Some Red Rising Decision making

I prefer leaning away from the deep and complex stuff, as I get enough of that trying to figure-out people. 🙂 Plus, I don't want to know way before the end that I can't possibly win.

I'm not familiar with the term 'organic' as it applies to gaming. Would you expound on that just a little, John?

By 'organic', I mean to say constantly evolving. What may seem like a good plan this turn may not be viable the next. For instance in Red Rising you may have a card that gives you a lot of points for every pink card in your hand at the end of the game. So, you keep it, and a couple of pink cards, hoping to find more. Next turn you pick up a card that gets even more points if teamed with a unique card that you were going to trash. Now, you keep the pair and start trashing the pink cards, because you've moved up on the fleet track and another player put a card that gives you lots of points if you lead in the fleet track. Each turn you need to re-evaluate your hand and position on the board to best determine what will give you the most points. You can doggedly stick to one strategey from the start, but more than likely a better one will present itself as the game progresses. 'Programmed' strategy games are more enjoyable to me if there is a way to throw off established strategies. Knowing what someone will likely do, and then preemptively subverting it. Rather than the board condition forcing a change in tactics, the games behave more like chess, where a player should come to the game with a set of strategies, choosing which one to use based on the opponents. Both can be fun, depending on the game design and interests of the players. It's best to find out what works best for you and then purchase games that play to that. I made the mistake of buying too many games, because I love all types of games. It gives me a lot of options, but sometimes it makes it difficult to find players because I "want to play something different all the time". You said you don't like deep strategic games, in that case I recommend games that have a randomizer mechanic (dice, cards, bag draw), that impacts gameplay. Not too random, of course, but stay away from games like Terra Mystica, Gaia Project, Root, Food Chain Magnate, as they have very little randomness. I know I said Wingspan is highly strategic, but that comes down quite a bit with expansions, so possibly look into that. Obsession is a good one, Call to Adventure, Art Decko, Ticket to Ride, and Lost Ruins of Arnak all have a good balance of strategy and randomness.

Thanks for 'expounding'. I've played Call to Adventure, Lost Ruins of Arnak, and Ticket to Ride (the first 'modern' board game I played) and liked them all. I do like 'bag-builders' a lot, too, such as Coffee Roaster and Warp's Edge.

@Zerbique Oh! Cool! I'll have to see if the library apps have those. They'd be great to check out.

@Derek After I finished the books (Audio) for The Expanse, I checked-out the TV Show. I always find the books of most anything better than the "screen adaptations", but sometimes the movies/shows are decent enough.

Image Source: syfy.com

@Cadet Stimpy I really enjoyed the Expanse. Actually I have to watch the final season still. My client actually gave me a copy of the ebooks for the series which I may read some day.

You're right though - The books are usually always better.