boardgames

What is this?

This is a weekly crowdfunding roundup of new projects launched last week and projects that end the coming week.

Updates

Expect new lists every Sunday between 00:00 and 23:59 CEST on the following platforms:

Mastodon: @danielpervan

Discord: https://discord.gg/dN4P4PZcU9

Reddit: /r/boardgames

Selection criteria

The criteria for the lists are as follows:

Ending soon

• Sorted by number of backers

• Kickstarter projects ending in the next 7 days, that have at least 100 backers (or marked as "Project we love" by Kickstarter), will have reached more than estimated 95% of their goal by their deadline and passed the filters:

  • No DnD books

  • No zines

  • No 3D printing

  • No dice sets

  • No magazines

  • No shirts

  • No playmats

  • No furniture

  • No events

• Gamefound projects ending in the next 7 days, that will have reached more than estimated 95% of their goal by their deadline and passed the above filters.

• (beta) Backerkit Crowdfunding projects ending in the next 7 days, that will have reached more than estimated 95% of their goal by their deadline and have a matching BGG page.

Newly launched

• Sorted by number of backers

• Kickstarter projects launched in the last 7 days, that have had at least average 15 backers per day, have at least 100 backers or is marked as "Project we love" by Kickstarter and passed the filters (see above).

• Gamefound projects launched in the last 7 days and passed the filters (see above).

• (beta) Backerkit Crowdfunding projects launched in the last 7 days and have a matching BGG page.

Notable filtered projects

• Filtered projects from above lists that have more than 1000 backers.

Tags

🎉: Staff pick/featured

💰: Funded

🔥: More than average 200 backers/day

🌱: Creator's first project

🌳: Creator's >5th project

🔄: Money back guarantee (Read more)

FAQ

I live in Jamaica/Canada/Belize/USA, why are you posting on a Saturday?!

Because I'm writing this from Europe in the future where it's already Sunday. Timezones be crazy.

Why are there a bunch of non-board games in the board game list?

Because the Tabletop games category on Kickstarter includes anything remotely related to board games and sometimes things slip through my filters.

Why is this future award winning board game and literal saviour of humanity missing from your list?

Sometimes my filters get a bit overzealous and discard actually valid projects. If you feel something is missing for this reason, leave a comment and I'll add it (maybe).

Can I donate all my money to you?

No

Can you help me promote my game?

Please no. I make lists. Nothing more.

Your list is full of errors and now there's cheese dust all over my cards!

Indeed, this fine piece of code runs purely on Reddit karma, so anything can happen. Leave a comment and I'll see what I can do.

Ending soon (20)

New this week (23)

Notable filtered projects (2)

Hi

I'm playing with the idea of buying Red Strike by Vulca Simulations, I have friends that would be up for a few games. We all played Axis & Allies before, which is a bit easier than Red Strike as far as I see. I also plan to play it by my self (the scenarios look very interesting).

Any thoughts or experiences?

Only in March so far, but things are going well. Almost too well... It's a good twist on the classic. Anyone else played it?

What is this?

This is a weekly crowdfunding roundup of new projects launched last week and projects that end the coming week.

Updates

Expect new lists every Sunday between 00:00 and 23:59 CEST on the following platforms:

Mastodon: @danielpervan

Discord: https://discord.gg/dN4P4PZcU9

Reddit: /r/boardgames

Selection criteria

The criteria for the lists are as follows:

Ending soon

• Sorted by number of backers

• Kickstarter projects ending in the next 7 days, that have at least 100 backers (or marked as "Project we love" by Kickstarter), will have reached more than estimated 95% of their goal by their deadline and passed the filters:

  • No DnD books

  • No zines

  • No 3D printing

  • No dice sets

  • No magazines

  • No shirts

  • No playmats

  • No furniture

  • No events

• Gamefound projects ending in the next 7 days, that will have reached more than estimated 95% of their goal by their deadline and passed the above filters.

• (beta) Backerkit Crowdfunding projects ending in the next 7 days, that will have reached more than estimated 95% of their goal by their deadline and have a matching BGG page.

Newly launched

• Sorted by number of backers

• Kickstarter projects launched in the last 7 days, that have had at least average 15 backers per day, have at least 100 backers or is marked as "Project we love" by Kickstarter and passed the filters (see above).

• Gamefound projects launched in the last 7 days and passed the filters (see above).

• (beta) Backerkit Crowdfunding projects launched in the last 7 days and have a matching BGG page.

Notable filtered projects

• Filtered projects from above lists that have more than 1000 backers.

Tags

🎉: Staff pick/featured

💰: Funded

🔥: More than average 200 backers/day

🌱: Creator's first project

🌳: Creator's >5th project

🔄: Money back guarantee (Read more)

FAQ

I live in Jamaica/Canada/Honduras/USA, why are you posting on a Saturday?!

