The best games of September 2026
Transcript
Hello everyone, this is Cinnamon.
is Johannes.
And you're watching Board Gaming Ramblings.
And welcome back to Game of the Month, the monthly series that looks very serious, a very serious right now, where we take a serious, serious look on the games that we played last month. Looking at the stats, looking at the games, seeing what was awesome, what was not that awesome. And we're going to do it today for September of 2026. What do you think? That was like my swaggy style.
Yeah, I liked it. Yes.
Yeah, welcome to Board Gaming Ramblings. It's going to be great. Okay.
We're going to do the Game of the Month as we usually do. If this is your first time here, sorry about that. We are going to look at the stats, then we're going to list all the games that we played. So, if you have any questions about games we don't talk about, please let us know in the comment. Most of them we have done some coverage of either previews or reviews or a play-through of a couple of them. And then we're going to talk about our most fun experience, biggest letdown, biggest surprise, and the top three games of the month.
Mhm.
That's the formula. That's what we do every single month. We don't try to reinvent the wheel. It's not like, "Next month we're going to take best game to play at the circus." That would No, never going to be the same.
like made the the the perfect formula, actually.
it's very good. We like it. Works for us, and you seem to like it as well. So, today we are doing the thing again. So, here are This Oh, we did have a good month.
Yes.
Did you enjoy the month?
Yeah.
Hello, Cinnamon.
Hi.
Do you Do you like board games? This is an ad. Do you like board games?
Yes, I do.
Yes. Did you know that on this website, it's called YouTube,
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it's a website where people can upload their own videos for free.
There is this channel
of it.
It's very new, only like 20 years or something. It's this channel up there called Board Gaming Ramblings.
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Subscribe to it.
Okay. I I I will do an ad as well. Hello.
Hello.
Hello.
What's your name?
I'm Johannes.
How did you know that uh the No, okay. Do you like board games?
Yes.
Yes. Oh, what a coincidence. Did you know that there's like this big board game con every year in this weird little city Essen in Germany?
What? Essen? Doesn't that mean eat in German?
Yes, but it's also a city.
So, is it a city known for its food?
It's an edible city.
Oh, good. Have you tasted the city?
Yes.
Was it good?
It was delicious.
Oh, great. What's happening there?
No, you can you can come there and say like board games and stuff and you can say hi to us because we will be there. Segueing to
Yes, we will be there. Do the secret sign looks like this. It's going to be awesome. We hope to see you there. If you want to make sure to find us, we will be at the line B227 on Saturday and 10:00 to 2:00 on Sunday. Come by, say hi, play a game or just have hang around, just stand staring randomly at us for hours. Don't do that. That's going to be awkward.
That's odd ever.
Yes, and now let's talk about the actual games of the month. This this video is going to have a comment like video actually starts at 4 minutes.
Okay, this month of September 2026, we played 51 plays.
versus 49 last month.
We played 25 different games.
More than the 22 we played in August.
We played 23 that was new to us.
That's more than the 19 games we played in August.
And we played 51 hours of board games.
Ooh, which is less than the 53 hours last month.
So, what the audience really wonders now because you didn't say so, 51 play versus 49, which is the highest one?
Uh, the 41 No, 51.
51 is the highest one. And we can't forget the most important stat of them all. How many times did the two people in front of you win this month.
Mhm.
Is balance restored to the kingdom? How many times did you win?
28.
How many times did I win?
You have to say that yourself.
20.
Yes.
It's less.
Haha.
Oh no. And now, here are all the games that we played in September of 2026.
Mountain Goats: Legacy.
Queen Alice.
Carl von Linné.
Oil Rock.
Green Gold.
Avalon: The Riven Vale.
Deco.
Baba Is You: The Board Game.
Undonted 2200 Revolution.
Axia's Layer Combo.
Gold Country.
Jibber Jabber.
Totally Human.
Old Ones: Origins.
Forestry.
The Amazing Journey.
Fragments: Solar.
Crossing Heroes.
Travel Adventures.
