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MY TOP 20 BEST GAMES OF ALL TIME 2022 EDITION

2022 was a very busy year for me and unfortunately, I probably played fewer board games this last year than I have since the late 90s. Still, I played quite a few compared to what I think most people actually play and of course, I made quite a few new discoveries that were worthy of consideration for this list.

This year’s list sees some shuffling around and a couple of new editions as a couple of games exit, but there were no shocking revelations. With that out of the way, let’s talk about some board games.

20. Root

Root is a curious little game that gained a massive following after its 2018 release resulting in quite a collection of expansions and a digital version by 2022 when I discovered it. It didn’t make my list last year, namely because it was a very new game to me at the time, but having played it quite a bit over the last year, mainly using the online app, I can safely say it earned its place on this list.

Root is effectively a quirky, asymmetrical war game in which players attempt to complete unique victory conditions depending on their chosen faction, which notably differ wildly from faction to faction.

The tricky element of Root that I think registers with gamers in addition to the very highly asymmetrical play is how it’s a game that you really can’t win alone, even though that is exactly your goal. To win in Root you must help and rely on the help of your opponents to put you in a position to win, yet, not help your opponent so much that they run away with the game and knock you out. In a sense, at times it’s a cooperative competition. A player that tries to strike out on their own and simply win by outplaying everyone is not likely going to be successful in this game, the reliance on your opponents to help you in your pursuit of victory is really a requirement to be in the running. This quandary is in a sense, the central theme of the game.

This combined with the highly asymmetrical gameplay gives Root it’s very unusual yet, addictive replayability, as well as this extreme balance that is provided by the player’s actions rather than the game system itself. Once you have played a few rounds with the same people, you start to realize who the good players are (people you help-less and oppose more) and who the weak players are (those who you help-more and rely on for their help to give you, your victory).

The interesting thing that I noted is that the more you play, the more you adapt your strategies depending on the current atmosphere of the group you are playing with, and this conversation about “who the threats at the table are” is constant, debated, and almost like a sort of Texas Hold’Em table where people accuse each other of bluffing. It’s very much a game of chicken.

I really didn’t love this game right out of the gate because the rules explanation for this game is a real hurdle, it requires that all players understand all factions well and since each faction has an entirely separate set of rules, the entry point is tough. Once you “get it” though, the more you play it, the better it gets. It’s a slow burn well worth the investment.

19. 1830: Railways and Robber Barons

This one is slowly slipping from my list, but not because my feelings about it have changed, but because this is one of those games that is sort of like sex. The first time is amazing, after that it’s a lot of fumbling about until you get really good at it, then it gets fun again. Well, it’s hard to coordinate a gaming group in such an effort and the game really suffers greatly when player skill levels are not synched up.

Simply put, when everyone is playing the game for the first time, everyone is making the same mistakes, it’s a complete cluster fuck and it’s super fun. Then you play the game a second and third time, and suddenly the game clicks for one or two people and they are crushing you mercilessly. After a while, you will have one or two players that are just unbeatable and you either give up or get used to losing.

R&R is an unforgiving meat grinder that has zero tolerance for foolishness. One bad move and you could spend a 6+ hour game being a victim under someone’s boot, worse yet, one weak player can cause another player to win while everyone else watches helplessly which can create some frustration among more veteran players.

That said, in a group where everyone gets it, where the game “clicks” for everyone, this game is just pure magic. So competitive and cutthroat, so intricate, so many ways to move and counter move, its capitalism at its finest.

I adore this game, but I struggle with the idea of trying to properly teach people the intricate, but absolutely necessary understanding of how this game executes. Learning the rules is one thing and that is complexity personified in on itself, but learning to play this game competitively, that takes real dedication and that process is kind of miserable, to be honest.


18. Star Trek Fleet Captains

Slipping a bit to the number 18 spot is my beloved Star Trek Fleet Captains. I rarely get to play this one in large part because there are not too many Star Trek fans in my gaming circle, but this year a buddy of mine indulged me and we dusted this beauty off and put it on the table.

All I can add to the review I did for Star Trek Fleet Captains back in 2015 is that It should have scored higher than a 3.9 and it would have, had it not been for some of the component quality issues I had and continue to have with the game. Let’s just say that things are a bit flimsy.

Where it really counts with this game and where it really nails it is in the theme and the gameplay. This is the entire Star Trek franchise in a box, it’s a game for fans clearly made by fans. All of the nuances of the shows and movies, crossing the barrier of the various generations of the franchise and connecting everything into a unique bundle of scenarios and variability are all here. What you end up with is a Star Trek game with endless replayability that really reaches into the depths of the franchise, all those things that make it tick.

I love this game, It has been on my top 10-20 list for many years and I just don’t see it going anywhere any time soon.

If you love Star Trek.. this is your game.


17. War Of The Ring

In a sense, War of the Ring is to Tolkeins Middle-Earth what Star Trek Fleet Captains is to Star Trek. Its Middle-Earth in the box, chock-full of amazing themes and gameplay, it is designed without question exclusively for Lord of the Rings fans.

To be honest the only reason this game isn’t higher on the list is that it’s just complicated enough that unless you play it with some regularity, you are going to forget the rules. I play this game once every year or so and each time I dust this bad boy off, I pretty much have to learn the rules from scratch which is a colossal pain in the ass.

It’s always worth it mind you and I would love to see this one hit the table way more often than it does, but it’s a two-player game with some very niche elements, not the least of which is the fact that its a solid 4-6 hour game and frankly, it’s not terribly balanced. I have played this game a lot over the years and never have I seen a free-people victory, doesn’t matter which side I play or how experienced the player I play against.

I know there is a 2nd edition of this one and my understanding is that they have addressed the balance issues, but frankly, I don’t have a problem with the balance issues and I don’t play it often enough to warrant buying a second copy. If you do get it, make sure you get the 2nd edition though, no reason not to.

This is a fantastic game, it falls into the realm of “experience”, more than a competitive game, it really tells great stories and I have never once regretted playing it, win or lose.

If you’re a Lord of the Rings, this is your game!


16. Tide of Irons

Historical War Gaming has one core issue and that is that most of the time, at least compared to modern game publishing, the components are weak. Like there is a context of historical war games of what qualifies as great components, but when you pull it out of that context and compare it to the heights of modern game publishing, historical war games look like trash (sorry I know I’m a mean guy!).

Tide of Irons however is a huge exception and while it would be counted as a “low complexity” historical war game to historical war gamers, even though it’s moderate to high complexity to the rest of the mass market world, it is in fact, a genuine and very historically rich, historical war game.

Tide of Irons is a tactical, scenario-based and squad-based war game. It uses some very traditional mechanics, in untraditional ways, has some very clever and extremely flexible components for near-infinite setups and… most importantly, it’s a total blast to play.

While highly complex in comparison to your typical modern board game, so far as games board games go, this is one you can pull out, teach someone and play without a lot of fussing about. It has increasingly complex scenarios that use more advanced rules and features as you progress in the game, but the scenario complexity starts very low and ramps up slowly. All and all, for an old dog like me, it’s a fairly straightforward war game with lots of strategic and tactical elements to make it fun and challenging.

It’s also visually spectacular and I think I love that about Tide of Irons more than anything. This is a game that rocks it on the table, it just looks amazing, giving it that rich thematic presentation that will get you in the mood. Who doesn’t love playing with little green men, it’s not someone I want to know!

15. Western Empires

Western Empires debuts on my list in the number 15 spot and I’m going to fess up here and now that despite this game being one of the toughest games to get to the table, so much so that so far I have only played it online, there is no question in my mind that it deserves to be here.

Based on the classic Advanced Civilization, a stone-cold classic from the Avalon Hill days, Western Empires is best described as “an experience” more than a game. This is an event game that takes you through the history of human civilization and like the foundation of human history, infuses human nature as a core feature of the game. You and your players aren’t just going to be playing the mechanics, this is very much about manipulating each other.

The core gameplay in Western Empires is player interaction, namely trading, negotiating, and deception and like human history, conflicts that arise are resolved on the battlefield in the cruelest of ways where war is won by the most un-sportsmen-like actors. The game has no equity, there are no balancing mechanics or attempts to ensure fairness, instead, there is just the cruelty of history and the ambitions of the players that drive the game forward.

This is a tough game where stuff will just happen to you outside of your control. Volcanos erupt and destroy cities, floods kill millions, rebellions crumble empires and all other manner of disasters natural or otherwise. All you can do as a player is navigate through the turbulence and hope that by the end of the game your civilization rises above the others in what I think is one of the most raw games I have ever played.

Western Empires is a long game, easily exceeding 10 hours and while the mechanics of the game are not complex, the nuance of player interaction is so deep that most players will see this as one of the most challenging games you could ever try to win. If you love huge, epic games for those big all-day events, this is without a shadow of a doubt in my mind, one of the best on the market. Combine Western Empires with Eastern Empires to make Mega Empires, a game that can house up to 18 players!

There is gaming and then there is Western Empires, that is all I’m going to say about that!


14. Dune Imperium

Dune Imperium is a Euro game and in my experience when it comes to how much I like Euro games, depends on when you ask me. They fluctuate and the primary reason is that they always feel hot to me until they are not. Dune Imperium however is a Euro that has really had a lot of staying power, I keep coming back to it over and over again and while it’s dropped on my top 20 list a bit from previous years, it’s still one of my favorite worker placement games.

The reason is that this is a game that comes with a really great theme, the use of worker placement here is not just about collecting resources and scoring points, but rather, its the fuel for the other far more important and decisive elements of the game, the deck building and combat elements. It’s also an incredibly tight game, I have never played a game of Dune Imperium that wasn’t super close and Dune has great versatility thanks to the great asymmetrical setups. It’s just a really well-designed game, easy to learn, yet very competitive.

This year we added the expansion, Rise of Ix to the mix which I thought, contrary to some of the reviews I have seen, added a lot of great elements to the game. It actually made the game a bit faster and allows players to specialize their strategy a bit more. The next expansion, Immortality is also out now and though I have not tried it yet, it does put more fuel in the tank for this one because I’m certainly excited to give that one a go as well.

It is worth mentioning that these expansions are luxuries and not necessities. Dune Imperium really doesn’t need these expansions, they are clearly made for fans who already love the game and just want to add some new playstyles into the mix.

Fantastic game, still my pick for one of the best games to come out in 2020.


13. The U.S. Civil War

I’m working on a detailed review of this new addition to my list, so more details coming soon, but The U.S. Civil War is another foray into the historical hex and counter-war game genre for me and it’s been a really fun ride.

This is a game, as the title suggests, about the entire Civil War. It’s a deeply meaningful and detailed grand strategy gaming experience in which two players play out one of the most defining conflicts in US history. It’s a moving armies on a map style of game, but the game has a way of presenting each side of the conflict with historically accurate problems to solve like the vulnerability of the coast, supply lines, the difficulty of the terrain, the variable availability of generals, the political atmosphere of the nation and of course the unpredictable results from the battlefield.

This is one of those games where you must think many moves ahead, and execute plans as you made them while trying to predict the intentions of your opponent. It’s uniquely balanced in that the South (Confederate Army) has little chance of actually winning the war, the North (Union Army) clearly has an advantage in the battlefield, but the North must execute a really successful war or the political situation at home may force a concession, which is how the South can win the game.

It’s historical, it’s strategic and it’s chaotic. Just a really great game, certainly not for the faint of heart, this is definitely a historical war game made for historical war gamers, specifically for historical war gamers interested in this particular conflict, so its quite niche, but if you’re a fan like me, this is the premier Civil War-war game, it’s a must own!


