Top 5 Games of July 2026!
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Transcript
Hello everyone, this is Johannes.
And this is Seregon.
And you are watching Board Gaming Ramblings.
And welcome back to Game of the Month. Let's talk about the games that we played in July.
Yes, 2026.
Yes.
It's been another month, which means it's a year since we did July 2025.
That's how it works.
since the other one, and then years since August. Yeah, with July 2024. Just saying that. So, if you haven't seen these videos before, they're going to go like this. We're going to give you the stats for a month, then we are going to tell you all the games we played. So, if you have any questions about things we don't speak about, you can let us know in the comments. Then we're going to tell you about our most fun experience, biggest letdown, and biggest surprise. And then we're going to do a top five games that we played this month. We vary a bit between three and five, depending on the amount of good games and amount of games that we play each month. But this is the month, it's a top five month.
It's uh it's a lot of good games we played this month. I could make like a top 10 team.
I could make a top team here. We did also make a top team games. Uh but we played a lot of games, except for January, which I think was exact the same amount of plays. You will know what number that is soon if you don't stop this and go back to January and see that. Where we did a marathon, where we played 40 different games in three three or four days. So, this has been a great month of gaming. We played
Surprisingly, because it's July, it's summer in Norway. We've been spending one week at the cabin. That was We played some games there.
a lot of games there, which
But I was thinking, oh, it's before I saw like what we played. I kind of forget. And I was just like, have we even played any games? Because like I felt like we just did a video from last So, time has been going by so fast.
But it feels You're saying that, but also some of the games we played in the beginning of the month feels so long ago.
for sure.
we are excited to dive into this. We're going to start with the stats. In July, 2026, we played 85 plays.
Which is like almost double from July June.
June.
44 in June.
We played 29 different games.
Uh versus 17 in June.
We played 18 new to us games.
Which is a huge improvement from the four different like four new to us in June.
We played 68 hours of board games.
Versus 49 in June.
Yes, it was a a bigger month.
Yeah.
Bigger is always better, but we had a lot of fun, which is the most important thing. But the most important thing other than having fun is winning. You know, winning is like it's not really, but it's a thing.
win it.
We're in it to win it. And this month, and base I checked it out. Sometimes I play some games without you. This time I think I played two games that you weren't in. I don't remember which two games those were, but you won how many times?
40.
And I won 44.
fair and square. Good job.
I know those plays were co-op, so it doesn't look like because if you add those up, it seems like we won every single game we played. We didn't, but here is what we did play in July 2026.
We played Bomb Busters.
Codenames Critical Role Adventures.
Lands of Ever Shade.
Drillers.
Time Span.
Flip Seven with a Vengeance.
Triangulation.
Near.
Wildscape.
The Keyper Special Edition.
The Hincks Gazette.
Brushwood.
Ruleta Rusa.
Capsule Collector.
Blank Canvas.
Ashes Blackout Protocol.
Tale to Evil Khan.
Teotihuacan.
Tabannusi.
Tzolkin.
Tzolkin.
Teotihuacan.
Yahtzee.
What?
What?
What? Yes, it's a cabin game. We played it. It was decent. X it's not going to be on the list. Extremes only. Sumida River Town.
The Bark Side.
Flamecraft Duels.
Flip Seven.
Yes, those are the games Anya C that we played this month. With that said, let's go into the things that is a fun with the most fun experience. My most fun experience
it up. I'm usually beginning.
true. Just for fun, I'm starting this month. And my most fun experience was a very easy one. It was playing 20 plus games of Bomb Busters with my parents.
Mhm.
Last year, I was thinking we were going to the cabin with my parents, and I was thinking, "Ah, maybe I should get a game." And I had just played Bomb Busters. I'm like, "Maybe they would like that." And I went and bought it the same day that we went to the cabin, and we played it 25 times or so last year. And then we haven't really gotten to play it more than once during the year in between. So, it was a lot of fun to play it. It's one of those games that they just really like.
Yeah, us, too.
