by Ben Bruckart and Larry Levy

That Board Gaming Thing ( tbgt.org or BGG Geek link ) is a regional gaming convention that occurs near the airport in Raleigh, NC.  It’s been held annually since 2004 and pulls gamers from its sprawling research triangle area (Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill) to one location for five days of gaming.

Ben used to live in Cary and Durham during the summers when he worked at various corporations in Tech and Larry moved to NC last year, making it an idea meetup for food and gaming fun.

We will again be describing our experiences in a joint report.  The games are all listed in order of play with the year of publication included to help give you a point of reference.  We’ll also be adding our OG-style ratings for each title.  Let’s get started!

Ben’s Intro:  This is the seventh TBGT I’ve attended. I was invited years ago by Bob Aarhus who is a part of the organization staff at TBGT and he runs the main “Puzzling” event that occurs on Saturday. There’s open gaming all throughout the week. Friday night, there’s a trivia teams competition. But on Saturday, the stage gets set for a big ceremony and celebration where teams of “Puzzling” players meet for group competition, followed by a ceremony of awards and giveaways and cake! Prior to the Saturday event, there are clues and puzzles released to attendees via online, discord, and in-room posters for people to solve and get a leg up in the final event Saturday night. 

Overall, TBGT takes place prior to Spiel so most of the games being played are people’s favorites throughout the year or newly released Kickstarters. TBGT does a good job polling people on their favorite games and overall plays, but they haven’t released that information yet. At the time of writing this, I would have to say the games I saw the most on tables were Expeditions (2023) from Stonemaier, Heat (2022) from Days of Wonder, and Ark Nova (2021) from Feuerland Spiele.

Larry’s Intro:  My first TBGT was in 2019, when I drove down with Ben to attend.  With Raleigh being only two hours away from my new location, it’s an ideal local con to go to.  But the main appeal is the chance to get together with Ben and Bob, my old Virginia gaming buddies, once again!

Wednesday

Four Humours (2022)

Larry:  I arrived around 8 PM on Wednesday, but that was still plenty of time to get a couple of games in.  A married couple was looking for players for this newish, Medieval-themed title, so I joined them.  You’re placing tiles face down in areas on one board, with the winner of each area earning the right to place a token in an area on a second board.  There’s a game here, but it features limited choices, bluffing, and guesswork, and none of those are favorites of mine.  The game does feature some very nice thematic artwork, though.  Rating: Neutral.

Ark (2005)

Larry:  My new friends had picked up this older Doris & Frank card game at a flea market, so I offered to teach it to them, as I’ve always been very fond of it.  The players are helping Noah load animals on the ark, but you need to keep the carnivores away from smaller animals, keep the herbivores away from the grain, and make sure the weight on the port and starboard side isn’t too lopsided, lest you capsize the boat.  The challenge is to meet those restrictions, while earning majorities in certain kinds of animals.  The game doesn’t feel like any other, which is why I like it so much.  The couple was delighted with it and was thrilled that their cheap purchase turned out to be such a nice game.  Rating: I like it.

Thursday

Clank! Catacombs (2022)

Ben:  I love me some Clanks and the newest edition doesn’t disappoint with the modular board. I taught some friends who had played prior versions and liked this one even more. It’s a hit and plays in less than 90 minutes when you know what you are doing. Our turns were quick, and we had a good time all around. I am finding Clank to be more and more in the Gateway games realm, enjoyable by all. Rating:  I like it.

Larry:  This is a reasonable game, but I like the original Clank better.  You can plan things out from the start in that game and figure out how you’ll get into the dungeon and make your escape.  With Catacombs, you can never be sure how the newly revealed tiles will turn out.  It seems like most people prefer the variety and exploration aspect of the newer title, but I’ll stick to the older game.  Rating:  Neutral.

Scout (2019)

Larry:  Scout is an excellent card game, but it turns out to be not that good with 3 players.  With that number, you just arrange things so you can make a big meld and there’s a very good chance that neither of your opponents will be able to top it, letting you win the hand.  Not really that much fun.  Lesson learned and in the future, I’ll only play this with 4 or 5.

Faiyum (2020)

Ben:  I wanted to teach this game to some friends who had never heard of it. It continues to be underrated and undervalued as a game that blends deck building with board development. I am excited for the privileges expansion that is coming later this year and wanted to show it off. I continue to like the game and combos that some of the cards can give. Rating:  I love it.