12. Peloponnesian War

Mark Hermans Peloponnesian War is without question one of my favorite solo games for many reasons, from the subject matter itself, clever mechanics, the unique way the game balances the solo experience and its outrageously challenging gameplay.

I have been trying to win at this game for over a year now and it still kicks my ass and each time it does, I learn, I adapt, I find new strategies to try and it all refreshes the experience. I find the game absolutely addictive, I just can’t put it down. I want to solve it and the crazy thing is that, I’m still just working on the first scenario, there are several others waiting in the wings for me so I don’t think this game is in any danger of slipping from this list anytime soon.

I will say that this game is so unique, such a white elephant even in the historical war gaming space that I find it impossible to recommend it even though every instinct in my body says that if you are a board game fan, of any kind, this is just one of those games you have to try. It’s just way out there in left field, the sort of game that results in either you seeing the absolute brilliance of it, or leaving you wondering, what the hell it actually is. Read my review for more details on this absolute gem of a game.


11. Lord of the Rings The Living Card Game

Lord of the Rings The Living Card Game has enjoyed a very long and very illustrious position on my Best Games list since its initial landing back in 2017, enjoying the number 1 spot in 2018 & 2019. In 2020 it finally slipped from its top position but it has remained and likely will remain on my list for a long time. It slips a few spots now, but only because I played it so goddamn much at this point, that I actually, for the first time since 2017 took a break from it.

I adore this game for so many reasons, but ultimately I just think it’s one of the best deck-building card games I have ever played and I have played a lot of them over the years. I have a complete collection and no matter how many sets have been released for it, each time I pick up a new one, I find myself back at the table completely engrossed in trying to figure out how to beat the latest challenges. This game is just so much fun, I have talked about it endlessly on this site and of course, you can read the review from 2016. I’m the content owner of the fantastic Lord of the Rings Companion and Lord of the Rings Campaign utility just in case there is any doubt about my fandom.

If you’re looking for a great deck builder that you can play solo or with friends, this is the one and if you happen to be a Lord of the Rings fan, I mean, this is a must-own game…period. This is my island game, no doubt about it.


10. Washington’s War

Washington’s War has one benefit that the other CDG’s (Card Driven Games) on this list don’t have which is that it’s very newbie friendly, meaning you can take a non-gamer or casual gamer, teach them how to play and they will be beating you at it pretty quickly. It’s a very easy game to pick up, while remaining exciting with a deep, meaningful strategy that will keep veteran players interested. It’s actually a really great introduction to a historical war games game and definitely one of the best CDG introductory games on the market.

Now that is the meta, but what makes Washington’s War really special is that it captures the revolutionary war in an abstract way, while maintaining the nuances of the historical period. It’s thematically rich and it houses mechanics that are very much standard in a lot of CDG’s and historical war games, so it has this very easy-to-recognize familiarity as you play the game, things work, as you kind of imagine they should.


9. Through The Ages: A New Story of Civilization

Through the Ages: A New Story of Civilization is game about human history from the stone age to the future age, but unlike Western Empires which it shares topics with, Through The Ages is very much a mechanical experience and a Euro one at that.

Through The Ages is a very long strategy game where you must not only go into it with a plan, but at each stage of the game, really with each decision in the game you are binding yourself with the impact of those choices resinating all the way to the final scoring round. It’s without question, one of the deepest strategy games I have ever played, one of those games that you can analyze endlessly.

Despite this fact, there is a certain level of randomness in the game, so even though you can walk into it with a strategy in mind, you are also placed on the defensive quite often and will need to scramble and make do with what becomes available to you rather than what you really want. This gives the game incredible replayability because no two games will ever be alike and no amount of theory crafting is ultimately going to matter as you approach this games incredible dynamics. Not that this knowledge will keep you from theory crafting, but ultimately it’s as much a game about planning as it is reacting.

It’s so robust, so challenging and so well thought out that it’s no wonder that Through The Ages has enjoyed one of the longest stretches in the top 10 on boardgamegeek of any game ever released. Even today, nearly two decades of being on the list it still manages to be in the number 13 spot as of this writing, a testament to its amazing design.

Through The Ages has a great digital version which makes this game a lot more accessible and I highly recommend that if you’re a fan of this one to get that, it’s a worthwhile investment to get to play this gem more frequently. For me personally, I love to see this one one the table, it is one of the best games ever made.


8. Eclipse: Second Dawn For The Galaxy

I’m currently writing an article series about space civilization-building games (HERE is part I) and obviously, Eclipse is one of the contenders. When I was building this list however I knew both Twilight Imperium and Eclipse would make it onto the list, but I ultimately had to decide which one would rank higher and which lower.

Now before I explain why Eclipse has been one-upped by Twilight Imperium, let me just say that Eclipse: Second Dawn For The Galaxy is an absolutely fantastic game, capturing the genre from a very unique angle that deserves all of the accolades this latest edition of Eclipse has gotten.

The way the game gets right into the action, the pacing of the game throughout, fantastic combat, amazing technology and resource management, it really just nails it in so many ways. Frankly, in almost all cases I would actually recommend Eclipse over Twilight Imperium to the overwhelming majority of gamers. You could say from a mechanical and modern design perspective, it’s the better game.

So why does it play second fiddle to Twilight Imperium for me? The answer is simple, player interaction. When it comes to big, epic, event-level games from which both of these games plant their roots, player interaction is a key factor for me. Despite some really amazing mechanics, the level of player interaction in Eclipse is strictly regulated to mechanical execution. You are not going to be negotiating, there is no politics, and there isn’t much in the way of making deals with and then betraying players, at least not if you are paying attention to how the game executes.

Despite being part of the “event” genre of games, Eclipse is actually a quite short game and this is a game about scoring points and there simply isn’t enough nuance or time in the game to fumble around with politics and negotiation. You do what you need to do to score points, you start doing it from round one and by the time player interaction would make any difference, the game is over and you are counting VP’s to see who won.

This is very much a Euro version of a civilization-building game, it’s about managing resources, executing mechanics, calculating odds, predicting actions and so on. All good stuff mind you and it makes for an excellent game, but it just lacks that human interaction factor upon which games like Twilight Imperium are based and for me personally this feels like a missing element in the game.

Eclipse makes up for this in countless ways and it didn’t make it on this list because I felt sorry for it, Eclipse earns its stripes, it’s an amazing game, it’s just no Twilight Imperium.


7. Twilight Imperium

Twilight Imperium has been on my best-of list as long as I have kept one which at this point is nearly a decade. Now in its 4th edition, this space opera remains the premium grand strategy civilization building in space game on the market and while there have been plenty of challengers, I’m yet to find one to dethrone it, though arguably Eclipse: Second Dawn For The Galaxy came pretty bloody close and might just one day surpass it.

I think the crux of it is that Twilight Imperium has a strategic depth that no other game in this genre can touch. It’s a game of subtle moves, of grand plans and of player-driven politics and interaction. TI4 draws on the personalities of the players and infuses it with gameplay in a way that very few games do and to me this is a mark of a true masterpiece.

The game mechanics in 4th edition have been perfected to such a degree that I actually rejected the expansion for the game (The Prophecy of Kings) because I felt that it was messing with that perfection. Some swear by the expansion, but for me, Vanilla 4th edition Twilight Imperium is the mecca, the final and best version of the game, not to be messed with.

This is a 6-10 hour monster, clearly an event game and so it doesn’t see a lot of table time and in a way, this is the one thing Eclipse has over Twilight Imperium and why I believe someday I might get to a point where I admit defeat and allow Eclipse to rise past Twilight Imperium, but it isn’t going to be on the 2023 list, better luck next year Eclipse!


6. Empires: Age of Discovery

Empires: Age of Discovery is to me, from a design perspective, the single best worker placement game ever made. It combines a great theme, very clever use of the worker placement mechanics that go beyond simply plop and score and boasts an incredibly tight competitive atmosphere. This is just really good gaming and really good game design.

It’s very easy to teach and learn, looks absolutely amazing on the table, it’s paced perfectly keeping everyone engaged and doesn’t overstay its welcome, really hitting that sweet spot in terms of playtime.

I did a review of this one way back in 2005 and to be honest while I agree with the score for the most part, one thing haunts me about this review and that is my complaints about the deluxe edition cost vs. component quality. I was being quite harsh and have since really changed my tune about the value of this game. This deluxe version of the game I think is well worth the 100 dollars I spent on it, but I suppose 100 dollars was a lot more money in 2015 than it is today.

To me, if you’re a fan of worker placement games, this is a no-brainer, they don’t get any better than this.


5. Caesar: Rome vs. Gaul

A new edition to the list, the impressive Caesar: Rome vs. Gaul makes its debut in my top 5 and I can’t help but feel this game might deserve to be higher on the list.

This game initially hit me kind of so-so. I didn’t love it right out of the gate and I saw some flaws with it compared to some of the other CDG’s I was playing at the time, but like a fine wine, this thing aged for the better with time. Looking back at my initial review of Caesar: Rome vs. Gaul where I scored it a 3.85 I feel like I probably should have played it more before doing the review. I think it deserved a bit better, not that I disagree with anything I wrote about the game back then as compared to today, but I should have scored it higher.

I think the main difference after dozens of plays for me has been that this game is so much more diverse and dynamic than I first thought. Certainly, the number of different strategies and the way some of the more chrome-rich mechanics affect the game and how they can be used as part of a larger long-term strategy are things that at that point when I wrote the review had not clicked for me the way they have today. Having played it quite a bit over the last year, boy let me tell you, this game is a veritable forest of awesome and dynamic gameplay. It has so much more depth than I initially gave it credit for.

While I still stand by the fact that Imperial Struggle is my favorite CDG, this is a taste thing more than a design thing. I consider Caesar: Rome vs. Gaul one of the most well-designed CDG’s on market today. It hits the historical and thematic elements with precision even within its abstraction, it’s challenging with player skill playing an important role in deciding outcomes while bringing that chaos factor that makes card and dice games so much fun.

It is burdened with a bit of a learning curve but unlike games like Twilight Struggle, which has a tough climb for players to learn to play it well, Caesar: Rome vs. Gaul’s learning curve is in learning the rules of the game. Once you get past that hump which I would argue is moderate, learning to play it well comes naturally and relatively easily. There is a fundamental core to the game that makes it easy to spot potential, viable strategies. I find that is a preferable setup as finding someone to play the game that is ready to get past the mechanical learning curve of Caesar: Rome vs. Gaul is a lot easier than finding someone who is ready to put in the 30+ games it takes to become competent in something like Twilight Struggle.

Amazing game, that keeps getting better the more I play it, one of the biggest surprises for me of the last couple of years.


4. Paths of Glory

Paths of Glory is to me, THE, premiere historical war game, it is to historical war games what Pandemic or Settlers of Catan is to the general board gaming community. It’s just one of those games that, until you have played it, you can’t really claim you know historical war gaming, it is a fundamental must-own and play.

That said, it actually is quite a niche, but that shouldn’t be surprising to historical war gamers, quite literally every game in the historical war game genre is a niche thing in most respects. World War I is a very specialized topic, with unique nuances and context that create very unusual strategic and tactical challenges. That could actually be said about almost all historical war games as well, but I think Paths of Glory’s execution is done with such precision and the game mechanics are so fine-tuned, I can easily put this game into the category of a masterpiece.

