Lurker > Great_Paul

One Night Ultimate Vampire
https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/180956/one-night-ultimate-vampire
One Night Vampire (and Werewolf) are definitely better options than the long version of Werewolf. I really like Vampire because besides messing with the roles, there are also marks that people have. There have definitely been some fun games of this, but the only problem is that it doesn't get played all that often because you need a bigger group (at least 6 I'd say) and it doesn't really work well in public when you're using the app. Still really enjoy this when we do play it though.

Codenames Pictures
https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/198773/codenames-pictures
I know Codenames is super popular and I see why, I just don't like it as much as most people seem to. Pictures is a lot better though because I think it lets you be more creative. I've played the NSFW version once and I didn't care for it. They've announced a Disney and a Marvel version, and I'd like to try those out at least once.
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Bear Bro
So confirmed, Santa's number one helper is a squirrel.

39
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Bear Bro
So confirmed, Santa's number one helper is a squirrel.

Snake5555555555 posted...

The Dice Tower

Would you be willing to trade one for Crowbcat?

Sure, for Daxflame?
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Bear Bro
So confirmed, Santa's number one helper is a squirrel.

Snake5555555555 posted...

I'll trade for Raycevick and Stop Skeletons From Fighting

I already saved SSFF but I'll save the other one for The Dice Tower if it lasts until the next set of saves.
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Bear Bro
So confirmed, Santa's number one helper is a squirrel.

Nom

Green Day
The Cure
Oasis
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Bear Bro
So confirmed, Santa's number one helper is a squirrel.

Sorry, been busy. More tomorrow!
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Bear Bro
So confirmed, Santa's number one helper is a squirrel.

Gaming Historian
Stop Skeletons
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Bear Bro
So confirmed, Santa's number one helper is a squirrel.

+3 Karo
+2 GTM
+1 GMUN

+3 Roba
+2 Paratroopa
+1 Foolmo
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Bear Bro
So confirmed, Santa's number one helper is a squirrel.

The Great Mizuti

http://i.imgur.com/TnCrZ94.jpg
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Bear Bro
So confirmed, Santa's number one helper is a squirrel.

Technologic
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Bear Bro
So confirmed, Santa's number one helper is a squirrel.

I usually prefer 3 or 4. Though it depends how you're playing.

More players with just base game means expect a lot of blocking tiles. And if you play with one or both expansions with a low count there will be much less interaction. We played Grand Bazaar with 3 once and almost never ended up on the same tiles at the same time.
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Bear Bro
So confirmed, Santa's number one helper is a squirrel.

I have that game arriving in the mail this week. One I'm definitely excited to try out!
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Bear Bro
So confirmed, Santa's number one helper is a squirrel.

Hands Held High
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Bear Bro
So confirmed, Santa's number one helper is a squirrel.

+3 Cave
+2 DSR
+1 ff6
-1 Crossfiyah
-2 Mzero
-3 Commodore
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Bear Bro
So confirmed, Santa's number one helper is a squirrel.

Retail price for the giant yoshi.

Then probably retail price for Guardian.
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Bear Bro
So confirmed, Santa's number one helper is a squirrel.

So for games that made my shortlist I'll post them in no particular order. Except I will start with this one:

The Resistance (2009)
https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/41114/resistance
I've played The Resistance a couple of times and I liked it, but my main issue is that it's really tough to determine who is on which side, all you have to go off of is the results from each mission. I know the expansions fix that, but I've only played with the expansion once. I played Avalon a couple weeks ago and liked it better, probably because I prefer that theme.
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Bear Bro
So confirmed, Santa's number one helper is a squirrel.

Nom

Prince
Fleetwood Mac
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Bear Bro
So confirmed, Santa's number one helper is a squirrel.

trdl23 posted...

Dude, that sounds awesome.

Great topic! Thanks so much for letting us take this ride with you! (We didn't even need a ticket... Okay, I'm done.)

