That Dune game is awesome. I believe the upgrade with the figures is coming in August.

We’ve been spending free time on Dream Crush lately, which is a throwback to those old dating board games. It’s hilariously amazing.

By the games you’re mentioning here, I think Mansions of Madness may be a good bet for you and your wife. The new version runs with an assistant app that does an amazing job of getting you through the game, however, it’s also a requirement to have the app to play. While Jaws of the Lion is good and has a very well done guided learn, Mansions’ app made this game a breeze to understand and play for my wife and I, as well as for my 13yo (at the time) who’s not too into board gaming.

Really looking forward to Return to Dark Tower. Just got another Email today titled, “slow and steady,” but man, it’s getting close!

My girls and I just got done playing a game of Jumanji deluxe. It’s actually a lot of fun for anyone with young kids; lots of imaginative play.

The long wait is over!

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I think it’s great, and agreed about the upgrades. They made it sound like the larger mat was going to be huge, but it fits perfectly on my gaming table.

My only gripes are keeping up with the advantages during battle and some end boss cards. We have to use fingers to constantly count advantages, so not sure why there isn’t some sort of ticker in the app for this. As for the end bosses, cards that force skulls without the ability to use advantages almost always cause an insta-lose. At the end stage of the game, our skull count is usually pretty low, and getting an auto 8 skull loss without being able to knock the number down kinda sucks.

Haven’t used the expansion, as there’s already enough going on for us. Plus I hear another expansion is in the works!

Oh, baby!

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Did you get both boxes? I opened mine and saw that it was missing the trading/stealing chits. Checked the shipping Email and saw that there's two boxes being sent. Had I not noticed this module, I would have completely forgot about the other extras like the starting player statue. I think this one took every bit of 2 years to produce since the kickstarter ended. While a pretty basic game, it is gorgeous, but that box is a huge cement block.

What are your thoughts after first play-through? I did the base game without any modules and felt it kinda boring. I do like how the capitals, or whatever the adjacent multipliers are called, can really make or break things when buildings are replaced, though, which is how I lost due to a last minute population multiplier placement. The game just felt really solitaire, so I’ll look into the modules to try and spice things up for next play.

Maybe I’m just spoiled by how pleased I am with dark tower.

I got My Father’s Work in the other day and started reading the manual last night. It says to download an app, but it doesn’t appear as an option to download on my phone (iOS). Maybe it’s just a tablet app? Some of the components are pretty over-the-top, like the glass vials, but the concept seems really fun! Looking forward to this hitting the table….once I find the required app…

I saw there is a link to site in the manual, I’ll check it out along with the bgg one. Do you know if the app is still in the process of development and just hasn’t been released yet, or is it strictly tablet only?

Do you or your friends have much experience with board games (aside from monopoly and the likes)? While the app in dark tower does somewhat hold your hand through the entire thing, I don’t think I’d recommend it to those just getting into board games due to price tag, relative complexity compared to beginner games, and it can be punishing.

With that said, the game is bad ass and I strongly recommend the additional miniatures to bring the game even more to life. There’s also another expansion being finalized, so things won’t get boring any time soon.

What are you and your group looking for in a game? Think theme, cooperative/competitive, complexity, style (euro, dexterity, hidden movement, etc.), and so forth. Without diving into what others mentioned here, majority of the people I game with, new and old, had zero experience in gaming, nor did they think they had any desire to. For these people, it started with party games like Bang, Dixit, Liars Dice, and Pitch Car. For those that started to really enjoy things, I moved them to games like Ticket to Ride (probably the greatest gateway game ever), Clank, Whitechapel, Mysterium, and King of Tokyo (trying to give a good spread on game types here). I will say one game that shocks the hell outta me that beginners surprisingly grasp and enjoy is Dune Imperium.

Anyways, shoot us back with what you're looking for in a game and we can probably narrow things down a bit, as there is a huge variety in the board game market right now. Theme is a big one, so if there is something you all are into, let us know, because there is a board game on just about anything these days (from quilting, to movies, to bad dates).

EDIT: To answer your question, yes, starting with basic games like these will definitely get you ready for games like Dark Tower. I'd say you just wouldn't want to overwhelm your gaming group right off the bat with a more complex board game. The main thing here is you'll be learning these games first, then teaching it to others. For the more complex games, you'll want to play the game by yourself with phantom players, so you can get the gist of it down. Nothing is worse than trying to play a complex game, but constantly be held up searching for rule after rule. Rule searches are bound to happen on the first few playthroughs of most complex games, but when you and your group are sitting there being constantly held up by this, it takes a lot away from the fun.

If you were into Axis and Allies, then you definitely have a good starting point for grasping more advanced games. Here's my thoughts for you:

Shadows Over Camelot - Knights/Dragon theme - cooperative and can be played with an optional traitor (hidden roles) - beginner level game. This is a perfect match to what you've stated, but I believe it went out of print not too long ago....and I just looked on Ebay and they're asking ridiculous amounts. The damn thing was in production for like 20 years, so there's gotta be a good number of them out there.

Can't think of too many other knight/dragon cooperative games. I'd recommend Clank!, which is a beginner game that fits the theme, but is competitive.
EDIT: Got a game in recently that has been a mixed bag for my group - Call to Adventure: Epic Origins (can't speak for the first call to adventure, as I've never played it) - Fantasy theme - Cooperative or competitive (you're still doing the same thing either way, the highest score wins if playing competitively...and there's a few "take that" cards if I remember) - Deck builder, in a sense, with an awesome dice mechanic (you're rolling 2-sided runes) - I believe this to be a beginner game, but the internet will tell you differently - Personally, I enjoy this game, however, I've got some friends who think it's boring. I really have fun with the end, where you can tell a story about your character using the order of your cards (attributes, accomplishments, and failures).

Cosmic Encounter - Sci-Fi Space Theme - cooperative AND competitive - HUGELY INTERACTIVE - basic concept is beginner level, but the alien powers can bring this to a way advanced level. The good part is that the aliens have color codes of green, yellow, and red for levels of complexity, so you can start with green.

Spector Ops - Future Theme - hidden movement game, so one person is against the many working together - Borderline beginner/intermediate

Legendary Encounters: Alien - if you all like the alien movies, the cards are strongly based on the first three movies if I remember correctly - Deck building game - cooperative - Borderline beginner/intermediate, but I remember it being pretty easy to teach.

Twilight Imperium - HA, yeah right~

On any of these games, watch the video first to see if it's something YOU will enjoy. Too many people jump on the hype train only to have a game sit on the shelf and not the table (I'm even guilty of this due to Kickstarters). Second, read the rules online. I can't think of one game that doesn't have its rules uploaded to internet, so glance over those to make sure this is something that is not too complex for your group and you'd be able to teach. Third, when you do get the game, play it by yourself first where you're playing as each other phantom player in the game. While it may seem ridiculous, it's gonna be so much easier to teach when you do this and you won't lose the attention of other players.

I had thought about that one, but think it to be more a kid game than for adults, although I never played the expansions. Definitely a good gateway game.

Looks like Frosthaven arrives today. Of course I’m out of town and it’s rainy.

Got the second season of Final Girl in, never playing the first but hearing only good things. I'm not a huge fan of solo games or modes, but this one really is a bit of fun. Granted, it is hugely dependent on luck with dice rolls, where with early crap rolls you might as well just reset the game. However, there's a ton of variety here with every "feature film," a combination of a setting and enemy, making a huge change to the game and strategy.