Let’s continue with the new to me games from August. Part 1 went out yesterday and you can see 10 games that I played. But what other games did I play for the month? I’m now at 990 games rated on Board Game Geek (plus expansions) and almost 900 just when you count games. But are all of them this month good? Or are there some duds on the list? Join me for the next 10 games.

New To Me August Games Part 2

Wizards of the Grimoire

I know that Wizards of the Grimoire is one of those games that I would like. And I did enjoy it. It’s a game about building combos in cards to deal damage to your opponent. The trick here is that you are getting more cards and adding them to a grid. As you add them they might give you resources or they might attack and you need to get the cards to trigger to deal that damage. It reminds me of Res Arcana, but as a battler. The issue is, I think that Res Arcana is a better game and I want to play that one instead. Plus, how many of this sort of game can I own, and I own a handful already.

All You Can Eat Buffet

Now for a tasty game with All You Can Eat Buffet. With food games I often get hungry, but this one didn’t make me feel that way as much. That’s mainly because this is more of a row manipulation game. You pick a mood for your eater for the round. And that is going to give you a plate to play in front of you. And each plate of food and type of food on that plate is going to score in some way. So I like that strategy for the game, but it’s not a game with a ton of depth to it. One that I’d gladly play again though, which is a good sign.

Pet Quartet

Pet Quartet is a game that is hard to rate for me. I think the concept is interesting and it’s from GameHead and I like their games. The reason that it is hard to rate is that I’ve only played the game at two players. I think that Pet Quartet is probably going to be more interesting with more, because I do think the core concept of the game is good.

You either want to get a quartet of a type of pet or a soloist. But to do that you need to take a column of pets. How do you get a column, well on your turn you either draw a card and add it to a column or you take one. And once you take one you are done with the round. At two players you lose a little bit of variety in the game that I expect with more.

Pocket Cats

Pocket Cats is an odd little game. But one that I think is pretty good for what is mainly an abstract game. If you read my stuff, you know I don’t love most abstract games. But this one feels like it’s a little more interesting. You flip up cards in a grid. And each card is going to let you move that card in some way. You want your cats to end up next to mice so you get points at the end of the game. But you want to avoid being by dogs. It’s not complex but it works well.

Questline

Questline, like Pet Quartet, is one of my Gen Con delivery games. And those are the first two that I got to the table. I have to say, I think that Questline is a fun game. In this game you, in real time, are trying to order cards in your hand so that you get the best scoring questline. Basically the best sort of heroes journey. Now, like Pet Quartet, I’ve only played this at two. And with two, one player might go faster than the other.

This matters in the game because you can take cards to add to your questline from other player’s discard piles. If there is only one other to draw from, one player can sit back a little bit longer. Because when you draw a new card you also discard a card. And you can only have so many cards in your discard. So at two on player might just have to end whereas with more, it’d give more options.

Texas Bingo

Texas Bingo is a game that I feel like I’ve played before. Knister is the game that I’d compare it to. And both of them are poker hand roll and write sort of games. In Texas Bingo you are making your best scoring poker hands in five rows, columns, and two diagonals. Whereas with Knister you are rolling dice, so you can get a five of a kind, for example, here it is flipping from a standard deck of cards. And it’s fine, I think that Knister does so much the same thing and better.

Under the Leaves

I like drafting games. And Under the Leaves is a fun drafting game of completing groups of leaves and then getting tokens, which score as you build out your grid. I like the game, but I won’t way that I love it. The scoring elements are fine, and the game play is simple but fine as well. I wish that I felt like I had more and better decisions to make in the game. All the decisions are pretty similar throughout the game and most very simple.

Happiest Cat in the World

I like tableau building games.. And I find that I play a lot of them and a lot of them are enjoyable. In this one you are building out a room/rooms for your cat so that they can be happy. How are they happy, well, depending on what is in each room different scoring things happen. And the cat with the most points at the end of the game is the winner. What is making this game tempting to me is the theme. I think that it’s a fun game, but doesn’t stand out a ton, but it’s probably one my game group would like. And I will enjoy playing it more.

Rest In Peace

Rest In Peace surprised me as a pretty fun game. It is a two player back and forth game of trying to win a certain number of lanes. And you play the lanes from left to right, so you need to decide when to make a push and when to let your opponent win so you get the benefit. It reminds me of games like Cardia and Wizard Cup. And I think that Cardia is more interesting for sure. But I had fun with this one and I’d be happy to play it again.

Lady and the Tiger

Lady and the Tiger is a fine game. It’s kind of a bluffing game of taking turns trying to guess the two things on your opponents hidden card. They, on the other hand, are trying to keep that hidden and keep you confused until they have four of that played out in front of them. I played it once, I thought it was fine, I really am not interested in playing it again.

That’s it for part two of my August games. So many out there to play and so little time. But hopefully with these articles you find games that you want to play. And let me know which ones interest you the most.

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