Our recent order from Asmodee Games

Our recent order from Asmodee Games

Our family loves board games. We have a whole room dedicated to board games and books, with a shelf holding over 400 games! It takes a lot for us to introduce a new game into the mix, especially games that have a big shelf presence. 

We recently had the chance to work with Asmodee Games who was kind enough to send us 5 of their games to try out and share our thoughts on. For those of you who are not familiar with Asmodee, they currently offer almost 3000 games, from a diverse range of publishers. We were introduced to Asmodee through one of our favorite classics, Ticket To Ride. 

It was hard to pick just a few games from their amazing line up but we wound up going with Agricola 15th Anniversary Box, Frostpunk, Nemesis Lockdown, Descent: Legends of the Dark, and Ticket to Ride: Rails and Sails.

Descent: Legends of the Dark

Let me start this off by saying Decent: Legends of the Dark is like no other game I have in my collection, or have even seen online. I’ve tried app driven RPG games, I’ve tried dungeon crawler games with miniatures, but Decent adds so many layers of components and adventure to be unlocked that it seems almost impossible at first glance. 

When I opened up the box I was excited to see just how many components we got to build. From stairs to trees and shelves, there is so much detail put into this game! My favorite surprise was after unboxing and assembling everything, when I discovered the inside of the box doubled as a map for game play… WHAT!?!?

Dungeon crawlers are a huge hit in my family, and this one has really left its mark. The app drives the game flawlessly, helping with everything from the lore, to the map assembly, all the way to the gameplay itself. I still can’t get over how much game is inside this box.

If you’ve been looking for a new dungeon crawler experience that is unique to its counterparts, look no further than Descent: Legends of the Dark.

Agricola 15th Anniversary Box

My family has been looking at Lookout Games for years, and what better place to start than with the Agricola 15th Anniversary Box! The game is absolutely adorable with wooden meeples, animals, and an impressive storage system for components and cards. 

In Agricola, you will be competing to have the family with the most wealth, health, and prosperity. You start off with a plot of land, and a two room house, how you expand is up to you. You’ll have 14 rounds to create the best farm over which taking different actions pertaining to your farm, house, animals, and even family. As you gain more family members, you unlock more actions to be taken. 

The theme is really fun and almost reminiscent of past times when farming was at its peak. The game focuses on worker placement, which I always enjoy as I see it as an overarching puzzle from the beginning to the end of the game.

All of my kids really enjoyed Agricola, especially how the anniversary box allowed for easier set up and clean up times. Overall, if you’re looking for a semi-heavy family worker placement game, Agricola might be the one for you!

Frostpunk

My son has always loved video games, even before we got into board games. When we were looking at the games Asmodee offers, he was excited to see a familiar face in Frostpunk. 

Have you ever wondered what the world would be like if another ice age hit? Well, Frostpunk does an amazing job of bringing that idea to life! In Frostpunk, you will be tasked to manage the citizens and infrastructure of a small community of survivors in a post apocalyptic world. Now it’s not as easy as it might seem as the citizens in this community are pretty vocal on their wants, or really their demands. You must keep up with their moods, needs, and really anything else as they are quite temperamental. 

This game is not for the faint of heart as there is A LOT to juggle. It took us a good bit of time to figure out how to play the game, as well as figure out a strategy (still not sure we fully have). While the game is a lot to chew on, it is also a lot of fun, and unlike any other game I've played. If you have the spare time to learn and play it, I don't think you’ll regret it!

Nemesis Lockdown

Awaken Realms is easily one of my favorite publishers. With games like Castles of Burgundy and Etherfields, they have a pretty large presence in our collection. That being said, Nemesis had caught our eye a little while back and we figured we would give Rebel Games a shot with the sequel Nemesis Lockdown. 

Nemesis Lockdown is a horror board game that takes place on Mars, more specifically a secret base on the uninhabited planet. Nemesis Lockdown is unique to our collection as it is a semi-co-op game. This means that there’s an element of co-op while still being in competition with your fellow players. This was a lot of fun since we had to work together, but not enough to help another player over ourselves. 

Nemesis Lockdown is a great addition to any board gamers collection, especially if you’re looking for a unique, horror experience that is hard to find in table top board games. Nemesis Lockdown stands out in the details of their miniatures as well as the overall luxurious feel of the game pieces. One of the components that truly make me enjoy the game is the player stand on which you can rest cards, as well as have your player board in front of. It’s a simple upgrade that adds a lot to the feel of the game!

Ticket to Ride: Rails and Sails

Ticket to Ride was the game that got my family into the board game hobby. We would play countless rounds of the classic game, as well as Europe and Nordic Countries once we realized how much we loved the original. We even ordered New York for the purpose of being able to take it with us when we travel. 

We’ve had our eyes on Ticket to Ride: Rails and Sails for a while and were so excited to get the chance to try it out! The first thing that stood out to us upon opening the game was there are two different maps to play with. This is really exciting as replayability is a huge factor as to which games make it to the table in our house. As always, the game includes the classic Ticket to Ride trains, but this time introduces a new mode of transportation… Ships. 

Ticket to Ride combines strategy with a healthy amount of competition that won’t result in family ending confrontation… *cough* *cough* MONOPOLY. My favorite part about the game is how easy it is to learn. We often have friends or family over for game nights and it's sometimes a challenge to teach newcomers the heavy games that we oftentimes will play on our own. Ticket to Ride is easy to pick up, teach, and play in one sitting, making it a favorite for us on game nights with new additions.

Overall, my family has enjoyed all of the games we’ve tried from Asmodee, and look forward to their future releases. If you’re looking for a new game to try out, whether its a high complexity game like Frostpunk, or a family game like Ticket to Ride: Rails and Sails, make sure to check them out! 

Thanks again Asmodee for sending us these five amazing games to add to the collection 🙂