Thanks, it was nice to finally do a ranking topic of some kind on here. Though it's not over yet, I plan to talk about some other games that are good but didn't quite make the list. And then I have another short ranking planned.

Naye745 posted...

do you just do pure random on the setup? there are some "default" setups that seem okay but i dont think i've bothered with anything beyond the beginner game for first time players.

We do random now since we've done the default ones too many times. I'll only do default if I'm teaching new people.
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Bear Bro
So confirmed, Santa's number one helper is a squirrel.

1) Istanbul (2014)
https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/148949/istanbul
Istanbul is a pick-up and deliver game for 2-5 players. In this game players will compete to collect 5 rubies. The game board consists of 16 tiles that can be placed in any order as a 4x4 grid. The game has 3 pre-set options but you can modulate them any way you want for unique re-playability. Each player controls a merchant disc with 4 assistant discs stacked underneath. On your turn you will move your stack one or two spaces in any adjacent direction and then leave an assistant there to do the action of that tile. If you move to a space that already has your assistant, you'll pick them up instead of leaving one behind while still doing the action. Backtracking helps a lot because if you run out of assistants and don't land on one of their spaces, you can't take that action. You'll have a wheelbarrow that has a capacity to fit two of each of the four goods in the game. The goods can be used to exchange for things such as other goods, Lira (the game's money), or even a ruby. There are mosques that you can exchange certain goods to unlock a new ability such as paying to recall an assistant back to you, letting you re-roll dice, and unlocking a 5th assistant. One tile lets you draw bonus cards that are also all quite helpful. There's a police station where you can break out your criminal family member and send them to any space on the board to let you take the action, but if another merchant lands on that space later they turn them in for a reward, which is nice because that lets you go back and break them out again. Another tile I really like is the Tea House, it's a fun gambling one. You say a number from 3-12 and then roll two dice. If you roll equal to or higher than the number you claimed, you get that amount in Lira. Lira helpful to pay for wheelbarrow upgrades where you can increase it up to 5 spaces for each good. It also helps you at the Gemstone Dealer where you can just buy rubies, but each one gets more expensive than the last. There are some other tiles I didn't mention, but they all have good use. The game ends when one player obtains their 5th ruby, and then it's equal number of turns to finish the round.

This game has two expansions. The first one is called Mocha & Baksheesh which adds 4 tiles making it a 5x4 grid and adds new elements such as coffee as a 5th good, new types of cards that take a whole turn to play, and a roadblock that people can place in between two tiles to hinder movement for other players. The second expansion is called Letters & Seals which also adds 4 tiles making it a 5x4 grid and adds new elements such as delivering letters to tiles, an auction house that lets you auction bonus cards, and a Companion that you can move separately from yourself and acts alone so it doesn't need assistants to do it's actions. This expansion also comes with an extra tile that allows you to combine both expansions as a 5x5 grid to become The Grand Bazaar which is a super fun way to play and there are so many things you can do.

I remember when I was first taught this game. I had never heard of it before, and as my friend was teaching it I kept getting more and more excited to start playing. After he finished I was super hyped to try this out and see what method I would try first to start getting rubies and I've loved this game ever since. I really like all the different strategies you can try with this game and I've won using multiple different game-plans.

I'll also mention this now since it may come up, but I don't really consider this a worker placement game. I see worker placement as you are given a certain amount of workers and then you alternate placing workers on different locations to do actions, and in Istanbul it's more walking around the board and dropping your assistants off/picking them up to do actions.

Oh and Istanbul won the Kennerspiel des Jahres in 2014 so that's cool too.
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Bear Bro
So confirmed, Santa's number one helper is a squirrel.

Nope!
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Bear Bro
So confirmed, Santa's number one helper is a squirrel.

+3 Cody11533
+2 Wanglicious
+1 ChaosTonyV4
-1 Whimsical
-2 eaedwards6400
-3 ctesjbuvf
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Bear Bro
So confirmed, Santa's number one helper is a squirrel.

#1 will be posted today

After that I'll talk about games that made my shortlist and then I have another ranking planned.

