well when I get it for my bday. Too many games to play haha. 😅😅😅
Haha no doubt! Always tricky to find that balance of introducing new games into the collection while still getting to play our favorites, especially in a season of life where Daniel and I both have young kids and full-time jobs haha. It isn't like the olden days when we were kids together at home and could just play big games every day! -Ryan
@@RollsInTheFamily right! I have a 3 year old son and a 9 month old daughter. I've been in the hobby for 8 years or so but at different levels throughout. Past couple of years I've kinda gone ham and can't ever seem to have a shelf of shame under 20 games or so. I get one off the list and get a couple more games if I see anything on sale or for a good price. Problem is if you are looking every day for sales you can find them decently often. Haha. It's not a problem..... It's fine.......
Haha you are just over a year behind me, my two boys are 4 and 2 -- almost the exact same gap as yours. Playing the long game for some future gaming partners haha, I have videos for top games for 2 and 3 year-olds if you haven't seen those yet: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-T6db42-JcPs.htmlsi=Wj6sElV1yezqKDhi ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-aYLExEawl6U.htmlsi=BlyweEpfF3_mljxY
@@RollsInTheFamily I think I watched one of them a while ago but will check them out again. Yes I am certain my kiddos will have ample opportunities to play games. I grew up with blurt, trival pursuit, and mad gabs. Honestly started to hate gaming altogether just cause it felt so blah. Then I got introduced to games like King of Tokyo, Catan and ticket to ride. Blew my mind that they actually made good games out there. Now I know way too much haha. 😂. Anyways keep up the awesome content! I always always enjoy it. 🙂
My top 3 of the month: 1. Dwellings of Eldervale 2. La Granja Master Set 3. Lords of Waterdeep My favorite play was 2p Lords of Waterdeep with no expansion. This is a euro that feels like a knife fight in a phone booth. Spots are so limited and competition to buy new locations and get to pivotal spaces to complete quests is intense. Really fun. Any player count above that and we add the skullport expansion and it ramps the game up again!
Nice, it's been a long time since I've played Lords of Waterdeep! Also played and enjoyed the original edition of La Granja a long time ago, the new edition really does look amazing! -Ryan
Real One, Top game River of Gold and Sky Team on BGA. Sky Teams just works so well and its a lot of fun when you just want something quick but fulfilling; its a good laugh too. River of Gold, Playing it because it looked good from videos I saw at Gen Con. Its decent, it doesnt blow my socks off but it does have a decision space and a lot to keep track of for a simpler Euro. It reminds me of the game Royals, as its simple with only 2-3 actions you can do per turn but the points and the board are the important things. River of Gold is Royals changed from area control to Euro Game lol. Wow that was a rant.
