Top 5 Games New to Me in 2022

Now, I will say that this is the best of my knowledge. And I already adjusted it once because sometimes, I have games where I got them in 2021, or before, and I just played them this year. And I can see when I modified games last on BGG, but I of course can’t sort when I rated them which is what I’d really want.

5. Lost Ruins of Arnak

This one I know I owned for a while but I played it at GenCon for the first time, and it was great. I’ve played it a few more times since then, and I want to get it back to the table as I’m talking about it now. It’s a game of putting out workers, getting resources, and then going on adventures, which just give you more resources. But it’s a fun resource generation puzzle to optimize your points.

I think it would have missed the list if not for the expedition leaders. The game is a lot of fun without that expansion. But with that expansion, it is just that much better. You all start off with your own powers and abilities which changes up how you attack the game. And it’s fun to start out different like that and then go even further as you build out your deck.

4. Trek 12

Trek 12 was a roll and write that I hoped would be fun. I heard about it and thought, mountain climbing is interesting. Then I played it the first time, and I didn’t love it at all. In fact, that first play is on camera, and you can see why I don’t love it. I’m played the game twice, once for myself and once for an AI that isn’t that interesting to play. So it’s just busy work for me to play for them.

But then I played it multiplayer. I knew that the solo experience wasn’t the best, so how would it be with more people, and it was a lot of fun. What I do in the game doesn’t change at all, but what I don’t do, that extra work, goes away. And I can focus in on what I want to do in the game, not something else. It makes it way more fun.

3. Black Sonata

Black Sonata is a solo only hidden movement game. That sounds like it shouldn’t work, but it really does. You set-up a deck of cards that determines how the mysterious lady in black moves. And you are going around, tracking symbols as to where she is going, trying to catch up to her and gain clues. As you gain clues, then you can start to piece together who she might be.

It’s a bit of set-up for a solo game, but the game play is really interesting. And there is an expansion that I own but I haven’t played yet. I need to get that one to the table again and try it with the expansion to see how that works.

2. Final Girl

Another solo only game, we have Final Girl. This is a theme that I just love. It’s a horror movie and you are the final girl, the one who will survive to the end, but will you actually make it alive out the movie? Van Ryder Games got that into a small box with lots of different types of horror movies that you can add on.

It is a tough game to beat and mechanically driven. But with that said, it is still a good story game. You create the movie as you go, some story elements happen, but what do you find? Do you get a good weapon, or do you find a flashlight? That all comes down to what you look for and where you look. Who all do you rescue, and can you defeat the killer, ghost, whatever it is, in the end.

1. Destinies

And at #1 we have Destinies. Th is is a game that I knew I was going to like. It’s a story driven competitive game, which is different. But Destinies has you looking for your characters destiny in an old world where monsters exist. Can you get your destiny before another player gets theirs?

The game uses and app and the app is great. It allows the story to come up and get handled nicely without flipping through books, and allows you to try a lot of options without spoiling anything. And the game play is pretty simple but clever. It is a push your luck dice system where you can decide how many dice to roll to see what level of success you get. I really like how it works.

Final Thoughts

2022 was a great year for me for gaming. I’ve played 97 new to me games this year and about the same in games I’ve already played before. A lot of those were at GenCon, but I’ve gotten a number into my collection as well. And there are more coming in. I could almost, maybe, do a true Top 100 of just new to me games. And some of them I want to get back to the table, and others, not so much.

Plus, I look at my shelf and I see what games could have been played, which ones I still need to get tabled that likely would have made the list. Or they could have made the list potentially. What new to you games were your favorite in 2022?

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100 through 91 here.

90 through 81 here.

80 through 71 here.

70 through 61 here.

60 through 51 here.

50 through 41 here.

40 through 31 here.

