Bored Gamers and Board Geeks

Board Game Review – Code Names

As a rather nerdy individual, word games should be right up my alley, right? Wrong! I don’t like word games. I find them boring, stupid, and lacking in creativity. Some are better than others; scrabble is considered a classic word game, beloved by all. (I still think it sucks. It sucks a little less than some other words games though.)

Codenames is a vastly popular game, loved by many, but not by me. Similar to Sushi Go!, there is nothing inherently wrong with Codenames. Also similar to Sushi Go!, the replayability on Codenames is seriously lacking.

It is a simple game, easy to learn, and great for parties; so what is there to not like? Unfortunately, so much!

In Codenames, you place twenty five double-sided cards in a 5×5 grid and give one word clues to get your teammates to guess multiple cards. For example, in the grid below I might give the clue: “places, five.” The “five” tells my teammates how many cards that clue relates to. With luck, they would guess: Europe, Bermuda, Jupiter, Germany, and Washington. However, they might guess ‘forest’ or ‘alps,’ immediately ending the turn on an incorrect guess.

Giving clues isn’t quite that simple though. Players are divided into two teams, each with their own set of cards to guess.

The image to the right represents the 5×5 grid of cards, and shows the blue and red clue-givers what cards they need to get their teammates to guess. The black box is the “no-no” card, as I call it. If that card is guessed, the other team immediately wins.

The theme is also kinda stupid in my opinion. The creators have tried to make it fun by adding a spy theme to the game, but it doesn’t make sense for a word game and it detracts from a game that was already quite lacking.

What’s the redeeming value? Personally, nothing. Publicly, I have no idea, but people seem to love it.

Lets now look at the pros and cons of this bland game.

Pros: What pros even are there?

Easy to learn: Codenames is extremely easy to learn. Someone can walk over mid-game and join in with basically no explanation.

Entertaining word game: As far as word games go, Codenames is better than most. It doesn’t feel like an educational game, and is a nice change from the standard taboo-like or spelling games.

Party Game: This game, though it works best with 6 or 8 people, is quite versatile when it comes to number of players. It is great to whip out at a party, and is rather popular. (Don’t ask me why it’a popular, I don’t get the appeal.)

Great for travel: Codenames is in a smaller box than most board games. Codnames will fit into most backpacks as long as the bag isn’t super full. I guess that’s good?

Cons: Boy are there a lot of them this time.

Too easy: Like Sushi GO! (which you should totally read my review of if you haven’t already), Codenames is too simple to keep one entertained for a long time.

It’s a word game: Let’s be honest, most word games are trash, plain and simple. Codenames is a word game. I think you know my opinion.

Party Game: Party games are often lacking in creativity, depth, or complexity. This is so that the game won’t take a while to explain, and the group can just jump right in to the game play. That is a benefit of a party game like Codenames, but that also means that it lacks creativity, depth, and complexity.

Boring Art: Let me be frank: this art is mediocre at best. It is rather bland and lacking. While is isn’t bad, so to speak, there is no redeeming value to it’s simplicity.

Lacks replayability: While the game contains over a hundred double-sided cards, which seems like it would add great replayability, the gameplay itself never changes, so each game is basically the same.

Weird Theme: The spy theme has absolutely nothing to do with the gameplay. I understand that games nowadays need a theme, but why on earth would you chose spies for a word game? It makes no sense and has no relevance to the game.

Let’s now score this game. Five categories: artwork, gameplay, replayability, my opinion, and public consensus (ratings found on Amazon.) Each are scored on a scale of ten and then added together.

Artwork: 3/10

Gameplay: 5/10

Replayability: 4/10

My opinion: 3/10

Public Consensus: 10/10

25/50, or 5/10. Not too bad of a score for a word game, but still, not a great game.

Overall, I think Codenames should stay on the shelf during board game night. It’s not worth it.

Let me know your thoughts in the comments below. Do you agree with me? Why/why not? Are you no longer wanting to buy Codenames because of this post? Don’t forget to like and subscribe for more obnoxiously blatant opinions!

