Well folks, this is it: the last day of 2020. Here at OMOHQ(TM), we didn’t get a chance to play too many games that came out this year, but that’s fine. Since this is our first end-of-year-list-week, it’s a good time to establish a baseline of what we’re into, and what we are judging all other games by. For this list, I (that is, Jay) will be joined by Em (that is, um…Em) to go though out respective top 5 game lists. Em’s list and commentary will be in purple text, and mine will be black (because any other color was too hard to read or too close to purple.) We would also like to note that this list can change at any time, so it’s more of a snapshot of our tastes than anything.
Without further ado, here we go!
5. A really odd tie between Star Wars Imperial Assault and Splendor
Weird, huh? Such different games tied for fifth place. I reach for Splendor when I want a mild challenge without too much stress. It’s like my comfy-slippers game. I had to include it because I want to play it on such a regular basis. On the other hand, there’s Imperial Assault—a game I haven’t even played in a couple of years. Why is it a favorite that I don’t play? It stresses me out! I love the minis, and Jay has done an awesome job painting them. I love the strategy. I love my team of Wookiee Warriors that crushes the Empire again and again. But with extra stress in my life the past couple of years, I just don’t want to play it. It just seems like too much brainpower. I know that’s sad or maybe just lazy, but, for now, give me Splendor’s plastic chips over my beautifully painted, blood-hungry Wookiees. We shall see what 2021 brings for my brain…and the Rebellion.
Is The Settlers of Catan still a good “gateway game”? Who can say? I think that while it may have grown a little stale in the 25 years since its release, it’s still enjoyed by many, and it still lays down some of the solid game design principles still used today.
What Rivals does is take some of the basic things from Catan, such as resource management, strategic settlement/city placement, and territory expansion, and makes it less abstract. Now, instead of having “a settlement,” you have “The settlement with a lumber yard, where Candamir lives.” Event cards make the passage of time and the various crises that befall the island, such as bandit raids and plagues.
While the base game of Catan can’t be played as a 2-player without modified rules, The Rivals for Catan can only be played as a two-player. This may be a turn off for some people, but I play most games with Em, so it works for us. It’s a great game with some great expansions in the box, and more great expansions to purchase separately, but even a complete set isn’t very pricey. It’s, by far, my favorite Catan-verse game.
4. Blood Rage
I learned an important personal lesson from Blood Rage—don’t enter tournaments at gaming conventions for games I love. I am still recovering from a 2018 Origins’ Blood Rage tournament. Nonetheless, this game is solidly affixed in this list. It has a lot going on and so many different possible strategies—even from age to age—but still feels manageable to me, as someone who can suffer from AP. Should I dominate, take a slick and subtle Loki approach, or just straight up let my troops get slaughtered for the Valhalla glory? The game just feels so thematic and the miniatures are pretty badass. I also like the amount of tension each fight creates without making the entire game a loss from one bad fight—well, usually, at least.
4. Legendary: The Marvel Deckbuilding Game
In the first couple of years after Dominion took the gaming world by storm, it seemed like every company was trying to get in on the deck-building craze. One of the biggest surprises was that Upper Deck, known at the time mainly for sports memorabilia and Yu-Gi-Oh!, threw their hat into the ring.
The result was Legendary. As a Marvel fan from the 80s, I immediately wanted to try it out. After seeing Wil Wheaton and friends play on Tabletop, I pulled the trigger and plopped down my $60.
I was not disappointed. There is a lot of game in that box, and the expansions, especially the big box expansions like Dark City and Secret Wars (vol. 1 and 2.), increase the replayability exponentially. You can recreate classic story lines or make your own! You can gather time-tested teams, or put together unlikely allies to battle against all the villains you love to hate. And you can play completely cooperatively, or in a sort of Cooperative/competitive mode where each player tries to defeat the baddies better than their allies.
There are other Legendary games, like Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and there are Legendary Encounters games, like Firefly. Those are great, too, but I always go back to the original.
Deck-building has come a long way since the release of Legendary, but it’s still a fun time.
3. Gizmos
Marbles! They’re rolly and polly and colorful and are almost as tempting to put in my mouth as the pieces from Azul. But since I am old enough to identify a choking hazard and hate when I slobber on my games, I don’t. Gizmos isn’t just fun because of the novelty of its marble mechanic, though. I love building up my gizmo machine and setting into motion great chain reactions. It’s a light game but with a lot of different kinds of strategies to experiment with. It’s also fast but really scratches that machine-building itch.
3. Star Wars: Imperial Assault
I was born about 2 weeks before Star Wars was released in theatres, making me one of the few people in my circle who existed in a pre-Star Wars world. That said, SW has been a part of my life for as long as I can remember. As a kid, I always said that Star Wars was my religion, and as I’m sitting here drinking my coffee from my Star Wars coffee mug, I have to say that that’s probably still the case.
Imperial Assault is a rethemed Descent, and if that’s all it was, it would be great. You have an extensive campaign-style dungeon crawl, complete with an app in case you don’t want to have a player controlling the Empire. However, my favorite thing about Imperial Assault (other than the fact that it’s frickin’ Star Wars) is that I get three hobbies out of this box!
First of all, there is that campaign, which honestly, I’ve gotten the least use out of. However, there is also the skirmish game, where you go head-to-head against an opponent, using the teams you’ve carefully built to kill each other and score objectives. Em built that Wookiee Warriors team she mentioned earlier, and after many more games than I care to admit to you, I still can’t beat it (Though my droid team I recently built might stand a chance). So that’s TWO board games in one box.
However, I think I’ve spent even more time painting minis. In fact, Imperial Assault is the game that got me into mini-painting. Just last night, I painted up Vinto Hreeda from Jabba’s Realm (or, as I’ve renamed him based on the paint scheme I chose, Malco Reenalds). The minis aren’t the best minis on the market, or even the best Star Wars minis, but there’s a lot of variety in these models, and they are among my favorite minis to paint.
So yeah: A solo-able (no pun intended) campaign game, a head-to-head skirmish game, and lots of minis to paint. I love it.
I’ve gushed about the cuteness of this game in my “3 F’s for Fun” article. It is totally “Festive. Fantasy. Fluffy.” But the game goes beyond the cute factor and can be a “hare” cutthroat, at times—especially as a two-player, which is my preferred mode of play. The card artwork is delightful and humorous. The plastic bunnies sitting in their turreted plastic castles overrunning the board make it one of the most darling games of attempted domination.
2. See Next Page
My number 2 game is Em’s number 1, so I’ll comment when we get there.
AND NOW…our number 1 games OF ALL TIME!
My favorite game, I feel like it has been forever since I played it due to life, and that is Die Macher. The original one, not any of the renditions. I love how it is all thinking and strategy with barely any luck involved.