One of the criteria we've been using to help decide whether a game stays or goes is the question, "does playing this game take time away from playing another, similar game that we might enjoy more?" A perfect example of that was Eldritch Horror, a game we initially liked quite a bit. But after a few plays we found that we enjoyed Arkham Horror or Fortune and Glory more, and saw no need to spend time playing a similar game that we didn't enjoy as much.
This brings us to the latest round of games that are getting the boot, and why we don't think we'll miss any of them.
Battle Yahtzee: Alien vs. Predator. It may be AvP, but it's still Yahtzee.
- Original rating: 2.
- What we'll play instead: for Aliens and/or Predator action we have the Aliens board game, the Aliens Predator CCG, and Alien & Predator Legendary Encounters (separately or mixed together). See Quarriors below for other dice games that are a lot more interesting than this one.
Castellan. I love the idea of this castle-building game, but in practice there is very little variation between games, so it gets a little dull after a few plays.
- Original rating: 4.
- What we'll play instead: Through the Desert and Samurai are similar strategic place-and-control games, although they are also very similar to each other. hmmm...
Longhorn. I love a western-themed game, but Longhorn's cattle rustling theme is largely tacked on to an abstract numbers exercise. The only thing this game really has going for it are the nifty cow meeples.
- Original rating: 2.
- What we'll play instead: Spurs is an excellent western adventure board game.
Lord of the Rings: the Confrontation and Lord of the Rings: the Duel. We bought both of these in response to our passion for both Lord of the Rings and two-player games, but we're finding a lot more of our gaming time is social these days, making two player games something of a liability when we want to include more players in our gaming. And after these two are gone, we'll still have 6 LOTR games in our collection, so I don't think we'll be spending any less time in Middle-Earth.
- Original ratings: LOTR: the Confrontation: 3; LOTR: the Duel: 3.
- What we'll play instead: for more Tolkien-inspired gaming we have Lord of the Rings: the Board Game, LOTR: the Search, LOTR: the Card Game, Middle-Earth Quest, and War of the Ring. Additionally, Jarl and Serpent Stones both have a head-to-head, abstract movement mechanic that is very similar to LOTR: the Confrontation.
Marvel Dice Masters. We were originally charmed by this game's Marvel Comics theme and blind booster collectibility, but we're finding that the game's emulation of the CCG/LCG model (where you put together your "deck" of killer combos before the game starts) is a bit of a turn-off. We want a game we can just play right out of the box.
- Original rating: 4.
- What we'll play instead: Legendary: a MARVEL Deck-Building Game or the underrated and sadly out-of-print Marvel Heroes Strategy Board Game.
Quarriors. While the clever game play and pretty dice were what attracted us to Quarriors, the goofy cartoon-fantasy theme was always a bit of a turn-off, and even with all the expansions condensed into as few boxes as possible, the game is a major shelf-hog that doesn't really justify the amount of time we spend playing it.
- Original rating: 4.
- What we'll play instead: Elder Sign and Discoveries: the Journals of Lewis & Clark are both fun dice games with smoother game play that are more thematically interesting, or if we want something simple we can break out Dino Hunt Dice or Age of War.
Race to Adventure. There's nothing wrong with this simple game about using shared resources to complete a collection of objects, it just repeats the theme and game play of a few other games that we enjoy more.
- Original rating: 3.
- What we'll play instead: Relic Expedition is extremely similar on a lot of levels (1930s adventure, treasure hunt), with much more lavish components. Fortune and Glory is a more complex and engaging game with the same theme.
Zeppelin Attack! This small deck-building game has some original ideas in it, but the lack of depth makes the game play pretty similar from game to game.
- Original rating: 3
- What we'll play instead: Star Realms and the DC Comics Deck Building Game are both similar in terms of game complexity, but have a lot more replay value (and better artwork).