One single batchelor talking about his passion for board games and the people who play them! I support small content creators and go against the status quo when it comes to the board game industry. I give my honest opinions without bias towards any publishers or designers and will not hold back if I don't like a game.
I look forward to engaging with you, the community on my live streams or in the comments on my videos!
Пікірлер
We did get Dawn of madness Finaly
Great summary, thank you!
Serious honest question: Why do people dedicate so much time to games they don't like? I know games meny people dislike and I love and viceversa. Can we agree on changing sentences like "This game is boring" to a more somewhat professional "I find it boring"? I think the ponit of listening each other is sharing our passion about the hobby, not ranting too much time about things we dislike. And this is not personal, I think this happens to most board game content creators.
Great cast, thx
Thank you so much for the Arachnophobic warning, you have saved my life!
"Inventions: Evolution of ideas" is a fantastic game. I like it more than On Mars and Kanban. The theme is not as easy to get as it is in other Lacerda games, but after a few games, you get it.
A good strong theme doesn't need 5+games to make itself clear to people.
"No sequels". Number 1 best game...... a sequel.
Black Forest is fundamentally different from Glass Road other than the dials. When I say sequel I'm talking more about say Tainted Grail and TG Kings of Ruin. They are different games but one is a direct sequel of the other.
Wonderful video, Luke! I am excited to get my pre-ordered copy of Windmill Valley, and you have put Black Forest on my radar. Cheers to you, good sir!!
I love Architects, Paladins, wayfarers and scholars, but passed on inventors. Inventors is too much for me and nothing in the playthrough appealed. I don’t want to learn another icon language.
It's been quite a disappointing year release wise. Highlights for me are expansions.. probably the forest shuffle and distilled cask strength expansions. Shipwrights easily worst 2024 game I've played this year.
My gripe with Merv is that it looks like a game where players can specialize in one of the sections of the board and it would be reasonably balanced, but it isn't, and the wall building event is boring, no one will ever suffer from that if playing marginally good.
Thank you for the overview! Slay the Spire knocked it out of the park for us :D - also we do quite enjoy Forest Shuffle with the mountain expansion as filler. Think many of your presented games are not yet released here. SETI really sounds interesting and triggers my inner physicist :D I do have two play groups - one prefers Wymspan, the other Wingspan or so they claim :P ... I just think of them as different games and do enjoy both with these groups :) ... Tastes can not be disputed I guess :D Otherwise Black Rose Wars, Primal, 7th Citadel and Deeprock Galactic 2nd Ed. are the most recent arrivals and will hopefully see play soonish. We do love crunchier co-op puzzle adventures ^^ Wish you many fun game rounds :D
So many good games, no, fantastic games from previous years that I haven't played yet, so being a slow half of a board game year does not look that bad to me!
An interesting concept for a video, though I think it went on too long. I'd suggest heavier editing. For an overview video such as this I don't know if we need so many detailed thoughts. Or perhaps separate videos for each category.
Really happy to hear that Black Forest is shaping up nicely!
Completely agree with Inventions. Huge disappointment.
The only ones I've got released from this year so far are Seaside and Fateflip: Washed Ashore. I agree about Wyrmspan, was disappointed they didn't make one about bats and other flying creatures.
Only got one game from 2024 and it was a KS: Primal the awakening, my first and probably last mini heavy game. Love it though. After that I just keep buying older 'proven' games usually and even that has slowed dramatically. This year I got: Whitehall mystery, Long shot the dice game, Ashes Reborn and the loop.
I bought Dune: War for Arrakis in order to see if war games are for me. It turns out that they are, as this one is fantastic (and an actually thematic Dune game). Now I am looking forward to A Gest for Robin Hood to see if a 2 player COIN game can be for me as well.
Finally somebody said it ... "Wrymspan is Wingspan with extra fluff". Thank you good sir. Persoanlly if i am going to play a multiplayer solitair game i would rather play a streamlined game.
OMG! Sequel to Glass Road!!! How did I not hear of this before.... must pre-order! Love Uwe!
I kind of agree with you about Wyrmspan. Have played it about half a dozen times and that's probably enough. Will stick with Wingspan.
I bought Wyrmspan thinking that even though I love Wingspan, I have played it to death, and so a change of pace might revitalize the system... I will be keeping Wingspan.
