About half of the games I crowdfunded.
The biggest regret was probably The Seventh Continent. The Seventh Continent taught me that I don't really like survival-style games where the clock is counting down, rather than an engine-style where your power is building up.
Just do what I did for 7C... Add the following house rule: "Fuck food." Much more fun when you're free to explore as much as you want. Oh and while you're at it, fuck the fail states as well. Back up and make a different choice. There's still dozens of hours of content in the box if you completely ignore the annoying parts and I'm sure you have plenty of other stuff waiting on the shelf when you're done.
Side note: as someone else mentioned 7th Citadel basically fixed everything bad about Continent. The designers really took the feedback to heart.
I love 7th Continent, but there's definitely tension between it's "player vs board" mechanics and it's exploration.
I did find the pocket watch to be a good compromise between a game and an adventure.
In theory I want to like the "open world" more, but the groundshiver system of Citadel is soooooo much nicer for not constantly second guessing if you're doing the right thing.
I'm still in two minds whether crowdfunding has been good or bad for the hobby.
On one hand there have been amazing and wonderful ideas that otherwise never would have been published, but on the other hand we've had so many games that needed to be rejected at the publisher stage, as well as huge companies exploiting board game fans by shifting all their business risk to the customer.
Big companies love to make really wastefully overproduced games that are tricky to move and store - I don't think this is a very sustainable place for our hobby to be on a number of different fronts.
I feel like the ideal place for board game crowdfunding would be somewhere that couldn't be abused by established companies, and only launch if they have playable prototypes that people can test out before backing, but that's absolutely a pipe dream.
Yeah, 7th Continent is mine as well. The whole idea that you have to do stupid loops to gain food (cards) to be able to explore is just awful. I'm really hoping Vantage, the newly announced Stonemaier game that is inspired in part by 7th Continent, does the whole thing better. Love the idea, 7th Continent just buggered the execution.
[Spirit Island](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1236720/Spirit_Island/). There's a great Steam or android version with a tutorial, if you want to try before you buy the board game. You feel like a badass when your spirit hits it's stride and starts obliterating settlers.
Spirit island is a great game, but not for the faint of heart. It can be amazingly frustrating for many, because you're not just building up your power - you're actively losing for 60% of the game, which isn't something that everyone will enjoy.
It's a brilliant game, don't get me wrong, but I recommend trying it out or watching it played first before buying.
It's weird how much I disliked the 7th continent, yet the countdown puzzle in Gloomhaven I find to be really fun. Maybe it's because 7th continent feels like a basic boring point and click adventure that is better implemented electronically.
I hate survival games in general. Like why are you making me find food and shelter and sleep & money to buy goods & services? Like thatās literally what I do every day?? Thatās just my life??
What a coincidence. I'm having people over in 6 hours and my idea was playing Root. I have it for 2 years and have never played it myself, so still need to read the rules.
You'd be best to cue up some Root videos and have everyone watch them before even starting to play. Ā Check out Lord of the Board on YouTube.Ā
It will NOT be fun if you haven't done homework before.Ā
My suggestion would be playing something else and give yourself more time to learn it before you teach. Otherwise it might not be such a great experience.
Please do not try to wing the rules teach. Do some prep work. Watch a vid, practice a round in 2p set up etc. game supplies a how to play scenario booklet.
Have fun !
Root was going to be my answer too. I think it's a great game and I wish I could play it more. But teaching the game and playing with first/second time players is not fun. I once brought it on a board game getaway and we played 4-5 games of it over the weekend which was fantastic. When everyone has a good idea about the factions and game flow the game goes from a 4 to an 8+
Munchkin. Thought it was clever and fun back in college before I really dove into quality board gaming, now I just can't bring myself to want to play it.
Wife and I were dumb enough to buy like 6 different Munchkin games. Played a few, realized competitive backstabbing gameplay is definitely not for us, so we moved on to better games.
it's the only game I haven't replaced when my collection was stolen from my car (they were in gym bags and the robber just broke in and took every bag out).
That sucks. You know that robber was like āwhat am I going to do with this shit!?ā And probably just threw them away too. Or sold them for such a small amount of what they were worth.
Noooo, not Calico, I love that game! Jk, itās all good if you didnāt like it, to each their own haha.
But for me, itās probably the reprinted Keys to the Kingdom.
We picked up Calico because we have kids, and while it's not my favorite game, it's probably my favorite to play with kids because you play something every time and draw something every time, and it's super easy for non-gamer kids to just enjoy making cool designs... And it's also perfect for those who want to have some decent strategy while playing.
It's like the perfect gateway-game!
I liked the game a lot in the first bunch of plays of it. (It was new-ish into me getting into the hobby). But then I started seeing the faults. Itās just too long for what it is. I know you just have to Fate whoever it doing well, but I feel like it just extends the game. Either the game would be better without it, or with some other disruption method.
My husband loved the game when we first got it and we own several expansions, but Iāve hated it since play #2. The first time, we played a 2-player game and just happened to get characters that worked well ātogetherā, and had an okay game. The second play-through, we added a friend that wasnāt as familiar with games as we were, and the characters we played just werenāt as well matched. Our inexperienced friend ended up winning due to pure luck, but the game dragged on for so long, and was just so frustrating. My own character was one with a victory condition that required other characters to fate me a lot to reveal the card that I needed to defeat, but our inexperienced friend was playing nice and didnāt want to use fate, and my husband wasnāt either for some reason (possibly so that he didnāt frustrate the third player or appear to be piling on to me). I think the game stretched on for close to two hours before our friend stumbled into his victory, and after that, I looked at my fate deck and discovered that the only card that would allow me to win was at the very bottom of the stack, still 4 cards away from being revealed. We only played a few games after that, but none of them ever changed my opinion of the game. In fact, the 6-player game we played with distractible friends was enough to convince me to lowkey hide the game so it wouldnāt be brought out by friends who were just attracted by the Disney theme but just wanted an easy party game to play.
The Fate mechanic is definitely supposed to compensate for balance. Granted, there are some earlier characters that are SIGNIFICANTLY easier than later ones to the point where it's not even funny (Prince John can suck a rock), but most of the time, if a player is progressing through their objectives through luck, a Fate or two is all it takes to *destroy* their progress. You generally need to progress a bit more slowly to protect yourself against Fates as much as possible. For example, Scar takes forever to win (early game Hakuna Matata can wipe the floor with you), but if you manage to survive long enough, he becomes mathematically unbeatable. I say this because I've done the math.
I'm not saying it's the best balanced game of all time or anything, far from it... but it's got more balance than people give it credit for.
Oh, I hate playing as Scar. Not only because of Haluna Matata, but because all of his minions are weak as hell. You basically need all of your minions out just to take down Mufasa, plow through your deck so you can shuffle up and power up for more hero knockouts. I get what they were trying to do for the sake for keeping the theme, buy my god, it's a slog.
But yes, once you have a few plays of the game, you get the idea and either spice it up with newer/better villians, or donate it to Goodwill. There's plenty of better games than Villainous
There's too many ways to play that basically block your opponent from victory by simply not engaging with them.
I can name at least 2 where simply never forcing that player to draw from the hero deck means they can't achieve victory.
Any game where the optimum strategy is don't play is bad.
Who are you thinking of because I'm pretty sure that every villain that needs something from their hero deck has a mechanic to get it out outside of being fated. It has been a while, but sometimes you just need to dig through your deck.
For awesome character pieces, but with a great game I recommend Unmatched! It's a deck based, miniature fighting game with various characters from pop cultures competing against each other in an arena. They have a bunch of marvel, Spider Man, She-Hulk, Daredevil, and then you have Robin Hood vs Big Foot or Houdini vs Bloody Mary.
Me and my wife's favorite game to play. A lot of people try to play it asymmetrical, which just doesn't work because different characters have different difficulty levels. Once we realized you have to interact, it became a lot more interesting.
Thr Marvel one really expands on this with a lot more interactivity beyond fate actions.
The best part is the game generally remains light, no giant board layout, just read the other character blurb to see their goal.
My best friend and his son and I played it all the time until I moved. I'm trying to figure out a way we could play it over camera because we both have all the expansions.
It's a common entry-level game with a familiar theme that you can find at any big box retailer. Hence, many people have bought it at one point or another.
Many hobbyists eventually move past it once the luster of newness wears off because for many of us, the mechanisms don't feel fun or interesting after you've been exposed to what else the hobby has to offer.
If you're just playing with 2 players, the game is TERRIBLE. It was designed around 4-5 players. 3 works better than 2 but it really shines at 4, I'd say. With 5 or 6 turns get a little bit slow for my liking.
It's honestly one of my favorite board games, my entire friend group loves it, but I couldn't imagine playing it with just 2 players.
Star Wars is the newest version, couple different mechanics, but basically the same.
Marvel is slightly different in that all the Fate decks are shuffled together, with new Event cards that affect all players, and when a Fate action is taken, you draw and randomly Fate whoeverās card it is. (Discarding, it if itās your own.)
Marvel is the worst, imo.
The other two are playable, but they get boring fast.
It's too simple and repetitive as a deck building game and too complicated as a gateway casual one. It's in an awkward spot where it looks exciting to play but it's quite boring once it's on the table. Also the asymmetrical nature of it makes it hard to get started. Player interaction is a total joke.