Went to hit edit earlier and hit delete instead :P oops
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Bear Bro
So confirmed, Santa's number one helper is a squirrel.

I planned to do the writeup today, but then I came home to see that my Switch had arrived.
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Bear Bro
So confirmed, Santa's number one helper is a squirrel.

I remember that was one of your guesses for one of my hints, and I looked that game up and it sounded good.
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Bear Bro
So confirmed, Santa's number one helper is a squirrel.

Legendary is awesome! I had no idea it had so many haters.
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Bear Bro
So confirmed, Santa's number one helper is a squirrel.

2) Legendary: A Marvel Deck Building Game (2012)
https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/129437/legendary-marvel-deck-building-game
Legendary is a semi co-op/deckbuilding game for 1-5 players. In this game players will co-operatively build their decks by obtaining hero cards and fighting different villains until their decks are capable of fighting the mastermind. There will be a specific scheme that determines the flow of the game and sometimes has it's own set of rules. You then pick your heroes, villains, and mastermind. Each hero has a 14 card deck and you'll select 5 different sets and shuffle them up to make your 70 card deck. You then pick your villains which will consist of a set of 10 henchmen and 2 different villain teams of 8 cards each. This setup can be random or chosen by the players if they want certain characters in the game. On a players turn a villain will be drawn from the villain deck and start advancing through the city. The starting decks consist of SHIELD Agents that have either attack or recruit value. Attack value is used to fight villains in the city or the mastermind, while recruit value is used to purchase heroes from the HQ where there will be 5 face up drawn from the hero deck. The goal of the game is to fight the mastermind 4 times (because every mastermind has to be fought a couple of times before they're finally defeated). This game is semi co-op because at the end of the game players will score points listed on all of the villains they've defeated so there is one true winner in the end, though there's a variant to ignore that.

This game has so many expansions. 4 bigger box ones and 6 small ones. There also is a Legendary Villains where you play as villain characters and you're fighting the heroes. That set one has one expansion so far. This game has so much content, even if you only have a couple of expansions there is still so much gameplay and so many combinations you can do.

There are also Legendary sets based on Alien, Predator, Firefly, and Big Trouble In Little China. I have the BTiLC set and it's similar, but probably only good for people who have seen the movie. Haven't tried any of the other sets but I've also only seen Alien and haven't watched any of the Predator movies. Firefly was an okay series but I'm in no rush to try that Legendary set.

Legendary is so good, I'm always excited to play it every time it comes out. It used to by my #1 favourite game for a while, until my friend introduced me to this next game....

Hint for #1
This game's title contains the name of a real-life place
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Bear Bro
So confirmed, Santa's number one helper is a squirrel.

The Dice Tower
https://www.youtube.com/user/thedicetower

Watch It Played
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCGK9n7svoIjuaQfRIBJXkqQ

Daxflame
https://www.youtube.com/user/Daxflame

BikdipOnABus
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UClnuvcJpkuR3W3wFhbNgHrA

ertyu0078
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCynGdPd90OU-ACJKYKjXhVA
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Bear Bro
So confirmed, Santa's number one helper is a squirrel.

Tag

HaRRicH posted...

I was named after George Harrison when my mom heard Here Comes The Sun while pregnant with me.

I like to tell people I was named after Paul McCartney, even though that's not really the case.
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Bear Bro
So confirmed, Santa's number one helper is a squirrel.

Out of the two games I've played, they were both won with VP at the end of the game. Though the second time we played my opponent almost won with science but I noticed and snatched the last card there that he needed.
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Bear Bro
So confirmed, Santa's number one helper is a squirrel.

I confirmed earlier that I've never played BSG.
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Bear Bro
So confirmed, Santa's number one helper is a squirrel.

SeabassDebeste posted...

I've never played Blood Rage, so I can't comment on Naye's. :(

Neither have I
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Bear Bro
So confirmed, Santa's number one helper is a squirrel.

