In an old strip mall that has a bunch of dying shops that I have driven by numerous times during my fifty years of stomping around Littleton, there is a shop that has opened in the last ten years called Enchanted Grounds. I have known about it, but its non-descript sign and the closed blinds made me think that it was a dump that was biding its time until it would close down and another business would take its place. This was until I needed to find a place to finish up my Dungeons and Dragons campaign and somebody suggested that I check out this place. So I took a walk down the street to see if it would be a great place to finish up the campaign.
What I found there was one of those places that I had been looking for ever since I have gotten back into the board game hobby. It was a cozy little cafe with large tables where you could set up games for up to ten people if needed. There were plenty of tables too and when I asked if I would need a reservation for a table, they chuckled and said that this was not usually necessary. They also sold a fair amount of good games, books for various role playing games, miniatures for these games as well as the paint to make them your own.
What made it perfect was the coffee and small bites served by a delightful staff. I wouldn’t want to indulge in these during the nighttime, but during the day, it was the perfect way to jumpstart me on my way. There were many people there that were enjoying a coffee drink while playing a game, browsing for a new one, or just hanging out with their friends. It just showed me that I shouldn’t judge a place by its outside because when I walked inside, I instantly fell in love with the place. It will be a long time before I am able to make my way back there, but it is nice to know that it is there and has a big enough clientele that they will still be in business by the time I make my way back to the United States to enjoy it again.
I cannot claim to have come from the Pacific Northwest, but I have visited enough times to believe that it has now become a part of me. The natural beauty that this part of the world has to offer is unlike any other place in the world that I have seen. There are majestic rivers filled with salmon, elk wandering through the woods, foxes hiding in the plains, hawks flying over the wetlands, and even bear hiding up in the mountains. The place is a paradise for anyone who loves the outdoors. If only there was a way that I could bring that beauty to my table in the form of a board game. Luckily, there is the 2022 Spiel de Jahres award winning game, Cascadia, the perfect way to be transported back to the Pacific Northwest
THEME
Building a wilderness in the Pacific Northwest and populating it with animals does not sound like it would sing very well as a board game. It would feel like just something that was plastered on a game with good mechanics, but I think it was the other way around. The five environments in this game as places that are easily spotted all over Oregon and Washington, and the care given to the animals and their placement also lends itself to the care of understanding these balanced ecosystems. The ways the bears, foxes, elk, and hawks interact with their environments work very similar to how they would in real life. The animal, salmon, is the one that does not always seem to work the way that they should. Granted they do create salmon runs, but this does not always make sense when they appear in plains or mountains. Every time I have played with new people, they have questioned this choice. It is the one small hiccup in an otherwise beautifully planned theme to this game, and it is quickly forgotten once game play begins.
Rating – 9
GAMEPLAY
I love the teach of this game. It is really simple, giving people only four choices per turn. In front of them there are four environments paired up with a type of animal. They pick one of the pairs, and add it to their environment. In the course of the game, they are trying to create bigger environments because they will get points for each of the five types of environments based on how many hexagons they have connected. They will also try to place animals on those overall landscape in certain ways that will also collect a certain amount of points. If they place an animal on a single environment place, they earn a pinecone that also collects points, or the pinecones can be used for special powers during the pick phase that allows a player more options of what they can grab. That is basically all you need to know in order to play the game.
I know it sounds simple, but the choices become tough to make while playing the game. The strategy of what you want to do and when is more complicated then you think. The game also comes with four sets of cards that change how the animal placements score, allowing a fresh perspective on the game if you get tired of the base set. The game gets more complicated with each level, and I would even suspect that you could pick out cards at random to play the various animals if you wanted to mix it up even further. It just makes the replay-ability of the game nearly limitless, and it would take a lot to ever get tired of all this box has to offer.
