#wallet games

[mrkapao]

Recently my first Button Shy solo games arrived via Kickstarter.

The combo of cozy from 'a Nice Cuppa' and horror from 'The Last Lighthouse' is very on brand for me. Also love how they're wallet sized!

[tabletopgamesblog]

Sprawlopolis (Saturday Review)

Release Date: 2018Players: 1-4Designer: Steven Aramini, Danny Devine, Paul KlukaLength: 15-30 minutesArtist: Loïc Billiau, Dalton Cara, Danny DevineAge: 8+Publisher: Button ShyComplexity: 1.5 / 5 Being a city planner isn’t easy. You need to balance out the needs of your citizens for green spaces, living accommodation as well as offices and industry. You also have to ensure the infrastructure…

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[tabletopgamesblog]

Paring down (Topic Discussion)

Paring down (Topic Discussion)

As someone who has a slightly addictive character, collecting pretty much anything comes quite easy to me. “You never know when you might need it again,” is what I tend to say. The same is true for board games, of course. “We might play this again at some point,” is how I justify not letting a board game go that I haven’t played in months. So, in this article, I want to talk about how I overcome…

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[pixelrender]

More Boards and Cards

Ok, since posting my wishlist yesterday, I’ve read some articles and watched some videos (I have a deadline today, so It’s really easy to get distracted with stuff) and discovered some unique small games and got reminded of good alternatives to some of the bigger games from my wishlist. These are all small or even tiny games, mostly cheaper than de luxe version of Citadels. Here we go.

Note: Picture 1 is a screenshot of the first edition of Condottieri from bgg user Frog. Picture 2 is an official picture of Avignon: Clash of Popes.

1. Oh My Goods! - alternative to Mombasa

It’s possible to buy this game under ten euro. That’s dirt cheap. The game itself is supposed to be a drier one, but expansions add campaign and Daily Worker Placement described it as something exciting and enjoyable. I guess it would be easier to store this game too. And it shares world with another highly rated Pfister game, Tybor, der Baumeister. Zee Garcia of Dice Tower compares game to more popular Splendor. So, that’s good too as I wanted to try out Splendor, but I don’t like its look enough to buy it. 

In Oh My Goods! you’re building a town, while pushing your luck. What counts are victory points. I have to say I’m really intrigued by this little box, especially together with its expansions.

2. Sail To India - alternative to Santa Maria, Sid Meier’s Civilization: A New Dawn, Nusfjord

Hayashi’s designs are known for their elegance and this is a prime example. With minimal resources (some 20 cards and bunch of cubes), Sail To India packs a game combining mechanics of worker placement games, race and civilization games. You have a limited amount of resources in your engine, which you can use to buy techs, actions and more resources. If you want to get more excited about the game, watch this review from Drive Thru Games.

3. Jaipur - alternative to Concordia, but not really

Oh, I forgot to include this one yesterday. It’s a tad more expensive than I would like it to be (It’s a pack of cards and some coins after all), but the production’s worth the money. This game looks like a box of candy. Colours are vibrant, coins thick and illustration precise. Also, it has a glowing review from Shut Up and Sit Down.  The drafting mechanics of this game are a neat puzzle. It’s only for two players and that means most games are very cutthroat-y.

4. Avignon: A Clash of Popes - alternative to Crusader Kings, which I forgot to mention yesterday

Button Shy call their game wallet games. And there are plenty of games like this you can download and print yourself and it might be a better choice as $12 plus shipping isn’t that good of a price for less than 20 cards. The game looks charming and I love it’s mechanism of trying to influence individual characters. It means that every move is an interaction. It’s like Battle Line stripped of violence and made into a raw bar. It’s condensed, short and sweet. Games like this inspire. I want to make my own Civ game, which only needs twenty cards to go from stone age to nuclear bomb.

5. Age of Civilization - alternative to Sid Meier’s Civilization: A New Dawn, Rise of Tribes

A pocket sized box of Civ, they say. The game’s not out yet and responses to prototypes vary. Some call it dry and under cooked. I think it captures an essence of Civilization in the way the game handles civs. There are many and each has a special power. Building the whole game around this is clever in my opinion. I hope it will turn out well.

6. Condottiere - alternative to Vikings 878: Invasion of England

An oldie, but goodie. I remember having the box in my hands 10 years ago and then deciding to go with an expansion for another game. It was a mistake. I’ve never played that expansion. It’s the ultimate small box and the main reason I wanted to revisit this list. It’s not must have for me, but from what I know about Condottieri, the design boosts decisions I’m particularly fond of. It’s a small affordable game, full of intrigue and strategy and emotions. I can’t see anyone wanting to play damn Dixit over this. 

[gameosity]

http://gameosity.com/2016/06/28/we-unbox-mays-board-game-of-the-month-club/

Mystery mailers are pretty awesome. You pay a subscription fee and people send you packages of sweet surprises! Jason Tagmire (Buttonshy) has created one of these subscription services for mini board games. With The Board Game of the Month Club you get an envelope chock full of wallet games from ...