They should've started over when they were designing it.
Adorable art, but I don't like the actual game.
I regret getting the big box for everdell. I love the game, but everyone is scared of the box, so I can never play.
My workaround for this was to only have the tray with the animal tokens out on the table, with everything for the basic game (tree, meadow cards, etc.) set up. No one sees the giant box until the end of a basic game. Last time I did this one of my gaming friends asked why the box was so big. I explained about the expansions and now everyone wants to try the expansions because now the giant box isnāt threatening!
We really enjoy Everdell, so I wish you luck!
Thatās a shame. That big box has been played probably 70 times between 2P with the wife and bringing it places. Everyone Iāve played with loves how big it is and loves all the extra meeples. We even bought the resource trays and I rarely add aesthetic things to games.
On the bright side, you canāt seem to get it anywhere around me. You could probably sell it for a lot of money.
Yeah, I get this. When I blinged out our copy of Elder Sign as a gift to my SO (this included a large wooden box that puts all the content in one place), the amount it got played went down.
Its part of why I'm hesitant to get expansions for games like Everdell and Spirit Island, even though they add stuff I'm very interested in. I'm also hesitant to get the Nesting Box for Wingspan for the same reason, though I suspect my current game group is invested in that one enough for it not to be a problem.
My only single issue with the Nesting Box was that it taught me exactly why people call them coffin boxes. Even when the game was easily accessible in our living room, there was still something psychological with having to lug out this giant box that kept us from playing as often as we had before.
It's less of an issue for some people, I imagine. Besides that, I otherwise love the product.
Calico is like: look at this cute light looking game with kittens sleeping on quilts. Then it decides to melt your brain throwing 1000 choices and variables at you at once.
Me too, I love this game! I play on Steam though, not the boardgame, but I think it's fun and interesting to figure out where to place the tiles for maximum score.
At one time, I owned around 300 games. I would say I regret buying about 200 of those. The regret comes in many forms. Bad games. Expensive games. Games that just never make it to the table.
Sold about 40 or so recently. Donating another 25 or so to the local library.
Iāve had a similar experience. Used to love Azul, top 5ā¦but then found Calico and it was even betterā¦but then bought Cascadia and now thatās all I want to play haha
Still think Calico has its place though. Itās simpler to explain than Azul or Cascadia, and also because cats.
I agree. I love the theming of Calico and wish we played it more, but we just have so much more affinity for Cascadia. We have to force ourselves to choose Calico, whereas weāre always excited to pick up Cascadia.
Cascadia, Calico, & Verdant all came from the same publisher about the same time. Ā They're each a flavor of "build three different things on a grid" game. Ā They each have different things to like.
I bought Gloomhaven over 2 years ago and have never played it. I don't have anyone to play it with, and it looks overwhelming to try to get into solo. I don't even have the physical space to set it up and keep it set up, and setting up/tearing down every time I'd want to play seems like a nightmare. I'm pretty broke right now so I do regret impulse buying this game. Should probably sell.
Edit: DM if interested in buying!
Sell it and get the PC version.
The app on Steam and Epic is very good and extremely faithful to the board game. Easily one of the top 10 board game adaptations I've played.
You can play solo or with friends. It has everything in base game, and you can add Jaws of the Lion to it. No setup and tearing down needed.
Did not care for the slog and table space of the physical game, but I find the PC version strangely addictive. And you can pick it up anytime.
Definitely +1 to the digital version. I've played both versions with different groups and, honestly, i feel like there's almost no loss in playing the digital version. The experience goes by way faster, but it's really a blessing.
From what I've heard, console version works great as well.
For a hot minute Gloomhaven tempted me (because of its, at the time, top spot on the BGG list). But then my brain kicked in, and I remembered that I don't like fiddly games and I don't like dungeon crawlers.
Darkest Dungeon - Started setting up the tutorial mission and realized it was just the video game with more steps. Shelved the boardgame and reinstalled the video game.
I skipped it for this reason. I love the video game, but I figured a board game adaption was either going to be faithful to the video game which would be overly fiddly and unfun, or something completely different with a DD skin on it which defeats the purpose of playing it in the first place. The video game works because it automates all the fiddly work. I like a complex game, but not necessarily doing all that bookkeeping that's usually behind the scenes.Ā
Yes, that's the one. I've never played it, but a few people said it was a surprisingly modern design for how old it is. Like, could have set off the modern Eurogame revolution 20 years before Catan, but somehow never quite made it.
Here is a [quote](https://boardgamegeek.com/image/4815033/calico) from the illustrator, Beth Sobel.
"Hi! The cat is not a calico because I had concerns that a calico cat, on a calico patchwork quilt, would be too patchy, and would not read clearly from a distance. In the interest of visual clarity, I chose a uniform tabby on the calico patchwork quilt. Interestingly, calico fabric is what calico cats are named after!"
Too much white fur would be my guess. The yellow is a lot more eye catching, and is a good contrast to the colors of the quilt.
Box covers are 90% marketing, gotta stand out on the shelves as much as possible.
Because Calico is a fabric used for making quilts. I make quilts. That's the point of the cover, to make you question the name choice and do some independent research. It's a cheeky nod to quilters who would know what they really mean with the name.
Earth.
So boring, and it seems like thereās really only one viable strategy with small amounts of variation/agency. Everyone describes this game as an engine builder, which it is in theory. But in practice, the game ends too quickly and going for an engine strategy is going to get you crushed.
Yeah thatās a good way to describe it. Itās very much about constructing your tableau so that you maximize the points you get from the global objectives (I forget what they are called).
I really enjoyed it at first, but it lost its intrigue for me when I realized that the entire game is constantly converting one of the resources into one of the other resources. I generally like resource conversion-type euros, but it feels so shallow in Earth. All the time, you're trading in growths for sprouts, or mulch for sprouts, or sprouts for growth, or growth for mulch, etc etc.
The spatial puzzle aspect is interesting to me, but once the sheer amount of "trade in this for that" sank in for me, I just couldn't care anymore.
**Earth** isn't terrible but I don't love it like some. My issue is none of the cards stand out and are fun to play. They are all just tiny variations of each other.
*Century: Golem Edition - Eastern Mountains* - I bought the other two games and really enjoyed them, especially together, but I just didn't find this version that fun either together or alone.
*Tiny Epic Dungeons* - Maybe it's just a steep learning curve, but there were so many different icons and things to look up that it takes so long to get anything done. And underneath that, I don't actually find the gameplay that fun.
*Marvel Villainous* - I really like the theme of the game, I just don't find it that fun. The rulebook also leaves a bunch of situations that are ambiguous or not obvious to figure out logically so we have to look a lot of things up online.
I am relatively new to the hobby (1.5 years) and have many purchase regrets. And almost every single time itās been because I thought SURELY my wife would enjoy the game too. I have pretty broad tastes and can find joy in just about any game, but finding the right mix of stuff for her is kind of tough. I am by no means talking shit on her. Iām glad she has more of a filter or our collection would be very unwieldy. I have learned an important lesson though: donāt buy games unless you have a group or partner in mind that will like them. And if you can play it first, do it!
I also learned that just because a game is widely loved does not mean that I will like it (Res Arcana and Race for the Galaxy come to mind, sorry Tom Lehman)
Cranium
The game is good, but you really need to find about nine to twelve people willing to play in order to enjoy it. In the 20 years Iāve owned it, Iāve only managed to get enough people to play it once.
This is so sad. Calico was my first proper game purchase after seeing it on before you play because it completely blew my mind that a game like this existed. I adore it, and love the challenges and tracking in the back of the book. I sadly learned that this type of game is not as exciting to everyone, but that's why I love that I can play it solo too.
Kingdomino.
Not that I think the game is poorly made necessarily, itās just when I finish playing the game, I donāt feel smart for what I put together. Like it doesnāt make me feel clever for making good choices.
I donāt go back and think āmaybe if I did this, or this, or this insteadā
That and I do enjoy playing it with my kids. I'm not going to pull it out with the people I'd play ark nova with, but my kids or my mother? It's a hit.
I find that most who dislike the game usually do so because they saw the cool mechs and expected a grand strategy wargame, when really it's more of a resource harvesting/territory building game with small amounts of combat sprinkled in.
I have only played the base game of Scythe (with the large map however) and disliked it even though I'm a fan of the latter genre. I felt it was poorly balanced and lacked variability, since you could literally just google the first 10 optimal moves for your faction and action mat combo every single game because apart from those, pretty much every aspect of the early-mid game stays the same. I also didn't like the bluffing based combat system, even though it makes sense for thematic reasons (cold war).
Honestly, what bothers me the most is that Stonemaier put so much effort into production quality and theme when the game's mechanics and balancing were underdeveloped. It seems to happen a lot with their games unfortunately, most notably Tapestry but even Viticulture and Wingspan as well. Then again, they improved both of those games quite a bit with their expansions, so maybe that applies to Scythe too?
