Games Leaving & Being Added: September 2026 - Drillers, Excalibur, Into the Machine & More!!!

0:00 Hey, I'm Alex Radcliffe from BoardGameCo, and these are the games being added to my collection for September of 2026. I've been a little bit behind, or not necessarily behind, but just kind of fragmented all over the place with my collection videos over the past 2 months. I did the July games added and being leaving and being leaving games being added and leaving the collection. August was kind of Gen Con right around that end of the month, so I kind of just missed things and dealt with all Gen Con. And then throughout August, I did two videos, a campaign game purge. Actually, I think that was September. But I did a Gen Con inspired purge and then a campaign game purge. And then recently, I did a games passing through for the Gen Con games. It's been a lot of things. But to kind of skip all of that, this is the update as to what's going on with my collection. For those who don't know, I keep a 200-game collection. That's 200 games. That counts games that I played, not games on my to-review shelf. It doesn't count my kids' games because I don't want to get rid of their games just because I'm trying to hit a number. But it counts the games I'm choosing to own. And to give you a kind of tally of how things have fared over the past 2 months as all this craziness has gone on. In my recent purge videos, my campaign game purge as well as my Gen Con inspired, I'm going to quickly browse the shelves and take everything off the shelves kind of purge, I got rid of sort of 14 games.

1:14 Sort of cuz there's a lot of asterisks and notes. But those games are going to be Pioneer Rails. I got rid of Pioneer Rails. I got rid of Tsar. I got rid of How to Save a World. Caesar, Beast Master of the Universe, Age of Atlantis, Whispers Wood, Time to Panic. Well, that one's going to go into a different category, so let's go Lab with Chronicles, Stalker, Kinfire Chronicles, Dragon Eclipse, Elder Scrolls, and Sent Corry. Those are the games I got rid of. I also got rid of GPS and Time to Panic. Those don't count in the same way because anything I'm getting rid of that's in the kids' collection section, I mean, I'm only keeping it cuz my kids want it. I don't count those as part of my game, so if I get rid of it, it's safe shelf space, but it doesn't lower my 200 count if that makes sense. Also, if you've watched those videos, I also got rid of Marvel Dice Throne Missions. The problem with that one is I just count Dice Throne as one, so it doesn't change my count. And then lastly, I got rid of Machina Arcana and Endless Winter, but those two got saved. There were three games from those videos that I really felt bad about. Uh there was Sankoré, Machina Arcana, and Endless Winter.

2:11 Don't get me wrong, these are games that I really like and enjoy. I feel bad about most of them, but the main three that I felt bad about were uh Sankoré, Endless Winter, and Machina Arcana. Endless Winter I decided to keep because there are future expansions coming out, so I do want to see how those integrate before I decide what happens with Endless Winter. Uh Sankoré I almost decided to keep. I went back and forth in it. Ultimately, as much as I think Sankoré is a brilliant, brilliant game, and I love it, I just think I'd rather pull out Unconscious Mind. Like Unconscious Mind is a lot of a teach, but I'd rather pull out and teach Unconscious Mind over Sankoré. Uh pick a dozen other Euro games that I thoroughly enjoy. I think Sankoré, the biggest challenge I have with it is the teach is a lot, and it's one that I'm less than playing with people who already know it. I'm just less motivated to pull it out and get it taught. It is a beast of a teach. That's what it comes down to for Sankoré. I love the game, uh but in a world full of limited time and shelf space and head space, I'm just not going to pick it, but I that's a rough one. That's a that's a Like sometimes I get rid of a five out of five because over time my opinion of it changes. That's not the case with Sankoré. I think Sankoré is brilliant.

