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This Week’s Explorable Games
This round of Explorable Favorites is from BoardGaming.com member Lone Token. The games selected from their Favorites shelf were:
- Eldritch Horror
Fantasy Flight Games | Published: 2013 - Dead of Winter: A Crossroads Game
Plaid Hat Games | Published: 2014
These games will be explorable until next Monday, February 9th.
After you’ve explored these games, let us know what you think about them in the comments below!
I would play both of these games and probably enjoy them but I will not add them to my collection.
Arkham Horror is one of my favorite games. Eldritch Horror is a good game too. It’s been steadily growing on me. It does some things better than AH but then again it doesn’t do other things as good as AH.
Not a big fan of Dead of Winter as you can tell by my review. I was disappointed. It did not go over well with my gaming group either.
I only own Dead of Winter but it has quickly been one of the most requested to play by my friends. I love never knowing if there is a traitor or not. That makes me even more suspicious!
I own both of these games and they are two of my favorites at the moment.
I’m a long-time diehard Lovecraft fan so Eldritch Horror touches on all of my favorite topics. It takes a while to play, but rewards that play with a fun story and a difficult challenge.
I’ve only played Dead of Winter twice so far with our family and they were enjoyable times. There’s nothing quite as satisfying as leaving a traitor out in the cold to freeze.
The most enjoyable solo tabletop experience I have played is Mage Knight. I highly recommend it.
@Lone Token, for solo game i will like to suggest Space Hulk: Death Angel the card game (maybe you already tried)
It is the only game i play solo, first because i enjoy it very much. Second cause playing it in a group needs that every player knows the game very well. Trying to introduce it to new players directly normally ends in a complete chaos and a terrible, quick and humilliating death of all the space marines (which in some cases could be fun anyway…)
@Lone Token Not at all. Much like Sentinels Villain AI Deck lending itself to perfect IOS transfer – the heroes work on a simple draw a card-play a card/activate card mechanic which is perfect for soloing. I solitaire Sentinels all the time to check out combinations and practice for group play. It really just involves having the decks off to one side and keeping three hands on the table – picking them up when it is each Hero’s ‘turn’.
@ AD and Hai
Sorry, I confused deck building with deck managment but actually it’s more the card games that I like less and I tend to put them all in the same basket. I did not want to disrespect all my fellow gamers who played Sentinel 6098 times. 🙂
Sentinel seems to offer a great experience and this why it still on my list. About the solo game, is playing 3 heroes hard to manage?
@Lone Token Yeah…what @Account said
@Lone Token – just in case this will sway you one way or the other… Sentinels is not a deckbuilder at all. The starting deck of your chosen hero contains all of that hero’s cards. Rather than adding cards to power them up, Sentinels is about building a plan based around particular combinations (both of heroes and of their cards), and finding a way to get the necessary components for your plan out of your 40-card deck.
I could go on and on about the brilliance of Sentinels – it is my favorite game – but I’ll spare you. Just wanted you to know that it’s not a deckbuilder at all.
EDIT: And @Hai hit the nail on the head – solo play of Sentinels, with exactly 3 heroes, is awesome. Probably my favorite solitaire experience, but I’m no solo gamer. Sentinels and Pathfinder ACG are all the solo I need.
Two excellent-looking games that are on my wishlist (Dead of Winter being on the very short list) to expand my game library. I do have to point out that almost everything I’ve seen about Dead of Winter very much reminds me of the mechanics and focus of Zpocalypse. The magnifying glass is on the interactions and survival efforts of the players, with the zombies being more of a background component. This game appears to have succeeded in gaining a large following, however, unlike Zpocalypse. They both have overriding mission goals and individual team goals, bringing the similarities even closer. I look forward to an opportunity to play Dead of Winter to see how closely the two overlap.
I’m not a big fan of the Mythos background, but I’ve always loved the horror genre in general and feel I owe it to myself to check out more games like Eldritch Horror.