Fleet: The Dice Game (2018)

Larry:  I’ve always heard this was a very good and involved Roll ‘n’ Write game, so I was happy when someone offered to teach it.  I agree, it works well and the many ways of scoring points makes for a nice challenge.  In lots of ways, this anticipated Hadrian’s Wall, which came out a few years later, although there’s not quite as many things going on with Fleet.  But I was glad I was finally able to play it and I’d happily play again.  Rating:  I like it.

Opinionated Eaters #1

Ben:  I finally got on Larry’s cycle for gaming after a trip out for some Brixx wood-fired pizza. My honey and sausage pizza didn’t disappoint and Larry was singing their praises for his sausage and extra cheese pie. We also got a 4-pack of Crumbl Cookies to make sure our diabetes was on track.

Larry:  I had never heard of this pizza chain, but I’ll certainly be looking out for them in the future.  Ben was funny; he was suspicious of wood-fired joints in general, because he said they “burned” the pizza, but it sure didn’t stop him from gobbling up his Brixx order.  I’ve always liked wood and brick fired pizza and this was an excellent example of it.  In fact, I stopped by Brixx on Sunday and grabbed one of their pies as my last meal at the con, because I loved it so much!

Point Salad (2019)

Ben:  This was my first game with Larry and we were just filling time. Point Salad is a game that has come out at my wife’s lighter game group, and I wanted to make sure Larry had seen it. It does not play super fun with just two and the number of cards you collect seems voluminous. Rating:  Generally I like it, but not with 2p.

Larry:  A straightforward lighter game which accomplishes what it sets out to do.  As Ben says, it was just a time filler.  Rating:  Neutral.

Cabo (2010 and 2022)

Ben:  A new friend came by and finished my Crumbl cookie and wanted to teach us Cabo, which is a hidden information, card swapping game by Bezier Games. We played twice with 3p in like 10 minutes. It’s cute, but nothing outstanding. Might be more of a party game and better with more players. 

Rating:  Neutral.

Larry:  Ted Alspach (the head honcho of Bezier) is a good friend and I know he loves all the games in the Cabo family, but I’ve never seen the appeal.  Just about everything is hidden, including your own starting cards, so there ain’t exactly a lot of control.  Of course, that hasn’t stopped Ted from selling a bunch of these games, so his tastes are clearly more lucrative than mine are.  I’m happy for him, as long as I don’t have to play them!  Rating:  Not for me.

Cat in the Box Deluxe (2022)

Ben:  Since our friend liked CABO, we wanted to show him Cat in the Box, in which there were a few copies floating around at the con. We grabbed and taught him a 3p game. I still like the game and Larry continues to do really well at Trick Takers, hedging his bets with new players. Rating:  I like it.

Phantom Ink (2022)

Larry:  In this party game, one player on the team (the Ghost) knows the secret item and the other members are trying to guess it by secretly asking somewhat obscure questions.  The Ghost lists their answer one letter at a time, until their teammates stop them (with the idea being to give the other team as little information as possible).  First team to guess the item wins.  Games like this rarely work for me—the information revealed is tenuous and confusing and there’s usually a lot of discussion about what questions to ask and what the meaning of the answers are.  It’s all done very earnestly, with the best of intentions, but more often than not, it’s pointless and just drags things out.  A lot of folks love these kinds of games, but I’m happy to mostly avoid them.  Rating:  Neutral.

Time’s Up: Title Recall (2008)

Larry:  My first Eurogames group played a lot of Time’s Up and many of us were very good at it.  It’s my favorite party game—both challenging and hysterically funny.  But as I got older and the age gap between me and the other folks I played with grew larger, I found that they didn’t understand my cultural references and I didn’t understand theirs.  Thus, I sadly stopped playing one of my favorite games.  I was talked into playing this at TBGT, but I wasn’t expecting much (particularly since I prefer the original Time’s Up, with characters, rather than this one, with book, movie, and song titles).  But while I didn’t know what a lot of the titles were, the other players in the game were equally clueless, so it didn’t matter.  I realized that as long as the players are fairly well matched, Time’s Up is great regardless of how well the subject matter is known.  And there were just as many pee-in-your-pants funny moments as ever (let’s just say I’ll never think of the Jerry Lee Lewis song “Great Balls of Fire” in the same way again!).  I got in two games of Time’s Up during the week and I plan on playing it a lot more in the future.  Rating:  I (once again) love it!