In this game you are not just contending with the historical complexities of the period both on and off the battlefield, but it’s done in a “what if” setup which to me is the absolute best way to ensure historical war games don’t lose their luster over multiple plays. What if Italy shows up late to the war, what if the Americans join the war earlier rather than later.. so and so forth. The game allows for the adaptations of history but in believable ways, meaning the things that are a-historically possible, really could have actually happened that way.

That however is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the true greatness of this game. The attrition warfare, the subtle manipulation of resources, the intricate point-to-point map and the absolutely engrossing way unit positions play into the strategy of the game all combine to make this one of the greatest historical war games in existence.

Absolutely adore this game and it’s a great mid-way point for the education of a fellow would-be historical war gamer, it has some complexity but this is a game that with a bit of dedication can be learned and learned to play well by most people.


3. Empire Of The Sun

If you read my blog even in passing, it is no secret that I’m a huge Mark Herman fan, the designer of Empire of the Sun and that I consider Empire of the Sun his Mona Lisa, a true masterpiece.

My biased love for the history of the war in the Pacific surely plays a role here, but really Empire of the Sun is a combination of everything I love about historical war gaming all rolled up into mechanical perfection.

Empire of the Sun is a grand strategy war game in the pacific on an operational level, it’s a card-driven game, played on a large hex map that really focuses on large-scale military movements and reactions. The game is very intricate, without question one of the most challenging games I have ever learned to play, but the strategic depth, variability and dynamics of the game are so well the time investment this game demands.

Empire of the Sun has a really great solo bot as well which means that you can take your time learning the rules, really getting the nuances down before you consider challenging opponents and thanks to a very robust community supporting this game you will find no issues finding an opponent online.

That said the personal, one on one, the experience of playing this one on the table is absolutely unmatched. This is a timeless classic that earns its accolades, everything you have heard about it is true. It’s deep, and complex with a steep learning curve and it’s an absolute joy to suffer through it to get to the heart of this beast. When the lights come on and you get to that point where you know how to play, it’s as good as board gaming can ever be.


2. Imperial Struggle

I place Imperial Struggle in the number two spot of this list without reservation, I didn’t even blink really. This is one of my favorite games to play and it really isn’t for any particular mechanic or thematic reason, this is just one of those games that you play and love and.. well it doesn’t really matter why.

That said I feel like I owe some explanation and so I will be brief and to the point. Imperial Struggle is a culmination of everything that makes CDG Influence games like Twilight Struggle, Caesar. Rome vs. Gaul and Washington’s War great done with exceptional style and mechanical brilliance that simply results in this one being the best of the bunch. It is one of the most competitive and challenging games in this genre I have ever played. It has charisma, it’s absolutely gorgeous on the table and despite reluctance to try it coming from almost everyone I have ever taught it to, I am yet to meet someone who played it and didn’t instantly love it.

In my review in 2021 of Imperial Struggle I did point out that I didn’t think Imperial Struggle would cross over to the mainstream and it really hasn’t. It tragically sleeps on boardgamegeek.com in the 542 spot which makes this without question one of the most underrated games on the geek to date. It’s absolutely criminal that this game does not get more love given the fact that it’s the offspring of Twilight Struggle, in my not-so-humble opinion, a far inferior game.

In my eyes, your board game collection is incomplete with Imperial Struggle in it.

1. War Room

To no so surprise at all, War Room is my number 1 game on the best-of list for the second year in a row and frankly I can’t imagine a future in which this won’t always be true.

Check out my preview and my review of this epic grand strategy world war II game. I don’t know how else I could possibly praise this one short of saying, it is everything I love about this hobby in an oversized and very elaborate box.

I love this game and true love lasts forever!

Exits & Honorable Mentions

A few games exit the list and there are a couple that were up for consideration that I would at the very least call honorable mentions.

Shogun (Dirk Henn version) has been on my last lingering in the backfield for many years and frankly for good reason. I love this game, that crazy dice tower is just so much fun, in particular in the context of a think strategy war game. It was a tough fight between Root and Shogun, to be frank, I chose Root mostly just to have something new on the list, I don’t know that I believe that Root is a better game than Shogun. Its actually quite brilliant.

B-17 Flying Fortress Leader also exits the list, though I was a bit more sure about this one than some of the others. I love this game, but it’s so niche, it’s purely solo and honestly, though I play it every year like clockwork, I think this is just one of those ME games. I love the Leader and Field Commander series of games, they are a sort of almost alternative pastime for me. Field Commander Napoleon leaves the list for the same reason.

Ikusa makes an exit and probably should have quite a long time ago. This one lives on nostalgia for me and though I haven’t played it in a couple of years and really do appreciate it, it’s hard to justify a game for a best-of list you don’t really play.

Three major contenders for the list I discovered during last years annual big board gaming weekend, in no particular order, Hansa Teutonica by Pegasus Spiele 2020, Smartphone Inc by Cosmodrome Games (2018) and The King Is Dead by Osprey Games (2020).

Hansa Teutonica is just such a really clever Euro game that really struck a chord with me and I honestly think the only reason it didn’t make my list is that I have only played it twice and I don’t own it, so little opportunity to get it to the table. I think it will make an appearance at this years big board gaming weekend and if it leaves a similar impression the next time I play it, it might not only make it to the list, but into my collection as well.

Smartphone I have played several times and honestly, even as I write this I struggle to justify not putting it on my list somewhere. It really is one of the smartest (no pun intended) game designs I have seen in years. Super fun, really competitive and just brilliant from a game design perspective.

The King is Dead I think has so much potential, it just needs more table time to make the list. This is a game that I put in the vein of Condottiere, which is also a very difficult to pass on consideration for the list. It has that, my brain hurts, an element to it that is both addictive and inspiring. Really enjoyed this one and I think one of these days I’m going to make a top 10 games that make you think list for which both The King is Dead and Condottiere I think would do really well on.

I hope you enjoyed the list, see you next year!

Board Game Reviews

Washington’s War by GMT games 2010

Designer: Mark Herman

In recent days I have played quite a bit of Mark Herman’s classic Washington’s War yet despite the game being number 15 on my top 20 games chart I did back in February 2022 and No. 6 in my Top 10 War Games I did in 2020, I’m yet to do a proper review on it. It’s a long past due oversight that I really wanted to correct and so here we go!

Mark Herman is a brilliant designer, a statement I make without hesitation and he made a big splash as the founder of the influence struggle and historical CDG war game genres in a single game called We The People in 1993. This led to a number of what are now considered classic historical war games in their own right that used these mechanics like Twilight Struggle, For The People, Empire of the Sun and Paths of Glory just to name a few. It was, to say the least, a pivotal moment in game design history that lead to the release of Washington’s War which is for all intense and purposes the 2nd edition of We The People.

It would not be an overstatement to point out that while We The People sparked an evolution in the historical war game category, breathing life into two different genres of historical war games it remains wildly underrated. Washington’s War, its follow-up, is really no different, in my mind it is one of the most criminally underrated games in all of board- gaming sitting in a shockingly disgraceful 730 on BBG as of this writing.

I will be the first to admit that We The People lacked the visual appeal of a mainstream game, it certainly does look the part of a complicated historical war game. This likely contributed to its shockingly underrated status.

Washington’s War is a game about the American founding father’s struggle to create a new nation out of 13 fledgling colonies as they opposed the British Empire in what has got to be one of the most fascinating pieces of history there is. The Revolutionary war is chock full of extraordinarily interesting personalities, political struggles that make The Game of Thrones look like child’s play and some of the most vicious military engagements in all of American history. Washington’s War manages to squeeze all of that history into a game that is easy to teach and learn while remaining streamlined to precision.

I love the influence struggle and CDG category of historical war games, my collection is full of them, but Washington’s War is the only game in my collection that I feel comfortable in pulling out with just about anyone. Whether you are a Eurogamer, casual dabbler, or a serious historical war game fan, you will fall in love with this games incredible back-and-forth tension. It is not just a great historical war game for historical war gamers, it is just good gaming period by any measure.

Twilight Struggle is a mainstream hit coming out of the historical war game universe, but it’s really odd to me. It’s a complex CDG based on the Cold War that has a fairly steep learning curve. It wouldn’t even be in my top 3 CDG influence struggle games I would recommend as an entry point into the genre.

Now I have played my hand a little here, clearly, I’m a fan but given the accolades it has already received on my site over the last few years, I don’t think it should come as a surprise to my more frequent readers. The devil is in the details however and while I would describe this game as a good time in a box, I think it’s fair to say I owe more of an explanation to this review, so let’s dig into the revolutionary war!

Overview

Final Score: christmas_starchristmas_starchristmas_starchristmas_star(4.2 out 5) Great Game!

Washington’s War is an asymmetrical influence struggle CDG (Card Driven Game) war game. That is a mouthful, but given that We the People, the 1st edition of Washington’s War effectively created this style of game, it’s perhaps reasonable to explain what it actually is even if we have already watched this genre evolve over the years in so many other games.

In Influence Struggle CDG’s like Washington’s War, players take turns playing cards which they use to execute actions on a point-to-point map. In our case the map of the eastern United States where the revolutionary war takes place. One of the key elements here is control of different areas via influence tokens called Political Influence in Washington’s War which represents the political control the Americans or British have in an area in any of the 13 colonies.

The object of the game is to have sufficient political influence markers in each of the colonies to control them and essentially whichever player controls the most colonies by the end of the game will win the game. Technically the US needs to control 7 colonies while the British only needs to control 6 of them to win.

The catch is that there are also generals and armies on the board who can take these areas by force, so part of the game is also using actions to move armies around and engage in battles to force your influence onto the board.

The different cards also have event effects, special actions players can take when playing a card. These events represent different actual or hypothetical events from revolutionary war history. There are also several unique conditions and phases in the game like Winter Attrition for example that represents the harshness of the winters and the complexity of keeping standing armies in the field in this era. These various unique conditions create the challenges players must contend with as the war progresses.

Suffices to say that description is probably insufficient to really get a feel for the game, but I think what is most important to understand is that this game like all influence struggle CDG’s is about board control, timing, and about the back and forth tension between players as they vie for power on the point to point map. Since We The People, we have seen many games in this genre that leverage this mechanic, most famously Twilight Struggle. Washington’s War however takes a much more rules-light and less restrictive approach to this style of play.

The war plays out on a point-to-point map like many influence struggle games, but Washington’s War definitively falls into the “War” category of games where some influence struggle games have a more debatable status in that regard. In Twilight Struggle for example you do not move armies about the board and engage in battles.

Most notably, players share a deck and cards don’t have as many multiple uses as many games in this genre do where a card is both an event and an “ops value”. Instead, cards either are events or are actual ops cards (1, 2, and 3 ops). This makes the decision matrix for Washington’s War much simpler, in fact, in the influence struggle genre, it actually makes Washington’s War one of the lightest and most approachable games in the genre.

More importantly perhaps is the fact that Washington’s War has few exception-based rules, which is very commonly seen in historical war games and is by far the primary reason in creating a division between mainstream and historical war games. Historical war gamers love their “historicity” (made-up word, I know). What it means is that historical war gamers have a far higher tolerance for heavy rules implementations and rules exceptions as long as those rules breathe historical simulation into the game and this road can go quite deep in many historical war games. Washington’s War, while it certainly is historical, does this more with core rules rather than exception-based rules. What this boils down to is that though Washington’s War has not really become a mainstream game, there actually is no reason for it not to be. This, like any other board game, has straightforward rules that anyone can learn and is actually a lot simpler than many if not most Euro games mainstream gaming communities readily play.

