The Best Card Games

The New York Times recently printed an article about the best card games. Many are available in our library. Come in and check them out.

The icon marks games that are in our library

LibraryGameNoteYear
YesSkullThe best bluffing card game2011
YesDominionThe best deck-building game2008
YesCat in the boxThe best trick-taking game2020
SCOUTThe best ladder-climbing game2019
YesHanabiThe best set collection game2010
YesSprawlopolisThe best layout game2018
YesBohnanzaThe best negotiation game1997
Queen by MidnightOther good card games2023
RegicideOther good card games2020
YesFood Chain IslandOther good card games2020
YesThe Crew: The Quest for Planet NineOther good card games2019
YesRace for the GalaxyOther good card games2007
Aeon’s End2016
YesArboretum2015
YesBoss Monster: The Dungeon Building Card Game2013
YesCockroach Poker2004
Fantasy Realms2017
YesFort2020
Hero Realms2016
YesMonopoly Deal2014
No Thanks!2004
YesPoint Salad2019
Silver2019
YesSmash Up2012
Startups2017
YesTake 51994
Trailblazers2023
YesTussie Mussie2019
YesUNO1971

Scythe

Scythe hit the table last night for the board game social. This 5 player battle was played on the larger board and took about 2.5 hours.

Chesterfield native Jamey Stegmaier is the designer of this game which is in the Board Game Geek top 20 games of all time. Check out our Scythe page to see details on this game and where it ranks on other lists.

Jamey also donated some other games he designed or published, to our cafe. Check those out as well.

Rolling Realms

Viticulture

Castles of Mad King Ludwig

Sentinels of Multiverse

Sentinels of the Multiverse is a cooperative, fixed-deck card game with a comic book flavor. Each player plays as one of ten heroes, against one of four villains, and the battle takes place in one of four different dynamic environments.

Thanks to Greater Than Games who donated this game to our library.

We were able to get a 3 player game to the table tonight.

This game is quick to learn. Players play the role of heroes battling a villain who gets a turn at the start of each round. Then each hero takes a turn where they can play a card and perform one of their powers. At the conclusion of the hero turn, they draw a card. The round ends when the environment also takes a turn. The ultimate goal is to reduce the hit points of the villain to zero.

Holiday Staff Game Day

We were closed on Black Friday to enjoy a game day with our employees and families.

Sidereal Confluence

Sidereal Confluence: Trading and Negotiation in the Elysian Quadrant is a singularly unique trading and negotiation game for 4-9 players. Over the course of the game, each race must trade and negotiate with the rest to acquire the resource cubes necessary to fund their economy and allow it to produce goods for the next turn

Deception: Murder in Hong Kong

A game of deduction and deception for 4-12 players that plays in about 20 minutes.

In the game, players take on the roles of investigators attempting to solve a murder case – but there’s a twist. The killer is one of the investigators! Each player’s role and team are randomly assigned at the start of play and include the unique roles of Forensic Scientist, Witness, Investigator, Murderer, and Accomplice. While the Investigators attempt to deduce the truth, the murderer’s team must deceive and mislead. This is a battle of wits!

Junk Art

In Junk Art, players are presented with junk from which they must create art. Thus the name.

Junk Art contains more than ten game modes, along with more than sixty big colorful wooden or plastic components. In one version of the game, players pile all of the wooden or plastic parts in the center of the table, then are dealt a number of cards, with each card depicting one of these parts. On a turn, a player presents their left-hand neighbor with two cards from their hand. This neighbor takes one card in hand, then takes the part shown on the other card and places it on their base or on other parts that they’ve already placed. If something falls, it stays on the table and the player continues to build on whatever still stands. Once players have finished playing cards, whoever has the tallest work of art wins.

Terraforming Mars: Ares Expedition

An engine-building game in which players control interplanetary corporations with the goal of making Mars habitable (and profitable). You will do this by investing mega credits (MC) into project cards that will directly or indirectly contribute to the terraforming process. In order to win, you will want to accumulate a high terraform rating (TR) and as many victory points (VP) as you can. Players raise their TR by increasing global parameters: oceans, oxygen, and temperature. TR also determines each corporation’s basic income, and, at the end of the game TR counts as VP. Additional VP and production capabilities are awarded for building project cards and other actions taken during the game.

