![\"tickettoride\"](\"http:\/\/traversecityboardgamers.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/tickettoride.jpg\")
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30. \u00a0 \u00a0 Ticket to Ride<\/strong><\/p>\n Designer – \u00a0 \u00a0 Alan R. Moon<\/p>\n Publisher – \u00a0 \u00a0 Days of Wonder<\/p>\n Year Published – \u00a0 \u00a0 2004<\/p>\n Number of Players – \u00a0 \u00a0 2 – 5<\/p>\n Playing Time – \u00a0 \u00a0 30 – 60 Mins<\/p>\n This game has been one of my favorites for quite some time and for good reason. \u00a0It has the staying power to still get to the table even now. \u00a0The mechanics are very approachable and simple to learn making it a great game to teach. \u00a0New comers and game veterans alike can find this game very entertaining and challenging. \u00a0Within the confines of these simple mechanics holds a game with great depth and strategy. \u00a0Players will constantly be at odds with the other players as train routes get placed and paths are blocked. \u00a0This is the quintessential modern board game that I feel every family and game group should own.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 29. \u00a0 \u00a0 Splendor<\/strong><\/p>\n Designer – \u00a0 \u00a0 Marc Andre<\/p>\n Publisher – \u00a0 \u00a0 Space Cowboys<\/p>\n Year Published – \u00a0 \u00a0 2014<\/p>\n Number of Players – \u00a0 \u00a0 2 – 4<\/p>\n Playing Time – \u00a0 \u00a0 30 mins<\/p>\n It’s hard to pin point exactly the allure that this game has. \u00a0 It might be the theme of gem merchants. \u00a0It might be the heavy poker chips that represent the gems. \u00a0It might be the simple yet elegant game play. \u00a0I think that it is a combination of the all of these things that make this game a hit with all players.<\/p>\n The production really didn’t have any flaws here. \u00a0The poker chips that represent the gems are thick and heavy. \u00a0I love paying for the cards by dropping the chips on the table. \u00a0It gives you a great sense of value with each gem you take.<\/p>\n The game play is deceivingly tactical. \u00a0At first glance you see the rules are simple and easily followed but as the game flows you start to see the under lying strategies that exist. \u00a0They don’t vary too much from game to game but the tactics do as the cards in the market change as they are purchased and never in the same order as before.<\/p>\n This is a wonderful game for anyone looking to get into the hobby and one that will see many plays as players become more comfortable with its flow. \u00a0Welcome to your Monopoly replacement game.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 28. \u00a0 \u00a0 Isle of Skye<\/strong><\/p>\n Designers – \u00a0 \u00a0 Andreas Pelikan and Alexander Pfister<\/p>\n Publisher – \u00a0 \u00a0 Mayfair Games<\/p>\n Year Published – \u00a0 \u00a0 2015<\/p>\n Number of Players – \u00a0 \u00a0 2 – 5<\/p>\n Playing Time – \u00a0 \u00a0 60 Mins<\/p>\n <\/p>\n For quite some time Carcassonne was my go to tile placement game. \u00a0It still sees the table every once in a while but most of the time it seems I want something a bit more. \u00a0This is where Isle of Skye comes in. \u00a0This game takes the elements of Carcassonne and cranks up the decision making.<\/p>\n Isle of Skye is a tile placement game but carries with a unique element. \u00a0That element is the bidding process that makes the game very intriguing. \u00a0On your turn you decide pick up three tiles that you will place a price upon two tiles and discard the third. \u00a0This is all done simultaneously and in secret which only leaves you to speculate what your fellow players will do with their tiles. \u00a0Upon revealing your decision, everyone will have an opportunity to buy other players tiles. \u00a0This can force players to think tactically and effectively.<\/p>\n Another element that I really enjoy that keeps the game coming back to the table is the scoring mechanic. \u00a0The game comes with several objectives that are chosen at random at the beginning of the game. \u00a0A total of four objectives are chosen which can alter your strategy every single time you play the game. \u00a0This really enhances the replay value and keeps you wanting more.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 27. \u00a0 \u00a0 Discoveries<\/strong><\/p>\n Designer – \u00a0 \u00a0 Cedrick Chaboussit<\/p>\n Publisher – \u00a0 \u00a0 Ludonaute<\/p>\n Year Published – \u00a0 \u00a0 2015<\/p>\n Number of Players – \u00a0 \u00a0 2 – 4<\/p>\n Playing Time – \u00a0 \u00a0 60 Mins<\/p>\n Worker placement has always been one of my favorite mechanics. \u00a0It provides a customized level of control and highly thematic experience that I really enjoy. \u00a0Discoveries offers this but carries an unique twist upon it. \u00a0The workers provided are not standard meeples but are dice. \u00a0This element provides randomized output which forces players to adopt different strategies from game to game. \u00a0Each die that is used is also but into a common zone that all players have access to on their turn. \u00a0On each players turn, they may recall either all the dice of their color or all the dice that are on one half of the common zone.<\/p>\n The artwork and attention to detail throughout the game and the rule book also draw players in with a vintage and historic quality. \u00a0All the game elements are explained using thematic reasoning to provide context which makes teaching a breeze. \u00a0It also has the history behind the journey of Lewis and Clark which scratches that history buff itch that I have.