Top 100 Games 2022 Edition – 30-21

30. Sushi Go Party!

Sushi Go Party! is one of my go to bigger group games when I want to play something that isn’t just another party game. It plays up to eight and is a drafting and set collection game. What works so well with Sushi Go Party is that you have a different set-up each time. The combination of appetizers, specials, main dishes and deserts means that you end up with a huge combination that you can use. And that helps it feel different when you play it each time.

Plus, it’s not a hard game to learn, but it has more meaningful choices than a lot of party games do. So being able to play it at 8 is great because it is just more of a game than a lot of games at that player count.

Buy on Cool Stuff Inc

29. PitchCar

PitchCar can also be played at a higher number, but this is a flicking racing game. So fewer decisions to make. You flick your car around the track, everyone taking turns, and the first person to get around wins. I like this one a lot because it can play almost any age. I’ve played with 9-year-olds and I’ve played with over 40-year-olds. The game works and is fun for everyone.

And I can scale how difficult it is. When I build a trick, I have everything for it, I can decide how big or small I want it to be. I can make it as challenging as I want or as hard as I want. If it’s for a casual time, simpler shorter track. If it’s the focal piece of a game night, well, then I’m up for adding in a loop and other crazy things that will slow the game down but offer even bigger “wow” moments.

Buy on Eagle-Gryphon

28. Black Sonata

Black Sonata is a game that I feel like shouldn’t work. It is a solo only game of deduction. How does that work, wouldn’t you know the information? You’d think so. But the game uses a smart system with moving around the lady in black, the hidden character who you are trying to find. It does so by a deck of cards.

So you are trying to figure out how she is moving. And get ahead of her so that you can find out information at a location before she moves on. Of course, if you guess wrong, now it makes it harder for you to track her as she moves. It’s a pretty small game, some set-up at the start, but it’s worth it for a solo game that is really different.

Buy on Amazon

27. Cartographers

Cartographers, which I got to play this past weekend, is a roll and write game. And it’s one that really sells me on it with the theme, of making a map, but more so on two things that the game does. The first is there are monsters. When a monster comes up you pass your sheet to the next person and they draw the monster in the worst spot for you. So for a roll and write it’s more interactive.

I also like how the scoring is done. You score two of the four objectives each round, season, of the game. You start out with A and B objectives. And you end with D and A objectives. So you score each objective in two different seasons. But for objective A it is at the start and end of the game. It’s just something clever that allows you have some strategy. Maybe you focus in on one type of scoring. Or maybe you diversify and see which gets you the most points.

Buy on Game Nerdz

26. Super Fantasy Brawl

Now we are onto a much bigger game than Cartographers, but one that actually plays faster. Super Fantasy Brawl is a head to head tactical battling and objective based game. Where you are taking a team of three creatures and pitting them up against another player and team.

A couple of things stand out about the game. First is all the characters and how different that they play. I think I have either 24 or 21 different characters. And you can mix and match them to create the team that you battle with. I like being able to pick different characters off of abilities that I remember or off of fun looks or combos that I hope I can create.

The other thing is that this is a game where you are trying to get points. You do that by completing objectives or by knocking your opponent off the board. If you only go for objectives, your opponent will be able to control the board by just knocking out a character you need to complete it. If you go for pure combat, your opponent can sneak objectives past you. So it needs to be a balance of both.

And the objectives don’t just score when you complete them. It scores at the start of the next turn. That means even though I am all set-up for an objective. I might not get it because you have a whole turn to stop me. I think that’s a smart system because it takes care of some things, like a first player advantage.

Buy on Miniature Market

25. Under Falling Skies

Under Falling Skies is another solo game on this section of the list. The game is a combination of Space Invaders and Independence Day. In that you have waves of small alien ships getting lower and lower as the game progresses. And you are also trying to win by researching the other mothership. And once you’ve done enough research you can take it out.

Now that’s the theme, mechanically it’s about placing dice. The dice go in columns and determine how far the small alien ships advance. But they also do other things, like give you energy, let you research, or blow up the small alien ships. It’s a tense game of trying to control the small ships but at the same time not focus on that so much that you can’t make the last push on research to stop the mothership.