If you want to see a fantastic YouTuber explain how to play Codenames, go check out my man Rodney over at Watch it Played! Here’s a link to the video – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J8RWBooJivg

Happy gaming to you all!

Board Game Review – Star Realms Frontiers

I was always intrigued by deck-building games when I was younger, but Dominion was my only experience with this genre of game. As a rather sore loser, having only playing it with my brother, who was significantly better at it than me, I hadn’t had a good experience with deck-builders. Due to this “trauma” at such a young age, deck building games were off the table for my collection. That is, until I stumbled upon Star Realms Frontiers.

Star Realms, the original game, and Star Realms Frontiers, the newer version, while identical in gameplay, have just enough differences as far as design, lay out, and replay-ability, that the latter is the better version (and what I’ll be reviewing.)

Star Realms Frontiers, or SRF, is a deck-building fighting game. Dominion, *shudders* has a victory point system. As such, there is no way of knowing who is winning at any point in time, unless you’re any good at card counting (I’m not, FYI.) SRF, though, is about defeating the other players by attacking them with spaceships. One of my close friends has the alternate version of SRF called Hero Realms. It is very similar in game play but has a fantasy theme instead of a space theme. This was how I learned about these 2 games and am ever so glad I did. (Thanks, “friend who will remain unnamed!”) The more and more I play SRF, the more I like it. While they are both great, SRF beats out Hero Realms mainly because of personal preference in theme, but I also think the cards in SRF are a little better than it’s alternate game.

As far as gameplay: There is a trade-row, a line of five cards that players buy from each turn, replenished after every bought card. This means that each game is different. You start out with new cards every game.

Each turn, players spend coins to buy better ships that allow for more buying power and/or more attack power, and attack other players. Players continue buying cards and attacking each other until only one player remains. The health system is elegant and simple, far improved from its earlier version. The cards are very balanced and turns go quickly, so gameplay is never boring.

My favorite element about SRF is the use of factions. There are 4 factions: Star Empire (Yellow,) Blob (Green,) Machine Cult (Red,) and Trade Federation (Blue.) Each faction has its own abilities and have bonuses for having multiple of the same faction in your hand at once, so strategic buying is the key to victory.

Star Empire lets players draw cards, discard cards, and make opponents discard cards. They are by far the most annoying faction.

The Blob faction just has VERY powerful cards. For reference, each player starts with 50 HP. Most attacks do under 6 damage but average around 3 or 4. The Blob faction has a card that does 10 damage. Just pray that you’re not on the receiving end of that.

Machine Cult, my favorite faction, lets players trash cards, removing them from the game permanently, letting players keep their deck small, so they can recycle the good cards and get rid of the ones that you don’t want anymore.

Trade Federation is the only faction that lets you heal. This faction can be very overpowered if you draw the right hand. It does lack powerful damage cards though.

With many cards in the game, SRF has phenomenal replay-ability, more so than most games. I bought SRF for under $15.00 but it is right on par with $50.00 games like Mysterium and Small World. If you don’t have a deck-building game in your collection, get SRF. If you’re just wanting to add another game to your collection, get SRF. If you’re just like me and love the high that comes with getting a new game, get SRF. And one thing I forgot to mention: it can fit in any bag, purse, backpack, satchel, or drawstring pouch. This 1-4 player game is versatile in travel, expansive in replay-ability, and one of the best games I have ever played.

Now onto the pros and cons!

Pros:

Amazing Gameplay: This game is SOOO fun! (Had you already guessed that?) In my top ten favorite game list soon to come, Star Realms Frontiers is pretty high up there. I’ve played this game more than most of my games and I’m still not tired of it. (Go read my Sushi Go! review to read about me getting tired of games)

Great Artwork: While the artwork in SRF isn’t necessarily award-winning, it’s bright and vibrant, drawing players into the game. It’s also spaceships, therefore, it’s cool!

Great Replay-Ability: The ever changing trade row means that no two games will ever be alike.

