The best & worst games we played in May 2025 (Game of the Month)

0:00 Hello everyone. This is Cinema and this is Johannes and you're watching Board Gaming Ramblings and welcome back to Game of the Month, the monthly series where we go through the month, we talk about the games that we played and all of that. And I always start these videos, I feel like lately, it's been like a thing I've started doing that saying, "Oh, how short this month was. It went by so fast." And this time, I feel like it's quite a while since we did the last one because we have been playing games, but we also been traveling. Yes, we have been visiting South Africa. We have. That's been amazing. Yes. Before we talk about that, let's just briefly go through it. If there's like four people who never seen this video before, if you are new, if this is the first video you see on the channel, let us know in the comments. Boom. So, we're going to talk about the games we play, the stats. We're going to talk about the Shelf of Shame update.

0:47 We're going to talk about the most surprise, the most surprised, biggest surprise, most fun experience. I don't know why it's saying most and biggest letdown and the top three games of the month. First a little bit about this country called South Africa. I'm not going to let you know the facts about the country. This is the history of South Africa. We were there doing that. Well, we have learned some history and yeah stuff as well. Yes, we're all about the board games now. We got to see nature and animals and play board games. Oh, yes. Yes. Both in real life and board games. And we got to meet some amazing people as well. We did it. We went first to Cape Town where we had a viewer called John and he had sent us some messages a few years ago and you basically remembered he had said that he was in Cape Town. So you reached out and like we're going to be in South Africa.

1:38 Would you want to say hi? And he basically took time off from work and was our tour guide for four or five days and it was really nice and we did activities the all old all days like traveling, looking at things, having an amazing time. uh such nice people and then in the evenings he had planned this great board game evenings. So we got to meet a lot of the people he played board games with in South Africa which was amazing and so nice people and and we were there for like five days. John was amazing and like our trip to Cape Town would not be the same without him because he like showed us all the sites and we had like the nicest time in the evening playing the board games with the people that his friends which was really nice. Yeah. The whole thing. Yeah, Cape Town. Fantastic place. We enjoyed it so much. We want to go back. Yes. What did we do after that? We flew to Durban.

2:37 Yes. We did not walk. No, that would have taken a long walk. And also not fun, I think. No, I agree. Uh where we met James and Sonia, which they watch our videos and James edits our videos. Yes, James is our editor. So if you haven't probably you seen the editing been better last year and he is editing most of our videos like 99% of what we do which is amazing and they wanted us to come visit which was the main reason we went to South Africa in the first place and we stayed with them for about a week and had fun played board games played board games and walked in nature just laughed a lot a lot and also was great because we we we made some Norwegian traditional food and they showed us South African tradition And it was just like a very nice experience all in all. After that, we went to the beach to relax because we hadn't been relaxing at all the other time we were there. We had a lot. It was nice. And we stopped by a small game reserve because of some friends of Sonia and James called Hine and Abil. They have set up a whole day there. They had been come early in to put up a barbecue.

3:45 They even made a game for us and it's over here. This This is a game. It's basically uh they have used two weeks to make this skin. There is cars. There are some very nice dice. This the dice. The dice are my favorite part. Look at these. They have different animals. This is an animal. This I don't know. Yes, you can. You can see it because I forcing you camera to focus on it. Boom. And back on us. Here we are. So, that was very nice. Just like all in all so many nice people. Yeah. And then we come home. Mhm. And a week after we come home, we got visitors. Yes. From the US of A. Mhm. Yes. Hannah and Doug come to came to visit and we show them around our little humble humble town. It is the fifth largest city in Norway, just so you know. But that's the not the reason you're coming to Norway. No, that's true. They were going on a cruise from Iceland. It was a honeymoon. Basically, it was there. I went on a cruise. So they're there right now on a cruise from from Iceland to Swalbar and then like a lot of the Norwegian cities and the coast and the So they like flew in a couple of days earlier to Oslo to come and visit us. So we as I said we showed them around then we made some Norwegian tacos and we played board games and we had a lot of fun. With that out of the way that was a great like you got a bit more about our lives there. Just so you know if you didn't want if you don't want to watch this you can skip what you already saw. a little late to tell him that now. That is true. Let's go into

5:15 the stats. In May 2025, we played 73 plays, which is a lot more than our 29 plays in April. We played 29 different games versus 24 different in April. 21 of them were new to us. And 17 was new to us in April. And we played 40 hours of board games versus 39 last month. So almost the same. So like we played a bit many more plays but the sameish kind of number of games. I just told you that because if you don't know numbers I know know you know. So the most important stat of course is how many times did we win? How many times did you win? 28. How many times did I win? 37. You've been on a roll this month. Yes. I've been rolling around in winnings and being awesome and it was great. Now, we're going to let you know all the games that we played in in May 2025. Are you ready? Yes. Let's go. We played Fellowship of the Ring Trick Taking Game, Trans Galactica, Off of Star Wars Unlimited, Ministry of Lost Things, Case One, Red Seven, Shipyard, Southfield, How to Save a World, Way of the Panda, Hansa Tatonica, Cleopatra, and the Society of Architects, Lost Valley, The Yukon, Gold Rest, 1896, Sears Catalog, Trains, Escape from the Museum, Gnomeing Around, Relic Runners, Fairy Tile, Robotric, Timber Town, First Contacts, Reapers, sushi roll, oceanos, poetry for Neandals, roll for it, sushi go,

6:46 Bosswana. Those are the games that we played. And now the most important thing for us, we're just trying to get through our shelf of shame. Last month we went all the way up to 60 of 160 plays of those games. And this month we are at zero. Yes, we're still at 60. Yeah, we didn't unplay those. But yeah, we didn't play a single game of the Chef of Shame because we played most games not at home. Mhm. So, I didn't have our Chef of Shame there. We didn't bring it with us. So, let's get into the the the meat and potatoes. Yes. Or the pizza or the taco, whatever you want to call it. Let's get into the taco of this episode. The most fun experience and all of that. Are you ready? Yeah. So, we're going to start with the most fun experience. What was your most fun experience? Like, I'm going to say South Africa in general.

