Our top 10 sellers for the first half of 2025 continues with games in our Party & Social games section. These games are great to play with a larger group or are the kind of games you pull out when you’re just looking to have some light fun with your friends. The games put out by Exploding Kittens and Tee Turtle Games are extremely popular at the store, but surprisingly their flagship games, Exploding Kittens and Unstable Unicorns are nowhere on this list, although some of their newer games make an appearance.
Hi Gang! Well, summer is officially here so it’s been a bit of a quieter month for miniatures and board games. I can only assume some of our staff members have been forced to spend time outside. But not to worry, we still managed to get in some Battletech, Star Wars: Shatterpoint, and Warmaster as well as some board games including Photograph, Exit- Catan, Pass, Cafe, Odin, and Roll & Bump.
So funny (?) story. We were ordering a restock of Sky Team and I (Renee) thought to myself, “Wait, why wasn’t this on the top 10 list?” and I discovered that my list only included games in the core “Board Game” subdepartment. I could pretend that I knew that all along and just publish this next list, but I decided to come clean. So here is the next list, top 10 Cooperative games. After this I’ll publish top Party/Social Games and finally Kid’s games. The great news is this means more lists!
At the beginning of this month I (Renee) ran a report to see which board games have been selling the most so far this year. I found the results interesting with some games that surprised me so I thought this might be interesting to share with everyone. This list is based on sales by unit which definitely gives smaller games an advantage and unsurprisingly there are some new releases on here as well that are benefitting from some initial interest. It will be interesting to see how this last changes by the end of the year, but for now, starting at number 10:
Hi Gang! It’s been another fantastic month for the Sentry Box Staff! We have some new contributors on the miniatures side this month and we’ve got everything from Warhammer to Battletech to Historical, and Renee also got a chance to play and review 5 different board games!
Dungeon Masters are always seeking new and exciting ways to engage their players on the tabletop. The miniature and map component of your role playing experience has come a long way since graph paper and pencils, and now can be as detailed, yet as simple, as is possible. Entre Tenfold Dungeon; fully immersive, straight out of the box terrain for your RPG and dungeon crawling experiences. Time to up your game with minimal work and maximum payout!
Rather than a mat with stuff on top, these Tenfold Dungeon boxes add another level to the adventure by looking, and playing, more like the miniatures are actually immersed in the setting. Obviously these can be enhanced with terrain and various scenic elements, but the overall enhancement that comes from having detailed walls and rooms is profound.
Boasting a large number of locales to choose from, each Tenfold Dungeon box comes with a complete setting, brilliantly realized and infinitely modifiable to your every need. With environments like; The Castle, The Underdark, The Town, The Wizard’s Sanctum, Ravenhold Castle and The Mines of Khazad, players and DM’s alike are spoiled for choice right from the start.
While this review focuses on the fantasy boxes, there are a series of science fiction themed ones as well. Possibly we will get around to looking at those in a later article. For now, there is plenty to talk about. The settings, regardless of genre, are all well conceived and beautifully executed.
Each boxed set comes with an assortment of rooms (usually 12) as well as various extras like doors, rubble piles, ladders, stairs and spell effects, to name but a few. Additionally, each set comes with a large assortment of plastic clips, usable for attaching the aforementioned doors and room sections together.
The room sections are amazingly detailed and usable as a room with walls or a raised area, as they are printed on both sides with a 1″ x 1″ grid. The design is lightweight and compact, easy to set up and easy to take down. As each set is basically a bunch of nesting boxes, the complete encounter, including models and dice and such could be easily stored in the collected box.
The depth of assorted rooms in each box is also quite captivating, leading the player to the realization that with multiple boxes, the sky is the limit for the settings that can be created. Honestly, I was uncertain of the value of this product before I opened the box, but after a quick play around it became apparent that the upgrade to my gaming experience was totally worth it.
Every serious Dungeon Master could benefit from this sort of additional setting package, which allows for almost instant set up in a mind-numbing assortment of locations. Players can be kept constantly on their toes with little to no extra effort, leaving the Dungeon Master free to spend time on the elements of the adventure that need their actual attention, safe in the knowledge that their tabletop looks great, every time.
Dungeon Masters have a large amount of information that they are required to catalog, organize and disseminate to players. Some are better at it than others, but everyone could use an upgrade that will save time and produce an amazing end result for you gaming experience. Up your game with Local Legends!
Most adventure parties will spend a great deal of time in and around various taverns and ale houses, looking for work, hassling the locals and generally requiring the Dungeon Master to constantly be ready to respond to their every request. Local Legends takes all the work out of any such encounter with the Tavern Kit, an amazing value, well considered and brilliantly presented.
