Game Brain: A Board Game Podcast About Our Gaming Group #230: Best of 2024
Jan 20, 2025
The hosts dive into their favorite games of 2024, sharing awards like Best New Game and Biggest Disappointment. Highlights include the engaging mechanics of 'Black Forest' and the family-friendly fun of 'Let's Go to Japan.' They rave about 'Red Dust Rebellion' for its rich storytelling and 'Harmonies' as a must-try filler. Amidst technical issues, they address recent LA fires and support a GoFundMe. With community input, they celebrate 2024 as a strong year for gaming, full of surprises and deep designs that create lasting memories.
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Theme Can Make Or Break Lacerda Games
- Inventions: Evolution of Ideas impressed those who felt theme made VTLauder-style mechanisms click, while others found the theme divorced from mechanical impact.
- Players noted inventions often changed little mechanically despite flavorful text, reducing perceived thematic payoff.
Harmonies: A Wide-Appeal Tile Puzzle
- Trey nominated Harmonies as a stunt pick that nonetheless delivered: an elegant, wide-audience tile-laying filler he preferred over Sagrada and Cascadia.
- Matthew called it his favorite tile-laying and filler game and urged everyone to try the excellent BGA implementation.
Cascadero: Short, Mean, Deep Tile Race
- Cascadero earned praise as a quick, deep Reiner Knizia tile-laying race with multiple strategic routes and high replayability.
- Some hosts loved it as an instant classic; others found it mean and prone to early frustration when blocked.