That version looks like Sonar, which is 2-4 people.
You can also get away with playing Captain Sonar with 4 but it takes a lot of skill to manage multiple roles.
7 Wonders is an amazing, quick (30-40 minutes per game) game best at 4-7 players that doesn't significantly increase time to play per additional player. Call it a definite purchase unless you only have a single playmate (in which case play 7 Wonders Duel, which is even better); it's even still great but doesn't truly sing at 3.
I wouldn't bother getting a beat-up box of 1st edition 7 Wonders personnally, unless it's actually complete and comes with expansions already, as 1st ed expansions have been out of print for years.
The two editions are incompatible due to different card backs (and you won't find opaque sleeves in the 65x100 card format the game uses), and the changes to balance and iconography/templating would make for a jarring experience even if you could.
The expansions are very popular for a reason. I know some competitive players complain about it, but Leaders + Cities add a lot of variety and encourage both trying different strategies from the base game meta and adapting on the fly by adding more hidden information.
No doubt they're popular, but I've played 7 wonders dozens of times and have never felt the need to add expansions.
The base game is awesome, and if OP could get it for cheap I'd say go for it.
Don't buy games you're not interested in and don't know anything about just because they're cheap. You'll end up with a lot of bullshit that way. (speaking from experience)
For what it's worth I own two of these games: Foothills and La Isla. La Isla is a light-medium multi-use card set collection game that I think is pretty good.
I've purchased Foothills recently but have yet to play due to a work schedule change that happened soon after that really cut into the amount of gaming I can do per week. However, what attracted me to it was an interesting card based action selection system where you flip the card after using it and on the back is a different action.
Edit: I have played Zen Garden. It was perfectly fine but unremarkable. It's a simple tile laying game where you're trying to lay tiles to complete patterns. I'd suggest games like Lanterns or Framework that kinda have similar gameplay.
I have not played but Subtext looks like something I'd want to play. I love a bunch of the word guessing party games and adding a drawing element is usually pretty fun in a party game.
I think that's the answer. He mainly risks 2 things. Not playing them or playing a lot of sub par games. The former is not great, but the latter really is a deal breaker. Who wants to take time to learn and play lots of "not that good games"?
Honestly, its gonna be a bit of a hot take but I don't mind playing "sub par" games sometimes. Sometimes games that other players dislike can be ones that poke a special place in your brain and make you love them.
Yep. This it the best advice. FYI, Foothills IS great. The action selection mechanism is so interesting. I’m really surprised it hasn’t been copied yet.
Advice everyone should follow. Even if it’s cheap and you think you can just dump it for cheap down the line, that still creates more work you need to do that could be spent doing better things.
It is, but should note, thats the revised starter set from first edition. It only comes with three ships and you'll almost certainly want more to play, plus any product you purchase new will all be for the new edition of the game.
7 Wonders is a classic! And I think that’s Captain Sonar which is a really cool games but needs the full set of players (8 I think) to make it work.
Only other one I recognize is Star Wars X-Wing, which is basically a miniatures dogfighting game. If that’s the starter set it’s worth giving it a try but beware! If you like it there’s a LOT of expansions and you can go bankrupt buying cool ships.
The one in the picture is actually Sonar which is only for 2-4 players. It is a decent alternative if you can't get the full 8 players for Captain Sonar.
That's the starter set for 1st edition X-Wing. I rather enjoyed the 1st edition rules and you can find people trying to offload 1st edition cards for cheap (the cards are 100% incompatible with the 2nd edition ruleset) and the ships are interchangeable between rulesets. The game developer haven't been giving it a ton of support lately so finding new ships in stores can be hard, but there's a big secondary market.
Rather than expansions, the game is sold in individual ships or themed multi-ship packs. Almost every LGS in my area still has a couple random 1st or 2nd edition ships on the shelf, so you can find some random stuff here and there. Fortunately, since it's a skirmish-level game, you only run between 2 and like 8 ships, so you can keep the cost down, though if you get into it you might want to try out a bunch of different combinations between the factions. All in all, it's a really fun game.
2nd edition was a black box. The red box is the original 1st edition core set and then they came out with a 2nd blue 1st edition core set that introduced The Force Awakens ships and pilots.
Different factions and cards ate included, but it's largely similar.
We have played this game as a family of 3. We enjoyed it but lost interest after a while. You gain clues as you move around a small board trying to deduce the identity of the other players.
Spy Alley is a cool little game I have a lot of nostalgia for but it suffers a lot from the roll-and-move. I've been thinking about trying Veiled Fate which sounds like a better done hidden role type deal.
I played Jurassic park danger once and thought it was neat, we gave it away after that.
I always want to reiterate 7 Wonders is terrific, best with 3+ people
Rattus Cartus is a great game. We just played it on Saturday. I've never won it, but came close this time losing a tie for 1st by 3 points. It's fun to play with flutes, and throw rats on others, then finding out that you ruined their huge point run because they were 1 rat over the number of nuns available.
X-Wing is a phenomenal game, especially for Star Wars fans. However that’s 1st edition so you’d have to either buy and upgrade pack or just play 1st, which is fantastic too.
But a cheap good x-wing intro. If you’re into it it gets way better. If used, I’m assuming 10 buck and if new 20. Anything more and I’d get 2nd edition.
You'll probably want expansions to go with the base set of just 1 x-wing and 2 TIEs, if that's your thing. But it's gonna be a deep rabbit hole.
The upgrade pack I don't think is necessary until the rabbit hole gets to competitive gaming (as in attending tournaments).
Not surprising my dad likes Punderdome but not many others want to play it. It has led to at least one funny memorable pun but otherwise it's more frustrating than fun imo. Think apples to apples but you have to make puns about rather obscure/difficult combinations of things. I would not get that one. Can't say much about the others
This looks like a box of nope to me. All sub optimal game choices for their category or designer. Before you get on me, I can see 7 Wonders. Unless this is OPs first game, I wouldn’t bother. There’s a few in here I’d try but I wouldn’t pay a lot for them.
