I’m posting about a game every day in September! Here’s a link to yesterday’s post.

According to my BGG logged plays, I’m coming up on my fourth anniversary of first playing For Sale. I had just started going to a weekly game night at my local comic book store and I was eager to play anything and everything.

On an October night of 2015 I played For Sale. The other guys in the group had played it before and recommended it as a filler game before other players arrived. I immediately took to the game’s straightforward structure with its bidding rounds followed by the buying rounds. Although I’m not one for bidding games, For Sale is the one exception to the rule (okay, also Ra, so make it two exceptions to the rule).

It was an insta-buy for me after the first game. After that first play I asked the group to play it again since it was so quick and they agreed, thus confirming that I must get my own copy so I could share it with my family and friends.

I also stumbled upon a BGG solo variant which is aptly named For $olitaire. It’s a simple AI named Jessica that works surprisingly well. Tonight I solo-ed the game and lost, 89-77.

Yes, a rematch has been called. Unless I can find some human players to play For Sale soon.

I’m posting about a game every day in September! Here’s a link to yesterday’s post.

I don’t have many deck builders in my game library these days. I traded/sold/donated my copies of Dominion, Ascension, and a bunch of expansions. These are fine — and arguably the best — deck-building titles around, but I find myself gravitating toward games that use deck-building as one, and not the only, mechanism, of a game. Given a choice, I’d much rather a deck-builder with a board. I love the route-building in Trains, the area control of Tyrants of the Underdark, the dungeon crawl and push-your-luck in Clank!, and the baseball simulation in Baseball Highlights: 2045.

Of course, there are exceptions.

I keep my copy of Star Realms for nostalgia’s sake. Although I now prefer Shards of Infinity for quick one-on-one deck-building action, my nephew and I used to battle each other in Star Realms when he’d visit years ago. He’s growing up so fast and I treasure those times when we’d play board games for hours before going out to eat or watching a movie. One day I hope we can play a long-awaited rematch and he’ll let his Uncle Ruel win a game.

Valley of the Kings is a small-box deck-builder with a clever deck-building twist. Normally, you want to strip your deck of certain cards, trashing your weaker cards to leave yourself with a streamlined and powerful deck that’ll earn you those bigger victory point cards.

In Valley of the Kings, however, you’re actually trashing cards (“entombing”) to score points. It’s a cool way to score, since it’s more about timing now: you can score a big-point card right away by entombing it, but it’ll be gone from your deck. Or you can keep it for its powerful ability as you watch your opponent entomb card after card for more points.

I dig how the entombing mechanism works here and wish more games used it. I felt like Valley of the Kings was an underrated deck-builder (sorta like Tyrants of the Underdark is, too) and apparently I wasn’t the only one. AEG recently Kickstarted a big-box deluxe edition of the game.

And, yes, I’m kicking myself for not backing it. Thankfully, I can still play the occasional solo game of Valley of the Kings when I’m in the mood like tonight. Besides, I’ve gotta keep up my deck-building skills for the next time I hang out with my nephew.

I’m posting about a game every day in September! Here’s a link to yesterday’s post.

Earlier this year at Dice Tower West there was a buzz around Tiny Towns, from the con lanyard given to attendees to the non-stop demos running at the AEG booth. Unfortunately, I hadn’t scheduled a meeting with AEG and didn’t want to wait for a demo so I decided to pass up the opportunity to play what would become one of my favorite games of this year.

The next month (April) I was asked to be a guest on Geek & Sundry’s Game the Game to play Tiny Towns. I love being on the show — Becca Scott is an amazing, super-talented host, the crew is awesome, and I always have a fun time.

When I dove into the hobby four years ago, there was no way I would’ve believed you if you said that I’d be playing games on G&S. It was surreal the first time I was on the set, learning a game then playing it with Becca and her guests. Now that I’ve been on a few times, I feel a lot more comfortable and relaxed.

The shoot for Tiny Towns was a blast. Becca, Aliza Pearl, and Gina DeVivo were absolutely hilarious during the game and everything went smoothly. Like other episodes I’ve been on, we had to re-shoot a few things for clarity or for technical reasons, but for the most part what you see is what you get.

After we finished the episode I contacted my buddy Richard, who’s a board game retailer and ordered a copy of Tiny Towns. With over 20 plays this year, it’s been well-received by everyone I’ve played with.

Tonight I played a solo game, which generally lasts about 15-20 minutes. I love Tiny Towns’ puzzle-style play and I can’t wait to see what the expansion does to the game. Check out the Game the Game episode below:

Friends, I’m excited to announce the winners of the first-ever American Tabletop Awards!

I was flattered and honored when Eric Yurko asked me to join the American Tabletop Awards committee earlier this year. The committee is made up of content creators I have the utmost respect and admiration for, including Eric, Brittanie Boe, Becca Scott, Theo Strempel, Suzanne Sheldon, Amber Cook, Jonathan Liu, Annette Villa, and Nicole Brady.