Buy on Cool Stuff Inc

24. Betrayal at House on the Hill

Buy on Game Nerdz

23. Super-Skill Pinball 4-Cade

Super-Skill Pinball 4-Cade is one of two roll and write games left in this section. It’s a game where you’re playing pinball. And I have to give it a ton of credit, playing pinball is not the easiest thing to simulate when it comes to a board game, but Super-Skill Pinball 4-Cade does a good job with it. And it’s fairly thematic for a roll and write as well.

They do that, mainly, but giving you ways in which the ball moves and bounces. So as you hit it with the flippers it is going to go a certain direction. And as it bounces off things, it’ll start to drop again. Unless you can get it into the spot that’s on most boards where it just bounces around trapped between 3 bumpers. The game even has that in it.

Buy on Miniature Market

22. Sonora

Then we have Sonora, Sonora is the other roll and write game. But instead of rolling a die, you are flicking discs and where the discs end, that’s the action on the board you’re going to take. That part of the game is fun, but I really like filling out your board or scoring sheet.

That is mainly because in Sonora everything combos. You fill in on one area and that’ll open up something else you can do in another area which might then even open up something more. And because of that you get really high scores and it feels like you re being very clever. Now, you are, because how you combo things together will be what works best for your scoring. But everyone in the game gets to be clever.

Buy on Cool Stuff Inc

21. Deception: Murder in Hong Kong

Deception is a deduction and social deduction game and I really like it. If you know me, I don’t like social deduction. Mainly because most of the time social deduction at least at the start of the game just comes down to guessing. And randomly guessing if you’re good to vote for someone or not is not fun. But Deception gives you real information to work on.

There has been a murder and the murder, as well as everyone, has a murder weapon and a clue in front of them. The murder picks one of their murder weapons and one of their clues to be it for the game. Only the forensic scientist knows what they are (or an accomplice) and the scientist is sending up clues to get people to guess what it is. So those clues give you something to work on right away which I really like.

Buy on Cool Stuff Inc

Upcoming Streams

Right now there’s a chance that next Wednesday I will not stream. As that pushes it up to the day before Thanksgiving and I might not be free that evening. But on Monday, I have 20 through 11 of my Top 100 Games (of all time) 2022 Edition. So join me on Malts and Meeples then at 8:30 PM.

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Simple But Deep Board Games

10. Black Sonata

One of two solo games on the list. Black Sonata is about figuring out who the “dark lady” was in Shakespeare’s sonnets. But it is really fascinating because it is a solo game where the dark lady moves around in basically a hidden movement sort of way by an AI deck of cards.

What you do as a player is try and get ahead of the dark lady so that you can look for her, and basically find out clues about who she is not. So your turns are pretty simple. You move, or you search a location. But figuring out that pattern of where they are going is challenging. And then it is a Mastermind style puzzle, or so it feels, to figure out who the lady is. I really enjoy that puzzle aspect, but simple game to hit the table.

9. Century: Golem Edition (Or Spice Road)

This one is not a cheat having two games on it, Golem Edition and Spice Road are the same game. I prefer the Golem Edition because it looks better, and I like that. But this is a game that is about building up an engine of cards in your hand. But how you play is extremely simple. Mainly because you do a single action on your turn.

On your turn you pick up the cards you’ve played, you get a card, you play a card, or you get a golem. You never complete more than a single action a time. And turns fly because of that simplicity of all the actions and the single action. But when you get a card, how much you pay for it, how it works into your engine, all of those things make a very rich but simple game.

8. Quarto

This, I get is one that has depth to it but not one that I like. The game is pretty simple, you are trying to get four in a row. But you pick what piece your opponent is going to play. So you want to give them something that’ll set-up you with the options that they have left to give you. It’s a cool idea that I enjoyed the couple of times that I played it, but it didn’t grab me enough.

