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.

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'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.