Because I'm writing this from Europe in the future where it's already Sunday. Timezones be crazy.

Why are there a bunch of non-board games in the board game list?

Because the Tabletop games category on Kickstarter includes anything remotely related to board games and sometimes things slip through my filters.

Why is this future award winning board game and literal saviour of humanity missing from your list?

Sometimes my filters get a bit overzealous and discard actually valid projects. If you feel something is missing for this reason, leave a comment and I'll add it (maybe).

Can I donate all my money to you?

No

Can you help me promote my game?

Please no. I make lists. Nothing more.

Your list is full of errors and now my energy bill is too high!

Indeed, this fine piece of code runs purely on luck, so anything can happen. Leave a comment and I'll see what I can do.

Ending soon (14)

New this week (16)

Notable filtered projects (3)

Tom, you’re an extraordinarily rare talent. You’re hilarious, insightful, and technically-minded in a way I’ve never been (don’t know if you noticed this). But more importantly, you’re hungrier and more passionate about board games than my decrepit ass. Part of knowing when to step back a little is knowing when it’s time to make room for the next generation, and it’s past time I do that.

Just Got My Basic Board Game Table, Where and What Accessories Can I Add?

I commissioned this very basic board game/dining table so there isn't much going on right now.

I was wondering if I could add something detachable on the sides like cup holders or card holders.

I was thinking to hire a 3D print service or maybe there are ready-made stuff out there that I could buy instead.

I'm very excited to play on this table.

pics of the table

I found this channel when looking up how to play FlameCraft. Now I always check to see if he has a video when looking up how to play a new game. He has a great sense of humor and explains the games well!

I've taught Root to people a bunch of times. This was supposed to be a quick dump of my mental notes, but I ended up putting in so much effort that I decided I might as well publish it. Maybe it will help someone.

I include teaching tips, explain how I deliver the teach, and outline rough talking points in each section. How is everyone else teaching games?

• Move 1: 1 point
• Move 2: 1 point
• Move 3: 4 points
• Move 4: 4 points
• Move 5: 1 point
• Move 6: 1 point
• Move 7: 4 points
• Move 8: 1 point
• Move 9: 4 points
• Move 10: 6 points
• Move 11: 7 points
• Move: 12: 8 points
• Move 13: 7 points
• Move 14: 7 points
• Move 15: 7 points
• Move 16: 7 points
• Move 17: 7 points
• Endgame Bonus: 10 + 10 + 7 + 7 + 2 == 36 Endgame Bonus
• Total Score: 113

Note that while this is "optimal" placements, it is not the best sequence in-game. For example, sequence 8, 9, 10, 11, and 12 are going backwards. I'm not sure how to rewrite my program to account for the top-down placements per round however. So there's still work to be done.

This was a relatively simple brute-force bot that exhaustively checked all possibilities for the best possible placement. So I'm pretty sure I've go the best placement here. Well, maybe it was more "Dynamic Programming". I worked backwards: I calculated all possible 17-placement endgames (there's only 1.081 million of them, aka 25-choose-17), and then back-calculated all possible moves back to move#1.

Then I calculate from move#1 forward, choosing the best endgame move now that all possible endgames have been searched. Chess-programming fans would know this as a "Tablebase" approach.

EDIT: Searching the ~60 million possible optimal games proved to be difficult, as my computer ran out of RAM at 2GB (ummm... I got a 32GB system here. WTF Windows?). I'm sure there was some compiler flag I messed up on.

But I did a few heuristics and came up with the following board:

This is a 17-placement across 5 rounds with as many placements on the "top" of the board that I could find with my program.

EDIT:

• Optimal 11 Placement: 58 Points
• Optimal 12 Placement: 63 Points
• Optimal 13 Placement: 73 Points
• Optimal 14 Placement: 82 Points
• Optimal 15 Placement: 91 Points
• Optimal 16 Placement: 99 Points
• Optimal 17 Placement: 113 Points
• Optimal 18 Placement: 123 Points
• Optimal 19 Placement: 136 Points
• Optimal 20 Placement: 147 Points
• Optimal 21 Placement: 163 Points
• Optimal 22 Placement: 174 Points
• Optimal 23 Placement: 192 Points
• Optimal 24 Placement: 211 Points
• Optimal 25 Placement: 240 Points

cross-posted from: https://feddit.uk/post/6777301

Back on Backerkit: https://www.backerkit.com/c/projects/dynamite-entertainment/monty-python-and-the-holy-grail-board-game

Been enjoying playing Spirit Island lately and was thinking about picking up a couple of the expansions.

I've only got the base game so far and was wondering which expansions to go for.

One thing I'm noticing is that they all seem to be extremely well reviewed which is not making the decision any easier lol.

what do you all think? anything essential?

