We’re still going through August’s games. There were a lot that I got played, some in person and mainly online on my way to 1000 Games rated on Board Game Geek. What games make the list this time and are they good games. That is always the trick as I find more to play. Some standout to me as ones I want to come back to. Others are duds, so let’s see what else is on the list.

New Games in August Part 3

Dragon Overload

Dragon Overload is a two player lane battling game that gives me some feeling of Lost Cities. And there are a lot of these games where you battle over lanes or different areas. But I think that Dragon Overload has some really good twists on it.

Firstly, you only score a row if your opponent has at least half the value that you have in that row. So you can be sneaking about that. How, you might ask, because you can play some cards face down. But you can only do that three times per game, so you need to be smart with that.

Then you also give your opponent a card from that column that is face-up. Not one of yours, but one that gets flipped into the middle. So you need to be strategic about if you give them a good number or not. And that is nice and tricky to think about. But also strategic, because one of the lose conditions is if you can’t play a card. So maybe your opponent already has three greens in play, you try and overload their hand so they can’t play. Doesn’t happen often, but is a fun addition to these type of games.

Yokai Pagoda

On of my favorite games from August. We’ll see where it falls down below. But this one is a card shedding game. You want to end up with no cards, or low scoring cards in your hand. To do this you need to play cards out that match the number to one of two different temples. Then you can give a card to your opponent.

But what happens if you can’t. If you can’t and you need to play higher, you can play, but you then draw a new card to add to your hand. If you can’t match the number but can play lower, then you can still get rid of a card. And you can also call the end to the round, as long as you are scoring three or fewer points. And after three rounds, the fewest points wins.

Top 5 Games from August

August was a fun month when it came to games. I found a lot of them that I enjoyed quite well. And some that were complete misses for me. It’s rare for me to find a game like L.L.A.M.A. that I dislike so much. But what games make my Top 5 for the month, and a quick reason why. You know about them because you read the last two articles, but let’s see what was good overall.

5. Questline

I like the story element of the game and how fast the game is to play. Now, I think with games like this one it’ll go higher the more I play it and the more people I play it with. With two you just see too few cards.

4. The Happiest Cat in the World

I like cats and I like games, so great combination. And I think that it is a good one. I feel like I need to play this one in person to see if I love it. Because there is a lot of scoring. And when you play a lot on your phone that makes it harder.

3. Dragon Overload

Dragon Overload, you can read about that one above. Whenever it’s a longer paragraph you know that I like it. But this one is just a great lane battler and I like those sort of games. And I think that this one gives me that feeling of a Schotten Totten or Lost Cities. But I like it better than Lost Cities for sure.

2. Forest Shuffle: Smoky Mountain

I like the Forest Shuffle games. I like the first one, I like the expansions and I like Dartmoor. So I think there is no surprise that I like this one. And because it is Smoky Mountains I know a few more of the animals as compared to Dartmoor.

1. Yokai Pagoda

Finally is Yokai Pagoda my top of all the games from August. This one just works for me. I didn’t mention how scoring works, but whatever you end up with in your hand, only the lowest cards score. And that is a great twist for the game and makes the game change as you play because those cards stay out of the deck for future rounds.

Is there a game that you want to know more about or read a full review on, let me know. There are so many August games, 22 in total. And I could give you a solid review on most of them. I even played L.L.A.M.A. twice just to see if I made a mistake in not liking that game. The answer is no, I really don’t like that game.

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