That leaves the question, what is it about Washington’s War that has prevented it from crossing over to mainstream gamers as Twilight Struggle did? Is there a problem?

Components

Score: christmas_starchristmas_starchristmas_starchristmas_starchristmas_star
Tilt: christmas_star

Pros: GMT is a great publisher that never has never disappointed me and in Washington’s War they once again nailed it.

Cons: Looks deceptively like a complex war game which it most certainly is not, hardly a complaint but my explain why it’s not as mainstream as it deserves to be.

As a courtesy to the reader, I will make this brief, this is a GMT production which means that by default all components are top-notch quality. From the gorgeous and sturdy gameboard to the thick card stock and counters, everything is made to last with a wonderfully clear presentation.

It’s fair to remind readers that GMT is a historical war game publisher and while the component quality is definitively top-notch, rarely do we see miniatures in GMT games. This is largely a courtesy to keep costs down and the result of game pieces in historical war games having information on them relevant to gameplay as is the case with the cut-outs in Washington’s War. This is not a flaw, but a feature.

The rulebook is super clean and precise, the game includes a playbook that is so good you can almost learn how to play the game without reading the rulebook and just following along with the playbook. Finally, the game has the best reference cards I have ever seen in a game, so well thought out that once you play one turn of the game you aren’t likely ever going to have to reference the rulebook again as the reference sheets have everything you need to play the game on them.

Short and sweet, the components of the game are pitch-perfect. Nothing is overcooked, it’s just right, no complaints from this reviewer.

Theme

Score: christmas_starchristmas_starchristmas_starchristmas_starchristmas_star
Tilt: christmas_starchristmas_starchristmas_star

Pros: Washington’s War has just the right amount of nuance to breathe life into the fascinating history of the revolutionary war without overwhelming you with rules “chrome”.

Cons: Veteran historical war gamers looking for a deep and/or complex revolutionary war simulation may not find what they are looking for here.

When it comes to the historical war game themes, it’s always a matter of taste on how much simulation, replication and historical accuracy a person wants in their game. I’m of the opinion that a good historical war game will allow you to play inside a historical period, but keep the scripted elements of the game to an absolute minimum. I don’t want to replicate history or follow along some historical path forced on me by the mechanics of the game, I want to be put in a position to make the same decisions the commanders and leaders of the time had to make and ultimately find my own path to victory in a sort of alternate history of the subject matter.

In this vein, Washington’s War is ideal because while the game has all of the elements of the revolutionary war including the important personalities, events, locations and abstracted conditions of the period, how the game plays out is not going to reflect the actual history of the revolutionary war. From the very first action to the last, you are going to inevitably change history.

Despite this a-historical execution, the game still captures the period perfectly from the asymmetrical sides and unique conditions they had to contend with to the interesting political events and personalities involved all making an appearance in the game. What changes are elements like when the French join the war if ever, or when if ever the declaration of independence is signed. Does Washington get captured during the war? Does the continental congress get dispersed? Do the British win or lose the south, can they use their dominance of the sea to win the war? All of these aspects of history are thrown off their axis in some form or another, many historical events may or may not ever take place and much of what does and doesn’t happen in your version of the revolutionary war history will depend on card draw, dice and most important decisions you make as a player.

I found the game to be extremely thematic, hitting the high points of the revolutionary war in particular in the way the Americans struggle to have a military that can face the British, the difficulties of the Americans to bring the French into the fight and the tough challenges of trying to control a country that was really quite divided on the subject of independence. Washington’s War feels like a game on the revolutionary war in every regard, yet doesn’t impose the history on you for posterity. It allows the a-historical outcomes unapologetically and as far as I’m concerned, this is exactly what I want out of any historical war game.

I found that every game of Washington’s War played out wildly different while always maintaining these struggles that were part of the history of the period. More importantly, however, these struggles are imbued into the mechanics so they feel natural rather than scripted, nor are they infused with a lot of exceptions to force the subject. Certainly, you are going to make some of the historical decisions as did the founding fathers because they make sense, but often I found myself in what-if moments, the execution of which is exciting and tense and triggers discussions with your opponent about the history of the game.

One of the ways Washington’s War really comes to life as a historical game is the uncertainty of the conflict. There are never any breakthrough moments in the war, there is a lot of attrition, a sort of push and pull where no matter where you push and win, it always results in you having to pull back somewhere else. This creates great tension in the game, really giving you that sensation of being an underdog as the American, while making you feel powerful as the British. Yet despite this, the game has incredible balance, even within the constraints of the asymmetrical feel each side has and despite Americans being the underdogs and the British being big and powerful, the game never gives the impression that either side has a leg up in the final outcome of the game (war). It is a war that either side can win and strategy plays the predominant part in that outcome, which feels both historically accurate and makes for a great gaming experience.

Finally and I mean this as a complement and not a negative comment, the game doesn’t overdo the history. Mark Herman designs very often are so regimented when it comes to history and while in many games like Empire of the Sun which is the driver for the game and ultimately what brings you to the table, Washington’s War relies far more on the strategic play to pull you in. Historical it certainly is, but this is a streamlined machine that introduces the history in subtle ways, while it remains far more a game than a simulation throughout. There are almost no exception-based rules in the game that try to force historical elements on you, which is not often the case with historical games and certainly not Herman’s designs. Mark takes a light-touch approach in Washington’s War and strangely it’s this distancing from exceptions that makes the game feel more historical and thematic, as it all just becomes more accessible.

General Washington for example is represented as a strong commander for the Americans and comes with a special ability allowing him to avoid some winter attrition penalties. This is a very subtle special power and it’s easy to remember because Washington is a unique commander, the game is named after him after all. It’s one of the very few exception-based rules and it kind of just makes sense and is logical enough to be easy to remember.

I really love this approach and I’m reminded of the fact that while I love games like France 1944 and Empire of the Sun, two other Mark Herman designs, I often wish I could play lighter versions of those games that still capture the same historical principles and strategic elements without being so complex and filled with exceptions. Washington’s War really nails this streamlined, more direct approach and I think the result is a far more enjoyable and notably more accessible game which ultimately lets the theme actually flow a lot better. You could almost say that there are fewer interruptions to the enjoyment of the history of the game thanks to a lighter rules approach.

Don’t get me wrong, I love my Empire of the Sun and wouldn’t change a thing about it, but there are countless “if this then that” exception rules that make even playing the game correctly a real struggle sometimes. Washington’s War is a straight-to-the-point type of game that avoids the more common “chrome” direction most historical war games take.

If there are any flaws in the theme and mind you this requires one to get very nit-picky is that the CDG mechanic uses the one deck approach. This means both players draw from the same deck and that British and American events when drawn by the opposite player ultimately get discarded for 1 ops actions as they cannot be used for the event. There are a lot of really cool events in the game that simply never see the light of day in any given game as a result simply because of who drew them and while there is a mechanic in place where opponents can pick up discarded event cards, it typically doesn’t happen as players usually plan out their entire turn based on the cards they do draw. I personally prefer CDG’s where each asymmetrical faction gets its own deck as seen in countless games like Twilight Struggle, Empire of the Sun and Paths of Glory for example. The result of such a setup is that you are always drawing cards relevant to you, and more events hit the table which brings into the game more of the history and ultimately the theme of the game.

I would put this complaint in the minor quibble category based on personal preference rather than an actual issue with the game. It’s just a me thing.

As a whole, I think Washington’s War nails the theme beautifully in this game. It’s just the right amount of rules to get the theme across, there is a lot of attention to detail in the history even though all the various conditions and unique elements of the period are handled very subtly. I’m sure there are games on the revolutionary war that are far more detailed and make better historical simulations, but I think Washington’s War was aiming to be more high-level and abstracted and in approaching the design in this way, it has made this historical game a lot more approachable and easier to get to the table. I don’t think it really sacrifices anything critical with this approach and while I could understand that more serious historical gamers might be looking for more chrome, as a guy who plays in both casual and serious fields, I found this game highly thematic and fun.

Gameplay

Score: christmas_starchristmas_starchristmas_starchristmas_star
Tilt: christmas_starchristmas_starchristmas_star christmas_star

Pros: As a fan of CDG influence struggle games, I’m like a moth to a flame here, I adore this genre and this game.  It’s a fantastic introduction to the genre, perfect for newcomers.

Cons: Washington’s War is based on the We The People formula which while great and revolutionary (pun intended) is a bit dated compared to how the genre has evolved. 

As simple of a mechanic Washington’s War is, there is tremendous weight in the strategic gameplay of the game, in fact, I would argue that the complexity of the game is quite high when you consider the deployable strategies possible here.

It’s a bit like chess where you can learn the rules easy enough, but becoming a good chess player is a considerably more robust topic.

For one Washington’s War is a very tight game, it’s really about very subtle motions where placing a token in one place rather than another can have a profound impact on the outcome of the game. That is not to say it’s sensitive to mistakes, but rather that each action really matters. You rarely make irrelevant decisions, every move and counter move is important and the whole thing just feels like it has weight behind it, adding to the tension and attrition.

In any given round for example as the British player, you may have the ops cards necessary to move a couple of units, place a couple of tokens and perhaps play an event. That is not a lot of activity in the big scheme of things, but because the game is relatively short and exactly when the game will end dynamic, these decisions can be quite critical and impactful. In fact any round after the 4th round requires you to be vigilant because the game can end quite abruptly so you need to make sure at the end of each round you are in a winning position.

The game doesn’t have this 3-4 rounds from now I will be in a position to win approach to strategy. You need to effectively be winning at the end of every round of play.

Rounds can end because there are cards in the deck that if drawn must be played which define when the game will end and this starts after the 4th round. The tension this brings to the game is awesome.

Generally, the game is about playing cards and taking actions, so the sequence of play is quite simple and like most influence struggle games it’s about having the most pieces on the board you can muster in the right places. You need to control a certain amount of colonies to win and control of a colony is defined by how many political control markers you have in each colony.

The difficulty of this is that each colony has a varied number of spaces that can be controlled, some like Virginia have more than half a dozen, while others like Rhode Island have a single space that defines control of the colony. This means that while more is clearly better, where you put your influence is equally vital. There is a trade-off between controlling a colony with a lot of tokens, which can make it more difficult to take away from you, and colonies that have a small number of control points which are more volatile and more likely to trade hands during the game.

Adding to the mix of this go-like game of point-to-point area control are the armies of each side and the generals that lead them. These armies move about the board forcing their will onto territories and the only method to control their ability to project power by your opponent is with their own armies.

This is where the “war” element of the game comes to fruition and again it’s handled in a simple and elegant manner. The factors that go into the effectiveness of an army are easy to calculate, there is ways to surprise opponents with cards and the dynamic factor of the dice makes outcomes calculable but not reliable. More than that, losses are generally minimal, battles can be won and lost, but armies are not easily dispersed so winning a battle does not mean you sort of breakthrough and dominate an area, but rather just push your opponent back in what really is a war of attrition.

The armies and their commanders on the board have a considerable impact on this influence struggle game, making it definitively a war game.

There is also difficulty in moving armies and this is very asymmetrical and historical. The British have larger and more powerful armies, but they require a higher OPS card to move them, so you are likely going to move them less often. Meanwhile, the Americans have smaller, generally weaker armies that require lower ops cards to move, meaning you are likely able to move them more often. America’s military agility is further supported through two special rules, their ability to intercept and retreat, allowing them to intervene and avoid British attacks.