Great video Luke! I think the worst thing I've played by far this year is Botany (I think it's just delivered to backers so far), I don't think you'd like it either Luke haha
For me, surprise game is Skyrise Delulxe (over produced but great game play), looking forward to Windmill Valley and unconscious minds. Big disappointment is Fractured Sky, but Inventions is a hit with us. Wyrmspan is a miss compared to Winspan. 🤠👍
Yeah, I liked Wyrmspan, but can’t disagree what You said here. Bird theme was better, art was better, etc. And definitely the book for Dragons is the most useless component ever 😅
When you play with the cards, you draw two, and then players get a choice of their own. It's not 100% random draws every turn.
6 Nimmt is a terrible game?! 😱
100% agree on your Wyrmspam-rant -- but unlike you I have NO interest in playing it. So -- everybody hyped about this BUT the 2 of us. Theme is terrible. How can this be better game-wise than Wingspan? The guild-track might be good, but I like the dice-birdfeeder. Love all these phantastic bird cards. (And unlike you - I even like the big box.)
Luke, I don't think that dune uprising is more combat-focused. If you have played it more enough, you will find that the cards are more powerful as well. You can win the game by going for other routes (influence track + spice must flow + other new ways to earn points) without going much into combat.
I look forward to learning more about Black Forest and SETI, maybe Civolution as well. Shame about Inventions, glad I did not back it.
The best (and only) game I've played that was released in the first half of 2024 is Salton Sea.
This post ran longer than I expected, sorry! I have to admit I find Inventions unnecessarily labyrinthine, and just *too* dry. At the end of the day the chain actions are just so... uncompelling, and that's pretty much all it is. There's just not enough there, and to me it feels like it has been deliberately designed to hide that fact(imo) in an arbitrarily tangled up mess of wires that exist purely to waste time. I think it's obtuse, and worse, I think it has been designed to be obtuse *on purpose* just so us fans can say "look how complex and therefore good it is." I've never gotten that impression from his games prior to Weather Machine, but that feeling is particularly strong here. I am really hoping and praying that the upcoming Speakeasy will be a thematic and mechanical "return to form." On a very surface level, it certainly looks that way, but I have to admit my patience at excess rules that seem to exist for the sake of existing (and I say that as someone that loves On Mars and everything that comes before it), with no interesting thematic justification is wearing thin. Both Weather Machine and Inventions are very guilty of this, and I'm getting a bit jaded with spending £150 to see the same recurring issues. I love Vital Lacerda designs in general but somehow Inventions comes out of the oven feeling simultaneously half-baked AND overdone. I guess that's quite an achievement?
Managing the challenge that Inventions offers, pretty much feels like cheating at a choose-your-own-adventure book: look ahead to the outcome or two (plus 'bonuses'/'bennies') that, at least appear to, have the highest "game-theoretic value" at that juncture, and then reverse-engineer the way to accomplish them. Not too much one can do to meaningfully affect other players' paths through the game either. I have to give credit for the analogy to a user who rated and reviewed Inventions (very low rating) at BGG.
Thank you for doing what you do. Even when I'm not into the games you're reviewing, I'm definitely squinting at your heavily-stocked shelves behind you for ideas 😆
Surprised not to see Leviathan Wilds on this list (aka Shadow of the Colossus the board game)
Not much for me in the games you mentionned. Was interested in Sankore because I really liked Merv but since it’s more complex and fiddly I will pass. I also will keep playing Wingspan.
Best new games I’ve played this year so far - Pampero, El Burro, 7th Citadel
Ohhhhh Pampero! Do tell!
Ive only played Donut Shot and Captain Flip. Donut Shop is nice, Captain Flip is forgettable. Ive heard good things about Cascadero.
well done as usual... explained well... good job
Wyrmspan for me improves Wingspan massively, I hate the feeder dice with a passion and balancing the action points in Wyrmspan is a fantastic improvement.
Oceania sorted out any flaws I had with normal Wingspan. The dice never really bothered me and for a light game, they fit just fine. I get that people want to minimise on the luck front but then you are still drawing dragons randomly anyway.
The Sankore mold stuff delaying actual delivery is going to significantly impact how it will do in 2024, if it even gets out by the end of the year. Still don't expect it to be great, but it'll likely be a 2025 disappointment for me.
