I feel like I’m really underselling Inis by illustrating it here, to fully understand how gorgeous this game is, you really need to see it for yourself. Matagot also have a few related games of specifically-flavoured historical fantasy area control, each with a different focus. If you want something that’s a bit more about aggression and ruthless combat, maybe check out Kemet, and if you want something with a bit more economic management and an auction mechanic (it’s more exciting than it sounds), take a look at Cyclades.
What’s this? The first actual game recommendation on this blog since April 2019?
Wingspan generated a lot of buzz outside of board game circles when it came out, and y’know what? Good! It’s a good ambassador for the hobby, with its charming, accessible theme and beautiful production, built on top of a solid mechanical core that pushes your brain, but not too hard.
And now for something completely different! Stardust: First Steps is the expansion to Stardust, a game I made last year. It comes with three modules:
The Mars Landing is the biggest part of the
expansion, making the game longer and harder with a supplementary
objective to land on the red planet, do the all important Science™ and
make it back. How many things can go wrong with dividing the crew where
one half can’t interact with the objectives, the other half can’t rest?
You’re about to find out!
Wolfram is a new
playable character, a doctor who can get other players to go for longer
by picking up discarded cards. He also means that the game can be played
with up to five players.
Finally, the Damage Chips
replace the base game’s Damage Deck with a set of chipboard discs (made
with real damage) and a bag (made with real bag), that fulfil the same
function, but are significantly easier to shuffle.
It’s my new game! Stardust is a co-operative game for 2-4 players where you and your fellow astronauts guide your spacecraft to its destination at- what’s that, the airlock’s broken? I can’t fix that, I’ve got to run
these diagnostics and then I’m due a sleep, and- okay. I can stop by the
workshop and print something, but…
You and your friends will have to work together to complete objectives, repair damage and generally try not to die in space. There’s four playable characters with unique abilities to help you on the way, and I kinda went hard on the y2k style because I could.
You can play heavy eurogames and crunchy strategy games on Tabletop Sim, but I don’t think that’s getting the most out of it. There’s a lot of games that have lots of neat automation if you want to play something a bit closer to a video game, but I feel that the game really shines when you’re using it for the things that only board games can do - playing with your friends.
In light of this recent “everyone stay at home” thing, and the “don’t go to conventions because they broke” thing, you might be short on entertainment and I am here to provide! Here be links to all of my games (all three of them) as Mods for Tabletop Simulator and Shop Links for The Game Crafter, so you can play them with your friends online, or buy a physical copy! All of these games were going to be on sale at BABScon, but with that not going ahead and me stuck in Europe, that’s not happening. Anyway:
Thunderdrome is a racing game for 2-6 Wonderbolts (though it’s best with 4). You navigate a randomly generated track with a hand of cards, rationing your high speed cards for the straights, your low speed cards for the corners to avoid damage, managing your slender deck through one or two pit stops, staying close to your rivals on a cramped circuit to earn fan boost, and using that later for extra speed. It’s simple enough to get playing quickly, but there’s still plenty to think about.
Overtime is a simple push your luck game for 3-5 street criminals. Each round, the operator (dealer) deals cards off the top of the deck until everyone’s bailed and taken some loot, or two threats of the same suit show up, meaning everyone still in the round goes bust. At the end of the game, your score is the chips you get from your bravado in staying in each round the longest, plus the best poker hand you can make from the cards you took, because of this game’s other feature: It uses a regular deck of playing cards! So if you really want to, you can ignore the game I designed and just have a pack of Sunjackers playing cards.
Palomino Gold is a social deduction game for 6 to a lofty 12 backstabbing treasure hunters. One player takes on the role of Daring Do, and at the start of the game, everyone burgles the heck out of her. After passing around the cute little mint tin box, in which everyone has a chance to take a role gem of their choice or as much gold as they want, Daring Do has to interrogate the table to find out who took her gold, who’s trying to help her, and who’s actually the police trying to catch her.
