Games I Played in 2013

Another year's gone by, and I've helped myself to another bushel of tabletop games. This list is coming out a year late, but without further ado I give you the games I played in 2013, in a vague order of preference.

1. Letters from Whitechapel
2. Legendary: A Marvel Deckbuilding Game
3. Magic: The Gathering
4. Power Grid

5. ZOMBIES!!!
6. Microscope

7. War of the Ring
8. BANG!
9. Fluxx
10. Settlers of Catan

11. Thurn and Taxis

12. Boomtown

13. Darkplane: Conquest (my very own game)

As with last year's list, these are mostly games that I hadn't played before. I'm including a few that I hadn't played in some time, just for the purpose of covering those few extras that I like. Below I'll review them all in ascending order.

In the descriptions below, I'm including a Nerd Factor. The scale is 1 to 10, where 1 is a party game that you could play with the least nerdy people you know, and 10 is Dungeons & Dragons.



13. DARKPLANE: CONQUEST
Competitive Board Game (3-6 hours, 2-8 players)
Nerd Factor: 8

Some of you may have already read my comments about having designed and playtested a board game of my own this past year during unemployment. I'm putting this on my list because I ended up playing it about seven times last year (with rules getting fixed, updated, simplified, and just plain cut as we went). I took it to a game convention in New Jersey (my first), where I got some awesome feedback that resulted in me abandoning the project because it needed a major overhaul. Instead of spending hours to fix it, I got a job. My wife's happy the phase ended.

Basically it was Risk plus Power Grid plus Magic: The Gathering. It was too much--too big, too long, and too complicated. But like someone else we know, I had a blast making it, and maybe there's a future for it once it gets simplified.


12. BOOMTOWN
Competitive Economic Card Game (30-60 minutes, 3-5 players)
Nerd Factor: 3

This was a fun little game that hinges on auction strategy--when to stop bidding--which is something I'm terrible at. It's telling that the winner of our game was the player who won the fewest auctions. Basically, you're setting up mines, taverns, and other establishments in the Old West. You build in different towns (represented by the color of the card) in hopes of making money off the others who have set up in your town. The game's over when the deck runs out of mining spaces. Whoever can cash out the highest wins.

I had a great time playing, but Boomtown certainly reaffirmed that I'm weak in economic games. It was easy to learn without being too straightfoward, so that was a major plus. My interest in it might not hold up if played every night of the week, but I'd definitely do a couple more rounds without reservation.


11. THURN AND TAXIS
Competitive Euro-Style Strategy Game (40-60 minutes, 2-4 players)
Nerd Factor: 2

In Thurn and Taxis, you're a German coach driver trying to extend your route as effectively as possible. You're collecting cards (representing German cities) in an attempt to finish the route--quickly, but not so quick that you can't make a few Deutsche Marks. It was a blast--a typical Euro-style game with simple, engaging rules. If it weren't in such good company on this list, it would have been one of my favorites.

10. SETTLERS OF CATAN
Competitive Euro-Style Economic Game (40-80 minutes, 3-4 players)
Nerd Factor: 4

I played Settlers so much in High School that I had to put it away for a while. I opened it back up this year and experienced a flood of memories from eight years ago. I'll be honest, though--I'm kind of bored by it, despite the fact that I rarely win these days. That's the reason I'm putting it on the bottom half of this list. If my desire to master the strategy can't overcome my ambivalence toward the game, it's not a good sign. I have a couple expansions (I'm dying to try Cities & Knights, which is one of two games I own that I've never been played), so maybe those will breathe some life back into Settlers for me.

9. FLUXX
Competitive Card Game (5-30 minutes, 2-5 players)
Nerd Factor: 2

I enjoyed learning Fluxx a lot. It's fast, unpredictable, and has great themed sets that are pretty cheap. The rules are simple enough for anyone to learn in just a couple minutes. My one gripe is that I think I like the idea of the game slightly more than I like playing it.