Friday

Age of Steam (2002) Southern US

Ben: Normally our friend and fellow Opinionated Gamer, Ravindra Prasad, would walk around TBGT and always drum up people to play maps of Age of Steam with him. Ravindra recently moved across the globe to New Zealand, so he wasn’t around this year. We played the Southern US map in his honor. The map is fun and interesting at 5p. There is a cotton good that can be delivered to specific ports for income bonuses. I played particularly poorly, being locked out of the middle of the board but it was a fun experience, and my friend Clay has really gotten good at these games. This continues to be my favorite game ever from Martin Wallace.  Rating:  I love it.

Opinionated Eaters #2

Larry:  Someone mentioned to me that a local restaurant called the Page Road Grill had the best brisket they’d ever had.  I love me some BBQ, so Ben and I wandered over there for lunch.  The brisket sandwiches were pretty good, but certainly didn’t live up to such effusive praise.  The most interesting thing about them is they were served with a kind of aioli—I wasn’t sure what it was, but it resembled Russian dressing.  I was a bit wary of it (mayonnaise on brisket???), but it actually greatly improved the sandwich.  They also came with fried pickles, but I gave mine to Ben, who appreciated them far more than me.  So, an interesting place, but not really worthy of a return visit.

Ben:  This place that was recommended to Larry was not a pure BBQ joint like I had imagined, but was instead a nice foodie restaurant with a varied menu. The Brisket sandwich was there so we dove in, and Larry saved some seconds in his beard.

Barrage (2019)

Ben:  Barrage is one of my favorite games and I brought a copy with me to play with the new Nile map and the geological factors mini-expansion. But while I was at lunch, a friend set up the game and wanted me to teach it to him. We played a 4p with all the default setups and it was very engaging and fun. The highlight was one player blocking his wife’s dams, who promised to sell the game if he did that to her again.  Rating:  I love it.

Ultimate Railroads – Asia (2021)

Larry:  Russian Railroads is a great game, but it’s one where I feel I’m pretty far down on the power curve.  I still enjoy it, so when I found some folks who were willing to teach the Asia version of the game, which I’d never played before, I was very happy to join in.  The Asian player mats have some interesting twists, but the real difference with this version is that Industry advances are now tracked on a single shared board and all the players can activate each industry tile if they can reach it.  I didn’t do anything with Industry for the first couple of turns and by the time I checked it out, my opponents were so far advanced on it that I figured my best bet was to just ignore it.  It does look as if there are huge points available there, with lots of actions that can be triggered.  My buddy Clay, who is something of an Ultimate Railroads savant, dove headfirst into Industry and was racking up points left and right.  My final score was in the 300’s, which I would have been quite happy with in Russian Railroads, but higher scores are obviously standard with Asia and Clay scored over 600 points.  Guess I need to join the Industry party next time I play!  Rating:  I love it.

Seas of Strife (2023)

Ben:  After a morning of Age of Steam and a big lunch and then the big high interaction Euro of Barrage, I was ready for a break. Seas of Strife is a reprint of my favorite trick taker, Texas Showdown. We played the Texas Showdown rules and taught it to some curmudgeon gamers who think trick takers stink. We saddled them with points and Larry and I shared a victory in a 5p game. 

Rating:  I love it.

Larry:  I played this earlier in the week and found that it isn’t as much fun with 3 as it is with 4 or 5.  I also got to try out the “variant” rules (which are actually the original way of playing); it definitely changes things up, but I’m not sure if I like it any better than the Texas Showdown rules.  I was happy to get in a 5-player game, as this is one of my favorite recent trick-taking games.  Rating:  I like it.

Heat (2022)

Ben:  I was eager to teach a game of Heat to my friends as I keep finding it getting better and better with more plays. I finally got in-sync with my friend Rachael and we taught a 6p game of Heat with the basic rules. It was a fun two lap France map. The highlight was seeing three cars spin out on the last corner. Rating:  I like it.

Larry:  I agree, my opinion of Heat keeps improving as I get to play it more.  It’s got to be my favorite middleweight game from this decade.  I played this earlier in the week, without Ben, with many of the advanced game rules.  While I think the base game plays just fine, the rules for customizing your cars are very good and definitely make things more interesting.  The Weather rules don’t seem as essential, but do a good job of adding variety for those who play the game a lot.  I don’t usually like racing games, but Heat is a very welcome exception.  Rating:  I love it.