This game of cat and mouse creates a tense and very thinky mini game where each player is thinking less about outright crushing the opposing military, as this is highly unlikely to happen, and more about trying to position their military in the most optimal points on the map to exert power and control, adding to the influence struggle theme rather than overwhelming it.

Finally, there are a few other elements in the game that I like to refer to as “historical conditions” that create challenges for the players to overcome.

Winter attrition already mentioned, creates a real headache for the American player who is constantly having to contend with their armies dispersing between rounds. There is the struggle to get the French into the game which is pretty vital for the Americans as it brings into play the ability to blockade ports and a much-needed French command with French armies.

For the British the struggle and often the frustration is really dealing with the reality that with the right hand of cards you could really bring the fight to the American’s but the high maintenance commanders can only be moved with higher ops cards, typically 3 ops which means that you really have to plan way ahead and around their stubborn refusal to cooperate with your plans. You are simply never going to have the cards to do exactly what you want and your circumstances continually get worse as the war progresses. Ideally, you want to win this game as early as possible as the British because it gets tougher and tougher as time goes on.

The event cards are a mechanical layer here and while I would say the impact of these cards varies from “meh” to “holy shit”, generally their inclusion is more about infusing the game with theme than it is about strategy. They certainly can play a significant role in the plan of a particular round when drawn, but usually, you are trying to squeeze the events into your strategy rather than building a strategy around the cards if that makes sense. In fact, generally speaking, that is usually how all of the cards in the deck are used. You have a strategic plan and you are trying to use whatever you draw to make that happen, rarely if ever does your hand dictate your plan.

The event cards in the game have varied effects and their usefulness usually depends on the developing situation on the board, sometimes they can have a big game-changing impact, and sometimes they are worth more as a 1 ops action than actually using them.

What can I really say about the gameplay in Washington’s War other than that it’s absolutely fabulous? It’s just such a great tense game, with easy-to-understand mechanics, and lots of great history full of surprises, twists, and turns. It’s just a really fantastic gaming experience, nailed down to a 2-3 hour 2-player game that just works in every way. It’s game design brilliance.

I have no complaints about this game at all but know that my love for CDG-driven influence struggle games likely makes me a bit biased here. I love this genre of games and Washington’s War is one of the most approachable and satisfying takes on this genre out there. It certainly does not replace my love for Imperial Struggle, which I consider the current ranking champion in this genre, but this one is so much easier to teach and learn. I think it’s the best way to introduce new players to the genre.

Longevity and Replayability

Score: christmas_starchristmas_starchristmas_star
Tilt: christmas_starchristmas_star 

Pros: The game is very dynamic offering endless replayability, you aren’t ever going to play two games that resolve the same.

Cons: The simplicity of the design is a benefit for the purposes of introductions, however all but the most casual of gamers are going to graduate from this one rather quickly.

Washington’s War has a static start and that might give the impression that there is a limited number of plays built in that once you expire them you will have seen everything there is to see.

This is categorically false and I say that from having played this game at least a dozen times at this point. The dynamics of this game are a combination of decisions and strategies implemented, cards drawn and dice rolled. There is just no way two games will ever repeat or even appear similar to each other. Despite the static start, this game is a dynamic rollercoaster, whereas a player you will find yourself trying to unravel countless puzzles this game presents.

There is a lot of replayability here and there is no doubt in my mind that like many games in this genre including the famed Twilight Struggle, this is a game you can play over and over again and always make new discoveries.

Now in terms of longevity, for me personally, after a dozen plays while I’m always ready to go for it again, I find that anytime I have taught someone Washington’s War, my urge is to take the next step with them into more involved and complex CDG influence struggle games.

This game is light and as a veteran gamer, I enjoy complex games and it’s what I want to be playing. Washington’s War for me is a great way to introduce new players to the wonderful world of historical war games and in particular to the CDG influence struggle games, but it is not the final frontier and I want to graduate new players to more robust games. I feel the longevity of this game for most historical war game fans is going to be limited to using it as an introduction to historical war games, game. I would be surprised if two veteran historical war gamers would find the game enough of a challenge long-term.

There are many influence struggle CDG war games like Washington’s War, all of them benefit from the road paved by the evolution of the genre since We The People initially set the standard. It’s perhaps no surprise that as time has gone on, deeper and heavier variants have come out. Caesar: Rome vs. Gaul is a great next step after Washington’s War before moving on to even more robust games like Imperial Struggle.

That said, I do think more mainstream and casual gamers would find this game very satisfying long term. I hope that doesn’t come off as elitist and rude, but the term “complexity” means something completely different in the world of popular mainstream gaming and historical war gaming. As a historical war game, this one is feather-light, but I think compared to most modern-day board games, it would be generally considered a medium, perhaps even heavy weighted game on the complexity scale. The rulebook is 23 pages, practically a pamphlet for modern historical war games but quite heavy if this were say a Euro.

Conclusion

Among historical war gaming geeks like me and fans of Mark Herman’s work, Washington’s War is by many considered his masterpiece, his Mona Lisa. I would personally argue that this honor goes to Empire of the Sun, but certainly, Washington’s War is one of his stone-cold classics, there is no denying it.

Washington’s War is easy to learn and teach, it’s nuances offer a much deeper level of strategy than the mechanics suggest and it does a wonderful job of capturing the theme of the Revolutionary War without being a hard simulation. All of these things combined make Washington’s War an amazing gaming experience and an excellent addition to any fan of the CDG & Influence Struggle genre of games.

I would also make an argument for this game to get more mainstream attention, it certainly has all the hallmarks that have made other CDG’s like Twilight Struggle such smash hits and really I find it surprising that Washington’s War lives in general obscurity. I will say it again for posterity, this is not just a great historical war game, this is just a really great game period and you should not let the stigma of historical war games frighten you from trying it. Any fan of Twilight Struggle will find themselves quite at home in Washington’s War, in fact, I would argue this is a far better and much easier entry point into the genre than Twilight Struggle is.

If there is anything to complain about when it comes to Washington’s War, I’ve certainly missed it. It fires on all cylinders as far as I’m concerned, I give it my highest recommendation for pretty much anyone looking for a great, tense 2-player game, historical or otherwise.

Best of List, Board Game Reviews

On The Table: July 2022

You would think after the big superboard gaming weekend we had earlier in the month I would have run out of games to talk about, but I’m on summer holiday and the gaming continues.

Root (Digital Board Game Adaptation)

During our big gaming weekend earlier this month, I was exposed to a very curious little game called Root which piqued my interest both as a board game fan and as an amateur board game designer.

This highly asymmetrical war game about cute little woodland creatures fighting in a forest has some incredible dynamics which results in tremendous replayability and diversity. It seems like it’s one of those games where you really need to do many repeated plays to really explore it and fully understand it, not something that typically happens with any board game in my gaming group. We really rarely go back to the same game over and over again, generally being a lot more diverse in particular given the sizeable gaming collections some of us have.

Luckily there is a digital adaptation of Root available on steam and other apps which is perfect for some great solo gaming.

I played the digital version of root about 20 times already, doing so obsessively in succession as I tried to really delve into the games unique nuances and Root did not disappoint. As I suspected the more you play, the more unique elements and strategies you discover in this quirky little game.

The game has great tutorials that really walk you through the rules, so if you have no knowledge of the board game at all, the digital adaptation will not only teach you how to play this digital version, but how to play the board game version as well. It’s a great aid for a game that is a bit of a chore to learn to play.

The digital version of the game is a direct translation, has AI bots of various skills, and comes with a few expansions allowing you to explore it even deeper with more factions. The developers have done a great job replicating the cartoon art of the board game and the interface is really easy to use, allowing you to really focus on the nitty-gritty details of gameplay.

Highly recommend this adaptation if you are curious about Root but don’t have the group available that wants to repeatedly play this one with you. There is a small online community as well so there are plenty of opportunities to play with other players too.

War Room

Getting an opportunity to play War Room, my all-time favorite game is a real treat. I did a preview and review of War Room if you want more details on this epic, global-scale event game. This week we got it to the table and as always this game blew me away!

In short, what I can say about every game of War Room is that despite having a grotesque playing time, on average exceeding 12 hours, this is a highly interactive, deeply strategic, mechanically easy to learn but impossible to master game that to me is not only an achievement in game design but one of the ultimate board gaming experiences.

It is everything I love about big epic board gaming in a box as it addresses every issue I usually find with long, event-style games. Most of the activities in the game are done simultaneously and or in groups as the game is not only team-based but features hidden order movement. The combat is engaging and very dramatic so even if the nation you are running is not involved you’re drawn to it as it’s no less exciting to watch it unfold. Every move and round in the game, has far reaching and big impact on the results of the game that creates dynamic outcomes and narratives you are unlikely ever going to see repeated.

This is a game that tells stories that you will remember long after the game is put away with everyone expertly pointing out what “they should have done” or what strategy they will try next time. You’re going to be thinking about this one long after the game is over.

There are countless possible strategies as well, this is a World War II game that gives you the opportunity to re-imagine the history of the war and approach it with your own revision of this pivotal and tragic moment story without burying you in unnecessarily detailed and overly complex historical realities typically found in historical war games. It certainly will have a lot of familiarity for Axis and Allies players, but this game has an elegance that far surpasses its predecessor. It is simply put, just an amazing gaming experience.

I adore this game but I would caution anyone considering picking it up that you really do have to understand what your getting yourself into and the information on the box is a bit inaccurate in this regard. For one it suggests that the game is for 2 to 6 players and this is true, but while there are 2 and 3 player scenarios, what you are certain to want to do with the game is play the global war scenario which cannot be played by 2 or 3 players reasonably. There is just too much going on in this game for one player to run multiple major nations. Then again while the global scenario can be played by up to 6 players, if you do, one player is going to get stuck playing Italy which while an important nation in the war, plays in a fairly isolated part of the map and is really part of the German strategy.

The game also says that it plays 1 hour for each player which is complete nonsense. If you can finish a game of War Room in under 12 hours with any amount of players you are playing a very fast-moving game of War Room.

The ideal conditions for the game is 5 players (Japan, Germany, US, Britain and Soviets with the US player running China and German player running Italy). You also want to make sure you have a full day, or even better is to have two half days to play the game. You are going to need a ton of space and you want to setup timers where each team can have time alone with the gameboard to play, typically 10-15 minutes per planning phase is enough.

The point here is that this is an expensive game that requires real event planning and a good-sized group of 5, players preferably but no less than 4. That is what it takes to play War Room and I would avoid it if you don’t think you will have the gaming group and conditions to meet those requirements. You don’t want a 250-dollar game collecting dust on your shelf, especially one that will torture you as this one will because this game begs to be played.

My friends and I manage about 1 game a year and while I would love to play it more often, I consider it a big win to be able to pull that off. It was an amazing day!

Paths of Glory

Paths of Glory is a classic in the historical war gaming communities and is the foundation game for card-driven mechanics.

I have an online buddy that comes out of the woods periodically and challenges me to a game of Paths of Glory, which I always graciously accept because I absolutely adore this game. In stark contrast to War Room however, this is an intimate and very historically accurate war game that endeavors to not only teach, but gives you an incredible sense of a global conflict.

Paths of Glory is about the whole of World War I and I did a review on it last year. It’s an incredible but very long and very detailed game that is not particularly easy to learn and certainly impossible to master. It requires tremendous patience and dedication to learn to play it well, but it has made a believer out of me.