Easy to learn – Hard to master: Because of the luck-based drawing on the trade row, you can’t go into SRF with a predetermined strategy. It’s super easy to pick up and start playing, but learning how to adapt to every change the game throws at you isn’t easy

Balanced factions: The four factions really are balanced. There are so many cards in the game, it astounds me how balanced they are. While I prefer the Machine Cult faction, no one of the factions is better than the other.

Easy on the wallet: I’m going to right out and say it: My wallet isn’t full. While I have the tendency to buy any game I lay my eyes on, I have to show self-control. Games like SRF, which sells for under $20, make my wallet (and me) happy.

Compact Storage: The game box is 4″ x 6″ x 2″. That’s TINY compared to other games. It doesn’t take up much room on the shelf, and it’s easy to bring anywhere.

Cons:

Boasts of too many players: The boxes claim that for every expansion, two additional players can be added. I disagree, this game doesn’t work well with more than 4 players.

Bad Trade Row Draw: Sometimes, the starting trade row does not lend itself well to starting hands. It causes strife among players. Now this really isn’t that big of a problem in my opinion: you can redraw the trade row or just tough it through.

Let’s now score this game. Five categories: artwork, gameplay, replay-ability, my opinion, public consensus (found on Amazon.) Each are scored on a scale of ten and then added together.

Artwork: 7/10

Gameplay: 10/10

Replay-Ability: 10/10

My Opinion: 10/10

Public Consensus: 10/10

47/50 or for those who prefer a more standard score: 9.4/10

<-(Melvin the monkey)

As I said at the beginning, this is one of my favorite games. It’s so amazing in so many ways. I seriously can’t put into words how great I think this game is. If you’ve never had a deck-builder before, this is the one to get. Melvin the monkey agrees.

Let me know your thoughts in the comments below. If you already own Star Realms Frontier, tell me why you do/don’t like the game. Don’t forget to subscribe below for all sorts of arbitrary board game opinions.

Happy gaming to you all!

Board Game Top 10 – Budget Games for Broke Blokes

Personally, there are few things more thrilling than buying a brand-new game; but games are EXPENSIVE! It’s hard to find a good game that’s at a decent price. So, here are 10 board games (in no particular order) for low-budget-buyers ($25 or under.) All these prices will be based off of what I found on Amazon as of July 2019. (I started writing this article a while ago. 🤷‍♂️)

Tiny Epic Galaxies, $25.00, is a great backpack-sized game, with the complexity of a full-size board game. While the box can almost fit in a pocket, the fun from the game can’t. Each turn is based on your dice rolls, but the game play doesn’t feel very luck-based. Each turn you roll dice and take the consequent actions the dice allow; whether that means colonizing a new planet, blasting off from your home base, upgrading your abilities for extra points and dice, or harvesting energy and diplomacy for other actions, the rolls almost always have some use to you. And if they don’t, you’re allowed one free reroll. With a lot of strategy and complexity, $25.00 is a great bargain. (On another note, the whole Tiny Epic series are all great games, most of which are under $25.00. If space isn’t your theme, you should check out their other games.)

Star Realms Frontier, $18.89, is one of my all-time favorite games. A balanced deck-building game, Star Realms Frontier is a great game that, like Tiny Epic Galaxies, can almost fit in your pocket. Each turn, five cards are drawn and all are played, allowing you to damage other players and buy new cards to add more money and/or add more fire power to your deck. While game-play works best at 3 players, in my opinion, it works great for 2-4 players. If you’re looking to add a low-cost deck building game to your collection, Star Realms Frontier is a great way to do so under budget.

Forbidden Desert, $24.99, is a team-based survival strategy game. With a players against the board-game dynamic, communication and teamwork are key to this game. In Forbidden Desert, you play as a team whose flying ship has crashed in the desert. You must find all the parts to the ship before the desert kills you. Dehydration can get you quickly, so be sure to find shade or a source of water. While Forbidden Desert is a great team-based game, I prefer Pandemic. However, for a low-budget board game, Forbidden Desert can’t be beat.