7:34 like a trip was amazing. But like specifically the most fun gaming experience is all the plays that we played of the Lord of the Rings trick taking game with James and Sonia because we played a lot of that 38 times and it was very very fun. I agree. I don't have a game. I just have playing games with people in South Africa and also Doug and Hannah that came from the US. So basically the people was the most fun experience playing with all that and experiencing different people in that way. So it's a different kind of list this time. Biggest surprise. My biggest surprise um we've gotten a lot of surprises basically this month. But gaming wise, uh Fairy Tile, I was surprised by that because I didn't have any hopes for that at all. But it was so fun. I really liked Fairy Tale. You liked Fairy Tale? Yes. Okay. Did you didn't? No, of course not. It was just a very boring blind game. I don't agree. I disagree because in fairy tale I'm going to tell you about it now. Uh you have you have like a story book and you that story book tells you what you want to make happen. They have these tiles with different terrains on them and the knight and the princess and the dragon like miniatures moving around and they have different rules for movement and you want to spatially place them where

9:04 they want to be according to your book. But you can also be like I don't want this is hard. So you can just like flip to the next part and try to do that instead. And I thought it was super fun. I really liked it. Okay. Okay. What is your surprise? Um, it's not a game. Uh, it's actually a game. But my biggest surprise is that I still enjoy playing Lord of the Rings, the trick taking game after playing it 50 times because I played it almost 40 times. Yeah. I don't play games that many times in a row and we played it almost every single day in a time we had with with Sonia and James and I just enjoyed it every single time. So it was that was my biggest surprise. So what was your biggest letdown? Fairy tile. No, your biggest let down apparently.

9:50 No, no, no. My biggest let down is the rules for uh Transgalactica. Yeah, it's the same for me. Yes. So, basically, we didn't we didn't play a lot of bad games. No, all of the games were really good, but yeah, the rules for Trans Galactica, which you will see in the Yeah. the review that were Yes. I would not say that all the games were really good, but I would say that we didn't play any let downs because I didn't have any Yeah, there's a difference. Yes. because I wasn't like looking forward to many of the games and they were like there were games. So, okay, then we are the top three. Are you ready to do it? Yeah. The top three games of the month. Do you remember all your single list? Okay. Number three. What is it? My number three is a frienda. It's a special puzzle. We're going to have a review for that. Yes.

10:35 So, don't talk too much about it. But it was basically really fun and more more much more brain burning than I anticipated it to be. If you enjoy like games like Ko and stuff, go check that out. My number three is Hands of Tatonica. Really, really fun to play that uh on a table with very little light on it in the hotel that we stayed in in Cape Town, but great people. We played a fire player game and it's a game that is still so good and one I'm happy that we have it because it's one I would just like to play again because it's it's the rules are so straightforward. It's an old school Euro game. Only cubes. you're pushing cubes around. Oh, there's some discs as well, very differently. But it's it's very much an old school Euro. Like it's high interaction, very low on the rules overhead, but a lot of interesting choices. Really really enjoyed playing that again. And my number two is also Hans Tatonica. It I was actually delightfully surprised by how like still that holds up that game. It's just like it just works and and there's nothing wrong with the game.

11:42 highest prize. I had very very much fun with it. And you can play it. We played a five player game of that. And it goes like this. And it's a little mean though, so you can be like trying to block others and boop them out and stuff. So yeah, super fun game. And my number two is then going to be Shipyard, which is a a fun game. We got to play the original again. I I think both the original and the second edition are on the same level. A really fun game. I won again. Yes. So, I still am unbeaten in Shipyard, which I think I I just have to stop playing it now because at some time I will not I will not win. And I think I played it like seven times now and I have won every single time we play. H But it is still a very very good game, a classic one that I would just enjoy to play again. But I I'm scared to because of is not on my top three because I lost. So, I didn't like those games.

12:40 That's true. Well, um it's an amazing game. But my number one for this month is Transgalactica. I think it's fun that a game can be the biggest disappointment and number one in the same month. Not following your own rules. So, not having the same game. That's true. But we're going to highlight this in the review, so check that out. Oh, yes. A bit surprising that it was your number one because of the problems with it. But my number one is not that. Oh, my number one is Star Wars and Liberty. really enjoy every time we play it. Now, we got to play a few more times two-player and we also played uh the four player version of the multiplayer version. Uh which was really really fun. It worked. It worked very well. I wasn't sure how well it would work, but it worked very well. Wasn't too long, like an hour or so with four people. So, that was great. Really want to do that again. Have a lot of fun with that game and I'm excited to play it more in the future as well. Mhm. And that's it.

13:37 Yeah. That's another month. We are This is May. So at the end of this month when you're seeing this UK Games Expo has been we're not going and then like there's going to be no new games soon like all through the summer. Now it's going to be a couple of months of summer and then we're going to get to new game territory. Then there's going to be the Gen Con games and the Spiel games are going to come and I'm excited to see what this year has to bring in board games. Are you excited? Yeah. Always. Yay. And that is the end of the video. If you like what we do, you can subscribe. It's free and it fun. Makes s happy like this. Makes me happy like this. And that is the end. Thank you so much for watching. I'm Johannes. I'm And you've been watching Board Gaming Ramblings. And bye-bye.