Braided Skies.
Evil Tie.
Minikin City.
A Plan and Prairie.
Bubble and Shadow.
Stonk Market.
Stonk Market. Oh, that was the last I didn't play it two different times of the same game called Stonk Market.
[gasps]
Those are the games that we played.
Mhm.
And now we're going into the meat and potatoes. Um, it's not a thing we say in Norway, like the meat and potatoes. Like, oh this is the meat and potatoes sort of thing. I feel like it's a British thing.
Yeah, I think so.
It's a British
British.
A British thing. But today, we have the meat and potatoes. So like, yeah, it's good. Num num num. We're going to This is This is like the shepherd's pie of the video. That would be like the
We should do like it's like the the
For the core of the
Yes. Sheep and kale.
Yes.
Yes.
Cabbage.
Cabbage.
Not kale. That sounds awful.
Like normal people listening would say like, oh yeah, cuz sheep and cabbage sounds amazing. That's like what a main dish is in Norway. It's like we put sheep, cabbage, and a lot of pepper.
And potatoes. And not like
No, no, don't put potatoes in the thing. Like you boil that for hours the sheep and [clears throat]
calling like black pepper like whole, not the bell peppers.
Welcome back to the cooking show. And now, we're going to talk about the games. We're going to talk about our favorite games from this month and we're starting with the most fun experience.
My my pick for the
What was your What was
What was your What was your most fun experience?
was your most fun experience?
No, let's go. You start. You start. Yes.
My pick for the most fun experience is gibber da- dabble. I'm [snorts] saying this wrong.
Gibber [clears throat] and jabber and dabble? I have a toe.
I think this is very group dependent if it's a fun game or not actually because it's like basically an improv game just like set in like a system. So, one person is trying to guess what thing word the other people are hinting towards.
Yes.
And and you can only give like one letter and you're trying to gather kind of to form a word saying one letter about you don't know what the other people are thinking so you're just like
For example, C.
R.
A.
F.
T.
Yeah, and that was a word but sometimes it
I was thinking caterpillar.
Oh, yeah.
So, craft is a very different word.
It is.
That's that's the game basically.
the game. And and and I'm we had like a round that was pretty fun but I I I don't think like I I will I will say that might be not that fun always.
That's fantastic. This game is very fun but it might not be that fun always.
I will argue it's more fun if something goes wrong because it did.
But it also was fun when we were awesome.
It wasn't that fun when we did all the things right.
Okay.
What did you think?
I liked it But it's not my This is my favorite segue. But it's not my favorite most experience No, fun experience of the month. My most fun experience of the month was playing Forestry again. Because we got the expansion, we did a review for that. It's not a must-have expansion, but it made us play the game again, which made me happy. Because I like the game. I think it's a fantastic game. I think more people should play it. If you do like it, you should play it more. And if you don't like it, you should play it less. And that's just like some life wisdom from me.
Yes.
Uh but I think it's a fantastic game. I had fun playing it. I might not have laughed, so it wasn't like a haha funny experience.
Yes. I laughed less when I played Forestry than when I played Juber Jaber Juber. Uh it's not called Juber
game.
No, it's just less funny. But the category next month is cate- board game you cried the most while you played.
Yes.
But next
None. I think.
Maybe one.
Oh yeah, maybe one actually.
I don't remember which one. I just made it up. Maybe one. But now, we're going to talk about the biggest letdown. Maybe that made you cry. What was the biggest letdown of this month?
My biggest letdown was Travel and Help me. Travel
It's a best
Travel you answer.
Travel It's like It's a travel influencer. Travel answer. Travel Travel answer.
because of the stupid name. No, it's
The game was fantastic, but the name was bad.
Hey, I was most letdown game. It's like It's a trick-taking game where you can play multiple cards into like the same like trick. And the you play played like basically like multiple digits that make a bigger number. And I was thinking it's going to be more fun than it was.
That's That's like the definition of a letdown. The game I I chose is also one I thought was going to be more fun than it was.
Ah, copycat.