Yeah, yeah, I love the game. I think it's probably my favorite co-op game, but they just They like it to the point where they want to play it every day. So, they enjoy playing games, and they are okay with playing new games that you put in front of them, but it's really fun to have this game where we can play the same game again and again. We can dive deep into it. We can get better. We can be very bad with bad mistakes, but do super cool stuff. We have played There's like 66 scenarios in the game. We are over halfway. I think like we did 36 or something this time. Not like this, but we are at 36, something like that. So, I'm excited to continue playing that, and I think we will actually be able to finish the whole thing. It's been a blast.
Yeah, literally.
Yes. And sometimes not a blast because we won.
Yeah, this could easily be my most fun experience, also.
don't like me or my parents.
I love the game. I love you guys. Um and I I think it's like Bomb Busters really shine when you have one group that you you learn from your mistakes, you get better. Uh but I've chosen another really fun fun game, and that is Extreme's Only
Uh-huh.
Because we cry a lot while playing this game and with our friends. This is a party game.
Yeah, it is from Korea Board Games, Casper Lab. It was a review copy.
And this is a game where one person chooses a category and the other players like suggests things in that category. For example, favorite movie or like movie I had to cry the most to or like music I cry the most like
And also not to be using any of the cards.
Many different categories. What I would do if I became president. Like that all kind of crazy stuff. And then people like suggest things for that category that we think will fit you like you will do that like like that the most or the least. So you want to pick like
The extremes of
Yeah, the extremes. Both the good things and the bad things. You don't want to be in the middle and you come up with like two suggestions first and then the person ranks Yeah, and then person will rank those and then you just like, "Oh, I have for him some information now." And then you suggest more stuff. And it was it was really fun.
It is one of it was it would be like a big surprise as well like because it was a huge surprise how much because often these kind of party games like can be a bit awkward. It's very important you play it with the correct people.
is really group dependent.
Yeah, we will do a short review on that as well as on some other Korea Board Games as well soon. And next up for me is the biggest let down. Boo. Biggest let down for me is Leo's Yachtzee. You know, like I was thinking it was going to be so good like rolling those dice hoping you get randomly the numbers that you think you're going to get and then you just like, "No, I didn't randomly get it so I got no points instead." Very big let down. It wasn't really my let down.
so
But my biggest let down was another pretty random game for me and it was Flamecraft Duels. This was not a very fun game. I really like spatial puzzles, but I like spatial puzzles which doesn't just feel like randomness. In this game you're drawing a card or you have a card in front of you, two of them, and you want to place things. So you're drawing a random tile which you you can't do anything about the tile you draw. You place it and it can do a an ability which might or might not help you to to move pieces around so that you get the information on your cards. It's kind of like a Harmonious, but everyone has the same board and it's just boring.
I wasn't a big fan. I wasn't like let down by it a lot. Like the box looks incredible. So I wished it like the production-wise it's amazing. But so I would wish it was better, but I wasn't a huge fan of Flamecraft. So I was thinking
if they were going in the same like not thinky-ness kind of way.
is more thinky than this. This is very
Absolutely. Uh my biggest let down is a game that I do like very very much.
Okay.
Um but for me this time I was let down by it. It's also because that I didn't do very well at the game. My let down for this month is Tawantinsuyu.
Okay.
And this is like we've done now go check that video out. We ranked all the T games. Something that we wanted to do for a long time. Uh and Tawantinsuyu I thought
Don't spoil where it lands because people might not have seen it.
Uh but
Stop the video, go see it, come back. Welcome back.
I thought I would like it more because like I remember it's so fun and I still do like it, but it was a little disappointing that I didn't like like it so much that I thought I would do, but I still like it.
It is interesting when you get let down with games you already played because you are sometimes you're very hyped about a new game, but then you're like you have these feelings and experiences of the game and it kind of feels different.
Mhm.
And that's also like another interesting experience.
Absolutely.
And we have the biggest surprise. My biggest surprise was Codenames: Critical Role Adventures.
Mhm.
