April is another month with fewer games in it. And honestly, I’m okay with that because it was a busy month. I expect that it’ll be a bit slower on my way to 1000 Games rated on Board Game Geek with only 15-20 per month. But that’s still a ton of new games played and I’m excited to see what gems I find along the way.

April Part 2

Charuma

Charuma is a trick taking bidding game where you bid on the hand of cards that you want to take. That bidding then takes away points from you. I like trick-taking a lot, but this game just fell flat for me. Bidding and trick-taking is just okay. I like elements of it like the hidden two cards in your hand. And the tricks with two cards instead of one are cool. But the game is just limited in what it does.

Bunny Kingdom

Bunny Kingdom is a wonderful game. I love the drafting and area control in the game. And then trying to create huge groups is great. Plus you score points for carrots that you get and other ways in the game. This one is just a ton of fun and is one that I’d like to add to my collection. I really enjoy drafting and this one gives you more than just drafting but not too much.

Kelp: Shark vs Octopus

I’ve heard only good things about this two player game Kelp. So did it live up to my expectations about it. I’d say it was so-so for that. It is a fun cat and mouse game of keeping the Octopus away from the shark by using and then hiding tiles and trying to mess-up the sharks perception of what is going on. I’ve only played on the octopus side by the way. But it’s not one that I strongly want to come back to.

Nemesis: Retaliation

Last article, or maybe two ago, I spoke about Zombicide 2nd Edition and how that’s a great beer and pretzels game. I think that Nemesis is as well, but I’ve only played it on BGA. And on BGA it’s just tricky to keep track of everything. And I want to learn more about how to optimize what I’m doing which is hard to do when it’s sitting there as a turn you need to take. I love the theme and I think when I play my copy of base Nemesis that I’ll like the game.

The Wolves

The Wolves is a game that technically I’d accidentally rated before. But I got my first play in, in April. The Wolves is all about building out your wolf pack, dens and scoring points for how well you can do that. I like the two action system and the card system for actions. You need to be able to flip the correct land type, and enough of them, to do an action. So you need to figure out your turn and set-up your actions in the right order. I like that sort of puzzle in games, so the Wolves is a solid game.

FlipWars

There are a lot of newer two player games coming out. And FlipWars is one of them. This game reminds me of a simpler Neroshima Hex. I mean that in a good way, though both of the games are just okay for me. I’m more apt to play this one. You play on a grid and each of your troops has the ability to flip an enemy, kind of like Othello, but they do it in a certain pattern. So you want to flip them in ways that your opponent who has the same tile pool just the other color can’t. It’s fun quick strategy game.

Pick-omino

Blah, this game did nothing for me. A dice rolling push your luck domino game is all it is. It’s purely luck and sometimes you get a great roll but if you don’t roll the symbol to be able to collect a domino, nothing you can do but give it back. It’s mainly a game of frustration of poor rolls. Definitely not one for me.

DNUP

I didn’t love DNUP the first time that I played it. It’s like some other games, Scout for example, where you aren’t allowed to rearrange your hand of cards. And depending on which way your hand is, you get different numbers, also like Scout. It’s also card shedding, like Scout. So you see some similarities between it and another game. Scout, for me, just offers a bit of a better game. Though I’ve come around on DNUP as a fun game and simpler to learn than Scout.

Spyworld

Final from my games of April is Spyworld. This is a roll and write style game where you are building out a grid of traps and treasure that your enemies, the other players, agents will get a chance to go through. It works well, it tries to do some things like Welcome To, and gives you some interactions, at least at the end of the game, like Cartographers. The issue is, I’d prefer to play either of those this game.

My Top 5 Games of April

5. TROK

TROK is just a solid game, maybe a bit long for what it is, but just solid. And it’s a good drafting game because if you do it well, you get something you really want. If you do it poorly, you still get something. I wish that the cards felt more impactful in terms of powers because feels like you can just get points.

4. FlipWars

Othello but war with some Neroshima Hex mixed in, feels like a game that I like and I think that it is. It’s one that I’m considering buying just because it is so fast to play and works really well. I don’t think it’s out yet, though, so it’s on my wish list.

3. Zombicide 2nd Edition

I love Zombicide. I already knew that though, coming into the game. And just basing this off of playing it on BGA, it falls here. If I were to play it in person, it might be my #1 on the list. But I’m always just going to play Marvel Zombies instead. But if you want a Zombicide game, I certainly can recommend this one.

2. Bunny Kingdom

Drafting is a mechanism that I love so much. And this game is cute and fun and mean as you draft from the hands of cards. I really want to get this one just because I think I have a number of folks in my game group who would find it a lot of fun. Plus so many bunnies that come int he box.

1. Splendor Duel

I think I like Splendor Duel better than Bunny Kingdom but it’s close. Splendor Duel is just such a wonderful game, in my opinion. The drafting works and the different winning objectives make it more strategic and interesting than regular Splendor. Though, I own the Pokemon Splendor so I need to give that one a whirl as well

Which is your favorite of these or would you like to see a full review on?

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