Cascadia

 (led by Zach)  2022 Randy Flynn designed tile-laying and token-drafting puzzle game featuring the habitats and wildlife of the Pacific Northwest that won the 2022 SdJ. Players take turns building out their own terrain area and populating it with wildlife. Players start with three hexagonal habitat tiles (with the five types of habitat in the game), and on a turn they choose a new habitat tile that’s paired with a wildlife token, then place that tile adjacent to their other ones and place the wildlife token on an appropriate habitat. (Each tile depicts 1-3 types of wildlife from the five types in the game, and players can place at most one round wooden token on a habitat.) Four tiles are on display, with each tile being paired at random with a wildlife token, so players must make the best of what’s available — unless they have a nature token to spend, so that they can pick their choice of terrain and wildlife. Each wildlife type scores VPs differently. Players score VPs for both wildlife types and for their largest contiguous terrain types – with a bonus if their group is larger than the other player’s.

Lost Cities: The Board Game

 (led by Sean) A 2008 remake of the game Keltis, which itself was based on the original Lost Cities card game, adding a board with player piece movement, and up to 4 players.  Over 3 rounds of play, players take turns playing cards of different colors in ascending order. Each time a card is played you may start an expedition (putting one of your expedition leader pieces on the start space of the corresponding expedition track of the board), or move an existing expedition up on its track (gaining rewards for reaching randomized bonus tiles on each track). Once a number of expedition leaders (based on player count) cross bridges, the round ends and end of round points are based on the distance each player’s expedition leaders reach on each expedition track.  Afterwards the bonus tokens are randomized and a new round of expeditions begins!

Caldera Park

 (led by Nicole) Kramer/Kiesling revisited and revised 2021’s Savannah Park in 2022 changing the terrain, placement/tile selection mechanism while retaining the herd multiplied by water hole scoring but adding geyser, waterfall, river and terrain bonuses. The two designs feel different enough to own both but Caldera Park will appeal more to gamers while Savannah Park will appeal more for casual and family gamers. It has a partial resemblance to the 2023 SdJ winner, Cascadia.

Faraway

 (led by Sean) 2023 runner up Light Game of the Year as voted by BGG users. The People from Below expansion was used which added more People cards, more Sanctuaries, the ability to play one additional player, more variety with no new rules. Players will play square cards as a row of 8 in front of them, from left to right. These cards represent the regions they will come across while exploring the lands. Characters on these cards will grant players victory points, but only score VPs if later cards fulfil the conditions they demand. At the end of the game, players walk back the same way, scoring cards in the opposite order they were played. There lies the heart of the gameplay. Throughout the game, the cards played will serve both to set new objectives, and to meet the ones previously played. On each turn, players select one region card from a hand of 3 and a clever priority system governs replenishment drafting. The first play in this 30-minute gem of a filler will likely make one’s head implode, as players wrap their brain around simultaneously thinking both forward and backwards on their journey to score VPs. The second play is generally one of those ‘aha’ moments when things click. Both expansions (People From Below and Under Starry Skies) were used in this play.

Jungo

 (led by Zach) 2025 shedding card game. From a deck of 64 cards, with eight copies each of 1-8, players get a hand of cards that they cannot rearrange. The starting player leads a card or set of cards with the same value — but they can play multiple cards only if the cards are adjacent to one another in their hand. If cards have been played on the table, to play one must play the same number of cards with a higher value or a larger set of cards, e.g., 2 < 5 < 3,3 < 6,6 < 2,2,2 < 1,1,1,1. When you overplay someone, you can pick up the cards you beat and add them to your hand where you wish, or you can discard them.

If a player cannot or chooses not to play, they must pass, drawing a card from a facedown pile; some cards have two values on them, e.g., 1/2 or 5/6, and can be played as either number. Players either add this card to their hand where they wish, discard it, or — calling on the law of the “jungo” — play it immediately as part of a combination from their hand that beats what’s on the table.
If all but one player passes, clear the table, with the player who last played leading to an empty table.
Whoever first empties their hand wins! Alternatively, since the game is short, play multiple rounds, with the first player to win two rounds winning the game.