Still, for a lot of people, this is going to give them that feeling of outthinking their opponent in a game. Basically making your opponent give you a win. But all you are doing is either placing a piece of picking one for your opponent to place.

7. Potion Explosion

This one is maybe one of the less simple on the list. But what you do on your turn, or at least on every turn is very basic. You pull a marble and then any like colors that hit. Then you put them into a potion, trying to complete them. That is very simple and fun action for a turn.

But where the game is more complex or offers interesting decisions is when you get your potions done. Now they give you powers, and how or when you use a power offers great decision making space. Especially when you can chain a few potions together to complete a potion and then use that potion to complete another potion. It offers that nice combo and cleverness feel a game with depth in it’s decision making should give you.

6. The Fox in the Forest

I could have a number of trick taking games on the list. Matcha, The Fox in the Forest Duet, and others, but I just put The Fox in the Forest on the list. This is a two player trick taking game where you are trying to take some tricks, but not too many. Because if you “shoot the moon” you get no points. And if you just get a few tricks, but slightly too many, it reduces your points a lot.

It becomes a question of how you can give your opponent just enough tricks so that they score poorly and you can score well. Or to trick them into taking all of the tricks. And since it isn’t a one and done sort of game, it allows you to develop more strategy based off of your opponent as time goes on.

5. Letter Jam

Letter Jam is almost a party word game. But it isn’t because you need to figure out how to give good clues. Let me explain, in Letter Jam everyone has a scrambled word in front of them, or the letters for it. Unscrambling wouldn’t be too bad if you could see the letters. But you can’t see your own.

Instead, you have one facing away from you that everyone else can see. And they give clues, in the form of a word, by putting down chips in front of other people’s letters to help you. For example, if I have an R in front of me and someone else has an F, O, and M, you could give the clue FROM or FORM. But one clue is better than the other because FORM could be FOAM as well. So how do you give the best clue to get people to know their letter?

And everyone needs to give clues too. So that adds to the challenge. I have a word, you have a word, and everyone does. So you need to give clues to help me, and I need to give to help you. It’s a very clever design that seems simple to start, but offers a lot of depth.

4. Floriferous

A drafting game, kind of, a set collection game, and a game where you are building up different scoring things. But how you draft is what makes this game so clever and gives it depth. Turn order for each round of drafting, since you pick from a limited set separately, is based off of the person who took the highest thing from a column the time before.

Let me explain that a bit more, in a two player game you have three rows. Two or them are flowers and one is a scoring card. The scoring card is always at the bottom. If I pick-up the scoring card, for my pick, that means that next time, since I’m at the bottom of the column, I pick last. So if there is something I really want in the next column, I would want to pick the highest thing in the column, just to guarantee I go first next time. But if you don’t get enough scoring cards, now you aren’t scoring many points.

3. Under Falling Skies

The next solo only game on the list. A few can be played solo, Under Falling Skies is a combination of Space Invaders meets Independence Day. That it in and of itself sounds pretty cool. But how does it play, what is simple about it. The game is basically rolling a bunch of dice and placing them so that one is in each column to activate things. That is pretty straight forward for what you are going to do.

The depth comes in with how you place the dice. The higher the number, the more the alien ship in that column descends. And if too many hit land you lose the game. So you need to blow them up, and you can do that by putting dice onto attack spots. But that then eats up other things you can do, and that also causes a ship to descend.

So you need to think not only about what power the die is going to give, higher means more, but also what it does to the ships. And you also still only have one die per column. And once you place it, it locks in. So if you aren’t careful, you end up placing a dice in a less than ideal spot with your last placement.

2. Calico

The top two were two that I instantly thought of. Calico is a very simple game with massive brain burning tendencies. In Calico you are making a calico quilt to get cats to sleep on your quilt. You score points by getting like colors adjacent for buttons. Patterns in certain groupings to attacks cats. And finally there are scoring tiles on the quilt that give you points based off of both pattern and color combinations.