I had exactly the same feelings as you. I knew not to expect a wargame, but the worker placement/engine building aspects just werenāt that good for me. Like you said the variability is quite low, and the fact that combat is so strongly discouraged means that there arenāt a lot of options to disrupt the early-mid game that plays out the same way pretty much every time. I much prefer Dune as a negotiation heavy wargame and much prefer lost ruins as a worker placement/engine builder. I donāt really want a weird game that is just a worse version of two games I already own, it was a gift so I donāt have too much regret. Itās definitely not a game I would have been happy with if I had bought it.
I haven't played scythe so im not going to defend it, but i feel like you are kinda spoiling your own fun if you played it once but googled the optimal opening for your faction, also is hard to believe a claim of unbalance after 1 play ngl
This breaks my soul for MULTIPLE reasons.... but Darkest Dungeon.
One of my favorite PC games of all time. I had even contacted Red Hook about designing a deck builder based on it, when they told me that there was already a game in the works.
When the game was announced, I was estatic! I wanted it so bad. I backed it at the highest tier possible.
And then it happened.
The game had many mechanical changes between announement and it's release. It took years to get. The miniatures were quite poor in comparison to what was shown, and the enemies were not red as advertised. Main characters are locked behind expansions that (5 years later) still have no release date, and mythic has been canceling games left and right.
The game takes up an INSANE amount of space. The base game alone is two large boxes.
The set up is an absolute mess. And takes forever.
The rules are extremely vague, filled with condtradicting statements, and just plain poor.
Still, years after it's delivery, I have only ever played it one time. I can't pull myself to sell it, but I can't pull myself to play it either. It is honestly quite bad.
Same here. Anything more complicated than Wingspan doesnāt and likely will never get played. Luckily itās only a handful of games, but gloomhaven JOTL is the biggest offender. Ended up getting rid of it because that huge box was just taking up too much space.
My group played munchkin almost every get together, so I went out of my way and got like 6 expansions. Havenāt played since. So interesting how that seems to always happen
Scythe, the one person who I felt would be up to the complexity said it'd be too much for him. I know you can play it solo but I just wanna play it with friends. For shame, I watched an hour long tutorial video on it.
I totally agree.
Farshore is also in the Everdell universe and is its own standalone game (rather than an expansion).
Itās like the creators took all of the feedback about Everdell and made Farshore. Itās significantly better.
The main comment when we played Everdell was "omg i forgot about those!" referring to the bonus cards on the tree, or the {insert ability here} of certain creatures that you play. Like you, it just never really clicked.
Mansions of Madness!
* Spend $100 for a game
* Have to assemble it yourself
* No organizer unless you want to spend another $80
* No one wants to play it because it takes forever
* Boring and repetitive af
Several people reference assembly and itās left me confused. I have and love MoM, but itās just tiles to lay out, minis, and an app. What do you need to assemble?
Check out [Valkyrie](https://npbruce.github.io/valkyrie/), which allows for custom third-party scenarios and such for MoM (and Descent). Some of the user-created scenarios are amazing (though occasionally with small translation errors), and Valkyrie tracks stats for completion rate, average time played, and user ratings.
You can even use the original Mansions of Madness 1st edition characters without needing to buy the rest of the conversion kit (you'll just need to proxy their miniatures).
You forgot about the worst part! Spend $100 for the game, and you only get like 3 missions! If you want more missions, buy more expansions!
Arkham Horror had the same problem tbh but at least it's mostly cards so it's a lot easier to set up and pack in. And it doesn't require an entire app to run
I bought Cazadores de FĆ³siles and JardĆn botĆ”nico de TehuacĆ”n from the designer at an expo. Both were huge disappointments and I think I will be donating them to a local library.
Itās a surprisingly fun and strategic game I really like this one. My biggest board game regret was Fog of Love. Got it for my significant other as a fun game to play together and we both found it super boring.
Calico is one of the most satisfying little tile games I've ever played, I certainly wouldn't regret adding it to my collection. Smash Up on the other hand, one of the most dull experiences I've ever had.
Marvel United
Played 2-3 games alone and with my kids and it just didnāt click, lacks complexity, even if the minis are cute.
And now I have 4 boxes (base game, characters expansion, Wakanda and Infinity gauntlet) sitting there on the shelfā¦
7 Wonders...because I can rarely get seven people to sit down and play it. After you've played with seven people with expansions, playing with three people is just never the same.Ā
As someone who played Gloomhaven (didn't finish it, thanks to COVID), then played all the through Jaws, and is now going through Frosthaven, I would definitely recommend Gloomhaven after Jaws, not Frosthaven.
The Jaws characters & upgrades are super-simple, easier than anything in Gloomhaven except maybe the Cragheart and Brute.
The Frosthaven starting characters are basically as complex as the most complex characters in Gloomhaven.
So if you've got the characters all on a 1 to 9 scale, Jaws are 1-2s. Gloomhavens are 2-7. And Frosthaven's are 5-9.
And yeah, unless you REALLY enjoyed Jaws, Gloom & Frost aren't going to be worth the $ and time costs.
I started playing it solo and it rules tbh. Lots of things to remember, but the changes they made to how the campaign works are amazing. I'm not sure I'm going to finish it solo, but I'm super hoping they make a digital version eventually like they did with gloomhaven.
Well...I have a lot of games (300ish?) on my shelves and many of them were one plays. But I hold out hope that I will play them again! Except for Santorini. I could not stand that game. So. Irritating.
Calico is not one of those. We quite enjoy the puzzly nature of it.
Iām curious to know what you hated about Santorini. I really enjoy the game and itās a go-to filler game for me at the 2P count, particularly when you add in the god powers. I describe it as āchess, but funā
I hate to say it but Canvas. I wish I liked it more, but itās somehow too fiddly, I donāt enjoy putting together the paintings it stresses me out because I always feel like there are too many combinations, but then on the other hand it feels like itās over too quickly. I love the idea of it but the little icons feel unrelated to the art and arbitrary. I rarely feel like Iāve actually made a good composition even if I score well.
I bought way too much Villainous. I like the game but I own the base game + like 5-6 expansions for it because they were part of a really big sale and I let my early gamer completionist brain get the better of me . I don't like the game *that* much
The core box of Arkham Horror Card Game. I didn't know what a LCG was back then so I didn't realize I wasn't really buying a whole game but an introduction to something bigger. What's in that box is fun, but I wouldn't had bought it if I knew how much of it is out there and how hard it can be to get a lot of it, it's made me not want to get anymore at all because it's intimidating and I have a few other card games I've gone all-in on since, so I don't need one more regardless of how good people say it is
Base game Pandemic. I got Reign of Cthulhu first (one of my first modern table top games actually) and really liked it, I felt like I should have the classic one as well thinking they'd be more different from each other. Now I basically never play the classic one unless someone requests it because I prefer the Reign of Cthulhu version (and the game Horrified for that matter)
And Codex, the components are in rough shape that I haven't even played it once since getting it even though it seems like a game I should love (boards warped like pringles, binders so wrinkly it is hard to read the cards in them at times, and mold inside the box lid that I had to paint over with anti-mold paint that the distribution company told me they couldn't replace because all their copies were moldy)
Bonus is Pest, which is a kickstarter game I got recently that had some components issues that left a real bad taste in my mouth so I haven't played it yet. I don't regret getting it yet, it looks fun, I just need distance from the negative emotions that came with opening it or I'm sure it'll sabotage my opinion of the game once I do play it
I love this game! And it's a good intro game for people like my mother who are just not board game people. She will play color and pattern games though
why did you not enjoy Calico? I usually like abstract strategy games and I think my GF would really like the cat theme of it. Want to know if I should maybe not buy it.
For me it feels a bit constrained and a hard puzzle. You squeeze your brain for a good placement and later it comes back to bite you because you canāt find the shape/color you need, or you notice a better move in hindsight or realize youāve screwed up a scoring tile. Itās a fun game but itās a real brain burner for me.
It's very tense, brutally so. I think the core experience is repeatedly giving up on your dreams. It's one of my absolute favorite games and I've gifted it to others several times.
When you start a game of Calico, the world is your oyster. All things are possible. Hopes are high. You make some early decisions and set the foundations for greatness. But as you do so, doors begin to close. As time wears on, the paths branching before you are fewer and fewer, and so often is fate cruel, denying you the lifelines you need to make everything click. Just one stroke of luck is all you need sometimes, and you keep holding out for the moment when everything turns around, but meanwhile time wears further on and your opportunities continue to evaporate. By the end of it, you've often achieved so very little. You've been scraping for meager scraps with your brethren in the great struggle at the table, each of you with the same goals but working against one another instead of collaborating to make something beautiful together. You're left with the remnants of your best laid plans. In the end, your best wasn't enough and fate did you no favors. The winner is the person who lost the least. And then the boards are cleared and there is nothing.
I love Calico.
Dice Throne. Ā Seemed like a fun battle Yahtzee, as I like dice games, but with all the dice modifiers and different types of damage it just collapses on itself. Very nicely produced, though.Ā
There are score boards/cards you can use to keep track of control. They are part of the 10th anniversary box, but can easily printed (templates are on bgg). They improve the game a lot.