And not because I was thinking it would be bad, but it was surprisingly good. It has a few things in it that I shouldn't like that cooperate cooperation. I'm not a big fan of co-op games and Codenames: Critical Role Adventures, great name, very short, is a fully cooperative version of Codenames. It's a very different version of Codenames. We are going to do a review of it, but it is a like a a more complex with some player powers that you can use. It's not like I have a character, but the the team has a characters. You change who is like the GM because it's a role-playing game based one. There is like some story which was fluff and okay, but it worked in a very well way and for me made Codenames more interesting than normal Codenames.
I agree 100%. This could easily been my biggest surprise also.
going to be your thing probably? This could easily been my number five. This could
on a lot of stuff, but but I agree. Like I didn't think that Codenames well I some kind of games like this. I have Codenames like the app on my phone. I think it's quite addictive and I this game me kind of the same feeling. Just like when we lost the scenario, I'm just like okay, but I I want to go again. And also I like being like the clue giver. So we were role-taking thing on being like the GM having that roles and just like but I don't want to quit now because I want to do that one more time. My biggest surprise though is Triangulation. Triangulation.
Triangulation, yeah.
Uh this is a word game and I think it worked very very well because it is a language independent.
Yeah.
Not a lot of word games are that.
That's true.
Uh so you play in teams.
and the person who is like giving clues can choose a category and then you will be getting three clues. And but the opponents are guessing the first two that's revealed. So, you don't want to give clues that are too easy so that your opponents will guess it, but then your teammate should be able to guess it with all three clues therefore the name triangulation.
That's true.
I was thinking when you read the rules and told told it to me I was like just like how would that even would that sounds first of all super difficult.
Yeah. It is kind of difficult.
Yeah, and it is and also not fun, but it was easier than I thought it would be and also more fun. And yeah, I really liked it.
It's a great game. You said if you choose a category you choose like a name because everything is a everything is a proper name. So, it can be like a character in a movie, a living person.
a category.
A it can be like a brand, stuff like that. To say like it's a bit player independent or player dependent because we tried playing it with my parents. It didn't work at all because most of the things are more like pop culture.
You need some reference points to play it.
If you are a gamer and kind of into pop culture it's going to work, but there's like a lot of I think like if you're American many more things are going to be things that if you even if you're outside of gaming there's a lot of movies and stuff that you might have seen that's not everybody has seen.
But I feel like it's you you could have kind of the same categories or answers in for example trivial pursuit or some quiz game. It feels like kind of a quizy game without being a quiz game.
But you could also just choose like we don't draw any cards. If you're playing it with somebody you could just like choose something that you think people could know what it is. Okay, we're up to the top five games that we played this month. My number five is an upcoming speed release called Nearch. Nearch is a game I don't know how you pronounce it. I'm going to say Nearch, Nearch. It is a game about being a pottery maker or like you're running a pottery workshop. We don't I'm not going to go deep diving into this because we will be having reviews for them as well, but it is really nice, especially the four-player version has so much interaction in like a positive and if you don't like interaction in the four-player game there is quite a lot of it, but not not negative take that the like great positive I'm saying positive interaction. You are doing worker placement trying to evolve your pottery workshop, trying to to make the right pottery, to burn it, and then to maybe decorate it and burn it even more and sell it in this fluctuating market which is very can be very unforgiving in a multiplayer game, but one that I really enjoyed.
Mhm. My number five is Drillers. Drillers surprised me. That could also be a biggest surprise actually. There's a lot of them in this month for me.
There was a lot like really hard to make a top five. I said I couldn't make a top 10. There was so many good games this month.
Drillers just gave me that oh, I want to go again feeling and it's been some time since I played a deck builder that gave me like this amount of joy. I we played it just two players the two of us at the
I would have played it more.
I don't I think it's a great two-player game, but the turns can be pretty lengthy. We've done a review for this also or are going to do.
Yes.
Yes. And so I will not go in huge detail, but like the I was very pleased with how the the deck building parts of this deck building game
A lot of you are like forcing you to watch our other videos. That's like our plan. If you like what we do, you can
subscribe.