Yes, I'm sorry about that. That's like kind of the definition of the segment.
It is. It wasn't copycat. That's the Freedom of the Free so weird game, right?
Yes.
But this was Upland and Prairie from Asmodee Games. And I think it's Peer Sylvester who is a very interesting designer. Especially I really like the one that's called the The King is
The King is dead. Yes.
Really like that one.
There. Right there.
Like that second edition Peer Sylvester. Really great game. Upland and Prairie didn't work for me in any way. I thought it was very boring. And that's why it was the game I hoped was going to be better than it was.
Yes.
Maybe that should be the name now because that's kind of the same thing. Biggest letdown. Game you hoped would be better than it was.
Mhm. That wasn't.
But it wasn't. And now you're sad.
Yes.
But now onto some fun stuff. This is the most the biggest surprise.
Biggest surprise.
biggest surprise of this month.
See what I put here.
I know what I put.
I I put Baba Is You here. The board game.
Oh. Not the video game.
No, because you just said to me, "Søren over there's going to be a Baba Is You board game."
Søren over there's going to be a Baba Is You board game.
That's how you said it. And
In Norwegian, though.
I don't often say things like I don't often come with like "Oh, I have a I have an announcement." and I switch to English suddenly.
Well, we like the Baba Is You video game.
Yes.
It's weird.
Yes.
It's difficult. So I was just like, "How are they going to make that into something first off not solo and also something that Sometimes when they make like a Oh, this is a video game and now it's board game." I'm just like, "But why am I not playing the video game?" But this was something else.
Like Inspire, for example, for me.
Yeah, and I thought it worked really well here. They made it like it's not like a copy-paste. Yes, they are using like a lot of the things and course because it's built on the game. But, I I like when you're playing the original Baba Is You video game, it's like a very difficult solo puzzle. Here, it's not very difficult a puzzle, but it's the like resistance you get from the other player, and the resistance you have to like show yourself to to hinder the other player from winning, that is the puzzle. And also, it's a little weird and wonky, just like the video game. But, I I was surprised that it worked so well.
My biggest surprise is Baba Is You for all the reasons you said.
Yes.
So, that means I don't get to say anything about it. That's the rule.
need to do the crossover dance.
Crossover race across and over that you do. Okay. I liked it. I think it's great. I want to play more of it because it was fun. Now, we have the top three, which is like the the the the meat inside of the potato meat, and then the the biggest part of it. And you get to the sheep's head, and you get to eat it.
a corn dog? No, that's
Oh, it's a corn dog. And it jumps out from the the wall.
Yeah.
If you get that reference, that's would be very fun, but also, it would be it's
I I would be
Let us know if you know if you get that reference. Somebody jumping out from a wall while eating a corn dog.
And if you don't get the reference,
from a fanny pack.
please let us know if AI shows [clears throat] you this reference and you get it. Then, no, I'm just kidding.
Or you can just Google it, which is like the old way of doing it. Number three.
Uh Oil Rock.
That's my number three. What's your number three?
You were just like, I don't know what's going on. I was saying a word.
I was thinking, and I was trying to speak at the same time.
Which is not a good combination for you because then something weird happens.
Oil Rock, it was fun.
Go watch the review.
as fun as you was hoping it would be, but not more fun that you were hoping it then would say number two.
Mhm.
But Oil Rush, yeah, we're doing we did a review for that. You can watch it. We don't want to say anything about the game.
I would say it's like I don't know. I
It's a worker placement game. You are trying to drill for more oil, getting oil so you can refine that oil into other things to get points because points are good.
You have like a player power that you're upgrading when you get better at something called the progression track and that gives you like um cooler work like worker placement dudes. What do you call it? Workers?
Yeah, workers.
This is your first time playing where you're like what do you call those workers in the worker placement game? Like the workers that you place on the worker placements, but what do you call them?
them?
Okay, you're done.
Yeah, that's me.
