2026: Yashima's Game Diary

First play of the year. Trailblazers is a favorite of mine. A good way to start the year with the "Wildlife Whisperer" solo challenge. This is one of my favorite tile laying/route building games with an ever changing fun puzzle. The multiplayer draft works well, too (I have only played it once as a multiplayer though) * Player Count: 1 * My current rating: * Total Lifetime Plays: 66 * Rules Retention: very good. * Keeper: I expect to keep playing this. * Recommended for: If you like routebuilding and / or tile laying, highly recommended. * Competition: Naturopolis (theme + overlapping tiles), Fairy Trails (convoluted routes)

I very much prefer the German title "Artengarten". This is my most recent acquistion and it has already been played a bunch. For me it combines a few of the best mechanics from Ark Nova with some hexagonal tile laying which is one of my favorite things since hexagons were invented. * Player Count: 1 * My current rating: * Total Lifetime Plays: 9 * Rules Retention: good. Very few rulebook consultations during play. Knowing Ark Nova helped learning the game immensely of course. But I feel confident I can easily teach this. * Keeper: Definitely. * Recommended for: Hexagon fans. If you like both Ark Nova and Cascadia, give this a try. It is much quicker and lighter than its parent. * Competition: Cascadia (animals + hex tile laying), Ark Nova (a clear descendant of this one), Daybreak (tags)

The series of games that began with Sprawlopolis is one of my favorite tiny franchises. I own all of them. While Sprawlopolis itself remains my favorite iteration, Naturopolis is a very close second. And this year I tried the Elevation expansion for the first time and it really makes for a very good variant (not all expansions for the franchise are equally good in my opinion). * Player Count: 1 * My current rating: * Total Lifetime Plays: 65 * Rules Retention: good. However upon learning the expansion I discovered I had forgotten, that roads and rivers should not connect. But in general the rules for this a very intuitive and stick very well. Same for the expansion. * Keeper: It does not get boring, this expansion makes it even more varied * Recommended for: solo tile laying fans. If you like Sprawlopolis give this most definitely a try. * Competition: Sprawlopolis (franchise), Casinopolis (franchise)

I first saw this recommended on various solo gamers' lists. But it was OOP at the time and so when it reappeared I eagerly snatched a copy. Only to be very disappointed by the gameplay. Because there is almost no gameplay. Just put tiles together. It is more of a meditative exercise with a cup of tea than a game. But it has grown on me somehow. I now consider it an essential solo in my collection. It is a comforting game I play when I need to just get my thoughts together or away from something that carries over from my day at work. I do not rate it as high as some other games I have because it really is not much of a game-game. But it is so very satisfying to plop in the last flower. * Player Count: 1 * My current rating: * Total Lifetime Plays: 30 * Rules Retention: trivial. You can almost guess the rules from the tiles. * Keeper: surprisingly yes. * Recommended: as a meditative experience * Competition: Tranquility the Ascent (feels), Harmonies (feels)

This game broke into my personal favorites instantly back when I got it. These days I mostly play with two players on BGA. I enjoy this at all playercounts. After over 200 games I know all the cards by heart. And still we lose quite a few games. We always play with both player and group challenges and it keeps the game varied enough. Without those we would surely win every game by now. * Player Count: 2 (BGA) * My current rating: * Total Lifetime Plays: 216 * Rules Retention: very good. I can easily teach this and it was not difficult to learn from the rulebook * Keeper: Yes. Would also totally buy any and all expansions. * Recommended: as a combotastic, cooperative and highly thematic game * Competition: Ares Expedition (tags), Sanctuary (tags)

This is a fun quick tile laying game that produces satisfying North Sea landscapes and interesting decisions consistently. This works fine at all player counts and even at playercounts higher than the game actually allows. It gets a bit chaotic then but who cares. It is a game though not an activity. I wouldn't want to play without the expansion boats anymore. Their unique abilities changes up the game play to make each game a little bit different. But the game is already very good without the expansion and it is definitely not a "needed" one. * Player Count: 1 * My current rating: * Total Lifetime Plays: 24 * Rules Retention: Very good. Small ruleset. I have to look up each particular boat from the expansion * Keeper: Unique take on solo tile laying makes this a keeper. * Recommended: If you like Carcassonne but either wanted a solomode or something cooperative instead * Competition: Cascadia (tiles), Carcassonne (square tiles, area building)

A big square box filled with lots of air. This is basically a very fancy Roll & Write. If it had been in a way smaller box I might have kept it. The game itself is not half bad and since giving away my copy I have played more games of it on BGA than I ever played on my physical copy. For a Roll & Write it would be one of the better ones I have played. But instead you put down fiddly tokens... even if it was not available on BGA anymore, I wouldn't miss it. There are enough Roll & Write games around as it is. But since I know the rules and the BGA implementation is pretty good at automating the game, I keep returning to it every once in a while. * Player Count: 1 (BGA) * My current rating: * Total Lifetime Plays: 27 * Rules Retention: Easy enough. The map specific ones need looking up though. * Keeper: No. I gave it away. * Recommended: Play on BGA if you are interested. If you like puzzly R&W games, this might be for you. * Competition: Voll verplant (route building), Kingdom Builder (variable actions, route building)

As a fan of both the original show and space exploration games, when this went to crowdfunding I had to get it after initially dismissing it as "yet another badly implemented media franchise game". But it came with recommendations from other fans of the space exploration genre and so I bought the Firefly-coffin-box. This was actually the first full play after receiving it a good while ago. I had always planned to play this with a specific group of fellow Firefly fans but this play never materialized and so I made do with a 2 player session instead. We played without any of the expansions. The similarities to Star Wars: Outer Rim (especially with the expansion) are unmissable and that game and Xia are definitely the biggest competition for Firefly. We enjoyed our session and it renewed my hopes of getting it to the table at 4 players sometime soon. As much as I like these space exploration games, they are all similarish concerning the gameplay and have pretty big rulesets for what amounts to very light games. There is more story-telling in these games than fascinating gameplay mechanics and that needs to be taken into account when deciding if this is a game you need to play/own. I usually avoid story-driven games but Firefly somehow manages. But it lacks the puzzly bits I enjoy most about boardgames. Definitely an outlier in my collection. The thing I like least about this game is that once again the box is bigger than it strictly had to be. Yes, the playmat is nice and the box dimensions certainly have to do with this. But this thing eats table and shelf space as if it didn't matter (space is big!). And the big plastic could certainly have been made with less air remaining inside. This definitely costs the rating a * Player Count: 2 * My current rating: * Total Lifetime Plays: 1 * Rules Retention: Okay-ish. I am using Roger's consolidated rulebook. But because there is quite a lot, relearning takes time. Teaching is not difficult after a rules-refresh. * Keeper: Definitely. I like the Franchise too much. I just wish they had somehow made it all fit into a box half the size. * Recommended: For fans of the show or space exploration with a lot of table and shelf space and a tolerance for plastic inserts. * Competition: Outer Rim (IP based space exploration), Xia (space exploration)

This is the game that was published before Cascadia and was the cause that I initially dismissed Cascadia and now I end up always comparing the two. This is the more thinky game of the two but also with less variance play by play because I end up playing the same setup everytime because even with the most basic setup I barely ever manage to fulfill all 3 conditions and so I keep playing at that setup without changing it because I feel I am not ready to move to a more complex scenario. Not fulfilling the 3 conditions also feels unsatisfying. It seems like this puzzle might be just a bit too complex for me or my metric is bad. * Player Count: 1 * My current rating: * Total Lifetime Plays: 23 * Rules Retention: Very good. Can be taught easily. * Keeper: I think yes? But it lost some of its appeal to Cascadia. * Recommended: Fans of hex-tiles and/or cats. * Competition: Cascadia (hex tiles)