Mold? Oh I missed that - ewww.
@@TheBrokenMeeple Yeah - that's what drove the publisher to delay the game out. The earliest delivered games had issues with mold in certain bags. Unsure if it's a replacement of those components or an entire reprint.
I could smell wymspan a mile away. you confirmed it.
It's staring us all in the face, but SM is a master of marketing!
I don't care about most Stonemaier stuff, even older ones, so I was ready to skip Wyrmspan. I'm glad I didn't though. The track that TheBrokenMeeple doesn't care about replaces the randomness of the dice tower. It also improved on running the same row over and over again by making such runs limited and more costly each time. If you want a more strategic Wingspan, this is it. (and I don't care about the theme anyway)
have you done a themless top 10 yet? must have.. would be a lot of roll & writes if it was me
If I have, it hasn't been for a long long while. It may be time to renew it.
so edgy Luke :P
Someone has to be! :P
I'm a huge Lacerda fan, but i tend to agree, a few of his games get very dry with crunchiness.
Just his recent stuff - I still adore the 4 I own.
@@TheBrokenMeeple which four they are ? just really curious
@@junyanliu3621 He has Kanban EV, The Gallerist, Lisboa, and Vinhos Deluxe Edition by Eagle Gryphon Games (although, a lot of people say the original 2010 rules version of Vinhos is better). I don't care about any of them, though.
@@coltonbeatty6117 I am surprised he does not have on mars.
@@junyanliu3621 I think he's said that On Mars, for him, is just too fiddly with special "and then" rules and such, and too burdensome for set-up, explanations for new players, etc. for its own good. But, I think he's said that it's not "bad". So there's that.
Now I have to play Windmill Valley. I do not see the hype, but as everyone is praising this game, I must miss something.
Same here. Nothing wowed me but it’s getting stellar reviews so far
I wouldn't go stellar, I mean I gave it a 7, 8 if you want to play solo, it's certainly a good game, but remember we've not had the best year so far.
My top three favorite new for 2024 games that I played so far (not necessarily in this order) are 1. Let's Go to Japan 2. Star Wars Unlimited and 3. Raising Robots.
I guess Raising Robots was 2024.........wouldn't make top 3 but it was fine, just took way too long and I'd rather just play Wingspan.
Unconscious mind is my first ever backed game since getting into the hobby and can't wait for it to arrive. Look forward to the review.
Hoping they'll give me an advance copy but i won't hold my breath.
Paul Grogan on Gaming Rules did an unboxing the other day, and I was pretty much salivating the whole time. Do want now please.
Yeah I saw that too. Fingers crossed you get that copy man.
I'm with you on Wyrmspan - that Wingspan is a fine game, whereas Wyrmspan changed the theme to something I could not care less about, has more complicated mechanisms, but no greater payoff. I'll stick to Wingspan and find out about real birds, rather than stare at made up dragons which definitely don't. Also with you on SETI; I spent most of Expo demoing it, and I'm very keen to acquire a copy and be able to play it properly. As for Lacerda games, I didn't like CO2 when it first came out, and everything since then has been worse. I'm still trying to decide if Windmill Valley is good, bad or indifferent. But a few games of it, then a switch to Lost Ruins of Arnak on BGA, reminds me that one of them makes my soul sing, and the other .... does not. I think it's the way that WV makes chaining actions so much like hard work, whereas it's really easy in Arnak. And yes, Black Forest is an auto-buy for me.
Some notable potential additions for best games released so far in 2024: - Ezra and Nehemiah (Garphill) - El Burro (Spielworxx) - Harmonies And for most anticipated: - Civolution (by Stefan Feld but NOT on Queen Games but on Deep Print Games)
I would try Ezra and I want to try Harmonies. Civolution...........not so much, it's a Feld. Why the publisher distinction?
@@TheBrokenMeeple Because Deep Print Games has some really good and experienced people behind it and it won’t hence be „just another Feld“ like his various games coming from the Queen Games serial production line (and are massively overpriced). It looked interesting to me but then I heard Paul Grogan singing the praises so I got very intrigued. And I like the fact that this is a civ game without some military confrontational elements (which I rarely like in civ games - I rather have a pure engine builder or a pure area control game. A mix between those rarely works well).
Civolution sounds like it will be a VERY different Feld game. We will see!