Game Night Featuring Pandemic

Game Night

On Monday February 7th, we will be hosting a game night featuring the Pandemic line of games.

Game Description

In Pandemic, several virulent diseases have broken out simultaneously all over the world! The players are disease-fighting specialists whose mission is to treat disease hotspots while researching cures for each of four plagues before they get out of hand.

The game board depicts several major population centers on Earth. On each turn, a player can use up to four actions to travel between cities, treat infected populaces, discover a cure, or build a research station. A deck of cards provides the players with these abilities, but sprinkled throughout this deck are Epidemic! cards that accelerate and intensify the diseases’ activity. A second, separate deck of cards controls the “normal” spread of the infections.

Variants

Pandemic: The Cure

A dice-based version of the popular Pandemic board game, sets up in less than a minute and plays in 30 minutes. As in the board game, four diseases threaten the world and it’s up to your team to save humanity. You and your team must keep the world’s hotspots in check before they break out of control, while researching cures to the four plagues.

Pandemic: Hot Zone – North America

Disease threatens North America and only you can stop it! In Pandemic: Hot Zone – North America, players work together against the game to discover cures for three deadly diseases that threaten the continent. Travel to different North American cities to treat local populations, prevent outbreaks, and share research with your team. Can you discover the cures before it’s too late?

Pandemic: Iberia

Welcome to the Iberian Peninsula! Set in 1848, Pandemic Iberia asks you to take on the roles of nurse, railwayman, rural doctor, sailor, and more to find the cures to malaria, typhus, the yellow fever, and cholera.

Pandemic: Contagion

In Pandemic: Contagion, you are competing against other diseases (fellow players) to see who can eliminate humanity. With no cure to be had, the one of you that wipes out all human civilization will come out on top as the most deadly disease ever known to man, may he rest in peace.

Learn to play Night – Ticket to Ride

Learn To Play Night

On Monday December 13th, we will be hosting our first Learn to Play night featuring Ticket to Ride

Game Description

In this classic by Alan R Moon, you compete against other players to complete train segments which connect cities on the map. You score points based on the length of segments you fulfill, and for completing tickets. Tickets are 2 destinations on the map that score you points when connected.

Turns are simple. You choose between 3 actions.

  1. Draw locomotive cards. These come in a variety of colors including a wild locomotive that can act as any color.
  2. Claim a track. Play cards matching the color of the segment you are claiming.
  3. Take Ticket Cards. If you have completed your other tickets are just want more options. Be careful though, any ticket that is not completed by the end of the game, subtracts points from you score.

Variants

Ticket to Ride Europe

Adds stations which allows players to use a segment that was claimed by another player.

Adds tunnels which may require extra cards of the same color to claim these routes.

Adds ferries which require a locomotive card to be played as one of the locomotives.

Ticket to Ride New York

In this fast-paced Ticket to Ride game, players race one another through the busy streets of New York City to visit the most prestigious Tourist Attractions and complete their Destination Tickets. The elegantly simple Ticket to Ride gameplay appeals to both beginners and seasoned players. Learn the game in 3 minutes, play it for hours!

Ticket to Ride London

In this fast-paced Ticket to Ride game, players race one another to claim the most important bus lines and complete their Destination Tickets, connecting Districts in the capital of the United Kingdom. The elegantly simple gameplay of this stand-alone version of Ticket to Ride is ideal for both beginners and seasoned players.

Expansion Maps

Ticket to Ride Map Collection: Volume 7 – Japan & Italy (2019)

Ticket to Ride Map Collection: Volume 6 – France & Old West (2017)

Ticket to Ride Map Collection: Volume 5 – United Kingdom & Pennsylvania (2015)

Ticket to Ride Map Collection: Volume 4 – Nederland (2013)

Ticket to Ride Map Collection: Volume 3 – The Heart of Africa

Ticket to Ride Map Collection: Volume 2 – India & Switzerland (2011)

Ticket to Ride Map Collection: Volume 1 – Team Asia & Legendary Asia (2011)

Revisit Games to play before you die

Original Article

This list of games everyone should play was published back in 2017. Games in our library are marked with our logo. We have you pretty well covered.