I frequently read that people at the time said the plastic minis in Nemesis can detract as much as they can add to the atmosphere, hiding important parts of the board space owing to their sheer size.

TI is often lambasted for taking an entire weekend.

Rosenberg's euro games are the bane of many a player trying to keep all possible actions in their mind.

Modern kickstarters can arrive in shipping crates worth of stuff, making you rent a lorry just to get your 25 minute party game to a meet-up.

What's your biggest regret purchase you can readily recall where a game was just "too much". No matter what specifically it was too much of.

For me personally, my big one was Android: Netrunner. I was excited to jump back into 2-player competitive deckbuilding after I quit Magic The Gathering early in the fourth edition. And it seemed so perfect. No luck involved, known spaces of cards, multiple factions, asymmetry which I nearly always love, it's all perfect!
On paper...
In reality I found out, yes, for me this is a strictly superior MtG. No downsides. Except that I'm no longer 16, and I no longer want to spend forever creating decks, collecting cards even if they're not random, or engage with sifting through hundreds or thousands of cards when working on decks. The exact things that made me excited to play MtG-but-better and brought me to buy Netrunner were the very things turning me away from it now.

Still got to sell it, oddly attached to my first-run box + all expansions now that it's no longer available. But played it like 6 times and that was it. 0 enjoyment. Gave actual MtG a try, even less enjoyment. Tried Keyforge, also even worse. I feel that the entire genre is just a goner for me, and I regret investing so much money into Netrunner. A lot.

Got my 5th full competitive play through of this game and I just can’t stop thinking about it. I was finally able to coerce my partner into learning it last night and she scored extremely well, actually tied with the other experienced player who’s done three games previously. The icons were quite the hurdle but by the final cycle she was comfortable playing her cards without issues and seeing her combo all her agendas was very impressive. I’m still in awe with how fun this game feels to play, how exciting getting a new tech is, or how scary it can be to have an opponent on your borders with some crazy missile tech. Will they abandon their agenda to take my sector in order to cause me to lose some agenda scoring? Or will they play it safe, and allow me to take the final turn of the game to attack them and rip their sector from their grasp? It’s a perfect game for me other than the setup time, but I actually enjoy game setups so as long as I have time it’s no problem. There is just enough exploring, combat against the game enemies, and tech building to give me real sense of a grand space opera. But, at its core it’s truly just a euro game where you are trying your hardest to print points from your agendas. After five plays, every icon makes perfect sense and the game is smooth and we can play a three player game in about 3 hours, and that’s with a new player. What a treat this game is! Has anyone else had the pleasure of diving into it? It’s quite the time investment but so worth it. I see this hitting the table way more often than Eclipse 2E or TI4 and I enjoy the euro stylings much more anyway. What a masterpiece!

Commissioning a Board Game Table, What Should I Look Out For?

It's my first time commissioning something like this. The guy I'll be doing this with wouldn't know what a board game table is so I'll have to design it myself. (I have some drafting/cad experience so I'm up to the task).

What stuff should I look out for when designing this table? I made a partial list of things I think I ought to keep in mind.

1. Add a gasket for each wood topper to avoid leakage.

2. Use multiple wood topper instead of single wood topper

3. Look for pre-made plans in the internet

4. Find basic table design to get leg clearance height, and table height.

5. Which wood would be best value? (I know this would be dependent on my area, Philippines)

I plan to keep it simple and probably wouldn't need extra features like led lights, cup holders, etc. As long as I can have my board game in the table while using it as a dining table when not playing I'll be okay.

It was down to the wire but got my 9x9 done for the year! It was an eclectic mix of games this year and there were some that I wish I'd played more often just didn't make the time.

Quick thoughts on them all:

1. The Crew - Really fun, starts out getting you in the groove and feeling smart about your team and your choices and then quickly ramps up. I'd like to be able to play it with the same people a bit more often as too many times there'd be one or more first timer and we'd start from mission one for them to get in the groove.
2. Dungeon Rush - A super quick and fun reaction/slap game. Great to start or end an evening of board games.
3. Frosthaven - Huge, complex, ridiculous in it's scope. Love this game so much and can't wait until our next session in a few days when we should have our first retirement.
4. No Thanks - chill and great to play while hanging out at a bar. Some of the funniest on purpose or inadvertent hate drafting you can get.
5. Sequence - My wife loves this one and I haven't really been a fan, but we've been playing it more 1v1 recently and I think it shines a lot more that way versus as a group game. Still not my favorite but it's grown on me a lot this year.
6. Space Base - One of our favorite games, year after year. Still my top roll and collect card game.
7. Taverns of Tiefenthal - A great follow up to another of our favorite games, Quacks of Quedlenberg, and one that was initially a "yeah, this is pretty fun" but really shines as you add more modules in. The expansion especially took it to the next level I feel.
8. Ticket to Ride Legacy: Legends of the West - This was a very pleasant surprise for me. TTR has always been a 'eh it's fine' game for me but my wife loves all of them, and I love legacy games, so I jumped on this for her when it released. It's so much fun, full stop. Takes the TTR mechanics and does some really interesting stuff with them, and every game is adding something fun and new. Big recommend.
9. Whirling Witchcraft - Another good quick game that has a great engine building while screwing your neighbor mechanic.

