16 Board and Card Games Played at SaltCon 2024

The first weekend of March, I spent a couple of days playing a bunch of fun games at SaltCon Spring 2024.

SaltCon Spring is a 4-day event held on the first weekend of March. This year, I arrived Thursday night after work and stayed through Saturday afternoon (taking Friday off work so I could play all day).

Even though SaltCon now hosts game events a few times each year, the spring gathering is the biggest of the bunch and one I look forward to every year.

This year, the attendance hit 2,400!

That’s right, over a couple thousand people spending time just playing as many games as they can. Well, actually, some people don’t go for quantity. Some love to break out the multiple hours-long games they don’t usually get to on a regular game night. And some come to play RPGs, paint miniatures, trade games, or take part in the other fun activities around the convention.

For myself, what I enjoy most is playing new games for the first time and getting together with friends I only see once a year. So I typically hit the SaltCon Game Library – which has thousands of games to choose from. You simply check out a game, play it, bring it back, then grab another and keep going. This way, I can play many games I’ve been curious about but haven’t yet played.

I also like getting to some of the Hot Games tables where the games are already set up and and SaltCon volunteers are ready to teach.

And it was fun to play games with my nephew again this year as he traveled from out of state with a friend to join in the fun.

Now, for a short rundown on the fun games I played at SaltCon Spring 2024.

• Living Forest
• Go Nuts for Donuts
• Azul: Stained Glass of Sintra
• World Wonders
• Atlantis Rising
• Dragon Castle
• Steam Up: A Feast of Dim Sum
• Snow Tails
• Cat in the Box
• Santo Domingo
• HMS Dolores
• Challengers!
• Disney Villainous
• The Search for Planet X
• Ishtar: Gardens of Babylon
• Starship Captains

Living Forest

In Living Forest, players are nature spirits trying to save the forest and its sacred tree from the flames of Onibi. Players combine elements from their spirit cards to gain more cards and tiles to add to their board. They also have to keep and eye on the growing fire and use water elements to put it out. The game ends when one player has managed to collect at least 12 different Protective Trees, 12 Fires, or 12 Sacred Flowers.

It’s a mix of deck-building, tile placement, and push your luck that I found very enjoyable and would enjoy playing again. I also really liked the artwork.

 

Go Nuts for Donuts

Go Nuts for Donuts is a fun and quick card game of picking donuts. Each type of donuts scores differently. For example, some just give straight up points whereas others score based on their total quantity or just in pairs. Then there are some that don’t give points, but grant future actions.

The fun part of the game though is that each round after the donuts are lined up, players simultaneously, and secretly, choose which donut they want that round. If more than one player chooses the same donut, no one gets it and it’s discarded. So not only do you have to choose which one you want, you have to figure out what other people are going to choose and plan accordingly. It can be a bit chaotic – especially with a full 6 players.

 

Azul: Stained Glass of Sintra

We’ve played and reviewed a number of Azul games. Of the bunch, Azul: Stained Glass of Sintra has been our favorite. So when my nephew mentioned he hadn’t yet tried any Azul games (while perusing all the games in the SaltCon Game Library), we grabbed the copy of Azul: Stained Glass of Sintra to introduce him to this fun game.

I wasn’t surprised at all when he and his friend repeatedly mentioned how much they liked the game. (Hopefully that’s not just because he won.)

 

World Wonders

On Friday morning, the first thing we did was head to the Hot Games tables to play a new game from Arcane Wonders called World Wonders. It’s a tile laying game where players spend their gold to purchase building tiles to add to their growing cities. Different building sizes have different costs and players need to manage their gold well each round to claim various wonders of the world at the right time. I had a great time playing World Wonders.

Our family enjoys tile-laying games and I really like the auction and puzzle-like nature of claiming key world wonders for my city. Definitely a family board game I’d recommend and one I’ve added to my games wish list.

 

Atlantis Rising

One of the games I was most excited to get in the SaltCon Math Trade this year was Atlantis Rising Second Edition. I’ve had my eye on it for a while, so I was also excited to play it right away (rather than just taking it home to play later). Five of us dove into this cooperative board game where we have build a cosmic gate before Atlantis is destroyed.

It’s a worker placement game where players deploy their meeples into different areas of the board to claim various resources. The tips of each branch grant better odds, but they’re also the first locations to get flooded – which means you may not get to collect resources at all that round. Even though most of Atlantis was wiped out, we were happy to come out victorious in our first play.

 

Dragon Castle

Another game that caught my eye a while ago was Dragon Castle. It’s a Mahjong-style game of collecting matching tiles and then adding them to your own growing castle board. It looks beautiful and the components are fantastic. However, the game ended way too soon for my taste.

