I love long gaming weekends… especially when one or both of my now-grown-up sons are involved. This last weekend, my eldest came back to visit along with three of his close friends to (a) celebrate his impending 24th birthday, and (b) play a whole lot of board games. 

Here’s the interesting thing – while we did play a couple of newer games, there was a lot of “dig into the depths of Mark’s game collection” that brought some unusual games back to the table. (In one case, it had been nearly 14 years since I played it.) So what follows is an archaeological expedition through the layers of strata that exists on the shelves in my game room. 

THURSDAY

Cabanga! (2024)

One of Braeden’s birthday presents… and one we convinced my non-gamer wife to join us in. In gamer parlance, this is a shedding game – aka “get rid of your cards” – but I like it as an excuse to yell “Cabanga!” and laugh a lot. Very non-gamer friendly (my wife enjoyed it) but a little crowd dependent. (I’ve played one time with folks who played slowly and methodically… and it pretty much sucked the fun out of it.)

Dungeon Lords (2009)

A long-time favorite game of worker (minion) placement and considerable humorous thematic bits, it’s a lot for new players. It probably didn’t help that we play with the Festival Season expansion added in… but great fun was had by all. I managed to parlay a “be the nicest dungeon lord ever” strategy into a commanding win.

FRIDAY

Battleball (2003)

The miniatures are cool – but it’s just dumbed-down Blood Bowl with a lot of dice rolling. That doesn’t stop it from being fun (just ask fellow OG writer Erik Arneson, who hosts a yearly Battleball event). I lost this one due to – no surprise – the dice.

Faraway (2023)

The trickiest part of teaching this excellent card game is helping people understand the reverse scoring mechanism. (Pro tip: have everyone turn all 8 of their cards over and flip them one at a time from right to left.) I’m curious what the upcoming expansion for Faraway will add to the game – it seems pretty well perfect as is.

Tales of the Arthurian Knights (2024)

I had the privilege of playing the prototype of Arthurian Knights at the designer’s home back in 2022 (hi, Andrew – thanks again for the wonderful day!). Finally getting to break out my early Father’s Day present (thanks again to both my sons!) was a delight – as was our long (3 hours) but highly enjoyable four-player “full” game. 

I want to get a couple more plays under my belt before writing a review, but my initial impression is that Arthurian Knights solved a number of the clunky design issues with its inspiration, Tale of the Arabian Nights:

• Instead of look-up tables & cross-referencing, cards from two different decks are combined to create encounters and give paragraph numbers.
  • The two decks have different card counts, which means that you cannot have the same encounter twice in a single game.
• Eliminating the hidden victory condition
• Eliminating the weird land/sea movement rules
• Creating “story” elements that can reverberate in later game encounters
• Loosening up the way quests work (players can have two quests) and making them generally less difficult to complete

Couple all of that with the incredibly high quality of the writing (as someone who loves to read Arthurian legends, the team nailed the feel of the various stories throughout the game) and you have an excellent “choose your own adventure” game. 

Note: it IS a “choose your own adventure” game with a big book of paragraphs and dice rolls. And it’s not short. So, buyer/player beware.

I did play another game of this solo on Sunday evening after the guys were headed back home. While everything mechanically works (the solo system stands in for the other players and their choices), the game is better with other players involved – it has a definite RPG edge that I really like.

River Valley Glassworks (2024)

I like the production quality of this game – and I like the gameplay as well. For me, it’s a simple “draft stuff to score points on a grid” game (not unlike Azul or Splendor), but the short playing time and the tricky decisions makes River Valley Glassworks the best of that bunch for me.

New Frontiers (2018)

One of Braeden’s friends is a big fan of the Race for the Galaxy universe – but hadn’t had the opportunity to play New Frontiers. So, with The Starry Rift expansion (recommended!) added in, I proceeded to play one of my personal worst games of New Frontiers. I was a lesson in how NOT to win the game… meanwhile, my son was pushing the game end timer and running us over. Another personal favorite.

Expedition (1996)

I love this game – and somehow, I’m preternaturally good at it. (It’s just one of those game systems that I grok without even thinking deeply about it. My younger son has the same grasp of It’s A Wonderful World.) This share route-building game is a must-try if you’re new (or newer) to the hobby… and it’s actually in print again.

The Magic Labyrinth (2009)

While it’s relatively easy to find this wonderful memory/hidden maze game, the very helpful expansion (with additional one-way walls/traps and three magical items per player) was sadly never published in the U.S. As Magic Labyrinth is a memory game, I get worse at it every time I play (I blame old age and rising senility), but it is still a fantastic game for kids and adults.