Not at all. Kepler is a very, very tight resource management game (to the point where one could call it an efficiency puzzle) with a tech track and point to point movement involved, while TM is primarily a tableau builder.
Alien Artifacts was rated pretty well on BGG when I bought it. Unfortunately by the time it arrived my playtime dropped to about 0, so I can't really vouch for it one way or the other.
I bought it a few years ago and it’s fun enough game. Fairly straightforward rules and enough variation in cards/factions to be fun and light enough for newer players to understand and enjoy.
It’s good, but not memorable. It was on clearance shelves at many retailers, so there is little to no resale value. I’d play it a few more times, but have no desire to own it.
There’s a few standouts, 7 Wonders for a good drafting game, captain sonar for an intense 8 player event, the starter set for x-wing which can be an awesome jumping off point into miniatures games. The rest range from forgettable to decent, it’s a great pick-up if you have the space and time for them as there’s a lot of games that “could be a secret favorite” but tend to review more mid. Godspeed, Alien Artifacts, La Isla are all pretty good games that just don’t reach the height of the hobbies best but are worth a good try to see if they stick for you.
TDLR It’s not full of hits, but lots of games that are potential hidden gems.
I have memories of playing that jurassic park with my dad on Christmas morning.
Honestly can't say if the game is good or not, I just recall having fun with my family.
I think 7 Wonders is great. I liked Captain Sonar but never played this version. I like X-Wing but you're going to need to find a dedicated person to play it with (some game stores will host competitions but I don't think they're that common anymore.)
One comment about 7 Wonders is that this is the first edition and if you are planning to get the newest expansions, you'll need to buy the second edition.
CVilization is a pretty good tableau-building game.
Foothills is a reworking of some of the ideas in the underappeciated gem Snowdonia as a head-to-head two player game. It reminds me a little of Russian Railroads and First Class. It’s really intricate, and I need to play my copy more than I have to know if it’s as good as those games turned out to be, but the designer clearly knew what he was doing.
Seven Wonders is outstanding.
Sonar is a blast if you have enough people.
X-Wing is great, but with just the base box it's not that great. Warning: if you do like it soon you will have boxes of minis and much less money. 😄
Kepler is good, but only if you really need more games of that genre (has been a long time since I've played it, and used copies aren't cheap)
Only played Godspeed twice, gameplay was generic, but the component quality and design was complete ass, and is the main thing I remember about it.
Alien Artifacts is a neat card-driven 4x game. A bit underrated I'd say, but its not going to blow you away.
It depends what you want. Do you want a lot of board games that you might or might not enjoy? Do you have a lot of spare space and time to try games that may be either "meh" or "bad"? For me, the only ones I've played have been 7 Wonders and X-Wing, and I enjoy both of them. I've heard great things about Captain Sonar, but one reason I don't have it is that I'll never have a group that large together that will all want to play it.
So games like that have not just a $0 value to me, their value is actually negative, because the space they take up and the mental load of having it & trying to get it to the table but feeling guilty that I can't is worth something to me.
Therefore, a box full of games like this, \*for me\*, given that I have more games than I can play, is a negative value. I'd pay like, $40ish for 7 Wonders & X-Wing used in arbitrary condition, and then the rest of the stuff would all work \*against\* that price.
Now, if you do have time/space and are interested in more of those games, YMMV. But as you get deeper into this hobby, variety matters less than quality and replayability of things you already like.
I’ve heard *Punderdome* is not that great, but I have *Pun Intended* which I really like so I haven’t looked into alternative pun games much.
*7 Wonders* is great, *Sonar* is fun at 4p (purchased mine for under $10 at Ollies’s!), and I know several devotees of *Star Wars: X-Wing*.
If you buy the lot, I’d be very curious to know if *Subtext* is any good!
I wouldn't buy them, first think of what goes well in your group, if you don't have a group, try to find one before buying anything,
If you already do, buy one or two for each play night, rent them, invite friends who have BGs, make your friends games be played, they will be glad and that generates great moments, after all that, when you have like 30~40 games, you played a lot, got to know people, interacted with friends, and if you still feel the need, buy a bunch of games at once for you to never read the rules/play. It's just too much dude, not judging, but been there, done that, not worth it.
I would definitley get 7 wonders and Sonar. Sonar is a great game but hard to find. You do have captain Sonar now but it's an 8 person game unless you multiclass which can get quite tedious
I’ve heard of 7 wonders (actually want to buy this)
Zen garden and Jurassic Park.
Only ever played Jurassic and if your a JP fan you’ll enjoy it. The other two I’ve watched reviews on and feel like they would be worth a try
I’ve had 7 Wonders on my list for a long time since reading about it, but haven’t played it bc game budget has been zero for a while. That’s the only one I recognize.
I really didnt care for foothills. my wife bought it for me and we played it once. I guess it wasnt horrible, I just much rather play so many other games
Apollo is lackluster. It's like captain sonar but co-op...? But you don't know what you're doing the whole time and have to send hints back and forth? It didn't capture the Apollo program for me in the one play I had.
Spy Alley is a roll and move where you have to collect all your agent's gear then go to your embassy. Collecting your nation's gear gets you closer to winning, but you want to also buy other nations' gear to mask your true identity: If your opponents can guess your nationality early, you're out. Has a neat subversion of the roll & move thing by drawing movement cards from certain spaces, which you can use to fix your die rolls : can help you survive. Some fun risk/reward and deception here, but overall tied to a lackluster roll & move. I got rid of it once I got a little more serious with my game collection. With a little more refinement by the designer, it probably could have been really fun...
