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Where has the time gone? I thought it was summer and then I blinked and suddenly it is almost coming to the end of December and Christmas is just around the corner. Christmas lists are being made and presents are being wrapped. So, in the true festive spirit I have made my top five board game Christmas Wishlist that I am hoping Santa might bring on the big day.
Well…truth be told, I know he is bringing these games as I have purchased them already and gave them out to family to give me. It is easier this way, save them the stress and it means I get some cool board games.
Christmas Wishlist - Top 5
1. Endeavor: Age of Sail
Endeavor: Age of Sail is the updated reprint of the popular 2009 release. Endeavor is a game about building a seafaring empire to gain the most glory. Players can increase their industry, culture, finance and politics as well as occupying cities and constructing buildings.
Endeavor: Age of Sail was a Kickstarter game that was delivered in October of this year and has been sat staring at me since then. I am itching to play this but my lovely wife has kindly agreed to give it to me for Christmas, so I must hold off until then. I have unboxed it to check components and it looks stunning. It has official two-player variant rules, the lack of which stopped me from buying the original, additional content, double-sided player boards and deluxe components. I'm super hyped about getting this and looking forward to getting it to the table as soon as I can.
2. Altiplano
Altiplano is a bag building game and is dubbed the spiritual successor to Orleans, which I very much enjoy. It has been out for a year or so now (2017) and is set in the Andes. The game has various route to victory so different strategies can be employed by different players. There is fish, alpacas, cacao, silver and coin, all of which can be used in different ways to trade, produce and construct.
The game looks bright and colourful and I like the bag building aspect of this game. One of the twists on the bag building mechanic is that players don’t place their tokens back in the bag until it is empty. So all the tokens that a player acquires will be eventually cycled through before the bag is replenished.
3. Clank! In Space!
Clank! has become a very popular deck builder since its release in 2016. However, I am more excited about Clank! In Space! Released in 2017, this game takes the same core mechanic of Clank! but adds a sci-fi theme. The board is modular so increases the replay-ability of the game.
The game offers the same deck building and card use aspect with players traversing a spaceship, attacking creatures/aliens, acquiring new cards, stealing artefacts and making it back to the escape pod without making too much noise and attracting the wraith of Lord Eradikus (basically the dragon from Clank!). The Clank! series of games seem to have a lot of support with a number of expansions released for base Clank! and one expansion (Apocalypse) released for Clank! In Space! Very much looking forward to this.
4. Santa Maria
Santa Maria, released in 2017, is a dice rolling, set collection, tile laying game about developing a colony in the New World at the beginning of the 16th Century. Players will produce resources, expand their colony, form shipping routes, send out conquistadors and increase their religious influence over the course of three years (rounds).
Players will have their own player board where they build up their colony by placing polyominoes and activating these with dice (which represent migrant workers). Clever tile placement and activation is key to being successful in the game as players have limited uses of the buildings. I have read and heard a lot of buzz about Santa Maria and I am very excited about getting this to the table.
5. Steam Time
Steam Time is an older game that I am looking forward to getting. The game has a steam punk style theme where time has gone haywire. Players control steam powered airships and can travel through time and space, gaining lost knowledge, discovering long forgotten cultures and civilisations and finding hidden treasures.
Crystals are the “currency” in the game and can be used to upgrade your airship. The board, which is made up of monument cards, changes throughout the game with the order of the monuments shifting. I am very intrigued by the changing board, the steam punk theme and the ability to upgrade your airship. Steam Time is a game that I don’t see a lot of buzz about, maybe because it is a slightly older game and the cult of the new is where the buzz is, but I am still very much looking forward to getting this to the table.
So that is it, five games that Santa will be bringing me this Christmas and five games that I am very much looking forward to playing. What games are you getting for Christmas? Hope it is something good and enjoy playing over the holidays.
