Race for the Galaxy on Marta's BG Corner

August 2026 Plays

Thu, 03 Sep 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Hi everyone!

I only took three days off this August, but it turned out to be a good month anyway. Most evenings after work I found my way to the beach, which made up for a lot. And I got two festivals in, both here in Portugal: Vilar de Mouros, in Caminha, where The Lathums and Kaiser Chiefs both put on brilliant sets, and Arredas Folk Fest, in Tregosa near Barcelos, where Tanxugueiras closed things out beautifully. If you don’t know The Lathums yet, they’re a British indie band with genuinely great songs and even better live energy, well worth a listen even outside the board game context. And Tanxugueiras, a trio from Galicia, Spain, blend traditional folk with a modern sound in a way that just works, one of my favourite live discoveries this year.

So between the beach and the festivals, board gaming took a bit of a back seat some weeks, but looking back at what I said I’d play last month, I did manage one of the three: Black Rose Wars and Dune weren’t played, but I did get the chance to try Coming of Age, so it’s not all bad.

Table of Contents

August 2026 by Numbers

22 plays (vs. 20 in July)
14 different games
6 new games to me
Most played: Verdant
Solo plays: 17 (11 different games)

The month in numbers

All fourteen games from August, at a glance

Favourite Game of the Month

Luthier

Designed by Dave Beck and Abe Burson, published by Paverson Games.

In Luthier, you’re a family of artisans gaining prestige by fulfilling patrons’ requests for fine instruments, performances, and repairs. You’ll also compete to be first chair in the orchestra for the instruments you craft, repair, or play. This is a magnificent game. My first game from these designers was Distilled, which I loved, and Luthier doesn’t change that impression at all. The illustrations are wonderful, and the design of the instruments and patrons is really well done. Just be aware that this game takes up a lot of table space, and I was playing solo, so at four players it would need a big table.

I never expected the game to play so well solo, since the main mechanic is bidding on different locations. Each turn, you place a luthier on a location, secretly setting the force of the luthier of your choice. At resolution, each player, in player order, selects one location to solve, all luthier tokens there are revealed, and resolution happens starting with the highest force down to the lowest. Solo, this mechanic is handled in a clever and simple way: each turn, the automa reveals a location card and takes a random luthier token to place there. The location cards are then reordered before resolution based on the automa’s interest in each one, and that’s it. It’s clever enough that the automa never feels like a chore to manage, and it creates a real challenge with decisions that make sense and genuinely simulate a true player.

This game won me over completely, and for that I’ll give it a 9/10. Luthier isn’t just my favourite game of the month, it’s also new to me. After just one round I felt confident, and by the second game I had no need at all to go back to the rulebook. The automa is easy to run and a real rival. I’ll be playing more, and if I still feel the same, this rating could go even higher.

Luthier: my favourite discovery of the month

New Games

Once Upon a Line

Designed by William Aubert and Dan Thouvenot, published by Perte & Fracas (Lucky Duck Games for the English edition).

In Once Upon a Line, you go through a fantastic story using a mechanic that’s completely unique. At each chapter you get a scratch card, and on the back you’ll find the chapter text that gives you your first cases to scratch, revealing your first word. Scenario cards then start telling the story, with highlighted words to look for. You represent one to three characters, each with little tokens shaped like lines from one to five letters long. During the game, you take one or more tokens and place them over the scratch card, anchored on an already revealed word, to scratch out exactly the number shown on the tokens. You scratch one case at a time, starting from the revealed letter, since missing the word you were aiming for comes with penalties.

The game is very well designed. It’s a legacy game, so a scratched card can’t be unscratched, but the experience is lovely. I’ve only played the prologue so far, on my own, and I’m positively surprised, now curious to know more. The game can be punishing but also extremely satisfying, and the text gives you clues about where to scratch and what to avoid, since some outcomes are traps or hostile encounters. So far it’s a 9/10 for me, for the originality and the story, which already feels compelling. I’ll continue the campaign and report back.

Once Upon a Line: Just the prologue so far, but already hooked

Coming of Age

Designed by Dani Garcia, published by Ludonova.