Rating – 10
ARTWORK
It did not take long to find an artist to add a little flavor to this game. Randy Flynn, the game’s designer, did not even have to look outside of the Pacific Northwest. He was able to find the renowned artist who had created the artwork for games such as Viticulture, Calico, and Wingspan. Her ability to capture the true essence of nature shines in this game. The depictions of all of the animals is absolutely gorgeous, and adds to the gameplay. Also when you eventually build your landscape in front of you, it looks like you looking down at Central Oregon from a plane. There is a nice balance between the five landscapes so one of them does not dominate over another, and when you add the animals, the colors really pop. It does take a game or two to be able to distinguish between the mountains, and the water environments, but besides that, the game is beautiful.
Rating – 9
INTERACTIVITY
This game is what I refer to as a zen game. There is a central portion of the game play area where people make their selection, and whatever you chose is added to a grid that is set up in front of you. When playing the game, you spend more time making decisions that effect nobody more than you, and the pretty design that you create in front of you is created for your own benefit. There is not much interaction with the other players except when you pick your tile and animal. Sometimes people will pick the combination that you wanted because they also wanted the same thing, and sometimes you will pick something because it will prevent somebody else from doing something really spectacular. Otherwise, most of the game is spent designing your own little part of the Pacific Northwest, and rarely do you pay attention to what somebody else is doing. There is a little bit of interaction when you tally up all of the points at the end of the game, especially when looking at the different environments. Some people will gain bonuses for having the biggest of each of the environments, but that still does not have a huge impact on how you play the game. Overall, it is the perfect game for those that do not like to be mean to other people, and most of the interaction of the game is spent enjoying each others’ company.
Rating – 7
EXPANSIONS
The reason that many expansions exist is because people want to breathe life back into a game that have loved but have grown tired of. A good expansion won’t just add new cards or extra places at the table; instead, it will add new mechanics that reminds people why they fell in love with the game in the first place. Landmarks is this kind of expansion. There are now chunky landmark tokens that can add to your board that will allow you to collect a bonus card that gives you another challenge to go after. It complicates the game a little bit, but not enough to make it confusing to anyone who has become familiar with the gameplay already.
Even with this new mechanic, it also adds new animal cards, new tiles, and allows for up to six players to enjoy the game at one time. So it not only adds new mechanics, but it gives you that little bit of extra that you want in an expansion, and it is easily one of the best expansions ever introduced to a game.
Rating – 10
OVERALL
Cascadia has become a regular at my game table, and it is easy to bring new people in to enjoy it because the rules are easy to understand but the strategy is deeper than expected. It has a beautiful table presence, and the initial box has enough of differences in it to make it replay-able without it ever getting boring. Even if it does start to get a little boring, the Landmarks expansion is the perfect addition to bring back the joy that you had when you started playing it in the first place. It is easy to see why it won the Spiel de Jahres award, and it should be a part of everybody’s board game collection because it is a very fun game.
It was another great year of traveling the world, and reading excellent pieces of literature. Combine this with a full time job, and you would think that I would not have enough time for another hobby, but I enjoy nothing more than sitting down with a group of friends to play a game. I have been extremely lucky in this capacity for I was able to play 72 different games over the course of the year. I have taken that list of games, ran them through the Pub Meeple engine in order to put together this list of what I consider the 20 best games I have played this year. Here is what I think those games to be, and how their position has changed from the list last year:
20. Scythe (Down 2)
This is an amazing area control, economic game set in a post-World War I landscape in Eastern Europe. The mechanics of this game are phenomenal, and it is one of the more complicated games to be found on this list. Because of its complication, it makes it hard to get to the table, and to find people who are willing to play it. It also takes at least a couple of hours to play a game. I enjoy the time that I get to play the game, but because of the limited times that I get to play it, it ranks lower on the list.
19. Smash Up (New)
This is a game that has been introduced to me a few time over the years. I usually play it once with the person that introduced it to me, and then I instantly forget about it. Well, I ended up purchasing the app this year, and I find myself drifting to it often. It can be frustrating at time with the powers that come with some of the factions that you can mash up together, but it also fun being that frustrating player that makes everybody’s life a nightmare during a game. I can see myself playing this more of the course of the next year.
18. Stone Age (New)
I don’t play many worker placement games, but this one has become one of my favorites. There are many ways that you can find those victory points to make it a fun puzzle to engage with. It also has just enough luck thrown in to make any game interesting enough to not now what will happen in the end. My favorite part is that you need to use two workers in the hut in order to make another worker. Thematically it works, and overall, it is just a fun game to play.
