We made it through January with it’s 55 games that were rated for the first time that month. Now some of them, you’ll probably notice, were not new to me, but were rated in that month. Once we get past January, basically everything is going to be new. So let’s see how many new games I got to the table on my way to 1000 Games rated on Board Game Geek when it comes to February. Here are the first 10.

February Games

Chimera Station

This is a game that had caught my interest a while ago, and after playing it, I think it’s an okay game. It’s a worker placement game where you’re workers are aliens that you can swap out body parts on. That part of the game is fun, but I feel like some is lost with that playing it on BGA. On BGA I think that it’s an okay game. I wonder if I were to play it in person I’d like it better because of the tactile elements.

Knarr

Knarr got played on BGA and in person. I like this game, it’s kind of an engine building game as you play out Vikings to score points, and then you spend them to complete cards and score more points that way. The game play is easy, but I feel like it’s a lot of fun, and a good filler type of game. I don’t mean that the game is super light, there are good decisions to be made, but it’s not a long game and it’s easy to learn.

Space Lab

Space Lab seemed like a very cool idea for a game. You got cards that you used to fill in around labs. When you got what they wanted, you got bonuses, and depending on where you placed cards, other bonuses. But it’s a game that ended up just feeling like it was an okay game. Nothing stood out to me about the game other than that I think the artwork is really nice on it.

Niagara

I don’t like Niagara. It’s a game where you can mess with the weather, go sailing over the edge of the falls and lose stuff. It’s just a game that feels punishing without it feeling all that clever as you play. And then the game is just too long. Now some of that is on BGA it takes a while, but for what it is, it should be a really fast game and it wasn’t.

Please Don’t Burn My Village

A fun set collection game that’s really light. I say that, but it works. You are getting a lot of cards, and as you play out sets you move up or down what those sets are on the scoring track. So you want to get as many points as you can by playing out big groups and having those big groups be worth more points at the end of the game. But you only play out one group of every item and even that you won’t do. It’s one that I think I want to add to my collection.

Obsession

Obsession is a game that people talk about a lot. And I will say that I like it based off of the one play that I had of it. But it is just one play. And the game is pretty complex, so I don’t feel like I totally wrapped my head around it. It’s one of those games that has just enough complexity that I think I’d do better with it in person so I could be reading cards more easily between turns.

Tembo: Survival on the Savanna

Meh the elephant game. I think that there are elements that are interesting to the game. But for a cooperative game about going through the history of an elephant and moving around the board, it feels like a lot of work without the theme in there. I get where they try and infuse that into the game, but I didn’t feel the pressure like a good cooperative game and I didn’t feel that the game is that dynamic.

Tucano

Tucano is my sort of light silly little game. This one is a set collection game from, I believe, the same company that made the ninja rock paper scissors game. Tucano is fast in how it plays and there is an element that I really like about it. I like how you take the cards of one of three piles and then three cards get added, one to each pile. So a poorly scoring pile can become more tempting. It’s a good filler game with light strategy to it, but one I want to get.

Mini Rogue

Mini Rogue is a one or more player little dungeon crawler game. It’s one that plays fast, but lets you level up, fight monsters and have abilities. I think that works well for a game for me because I don’t feel like it’s too much to handle. The one downside is that the cards scale. The scaling is good and needed as you get further into the dungeon, but you see the same cards multiple times, I wish there was more variety.

Ride the Rails

Ride the Rails is a train/stock game. Kind of the first one that I really played of this style of game and one of the lighter ones. It isn’t an 18xx game. But one that I feel like I should learn again and play a few times in a row. The downside is there is a stock and railway game that I like better than this so do I want to spend the time on it, not really.

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