Have you ever wanted a game about playing through your own adolescence? Coming of Age is exactly that: you start as a child and go through your teenage years making friends, trying new things, getting frustrated, and shaping your character. The theme doesn’t sound that exciting at first, but the game is really well done. Dani Garcia captures that sense of growing and learning through a dice mechanism that expands at each age, starting with one D4 and building up to two D6, three D8, and three D10. More dice means more possibilities and more experiences. Each age also opens up new places to visit. You play cards representing your parents’ help, which you use less and less as you grow, gradually shaping your own character.

I really appreciated this game, playing solo throughout. The automa is easy to run, even if it seems confusing at first, and the actions all made sense to me. There’s a lot of room for combos: you place your personality tokens on the places you visit using your motivation, so when you resolve the end of the day, you resolve actions both where your dice are and where your tokens are, which really helps chain things together. Objectives help guide you on what to do and where to go.

I’ll give it 8/10. Clever, funny, and frustrating, much like growing up itself.

Coming of Age boards

Fit to Print

Designed by Peter McPherson, co-published by Flatout Games and Alderac Entertainment Group (AEG).

I had the chance to play this at three players at the Legião dos Jogos weekly meetup, and it was a wonderful surprise. It’s another game from the Flatout Games CoLab team. Up to six players take on the role of reporters racing to lay out the Friday, Saturday, and Sunday editions of the newspaper. You get five minutes (on easy mode) to collect parts, articles, adverts, and photos to build your paper, playing day after day as the paper grows bigger each time. During those five minutes you collect pieces and lay them out on your desk (each player gets a beautiful little table for this), and when you feel ready, you start laying out the page. All the material still on your desk or in your hand counts against you, so you place pieces onto the articles, with constraints: articles of the same colour can’t be adjacent, nor can pictures, nor adverts. You score for your articles, and compete over who has the least blank space left, losing points for too much. Each article also carries a mood, and you lose points for the gap between good and bad moods, so balance matters. All of this sounds simple, but you only have five minutes for everything.

That tension is what makes the game so much fun. Do I have enough pieces to fill the paper? Do I have too many, which will cost me points? Have I invested enough in advertising? That last one matters because the player with the least money doesn’t count towards winning, having failed in disgrace. I loved all three plays, I’d happily play again, and I recommend it without hesitation. We laughed a lot, we had fun, and that’s exactly what I love about board games. It’s a 9/10 for me.

Fit to Print: Five frantic minutes of laying out the paper

Libertalia: Winds of Galecrest

Designed by Paolo Mori, published by Stonemaier Games.

Another new game for me, played at four players, also at Legião dos Jogos. Here we’re sky pirates in search of adventure, treasure, and glory. Each player starts with an identical set of crew member cards in hand. Each turn, players choose one card and reveal it simultaneously, and crew members resolve in ascending order for the day. Then, in descending order, you resolve any end-of-day powers and take one token from that day’s findings. If memory serves, the game plays out over three trips made up of several days each, and at the end of each trip you resolve the tokens and gold you’ve gathered, not all of them positive, and all your gold goes into your chest. Most gold at the end of the game wins.

I really enjoyed this play. It was fun, I liked the mechanic, and the game is beautifully illustrated. I’d like a few more plays before I feel I really know it, so I’ll rate it 7.5/10 for now: a beautiful game with good vibes that I still need to explore further.

Libertalia: Sky pirates, treasure, and a beautifully illustrated board

Micro Hero: Hercules

Designed by Léandre Proust, published by Grammes Edition.

This is a tiny game, just one deck of cards, the size of a regular playing card deck. You play as Hercules, working your way through the 12 Labours in a deckbuilding game where you improve your cards and fight each Labour in turn. So far I’ve only tried two Labours solo, as standalone plays rather than a full campaign. The experience was nice, but I completely misread the rules on my first play, comparing my fighting number to the Labour’s fighting number and my defence to its defence, which doesn’t work since the fighting number climbs each turn, so I lost that one badly. On my second attempt, once I understood the rules correctly, I won.