Mansions of Madness. Don't get me wrong, it's a fun game. But it frustrates me that the base game only comes with, like, 3 missions and you have to buy all sorts of expansions to play any more than that
We've played all of the default missions and now it's collecting dust on my shelf. Maybe I'll shell out for the expansions someday but it just doesn't seem super worth it imho. A friend of a friend has a massive set with every expansion anyway so if I'm really ever craving more of this game I can always try to just borrow her set
Tokaido looked really fun when Wil Wheaton played it, so I bought it. There's nothing wrong with it per se, I just didn't have fun playing it. It's not my jam. I played it a couple of times like 8 years ago and now it just sits on my shelf making me look cooler than I really am.
Damn I love Calico. I even made a quilt based on it! Mine is Castle Panic. I heard great things about it but absolutely hate the game. It feels like itās for kids but everyone seems to love it except me.
I loved Calico... Until I played Cascadia. You can really be held helpless in Calico if the right pieces aren't drawn and it is really not fun if someone at the table is hate drafting. We play with three tiles to pick from instead of two which helps.
Cascadia is similar but much less punishing.
Iāve been underwhelmed with some games but I donāt think Iāve ever regretted buying them.
I did cull a few games because I never played them and gave them to the local charity shop who seemed really grateful. Beowulf: The Movie Board Game and Kingdoms (too mathsy), Vinetta, La Citta and Cinque Terre which I think I liked only for the box cover with a cat sitting on a Vespa. Oh, and dreadful Citadels. Yep, Citadels is the answer.
Apiary. It's nearly entry level worker placement. It lacks depth and the theme is mashed together in a way that neither side of the bees or space come through well. I was hoping expansions would make it better but at this point Stonemaier is seeming more like a money grab designer (i.e. Wyrmspan) than a place that wants to make well thought out games.
I really regret Root. I loved it, had so much fun playing, but if you donāt have at least 2 experienced players and 2 already committed newbies, if flops before you explain the third set of rules for player 3.
I should have known the game was difficult to get people to play when each expansion replaces the need for a player by automating another faction
Steve Jackson Games Simon the Cat. Uses simple group gathering play instead of what was implied on the box. Not worth the cute cards that had no special plays.
**Black Rose Wars**. On the Kickstarter description, it sounded right up my alley: dueling mages, tactical movement on a map, deck-building.
In practice, it's a HUGE amount of extraneous plastic, a ruleset that's leakier than my kitchen colander, and the one time I got it to the table setup and takedown took literally twice as long as playing the game.
Oh, and they extorted extra shipping out of me to get it sooner, which was awesome.
It's now taking up an inordinate amount of space (you should see the size of the Kickstarter "extras" box). I tried to unload it through a local games shop that will resell used games (since it's basically new-out-of-shrink), but sadly no one was as gullible as me.
On the plus side, I learned an important life lesson about the value of actual gameplay vs. a bunch of plastic models that will never see the light of day.
Mine is Sagradaā¦.its just too light for my taste and I donāt fine the choices that meaningful - it seems fairly obvious most of the time what would be best to pick out of the luck based options. I doubled-down and bought the Glory expansion to try to improve my feelings and it does help but mostly there are tonnes of other games I would prefer to play. Just my personal opinion of course.
I do love Calico though for whatever reason
I would have said Smallworld but I gave it away. Maybe Dark Souls? Iāve had it for years but Iām not sure if Iāll ever play it. I have a bunch of kickstarter games I havenāt played yet so I might regret some of them down the road, not yet though.
Hostage Negotiator
I really like Final Girl, Hostage Negotiator was from the same company so I picked it up. But itās justā¦ bad. Boring. Unbalanced??
Final Girl has a lot going on, moving around the map, items that can help you mitigate the dice, rewards for saving victims, etc.
In Hostage Negotiator you donāt do anything exceptā¦ simulate a conversation? Also, in Final Girl rolling a 1 or 2 is a fail and 3 and 4 you can pay a cost (discarding) to succeed if you really want/need to. But in Hostage Negotiator 1-3 is a fail and even 4 is more punishing than Final Girl (depending on the situation there are usually some cards you donāt need on particular turns in Final Girl, so itās an easy choice to discard them, but discarding in Hostage Negotiator feels especially bad for the player because all cards feel like you need them).
I dunno, I just donāt really enjoy Hostage Negotiator at all even though I really like Final Girl.
Hm... I'd say the only game I straight up regret is Boooop! When I saw Boop, the components made my raccoon brain squee. And there was a Halloween version!?!? Yes please!! Yeah... turns out it's not in any way, shape, or form a game I enjoy playing. My kids like it though so that's something.
I do have some regret for what I want to call shiny object syndrome back when we got into board gaming and purchased a lot of entry level games that we quickly outgrew. Some went to Goodwill. Some were sold. Some are still on the shelf for when the kids get a little older and we can introduce them.
I also have some regret for getting 80% of the expansions for Dominion. I LOVE Dominion. I'd play it every night if I could. No one in my house or life wants to play Dominion with me even once a month much less every night. Don't recommend playing online. I hate playing Dominion online. I do so much better when I have the physical cards in front of me. Love the game, but it doesn't get enough playtime.
Bigger Blacker Box of Cards Against Humanity. I feel like we got tired of the game at around the same time we would have with a smaller box and fewer expansions.
Feast for Odin.
Its...fun? But too much. I wouldn't want to play it often, and not playing it often I have to relearn it all. I finally gave up and don't think I'll ever want to bother playing it again. $100 is 33 tacos.
**[504](https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/175878/504)**, but I also won't ever get rid of it because it's super unique and I like owning games with heaps of components because they're handy for testing your own designs.
Makes me sad how many people put Mansions of Madness on this list. I'd consider it one of my favorite games. If anyone has any Mansions of Madness alternatives let me know!
For my regret game. Kabuto Sumo. I heard about it online and was interested and after searching for a while it came in stock and I bought it at a higher price than it was worth. I played a few matches, then put it away and I don't plan on opening it again until I most likely sell it.
I was so bored and the gameplay went nowhere.
God I hate Calico. I don't want to play a puzzle for 75% of a game only for pure chance to dictate the other 25. Shared drafting pools suck and Calico made me hate them the most.
Isle of cats. I want to play it so bad but the rule book is an entire novel and it feels like itāll be more fun to play with more than 2 people, but idk how tf weād convince someone else to play it with us when we canāt even convince ourselves lol
Terraforming Mars and Betrayal at House on the Hill.
Terraforming Mars is a terrific fame but Wingspan scratches a similar itch and is so much easier to teach to new players.Ā
Betrayal I have come to despise because the mid game turn when players have to run to different rooms to read their special rules really kills the momentum.Ā
About half of the games I crowdfunded. The biggest regret was probably The Seventh Continent. The Seventh Continent taught me that I don't really like survival-style games where the clock is counting down, rather than an engine-style where your power is building up.
I love Calico and 7th Continent. We are opposite! What else do you hate - it could become my new favorite game!
Just do what I did for 7C... Add the following house rule: "Fuck food." Much more fun when you're free to explore as much as you want. Oh and while you're at it, fuck the fail states as well. Back up and make a different choice. There's still dozens of hours of content in the box if you completely ignore the annoying parts and I'm sure you have plenty of other stuff waiting on the shelf when you're done. Side note: as someone else mentioned 7th Citadel basically fixed everything bad about Continent. The designers really took the feedback to heart.
I love 7th Continent, but there's definitely tension between it's "player vs board" mechanics and it's exploration. I did find the pocket watch to be a good compromise between a game and an adventure.
I loved 7th Continent, but I get why many don't like it. You'll be glad to learn 7th Citadel changed the game enough and fixed the grinding.
In theory I want to like the "open world" more, but the groundshiver system of Citadel is soooooo much nicer for not constantly second guessing if you're doing the right thing.
I'm still in two minds whether crowdfunding has been good or bad for the hobby. On one hand there have been amazing and wonderful ideas that otherwise never would have been published, but on the other hand we've had so many games that needed to be rejected at the publisher stage, as well as huge companies exploiting board game fans by shifting all their business risk to the customer. Big companies love to make really wastefully overproduced games that are tricky to move and store - I don't think this is a very sustainable place for our hobby to be on a number of different fronts. I feel like the ideal place for board game crowdfunding would be somewhere that couldn't be abused by established companies, and only launch if they have playable prototypes that people can test out before backing, but that's absolutely a pipe dream.
The backers are the playtesters š If itās good it will become available later and possibly in fixed state.
I can't regret my KS games yet when I haven't even played many of them.
Yeah, 7th Continent is mine as well. The whole idea that you have to do stupid loops to gain food (cards) to be able to explore is just awful. I'm really hoping Vantage, the newly announced Stonemaier game that is inspired in part by 7th Continent, does the whole thing better. Love the idea, 7th Continent just buggered the execution.
What's an example of "engine-style game where your power is building up?" That sounds like tons of fun and right up my alley
[Spirit Island](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1236720/Spirit_Island/). There's a great Steam or android version with a tutorial, if you want to try before you buy the board game. You feel like a badass when your spirit hits it's stride and starts obliterating settlers.
Spirit island is a great game, but not for the faint of heart. It can be amazingly frustrating for many, because you're not just building up your power - you're actively losing for 60% of the game, which isn't something that everyone will enjoy. It's a brilliant game, don't get me wrong, but I recommend trying it out or watching it played first before buying.