Honorable mentions:

1. Aoens End Legacy of Gravehold - Got seven plays in and it's hard but so fun. Hoping we can finish this one up in 2024.
2. Twilight Imperium - by hours my most played game this year, but that's because the four games of it added up to more than 10 games of Frosthaven. So much planning to get a game of it going but nothing really hits like it for ridiculous scope.

It's that time of year again. A time to reflect on the last year and look forward to the next. In 2023, my partner and I decided to undertake a 10x10 challenge despite having two kids under 5 taking up a lot of our time.

We made some minor adjustments to the 10x10 formula to fit our situation better. Instead of a single game, we included a small games category we could check off every time we brought out a game like Fox in the Forest or something similarly light and quick. We included a family game night category so our 4 year old could mark off things every time we ~~suffered through~~ played a riveting game of Candy Land. Finally, we included "game nights" as a category in an attempt to make the time to invite friends and family over for games, or to get out and attend other friend's game nights.

To track everything I made up a chart to keep on the fridge and color in every time we played a game on the list. As you can see below, we did not finish our 10x10 challenge but we did have a good time. There was a lot more gaming than was captured on the chart due to game nights and just playing games we didn't include on the list.

My favorite games for 2023 were probably Race for the Galaxy and Heat: Pedal to the Metal. Hopefully, I catch Heat in stock soon so I can add it to my collection.

Looking forward to 2024 we again reworked the 10x10 to suit our style a bit more and encourage playing more of our collection. We chose 5 games to play 10 times and 10 games to play 5 times. This still gives us a goal of 100 games played. There is still a wild card category to catch some one off games we're itching to play.

We have also included bonus points for putting together puzzles and for hosting game nights.

Click here to see the 2023 and 2024 charts.

Is anyone else doing a challenge this year? Anything new or old you're especially excited to include?

What were you introduced to recently, would you play it again, and what is a sentence that sums the game up?

I have a monthly board game meetup with my neighbors, who are mostly in their 60s and 70s. I’m a bit younger than them but it’s usually a good time. Complexity of rules, eye sight, and maneuverability are all big concerns when I host.

I decided to give Ready Set Bet a go… and it was a hit! I shared my phone screen to a good sized tv in the room and let the app run the race. I sat the less nimble folks closer to the center of the table, with younger folks nearer to the edge. Additionally, I read off the extra bet cards every round and did all the math for everyone when they won. I was worried the VIP cards would be too much, but everyone seemed to enjoy them. Lots of shouting and racing to bet.

So, if you have a party of 9 or fewer consider giving it a shot.

If you have any suggestions for party games that might fit this crowd, I’d love to hear them.

I gifted the Pokemon Battle Academy set this year to my nephews (both 9yo). BA is boxed like a board game, it has three decks, two basic decks which are pre-sorted to play a tutorial game, and one advanced unsorted deck, along with guides for playing both decks, a full game guide, coin, damage counters, and a board which guides you on how to play. I also bought them sleeves and a couple of boosters that I told them they could use later.

I was there when they opened the box, told them about how I convinced their grandpa when I was their age to get me my first deck, and how I didn't play with anyone for a long time because no one in school had cards, and how lucky they were to have each other to play with. In the spirit of letting them do their Christmas thing, I told them "do you need me to teach you how to play?" they said they were ok, and I went to do other things around the house.

15 minutes later I come back and all cards are basically scattered around the room. One of my nephews is negotiating to trade 20 cards of their pre-constructed deck for the holo that comes on the other's deck. The advance deck is nowhere to be found, it's probably now part of their mega deck. The board, counters, coin and guides are still in the box.

They never battled, but all in all, they stayed trading cards all morning until they had to leave. One of them showed the other how to open their boosters the way youtubers open them (by putting the rare ones at the end for maximum content) and the importance of sleeving their holos.

I guess collecting is more fun these days. I'm happy they found joy in that.

Maybe we battle next year.

Got the game a couple of days ago and so far we've had 4 sessions with 2-3 players. I know racing board games are generally kinda bad but we've been having a blast with this one. It's a hand management game, which means it's not quite as random as something with dice rolls like Formula D, while still having some unpredictability. It's relatively easy to learn and pretty intuitive once you've played a few rounds. There are also some very simple, but effective bot mechanics, so you can have a great game with only two players or even solo.

It's also really pretty and incredibly thematic. Everything is based on 60s Formula 1, which the F1 fan in me loves.