Coup, $14.99, is a (relatively) simple deception game. The game only has 6 different cards in it, allowing quick learning. Every player has 2 cards. Those 2 cards allow 2 abilities, 1 each. However, the other players don’t know what cards you have, so you can lie about the cards in your hand to accomplish the goal of being the last player alive. You must make sure your lying in convincing though or other players can accuse you of bluffing about your cards in hand. If they catch you in your bluff, you lose a card, thus going down to 1 card, and, consequently, 1 life. If they are wrong if their suspicion though, and you are indeed telling the truth about you card, they lose a card instead. With simple cards and few rules, this game allows for experienced and novice gamers alike to join in, learn quickly, and have fun bluffing in a 20-30 minute game. For $14.99 Coup is a blast. I’ve always really enjoyed deception games. I’m a pretty decent liar, however, I am absolutely awful at catching other’s bluffs. This adds a nice balance in the game, and makes for an interesting change in dynamic based on how well you know your opponents. On top of all this, Coup is also almost small enough to fit in your pocket. For a cheap deception game, Coup can’t be beat. Except maybe by the next game on the list

The Resistance, $19.99, is my all-time favorite deception game. Players work in two teams, the resistance, who don’t know who their teammates are, and the spies from an evil corrupt government, who, while knowing who their teammates are, have fewer players on their team. Resistance takes place over 3-5 rounds. Players are selected, by the current leader (which changes every round,) to go on a “mission.” All the players vote on whether or not they like the team, provided the team passes the vote, which it usually does until the later rounds, the players selected for the mission, usually about half of the players, silently vote on the mission’s success. Resistance members must vote for the mission succeed, the spies have the choice for either succeeding it or failing it. If the mission succeeds, the Resistance gets a point closer to victory, if it fails, the spies get a point towards victory. The first team to earn 3 points wins. The Resistance is my favorite deception game, and one of my favorite games overall. It supports 5-10 players, making it a fantastic group/party game. There is an alternative version called Avalon, which some people prefer and runs at a similar price, but I prefer The Resistance. It is simpler than Avalon, it has a better theme (Resistane vs. Corrupt government, rather than Avalon’s Merlin’s group of do-gooders vs. evil creatures), and it was the original version (I’m a sucker for nostalgia. I’m also a loyalist.) It’ll fit in your backpack pretty easily and is a great travel game if you are visiting family or going to a party. While it is $5.00 more expensive than Coup, I think The Resistance is well worth the higher price tag. If you want to add deception games to your collection, buy both. If you only have the budget for 1, still buy both, but buy The Resistance first.

Sushi Go!, $14.99, is a brilliant pick and pass card game. Phenomenal for card counters, but much funnier for those who can’t. Each round all players pick one card from their current hands and pass their remaining cards to the players on their left; as such, receiving a new hand from the players on their right. Play continues, picking and passing, until all the cards have been picked. Cards all have different scores, and some benefit from having more than one of the same. Tempura and Sashimi each only score if you have them paired with other Tempura and Sashimi, respectively. Nigiri score points on their own but are multiplied in points by Wasabi. Dumplings score higher points if you have more but score individually as well. There are more cards, but hopefully you get the idea. Not only is this a budget friendly game, like many of the games in this list, it’s in a compact case, making it great for travel. Sushi Go! is one of my family’s favorite games. We’ve played it countless times, and the adorable art of all the different foods, make it even more fun. Sushi Go! is a pretty unique game, so it’s a great addition to help round out your collection. And its low price tag make it an easy decision to buy. (If you want my personal opinion on the game check out my review. SPOILER ALERT, I’m not a fan.)

Love Letter, $11.99, is yet another wonderful card game. This is one of the few games that I have played, but don’t own. Each turn, you play and draw a new card. There are 8 different cards: Guards, Priests, Barons, Handmaidens, Princes, 1 King, 1 Countess, and 1 Princess, where the queen is: I have no idea. The goal of the game is to ‘survive’ till the end. Different cards have different abilities that may or may not help you win the game, all that matters is that to you don’t discard the princess; if you do, you’ve lost the game. At the very end, if not everyone has been knocked out, cards are compared, and the player with the highest value card wins. It’s a very simple, fast-paced game that is fun for all ages. This game also can easily fit in a backpack, so if you are waiting to catch a train, or have a 20 minute work break, you might as well whip out this game for some rollicking fun.