Mosaic (2022)

Larry:  I continue to enjoy Mosaic, but I’m starting to see some of the flaws with the game.  The biggest issue is that the end of the game drags—it seems as if for the last 5-10 turns, all of the players are ready for the game to end.  Maybe it would be better if the Technology deck’s scoring card was shuffled in the third quarter of the deck, instead of the bottom third of the deck.

Another potential problem is that you seem to be better off in acquiring money, rather than producing resources.  It’s not foolproof, but using Taxes and Tariffs to gather cash feels so much more efficient than chasing each resource individually, and the resulting Unrest isn’t much of a disincentive.  The extra money also makes it easier to employ military.  Others have noted this and I wanted to check it out, so I chose the Merchant leader and the resulting moolah made me the leading player for most of the game.  The real question is probably how this will play if two or more players make a concerted effort to grab loot, rather than just one—will that make the money strategy less dominant?  One possible fix includes doubling the amount of unrest on each Tax and Tariff card.  Or maybe when you Work, you can produce all three resources, but you must allocate your population so that each worker only adds to one of them.  (These ideas are all off the top of my head, so don’t take them too seriously.)

After all that, I didn’t win, although if I’d paid more attention to the remaining Wonder cards, I probably would have had a comfortable victory.  Mosaic is very promising, but it might need some tweaks to really shine.  Of course, maybe I just need to play it more often—greater experience may solve most of these issues.  Thankfully, I’m looking forward to getting those plays in.  Rating:  I like it.

Forest Shuffle (2023)

Ben:  I was done teaching games at this point and Rachael offered to teach us Forest Shuffle. We had a huge table and that worked against us in this situation. I was getting dangerously bad flashbacks of Earth with all the cards and their descriptions/icons and top decking. I ended up leaving the game before it finished.  Rating: Not for me.

Larry:  I played this for the first time online recently, which is why I avoided it at the con.  It’s not bad (I certainly liked it more than Earth), but I didn’t feel like it required any great cleverness on my part.  You draw a bunch of cards, most of them blindly, pore over the huge number of ways of scoring, and choose the ones that work together to give you the most points.  I could see it being AP-prone in FTF play, which is another reason to avoid it.  I have to say that I’m not thrilled with this latest trend in tableau builders.  Rating:  Neutral.

Saturday

The Taverns of Tiefenthal: Open Door (2021)

Ben:  This was a new to me game that was a quasi-deck builder. You have a tableau where you play cards that generate either gold or beer; both are currencies that you use to buy new cards and upgrade your tavern. It was a game that did not outstay its welcome with a seven-turn limit. It was fun to play, and I can see this in a lot of game groups as a medium to light game that offers some fun choices. 

Rating:  I like it.

7 Wonders

Ben:  Someone walked up to our table and asked if we would play her game. She put 7 wonders on the table, and everyone was happy to play this classic. Play was quick, the whole game lasted less than 20 minutes for 5p and we had a good time building up war chests and collecting points. Rating:  I love it.

Cat in the Box Deluxe (2022)

Ben:  The curmudgeon who played Seas of Strife came back to our table to tell us they are mostly sure that Sea of Strife isn’t a good game. We offered to teach Cat in the Box to them since they had never played it. I am not sure their opinion of trick-taking games improved but we had a blast with two dueling 4p games.

Larry:  Actually, the “curmudgeon” loved Cat in the Box and it was a fun game.  They wanted to like Seas of Strife, but felt they had very limited choices in their game—maybe they just had some unfortunate cards.  We tried to get a game of Strife in, to possibly change their mind, but there just wasn’t time.  However, Cats was a hit!  Rating:  I like it.

3 Ring Circus (2023)

Ben:  This was a new to me game that I had wanted to play since a friend had recommended it after a Dice Tower Con. We played a 4p game and it’s quite an interesting game. I think it’s good, maybe not great, because the ending comes so fast and I have only one play of it. The theme is you are traveling the United States and performing at various locations for money and hiring performers to fill out three rings of your circus who can score you points. It has a fairly high number of rules that cater to its scoring timer (Barnum and Bailey), majority scoring, and actions you can take. Overall, I am intrigued by it. Rating: I like it.

