Al's Top 5 picks for Christmas

I have not made a Christmas list since I was a child, for a myriad of reasons. However, this past year I began to embrace my "inner child" by starting to rebuild my game collection. Long ago, I had many wonderful titles from which to pick and play at leisure, but over the years those boxed childhood memories disappeared. I have spent countless hours searching the Internet, for some of the old favorites and this work has paid off handsomely as I have acquired no less than eight titles long out of print.

But, looking at my shelf the other night, I realized that for all the games I now own, most would not be enjoyed by the majority of today's "gamers", as they are slow, methodical and long to play. So I decided that it was time to flesh out my collection with a variety of newer games and compiled a list for Santa i.e. my wife, in the hopes that on Christmas morning my eyes will be dazzled by a new and shiny title we can all play next game day.

After watching tons of video reviews, and reading everything one could about the various games I thought would add variety, I submitted the following five for Santa's approval. Let's hope she's listening. So here, from last to first, we present the five top picks from my Christmas list. I pray at least one title is under the tree.

#5  Forbidden Desert; produced in 2013 by Gamewright, this is the sequel to Forbidden Island. In this version the players are looking for a legendary flying machine on an ever shifting board. With up to five players I can see this game being very interesting. We have had loads of fun in the past with Forbidden Island, and from all accounts this desert version is better. There is a little more strategy involved in Forbidden desert but I think that will only make the gameplay richer. The Dice Tower recommends this game highly

#4  1775: Rebellion; Produced in 2013 by Academy games Rebellion is a 2-4 player strategy war game based on the American Revolution. Each player has a set of cards to position and move their troops and custom dice are used to resolve combat. Though this is a war game (I can hear you all sighing now) it is actually very simple and fast to play. I've had my eye on this for awhile now, in the hopes of introducing some of you "let's hold hands and skip" type players to something a bit more aggressive. Worry not this game is considered a "light" game and great for introducing new folks. The use of small wooden cubes instead of the traditional cardboard counters also intrigues me.

#3 Summoner Wars Master Set; I have been on the fence with this card game for some time, but after loading the IOS app and playing through several rounds I decided to look at the board version again. Introduced in 2011 by Plaid Hat Games, the Master set comes with 6 faction/army decks, a heavy duty mounted board, five dice and 20 wound markers. By all accounts this is THE head to head deck building card game, and those who play it are rabid fans. High marks all around from BGG and Dice Tower. Games can last anywhere between 30 to 45 mins each so it plays relatively fast. I see Tuna being really good at this one.

#2  Conflict of Heroes: Awakening the Bear (2nd Edition); Another offering from Academy Games in 2012 this version of the original award winning CoH offers more units, new ark work and more firefights. What CoH brings to the table overall is a fast, and fluid system of play that is easy to learn. Simultaneous play means no long waiting for opponents to finish their turns, and the basics can be taught to a new player in about 5 minutes. What I am interested in is the larger 1 inch counters that depict, individual squads, vehicles, airplanes and tanks. The art on them is beautiful. CoH has been in the top ten lists of gamers since its inception in 2008 and this re-issue only reinforces it's popularity. This is a "Must Have" for my collection.

#1  Legendary: A Marvel Deck Building Game; Lastly the ultimate addition I would like to make this Christmas is this game from Upper Deck 2012. Set in the Marvel Comic book universe players use various hero decks i,e, Thor, Hulk, Thor, Spidey or THOR, to defeat various Villain decks like Magneto. What makes me slaver over this? Well two things really, first; game play is very interactive and has a bunch of random twists and turns to it through aptly named cards "Scheme Twists". Like other games such as Thunderstone Advance, there are slots on the board for villains and minions which the players must defeat, however in Legendary those minions are constantly on the move and if they escape bad things can happen to the players. My second reason is the theme. Between DC and Marvel comics my friends and I always leaned to the marvel universe as it was/is so awesome. I mean think about it who wouldn't want to be able to call on the God of Thunder to help you with a wee problem?  I can say in all honesty that if I do not receive this DBG for Christmas I am going to buy it myself as a present to me.

So there you have it. Al's (my) top five games to be had for Christmas. Keep your fingers crossed and I hope you all get what you are praying for as well. Ahhh if your not praying for my untimely or gruesome end that is.

Cheers
AL