I looked forward to building a cool castle on my board. But the game ends as soon as the central board runs out of tiles. And by the time that happened, I hadn’t build much. We all felt that same way after our first play, so we played it again. Our second play turned out in similar fashion. I wanted to like the game, but we were all disappointed. Too bad.

 

Steam Up: A Feast of Dim Sum

Maybe it was because we were getting hungry, but Steam Up looked like a great game to play next. One of my friends had recently received it for his birthday but hadn’t yet played it. The game is very eye-catching on the table and the board is awesome because the stacked steamers rotate. Players gain and spend food tokens to purchase Dim Sum in the steamers within their Feast Zone (area in front of them).

Of course, as players rotate steamers to their own area, they may also be helping other players by what they move into those zones. There are also new Fate cards each round that may impact the actions players can take that round. We played with a full 5 players and it was a fun challenge.

 

Snow Tails

The next game we grabbed from the game library was another game I’ve been curious about for a number of years, Snow Tails. It’s a racing game about dog sledding in the Arctic Circle. The tracks are all modular – so you can build a prescribed route or a unique race course every game. Each player has their own deck of speed cards that they play to determine the speed and direction of their sled. For example, if a player has a 4 on their left and a 2 on their right, and a 1 as their break, the sled will move forward 5 spaces (4+2-1) and to the left 2 lanes (4-2 = pulling harder to the left by 2).

The game was originally published in 2008 and I’m glad I finally got a chance to play it. I believe it’s out of print now, which is too bad. I guess I’ll just have to watch for it in future game swaps to get a copy.

 

Cat in the Box

There are a number of trick-taking card games we love. Our favorites are Skull King and The Crew: Mission Deep Sea. Well, we have now have another to add to our list, Cat in the Box. I’d heard good things about this new trick-taking card game, so I was happy to get a copy in the game swap this year. There are 4 suits in the game, Green, Yellow, Blue and Red with Red being the trump suit. However, all the cards in the game are black. When you play a card, you say what color it is!

It’s a creative twist to trick-taking games and can be tricky to wrap your head around. But oh, so fun.

When a card is played and the player says what color it is, they must place one of their token on that color/number on the central board. So that color/number combo can’t be stated the rest of the round (since someone already played that). Also, if you choose not to play a card with the color that led out, then you must indicate on your personal board that you don’t have any cards in the led color. Thus, little by little, you’ll be limiting what you may be able to play in future tricks.

Very fun game and I’m glad I now have a copy to play with my family.

 

Santo Domingo

It’s been a few years since I last played Santo Domingo. But it’s a fun simultaneous selection game for up to 6 players. So in thinking about shorter games that can be played with many people, I thought it would be a great one to have on hand at SaltCon. And sure enough, we were able to play it on Friday.

Each player has the same 8 cards and each round must select one to play. Once everyone reveals their card, the actions are taken in ascending order. Depending on what other players choose, you may be sitting pretty or cursing your choice. So in a sense, the game is really about guessing what others are going to play and then being opportunistic. Fun game.

(And since I lived in the Dominican Republic for two years, with much of that in Santo Domingo, I may also be a bit biased.)

 

HMS Dolores

Another game I took with me was a game I got in trade at SaltCon 4 years ago but haven’t played yet – HMS Dolores. It’s taunted me on my unplayed games shelf for so long that I just had to take it and play it. And I’m happy to report that I’ve now finally played the game!

It’s a pirate-themed, prisoner’s dilemma card game where players face off over 4 cards each round. Players must simultaneously choose from 3 options in how to split them: Peace (I want the 2 in front of me), War (I want all 4 cards), or First pick (I want just one card, I pick first). Before choosing, the players can discuss the options and what they intend to do. The trick is trying to guess what they other player will actually do. Depending on the outcome, the cards are claimed and now you know how much you can trust the other player. Or can you?

It’s an interesting game, but one I’ll only play with certain groups. For example, mom doesn’t like bluffing games and will never play this one.

 

Challengers!

Another game at the Hot Games tables that I was curious to play was Challengers!. It’s a quick-playing card game battle between two players where most of the fun is in building your deck. You can actually play up to 8 players over a series of rounds where different players face off against each other, leading up to a 2-player face off between the two players with the most points.

After each battle, players draw more cards and choose which ones to keep in their deck for their next battle. If you can get some good power combos, you’ll do better.

