Episode 28 – 30 minutes or less

Antoinette and Oliver present 12 games that play in 30 minutes or less, one for each of the following categories:

  • co-op games
  • dice games
  • word games
  • dexterity games
  • card games
  • area control games
  • tile games
  • deduction / hidden information games
  • resource management games
  • party games
  • strategy games
  • most unusual games

Please play along and let us know your 12 games in the comments below.

SPOILER – You can see Antoinette and Oliver’s picks right at the bottom of this page. There you can also find Tom‘s list.

Intro Music: Black Moons by The 126er on YouTube

Games List

In order of appearance:

  • Pandemic
  • The Crew
  • Assembly
  • The Mind
  • Pilfering Pandas
  • Las Vegas
  • Mint Tin Mini Skulduggery
  • Codenames
  • Codenames Duet
  • Wibble++
  • Composition
  • Hardback
  • Junk Art
  • Kittin
  • Tinderblox
  • Tokyo Highway
  • Fort
  • Sakura
  • The King is Dead
  • Eight-Minute Empire: Legends
  • Nine Tiles Panic
  • Sorcerer City
  • Kingdomino
  • My City
  • Dragon Castle
  • Werewolf
  • Cryptid
  • Silver
  • One Card Wonder
  • Century Spice Road
  • Race for the Galaxy
  • It’s a Wonderful World
  • Celestia
  • Quacks of Quedlinburg
  • Deep Sea Adventure
  • Microbrew
  • Onitama
  • Seikatsu
  • Bubble Tea
  • Mystic Vale

WARNING!! SPOILERS BELOW!!


Antoinette’s 12 Games

  • co-op game: Assembly
  • dice game: Las Vegas
  • word game: Codenames: Duet
  • dexterity game: Junk Art
  • card game: Sakura
  • area control game: The King is Dead
  • tile game: My City
  • deduction / hidden information game: Cryptid
  • resource management game: It’s A Wonderful World
  • party game: Celestia
  • strategy game: Seikatsu
  • most unusual game: Bubble Tea

Oliver’s 12 Games

  • co-op game: The Crew
  • dice game: Mint Tin Mini Skulduggery
  • word game: Codenames
  • dexterity game: Tinderblox
  • card game: Fort
  • area control game: Eight-Minute Empire: Legends
  • tile game: Nine Tiles Panic
  • deduction / hidden information game: Silver
  • resource management game: One Card Wonder
  • party game: Deep Sea Adventure
  • strategy game: Microbrew
  • most unusual game: The Mind

Tom‘s 12 Games

  • co-op game: Assembly
  • dice game: Fuse
  • word game: The Ell deck
  • dexterity game: Rhino Hero
  • card game: The Crew
  • area control game: With a Smile & a Gun
  • tile game: Patchwork
  • deduction / hidden information game: The Shipwreck Arcana
  • resource management game: Harbour
  • party game: Skull
  • strategy game: Now Boarding
  • most unusual game: Innovation

2 Replies to “Episode 28 – 30 minutes or less”

  1. RogerBW

    Ooh, an interesting challenge!

    co-op games

    The group I’ve been playing The Crew with on BGA is taking longer for each game as we progress through the missions…

    Flash Point is one of the first modern games I got seriously into and it’s stayed with me for the long term. Not all setups can be played through in half an hour, but many can.

    dice games

    Does Sagrada count? Probably. It should certainly fit into the time. And I quite like Zombie Dice, though there’s basically no subtlety to it at all.

    word games

    Agreed on Wibbell. Last month I would have picked Letter Tycoon but I think I’ve now burned out on that after 144 games on BGA. I’m currently enjoying Hardback though.

    I’ve been accused of making up words when I played “aftosa” (foot-and-mouth disease, from the Spanish).

    dexterity games

    I enjoy Pitch Car (which I slightly regret having sold) and Roadsterz, but I’m not sure either of them is a good half-hour game. Ah, of course: Rhino Hero!

    card games

    Clear winner for me is Red7, which you can play by single rounds, to a point total, or until time runs out. (It’s often been the game that lived in my pocket.)

    area control games

    Turns out I’m not a huge fan of this mechanic. Air, Land & Sea maybe?

    tile games

    The best game nobody’s ever heard of, Small Islands, might take a bit too long, so I’ll go for Project L.

    deduction / hidden information games

    Ooh, this is easy! The Resistance, Deception: Murder in Hong Kong, Among Thieves (the last of those being an underappreciated gem, basically “iterated prisoner’s dilemma, the game”). If I have to pick just one, the first one.

    But I’m sneaking this in here because you don’t have a social deduction category, which perhaps should be included next time.

    resource management games

    Another sort I don’t do much, but maybe Splendor? Haven’t played it for years.

    party games

    “Street Concept“, a minor variant where you don’t muck about with teams but the winner of each round gives clues for the next. But generally when boardgamers come over we’re doing boardgames (which might include party games but that’s not really a priority), while if I’m having a barbecue board gamers will be a minority, so any games there will be very much on the side and have to be very light.

    strategy games

    Onitama easily. The thing I particularly love about it is that the time from “I know I’m going to lose” to “I have lost” is relatively short.

    most unusual games

    Tricky! But I think it must be Die Kutschfahrt zur Teufelsburg, a short social deduction game where two secret societies are wrestling over a set of precious artefacts. Possibly because I’m pretty much always lost when playing it.

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