@Hai
Congratulations on making something ridiculous more ridiculous! 🙂 I will have to go over the rules for all four games and figure out how to house rule this monstrosity into existence. Woe be to all of humanity when this eldrich horror comes into being!
@Lone Token
These are a pair of good looking games. Dead of Winter’s reviews kind of remind me of how Walking Dead looks now. Sure, there are zombies, and they are problematic, but they are now just another problem the survivors have to deal with, not necessarily their most pressing concern.
@Hai
Deckbuilding, deck management and card games are not my favorite but Sentinels is on my list as for Legendary Encounters. However I do enjoy playing Thunderstone Numerena, Fantastiqa and Pathfinder ACG solo.
For Pathfinder its on “my next games to play” shelf. I have to restart a solo campaign with 2 heroes after my solo hero has been killed on the last tutorial scenario.
I just ordered Assault on Doomrock 2 days ago so I will get my hand on it next week.
There is 7 gaming days in a week…Its hard to fill all of them with other gamers. We all have day jobs, family, laundry , grocery, kids homework, exercice ….. the week evening are short so playing solo is more a consequence of my playing game obsession because I do prefer to play with others
@Lone Token That was most interesting – thanks for sharing! 🙂 I was curious why Dead of Winter broke your solo glass ceiling. (Recommendation: You should definitely get into 3 Hand Sentinels of the Multiverse for solo experimenting – and check out Assault on Doomrock for a more puzzle/thinking PAthfinder ACG)
@Bitbot Don’t forget Mansions of Madness for playing out Arkham street encounters in scale!
@Account – Yes weekly Explorables allows me to retrograde – cracking 40% on Grand Master Grader and its whopping…100 xp rewards? Hmm…
@Account Deletion- hip hip hooray! 🙂
Yes indeed, thanks for keeping the exploration going!
I love Eldritch Horror, one of my top 3 games easy. The experience of a full RPG campaign in a couple of hours.
Heard lots of great things about Dead of Winter, look forward to exploring!
Great picks, Lone Token!
What? I won? What a great feeling…I want to thank my family to support me playing games more than they want too 🙂
Like Hai mentioned I’m playing a lot of solo games and try to make reviews based on a solo player experience. 5/7 games on my fav shelf has a solo variant out of the box and I am close to a challenging solo variant for Hyperborea.
So why is Dead of Winter,a non solo game, on my fav list. Because except this fact this game has everything I love in a game
1) I love the coop games (most of solo games are coop as well) and It’s my first and only traitor type of game
2) it has theme all over the box (love horror and zombies)
3) I love the unknown: secret objective, exploration, unexpected events. I like to be surprised by a game event
4) The Crossroad cards are just so amazing. When you play your turn and hear the other player cough, you know something bad is going to happen
4) It’s not hard to teach / learn / play
5) I prefer beating a game rather than the other players
The same thing can apply to Eldritch Horror except that it plays solo and that winning is an option. I really like the tension that keep scaling thru each round turns. Eldritch Horror is one of the rare game I own that give me a real sense of adventuring and accomplishment.
So, I love games that tells a story and that are an immersive experience. These two games brings me that.
Good exploration
@Game Ninja, @anm – my pleasure! Glad you enjoy it.
This actually takes much less time than reviews or even the Kickstarter article, so you can count on it staying regular!
@ Tatxu
Looking at your favorites I’d think there is a good chance you’ll like Dead of Winter, one of my highlights of 2014.
I am one of those who prefer Arkham slightly over Eldritch simply because I prefer the setting of Arkham and surrounding cities although it will be great to finally have a chance to go to Antarctica.
Great! Two of my favorite games!
Well… ehem… In the case of Dead of Winter i hope it will become a favorite.. As my spanish language copy is not arriving until next Friday…
@Bit&Bot: those three are some also of my favorites due to theme, and we though about that joke in our group… Sorrily we are not young anymore, and obligations make impossible to have a 48hr. gaming sesion (being optimistic) 😉