7 Wonders: Architects (2021)

I know some folks have disdain for this much simpler take on 7 Wonders… but it’s proven to be a hit with most of the groups I play with due to easy rules, playable with 7 players, and short (30 minutes max.) playing time. I enjoy Architects even more with the Medals expansion, which offers another way to score points. 

Cosa Nostra (1990)

Also known as Vendetta, this is a backgammon-ish race with a drive-by mobster spinner in the center of the board. If that description doesn’t excite you, you should just find something more sedate to play. 

Castles of Mad King Ludwig (2014)

My eldest was actually a credited playtester on the Secrets expansion – and he worked the whole “moat” strategy to a win. I really enjoy Castles – though it’s a bit trickier to incorporate new players as correctly valuing rooms is a learned skill.

Memoir ‘44 (2004)

21 years after I had the chance to help demo one of the first convention Overlord games at KublaCon, I’m still playing Memoir ‘44. (The excellent implementation on BGA is just increased my play count.)

We played the Bastogne Overlord map (one of the oldest Overlord maps) and had a historically accurate ending, as the Americans (my team) defeated the Axis forces (my son’s team). 

King of Monster Island (2022)

We played King of Monster Island (a birthday gift from my sister to my son) twice – once with five players and the weakest boss, and then a second time with three players and the next most difficult boss. Our five player experience felt “off” – the game was too short and didn’t really have any arc to the cooperative attempt to defeat the boss. 

In contrast, the three player game worked well and gave us plenty of chances to do clever things. I’d need a few more games to be sure whether the problem was player count or boss difficulty.

Mechanically, it’s King of Tokyo against an AI-run boss… but there are a number of nice changes to KoT that give the players more flexibility in their decision-making.

Thunder Road: Vendetta (2023)

To end the night, the five of us drove into the Carnival of Chaos (last year’s Thunder Road: Vendetta expansion) and mayhem ensued. Cars launched into space by killer pillars, a dune buggy shoved off the entrance road to its doom, spotlight hogging, and more than one vehicle on fire.

It was glorious… even though I got edged out of the win by a single point of scrap.

SATURDAY

Can’t Stop (1980)

I’ve said it before; I’ll say it again: THIS game, not Acquire, is Sid Sackson’s masterpiece. (Again, the implementation on BGA of Can’t Stop is great – and if you haven’t played it before, you owe it to yourself to enjoy the king of push-your-luck dice games.)

Froschkönig (2003)

From the sublime to the ridiculous… this Zoch game is thematically about extending your frog tongue long enough to kiss the princess. Yes, you read that right.

Mechanically, you are attempting to “bid” the longest without going over (Price is Right vibes) pair of sticks in order to add to your tongue. 

No, this isn’t the weirdest game in my collection – but it’s up there.

7 Wonders (2010)

I love 7 Wonders – my complete set (including all the expansions + the promo card and wonder packs) is the first edition. That means we don’t often play with Leaders, as the iconography is sometimes inscrutable.

My son owns the second edition – and so we played with Leaders, Cities, and Edifice. Hats off to Repos for fixing three different things in the 2nd edition:

• Each box (base game & expansion) has multiple copies of the sheet that explains the icons).
• The icons (and tokens) for Leaders were cleaned up and made much easier to understand – meaning Leaders is no longer as much of a drag on playing time as it was.
• The icons in general have been changed to mimic the style of 7 Wonder Duel – which is MUCH easier to read across the table.

Still one of the best games for groups of 5-7 players (and it works well with 3-4 or with 8 playing with the team rules from the Cities expansion.)

Suburbia (2012)

My game group back in Fresno was one of the groups who blind-playtested Suburbia… and even though we managed to get rules wrong (confusion about what qualified as a borough), we loved it. I bought the first real copy I saw… and when the deluxified version came out a few years ago, I got myself a copy and handed down my original set to my eldest son.

Five player games are tricky in Suburbia – tiles which trigger for “every X” can be really valuable and thus leave other valuable tiles untouched. 

My only gripe about the game is how long it takes to set up – but I prepped the tile stack a couple of days before the weekend, so set up was much easier. I think I’ll try to do that from now on when I know we’re likely to play.

Roll Through the Ages: The Bronze Age (2008)

After years of playing with the downloadable Late Bronze Age scoring sheets, it was weird to go back to the original Roll Through the Ages game – but I still find the cross between Civilization & Yahtzee to be a lot of fun. (Honestly, my favorite implementation of this is now Era: Medieval Age… probably because of the cute 3D city you end up building.)