Larry:  I played this twice during the week and I remain undecided about it.  It’s fairly crunchy and there’s a lot of interesting decisions to be made.  But the game just races along and you really don’t seem to have enough time to get things done.  However, one player in the game I played with Ben blew us away on the scoreboard—she didn’t seem to have trouble accomplishing her goals—so maybe I just need to be more efficient.

I have to admit, one of the reasons for my uncertainty is a peculiar design choice where the game goes out of its way to give the players going later in the turn order fewer turns for most of the scorings.  I just checked the Geek and the designer says they did this because going last before a scoring is more important than the number of turns played.  He obviously knows the game better than I do, so I have to assume that he’s right, but man, it feels strange!  At any rate, this is worth investigating some more, if only to give me a better idea of how I feel about it.  Rating:  I like it.

The map features a place called Effingham which “reminds me why I can’t be a vegetarian” – Rachael.

Mariposas (2022)

Ben:  I wanted to teach this game to Larry as we have watched Elizabeth Hargrave’s design career with interest. This is another nature themed game where you move four generations of butterflies across North America to score. The locations have some variety and set collection but the choice of having just two cards to choose actions from did not allow this to be a hit. Instead, the game felt a little coerced and without a lot of choice. It was close and did come down to the tie breakers, but I think our group agreed this is not a favorite. Then again, having to follow a massive hit like Wingspan would be really hard for anyone. Rating:  Not for me.

Larry:  I didn’t have high hopes for this and, sadly, those expectations were met.  It’s very light and the limited choices (I had several turns in which I had only one option available to me and it wasn’t a very good one) soured me on it.  Butterflies are Free and I guess I’m free to avoid this game from now on.  Rating:  Not for me.

Opinionated Eaters #3

Ben:  Rachael and I are University of Florida Alumni and we annually get together for a football game. This week was the 1-1 Gators vs the 2-0 Tennessee Volunteers. We relocated to the Carolina Ale house for the game and thought we might be blown out and leave the establishment at halftime but to our surprise, the Gators pulled out a win on a strong defensive showing. Go Gators! There were wings, poblano soup, and frickles (fried pickles) eaten over the course of the game.

Underwater Cities (2018)

Larry:  While Ben abandoned his friends to watch a sport known more for its realignments than actual games on the field, I was able to get in an excellent session of Underwater Cities.  Despite one new player, the game was played very briskly, which made it even more enjoyable.  It’s been several years since I last played this and I’d forgotten how much I like it.  I’ve found most of Suchy’s designs a bit overwrought since he released this one, but he got it right with Underwater Cities.  Rating:  I love it.

Spyrium (2013)

Ben: This is one of my favorite meaty fillers. Turns are simple and quick, but timing and placement are important and the game all in all doesn’t go too long. I pulled this out as a late-night fun game before I needed to head to bed and prepare to head home.  Rating:  I love it.

Larry:  Spyrium may play fast, but to me, it’s in no way a filler.  There’s lots of choices to be made and it can be quite challenging.  Like Ben, it’s also one of my favorites and while Caylus may have gotten greater acclaim, I consider Spyrium to be William Attia’s true masterpiece.  Rating:  I love it.

Sunday

Anno 1800 (2020)

Larry:  After checking out of the hotel, I had just enough time for one more game before I drove home and this was an excellent choice.  Playing with two of the same folks I had played Underwater Cities with the day before, gameplay again was very brisk and lots of fun as a result.  One of my opponents really pushed hard to get all his cards played and I thought he had the edge on us, but it turned out I tied him!  Due to some obscure tiebreaker I probably had never bothered to learn, I won!  It was a great way to end a very enjoyable convention!  Rating:  I love it.

WRAPPING THINGS UP

Ben:  My seventh TBGT was a good one. I ate out a lot more and didn’t wear a mask. I was happy to see old friends and make a few new friends this year. While there aren’t the unpublished prototypes that I enjoy from The Gathering, I was able to play a lot of quality games and teach a lot of friends games that I have come to enjoy.

Larry:  I fully expect that I’ll be travelling out to TBGT every year for the foreseeable future.  Having a professionally run event with good gamers so close by, with the added bonus of getting together with my old friends, makes this an obvious choice.  And I hope that many of the people I met this time around will become new friends that I’ll be seeing every year.

Bonus Picture of Larry with his favorite game Challengers!