Welcome Nick Martinelli! We played Order of Invention together with Nick just prior to the show, and we’re surprised at how well it worked when playing over Skype. Thanks to our sponsor Breaking Games for providing the game and sponsoring this episode!

What We’ve Been Playing

Nick tells us about a few of his family’s recent favorites:

Wingspan: “I have a friend that’s a huge Magic: The Gathering fan… he said ‘this is amazing, we need to play it every time I come over.'”

Tussie Mussie: Like Wingspan, also designed by Elizabeth Hargrave. A beautiful and quick split-and-choose game.

Fantasy Ranch: raise horses and show them. Many different difficulty levels, appropriate for all ages and abilities. Looking forward to Nick’s review!

Andrew tells us a few he’s played recently as well:

Gunkimono: We’ve talked about this before. It looks like a complex Japanese combat game, but it’s actually a domino-style area control with two point systems that have to be balanced. Surprisingly easy to teach.

Sagrada and Tiny Towns were big hits at our latest cafe game night.

SHOBU: A surprise hit from Smirk & Dagger that Anitra found at Origins. A thinky abstract with perfect information; easy to learn and we had a lot of fun with it. We’re not ready to write a review yet; until we are, check out this review from One Board Family.

Rescue Polar Bears: still ridiculously hard.

Quacks of Quedlinburg: we love the simultaneous play and the choices still available when you “bust”. Looking forward to introducing the kids and trying the different books.

Anitra’s top games from Origins:

The Grimm Masquerade: beautiful art (same as The Grimm Forest) “everything you want in a social deduction, but it’s logical/strategic deduction” – our favorite kind of deduction! Players can be revealed, but aren’t knocked out from the round.

Echidna Shuffle: a kids’ game that’s fun for everyone. Your bugs will hitch ride on the echidnas’ backs, and you’ll shuffle the echidnas along various paths to try to get your bugs home. Deny your fellow players by moving their bugs onto the wrong paths, too.

Lots of roll & write games (also flip & writes): reviews for Hex Roller and Lanterns Dice will be coming soon.

Anitra remembers why she doesn’t play Puerto Rico anymore, even though she enjoys it – it’s just too long. Maybe this will motivate us to try San Juan?

Dragon’s Breath from HABA was everything Anitra dreamed it would be. Choose a cardboard token representing the color of gem you’d like to take this round. Once everyone has chosen, “dragon dad” takes the top ring off the “ice” stack, dropping gems onto the box. You’ve got to love a game that cleans itself up as you play.

Ship Shape from Calliope (we mentioned this in both parts of our two part podcast on PAX Unplugged). It’s coming out in August, and we had a great time playing it. Can’t wait!

Cartographers: a roll-and-write (flip and write) set in the Roll Player universe.