Day 3!
Winner from Day 2 at the end -
As a reminder if you have an account already then the store credit will be on there and waiting for you, if you don't you'll have to pop-in to the store and claim your credit at the front counter :-)
Here's some of our top favorite games from this year (and one of my favorites from years ago!) Let us know which ones you love (or hate!) in the comments on Facebook or Discord for your entry to tomorrows giveaway!
Top Favorite Board Games In No Particular Order
Point Salad
What Jordan enjoys most about this game:
I love any kind of quick, simple card game that let's you make interesting decisions as you play. From Sushi Go to Great Dalmuti, Cover Your Kingdom to Schotten Totten, there's always fun to be had with a deck of cards.
Point Salad is not only a great face-up draft experience (like Azul, you'll be picking from a common pool of options - and what you leave behind is as important as what you take!) but Point Salad adds the additional option of letting you also pick scoring cards, so you'll always have different ways to play and score.
Jordan's favorite memory of this game:
Whatever you do, don't play against Joey Wheeler - that man is The Cesar of Point Salad - always managing to turn piles of veggies into an enormous amount of points!
Recommended for anyone who loves:
Family Games - (Catan, Ticket to Ride, etc...)
Card Games - (Scum, Dalmuti, Uno, etc...)
This game is great for:
Family Game Night
Board Game Night (Friends/Other Gamers)
Marrin
Game: Flamecraft
What Marrin enjoys most about this game:
The art is AMAZING in this game. I followed the artist, Sandara Tang, for a really long time, and love that I can share her art so easily through this game! The Dragons are cute, the concept is cozy, and its not too high intensity of a game.
Marrin's favorite memory of this game:
I kept getting distracted from my goals because I love the funny puns and clever names of the shops and each dragon. Arrow has the updated tokens kit, and the pieces are so satisfying to hand out and collect.
Recommended for anyone who loves:
Family Games - (Catan, Ticket to Ride, etc...), Co-Op Games - (Pandemic, Unlock, etc...), Cozy Games, similar to Stardew, while still satisfying an end game winner
This game is great for:
Family Game Night, Board Game Night (Friends/Other Gamers), Holiday Get Togethers, Babysitting or playing with Kids, Couples / Game Night with your BFF
Arcs
Joseph Hanks
Game: Arcs
What Joseph enjoys most about this game:
This is the year that I finally decided I wanted to go all in on Root. The game is wonderful and let's you tell stories through the games you play and while it let's you setup in a way that just straight up doesn't work sometimes, the emergent storytelling is wonderful and keeps me wanting to come back for more. I really need to finish out my collection.
But Arcs came out this year and blew those plans out of the water. I will be playing this game well into my old age.
Where Root is strictly asymmetrical, Arcs is no where near. In fact, you can leave out any of the overt asymmetry and still have a complete and very fun game! The Leaders and Lore card offer a very fun and exciting bit of asymmetry to the game, but are whole unnecessary for a great experience. (They do make a great experience fantastic though!)
The game encourages players to seek out a means of winning that will not be the same twice. The core of the game is very similar to trick taking and your cards define what you are able to do. You are presented with a myriad of very good options if only you could take them all! But most of the time your cards will only count for one action a piece
The game is the struggle for dominance of not only the board but your hand of cards. What you are dealt and what others play informs your strategy. It can feel bad to use a card with the potential for 3 actions to only take one, but you will have opportunities to make the cards you really need to work, work.
The limitations on strategy drive players to find interesting and new ways of interacting to win. You are never going to see the same hand twice, and you will never play this game the same way twice.
And come on! How can you not like a game that fits the base game and both expansions into the same box! It's like the designers designed the box to work for the game! (Looking at you CGE!)
Joseph's favorite memory of this game:
We played it at board game night for the first time, and at a pivotal moment, the rebel player rolled 4 blue dice and got zero hits when even one would have achieved his objective. In the same game earlier, another player had rolled 3 blue dice and gotten 3 hits twice in a row. Wild game!
Recommended for anyone who loves:
Territory Control Games - (Risk, Axis & Allies, etc...), Strategy Games - (Stone Age, Agricola, Terra Mystica, Scythe, etc...)
This game is great for:
Board Game Night (Friends/Other Gamers)
MLEM is such a great casual push-your-luck game, and whether you're a group of hardcore gamers looking for a nice, satisfying palette cleanser between heavier games, or parents looking for a game you can play with the whole family, it feels like it has a place in every board game collection. The push your luck dice mechanics are very fun and simple, and you can understand the game in about 5 minutes. And I have to mention the adorable art of the cattens in lil spacesuits!!😊😊
Abi's favorite memory of this game:
My favorite times playing the game are when the dice inexplicably go against the odds. Since it's a short and simple game, I often like to take the riskier path for fun, even if it isn't mathematically the right play, and when my friends decide to get off the spaceship and I keep on going alone and somehow keep rolling the numbers I need to succeed, it's amazing looking at their faces as they watch me score so many points.
Recommended for anyone who loves:
Family Games - (Catan, Ticket to Ride, etc...), Party Games - (Telestrations, Code Names, Apples to Apples, etc...)
This game is great for:
Family Game Night, Board Game Night (Friends/Other Gamers), Holiday Get Togethers, Babysitting or playing with Kids, Couples / Game Night with your BFF
And now, the moment you've all been skipping to the end for, the day 2 winners of our 12 days of Christmas Giveaway is....
Andrew Bucklin Beach
Nick Delliskave
Credit is already on your account, happy holidays!
Happy Holidays & Merry Christmas to you all again, we'll see you tomorrow :-)
