Thursday, January 29, 2015

Obligatory End of 2014 Post Part V: Top Interests of 2015: Top 10 List (Part I)


With the honorable mentions of 2015 out of the way we will move on to my top 10 interests coming up in 2015! This will be the fifth part of my “End of 2014” series and will focus on games 6-10 of my top 10 list. Check out the links below to go to my previous four parts. If you’re curious how I chose what would be on my 2015 list versus my 2014 list just click on one of the honorable mention’s posts and I go over those prerequisites there.

Honorable mentions of 2014: http://www.alittlelatetothetable.blogspot.com/2015/01/obligatory-end-of-2014-post-part-i-top.html

Games 6-10 of 2014: http://www.alittlelatetothetable.blogspot.com/2015/01/obligatory-end-of-2014-post-part-i-top_13.html

Games 1-5 of 2014: http://www.alittlelatetothetable.blogspot.com/2015/01/obligatory-end-of-2014-post-part-iii.html

Honorable mentions of 2015: http://www.alittlelatetothetable.blogspot.com/2015/01/obligatory-end-of-2014-post-part-iv-top.html 


Alright, with that out of the way we will move onto my bottom 5 games of my top 10 of 2015. Enjoy and as usual, feel free to post/comment if you have any questions or comments at the bottom of this post or at my BoardGameGeek handle, LateToTheTable.    


#10 – XenoShyft: Onslaught (Cool Mini Or Not)
XenoShyft is yet another successful game that was crowd funded on Kickstarter. This game was designed by Keren Philosophales and Michael Shinall and distributed in the United States by Cool Mini Or Not. This is actually the first game by Cool Mini Or Not that wasn’t created as a miniatures-heavy game. XenoShyft is very different from their previous fair. This one, instead of miniatures, is a card game. It uses deck-building mechanics as well as some tower-defense ideas in order to create what is apparently a brutally difficult co-operative affair where you are attempting to protect your base from waves of alien menaces. This game looks really cool and I don’t have a lot of deck-building games so this may be added to my game library as another with the deck-building mechanic! 





#9 – Castellion & Sylvion (Z-Man Games)
Okay, technically I’m cheating with this number because I’ve chosen to make my #9 game a tie! I’ve chosen both Castellion & Sylvion as my #9 games. These games are both designed by Shadi Torbey and will be distributed in the United States by Z-Man Games. The reason I chose to make this a tie is because these are both designed by Torbey and they both take place in the world of the “Oniverse” where there are a couple games already. Along with these two games, Onirim and Urbion also exist in the Oniverse. While Onirim and Urbion were more solitaire-style card-games, Castellion and Sylvion focus on more of a tower defense mechanism. Sylvion has you using cards against waves of fire elements led by the mad Fire Elemental lord who is trying to burn down the dream forest. Castellion uses tiles as you are attempting to protect your castle from hordes of invaders. Both of these games look like they will be tons of fun and will definitely be beautiful! 


 
#8 – Mysterium (Libellud)
Mysterium is a game that made a huge splash at this past year’s Essen Spiel. It was designed by Oleksandr Nevskiy and Oleg Sidorenko and will be distributed later this year in the United States by Libellud. This game was put out in the Ukriane by publisher IGAMES and made a huge impact on designer/owner Ignacy Trzewiczek who decided to pick it up and publish it in Poland through his company, Portal Games. This just proves that this company is on the up-and-up when it comes to fantastically designed and interesting games, not to mention their own designs! Mysterium takes the mechanics of Dixit and Cluedo and creates a game that is more than the sum of its parts. It is for up to seven players and is an asymmetrical game where one player takes control of a ghost while the other players take control of paranormal investigators. The ghost is trying to clear his/her name of a murder they were wrongly accused of by using picture cards and playing them in front of each investigator. The investigator players then attempt to correctly choose the weapon, person, and place of the murder. This game looks awesome and I can’t wait to try it! 



#7 – Deus (Asmodee)
Deus is another game that was released this past year at Essen Spiel where you are building a civilization tableau. It was designed by Sebastien Dujardin and is distributed in the United States by Asmodee. If you’ve followed any of my previous posts it is probably fairly apparent that I love card-driven games and I really love the tableau building mechanic. Two of my favorite games are Imperial Settlers and 7 Wonders, both of which you are building civilization tableaus. This game also uses a civilization tableau and engine-building mechanic where you are building cards which set off the powers of other cards which set off the powers of other cards…and so on and so forth. This game appeals to both my sense of art and also my love of good gameplay. I can’t wait to play this one and it may just be a buy-before-try game!



#6 – Nations: The Dice Game (Asmodee)
Nations: The Dice Game is a dice-driven, retooling of one of 2013’s big hits, Nations. It was designed by Rustan Hakansson and will be distributed in the United States by Asmodee. The original game looked great but seemed to have a fairly lengthy playtime. This isn’t to say that I’m not interested in the original, because I’ve actually really wanted to play the game. However, Nations: The Dice Game seems to take everything that you were doing in Nations and streamline it while allowing you to chuck custom dice! How does this not seem like a great time? I love civilization-style games and this one does all of the civ-building while using dice as the main mechanic. This just missed being in my top 5 games which only means there is more great stuff to come! 


There you have it. There are my 6-10 games of my top 10 of 2015. Again, if you have any questions or comments feel free to leave them below. Keep an eye out for my top 5 games of 2015 soon. Until next time, game on!

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