Spell Smashers : Bargain or Bust?

Nidavawhat? Kristen and Spin put on their Dwarf helmets and get to work recruiting the best army money can buy in this bidding/set collection board game. Stick around for some ruminations on game expansions too!

April was a busy, busy month for Kristen and Spin. Not a lot of games played, but some great new finds and surprises... and LOTS of new additions. Stay dialed in, though, because there's also a (hopefully) exciting new announcement about something coming soon for Plays Well with Two! 

Kristen and Spin brave the heights as Sherpas setting up base camps and collecting sets of animals in Nanga Parbat, a two player game by Steve Finn. This semi-abstract game comes in a small box but is chock full of strategy... but will the lure of animeeples and the promise of a thirty-minute playing time be enough to help this game reach the highest peaks of our collection, or will it be left behind at base camp? 

What do you prefer, a pile of cardboard or pixels on a screen? The pandemic has people flooding sites finding a place to game. Will the fad stick? Kristen and Spin discuss the pros and cons of playing board games online and the major platforms where they can be played: BrettSpielWelt, Yucata, BoardGameArena, and Steam.

What happens when a game about fantasy heroes defending a town from monsters loves a word game very much? Spell Smashers. Kristen and Spin picked up this unique card-driven spelling/monster bashing hybrid for half off. Did they stumble on hidden treasure, or do the cards spell "wasted money"? Listen and find out! 

Kristen and Spin take a looks at three more roll and writes. Yes, there are some we hadn't played yet! Be excited! Taking a look at Lanterns Dice, Bravo! and Rajas of the Ganges: The Dice Charmers. Be charmed and shout Bravo! while lighting lanterns ... OK, that fell apart. Should you add these into your collection? Do you hoard them like we do? Will one get a rating of 10??? 😲 Listen to find out now!

It's roundup time again! Kristen and Spin discuss what we played last month. The surprises, the disappointments, and the "did we really play Cubitos that many times?"

Top 10 time!!! What board games made only for two players are the best? Lots of games tout as being playable with 2 but these ones are MADE for only 2. Which ones should you check out? Does your favorite make the list? Which ones are we missing? SPOILERS: Games mentioned in the episode (not in order) are Kero, Memoir 44, Nanga Parbat, Klask, Keyforge, Magic, Watergate, Seastead, Stratego, Othello, Backgammon, Claim, Fox and the Forest, Santorini, Mancala and more!

Game companies using popular IP to make special editions of beloved games? This is the way. Kristen and Spin look at 2015's Carcassonne: Star Wars Edition. The task at hand in everyone's favorite galaxy far, far away is to build trade routes, assemble asteroid fields, and fight for control of planets as one of five classic characters, with some unique twists on the classic Carcassonne game formula. Is the force with this twist on the beloved tile-layer, or will a tie-in edition of the game have failed us for the last time? 

ENGINE... BUILDERS... INNNNNN... SPAAAAAAACCCCCEEEE. John D. Clair's Space Base is going under the eye of Kristen and Spin today. Chewing gum-sized cards, tossing dice, and a surprisingly pleasing aesthetic definitely look like things that appeal to us, but is Space Base's beauty more than just skin deep?  Then,  we discuss what, exactly, a welcoming game is.