That is a fair amount for scoring, but your turn is simple. On your turn you place a quilt tile onto your board and take one of the three available. But because the scoring overlap where you’ll use tiles for a button or cat in your quilt scoring. You really need to think through and plan out what you want to do. It’s a brain burner of a game. But I love it, and I love the limiting it puts on you, so you might be hoping for that one last tile you need to get pulled from the bag.

1. Hanamikoji

Instantly thought of this game, Hanamikoji is a simple game but such a brain burner. You want to win the favor of Geisha by giving them gifts. That isn’t that complex an idea, and the game gives you actions that you take to put gifts in front of the Geisha. But how you do that creates a fascinating puzzle of a game.

You must do all of the four different abilities. So whether that is putting one face down that you use at the end of the round, or discarding two face down that only you know are hidden, that limits what you know and your opponent. Plus then the other two actions are much trickier to figure out. You need to give your opponent the choice of one of three cards, you use the other two. Or two sets of two, they get one, you get the one they don’t pick.

And while those decisions are very tricky to make. There are so few of them that it doesn’t make the game too complex to play. You’ll just be worried about what is going to give your opponent what they need. And try and read their brain to see what it seems like they have.

Final Thoughts

I think I had about 25 games in my list that I sorted. There are some games that once I was further into them that are big games that now I realize are pretty simple. I’m going to mention Gloomhaven and Perdition’s Mouth: Abyssal Rift. These two didn’t make the list that I sort, but once you learn the core loop of the game, the card play in Gloomhaven and Rondel with card play in Perdition’s Mouth, they aren’t that difficult.

But that is only once you get to that point. Because if you play either of those games enough, you just know what the status effects do. But to get to that point with either of those games is going to take time. You need to learn the symbols and learn the game. But the core loops are simple and give great depth of game play. So they don’t quite make the list, but could fall into that category.

Just missing were the likes of Photosynthesis, Sonora, Hats, and Orchard. All of them have pretty simple base mechanics. But the optimize what you are doing and your scoring, you need to think a few steps ahead.

What are some of your favorite simple but deep games?

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April was definitely a slower month for gaming. Family came to town which definitely slowed it down. But also, I had a COVID exposure, no COVID though, which caused the monthly game night to be cancelled. May is already going much more smoothly for getting gaming in. But let’s see the 27 plays that I got in last month.

April Gaming Recap

Orchard – 8 Plays

This was me feeling like I wanted to play more games. Like I said, gaming didn’t happen as much last month. And towards the end of the month, I was missing playing games. So I decided on a day that I had time to just watch some YouTube videos and knock out a handful of games. Orchard is great for that.

Tainted Grail – 4 Plays

Tainted Grail is done, well the Last Knight campaign is done. Not this week, but the following we start playing the Age of Legends campaign. And I must say, Last Knight, I don’t know if it is quite as good as the main campaign, Fall of Avalon, but is basically there. Since we knew what we were doing, it took us less time to play. There are some cool different things, though, in the Last Knight campaign to checkout and changes to mechanics that work well.

Village Green – 3 Plays

I actually streamed some Village Green. You can watch me play it and mess with the solo version of the game to make it something I prefer. Plus there is some chatter about GenCon which is going live for it’s events on Sunday.

Black Sonata – 2 Plays

Another solo only board game, Black Sonata is about the dark lady in Shakespeare’s sonatas and trying to figure out who it is. The really cool thing is that as a solo game, it is a hidden movement game. The game itself controls how the character moves, and players need to try and identify the pattern and search for clues to figure out how the dark lady is. It’s a solo game with some set-up, but it is worth the set-up you go through.

Fox in the Forest – 2 Plays

This is a very fun two player trick taking game. It’s only three suits of cards and you don’t want to win every trick. Losing every one, not bad, but winning every one, that is going to give you fewer points. Fox in the Forest is a trick taking game that is really about how my manipulate the tricks that you take or manipulate it so your opponent takes tricks. Very fun idea for a game that is executed very well.

