Solo Gamer Dad Podcast

Eight mini-reviews for various games picked at "random" by my daughter. Some of these may develop into fuller reviews sometime, but we'll have to see.

Review and discussion of the game "Return to Dark Tower," designed by Rob Daviau, Isaac Childres, Noah Cohen, Justin D. Jacobsen, and Brian Neff, and published by Restoration Games. This is an app-driven adventure game where you control one or more heroes to build up the power necessary to draw out and defeat an evil adversary, all while interacting with the effects of the Dark Tower sitting in the middle of the game board, and trying to stave off the adversary's corruption across the land and within yourself.

Review and discussion of the game "Cities of Venus: Lost Contact", designed by James and Adam Staley and published by Tin Robot Games. This is a resource management and engine building game where you are trying to improve your city, floating high in the atmosphere of the planet Venus, ultimately trying to accomplish the requirements of various missions in order to keep your city alive as contact with Earth has ceased.

Review and discussion of the game "Tabletop, Inc", designed by Joseph and Madeleine Adams, and published by Cotswold Games. This game is a worker placement and resource management game, where you take on the role of a board game publisher, trying to develop award-winning games in order to beat the score set by an automated opponent.

Review and discussion of the 2nd and 3rd Editions of Runebound, published by Fantasy Flight Games. 2nd Edition was designed by Martin Wallace and Darrell Hardy; 3rd Edition was designed by Lukas Litzinger. Both editions are adventure games where you take the role of a hero trying to build up strength to ultimately complete a final challenge to save the land of Terrinoth from ruin and conquest. This podcast will discuss the similarities and differences between the two editions, as well as give my thoughts on whether either of them (which are both out of print) are worth tracking down to add to your collection.

Review and discussion of the game "Lost Ruins of Arnak," designed by Min and Elwin and published by Czech Games Edition. This game is a combination of worker placement, deckbuilder, and resource management, as you lead an expedition to find the lost civilization of Arnak and beat your automated Rival in earning the most points to become the most successful explorer!

Review and discussion of the game "Slay the Spire: The Board Game", designed by Gary Dworetsky, Anthony Giovannetti, Casey Yano, and published by Contention Games. Slay the Spire: The Board Game is a board game adaptation of the video game by the same name published by Metacrit. In this game, you select a character and build a deck of cards during play to allow you to defeat enemies and bosses through various "Acts" of play, ultimately trying to Ascend to higher difficulty levels and vanquish the evil within the Spire itself.

Review and discussion of the game "The Mandalorian: Adventures," designed by Corey Konieczka and published by Unexpected Games. The Mandalorian: Adventures is a card-driven tactical skirmish game, where you play as two characters from the iconic Star Wars show to accomplish various missions based on episodes from the first season.

Discussion about the game "Tapestry", designed by Jamey Stegmaier and published by Stonemaier Games. Tapestry is an abstract civilization-style game where you manage resources to build your civilization and try to score more victory points than an automated pair of opponents.

Discussion about the game "Deep Space D-6 Armada", designed by Tony Go and published by Tau Leader games. You take the role of a Starship captain who sets out to drive away the evil Federation by destroying invading ships and completing away missions, all while upgrading your ship's modules and hiring specialized crew to help you accomplish this task. Die rolling and placement adventure game.

Discussion about the game "Leviathan Wilds", designed by Justin Kemppainen and published by Moon Crab Games. In this game, you control a group of climbers who are on a mission to destroy a bunch of crystals that have cause a bunch of gigantic Leviathans to go mad. You'll have to manage your deck of cards and skillfully maneuver around the beast in order to succeed before your climbers succumb to the Leviathan's attacks as it become more enraged by your interference.

Discussion about the game "Dwellings of Eldervale", designed by Luke Laurie and published by Breaking Games. Dwellings of Eldervale is a worker placement/tableau building game where you are trying to reclaim the lost kingdom of Eldervale and its elemental power, all while fending off the Ghosts of its ancient inhabitants who are trying to stop you from doing just that.

Discussion of a change to how I'll be rating the games I discuss going forward, as well as a summary of how the games I've previously reviewed are rated under the new system.

Review and discussion of the game "Tiny Epic Dungeons", designed by Scott Almes and published by Gamelyn Games. Tiny Epic Dungeons is a dungeon crawl game that tries to pack a rich delving experience in a very small box. Does it succeed? Take a listen, and find out!

Review and discussion of the game "The Isle of Cats," designed by Frank West and published by The City of Games. The Isle of Cats is a card drafting, polyomino tile placment game, where you are trying to collect groups of colored cats onto your ship, and optimize your placement to best enhance your score. In the solo game, a pseduo-automated opponent, representing your conniving sister, will also score points based on how you place your tiles, requiring you to play in such a way as to maximize your own score, while minimizing hers.

Review and discussion of the game "3000 Scoundrels," designed by Corey Konieczka and published by Unexpected Games. 3000 Scoundrels is a card-based engine-building game, where you are hiring a gang of scoundrels to try and steal futuristic technology and make your gang the most notorious and powerful in the American old west!

Review of the logic/deduction game "The Search for Planet X," designed by James Masino and Ben Rosset, and published by Foxtrot Games and Renegade Games. Many astronomers have hypothesized about a large mysterious planet lurking at the edge of our solar system. In this game, you play the role of one of these scientists, trying to gain the most points for discovering the locations of various objects in the fringes of the system, including Planet X itself.

Review of the game Dorfromantik: The Board Game, by Lukas Zach and Michael Palm, published by Pegasus Spiele. Dorfromantik is a tile-laying game, based on a video game by the same name, where you are trying to create a landscape, scoring tasks and accomplishing achievements along the way. In its campaign mode, you unlock new components as you progress along an achievement track, as well as by meeting specific goals unlocked as you play.

Review of the game Warp's Edge, by Scott Almes and published by Renegade Game Studios. In Root, you take on the role of a starfighter pilot trying to defeat a swarm of enemy ships and the Mothership behind them all. In this "bag building" game, you will cycle through your tokens as you go back in time, using your knowledge of previous time loops to prevail over the enemy.

Review of the game Root, by Cole Wehrle and published by Leder Games. In Root, you take on the role of a fation of antrhopomorphic animals vying for control and dominance of The Woodland. You will play against automated Bots representing enemy factions. Since every faction in this game is quite different, there are a lot of options for play and lots of room for replayability.

Review of the game Expeditions, by Jamie Stegmeier at Stonemaier Games. Expeditions is a sequel to Scythe, where you take the role of a hero going in search of a lost scientist, in which you'll collect items and meteorites and solve quests in order to achieve the most glory and wealth for yourself and your faction.

Discussion about Scythe, a game set in an alternate-reality universe after The Great War where factions are vying for control over territory around a mysterious Factory that produced giant mechs before and during the War. Discussion includes gameplay overview, as well as discussion of the game's Automa (bot) player. Also discussion on various ways to play the game as a campaign, via the official Rise of Fenris expansion or the fan-made Bingo variant.

Discussion about "Project EOS Rise", a recently-released game from Kickstarter about saving humanity from extinction by searching for and traveling to a new home on a fabled Paradise Planet.

Discussion about the original "Horrified" game, by Prospero Hall, published by Ravensburger. This only discusses the original "Universal Studios Monsters" version, with a brief rundown of how the game plays, and an extensive discussion on my thoughts on the game.

A brief introduction to the goal of the Solo Gamer Dad Podcast, and discussion on the true-solo game "Under Falling Skies", by Tomáš Uhlíř, published by CGE.