Playing Vast right now (I mentioned it in my Honorable Mentions). This time I'm The Cave.
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Bear Bro
So confirmed, Santa's number one helper is a squirrel.

3) Viticulture (2013)
https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/183394/viticulture-essential-edition
Viticulture is a worker placement game for 1-6 players. More specifically this is the "Essential Edition" on my list as it's the only version I've played and I have no intention to ever play the old edition. In this game the goal is to make wine and fulfil orders for victory points. The game mostly takes place in Summer and Winter where people will place their workers on the board to do things such as planting vines, harvesting fields, making wine, building structures, fulfilling an order, and some other things to help you along the way. One addition I really like is that every player has one "grande" worker that can be placed on any spot on the board, even if it has no more space left. The end of the game triggers when a player has 20 victory points, and then the round finishes so it's quite possible the person who triggered end game could lose if someone gets a lot of points in that last round.

There's an expansion called Tuscany for the original game that added several different modules. Some of those were included in the Essential Edition and then they took some other parts from it to make Tuscany Essential Edition. This is such a good expansion. It changes up the board to add Spring and Fall so you play through all of the seasons. It also includes structure cards that add a ton of variety to what you can do. There's also this other area control part with adding stars to a map and you gain VP at the end of the game for the regions you control.

I'm a big fan of Harvest Moon and this game really reminds me of it. Every time I play this game I love planning how I'm going to build my vineyard and see how well it works. Worker placement is my favourite genre and this one is definitely my favourite worker placement game.

Hint for #2
A licensed game
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Bear Bro
So confirmed, Santa's number one helper is a squirrel.

I've never found Magic Drain to be too OP. It does really suck when your opponent plays it, but I've managed to get around it and it's never been the cause of a win/loss in any of the games I've played.
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Bear Bro
So confirmed, Santa's number one helper is a squirrel.

4) Summoner Wars (2009)
https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/58281/summoner-wars
Summoner Wars is a living card/dice rolling game for 2 players. There is a way to play this 4 players, but I have never tried it that way, nor do I intend to, so I only think of it as a 2 player game. This game has 16 different factions each with 2 different Summoners that have their own deck of cards containing Unit and Event cards. The game plays on a 6x8 grid and each Summoner has their own starting setup. On their turn players will summon units using magic, play events, move, attack, and then discard cards to build magic. When a unit attacks, that player rolls a die and on a result of 3-6 the attack is a hit while 1-2 is a miss. The game ends when one player's Summoner loses all of it's HP.

I really like how this game has a ton of strategy with just a little luck, as in you can't fully plan out your moves too far in advance because there's the chance of your attack missing. There is also the opportunity to build your deck by mixing cards of the same faction to more fit your play-style. It's also nice that with the Alliances set they released it as a big box to allow you to fit everything together. The only problem with that is the box is really heavy now and isn't easily portable.

And for fun here are my top 5 factions based on all of their cards:

5) Guild Dwarves
4) Phoenix Elves
3) Fallen Kingdom
2) Swamp Orcs
1) Mountain Vargath

Hint for #3
Stonemaier
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Bear Bro
So confirmed, Santa's number one helper is a squirrel.

Or not >.> oops. Ended up being busy today.
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Bear Bro
So confirmed, Santa's number one helper is a squirrel.

Haven't updated in a while. Will fix that later today.
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Bear Bro
So confirmed, Santa's number one helper is a squirrel.

I might've gone in expecting too much because people rave about it all the time. It was good, but I guess I didn't think it was anything special. It also seemed really long, but we were doing a 5 player game so maybe that's why.
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Bear Bro
So confirmed, Santa's number one helper is a squirrel.

I finally tried Catan today. It was alright.
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Bear Bro
So confirmed, Santa's number one helper is a squirrel.

bumpo
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Bear Bro
So confirmed, Santa's number one helper is a squirrel.

trdl23 posted...

I love 7 Wonders but I've never played Duel. Is it really that good? How different is it from multiplayer?