17. Unmatched (Down 13)
I know that this game markets itself that it can be played by up to four players, but it really sings when played by only two. The game has great asymmetric characters that are balanced well, and they keep on adding new characters are environments to bring new battles to life. It is my favorite chess match, and I am always excited to see what new characters they will bring out. I usually play it on the app, and I would love for them to add more characters through that medium, but I am still enjoying the twelve that can be found there.
16. Cascadia (New)
This was an impulse buy I picked up over the summer while hanging out in Oregon. Since I have gotten it, it has made it to the table on numerous occasions. It is relatively easy to teach, and it looks like it would be an easy game to master, but in fact, it has a great puzzle within its simple design. I also love the fact that it comes with different levels of the puzzle, so you can always challenge yourself with something a little more difficult. I can see this one moving up on the list in following years.
15. Pandemic (Down 1)
Easily one of the best cooperative games ever made, but it has one flaw with it. In order to play at the level that it is designed at, you need to have a group of people who understand the game enough and are willing to have those discussions that the game is designed to have. If you do not, what happens is that one person starts to quarterback, and it becomes just one person playing the game. I will admit it that I tend to become the quarterback, and my goal is to have fun not tell people what to do. Because of this, I usually play this game by myself, and it still brings me a lot of enjoyment as I try to save the world from various threats.
14. Dungeons and Dragons (Down 9)
Just like last year, I have to say that I know that this is not a board game, and some people will believe that it should not be on this list. To those people, I would say that any time I can get a group of friends together to laugh and enjoy the story that we unfold, it is considered a game. I am on the third year of this campaign, and it is starting to wind up. We have played together for so long together that we know each others’ characters and quirks so well that the role-playing aspect has taken over the general game play. It has been a fun group, and I will be sorry when we wrap up the story. I hope that I can find another group to play with next year that is as tight as this group. It is because of this that this game will always find a place on this list.
13. Raiders of the North Sea
I know that there are a lot of other Garphill Games out there that people are always talking about, and I start every new year vowing that I will try another one of them, but then the year passes and the only one I have played is Raiders of the North Sea. I have not even played any of the numerous expansions that can make this game a more complicated one. Despite this, I still love playing this game. I got the digital version of it to play while traveling through Iceland, and now every time I play it, I am reminded of that trip. It is a great worker placement game, and I can only see the playing of a different Garphill Game getting me to move it off of this list.
12. Castles of Burgundy (New)
I know many people have this game as their top spot on their favorite games of all time, so I made the effort to try it out this year. I can see why this gets that distinction from so many people; it is a great game with mechanics that I have never seen anywhere else. It is having a little bit of a revival at this time because of a new edition that has come out which makes the game look spectacular, but the original game is just as good. The long game play makes it hard to get to the table at times, but it is always a joy when it happens.
11. Arkham Horror: The Card Game (Up 4)
I had heard that it was a great game to play with people but most people liked to play it solo. There was going to be a lot of times when I would be by myself, and I wanted a good solo experience for those lonely nights, so I picked this game up. I am glad I did. It has many different scenarios that you can play through and each of them have their own little challenge with the same rule set. The scenarios are even fun to play through more than once as the outcomes change as you go through them. This is one that will always be on my shelf, and I can’t wait to play through more stories as they come out.
10. Long Shot (New)
I bought this game for a trip that I was going to take with a group of friends, and then we didn’t go on that trip. I had this game that was supposed to be great for bigger groups of people, and now I could only play it with my wife at my house, so I needed to find a bigger group of people to play it with. This is when I brought it to the pub, and I found that group quickly. This became the game that I would always bring to the pub, and it really started to shine when we played it with eight people. I love this game, and I love how the final race becomes a crazy race that nobody knows who is going to win. It is always a hit, and I have found very few people who have not enjoyed it.
