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Happy holidays and salutations! I pray good things happen to your family and that the gifts you got were everything you wanted yada yada yada enough of that crap. LETS! TALK! ABOUT! BOARD GAMES! What this past month was REALLY about. Lotsa freetime should always mean lotsa games. The following is a list of games I got to play this month and if you notice that all the ratings are relatively high it’s cause I sought out the fun ones.
Distilled (8/10)
I first played this booze-making point-salad (A booze-salad if you will) almost two years ago. Only played it twice since, and both times our group had an uproarious time with the theme. If you are ever walking around and hear someone cry out “POTATOES!” it either means Golem is pestering Samwise, or I’m drunkenly waist-deep in a game of Distilled.
Cosmoctopus (6/10)
A close friend of mine, who is not a big gamer, invited me and some others over to play their random new purchase, Cosmoctopus. Nights like these always feel momentous as it means a new person has just jumped into the hobby, instead of being dragged in like usual. A game night is always a good time, but a game night hosted by someone excited with one of their first games is even better.
Maglev Metro (8/10)
I still love this game, but teaching it is a hecking hard time. This undeniably slow engine-reassembling, pick-up-and-deliver train game can have you spending several turns reorganizing robots (which determine the strength of actions) before finally moving and picking up travelers.
I love Maglev’s look and the overall goals, but the core mechanics define the term “micromanagement.”
Orichalcum (6/10)
I am a so-so Cathala fan, but a HUGE fan of Five Tribes and Abyss. I generally go into a Cathala game expecting it to be a competent, but flat experience. Unfortunately, I was correct this time. This tile and action drafting game gets old and repetitive fast; however, teaching it is a breeze – easier than explaining Abyss and 10 bamillion times easier than explaining super camel mancala to the uninitiated.
Karuba (7/10)
This bingo-style route-building game has all players placing tiles in a randomly determined order in the hopes of getting each of their explorers to their matching color pyramid. Everyone’s explorers and temples start at the same location and all players place the tiles in the same order as everyone else. Where you place it is up to you. It’s a fast paced thinky game that we play 2-3 times each session.
Dwellings of Eldervale (9/10)
Man, I love returning to giant games with fun mechanics. This one is always 2-3 hours long with a 15 minute set-up, which means I am hesitant to suggest it. But it has yet to fail. Every game group loves the worker-placement map and combat, and I LOVE the reward of recalling your workers and seting off your tableau.
Windward (5/10)
Windward is a sky-pirate themed game that takes place in Cloud City if Cloud City bred flying whales. It is a pick-up-deliver combat game about slaying humpbacks and narwhals in order to sell their teeth for fame. Never seen that before. I played my first game and decided to rule out PvP since it sounded a little too mean. Big mistake. Without combat between players, this game gets repetitive real fast. I probably should play again, but I totally do not want to.
Terraforming Mars (10/10)
Since I post about my all-time favorite game a lot, I’ll just talk about this silly picture. Look at this ridiculousness. It looks like we don’t know what the f*ck we are doing, shoving forests into ocean spots and lining up cities. Urbanized Area always causes a groan or two when that fat jerk is dropped onto the planet and I love a forest-lacking Mars.
Endeavor Deep Sea (8/10)
This seems to be one of the highest rated games of last year (At least by reviewers), but I knew no one who had played it. So I had to try once offered. You slowly build a tableau of characters that offer actions – if you want to explore, better draft a character that will let you do that.
It is a point-salad of sorts about diving deep into the ocean to discover new things. Though the main map is VERY pretty, it is kind of slow, and I’m not sure if it is an 8/10 or a 6/10. Need to play again.
Kabuto Sumo (6/10)
Taught my family Kabuto Sumo this Christmas, including my teenage niece. Its a game that uses coin-pushing mechanics as you try and kill the enemy sumo bug. Make sense? Good thing it doesn’t have to. But hooooo-boy is this one falling fast. My first game was a year ago and had us standing up and shouting. Now it feels like a boring tug-of-war that is a pain to set-up. At this point, none of the bugs and their powers interest me anymore. Probably now a 5/10 if I was honest.
Wyrmspan (10/10)
Finspan is a 6/10, Wingspan is a 9/10, and this fiery beast is a 10/10. This is the more complicated one, the longest one, and the most rewarding one. Yes, the final round takes 25 hours to complete since everyone is marching through their caverns, but heck is it a good time when all players know how to play.
Revive (8/10)
Returning to Revive quickly climbed my “MUST DO SOON” list since we were on the verge of forgetting every gosh darn rule and symbol. This game is not very intuitive, especially the insane looking player board. And it really is maddening if you are as colorblind as I am. Once you get the hang of it, comboing your rewards is so satisfying. Revive is all about rebuilding an alien world after something-or-other destroyed it. I dunno. Cool theme I guess, but I’m here for the track-climbing!
Dune: Imperium (10/10)
My brand new number two of all time, Baby! I have a new strategy for game night this year. From now on, I’m storming through the front door demanding we play Dune: Imperium and fleeing the premises if it is shot down. Kidding of course, but I am having a hard time finding a dedicated group for this one.
