New-to-me games played recently include …

COVENANT (2025): Rank 2072, Rating 7.8

Another bog box, big rules Euro. There are 12 actions to advance up tracks and engineer lots of chaining and bonus effects. Your actions are either dig (claim resources), buy buildings (for points), build buildings on the board (for points), clear enemies away from your buildings (for points). These are balanced so unless and until you specialise by buying action tiles, you’ll be doing each of them once each round. There are only 3 rounds. Uh huh. A key part of the game is triggering bonus effects that increase the action points of your 4 meeples which allows you to dig more, buy more, build more, kill more. I guess the replay is in finding that opportunity cost balance. It was fine to explore but I’ll confess I gradually cared less and less about hunting the best chains as the turns got longer.

 

Rating: 7

 

GEOMETRIC ART (2019): Rank 11938, Rating 6.8

A co-op where a theme is provided (eg transport), the dice are rolled (showing shapes like circles, lines, triangles, …) and a player must use the only dice shapes to draw something in the theme which is good enough to be guessed by the other players. Hit the win goal before the loss limit is reached. It’s creatively challenging and fun enough for those of an arty bent but not really in my wheelhouse.

Rating: 6

LOTR: THE TWO TOWERS TRICK-TAKING GAME (2025): Rank 4081, Rating 8.3

The next instalment. Same comment and rating as the first: It’s a co-op trick-taking game a la The Crew but for each chapter (aka mission) players choose from the thematically allowed set of characters, each with their own task (X tricks, X of a number or suit, etc). Choose a character that best matches your hand. Most allow a card exchange with other characters – there are no comms so the exchanges must do your work for you. Each player must achieve their task to proceed to the next chapter. It’s just as good as and engaging as the first. Sign me up.

Rating: 9

 

SANCTUARY (2025): Rank 1246, Rating 7.7

Use Ark Nova actions to build Suburbia type tiles in your tableau. They can have placement restrictions and provide straight up VPs, or VPs for being in contiguous groups, or for adjacency. Tiles come free and easy so it’s a matter of planning what you want in each space in your tableau and either waiting for it or changing plans. Three quarters through I was ready for it to be over – a bit repetitive and turns were slowing down with more tile options available. But the action balancing and tile selection was engaging so I’d play again.

Rating: 7

 

STAR TYCOON (2024): Rank 6144, Rating 7.3

Over 12 turns, you have 3 actions each turn to generate resources, buy/sell resources from the market (which moves per supply and demand), buy planet cards from the draft, and then buy development cards from the draft that satisfy your planets’ requirements (for VPs) but which also generate the resources you’ll want more of in future. It worked surprisingly well as a 2p as the card turnover was manageable and downtime was fine. I imagine both would suffer with more players but it was nice at this player count, in a right timeframe, easy rules, so that’s how I’ve rated it.

Rating: 7

 

TEXAS DEMONS (2024): Rank n/a, Rating 7.7

It’s Yokai Septet but played with dominoes. The numbers go up to 9 and each number is a suit. The rank of a domino within a suit is its other number. Leading a 1-4 will be beaten by a 1-5 or higher. Counting down suits is harder because every domino belongs to two suits. Every 4 could end up being played when other suits are led! Making it chaotic. The hero cards you need to win before you win too many tricks (the loss condition) are all the doubles. It’s almost impossible to win the low heroes (the 1-1, 2-2, 3-3, 4-4) if they’re in your hand – leading them is rife with danger because they’ll just get trumped even if you HAVE counted down the suit. So it ends up being a game of forced misere to trigger the opponent’s loss condition before having to give up your hero cards. Which isn’t a lot of fun, and too random to boot.

Rating: 6

 

TOO MANY MONKEYS (2009): Rank n25274a, Rating 5.6

Gamewright game for kids. The first to have each of their face-down cards (you start with 6) replaced with a correctly numbered monkey from left to right wins the round. The winner puts out one less monkey next turn, winning the game if they started the round with only one card. Turns are simply draw a card from the deck (or discard pile). If it’s a numbered monkey, replace your face down card in that position (ie a 3 will replace the 3rd card from the left). If that’s a monkey, keep playing until you get something that doesn’t replace a face-down card. There are some stupid miss-a-turn type cards. Play is quick, rounds are quick, but there are way too many rounds and unfortunately no decisions.

Rating: 3

WADDLE (2025): Rank 5641, Rating 7.0 – van Moorsel

A remake of Gipsy King but in a small components format. Same comment: An abstract placement game that hits right. You’re aiming to win majorities around VP areas. There are 15 rounds, 15 tiles to place next to in order. A turn is easy … place a meeple here, or pass. I like limited decision trees in this type of game, keeping it pacey. The decision to pass is made when there’s an even more valuable spot at an upcoming VP area and you want first dibs at it. The game then becomes one of judging how far ahead will anyone else pass to deny you that spot, and making sure you pass ahead of them. While making sure that you aren’t handing too much value to the other players who will continue to take turns until your preferred spot comes up

Rating: 7

 

Thoughts of other Opinionated Gamers:

Mark Jackson: Two observations
– I think I like Sanctuary (Ark Nova: The Tiling) better than Alison, though I do understand her concern about game length. I think it is probably best with 2-3 players (even though there are components for five in the box.)
– I’ve always enjoyed Gipsy King… but never bothered to own a copy. I guess I need to try Waddle now and see if that convinces me to purchase it.

Larry:  Right now, I rank Covenant as my 2025 co-Game of the Year (sharing that honor with Galactic Cruise).  For some reason, Covenant really clicks with me and I can “see” the things I need to do in order to succeed.  Plus, the planning necessary just makes it fun to play.  2025 is turning into a weak gaming year for me, but I’ll happily play either of those two games at any time.  Currently, those are the only two games that debuted last year that I give an I Love It rating to.

 

Tery: When I first heard about Sanctuary it was described to me as “Ark Nova, but better”.  Well, I love Ark Nova; it is my favorite game. How could you possibly improve on it? Well., in my opinion you can’t, and Sanctuary is definitely not better than Ark Nova IMHO.  However, I did enjoy my one play, and if you really like Suburbia but don’t love Ark Nova this may be the game for you.  I do see how it could suffer from down time at a higher play count, but I played with 4 and it did not outstay its welcome, although later turns take longer. It falls into the “I’ll play it if someone suggests it” category for me.