Do it. It's free and it it's more helpful than you would ever understand to us in our life. Number four for me is another upcoming game called Time Span. This is another one that we will be covering on the channel. It is a simultaneous a play civilization game where you go from the Stone Age into the future. It's a worker placement game but I do the worker placement stuff on my own board. We're playing cards trying to do stuff in the best way possible. Doing Euro stuff and moving on tracks, getting more workers, more technology, evolving my civilization. But you have like a timeline so there's only going to be four active cards at the same time. Trying to build up your income and trying to do the It's really fun uh resource management puzzle all to do the best and score points which I have been kind of good at but then you are getting more and more efficient and winning.
Yes, that's the way it should be.
Yes. My number four is Teotihuacan and Teotihuacan
Yeah, because we played all of the T games this year. So it was kind of hard.
But but Teotihuacan is a great game. I think it's was so fun playing it again. We played it with the expansion now. We haven't done so before and like
You you you thought it was
I liked the expansion but I didn't like the expansion.
It was yeah, it was a nice addition but I don't feel like the game needs an expansion. I thought it was great as is but it was like overall the T series it was really fun playing those games again and Teotihuacan was one of them.
My number three is another upcoming Spiel game called Wild Scape. It is another one we're going to do a review of but basically it is a action selection game with a Mancala style energy energy revolvement. Like you have a close economy of how much energy you can use for actions and when I use energy for an action or I've chosen this action spot then that energy is going to move around so it's going to change some of that energy other actions have that other players can choose from but there's so many options and so many reasons why you want a specific space. So it's not going to be like I'm always going to go for the most energy. What you're doing is that you're kind of reforesting this area and trying to introduce new or herbivores, primates, predators, and little snakes in there to I don't know why I said like little snakes because they're kind of scary like scary snakes into this area to score victory points for the win.
My number three is Sulkin, another T game. This is also like one play this a lot before. It was fun to revisit. If you're not familiar with Sulkin, it is very unique because it has like like cog system that revolves like Yeah, I don't know even how to Yeah, it revolves.
period
And you're placing on those cogs and when time passes, the the actions get better. So, you want to like see when the timing is best to place workers out or take them back off those cogs to do actions. And it's a really hard game because you want to get points, but instead you spend the game feeding your people.
Getting corn.
Yes.
First time I played it, that's everything I did. And now it is my number of the month.
Aha.
I went from getting corn to it being number two of the month. Sulkin is a really really good game. Obviously, it's one of those like there's so many things that we say. And sometimes we say things I think because my brain is starting to process what I'm trying to say in English. So, I'm just like saying a sentence while my brain is processing and now I don't know what I am. So, Sulkin is great. It's one of those where every time I played it before, I didn't understand the strategies. This time I'm trying I'm almost getting to the point where I understand some strategies, but I was always just like trying to see Oh, I needed to get the corn.
had some serious points business going on.
think I won. Maybe I won. I don't
I think maybe you did.
So, someone one of the players won. That was like one of them actually did win. But, I really like this where it's kind of simple that you're either placing the worker or taking back the workers and you this timing element is what makes this game unique and I think what makes this game still stand out in the ocean of games. It's this and of course it's it's cool with the gimmick of it's actually moving around in the adding to the board.
The cogs that revolves. My number two, Tzolk'in.
My number two is has been in your list already. It's an upcoming release. It's Wildscape. I absolutely liked it for the same reasons you already mentioned. So, check out the video that we're going to have for it.
Yes, my number one is been on this video before as your biggest let down Talisman City. Talisman City is a really really fun game. I highly recommend you go out and check out our T series ranking video to see even more of the reasons why we like these games or not like these games on that list. That's my number one, but it's very weird that you are after me, but now you are. What is your number one?
My number one is a game that also has been talked about in this video. We mentioned that we played it.
Oh.
And also it was your most fun experience and it's a freaking great game. It's Bombabuster.
Boom.
Uh it's been a blast to play it again.
It's exploding fun game play. Re- uh any more bomb jokes? Like
I don't know.
But it was fun.
Yes, it was.
Yes, it was a great game. Don't cut the wrong wire
No.
and be safe out there. Thank you so much for watching. Subscribe to the channel. I'm Johannes.
I'm Sunima.
And this is Sunima and you've been watching Board Gaming Ramblings and I'm Johannes and bye-bye.
Mhm.