I thought this would be a fun way to start the week.

GAME I LOVE:

GAME I THINK IS UNDERAPPRECIATED:

I don't just mean theme, I mean really feels like you are out exploring a new land, area, underground cave, or island. Which game really does the exploration thing best. I've played some and a I really am feeling this needs to be done right. What am I missing?

For those who are new, this is a weekly post where you can share your praises/complaints/wish features for our forum, game pages, content, etc. So, have at it and let us know your thoughts!

Also, I apologize for the late post! I've been MIA since Friday because my wife and I were celebrating our 5-year anniversary (we got to play #Atlantis Rising (second edition) and will be giving a report on that today).

For this week, I also want to  throw out some questions on the play log feature--what sort of features, data inputs, statistics, etc. would you want to see? What would make you want to log your plays more or to share them with others?

I just scrolled through 11 pages full of Meeple Mountain review posts haha I came here to post another review I finished (#Heroes of Land, Air, & Sea: Pestilence Expansion), but I think I'll wait until the number of review posts dwindle a bit.

Here's my question: Does anyone here look at the reviews that are posted like that, page after page? I looked at the first few titles, but once I realized they were non-stop, I just scrolled to see how far it went. That MM peep must really want to win the giveaway haha

There are good choices here already.  But if you got to pick the next game to be included in avatar selections. Which would you pick?

Viscounts of the West Kingdom

Enjoy.  What do you think?

This is a question for @trentellingsen and @philryuh, I guess. Do upvotes play a role in sorting of hot posts or comments, like they do on reddit?

Just curious.

What board game are you amazed to gaze upon. Any that inspire you to just frame the board, and hang it on your wall?

Personally here are some of my favorites: 

Lewis & Clark

Stone Age

Viticulture

I've heard Legends of Andor is nice, also Merchants and Marauders, Ticket to RideRails and Sails, and a few others, but let me know your pick!

I’m back with another Brian’s Battery review of #Underwater Cities! 

Underwater Cities is a game for 1-4 players where you are tasked with developing an underwater nation over 10 rounds of gameplay.  The game utilizes worker placement, hand management, engine (and tableau) building, and building placement on your personal player board.

Let’s dive right on in!

(+) The art in this game is evocative and well thought out. The main game board has a cool technology-themed look to it. The player boards look like blueprints of an underwater neighborhood. The art on the cards is fantastic. 

(+) Component quality is very good to good. The most important components, the cards, are very high quality. They have that excellent “feel” to them that you just know it when you feel it. The player boards are nice thicker card board. A couple of mine have a very slight warp to them, but nothing even close to significant. I love the look and tactility of the city domes. They feel so satisfying to place down! The various buildings (little green, yellow, and white discs) are very nice quality but I wished they stacked a little bit better. The resource chits and workers are nice chunky cardboard that feel great to manipulate.

(-) By far the worst component in the box is the player aid sheet. These are essentially a piece of glossy paper with information printed one side. Once you have the sheet on the table it’s fine, but if you aren’t careful with your games this could definitely be an issue. 

(+) Honestly I was expecting the components to be really quite awful, based mostly on other reviews that I’ve heard about the game. But overall they are quite excellent. 

(+) The rulebook is good. It has lots of great examples and the graphic design is well done. I actually enjoyed reading the book, and that’s usually a good sign. 

(+) The combination of worker placement and card play is brilliant. When you send a worker to a spot you must also play a card from your hand. To complicate this there are three colors of worker placement spaces and three colors of cards. If you send a worker to a space and play a matching color card you get to take the bonus action on the card in addition to the worker placement action. 

(+) This system creates some really intense decisions. Do you take that yellow action that you really need even though you don’t have a yellow card? Or do you go for a less optimal action but gain a bonus from a card in your hand?

(+) Building your underwater cities is really satisfying. You start with one lonely little city but you slowly begin to expand -as your engine grows the growth of your nation speeds up. By the end of the game you’ve developed an interesting collection of abilities and pieces to your tableau.