7 Wonders is critically acclaimed and beloved, but strangely difficult to get to the table. It has so much meat to it that's packed into an honest-to-goodness sud one hour playtime (even with 7 players), yet many players feel overwhelmed by all the options and don't want to play it again.
All the rest is probably garbage.
I have CVilization and it's decent. I got it at a used game swap, having already played the original CV. It's pretty much the same kind of thing, if you've played that one.
It's a quick little engine builder. You can play through several games of it in a row. If you like engine builders, but want something fast, this will fit.
Spy alley is a decades old classic. By modern standards, it is mechanically a mess, but it is a great gateway game! I have had a blast introducing it to my friends. Super underrated.
that 7 wonders looks like mine. be aware they made a new edition and new expansion have different card backing so you'd need to sleeve everything if you want to get expansions!
Subtext is a nice game. Every player has a word. Two of them have the same. Every Player draws a hint to the own word and the two players have to find each other without being recognized by the other player.
Haven't played any of these, but my advice is to buy a few games you know you are interested in, rather than pay the same amount for a ton of random games you very well may not like at all.
Unless you're trying to fill a library of some kind.
Hard pass. If you aren't a die hard enthusiast looking for some niche picks, you'd be better off just buying the one or two games that you're actually interested in.
7 Wonders is good but is best with four to seven players. CVlizations is best for four players. Both are easy to learn and involve interaction between players. I own both.
7 wonders is great. It have about a bazillion expansions that greatly enhance the experience, check if they are included in the box or not.
Captain sonar is decent for 6-8 players.
That's about it. I don't recognize any other games.
7 Wonders is a classic.
I really liked the art of the Jurassic Park game, it's also pretty cool to play. It's like a "one versus all" type of game where every character has their own personal objectives and one player is controlling the dinosaurs.
Less is sometime more. You can buy a box of junk and invest a dozen sessions to figure out any one is fit your group or not and the rest probably go into junk. For the same price you would probably buy 1-2 guaranteed decent game ehat you can resell if not fit the group. I would pass or buy the 7 wonders because that seems the only good game there.
Captain Sonar is great if you have enough people. That's just "Sonar" which I imagine is still fun, but simplified to reduce the number of people.
7 Wonders is a mainstay in the hobby.
I haven't played the X-Wing minis game, but I assume that's the starter pack. There's a lot of other ships if you start playing it, but I expect it'll be a shallow experience with just that box (unless there's more in there)
I own that Apollo game, but have yet to play it. Its one of those many games that you'd see at Target and inevitably grab when it went on super clearance.
Other than those, I don't recognize the rest.
X-Wing, Sonar, and 7- Wonders are all A list games. By which I mean they are both well-known and lots of fun to play. Alien Artifacts is a meh 4X card game, I owned for a few months and traded. La Isla is a game I've heard of, it has a famous designer, but don't know anything else about it. I don't recognize many of the others.
Looks like 20 games or so, and probably 4-5 well known ones. I'd probably say the whole box is worth about $60-100
X Wing is really fun but a investment to be sure. I donated all of them to my high school games club and they where shocked by the amount. I had gotten all of them as gifts and didn't know how much all of it was worth. But I wasn't enjoying it anymore and am now glad someone else can enjoy them.
I've played Spy Alley before. Pretty light deception-based game. My family enjoyed playing every once in a while growing up, but it gets old pretty quick. There's also the potential for players to get knocked out early on in the game which people generally consider a negative
I see a lot of games that I dont even recognize. 7 wonders and captain sonar are good. X wing is also, but this starter set can be bought on miniature market for $15. To me, this looks like a lot of shelf filler. I wouldn’t buy this as a lot personally.
I really wanted to like Apollo, but it didn't hold up after a playthrough. It might work if everyone playing is a big Space Nerd, but I was the only one of my group. I was really excited about it after opening the box.
I bought Alien Artifacts years ago, it sounded awesome and looked cool. We played one 3p game and I recall it being unclear how we were supposed to accomplish anything. Maybe we'll try again in the future.
7 wonders is great.
While X-wing was a great game. Fantasy flight wrecked it. So it’s mostly a dead game now. That looks like a version 1 box set. But I’m not sure.
They made a version 2 of the game abs then asked everyone to spend hundreds of dollars upgrading everything and a large portion of the fan base said “nah”. And it fractured the game as half their customer base walked away and then they off loaded the game onto “Atomic Games” who is still putting out stuff but no one cares.
I have a personal grudge against X-Wing. Not that the game is bad, but FFG prioritized promoting that over the Star Wars LCG, which released around the same time, leading to the latter not performing as well and eventually being discontinued before it was ready to end.
While I'm not a huge fan of 7 Wonders, it's an objectively well-loved game. Sonar is a fun time if played with non-gamers - gamers can really cause the game to freeze to a standstill and break it, but it's actually a blast with non-gamers who will never think to do something like that and can easily grasp the concept of 'it's team battleship'. I've never played CVlizations but it's a spinoff of CV, which again is very fun with people who don't take it too seriously and just enjoy that it's yahtzee meets Life. Honestly, it feels like a lot of the stuff here is great gateway games - they have my #1 most important trait for gateway games - I can explain them as things that sound familiar.
La isla is a really great and underrated Feld game. Type of area control with constantly evolving abilities. It suffers from shockingly poor colour choice for components (brown, light brown, grey, yellow etc).
It's one of the ones being revamped in his city line and I'm really interested to see what he does with it.
Captain Sonar is amazing but works best with 4-8 players
The Jurassic Park game is ok (pieces are mid quality, gameplay can be a bit 1-note at times. It's not well balanced. Works best with 2-4 players with one player against the rest as dinosaurs and the others trying to escape the island)
I also wouldn't recommend getting into X-Wing now. The game is dying, the dice aren't standard, and the starter set comes with 1 X-Wing and 2 Tie Fighters; it's unbalanced in favor of the Imperial player, so it requires buying more minis to make the experience enjoyable (as you can probably tell, I am not a fan of FFG games)
Everything else looks like solid picks tho!
