So let’s get going on the road to 1000 board games and talk about the ones that I’ve played this year. And this is just going to be part 1 for January. Why, because there are so many board games that I played in January it isn’t even funny, or it might be if you find that sort of thing funny. January has 31 new to me games, somehow got one per day. Though, some of those games did start in December and ended in January.

January Games (First 10)

Altay: Dawn of Civilization

Altay is a fine game, for me, though I know other people love it. It’s a game about expanding your civilization and completing goals. You do this by playing out cards that allow you to move and allow you to settle. It’s one that I should probably give another go to see if I like it better than I did to start. But in terms of games where you have that expansion and things like that, it’s going to just be a fine game for me. One that I’d play but not seek out.

Astseria

Asteria is another one of those okay board games. This game is a card playing game where you are trying to build out your dominance across planets. It’s an interesting idea because each card is going to give you four things that you can do with it. I like that about it a lot, it makes it thinkier in what you are doing that way for a game with only a few components. But the game play itself is not that interesting and I wish what there was more to do in the game.

Castles of Caleira

This is a sitting building game where you are trying to build out your strongest castle. Of course, your opponents can mess with the castle. It’s another one of those games that is just okay for me. I wish I could say that I liked it more. It reminds me in some ways of some of the solo games that you can get from Button Shy Games, but this one is multiplayer. It’s just now interesting enough when it comes to intereactions.

Cathood

Cathood again is another game that is okay. And that is a shame because I love cats. so I think that this one hurts more compared to the other games. This one is all about moving your cat around town, collecting resources and trading those in and getting bonuses. But there are rules around how you can move. Overall, the game just felt too mechanical to me and the theme doesn’t really fit with the mechanisms.

Cosmoctopus

This is the first of the games on the list that I’m tempted to buy. Mainly because this one is a pretty simple game, again collecting resources, but it’s done in a fun, light, and silly way with the tentacles and just the goal of the game. Plus I really like engine building and this one has some fun engine building to it. I think that it’s likely I will pick this one up at some point because I suspect I’ll like it even better in person.

Dog Lover

Dog Lover is another animal themed game, and generally those are lighter games. It’s a fine game for me. Again, it falls into that category like so many on the list. Nothing it did really stood out to me except collecting resources and how that works. I like the mechanism of selecting a row and being limited on how you can select that row or column. But there are other games, Quadropolis and Meadow, which I like a whole lot better for that.

Dragon Eclipse: Mystling Academy

This is a game that I need to play in person. Not the Mystling Academy, the small version, but my big Dragon Eclipse. It’s one that I should clear off the game table and get that set-up to stream. Because I think I’m going to like the game with story and playing solo a lot. But as a two player battling game with Mystlings, dragons with powers, it was okay on BGA.

Challengers!

Challengers! is another game that I own and one that I like a lot on BGA. It’s the first game out of all of these that I’ve rated an 8. Though, the last two in this 10 are 8’s or higher. But Challengers! is an interesting game because it’s an autobattling game. You create a deck of characters and have them play capture the flag basically. But when it’s down to capture the flag, that’s just flipping until you flip a character total value that beats your opponents. You play a few rounds across all opponents to see who the winner is.

Galactic Cruise

Galactic Cruise is an 8 for me as well. This is one of the big games that I have learned this year. It’s all about launching your spaceships and scoring points as you attract guests and see what you can get done. I like it and I want to own it. But it’s a massive, expensive, deluxe board game. Now not as expensive as some of the campaign games I buy, but you know, a lot aren’t. I really like the theme and mechanisms and I think I’d get the strategy even better in person.

FlipToons

Finally my 9 on the list. It feels like I’ve been playing this one longer than just this year. And it’s possible that I have and just bumped up my rating. But i don’t think so, this is another kind of auto-battler type game. Except you aren’t battling in this game. Instead you make your best deck of cards and you are trying to score points from a 3 wide and 2 tall grid. But each card is going to score you points in different ways. Simple, but fun for me.

Final Thoughts

Now I said that this is only going to be 31 games. I suspect it’ll be a little bit higher because I probably have adjusted some ratings. If that’s the case, that’s okay, you get to see a few extra board games. But let me know which one from this group of 10 your favorite of the games that I’ve played.

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