• Clever 4Ever is the first newer Clever game that I actually prefer over the original. Don’t see any exceptional deals on it but I thought I’d mention
• Spirit Island on Amazon for $44 is a decent price. Or Horizons of Spirit Island at $14.99 for a less expensive entry point.
• Tabletop Merchant has a bunch games on sale including Ark Nova which you might enjoy based on the Terraforming Mars like. The free-shipping threshold is pretty high but lots of good stuff to choose from and even their base prices tend to be decent
• Buttonshy has everything 25% off with the coupon code on that page
• Some other Amazon deals that are still live: Star Wars: The Deckbuilding Game $15, Cat in the Box $17, Carpe Diem $16, Beyond the Sun $44, Jekyll vs Hyde $12

I am very happy to see For Northwood doing so well. #36 is an amazing debut especially for such a small and unique little game.

No change in the top 3 but some interesting moves after that. Gloomhaven is out of the top 10 despite being bundled together with JotL and Frosthaven. Both Dune Imperium and Arnak have made big jumps. The LotR LCG has climbed a few spots. Ark Nova overtook Terraforming Mars. Cascadia continues its steady climb while Wingspan continues to slide.

Dice Tower is running their 12 Games of Christmas 2023 series too. 9 videos so far with 12 games each for various categories.

Is this a hit board game? The number of BGG ratings and rank (13648) don’t reflect that. Does it stand out in some way from the multitude of similar games?

How is the Bitoku expansion in terms of extra rules and table space? Are you planning to leave it in permanently? And the most important question, does it fit in the base box?

Darwin’s Journey - A nice combo-tastic euro with an interesting theme. Looks great on the table. Many familiar elements from other Italian-style euros and also a hint of Maracaibo. Left it on the table for a couple more plays and I might try the solo too later on. Minor regrets about not having the double-layered boards from the collector’s edition.

Sky Team - This is a really good 2p-only co-op. I first tried it on BGA and had to immediately order it and we played it on the table a few times since. Easy to learn rules and the box contains a lot of content to allow you to ramp up the difficulty. Highly recommended if you enjoy limited-communication co-ops (Hanabi etc) and dice placement.

Castellion - got in a few solo plays, it was nice coming back to it after a long break I enjoyed it a lot more this time and I finally gave the advanced mode a try.

Best: play games with them

Might be pricey and difficult but will almost certainly make them happy: find out what game they’ve been wanting to get but it’s hard to find or too pricey. But it will be hard to find and pricey for you too. Maybe they have “Wishlist” or “Want to trade” items on boardgamegeek.

If they also play online: annual Boardgamearena subscription. They have a way to gift a subscription but you have to make a (free) account for yourself and you have to know their username.

More practical, lower budget: If they play on a regular table (not a special boardgame table) then they might like a neoprene mat. Ideally it should be close to the dimensions of the table. Deckboxes and the accessories others are mentioning are always nice too. Upgrade bits for their favorite game (etsy has a ton of stuff too) or trays/card holders etc.

Istanbul: The Dice Game - A simple but solid dice based take on the original Istanbul. Like in the original you are racing to get 5 or 6 rubies and the rolled dice faces, saved up resources, upgrade tiles and card draws give you various ways to get there. Nice chunky dice.

Maul Peak - a new version of Skulk Hollow. Only one play so far but looking forward to exploring this further. Very nice production.

I never look at the Type and Category fields, my eyes are just not drawn there.

What I do look at all the time is the Mechanism field. That’s one of the first things I check when finding out about a game for the first time. I also use that field extensively in searches. It’s fun to do an advanced search for combinations of different mechanisms. For example what are some co-op trick-taking games besides Crew and Fox in the Forest Duet?

I like it a lot! We play at two and sometimes use a fan made variant that pre-populates some of spaces with a dummy color. This tightens up the game quite a bit. I love the way the game looks on the table and the tactility of the tiles. This is a game where the production elevates a good game into a great experience. I only wish that the cards were standard size for easier shuffling and handling.

I’ve been thinking about different ways we could draft at 2p. For example a Biblios style draft where each player draws 3 cards one at a time and has to keep one, give one to the opponent and place one into the bonus area. Or maybe just an open draft where we take turns picking from the current batch of face-up cards.

If anyone has the expansion I’d love to hear you experiences with that, especially at 2.

The great thing about Azul is that it works well at all player levels. For beginners it’s easy to teach, it has great table presence and you can have a lot of fun playing it completely casually. For experienced players it can turn into a cutthroat duel of probability calculations and mind games.

It’s on the heavier side of mid-weight but if you can get past the graphic design it plays fairly smoothly. If you have played other Italian euros then you will see many familiar elements it can just be difficult to mentally map things at first because of the theme and graphic design. This is one of the games that ended up being too thematic at the expense of approachability.

3 plays of Golem. It’s been a while so the first game needed a rules refresher but the following two went quite smoothly.

The golem tracks are a neat version of track-based income. Each round you have to distribute a certain amount of forward movement between your golems and their positions after this determine the type of actions they can trigger. They can also get out of control if you are not careful, you have various ways to deal with that.

The game also uses a version of stacked tableau building similar to how it works in Deus (or Lorenzo and Wingspan to some extent). Oh and I love the marble based action selection! It’s sort of like a smoother version of Grand Austria Hotel’s dice drafting. Overall it’s a cool game that is held back a bit by its graphic design.

We also played some Gingerbread House and Knarr, both are smooth comfort games for us.

99 Ninja (currently on ks) is one I’ve come across because I am a fan of Micro Dojo by the same publisher. They seem to share some art assets but different designers.

These look pretty good, I might give them a go, thanks!

Ah yeah, that’s what I meant by “click wheel”, I didn’t know what they are called. :) I think multiple increments (like score going up or down by 10) are a bit awkward with those, right?

A couple of plays of Red Cathedral. We tried the advanced side of the boards for the first time. Definitely the way to go. Minimal extra rules and adds some interesting decisions. I lost both games, I think I tend to stay too committed to early decisions that are not working out instead of adjusting my strategy. Trying to decide if I want the expansion for this one. Not sure if the game needs it and it doesn’t fit into the base box.

We tried the new Valley expansion for Renature. It’s just a new 2-sided board with a few mushroom tokens but it shakes up the game dramatically! The mushroom tokens let you change a green area into brown and hence join brown areas together which are then considered the same area for scoring purposes. I love how this lets you raise the stakes and manipulate the board state. The new board is double-sided and the two sides are significantly different too. Gotta be one of the most impactful and yet simple expansions out there, almost like a v2.0. I am losing at this one too but loving every minute of it :)

Right now I have Nautilion on the table. Simple solo (or 2p coop) fun. I am fairly new to it, still have to try all the included expansions.

I am hoping that the minis will be optional. The BGG page has a couple of prototype pictures that make me think that the game won’t require a giant box of plastic. No designer listed on BGG yet but the forum post mentions Chris Kingsworth as the designer. I believe he is a co-designer of Cosmoctopus. (He is not listed as such for some reason)

The problem in the clip is that Lois appears to be reading the rules for the first time as she is explaining them. It would go down much better if someone at the table actually knew the game. The person bringing the game should know it well enough to confidently teach it and should be able to judge if the rest of the group will enjoy it. For new games that means one person has to prepare beforehand.

There are exceptions, some groups might enjoy learning a game together for the first time but I wouldn’t risk it especially when time is limited.