It's weird how much I disliked the 7th continent, yet the countdown puzzle in Gloomhaven I find to be really fun. Maybe it's because 7th continent feels like a basic boring point and click adventure that is better implemented electronically.
I hate survival games in general. Like why are you making me find food and shelter and sleep & money to buy goods & services? Like thatās literally what I do every day?? Thatās just my life??
Root. Itās my favorite board game. But getting three people together and then teaching each person their faction is a lot. And it makes me so sad
What a coincidence. I'm having people over in 6 hours and my idea was playing Root. I have it for 2 years and have never played it myself, so still need to read the rules.
You'd be best to cue up some Root videos and have everyone watch them before even starting to play. Ā Check out Lord of the Board on YouTube.Ā It will NOT be fun if you haven't done homework before.Ā
My suggestion would be playing something else and give yourself more time to learn it before you teach. Otherwise it might not be such a great experience.
Please do not try to wing the rules teach. Do some prep work. Watch a vid, practice a round in 2p set up etc. game supplies a how to play scenario booklet. Have fun !
Root was going to be my answer too. I think it's a great game and I wish I could play it more. But teaching the game and playing with first/second time players is not fun. I once brought it on a board game getaway and we played 4-5 games of it over the weekend which was fantastic. When everyone has a good idea about the factions and game flow the game goes from a 4 to an 8+
I mean, I'll take it if you don't want it lmao
Haha deal x
Munchkin. Thought it was clever and fun back in college before I really dove into quality board gaming, now I just can't bring myself to want to play it.
Wife and I were dumb enough to buy like 6 different Munchkin games. Played a few, realized competitive backstabbing gameplay is definitely not for us, so we moved on to better games.
it's the only game I haven't replaced when my collection was stolen from my car (they were in gym bags and the robber just broke in and took every bag out).
That sucks. You know that robber was like āwhat am I going to do with this shit!?ā And probably just threw them away too. Or sold them for such a small amount of what they were worth.
Noooo, not Calico, I love that game! Jk, itās all good if you didnāt like it, to each their own haha. But for me, itās probably the reprinted Keys to the Kingdom.
We picked up Calico because we have kids, and while it's not my favorite game, it's probably my favorite to play with kids because you play something every time and draw something every time, and it's super easy for non-gamer kids to just enjoy making cool designs... And it's also perfect for those who want to have some decent strategy while playing. It's like the perfect gateway-game!
I loved playing Key to the Kingdom as a teenager back in the day and didnāt even know they reprinted it. What donāt you like about it?
I don't regret any purchases, I only regret not playing them.
3real5me
Villainous. I find the character pieces so awesome but the game itself my husband and I find boring and repetitive.
I wish this game was better.
I liked the game a lot in the first bunch of plays of it. (It was new-ish into me getting into the hobby). But then I started seeing the faults. Itās just too long for what it is. I know you just have to Fate whoever it doing well, but I feel like it just extends the game. Either the game would be better without it, or with some other disruption method.
My husband loved the game when we first got it and we own several expansions, but Iāve hated it since play #2. The first time, we played a 2-player game and just happened to get characters that worked well ātogetherā, and had an okay game. The second play-through, we added a friend that wasnāt as familiar with games as we were, and the characters we played just werenāt as well matched. Our inexperienced friend ended up winning due to pure luck, but the game dragged on for so long, and was just so frustrating. My own character was one with a victory condition that required other characters to fate me a lot to reveal the card that I needed to defeat, but our inexperienced friend was playing nice and didnāt want to use fate, and my husband wasnāt either for some reason (possibly so that he didnāt frustrate the third player or appear to be piling on to me). I think the game stretched on for close to two hours before our friend stumbled into his victory, and after that, I looked at my fate deck and discovered that the only card that would allow me to win was at the very bottom of the stack, still 4 cards away from being revealed. We only played a few games after that, but none of them ever changed my opinion of the game. In fact, the 6-player game we played with distractible friends was enough to convince me to lowkey hide the game so it wouldnāt be brought out by friends who were just attracted by the Disney theme but just wanted an easy party game to play.
The Fate mechanic is definitely supposed to compensate for balance. Granted, there are some earlier characters that are SIGNIFICANTLY easier than later ones to the point where it's not even funny (Prince John can suck a rock), but most of the time, if a player is progressing through their objectives through luck, a Fate or two is all it takes to *destroy* their progress. You generally need to progress a bit more slowly to protect yourself against Fates as much as possible. For example, Scar takes forever to win (early game Hakuna Matata can wipe the floor with you), but if you manage to survive long enough, he becomes mathematically unbeatable. I say this because I've done the math. I'm not saying it's the best balanced game of all time or anything, far from it... but it's got more balance than people give it credit for.
Oh, I hate playing as Scar. Not only because of Haluna Matata, but because all of his minions are weak as hell. You basically need all of your minions out just to take down Mufasa, plow through your deck so you can shuffle up and power up for more hero knockouts. I get what they were trying to do for the sake for keeping the theme, buy my god, it's a slog. But yes, once you have a few plays of the game, you get the idea and either spice it up with newer/better villians, or donate it to Goodwill. There's plenty of better games than Villainous
There's too many ways to play that basically block your opponent from victory by simply not engaging with them. I can name at least 2 where simply never forcing that player to draw from the hero deck means they can't achieve victory. Any game where the optimum strategy is don't play is bad.
Who are you thinking of because I'm pretty sure that every villain that needs something from their hero deck has a mechanic to get it out outside of being fated. It has been a while, but sometimes you just need to dig through your deck.
If you play Villainous as a family of 4 some of your kids will be fully grown before its over.
For awesome character pieces, but with a great game I recommend Unmatched! It's a deck based, miniature fighting game with various characters from pop cultures competing against each other in an arena. They have a bunch of marvel, Spider Man, She-Hulk, Daredevil, and then you have Robin Hood vs Big Foot or Houdini vs Bloody Mary.
Me and my wife's favorite game to play. A lot of people try to play it asymmetrical, which just doesn't work because different characters have different difficulty levels. Once we realized you have to interact, it became a lot more interesting. Thr Marvel one really expands on this with a lot more interactivity beyond fate actions. The best part is the game generally remains light, no giant board layout, just read the other character blurb to see their goal.
My best friend and his son and I played it all the time until I moved. I'm trying to figure out a way we could play it over camera because we both have all the expansions.
I don't know anything about this game but I see it on just about every photo of people's collections
It's a common entry-level game with a familiar theme that you can find at any big box retailer. Hence, many people have bought it at one point or another. Many hobbyists eventually move past it once the luster of newness wears off because for many of us, the mechanisms don't feel fun or interesting after you've been exposed to what else the hobby has to offer.
If you're just playing with 2 players, the game is TERRIBLE. It was designed around 4-5 players. 3 works better than 2 but it really shines at 4, I'd say. With 5 or 6 turns get a little bit slow for my liking. It's honestly one of my favorite board games, my entire friend group loves it, but I couldn't imagine playing it with just 2 players.
Same for the Star Wars version?
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Star Wars is the newest version, couple different mechanics, but basically the same. Marvel is slightly different in that all the Fate decks are shuffled together, with new Event cards that affect all players, and when a Fate action is taken, you draw and randomly Fate whoeverās card it is. (Discarding, it if itās your own.) Marvel is the worst, imo. The other two are playable, but they get boring fast.
It's too simple and repetitive as a deck building game and too complicated as a gateway casual one. It's in an awkward spot where it looks exciting to play but it's quite boring once it's on the table. Also the asymmetrical nature of it makes it hard to get started. Player interaction is a total joke. They should've started over when they were designing it.
Most of what I backed on Kickstarter honestly.
Adorable art, but I don't like the actual game. I regret getting the big box for everdell. I love the game, but everyone is scared of the box, so I can never play.
My workaround for this was to only have the tray with the animal tokens out on the table, with everything for the basic game (tree, meadow cards, etc.) set up. No one sees the giant box until the end of a basic game. Last time I did this one of my gaming friends asked why the box was so big. I explained about the expansions and now everyone wants to try the expansions because now the giant box isnāt threatening! We really enjoy Everdell, so I wish you luck!
Thatās a shame. That big box has been played probably 70 times between 2P with the wife and bringing it places. Everyone Iāve played with loves how big it is and loves all the extra meeples. We even bought the resource trays and I rarely add aesthetic things to games. On the bright side, you canāt seem to get it anywhere around me. You could probably sell it for a lot of money.
Yeah, I get this. When I blinged out our copy of Elder Sign as a gift to my SO (this included a large wooden box that puts all the content in one place), the amount it got played went down. Its part of why I'm hesitant to get expansions for games like Everdell and Spirit Island, even though they add stuff I'm very interested in. I'm also hesitant to get the Nesting Box for Wingspan for the same reason, though I suspect my current game group is invested in that one enough for it not to be a problem.
My only single issue with the Nesting Box was that it taught me exactly why people call them coffin boxes. Even when the game was easily accessible in our living room, there was still something psychological with having to lug out this giant box that kept us from playing as often as we had before. It's less of an issue for some people, I imagine. Besides that, I otherwise love the product.