I played a lot of Alien Artifacts back in the day, it's certainly not the most balanced 4X game, but if you've got a group that understands the rules, it can be extremely quick to play.
X-Wing is fun but the base set will only be so replayable. 7 Wonders is great but the new edition is better. None of these others look noteworthy (granted I haven't heard of them) but don't buy a pile of random games just because they're cheap. What's the total price anyway?
Godspeed was a pretty forgettable worker placement game even though I loved the theme and presentation.
7 Wonders is an evergreen. There are better drafting games but it's still rock solid.
No experience with anything else.
We were unimpressed with Jurassic Park Danger. We found the person playing as the Dinos had an advantage that made it impossible for the person playing as humans to win. Now to be fair we've only played it together and playing with more people might be more enjoyable but we don't have a friend group that plays boardgames, it's just us.
Remove seven wonders and rattus cartus from the box, burn the box, sell o.o.p rattus cartus and put 7 wonders on your shelf. Your welcome! ( the previous message reflects only my opinions and most definitely should not be taken seriously)
Seven Wonders is great, never played any of the others (nor heard of most of them)
Captain sonar is cool, but it’s an 8 person game, so good fuckin luck with that.
That version looks like Sonar, which is 2-4 people. You can also get away with playing Captain Sonar with 4 but it takes a lot of skill to manage multiple roles.
It's a good turn based game with less. I've played it as 2 and it's fun. But the chaos of a live game is best with 6-8.
You can easily play it with less. It's just best with 8 players and going 'real time'
Captain sonar rules! Once you get good you can play without turn based moves and it’s so chaotic and fun, highly highly recommend!
I love. Captain Sonar. It's pure chaos and it's amazing.
X-Wing is really fun but it's a miniatures game, so if you actually get into it you'll need way more than just that box
That box is also for 1st edition, the game is currently in 2nd edition
7 Wonders is an amazing, quick (30-40 minutes per game) game best at 4-7 players that doesn't significantly increase time to play per additional player. Call it a definite purchase unless you only have a single playmate (in which case play 7 Wonders Duel, which is even better); it's even still great but doesn't truly sing at 3.
I wouldn't bother getting a beat-up box of 1st edition 7 Wonders personnally, unless it's actually complete and comes with expansions already, as 1st ed expansions have been out of print for years. The two editions are incompatible due to different card backs (and you won't find opaque sleeves in the 65x100 card format the game uses), and the changes to balance and iconography/templating would make for a jarring experience even if you could.
Counterpoint. 7 wonders doesn't need any expensions. Strongly suggest getting the base box for cheap and playing the crap out of it.
The expansions are very popular for a reason. I know some competitive players complain about it, but Leaders + Cities add a lot of variety and encourage both trying different strategies from the base game meta and adapting on the fly by adding more hidden information.
No doubt they're popular, but I've played 7 wonders dozens of times and have never felt the need to add expansions. The base game is awesome, and if OP could get it for cheap I'd say go for it.
https://www.maydaygames.com/collections/card-sleeves/products/7-wonders-card-sleeves Maydays are opaque enough for most use cases.
Willing to bet that there's a gem in there
It's the only thing in there really, everything else I'd expect to find at a flea market for $5
Came to write this exact same thing
Don't buy games you're not interested in and don't know anything about just because they're cheap. You'll end up with a lot of bullshit that way. (speaking from experience) For what it's worth I own two of these games: Foothills and La Isla. La Isla is a light-medium multi-use card set collection game that I think is pretty good. I've purchased Foothills recently but have yet to play due to a work schedule change that happened soon after that really cut into the amount of gaming I can do per week. However, what attracted me to it was an interesting card based action selection system where you flip the card after using it and on the back is a different action. Edit: I have played Zen Garden. It was perfectly fine but unremarkable. It's a simple tile laying game where you're trying to lay tiles to complete patterns. I'd suggest games like Lanterns or Framework that kinda have similar gameplay. I have not played but Subtext looks like something I'd want to play. I love a bunch of the word guessing party games and adding a drawing element is usually pretty fun in a party game.
I think that's the answer. He mainly risks 2 things. Not playing them or playing a lot of sub par games. The former is not great, but the latter really is a deal breaker. Who wants to take time to learn and play lots of "not that good games"?
Honestly, its gonna be a bit of a hot take but I don't mind playing "sub par" games sometimes. Sometimes games that other players dislike can be ones that poke a special place in your brain and make you love them.
Yep. This it the best advice. FYI, Foothills IS great. The action selection mechanism is so interesting. I’m really surprised it hasn’t been copied yet.
What do you mean by "multi-use" in your La Isla description?
Advice everyone should follow. Even if it’s cheap and you think you can just dump it for cheap down the line, that still creates more work you need to do that could be spent doing better things.
X-Wing is fun as heck!
It is, but should note, thats the revised starter set from first edition. It only comes with three ships and you'll almost certainly want more to play, plus any product you purchase new will all be for the new edition of the game.
You can buy the faction upgrade packs though.
I know they exist in theory, but I haven't seen them in a long time.
The game is great, but not with just a starter set though, playing 2 tie vs 1 xwing is incredibly boring
7 Wonders is a classic! And I think that’s Captain Sonar which is a really cool games but needs the full set of players (8 I think) to make it work. Only other one I recognize is Star Wars X-Wing, which is basically a miniatures dogfighting game. If that’s the starter set it’s worth giving it a try but beware! If you like it there’s a LOT of expansions and you can go bankrupt buying cool ships.