Now is a good time to revisit the list and and add games that may have either come out in the last 5 years or were overlooked at the time.

LibraryGameYear
Dead of Winter: A Crossroads Game2014
A Game of Thrones: The Board Game (Second Edition)2011
Forbidden Island2010
Terra Mystica2012
Puerto Rico2002
The Castles of Burgundy2011
Ticket to Ride2004
7 Wonders2010
Hive2000
Race for the Galaxy2007
Twilight Struggle2005
Pandemic2008
Agricola2007
Balderdash1984
Betrayal at House on the Hill2004
Carcassonne2000
Dominion2008
Power Grid2004
Quelf2005
Android: Netrunner2012
Tokaido2012
Catan1995
1313 Dead End Drive2002
Shadows over Camelot2005
Anomia2010
Paperback2014

Mark’s Pick:

Game Details
NameThe Quacks of Quedlinburg (2018)
Accessibility ReportMeeple Like Us
ComplexityMedium Light [1.95]
BGG Rank62 [7.83]
Player Count2-4
Designer(s)Wolfgang Warsch
Artist(s)Dennis Lohausen
Publisher(s)Schmidt Spiele, 999 Games, Arclight Games, Brain Games, CMYK, Compaya.hu: Gamer Café Kft., Devir, G3, Games4you, Kaissa Chess & Games, Korea Boardgames, Lautapelit.fi, Lavka Games, MEEPLE, MINDOK, NorthStar Game Studio, Swan Panasia Co., Ltd. and YellowBOX
Mechanism(s)Catch the Leader, Deck, Bag, and Pool Building, Delayed Purchase, Dice Rolling, Events, Open Drafting, Push Your Luck, Simultaneous Action Selection and Variable Set-up

This is a great press your luck game. You draw chips out of a bag that are numbered 1 to 4. If the sum of the white chips you have drawn exceeds 7, your potion explodes. Other colored chips have special rules about how they score, what advantage they give, or how far along the potion progress track you move. Even if it explodes, the penalty is not so harsh that you can not overcome it. I have still only played with the first set of ingredients, but always have a fun time playing.

Most games have that moment where you have a total of 5 on your white chips, you have 10 chips in your bag and you know only one of them is a white 3. With those odds, how can you bust? Go ahead and press your luck … you draw a chip … and you get ….. unbelievable.

Honorable Mention: Wingspan

Katey’s Pick:

Game Details
NameSagrada (2017)
Accessibility ReportMeeple Like Us
ComplexityMedium Light [1.92]
BGG Rank196 [7.48]
Player Count1-4
Designer(s)Adrian Adamescu and Daryl Andrews
Artist(s)Peter Wocken
Publisher(s)Floodgate Games, Cranio Creations, CrowD Games, Devir, Engames, FoxGames, Galápagos Jogos, Geekach Games, Lanlalen, Lex Games, Mandoo Games, Matagot, MEBO Games, MINDOK, MIPL, One Moment Games, Pegasus Spiele, Reflexshop and Yes Papa Games
Mechanism(s)Contracts, Dice Rolling, End Game Bonuses, Grid Coverage, Open Drafting, Pattern Building, Set Collection, Solo / Solitaire Game, Turn Order: Progressive and Variable Set-up

Sean’s Pick:

Game Details
NamePARKS (2019)
Accessibility ReportMeeple Like Us
ComplexityMedium Light [2.13]
BGG Rank138 [7.68]
Player Count (Recommended)1-5 (1-4)
Designer(s)Henry Audubon
Artist(s)Fifty-Nine Parks Print Series
Publisher(s)Keymaster Games, Albi, Albi Polska, Feuerland Spiele, Lavka Games, Matagot, Surfin' Meeple China and Tranjis Games
Mechanism(s)Contracts, End Game Bonuses, Events, Modular Board, Solo / Solitaire Game, Track Movement, Turn Order: Claim Action, Variable Set-up and Worker Placement

Boardgames for everyone