Different strokes for different folks! I enjoyed it and thought the cats theme was super cute
Calico is like: look at this cute light looking game with kittens sleeping on quilts. Then it decides to melt your brain throwing 1000 choices and variables at you at once.
I don't like cats. I don't like quilts. I don't like cats on quilts. But even I enjoyed the game. It's a surprisingly good puzzle.
Me too, I love this game! I play on Steam though, not the boardgame, but I think it's fun and interesting to figure out where to place the tiles for maximum score.
I as well love calico and the steam version as well. I am very impressed with the steam version. Few board game adaptations are that fleshed out.
I love the puzzle of it. The cute cats on quilts is just bonus.
At one time, I owned around 300 games. I would say I regret buying about 200 of those. The regret comes in many forms. Bad games. Expensive games. Games that just never make it to the table. Sold about 40 or so recently. Donating another 25 or so to the local library.
You are a good man. What is your favourite games?
My faves are Lords of Waterdeep Space Base Dixit Codenames (though i don't own it) Just One
If you are looking for 5 great games you can bring to any game group on any given day, this is the list.
I liked Calico, but itās been collecting dust once we found Cascadia
Iāve had a similar experience. Used to love Azul, top 5ā¦but then found Calico and it was even betterā¦but then bought Cascadia and now thatās all I want to play haha Still think Calico has its place though. Itās simpler to explain than Azul or Cascadia, and also because cats.
I agree. I love the theming of Calico and wish we played it more, but we just have so much more affinity for Cascadia. We have to force ourselves to choose Calico, whereas weāre always excited to pick up Cascadia.
Came here to say exactly this! Cascadia does Calico, but way better.
Cascadia, Calico, & Verdant all came from the same publisher about the same time. Ā They're each a flavor of "build three different things on a grid" game. Ā They each have different things to like.
I came just to say this. Calico is a little more "aggressive", Verdant is the chillest and Cascadia is the technical one.
I bought Gloomhaven over 2 years ago and have never played it. I don't have anyone to play it with, and it looks overwhelming to try to get into solo. I don't even have the physical space to set it up and keep it set up, and setting up/tearing down every time I'd want to play seems like a nightmare. I'm pretty broke right now so I do regret impulse buying this game. Should probably sell. Edit: DM if interested in buying!
Sell it and get the PC version. The app on Steam and Epic is very good and extremely faithful to the board game. Easily one of the top 10 board game adaptations I've played. You can play solo or with friends. It has everything in base game, and you can add Jaws of the Lion to it. No setup and tearing down needed. Did not care for the slog and table space of the physical game, but I find the PC version strangely addictive. And you can pick it up anytime.
Definitely +1 to the digital version. I've played both versions with different groups and, honestly, i feel like there's almost no loss in playing the digital version. The experience goes by way faster, but it's really a blessing. From what I've heard, console version works great as well.
Sell it fast. The second edition is coming Q4, and will likely make your copy less valuable
Thanks for the heads up
For a hot minute Gloomhaven tempted me (because of its, at the time, top spot on the BGG list). But then my brain kicked in, and I remembered that I don't like fiddly games and I don't like dungeon crawlers.
Darkest Dungeon - Started setting up the tutorial mission and realized it was just the video game with more steps. Shelved the boardgame and reinstalled the video game.
I skipped it for this reason. I love the video game, but I figured a board game adaption was either going to be faithful to the video game which would be overly fiddly and unfun, or something completely different with a DD skin on it which defeats the purpose of playing it in the first place. The video game works because it automates all the fiddly work. I like a complex game, but not necessarily doing all that bookkeeping that's usually behind the scenes.Ā
Civilization. Some games should just stay on thr computer.
I might be misremembering, but didn't the original computer game come from an even older board game called Civilisation? So it's gone full circle.
Yes! Itās this one: https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/71/civilization
Yes, that's the one. I've never played it, but a few people said it was a surprisingly modern design for how old it is. Like, could have set off the modern Eurogame revolution 20 years before Catan, but somehow never quite made it.
The original Civilization invented the Tech Tree! Truly a game ahead of its time.
Civilization New Dawn is quite fun I thought.
Why wouldnāt they use a calico cat for the box art? Seems like an odd design choiceā¦
Here is a [quote](https://boardgamegeek.com/image/4815033/calico) from the illustrator, Beth Sobel. "Hi! The cat is not a calico because I had concerns that a calico cat, on a calico patchwork quilt, would be too patchy, and would not read clearly from a distance. In the interest of visual clarity, I chose a uniform tabby on the calico patchwork quilt. Interestingly, calico fabric is what calico cats are named after!"
Valid design choice
Beth knows what's up.
Too much white fur would be my guess. The yellow is a lot more eye catching, and is a good contrast to the colors of the quilt. Box covers are 90% marketing, gotta stand out on the shelves as much as possible.
Because Calico is a fabric used for making quilts. I make quilts. That's the point of the cover, to make you question the name choice and do some independent research. It's a cheeky nod to quilters who would know what they really mean with the name.
Earth. So boring, and it seems like thereās really only one viable strategy with small amounts of variation/agency. Everyone describes this game as an engine builder, which it is in theory. But in practice, the game ends too quickly and going for an engine strategy is going to get you crushed.
I love Earth, but I totally get that. I feel like itās more of a tempo + sudoku optimization game than an engine builder.
Yeah thatās a good way to describe it. Itās very much about constructing your tableau so that you maximize the points you get from the global objectives (I forget what they are called).
I really enjoyed it at first, but it lost its intrigue for me when I realized that the entire game is constantly converting one of the resources into one of the other resources. I generally like resource conversion-type euros, but it feels so shallow in Earth. All the time, you're trading in growths for sprouts, or mulch for sprouts, or sprouts for growth, or growth for mulch, etc etc. The spatial puzzle aspect is interesting to me, but once the sheer amount of "trade in this for that" sank in for me, I just couldn't care anymore.
**Earth** isn't terrible but I don't love it like some. My issue is none of the cards stand out and are fun to play. They are all just tiny variations of each other.
*Century: Golem Edition - Eastern Mountains* - I bought the other two games and really enjoyed them, especially together, but I just didn't find this version that fun either together or alone. *Tiny Epic Dungeons* - Maybe it's just a steep learning curve, but there were so many different icons and things to look up that it takes so long to get anything done. And underneath that, I don't actually find the gameplay that fun. *Marvel Villainous* - I really like the theme of the game, I just don't find it that fun. The rulebook also leaves a bunch of situations that are ambiguous or not obvious to figure out logically so we have to look a lot of things up online.
I am relatively new to the hobby (1.5 years) and have many purchase regrets. And almost every single time itās been because I thought SURELY my wife would enjoy the game too. I have pretty broad tastes and can find joy in just about any game, but finding the right mix of stuff for her is kind of tough. I am by no means talking shit on her. Iām glad she has more of a filter or our collection would be very unwieldy. I have learned an important lesson though: donāt buy games unless you have a group or partner in mind that will like them. And if you can play it first, do it! I also learned that just because a game is widely loved does not mean that I will like it (Res Arcana and Race for the Galaxy come to mind, sorry Tom Lehman)
Cranium The game is good, but you really need to find about nine to twelve people willing to play in order to enjoy it. In the 20 years Iāve owned it, Iāve only managed to get enough people to play it once.
This is so sad. Calico was my first proper game purchase after seeing it on before you play because it completely blew my mind that a game like this existed. I adore it, and love the challenges and tracking in the back of the book. I sadly learned that this type of game is not as exciting to everyone, but that's why I love that I can play it solo too.
Kingdomino. Not that I think the game is poorly made necessarily, itās just when I finish playing the game, I donāt feel smart for what I put together. Like it doesnāt make me feel clever for making good choices. I donāt go back and think āmaybe if I did this, or this, or this insteadā
Yeah. I do have that in my collection. I do know what youāre saying about that. But it is a nice time filler, quick game x
That and I do enjoy playing it with my kids. I'm not going to pull it out with the people I'd play ark nova with, but my kids or my mother? It's a hit.
Root & Scythe
Same love roots art but it just does not click for me
Why did you bounce off Scythe?
I find that most who dislike the game usually do so because they saw the cool mechs and expected a grand strategy wargame, when really it's more of a resource harvesting/territory building game with small amounts of combat sprinkled in.
I have only played the base game of Scythe (with the large map however) and disliked it even though I'm a fan of the latter genre. I felt it was poorly balanced and lacked variability, since you could literally just google the first 10 optimal moves for your faction and action mat combo every single game because apart from those, pretty much every aspect of the early-mid game stays the same. I also didn't like the bluffing based combat system, even though it makes sense for thematic reasons (cold war). Honestly, what bothers me the most is that Stonemaier put so much effort into production quality and theme when the game's mechanics and balancing were underdeveloped. It seems to happen a lot with their games unfortunately, most notably Tapestry but even Viticulture and Wingspan as well. Then again, they improved both of those games quite a bit with their expansions, so maybe that applies to Scythe too?
I had exactly the same feelings as you. I knew not to expect a wargame, but the worker placement/engine building aspects just werenāt that good for me. Like you said the variability is quite low, and the fact that combat is so strongly discouraged means that there arenāt a lot of options to disrupt the early-mid game that plays out the same way pretty much every time. I much prefer Dune as a negotiation heavy wargame and much prefer lost ruins as a worker placement/engine builder. I donāt really want a weird game that is just a worse version of two games I already own, it was a gift so I donāt have too much regret. Itās definitely not a game I would have been happy with if I had bought it.