However, even though it’s getting a lot of buzz, I was disappointed in the game play. It’s essentially a game of war where you simply draw the next random card from the top of your deck and see how it does against your opponent. The only choices in the game are in which cards you add to your deck between rounds. Other than that, it comes down to pure luck as to what’s next on the top of your deck to draw and play. Not for me.

 

Disney Villainous

For our last game Friday night, it seemed like a good idea to play a game that we already knew the rules so our brains didn’t explode with learning another new game. So we pulled out Disney Villainous.

I still love the theme and ideas of Disney Villainous. Each player is a different villain trying to achieve their personal objectives and have their own decks of cards tied to their story. The way you thwart your opponents is by playing cards from their Fate decks on them. These are cards like Heroes that fight back. For example, I was Prince John and my goal was to have 20 gold at the start of my turn. Other players could play hero cards on me like King Richard (which stops me from playing Effects cards) or Robin Hood (that decreases the gold I collect).

It was actually the quickest game of Disney Villainous I’ve played at just 35 minutes. Malificent was the victor this time.

 

The Search for Planet X

With a fresh brain, we started off Saturday morning games with a very fun deduction game – The Search for Planet X. It’s a board game supported by an app that works really well together. Each game, the companion app randomly selects an arrangement of objects and a location for Planet X following predefined logic rules. Players will each be given unique starting information.

On their turn, players choose different actions that allow them to discover bits of information along the way to help deduce where the different items (comets, asteroids, gas clouds, dwarf planet, and planet X) are found. The different actions (such as surveys, targets, and research) also take a different amount of time. After taking their action, the player moves their pawn ahead that many time spaces. The player whose pawn is in the rear takes the next turn. So it’s possible for players to take a couple of turns before it gets back to a player that took an action that’s information rich, but cost more time.

I really enjoyed the balance of determining what actions to take and when to get the best advantage. It’s a game of thinking rather than talking as each player stays very focused on what information they have and what they can deduce.

I’m so happy this is another game I got in trade because I’ll get to enjoy playing it again and again.

 

Ishtar: Gardens of Babylon

Another game I got in a previous SaltCon trade, but hadn’t yet played, was next to hit the table – Ishtar: Gardens of Babylon. It was part of the Hot Games tables the year I got the game, but has since just sat on my “to play” shelf. Players are gardeners working to transform the desert into the Lost Hanging Gardens of Babylon by planting flowers and trees and collecting gems to purchase upgrades to their powers. But things can only grow if they’re getting water from the starting fountains.

One of things I liked about the tile-laying aspect of the game is the shape of the tiles. They aren’t your typical squares or tetrominoes of straight lines. It makes for a fun-looking board as you build it out and plant trees. I enjoyed playing the game but wish it would have lasted a bit longer to let me upgrade more of the powers on my board before ending.

 

Starship Captains

The last board game I played this year was Starship Captains. As the title implies, players are space captains directing their crew to become the best captain in the galaxy. It has a really interesting way of using the crew to perform different actions because they’re all color-based. For example, the blue ensign can only perform blue actions. But the order you have them perform tasks will determine when they next come up in the queue.

There are plenty of things to think of throughout the game like where to fly your ship to gain the benefits, fighting space pirates, repairing damage, promoting crew, or which upgrades you want to make to your ship along the way. It was a fun game to play, but it lasted longer than I had anticipated so I was getting a bit antsy by the end.

 

Artemis

One activity a couple of my friends and I did beside playing board games was have a go at the Artemis Spaceship Bridge Simulator. These friends are big Star Trek fans and after passing the Artemis room a few times, were super interested in experiencing it.

Since most of the spots for Artemis are booked in advance, we had to go stand-by – which meant we’d drop by at the start of each hour to see if people hadn’t shown up for their scheduled time. We got lucky on one of these drop-bys to find 3 open spaces which we jumped in on. One took the Helm, the other Weapons, and I got Communications.

Then the operators send you off onto your mission and under the direction of our assigned captain we had to take on enemy fighters, manage our resources, and support space bases.

I was impressed at the cool set up and ambiance of the whole thing. It’s quite an undertaking. I give a big kudos to the crew that sets this up and runs it every year.

 

Until next year

Unfortunately, every good thing has to come to an end. And due to a snow storm that whipped up Saturday afternoon, I left earlier than I had planned because I didn’t want to get stuck with my long drive home in a both snow storm and in the dark.

But, I left with a smile on my face and great memories of fun with friends.

I was especially happy to have played a number of the games that I’d just picked up in trade. That way, they won’t get stuck collecting dust at home without being played like has happened to games from trades of years past. Since I’ve now learned the rules and played them at least once, they’re much more likely to get played at future game nights at home.

 
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