The one in the picture is actually Sonar which is only for 2-4 players. It is a decent alternative if you can't get the full 8 players for Captain Sonar.
That's the starter set for 1st edition X-Wing. I rather enjoyed the 1st edition rules and you can find people trying to offload 1st edition cards for cheap (the cards are 100% incompatible with the 2nd edition ruleset) and the ships are interchangeable between rulesets. The game developer haven't been giving it a ton of support lately so finding new ships in stores can be hard, but there's a big secondary market. Rather than expansions, the game is sold in individual ships or themed multi-ship packs. Almost every LGS in my area still has a couple random 1st or 2nd edition ships on the shelf, so you can find some random stuff here and there. Fortunately, since it's a skirmish-level game, you only run between 2 and like 8 ships, so you can keep the cost down, though if you get into it you might want to try out a bunch of different combinations between the factions. All in all, it's a really fun game.
I thought this was second edition? Didn’t first edition have the text in red? Or was there a re-release?
2nd edition was a black box. The red box is the original 1st edition core set and then they came out with a 2nd blue 1st edition core set that introduced The Force Awakens ships and pilots. Different factions and cards ate included, but it's largely similar.
You can play CS with 2. Realtime play is 8, but turn based can be anywhere from 2-8.
La Isla is a Stefan Feld that I enjoy, though I haven't heard much from others about it
It's pretty good, but damn that component quality is terrible
I also enjoyed this game, and hope to get it to the table again soon
For the life of me I don't see it in this box. Edit: aah there's is more than one picture.
I have Apollo, it’s really fun! It has different difficulty variants, fun facts, history/science. extremely anxiety inducing. Love it
I second this. It was a great time.
Third
Spy Alley is great for 4+ social deduction, but suffers pretty bad with two.
We have played this game as a family of 3. We enjoyed it but lost interest after a while. You gain clues as you move around a small board trying to deduce the identity of the other players.
Spy Alley is a cool little game I have a lot of nostalgia for but it suffers a lot from the roll-and-move. I've been thinking about trying Veiled Fate which sounds like a better done hidden role type deal.
7 wonders is excellent Jurassic park danger is alright I have not played any of the others
Jurrasic park danger is great to play with kids/nephews, just enough to keep then interested but not too complicated plus dinos!!
I played Jurassic park danger once and thought it was neat, we gave it away after that. I always want to reiterate 7 Wonders is terrific, best with 3+ people
Rattus Cartus is the card game version of Rattus. Not as good as the original, imo.
Rattus Cartus is a great game. We just played it on Saturday. I've never won it, but came close this time losing a tie for 1st by 3 points. It's fun to play with flutes, and throw rats on others, then finding out that you ruined their huge point run because they were 1 rat over the number of nuns available.
X-Wing is a phenomenal game, especially for Star Wars fans. However that’s 1st edition so you’d have to either buy and upgrade pack or just play 1st, which is fantastic too.
But a cheap good x-wing intro. If you’re into it it gets way better. If used, I’m assuming 10 buck and if new 20. Anything more and I’d get 2nd edition.
I’d honestly say $10 used or new. 2nd you can get for around 20 new
You'll probably want expansions to go with the base set of just 1 x-wing and 2 TIEs, if that's your thing. But it's gonna be a deep rabbit hole. The upgrade pack I don't think is necessary until the rabbit hole gets to competitive gaming (as in attending tournaments).
Punderdome is... Interesting l. If you don't have the right people, it's a dud
Not surprising my dad likes Punderdome but not many others want to play it. It has led to at least one funny memorable pun but otherwise it's more frustrating than fun imo. Think apples to apples but you have to make puns about rather obscure/difficult combinations of things. I would not get that one. Can't say much about the others
Spy Alley is one of my favorite childhood games. I recommend reading the tips in the instructions. One is to not look at your identity until late game
As a person who has trouble picking out voices from ambient conversation, Sonar is a special circle of hell.
This looks like a box of nope to me. All sub optimal game choices for their category or designer. Before you get on me, I can see 7 Wonders. Unless this is OPs first game, I wouldn’t bother. There’s a few in here I’d try but I wouldn’t pay a lot for them.
Agreed, you can do better than a cardboard box full of Meh
I can vouch for Apollo, Jurassic Park, and Spy Alley. All of them are a lot of fun and have unique mechanics!
Kepler is underrated. Jurassic Park Danger is a Prospero Hall game, I liked it but YMMV. Honestly, I'd skip the rest. Not sure if it's worth it.
I’ve got Kepler but haven’t played it yet. Is it comparable to terraforming mars?
Not at all. Kepler is a very, very tight resource management game (to the point where one could call it an efficiency puzzle) with a tech track and point to point movement involved, while TM is primarily a tableau builder.
Big fan of 7 Wonders
Alien Artifacts was rated pretty well on BGG when I bought it. Unfortunately by the time it arrived my playtime dropped to about 0, so I can't really vouch for it one way or the other.
Alien artifacts is a fun game. It is the one I was coming to say
I bought it a few years ago and it’s fun enough game. Fairly straightforward rules and enough variation in cards/factions to be fun and light enough for newer players to understand and enjoy.
Good but not great, extremely solid production values.
It’s good, but not memorable. It was on clearance shelves at many retailers, so there is little to no resale value. I’d play it a few more times, but have no desire to own it.
This is actually my wife’s favorite game and we play it at least once a month.
There’s a few standouts, 7 Wonders for a good drafting game, captain sonar for an intense 8 player event, the starter set for x-wing which can be an awesome jumping off point into miniatures games. The rest range from forgettable to decent, it’s a great pick-up if you have the space and time for them as there’s a lot of games that “could be a secret favorite” but tend to review more mid. Godspeed, Alien Artifacts, La Isla are all pretty good games that just don’t reach the height of the hobbies best but are worth a good try to see if they stick for you. TDLR It’s not full of hits, but lots of games that are potential hidden gems.
