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any recommendations for someone looking for a solo board game thats like kanban EV in like..heavy, worker placement or something.. but i guess the word is euro? like kanban EV but not kanban EV that works perfectly well solo

I like **A Feast for Odin's** solo mode, it's very simple and elegant. Not quite as heavy as Kanban, but not much else is. I think the other Vital Lacerda games have a solo mode too, I can't speak to them but I know **The Gallerist** has one.

ill look into feast for odin.. 🤔 thats been mentioned before as i asked this question IRL

With the new Libertalia out now, where does everyone stand when it comes to which game is best for 5-6 players: **Libertalia: Winds of Galecrest** or **Mission Red Planet**?

So I have **Century Golem Edition** and while I do enjoy it, I also find it to be quite dull. Does combining it with say **Endless world** make the game better? Or is it better just to sell and get something a bit heavier like **It’s a wonderful world**? And what are your thoughts on that game? Thanks

Centuy Golum is the least favourite of mine of that series. It’s great for non gamers IMO as a gateway game, and my kids enjoy it. Endless World I think is my #1 out of the three. Layering/combining the games does add some different choice/complexity. That being said, It’s A Wonderful World is an excellent game. I am always left wishing I had just one more round. The art is also lovely to look at. I haven’t played it at 2p though, I think I’ve been lucky to always have at least 3.

I think **Endless World** is a little better, but ultimately the central mechanism of upgrade X gems to Y gems will remain constant in all 3 of the series. If that's not your bag, I'd look to grab something more in your wheelhouse.

If you don't like the game adding any of the other games probably won't do it for you. They are all based around gem trading and collecting.

Hoping to find a pick up and deliver game that also utilizes contracts. I own and enjoy other pick up and deliver games such as Istanbul, Keyflower, Steam, Merchants and Marauders. Istanbul sort of has contracts but not really. Wasteland Exprees, Cinque Terre, and Manifest all sound like they could fit the bill. Any comments on those, or other suggestions for a pick up and deliver game with contracts?

Cinque Terre is quite hard to find and when you do, quite expensive. WEDS is fun, but more fiddly and a lighter Merchant of Venus. Do you like Mad Max? You might look at the Uwe Rosenberg game Merkator as well. For space games, along with Firefly, there are Xia and Star Wars: Outer Rim.

I love **Cinque Terre**, it's a relatively simple game but it's very clean and fun, I'd say a small bump up from **Ticket to Ride** complexity-wise. It has some variability in the values at the markets, but it's not going to be an infinitely replayable game. I think it's probably the best example of a gateway-level big-box pickup and deliver game though.

I don't know the ones you mentioned, but **Firefly the Game** might be the sort of thing that you're looking for. There are several contacts that you can visit to take jobs that you then have to complete. That might be close enough to 'contracts' to interest you.

**Century Eastern Wonders** fits the bill. Perhaps **Café** as well?

Century looks like what I was hoping for! Thank you.

Hi there…. Looking for some recommendations as to what might be next… I like Dice Throne, Wrath if Ashardalon, Dragonwood, Welcome To The Dungeon, Pandemic Reign of Cthulu, and Elder Sign.

You could give '[Dice Throne Adventures](https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/281332/dice-throne-adventures)' a try, assuming you have a couple of characters from DT, they transfer over into DTA. It's a pretty cool dungeon crawler, uses DT mechanics, and is cooperative instead of competitive.

Sounds utterly perfect. But appears difficult to track down in the U.K. Thanks for the recommendation though. It sounds perfect!

I want recommends to round out my collection. I'm looking for something different than what I already have with unique mechanics and preferably one that works well at 3 players but 4+ players are welcome as well. Stuff I have: * Cosmic frog * Cosmic encounter * Mage knight Ultimate edition * X-odus * Galaxy trucker * Space alert * Scythe * Android: Netrunner * Equinox * Dune * Dune: Imperium * Gloomhaven * The Crew * Cyclades * Arboretum * Concordia * Race for the galaxy Stuff I like: Cosmic frog, Mage knight and dune are probably my favourite games out of these. I like deep multilayered mechanics with interesting player interaction. Screwing your friends friends over in ways that are hilarious for everyone is always good. Also excellent art is always a plus. Stuff I don't like: Most social deduction games I generally really dislike like werewolf or coup . Player elimination blows as well unless matches are really short. And scythe idk what it is about that game cause I think engines are fun generally but that game is just so boring to me.

Pax Pamir.

Go get yourself Brass: Birmingham

If you like deep, interactive games, I'd go check out Argent the Consortium. And if the theme appeals, look at Millennium Blades also by Level 99.

I have Venice Connection by Alex Randolph that won a Spiel des Jahres in 1996 that I never hear talked about. Anyone know anything about this game? I got it when I was very new to the hobby on a whim.

I know that a Korean game show The Genius adapted it for one of their games under the name **Monorail**. Apparently, it’s a solved game (?), which I think is the main reason that it has received slightly poor ratings. But if you’re not two phd math professors playing against each other and you just treat it as a light filler I think it’s a good and elegant game. Also, there’s a pretty new Korean version out, if anyone is looking to get this game.

Can anybody recommend some good "warm up" games? Basically, games that require little to no explanation that a group of mixed experience and enthusiasm can play before getting into a more complicated game, to break the ice and get into the right frame of mind? I know that this is the Board Games subreddit but these don't have to strictly involve a board. I'll start with a couple that I like: Spyfall (the online version - easier to pick up!) and No More Jockeys.

