It is only January 6, but I have already broken my New Year’s resolution to avoid playing board games in 2026. However, the good news is that I played three really enjoyable games this past week.

At our “Euro Mondays” gathering—where we don’t always play European-style games but keep the name anyway—Logan brought over his new copy of Aquaria to play with me and Doug. Aquaria proves that designer Tomáš Holek has a special talent for creating great games. This is the third solid game by Holek that I have played recently, published by Capstone Games.

In Aquaria, players spend four rounds acquiring fish cards to add to their personal tank. The goal is to keep the natural balance of the water while scoring lots of points. Most people will notice the action selection mechanic, where players move dice around the board. If a move is to an adjacent space, bonuses are earned. It is not exactly worker placement because there is no blocking, though there is a small amount of interaction due to how bonuses are calculated.

But there are two other clever tricks that I really enjoyed. The player board has small dials on the up/down and left/right slots. These can be manipulated by playing specific cards or taking actions. Matching the dials to the goals for that round gives nice bonuses. The second twist involves how players can power up the cleaning of their tanks. You add tokens to juice up the cleaning action. If you like running up tracks, building an engine, and firing up spatial bonuses and combos, this game is for you.

Mitchell and I also got a chance to play Operation Barclay, a two-player game about World War 2 from 25th Century Games. It is poker, sort of, but with a story. One player acts as the Allied powers, trying to secretly plan the re-invasion of Europe from the Axis powers, who are played by the other player.

The board has hidden markers representing the Allies’ best plans to re-invade Europe. Winning the poker hands, or even guessing correctly who will win the hand, or just playing more attack symbols than the other player will either drive the Allies toward their goal or let the Axis players stymie the plans. The first round was interesting, but as we got closer to the six-month mark of planning, the tension was palpable. This is an excellent two-player game.

Finally, my Secret Santa in the Chuck’s Gateway & Filler games group on Facebook sent me Harmonies, an absolutely beautiful little puzzle game. I taught it to my wife, and we have played it almost a half-dozen times already. Players are building little habitats to attract animals and matching those habitats to goal cards to score points.

Sounds simple? It is not. It is spatially complicated in the manner of games like Akropolis or Fountains. Of the three, I prefer Akropolis, not only because I am much more in tune with the strategy but also because I love the 3D aspect of the gameplay. However, I must admit that very few games recently have challenged the puzzle side of my brain like Harmonies. I definitely want to play it more.

So, those are our first impressions of three great games from the holidays. I hope you and your family had a great holiday and that you enjoyed some gaming, too!

Until next time, laissez les bon temps rouler!