We’re onto July now, that means that all my new to me games have wrapped up for June. It’s not as many as some times, but let’s talk about those games that I got played. And of course, they are all games that are helping me get to 1000 Games rated on Board Game Geek, BGG. So let’s see what those are and which ones stood out.

June New To Me Games (Part 1)

Fugitive

Fugitive is a pretty fun game of cat and mouse. One person is the fugitive, the other is the law. The fugitive player plays out cards to try and get from 1 to, I believe, 42. But they can only go so far, at least go so far without playing extra cards. The playing of the extra cards gives the law player an idea of what number they might be on. The law then guesses a or several numbers to see if they are right. But if you guess several you need to get all of them right. It’s simple, it’s fast, and it’s decent in terms of that cat and mouse. I think I’d like it better in person.

Bunny Kingdom Town

This is one of the games that I now own. Or I should say I will own, I have a copy waiting for me, this and Bunny Kingdom, at a local game store, just need to swing in and get it. Bunny Kingdom is great at more than 2, and Bunny Kingdom Town is the two player version. I like how simple it is, drafting tiles and placing them. But there is also good strategy as you try and smartly build out your town to get a large group and trigger the best point scoring options that you can.

Dice Throne: Vanguard

I love Dice Throne so I know I’m going to like these characters and I do. But after having played it twice, I’m not sure that the Vanguard characters are going to be my favorite. They do some very interesting things and offer fun puzzles to them. But mechanically I’m not sure that they are my favorite. The Forgemaster, for example, forges armor and that upgrades their defense and what they do each time attacked. But it’s at the cost of some other upgrades in the deck, so that’s fun, just not as fun as I had hoped.

YRO

This was a cool battling game that I was pretty impressed by. I’m not sure I’m going to pick it up, but I liked how it worked. You faced off against your opponents but as you did that, you get points for beating them and for how you have your team set-up. And then you keep on adding to your team, though you might lose some in the fight. I like it on BGA because it’s doing some of the bookkeeping for you. In person, I think I’d get it quickly, but it’d be a bit more of a learning curve.

Tinners’ Trail

Tinners’ Trail is an interesting resource selling game. You’re bidding on mines, mining them, and adding upgrades to them in an attempt to sell at the right time and get the most money and points. The BGA implementation is very solid for it, though I messed up on one part because it’s not very visually obvious. But I like how the game works, it’s not too complex, but there are good moments where you try and get your opponent to bid something up more, but that might mean you get stuck with it. One I want to play more.

P.I.

This is a game that should be better in person. Mainly because it’s a deduction game of trying to solve several cases and you need to guess right fastest to get the most points, but if you guess wrong you are losing points. The downside to this game is that it’s kind of long, at least on BGA. And the game doesn’t change from round to round, you just do the same thing three times. I think it’d be better in person, but it’s not a super dynamic deduction game.

Verdant

Verdant is the third game in the line of Calico and Cascadia. It’s another tile laying, those this time cards as tiles where you are trying to get your house plants in the right spot. It’s fun, but I like the others better. It is kind of in between how restrictive and tight Calico can feel, which I love that feeling. And how friendly and welcoming Cascadia is. For that reason, while it’s a lot of fun, I think that I don’t want it for my collection like I do with the other two.

The Bloody Inn

The Bloody Inn is a game with a great theme. You are running and Inn trying to make the most money you can, but sometimes the easiest way to do that is kill off your guest and bury them. Of course you need space to do that. It’s one that I have been wanting to play for a long time. And I’ll say, it feels like there is more going on than expected. But it was also my first time playing it, so I’m pretty sure I didn’t optimize my strategy at all. I want to try it in person just so I can spend more time with it and not have as much time between turns.

Taluva

Taluva is a game that I’d never have checked out myself, but because someone wanted to learn it I did. And I thought it was pretty fun. You are placing out tiles and layering them to try and get your temples, towers, and tribe played out faster than the other players. But you can only play out some of those fancier buildings if they are in the right configuration and on the right level. It’s not one that I strongly want to come back to, but it’s a fun puzzle as you play.

FlipToons Season 2

Finally for this section is a game that I really love in FlipToons and the second season of it. That just means that there are more cards and you need to figure out what combos work best with those. I almost didn’t put it on the list just because it’s more of the same thing to play. But like Dice Throne Vanguard, it is it’s own stand alone thing. You don’t need to play it with the original game, though you can and that is going to be fun to mix and match and see how different combos work.

That’s it for this part of June. I have more games to talk about as well which I’ll do tomorrow. Is there one of these games that you really want to try?

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