Board Game Friday: June 2025 Plays

Another month down!  As someone who has the great fortune of having summers off as an adult, it's amazing how quickly time flies when you don't have to be at work every day.  They say time flies when you are having fun, and if my board game statistics are any indication, I'm definitely having quite a bit of fun lately!

In fact, for the month of June, I managed 71 plays spread across 18 different board game titles.  As usual, let's start with the visual of what I tabled this past month:

I got to try a number of new games in June, including:

Next Station:  London:  This is a "flip-and-write" game about building a subway map using four different colors.  I first played this on BGA and enjoyed it enough that I sought out a physical copy in order to be able to play with my son.  He also enjoys this one a lot now!

In Vino Morte:  A simple party game from ButtonShy (so it's an 18-card wallet game).  This one works well in large groups to fill some time. I enjoyed playing it, though the game would never be my "go-to" choice to play.

Roller Ghoster:  A kids' game that my son and I played at our local friendly game store.  He loved this one, but  I did not.

Miller Zoo:  A cooperative game about rescuing animals (and maybe trapping them in a zoo?).  I only played the first two scenarios, but based on that, the game was quite easy to win.  I'm certainly used to much more challenging cooperative games.  Miller Zoo has more of a relaxing feel to it (which isn't a bad thing)!

Seasons of Rice:  Another ButtonShy wallet game.  My son and I gave this one a try, and we each liked it.  It's definitely a game that deserves a few more plays before I can make any final decision on it.

Agropolis:  Yet another ButtonShy game (I guess I've been on a ButtonShy kick lately).  Agropolis is in the same vein as Naturopolis and Sprawlopolis.  All great little games, best played solo, though two-player cooperative also works fine.

Aztack:  Another kids' game, this one has a tactile element of building up a pyramid.  It's actually a lot more "thinky" than you'd probably expect from a game aimed squarely at kids.

Almanac: The Crystal Peaks:  I had traded for this game a long time ago and finally got it to the table.  My son and I played through a full "game" once (which consists of six mini-games).  We both enjoyed Almanac enough that we pushed Century:  A New World to my trade bin.

Village Rails:  A pastoral game about building a railway using tiles.  It's a nice small box game, though I think there was a bit too much forward planning for my son to truly grasp on our first (and only) playthrough.  This is another game that I'll need to get to the table again soon.

Unsurmountable:  Yet another game from ButtonShy.  Unsurmountable is a solo game where you try to make it to the top of a mountain while following specific criteria.  I found the gameplay fine; however, I prefer the "-opolis" style of solo games more.

Phew, that was a busy month of learning new board games!  I think I played more solo games in June than I have in any month ever before.  I'm definitely getting more into solo board game playing, and having a nice selection of quick ButtonShy games certainly helps.  You'll also notice that Magic made an appearance as my most played game of the month - I taught my son to play the game, and now he's kind of obsessed.  He claims he likes Magic more than Pokémon (which would be a win for Dad)!  I guess time will tell on that one.

That's it for June!  Amazingly, I kept my streak alive of playing at least one board game every single day of the year.  I never expected my streak to last into June, but now that it has, let's see if I can keep it going during all of July.