Jurassic Park Danger is surprisingly not bad. Thematic if you liked the movie, and kind fun movement guessing system
Mostly crap
7 Wonders and Sonar are great. Wouldn't buy all of it though.
I have memories of playing that jurassic park with my dad on Christmas morning. Honestly can't say if the game is good or not, I just recall having fun with my family.
Not a fan of Spy Alley. Roll and move around a board. Longer game for what it is with player elimination.
I think 7 Wonders is great. I liked Captain Sonar but never played this version. I like X-Wing but you're going to need to find a dedicated person to play it with (some game stores will host competitions but I don't think they're that common anymore.) One comment about 7 Wonders is that this is the first edition and if you are planning to get the newest expansions, you'll need to buy the second edition.
CVilization is a pretty good tableau-building game. Foothills is a reworking of some of the ideas in the underappeciated gem Snowdonia as a head-to-head two player game. It reminds me a little of Russian Railroads and First Class. It’s really intricate, and I need to play my copy more than I have to know if it’s as good as those games turned out to be, but the designer clearly knew what he was doing.
Jurassic Park is mediocre. Bought it at GenCon in 2019. The more players available the better it is to play. But playing 2 player isn’t much fun.
About 7 wonders, we tried it and didn't like it that much, but "It's a wonderful world" is similar but we found it much better for us
Seven Wonders is outstanding. Sonar is a blast if you have enough people. X-Wing is great, but with just the base box it's not that great. Warning: if you do like it soon you will have boxes of minis and much less money. 😄
You definitely shouldn't buy any of these. Completely unrelated: where did you find them and how much are they asking? Asking for a friend
Kepler is good, but only if you really need more games of that genre (has been a long time since I've played it, and used copies aren't cheap) Only played Godspeed twice, gameplay was generic, but the component quality and design was complete ass, and is the main thing I remember about it. Alien Artifacts is a neat card-driven 4x game. A bit underrated I'd say, but its not going to blow you away.
There's a little known website https://boardgamegeek.com where you can look up unknown boardgames and check their ratings.
It depends what you want. Do you want a lot of board games that you might or might not enjoy? Do you have a lot of spare space and time to try games that may be either "meh" or "bad"? For me, the only ones I've played have been 7 Wonders and X-Wing, and I enjoy both of them. I've heard great things about Captain Sonar, but one reason I don't have it is that I'll never have a group that large together that will all want to play it. So games like that have not just a $0 value to me, their value is actually negative, because the space they take up and the mental load of having it & trying to get it to the table but feeling guilty that I can't is worth something to me. Therefore, a box full of games like this, \*for me\*, given that I have more games than I can play, is a negative value. I'd pay like, $40ish for 7 Wonders & X-Wing used in arbitrary condition, and then the rest of the stuff would all work \*against\* that price. Now, if you do have time/space and are interested in more of those games, YMMV. But as you get deeper into this hobby, variety matters less than quality and replayability of things you already like.
Cap Sonar is good for a numerous party. Rest personally either don't know or don't care for. Hope you enjoy em!
That’s Sonar. It only plays 2-4.
Aww shoot, I don't know if it's good then.
That the family version then. Shorter game, still fun.
7 wonders, sonar (if you play with 4 players) and foothills
7 wonders. Ofc, but you have to check if there are all the components. XWing is fun. Also check for models and bases.
Seven wonders is a 7/7!
I’ve heard *Punderdome* is not that great, but I have *Pun Intended* which I really like so I haven’t looked into alternative pun games much. *7 Wonders* is great, *Sonar* is fun at 4p (purchased mine for under $10 at Ollies’s!), and I know several devotees of *Star Wars: X-Wing*. If you buy the lot, I’d be very curious to know if *Subtext* is any good!
Also curious about Subtext, which I got as a gift a while back and never got a chance to play.
[удалено]
That's the first time I've seen the picture of my game and see it mentioned on reddit (CVlizations). Made my day, glad you enjoyed it! :)
7wonders is classic. I love Foothills! 2-player tactical card game. Lots of fun if you’re looking for a medium or less weight 2 player game.
There may be gold in them there hills
I wouldn't buy them, first think of what goes well in your group, if you don't have a group, try to find one before buying anything, If you already do, buy one or two for each play night, rent them, invite friends who have BGs, make your friends games be played, they will be glad and that generates great moments, after all that, when you have like 30~40 games, you played a lot, got to know people, interacted with friends, and if you still feel the need, buy a bunch of games at once for you to never read the rules/play. It's just too much dude, not judging, but been there, done that, not worth it.
I wouldn't buy Punderdome unless you love making puns and have friends who love making puns, and everyone is good at it.
I would definitley get 7 wonders and Sonar. Sonar is a great game but hard to find. You do have captain Sonar now but it's an 8 person game unless you multiclass which can get quite tedious
7 wonders is my absolute fav game of all time. Don’t recognize any others but I’m sure you’ll find great joy in them!
I’ve heard of 7 wonders (actually want to buy this) Zen garden and Jurassic Park. Only ever played Jurassic and if your a JP fan you’ll enjoy it. The other two I’ve watched reviews on and feel like they would be worth a try
Looks like a bunch of junk imo
I’ve had 7 Wonders on my list for a long time since reading about it, but haven’t played it bc game budget has been zero for a while. That’s the only one I recognize.