Foodies – 2 Plays

Foodies is a game in the Machi Koro style of game. You roll and everyone gets things, and is a race to victory points. While it is a fun game in that style, it is very light as well. Too light for me to keep it on my shelf, but I think as a gateway game, it’d be a fun one to play. I just want more variability in what you do in the game.

Super Mega Lucky Box – 2 Plays

The one game that I got in with family. Super Mega Lucky Box is always a good time and always a fun roll and write to play. The game is so simple, but I like it to mess around with different strategies to see what all I can do. And sometimes it works out, other times, well, it just gets going a bit slowly. But never is it dull to play.

Roll Player Adventures – 1 Play

We’re through three scenarios of Roll Player Adventures now, and I am still really enjoying the game. I do think that it is a pretty easy game at the full player count. Whether or not that is a bad thing, that is up to you. For me, I don’t mind it, it means I can really explore the full story, at least the direction that we are going. That is a cool element for the game, you beat a scenario and you can end, or you can continue to play around.

Perdition’s Mouth – 1 Play

I was sent Perdition’s Mouth: Abyssal Rift to cover, and I have to say, it is a cool dungeon crawl game. Gone is the randomness of the rolls, instead you figure out everything that you want to do by spending action points. And it has a rondel system that is pretty fun to play around with. Plus, once you get it down, what you do on your turn is pretty simple, while giving you challenging decisions to make.

Dice Throne – 1 Play

Always up for more Dice Throne. I think we’re probably a month and a half away from having Marvel Dice Throne in. When that happens, expect to see Dice Throne show up pretty often.

Bandido – 1 Play

I do not like Bandido. I barely finished a game of it. Put that in comparison with Perdition’s Mouth where I got in one full play, plus messed around with the game more. Bandido is a little card game, but not one that offers interesting choices. The game might end up with a best strategy but I don’t want to figure that out because it’s not worth the effort. And for a very small package game, it is a table hog.

Yearly Totals

So, like I said, it is a bit slower this month, but that doesn’t mean that I didn’t do decently well. 27 plays in the month of April, so just off one per day. Plus, right now, in may, I am at 177 of 365 plays. So as we near June and it’s end, the middle of the year, I am likely in May to hit 50% of the way there, if not further.

Thus far, I think it is fun to do the challenge again. And let’s talk about unplayed games. 5 new to me games where played with Perdition’s Mouth, Bandido, Fox in the Forest, Foodies, and Black Sonata. Out of those, I think I like Black Sonata best, but Fox in the Forest and Perdition’s Mouth are sticking in my collection for sure.

What all did you get played last month?

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BoardGameTables.com Order

So this is the one that’s Foster the Meeple’s fault. Two games only, and that actually takes me to the point where I’ll have the games I want from BoardGameTables.com (which does make board game tables, but also board games, guess which one cam first).

QE

QE is a game where you are bidding however much you want to buy a company. The interesting thing about that is that you can bid however much you want. If I want to bid 120 trillion, I can bid that, if I want to go higher, I can do that. It does have a twist, though, in that the person who bids the most, well, they are automatically out of the running to win. So the prices are likely going to get crazy, but you can’t be too crazy. It seems like it shouldn’t work, but also, everyone who plays it likes it or loves it, so I want to play it.

Ghosts of Christmas

Foster the Meeple are the ones who pushed this over the edge for me, in terms of reminding me about it. But BoardGameCo was the one who brought it onto the radar. This is a trick taking game where you play tricks in the past, present, and future. And you can play to whichever trick you want in whichever order. Only once all are full does the winner get determined. And the trump suit can change on tricks, so it sounds mind bending but really interesting.

