TOP 10 Games - First Time Played in 2024
We love games! We started our company because we care about the games that we play.
This time we decided to take a look at the best 10 games that we played for the first time in 2024.
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Santa Maria - review
Publisher: Aporta Games
Players: 1-4
Playing Time: 45-90 minutes
Mechanisms: Dice Rolling, Network and Route Building, Open Drafting, Set Collection, Tile Placement, Variable Player Powers, Solitaire Game
Timing is the king in this game and every decision you make is a well-balanced decision of “will the profits outweigh the risk?”.
Publisher: Ravensburger
Players: 1-4
Playing Time: 20-160 minutes
Mechanisms: Campaign Game, Cooperative Game, Hand Management, Solitaire Game
Sleeves: TCG 63,5x88mm
This is an interesting coop where each scenario changes the game enough that you have to put your thinking hat on if you want to win the campaign.
Publisher: Stonemaier Games
Players: 1-5
Playing Time: 60-90 minutes
Mechanisms: Action Retrieval, Combos, Deck Building, Hand Management, Multi-Use Cards, Solitaire Game, Worker Placement
Sleeves: TCG 63,5x88mm
An epic experience with many different paths to victory. Players will try to find a combo of cards, tiles and player powers that will bring them to victory.
Publisher: Elf Creek Games
Players: 1-4
Playing Time: 45-90 minutes
Mechanisms: Action Retrieval, Contracts, Open Drafting, Pattern Building, , Solitaire Game, Worker Placement
Sleeves: MEU 45x68mm
A super smart worker placement mechanisms where more workers doesn't really mean more actions but rather that you can take the needed action by paying extra workers. I love the whole visual aspect of the game from building the hive, to collecting the nectars and selling them on market or finishing contracts…
Publisher: Board&Dice
Players: 1-4
Playing Time: 45-60 minutes
Mechanisms: Deck Building, Hand Management, Open Drafting, Set Collection, Solitaire Game
Sleeves: BST 80x120mm
A new twist to the deck building genre. Instead of building your deck of cards that are then randomly drawn, you will build 3 books by inserting new cards. When you play a card, you will turn the page in the book and have other cards to play later in the game. Just a simple twist that makes you really feel like you are writting history.
Publisher: Avalon Hill
Players: 1-4
Playing Time: 30-60 minutes
Mechanisms: Hand Management, Matching, Race, Solitaire Game
Sleeves: TCG 63,5x88mm
Theme is original and the mechanisms are very fun. Serving food to heroes to get the last gems off of them before they go to an adventure (and probably certain death… so better we take the gem than leave them to the monters in other dimensions), is very fun. Of course there will be chaos around the tables as it should be in a popular inn.
Publisher: Red Raven Games
Players: 1-4
Playing Time: 60-90 minutes
Mechanisms: Combos, Multi-Use Cards, Solitaire Game, Worker Placement
Sleeves: EUR 59x91mm
This game is full to the brink with combos. Every play should let you have a different type of strategy. You can move around a lot, you can fight, you can be a trader or just fill out your tableau cards that combo well together and give you points… plenty of ways to score and each one is fun.
Publisher: AEG
Players: 1-4
Playing Time: 45-60 minutes
Mechanisms: Closed Drafting, Set Collection, Simultaneous Action Selection, Solitaire Game
Sleeves: BST 70x120mm
The best drafting game currently available! Every destination is nice to visit, if not on Monday, then maybe on Friday. Players will make hard decisions of when to visit which location and which one to score on a specific day. With the huge selection of cards that are passed around, you will always have some amazing card that will make you rethink your strategy and make you pivot.
Publisher: Red Raven Games
Players: 1-4
Playing Time: 60-1200 minutes
Mechanisms: Action Points, Cooperative Game, Hand Management, Push Your Luck, Solitaire Game, Storytelling
Sleeves: MEU 45x68mm, EUR 59x91mm, BST 70x120mm
An amazing storytelling game! We were scared about the playtime but a campaign of about 20 hours is a perfect lenght for such a game (and you won't see more than 25-30% of the game's content in one campaign).
Somehow Red Raven Games managed to make a perfect arc. There is a hard and dangerous start, continues with a nice leveling up feeling and a dramatic finish where players try to get the most quests done. It was like watching a good action movie or reading a good book. I can't wait to go through it for a second time.
Publisher: IELLO
Players: 2-4
Playing Time: 75 minutes
Mechanisms: Combos, End Game Bonuses, Hand Management, Open Drafting
Sleeves: MEV 44x63mm, TCG 63,5x88mm
As you can see from this TOP10 list, I love combos, and Ancient Knowledge has a lot of them. Starting hands will push players into certain strategies that will then build up and snowball into amazing turns where you will manage to do more than just the 2 actions that the game limits you with.