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 26. \u00a0 \u00a0 Smash Up<\/strong><\/p>\n Designer – \u00a0 \u00a0 Paul Peterson<\/p>\n Publisher – \u00a0 \u00a0 Alderac Entertainment Group<\/p>\n Year Published – \u00a0 \u00a0 2012<\/p>\n Number of Players – \u00a0 \u00a0 2 – 4<\/p>\n Playing Time – \u00a0 \u00a0 45 Mins<\/p>\n Nothing says entertainment like nostalgia and that’s exactly what comes out if this box. \u00a0Smash Up is a deck building game that requires each player to pick two separate factions and put them together. \u00a0This makes that players deck. \u00a0Each player will use their deck to destroy bases for points.<\/p>\n There are 8 factions to choose from which gives tons of variety and replayability. \u00a0These faction include zombies, robots, pirates, ninjas, dinosaurs, and others. \u00a0Each one of these factions seems to carry its own unique play style which makes for an complex deck when blended together.<\/p>\n The one downfall is the potential for decks to be inherently weak. \u00a0This could easily frustrate new players with poor first experiences. \u00a0Overall a great experience. \u00a0Go zombie wizards!<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 25. \u00a0 \u00a0 Champions of Midgard<\/strong><\/p>\n Designer – \u00a0 \u00a0 Ole Steiness<\/p>\n Publisher – \u00a0 \u00a0 Grey Fox Games<\/p>\n Year Published – \u00a0 \u00a0 2015<\/p>\n Number of Players – \u00a0 \u00a0 2 – 4<\/p>\n Playing Time – \u00a0 \u00a0 60 – 90 Mins<\/p>\n I hear the masses telling me that this is the Lords of Waterdeep replacement. \u00a0I have to admit that I do enjoy this game more than Waterdeep but it doesn’t have the same feeling to me. \u00a0It is a worker placement and they have worker placement locations that vary with every game but that is where the similarities end in my opinion.<\/p>\n This game has vikings and they do viking things like pillaging and defeating monsters in the far reaches of the sea. \u00a0What is not to like. \u00a0The battles I feel give the game a great boost of theme and overall fun.<\/p>\n I’m not really a huge fan of the cards though. \u00a0The card stock used on the production seems very cheap and came out of the box slightly misshaped. \u00a0I think in this age of board games where the market is flooded with new titles almost every week that something like this wouldn’t happen. \u00a0I guess the industry never ceases to surprise you.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 24. \u00a0 \u00a0 Takenoko<\/strong><\/p>\n Designer – \u00a0 \u00a0 Antoine Bauza<\/p>\n Publisher – \u00a0 \u00a0 Asmodee<\/p>\n Year Published – \u00a0 \u00a0 2011<\/p>\n Number of Players – \u00a0 \u00a0 2 – 4<\/p>\n Playing Time – \u00a0 \u00a0 45 Mins<\/p>\n A cute panda is making his way through bamboo fields eating everything is sight with a frantic gardener following and trying to fix the carnage. \u00a0This is Takenoko in a nut shell. \u00a0Cute really is the best description to can make about this game. \u00a0It’s simple enough on the surface with a very vibrant color palette to create a nice mass appeal to the game. \u00a0It’s not until you get deeper into the game that you realize that there is something for even the heavy gamers. \u00a0The three types of objective cards all highlight a different kind of strategy that each player can choose to adopt. \u00a0The weather dice also gives randomized benefits to each round after the first that allow players to have variations from turn to turn. \u00a0 There is a lot here to love that I don’t think anyone will have a bad time playing.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 23. \u00a0 \u00a0 Terra Mystica<\/strong><\/p>\n Designers – \u00a0 \u00a0 Jens Drogemuller and Helge Ostertag<\/p>\n Publisher – \u00a0 \u00a0 Feuerland Spiele<\/p>\n Year Published – \u00a0 \u00a0 2012<\/p>\n Number of Players – \u00a0 \u00a0 2 – 5<\/p>\n Playing Time – \u00a0 \u00a0 60 – 150 Mins<\/p>\n Your taking on the role of one of the 14 races and you are expanding across the landscape. \u00a0You will be terraforming the landscape to build dwellings, trading posts, temples, and strongholds. \u00a0All the while you will developing certain types of religions to the benefit of your own power.<\/p>\n Lots and lots of variability and moving parts throughout this one and the game is melding all of these elements efficiently. \u00a0That is the exact reason for my love of this game. \u00a0Every game is different with variable goals for every round and the characters that you can be change how you can attain victory. \u00a0This game would take several plays to become fluent with its strategy which speaks to its long popularity.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 22. \u00a0 \u00a0 Deus<\/strong><\/p>\n Designer – \u00a0 \u00a0 Sebastien Dujardin<\/p>\n Publisher – \u00a0 \u00a0 Pearl Games<\/p>\n Year Published – \u00a0 \u00a0 2014<\/p>\n Number of Players – \u00a0 \u00a0 2 – 4<\/p>\n Playing Time – \u00a0 \u00a0 60 – 90 Mins<\/p>\n In this game you do stuff. \u00a0Sometimes when you do stuff then other stuff will happen because you did that stuff. \u00a0This cascade of stuff happens in the late game of Deus. That poor description is exactly the mechanic that makes me love Deus so much. \u00a0You will be playing card which represent a building that will be placed in your kingdom. \u00a0This kingdom will be expanding upon itself on the modular board and also on your tableau. \u00a0When you add a card to your kingdom its action takes effect and all the previous cards played of the same building type get activated as well. \u00a0This makes for an exciting mechanic as the card actions start to stack in the late game when you stumble upon amazing combos. \u00a0 That fact keeps this game coming back to the table.