When I first played this at a friends house, I knew immediately that I was going to buy this game. And yet, as a mostly-solo player, I barely ever play my physical copy because the solo challenge is really well done on the app and setup is something of a hassle with this game. But I own everything except the big box: all of the playmats, deluxe metal cubes, all of the expansions, the automa... somehow except for the automa and the playmats it all fits into the original base game box (unsleeved cards). This is one of my all time favorite games combining so many of my favorite things about board games: engine building, hex-tiles on a map, having too many cards and making tough decisions, a scifi theme... the original solo challenge is such a good experience that I keep playing it back to back sometimes. I lose a lot but it is winnable. I always play with Prelude, my favorite map remains Tharsis. Venus Next is a nice addition. Last year we had a big 5 player game with all the expansions and it was a blast. The new-ish automa is also really fun to play and simulates the multiplayer in a very different approach from the solochallenge. I hope to play the automa this year. Concerning digital play: This is one of my favorite boardgame apps all around (iOS + Steam). For such a complex game it is really well done. You can easily track all the needed information. There are barely any bugs left these days (I had a total of 1 hickups in the last year). Needs tablet sized screen though I would guess. * Player Count: 1 (App, Solochallenge) * My current rating: * Total Lifetime Plays: 125 (as logged, mostly on the app, if I had logged all app plays, I'd be easily at 200) * Rules Retention: Fine. I played this so much. A teach is definitely not trivial though. But all my friends know this game. So ... * Keeper: Absolutely. * Recommended: Engine building with big card stacks fans or fans of Mars but mostly lots of cards. * Competition: the app, Ark Nova (tags, lots of cards)

I got late to watching One Piece (still catching up as of writing this, we're around ep 960) and when I saw this game I couldn't resist. Most games that use the One Piece franchise have quite bad ratings, so this one is a pleasant surprise. It reminds me a lot of Tippi Toppi / Cahoots. There are 4 types of cards: player characters are the Straw Hat crew with a different powerup for each character. The friends are Allies of the strawhats in different "suits" losely associated with the biggest arcs of the show. Each friend has a number from 1 to 9 indicating their power level. Enemies have conditions you need to fulfill to finish them off and mixed in with the enemies a number of bosses that have some negative effect in addition to their condition. Just like with Cahoots you try to play the friend cards in such and such patterns to fulfill the conditions and play through the stack of enemies. It's nothing revolutionary but it feels thematic (and spoilery!) enough to bring this back to the table now and then. It's not a game I play 3 times in a row but one I look forward to playing again after finishing it. I like this both as solo and with 2 players. We once tried it with a full set of 4 players and it became completely bogged down in AP. * Player Count: 2 * My current rating: * Total Lifetime Plays: 9 * Rules Retention: Good. Can also be taught easily. * Keeper: Definitely. * Recommended: fans of the anime who want a cozy 2 player or solo. * Competition: Red Rising (lots of characters from IP), Tranquility: the Ascent (numbers), Cahoots (contract fulfillment, cooperative)

We played through the first chapter just fine. The strategy is pretty straightforward. But in chapter 2 there are new conditions that obviously make for more complex puzzles and after not seeing an obvious strategy my partner got too frustrated to continue. The randomness of the card distribution makes for an uneven difficulty for the same puzzle (like can happen with The Crew). At two players additional entropy is added as each player has to play 6 of the 12 cards but starts off knowing only 4 of them and picking up the remaining two only after having played 2! Still, I think it is such a smart design, I can't wait to try it at the higher playercounts or with other players. After seeing the SUSD video, I am even more excited to play this some more. * Player Count: 2 * My current rating: * Total Lifetime Plays: 8 * Rules Retention: Easy. There are not a lot of rules and they are easy to teach. Chapter specific rules are well explained * Keeper: I wish. * Recommended: For fans of The Mind, The Game and The Gang * Competition: The Crew (limited communication, puzzles), The Gang (limited communication), Hana-Bi (developing an action based language)

Simulating a week-long trip to Japan or rather to Tokyo and Kyoto has never been so cozy (depending on your definition of a cozy game, this has some complexity). I have only played it as a solo so far. It's a nice thematic set collection game with a good solo mode. A bit of a table hog. Set collection is not my most favorite mechanic but this may be my favorite game that is centered around it. It adds a good dose of combos that feel quite satisfying to pull off. * Player Count: 1 * My current rating: * Total Lifetime Plays: 8 * Rules Retention: Okay. The ones I forget are quickly relearned. I taught this game once from the rulebook and it took surprisingly long. There are quite a few details. * Keeper: Yes. For now. * Recommended: Anyone who wants to travel or has traveled to Japan and likes collecting sets of symbols. * Competition: Floriferous (Set Collection) --- This one should get to the table more because it's a very nice enjoyable set collection romp through Japan. The only but is that it has some setup details and such a huge table footprint that even playing solo I always feel like I am actually playing in Japan where table space is limited. * Player Count: 1 * My current rating: * Total Lifetime Plays: 7 * Rules Retention: Good. The round tracker is immensely helpful. I keep having to look up which number of additional cards I can take with a research token because despite being pictured on the token: 3 seems like a lot * Keeper: Yes. It is a very good iteration on set collection that has a strong theme. * Recommended: For anyone who has traveled or wants to travel to Japan and enjoys theming their days around one set of similar activities. * Competition: Floriferous (Sets), Shinjuku (Sets + Theme), 7 Wonders (Sets, Simultaneous Play)

A small box that could be even smaller, this tiny tile laying game has a satisfying thinkiness to it. I once played it with my partner (it is actually also for 2 players) and he complained about the brain-burn. As a solo it's more of a cozy puzzle but with a bit of a heft to it because one really wants to not use up all the cards to place all the fairy stones. There is a certain similarity in how it feels to play this with A Gentle Rain even down to how you want to solve the puzzle with as few tiles/cards as possible. But this one is far easier to solve than A Gentle Rain and less dependent on lucky draws or knowledge of the tiles. I like knowing this is part of my collection. But it has to compete against a huge number of other solo games of equal weight and play-time. * Player Count: 1 * My current rating: * Total Lifetime Plays: 13 * Rules Retention: Easy. It's not like there are a lot of rules here. * Keeper: Yes. * Recommended: For fans of fairys, trails and cozy little solo games. * Competition: Limes (square cards), Trailblazers (convoluted routes), A Gentle Rain (simple solo)

When I saw that Tetrarchia was getting a sequel of sorts, I had to back it. I enjoy both games quite a bit. I have not played either as anything but a solo. I feel they are too small and quick to play with more players. There are some significant changes from Tetrarchia and I think I will need to play both back to back to really appreciate the differences. Hispania may currently be the one I favor. I really like the roads setup as that varies gameplay even more than the random setup. * Player Count: 1 * My current rating: * Total Lifetime Plays: 4 * Rules Retention: Middling. I keep confusing it with Tetrarchia. Teaching it would be fine I guess. I have no intention to, really. * Keeper: Yes, small box size is helping * Recommended: If you want a pandemic-like in your smallbox collection and don't already have Tetrarchia. Or if you need a historical companion for Pandemic:Iberia * Competition: Tetrarchia (franchise), Pandemic Iberia (thematic location, cooperative)

I bought this game because of the beautiful cover. And then I instantly fell in love with the game. It's beautiful on the table and very tactile: the wooden pieces are so satisfying to put on your board. The puzzle is really good, too. The variability is just a bit less than Cascadia (but Cascadia got an expansion and this does not). I play this a lot on the table but also on BGA because the solo on BGA takes less than 15 minutes which is perfect for a short coffee break. My biggest complaint is probably the card quality. I would pay good money for cards that do not look "bent". Maybe sleeving would help? * Player Count: 1 * My current rating: * Total Lifetime Plays: 72 (lots of BGA during work break) * Rules Retention: Very good. Easy to teach, too. Thankfully, there are player aid cards with the points overview. * Keeper: Definitely. Though I wish there was an expansion. * Recommended: For fans of landscape building or Cascadia who need another game in the same niche. * Competition: Cascadia (animal patterns), A Gentle Rain (feels)

