Iceman's Board Game Topic (Rankings, Reviews, Sessions, Discussion)

Probably worth noting that this is the tier that's closest to a complete blob within itself. I like #18 better than I like #28, but it's not by a significant margin. Most of these next ten games are pretty neck-and-neck when it comes to my enjoyment level.

28. Machi Koro 2
Expansions Played: N/A

Not really much to say about this one, because there's not much to it. You've got rows of cards with values from 1-12 on them that all do different things if their numbers come up on a dice roll. Mostly they give you money to buy more cards, and if you buy three special, expensive cards, you win.

I'm sure there's a good bit of mathematical optimization to do here, considering you can roll either one d6 or two and the game even includes a handy little card that tells you what the odds are for rolling any number. I've never really bothered to try figuring any of that out, though, because I feel like it'd be kind of antithetical to a 20-30 minute dice rolling filler game. I'm happy to just grab the dice and roll and see what happens and buy whatever I'm drawn to at the moment.

MK2 oddly shines when someone is just getting hilariously screwed over by the will of the fates, and there's usually one of those players every game. I had one round recently where I scored a great roll on my first turn and then didn't profit again for almost the entire rest of the game. Everything I rolled gave other players more money than I got. There's actually a couple of solid catchup mechanics in the game and I was able to come back late to the point that I didn't get completely annihilated, which is another nice point in its favor.

It's just a fun little warmup for any game day, perfect for having something on the table while you're still just chitchatting with your friends and waiting for lunch to finish cooking or something. I actually like it less as a midday filler or end-of-day cooldown because everyone's more tired and the luck swings are less entertaining, and it just feels a little underwhelming all around after you've already played something more involved, but it's not like it's outright bad in either of those roles either. It does what it's supposed to do, no more and no less.

Collection Status and Future Outlook: Owned by my best friends, certain to be played pretty frequently moving forward. Don't really see it rising or falling much.