3:11 It is thoroughly brilliant. If you are the kind of person who plays with a dedicated game group and you're not constantly shifting things in and out and you don't have to worry about that and your game group likes heavy Euros, I highly, highly, highly recommend Sankoré. It is still a five out of five game for me. Sometimes I get rid of those for practical reasons. Some of these stock are by the way. Stock is phenomenal. Not a five out of five, but it's high up there. But that's another one. Again, this campaign game aspect, it's just hard decisions have to be made. Machina Arcana managed to get put back on the shelf. So kind of updating you with everything that went on in those last few videos. If you've been keeping track, that means I got rid of 14 games. Once you exclude the kids games, exclude Dice Throne missions, put the games back on the shelf, I got rid of 14 games screening up space for 14 games to be added to my collection. Before we talk about the games that are being added, I don't have 14. I think I have like eight or so. Before we talk about the games that are being added from the Gen Con batch of games, this is a good time to note that our channel sponsor is All Play. If you go to allplay.com, you can find a variety of games both from themselves as well as partner publishers. In fact, I think three of the games that I'm adding to my collection today, you can find on allplay.com. Some of them from All Play, some of them from partner publishers. We can go ahead and go over those as they come up. And with that, let's start off with the ones that kind of half count. I say half count because the first four I'm going to go over are are because well, let's start with the first one, which is Las Vegas is really just me adding the new version of the game to my collection. Las Vegas is an excellent game. It's a game which you're going to be rolling dice, assigning to various casinos, and then trying to see that you're not the one tied for those casinos in order to get the put the the money at those casinos. It's a very fun time. This is me just upgrading my copy, so getting the newest copy, so I'm not really changing anything as far as the

4:41 collection count. We also have Hypothetically over here. This one's going in the kids category. I like Hypothetically. I enjoy it. I think it's a fun time. Ultimately for me, it would not be a keeper my kids enjoy it as well. And it's also not a bad party game. But I do think it's one that it both surprised me as to how enjoyable it is, while also being one that is definitely not a keeper on its own. It's too much leaning into like your typical party game situation where you're going to have a question that's being asked. People have to kind of guess that, write down their own answer, others have to guess their answer, and they're about you. It's hypothetically speaking, how many board games would you own if space and remembering those games was not a factor. That's not actually a question, but it probably should be a question. How many board games would you own if it was not a factor space, if it was not a factor of time, if it was not a factor of money, it was literally just about, you know, how many you want to own. And you'd remember all of them. That'd be an interesting question. I do want to know the answers. Then I write down my answer, everyone else writes down what they think I would write, and then you try to figure out who's closest. It's cute, but it's more of like a social party game like I enjoy it. Ultimately, I think I'd move on from it already if not for the fact that my daughter really enjoys it. We also have Dragon Isles over here. This is from Game Right.

5:43 It's fun. I enjoy playing it. I played this several times with my kids already. I will happily play with them again. They really like it. Like really like I was surprised by how much they like this game, but it's basically you're going to be gathering cards and trade them in to go on encounters. You're trying to create sets, runs, or set well sets of the same color, set of the same number, or runs 7 8 9 etc. In order to take down a variety of encounters. They got a few abilities. I think the game is is fine. Like it's fine. It's not like it's not winning any awards for me, but I enjoy playing it and they thoroughly enjoy it. So it will be added to the kids collection. And then we have pollen over here. This is one from All Play. So again you can find it allplay.com. But pollen is a game that I've had on my shelf for a long time. Have not played this not even like a Gen Con game for me. It's just I happen to get to play this month. And I I played it several times this month because it is a very fun game. This is a game which you're going to be a basically you're kind of trying to create these sets over here.

6:29 So you have these these situations where you're trying to put down cards in order to create these patterns around these tokens and then take those tokens in order to get the insects on them. Overall a very fun time. I find that it's very simple to get into, very easy to play, very fun to teach. It is still a little on the lighter side for me. So I don't think I'd add as much as I do enjoy it. I don't think I'd be adding it to my collection except for the fact that all of my kids enjoy this one a lot. So that one is an easy add. Which brings me to the ones that are being added. I have it looks like seven. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8. No, seven. Seven. I have seven. I have seven games I'll be adding to my collection which means I still have space for seven more. The the that's the good news. The bad news is there's a lot of games on my shelf that I think will be added as I get through them. So I need the space. But with those seven games that are being added, I'm going to be going through them in order from least to most favorite from those. So this is my like first batch of Gen Con ranking so to speak as far as the games that were worth coming home with. The games that I am adding to my collection.