9. The Crew: The Quest for Planet Nine (Up 1)
I will lump both of the Crew games together because they work off of the same mechanic, and I am still surprised how collaborative a trick taking game can be. Last year I included the Deep Sea Nine edition of the game which I do believe is slightly better. This year I hopped back to the original, The Quest for Planet Nine, because I have been playing it more often with the groupI have played with for four years, and we are at the 43rd mission. We hope to finish it in the next couple of months, and I have no idea what type of feeling that will give me. This is a great game, and it is easy to bring to the table because once people get into its addictive nature, it ends up getting played all night long.
8. Everdell (Down 1)
Everdell will always hold a special place in my heart. It was 2020, and we were stuck in our house. We needed something to do or we were going to go crazy. I had done some research on modern board games, and I had discovered this one. It was a new way of thinking about games for me, so I picked up a copy of it. Instantly, it became the thing that we did during the long evenings to help us make it through the pandemic. We might have overplayed it, and it sat on the shelf more lately than it has in the past. Still, we bring it out, and I am quickly reminded of it brilliance, especially when you add an expansion or two. It is the game that got me back into the board game hobby, and I will always appreciate the way it helped me through a difficult time of my life.
7. Oath: Chronicles of Empire and Exile (Down 4)
This is not a game for everybody. The rules are expansive, and it is hard to teach people how to play the game because of it. There is also the problem of the game evolving after each play as the cards change, thereby, changing the way the game is played. But I have been lucky to find a group of people to play with that is enjoying the history that we are creating with the board. When the moment of that history is dramatic, and the group is adding to creating that history, this game really sings. It is hard to get the group together to play, but it is fun every time I am able to make it happen.
6. Clank! In! Space! (New)
I know that this list does not reflect the fact that I have been getting into deck-building lately, but one deck-building game stood head and shoulders above all the others that I played this year, Clank! In! Space! I loved the way the game combines this famous mechanic with a push your luck element. I was lucky enough to play this version of the game as well as the original Clank! Both are great games, but I do like the space version better. The deck of cards is more diverse, and allows for more fun combinations. Still, if you only have the opportunity to play the original, it will still be a lot of fun.
5. Eldritch Horror (Up 3)
This game is Pandemic on steroids with a better story it tells. It is a lot more complicated than Pandemic, and a game of Eldritch Horror is an epic adventure with twists and turns as you try to save the world from a Lovecraftian apocalypse. I have been able to move beyond the base game to play a couple of the expansions to this game, and it makes the game a lot tougher, but also a greater story. I do not mind if I lose against the game because it turns the story into this amazing tragedy that would be worthy of the big screen. It is not a game for everybody, but I will happy join in whenever it is being offered up to play.
4. Imperial Assault (Up 2)
I have always enjoyed this game, but I have always had a hard time finding people to complete the campaign with me. That changed this year. I now have a group, and we are halfway through the campaign. It is fun to see how the characters get more powerful as you move you way through it, and the scenarios are nicely balanced. It also creates a nice story in a light RPG setting that does not rely to heavily on the rules. I am excited to see how it will all end as a couple of the main baddies have already popped up, and there are a couple more exciting adventures planned. The goal is to finish on May the 4th, and I know that it will not disappoint.
3. Root (Up 6)
This is an amazing game and I am starting to feel comfortable playing two of the factions, the Eyrie, and the Marquis. I still struggle how to make the other two work in the base game, and I know that there are other factions out there just waiting to be learned. I love how well researched each faction is, and how well they balance each other out. Any game of Root is up for grabs just as long as the people playing know how to play. That is the biggest problem with this game. The learning curve is so high that getting it to the table with people who know how to play is almost impossible. But it is such a good game that when you find those people who know how to play, it becomes one of the best games you will ever play. As I learn more about this game, I can see it taking over the number one spot eventually, but for now, it will reside happily right here.
2. Isle of Sky
This is still one of my favorite games to get to the table. I always keep a bottle of scotch on hand so when it does get to the table we can play it the way that it is meant to play. I still have not gotten bored of the base game even though I have the big box version of it with all of the expansions available to me, but still the variance that happens with the base game makes me happy. It also moves at a nice pace, so there is always something to do as the game progresses. And if it ever slows down, there is always the scotch to take a sip off of.
