Board 8 > thirty-one tabletop games, ranked

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SeabassDebeste
03/13/18 4:23:03 PM
#1:


Recap from post 1 of the last topic:

I got into the board gaming hobby three years ago, and a year into it, I ranked the first hundred that I'd played, including expansions and games I'd played only very lightly.

It's been two years since then and I've accumulated a lot more experience, and there are enough games now that I've played multiple times to revisit this list using only games where I've played 2 or more times.

Ranking will be done on a combination of:

- How much I've enjoyed it in the past - both on average (fun per play) and on aggregate (number of plays total)
- How much I admire the game design
- How much I want to play the game again (which can vary on a lot of factors)

The List So Far

Nein!
80. Secret Hitler
79. Mascarade
78. Sheriff of Nottingham
77. Good Cop, Bad Cop
76. Dead of Winter
75. Word on the Street
74. One Night Ultimate Werewolf

Punch Missed
73. Boss Monster
72. Colt Express
71. God's Gambit
70. Sushi Go
69. Qwirkle
68. Cosmic Encounter
67. Ticket to Ride

Banzai!
66. Settlers of Catan
65. Machi Koro
64. Zombicide
63. King of Tokyo
62. Guillotine
61. Turn the Tide
60. Coup
59. Roll for the Galaxy
58. San Juan
57. Ca$h 'n Guns

Feeling Bold
56. The Bloody Inn
55. World's Fair 1893
54. The Grizzled
53. Two Rooms and a Boom
52. 7 Wonders
51. Tokaido (also Lost Cities: The Board Game)
50. Takenoko
49. Karuba
48. Acquire
47. Welcome to the Dungeon

THREE! THREE! THREE!
46. Ra
45. Pit
44. Love Letter
43. Dixit
42. D-Day Dice
41. Small World
40. Mysterium
39. 6 nimmt!
38. No Thanks!

Well Fed
37. Agricola
36. Ghost Blitz
35. BANG: The Dice Game
34. Power Grid
33. Tzolk'in
32. Seasons
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Colegreen_c12
03/13/18 4:35:30 PM
#2:


tag
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DPOblivion beat us all.
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Girugamesh
03/13/18 4:43:19 PM
#3:


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Peace___Frog
03/13/18 4:47:02 PM
#4:


Colegreen_c12 posted...
tag

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Anagram
03/13/18 4:50:09 PM
#5:


Tag
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Not changing this sig until I decide to change this sig.
Started: July 6, 2005
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banananor
03/13/18 4:57:22 PM
#6:


excited to get to the good part of the list
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th3l3fty
03/13/18 4:58:54 PM
#7:


I was actually being a bit facetious there - I know exactly why people tend to avoid euros

also I really don't like Seasons - it just feels incredibly imbalanced to me, unlike the impeccably-designed 7 Wonders
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Gatarix
03/13/18 5:11:01 PM
#8:


https://twitter.com/molleindustria/status/973640303872757760

(tag)
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{Drakeryn}
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SeabassDebeste
03/13/18 5:39:51 PM
#9:


31. Anomia
https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/67877/anomia

Genre/mechanics: Pattern recognition, speed, party game
Rules complexity: 1/10
Game length: 10 minutes
Player count: 3-6
Experience: 3-5 plays with 5-7 players
First played: 2017

A deck of cards, which each have a visual pattern (such as a circle, or a diamond, or a square) and a category of word ("four-letter word," "rock band member"). On your turn, you turn a card face up onto your pile. Then, if anyone else's card in front of them matches yours, you must compete for their card by being first to say a word of their card's category before they say a word of your card's category. Win, and you win their card.

Design - Anomia has a phenomenal concept. I tend to like speed pattern recognition games (and there is more to come), but it kicks into love when creativity for laughs is added. Anomia improves upon games like Set or Ghost Blitz because first off, it ensures that only two people have to compete when any given card is flipped, so you have a higher chance at not being shut out. Additionally, you don't just announce you have the solution, but still have a second step of creativity before you get there.