7:23 And we're going to start off with Excalibur. Excalibur is a weird one for me. Like much as my kids do enjoy this, I think I would add it to my collection regardless of their enjoyment. Like I know like yeah like I kind of look at things as like okay great like hypothetically it's fun. I enjoy it. But also if I have a limited amount of games, I think I'm just going to move on from it. But my daughter is like no, I like it. So we keep it. No problem. Excalibur if I try to get rid of this, my kids would save it, but I do try to be intellectually honest as far as what's mine versus what's theirs. I'm not just trying to sneak games into the collection. This is one that I really enjoy. I think it's a very fun time. I don't think the game is good. To be very clear, I have I have strong critiques on the gameplay. I think it's a flawed game where the last few turns are the only thing that matters. But I enjoy the process of what's happening. As you try to figure out, as you have to kind of like narrowing down the kingdom over here, gathering various chips, forcing players to discard chips, stealing chips from other players, ultimately trying to be the player holding Excalibur at the end of it. It's just a fun time. The whole thing works. It works as a fun experience, even though it's not really a party experience, but it's a fun experience. And then the last few turns are really what ends up mattering. This is one of those games where I don't think there's any strong sense of strategy. You can play the whole thing perfectly and at the very end someone plays a chip where you just pass your chips and then that's the end. And it all ends up just being like, "Okay, great. I did all that for 35 minutes for what exactly? Someone else could win."

8:32 But I have fun along the way. It's a great game to pull out. It's a great game for larger groups. Overall, Excalibur is again I I have specifically decided not to pick up the deluxe edition. I think that would be me leaning into lizard brain too much. I'm like, "Ooh, shiny. I want the cool edition." It's too much. I play I like this. I like this. I'm happy that it's good enough as it is. It does the job. That's Excalibur, the number seven on the list over here. Then we have number six is Oh My Word. And Oh My Word, this is a a good game. I I think I hate the box over here. The box always is falling apart. I hate that. I have complaints about the rules. My first two games on this list I have so many complaints about. And yet ultimately they're fun times. Oh My Word needs an actual This is garbage. This is like I'm actively mad right now. I'm actively mad they gave me one of these kinds of boxes. This is not a board game box. This is a mass market, which again the target audience is mass market, it's fine. I hate this box so much. It's so bad. It's so so so bad. I also don't like boxes that show you things in the center either. I never liked that either. That's another thing I'm not a huge fan of. Anyways, all that said, this mass market game is fun. It's basically kind of similar to Topple.

9:33 It's just reverse Topple. Topple is all about trying to tip down letters as you have a category. So, you have a category, for example, the category is fruits and then you tap A cuz you tap the apple and then you type someone taps the strawberry and then the S is gone. You're slowly eliminating the letters for the category. This is the reverse of that. You have a number of categories on the board and then you draw a letter and then you have to figure out where to put that letter. So, you have a you draw the letter R and you're like, um oh, I can put it into watch brands and you type in Rolex. That's the watch brands is not a category, but you get the idea. And then that problem is now that category is gone. You can no longer do that category cuz it's been matched to a letter. So, instead of slowly decreasing the available letters, you're slowly decreasing the available categories. I have complaints about the box. I have complaints about the way the game scores. I think it could be a better game overall, but ultimately I have so much fun when I play it. Again, this goes to the same category. My kids will not let me get rid of this either way, but I um I I I like it a lot.

10:25 Coming in at number five, we have Into the Machine. Into the Machine from AEG. Love this game so far. I am curious about the longevity of it. It's always a question as to how well a game holds up. For me, I think the expansion is essential to keep the variability of the experience, but basically in the game you're trying to race your robots along various tracks. You have these tracks over here. You're moving along those tracks. Well, you have the top tracks, which is really really where you're trying to upgrade your circle bots into hex bots and then race them back so you can go ahead and get three hex bots to the end of the track. But along the way, there's a worker placement puzzle in which you're placing your workers onto these grids over here in order to try to take the bonuses on the grids or possibly taking your robots in the center between two spots in order to take those bonuses. There's a lot of of of of rules to how this all works, but ultimately it's a tableau builder. You are trying to build a better faster machine while racing. It's not that similar to not that dissimilar to games like Quest for El Dorado where the question is what is better? Is it better to just race as fast as possible or is it better to upgrade so that you're slow at first, but then faster when it matters? That's ultimately the question.