I backed this late at night during the pandemic. And I shouldn't have. Me and the modern Euro are not the best of friends. This is a complex worker placement game that thematically tracks Darwin's Journey through the Galapagos Isles. The key idea here seems to be that you "grow" your workers by giving them more color seals to allow them to go to spots that require more of those seals or make them more versatile. This is the thing that made me back the game. But this is embedded in such a variety of systems that for me it never becomes a cohesive whole but rather disjointed tracks and mechanisms that accidentally sometimes lead to super-turns with lots of bonus actions. I consistently lose against the bot as well and I cannot imagine having to teach this, the people, I play with when I actually play other than solo, wouldn't enjoy this amount of rules getting thrown at them. This game is just not for me. This last game was on BGA where I had hoped the automation might help me enjoy this more but it was the opposite. I was unable to track what the automa was doing and lost even worse than usual. I have fallen out of love with this type of rules-complex modern euro. I have several others I also don't get along with. * Player Count: 1 (BGA) * My current rating: * Total Lifetime Plays: 5 * Rules Retention: Not great. I have to relearn the rules every play and wouldn't want to teach this. * Keeper: Nope. It is on the sell-pile. This was a last-chance play. * Recommended: Fans of complex euros. * Competition: Unconscious Mind (complex modern worker placement), Spirit Island, at that level of (rules) complexity, I would much rather play SI

This was one of our favorite games to play. And then I got my fingers on the app--many years ago. And I played the game to death. So much so that I sold my copy. I rebought the Winter Kingdom a couple of years ago but haven't really managed to get it to the table. So recently I got out the app again, just for nostalgia's sake. It is still a pretty good game that I would probably enjoy again on the table. Although I really prefer the slightly more complex Winter Kingdom. * Player Count: 1 (app) * My current rating: * Total Lifetime Plays: 2 logged (hard to gauge, as most of my plays were pre logging) * Rules Retention: Very good. But I have to look up the special actions and what the goals are each game. Easy to teach, too. * Keeper: Sold my copy. Winter Kingdom has a firm place on my shelves. * Recommended: For fans of the simpler euros from the 00s and early 10s. * Competition: Winter Kingdom (franchise), Guild of Merchant Exploreres (slow route building)

These days I only play this on the app. I have probably 200 plays on the app, maybe more. I would not want to play this on the table. Too fiddly. But the puzzle is great and I keep returning to it. It's quite addictive, too. I usually play games until I start dreaming of sorting numbers. Still, not something I need a physical copy of which reduces my rating. * Player Count: 1 (app) * My current rating: * Total Lifetime Plays: 200+ (almost exclusively app) * Rules Retention: Easy. No need to teach. I only play this solo. * Keeper: as the app yes. Sold my physical copy a long time ago. * Recommended: For anyone into abstract puzzly solo games * Competition: Food Chain Island (sorting numbers), One Piece Nakama (sorting numbers to fulfill contracts)

I have given this away as a present at least twice on the recommendation of others for good childrens' games that adults would also enjoy. This was the first time I got to play it though and I enjoyed myself quite a bit alongside the children. How many games work well with players of all ages at the same table? * Player Count: 4 * My current rating: * Total Lifetime Plays: 2 * Rules Retention: Very good. Easy to teach, it is a children's game after all. * Keeper: never owned a copy. But would totally play again. * Recommended: For anyone who likes stacking games--child or adult. * Competition: Menara (stacking)

My very favorite game. If there was a single game to play for the rest of my gaming life: this would be it. I've said this before about Terra Mystica. But Spirit Island easily surpassed TM. I first learned it at SPIEL in 2017 when the German version was published. I knew instantly this was my new favorite. I bought a copy as fast as I could (it was of course sold out at SPIEL itself). I have all the expansions, the playmat, the deluxe components, Horizons and even the shiny holo spirits... I don't play it as frequently these days because I don't have the bandwidth for the complexity so often anymore due to job changes. But that doesn't change the fact that I love the way the games play out. I tend to play solo with 2 spirits, usually against one of the dozen or so Opponents. But also mostly at Level 1 because that is sufficiently difficult for me to struggle to win but mostly not lose the game. My favorite spirit is Thunderspeaker closely followed by other spirits that guard the Dahan and those jungle types that prevent exploring in the first place. Jagged Earth is surely the best expansion but I would always recommend starting with Branch & Claw once someone is comfortable with the rules of the base game. Events and tokens complete the game in my opinion. * Player Count: 1 * My current rating: * Total Lifetime Plays: 78 (+ probably a couple dozen or so more before I started logging) * Rules Retention: Mostly good. I can also teach this. But I have played this so much * Keeper: It's my favorite game since I got it. * Recommended: Fans of big combotastic cooperative games on a map with tons of different power cards and huge variability. The initial hurdle is learning the rules. There are a lot of them. Understanding Swift vs Turtle phase is what makes or breaks this game. * Competition: Nothing🔥🔥🔥 Not true. Sometimes simpler fare is better like Daybreak (combos)

This was one of my early Crowdfunding experiments and since this one turned out so well, I backed a lot of other experimental small games most of which disappointed me. This game is great. The 3 goals pulling you in different directions, trying to get few roads and building bigger blocks and... every game is different. Getting such replay value with this tiny a game: an incredible feat. In the whole franchise this spawned, this remains my favorite not least because I know all the goals and how they play out and still don't always win. Some goal combinations are definitely easier than others. I also tend to just play and start optimizing only on the final cards. Still a game can last surprisingly long given how there are only 14 turns (18 - 3 goals - 1st card) It is also so satisfying to build this little city, I have so many photos of finished cities. It's just a special little game I often take with me on trips as well. The cards are starting to show some wear and I am surprised the plastic wallet is still in one piece. I have quite a few expansions but I usually play with out them. Of the ones I tried, Beaches seems the best. * Player Count: 1 * My current rating: * Total Lifetime Plays: 106 * Rules Retention: Easy. Very few rules. Could teach it if I were willing to play this other than solo. * Keeper: Definitely. It's so addictive. * Recommended: For fans of traveling with games and tile laying. * Competition: Other Polis games (franchise), Grove (overlapping tiles, goals), Trailblazers (overlapping tiles, goals), Cascadia (building your terrain is much like building your city, it produces something I often like to photograph)

I initially dismissed this because it was less brain burny than Calico. Oh, how I was wrong about this game's decision being boring. This is one of my very favorite cozy games that I can play anytime. I prefer solo or small player counts. We once played with 6 with the expansion and it became this huge, long game... not recommended. I like to play some of the challenges that are at the back of the rulebooks of the base game and the expansion. They force you to adapt to some additional parameters and give you specific setups which ups the replay value of the game even more than it already is. As a bonus it is super quick to set up and the solo plays in under 20-30 minutes. I always play with the expansion tiles but I vary everything else. The expansion is very good but not needed to complete the game. Can't wait for Alpine Lakes. * Player Count: 1 * My current rating: * Total Lifetime Plays: 88 * Rules Retention: Very good. Easy to teach, too. * Keeper: Absolutely. Replay value remains very high especially with the expansion. It's like comfort food for my brain at this point. * Recommended: For anyone age 6+ who likes animals, the Pacific Northwest and/or hexagons * Competition: Harmonies (pattern + terrain building), Calico (pattern building), Sanctuary (hex tiles + animals)

I never really played the predecessor (Orchard, I believe). I like this one fine. It is not as good a tile laying puzzle as Sprawlopolis but sufficiently different to keep it on my small games shelf. It also shares a bit of the "Oh I didn't spot the pattern" issue I have with A Gentle Rain when I am tired or cannot concentrate for other reasons. So it is a good gauge of my current stress level. It forces more concentration than a game like Sprawlopolis which I play by feeling my way through. * Player Count: 1 * My current rating: * Total Lifetime Plays: 19 * Rules Retention: Okay. Easy to learn. But I always miss a couple of details when I have not played in a while. * Keeper: Unique in my collection and very small. But it does not have the same replay value as Sprawlopolis et al. * Recommended: For fans of travelable solo puzzles with dice * Competition: Sprawlopolis (overlapping tiles + goals), Limes (quick solo with cards)