Codenames, $19.95, is a simple, clue-giving game. It’s basically the new version of Taboo. If you don’t know what Taboo is, I don’t know why you’re reading this blog. If you have any friends that are even remotely interested in board games, then you’ve probably already played Codenames, or at the very least, have heard many friends talk about it extensively. I, personally, have become a wee bit tired of Codenames, but that is because I have played it WAY too many times. I’ve played it with my family multiple times, with many of my different friends, with my extended family, with classmates, blah blah blah, you get the point: I’ve played it a lot. But that should go to show how many people love it. When I played Codenames with everyone I know, it was most of their first time playing it; thus, they hadn’t tired of it like I had. This game lays out double-sided cards, each with a word on it, in a 5×5 grid. Players are separated into two teams. Each team has one clue-giver, and the other players are the clue-guessers. The clue-givers have a card that shows which of the cards in the grid they need their teammates to guess. The clue-givers must use only 1 word each turn to link as many clues together as possible. If the clues aren’t good enough though, the clue-guessers might guess a wrong card. Sometimes it’s a harmless card that doesn’t affect gameplay, other than stopping their turn, sometimes, it’s the other team’s clue, benefitting the other team, and also stopping their turn. There is one card though that, if guessed, ends the game, giving the other team the victory, so you must make sure that your clues don’t lead to that card being guessed. This is probably the easiest game that I have in my collection. You basically don’t even have to explain the rules to new players, they will catch on so quickly. If you are a fan of word games, (and you aren’t me) Codenames is a wonderful, budget-friendly, game to add to your shelf, closet, pile, or whatever it is; no judgement here. This game has great replay-ability, and for $19.95, this is one of the best word games on the market. (I will probably be putting out a review of this soon-ish, so if you want my full tangent on this game, it’s coming.)

Boss Monster, $24.99, is a creative twist on a classic fairy tale. In Boss Monster, rather than playing as a hero, fighting your way through a dungeon, crawling with monsters and demons, to fight the evil boss at the end, you instead play as the evil boss at the end. You decide what rooms you want in your dungeon that have those monsters and demons crawling about. For every hero you kill as the boss monster, you gain 1 or 2 hero souls, the games version of victory points. You kill heroes with your dungeon rooms, which deal different amounts of damage. Each turn, you add 1 room to your dungeon, increasing how much damage you can deal. What really makes Boss Monster fun is (A.) the many different bosses that you can pick from to play as. They all have unique abilities that help you in the game. The other really great part about the game is (B.) how you decide which heroes go to which player’s dungeon. You don’t split them evenly or give 1 to each player. There are four different types of heroes, each have a symbol connected to them. Have more of a certain symbol in your dungeon (which you’ll add with your rooms) to get heroes to come to your dungeon. Boss Monster is a simple game that, while a little lacking in complexity, is surprising really fun. I’ve only played it 4 or 5 times, but I know I won’t be getting tired of it any time soon. The artwork is simple and appealing, and the game is very easy to learn. It comes in a smaller box, so storage is easy. Boss Monster is pretty much one-of-a-kind as far as I know. I would gladly pay a substantial sum for this game; meaning $24.99 isn’t just a deal, it’s a steal.

Bards Dispense Profanity (BDP,) $24.95, is a game closing resembling Cards Against Humanity (CAH.) Bards Dispense Profanity is far superior in many ways though. CAH relies on shock value to be of any fun, once you realize that, the gameplay goes downhill. BDP however, has much more creative cards that are a little more appropriate for younger audiences (still not family friendly necessarily,) and all the played cards are direct quotes from the great plays of William Shakespeare. You don’t have to be a thespian to enjoy this game though; the game is wonderful by itself but knowing Shakespeare’s writing style and subtext adds only more enjoyment to the game. Each round players select a card with a Shakespeare quote from their hand for one player to judge. They are judged on which card brings out the most laughs when put into the ‘blank’ of a card. If this game really doesn’t seem like the right one for you, Cards Against Humanity or What Do You Meme are great alternatives. They both run for about $30.00, but I’m sure you’ll find them on sale sooner or later if you only have $25.00. I strongly recommend Bards Dispense Profanity though.