11:20 I have a lot of fun with this one. Very solid game. Definitely one that is an easy add. Coming in Next up, I think we have Drillers. Drillers is my next up, which means we still have three above Drillers over here. And I like Drillers a lot. I just put this into my top 10 deck builders. I think it's a lot of fun. I do have complaints about how complete the game feels. Like I do feel it needs more content for it. But ultimately, it is a lot of fun. This is lower down the list primarily because I think if I lost Driller's, like if I couldn't get Driller's again, I think I'd be happy with the other games in my collection that do this kind of thing. Whereas the ones that are higher up on the list, I think are feel a bit more unique relative to other games. But Driller's is absolutely fantastic. Gorgeous art, like absolutely gorgeous art. Presentation's amazing. But what you're doing in this game, you're racing your robot down this track down the the mine, so to speak, to gather various gems and then trying to play your robot cards over here. Trying to play a set of robot cards to gather more movement, more jewel points as you drill into the walls, gather gems, upgrade your robot.

12:12 There's a lot going on in this one, but ultimately, I have I love the art first of all. I love the art. I love the components. This is typical AEG. They do a fantastic job. But ultimately, the game is so much fun. I have played this several times, enjoying it a lot. I have not tried it solo. I don't think Usually, I don't play multiplayer games solo. Usually, not always. I will see if that changes, but I I don't think I'm leaning into it solo. But I like it a lot and I'm already wanting to have more content. Like more so than any of the recent games, this feels like a less complete experience. That is my biggest criticism against the game right now. I think it needs more content to drastically improve the experience. But I really hope it's a strong success and it gets that content. If this becomes a game that is not Like this is that weird aspect of rating a game, like if they never added more to Driller's, would I still keep it? I think the answer today is yes. Today, I'm still having fun with it. I do not think it will be a forever game if they don't add more to it. Contrast with things like games like Arnak, I can't see myself ever getting rid of Arnak. I mean, never say never, but I can't see that happening. Next up, we have Glimmer Deep. Glimmer Deep is fantastic. This is another game that you can get over on All Play from WizKids Games. They've done What was it? Junk Draw. They did Junk Draw, which I really like. This escalates that. Junk Draw is very fun, very charming. I think over enough plays, Junk Draw has become a This is better for gateway or younger audiences. I've kind of played it out. I I almost wanted them to do more expansions for it or bigger Like if they did Junk Draw with a bigger Junk Draw, I think that would really work well. Right now, the 4x4 grid or is it 5x5? I can't remember. I think they need to escalate the size of the grid to really give you more that you can do. But past that, I think Junk Draw is amazing. Uh but Gloomhaven, I think is better. Gloomhaven has you going down onto the well, kind of going

13:42 down into a mine. It's a little different than the way the game structured. But what you're doing is you have these different boards, and these are roll and write games or really not really roll and write. They're uh something and write flip and write flip and write. You're flipping a card. That card is going to have a polyomino shape onto it, and then you're going to be marking that polyomino shape into your uh little cavern. And again, there are different maps, there are different uh factions. I think there's like eight different factions or something like that. A large amount of factions. There's four different boards, giving you a lot of variability, all while you build various buildings. As you go further and further down into the mines, you're charting out these pathways where you can then build buildings that will go onto those spots. So, you're really excavating away here, gathering lots of gems in a very satisfying flip and write game. I like this a lot. Uh I I will have a review for you at some point. This is one that we did sponsored coverage way back when they had the Calico Calico campaign. I have not gone into a review yet because I still want to play more aspects of it. But I can tell you right now, my opinion is very positive. It will 100% be added to my collection. Uh it's just a question of when the review comes out, depending on how far I get into it. I'm either going to play it a few more times and then do a regular review, or I plan on doing a full deep dive with a 12x12 review. I'm already halfway there, so we will see.