You start with two rules: draw one card, play one card. The cards you draw might be actions you can take, new rules to add to the game, goals that set the victory condition, keepers (good items or characters that you keep), or creepers (bad things that stop you from winning). If you meet whatever goal is out on the table, you win. It goes fast. Most games are less than 15 minutes. The main conceit of Fluxx is how the rules change nearly every turn. It's a cool idea, and a great game to pull out when you want to kill 20 minutes.

I have the Cthulhu Fluxx set. There are tons of them: Stoner Fluxx, Zombie Fluxx, Star Fluxx, Monty Python Fluxx, and more.

8. BANG!
Semi-Cooperative Card Game (20-90 minutes, 4-7 players)
Nerd Factor: 3

If you haven't played BANG!, you're missing out. It's Mafia (or Werewolf) played with cards, set in a Spaghetti Western. It's actually an Italian game, which makes the setting come full circle. The cards are printed in both Italian and English, which is fun.

Basically, everyone's got a secret role (Sheriff, Deputy, Outlaw, Renegade) with a different victory condition, but the Sherrif is the only player's role that anyone knows. So you have to figure out who everyone is, then kill the people not on your team. The card play is what makes this game a blast. Highly recommended.


7. WAR OF THE RING
Semi-Cooperative War Game (1-2 hours, 2-4 players)
Nerd Factor: 6

I got this game as a gift years ago, and had only played it once before going off to college and forgetting about it. Turns out it's great. The art is gorgeous (done by John Howe, who was one of the prime concept artists for the Lord of the Rings movies), and the whole play experience does a great job of emulating the story and character motivations of the Lord of the Rings novels.

It's set up like Risk (with much more even-handed rules), with one player or team controlling Sauron and his minions and the other player/team controlling the good guys. You have to destroy the ring before Sauron either finds it or conquers Middle-Earth. The coolest thing about War of the Ring is the action dice. In order to determine what you can do on your turn, you roll dice. The symbols that come up are actions you can take. It's a clever mechanic that I'd love to see in more games.

Probably the most compelling aspect of War of the Ring is that the war is optional. You don't necessarily have to fight battles and conquer territories to win, which is why you might play this instead of Lord of the Rings Risk, for example. If you want to focus on the race to claim the ring or destroy it, it's actually a strong tactic.


6. MICROSCOPE
Cooperative Roleplaying Game (1-2 hours, 2-4 players)
Nerd Factor: 6

Microscope is a game I heard a lot about before playing it. It's a strange hybrid of (minimal/optional) roleplaying and macro-storytelling. It reminds me of mapping a screenplay, but here the goal is to map a set of historical periods from a predetermined start to a predetermined end. It's a pretty strange game, and definitely not for everyone, but if you like collaborative storytelling and intricate fictional worlds or histories, Microscope might be right up your alley.

I'm honestly not sure how else to describe it. Everyone agrees on a group-generated list of what must or must not exist in the history you're about to create, and then you take turns writing historical details on cards. There's a structure to it, but I'd have to describe the whole thing for it to make sense. This is a game with a lot of creative leeway, which is its biggest selling point and biggest flaw. I like the idea a lot, but my experience involved some annoying players who accidentally ruined the game by taking too much whacked-out creative license. With the right crowd, though, it's probably a blast.


5. ZOMBIES!!!
Competitive Board Game (40-60 minutes, 2-6 players)
Nerd Factor: 4

Zombies!!! is basically Escape, but it plays more like a watered-down Zombicide. Throughout the game, players place tiles that represent new areas in the city. Each one has particular locations and resources you can gather (bullets and med-kits). There are also zombies everywhere, and you have to escape to the city's helipad before you die. Very simple, very fun. I'd like to play with more of the expansions, since the game felt a little too streamlined for my taste. I bet more pieces and cards would spice things up. Still, this is totally worth getting if you're into zombies, especially for $20, which is a steal.