This is a card-driven game so it’s a nice fit for me personally as I love all things card-driven, in fact, looking at my top 20 board games of all time no less than 7 games use similar mechanics. Paths of Glory is unique however in a number of ways in terms of historical war games. For one, it’s a point-to-point rather than a hex and counter game, which creates a unique dynamic as you have this really strong sense of supply lines and complications of the terrain. It sort of forces you to deal with the real historical issues of the day without forcing it on you via mechanics, so it has this great “re-write World War I” feel, but you still get a lot of historical outcomes anyway.

More than that this is a game with so much diversity and dynamics that no two games ever turn out the same and it’s amazing to see how wildly different the outcomes can be even the same strategies are deployed.

I have always been a huge fan of this one, but I caution my readers that this is firmly in the historical, chit game category and Paths of Glory does not apologize for that. The rules are complex, full of exceptions and there are a lot of moving parts. It’s for seasoned historical gamers only and I would not recommend this as an entry point if this is your first go at the genre. It’s best to have someone teach you this one if possible but veteran historical war gamers will be on comfortable footing here, Paths of Glory is an established classic that’s based on some of the historical war gaming most foundational mechanics.

Board Game Reviews, Gaming Articles

BOARD GAMING SUPER WEEKEND 2022 EDITION!

The sacred annual event known as Hassela weekend in my gaming circle is a staple of my gaming group’s gaming life.  We look forward to it all year long, the holy event is a 4-day gaming excursion where my buddies and I hide away in a small remote Swedish town and do nothing but drink beer, BBQ and play board games. It is sacred, it is glorious and it is a board gaming super weekend.

This year’s event was overflowing with amazing gaming, so much so that I kick-started this article only an hour after I came home still buzzing from the countless mini experiences of playing classics and new gems alike.

Get ready for the list, because it’s quite meaty, in no particular order.

The Pillars of The Earth by KOSMOS 2006

Designer: Michael Rieneck, Stefan Stadler

The Pillars of the Earth is among the first board games I bought and introduced to my new Swedish friends when I first moved to Sweden. In fact, it’s among the first reviews I did for this blog (The Pillars Of The Earth Review). My first gaming group was a mixture of gamers and non-gamers, it would be a couple of years before our gaming crew really formed, so I needed an easy-to-learn and teach game that non-gamers could get their head around while being interesting and fun for board gamers like me in the group. This one came highly recommended but wasn’t the usual recommendations I had heard for introducing people to gaming like Settlers of Catan or Ticket to Ride. Nothing against those two, but I always felt like while they are introduction games, they aren’t that interesting for more seasoned gamers.  

The Pillars of The Earth is a very pretty game, with a theme based on a book that gives it a sort of regal and intelligent presence and it was very easy to learn and teach so no one is going to get overwhelmed. It was quite perfect as an introductory game and even to this day when someone comes to me wanting to take their first venture into board gaming, I find it to be a great choice.

This is a really pretty game with a lot of color and thought put into aesthetics, so despite the rather odd theme of being about 12th-century architects building a cathedral, it has a lot of personality.

That however is not why it’s still in my collection years later and why it found its way to our Hassela weekend. Despite its simplicity, this is a very elegant Euro that really stands out and will challenge veteran gamers.

It’s a simple worker placement and resource management game on the surface, which is to say, the standard formula in which players place workers on limited spots, get resources and use those resources to score points.  Nothing too fancy…

The twist is that in addition to managing the resources needed to score points you have money that is used in a pre-round auction of sorts where you draw “worker” tokens out of a bag and if your color comes up you have to pay the current cost of putting your worker on the board or pass your chance to put down a worker until the end of the round. This means that having more money gives you a better chance of getting your workers on the board first, which is a huge advantage, and being broke is equally really, really bad.  It is in this mini-management element of the game a lot of the planning magic happens.

It’s a struggle between doing what you want, doing what you can and doing what you need to do while competing for the best spots on the board and finding victory points wherever you can. It’s a pretty tight game, so every inch you claim counts. Additionally, the method of scoring points is all about having the best craftsmen cards that convert resources into points, but getting those also costs money and there is a very limited supply of craftsmen available in any given game.

The whole thing boils down to a thinky resource management puzzle, not so difficult that you don’t understand what and how to do it, but always challenging to do it well.

The Pillars of the Earth is a stone-cold classic in my opinion, it’s a straight-to-the-point Euro that uses well-established worker placement mechanics but does so in a unique way that even nearly 20 years later it still holds up in veteran gaming groups in addition to being a very serviceable introductory to board games-game.

It’s still in print and available today, this is a real gem and comes highly recommended if you are looking for a good gateway game that carries over to more serious gaming tables.

Root By Leder Games 2018

Designer: Cole Wehrle 

Root has been on my must-play list since its rise in popularity over the last couple of years, I’m certainly a late comer to the experience, but someone brought it so I was excited to finally have go.  Root already has over a dozen expansions, it has been converted to a digital game and clawed its way to the 28th spot on boardgamegeek.com.  Impressive resume for a game about cute woodland creature cartoons fighting in a forest.

Despite its endearing art and theme, Root turned out to be a pretty complex gamer’s game with what I can only describe as extreme dynamics and asymmetry.  Each player in the game takes control of one of four or more available factions (depending on expansions) in what can best be described as a sort of quasi-war mini-series. Each faction not only plays wildly different but has entirely different game mechanics and methods of scoring points.  Some factions don’t even have units on the map, some have entire armies, while others are essentially solo adventurers who wander around the map causing trouble.

It’s a pretty crazy setup, so nutty it’s difficult to fully express but I suppose the best way to describe it is that every player is effectively playing an entirely different game (quite literally).    Each faction has unique rules for the game and while there is a lot of interaction in the game between players, which is great, this extreme asymmetry can be a bit confusing when you are learning to play the game.

It’s probably not a great idea to do what my group did which was play a 5 player game with expansions on our first go (or at least my first go).  That likely complicated the matter unnecessarily.

When we played it took us quite a bit of time to get the game going and even though I found my faction to be quite straightforward (I played a Vagabond, essentially a solo adventurer), I didn’t have a bloody clue how anyone else worked or what the hell they were doing until the late game when it all abruptly ended.  It felt a bit anti-climactic and I was a little disappointed, but I don’t think it illustrated a flaw in the game, just the unexpected reality that despite being about adorable little forest creatures, this game is a fairly robust and serious gamer’s game.  I don’t think describing it as a war game is unfair, though perhaps not 100% accurate for every faction, yet despite its cuteness aesthetically the game was quite brutal.

This game’s adorable theme is in stark contrast to its rather harsh, take that gameplay.

It’s difficult for me to form an opinion on a game this diverse after only one pretty wobbly play.  What I can say is that I was immediately sold on the theme, concept, and mechanics and definitely excited for another go, so the game certainly didn’t turn me off.   For me this was the surprise discovery of the weekend, to be honest despite a kind of lackluster first go, I really liked it quite a bit and I was hoping that we would get a second play during the weekend but we never got to it.

All the buzz on this one is warranted I think, looking forward to taking another crack at it again in the near future.  

Hansa Teutonica by Pegasus Spiele 2020

Designer: Andreas Steding

Originally released in 2009, this is something of an old-school Euro classic with a pretty impressive list of prestigious game awards.  We played the re-printed 2020 big box release which I think is largely unchanged from the original but comes with several expansions packaged together. 

Our game took place on the German map and going into this one I didn’t really know what to expect, I had never even heard of it and at a glance, it looked like a rather boring Euro cube pusher.  I was not terribly excited, my relationship with cube-pushing euro-classics is a bit of a mixed bag.

I swear I have nothing against a good Euro cube pusher, but I find for every 3 or 4 I play, I find one I like and the rest are meh… so I tend to be a bit skeptical.

Fortunately, Hansa Tuetonica turned out to be a delightfully simple, yet very thinky and clever game with tons of player interaction and wonderfully streamlined mechanics.  Everyone at the table took to it right away, there was none of this “now that I know the rules, I will be able to do much better next time” kind of talk after the game, it was crystal clear what you needed to do to win from turn one, the challenge was figuring out how to do it well.

This was a game about building trade routes and controlling buildings by placing down control cubes. The tricky part is that if someone placed a cube into a route you want to control, while you can kick them out, it costs you an extra cube to do so and gives them 2 cube placements elsewhere on the board for free.  So the game is all about players trying to get under each other’s feet to get the free rewards and then use those rewards to outpace each other.  Each player also has their own gameboard and you can upgrade various properties of your little business to improve the sort of actions you can take which opens up various advantages as well as scoring you additional points.

It’s really a victory point race as you might expect from a Euro, but highly interactive and cutthroat and there is a kind of sense of urgency with everything as the board fills up over time and your options start to slim down as the game progresses.  The game had really good tension and unlike so many of these old-school Euro games, you didn’t feel isolated from the other players, quite to the contrary, it all felt very crowded.

Really enjoyed this one a hell of a lot more than I thought I would when it came out of the box, another of a long line of pleasant surprises this weekend.  I think it’s difficult to offer a comparison for this one, I suppose you could say in a way it’s a worker placement game but that would be a real stretch of the term.  I do think like The Pillars Of The Earth, this is a good example of a game that is going to be very newbie friendly while having plenty of steam for the more seasoned gamer.   Really nice find!

Dune Imperium by Dire Wolf (2020)

Designer: Paul Dennen

I never did a full review of Dune Imperium and I probably should have, but it did appear in the number 9 spot of my Top 20 Best Games of All Time list  I did earlier this year so that should tell you a little something about how I feel about this one.


To make it short and sweet, this is hands down among the best games that came out in 2020 and remains one of my favorites to put on the table. It was no surprise to me that this one found its way to the Hassela super weekend rotation, I’m fairly certain most of my crew enjoys this one as well.

We played Dune with the new expansion (Rise of Ix), which has not received particularly high marks and was rumored to be very poor so I was mildly concerned about adding it into the mix.  Boy are those reviews wrong!

Dune Imperium – Rise of Ix was a fantastic expansion that vastly improves the game, in particular in the variety of viable strategies for winning.  Without the expansion, the method of winning is pretty strict, you must get lots of influence with the different factions and you must win a few victory point-based battles, else your chances of winning a game of Dune Imperium are slim to none generally reduced to a lucky intrigue card draw.  

I played a lot of Dune, it’s a fantastic game and I’m always weary of expansions for games I already think are amazing. A game that was nearly perfect already gets better with Rise of Ix, its a must-own for any fan of the game.

With the Rise of Ix the game opens up a great deal proven by my own victory which I achieved without ever winning a single battle.  The combination of interstellar shipping, technologies, new faction cards, dreadnoughts and various micro additions, there are a lot more ways to score points so the game is just a lot less linear.  Perhaps repeated plays might reveal some flaws, but from where I was sitting, the game not only felt even tighter but there are more ways to make a comeback.  Our game ended with 3 players achieving 10 points and the 4th sitting on 9 at the end of the game and the tie-breaker was a technology card I picked up earlier in the game.  One of the most exciting and closes games of Dune Imperium I have played yet.

The expansion does complicate the game ever so slightly but really one play without the expansion should be all the education one needs before adding it in, it’s really not that substantial rules-wise.

If you haven’t played Dune Imperium yet, this is a combination of worker placement and deck builder no serious connoisseur can live without, it’s a must-play game in my opinion, without question among the best games in my collection.

Imperial Struggle by GMT Games (2020)


Designers: Ananda Gupta, Jason Mathews

On the first day of the Hassela, a buddy and I were the first arrivals and we had a chance to play a couple of two-player games, so I did not hesitate to bring what I consider to be THE best two-player game in my collection.