If you have other budget-friendly games that you think are great, let me know in the comments below. Don’t forget to like, comment, and subscribe. (Geez! I sound like a YouTuber.) To quote Wil Weaton, “Play more games!” With that, happy gaming to you all.

Board Game Review – Sushi Go!

Sushi.

What an odd theme for a game; It could be great and unique, or it could be horrible and sink to the bottom of the sea. After my previous review on Small World, which made it seem like I could find no fault in a game, let us now transition to a wonderfully designed game that I just can’t get into, Sushi Go!. In my top 10 lists soon to come, Sushi Go! appears multiple times, because it’s not a bad game, per se, I just don’t like it.

When I first heard about Sushi Go!, it sounded really fun. It’s a pick-and-pass card game, played over a series of 3 rounds. It’s easy to learn, easy to play, but easy to get tired of. Sushi Go! is one of my family’s favorite games. As such, I’ve played it multiple times, each time liking it less and less.

As I already said, Sushi Go! is very easy to learn. If you’re any good at counting cards, you might be great at this game. If you’re not, you’ll probably have more fun, since you won’t be as focused on calculations. Each turn, all the players pick one card from their hands and pass the remaining cards to their left. Now, with one less card in every hand, the players pick up their “new,” smaller hand and again pick one card, and pass the remaining hands to the players on their left. Play continues in this rather monotonous fashion until all the cards have been picked. Points are tallied (I’ll talk about points in a bit) and then you restart the round, picking and passing, ‘round and ‘round until all the cards have been picked. Points are again tallied, and what happens next? You do the exact same thing, yet again. Three times you must pick and pass to wit’s end until this game comes to a close.

Let’s talk about points now. All the cards are representative of different sushi or traditional Japanese dishes. Nagiri cards have a simple straight-forward point system; the value on the card is what you get in points. Unless, of course, you happen to have previously selected Wasabi, which will multiply the Nagiri’s value by 3. Dumplings have an exponential growth system; 1 dumpling is worth 1 point, 2 dumplings are worth 3 points. Once you have 5 dumplings, you’re now looking at 15 points. Sashimi will score 10 points, but only if you have 3 of them. Tempura work the same as Sashimi, scoring 5 points only if you have 2 Tempura cards. There are also Maki rolls, puddings, and chopsticks, but hopefully you get the gist of the game.

The most redeeming part of the game is the artwork. All the cards, while designed to look like food, have eyes and smiles, making the food absolutely adorable. Seriously, I couldn’t eat the dumplings if they were in front of me, they’re too cute.

While this is a game I really don’t like, let’s look at the pros of this game.

Pros:

Easy to learn: This game is simple enough that a grade schooler could learn it. Some think that’s great, get my opinion on that below.
Great artwork: This is a point that I really can’t argue. The artwork is well laid-out, clean, colorful, creative, and freakin’ adorable.
Portable: The game comes in a tin that is around 4.2” x 5.8” x 1.5”. This makes in great for travel and storing. (Peep image below)

I personally think those are the only pros of the game. Onto the cons!

Cons:

Too simple: While an easy to learn game my be great, that comes at the cost of complexity. I have found Sushi Go! to be so simple that my brain turns off, and the fun that I’m supposed to be having, definitely isn’t there.
Less doesn’t mean more: Some people will love the portable nature of the game, and that is definitely a pro, but just like the size of the packaging, the fun in this game is smaller than necessary.
Obnoxiously Repetitive: When explaining the game, I emphasized the repetitive nature of the game, but in case you didn’t get my annoyance, let me restate it. Each turn, you pick a card and you pass the hand. Then you pick another card and pass the hand. You do this over and over and over and over again. It’s so tedious it wouldn’t surprise me if it killed brain cells.
Isn’t replay-able: Going off of my previous point, due to its obnoxiously repetitive nature, after 1 or 2 play-throughs, you won’t be able to enjoy the game because you’ve already had all the fun you will get out of the game. (IF you were able to have fun in the first place.)

