Prototypes/Crowdfunding Projects to keep an eye on:

Medieval Madness (Mint Panda) – this project is live on Kickstarter until February 8th! This is a competitive trick taking game, which makes the rules familiar to most players, and it stands out amongst many co-op trick taking games out there right now.

Ants & Crumbles (Fried Potato Games) – this project is live on Kickstarter until February 19th! The theming of this game is just plain fun and it looks like it would be a fantastic 30 min start to a board game night that might lead to rematch after rematch when your ant colony crumbles and you need revenge.

Colt Express: The Complete Collection (Tycoon Games) – this project is live on Gamefound until January 29th! If you haven’t played Colt Express before I’d highly recommend it, and this campaign is for a complete collection of the base game and all of its expansions.

Games we were playing this month:

Everdell: New Leaf (Tycoon Games/Starling Games) – My wife and I keep coming back to Everdell, and I think New Leaf might be our favorite expansion. It adds several really fun mechanics to the base game not to mention several fun new cards.

It’s a Wonderful World (IAWW): Corruption and Ascension (Lucky Duck Games) – We talked about It’s a Wonderful World before, but this expansion found its way into our hands over the holidays. It adds a lot of fun changes to the base game and also expands the player cap up to 7!

Puerto Rico (Rio Grande Games Version, bgg) – I have a sentimental attachment to this game because it was the game that really got me into hobby gaming beyond Catan way back in high school. There is something just so refined about the gameplay that keeps me coming back with so many strategies and paths to victory. That said, whenever I bring this game to the table it also sparks a good and important discussion about the game’s themes of colonialism and how that theme was handled.