Anomia isn't what you'd call a "tight" game. Your score is based off how many showdowns you win (rather than combination of how much you won and how much you protected your stash) - and there's (technically) a chance you'll engage in zero showdowns through the deck once. It's clearly designed more with laughs per minute in mind than factors such as competitiveness or game balance - and as far as I've played it, it's relatively successful there.

Experience - Lots of laughs from this game from everyone except non-native-English speakers - it's gonna be tougher when so many categories are cultural reference pools. Depending on the category, you might also see some surprising responses - when "sex toys" comes up as a category, you might not expect how quickly someone answers. It's a really nice icebreaker type of game because of that.

Replay - Anomia inherently, is not super-replayable among the same group. The pattern recognition is basic enough that you won't crush someone due to experience, but without house rules preventing it, the same words can be used to satisfy the same clues over and over, so saying "JFK" for "assassination victim" every time will get less novel. Fortunately, there are loads of Anomia decks. I'd love to play this game a few times with each different group and each different deck, but overplay is a real risk for this one.

Bonus question - What is your favorite game that feels ill-defined with respect to rules? How high does it rank among games overall? How important is enjoyment versus tight game design to you?

Hint for #30 - where you can bet on others to win for you, if you suck
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Peace___Frog
03/13/18 5:41:56 PM
#10:


SeabassDebeste posted...
Additionally, you don't just

Think you lost a bit here
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SeabassDebeste
03/13/18 5:44:38 PM
#11:


thanks! it's what i get for jumping around during writeups.
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The Mana Sword
03/13/18 5:46:13 PM
#12:


Anomia is fine but I definitely wouldnt put it above a lot of the games on the list already.
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SeabassDebeste
03/13/18 5:54:23 PM
#13:


I'm cool with that assessment. Anomia is incredibly imperfect - room for improvement on all three aspects: it could rise if I played it more, if I felt it were more replayable, or if it felt like a tighter design. If you value the 'designer' side of things more, or you get bothered by imperfections, or you want to be able to play and replay a game, or you want a game to test some sort of skill... Anomia will have gaps.

But I have a big soft spot for party games that work exactly as expected, as the desired effect of a party game is that a bunch of people have a really good time and have their social juices flowing. I think Anomia essentially succeeded at that for me.
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cyko
03/13/18 6:01:29 PM
#14:


For as much as you seem to enjoy party games, I sure hope Captain Sonar ranks high up on this list. That and Codename are probably my two favorite party games.
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Tom Bombadil
03/13/18 6:14:27 PM
#15:


SeabassDebeste posted...
What is your favorite game that feels ill-defined with respect to rules? How high does it rank among games overall? How important is enjoyment versus tight game design to you?


I like Killer Bunnies, but my buddy and I made up a whole mechanic because there were cards that were incredibly ill-defined until several expansions in. We also made a variant so that I would stand a chance of not getting pulverized all game every game. I would THINK "tightness" is very important to me, but there are a few games that aren't tight that I like, so maybe it's not.
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Great_Paul
03/13/18 6:24:24 PM
#16:


SeabassDebeste posted...
Hint for #30 - where you can bet on others to win for you, if you suck


Witts and Wagers
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Bear Bro
It's kinda coincidental how like in most games pigs are evil.
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ZeeksFire
03/13/18 6:31:16 PM
#17:


tag
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Simoun
03/13/18 9:46:05 PM
#18:


Tag
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It's not so cliche anymore when it's happening to you.
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Simoun
03/13/18 9:48:26 PM
#19:


My favorite ill-defined game is Grimslingers. I love the theme and the system but it attempts to be even worse than Netrunner by making the most convoluted glossary ever. It replaces every single card game term with its own, all for what is essentially modified rock paper scissors.
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It's not so cliche anymore when it's happening to you.
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My Immortal
03/13/18 10:01:53 PM
#20:


Tag
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#VnaaVimmDrnuddma
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Simoun
03/14/18 12:03:07 AM
#21:


Btw guys, if you didn't know yet, Terraforming Mars is coming to Steam soon

http://store.steampowered.com/app/800270/Terraforming_Mars/
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Great_Paul
03/14/18 12:04:44 AM
#22:


Why would they bother putting such an awful game on Steam!?
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Bear Bro
It's kinda coincidental how like in most games pigs are evil.
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Naye745
03/14/18 12:57:58 AM
#23:


agricola and power grid are both "classics" and i like em but neither has any specific element that makes me love the game

so, like, they'd go in a distinct tier of great-but-not-favorites (where i'd also have puerto rico and terra mystica)
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Naye745
03/14/18 1:00:59 AM
#24:


seasons is not my favorite game and i found it underwhelming in a few irl plays

but i've had a good time with it on bga - there are some games that weirdly come together much more without all the overhead (not usually the case for me) and for some reason having most of the fiddly stuff managed makes the game shine

it's still not great (i still find the obligation to play every card to be kind of silly, when you have to draft crap you don't want sometimes) but it's very fine
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th3l3fty
03/14/18 7:24:33 AM
#25:


Great_Paul posted...
Why would they bother putting such an awful game on Steam!?

get out
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SeabassDebeste
03/14/18 9:19:32 AM
#26:


Naye745 posted...
agricola and power grid are both "classics" and i like em but neither has any specific element that makes me love the game

so, like, they'd go in a distinct tier of great-but-not-favorites (where i'd also have puerto rico and terra mystica)

I've only played PR and TM once apiece, but to me, I think PR would stand out because of its role selection, since (afaik) it was the first of its kind.
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The Mana Sword
03/14/18 9:55:50 AM
#27:


Terra Mystica stands out because it's the best board game
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Peace___Frog
03/14/18 9:59:38 AM
#28:


The Mana Sword posted...
Terra Mystica stands out because it's the best board game

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SeabassDebeste
03/14/18 10:15:16 AM
#29:


30. Wits and Wagers
https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/20100/wits-wagers

Genre/mechanics: Trivia, creative, betting, party game
Rules complexity: 1/10
Game length: 3-5 minutes per round, X rounds
Player count: 3-7
Experience: 20-30 rounds over 3-4 sessions with 6-7 players
First played: 2015

In Wits and Wagers, you're in a casino/game show setting, trying to make the most money by betting on answers to trivia questions. Each round, a quantitative trivia question is posed - the number of square miles in the Sahara Desert; the year in which Levi's jeans were first produced. Everyone simultaneously (but not anonymously!) submits an answer, and then there's a real-time betting phase in which people pick the one that is closest. You win some money for a correct submission, plus the money based on these bets.

Enjoyment - All of my plays of Wits and Wagers happened in 2015, when our fearless host would regularly have oversized game nights and Pit was a mainstay. I really miss that summer. Anyway, I have several awesome memories of it - from the correct answer to a geography question being by far the lowest value posited, to a highly specialized question where I had ridiculous precision and bet everything on it, to a question we all assumed someone would know (and who wrote it down very confidently and bet on it) - and therefore all bet on hers - except she was completely bluffing and made us lose our bets as well. It's a game about playing the players, which is what made it so enjoyable.

Design - I love that W&W is a near-zero-downtime game. There are three phases: the submission, which happens simultaneously (and can be easily put on a timer); the simultaneous timed betting - which is incredibly enjoyable because you're allowed to change your bet based on what everyone else is doing; and the payout phase, which can be surprisingly lengthy - but it's done using casino-style poker chips, so it's satisfying watching people get matched. To that note, the "board" of the game is a mat that looks like a craps table, which I love.

W&W depends heavily on its cards, and you realistically cannot replay a card with the same group, ever - so its lifespan is constrained by the depth of its trivia deck. Presumably, re-prints of the game will feature new cards and can extend its lifetime.

Future - W&W is the type of game that lets you know "it's party game time." A lot of the games higher on this list can serve bigger groups and I would consider them party games, but they're generally a little more think-y than W&W's pure pointing and laughing and bluffing. And yet it's constrained at seven (and is ideally played with seven!), which is a little iffy for a game in this genre. The person who owns W&W in our group isn't usually in a large-player scenario for us anymore, sadly. However, I'd love to play it more - seems like a good one to have in the collection.

Bonus question - What is your favorite trivia game?

