Heroscape – Wave 2: The Story Continues to Unfold

Posted on June 15, 2024 by Mark Jackson

It wasn’t all a dream… there’s really more Heroscape coming.

Yes, I’ve already told you all about the stuff that’s coming in August 2024 (just 2 short months away!!!) – and now we know something about the plans of the good folks at Renegade Game Studios past that initial splash.

And while there aren’t any new master sets (yet), there’s still some nifty things on the way in October 2024. RenegadeCon (a virtual press conference about Renegade’s upcoming games) was held yesterday – and Jordan Gaeta & Lee Houoff shared all about the next wave!

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Matt Carlson: Blueprints of Mad King Ludwig

Posted on June 14, 2024 by Matt J Carlson

The boardgames of Mad King Ludwig continue to shrink. First we had Castles of Mad King Ludwig where players auctioned tiles, placing them to build their own personal castle. Next came the Palace of Mad King Ludwig (reviewed here) where all players work together to finish only a single castle. Now, there isn’t any building at all, only the blueprints. In Blueprints of Mad King Ludwig, players simply draw out their dreams on a piece of paper, in the hopes of catching the king’s eye and his favor. Players are still placing funny shaped rooms into a castle area, but gone are the auctions and money shenanigans of the original Castles of Mad King Ludwig. This slims the game down and keeps it moving at a quick pace. Your opinion of this “flip and write” game will depend on whether you are willing to give up the greater strategic depth of money auctions and associated shenanigans for a faster-paced and shorter over-all game.

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2023 Meeples Choice Awards Nominees Announced

Posted on June 14, 2024 by huzonfirst

The Meeples Choice Awards is an annual game award that has been voted on by a group of gamers since 1995. The purpose of the award is to select the group’s three favorite designs from the previous calendar year. The first stage of the voting for the 2023 awards has been completed and 34 games have been nominated. (Usually there are only 25 or so nominations, but this year there were a large number of games tied for the last few spots.) The group will now vote on their favorites from the nominated games and the three games which receive the most votes will be declared the winners. The winning games will be announced next Friday.

Here are the nominated games in alphabetical order, together with their designers and publishers. Congratulations to all the individuals involved!

  • 12 Chip Trick (root) – Mandoo Games
  • Age of Innovation (Helge Ostertag) – Feuerland Spiele
  • Apiary (Connie Vogelmann) – Stonemaier Games
  • Cabanga! (Michael Modler) – Amigo
  • Darwin’s Journey (Simone Luciani, Nestore Mangone) – ThunderGryph Games
  • Daybreak (Matt Leacock, Matteo Menapace) – CMYK
  • Dune: Imperium – Uprising (Paul Dennen) – Dire Wolf
  • Earth (Maxime Tardif) – Inside Up Games
  • Evacuation (Vladimir Suchy) – Delicious Games
  • Expeditions (Jamey Stegmaier) – Stonemaier Games)
  • Faraway (Johannes Goupy, Corentin Lebrat) – Catch Up Games
  • Forest Shuffle (Kosch) – Lookout Games
  • FTW?! (Friedemann Friese) – 2F-Spiele
  • Great Western Trail: New Zealand (Alexander Pfister) – eggertspiele
  • Hegemony (Vangelis Bagiartakis, Varnavas Timotheou) – Hegemonic Project Games
  • Hooky (James Miller, Friends of Aseema) – Rio Grande Games
  • Knarr (Thomas Dupont) – Bombyx
  • Kutna Hora (Ondrej Bystron, Petr Caslava, Pavel Jarosch) – CGE
  • Magic Trick (Chris Wray) – Self Published
  • Nokosu Dice (Yusuke Matsumoto) – Engames
  • Nucleum (Simone Luciani, David Turczi) – Board&Dice
  • Path of Civilization (Fabien Gridel) – Captain Games
  • Sail (Akiyama Koryo, Kozu Yusei) – Allplay
  • Sky Team (Luc Remond) – Scorpion Masque
  • Star Wars: The Deckbuilding Game (Caleb Grace) – Fantasy Flight Games
  • That’s Not a Hat (Kasper Lapp) – Ravensburger
  • The Fox Experiment (Elizabeth Hargrave, Jeff Fraser) – Pandasaurus Games
  • The White Castle (Israel Cendrero, Sheila Santos) – Devir
  • Thunder Road: Vendetta (Daviau, Jacobson, Chalker, Myers, Choen, Keifer, Neff) – Restoration Games
  • Ticket to Ride Legacy (Rob Daviau, Matt Leacock, Alan Moon) – Days of Wonder
  • Tipperary (Gunter Burkhardt) – Lookout Games
  • Unmatched Adventures: Tales to Amaze (Jason Hager, Darren Reckner – Restoration Games
  • Voidfall (Nigel Buckle, David Turczi) – Mindclash Games
  • World Wonders (Ze Mendes) – MeepleBR/Mundus

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Mark’s Top 100 Games: The 2024 Edition

Posted on June 14, 2024 by Mark Jackson

Every couple of years (or so) I blog through my top 50 or top 100 games over on my personal blog, akapastorguy. In 2022, I shared that list with our faithful readers here at the OG… and I’m back to do it again.

And today’s recap won’t be the end of this report… I’ve asked my friends here at the Opinionated Gamers to weigh in with their ratings of the game on my list. I’ll summarize all that information for you on Sunday:

  • Games the OG team likes the most
  • Games they like the least
  • Games that many of them need to play

But today, it’s all about my list & my preferences.

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Dale Yu: Review of Chandigarh

Posted on June 13, 2024 by Dale Yu

Chandigarh

  • Designer: Toni Lopez
  • Publisher: Ludonova
  • Players: 2-4
  • Age: 10+
  • Time: 40-60 minutes
  • Played with review copy provided by Asmodee NA, distributor

In 1951, the Indian government commissioned the renowned architect Le Corbusier to design a new capital for the state of Punjab. Thus, Chandigarh was born. In the game Chandigarh, players in the role of urban planners are in charge of building this modern city from scratch. They will construct buildings, try to take advantage of buildings constructed by others, use the abilities of the different municipal employees, and try to position themselves in the key locations of the city, all with the aim of achieving the patterns of the plans they have chosen. Whoever scores the most prestige points wins.

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Dale Yu: Review of Patrician: Towers of Influence

Posted on June 12, 2024 by Dale Yu

Patrician: Towers of Influence

  • Designer: Michael Schacht
  • Publisher: Calliope Games
  • Players: 2-5
  • Age: 8+
  • Time: 20-40 minutes
  • Played with review copy provided by publisher

Welcome to 13th Century Italy, a time when wealthy Patrician families build magnificent towers to represent their power and prosperity: the more influential the family, the taller the tower! You are a master builder, ready to profit from the vanity of the Patrician families. You take building orders, adding floor after floor, and when a tower is complete, you’ll be there to take the credit. At the end of the game, the builder with the most victory points wins!

This new version of the classic game includes several expanded ways to enjoy the game. When playing with two players, you compete against the Architetto, a wily bot opponent who thwarts your plans. The Trade Routes and Delegates modules can optionally be added in to increase the decisions and affect final scoring.

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