It’s a little bit later as I start this months new to me games. Or I should say that I start Augusts new to me games. But it was a busy start to the month and I write all my articles on Mondays, so I couldn’t on Labor Day. So I am back to it now. Let’s talk about the games that I have rated and played on my way to 1000 board games rated on Board Game Geek. Right now I am at 990 games and expansions rated.

August Board Games Part 1

Abandon All Artichokes

Let’s start out with one of the light and fast games that I learned. And it’s an okay game. I think that the premise is a good one for that family or less gamer sort of game. This one is about trying to get rid of artichokes from your hand. And if you can, at the start of the turn draw a hand with no artichokes you win the game. That’s all there is too the game, but it’s fun, it works.

Chococonnect

Chococonnect reminds me of a lot of Gigamic games, but it isn’t. From Snovid, this one is about trying to get chocolates in a row in a chocolate box. And the game is just okay because of that. You want to get chocolates in a row and depending on the type of chocolate you need to get so many in a row. So you want to play a defensive game where you are keeping your opponent from winning. But because you don’t know what chocolate you might draw it’s just okay. Sometimes you just end up setting them up and then they draw the right chocolate.

L.L.A.M.A.

This is a bad game. Now, I know that a lot of people like this game. But there aren’t that many games that I rate a two. But I rate L.L.A.M.A. a two. I find nothing fun with the game. It is just luck and not interesting luck. Do you have what you need in your hand at that moment, great. If not, that sucks. It reminds me of Uno in all the worst ways.

Habitats

I find Habitats to be a fun game. I like games where you are building out a grid to score points. And Habitats does it in a good way. Now, do I love it, not really. But I think that’s more because I own a lot of grid building and scoring games. The main element that makes Habitats feel unique is how you get your tiles by driving around and that being a limiting factor. That isn’t enough for me to jump at buying it, but I’d gladly play it again.

Vizia

Vizia is a color pattern creating sort of game. You play out triangles into hexagons and you want to get certain sorts of color patterns together. I like some pattern building games, but that is all this game is. Honestly, can’t say much more about it than that, I wish the game was better, but it doesn’t do anything interesting.

Marrakech

Marrakech is a game that has been on my list to play for a long time. I actually own it, but I haven’t played my copy. This game is all about building out a nice little rug collection and getting your opponents to land on it. Of course, then they cover up some of your rugs. It’s a good amount of decision making while still have some luck to it as well. I had fun with it, but I wouldn’t call it amazing.

216

216 is a luck based dice game. You roll 3 dice and you are trying to match the outcomes on some cards. I like die rolling in my games fairly often, but this one is just roll dice and see what happens. There is some mitigation in cards that you can get, but not enough to make that game super interesting.

Forest Shuffle: Smoky Mountains

I debated if I should put Forest Shuffle Smoky Mountains on the list. I love the Forest Shuffle games. And I own the first game and expansions. But I didn’t pick up Dartmoor yet. I think that I am more apt to pick up Smoky Mountains to add to my collection out of these games. This is a lot of fun and the rivers and fish element to the game add to the fun for me. I know some people have complained about a few scoring things, but it makes the game a bit more interactive instead of just building out your own scoring tableau.

Reef Garden

Reef Gardens is a pretty looking game that is really an area control game. You want to place out your reef tokens to gain control of areas so that you score the points for them. All while balancing bringing back up divers to get money to go diving again and placing more coral tokens. The game is probably better looking than it is playing. I found the play to be simple enough that I don’t feel like I want to come back to it. Simple games are good, but I need a better decision space.

Via Gladiola

A game about marching. I think that this game is pretty okay. It’s not complex and it falls into that category of card game, where in this case you are playing numbers low to high, where you want to get rid of them. But it you don’t have a number, you draw. I don’t mind that for a game, but it also is just not that exciting when it comes to games. I think there is more fun in this, and that’s because of the push your luck element than the other simple card game L.L.A.M.A. But it’s still not one that has me interested in trying it again.

So there we have it, part one of the games that I played for the first time in August. We’ll see when I get to 1000 rated when expansions, probably September, maybe October. But either way the journey continues. And thanks for joining me on it.

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