I’ve talked about this before so you’ll probably know, especially if you watch some of my Malts and Meeples videos. But let’s talk about what the concept of a pallet cleanser board game is. This is kind of a board game isn’t what I’d call filler board games, though, they can be filler board games. When I talk about a pallet cleanser I’m not talking about a goofy game or a simple 20 minute add people in or out game. I want a game that helps clear out my head, helps me reset and refresh. This can either be from general life/work stress, or from a bigger and more complex game.

Top 10 Pallet Cleanser Games

10. Parade

This one is one that I just got back to the table recently. It’s a good time and it’s a very simple game. You are creating a line of characters from Alice in Wonderland. The theme is not that important, but the game play is very cool, you are putting them down and based off of color and number. You are trying to collect as few points as possible, which is a fun twist. And you score the face value unless you have the most of a color in which case the cards are worth one point. It plays very fast, but you need to think about what you are playing down.

9. Ohanami

This one is even lighter than Parade in what you are doing. You are drafting two cards from a hand and adding them in three columns. The trick is you need to always go higher or lower than the numbers in the column. Now that’s not too hard with three columns, but if you get stuck with bad cards you need to have planned for that. Plus the scoring is fun in that you score blue, then blue and green, then blue, green, grey, and pink over the various hands. It creates a nice puzzle of when you ideally draft cards. Very fast, light, but fun game that gives you enough to think about.

8. Point Salad

Point Salad is another drafting game, this one where you are trying to get the most points possible. This is a play off of euro games where everything you do gets you points, which is there point salad comes from. In this case you are either drafting cards that make up your salad, two of them on a turn, or a card that will give you points based off of what you have in your salad. The only question is can you balance getting cards that give you positive points for the vegetables that you have. Good game with the simple concept but that adds in enough to think about.

7. Draftosaurus

This is going simpler than say Point Salad or Parade, but not by much. I call this game a roll and write, even though you aren’t writing anything down. Instead you are drafting dinosaur meeples and placing them onto your board. You do roll an die and that decides where the dinosaur can be placed. Each dinosaur pen gives different points. The game plays in about 15 minutes and it’s one that you’ll reset and play again. This one is really good if you just don’t want to think about much of anything until later in the game because the first few picks will determine what you need.

6. Metro X

I didn’t want to put too many roll and write games on the list, but a lot of them make good pallet cleansers. So I picked ones that could be played solo and pretty quickly. I really like Metro X as a pallet cleanser because you do have interesting choices to make. The bus routes interconnect and when you hit a filled in bus route that stops your placement. So you need to get skips which allow you to pass over stuff, and you need to optimally place your filled in stops. And a game takes 15 minutes solo.

5. Ganz Schon Clever

Yes, it’s another roll and write, and this might be one people thought of first. I do have one higher on the list. This is a good one because, one there is a very nice app, but too it is very satisfying. You get a lot of combos in the game, so you can plan out or take huge turns as you fill in everything you can. It’s a good puzzle to figure out, and even when you’ve figured it out, it’s a good puzzle to optimize. The follow-ups, Doppelt So Clever, and Clever Hoch Drei are also really good pallet cleansers, but I didn’t want only roll and writes.

4. Railroad Ink Challenge

The final roll and write on the list, this one I like because it provides a bit more variability for a roll and write, and again a nice app. The variability comes from the challenges that you have, which can really shape your game, if you let it. It challenges you to try and get them done because 12 points is solid and you have a timer in this game for when you can get those points. The original would also work if I wanted something a bit lighter to play without the challenges.

In the game, though, you are trying to connect bus and train routes around your board. You get points for going through the middle spots but also the more you connect. And you can use special things to fill in spots a few times a game. There’s just enough to make this game really fascinating to play.

3. Hanamikoji

By far the thinkiest game on the list, a two player on game that plays fast, Hanamikoji was one of the first ones that I thought of. In this one you are trying to win the favor of seven different Geisha or at least the majority, but giving them gifts. Generally at the end of one round the player with the most favor wins, but it can take several rounds to reach a win threshold.

But to give them gives you have four actions you can take and you can take each one once a round. The are discarding two cards that won’t be used face down, playing a card face down that will be used as a gift, giving three cards for your opponent to pick one from, and letting your opponent pick between two sets of two cards. That’s it, but there’s so much to think about that it makes the game very challenging. It might be too thinky for some people. At least to be a true pallet cleanser.

2. A Gentle Rain

The last two games are purely solo games, this is the lighter of the two. In this game you are just flipping out a tile and matching it on the board. You are trying to create spots where all four corners meet. At least if there were corners, there aren’t but when you do complete that, you can place a disc into the open spot. The goal is to get all of the discs onto the board. It’s simple in what you do, there is a little strategy, and just enough to keep your mind engaged as you play. Only downside I have with it is that it takes up a bunch of space.

1. Orchard

Finally, no shock, we have Orchard. This game makes you think more than A Gentle Rain does. The dice placement piece works so well. And I love the card placement as well. In this game you stack cards so like trees cover each other, when you do, you place a die. The higher the stack of overlapping you can make, the more that tree produces. It’s just playing down 9 cards, but you need to think about each placement. And you just see if you can beat your previous score. But I love to sit down and play this one on repeat while watching sports.

What games do you like to sit down with when you want to play something fast that keeps you still engaged? And do you play board games to ever clear you mind like I do?

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