Brass Empire is a head-to-head deck-building game where Steam Punk corporations compete to mine the most brass. However, this isn’t simply a matter of industrial prowess. The corporations have no qualms about sending soldiers and war machines to attack and destroy their competition.
If you don’t know. Maximum Apocalypse is a co-op game about completing missions amid a variety of apocalypses that seem to occur all at once. Alien invasions, Vampire infestations, and Kaiju attacks are all on the table. It can played as part of a campaign or just some one-shot missions and features some of the easiest setup for that type of game I’ve ever seen. All without sacrificing the kind of depth I always hope for when I crack open a new game.
Frosthaven and to a lesser extent Gloomhaven are, in my opinion, some of the greatest board games ever made. Given the reputation of the Haven games and their board game geek rankings, that might not surprise you, but it certainly surprises me. It surprises me because there are a ton of core aspects contained in games like Frosthaven that completely rub me the wrong way. To the extent that I think they completely spit on some of board gaming’s fundamental values.
Much like Fallout and the Elder Scrolls, there is a unity in its design that makes every individual mechanic connected. Not necessarily to each other. In fact, sometimes aspects of the game are frustratingly disconnected from each other in irritating ways. But they are a unified part of delivering the overall experience of playing a game where at any given point, you can play it your own way whilst encompassing your vision for your character. There may even be a term for it, something called, a role-playing game?