My birthday is July 1st and Andrew’s is August 12th and for 2025 we decided to try something new. Although we dined out in fancy restaurants on our respective days, which is our time honored tradition, instead of getting separate gifts we agreed to shop together. We debated about whether our splurge would be something awesome for our house (one year I got fancy Calphalon cookware), a new LEGO set (assembling Diagon Alley WAS pretty fun), or maybe some new board games for our massive collection?
We have acquired only a handful of games since retirement. Right before moving to Portugal in 2022 we purchased Gloomhaven: Jaws of the Lion because we had been loving Gloomhaven but the box was prohibitively large and wouldn’t fit in our first set of suitcases/pet carriers. This was a great solution because we played the heck out of it until our international shipment and the rest of our games arrived. Andrew became intrigued with the card game Tarot after watching some young gentlemen play at an Italian restaurant, so he ordered a deck. We picked up old copies of Oodles and True Colors, games from the late 80’s early 90’s, at a second hand shop. We met a board game shop owner in Olhão and purchased Regency after playing with him. We replaced our overly used deck of Tichu (I think this is our 3rd replacement – we REALLY love it) and got a new Penguin Pile Up after a coworker lost some of the pieces when we loaned it out several years ago. Lastly, Andrew splurged on Spirit Island while shopping at a large board game store in Porto.
Since moving to Urgezes, we have been playing more board games than ever before. We found some kindred spirits who run a board gaming group in Guimarães. These gamers are passionate about all kinds of games, and they meet at least once a week. We have also been hosting game nights with some Brazilian friends and have been fitting in a variety of 2 player games pretty frequently. It seemed like the right time to fill in some gaps in our collection, so we agreed “birthday board games it is!” Now came the difficult part, “which games and how many?”
We try to be cautious with additions to our collection because finding space is almost as challenging as fitting all of those boxes from our international shipment into that one small room in our old Olhão rental. We strive to make informed decisions and avoid impulse purchases whenever possible. So began our research project. Although we each have some longstanding board games on our wish list, there are tons of new games that I haven’t even heard about.
We have used Board Game Geek (BGG) as a resource for years. It has all kinds of information on games and it was extremely useful when we were doing our Extra Life charity events. I still use it to see what games are trending, how popular my favorite games are, and to check the level of difficulty and how many players are best suited for specific games. There are lists of party games, strategy games, and everything in between. Another source of information is opinions of trusted game reviewers. Andrew has been a fan of The Dice Tower and founder Tom Vasel for years. During our quest to find the right games for us, we discovered some “new to us” game reviewers who were both entertaining and informative. Elaine and Efka are the quirky duo behind No Pun Included – I can (and did) watch them for hours. Another exceptional find was the ever crotchety, hilarious, and shockingly insightful Board Game Bollocks – I giggle at least once during every video.
After watching quite a few hours of YouTube and referencing BGG, we made a list of all the games that had tickled our fancy. There were A LOT, way more than we were going to purchase at one time. Some entries were expansions for games that we already owned. Some appealed to one of us more than the other. I proposed a category based selection to make our choices easier and this is what we came up with.
Party Game: Captain Sonar which is a real time submarine game best with 8 players. Each player has a role on the ship and you are trying to sink the other team’s submarine. I can’t wait to try this one out, because it feels like a wild, grown up version of the classic Battleship that I played as a kid.
Cooperative Game: Earthborne Rangers is a wilderness exploration campaign. We are really into the Gloomhaven universe, and thought a nature based game would be a fun addition to our cooperative games. Unfortunately this is backordered, so we don’t have our hands on it yet.
Strategy Game: A Feast for Odin and A Feast for Odin: The Norwegians expansion. We already own a couple of games from the designer Uwe Rosenberg, namely Agricola and Caverna: The Cave Farmers and they are both solid games. The Viking theme was appealing to both of us.
Portugal Themed Game: We considered Azul because we had played with some friends back in Olhão, but ultimately we couldn’t resist the beautiful behemoth that is Lisboa. It is gorgeous and our very first game by designer Vital Lacerda. After unboxing it, we definitely made the right choice.
We Can’t Get This Game Out Of Our Head: Back in 2022 when we were shopping in Ashland for the last addition to our collection before our international move, we both gravitated towards Ark Nova. Although we ended up purchasing Gloomhaven: Jaws of the Lion (no regrets), we have thought about and discussed Ark Nova several times since then. The theme, building a zoo, is a nice addition to our collection which swings a bit space/sci-fi heavy – not that there is anything wrong with that.
Expansion To A Game We Already Own: We bought three expansion planets for Unsettled which is a cooperative deep space survival game. With that purchase, we now own all the available expansions for Unsettled.
We can’t wait to get in some more play throughs of all our new games, and with that will surely come some more board game reviews. Let us know if any of your favorites were on our list.
