Summer is here, right?
You know the deal if you live in the UK. Pouring rain, blazing sun, howling wind, and repeat. And that’s just over the space of 30 minutes on some days.
But the weather isn’t the only thing that has been all over the place. Board games plays have been up and down in May; either days of hardly anything making it to the table or a single games day where we easily hit double figures. All of this is because my final two Uni assignments were due in right at the end of the month.
But now it’s June and I’m free (in between job hunting while I wait for my results next month).
So let’s look at what new stuff we did manage to learn over the last month.
First, let’s begin with the elephant in the room. This game was originally released last year, but pulled from circulation quite quickly due to some racially offensive artwork included on the enemy cards. Devir have worked to make amends, replacing the affected artwork, and now the game is coming back for a summer 2026 release.
ACE OF SPADES is predominantly a solo game (you can play 2-player) that sees you using your magical deck of Poker cards to fight through a gruesome selection of wild west villains. Eventually, if you’re skilled (or lucky) enough, you’ll reach the final boss for a big ol’ showdown.
And that’s it. ACE OF SPADES is a boss battler at it’s core. Each turn you try to play the strongest amount of attack damage via Poker hands. A pair is 1 damage whereas 5 of a kind (that’s right, 5!) will hit the enemy for whopping 12.
As you work through the denizons of this lost frontier town, the bad guys get stronger in health, but each one you defeat gives you either a one off ability for future use, or something ongoing to improve your hits in specific ways.
But, even when your’e drowing in boons, the game is tough. I’ve played more than a dozen games and only won once on Normal difficulty.But I’ve enjoyed every single playthrough.
A friend of ours brought this recently fullfilled Kickstarter to a games day at the beginning of the month. I’d seen coverage of it when it’s crowdfunding launched last year, and briefly spoke to the designer at UKGE 2025. But beyond the game being co-op, I wasn’t too sure what it would be like.
Difficult is what it turned out to be. While the setting, theme, and artwork make MALUS HORTUS look potentially relaxing and cute, it is a challenging co-op game. At least that’s how we found it. But that in itself is no bad thing. We like tough co-op games.
Each player will play a card from their hand that gives them movement followed by an action. The aim is for all players (1-4) to reach the end of their own path and escape the garden before the quite frankly evil plants corrupt them.
The paths are not created equal though. Each of the four routes are a different length and each is loaded with a different mix of icons. Some good, others bad. And after a round, the plants all move towards the Fairy on their path.
The game was . . . okay. I’m not sure I’d chase to play again. As the person teaching the game, I had some issues with the rulebook, and while I liked the games art style (the artwork was done by the games designer) I found the graphic design a little on the simple side, with the board itself still feeling like it was a prototype. Overall I sense there is a better game just beneath the surface.
ORLOJ: THE PRAGUE ASTRONOMICAL CLOCK
When this game first popped up in Essen previews last year, I was immediatly drawn in by the beautiful and busy looking board. I was preordering it before I knew what was happening.
Unfortunately, the game was delayed in coming to the UK, so I was waiting a few months more than I’d expected. And then, when it turned up, I was immediately intimidated by the icons, componants, and wonderful moving parts.
But a cold and rainy Sunday (in May, how weird) saw us take the plunge and, oh my God, was it worth it.
Halfway through that first play of placing workers and moving the clock hands, everything clicked. The icons were no longer overwhelming. The various areas of the board were no longer clutter. It all began to make sense.
If you like Worker Placement, and you like Rondels, then this game will treat you very well. And typing this has me chomping at the bit to get it back to the table again.
I’d wanted to try this Flip ‘n’ Write since I first set eyes on it in an Instagram post a couple of years back, but it wasn’t easy to get hold of a copy.
Flash forward a little, and a new campaign hit crowdfunding for it’s spiritual successor (FLIP VOYAGE) as well as a FLIPTOWN expansion.
The game is a pretty simple Flip ‘n’ Write game where three cards are flipped, and you choose what you use each for. One for your end of round Poker hand, one for the area of the board you want to use, and one for the spot within the chosen area.