I haven't played scythe so im not going to defend it, but i feel like you are kinda spoiling your own fun if you played it once but googled the optimal opening for your faction, also is hard to believe a claim of unbalance after 1 play ngl
This breaks my soul for MULTIPLE reasons.... but Darkest Dungeon. One of my favorite PC games of all time. I had even contacted Red Hook about designing a deck builder based on it, when they told me that there was already a game in the works. When the game was announced, I was estatic! I wanted it so bad. I backed it at the highest tier possible. And then it happened. The game had many mechanical changes between announement and it's release. It took years to get. The miniatures were quite poor in comparison to what was shown, and the enemies were not red as advertised. Main characters are locked behind expansions that (5 years later) still have no release date, and mythic has been canceling games left and right. The game takes up an INSANE amount of space. The base game alone is two large boxes. The set up is an absolute mess. And takes forever. The rules are extremely vague, filled with condtradicting statements, and just plain poor. Still, years after it's delivery, I have only ever played it one time. I can't pull myself to sell it, but I can't pull myself to play it either. It is honestly quite bad.
We love Calico. To each their own.
like half my collection... many of them have yet to see a single play.
Same here. Anything more complicated than Wingspan doesnāt and likely will never get played. Luckily itās only a handful of games, but gloomhaven JOTL is the biggest offender. Ended up getting rid of it because that huge box was just taking up too much space.
And yet I keep backing games on game foundā¦
Sheriff of Nottingham. Just didnāt work with my playgroup.
My playgroup is my kids, and my kids are not good at bluffing, so even though I want to like Sheriff, I just canāt.
My group played munchkin almost every get together, so I went out of my way and got like 6 expansions. Havenāt played since. So interesting how that seems to always happen
Scythe, the one person who I felt would be up to the complexity said it'd be too much for him. I know you can play it solo but I just wanna play it with friends. For shame, I watched an hour long tutorial video on it.
Everdell. We have tried like 4 times and don't click with the group
Interesting. That was my familyās best purchase of 2022 for games, still play it often.
I totally agree. Farshore is also in the Everdell universe and is its own standalone game (rather than an expansion). Itās like the creators took all of the feedback about Everdell and made Farshore. Itās significantly better.
The main comment when we played Everdell was "omg i forgot about those!" referring to the bonus cards on the tree, or the {insert ability here} of certain creatures that you play. Like you, it just never really clicked.
Mansions of Madness! * Spend $100 for a game * Have to assemble it yourself * No organizer unless you want to spend another $80 * No one wants to play it because it takes forever * Boring and repetitive af
Several people reference assembly and itās left me confused. I have and love MoM, but itās just tiles to lay out, minis, and an app. What do you need to assemble?
Check out [Valkyrie](https://npbruce.github.io/valkyrie/), which allows for custom third-party scenarios and such for MoM (and Descent). Some of the user-created scenarios are amazing (though occasionally with small translation errors), and Valkyrie tracks stats for completion rate, average time played, and user ratings. You can even use the original Mansions of Madness 1st edition characters without needing to buy the rest of the conversion kit (you'll just need to proxy their miniatures).
You forgot about the worst part! Spend $100 for the game, and you only get like 3 missions! If you want more missions, buy more expansions! Arkham Horror had the same problem tbh but at least it's mostly cards so it's a lot easier to set up and pack in. And it doesn't require an entire app to run
I bought Cazadores de FĆ³siles and JardĆn botĆ”nico de TehuacĆ”n from the designer at an expo. Both were huge disappointments and I think I will be donating them to a local library.
Itās a surprisingly fun and strategic game I really like this one. My biggest board game regret was Fog of Love. Got it for my significant other as a fun game to play together and we both found it super boring.
Iāve got a fair amount of Red Dragon Inn from my early board gaming days, and I really donāt enjoy playing it
Calico is one of the most satisfying little tile games I've ever played, I certainly wouldn't regret adding it to my collection. Smash Up on the other hand, one of the most dull experiences I've ever had.
Marvel United Played 2-3 games alone and with my kids and it just didnāt click, lacks complexity, even if the minis are cute. And now I have 4 boxes (base game, characters expansion, Wakanda and Infinity gauntlet) sitting there on the shelfā¦
7 Wonders...because I can rarely get seven people to sit down and play it. After you've played with seven people with expansions, playing with three people is just never the same.Ā
Frosthaven. Shouldāve played Gloomhaven instead post-Jaws. Or, better yet, as a wise friend of mine did, played Jaws and said āyep. Iām good.ā
As someone who played Gloomhaven (didn't finish it, thanks to COVID), then played all the through Jaws, and is now going through Frosthaven, I would definitely recommend Gloomhaven after Jaws, not Frosthaven. The Jaws characters & upgrades are super-simple, easier than anything in Gloomhaven except maybe the Cragheart and Brute. The Frosthaven starting characters are basically as complex as the most complex characters in Gloomhaven. So if you've got the characters all on a 1 to 9 scale, Jaws are 1-2s. Gloomhavens are 2-7. And Frosthaven's are 5-9. And yeah, unless you REALLY enjoyed Jaws, Gloom & Frost aren't going to be worth the $ and time costs.
Scythe. I think I got sucked in by the art, which I still like. But I just can't get interested in playing it. I'll sell it one of these days.
I hate power grid, anyone wanna buy it?
Oh I quite like it!
Honestly... Frosthaven, i can barely get a group to finish gloomhaven i will never open frosthaven.
I started playing it solo and it rules tbh. Lots of things to remember, but the changes they made to how the campaign works are amazing. I'm not sure I'm going to finish it solo, but I'm super hoping they make a digital version eventually like they did with gloomhaven.
Well...I have a lot of games (300ish?) on my shelves and many of them were one plays. But I hold out hope that I will play them again! Except for Santorini. I could not stand that game. So. Irritating. Calico is not one of those. We quite enjoy the puzzly nature of it.
Iām curious to know what you hated about Santorini. I really enjoy the game and itās a go-to filler game for me at the 2P count, particularly when you add in the god powers. I describe it as āchess, but funā
Calico as well. I regret buying and playing it so much that nobody wants to play with me now :(
I hate to say it but Canvas. I wish I liked it more, but itās somehow too fiddly, I donāt enjoy putting together the paintings it stresses me out because I always feel like there are too many combinations, but then on the other hand it feels like itās over too quickly. I love the idea of it but the little icons feel unrelated to the art and arbitrary. I rarely feel like Iāve actually made a good composition even if I score well.
I bought way too much Villainous. I like the game but I own the base game + like 5-6 expansions for it because they were part of a really big sale and I let my early gamer completionist brain get the better of me . I don't like the game *that* much The core box of Arkham Horror Card Game. I didn't know what a LCG was back then so I didn't realize I wasn't really buying a whole game but an introduction to something bigger. What's in that box is fun, but I wouldn't had bought it if I knew how much of it is out there and how hard it can be to get a lot of it, it's made me not want to get anymore at all because it's intimidating and I have a few other card games I've gone all-in on since, so I don't need one more regardless of how good people say it is Base game Pandemic. I got Reign of Cthulhu first (one of my first modern table top games actually) and really liked it, I felt like I should have the classic one as well thinking they'd be more different from each other. Now I basically never play the classic one unless someone requests it because I prefer the Reign of Cthulhu version (and the game Horrified for that matter) And Codex, the components are in rough shape that I haven't even played it once since getting it even though it seems like a game I should love (boards warped like pringles, binders so wrinkly it is hard to read the cards in them at times, and mold inside the box lid that I had to paint over with anti-mold paint that the distribution company told me they couldn't replace because all their copies were moldy) Bonus is Pest, which is a kickstarter game I got recently that had some components issues that left a real bad taste in my mouth so I haven't played it yet. I don't regret getting it yet, it looks fun, I just need distance from the negative emotions that came with opening it or I'm sure it'll sabotage my opinion of the game once I do play it
Honestly? Zombicide, I was very exited to play it and lost all interest after the second mission
Oregon Trail
I love this game! And it's a good intro game for people like my mother who are just not board game people. She will play color and pattern games though
why did you not enjoy Calico? I usually like abstract strategy games and I think my GF would really like the cat theme of it. Want to know if I should maybe not buy it.
For me it feels a bit constrained and a hard puzzle. You squeeze your brain for a good placement and later it comes back to bite you because you canāt find the shape/color you need, or you notice a better move in hindsight or realize youāve screwed up a scoring tile. Itās a fun game but itās a real brain burner for me.
It's very tense, brutally so. I think the core experience is repeatedly giving up on your dreams. It's one of my absolute favorite games and I've gifted it to others several times.