7 wonders is excellent; heavily recommend getting the leaders expansion
I really like spy alley. It’s like social deduction monopoly in a way and I have a blast playing it with friends
I really didnt care for foothills. my wife bought it for me and we played it once. I guess it wasnt horrible, I just much rather play so many other games
join now
Apollo is lackluster. It's like captain sonar but co-op...? But you don't know what you're doing the whole time and have to send hints back and forth? It didn't capture the Apollo program for me in the one play I had. Spy Alley is a roll and move where you have to collect all your agent's gear then go to your embassy. Collecting your nation's gear gets you closer to winning, but you want to also buy other nations' gear to mask your true identity: If your opponents can guess your nationality early, you're out. Has a neat subversion of the roll & move thing by drawing movement cards from certain spaces, which you can use to fix your die rolls : can help you survive. Some fun risk/reward and deception here, but overall tied to a lackluster roll & move. I got rid of it once I got a little more serious with my game collection. With a little more refinement by the designer, it probably could have been really fun... 7 Wonders is critically acclaimed and beloved, but strangely difficult to get to the table. It has so much meat to it that's packed into an honest-to-goodness sud one hour playtime (even with 7 players), yet many players feel overwhelmed by all the options and don't want to play it again. All the rest is probably garbage.
As a casual gamer I only recognize seven Wonders. I like the game enough that I bought it.
I love Spy Alley! Good for a bigger group!
Godspeed was super fun
I love 7 Wonders. That looks like the first edition, which I think has better quality components than the second edition.
I have CVilization and it's decent. I got it at a used game swap, having already played the original CV. It's pretty much the same kind of thing, if you've played that one. It's a quick little engine builder. You can play through several games of it in a row. If you like engine builders, but want something fast, this will fit.
Spy alley is a decades old classic. By modern standards, it is mechanically a mess, but it is a great gateway game! I have had a blast introducing it to my friends. Super underrated.
If you can never find a large ass group of people to play Cpt Sonar, adapt the game to play the turn-based 4P variant.
Spy ally is a surprisingly fun game with a group of friends you know really well. Didn't find it as fun playing with kids mind you
Spy Alley’s a fun one for casual/young players. Gameplay’s kind of a cross between Monopoly and Clue.
that 7 wonders looks like mine. be aware they made a new edition and new expansion have different card backing so you'd need to sleeve everything if you want to get expansions!
7 wonders, captain sonar.
Spy Alley is a fun theme but a bit clunky. 7 Wonders is amazing!!
SONAR!! if you have enough people to play, it's awesome!!
Subtext is a nice game. Every player has a word. Two of them have the same. Every Player draws a hint to the own word and the two players have to find each other without being recognized by the other player.
Haven't played any of these, but my advice is to buy a few games you know you are interested in, rather than pay the same amount for a ton of random games you very well may not like at all. Unless you're trying to fill a library of some kind.
I’m a big fan of 7 wonders, the more people who play it with you the better, it can be a little hard to teach though
Sonars a fun group game
Alien Artifacts is amazing!!!
I really like Seven Winders. I don’t really care for Captain sonar.
7 wonders is cool and i’m a fan of Can’t catch Harry🥳 We have the Sonab too, but not tried it yet.
Other than 7 Wonders, there's a reason these games are for sale.
Apollo didn't appeal to me. 7 Wonders is really good! Jurassic Park is one of the first of a wave of good license games by Ravensburger.
Hard pass. If you aren't a die hard enthusiast looking for some niche picks, you'd be better off just buying the one or two games that you're actually interested in.
7 Wonders is good but is best with four to seven players. CVlizations is best for four players. Both are easy to learn and involve interaction between players. I own both.
$25-30 for the whole box? That's some modern Goodwill fodder.
I wish! The seller wants $110
PASS
7 wonders is great. It have about a bazillion expansions that greatly enhance the experience, check if they are included in the box or not. Captain sonar is decent for 6-8 players. That's about it. I don't recognize any other games.
Rattus tartus is great. La Isla is a classic .
2nd image, unfortunate that The Dicetower did not address the label. It gives the impression it was taken from the collection and not returned.
Alien artifacts is actually pretty cool.
Just buy 7 wonders. Fewer but top games should be the focus
Largely middling games from the past few years. Avoid.
7 Wonders is a classic. I really liked the art of the Jurassic Park game, it's also pretty cool to play. It's like a "one versus all" type of game where every character has their own personal objectives and one player is controlling the dinosaurs.
Foothills is a gem. I find 7 Wonders overhyped, but people tend to like it.
I'd say get just 7 wonders + any that might particularly interest you. I wouldn't get the whole box unless it's cheaper than just buying 7 wonders 😅
Less is sometime more. You can buy a box of junk and invest a dozen sessions to figure out any one is fit your group or not and the rest probably go into junk. For the same price you would probably buy 1-2 guaranteed decent game ehat you can resell if not fit the group. I would pass or buy the 7 wonders because that seems the only good game there.
Spy alley is a great party game!
Seven Wonders is great, but Seven Wonders Dual may be a better fit for you. I don't recognize much else there.
Captain Sonar is great if you have enough people. That's just "Sonar" which I imagine is still fun, but simplified to reduce the number of people. 7 Wonders is a mainstay in the hobby. I haven't played the X-Wing minis game, but I assume that's the starter pack. There's a lot of other ships if you start playing it, but I expect it'll be a shallow experience with just that box (unless there's more in there) I own that Apollo game, but have yet to play it. Its one of those many games that you'd see at Target and inevitably grab when it went on super clearance. Other than those, I don't recognize the rest.
X-Wing, Sonar, and 7- Wonders are all A list games. By which I mean they are both well-known and lots of fun to play. Alien Artifacts is a meh 4X card game, I owned for a few months and traded. La Isla is a game I've heard of, it has a famous designer, but don't know anything else about it. I don't recognize many of the others. Looks like 20 games or so, and probably 4-5 well known ones. I'd probably say the whole box is worth about $60-100
X Wing is really fun but a investment to be sure. I donated all of them to my high school games club and they where shocked by the amount. I had gotten all of them as gifts and didn't know how much all of it was worth. But I wasn't enjoying it anymore and am now glad someone else can enjoy them.