Finally, if you’d like to support me but don’t think you can justify spending 30 bucks on a pony-themed board game, or you’re in Europe and the shipping is murder, then you can toss me a few buckaroonies on Patreon, or just drop me a one-time tip on Paypal!
Or if you’re not in a position to be throwing money, just enjoy the games! That’s why they’re on Tabletop Simulator. Amica magnifica, ludum gloriosum.
In a Board Games With Friends first, it’s a double feature! Rainbow Dash will come back with her recommendations for holiday games that are a little spicier next [unit of time] when I can get around to drawing the update.
Once again this time’s games are:
Timeline, The Mind, Codenames, and Sushi Go.
The holiday posts from last year in case anyone was looking for those again!
Hey here’s a thing I’ve been working on for a little while but didn’t want to announce before I’d brought them to Bronyscot: Sunjackers playing cards! I’ve also bundled it up with some gem chips and a game of my own design, but you can also just use the cards for playing such classic traditional card games as… *shuffles papers* snap!
Anyway you can grab these if you want, or don’t! I’m not your dad. I’ll be getting around to more actual Sunjackers updates… at some point! I know it has literally been like six months since I updated I’ve just been doing a lot of stuff I’m sorry here’s one of the things i hope you like it
board games with friends is contractually obligated to declare a conflict of interest and will not mention OVERTIME in review coverage however look I made a game!!!!
*emerges from the crypt, groaning with jaw hanging off*
If you - the reader - would like to hear about the indie games that have contacted BGWF, let me know! I’d really like to help everyone here. It happens rarely enough that I can’t really do roundup posts, and I can’t really justify the kind of illustrated reviews that I use for the main coverage, but the odd bump can’t hurt!
now to resume my exile, the board game police are still hunting me down
In a Board Games With Friends first, it’s a double feature! Rainbow Dash will come back with her recommendations for holiday games that are a little spicier next [unit of time] when I can get around to drawing the update.
hey check it out i’m gonna be at Bronyscot in a couple of weeks! I know it’s kinda way too late for this to influence anyone’s weekend plans but HEY look for me there if you wanna hang out! I’ll be in the games room and doing an animation thing and probably doing something similar to what I did at Galacon where I just walk around blasting Eurobeat from a speaker.
See you there!
Hey there table friendos! It may interest you to learn, if you are heading to Bronyscot, that I’ll be bringing a couple of custom horse™ conversions of Popular Board Games® to inflict on the general public: Changelingfall (a FiM-themed version of social deduction farce Spyfall), and Crossfire: Fallout Equestria (who knew, it’s a Fallout Equestria-themed version of social deduction accusation machine Crossfire).
In addition to these games, I should be bringing everything I brought to Galacon plus more:
Pandemic: The Cure & Experimental Meds Expansion
Magic Maze & Maximum Security Expansion(new!)
Splendor
Crossfire (regular version as well as the FoE version)
Skull
Love Letter (regular version, though I know a pony version exists!)
A Fake Artist Goes To New York (new!)
Welcome to the Dungeon (new!)
Buck: Legacy(new!) (maybe! It’s not my copy!)
And maybe more! I’m sure someone will turn up at some point with a copy of Shipfic, and I wouldn’t put it past myself to pick something up in a Glasgow game shop on my way there.
Unfortunately I have not got the art credits on Crossfire because it was a
rush job for a one-time convention party piece and these are not going to be sold, though if anyone is interested I should be able to produce art credits on the day. (All the art for Changelingfall is plundered from the show).
We love RPGs, but we love them more for the RP than the G. The unique aspect of roleplaying games is the way the players collaborate to steer the story and create situations out of whole cloth, and the mechanics provide a framework - be it more or less rigid - to facilitate the creativity of the players. We don’t mean to dunk on people who love RPGs for the combat puzzles provided by the mechanics, that’s just not what we turn to RPGs for. As such, we don’t really care that much about the minutia of differences between systems. We’ll happily sit down with either.
Anmelden
