New-to-me games played recently include …

A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S FAYRE (2024): Rank 19249, Rating 6.2

There are three races in play at any one time (ten for the game), placing a die that meets a race condition (eg a 6, not 1-3) etc. A turn is to place one die on one of the races. If you’re first in, your intent will be to win, but usually you’re placing later for the participation trophy. Everyone collects dice manipulation cards each turn so inevitably your dice will be screwed with anyway, just as you screw with theirs, and it happens so frequently that even schadenfreude junkies will start yawning. Your turn is so simplistic, there’s no control, and it’s way too long for what it offers … which is nothing interesting.

Rating: 3

A PLACE FOR ALL MY BOOKS (2025): Rank 2942, Rating 7.7

Take actions on your home board to move books around your tableau to satisfy contracts (eg 4 red stacks, no stacks in the centre, etc). These actions build your “social battery” and then you decamp to the town board to spend it all on more books. Then come back, move things around to satisfy more contracts, repeat. It’s very solitaire, working out the minimum number of actions needed to get the orientations you want, but it’s certainly not rocket science, especially if you don’t care that much. It’s pleasant in a cutesy way, playing kinda like a young adult game.

Rating: 6

THE DRUIDS OF EDORA (2025): Rank 2932, Rating 7.9 – Feld

Classic Euro, just 13 turns, 60 minutes. Move your meeple around a map from site to site, using up one of the one-use only actions at that site. There’s a plethora of actions and you want to specialise in just a few. A lot of the charm is identifying your strategy based on what bonus effects for which actions you can acquire early and finding a low-cost path to execute them. While other players are gradually blocking out available actions, you can nearly always find something valuable to do. There’s a continuing logistics problem to solve – moving costs resources, as does placing dice on action slots, plus you need to acquire more dice, but there’s a number of ways to do it all. Meaning there’s insta-replay trying out all the different approaches. Downtime is low and turns come fast. I hesitate to give it an 8 because it’s so abstract but it’s very likeable.

Rating: 7

EVENFALL (2023): Rank 1068, Rating 7.6

Three complicated rounds, putting your meeples out to gain cards. Spend resources to put them in your engine. Run your engine to get more resources. Put more cards out. Keep going ‘til you can’t no more. Where you put your meeples also allows you to bid for end-round powers, like transferring your engine cards to VP earning cards at end of game. Put it up, tear it down. I didn’t mind it but there’s a lot of card reading if you want to do well, meaning downtime around the table, which makes the game longer than 3 rounds sounds, and synergies feel fleeting so my normal card-effect love didn’t kick in.

Rating: 6

LUNAR TRICK (2025): Rank 11546, Rating 7.2

A really interesting trick-taker. The deck ranges from 1-30 and the opening trick decides what the three suits will be (the ranges in between the cards played) and which half of the deck (1-15 or 16-30) will be trumps. Meaning some suits may contain trumps and non-trumps. I said interesting, right? Your first played card sets you on a path of making your cards high or low, and then you need to manage your trick-taking to win only 1 trick or 5 tricks (for max points) or 3 tricks (for half points). Anything else is a fail which is harsh, tension-inducing, and cheer/groan worthy as well. It really makes you think about hand mgt in a new way. I’m a little unsure about longevity and how much of it is a one-trick pony, but I’ve enjoyed the pony ride so far and want to explore further.

Rating: 7

MAGIC NUMBER ELEVEN (2024): Rank 5783, Rating 7.5

A nice football implementation. It foregoes moving a ball around. You place out cards onto the field aiming to match icons to improve your defence rating, your score rating, and pressure (which improves both). Each turn (mostly) finishes with a shot on goal – the better your pressure, the more bonus cards you get to play each turn to improve your score/defence rating as appropriate – and the best rating wins. The game is about the order in which to play out your cards and respond to your opponent’s strengths. There’s not enough in the game-play to pull you back but scoring goals is always fun and it’s nicely evocative.

Rating: 7

ORIGIN STORY (2025): Rank 3164, Rating 7.4 – Stegmeier, Wissinger

Trick-taking where each round you add a new effect to your tableau. Once you’ve seen your hand, choose which effects you want to pay for, and then shoot for as many tricks as you can, or what your effects will reward, or go misere. A bunch of effects will mess with the trick taking rules so it can get fairly chaotic. It probably goes a bit long for a trick-taking game, waiting for everyone to process their power possibilities, but it was also fun watching things play out.

Rating: 7

WORDSY (2017): Rank 3573, Rating 6.9

Put out a 4×2 grid of letters (they’ll have different point values based on their position in the grid) and you’re on the clock to write down the biggest scoring word you can think of. Compare and earn bonus points for beating the player first out, or being first out with a good score. Repeat for 7 rounds with refreshed letters. I’m not a big fan of time pressure games but I am somewhat literate, which maybe balances out my feelings for the game at neutral.

Rating: 6