Kolossal Games Kind Of Order

So, I ordered these games from Kolossal because it’s about the first spot I’ve seen them available in the US. The games themselves aren’t put out by Kolossal, instead by Chilifox Games out of Norway. It’s a new game company, so limited distribution in the United States, but the two games I know of theirs are really interesting to me, so I wanted to grab them while I had the chance.

Riverside

Riverside is going to be roll and write game. But it has more going on than that. There’s not only the roll and write portion of the game, but also a little board that determines where the boat is on the river. Players are trying to take passengers on tours, drop them off at the right places, and score points. But that extra element of the river and boat position make it feel like a different sort of roll and write game than a lot out there.

Doodle Dash

This is a very different type of game than Riverside. Doodle Dash is going to be a straight up party game. In it, one person is the guesser and everyone else tries to draw a picture as fast as possible, based off of a word, for the guesser to get. But the fastest person gets to show their picture first, and then next fastest. And that second fastest player is rolling a die to limit how much time the rest of the players are going to get to finish their drawing. So there is a benefit to being fast if you can get the word across in a simple drawing. Seems like good chaotic fun for a party game.

All Systems Go

I like to call out the local game stores that I go to, and most of the time it is going to be All Systems Go. I generally trade in my games there, and while I didn’t this time. I did pick up one thing there.

Marvel Champions: Sinister Motives

I basically get all my Marvel Champions stuff from ASG (All Systems Go) and they know to set aside for me every time. Sinister Motives is going to give more Spider-Man characters, both heroes and villains to play as or against. And it’s just more content for Marvel Champions. Why do I keep buy it, because I love Marvel, I love the variety of characters you can play as and villains you can play against. And I really like the game. But it is one that I’m soon going to have to consider how much I want, because I don’t play it enough. The answer, though, is that I probably will want it all.

Miniature Market Orders

I will say, it wasn’t my plan to have two orders that were close to one another from Miniature Market. But it just happened to workout that way. In particular, I can blame another YouTube channel, Quackalope for me getting the second order. Jesse and Devon, from Devon Talks Tabletop, did a solo game list, and there was one I wanted to get immediately upon hearing about it.

Res Arcana: Perlae Imperii Expansion

This is more content for Res Arcana. I haven’t gone through all the content that I have for the game, but I already know that I want more. And the expansions are not always the easiest to find. Res Arcana is an engine building game where you are building an engine off of eight cards. And you don’t add more cards to your engine. Maybe you get a monument, but often those just offer a one time effect. So how do you build the most productive engine you can from those cards. Not sure that Perlae Imperii adds, but hopefully more of what’s already there.

Railroad Ink Challenge: Engineer Expansion

A mini expansion for Railroad Ink Challenge. This is basically some extra dice that you can use that mess up the board as you go. I don’t know specifically what the Engineer Expansion adds, it is just the last one that I didn’t have, so I wanted to grab it.

Pathfinder Adventure Card Game 2nd Edition

I’ve played the original version of the Pathfinder Adventure Card Game, and I want to try this new one. Plus, I might have picked up some of the 1st edition, so I can compare. But I’ll talk about that soon. I’m hoping that this makes the game a bit smoother to play, but we’ll see. And I just like the fantasy setting and the interesting cooperative nature and card play in the original game.

Radlands

This is one that I don’t regret but also slightly regret getting. I regret getting it because it’s a small two player game, will I play it over Hanamikoji. On the flip side, it’s from Roxley, I like their stuff. And the artwork on the game is amazing. But I don’t know if Radlands is going to be one that’s easy enough to table often. I am excited to try it though.

Clank! Expeditions: Temple of the Ape Lords

An expansion for Clank!. I don’t know what this one adds in exactly. I’m assuming that it’s just going to tweak how the base game plays and add in some apes. I need to play Clank! some more before I add any more expansions to my collection.