4. POWER GRID
Competitive Economic Game (1-2 hours, 2-6 players)
Nerd Factor: 5

I've played Power Grid a few times now, and I'm still not sure I know how to win. It's a relatively simple game, but its use of tokens to simulate supply and demand is a clever mechanic that deepens the strategy a lot. You play an electric company trying to power 20 U.S. cities (or German cities, if you play on the board's reverse side). I like that the winner isn't who has the most money--it's the player who can use the money most efficiently. There are surprisingly few economic games that take this angle. For that alone, Power Grid is among the best of them.


3. MAGIC: THE GATHERING
Collectible Card Game (20-40 minutes/your entire life, 2+ players)
Nerd Factor: 7

One of the oldest collectible card games is also the best one without competition. I played a bit of Magic when I was a teenager in the 90s, but 2013 was the year they got me. If you've never played, here's how it works: 1) buy a crap-ton of cards in different colors 2) build your own deck using the extremely versatile and nuanced mechanics of the game 3) play the game against other people. This is really three games in one, because each of those steps would be fun by itself. But a game that puts all three into one beautifully illustrated and relentlessly addictive package? If you're surprised to know that there are professionals who do nothing but play this game for a living, this is why. It might be the most successful game model ever conceived.

My favorite thing about this game is that each color (or suit) of cards has a unique overarching strategy to it. Every card of that color plays into different aspects of the color's strategy. That means that you can mix colors to create really nuanced approach to the game. I have an assortment of decks spanning all the colors, and making new ones just never stops being fun.


2. LEGENDARY
Semi-cooperative Deckbuilding Game (1-2 hours, 2-5 players)
Nerd Factor: 4

For my birthday last year, I went out on a limb and bought this new game with a lame title from a publisher that doesn't usually make games. Upper Deck is a trading card company. They make baseball cards and a few comic-book collectibles. So when I played Legendary, I was very surprised how good it was. It's a cooperative deck-builder that pits 1-5 players against a mastermind card (Magneto, Thanos, Dr. Doom, Galactus, and other Marvel baddies). You have to fight the mastermind 4 times before he defeats you in order to win.

Legendary basically plays like Dominion crossed with Arkham Horror. The game has mechanics for creating obstacles like villains capturing bystanders and giving wounds to the players, and you can build a powerful strategy as you choose which cards and heroes to add to your deck of superheroic acts. It has long set-up and clean-up times, but I still play it more than any other game I own.

The base game comes with the Avengers, Spider-Man, a bunch of the X-Men, and a few other notable heroes. So far I've bought every expansion, getting me sets like the Fantastic Four, Guardians of the Galaxy, Spider-Friends, and a huge batch of villains. The Legendary Villains game lets you play as the bad guys, and is fully compatible with the rest of the game. When mixed, it lets you try interesting team-ups like Magneto and Professor X, or Thor and Loki, or Spider-Man and the Green Goblin. As you can tell, I can't quite get enough of this one.


1. LETTERS FROM WHITECHAPEL
Semi-cooperative Board Game (1-3 hours, 2-6 players)
Nerd Factor: 4

This game may not be the most-played in my library, but it's easily the most popular. In it, one player assumes the role of Jack the Ripper, while the others form an opposing team of detectives. Over the course of four nights, or rounds, Jack kills and tries to escape into his secret hideout before getting caught. To catch him, the detectives scour the nearly 200 numbered locations on the board for clues. If they do their work well, they can find a trail leading to Jack's lair and catch him before he kills his fifth victim.

Letters from Whitechapel got a lot of good press a few years ago, but quickly went out of print. I had been keeping my eye out for its return about a year when I heard that the geniuses at Fantasy Flight Games were printing a revised version. I scooped it up as soon as it became available, and I've never been more satisfied by a board game. It plays a touch long, depending on the personalities at the table, but it's sure to keep the attention of even casual players. Best game I played in 2013, hands down.