1 Chinatown
I know that there are a lot of board game enthusiasts out there who will be surprised by this pick with all of the problems that come along with this game. It has been repackaged three times, and they still have not taken away the obvious prejudice on the board, and it would take a quick reskinning of the game to solve this problem. From my understanding, this has happened with the game, Waterfall Park, but I have not been able to play this version of the game. Until I do, I will still play this game. I never laugh so hard when playing this game, and I never end up winning. The rules are so simple, but the game play is so intense that it makes it easy to get to the table, and most people who love the act of negotiation love to play this game. I will have to hunt down that new version of the game to see if I can get over the problems that come with this game so I can continue to enjoy it guilt free. Otherwise, I still think it is too good of a game to ignore completely.
The ancient gods have laid dormant for thousands of years, and have almost fallen away to mythology. This has not stopped cultists, and depraved individuals from finding ways to bring them back. Because of this blind ambition, strange things have been happening around the small New England town of Arkham, and it is your job as an investigator to get to the bottom of the mystery. During your journey, you will be subjected to terrors long regulated to the darkest nightmares while battling ghouls, ghosts, and acolytes. It is a story that can only be told by the likes of H.P. Lovecraft, and Fantasy Flight’s living card game, Arkham Horror, The Card Game.
Fantasy Flight has made a few living card games, but this has been one of the more popular ones since its release in 2016. You will need to core set to play the game, and it does come with a campaign of three scenarios, but there are plenty of other scenarios available to play with the most recent one scheduled to drop in May of 2024. Does this marketing tool allow for the game to never get old? Does the Lovecraftian theme shine through? Is it a great game to play with a group of people? Does it tell a great story?
These questions are the same ones that I asked myself before I took the dive into this game, and I am here to tell you what I found out when I took that plunge.
THEME
This game drips with atmosphere. When you play, you feel completely immersed into the world of H.P. Lovecraft. It tells an amazing story full of twists and turns that will have you guessing the whole time, and overcoming the strangest encounter that only the genius of horror could have concocted. It will leave you on the edge of the mythos, not giving you all of the details, but just enough to make you wonder more about what is going on. The stories are pretty linear, especially in the core set, that only allow you one path through. Still, like all great stories, they are ones that you want to revisit to see if you can be more successful the second or third time around. Also, if you find it a little too easy, there are ways to make the experience more difficult, thereby making the story just a little darker. When I play I like to turn the lights down low and add a couple of candles to add a little extra punch to the experience. It absolutely the strength of the game, and it is the reason I keep coming back to it.
Rating – 10
GAMEPLAY
I should have been worried when I opened up the box, and saw two rule books and a campaign book. Based on other Fantasy Flight games that I have played, I should have known that there would be an intricate dance to be played with the rules of this game. Considering it is a card game, I thought that the rules would be intuitive and I would be able to easily pick them up by reading what was on the cards. This was not the case. The first game I played was spent a lot of the time combing through both of the game books to figure out what I was supposed to do. It took away from the experience of the story that I was playing through, and made the game a little frustrating to play.
With that in mind, I am glad I stuck with it. Though the rules can be a little fiddly, once I was able to figure them out, it added even more to the experience of playing this game. There is a little bit of a deck building aspect to the game, and each character that you can chose to go through the story has different attributes to help you either go through it. Some of the cards are really powerful, and each player has weaknesses that add the problems that are encountered throughout the story. Dice are also not used, but there is a bag with a variety of chips in it that can change the difficulty of the game, depending on how much of a horror experience you would like to have. I also love the make-shift game board that is created by cards, and the little book that is created by the story cards. It makes for the perfect Lovecraft experience.
However, like a good Lovecraft story, do not expect things to go well for your characters. This game is hard to win any of the scenarios that come in the core box. There is an easy challenge to the game if you need to win, but even on the regular setting, it is a challenge. This just adds to the atmosphere of the game, and there are rules presented by the game that takes into account that you characters will either die or go insane. Still, it is set up to make for a great gameplay when you eventually get into the flow of the game.