I have hummed the praises of Imperial Struggle in my Review earlier this year, a game that received 4.4 out of 5 stars and landed in the number 3 spot on my Top 20 Best Games of all Time list this year.  

To put it plainly, I adore this game, it’s incredibly challenging, deep and thematic while being reasonably short for a two-player historical board game affair.  It doesn’t hurt that the influence struggle card-driven mechanic is one of my favorite mechanics in board games and I have collected quite a few in that category for comparison and this one remains my favorite among them (List includes Washintgons War, Ceaser: Rome vs. Gaul & Twilight Struggle…. So far).

This can however be a pretty frustrating and unforgiving game, it is not for the faint of heart.  A couple of bad decisions can quickly break your momentum and lead to ruin, in particular if you’re facing a clever opponent who knows how to leverage errors in judgment.  I have played about a dozen games of Imperial Struggle at this point and it really doesn’t get any easier over time either.  This is due in part that the game has a lot of dynamic elements that can really alter what strategies will be effective and these dynamics really push you to constantly think globally.

I could probably write several blog posts about my theories and ideas for strategies which are probably all terrible, but that is really the beauty of a game like this is that you never really stop thinking about it and trying to figure it out.

I would not recommend this as a first venture into the influence struggle card-driven genre unless you are a board game veteran, there are lighter games like Twilight Struggle and Washingtons war that make for much better starting points, but to me this is the final word in the genre, the standard by which all others are to be judged.

Love it!

Eclipse: Second Dawn For The Galaxy by Lautapelit (2020)

Designer: Touko Tahkokallio

Eclipse was a smash hit with the entire gaming crew in Hassela and really the highlight of the weekend, we actually ended up playing it twice with everyone nodding in approval.  I picked this game up as this summer I took it upon myself to write an article about 4x science-fiction civilization-building games and Eclipse was a natural contender for such an analysis along with games like Twilight Imperium.

I played the original Eclipse and it triggered two articles I did back in 2015 called Top 5 Games That Were Almost Great and my Top 5 Popular Games You Can Skip.  Suffices to say I saw a lot of potential in the game but it had a few flaws that just made the game pretty stale after repeated plays.  I think at the time I was probably a bit more sensitive about the sales pitch as well which suggested that this was a faster, lighter Twilight Imperium which really is just objectively false advertising.  It was for all intense and purposes a cube-pushing Euro disguised as a Twilight Imperium wanna-be.

I will be the first to admit I may have been a bit elitist and harsh in my assessment of the original Eclipse and while I still don’t think Eclipse is even in the same class as Twilight Imperium as a game, at least with Second Dawn the game delivered on the promise of a proper fully fleshed out 4x science-fiction civilization building game that can be played in a reasonable amount of time.

The game has been streamlined generously, on our second game when everyone knew the rules and we just setup and played, we finished a very tense and very exciting game in a little over 3 hours which is at least half the time it would take to play Twilight Imperium if I’m being generous (probably more like 1/3rd of the time).

More than that though the game just had a rhythm that worked.  Turns were fast, there was always some action on the board each round, the game felt tight and uncertain and you really had to take some gambles in response to other players’ activities.  There is a lot of tension in this game, you can’t sit on your butt and just build-up, you have to act; the game feels, because it is, extremely short.  It was just a really fun and exciting game.

There is a lot more I want to say about this game, but I’m saving that juice for the big 4x article I’m working on, so for now I will just say that all the accolades this game has received over the last couple of years is well deserved, this is a really great 4x formula that delivers on the promise of a shorter yet very robust 4x empire building game. I don’t really remember the old game enough to specifically point out which changes made the difference here, but clearly, the game is a lot more streamlined that is for sure. Loved it, can’t wait to play it more!

Nidavellir by Grrre Games (2020)

Designer: Serge Laget

A curious little game about recruiting dwarves destined to fight a big dragon, though in practice it’s about creating a point-scoring engine driven by a competitive blind auction for point-scoring cards.  I honestly thought I would like it a lot less than I ultimately did as the rules were being explained to me, but the game is very short and quite clever, it was a nice distraction and worked well with 3-players which was our player count at the moment it hit the table.

Very nicely published for a game this simple with great components and pretty art.  I think this would make for a really good family game with kids, this is a concept anyone can pick up instantly and it demands a bit of math which is a good way to sneak in some education for the youngsters.

At a table full of veteran gamers it was quite well received, maybe a bit too robust to be called a filler, as it required some explanation with some of the specialty hero cards, but once you know the game I would be surprised if it took 3-4 players more than 30-45 minutes to play.

I liked it, if you’re looking for a light family game this is a really nice pick.

Star Wars Jabba’s Palace Love Letter & Lovecraft Letter

Designers: (Star Wars): Justin Kemppainen & Todd Michlitsch

Designers: (Lovecraft):  Vincent Dutrait, Kouji Ogata

We played not one but two different themed versions of Love Letter, both of which I found to be fun takes on an established classic.  Love Letter is a sort of take-that player elimination game where you attempt to knock out the players with various card effects to be the last man standing.  It’s a very simple game with a bit of deduction strategy and psychology playing into it.

The Star Wars Love Letter featured two different factions which played off each other a bit and included some special mission cards that created alternative winning conditions.


The Lovecraft one used an insane mechanic that worked similarly to factions (sane and insane) and had some alternative winning conditions to the standard love letter rules.

All and all both of these games were really fun just like the original Love Letter is.  Each had a unique thematic take on the concept, but ultimately these were just additional layers on a game that just works really well.  

I’m not a huge Lovecraft fan and I am a massive Star Wars fan, but if I had to choose between the two-themed versions I actually thought the sanity mechanic in Lovecraft letter worked a bit better.

Love Letter is a really great game and there are so many different themes for it, so you pretty much just pick a theme that speaks to you and buy that version.  There really isn’t much more to say about it, I have always really liked this game and having some fun themes like Star Wars and Lovecraft adds a bit of flavor.

I’ve never met a person that doesn’t like Love Letter, the only real downside to the game is that you really want at least 4 players, it loses a lot of its tension with 2 or 3 players.  No gamers collection is complete without Love Letter in it.

Smartphone Inc by Cosmodrome Games (2018)

Designer: Ivan Lashin

This little sleeper hit I think is one of the most underrated games on boardgamegeek.com, sitting in the 399 spot it’s practically criminal.  This is without question one of the most unique Euro’s I have played in years, it never disappoints.  Actually, I would argue if you are looking to become a board game designer, this is a must-play game because it proves that game designers are still coming up with original ideas despite the tens of thousands of games released each year.

In Smartphone you are running a mobile phone company, producing and selling phones on a global scale.  It’s a simple combination action selection and area control game with an economic twist, but the real brilliance of the game is how you define your actions.  Players have two, two-sided game boards which they must secretly layer over each other to determine what sorts of actions they will take during the execution phase of the game.  The rules here are simple, but this a brain teaser that will have you tearing your hair out and it’s absolutely brilliant.

I adore this game, don’t let the hipster on the cover distract you, this is a polished gem that exemplifies great game design.  It has a fantastic, albeit simple aesthetic which some might find a bit pedestrian but the level of streamlined play here is a real achievement in my opinion.

Don’t miss out on this one, games this original don’t come every day, this is a must-play, it will make you a believer! 

Tsuro by Calliope Games (2005)

Designer: Tom McMurchie

This one made an appearance last year and really my opinion on it has not changed in anyway so for posterity I just copied the same thing I wrote about it last year!

I’m not a huge abstract gamer, looking at my shelf I can count the number of games I have in this genre on one hand minus a few fingers, but every once in a while a game comes along that I find irresistible (I’m looking at you THE DUKE).

Tsuro however was not one of those games and though I really didn’t see anything particularly wrong with it as it was clever, simple and quick, exactly what you want an abstract game to be, it’s not the kind of game that floats my boat. It’s not an issue with the game, but rather just my general gaming preferences, in fact, I would argue that if you like abstract games, this would probably hit the spot just right. From what little I know of the genre, this game seems to have that puzzle element I think abstract gamers are looking for. When we played it I’m not joking when I say the game took about 10 minutes to complete multiple times, it was a very quick game.

Undaunted by Osprey Games (2019)

Designer: Trevor Benjamin & David Thompson

I liked this game quite a bit when I first played it a couple of years ago, but I haven’t seen it hit the table again until now and I have to wonder why not?  This two-player part tactical war game, part deck-building card game is elegant, pretty and fun.  It has great tension, a push-your-luck element, lots of little clever tricks you can pull and alternative strategies you can deploy.  All that wrapped up in a game that can’t possibly take more than 30 minutes a match to play once you know the rules.

There are different scenarios for the game and arguably some are a bit more lopsided than others but from what I have seen of the game, there aren’t any obvious flaws.

We played the Normandy variant which is the original game but today there is already an expansion for it (North Africa) and another on the way (Stalingrad).  I doubt that will be the end of it, this one has picked up something of a following and it’s no surprise to me, this is a really fun two-player game that borders on filler speed and simplicity while having a bit of meat on the bones.

I really loved this one, I definitely would like to see it hit the table more often, in fact, this weekend’s experience had me seriously considering adding it to my collection because while the theme is war, it runs like a fun two-player family game, something I can see myself playing with my daughter.

This is good old fashion fun gaming.

The King Is Dead by Osprey Games (2020)

Designer: Benoit Billion

Originally released in 2015, I picked up the 2nd edition of the game and packed it with me for the weekend, I thought it could act as a little filler and distraction as we knew going into the gaming weekend that we would be at 2 and 3-player counts for a part of the weekend and this was a strong recommendation as a 3 player game.  

This one has a bit of a Condottiere vibe which is one of my all-time favorite trick-taking card games, though The King Is Dead leans a bit less on card play mechanics and a bit more on being an area control game.  As a general premise however this is a game of strategic maneuvering, the whole thing is basically a brain-teasing puzzle where you are trying to arrange control cubes to favor your own position with limited card play.

It’s a really quick and straightforward game but like Condottiere it relies a lot on the psychology of the players and trying to predict what people will do while thinking several moves ahead.  It’s very clean and fun, and easy to understand.  I like it quite a bit but Condottiere is in no danger of being replaced in this kind of funny sub-genre of games.

A fun little distraction, not sure it’s a full recommendation because honestly if I was going to recommend a game of this type I think I would argue for Condottiere over this one.

Star Trek Fleet Captains by Wizkids (2011)

Designer: Mike Elliott, Bryan Kinsella, Ethan Pasternack

I’m a huge Trekkie, always have been, always will be so Star Trek Fleet Captains is a game very close to my heart.  I did a review for Star Trek Fleet Captains back in 2015 and I have not changed my mind about this one in the slightest.

This IS Star Trek in a box and very much like War of The Rings or Star Wars Rebellion, this is a game all about the theme which it nails with perfection.  

While the game can be played with 3 or 4 players using the expansions (Romulans & Dominion) both of which I have, ideally this is a 2 player game which is how we played it this weekend.  It’s a game that is part adventure game, part ship-to-ship battles and part sort of a bit of everything else.  You fly around with your little Star Trek ships, you play cards to add crew and equipment onto your ships, you have encounters and eventually, you scrape phasers and shields against your opponent.  It’s all very … Star Trekie.