Ten unique taverns, bursting with plot hooks, ready to drop directly into your RPG of choice. Sixty fully-statted non-player characters, complete with back stories, individual cards and yet more plot hooks. Ten beautifully illustrated tavern maps as well as another ten illustrated play mats! Magically, while 5e compatible, the rules are accessible enough to be used with any system, and suitable for all experience levels!
The value that is crammed inside the Tavern Kit is truly amazing and the convenience of having ten fully realized settings at your fingertips will allow you to spend more time on other aspects of your campaign. If that was all, it would be enough…but there is more!
In addition to the Tavern kit there are also several smaller Encounter kits: Bat Demon, Green Dragon, Berserker, Night Hag, Wraith, Owl Bear, Ghost Pirate and Griffon.These encounters come with everything needed to be easily added to your Tavern Kit experience, or used on their own, whenever you need them.
Each Encounter box comes with the titular creature as well as a detailed encounter map and an encounter booklet, full of ideas, and again, scaleable to your players’ level. Additionally, there are several other figures that form the rest of the encounter. The Griffon comes with a downed adventurer, The Bat Demon has a swarm of bats, and the Ghost Pirate has a watery menagerie of spectral dead.
The models are well detailed and the encounters are all different and really add a unique flavour. These kits offer a nice bite sized project which will enhance your gaming experience and have you ready at a moments notice to up your game. You can check out the other articles in this series:
Hi Gang! We had some fun this month! Chris and I painted some Battletech, and Uncle Mike worked on some Lord of the Rings stuff. Meanwhile, Andrew took a departure from miniatures and decided to join Renee in reviewing some board games this month, including Duel for Middle Earth, Happy Mochi, Photo Tour, and Family Secrets.
Basing models is usually the last step in a long process, and can often cause much trepidation in the hobbyist. Well, stress no more! Krautcover Scenics comes to the rescue with a game-changer. These scenic basing kits couldn’t be easier to use and they look amazing.
With the build over, let’s get painting! This time brown, grey and a lot of sprays and washes should help convey the muddy, war-torn hellscape of endless trench fighting. First, the pieces were sprayed with Citadel Colour Mechanicus Standard Grey. Then a lighter spray at about a 60% angle was applied using The Army Painter Colour Primer Ash Grey. This looks suitably ghostly and helps add some highlights and low lights on these pieces.
Once the spray-paint had dried, it was time to paint the details. As this is a smaller project most of the paint that will be used is old and at the end of its life. I hate to waste paint and often save 1/4 full paint pots for scenery projects just like this one. Vallejo Game Colour Leather Brown, Citadel Karak Stone, Vallejo Game Colour Charred Brown, Citadel Tau Light Ochre and a splash of Game Colour Bone White, which have all been floating around the shop for a few years, should work nicely.
A good reminder at this point is that acrylic paint can be reinvigorated by adding a few drops of water, turning these ‘sludgy’, old paints into totally usable ones. If some end up being a bit ‘clumpy’, that is fine, we are leaning into the ‘muddy and destroyed’ look here, best to be bold.
With the buildings blocked out, the remaining details are wood, sandbags, graves and skulls. All elements were painted in a single heavy colour, with the exception of the skulls, which were drybrushed. The colours chosen are slightly brighter than what I want, but washes come next, which will significantly darken the pieces overall.
On a single figure or even a couple of terrain pieces, Warpaints Fanatic Soft Tone Wash would be used. There is just enough scenery on this project that a bigger, and in the end; easier, solution is needed. Weaponize the wash in a spray bottle by adding washes and paint to an extender, which will give you more usable colour without breaking the surface tension (thus ‘making splotchy’ the finish). Lots of technical terms today but stick with me for the recipe.
In a large spray bottle mix; two bottles of Warpaints Fanatic Soft Tone, two bottles of Warpaints Fanatic Strong Tone and two bottles of Vallejo Matt Base. Once emptied, the bottles get a ‘swish’ with warm water, which is also added to the mix. 2/3 of a pot of Game colour Wash Sepia Shade provides the correct amount of reddish brown. Next, add approximately the same quantity of Quick Shine (available at Canadian Tire), mix vigorously.
The pieces were sprayed with this mixture and the corners were wiped to make sure no wash had pooled on the lower sides of the brickwork. They were left overnight on an old towel, to absorb any excess mix. Honestly, these buildings look great and the project could be called ‘finished’ at this point…still, that barbwire is a bit shiny and the wall look a bit uniform…
In the end, all the broken stonework received a sponging of Charred Brown, the wire had a bit of rust pigment added and the whole set got another good spraying with the shade mixture. Once again the pieces were wiped to avoid pooling wash and then sealed with a spray. Lots of simple techniques and a bit of time was all that was required.
Special thanks to the Sentry Box Team! Liam has supplemented the set with some Monster Fight Club Verdant Forest ruined trees, and Spooky Andrew was kind enough to lend his figures for pictures. Looks like it’s time for the Trench Crusade league to begin!
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