Even so, the cards are lovely, with humorous illustrations, and one play sets up and finishes in about 15 minutes, so it’s really quick. You can save your progress and pick it up later, so the full campaign can be spread across 12 days if you like. Replayability looks good too, since the Labours shuffle differently every campaign. It’s a 7.5/10, and I’d recommend it if you travel a lot or enjoy quick games.

Micro Hero Hercules: Tiny box, big lesson in reading the rules properly

Other Games Played

Verdant

Designed by Molly Johnson, Robert Melvin, Aaron Mesburne, Kevin Russ, and Shawn Stankewich, published by AEG.

I wrote a full review of this one last week. Verdant is a cozy puzzle where you arrange plants around your house to help them grow in the best light, while collecting objects and animals that decorate your rooms for victory points. The art is wonderful, and I’d recommend it to anyone who enjoys puzzles and wants a relaxing solo session. 8/10.

Verdant: a cozy board game

Terraforming Mars

Designed by Jacob Fryxelius, published by FryxGames.

In Terraforming Mars, you run a corporation competing for prestige while helping terraform the planet, raising the temperature, adding oxygen, and placing oceans until all three reach their maximum and the game ends. I’ve owned this game for several years and have a good number of expansions. This month I only played it solo, using the Automa expansion, which for me is now essential, since the base game’s solo rules don’t do much for me. The automa is a tough opponent: I lost both my plays this month, 86 to 108 and 66 to 107. Even losing, I love this game. The artwork doesn’t bother me, in fact I quite like it, since Mars isn’t a colourful place and the illustrations reflect that reality, even if that’s a slightly unpopular opinion among fans. This game remains one of my favourites: 9.5/10, simple rules that are easy to recall, but genuinely hard decisions.

Terraforming Mars main board

Ugly Gryphon Inn

Designed by Scott Almes, published by Button Shy Games.

I played this again this month, and my rating of 8/10 stands. It’s a nice puzzle with the big advantage of being small and quick to set up. Both my plays this month ended in defeat, but it’s still a pleasant game.

Ugly Gryphon Inn: Small box, quick setup, always a pleasant puzzle

Earth

Designed by Maxime Tardif, published by Inside Up Games.

I introduced Earth last month, in July’s recap, and I played it again this month, falling in love with it all over again. The illustrations are lovely, the game is colourful, and the way action selection keeps you engaged, even during the automa’s turn, has completely won me over. It’s a 9/10, and I’ll definitely be playing it more.

Earth: Fell in love with this one all over again

Clank! In! Space!

Designed by Paul Dennen, published by Dire Wolf and Renegade Game Studios.

In Clank! In! Space!, your task is to steal an artefact from a spaceship, simple in premise, tense in practice. It’s a deckbuilding game where you move around the ship using boots from your cards, all wrapped in fun sci-fi references to things like Star Wars and Star Trek. I’ve played this many times, it’s simple and endlessly replayable. In multiplayer it’s almost a race: the first player to steal the artefact puts real pressure on everyone else as Lord Eradikus grows angrier. The heart of the game is noise, the “clank” of the title: noisy actions add cubes to the clank space, and whenever an enemy token card appears in the row, those cubes go into the bag with the others, and you draw based on Lord Eradikus’s rage. The angrier he is, the more cubes get pulled, so discretion sometimes beats speed. Solo, the Dire Wolf app gives you missions and a campaign, which I used this time and had a lot of fun with. Now I need to finish the campaign to see how I do. It’s an 8.5/10 for me, funny and satisfying.

Clank! In! Space!: Sneaking around Lord Eradikus, solo campaign style

Race for the Galaxy

Designed by Thomas Lehmann, published by Rio Grande Games.

Another comeback, and another nice play. I already covered how this one works last month, so I won’t repeat myself, but my opinion hasn’t shifted: I love how resources are managed entirely through cards, paying with your own hand. I rated it 8.5/10 then, and I’ll keep that for now. More plays to come next month, for sure.

Race for the Galaxy: Another comeback, still love how the cards do double duty

Final Girl

Designed by Evan Derrick and A. J. Porfirio, published by Van Ryder Games.