(+) The AI is really easy to handle, as it really isn’t AI. Each round the other player blocks 3 or 4 worker spots. This can be absolutely devastating or it might not bother you at all. It just depends on what you are trying to accomplish that round.

(+) There is a lot of tension in the game as it only lasts 10 rounds. You need to try to maximize every single thing that you can in order to succeed. I have yet to win in the single player mode. 

I’m very impressed with #Underwater Cities. There is a ton of depth to this game and I’ve barely scratched the surface. The interlocking systems are so clever and the pressure to accomplish as much as you can each round creates interesting and tough decisions. I highly recommend this game!

... what game would you make a second edition of? 

*you not yo haha

I'm back and working on the website again! I was away for a couple of weeks due to having a new baby! Anyways, I've finished the first part of improving the BGG import tool. All that's required now is a username and the system will be able to gather all your information from that. It's a much better system compared to the downloading CSV from BGG and uploading it to our site which sometimes led to issues.

I went through and fixed some minor issues like

• Topic forum post numbers moving onto the wrong long on medium sized screens
• User reviews that are too long on game pages now have a "show more" button so that the page real estate is better utilized
• Amazon price links update faster (Not visual but a feature for @indigopotter to better facilitate the health of the website in keeping prices up to date!)

I created a new topic for everyone to link posts related to teaching board games! For the first post, I was thinking I could get everyone's tips on this art form :)

So, have at it and share helpful tips based on your past experience! What worked? What didn't? What is your process like? (No need to try and address every single one of these). Other threads I plan to open up for this Topic will be along the lines of "Hardest Games to Teach and Your Tips," "Your Favorite How To Play Videos," "Easy To Teach Board Games for Family Gatherings with Decent Amount of Strategy," etc.

Here's some of my quick tips:

1. Learn the game yourself before the game session. It takes time, but there's nothing worse than fumbling through the rulebook while everyone is present and constantly interrupting the game flow.
2. Use past games played as jumping points to explain mechanisms in a new game. Having a reference point always makes it less overwhelming and makes rules easier to digest.

Many people attempt to compare these two games. In this post I will attempt to compare and contrast the two games and hopefully generate some good discussion. 

1. I think the most common reason these two games are compared is due to a thematic similarity. Both games are about humans attempting to colonize dangerous and inhospitable environments.

2. Beyond themes, both games have a gigantic pool of cards. And the cards in both games have humans undertaking some fairly spectacular feats of science, engineering, and ingenuity.

3. Both games have a main board and separate player boards. Both games have engine and tableau building aspects.

4. Honestly that’s where the similarities end. The game play between both games is wildly different. Underwater Cities is a tense worker placement game where you need to be maximizing your 3 actions each round. Each era also has a production phase with a “feed your cities” aspect that reminds me vaguely of Agricola.

5. Terraforming Mars, on the other hand, presents a vast array of possibilities for you to comb through and build your engine. I never felt the same round by round pressure that you feel in Underwater Cities.

6. The question is then: Which one do you go with? My answer: Both! The two games play so fundamentally different that there is space in a collection for both games. And both games are spectacular.

Does anyone else automatically go to their Wishlist if they are give an Amazon Gift Card?  I did a few teacher surveys and sent in an old Kindle recently and I have $40 to Amazon and I don't have a lot of things I need.  I really really want to get Architects because it's essentially free but not sure if I feel like that counts and breaking my resolution (2 months into it, haha).

Piggy backing off the post sharing the "Top 10 Essential Expansions" I am curious about what everyone thinks about the following two questions.

1. What is it that makes an Expansion "Essential"?

2. Which Expansions to you deem "Essential" and why?

I work in a corporate building with roughly 400 employees (although the company is much larger) - however, to my knowledge, no one has ever created a board game club during their lunch hour!  Everyone here elects when they would like to have lunch and usually breaks sometime between meetings and scheduled calls - but the break can vary between 30-60 minutes.
I just received corporate permission to promote this new mid-day club and I'm excited to get some quality game time in to break up my day.

But this also got me thinking...
How many of you play games on your lunch break?
How often and how long are your meetups?
What games do you enjoy the most?
Is there any other wisdom you can share to someone trying to form their own club?