October brought longer evenings and more time at the gaming table, along with a change at the top of the most-played games chart. After four months in first place, Flip 7 slipped to third, and the top spot went to Harmonies, which had stayed right behind it all summer. For at least one month, calmly building landscapes and habitats has beaten tense card flipping. Magical Athlete stays in second place: it only raced onto the chart in September and quickly made itself at home at our tables.
Just below the top are some old friends. Ark Nova remains fourth, while Azul and Wingspan swapped places. The cooperative game Bomb Busters made a nice jump, climbing back from ninth to seventh place. Defusing bombs together clearly hasn't lost its charm.
Harmonies (Slovenian edition)
In Harmonies you build your own landscape from coloured tokens - forests, mountains, fields, rivers and villages - and create habitats for animals in it. A calm yet thoughtful puzzle, winner of the Golden Geek Medium Game of the Year 2024 award.
Magical Athlete
Magical Athlete is a racing game of pure chaos. You roll the die and move your racer, but each one has an unusual power that turns the rules upside down: one trips everyone who passes it, another sends rivals backwards. After four races, whoever has…
Flip 7
One more card, or enough? Flip 7 is a quick push-your-luck game: you flip cards and collect points, but if you get the same number twice, you are left with nothing. This edition comes in smaller, handier packaging.
Ark Nova
Ark Nova puts you in charge of a modern zoo. You build enclosures, house animals from all over the world and support species conservation projects. Each of the more than 200 cards brings its own ability, so every zoo turns out different.
Azul (Slovenian edition)
Decorate the walls of the royal palace with colourful tiles. Azul is a game with short rules that faces you with an interesting choice every turn: which colour to take for yourself and which to leave for the others. In 2018 it won the Spiel…
Wingspan
You attract birds to your wildlife preserve, and each one brings a new ability. Wingspan is a calm yet thoughtful game with 170 different birds, in which you build ever stronger combinations from turn to turn. It won the Kennerspiel des Jahres 2019 award.
Bomb Busters
The bomb is ticking, and you are the team that has to defuse it. In the cooperative game Bomb Busters you look for pairs of identical wires among your teammates without being allowed to say what you hold yourself. One red wire and it is…
Terraforming Mars
Mars is cold, dry and airless. In Terraforming Mars you lead a corporation that helps turn it into a planet fit for life. You raise the temperature, create oceans and plant greenery, but only the one who does the most for the new world wins.
Cascadia
The mountains, forests, rivers and wildlife of the American Northwest. In Cascadia you build your own landscape from hexagonal tiles and populate it with bears, elk, salmon, hawks and foxes. A calm, beautiful game with a clever puzzle in every turn. Spiel des Jahres 2022.
Sea Salt & Paper
A small box with a sea of folded paper inside. Sea Salt & Paper is a card game in which you collect pairs and sets, and then you have to decide: end the round right away, or take a risk and give the others one…
Forest Shuffle - Mešani gozd (Slovenian edition)
Plant trees and settle animals, plants and mushrooms in them. In Forest Shuffle - Mešani gozd you build your own forest out of cards, and every species scores points in its own way. Just watch which cards you pay with: everything you discard can be…
Lost Ruins of Arnak
On an uncharted island you have discovered traces of a lost civilisation. In Lost Ruins of Arnak you lead an expedition: you buy equipment, send archaeologists into the jungle, face the guardians of the ruins and research your way to the lost temple. But on…
Heat: Pedal to the Metal (Slovenian edition)
Hands on the wheel and full throttle. In Heat: Pedal to the Metal you drive a race car in a Grand Prix: you shift gears, chase the slipstream and take corners faster than you should. The engine pays for it by overheating, so the winner…
Sky Team
In Sky Team, you are the pilot and co-pilot who must land a passenger plane together - in silence. You place dice on the control panel, manage speed, axis and brakes, and keep an eye on air traffic. Winner of the Spiel des Jahres 2024.
Flip 7: With a Vengeance
Flip 7 is back, and this time it shows no mercy. In Flip 7: With a Vengeance you still flip cards and chase seven different numbers, but now the other players can steal, swap or discard them. No card is safe until the round is…
SETI: Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence
Extraterrestrial life is out there; it just has to be found. In SETI: Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence you run a space agency: you launch probes, land on planets, listen to distant stars and analyze data. What you will discover, though, nobody knows before the game…
Carcassonne (Slovenian edition)
Tile by tile, a landscape of cities, roads, monasteries and fields grows in front of you. Carcassonne is a classic you can explain in a few sentences: place a tile, place a meeple and collect points. In 2001 it won the Spiel des Jahres award.
The Gang
Poker where you don't bluff, you trust each other. In The Gang, you are a crew of thieves cracking vaults: a heist succeeds only if everyone correctly judges whose cards are the strongest. You can't talk about your cards, so the chips do the talking.
Splendor (Slovenian edition)
You are a gem merchant building your own empire. In Splendor you collect gem tokens and use them to buy cards that make every future purchase cheaper. The rules are short, but after just a few turns you can feel your wealth growing faster and…
The October chart shows nicely how varied the games at our tables are. On one side are longer strategy games such as Terraforming Mars, SETI and Lost Ruins of Arnak, which can easily fill a whole evening. On the other are shorter card games such as Sea Salt & Paper and Flip 7: With a Vengeance, which you will happily play several times in a row. Nature lovers keep reaching for Cascadia and Forest Shuffle, racing fans for Heat: Pedal to the Metal, and those who like to play as a team still have Sky Team and The Gang. The classics Carcassonne and Splendor also held on to their places on the chart.
As the autumn evenings keep getting longer, it will be interesting to see whether longer games get more table time in November or Flip 7 makes its way back to the top.