I'll let somebody who has played 7 Wonders and 7 Wonders: Duel more than I have explain that one.
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Bear Bro
So confirmed, Santa's number one helper is a squirrel.

5) Kemet (2012)
https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/127023/kemet
Kemet is an egyptian themed area control/war game for 2-5 players. This is one of the most balanced game boards I've ever played. Everybody's city is the same distance away from every other city, so there is no disadvantage on which one is yours. On your turn you will take an action on your player board which could be increasing your army, moving an army, obtaining prayer points (currency), increasing one of your three pyramids, or gaining new technology. The pyramids are red, blue, and white and the stronger they are the stronger technology you can get. There are 16 technology tiles for each colour, 4 for each of the 4 levels. So with a level 3 white pyramid you can buy any level 3 or lower white tile. The tiles all have helpful abilities so get the ones you want quickly because there aren't many duplicates. Some of the tiles give you creatures that you can use to join your armies in battle and they are all awesome. The point of this game is to hold control of different temples and win battles to obtain victory points. One part of this a game I really like is that if you win a battle, you only get VP from it if you were the attacker, so it discourages turtling a big army. First person to have 8 or more VP at the end of a round wins.

As mentioned earlier, this board is amazing. It's double sided and certain parts are excluded for lower count games, but it's made to be completely balanced. I love the technology tiles and every play feels really different and lets you try out different strategies each game. The creatures are all really great, but one of my two problems with this game is that there aren't enough of them. Well that has been fixed slightly with the C3K (Creatures Crossover Cyclades/Kemet). This is a mini expansion that allows you to use creatures from Cyclades (another game by the same publisher) in Kemet, and the Kemet creatures in Cyclades. Even though both games are really different and have different themes, they made the crossover work. There's an expansion for this game that adds 16 black tiles, a second modular board with this new thing of having priest characters walking to your Kemet board and gaining abilities on the way. I haven't gotten to try it yet but I do really want to, though that ties in with my other problem. This game takes a long time to set up and put away, and part of that reason is because there's so much stuff that it also takes a ton of table space. Setting up 48 tiles seemed to be an excess of space, but with the expansion that's 64 tiles and a second board. I've seen custom inserts for this game that have all of the tiles all set out in trays that you can stack to save space, but I have a hard time justifying the prices on them. Oh and the box says 60 minutes, that is most certainly not true. I've even done a two player game with another person who knew how to play and it was maybe 90 minutes, so it's probably even longer with more people. Though every other play has been with at least one new person, so maybe I'm wrong?

Random fun fact: I forgot to mention this earlier, but Broom Service is the highest ranking game on my list that I have never won. There is a slight technicality with this game, the only time I've won is the two player game mentioned earlier. I know it should count as a win, but it's not as cool of a win than winning a 4 or 5 player game so I'll try to fix that next time I play it!

Hint for #4
My favourite 2 player game
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Bear Bro
So confirmed, Santa's number one helper is a squirrel.

#5 will be posted in a little bit
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Bear Bro
So confirmed, Santa's number one helper is a squirrel.

The support mechanic is definitely a nice addition. It makes thematic sense, getting over your problems with the help of your friends. And yeah the mute card sounds like it isn't a huge deal since you can't share info on what's in your hand or who you're supporting, but it really does throw the game off.
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Bear Bro
So confirmed, Santa's number one helper is a squirrel.

bumpo
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Bear Bro
So confirmed, Santa's number one helper is a squirrel.