I bought this game after seeing it on a roundup review. The review made it sound much more interesting than it really is. The game is far too simple or I am missing something essential. You have 6 people who want to get home by public transport. On a turn you play two cards. You either add them to one of the six people's trip home or you discard them to move the people along their trip to the next stop. There are several types of public transport boats, busses and trains they can take and there are also their destinations. Each destination needs 3 or 4 cards placed on the given route before it can be placed. And decisions just aren't very interesting. The game gets samey within a single play. * Player Count: 1 * My current rating: * Total Lifetime Plays: 3 * Rules Retention: Okay. Not a lot of rules, easy enough to teach but obviously after 4 years the rules didn't stick. * Keeper: No. * Recommended: Not really, but if you need a super simple cooperative game. * Competition: Link City (cooperative city building)

I am always hunting for the next Sprawlopolis. Well, this wasn't it. I got it from crowdfunding. Played it twice. It does not compare favorably with Sprawlopolis at all. This is probably a bit unfair to the game, or is it? I decided to give it another chance. But it is just not as captivating as some of my other small tile laying puzzles. The decisions are not as interesting either. Having to decide about scoring cards and when to take them... might be fine if you wanted to play this competitive. But for competitive tile laying I would still vastly prefer Cascadia or Harmonies or Carcassonne if I actually wanted competition. * Player Count: 1 * My current rating: * Total Lifetime Plays: 3 * Rules Retention: Okay. Easy enough to learn this small ruleset. * Keeper: Unlikely. * Recommended: If you really like Dinosaurs or square cards (check out Limes if you like squares) * Competition: Sprawlopolis (variable goals, overlapping tiles), Grove (variable goals, overlapping tiles), Limes (square cards)

I saw this one on a few solo geeklists and when it was available despite being an older game (2014 is older these days), I decided to give it a try. I haven't tried it at 2 only as a solo. You build up a square tableau of 16 cards which each have four distinct (much like Sprawlopolis but you can turn them in every direction) areas that can be water, tower, woods or fields. You get a bunch of workers you can place on the cards or move them around to get better scoring positions. Each worker scores the type of terrain they end up with. Plays fast, the scoring is unique among my tile laying solos, so far now it stays. It is not quite as addictive as some other small solos I have but this one can add a bit of variety every now and then and unless I start purging my small games, it is too inoffensive to get lost. * Player Count: 1 * My current rating: * Total Lifetime Plays: 7 * Rules Retention: Fine. Just need to revisit the scoring every time. * Keeper: Probably. It's a small box and has some unique elements. * Recommended: If you like Romans, squares and square romans as a solo puzzle. (It's fine) * Competition: Fairy Trails (tile laying), A Gentle Rain (quick solo), Sprawlopolis (solo tile laying)

I preferably play the short solo game. It's a spatial puzzle that is very abstract but for such puzzles I don't mind abstract. Sometimes theme can interfere. Here it does not. It can be very random which tiles come up but in a solo that is not a problem for me. There are interesting decisions in this tile laying and the short game is fairly quick to set up and play. The box as so often could be half the size ... * Player Count: 1 * My current rating: * Total Lifetime Plays: 21 * Rules Retention: Very good. * Keeper: Yes. Just my kind of spatial solo puzzle * Recommended: if you enjoy abstract spatial puzzles and patterns. I would not recommend this for multiplayer just as a solo. * Competition: A Gentle Rain (pattern spotting)

Someone in this house likes dice and games with dice. So I keep buying games in order to entice them to the table. This one is special because you build a big meta-die from the smaller dice and then you deconstruct it. But beyond the gimmick it's basically a cooperative set collection game in the pandemic tradition. Do 3 actions from a limited set, have the game create problems, if the problems add up march the explosion marker along it's track. Collect all the sets before the explosion marker hits the limit. I prefer actual pandemic on the map. Have yet to get the dice fan to play this with me--possibly because I find this less than interesting. But I had forgotten that when I returned it to the table after not a year. This is probably better with actual 2 players or more. As a solo you simply play two handed. * Player Count: 1 * My current rating: * Total Lifetime Plays: 2 * Rules Retention: Probably okay. The rules can be relearned easily enough. I could also easily teach this but there are some fiddly parts I would probably forget to explain. * Keeper: Not really. Unless multiplayer happens and turns out good. * Recommended: If you really really like dice or pandemic-likes a lot. But beware the gimmick. It does nothing to make the decisions of the game more interesting. * Competition: Cubitos (dice), Grove (dice), Mythical Dice (dice), Pandemic et al (classic cooperative)

I only figured out recently that I had acquired the solomode for this with the latest expansion. After a few initial 2 player sessions of this that I enjoyed, we had a couple at 6 players and that gets ugly fast. Especially when 4 of those players have played the game to death and know all the strategies and which cards to combo much better than you do. As a solo--great solomode btw--this turns into a very cozy tree raising experience. I only played 1 solo so far but it gave me all the combos I wanted without the hassle of being angry at other players taking away my cards (I can't very well be angry at the automa taking them...) Because I refuse to keep sorting the cards I am obviously playing with cards from all the expansions. * Player Count: 1 * My current rating: * Total Lifetime Plays: 6 (really? So few. Shows how little multiplayer I got to in recent years) * Rules Retention: Good. It's all on the cards. * Keeper: Definitely. * Recommended: If you like building huge fiddly plateaus and don't mind the scoring-from-hell. No really, I recommend this. It's a good combotastic game that plays very well at 2 or 3 and now as a solo. But the scoring takes forever and I am sure I make mistakes every time. * Competition: Arboretum (trees), Flourish (theme + tableau building), Artengarten ( ~theme + tags)

I bought this rather spontaneously at SPIEL because I liked how the building slowly rises up. But it turns out to be a small engine builder for 1 or 2 players with a rather fiddly set of iconography that interrupts the flow of playing. The engine building is not that spectacular. Sure you get 4 different actions on your tableau that you slowly build up by up to 3 additional bonusses and nothing immediately comes to mind that does this in quite the same way but it does not feel so exceptional. The iconography is what does this in. In a bid to have as little text in the game itself as possible too many similar-ish icons were introduced on too many different game elements and I just can't deduce the meanings of them easily. In each set of icons there are a couple that just aren't intuitive and when they come up I either ignore those options or I have to go look for the right table in the rulebook. It might be that with repeated plays this would flow much more smoothly. But I have too many games in my collection that appeal more to me as a solo and for small 2 player engine building I am more likely to be going for Splendor Duel and similar games. And for big engine building I have Terraforming Mars. (For some reason this game keeps reminding me of Furnace and I cannot explain why. I like Furnace better anyway. It's smarter.) * Player Count: 1 * My current rating: * Total Lifetime Plays: 2 * Rules Retention: Bad. Rulebook has too many different icon tables that need looking up. Teaching should be fine but player aids would be better. * Keeper: Hmf. * Recommended: Fans of New York architecture or engine building. * Competition: Furnace (engine building + theme)

This is one of the few Roll & Writes I kept. I even have the Japan expansion block. The maps are all kind of interesting and the puzzle doesn't get old. Instead every time I play, I play at least 2 rounds of it. It's fine and I think I need a few 'fine' games that I can pull out for certain occasions. * Player Count: 1 * My current rating: * Total Lifetime Plays: 15 * Rules Retention: Good. Had to relearn the "special" cards. Teaching should be easy. * Keeper: Yes. One of the better R&W games I have and with a total of 8 different maps there is enough variability. * Recommended: If you like R&W games, this is a rather "classic" take. * Competition: Next Station London (route flipping and writing), Welcome To (the Moon) (flip and write)

