Five games for fall
We're slowly retreating inside after a long summer. Here are five board game recommendations and ten games I'm looking forward to playing myself.
I don’t entirely know why, but the summer is often a dead time for me with games. We still have a regular game night with friends, but tabletop gaming otherwise slows to a near-halt. I suspect there are a few factors that lead to that, including travel plans, a broad desire to be outside (I do not always share that desire with others), and a proliferation of family reunions. But I often feel a bit of a gaming renaissance when autumn comes, and come it has. With that in mind, I’m going to be doing two different things.
First, I’ll recommend five games that, for one reason or another, remind me of fall and that I think are quite good. (If you’re looking for something about games for Halloween, may I direct to you to this 2021 post with a list of recommended games for Halloween?)
Second, I’m going to tell you about five games that I’m excited to get to the table, and you can do with that information what you will. Maybe you’ll like them, maybe you won’t. I’ll try to tell you in the future.
Five games for fall
Don’t Get Got is a party game that I played with a friend recently. The premise is pretty simple: Everyone playing gets a little wallet with some cards in it describing a little bit of a “mission.” (A couple examples from the back of the box, so I’m not spoiling too much: “Get a new player to ask to see your ID. Show them this instead.” and “Boo something and get another player to join in.”) Everyone else, of course, will be instantly suspicious any time you do or say anything even slightly unusual (or totally normal.) It’s pretty simple and worth taking with you when you see family over Thanksgiving, although I probably would not recommend playing it over Thanksgiving dinner. Unless, you know, the whole family’s into that sort of thing.
Point Salad is an easy-to-teach, easy-to-play card game that’s light, breezy and still a bit strategic. You’ll be building a tableau of vegetables (your titular salad) and attempting to earn points for objectives you’ve picked up. You can either grab two vegetable cards or one objective card on your turn, and figuring out what to grab when is the meat of this one. I mean, metaphorically, it’s the meat. There’s no actual meat in this game.
The Isle of Cats is a tile-laying game in which you try to fit a boatload of cats on a ship. (Please excuse the pun.) The scoring is varied, with some points derived from cards and other points derived from how you’ve placed them on the boat, lending the game variability in how players around the table strategize. That’s always a good thing, and laying cats on a board is even better than that.
Three Sisters is a roll-and-write game about growing the “three sisters”: Squash, maize and beans. They’ve been planted together historically by Indigenous peoples in North America for thousands of years, and the game respects that agricultural tradition. It’s a game with some deep roots (I’m sorry for the corny joke [I’m sorry]), and it makes for a nice step up from some of the less-complex roll-and-writes out there. Check this one out if you like sitting down and puzzling out your best strategy while being limited in your action selection by a rondel. It’s a cool one.
Burgle Bros is a cooperative heist game in which you and your teammates attempt to break into a secure building, open a safe, and escape while avoiding the watchful eye of security guards. It’s got a great table presence, presents a challenge every time you play, and encourages creative, collaborative problem solving. Burgle Bros 2 comes equally recommended, and that one has a campaign to play through as well, with the setting changed from a secure building to a casino. There’s a bit more peril than in the first game, and while the game plays similarly, there’s enough different to keep things exciting and entertaining.
Ten games I’m looking forward to playing
American Book Shop, a trick-taking game from Japan
Dandelions, a dice-rolling, area majority game
Fjords, a two-phase tile-laying game in which you build a map in the first phase, then try to take control
Happy City, which looks like a nice little city-building game
Keystone: North America, in which you build an ecosystem and introduce animals
Let’s Make a Bus Route: The Dice Game, a take on flip-and-write classic from Saashi and Saashi
Now or Never, the latest storybook game from Red Raven games
Renature, an area control game from well-regarded designers Michael Kiesling (Azul) and Wolfgang Kramer (El Grande)
Sagani, a tile-laying abstract strategy game from Uwe Rosenberg, who just can’t stop making them
Take the A Chord, another trick-taking game from Japan with a jazz theme designed Saashi (Let’s Make a Bus Route)
