We’re coming to the end of January finally for games that I’ve played that are new to me. Again, just a reminder, which you probably don’t need if you’ve been following along, these are games on the way to 100 Games plays. Part six of these games is much shorter, only five on this part of the list, which means 55 games that were rated in January for the first time. Let’s see which ones wrap up the month, and which ones for the month of January were my highlights.

January Part 6

Stone Age

Stone Age is a stone cold classic when it comes to board games (all puns intended). And I found that I enjoy this game quite well. I originally rated it a 7.5 but after more plays, I think it’s an 8 for me. One element that I really like is the spending as many workers as you want/can on an action. That gives the game more than just a straightforward place a worker get a benefit feel.

Dewan

Dewan is a very new game this year, and I thought it was okay. It’s a game about expanding your civilization through card play and completing goals as you go. It just didn’t stand out to me as a game that I felt was that exciting to play. Maybe with more plays I’d find that I enjoy it more. But nothing made me feel like, I should go back to this game.

Up or Down?

This is probably the game I’ve played most from the ones that I learned in January. Up or Down? is a simple game where you are adding numbers to columns and the columns either go up or down in number. But you score more points depending on two things, the number of cards in the column and then multiply that by the most common color in the column. It’s simple but it works well and reminds me of Onitama but easier understand the scoring.

Finca

Finca is a game that was actually in my collection and my one play of it was enough. Mainly because the game is fine. The mechanisms work well and it’s pretty light and easy to learn. But that’s the highlight of it, nothing about it made me super excited for the set collection and controlling areas aspect of it. It’s one of those games where I’m glad that I played it once, but don’t feel the need to come back to it, because you see what the game has to offer off of one play.

Azure

The final game is Azure. And this one almost beat out Up or Down? for the most plays. I think that I like it the best out of the highlight games from this part of the January games. Azure is a game of area control and scoring points. You play out stones to draw cards and score points. Then you use those cards to put out more stones. But if you place in a row or column where you have a stone, you get a card discount. It’s simple, but very good strategy, and there are bonuses you get in each area. But it isn’t so much that it makes it too complex.

January’s Highlight Games

So which games are the best for me? Let’s see which ones would make my Top 5.

5. Azul

This one is so simple but a lot of fun to play. I’m not sure why I drew a line with it and Sagrada and only had one of them. Now I own both and I enjoy them for different reasons even if there is an element of filling in areas that feels similar.

4. Azure

Azure is just a cool game that works really when it comes to an abstract game. The powers that you can go after are fun. And when you can line-up enough stones to get to one of big scoring points, it feels great. It also feels like you aren’t out of the game, even if it starts to get lopsided, because you are probably building towards big points.

3. Popcorn

Popcorn is a game that works so well on theme. Really this game is about optimizing your movie theater to score you points, but I love the movies, I love the theming of the game. And the game itself is not too complex to learn.

2. Regicide

Regicide is a great solo or multiplayer puzzle of a game as you try and take out all the face cards. It’s so simple to learn and play, but also the game is so challenging to beat. It’s where I want a good solo game to be at, hard to beat but fun to play and quick to play. If it was a longer game and I lost a ton, it’d probably be less loved by me.

1. FlipToons

FlipToons is an amazing game. I love how a bunch of games are kind of in the auto-battler genre of games. But FlipToons is one that stands out because it adds in a bunch more. And it’s less a battler and more of an auto-scorer game. You build out that deck of cards and try to optimize your scoring. It feels like 30 is a big number and then all of a sudden you are there.

What of the games of January stands out to you as one you want to play or hear more about?

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