Rüsselbande (2001)

Dungeonquest (1985)

Set the Wayback Machine for the year my son was born – and I’d already been stockpiling kids games for him. That includes this silly racing game with stackable pigs. For four adults, Rüsselbande is a pleasant time-waster; for kids & parents, a great game.

I’ve been playing Dungeonquest since the mid-80s… it’s a 40 year old game now. And, to be fair, it definitely shows some of its age, what with the need for cheat sheets to explain some of the cards.

On the other hand, it has been a reliable source of fun and laughter for forty years… and last weekend was no exception. For the first time in a long time, three of the four adventurers managed to make it to the dragon’s lair… at the same time. Only one of them (not me) got out alive.

I wish I could point you towards a good source to purchase the game – but I can’t. It’s way OOP… and the reimaginings by Fantasy Flight from more than a decade ago are also incredibly difficult to find.

The Quacks of Quedlinburg (2018)

It’s a lot of fun to introduce a new group of players to Quacks (and no, I’m not a fan of the new box art… but I’m also not going to be a butthead about it). As well as it went over, I’m guessing we’ll throw in the Herb Witches expansion the next time they’re all here.

Race for the Galaxy (2007)

Yes, some folks whine and cry about the iconography in Race for the Galaxy – but they’re missing out on a tremendous game while they do that. 

We played with the Xeno Invasion rules – which my son and I had always wanted to try with a bigger group of players. It was tricky – and enjoyable. (I feel the same way about the Alien Orb rules… I don’t want to use them all the time, but they’re a nice change of pace every once in a while.)

In the Footsteps of Darwin (2023)

I’m not sure exactly what people/companies mean when they describe a game as “cozy” – but for me, In the Footsteps of Darwin pretty much covers it. Reasonable playing time (30 minutes or so), great artwork and graphic design (including all the information you need to remember rules on the player mats and game board in icon form), and simple decisions. 

Adrenaline (2016)

The boys & I have described Adrenaline as “an area control game cleverly disguised as a first person shooter (FPS) game” – and that’s pretty much what it is. I will note that as much as I enjoy the game, there are two potential problems:

1. The card iconography is sometimes a little weird – and there’s only one manual that explains each card. (I’ve added some downloadable things from BGG to help.)
2. It has one of the worst expansions I’ve every played. I own it, but I never want to use it in actual play.

SUNDAY

7 Wonders Duel (2015)

We tried to play the original 7 Wonders using the 2 player rules back in the day – it wasn’t very good. 7 Wonders Duel is good – very good.

Happy to play any version: base game, with the Agora or Pantheon expansions, or Lord of the Rings style. 

Family Business (1982)

We’re talking ‘old skool’ now… a take-that game with pretty much unrelenting meanness. We’ve been playing it since the early 90s… and strangely enough, my non-gamer wife still likes it. (I think there’s a lot of good memories of playing with friends over the years.) 

It’s not a horrible game – but Red Dragon Inn covers the same general territory with more interesting decisions and more humor.

Ab die Post! (1996)

I miss the publisher Goldsieber – even when the games in the big rectangular boxes weren’t perfect, they had sparks of whimsy and interesting ideas. (Excellent example: Klaus Teuber’s sedan chair racing game, Galopp Royal, or Vino’s round grape markers.) Their children’s games were excellent – I still own many of them – and I’m glad to be carting around the brick load that is two copies of Carabande and an Action Set.

Ab die Post! Is essentially “blackjack for children” along with a cloud shaker. (The shaker mechanism would show up again in Starfarers of Catan.) It’s lighter than air and a bit stupid – but we had fun with it.

Nur Peanuts (2001)

Also from Goldsieber, I described Heinz Meister’s coolest ‘adult’ design as “Monopoly reduced to its evil essence.” My son later named it “Sunk Cost Fallacy: The Board Game.” Neither one of us is wrong.

Nur Peanuts is a highly abstracted property game with a sickening lurch of debt spiral and the illusion of control with a variety of dice you can choose to roll. I’m still smitten by it nearly 25 years later.

Giro Galoppo (2006) 

The weekend ended with the meanest kid game I won – the really pretty (wooden painted horses! Jockeys with felt caps!) and evil racing game from Selecta. Giro Galoppo is a simultaneous selection game where going last is better as you try to avoid getting pushed backwards or forced into an obstacle. I don’t play it with kids much – too many chances to get feelings hurt – but it’s a great “end of the night” game for adults.

Final Thoughts

It wasn’t on purpose – but we managed to have at least one game from every five year time period going back to 1980.