6 nimmt! Baron Oxx

When we were in Munich this past May, I picked up the new Baron Oxx version of 6 nimmt! as a souvenir for my mom. I remembered how much she enjoyed the original 6 nimmt! and I figured that would be a cooler gift than a magnet.

In 6 nimmt! Baron Oxx, you win if you have the least amount of points after playing multiple rounds. You gain points as you collect cards, so you want to avoid collecting cards. It's a simple little card game where you'll have a limited amount of cards in your hand and everyone plays a card facedown, then everyone reveals their card simultaneously. Starting with the player who played the lowest number, each player places their card in one of five rows, hoping to not bust. You bust if you place the 6th card in a row OR if you place a card that makes the row have 6 or more bullheads of the same color. It's a lot of luck, but you're also trying to play the players, so you're often trying to nail down the best time to play a lower numbered card vs a higher number. However, you're limited by the 4 or less cards in your hand, and you have no idea what your opponents might play...and you can only play your card on a row where the last card played has a matching colored bullhead. It's fun and quick to play. There are lots of exciting moments when you reveal the cards and assess who's safe, and who's gonna bust. ...and often times, the card placement of one player could force another player to bust. Muhahaha! It's definitely a crowd-pleaser, and it was a hit with my family.

​BGG Link​

Pond

Look at this adorable box cover art for Pond. If you don't look too closely, you'll probably think, "aww, cute frogs, bright colors..how adorable". I think that's what happened when my 10-year old niece (Violet) asked me to play it. Little did she know that she was jumping into her first deck-building and area control game. However, if you look closer, those frogs are at war! ...and technically, the box listed ages 14+, so it was a bit challenging for her to get the swing of it, but she endured. At some point, you would've thought I was giving her calculus homework and I'm certain she regretted asking me to play it. However, she got wayyy more into after her first combat, when she clapped my mom's cowboy frogs rolling all hits on the chunky, custom combat dice.

Pond is a froggy wargame for 2-4 players, presented in an adorable disguise from its cutesy art and awesome components (the pumpkin and banana frog meeples even have butts!). Players compete to have the most victory points from controlling ponds, recruiting frog cards, and attacking opposing frogs. For newer players, it's an approachable game to explore area control and deck-building. The frog cards you add to your deck are silly and fantastic! I feel like we all laughed and smiled every time we'd recruit new frog cards for our decks...and then also again when we played them. There are lots of different strategies for gaining points, and combat is smooth and simple since only the attacker rolls dice (think Arcs).

For experienced players, there's a lot here to enjoy as well. Each time you cycle your deck, you hibernate (cull) a card and when you have a number of hibernated frog cards, you can recruit powerful hero frogs which grant you ongoing abilities. Also, each frog faction has asymmetric powers and it only takes about an hour to play once you have the rules down.

I'm happy my niece stuck with it even though it wasn't what she was expecting. It was also a delight to have my mom and nephew play with us too! My mom got it down fast from following the player aid. She's becoming a real pro and surprised my nephew and me. Brother Ming Games continues to impress me!

​BGG Link​

Coalitions

Back in 2021, I played a 6-player game of Coalitions with a prototype/pre-production copy, and I covered it in BGG News to promote its Kickstarter campaign. In that one game, I made a big mistake with the movement rules when I taught it, but we all still really enjoyed our game. Then I forgot all about it...until the KS campaign was fulfilled, and the kind folks at Phalanx sent me a copy of the finished version along with a few expansions. Then I instantly became eager to revisit it and play with the correct rules.

In Coalitions, 1-6 players take on asymmetric roles as prominent European powers (France, England, Austria, Prussia, Russia or Turkey) and compete in an area control struggle to shape the future of Europe during the Napoleonic Wars. I know, I know...this sounds like it'll be a long, complex, beasty game...but (plot twist!) it's not. The rules are straightforward, it's easy to get into, and I'm pretty sure it'll play in less than 3 hours when everyone knows the rules.