<\/p>\n I will say that the game did drop the ball on the components side despite its great game play. \u00a0The resources that they provide are simple colored discs that could be difficult for a color blind player or in a low light setting. \u00a0Shaped resources really would have brought the production to an elevated level.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 21. \u00a0 \u00a0 The Castles of Burgundy<\/strong><\/p>\n Designer – \u00a0 \u00a0 Stefan Feld<\/p>\n Publisher – \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0alea<\/p>\n Year Published – \u00a0 \u00a0 2011<\/p>\n Number of Players – \u00a0 \u00a0 2 – 4<\/p>\n Playing Time – \u00a0 \u00a0 30 – 90 Mins<\/p>\n I hope your ready for a big helping of point salad because that’s what Stefan Feld is serving up here. \u00a0In Castles of Burgundy, you will be building a small kingdom. \u00a0In this kingdom, you will be able to establishing ships, farms, castles, mines, and buildings. \u00a0These tiles that you place all have different actions associated with them which include getting additional actions, victory points, or increasing your income.<\/p>\n This game can be immensely dry due to its very loose theme. \u00a0Euro style games are infamous for this and this is no different. \u00a0I really do enjoy this game for its insanely varied game play. \u00a0There are many ways to win depending on the people that you play with and the set up of the available tiles. \u00a0This is definitely not for everyone but for anyone that loves a dense game that you can really sink your teeth into then this is the game for you.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" 30. \u00a0 \u00a0 Ticket to Ride<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":332,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"image","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[44,42],"class_list":["post-539","post","type-post","status-publish","format-image","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lists","tag-kyle","tag-top-100","post_format-post-format-image"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/traversecityboardgamers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/539","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/traversecityboardgamers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/traversecityboardgamers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/traversecityboardgamers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/traversecityboardgamers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=539"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/traversecityboardgamers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/539\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":628,"href":"https:\/\/traversecityboardgamers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/539\/revisions\/628"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/traversecityboardgamers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/332"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/traversecityboardgamers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=539"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/traversecityboardgamers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=539"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/traversecityboardgamers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=539"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n![\"splendor\"](\"http:\/\/traversecityboardgamers.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/splendor.jpg\")
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\n![\"isleofskye\"](\"http:\/\/traversecityboardgamers.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/isleofskye.jpg\")
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\n![\"discoveries\"](\"http:\/\/traversecityboardgamers.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/discoveries.jpg\")
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\n![\"smashup\"](\"http:\/\/traversecityboardgamers.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/smashup.jpg\")
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\n![\"championsofmidgard\"](\"http:\/\/traversecityboardgamers.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/championsofmidgard.jpg\")
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\n![\"takenoko\"](\"http:\/\/traversecityboardgamers.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/takenoko.jpg\")
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\n![\"Terra-Mystica\"](\"http:\/\/traversecityboardgamers.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/Terra-Mystica.jpg\")
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\n![\"deus\"](\"http:\/\/traversecityboardgamers.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/deus.jpg\")
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\n![\"castlesofburgundy\"](\"http:\/\/traversecityboardgamers.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/castlesofburgundy.jpg\")
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