The ATTAs are given to games in four categories: Early Gamers, Casual Games, Strategy Games, and Complex Games. The committee voted for one Winner, two Recommended, and two Nominated games in each category.

Be sure to check out the ATTA website here and follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.

Without further ado, here are the 2019 American Tabletop Award winners:

• Early Gamers: Catch the Moon
• Casual Games: The Quacks of Quedlinburg
• Strategy Games: Chronicles of Crime
• Complex Games: Root

For the list of Recommended and Nominated games in each category, go to the ATTA website. Congratulations to all! What a year of gaming!

Have you played any of these games? What did you think of them? Hit me up on Twitter and let’s talk!

I’m posting about a game every day in September! Here’s a link to yesterday’s post.

Every time I read the title of Azul: Stained Glass of Sintra, I can’t help but think of the Chairman of the Board, Ol’ Blue Eyes himself, Frank Sinatra. This is the standalone sequel to the monster hit and award winner Azul and it’s more of a gamer’s game.

My friends Sangwon and April taught the game today and I liked it, but it didn’t wow me like the Azul did after the first play. Stained Glass of Sintra is a more gamer-fied version of Azul, with variable player boards, trickier scoring rules, and even harsher penalties. The same main mechanism from Azul is here: different color tiles are on the coasters/factories and you select one color and push the others into the center.

You’re still collecting sets of tiles to complete lines on your board, but it’s not as easy as Azul. Here, you’re trying to complete columns and you’ll score based on the column, any previously completed columns to your right, and any bonuses based on the current round.

I liked that this game only lasts six rounds and the more intricate scoring rules are a nice twist. I still prefer Azul’s more streamlined game play, but Stained Glass of Sintra is one that I’ll happily play again when I’m for more of a challenge. And I’ll always think of that classic crooner.

I’m posting about a game every day in September! Here’s a link to yesterday’s post.

NMBR 9 was an instant favorite last year with my gaming buddies, non-gaming friends, and family. It’s like a jigsaw puzzle with a little math thrown in for scoring.

The numbers 0-9 are represented by funky shapes and there’s a deck of cards with two copies of each number. Each turn a random number is drawn and you have to place it in your playing area. You want to build your puzzle as high as possible since you’ll get more points the higher a number is.

In tonight’s solo game picture above, the number 9 is on the third level, so I scored 27 points since you multiply the level times the number you placed (the first level of numbers is worth nothing, the second level is multiplied by 1, the third level is multiplied by 2, etc.).

The only rules of placement are any piece you place must be adjacent to a piece already placed, and when you build anything on level two and above, your piece must rest on at least two different numbers. This is tricky since the numbers are so oddly shaped that you’ll often have spaces in between some and you can’t have any empty spaces below your pieces. When you go place the current number you’ll find yourself trying desperately to follow the placement rules, then grumbling when you have to place it one level lower than you wanted and then scoring fewer points.

So, it’s basically multi-player solitaire, but that’s fine by me. I love the challenge of trying to score optimally based on what tiles are randomly called out. It’s like bingo, but with far more satisying game play.

I’m posting about a game every day in September! Here’s a link to yesterday’s post.

Almost two years ago I played Azul for the first time. It was insta-love: Azul was an abstract game with simple rules, a quick play time, and more strategy than expected. According to BG Stats, I’d played the game 55 times before today.

In Azul you’re a tile layer decorating the king’s palace walls. The theme isn’t relevant to the game play, though. Just know that those solid plastic pieces that look like Starburst aren’t meant to be eaten and you’ll be okay.

On your turn, select a single color of tiles from one of the coasters (aka “factories”) and add them to your board. You and your opponents repeat this until there are no more tiles, then you’ll move to the scoring round. If you’ve completed a row, then slide one Starburst, er, piece, to the right on its designated spot on your wall. Discard the other tiles.

You’ll score one point per tile you’ve added to your wall, gaining more points if they’re adjacent to previously placed tiles. Continue playing rounds until someone finishes a horizontal row. At the end of the game you’ll gain bonuses for collecting a complete set of one color and any rows or columns you’ve completed.

The best part of Azul is its simple turn structure and depth of strategy. At first you’re simply gathering tiles, hoping to line them up and/or collect enough for bonuses. But then you realize you can hate draft against your opponents, taking tiles that help you, but also hinder their own walls. You’ll also start figuring out ways to connect rows and columns that’ll earn you more points.

Until today I hadn’t played a solo game, but thanks to this solo variant I found via BGG, I was able to knock out a game by myself in 15 minutes. The dummy player uses a simple set of rules that neatly mimics a human opponent. And since the game lasts only five rounds, you’re hard-pressed to maximize your scoring opportunities during each turn.

Do you play solo variants of board games? Let’s talk about them on my Twitter feed!