Forest of Pangaia (led by Sean) 2022 Kickstarter game with very nice table presence due to the lovely wooden trees. Players are forest spirits charged by the goddess Gaia with growing forests of trees in certain patterns and using them to complete rituals to release Gaia’s life energy, triggering cycles of growth and decay. Grow your forest wisely, contend with other players for territory, and spot the most advantageous moments to perform your rituals, capitalizing on all of the trees in the forest to release the most life energy (your points) by the end of the game.

https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/317859/forests-pangaia

Mind MGMT: The Psychic Espionage “Game” x2 (led by Tim) 2021 hidden movement and deduction game where one player controls Mind MGMT (a psychic spy agency) and must scour the city for new recruits. They move around on a secret map, trying to visit locations that match one of their three randomly drawn feature cards. They can also use their four Immortals to protect locations from being exposed. All other players control the rogue agents who must try to stop Mind MGMT before it’s too late! They ask questions to the Recruiter and deduce their whereabouts from the answers they receive. Rogue agents can use dry-erase “mental notes” to track all the information they’re given. Mind MGMT wins by either collecting twelve recruits or surviving sixteen turns. The rogue agents can win only by capturing Mind MGMT, which they do when they believe they’re on the same block as Mind MGMT.

https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/284653/mind-mgmt-psychic-espionage-game

Retrograde x2 (led by Sean) 2022 Kickstarter real time roll & write game about a video game tournament at the local arcade. Can you get the high score in Evil Astrodroids? In each of the 8 rounds, roll and reroll your dice as fast as you can to get pairs or combos usable for the target card you want for the round. Once you are happy with your dice, grab the card you want (if it is still available!). Once everyone has a card, spend your dice to knock out the ‘droids on your sheet.  Eliminate columns of ‘droids to knock out the higher scoring bosses, eliminate rows of ‘droids to unlock Power Ups on cards you have previously collected, making it easier to get a higher score! Collect coins to help you along the way. Only one person can have their initials on the top of the High Score list!

https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/351651/retrograde

Wurfel Bohnanza (led by Sean) 2012 dice game in the Bohnanza family of games.  Instead of cards, dice give you the beans that you must use to satisfy orders on your cards and (eventually) collect “Bohnentalers” (i.e., dollars, bucks, dinero…). The active player rolls the dice and must keep at least one die between each reroll. Off turn players can attempt to fill the orders on their card with the freshly rolled dice each roll. Once the active player is satisfied with their rolled dice they can complete as many of their orders as they can fulfill. Finishing up to 3 in 1 turn is possible on any card. Once at least 3 orders have been completed, the card may be cashed in for one or more Bohnentalers at any time, with the player cashing the card in taking a new card. The first player to collect a set target number of Bohnentalers wins.

https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/111148/wurfel-bohnanza

Splendor Duel (led by Armando) This 2022 release is a two-player only standalone game based on Splendor that retains some of the main gameplay mechanisms of that design, while being a bit more complex, dynamic, interactive, rich, tense, and mean. The game features a main board shared by both opponents, card powers, and three victory conditions.

https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/364073/splendor-duel