Episode 31 – ‘Surprising’ games

Antoinette and Oliver talk about the games that surprised them most. You’ve probably found this yourself when you play a game that you were really excited about, but then it wasn’t quite as good as you expected. Or maybe you bought a game without any expectations and it became your all-time favourite evergreen board game. That’s exactly the sort of thing that Antoinette and Oliver are talking about in this episode.

Intro Music: Black Moons by The 126er on YouTube

Games List

  • Seize the Bean
  • Beyond the Sun
  • Batman: Gotham City Chronicles
  • Oath: Chronicles of Empire and Exile
  • Dune
  • Nemesis
  • Brass: Birmingham
  • Race for the Galaxy
  • Eiyo
  • Rebis
  • 15 Days
  • Space Lunch
  • Golems
  • The Mind
  • Migration: Mars
  • Terraforming Mars
  • My City
  • Lignum
  • Cryptid
  • Istanbul: The Dice Game
  • Quacks of Quedlinburg
  • Drop Mix
  • Moon Adventure
  • Deep Sea Adventure
  • Viceroy
  • Viceroy: Times of Darkness
  • Carcassonne

4 Replies to “Episode 31 – ‘Surprising’ games”

  1. RogerBW

    I’m sorry to say that many of my game surprises have taken the form of a game being less to my taste than I’d expected (especially if I glanced over it at a convention and bought it on the spot) – not necessarily that it’s a bad game, just not for me.

    That said I have been pleasantly surprised by several IP games, particularly Firefly and Star Trek Ascendancy (both Dill/Sweigart/Kovaleski), because of the way they don’t slavishly say “this happened on the show therefore it should happen in the game” but rather give you a toolkit that you can shake up and use to make new narratives.

    And like everyone else I didn’t expect The Crew to work. 🙂

    If you’re looking for more topics to do game-lists on, how about two-player games (either designed only for two, or that work really well with two even if they play other numbers)?

    • RogerBW

      Extra comments as I find the notes I’d lost earlier…

      Thirsty Meeples in Oxford is my closest board game café. We should get together some time!

      One of my first modern boardgames was Carcassonne played terribly seriously by people who knew it well. Not a great introduction.

      As another suggestion… one of my local game groups had a Halloween-themed game day at the end of October. So maybe an episode on games with a particular thematic element in common?

      • Oliver Kinne

        Hello again Roger. Thirsty Meeples is a great place, but we were only visiting Oxford at the time. I live by the South Coast, so not close enough, unfortunately, but thank you for the offer of meeting up. I also love your suggestion for an episode about “thematic” games. Thank you.

    • Oliver Kinne

      Hello Roger. It’s good to hear from you and apologies for taking so long to reply. It’s a shame that you’ve been disappointed with many of the games you tried, but I guess that’s part of working out what works for you and what doesn’t and shows that you’re always happy to try new things. IP games can be a mixed bag, but like you, I also have been pleasantly surprised by them, in particular by the Ravensburger range of games, like Jaws. I also love that you enjoyed The Crew. Your suggestion for the next topic of two-player games is a great idea. I’ll add it to our list. So thank you again for your comments.

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