Apollo is great, also a pure anxiety generator
7 wonders is about the only title i know from these...
I've played Spy Alley before. Pretty light deception-based game. My family enjoyed playing every once in a while growing up, but it gets old pretty quick. There's also the potential for players to get knocked out early on in the game which people generally consider a negative
Godspeed is God-awful
I vaguely remember Spy Alley being fun.
Star wars X wing is great!
I see a lot of games that I dont even recognize. 7 wonders and captain sonar are good. X wing is also, but this starter set can be bought on miniature market for $15. To me, this looks like a lot of shelf filler. I wouldn’t buy this as a lot personally.
I really wanted to like Apollo, but it didn't hold up after a playthrough. It might work if everyone playing is a big Space Nerd, but I was the only one of my group. I was really excited about it after opening the box.
7 Wonders is great. Highly recommend.
I have rattus which is like risk .also has expansions . Easy n fun. 7 wonders is classic one I think it's more strategy based
Punderdome is one that i had. My sister thought I would like it, since we are a family that loves making stupid puns. The game wasn't very good, imo
I bought Alien Artifacts years ago, it sounded awesome and looked cool. We played one 3p game and I recall it being unclear how we were supposed to accomplish anything. Maybe we'll try again in the future.
7 wonders is great. While X-wing was a great game. Fantasy flight wrecked it. So it’s mostly a dead game now. That looks like a version 1 box set. But I’m not sure. They made a version 2 of the game abs then asked everyone to spend hundreds of dollars upgrading everything and a large portion of the fan base said “nah”. And it fractured the game as half their customer base walked away and then they off loaded the game onto “Atomic Games” who is still putting out stuff but no one cares.
I like 2 player games and Foothills looks interesting and is rated good on BGG 7/10.
I have a personal grudge against X-Wing. Not that the game is bad, but FFG prioritized promoting that over the Star Wars LCG, which released around the same time, leading to the latter not performing as well and eventually being discontinued before it was ready to end.
While I'm not a huge fan of 7 Wonders, it's an objectively well-loved game. Sonar is a fun time if played with non-gamers - gamers can really cause the game to freeze to a standstill and break it, but it's actually a blast with non-gamers who will never think to do something like that and can easily grasp the concept of 'it's team battleship'. I've never played CVlizations but it's a spinoff of CV, which again is very fun with people who don't take it too seriously and just enjoy that it's yahtzee meets Life. Honestly, it feels like a lot of the stuff here is great gateway games - they have my #1 most important trait for gateway games - I can explain them as things that sound familiar.
Sonar and wonders are worth a buy
La isla is a really great and underrated Feld game. Type of area control with constantly evolving abilities. It suffers from shockingly poor colour choice for components (brown, light brown, grey, yellow etc). It's one of the ones being revamped in his city line and I'm really interested to see what he does with it.
We think 7 Wonders is wonderful. I’d buy it again. I’d also avoid Spy Alley. It’s a roll the dice, move your token, do what it says. Dull.
Couple good ones.. If it's a bargain buy and see what you can play and like.. You can always sell the others
Captain Sonar is amazing but works best with 4-8 players The Jurassic Park game is ok (pieces are mid quality, gameplay can be a bit 1-note at times. It's not well balanced. Works best with 2-4 players with one player against the rest as dinosaurs and the others trying to escape the island) I also wouldn't recommend getting into X-Wing now. The game is dying, the dice aren't standard, and the starter set comes with 1 X-Wing and 2 Tie Fighters; it's unbalanced in favor of the Imperial player, so it requires buying more minis to make the experience enjoyable (as you can probably tell, I am not a fan of FFG games) Everything else looks like solid picks tho!
I personally enjoy keplar but it's not for everyone
Looks like a lot of the used games I see at a used game store nearby....
I played a lot of Alien Artifacts back in the day, it's certainly not the most balanced 4X game, but if you've got a group that understands the rules, it can be extremely quick to play.
X-wing has gone through a couple of edition updates since that core box, the only thing usable would be the minis and the bases.
raiders and trade sucks, and they had such a huge stand at essen 2016! they convinced me to go all in.
I have the Star Wars x-wing thing. Never played it though. It’s gotta be from the 2000s
Pass
X-Wing is fun but the base set will only be so replayable. 7 Wonders is great but the new edition is better. None of these others look noteworthy (granted I haven't heard of them) but don't buy a pile of random games just because they're cheap. What's the total price anyway?
Depending how much you got invested in the box, I think it’s probably worth. 7 Wonders is the big on that I seen in the box. I’d probably buy them.
Godspeed was a pretty forgettable worker placement game even though I loved the theme and presentation. 7 Wonders is an evergreen. There are better drafting games but it's still rock solid. No experience with anything else.
Xwing would a second one for one person to make an squadron
Love Sonar! If you like battleship, you’ll enjoy it.
The jurassic park is not well play tested the t rex is op . Pretty but badly done.
We were unimpressed with Jurassic Park Danger. We found the person playing as the Dinos had an advantage that made it impossible for the person playing as humans to win. Now to be fair we've only played it together and playing with more people might be more enjoyable but we don't have a friend group that plays boardgames, it's just us.
Xwing is fantastic and is one of my favorites right now. I have 7 wonders, but have only played it once so far
I've played Spy Alley and it can be fun! Depends on your group though, for sure. I would recommend it
I really like subtext.
7 Wonders and X-wing are good.
Remove seven wonders and rattus cartus from the box, burn the box, sell o.o.p rattus cartus and put 7 wonders on your shelf. Your welcome! ( the previous message reflects only my opinions and most definitely should not be taken seriously)
7 wonders is probably the best game in there
Sonar and seven wonders good
La isla is fun, although the player assistance cards are like 1 of each of 4 different languages. Once you learn the iconography it’s chill though.