After Hoplomachus victorum, I really hoped this one was going to be the dice solo of my dreams. It is not. I got the 3 Tanglewood (fairy tale inspired) decks that have incredibly beautiful artwork. The first hurdle I encountered was the fiddly rulebook that is divided into base rules and deck specific rules. Nope. Next up my issue with empty die faces remains: there are too many of them. It took me 3 attempts to finish my first game of this. I should maybe not have started with the Red deck. I read this is the hardest of the 3 Tanglewood ones. I made it to the final boss in this game but I still don't quite understand how to play and I probably cheated. I've been tempted to find a houserule with Hoplomachus victorum to ease up on the frustration. I am the kind of player who prefers inching up difficulty slowly to learn from successes rather than failures. But it seems these games really want to throw me in at the deep end. In any case I don't seem to get along with the dice. * Player Count: 1 * My current rating: * Total Lifetime Plays: 1 * Rules Retention: Bad. Fiddly rulebook. * Keeper: Not sure. Need to try the other decks * Recommended: People who enjoy being frustrated by empty faces on the dice. * Competition: Grove (dice), Hoplomachus Victorum (publisher, dice, solo)

This is a very simple set collection game with very beautiful cards. I don't think I'll ever play this other than solo because I have too many other multiplayer games and probably better set collection like Let's Go To Japan or even Sushi Go. Why play this one? It's quick to set up and play. But it is also not super interesting and the bot makes for a lot of entropy in the decisions that would probably also happen in multiplayer. I have never had a really high scoring game with a good combo of sets. The arc just falls a little flat. * Player Count: 1 * My current rating: * Total Lifetime Plays: 5 * Rules Retention: Okay. Small ruleset. Easy to teach. * Keeper: Maybe? It's a smallish box and very pretty. * Recommended: Anyone who likes to collect beautiful flower arrangements. The art is very pretty and it might be okay enough as multiplayer. * Competition: Let’s Go To Japan (sets), Flourish (theme + sets), Canvas (sets)

This is the 4th entry into the Sprawlopolis franchise and the first one to do something really different with scoring and as such I adore it. 1. the three goals are ordered and weighted, 3rd one scores 3 times as much as 1st. 2. Jackpots -> consecutive symbols on streets give super-extra points. There are also only 3 terrains as opposed to the usual 4. Overall this makes the game much higher scoring than the 3 predecessors. But the fun puzzle remains and is changed sufficiently from the others to make it into its own game. * Player Count: 1 * My current rating: * Total Lifetime Plays: 21 * Rules Retention: Very good. * Keeper: Definitely. I expect this to stay in rotation with the other Sprawl- and Naturo- * Recommended: For fans of the *polis series or tiny solo tile-laying in general. * Competition: Other polis games (franchise)

As the name says this is a tranquil meditative number sorting into a neat mountain of squares with numbers on them. The variants make it a little less meditative. Especially the one with the bleating goats is not quite so tranquil. In any case, in the same vein as A Gentle Rain, I sometimes need games like this to help me focus and breathe. * Player Count: 1 * My current rating: * Total Lifetime Plays: 5 (feels like there should be a few more) * Rules Retention: Not great. Easy ruleset. I just wish the rulebook was formatted a little different. * Keeper: Sure. It's unique but I don't need the whole franchise. This one looks prettiest. * Recommended: For fans of meditative number tiling. * Competition: A Gentle Rain (feels), One Piece Nakama (numbers)

One of my very favorite Uwe Rosenberg games. Sadly, I wasn't fast enough to snatch the additional decks that were sold separately from the Big Box at some point. I only have the Salmon deck of those which I was able to acquire when it had just been published. The solo is over 7 rounds with 3 actions each. In this very limited amount of time you can build up your village and try for a variety of scoring strategies that really depend on which buildings are on display for this game. * Player Count: 1 * My current rating: * Total Lifetime Plays: 13 * Rules Retention: Good. Not sure if I would find it easy to teach. I once tried to get a table together and my friends flatout refused to play this? * Keeper: Definitely. It's a very quick cozy solo with good replay value. * Recommended: Anyone wanting to play a cozy farming / fishing game with moderately tight economy. * Competition: Fields of Arle (Uwe farming), Oranienburger Kanal (Uwe action selection/workers)

Revive was #1 on my SPIEL watchlist 2022 and my personal GOTY 2023 (it took some time to get my copy after SPIEL). And I am still enjoying my 2 player games with a friend on BGA quite a lot. There is a nice trinity of colors, associated with main actions, associated with cards, associated with resources, associated with tracks... everything comes in 3s in this game and it helps very much teaching this game. There is a lot going on here. It is like Beyond the Sun very well suited to async play as a player turn can get quite intricate with very interesting decisions but it is completely contained even more so than Beyond the Sun. * Player Count: 2 (BGA) * My current rating: * Total Lifetime Plays: 9 (BGA plays are slow for this one) * Rules Retention: Easy. I can probably teach this from memory by now. But the rules complexity is on the higher end and initial learning curve is steep. * Keeper: Yes. * Recommended: Fans of tracks and tech-tree-ish games and multi-use cards. There is a shared map that is adding some competition but not too much. It's still very much "just blocking" and not direct competition. * Competition: Beyond the Sun (async-ability)

It's a classic now, isn't it? Other games have copied the action selection and the paying everything with cards thing. (I am looking at you Ares Expedition). I am not very good at this these days but at some point I played the app back to back to back all the time. It can get quite addictive. The actual cardboard version wasn't available in Germany for quite a long time and now that I have the German version, I wish I didn't because not all expansions are available ... in any case: a good game but not one I am in the mood for all the time. * Player Count: 1 (app) * My current rating: * Total Lifetime Plays: 16 (I play mostly on the app and at one point I played this addictively, it's probably more like 80-100 plays) * Rules Retention: The app does it for me. Once one understands the action selection and that planets and projects are paid for with cards it is easy to understand. * Keeper: Definitely, I still hope to play this more on the table eventually. But the app opponent is a decent enough stand-in. * Recommended: Space Empire builders who like paying for stuff with cards (not credit cards though) * Competition: Ares Expedition (RftG is a clear inspiration for this one)

At some point I thought this might become rote. But as I keep losing this year, I don't think it ever did. It's one of those "I have a short break and need to get my mind somewhere else" games like A Gentle Rain. * Player Count: 1 * My current rating: * Total Lifetime Plays: 38 * Rules Retention: Easy. Lay out the cards and follow the instructions on each card. * Keeper: Yes. It's a good solo puzzle. * Recommended: For solo puzzling. * Competition: Fertig! (number sorting), Limes (square layout)

Still my favorite trick taker. The only one I actually want to play. I own a whole bunch from the wave of recent years but this cooperative version is "it" for me at least. I prefer this with the dynamic puzzle goals over the original also this one introduced the two player mode. We started a new campaign during vacation and got till Mission 11 or so. I hope we keep it going. We downloaded a campaign sheet here from the BGG Files section that should make it easier to track where we are at. Good fun. I prefer the 2 player mode over every other 2 player trick taker I tried (Awimbawe and Sail come to mind). * Player Count: 2 * My current rating: * Total Lifetime Plays: 51 * Rules Retention: We had to relearn the 2 player mode. Otherwise: it's a trick taker. One doesn't forget how to take tricks, right? * Keeper: Definitely. I prefer this over the original, we keep both in the same box. * Recommended: Anyone who enjoys trick-taking and puzzling out things cooperatively. It is usually a bit more obvious to figure out if a hand is winnable than with Take Time and you have a few more options. This plays well at two with the specific 2 player mode that has the captain simulate the 3rd player. * Competition: Other Crew (franchise), Take Time (low communication puzzle), The Gang (low communication), various trick takers

