SaltCon 2022 Recap – 22 Games Played

I had a fantastic first weekend of March because I was hanging out and playing tons of games with my friends at SaltCon Spring 2022!

I look forward to this 4-day gaming event with much anticipation every year. And it was especially great this year because the air was finally clearing around the Covid pandemic. Which means we could see the smiling faces of the 1,700 or so people who came out to play all sorts of games.

This year I was able to attend 3 full days of the event and played 22 different board games, card games, and dice games!

It was a lot of fun and I’m ready to share my thoughts on each of the games I played.

(Consider it like a bunch of mini-reviews.)

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2020 & 2021 – Years in Review

In getting ready to write my 2021 Year in Review, I realized that I never posted a 2020 Year in Review.

Maybe that’s because 2020 felt like a gap year for everybody – and many things just didn’t happen.

Well, that gives me a better chance to take a look at both years and compare how they’ve shaken out for family board game playing time.

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Dragon Market board game review

The princess is having a wedding this weekend and everyone is rushing to gather gifts and treasures for the occasion.

But this gathering isn’t as simple as running to the store and buying things. Instead, you’ll be maneuvering boats and jumping from boat to boat to collect the items you’re after.

Plus, others will be out doing the same thing and they’ll make even harder for you to get around and get what you need.

So it is in Dragon Market – a fun family board game from Blue Orange Games.

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Snap Ships – Build to Battle Wave 3 Review

In September 2020 our family was introduced to Snap Ships, a modular building toy system from PlayMonster, a toy and game company based out of Wisconsin, USA.

Our first impressions of Snap Ships were very positive. We like the building, imagination, and replayability aspects of the toy as well as the quality of the components. It was definitely one of our favorite toys from 2020.

Now WAVE 3 is here!

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Board Game Gift Guide 2021!

If you’re looking for some great game ideas for friends and family, you’ve come to the right place!

This marks our 11th annual Board Game Gift Guide and we love sharing great gift ideas!

And this year we’re sharing another 40 game ideas!

Since there’s a wide range of people (ages & interests) you may be considering, we break down this game guide into various categories and share a handful of game ideas in each category.

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Mondrian Blocks Brain Teaser review

Do your kids love puzzle challenges?

Or maybe it’s you that loves such challenges.

If so, then you’ll want to check out Mondrian Blocks, published by Smart Egg.

On its own, it’s essentially a solitaire puzzle. However, if you’ve got more than one copy, you can play them in head-to-head races.

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Stuffed Fables: Oh, Brother! – Even more stories to play

Last week we shared about the cooperative story game, Stuffed Fables – where players are the stuffed animals helping a little girl.

Now that little girl has a baby brother with his own 2 “stuffies” – Pokey the unicorn and muscular Manny.

So it’s time for the stuffies to dive into even more adventures in Stuffed Fables: Oh, Brother!

While the game includes a new storybook, new tokens, sleep cards, and its own discovery deck, players still need components from the Stuffed Fables base game to play.

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Stuffed Fables – Bedtime stories as a cooperative game

Toy Story movies are still some of my favorite movies.

I love the idea of our toys having a purpose. And Pixar knows how to breath depth of character into them throughout their adventures.

Well, a few years ago, Plaid Hat Games brought that concept to life in a cooperative board game that’s fantastic for families called Stuffed Fables.

The game is a cooperative adventure game where the main characters are “stuffies” (stuffed animals) working together to save the child they love from a scheming, evil mastermind.

It’s also an “Adventure Book” game where the game board is actually a physical book teaming with adventures on every page.

And it works wonderfully!

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SaltCon 2021 End of Summer Fun

“Back in the Game”

That was the bold statement on the winning t-shirt design for SaltCon End of Summer 2021. And it couldn’t have been more appropriate!

It was awesome to be back at SaltCon this past weekend playing game after game for a couple of days straight.

SaltCon is the big board game convention in Utah, USA and it’s packed with gaming goodness. The event is typically held for 4 days in March each year, so I was sad when it was announced last Fall that the March event would be canceled. But, the news a few months ago that they’d hold an “End of Summer” SaltCon for 3 days at the end of July got me excited again.

Let’s dive in!

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Best Games of 2020! – The Dice Tower Awards

The best board games, card games, dice games, family games, and party games of 2020 have been awarded!

The Dice Tower recently announced the winners of The Dice Tower Awards — the annual crowing of the best board games published last year.

With thousands of new games published every year, there’s never a shortage of great new board games to play.

Top board game reviewers, podcasters, and industry contributors from around the world participated in the nomination and voting process.

Now, let’s see The Dice Tower Award Winners for 2020:

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