Ragnarocks (7/10)
Another game I just played for the first time – a two player abstract that has you moving around and slowly building walls. You want to end up in large areas alone once the walls begin to complete. Whoever stands in the combined largest areas wins. A very similar mechanic to Santorini (Move then add a section). I think I like it more than Santorini, but then again I don’t really like Santorini. I also don’t like two player games much, which you will see in a few pics …
Dinosaur World (9/10)
I returned to Dinosaur World after experiencing an unplanned hiatus from it and I am SO glad it’s back! Draft a handful of workers and build a dino park using both a main board shop and a personal board of actions.
Gain DNA to build dinos and then load up the jeep and show these dumb tourists what this century is missing. Dinosaur World is super fun to teach as everyone stays focused since we are all dropping Jurassic Park jokes left and right – “Buy this tile and you, like Hammond, can have a T-Rex.” “Draft the dice correctly and BINGO! DINO DNA!” “The winner is the cleverest girl with the most points.” The jokes may be dumb, but this game is worth it.
Scrabble (7/10)
I can see your eyes rolling through the screen. Scrabble is by far my favorite classic game and in the pictured session I made my first 7-letter opening word ever! So, did I win? Nope! Another player was able to spell 2 different 7-letter words and crushed me. I’ll get you yet, Kate!
SETI (10/10)
If you’ve come within 10 feet of me this past year, then you were probably assaulted by my verbal pleas to PLAY THIS FREAKING GAME! Quite easily the best game of 2024, SETI is a thematic game about finding alien intelligence.
On your turn you take 1 of 6 actions with the overall goal of finding evidence of alien life as often as you can to score points. The game’s main board may be more intimidating than a bear trap, but the teach is so worth it.
Nidavellir (7/10)
Have you ever thought of assembling an army by bar-hopping 14 straight days in a row throwing coins at the locals and demanding that they suit up to fight a dragon? YOU HAVEN’T!? Well then you should try Nidavellir. This set-collection auction game has you bidding coins to claim dwarves with benefits for both identical and diverse sets.
The problem is that it seems to be the definition of a 7/10. My friends are always on board to play, but no one seems to be having an uproarious time.
Ark Nova (9/10)
The big zoo tycoon game everyone was talking about 2021 is still just as good in 2026. Ark Nova is an action-selection hand-management wonder that is the baby of Terraforming Mars and Wingspan. Yes, it is always compared to Mars, but the order of operations matters so much it reminds me so much more of Wingspan’s “get food, get eggs, play cards” mentality.
Once again, this game is beloved by all that I’ve taught, though the association action consistently makes about as much sense as peppered ice cream to new players.
Ethnos (8/10)
Ethnos is a mythological drafting, set-collection, area-control game with a fun twist. When you play a set, every card in your hand that wasn’t a part of that set automatically YEETS itself from your grip and falls into the shop. There is something so fun about watching someone give up a whole bunch of cards that will now join your own sets. The theme is … there, but the mechanics are really what this game is about.
Survive: Escape from Atlantis (9/10)
Survive is the take-that game for the whole family. Get your people off the island and onto the mainland while sending whales, sharks, and sea monsters to eat your opponents that just fell into the water. Sorry not sorry!
Lost Ruins of Arnak (9/10)
Though this is the 2nd super-duper cool deck-building, worker-placement game I’ve recently played, it ain’t as fun as the other, Dune: Imperium. While Dune is more concerned with worker-placement details, Arnak centers on the hierarchy of the resources you are gathering. There are 5 different ones and they are all needed at different times and all do different things. Arnak is easier to get to the table since my friends, apparently, don’t really like combat games.
Let's Go! to Japan (8/10)
Wow, talk about a surprise. This drafting, objective-management game is so much more fun than I expected with a theme I also did not suspect would be any good. Draft cards that give symbols and place them into one of 6 days (Thematically, each card is an activity).
The top card of each day will give an endgame goal and reward. It’s like a more complcated version of Point Salad with a theme that doesn’t include onions in your salad.
7 Wonders Duel (5/10)
I’m going to keep playing this game until it’s fun. There is no way this many nerds can be this wrong …
Evacuation (7/10)
Every now and then I will discover a game where not one dang mechanic feels familiar. I played Evacuation for the first time as a 2-player game, and the other guy (A seasoned gamer) had to have every single rule clarified since the symbols, goals, and mechanics were just so foreign.
Tearing apart one engine (which is represented by tokens on a planet) and building another (which is represented by tracks) physically hurts the brain. Fun game, but I need to play again to learn just HOW I should teach it.
Hansa Teutonica (7/10)
Just played this Euro classic for the first time and boy did my thoughts ride a rollercoaster. This area-control, point-salad (A very strange combination) started off terribly boring and slow. What you should do is not obvious. But as we placed more cubes into cities to claim control and upgrade our actions a switch was turned. We were yelling and laughing at this brutally mean in-your-face experience. It looks ugly, but the joy of improving yourself while also making life h*ll for the others comes to the forefront.