This one isn’t new to me, I’ve owned it for a few years and played it several times, though this is the first time it’s featured on the blog. It’s a solo game where you play the final girl who needs to survive a killer and take them down, the perfect game for Halloween night. Dice rolls are essential here, so if you don’t enjoy the swing of bad luck, I wouldn’t recommend it, but if that kind of tension is fun for you, you’ll love it. I always feel frustrated in this game, since I have terrible luck with dice, but I still love the cinematic tension it creates. This time I played the Carnage at the Carnival scenario with Geppetto as the killer, my first time with that box, and goodness, it’s hard. I’ve never won this game, and I was almost afraid to try the other scenarios (I backed the Kickstarter for the first season and own the whole set). I loved this killer and his little puppets, but they were tough enough that I lost without much of a chance. It’s an 8/10 for me because of my bad luck with dice, but a 10/10 for the cinematic experience.

Final Girl: Carnage at the Carnival with Geppetto, and yes, I lost again

7 Wonders: Architects

Designed by Antoine Bauza, published by Repos Production.

I played this again at Legião dos Jogos, this time at six players. Last time I mentioned it, back in June, it was at two players and I rated it 6/10. I can now say the game is a little better than I thought, so the rating goes up slightly to 6.5/10, though it’s still not my first choice when I have other options. During this play, I had the sense that some powers felt overpowered, even though the final scores ended up fairly close. If you’re introducing new players to the hobby, want a relaxed family session, or need a first game for a board game night, this one’s a great fit, easy to teach, quick to play, welcoming for beginners. Where it falls short for me is at the other end: the limited choice of cards and the difficulty of setting up a real strategy mean more experienced players probably won’t fall in love with it, even if they won’t be bored either. So it really depends who’s at the table.

7 Wonders: Architects. Better than I remembered, at six players this time

Final Thoughts

This was a month full of fun games and some really good discoveries. Luthier gave me a genuine “whoa” moment, and Once Upon a Line gave me a “whoa” mechanic moment. I also replayed games I love and hold dear, Terraforming Mars and Clank! In! Space!. I’m closing out August with a good feeling and a happy heart.

Looking Ahead

September is the new January, a month where everything feels like it’s starting over again. I’ve got a lot of work on my plate this month, plus a conference to attend, so I’m not sure yet how much time I’ll have to play. Still, I’m hoping to bring Unconscious Mind to the table properly (spoiler: I already played it once, but with the wrong rules!), and I’d love to get Planta Nubo out too.

Your Turn

And you, what did you play this month? I’d love to hear about it! Come find me on Mastodon, Facebook, and BoardGameGeek.

July 2026 Plays

Wed, 05 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Hello everyone!

July was a good month, full of nice surprises. Lots of sun, beach, and also work 😅, but plenty of fun too, along with some lovely discoveries. Looking back at what I said I’d play last month, I managed everything: getting Black Rose Wars: Rebirth to the table, finishing the It’s a Wonderful World Leisure & Decadence campaign, and playing my first 50 Clues escape game. So let’s take a look at how July went.

July 2026 by Numbers

20 plays (vs. 22 in June)
12 different games
7 new games to me
Most played: It’s a Wonderful World
Solo plays: 20 (all)

July 2026 by numbers

Games played in July 2026

New Games

Earth

Designed by Maxime Tardif, published by Inside Up Games.

In Earth, you’re growing your own ecosystem in a tableau-building game, aiming to build the best one on the table. You’ll score by completing common and personal objectives and by scoring the points on your own cards, and being first to complete a common objective earns you even more. The game is beautiful: the illustrations taught me things about flora I didn’t know, and every card carries a little flavour text that enriches the experience.

I’ve only played solo twice so far, and I’ll definitely be playing more, I loved it. There are no dead moments: when you select an action, all other players (including the automa) get to act too as a result of your choice, so you benefit from everyone else’s decisions along the way. The automa itself is lovely to run, just a simple stack of cards that tells you what it does and which cards you can activate on your own tableau. Where you place your cards matters too, since you activate them left to right, top to bottom, so setting up a benefit early can help unlock an action on a later card. That’s the piece that made me fall in love with the game.

It took me a while to try it, it had a huge hype around it, and the photos alone didn’t pull me in. I was so wrong. Once you play it, you see how beautiful it really is and how everything clicks into place. For now it’s a solid 9/10 for me, though that could change with more plays.

