Variety is the spice of life, but maybe you can't afford a large collection of games. Better yet, maybe you don't want to get bogged down on learning and teaching so many games. Isn't there just a single catch-all game to rule them all? Sadly no! However I did ask several expert board game bloggers about what 2 board games they would keep if they were forced to get rid of the rest of their collection and here is what they said. The Board Game Family Trent Howell, blogger for over 10 years, approaches the question externally. Like many board gamers, he finds it impossible to conceive a favorit ..read more

Mysterium is a cooperative game where one players acts as the Ghost and tries to help the Psychics crack a murder case. The Ghost can only communicate with the Psychics via obscure abstract images and only have 7 turns to help them narrow down the suspects before the final line up. The Ghosts collaborate together to determine the possible suspects, but in the final line up they must vote anonymously to indict the murderer! Mechanics This game plays very similar to Codenames where the Ghost is a lot like the Spymaster and the Psychics are a lot like the Operatives. The main difference is the 'c ..read more

Secret Hitler is a social deduction game where Fascists and Liberals compete against each other to get their respective policies passed. The Liberals are not aware of their own party members but always outnumber the Fascists. Players take turns as President to promote new Chancellor, subject to vote by all players. If an agreement is reached, the chosen Chancellor and President move onto Legislation, if not then play moves onto the next President. During Legislation the President and Chancellor work together to pass policies, but either one can sabotage the other. If Chancellors are turned dow ..read more

In Terra Mystica players try to conquer the land by expanding territorially and having influence over the major cults. Other than a few setup parameters, there are no mechanics in the game that introduce randomness, so Terra Mystica is often considered a pure strategy game. Factions earn a diverse set of income dependent on the structures they've built and their influence over the elemental cults. While factions compete against each other for space on the board, they also benefit by leeching resources off of their neighbors so players need to balance crowding and isolation! Novelties Asymmetry ..read more

In Wingspan players try to gather as many points as possible by playing bird cards, completing bonus card criteria, and laying eggs. Wingspan is an engine builder game where you're building a team of bird abilities to help you make elegant combos that score points. Artwork and Theme For bird lovers the Wingspan games, if nothing else, are a treasure trove beautiful drawings. With 170 unique bird drawings in the base set, each of which containing a fun fact about the bird, Wingspan compels you to appreciate the sheer diversity of birds. Even as someone who isn't an avid bird watcher, I must say ..read more

Tier lists are common, tier lists are fun, without further ado let's get down to it. S Ranked Chapel: Trash up to 4 cards from your hand (Cost: 2) If Chapel is available in a base game, it's always a good buy in one of your first 2 turns even if you have to overpay for it. Chapel has the most use early in the game while your deck is still dense with weak cards like coppers and estates. It doesn't get a ton of play late in the game unless you are play a Curse heavy game but it's still completely worth it. I'd say Chapel is the best card among any Dominion set period. A Ranked Witch: +2 Cards. E ..read more

Chess is one of the oldest games that are that still popular today. Despite it's reputation for complexity, the premise of the game is simple; it is a turn based 2-player game in which players use their armies to capture their opponent's King. History and Flexibility Due to sheer age and reputation, Chess is a widely known game. Even if they do not pursue Chess many people know the rules or at the very least are aware of the game. In fact, I think it is safe to say that Chess has successfully crossed the threshold into a game that will remain eternally relevant just due to its sheer age and re ..read more

Dominion is a deck building game where players compete to score the most victory points. This can be done by buying victory cards, playing action cards that earn you victory points, or tearing down your opponents by giving them curses. Players are initially allowed 1 action and 1 buy to build up their decks but some action cards allow players more actions to play more cards and snowball! Replay Value Every Dominion game, with a few exceptions, consists of basic Victory and Treasure cards, 10 randomly chosen Kingdom cards. There are over 100 possible Kingdom cards to choose from with different ..read more

Collaborative board games are ones such that players work together to achieve a common goal. While not as common as adversarial board games, collaborative board games are gaining rapidly popularity. General Themes In collaborative games, the opponent is usually the game itself (you are trying to "beat the game"), where the game plays in some pre-determined way (i.e. drawing an event card from the deck). Because players are working together, collaborative games involve more puzzle-like thinking rather than game theory. By this I mean that you do not have to try to anticipate the moves of a sent ..read more

Space Base is an engine building game where players buy spaceships to ultimately earn Victory Points. Players take turn rolling dice and reap benefits depending on which of their ships --if any-- correspond to either the sum of the dice or each individual die. Normal rewards can look like money, points, increases in income, or any combination of these. Income is merely the money you get passively after using up all your cash. Some rewards are a little more indirect but synergize with each other and once you buy enough ships your combos can really start to snowball! Highlights Space Base does a ..read more