My number three is Green Gold. Green Gold, we will have a review for this or we have already had it. I don't remember all of this because time is like this is what sometimes we travel in time back and we travel in time forward. If we haven't made it yet, you can watch it when it comes out. If we have made it already, you can watch it already and I won't tell you a lot about it, but I really enjoyed it and I think you should check out the review already or later.
Yeah, spoiler alert. It's a game with shares that I actually do enjoy.
Yes, and not like you have to sit on them, but stocks that you you get
Didn't I say shares? Did I say shares?
No, but for me those are very similar words for my Norwegian English brain. So it was more for me. Number two. No, but that was yeah, that was
what are are there shares in the
What are the shares in the
Uh I have to check. I I remember
the Republic.
Um the Queen Alice. Queen Alice is my number two game of this month because it's it's really good uh game.
Bye.
Uh it's it's like I I just like have to say uh it's so beautiful. I love the artwork and also it's cool cool like take on the chess mechanism.
You know the one that you know from chess.
The musical, that's what you mean.
But you're playing
This is a game from the chess the musical.
You're playing a card to make your chess move and
Oh, just like in in in the poker.
Yeah, and like the color what? And the color piece that you move also like let's that dictates which color you do the action with with basically it's just like for mannequin. Please don't.
I think we explained it better in the review video.
Yes, I think so. It's good.
Sometimes someone's brain just stops.
This is one of those times.
And it's very funny to listen to. I really enjoy it when your English just stops working and you just you're kind of here but then the words are coming out in a weird order. But that is
This is going on the internet.
Yes, that's what we do.
Yep.
Now my number two, that's what we do. My number two is Carl von Linné because I now learned that he existed. And and he did stuff with nature.
I'm sorry.
He was like finding the different nature things like birds.
needs to be specific I feel like.
Yes, he did. He went and looked at nature and he was like I'm going to draw this thing.
a bunch of things.
And found out I learned so much about him from this game. And also there was this guy called Berlin. What was his first name?
I don't know.
The Berlin guy.
his name.
No, I know it's all
Something Berlin.
Yes, that was one of the persons. I remember that because he had the same
Berlin.
No. But the game is great.
Okay.
You're also
Is it starting to to to It is starting to be a a classic board gaming ramblings video.
It's starting to resemble like one of our Spiel pick up video
Video games.
Game videos.
Yes, this
is a fantastic game. Really enjoyed it. Lots of going on. You like it better than me. I'm going to guess it's higher on your list and there's only one higher number. So, what is your number one, Sandra?
Oh, it's probably my name. Oh, shock. It's a really good game.
Are you allowed to have it this high because he's from Sweden?
Oh, that's true.
And we are from Norway, we are supposed to hate the Swedes because in our jokes, they're stupid.
Yeah, and it would it would be a 10 out of 10 if it wasn't [clears throat] for being about the Swedes.
If it was about like Thor Heyerdahl or something like that, it would be like a 10 10 out of 10.
The game is awesome.
make a game about Norway, we would like it the most. So, what is there something about Carl von Linné?
It's it's really really really good.
Watch the review if you want to have Sandra say more words about it. My number one is Queen Alice and because it is fantastic and I liked it a bit more than I liked the other one, that's why it's higher on the list.
Yeah. We we had like a strong disagreement.
No, I don't think we had a strong disagreement. The thing about this game that I really like is they I just love the fact that I can do this plan and I can execute a plan in a great way, but there's still some interaction. I had to look at the timing of other players and what they are doing and the movement of the chess pieces a super clever mechanism that I really enjoy interacting with.
From chess.
From chess the musical. And then you have the different mini games that just are there to make everything else work and it is smooth and it is fun and I love it and it's great and that's my number one and that is the game of the month. I think we're going to stop it here because or before English stops working completely. Please subscribe to the channel. If you're going to Spiel, we hope to see you there. Thank you so much for watching. It means so much to us that you are watching this stuff that we are recording here in our little studio in Norway. Thank you so much. I'm Johannes.
I'm Sandra.
And you've been watching Board Gaming Ramblings and bye-bye.
Bye.
Mhm.