Earth

A closer look at the tableau

Race for the Galaxy

Designed by Thomas Lehmann, published by Rio Grande Games.

Race for the Galaxy is a galactic civilisation game played entirely with cards, and it plays like a real race: the moment any player has deployed 12 cards, the game ends. I’ve only played it solo so far, and I didn’t expect to love it as much as I do. I originally got the game through a mystery box, and since I didn’t own the expansion at the time, it wasn’t solo playable. I later picked up the Expansion and Brinkmanship set after someone told me it was really good, and I’m glad I did. Beyond the extra cards, this set is also what brings the solo mode, along with three expansion decks. I haven’t opened any of those decks yet, so far I’ve only used the automa, which is simply a small board and two dice.

The game has a clever mechanic that keeps dead moments away: each player secretly selects the action they want to play, then everyone reveals simultaneously, and all players resolve every action chosen. Your own selected action comes with a bonus, while everyone else’s version of that action stays basic. Solo, you choose your two actions upfront and then roll the two automa dice to see what it does, a mechanic that can either launch your strategy forward or leave you unable to act because you’re short on resources. And speaking of resources, there aren’t any separate from the cards, cards are your money and your resources both, which I love.

I’ve played it once in July, plus once more already in August, and found it interesting and challenging. I want to explore this game a lot more, and I’d like to try it at a higher player count to see how it holds up. For now it’s an 8.5/10, but that could change with more plays.

Race for the Galaxy

Black Rose Wars: Rebirth

Designed by Andrea Colletti, Diego Fonseca, and Marco Montanaro, published by Ludus Magnus Studio.

Black Rose Wars: Rebirth is a game of planning and strategy, where you compete in a tournament at the Lodge against other mages. It combines deckbuilding with careful planning, all set in a dark magic world. Each turn you select the cards you want to play and lay them on your player board in the order they’ll resolve. Every card actually holds two different actions on the same face, printed upside down from each other, so which one you get depends on which way up you place the card. The actions themselves are usually things like summoning demons, activating them, fighting and dealing damage to other mages, or rebuilding rooms, along with a few other effects. Beyond the cards, you also get two extra actions each turn that you can use whenever you like: moving and activating a room, fighting, or activating a demon.

At solo, you play against an avatar, the base game comes with one, and more are available through expansions. I own the Rotas Box and the Jukas avatar, so one of my plays was against the base game’s avatar and the other against Jukas. I really enjoyed both plays and liked the solo experience. I can see this being fantastic at 3 or 4 players thanks to the interactivity, but even solo the avatar is so well designed that you can feel that interaction come through. It’s both a challenge and a pleasure to play, I love the theme, the art, how the game shines on the table, and the miniatures that bring the theme perfectly to life.

I’ll be playing more, since I still want to explore the rest of the Rotas Box content, there’s a lot in there. I’d recommend this to anyone who loves a mage theme. For now it’s an 8.5/10.

Black Rose Wars: Rebirth

A crowded room

Preferred Game of the Month

It’s a Wonderful World

Designed by Frédéric Guérard, published by La Boîte de Jeu.

This game hardly needs another introduction on my blog, I’ve already said it’s a 10/10 for me, and you can read my full review here. I’ve finally finished the Leisure & Decadence campaign, and I’m in love. This expansion is the best of the three, and it brings a whole new dimension to the game. I don’t want to spoil it, so I won’t say more, but if you love this game already, play the campaign, you’ll love it even more.

It’s a Wonderful World

Other Notable Games

More New Games

Cyberion (designed by Shadi Torbey, published by inPatience) — Cyberion is part of the Oniverse world, where you’re in charge of maintaining the dream factory. The game centres on a board where you track the upgrades you purchase for each colour of action card. I’ve played it once so far and enjoyed the brain-teaser at its heart: each turn you discard cards from your display to fulfil a machine’s requirements, and you must repair at least one machine every turn or lose the game. It’s fun and keeps you thinking about how to find a solution. I’ll rate it 7/10 for now, it’s enjoyable, though I still prefer Onirim or Nautilion.