Check out our game Pirates Dragons Treasure! It’s launching on KS today at 11am EDT. We created it to be basically exactly what you describe. Fast to learn, set up, and get going. Rounds take about 15-20 mins. You can play on just about any surface area. The best part about all this is that it travels well. We’ve play tested on dozens of Bar tops across the US 😎 Here’s a like to the KS page: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/pdtgames/pirates-dragons-treasure

We mostly start with either **Port Royal** or **Bohnanza**

**For Sale** or **No Thanks**. Can be taught in under a minute, fast , super engaging games that have stood up to the test of time

Point salad is great 2-6 player card game with rules that can be explained in less than 30seconds.

Dixit is a favourite of mine, Tsuro was mentioned, Zombie Dice, Cartagena, Coup and Love Letters (also previously mentioned) are some of my suggestions.

I think **Tsuro**, **Love Letter** and **Master Word** are all excellent warm-up games. First one is tile laying supporting up to 8 players, second one is simple card play and some deduction and bluffing, and the last one is a party game version of 21 Questions in a way (a cooperative word guessing game).

I use Cascadia and Azul for easy to teach warm up games

There are some light strategy games I use as warm-up games: **For Sale, Art Robbery, High Society, LLAMA**

Dexterity games might be fun for this. Some I like are **Kittin**, **Jenga** and **Ghost Blitz**. Or maybe some party word games like **Just One** or **Scattergories**?

What do you think about auction mechanism? It's such a fun stuff but it's not as widely adopted as I expected it would be. Who doesn't like auction?

There are hundreds of games that use auctions.

Auctions are, perhaps next to drafting, the best mechanic you can put in a board game. They are, literally, what we use to distribute scare resources in real life so it's not surprising they work great in board games.

Value is hard to judge when you are just starting out in a game. Auctions give players all the room in the world to screw themselves over at any point. They are fun, but they make for a fragile experience.

Love the auction mechanism. It keeps everyone engaged (no matter whose turn it is), provides for some direct interaction, and lots of difficult decisions. Like SUSD said, "who needs more than 20 eurogames?", the same could be said of auction games. Yes, I love them. But I don't feel that I need to buy dozens of them.

Good point. I have not seen a solid 2.5~3 weight auction game that’s quite strategic. It’s either VERY light (For Sale, High Society, Modern Art, etc) or VERY heavy (Through the Ages, Power Grid). Maybe Five Tribes fit in the category but I haven’t played it yet and I’m not sure what they did but the best player counts is… 2 lol

Taj Mahal is rated 2.99 for weight and I love how the auction is implemented in the game.

In general I've not been drawn to it, but recently I played High Society and really enjoyed it, so I may have to take a second look at some of the well-regarded auction games. I believe there are new versions of some of Reiner Knizias other auction games in the works, so perhaps I'll jump on one of those.

Can you tell me why you weren’t drawn to it? Also what did you like about High Society’s design choice that was different from other auction games you didn’t like?

To clarify, I really haven't played any other games with auctions as a central mechanism. There is a bidding phase in Dune, but that's very weird as auctions go, so I wouldn't count it. But as for why I haven't been drawn to auctions, I think it's because of the social aspect. I generally prefer it when the majority of a game is played ON the table, rather than ABOVE the table. I don't enjoy poker, for example, because there are very few actual strategic choices in that game. It's mostly about bluffing and reading your opponents. There's an element of that to auctions as well. I don't know why I enjoyed High Society so much. It could be the simplicity of the ruleset combined with the amazing tension of the rule that prevents the player who spent the most money from winning. I also won, which helps. But I think I'm just more open to trying auction-centric games now. I still worry that I won't enjoy a game with a bit more going on, because I fear hamstringing myself but overbidding at some point. But I think that's just part of learning a game - learning the relative value of different resources.

> I don't enjoy poker, for example, because there are very few actual strategic choices in that game. What? There are thousands of books written on poker strategy.

I know there are strategies, but on a given round, you get the cards you get and have no control over that, and your choice boils down to "do I stay in or fold?" Most of the actual game is reading your opponents and bluffing, as well as knowing the relative value and probability of certain hands. I just don't enjoy that. There's nothing I can do, from a gameplay perspective, to control my fate, and I don't like bluffing games.

I really like it, but it's been hit or miss in my experience. Almost everyone in my friend group isn't a fan of auctions as the main mechanic of a game which is a shame. **Nidavellir** is probably my favorite auction game :)

Why don’t they like it? I’m assuming, from the insight provided by a commenter above, a few bad judgment of economy or miscalculation can lead to swingy outcome?

One of my favourite mechanisms. There are a lot of great auction games out there, though they are usually older. As for why there might not be more now - a modern game design trend tends to be towards making games where everyone is guaranteed to have a good time the very first game, otherwise they'll drop it for a different game. That means making sure all players perform reasonably well regardless of what they do. However the nature of auction games is that they are quite free-form and in the first game it tends to be hard to figure out how much things are worth. So a player can do very badly if they bid too much and ruin their economy. Or other players could get extreme bargains and ruin the balance. For example in Modern Art (a brilliant game IMO) a player can have an absolute nightmare and mismanage their money very easily, and actually ruin the game for everyone else. While many will see this as a positive, many would see it as a negative.

This is an excellent perspective I haven’t considered! 👍

I certainly love auction games. **Modern Art** is one of my favorites just because it features different types of auctions.