Rating – 8
ARTWORK
Like all Fantasy Flight games, great care has been taken to create atmosphere through the artwork. There is an overall consistency that comes with the artwork that is presented on the cards. It allows you to immerse yourself into the 1920s and the fictional town of Arkham. Granted, none of these pieces that you find on the various cards and books would be something that I would like to frame and hang on a wall, but I can still see that time and thought went into each painting. It comes from a place of love not just for the game, but for the source material as well.Though I do not appreciate that the beasts, and monsters that are encountered during a session of the game are drawn out, not leaving much to the imagination, it still adds a lot to the game. This would not have been the way that H.P. Lovecraft would have presented these creatures of ancient lore. Instead, he would have hinted at their presence and would have let you come up with the idea that would terrify you the most. As soon as you see the creature, it is no longer frightening. I know that does not work the same for a game as it does for literature, still the creators of this game left just enough mystery in the story to allow the feeling of reading one of his stories to seep through the experience that you get to have with the game.
Rating – 9
INTERACTIVITY
Most of the time, I like to play games because it is a way to connect with people and create a shared experience. That is not why I bought this game. I knew that there was going to be a time when I would be by myself at my home, and I was looking for something that would scratch that board game itch while also still allowing me to play myself. After doing a lot of research, I found out that this was always mentioned as one of the best solo board games out there. I thought that this would be the perfect one to pick up for myself. After playing it a few times by myself, I was starting to understand why people thought this way. It is like nestling up with a good horror story and watching it unfold in front of you while still having some choice in the overall ending of the story.
Still, the game is marketed as a game of one to four players. I was able to pull it out a couple of times to see how it plays with these higher player counts, and the problems with the rules start to surface even though I tried to explain all of the rules before we got started. There is a lot of different rules in this game, and the struggle I had during my first couple of plays was also there when I played with friends. We spent more time combing through the rule book rather than enjoying the story that was playing out in front of us. Still, after we got a hang of the game, the fun I was having while playing solo was able to be achieved with a group. It add a little bit more mystery to the game because I did not know what the other players were going to do when it was their turn, and the surprise of seeing cards being played that I had never seen before. The small decks that each player makes for the perfect environment for cooperative play. We were really able to talk through things to come up with the best course of action, and nobody ever ended up quarterbacking the game.
Still, like most cooperative games, I do think this game plays better solo even though this is one of the better cooperative games that I have come across.
Rating – 8
EXPANSIONS
As of the writing of this article, there are nine campaigns out there to expand this game as well as many stand alone scenarios. Each campaign opens up a new story with dark twists and turns, and new game mechanics designed for each terrifying tale. Some of the campaigns come with new investigators that you can add to the mix with older campaigns to add some twists to stories you might already be familiar with. They can cost just as much as the base set, and it is required to have the base set in order to play these other campaigns. At first, you had to be each scenario separately, but Fantasy Flight has since gathered up the stories that work together and put them in a single box, making it easier to collect a complete campaign.
Even with the ease that Fantasy Flight has made to experience another story in the realm of H.P. Lovecraft, there are two complaints that I believe I need to address at this time. The first being the cost. Each expansion is like going out and repurchasing the game. Though some of the expansions have great re-playability, it is sometimes hard to justify buying another expansion just so I can play the game again.
The other problem I have with the expansions is the packaging. I do believe that Fantasy Flight is in the process of fixing this problem by putting the expansions in smaller boxes, but there are some boxes out there that only a third of the space is used for the expansion. This seems like a little bit of overkill.
Despite these two flaws, the expansions are still a lot of fun to play. They always breathe new life into the game, and make it worth playing again.
Rating – 9
OVERALL
Arkham Horror, the Card Game is a great atmospheric game especially for those who enjoy the stories created by H.P. Lovecraft. It places you right in the middle of his universe, and you get to feel all of the horror and confusion that his tales created. The artwork helps to add to the atmosphere, and each scenario is fun to return to. I prefer playing by myself, but it is still fun with a group of people. Despite the rules being hard to understand the first time around, once you are able to figure them out, it makes for an enjoyable game experience. This is easily one of my favorite games, and I hope they continue to add content to it so I can find new ways to enjoy it.
John Collings 