Cyberion

Tiny Epic Crimes (designed by Scott Almes, published by Gamelyn Games) — Tiny Epic Crimes is a deduction game where you play a detective trying to identify the criminal. At the start you seal a card of the culprit inside an envelope, and you have several characteristics to work with to help narrow down who it is. Through the game you’ll solve situations and put criminals behind bars, all of which helps you gather more clues toward your deduction. It has some real Cluedo vibes, which brought back some nice nostalgia. My own play didn’t go so well, I felt like I ran out of time to solve the crime, probably because I hadn’t optimised my actions yet. I’ll need a few more plays to fully enjoy it. So far it’s a 6/10 for me, but that could go up.

Tiny Epic Crimes

Ugly Gryphon Inn (designed by Scott Almes, published by Button Shy Games) — Ugly Gryphon Inn is a micro game, just a small deck of cards, where you run the Gryphon Inn and place arriving guests into rooms. Be careful with each guest’s specific requests: if one doesn’t want to be next to another, say, because of a dislike for beer drinkers, it triggers an effect, sometimes making them leave, and sometimes that departure sets off a chain reaction that empties out the inn and loses you the game. It’s a smart little puzzle, and of the Button Shy games I own, it’s the one I like best. I’ll give it an 8/10.

Ugly Gryphon Inn

50 Clues: Dead or Alive (designed by Jeppe Norsker, published by Norsker Games) — 50 Clues: Dead or Alive is a crime-solving game where you follow clues through cards to solve a mystery, a murder in this case. You’ll need internet access, since a website walks you through solving the puzzles. I played this one solo, on a day I was tired, which turned out to be a bad combination for this kind of game, and I was pretty bad at solving the puzzles. Since I was so tired, I honestly can’t say whether that was on me or whether the puzzles were genuinely tricky. I won’t give it a rating yet, I still have two more games left in this trilogy, and I’ll have a better sense of it once I’ve finished.

50 Clues: Dead or Alive

Returning Favourites

Harry Potter: Hogwarts Battle (designed by Forrest-Pruzan Creative, Kami Mandell, and Andrew Wolf, published by The Op) — This will be my next review, so I won’t say too much yet, but I love this game. It’s not always the mechanically best game that you enjoy the most, and as a Potter fan, this one just makes sense for me. Over the years I’ve played it solo, at two players, and at four, and loved it at every count, though this month it was solo only. I’ve already played the Monster Box expansion and I’m curious to try Charms & Potions next, so expect more on that soon. 7/10, and you’ll understand why once the full review is up.

Harry Potter: Hogwarts Battle

Era of Kingdoms (designed by Michael Erisman, published by KC Games) — You develop your kingdom, bringing it from darkness into light. I recently reviewed this one and rated it 7/10, it’s a deck-building game that’s easy to start and genuinely enjoyable, a nice one for new players and a good discovery for me. Just one play this month, but I’ll be back for more.

Era of Kingdoms

Numbsters (designed by Milan Zivkovic, published by Button Shy Games) — A small game, perfect for travel, with lovely illustrations that lean a little toward a kids’-book style. You’re aiming to end with only two cards in hand, the 8 and one other, since around the 8 the smallest number in a sequence eats the biggest, and you can also trigger effects from the top card. I’ve read there’s a way to always win because the game is technically broken, but I haven’t figured it out and I lose often! I still really enjoy picking it up without overthinking it. 7/10, not perfect, but perfect for a quick 10-minute game.

Numbsters

ROVE: Results-Oriented Versatile Explorer (designed by Dustin Dobson and Milan Zivkovic, published by Button Shy Games) — Another Button Shy favourite, this time a programming and movement game where you’re a little robot exploring space. To solve a card, you place your cards to match the exact pattern shown in the image, discarding cards for movement points and moving based on each card’s characteristics. It’s an enjoyable little challenge that travels well, I bring it along wherever I go.

ROVE

Looking Ahead

For August, I’m hoping to get more Black Rose Wars: Rebirth to the table with some of the Rotas Box content, and to try Dune: Imperium and Coming of Age, both new to me. I’m really excited to give them a go.

What About You?

And you, what did you play this month? I’d love to hear your thoughts! Come find me on Mastodon and Facebook.