We played and lost 2 cooperative games of this against the "Lord Ruler". This is hard. It is harder with two it seems. The Lord Ruler forces a tough tempo on the deck building and it gets frustrating when you don't ever win. We decided we'll give ourselves a handicap of a couple of turns where the Lord Ruler will not draw a card initially and see if we learn to build our decks better. I have won the solo a couple of times but I have lost more. Still this is such a good iteration of random market deck building (a la Star Realms) and with such a good game arc that even losing is fun. * Player Count: 2 * My current rating: * Total Lifetime Plays: 10 * Rules Retention: Good. It's a deck builder. * Keeper: Definitely. Good retention. There are a few details I had to reacquaint myself with after not having played in a while. * Recommended: Fans of Star Realms and other random market deck builders. Probably fans of the Mistborn series. But it is not required to have read it to play this game--the theme stands well enough on its own. It may be easier to remember the rules, if you have read the series. * Competition: Star Realms (deckbuilding), Clank! (deckbuilding)

I like puzzles and I really like patterns. But the way I tend to play such games from the gut with a lot of "let's try this" instead of optimizing each move, does not work for a game aiming to induce AP. This one feels like it is doomed to fail, if I don't spend a lot of time analyzing every single move. Unlike for example Sprawlopolis where no matter how badly I played the previous move the next one still feels satisfying. This one faces tough competition from solo puzzles I like a lot better. In addition this game is too abstract for me and in the end I have not really built anything worthwhile. Every other game of *polis I take a picture because I like my results. I can stare at my Harmonies or Cascadia tableau after a badly scoring game and still like the landscape I built... but here: I might have won, but I have nothing to show for it. * Player Count: 1 * My current rating: * Total Lifetime Plays: 4 * Rules Retention: It had been too long. It is quick to learn though * Keeper: Not sure. (see above) * Recommended: Anyone who really likes to optimize and strategize their moves in a solo puzzle that rewards thorough planning and pattern recognition. * Competition: Hive (pattern movement), Tash Kalar (pattern building)

I bought this on a recommendation after avoiding it despite the SdJ Kennerspiel win. In recent years Kennerspiel and me weren't always a good fit. Having seen pictures of the game also didn't entice me. But when I heard it had a solo and a cooperative mode and was about exploration more than anything, I decided it might be a good fit to play with my partner and it is. After 3 solos and one 2 player cooperative game, I think the competitive mode is probably where it is at. Solo could get boring. I think the goal and the problem cards don't have enough variety to make a real difference. And I think more sea tiles would also be good although how much variety can you have... * Player Count: 1-2 * My current rating: * Total Lifetime Plays: 4 * Rules Retention: Easy. After playing one game I was able to teach it without looking into the rulebook * Keeper: For a while. I think it is better with 2 players than solo. Solo could get a boring optimization puzzle. * Recommended: Anyone who wants to do some cozy exploring of the sea. Beyond 2 players it is probably not cozy especially in competitive mode. Just saying. * Competition: SETI (exploration, action accumulation), Arnak (exploration), Underwater Cities (theme)

I really enjoyed the books, at least the first 3 or 4 until the stakes got too high for me to continue reading (also this happens when I read series that are still on-going, I forget to come back for the next book). In any case thought this looked like a nice game based on an IP I enjoyed. When I got it I mostly played solo and enjoyed myself a lot. I couldn't quite understand why a lot of people didn't really enjoy this game. Then I played the game multiplayer. And the changing game state between turns with just 2 players enraged my Mitspieler so badly that I decided to never play it multiplayer again. But for reasons I quite like this somewhat bloated iteration on the simple formula of Fantasy Realms. With the bot the changing game state also happens but minus the human competition it doesn't bother me at all and it turns into a fun and endlessly variable puzzle that has a bit more game to it than Fantasy Realms if only a bit. * Player Count: 1 * My current rating: * Total Lifetime Plays: 13 * Rules Retention: Decent. It is not hard to remember between games and wouldn't be difficult to teach. I have to look up the automa set up every time though. Just doesn't stick. * Keeper: Definitely. Such beautiful cards and combos and known characters. * Recommended: Fans of Red Rising who like a solo comboing experience. (I recommend the CE with the metal cubes, it just feels so nice) * Competition: Fantasy Realms (hand curation), One Piece Nakama (IP based games with lots of characters)

It's not a race game and no it's not for 4 players. It's a fun betting game that surprises with how engaging it is. I got this as soon as it was available in Germany. I had people tell me how much fun it was for half a year... At my table however these "fun" games have a tendency to fall flat. My local Mitspieler are not usually the ones to jump up and down around the table and be super-engaged. I would never try Read-Set-Bet with them. Camel-Up was not as much fun as this one. Someone said: "This is the much better version of Camel-up" and people were laughing and shouting. We had sufficient entropy in our first games to ensure this. I have heard someone say that it might be best to pre-create a chaotic deck if people are playing for the first time to make sure a mascot walks backwards, a mascot swerves off the map. * Player Count: 2-5 * My current rating: * Total Lifetime Plays: 2 * Rules Retention: Easy. I just need to remember that the deck is always 18 cards. * Keeper: Definitely. This game makes people shout and laugh. * Recommended: Fans of having fun and people who sometimes need a dumb game to relax. * Competition: Camel Up (betting), Kalimambo (silly racing)

Every time I play this I have to relearn the number of rounds. This year I messed up and played a game of just 4 rounds and insert "surprised pikachu" looked at my score, compared it to previous ones and said "that's a really bad score". The second game over the full 8 rounds was better. The thing that irks me most about this game is that I bought the stupid big box that is Carcassonne sized and has a lot of air inside. It is a very quick playing solo if one plays the short 8 round game. I kind of like it and it is somewhat unique among my solos except of course that I have a ton of Rosenberg games that are similarish. Except of all the farming ones this one is the fastest to table and play. Does it get a guaranteed place on my shelf? I have not played the big Caverna and have a big Agricola edition incoming. And while among my "quick" small solos there is nothing like it, if I go up to medium sized solos there is Nusfjord and while those two are very different the mood I have to be in to play them is similar and I think in many cases Nusfjord would win. I really need to play the long game with the Iron Age at some point to see if the challenge suits me better. * Player Count: 1 * My current rating: * Total Lifetime Plays: 6 * Rules Retention: Okay, except for the roundtrack. The rest is typical Rosenberg fare. * Keeper: Maybe? * Recommended: Fans of a simplified solo farming Rosenberg that can be played in ~20 minutes (if you don't have to relearn the rules first) * Competition: Nusfjord (action selection, Rosenberg 'farming'), Flatiron (action 'configuration' -> player boards gain personalized actions over time)

After it sat on my shelf reserved for "Look at this beautiful cover, sadly I'll never get to play this"-games for several years... somehow I decided to try to bring it to the table during a midweek gamenight. I sold it as a mashup of Catan (trading), 7 Wonders (synchronous play) and Terraforming Mars (engine building/production). I almost failed the teach. It's just a lot and while I had tried to simulate a 4 handed game once with my partner that did NOTHING for rules retention 2 years later. I got lucky that our gamer friends were very patient with me and so I got to play this game with 6 people at last. I believe that 4 is a better player count for a first game for the whole table. But 6 it was. It is hard to describe what a challenge the game was for all of us but it was also such an experience to have a game that's so different from our usual fare. People struggled to grok how to evaluate trades, how to find VP and we had lengthy discussions about our deals. Our trading rounds took forever. I spent some extra time in the rulebook to find things we had overlooked during the teach. I cannot truthfully say that I loved every minute of it because half the time I was afraid someone would say "let's call it, I am done." But we finished the 6 rounds. And the discussions continued because the game resonated. I am glad I got to have this play. I don't really dare hope for further plays but maybe I have incited some interest in the others. None of them hated it. Me: I think it was a great experience and gave me a new appreciation for what games can do. * Player Count: 6 * My current rating: * Total Lifetime Plays: 1 * Rules Retention: It was a complex teach and I overlooked quite a few details that had to be cleared up during the game. But I think now that I have played it, it would be far easier to remember, relearn and teach the rules. It's such an unusual design that makes it harder at first. * Keeper: Definitely. If only for the cover. Playing was a unique experience I would love to repeat * Recommended: Fans of creative trading, combos, euros, playing games other than party games with 6+ players * Competition: Cosmic Frog, Bad Company, Cosmic Encounter, Zoo Vadis, 7 Wonders. But only because of player count. Nothing is quite like this. At least nothing I know.