Black Sonata

This is the one that Devon was talking about in the video I mentioned. I love the concept of this game. It’s a solo only hidden movement, deduction game. That sounds so crazy to be able to do as a solo game, but it works well. I’ve already gotten my copy and played it twice. Plus I picked up the Fair Youth expansion as well, so that adds in more or a new way to play the game as well. But the base game is going to keep my busy for a little while.

Amazon Order

Pathfinder Adventure Card Game: Skull & Shackle

I said I was getting some of the first edition of Pathfinder Adventure Card Game, and Skull & Shackles was the base set I landed on. This one is going to be a pirate based theme, which I like, and use the standard Pathfinder Adventure Card Game system. I picked this one up for comparison purposes, and I hope that I really like it because there are expansions I could get as well.

Coconuts

For something completely different, Coconuts is a dexterity based game. You use monkeys to launch coconuts into cups to try and get a certain number of cups stacked up. The whole point of this is to be a silly fun game. I had a chance to mess around with it a tiny bit at GenCon in 2019, and it’s a fun one. It’ll not get played for a little bit, unless I do it on the table, because kittens will most certainly chase and play with flying coconuts.

Crowdfunding

So there are a lot to talk about, seven in fact. Most of them are going to be pretty small ones because, well, I’ve been trying to do some backing of little roll and write games that are print and play. When a game is $5, for a print and play, and I get it immediately, I want to support the creators because it’s a cool way to get games out there.

Kaikoro

Kaikoro is one of those print and play roll and write games. The game doesn’t seem too complex, you try and keep Kaiju from destroying a city. That theme and the artwork are the selling point, but it’s also a $5 game that I can print, laminate, and play as much as I want.

The Dark Quarter

The Dark Quarter is most definitely not a roll and write game or a print and play. You can see a lot of that here. I think the system is fascinating that it is using. And I really like the dark/mature supernatural, monsters theme that Van Ryder is bringing to the system. For me this was an easy back.

Fortress of Terror

Back to more print and play roll and writes. This one is another $5 that has a fair amount of content with it now. But it looks interesting, almost a bit of a dungeon crawl nature to it, or exploration, something like that. So I’m curious about it, and the system that is being used for the game, it seems like an interesting one that could be fun to play.

Paper Railroad

Another print and play, this one is going to be a route building train game, I believe, with some pick-up and deliver elements thrown in as well. The route building might be secondary to the farming and getting farm rewards and shipping out those things. So I’m curious to see how it is for a roll and write. But it was $6, so one to back that I want to mess around with.

Pestilence – Escape the Plague

The final print and play roll and write game on the list. This one has the most interesting theme for me, or up there with Kaiju. The black plague is rolling through, and you are trapped in the city. You need to make connections, build up reputation and avoid the kings guard to get out of the city. That just seems so different, there are other games about the black plague, but to do a roll and write on it, it’s a different than normal theme.

For Northwood!

Speaking of something that is a bit different. For Northwood! is definitely a unique game. For Northwood is a solo trick taking game. That immediately caught my attention. Add in that it’s pretty cheap, it’s just over a deck of cards, I’m curious about it. They company is also the one that has done or distributed other solo games that I like, like Orchard and Black Sonata.

Sleeping Gods: Distant Skies

Finally, Sleeping Gods: Distant Skies from Red Raven Games just launched this week. If you want to read more about it, you can do so here. But I loved my play through of Sleeping Gods, and Distant Skies seems to build upon that system. And while I didn’t have an issue with Sleeping Gods for solo play, this seems like even simpler solo play. Plus some changes to combat as well, which I was fine with combat. But I’m super stoked for this one.

Final Thoughts

So what am I most excited for, well, Sleeping Gods: Distant Skies and The Dark Quarter. But those two are coming in a while. Same with For Northwood!. So of the stuff that I’ve gotten, or is coming much sooner, what do I want to play? I really want to try and compared both of the Pathfinder Adventure Card Games. They can be played solo, so I think I’ll be tackling them soon. Maybe I’ll even stream some over on Malts and Meeples coming up here.

Which would you want to play first?

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