I am truly sad that such a wonderful theme led to such a bad game. Sushi Go! now just sits on my shelf, collecting dust. Whenever my family suggests we play it, I immediately groan, roll my eyes, and scream and kick until they give up.

Remember though that this post is opinion based. While what I have said holds true, it may not be as true for you. Many people think this is a fantastic game. If it really was as bad as I have made it out to be, this article wouldn’t need written, because no one would be playing it. It’s popularity says something about the game’s quality.

Bottom line: I don’t like this game. (Had you already guessed that?) If anyone ever asks you to play Sushi Go!, tell them: Sushi NO! (or don’t, it’s up to you how you spend your time, just don’t say I didn’t warn you.)

From now on, I want to use a different scoring system to, hopefully, make the final rating a little less biased. I will be scoring it in 5 different categories: Artwork, Gameplay, Replay-ability, My Opinion, Amazon customers’ opinion. All will have a max of 10 points, so the final rating will be out of 50 points.

Artwork: 7/10

Gameplay: 3/10

Replay-ability: 1/10

My Opinions: 1/10

Public Opinion: 9/10

This makes for a total score of 21/50, or for those who prefer a rounder number:

4.2/10

If you agree with me, let me know in the comments below. If you disagree with me, let me know in the comments below. If you have a game you want me to review, let me know in the comments below. Don’t forget to subscribe!

With that, happy gaming to you all.

Board Game Review – Small World

Many people have the “horrific” memory of sitting in a boat at Disneyland while demon-possessed puppets sing “It’s a small world after all” over and over again, staring into your soul, your sanity slowly diminishing, until the ride is finally over and your only hope of survival is the feeling of smoldering heat from the evil Florida sun. Maybe you have a better opinion of that ride, or maybe your horror story is worse. Either way, Small World the board game is way better. With two double sided boards, one side for each number of players (2-5), the game creator made the boards just small enough that you must attack your opponent(s) for domination and victory points. Survive through 8-10 rounds of strategic attacking and defending to win in this fun full-out-brawl of a game. Though one might prefer to just huddle in their corner of the board, slowly racking up money, (the game’s point system) Small World doesn’t allow for cowardice. In this kill or be killed game, strategy and manipulation are the key to victory. Published by Days of Wonder and designed by Philippe Keyaerts, Small World is a spectacular game with immense replay-ability. With a ‘buy your faction’ option, you may easily lose the game trying to buy the ‘best’ combo of special ability and race, since coins are the equivalent of points. With numerous factions (trolls, humans, orcs, tritons, etc.) and special abilities (pillaging, corrupt, spirit, etc.) shuffled and randomly combined each game, it is unlikely that you will have a single replica of race to ability combo each game. (Though I somehow have gotten the Diplomat-Skeletons many many times.) Depending of the number of players, Small World lasts about 1-1:30 hours. The rules are simple enough that most kids could play and still enjoy the ruthless sabotage from each player. Small World is a divide and conquer game; basically Risk, but actually fun. Generally priced between $40-$50, Small World may seem on the steep end of price, but is worth every penny. In my vast board game collection, I have played Small World more than any other game. I’ve played it more than most of my other games combined actually. What makes Small World really fun though, is that you get to play as multiple factions in one game, generally 3. You only get about 10 troops with each faction, so when your soldiers die, you have no choice but to abandon them for a new, stronger faction. If you abandon them too quickly though, and your previous faction (which stays on the board, still giving you points, just not attacking) will go extinct and will be removed from the board. I mentioned the use of manipulation earlier. In Small World, you want to convince other players to not attack you. This isn’t stated in the rules, it’s just something that I’ve learned playing with my friends, who somehow like to think I’m rather innocent. If you can make them fight each other, instead of attack you, you won’t lose your troops and can get more coins/points. Now that you know just a little about game play, let’s look at the pros and cons of Small World.