We have played Viticulture competitively a few times. It's a pretty standard worker placement theme with a few nicely thematic additions especially with the wine aging mechanism. My partner enjoys the wine theme a lot and so it has a pretty secure spot on my shelves. Over time the visitor decks have become somewhat bloated due to the smaller expansions. Besides player competition for spots, the varying cards are the single source of entropy in this game. Sadly, the entropy from cards is so high that I am considering houseruling that when you draw cards you get to draw several and choose among them. Now a few years ago this cooperative expansion was published and we had not played it until now. In the cooperative game, there is a new game board with slightly modified worker spots to support this mode. But the general game stays the same. The biggest changes are: an event deck (different scenarios can be played through those event decks) and the possibility to upgrade worker spots to include bonuses or upgrade the actions themselves. We only played the introductory scenario which is designed in a way that helps players get to know the changes in this mode. I really like the options to upgrade the spots, it gave us a clear strategy to follow for achieving victory (we both had to reach 25 VP in 6 rounds and spend some money to reach 10 points in an additional track that we both share). What I did not like was the removal of entropy. The events are not introducing additional hurdles in the introductory scenario. And once I had figured out a path to achieve the 25 VP (which I did by round 5), there was nothing more for me to do. We did not play round 6 because there were only 2 actions left to take for my partner, neither of which involved any uncertainty and so we declared victory. The game turns into an optimization puzzle which worker placement can do which is why cooperative worker placement is hard to pull off in my opinion--the mechanism needs the added entropy from player competition to shine. The "cooperation" is mostly that we could have shared resources / cards when meeting at worker spots... we did that twice in the game. So it is mostly "get the 25 VP and have some money left over to push the other track". I have not looked at the solo mode or the other scenarios. We will surely play this again. My partner very much enjoyed the fact that he didn't loose after I sprinted away on the VP track. * Player Count: 2 * My current rating: * Total Lifetime Plays: 1 + 3 (without the expansion) * Rules Retention: I had to relearn the game after not playing for years that was to be expected. It is also teachable enough. The rules complexity is medium. My partner remembered the aging mechanism and the cellars so it seems retention is fine for the key concepts. * Keeper: Not sure. (see above) * Recommended: Anyone who really likes to optimize and strategize their moves in a solo puzzle that rewards thorough planning and pattern recognition. * Competition: Wine Cellar (theme), Mistborn Coop Mode, Pandemic (cooperative), Formosa Tea (drink-themed worker placement)

We very much enjoyed the first Clank! Legacy and so getting this was a no-brainer. Then after 4 games at the start of 2025, our campaign stalled. The reasons: * We had begun with 1 character each and it became obvious we should have been playing 2 handed each to experience the full story * The game barely fits our table and setup takes a lot of time * The games run long because the story aspects just take their time * The competitive nature of the game and our shared desire to experience the best story clashed So we decided to just pull the other 2 characters "up" and start playing 2-handed. I am well practiced playing multi-handed and despite my partner sometimes stating that this is my hobby more than his... "more" is the keyword here. He can do it just as well. We were unable to do anything about the other aspects. Adding up the setup, character changes, game prep, playing and epilogue of the game we probably spent something like 6+ hours on the game on Sunday. A typical Gloom-/Frosthaven scenario has nothing on this. It plays a lot faster. And that is saying something. Nevertheless we enjoyed it including the rules-twist introduced in the 5th game that players of the campaign will surely remember. Our inter-player conflict was also much reduced in this game and we both feel somewhat optimistic that we can now start playing this again regularly. Playing 2 handed helps with this aspect as well. * Player Count: 2x2 (2-handed) * My current rating: * Total Lifetime Plays: 5 (we also played the first campaign) * Rules Retention: It had been too long. The legacy rules needed a refresher. Base Clank! is easy to remember. * Keeper: Yes. * Recommended: Fans of the 1st Clank! Legacy, fans of legacy games in general, Clank! Fans. This is very good at combining the story telling aspect with the actual game and should leave you with a playable game like the first one did. But you need time and patience. * Competition: Clank! Catacombs (franchise), Ticket 2 Ride Legacy (legacy, our other unfinished campaign), Gloomhaven (complex game with big setup)

I had not played this in the last 5 years despite knowing that this is a very well done cozy solo drafting game or an alternative medium length game for a higher player count that provides an alternative to the ever present 7 Wonders for these plays. I prefer this over Floriferous not least because setup is so fast. Deal 12 cards to the bot. Deal 6 cards to yourself. Use any other scoring device than the provided (I really hate scoring wheelies) and play. Decisions are interesting because you just know that the cards you pass to the bot will come back to bite you. The game is quick, their is a pull between points now and points later. In just 3 rounds of 3 cards each and a final 3 card scoring round, the garden is finished and because it is fun, you can play a second game. * Player Count: 1 * My current rating: * Total Lifetime Plays: 7 * Rules Retention: 5 years later... relearning was quick. Scoring helper cards are nice. Should be an easy teach for the base game without variants. * Keeper: As a solo yes. As a high player count easy drafting alternative: yes * Recommended: As a cozy garden building solo or as a high player count (it plays up to 7!) drafting game that doesn't overwhelm * Competition: Floriferous (plants + sets), 7 Wonders (drafting), Sushi Go (drafting)

My favorite boardgame tetris. And it still holds true. The combination of polyominoes and tracks leading to nice combos is just perfect. The only thing I dislike about this game is the lid lift caused by the lid for the lazy susan. Oh well... I really enjoy this solo but it has been a frequent "We need something not-a-party-game for 6 players" solution. It is one of my biggest crowdfunding successes in so far as I really like the game. I have backed a large number of campaigns and few of those games have become staples in my collection. This is one of them. * Player Count: 1 * My current rating: * Total Lifetime Plays: 36 (I saw my rating of 9 and mistook it for playcount and thought that had to be very wrong and it is) * Rules Retention: Good. It is also an easy teach at least to people who have played a few boardgames. I once had a newbie play this and had to coach her through the whole game. (I have some small issues with the solo mode and the event deck) * Keeper: Definitely. I love it at all player counts. * Recommended: For anyone who likes somewhat involved polyominoes games and doesn't want to go as far as A Feast for Odin 😉 Also well done simple tracks with good combo bonus potential. * Competition: Patchwork (light polyominoes), A Feast for Odin (heavy polyominoes), 7 Wonders (synchronous play)

I was missing something from my soloing. And I looked through my games and noted I had not played this since late 2024. The campaign was almost finished. But I didn't remember all the rules for the unlocked details. So I reset the game and started over. It's so addicitve I played 11 games in 3 days. I have played the computer game which I don't really enjoy this much and I have played the OG Dorfromantik boardgame and I prefer this one. It has taken some lessons from the first and improved both gameplay and table presence and yes: I like pink. Highly recommended. This is the only implementation of a computer game where I very much prefer the boardgame. (Not that I have tried many such games, I usually avoid them because computergames are all about automation... I have more than a few apps I prefer over the original boardgames) * Player Count: 1 * My current rating: * Total Lifetime Plays: 23 * Rules Retention: Well, I had to reset the campaign. But the basics are trivial: play a tile, try to complete a task. * Keeper: Yes, so cozy. * Recommended: Anyone into cozy cooperative tile laying, hexagons and/or the color pink * Competition: Harmonies (cozy landscapes), Cascadia (hex tiles)