6) The Grizzled (2015)
https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/171668/grizzled
The Grizzled is a co-op hand management game for 2-5 players. This is a game set in World War I. This game is less about fighting, and more about the struggles that the soldiers endured during this difficult time. There are 6 different characters, and they all play almost the same. There will be a deck of cards split into two stacks, the trials deck and the monument deck. Each round, cards will transfer from the monument deck to the trials deck. Players will have hand of cards drawn from the trials deck consisting of different of 6 different threats. Weather (Rain, Snow, and Night) and Symbols (Gas Mask, Bullet Shells, and Whistles). Each card has at least 2 different threats on it, with some having even more. When a round begins, players will alternate playing threat cards from their hand, but they must be careful. If there are ever 3 or more of the same threat played face up, the round is a failure and more cards get transferred to the trials deck. Your characters don't get physically hurt in this game, they get mentally hurt. The other type of cards in the game are hard-knocks, and if you play one it adds a struggle that your character goes through, such as being forced to draw extra cards. If you don't have any cards that you can play, or don't want to play, your character must withdraw and head back for the trenches. You then secretly chose one person you'd like to support using one of your support tiles. Once all soldiers have withdrawn, the mission is considered a success and support is revealed. If one person got majority of support, they are allowed to remove up to 2 hard-knocks. If it's a tie, no support is given. The game ends in a win when the trial deck is empty and players have no cards left in their hand. The game is lost when either the monument deck is empty, or one player has 4 or more hard-knock cards at the end of a round. This game has an expansion that adds actual missions that they players go on, ranging from easy to hard. I really like this expansion and almost always try to play with it.

I really like how this is a game based on a real war, but it's not actually about fighting and killing. It really gives you a look at the type of hardships the soldiers had to endure. This game is really hard to win too, majority of games I've played have been losses. There are different ways to make the game easier and harder as well.

One sad note about The Grizzled. This game's artist, Tignous, was one of the twelve people killed during the 2015 Charlie Hebdo shooting.

Hint for #5
This game can use components from another game
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Bear Bro
So confirmed, Santa's number one helper is a squirrel.

I'll spoil that nobody has guessed it yet, though I know that's expected with such a vague hint.
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Bear Bro
So confirmed, Santa's number one helper is a squirrel.

SeabassDebeste posted...

... Pandemic Legacy, maybe? Given that Pandemic has come and gone,

We're actually working on that. Doing our second game of April tonight!

SeabassDebeste posted...

I'm ruling out Forbidden Island/Desert, too.

Good call. Haven't played Island and wasn't a fan of Desert.
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Bear Bro
So confirmed, Santa's number one helper is a squirrel.

7) Dead of Winter (2014)
https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/150376/dead-winter-crossroads-game
Dead of Winter is a horror co-op game for 2-5 players. In this game a zombie outbreak has happened and players have taken refuge in a colony. Every player can control multiple characters and everyone is working together to survive. Every round a crisis will occur and players need to work together to fulfill the requirements or morale will be lost. Players will each have their own secret objective they need to complete. The problem with that is if the team wins, but a player doesn't complete their objective they will still lose, which will cause players to risk the whole team losing because they haven't finished their own requirements. To make things worse, there's also a chance one character could be a traitor who's goal is to make the main objective fail.

This game has the worst die in any game with dice, the exposure die. This is a 12 sided die that you must roll every time one of your characters moves or fights a zombie. Half of the sides are blank, some are wounds, some are frostbite, and one side is bite. If you roll a bite your character is dead and if other people are near your character they're in danger as well. I've failed my objective on the final turn because of this die >.>

This game also has a neat storytelling addition. On your turn, the player to your right draws a card from the crossroads deck. They all have a random trigger, and if you do the action that triggers it, the other player stops you and reads the card. It usually causes something to happen, often times giving the player a choice. These cards can really help the group and really hurt the group.

There's also a standalone expansion that adds new characters, crossroad cards, objectives, and 3 modules. The Improvements which can help the colony, the Bandits that make the game harder, and the Raxon that makes the game even harder and adds super zombies. I've tried Improvements and Bandits, but haven't tried Raxon yet.

Hint for #6
My favourite co-op game. And by that I mean no semi co-op or traitors. Players always all win or lose together
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Bear Bro
So confirmed, Santa's number one helper is a squirrel.

Haha oops, I thought my hint narrowed it down to three but didn't realize BSG guaranteed a traitor so I guess I narrowed it down to two.


Dead of Winter or Shadows Over Camelot coming up in a bit!
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Bear Bro
So confirmed, Santa's number one helper is a squirrel.