Of course, being an ‘n’ Write game means combos start appearing as you progress and you’ll soon be hopping all over the board crossing of icons and gathering resouces (dollars, gold, and points!).
Out first play was pretty streamlined and ran smoothly. I’m already eager to throw in some of the extra’s we have, like the role cards, to mix up player starting resources and abilities.
With the recent Osprey Games news, my instinct was to grab AYAR: CHILDREN OF THE SUN to complete the trilogy, just in case.
First off, this game has an intriguing way to score points. It’s almost it’s own puzzle to solve, and one that you’ll have to conseed your first playthrough to so as to get to grips with it.
Players move the same four pieces along tracks on the main board. As the game continues, one piece will be removed at the end of a round. This means that, if certain scoring opportunities for you are tied into specifict pieces or the paths they traverse, you’ll want to keep them in the game. But your opponents will probably have a different plan.
And as for final scoring, well you’ll be gaining points across two different methods; sun and moon. And it’s the lowest of you two marklers on the score track that will be your final score. So you need to find a balance between the two so that you lowest isn’t left too far behind.
It’s very clever, and very colourful. Maybe not for eveyone, but we really enjoyed it, even at just 2.
May the 4th. If you like a certain series of sci-fi films and you enjoy board games, then the chances are high that you played at least one Star Wars games on this day early in the month. For us it was made easier because it was a bank holiday in the UK this year. Woo hoo!
We went big with STAR WARS: REBELLION in the morning, followed by STAR WARS: OUTER RIM in the afternoon.
REBELLION was an epic game and this was one of my favourte plays of it to date. And not because I won; it was more about how I attained said victory. It was a nailbiting finish as I used a card to give me a wild guess at the Rebel base location, and my shot in the dark was spot on. Of course the game is not over yet just I found where the enemy is hiding. The ensuing fight was rough, and it could have gone either way down to the final dice roll. I got lucky. I know I did. But if I’d lost, it still would have been an epic finale.
As for OUTER RIM, well let’s just say that IG-88 did not make a very good bounty hunter in this version of the universe. I was all over the place, rolling bad and chasing objectives all across the galaxy while succeeding at nothing. It was no contest, and my wife aided Lando in a very comfortable victory.
The following weekend we had friends over for an epic games day. There was a real mix of games from decent sized ‘proper’ board game to a bunch of small box card games that had us ranting and laughing in equal measure. I got to teach a bunch of our favourites which allowed us to enjoy games we mostly play at 2 with the higher player count, which is always nice.
- MALUS HORTUS – See First Impressions above.
- FLIP 7 WITH A VENGEANCE – This version is so mean.
- CATAN: ON THE ROAD – A review copy that we can’t play at just 2.
- HEAT: PEDAL TO THE METAL – Twice in two months, this was an action packed race.
- QWIRKLE – We rarely play this at 4 and it was nice to introduce it to our friends.
- MOON COLONY BLOODBATH – Pure chaos.
- HUNGRY MONKEY – A game I really like yet rarely get to play.
- SPOTS – I made my wife anxious again by constantly pushing my luck.
- BUNNY KINGDOM – Only our second time playing this at more than 2. It got brutal.
- SNEAKY GOOSE – Our visitors were the ones who taught us this, and it’s a new favourite.
- 6 NIMMT! – This is fast becoming our ‘final game’ when we have friends over. Chaotic fun.
What else? Oh yeah, I finished my third (and hopefully final🤞) year of Open University. I guess that’s a pretty big deal.
It’s been a tough three years. I’d been out of education for a fair bit, so the start was rusty. And then it just escalates. Thankfully one half of my degree has been in a subject I’m super comfortable in and easily felt more like a hobby than study, so that was good.
Now it’s a seven week wait for results while I take the first steps into whatever my new career will be. Scary stuff, for sure.
And that’s all folks. May is done, and now we’re diving into June. Summer has landed (soooooo hot) but I’ve been gifted with a little breather of free time which, no doubt, will be filled with board gaming, YouTube content creation, and a rewatch of the Back To The Future trilogy (random, I know).
See you next month.
Always Play Blue 