I had an incredible opportunity over Labor Day Weekend, the chance to go to PAX West as a board gamer and see all the interconnections between the various geekdoms.

Between four huge exhibit areas and maybe 100 other areas, zones, and rooms, there is truly something for everyone, from board games, to mobile games, to pinball, to Steam/PC games, to promotional pins, to scented dice candles.

Here are some of the board games that caught my eye and why. The vast majority were in the Summit building exhibit area, but some were down with the rpgs.

Curious about a clever 1-vs-1 card placement and movement game on a small board, check out Gudnak, published by Chaotic Great. The cards have interesting effects and synergies keep the game manageable at the start while offering expansions to continue the exploration. It feels like a good best-of-three game. It has the feeling of Summoner Wars but with a lower barrier to entry.

Lords of Vegas is coming out in a new version with the same rules from Middle Brow Games, so get ready for Vegas level bling. Along with a Lords of Vegas teaser, Middle Brow was showing off Farms Race. Farms Race is Catan meets Orwell’s Animal Farm. If you can imagine pigs with nukes on a hex grid, you are part of the way there. A full review will be coming but the dice system generates resources independent of location, so on first glance there is less Turn Zero determining who wins. They were also showing Plunder Blunder, so if you want a piratey negotiation game, have a look. Continue reading →

Misfit Heroes

• Designer: Phil Walker-Harding
• Publisher: AEG
• Players: 2-4
• Age: 10+
• Time: 30-45 minutes
• Amazon affiliate link: https://amzn.to/4xvABBQ
• Played with review copy provided by publisher

After a bizarre interdimensional event of massive proportions, Earth as we know it has been forever altered when a fantastic realm merged with ours. The result is a land called Absurdia, where magical beasts live among ordinary people and vice-versa. There’s no going back to the way things were in this place of improbable combinations from monster-accountants to cosmic wedding planners.

In Misfit Heroes, players are organizing crews in hopes of claiming influence to win over the hearts and minds of the citizens in nearby regions. The character cards players will use are different every time you play! Before a game, the cards you will use are created by placing each character transparency together with an attribute card in a card sleeve. You’ll never know which new characters are in the deck, and the combinations are almost endless!

During play, each character card gives a player special actions, such as earning money, drawing more cards, and (most importantly) gaining influence in the mountain, forest, sea, and city regions of the kingdom. When a player has collected 6 influence, they may claim a region of the corresponding type, which scores them points. The player who best uses their characters in combination and gains the most points wins!

Continue reading →