What's cooler than cool? These staff picks for July!

What would be your top pick this month?

Josh's Pick

A Feast for Odin - Economic, Farming, Dice Rolling, Tile Placement, Worker Placement, Solo Mode, Push Your Luck, Strategy Game

A Feast for Odin is a saga in the form of a board game. You are reliving the cultural achievements, mercantile expeditions, and pillages of those tribes we know as Viking today. In this game, you will raid and explore new territories. You will also experience their day-to-day activities: collecting goods to achieve a financially secure position in society. In the end, the player whose possessions bear the greatest value will be declared the winner.

Kyndra's Pick

Quoridor - Grid Movement, Race, Abstract Strategy Game

Jeff's Pick

The Game - Cooperative, Hand Management, Communication Limited, Solo Mode, Card Game

Players in The Game try to discard all 98 cards in the deck onto four discard piles in order to win, but they need to do so in the right ways.

Each player starts with 6-8 cards in their hand depending on the number of players, and four discard pile prompt cards are on the table: two showing "1" and an up arrow and two showing "100" and a down arrow. On a turn, a player must discard at least two cards from their hand onto one or more discard piles, with cards on the 1 piles being placed in ascending order and cards on the 100 piles being placed in descending order. One tricky aspect of the game is that you can play a card exactly 10 higher/lower than the top card of a discard pile even when you would normally have to play in a descending/ascending order, e.g., if a 100 discard pile is topped with an 87, you can play any card lower than 87 or you can play the 97.

After a player finishes their turn, they refill their hand from the deck. During play, players cannot reveal exact numbers in their hands, but they can warn others not to play on certain discard piles or otherwise make play suggestions.

Once the deck is emptied, players are required only to play at least one card on a turn. If you play all 98 cards, you win! If you get good, the rules suggest that you play at least three cards a turn to increase the challenge.

Soby's Pick

Campy Creatures - Bluffing, Deduction, Hand Management, Horror Themed, Set Collection, Card Game

Players are mad scientists in need of precious mortals for future experiments. Rather than getting your hands dirty, your army of campy creatures awaits to do your bidding. Capture the most valuable mortals over the course of three nights to win. But be warned — the mortals won't go down without a fight.

Campy Creatures is a ghoulish game of bluffing, deduction, and set collection for 2-5 players. Players begin each round with the same hand of creatures. Their goal is to capture valuable mortals by outguessing their opponents with the creatures they play. Each player has perfect information at the start, so knowing what a person might do in a particular situation is key.

Aidan's Pick

Fugitive - Deduction, Bluffing, 2-Player, Hand Management, Memory, Card Game

Fugitive is a tense, easy-to-learn, two-player deduction card game. One player is a fugitive trying to make it out of town while being pursued by an unstoppable agent. The fugitive plays cards face down to the table trying to work their way to a goal, while the agent must guess those cards to uncover them. If all the cards are face up, the fugitive is caught.

-description from boardgamegeek.com

Wes' Pick

Just One - Cooperative, Communication Limited, Word Game/Guess the Word, Party Game

Just One is a cooperative party game in which you play together to discover as many mystery words as possible. Find the best clue to help your teammate. Be unique, as all identical clues will be canceled!

A complete game is played over 13 cards. The goal is to get a score as close to 13 as possible. In case of a right answer, the players score 1 point. In case of a wrong answer, they lose the current card as well as the top card of the deck. Thus losing 2 points. In case of lack of answer, the players only lose the current card, and therefore only 1 point.

You have the choice – make the difference!

Sophi's Pick

Turing Machine - Deduction, Math, Solo Mode, Party Game

Turing Machine is a fascinating and competitive deduction game. It offers a unique experience of questioning a proto-computer that works without electricity or any sort of technology, paving the way for a new generation of deduction games.

The Goal? Find the secret code before the other players, by cleverly questioning the machine. With Turing Machine, you’ll use an analog computer with unique components made of never-before-seen perforated cards.

The game offers more than seven million problems from simple to mind-staggeringly complex combinations, making the gameplay practically endless.


-description by publisher

Brendan's Pick

Everdell - Fantasy, City Building, Hand Management, Open Drafting, Set Collection, Worker Placement, Solo Mode, Family Strategy Game

From Everfrost to Bellsong, many a peaceful year have passed in Everdell — but the time has come for new territories to be settled and new cities to be established. You will be the head of a group of critters intent on just such a task. There are buildings to construct, lively characters to meet, events to host— you will have a busy year ahead of you! Will the sun shine brightest on your city before the winter moon rises?

-description by distributor

Jordan's Pick

Carcassonne - Bluffing, Memory, Speed Matching, Take That, Party, Card Game

Inspired by the medieval fortress in southern France of the same name, Carcassonne is a tile-laying game in which players fill in the countryside around the fortified city. Players choose from tiles that depict cities, roads, monasteries, and fields; each new tile placed creates an ever-expanding board on which players can then add their followers. Players score points by having followers on features as they're completed. The player who makes the most strategic placements of tiles and followers will score the most points and win the game.With its simple yet rich game mechanics and eighty-four tiles that can be configured into numerous combinations, Carcassonne appeals to beginners and veteran gamers alike. This edition is entirely redesigned and modernized, and includes two expansions: The River and The Abbot.


-description by distributor