Pros:

Great replay-ability: Like I said previously, the factions and special abilities are shuffled randomly each game, so your faction-special ability combos will be different each play-through.
Great strategy game: I’ve never been the best at strategy games. But Small World, while heavily relying on strategy, is a simple enough game that strategy skills don’t mess with the balance of the game.
Easy enough for a family game night: I’m the youngest in my family, so I never had to play the “easier games” so a younger sibling could join in. However, this game is simple enough that a 10-year-old could play. As long as you aren’t playing with toddlers, Small World is a great family game that will help kids learn strategy without the bore that comes with Chess. (Sorry Chess fans.)
Fun theme and art: With many different factions, each with a different look, the sheer multitude of artwork put into this game is astounding. When I first bought Small World, I had a blast just studying all the different factions, special abilities, and character tokens, the art is so detailed and fun.
Mostly balanced factions and abilities*: Any game with a multitude of factions and abilities like Small World are bound to have some imbalance. Small World does a great job with this though. There is only one faction that I think sucks (sorry dwarves) and only one that I think is better than the others (go trolls!!!) but, due to some minor imbalance in special abilities too, factions like the dwarves and trolls can be balanced depending on their pairings.
Multiple expansions for more variations**: After playing this game a bazillion times, I still wasn’t tired of it. But it needed some spicing up, so I bought a few expansions. They didn’t add a bunch of new rules, or change game-play significantly, they just added new factions and abilities for more combos and game-play fun.

Cons:

Turns can seem repetitive for some people: Each turn is basically the same: attack, kill, conquer, get points, repeat. This can be boring for some people. I believe the contrary, but I must state both sides.
Game can last over 2 hours if players aren’t focused: When playing with friends, distractions are abundant, leading to turns filled with chatter and players forgetting to move the round-tracker, leading to a 15 round game, rather than 10. I think this is more fun, but if you are more pressed for time, this could be a problem. Then again, if you’re pressed for time, you might just want to pick a different game.
*Some race and ability combos are better than others: As I stated above, the dwarves and trolls are slightly unbalanced. To players that are sticklers about fairness and balanced game-play, this might be a concern. But if you’re just looking to have fun, this is easily over looked.
**Some expansions seem like the creator was just desperate, and went for a cash grab without play testing: As with any successful game, expansions were put out for Small World. These expansions didn’t affect game-play though, and only added new factions and special abilities. But, you can only add so many factions and special abilities before you run out of ideas. Small World has quite a few expansions, but the ideas were getting watered down after about the second or third expansion. Many people won’t bother with buying the expansions though, so this is a rather minor problem

Overall rating:

9/10

This game is pretty darn near perfect. I personally would give it an 11/10, but looking at flaws that friends and family have pointed out, mostly length, repetitive turns, and “imbalance,” 9/10 seems fair. If you’re looking for a new game to add to your arsenal, Small World is a great buy and I highly recommend it. If Small World isn’t right for you, I’ll be posting more reviews soon, and I’ll be adding some top 10 lists as well, so be sure to subscribe below to keep up on all the latest news that I have to offer.

With that, happy gaming to you all.

An Introduction and a Preview

Greetings. This is my first post, and thus will have very little in common with my usual posts.

I am, to say the least, a board game enthusiast. I’ve loved board games for as long as I can remember, but only started collecting games about 3 years ago.

If you are new to tabletop board games, are a regular fanatic like myself, or are just hoping to pick up some light reading, I hope to provide that here.

I will cover multiple different topics on board games, but I will mainly be writing board game reviews, do top ten lists of different board game categories, and discuss opinions of many things throughout the board gaming world.

With a tentative plan of posting at least twice a month, who knows how long I’ll keep posting. But, hopefully, I can provide you with joy and knowledge in the meantime.

If you have any games that you want me to review, or topics that you think I should discuss, put them in the comments below and I may or may not cover them.

With that, happy reading to you all.