A big part of the appeal in Star Trek Fleet Captains is that they went to extreme lengths to include the most iconic elements of the tv shows and movies into the game via various mechanics.  Every time you pick up a card, if you’re a Trekkie like me, you immediately connect the card to an episode of Star Trek be it the original or the next generation.  The cards themselves are all still photos from the shows and movies, which normally I would complain about but in this setting that actually works really well.

I’m not sure I would describe the game mechanics as “good”, in fact, arguably they could probably use some work and the components for this game given its price are pretty flimsy, but I know of no other game that embodies the Star Trek experience like Star Trek Fleet Captains.  It’s a nostalgia-fueled trip into one of my favorite tv series of all time and I love that about playing this game.

This one has been out of print for quite a while and the re-sell value on it is a bit extreme likely putting you back 250-300 dollars to get the game and all three expansions.  My recommendation is that you only do it if you are a crazed fan like me, this is nothing to dabble into unless you love Star Trek madly!  If you do, however, this is the single best Star Trek game ever made, hands down!

Conclusion

What can you possibly complain about after a 4 day board gaming weekend with your best buds, limitless beer and top-notch BBQ? It was an amazing weekend filled with awesome gaming, I can’t wait until next year.

That said to me there were a couple of omissions that require a minor complaint.

This year Game of Thrones the board game did not make an appearance and it was sorely missed. Some of my favorite memories of these big board gaming weekends is playing a massive 5 or 6-player Game of Thrones. Unfortunately, we spent the majority of the weekend in a 4 player group and there just was no opportunity to get it to the table. It was really too bad.

I also felt the absence of The Sheriff of Nottingham. This game has appeared in the Hassela super weekend several times and it’s always a hilarious blast. When my friends get this game on the table the ridiculousness of our outrageous humor has no boundaries and I’m usually laughing until my face hurts.

Well that is it for this year super board gaming event, see you next year!

Best of List, Board Game Reviews

On The Table Extra: Vacation Gaming

Every year in early March my extended family and I take a trip up to the Swedish ski slopes for a week of fun in the snow. Naturally, there’s a lot of downtime in the evenings so we play a lot of board games, in fact, I pack up as much as I can carry and despite bringing a considerable selection we manage to play through everything every year, this year was no different.

Texas Hold’em

Texas Hold’Em is the modern and most popular poker variant in the world, yet it is generally not considered part of the board gaming sphere which I find rather odd as it’s an awesome card game.

Some might not count Texas Hold’em as a game belonging to the world of board gaming but I beg to differ. If Texas Hold’em didn’t exist as a game for gamblers today and was packaged up as a family card game I predict it would be a smash hit.

It certainly is with my family, playing poker is a long-standing tradition and while we never play for money, the games are no less competitive and intense.

For those that have never played, Texas Hold’em is a unique member of the poker family mainly because the game is as much about the cards as it is about the betting and psychology of the game. Most hands of Hold’em are won and lost without cards ever shown. We have 4 kids between the ages of 10 to 17 in the family and they take their poker pretty seriously creating what is without a doubt the most competitive game of the week. This year the kids really showed us some serious skill taking the old dogs down with ease, clearly, we need to step up our game.

Hero Realms

Hero Realms takes the very basic premise of dynamic deck building and turns it into a dueling game with a fantasy twist, in my eyes a perfect combination.

Hero Realms is typically played two-player and it’s a fine game for that purpose but in our family, a free for all 4-6 player mega game is the way we do it and while it can go a bit long and there’s player elimination, this cut-throat competition brings with it various negotiations, alliances and betrayal which the kids love!

Hero Realms is a deck-building card game based loosely on the Dominion concept. The twist here is that each player gets a fantasy character (Thief, Wizard, Fighter etc..) represented by cards in a 10 card deck. In the center of the table are an additional 5 cards always available for purchase into your deck. As players take their turn they play cards from their hand, which include gold cards allowing them to purchase more cards for their deck. As play goes on players build up their decks with bigger and bigger plays possible. Anyone can attack anyone on their turn and so the game is as much about surviving as it is about looking threatening and negotiating to keep people from attacking you.

In the end it’s complete chaos, eventually, someone makes a big attack, that triggers rivalries and the game devolves into an all-out war until there is one hero left standing to proclaim victory.

This is a really fun game, it’s actually a variant on a science-fiction version of the game called Star Realms. It’s easy to teach and learn, while there is some reading required, there is really good iconography for the game that the younger kids pick up on really quickly so no major trouble getting the younger crowd into this one. I would not call it a deeply strategic game, but there is a lot to the deck-building concept, so which card you buy is a key decision point and how you build your deck will ultimately determine how well you combo when it’s your turn to play cards. Like Dominion, it’s all about keeping your deck lean and effective.

Twilight Struggle

There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that Twilight Struggle is THE finest representative in board gaming that creates a bridge between historical wargaming and the rest of the board gaming market. It’s a bonafide cross-over hit.

This classic cold war card game was for a time a major obsession for me, but it’s really difficult for experienced players like me to bring a new player up to speed to a point where they can be a challenging opponent because of how card knowledge in the game is such a huge advantage.

Thankfully over the last couple of years, I have been slowly but surely training my brother in law and whenever we do family trips like this, TS comes with us and we play a few rounds. He is not quite far along enough yet to beat me, but I offer him a fairly sizable handicap, and it’s starting to click for him. I think a few more games and he is going to be ready to play without the training wheels. My hope is that this will be one of those games the two of us can play together into our retirement years.

Unless you have been living under a board gaming rock, you know what Twilight Struggle is at least by name, but what I think most boardgames miss is that while this game is a historical board game, some might even call it a war game, it does not really fall into the standard historical war game formula. It really is just a great two-player strategy game and I would definitely recommend it for people who are not into historical wars. TS definitely transcends beyond its roots as the designers intended and while I will still argue that Imperial Struggle, the designers follow up to Twilight Struggle is a much better game, it does not cross over as easily as TS does.

One of the best games ever made in my opinion, an unquestionable classic and a fantastic gateway game into the larger world of historical card-driven games from which there are many fantastic titles to choose from.

Endeavor: Age of Sail

The more I play it the more I like it. This game is quickly becoming one of my favorite Euro-style games thanks in big part to its big board game feel in a very reasonable time frame.

This game comes in a big box and has a lot of pieces so I was quite hesitant to bring it with me, but my daughter insisted as she loves this game so I hauled this beast with me despite protests from the wife.

In the end, it turned out to be well worth it. The thing about Endeavor is that it has this great “big board game” feel and table presence but is actually a relatively short and simple game. It looks kind of intimidating and complex but once you understand the basic flow of a turn, it’s very easy to connect the rules to the strategy and players are typically off and running after a round or two. We had an age range between 12-50 and everyone picked it up very easily.

There are many deep and meaningful choices in the game, it’s a bit of a race to victory points, with resource management and much of the strategy is about well-timed execution of the five different actions you can take in a turn. What I find really interesting about this game is that it plays really well at all player counts including 2 player games, but the strategies that work in the game change wildly depending on how many players you have at the table. It’s a very dynamic setup for the game as well so you end up having to “re-think” your approach each time you play.

The version of the game I have is the new deluxe version which comes with a bunch of expansions we are yet to try, so far the base game has been more than enough for us.

This is a great family game having as many if not fewer rules than RISK or Monopoly, but a far more robust and interesting execution. I think my favorite aspect of Endeavor is how it works with a wide range of gaming groups, casual to veterans, it always finds its audience.

King of Tokyo

This silly dice chucker never stops impressing me with its uncanny ability to turn anyone into a fan.

Between the cartoon art style, the giant monster theme and the Yahtzee style gameplay, to me this is the perfect family game. The rules fit on a napkin and while there is some strategy this is a game of pushing your luck with dice which works really well with the casual crowd, yet makes for a great filler for more seasoned gamers.

It’s a pretty simple concept, you select one classic Japanese-themed monster like King Kong or Godzilla for example and you try to proclaim control over Tokyo in what is essentially a king of the hill game, as you fight all of the other big monsters in the game. You roll dice to do damage, build up energy to purchase special ability cards and simply try to last on the hill as long as you can to score points.

I always say that for every classic old-school game there is a modern replacement that is much better. In the case of King of Tokyo, it totally replaces Yahtzee for that light-hearted simple dice chucker.

A really fun game that produces a lot of big moments that had everyone cheering.

Sheriff of Nottingham

A party game for gamers that will have you in stitches, it has never let me down.

We played this one multiple times during our vacation, it was without question the big hit of the week.

Sheriff of Nottingham is closer to an “activity” than a game as the premise is quite simple. Each player draws six commodity cards (Chickens, Cheese, Bread etc..) at the start of each round and slips any amount of cards into a hidden baggy. One player is the Sherrif each round and that player must decide to either open (inspect) the baggy or allow it to pass through. The trick is that players can lie about what they are trying to get past the Sherrif and there are various “illegal” goods that are worth more than the legal ones. Things like Crossbows and Alchemic potions.

Players can bribe, make promises and deals, pretty much anything goes, but if the Sherrif catches you on a lie and inspects the bag, you have to pay a penalty. If the Sherrif opens the bag and you were telling the truth, the Sherrif must pay you a fee in addition to you getting to pass through with your goods for additional scoring at the end of the game.

Each player gets a turn at being Sherrif and whoever manages to get the most goods through (legal and illegal) wins the game. Typically games are won by the player that manages to get the most illegal goods past the Sherrif so there is a lot of motivation to lie, but if you get caught too often you aren’t likely to win, nor will you win if you inspect too many legal commodities.

The entire premise of the game is about social interaction and while there might be some strategy here, the game is rarely played with that approach. Most players naturally take to the psychology of the game and try to trick each other into opening or not opening the baggies as the case may be.

This game produces a lot of silly moments and when we play it, most of the game is spent hysterically laughing the entire time. It’s an absolute blast and works really well with pretty much any group, cocktails are recommended while playing this one!

We play this one at our summer gaming weekend retreat as well which is made up of many serious veteran gamers and this is usually a major hit there as well so this is one of those games that just always hits well with any sort of group which is why it comes so highly recommended by me.

Seven Wonders

I actually think it’s a great game and tend to agree with the general consensus about that, but personally, every table I introduce this to seems to shrug its soldiers with an audible “meh”.

Seven Wonders is a game about card selection and has been a highly rated game for years. This one didn’t hit that well with our little family gaming group and I have had trouble with it in the past as well with other groups.

I think it’s a great game and highly rated for good reason but it’s one of those games that doesn’t make a great first impression for some reason. You have to play it a few times before things click and that can be a hard sell if after a first try if you are unimpressed.

Seven Wonders is a bit like a professional golfer playing golf left-handed for the first time. Everything is familiar and logical, but there is just something off about it and some might see that as a challenge worth pursuing, others just feel like it should work differently than it does.

I have personally always really liked it, but to quote my daughter “It’s like a crappy Seven Wonders Duel”, which I think is a fair assessment. Seven Wonders Duel is a kind of two-player version of Seven Wonders that came a few years after the release of this one and I agree with her of the two games Duel is a much more interesting and less “odd” version of the game. It’s for two players only, so there is that drawback and unlike Seven Wonders there are no expansions for Seven Wonders Duel which notably are rumored to improve Seven Wonders a great deal (I have never tried them). For me personally, I have never had much luck getting anyone excited, it has always landed a bit flat, but I actually do think it’s a pretty fun game.

There were a few other microgames we played including Albion: The Resistance, Coupe, For Rent and The Hand of the King, all great games in their own right but I have talked so many times about these staple games in my collection I will just leave it here as a list.

It was a great week for gaming and skiing, now I need a nap!