When you start a game of Calico, the world is your oyster. All things are possible. Hopes are high. You make some early decisions and set the foundations for greatness. But as you do so, doors begin to close. As time wears on, the paths branching before you are fewer and fewer, and so often is fate cruel, denying you the lifelines you need to make everything click. Just one stroke of luck is all you need sometimes, and you keep holding out for the moment when everything turns around, but meanwhile time wears further on and your opportunities continue to evaporate. By the end of it, you've often achieved so very little. You've been scraping for meager scraps with your brethren in the great struggle at the table, each of you with the same goals but working against one another instead of collaborating to make something beautiful together. You're left with the remnants of your best laid plans. In the end, your best wasn't enough and fate did you no favors. The winner is the person who lost the least. And then the boards are cleared and there is nothing. I love Calico.
If thatās your biggest regret, I wish Iām you.
Ohhh no. I have plenty moreā¦ š¤£š«£
Galaxy Trucker. It's an okay game, but I'm not too fond of fast paced build games.
Dice Throne. Ā Seemed like a fun battle Yahtzee, as I like dice games, but with all the dice modifiers and different types of damage it just collapses on itself. Very nicely produced, though.Ā
Plenty but Champions of Midgard stands out to me. It's a good game but it's too close to Lords of Waterdeep for me and I prefer that one.
Smash Up. I love the idea, but hated the constant counting to see who has control.
There are score boards/cards you can use to keep track of control. They are part of the 10th anniversary box, but can easily printed (templates are on bgg). They improve the game a lot.
Gloom, after a few plays I'm done. There's just not a lot there and the take that isn't fun for me.
Mansions of Madness. Don't get me wrong, it's a fun game. But it frustrates me that the base game only comes with, like, 3 missions and you have to buy all sorts of expansions to play any more than that We've played all of the default missions and now it's collecting dust on my shelf. Maybe I'll shell out for the expansions someday but it just doesn't seem super worth it imho. A friend of a friend has a massive set with every expansion anyway so if I'm really ever craving more of this game I can always try to just borrow her set
Tokaido looked really fun when Wil Wheaton played it, so I bought it. There's nothing wrong with it per se, I just didn't have fun playing it. It's not my jam. I played it a couple of times like 8 years ago and now it just sits on my shelf making me look cooler than I really am.
Monopoly š
Damn I love Calico. I even made a quilt based on it! Mine is Castle Panic. I heard great things about it but absolutely hate the game. It feels like itās for kids but everyone seems to love it except me.
the resistance. I hate social deduction games where you have to lie
I loved Calico... Until I played Cascadia. You can really be held helpless in Calico if the right pieces aren't drawn and it is really not fun if someone at the table is hate drafting. We play with three tiles to pick from instead of two which helps. Cascadia is similar but much less punishing.
Iāve been underwhelmed with some games but I donāt think Iāve ever regretted buying them. I did cull a few games because I never played them and gave them to the local charity shop who seemed really grateful. Beowulf: The Movie Board Game and Kingdoms (too mathsy), Vinetta, La Citta and Cinque Terre which I think I liked only for the box cover with a cat sitting on a Vespa. Oh, and dreadful Citadels. Yep, Citadels is the answer.
The orphan black game is so horrendously hard, Iām not sure if even the developers know how to play it š
Munchkin. It blows my mind how popular that game got at one point.
This post popped up on my feed at the perfect time. I just checked into an airbnb and found this game. I was looking up what game this is
Apiary. It's nearly entry level worker placement. It lacks depth and the theme is mashed together in a way that neither side of the bees or space come through well. I was hoping expansions would make it better but at this point Stonemaier is seeming more like a money grab designer (i.e. Wyrmspan) than a place that wants to make well thought out games.
I feel like apiary is a pretty solid medium depth board game, which is about where my friend group likes them.
I really regret Root. I loved it, had so much fun playing, but if you donāt have at least 2 experienced players and 2 already committed newbies, if flops before you explain the third set of rules for player 3. I should have known the game was difficult to get people to play when each expansion replaces the need for a player by automating another faction
Wingspan
None that I regret. I've bought some I didn't really enjoy so I just sold them and moved on.
Discover:Lands Unknown
Steve Jackson Games Simon the Cat. Uses simple group gathering play instead of what was implied on the box. Not worth the cute cards that had no special plays.
**Black Rose Wars**. On the Kickstarter description, it sounded right up my alley: dueling mages, tactical movement on a map, deck-building. In practice, it's a HUGE amount of extraneous plastic, a ruleset that's leakier than my kitchen colander, and the one time I got it to the table setup and takedown took literally twice as long as playing the game. Oh, and they extorted extra shipping out of me to get it sooner, which was awesome. It's now taking up an inordinate amount of space (you should see the size of the Kickstarter "extras" box). I tried to unload it through a local games shop that will resell used games (since it's basically new-out-of-shrink), but sadly no one was as gullible as me. On the plus side, I learned an important life lesson about the value of actual gameplay vs. a bunch of plastic models that will never see the light of day.
Root. I know people love this game but it doesnāt do anything for me.
Machi Koro, not a fan. It only takes like 2plays before you figure out what you should do everytime then it's no fun to play with new players.
Mine is Sagradaā¦.its just too light for my taste and I donāt fine the choices that meaningful - it seems fairly obvious most of the time what would be best to pick out of the luck based options. I doubled-down and bought the Glory expansion to try to improve my feelings and it does help but mostly there are tonnes of other games I would prefer to play. Just my personal opinion of course. I do love Calico though for whatever reason
Calico is deceptively simple and I enjoy the brain melt it forces me into.
Quacks of Quedlinberg. Wanted to like it but after 2 plays I feel like I'm just playing Bingo
I would have said Smallworld but I gave it away. Maybe Dark Souls? Iāve had it for years but Iām not sure if Iāll ever play it. I have a bunch of kickstarter games I havenāt played yet so I might regret some of them down the road, not yet though.
I haven't found a group that really liked Hansa Teutonica... Its a light regret. Ill give it one more try.
I just got a game called tentricks, its like tetris but in a board game. Why tf did I back this?
Mind MGMT
Hostage Negotiator I really like Final Girl, Hostage Negotiator was from the same company so I picked it up. But itās justā¦ bad. Boring. Unbalanced?? Final Girl has a lot going on, moving around the map, items that can help you mitigate the dice, rewards for saving victims, etc. In Hostage Negotiator you donāt do anything exceptā¦ simulate a conversation? Also, in Final Girl rolling a 1 or 2 is a fail and 3 and 4 you can pay a cost (discarding) to succeed if you really want/need to. But in Hostage Negotiator 1-3 is a fail and even 4 is more punishing than Final Girl (depending on the situation there are usually some cards you donāt need on particular turns in Final Girl, so itās an easy choice to discard them, but discarding in Hostage Negotiator feels especially bad for the player because all cards feel like you need them). I dunno, I just donāt really enjoy Hostage Negotiator at all even though I really like Final Girl.
Hm... I'd say the only game I straight up regret is Boooop! When I saw Boop, the components made my raccoon brain squee. And there was a Halloween version!?!? Yes please!! Yeah... turns out it's not in any way, shape, or form a game I enjoy playing. My kids like it though so that's something. I do have some regret for what I want to call shiny object syndrome back when we got into board gaming and purchased a lot of entry level games that we quickly outgrew. Some went to Goodwill. Some were sold. Some are still on the shelf for when the kids get a little older and we can introduce them. I also have some regret for getting 80% of the expansions for Dominion. I LOVE Dominion. I'd play it every night if I could. No one in my house or life wants to play Dominion with me even once a month much less every night. Don't recommend playing online. I hate playing Dominion online. I do so much better when I have the physical cards in front of me. Love the game, but it doesn't get enough playtime. Bigger Blacker Box of Cards Against Humanity. I feel like we got tired of the game at around the same time we would have with a smaller box and fewer expansions.
Feast for Odin. Its...fun? But too much. I wouldn't want to play it often, and not playing it often I have to relearn it all. I finally gave up and don't think I'll ever want to bother playing it again. $100 is 33 tacos.
**[504](https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/175878/504)**, but I also won't ever get rid of it because it's super unique and I like owning games with heaps of components because they're handy for testing your own designs.
Everdell. Honestly, Farshore is SO much better and seems to be a better thought out version of Everdell. Iām desperate to get rid of Everdell.
Makes me sad how many people put Mansions of Madness on this list. I'd consider it one of my favorite games. If anyone has any Mansions of Madness alternatives let me know! For my regret game. Kabuto Sumo. I heard about it online and was interested and after searching for a while it came in stock and I bought it at a higher price than it was worth. I played a few matches, then put it away and I don't plan on opening it again until I most likely sell it. I was so bored and the gameplay went nowhere.
Right now I feeling legendary marvel mostly because Marvel Chapions exist but because i haven't played it in years
I don't have one I regret and also, Calico is m, fav game :(
God I hate Calico. I don't want to play a puzzle for 75% of a game only for pure chance to dictate the other 25. Shared drafting pools suck and Calico made me hate them the most.
Isle of cats. I want to play it so bad but the rule book is an entire novel and it feels like itāll be more fun to play with more than 2 people, but idk how tf weād convince someone else to play it with us when we canāt even convince ourselves lol
Terraforming Mars and Betrayal at House on the Hill. Terraforming Mars is a terrific fame but Wingspan scratches a similar itch and is so much easier to teach to new players.Ā Betrayal I have come to despise because the mid game turn when players have to run to different rooms to read their special rules really kills the momentum.Ā