Things I am getting!
Faraway really surprised me as an awesome small game that I really fell in love with, I had zero interest until I played a few games, got walloped then learned a bit of strategy and immediately changed my mind on it.
River of Gold I also had no interest in based on the cover and the somewhat full looking board, played it a handful of times with some lovely people who gave me a few tips and that's joined my wishlist (coming 2025). Loved the easy rule set which means an easy teach considering I am the rules teacher usually and nice snappy satisfying "get stuff" turns.
Survive the Island, I had Survive: Escape Atlantis on my wishlist for a while hoping I would randomly find it somewhere but thanks to BGA I learned that they made a new 2024 updated version that is actually in print! This is a simple party-ish game with absolute chaos that I've wanted for a while. Slightly different rules from the original but you can house-rule the old-rules no problem.
Planet Unknown was a devilishly satisfying tetronimo game that could be accessible to a lot of people as well as way more interactive and complex with my regular group. Oh man is this a favourite! I didn't have a tetronimo game but this one really hit so hard!!!
Teotihuacan did what Tzoklin couldn't for me. It felt more forgiving, had better graphic design, and made me feel like I could do "more" tangible things on the board than Tzolkin. Playing on BGA also taught me that the mask strategy is underpowered and that locking your workers isn't always the best -> thus I found some great designer-approved house rules that make these two strategies much more viable to play at home with friends so the game has more avenues for success! Love this dice placement gem!
Things I decided against getting
I figured I'd add this section too, BGA is great at test driving games before purchase.
Tzolkin looked so cool with the gears, I wanted to buy the game to paint the gears and deluxify it but I just found the game to be so restrictive and honestly punishing! It really put me off and I'm glad I invested MANY MANY games to get to that ending thought.
Crusaders: Thy Will Be Done is a neat mancala engine building game that I was really good at right out of the gate so that was a great ego boost! But after enough plays I felt it landed more and more flat. Initially I was so hot on the game from the first many plays but realized I was getting quite board of the minor differences of mancala layout and the limited winning strategies. The expansion helps with this, but not enough for me to feel like it was distinct.