I had not expected to like this so much. But I saw it was illustrated by Beth Sobel and that combined with the hex tiles convinced me to give this a try. I had avoided the bigger Fjords KS a while back. But this has a solo mode and ... it turns out there was a hole in my collection that is now filed: a hex shaped hole for a solo even simpler and faster than Cascadia. It takes just the right amount of time for a short break from work. Setup is done in under half a minute which is equivalent of "no setup" at all. * Player Count: 1 * My current rating: * Total Lifetime Plays: 14 * Rules Retention: Easy. There are so few rules to the solo mode. * Keeper: Absolutely. I only just got this game and have already played it a lot. * Recommended: Anyone who enjoys simple small box solo games and tile laying * Competition: Cascadia (Hex landscapes), Naturopolis (Small box tile laying)

This is a game of building up custom tracks and combo-ing between them when activating them on your turn. The tiles may look like dominoes from afar but they are not. Neither are they Mahjongg tiles. I bought this for the solo but so far I am not sure if I am playing things right. I definitely made mistakes in my first game. The solo bot seems to put up a high tempo in gaining recognition tiles for the tracks. And once it has gained a tile for a track, the player cannot gain one. Once 5 recognitions are gained by a player, the game is over. There are 5 track recognitions to gain and 4 animal figure recognitions. The bot is super fast: the second or third time a player activates a track and gains a tile during that turn, the bot will gain the recognition for that track. And once the bot has it, the player who needs to have at least 4 tiles to gain a recognition on a track, can no longer get one. What I am unsure about is wether the actual tracks and combos are going to be satisfying to build up in a solo. The only actual combo-ing I see is going up the animal tracks. I have a lot of doubts about multiplayer. The variety of tiles and actions on them seems low to me. But I have no intention of putting multiplayer to the test anyway. * Player Count: 1 * My current rating: a very provisionary one * Total Lifetime Plays: 2 * Rules Retention: Probably good enough. The solo could be explained better. The rules make it needlessly opaque. * Keeper: Probably. Building up custom tracks is a bit unique and the solo might still grow on me. * Recommended: Fans of tracks or fans of painted Japanese dolls (the theme is paper-thin however) * Competition: Let's Go to Japan (theme), Mahjongg (clickety clackety tiles), Planet Unknown (combo-y tracks?) (I will need to revise this entry when I have played more)

I have never really enjoyed my solos of any Wingspan iteration. The wingspan automa is partially to blame for my general dislike of the whole concept of automa solos (the other one is Gaia project). This one is even worse than basic Wingspan, it has a fiddly set of decision making cards that should help you place the automa's solo tokens. I wear glasses now. For all the franchise's attempts to make more vision friendly cards, these automa cards are just hard to read, to parse and execute. I like the duel mode. I really do. And I like having a variant with a smaller set of cards because my base-game box is just too bloated with 2 expansions (and soon another one). * Player Count: 1 * My current rating: (deducting at least a star for the solo mode) * Total Lifetime Plays: 2 * Rules Retention: Meh. Half and half. The automa is so unintuitive. Actual Wingspan rules I know easily. * Keeper: Yes. But not for the solo. * Recommended: For a cool two player duel version for Wingspan fans. * Competition: Actual Wingspan.

So many rave reviews can't be wrong? And they probably aren't. Or it is all nostalgia for Shadow of the Colossus, a computer game I have never played. I think I am just sick of a certain type of cooperative game that is very ??? I can't quite put my finger on it but it feels very rote. There is a certain relationship here with the pandemic formula but it has iterated even more than Tesseract. The different map scenarios should be exciting. And I think I enjoyed this game right after I got it more than I do now that my crowdfunding excitement has died down. The thing that I am not enjoying is the mechanics not feeling like a game somehow. Just execution of commands. This is nothing at all like taking a turn in a game like Gloomhaven and it suffers from the same lack of excitement I feel on combat in Sleeping Gods. Definitely needs more plays to help me understand if this is a game for me. But I really don't want to right now. I can't quite say why except that this last play bored me out of my mind and consequently I lost. * Player Count: 1 * My current rating: * Total Lifetime Plays: 5 * Rules Retention: Middling. Mostly I didn't remember setup. * Keeper: Undecided. * Recommended: Fans of the Pandemic formula but without the flow of the original * Competition: Pandemic Iberia, Hispania

After an initial attempt at playing this solo that didn't take (I did not even log those games), I convinced my partner to give this a go and we played the first few chapters. It's very much like the crew. Take tricks until everyone has done their quest or task. Only that tasks here are repeated, f.e. Frodo is in all of the first chapters and he will always need to have 2 rings in his pocket at the end of the game. Also: there is only a single trump in this game. The 1 Ring. Big surprise 😉 And having to play a ring into a trick before being able to lead with a ring is kind of nice, since Frodo will always have to deal with that. I do hope that more twists are coming because having to do the same tasks all the time could get samey. * Player Count: 2 * My current rating: * Total Lifetime Plays: 4 * Rules Retention: Not hard to learn or teach if everyone already knows basic trick taking. * Keeper: Until the campaign is done at least. * Recommended: Anyone who cannot get enough of The Crew * Competition: The Crew (cooperative trick taking)

I have yet to figure out how to win this. I thought I won once but I had made a mistake. In this game you try to close off all the escape routes of the Bandida with deadends or circular routes. I have tried it a bunch and I think this is not meant to be played solo. In multiplayer there are definitely more cards in play and the rules do not forbid you from discussion as much as some other games, so my thoughts are that with maybe 3 players there are 9 cards in the hands of those players and one might say: let me handle this corner... and so make it more likely that routes can be closed through circles because there just aren't enough deadend cards and too many cards just opening new crossings. As a solo this seems incredibly difficult. In other games like One Piece Nakama the solo player gets more cards in hand to counteract this effect. I might houserule that. Or actually try multiplayer. The game is super-simple and the concept of closing of the routes is unique in my collection and rather fun--just very frustrating up to now. * Player Count: 1 * My current rating: * Total Lifetime Plays: 6 * Rules Retention: Easy. I need to learn the symbols on the cards with the items better. * Keeper: At least until I figure out how to win the solo, possibly longer. * Recommended: Fans of route building via tile laying * Competition: Trailblazers (routes, tiles), Fairy Trails (routes, tiles)

I bought this blind because of the cover (I like tulips and never bought any of the other tulip games like Windmill Valley, Gift of Tulips or Tulpenfieber) and only later noticed that it was a polyominoes games (a very favorite mechanism) by one of my favorite designers (Bruno Cathala). The game is very beautiful with very pretty glittering tiles and very nice chunky wooden pieces for the improvements. The solomode is elegant to handle, one of the more unique ones I have seen with the cards themselves creating an analog to the landscape the player is building. If I was only to rate how well the solomode was done this would easily be a 10/10 game. But... it is too short. 10 turns is probably great for a quick multiplayer à la Kingdomino. With games like this I am looking for just a bit longer experience. Cascadia's solo has 20 turns. Harmonies has a variable length but probably takes ~15 turns. Even Sprawlopolis which has just 19 cards has 15 turns to play. The landscape you build is not very satisfying, the game mainly asks you to try and build improvements and it is not very satisfying to me to build a landscape full of holes which is where the improvements are placed. This may be personal preference and YMMV. Anyhow games like Cascadia, Harmonies or Planet Unknown provide a more satisfying final result on the table. If this were any less pretty I would quickly let it go. As such I am shallow and it will get more chances and possibly improve my opinion through multiplayer. * Player Count: 1 * My current rating: * Total Lifetime Plays: 3 * Rules Retention: Easy. Very simple ruleset built on good iconography and well-known mechanisms. * Keeper: Probably. * Recommended: Fans of really quick tile-laying games. The polyominoes are less "dominant" and satisfying than in other games. * Competition: Tipperary (polyominoes), Kingdomino (quick tile laying), Patchwork (polyominoes), Planet Unknown (polyominoes), Cascadia (landscapes)