14:44 It's more but it's not a 12x12 review is both playing a game 12 times, but then also it's experiencing the game in all its various formats. So, I need to do more of that uh before like I want to try every single faction. If I try every single faction, that would be necessary for me to do a 12x12 review, as well as every single board. Well, I've done every single board. I haven't done every single faction. We'll get more to it. We'll get more to it. Coming in next up over here, we have Frosted Bloom. Frosted Bloom is an excellent game. Uh this was I believe released at Gen Con, but I played it on Board Game Arena. I played on Board Game Arena twice, and then I immediately went on and bought a copy. I actually got it post Gen Con. But this is so much fun. I am loving what this game is doing. Basically, what you're doing in the game is you are kind of uh drafting various polyomino tiles and then placing them. They're always a size five tile. You place them into your grid, and then as you place them into your grid, you're kind of scoring depending on the scoring cards you currently have available. You all have a deck of 10 scoring cards, but the order those come out vary by player. So, this round I might be first scoring water and tulips, and then you're going to be looking for your sections of water and tulip that you just created by placing up that piece. Meanwhile, you also have all these windmill tokens over here.

15:42 Like these uh these other like windmills, these bar farms, and then these uh people over here. Those all go into the gaps that you're creating, which changes up the way you're trying to figure out. Are you going for gaps? Are you going for um you know, larger sections of terrain? That's a question you have to figure out as you go through it. But overall, I think it's a phenomenal polyamino game. I really enjoy it. Uh I do anytime I have a game that's this that doesn't have as much variability, I'm always like, "Okay, great. Well, is this good for five plays or 20 plays?" I don't know yet, but right now I'm still very much enjoying it. And then my favorite game so far that I've come back from Gen Con, which makes me realize while I've done a bunch of five out of fives this year. Like this year I've done I don't know, maybe eight five out of five, something like that. I've I've had a decent amount, but none of the Gen Con games have yet been a five out of five, but we have a few that have been 4.5s. I think Frosted Blooms is a 4.5.

16:27 Glimmer Deep, I haven't rated it officially, but I think it's a 4.5. Uh Drillers is a 4.5. So, all of these kind of Oh, Into the Machine. I think that was lower than Drillers, right? I think so, cuz I think I just put on top. But either way, Into the Machine is a four out of five. Uh Glimmer Deep and uh Drillers, Glimmer Deep unrated yet technically. Drillers is a 4.5. Frosted Blooms is a 4.5. And Pop Art is a 4.5. This is one that might grow to a five out of five. It's not there yet for me. It's still very, very good. But in Pop Art, what you're doing is you're kind of uh contrasting these overlaying cards. Not really a great way to show without opening it up. I'm not going to fully do that. I have a review on this. But you kind of gathering various cards, and you're overlaying them to create a color and a uh set of scoring conditions. It's very similar to Canvas if you played that. It is from the creators of Canvas. I don't know which one I like more. I like Canvas a lot. I think Pop Art feels very similar and yet very different. It's a fantastic game. This is the last one by the way you can get on All Play.

17:14 Uh but overall, I think it's a it's a really fun game. It teaches in like 3 minutes, plays in like 20. It is so much fun. I again, I maybe it will get old, maybe it will feel broken over time. Right now, it feels like an excellent filler game that is just so satisfying to build out your nine-card grid. Top top notch top ratings notches marks top marks. That's the one I'm looking for. Top marks to the people over at Arcane Wonders I. I think that they like they sold Canvas to Tycoon Games like as a as a brand so to speak as a game whatever. And then they made Pop Art which I I think is fantastic. It's great like it doesn't feel like a copy of Canvas. It feels like hey, we did Canvas and we did cool things with that and now we're going to do similar cool things but very much distinct and very much its own beast. Top top marks to them. These are the games being added to my collection for the month of September. Recap wise as far as where I am on total counts and all that, that means I still have room for seven more games in my collection.

18:03 I'm down to 193 games uh theoretically. I I this whole 200 game thing, I'm pretty sure it's accurate at any given time but like if at any point I forget something or I accidentally remove something accidentally add something, there always could be wiggle room but I do like true ups here and there. But at least on my spreadsheets according to my spreadsheets, I have 193 games currently in my collection with room for seven more before I have to add before I have to remove others. With that said, this has been your games added and leaving the collection for September 2026. I'm Alex Radcliffe from Board Game Co. Hope you found this video entertaining and as always, I hope you have a good one.