5 Board Games for $100(ish) Dollars #2
Once in a while, I will be making a post highlight what game purchases I would make, at the time of writing, for around $100 (US) dollars. Some titles will stay the same, some will come and go, but ultimately, I hope it will inform new players getting into the realm of the modern board game scene where to invest their hard earned cash.
I will include one party/filler game, a 2-player exclusive game, a light game, a medium or heavy game, and something not of the ordinary like hidden gems or expansions. With these 5 games, I believe, you have a good footing to start a joyful game library—and one which doesn’t require a huge amount of capital.
Onto the games:
The Crew Box
Party/Filler Game: The Crew: The Quest for Planet Nine $11
Earlier this year a small card game took the hobby by storm, wowing a broad swath of the board game community. Like The Mind at the end of last year, The Crew was electrifying everyone who touched it. This trick tacking game tasked players to cooperatively finish missions, but as with trick-tacking games of old like Spades, all persons involved must refrain from indicating what suits they have and only reveal a card that can win a trick or lose it on purpose. It’s nail biting stuff. Can you navigate your hand to win whatever particular task you were assigned, or lose along your team mates as they place you in an unwinnable position, or worse yet, you place them in that position?
With 50 missions to complete, you and your gaming group will have plenty to chew on when The Crew gets to the table. Why wouldn’t you get the most recent Kennerspiel des Jahres winner onto your library?
Jaipur
2-Player Only: Jaipur - $17-$20
Jaipur is an excellent set collection game for 2 players. Try and collect sets of cards with the same goods (silk, silver, gold, jewels, leather and spices) and trade them in for tokens worth points. Use the clever camel cards to load up your hand, or to limit your opponent’s choices during their turn. Quick and easy to teach, and ultra portable; the best type of game to pop out during lunch time or at the end of the day.
Tactical, and with beautiful art work, Jaipur is a must buy when it comes to 2-player games. Easily one of my top 15 games of all time.
Review of: Jaipur
Arboretum
Gateway Game: Arboretum - $15-$17
Arboretum is a favorite of mine. It’s a basic set collection and tableau building card game, with a really cut-throat ending. The quaint, tranquil nature theme might lull you into thinking it’s a pampered nature trail, but make no mistake, this game has thorns. Pick-up two cards into your hand of seven, place one card onto your tableau and discard one back into the discard piles. Your tableau will start to grow, as if you had an abled green thumb, creating paths you’ll score for points at end of game. However, if you can’t keep enough suits in your hand your opponent(s) might have enough to deny you those points you’ve worked so hard to collect. Devastating, but you’ll quickly want to start a new round and return the favor in a satisfying game of attrition—or devilish pruning? The point is, it’s a mean game, but one that you can’t get enough of.
There are two version out there right now, and I would avoid buying the Deluxe version, even though it comes in the much better wooden box. The regular version is much better visually considering the Deluxe version went with a very hard to read card finish that makes it difficult to discern cards from afar. A shame, but the upside, you’ll get to appreciate the wonderful artwork of the regular version!
Review of: Arboretum
Puerto Rico: Deluxe Edition
Medium/Heavy: Puerto Rico - $27
Sometimes you have to go to the tried and true classics to get a good sense of where the board game hobby has come from. In my opinion, Puerto Rico still has legs. Yes, it is eighteen years old. Does it matter? Not one bit. If you’ve been wondering why this is often sited as one the best games ever made, you might as well try it out. The grand daddy of action/role selection, in Puerto Rico you’ll be selecting roles to perform strict actions based on that role. However, the meat of the game is really trying to maximize your turn while dismembering your opponents turn by selecting the action that will mostly benefit you, while inconveniencing other players. It’s an indirect mean game, but once you figure out the plethora of buildings and careful consideration of what each role does, you’ll be planning and scheming, cutting through for the best possible combination to gather victory points.
If you can spare a few more bucks, try and get the Deluxe version with the two expansions. It makes a great game even better with more considerations of choices for victory points.
Ganymede Box
Hidden Gem: Ganymede - $28
Combos, combos, combos! If you like building an engine and pushing meeples from planetary bodies to other planetary bodies in the vacuum of space, Ganymede is the game for you. This had a small amount of buzz in 2018, but it never coalesced into a full blown following like Space Base did. For what is worth, I think Space Base is good, but I prefer Ganymede a little more.
In this title by Sorry We Are French (yes that is a real board game company name) you will be drafting cards that will allow you to either hire new meeples on Earth of a specific color, send those meeples through shuttle cards to a pitstop in Mars or eventually Ganymede, and finally select new mission cards to complete for victory points. The real kicker that makes this such a great hidden gem is that you must juggle what’s on the market versus what you have recruited and somehow move, convert, and cajole those meeples into Ganymede to complete missions—all the while you are fighting for the same shuttle cards as your opponents. There is overlap in what everyone needs, and sometimes there is one shuttle card that is the crux of your tactic’s success, but maybe it’s the same for other players. When and what you draft is equally as important as the path of cards you’ll need to complete your mission, and it must be timed to perfection to boot.
For that alone, you might want to check it out!
And there you have it; five games that can be had around the $100 mark, and if buying all together from a single online vendor, probably avoids paying shipping charges. I hope to come back in the near future to give another five game recommendations for $100-ish bucks.