Hint for #29 - hundred Marco Polo
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The Mana Sword
03/14/18 10:17:30 AM
#30:


Wits and Wagers is great. Top 3 party game for me.
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SeabassDebeste
03/14/18 10:38:35 AM
#31:


I'm curious what else is in there, since all your favorites seem to be DRY AND BORING EUROS
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The Mana Sword
03/14/18 10:50:39 AM
#32:


how dare u

Top 3 party games for me is probably like...Wits & Wagers, Balderdash and Telestrations.
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SeabassDebeste
03/14/18 11:03:04 AM
#33:


balderdash i played once last week and i was annoyed because i didn't like some of the people and there were freaking NINE of us, and i couldn't get people to break it off. def has some of the same plus qualities as wits and wagers though!

telestrations i really want to play, but no one has ever brought it in our group. responsibility would almost certainly fall on me to buy it, or try to break into a group playing it. :(
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The Mana Sword
03/14/18 11:12:04 AM
#34:


here is my BGG profile if you need any more hot recommendations for more boring euros

https://boardgamegeek.com/collection/user/Gylgamesh501?subtype=boardgame&ff=1

I'm probably missing stuff on that though.
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SeabassDebeste
03/14/18 11:38:16 AM
#35:


29. Century: Spice Road
https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/209685/century-spice-road

Genre/mechanics: Card-drafting, hand management, engine-building, set collection
Rules complexity: 5/10
Game length: 30-45 minutes
Player count: 2-5
Experience: 3 plays over 2 sessions with 3, 5 players
First played: 2017

Century: Spice Road is a lightweight eurogame in which you try to buy a changing array of victory point cards with little, colorful cubes representing spices. To get the spices you need, you draft cards from an open board, add them to your hand, and play them either to obtain spices or upgrade to different-colored spices. The game is ended by a player who gets five cards and won by the player whose cards are worth the most victory points.

Design - I'll admit that I'm biased by a component that doesn't even belong to C:SR itself - a beautiful playmat that just feels wonderful to slide cards against. But the cubes are nice, too.

C:SR is a relatively nice game. It feels really good to pick up a powerful card, and you can use it the next turn. You can make awesome combos, and in doing so, you never need to depend on luck of the draw as in other deckbuilders - you have access to your entire hand at any time. Reaching five goal cards is a bit of a lengthy process, so you have lots of time to let your engine grow and grow as you amass your combinations of spices. While the card-drafting is kind of 'interactive by default,' it's really in the chasing of goal cards that the competition occurs - if someone is generating a ton of the same spices you are, it's very possible they're racing you to your goal card.

C:SR is often compared to another game in its weight class with reasonable similarities, and I can see why those comparisons might happen. But I've gone with this ranking for now.

Enjoyment - The truth is that I probably just like lightweight euros a lot more than I'd have expected three years ago. I've only played C:SR three times, all on the same day, and two of those playthroughs were with only three players in a known favorite gaming group. But it was just so smooth, largely because of the simplicity of a single turn, that it's hard not to give it high marks.

Future - Definitely want to play this more. It's more than a filler, but it can easily fill a warmup/cooloff spot before/after a Power Grid session.

Bonus question - How much do you pimp out your board games with extra components? Which are your favorites?

Hint for #28 - Is it worth enough for you to buy it yourself at that price?
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th3l3fty
03/14/18 11:38:51 AM
#36:


Codenames best party game by a lot tbqh
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SeabassDebeste
03/14/18 11:39:19 AM
#37:


The Mana Sword posted...
here is my BGG profile if you need any more hot recommendations for more boring euros

https://boardgamegeek.com/collection/user/Gylgamesh501?subtype=boardgame&ff=1

I'm probably missing stuff on that though.

oh man, you're not gonna enjoy the rest of this list

excellent
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The Mana Sword
03/14/18 11:42:19 AM
#38:


codenames doesn't live up to the hype imo
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th3l3fty
03/14/18 11:44:17 AM
#39:


I've never played CSR without the player mat, and I'm not sure I could

much better game at 3 than 5, for the record
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SeabassDebeste
03/14/18 11:46:26 AM
#40:


th3l3fty posted...
I've never played CSR without the player mat, and I'm not sure I could

much better game at 3 than 5, for the record

Can confirm by experience. That said, the 5-player game was at a meetup with at least two guys I'd prefer not to play most games with.
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SeabassDebeste
03/14/18 12:31:58 PM
#41:


28. Isle of Skye
https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/176494/isle-skye-chieftain-king

Genre/mechanics: Bidding, tile-laying
Rules complexity: 6/10
Game length: 35-50 minutes
Player count: 2-5
Experience: 4-5 plays with 4-5 players
First played: 2016

In Isle of Skye, you compete to score the most victory points by building the kingdom that best fulfills certain victory point conditions - number of sheep, number of boats, number of enclosed territories, etc. These conditions are randomly picked at the beginning of the game and a subset are scored at the end of each round. Each round, you show three random tiles in front of you, and you must decide to set the prices for them. A purchase phase follows, where you can buy other people's tiles, and then you lay out your board.

Enjoyment - I suck at Isle of Skye. Legit suck. Strategic tile placement is just not my forte. That said, I've only played it in good company, which helps a lot.

Design - And also this - I admire a ton about how playable IoS is. It caps at five instead of four, which is a big advantage, and extremely cleverly, it provides one fewer game round with five players than with any other count - which keeps the game length manageable. You score each round, which gives people an idea of where they stand, but also gives weight to big endgame bonuses. There's a catchup mechanism of extra income per player beating you, which is a nice silver lining and not punitive to the people who score early victory points. The game is very smart about downtime. Everything feels designed for maximum satisfaction.

And of course, I love bidding, and Isle of Skye has a really nice method for it. Ending up with zero tiles is a bad move, and you're only allowed to buy one. If someone buys a tile from you, you have a bunch of cash to spend elsewhere. But if no one buys yours, you're forced to spend the price you set, personally, and purchasing other tiles will be difficult. Figuring out how much to value your own tiles, which tile to throw away, and how much money to save to buy someone else's delicious tile are where the game is made, and that part happens simultaneously.

Future - Yes please! It's slightly more decision-/interaction-heavy than a Century: Spice Road type, for a similar downtime. Really nice mid-light game.

Bonus question - What is your favorite tile-laying game?

Hint for #27 - an out-of-print game by a designer who's made lots of games in this genre
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The Mana Sword
03/14/18 12:37:34 PM
#42:


I've only played IoS a few times, but it's a neat twist on Carcassone, and I do like tile-laying games.
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SeabassDebeste
03/14/18 12:42:19 PM
#43:


i finally played carcassonne for the first time this year. it felt like making a pilgrimage to mecca.
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The Mana Sword
03/14/18 12:44:07 PM
#44:


Caracassonne is one of those gateway games that you just assume everyone who's "into board games" has played, like Settlers and Ticket to Ride. Surprised it took you so long to play it!
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Peace___Frog
03/14/18 12:49:41 PM
#45:


I haven't played Carc or settlers! But IoS sounds pretty sweet
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KommunistKoala
03/14/18 12:51:56 PM
#46:


I think I played a Carcassone demo on Xbox Arcade once, that's about it
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Tom Bombadil
03/14/18 1:06:27 PM
#47:


I didn't love Carcassone

tile laying is another thing I'd be okay with exploring more though
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Peace___Frog
03/14/18 1:10:30 PM
#48:


If you want tile laying at its most basic and only have 1 or 2 others to play with, who aren't big into tabletop, Seikatsu is a fine and cheap entry - level game. There's basically only 2 axes with which to base your decision on, so it's very straightforward.
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SeabassDebeste
03/14/18 1:17:05 PM
#49:


i totally read 'axes' as the plural of 'ax' instead of 'axis' and was wondering if this was related to the axe in isle of skye (you get 3 tiles to market, but you only set prices for two - you immediately axe the third)
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redrocket_pub
03/14/18 1:22:46 PM
#50:


Kingdomino is an excellent gateway game that's tile laying. It's like a simplified Carcassonne that plays in 15 mins. Deceptively deep though!
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