San Juan

 (led by Chris) 2004 card game based on Puerto Rico that influenced later Action Selection and Follow games such as Race For The Galaxy. The deck of 110 cards consists of production buildings (indigo, sugar, tobacco, coffee, and silver) and “violet” buildings that grant special powers or extra victory points. Cards from the hand can be either built or used as money to build something else; cards from the deck are used to represent goods produced by the production buildings, in which case they are left face-down. A seven-card hand limit is enforced once per round. In each round (or governorship), each player in turn selects from one of the available roles, triggering an event that usually affects all players, such as producing goods or constructing buildings. The person who picks the role gets a privilege, such as producing more goods or building more cheaply. Victory points are gained exclusively by building, and the game ends as soon as one player has put up twelve buildings.

Coloretto

 (led by Zach) 2003 Michael Schacht (Web of Power, Lucky Numbers, Zooloretto, Drive, Valdora) card game of set collecting with a push your luck mechanic. Players either draw a card to play to a row, or take a row of cards to add them to their collection. A row can have at most three cards, so at some point everyone is forced to take a row. Once all the rows have been claimed, players start a new round, drawing or taking once again.
Players are trying to collect huge sets – but only in three colors, as every color beyond the third will cost players points. Jokers are highly-prized, as they always match what players want, and +2 cards provide sure points, giving players a back-up plan if everything goes wrong in collecting colors.

Once only a few cards remain in the deck, the round ends and everyone tallies their score, choosing three colors of cards to score positively while any other colors counts negatively. Each color is scored using a triangular number system: the first card in a color is ±1 point, the second card is ±2 points, and so on. The player with the high score wins!

Quacks of Quedlinburg

 (led by Tony) 2018 push-your-luck game where players play as quack doctors, each making their own secret brew by adding ingredients one at a time. Take care with what you add, though, for a pinch too much of this or that will explode the whole pot. Each player has their own bag of ingredient chips. During each round, they simultaneously draw chips from their bags and add them to their pots. The higher the face value of the drawn chip, the further it is placed in the pot’s swirling pattern, increasing how much the potion will be worth. Push your luck as far as you can. At the end of each round, players gain victory points and coins to spend on new ingredients, depending on how well they managed to fill up their pots. But players whose pots have exploded must choose points or coins — not both! The player with the most victory points at the end of nine rounds wins the game.

Concordia

 (led by Zach) 2013 peaceful, strategy game of economic development in Roman times. Instead of looking to luck-driven dice or cards, players must rely on their strategic abilities. Watching  rivals to determine which goals they are pursuing and where one can outpace them is essential to victory. In the game, colonists are sent out from Rome to settle down in cities that produce bricks, food, tools, wine, and cloth. Each player starts with an identical set of playing cards and acquires more cards during the game. These cards serve two purposes: They allow a player to choose actions during the game. They are worth victory points (VPs) at the end of the game. Concordia is a strategy game that requires advanced planning and consideration of your opponent’s moves. Every game is different, not only because of the sequence of new cards on sale but also due to the modular layout of cities.

Project L

 (led by Chris) 2020 charming combination of puzzle solving with engine building. Players start with 2 acrylic puzzle pieces and earn additional shapes by completing puzzles. Players select from among several actions – drafting puzzles, upgrading pieces, placing pieces and the important master building action. The game rewards efficiency in the drafting and in use of their 3 actions per turn. There are two recently released expansions to try, as well as a spin-off similar game recently released called Square One.

Take Time

 (led by Tim) 2025 limited communication cooperative game where players must strategically play 12 cards facedown around a Clock, following specific rules for each Test. Players can work together through a series of games to pass all 40 Tests available in the game.

Valdora

 (led by Nicole) 2009 Michael Schacht pick up and deliver, set collection and drafting game. Those who enjoy the challenge of logistics and optimization will especially take to the puzzle-like challenge that Valdora offers. The page-turning books of orders and equipment are something fresh and create additional interest in route planning.