Coalitions features innovative mechanics that allow players to take their turns simultaneously by following this clever Wheel of War which shows which faction is performing a given action, then rotates. During the game, alliances shift in spicy ways with the Diplomacy phase – you can change coalitions, be at war with everyone, or chill on the couch and remain neutral. Each game round, all actions are performed simultaneously, except for movement. But even during movement, everyone's engaged because you have to choose an opposing player as an Envoy, who gains morale for their troubles, and more importantly, has to give you permission to take additional moves beyond your first. You're often stuck with a tough choice because you don't want to help your opponents gain more morale if they already have more than you'd like, but you also don't want to give it to someone who's likely to restrict your movement if you have big plans. Combat is exciting because your allies armies in adjacent regions can join you, and you secretly play battle cards, which I always love. Besides money, morale is a key resource in the game since you spend it to play battle cards. It's super cool!

After playing a 6-player game with the awesome, competitive women in the photo below, I immediately wanted to play again. In fact, everyone was down to play again with that learning game under our belts. Sadly, we didn't get a chance to play again, but I'm very pumped to play more of this unique gem of a wargame.

​BGG Link​

Ticket to Ride

I've been having a blast revisiting Ticket to Ride. I played it a wee bit when I first got into modern board games, but not much since those early days in 2018/2019. I forgot how great it is!

I've been exploring a bunch of different maps (US, Europe, Paris, London, and NY) in preparation for finally starting Ticket to Ride Legacy: Legends of the West in a few weeks. I feel late to the party since it came out in 2023, but then again, I feel like it's still under the radar for some people.

My family picked it up fast on their first game and then things got super competitive after that. My mom and I would play 2-player on my ipad app most evenings they were in town, and now we've got an async/turn-based game going on BoardGameArena (BGA)...so the trash-talking can continue across the country.

​BGG Link​

Inferno

I also enjoyed my first play of Inferno – a medium-heavy weight euro, "soul" management game for 1-4 players, where you guide sinners to their respective circles in Hell. It has some worker placement feels, but not where you're not boxing out other players from actions...it's more so that your workers stay on the board (locked up) until you recall them. There are a bunch of different colored soul meeples that you are moving on the board to decide which actions you can potentially take for your turn. Then you perform the corresponding action. Whenever you recall your workers, Dante moves down the steps into the depths of Hell and triggers a few different effects that briefly interrupt the game. Most often, Dante will trigger the evaluation of one of the colored tracks at the bottom of the board, which players are competing to advance on. When Dante triggers a track, the player(s) who's furthest ahead gets to place a scroll on that track for endgame scoring. A chunk of your points are from scoring these tracks. There's a bit of market manipulation which impacts the value of each track, and that'll multiply by your progress on the corresponding track. But again, you must have a scroll there to score any points. There are also some monsters guardians (sorry, Kai!) you can interact with and use their abilities to do cool stuff and interfere with your opponents.

Inferno is pretty interesting! It felt a little funky to me, but in a good way. There are two different types of currency you need to manage...or you'll be stuck taking a million loans like I did, and then regretting it later. I really dig the look of Inferno and its unique theme. And I love when players drive the pace of the game, which is done well here. There are some cool bonuses on Dante's track, so usually you want to try to time it so that you get to trigger his move when there's a bonus effect you really want. Then another player will beat you to it, and you'll cringe. There are also cards you can gain and play that may give you an immediate reward, and also an endgame scoring condition. There's lots of player interaction with manipulating the souls on the board, and it felt very competitive. You always want to be the one who moves a soul meeple to a space on the matching colored ring, aka its final resting place, because it's worth bonus points. Likewise, you want to avoid giving up easy points to the player after you, so it gets tricky. I think it'll be even more fun with repeat plays, since there's a lot going on, and so much you want to do, but you're limited by your workers, resources, the souls available for you to shift, etc. Timing matters so much, which is super fun and challenging. Looking forward to trying this one again sometime.

​BGG Link​