You actually are building physical circuits and there is real electricity in the game!
Forbidden Sky
This War of Mine
This War of Mine is Excellent (see the exciting overview just under the list of links and the calmly passionate look at the game below that). But it is more than just a game. Actually, it is more an EXPERIENCE than a game… kind of a hybrid. It is designed to help you (the player) feel, experience and understand what it might be like to be living (trying to stay alive) in a city that has been devastated by a war. Shops are closed (if the building is even left standing). There are looters. There are homeless. There are hobos. There are snipers! Just trying to find water to drink can be a harrowing experience. The game is hard. Really hard. Online comments have asked how to make it easier. The answer is, please don’t… it is MEANT to be hard, just like life is for those living in the situations in the game (as in real life).
Designing and developing the game was a task of love. They did not sit in a conference room trying to make up things that might happen. They poured over real life diaries, documents, journals, books, photos, videos from people who actually were living in the situation depicted by this game. And that realism shows. The game comes with a logbook with nearly 2,000 log entries that you read throughout the game… and NOT in any specific order! Which log entry you read next is determined by your choices of what you want to do, as well as a roll of the dice and drawing of a card.
Here are some links, followed by an interesting overview of the game. After that is the calmly passionate look at the game and then some tips followed by a complete playthrough of the game if you want to see how it works (and is put together… including how to set up the game)
=> My Website / This War of Ours
=> Board Game Geek
=> Kickstarter (2016)
=> Official Site: Core Game
=> Official Site – expansion: Tales from the Ruined City
=> Official Site – expansion: Days of the Siege
=> This War of Mine Journal
=> Pseudo Rulebook (FAQ’s etc)
Review:
Azul: Stained Glass of Sintra
This is the sequel to the original, and by most accounts a much better game!
=> Board Game Geek
=> Azul Stained Glass Sintra Rules
=> Azul – Stained Glass of Sintra Summary Sheet
Here is Kim Tolson (she has great game summaries) comparing the first three Azul games (I queued it up to where she talks about Stained Glass of Sintra (which was her #1 Azul game) you can go back to watch from the beginning if you want):
Paperback Adventures (game)
An interesting word play game combined with an adventure game
=> BoardGameGeek
=> Kickstarter
=> Rulebook (final)
Example with Tutorial:
Tsuro (very fast easy to learn game)
This is a game that you can setup and play in ten minutes or less. And have lots of fun the whole time. Short but sweet. A casual glance at the game makes it look like everything is just random and you just see who is lucky. However, that is not the case. Yes, you can play it fast and more or less randomly … yet you also can spend just an extra 20 seconds and see some strategies to which tile you place and how you place it! There are definitely many strategies involved with Tsuro! Many!
=> BoardGameGeek
=> Tsuro 1pg Rules
=> Phase by Phase Cards (important – I use them all the time) v4
Note: See the end of this article for notes about how to use the Dragon Tile.
How To Play in 1 Minute (Rules Girl):
Castle Panic
=> BoardGameGeek
=> Original Rules / 2nd Edition Rules
=> Castle Panic Made Easy v1-3 (Len’s 2page Rule Summary with options for younger players)
=> Official FAQ
You can add more types of monsters yourself (on your printer)=> Set 1 / Set 2 / Set 3
This is a quick cooperative game where all players try to hold off the attacking orcs :) The game play is interesting. The game was so popular that they now make a DELUXE fancy version of the game (with miniatures).
Watch Will Wheaton (yes, he was Wesley Crusher in Star Trek: The Next Generation) explain it and play it with three guests (a comedian, an actress and a voice actor) … here is the condensed version (you can watch their FULL game video at the bottom of this page):
Forbidden Island (cooperative game)
2-4 players all on the same team try to find the four treasures and escape from the island before it is completely flooded (or someone drowns:) It is easy to learn and takes only about 30 minutes to play.
=> BoardGameGeek
=> Official Rules
Here are a couple videos about the game:
20 Express (aka Streams)
=> BoardGameGeek
=> Rules (4 page PDF)
=> Player Boards (full page jpg)
Here is an overview of the game:
Terraforming Mars
Another game that I found I would put into the Settlers of Catan category … a little bit of strategy, a little bit of luck. However Terraforming Mars does it one better … it is almost like a cooperative game but with a “winner” at the end! And instead of DICE (as in Settlers of Catan) there are lots of cards. Each card gives you points or item production or such. It should take about the same amount of time to play as Catan. I also have all the expansions and one of them (Prelude) actually shortens the length of the game (without wrecking it in any way).
=> BoardGameGeek
=> Rules
=> Symbols and Play Guide
=> Len’s Cheatsheet v1
=> Len’s 1 page Rules Summary v1 (includes Prelude expansion).
Also includes Phase 5 Solar as per Fryxgames note in Venus Next rulebook:
The Solar Phase will be used by other expansions as well.
Questions? Clarification Needed? Search inside this=> FAQ (87 pages)
Board Game Co and christened Terraforming Mars as the #1 best game of all time (video is queued to the right spot):
I put together a summary of the rules (including a couple house rules) and updated it with info on playing with the Prelude, Colonies and Turmoil expansions:
- Click => Rule Summary (PDF)
Quick Guide
In the Madison Area? Why not drop by and play a game? Just EMail me or use the CONTACT page to send me a message!
Yes, this is my favorite thing (well, one of them:)
=> My Favorite Thing
Need Help Choosing a Game? Once you are viewing a game, there will be a list of all the games in alphabetical order in the right panel (very nice way to scan the games, though you also can just type in a name in the search box).
That right side panel also has a cool selection list that is just like this:
- 1player
- 2players
- 3players
- 4players
- 5players
- 6players
- 7 or more players
- Age 4+
- Age 5+
- Age 6+
- Age 7+
- Age 8+
- Age 9+
- Cards
- Coffee Shop
- Coop
- Dice
- Easy (1-2 complexity)
- Hard (2.5-5 complexity)
- Kids
- Long
- Medium (2-2.5 complexity)
- Polynomial (ie Tetris)
- Quick
- Tiles
- Uncategorized
- Words
- Writing
Plus here are just SOME of the games here at our house (alpha order) with a quick summary about each game (how many players, estimated time to play and complexity rating):
Play Heavenly Games 
