February 2026 Gaming

I thought February was going to be a big month for games, with two days of a convention at the end of the month of on top of our normal gaming.

Sadly, me getting sick for over a week eliminated one Sunday along with a number of lunch-time gaming opportunities, which meant it was pretty much the same as last month.

Which isn’t bad!

Even better is that while there were only two new to me games played (so that post will be short), there were a number of games I haven’t played for a long while on the list.

So I’ll talk about them a little bit here!

Here’s what I played last month.

And here it is in grid format.

Many thanks to the wonderful BG Stats app for this valuable data!

I played 19 games (20 last month) a total of 33 times (29 last time).

Of course, the reason for more plays is because of a 5-game marathon of The Gang at Bottoscon Winter, which I’ll talk about in that post.

Still, not too bad!

Here are some highlights.

First, SETI continues to be on a roll, with three plays this month and four overall, in just the first two months of the year!

Part of that is because of the new Space Agencies expansion that came out recently, which I’ve already played with twice and it makes an already great game so much better.

Similar to Ark Nova and Marine Worlds.

While that’s a big highlight, it’s not based on older games.

Instead, there were multiple games that I haven’t played in years that managed to hit the table this month.

Almost a record!

Granted, I have played a few of them online since then, but I don’t count asynchronous plays so it’s still valid.

Let’s start with Eldritch Horror, a game I haven’t played since 2023.

It’s a game that takes some…effort, I would say…to get to the table because it is such a monster to set up and then so punishing that it almost doesn’t feel worth the effort.

One of my friends literally refuses to play it. Another one did too, at least before, but he reluctantly agreed to play it this last weekend.

It’s a game that I can play every couple of years and be happy with.

So I’m good to 2029!

Another 2023 entry that finally got played again was Earth, a phenomenal tableau-building card game which overwhelms some people so they hate it with a passion.

And I get it.

There is a lot of stuff, with all of the card effects on your tableau, on your board, and then trying to keep in mind the Fauna goals and all of that.

If the table’s big enough, you sometimes have to work hard to even see the Fauna goals.

So I get that some people would hate it, or just prefer to play it on Boardgame Arena.

For me, though, I love it, and I find myself doing a lot of scrolling back and forth on Boardgame Arena, so I would never want to play it live.

Even asynchronous, it can be a bit annoying.

Let’s go back even deeper, to 2022, and Fort.

It was April 2022 the last time I played this game, and it was only my second play so I couldn’t review it.

I was happy to get a third one played so I could do that, and it revitalized my desire to play this a bit more and see if my opinion on it stays the same.

And to use the two mini-expansions I have!

Let’s go further back into the vault.

The last time I played Tokaido was in 2021, almost 5 years ago!

A new co-worker who plays some games has it, though, so she brought it and we broke it out in February.

I do really love the “player in the book moves to any space they want, but they won’t get to move again until they’re behind everybody again” mechanic.

It plays 5 players really well, except the board is really tight. You have to really know what you’re going for.

This was a hit for a few other co-workers who haven’t played that many games, and I really enjoyed it too.

It will never be near my Top 50, but it’s still so cool.

Then there were a couple of games where the last play was in 2024, so not quite that ancient.

Roll for the Galaxy is a tile-laying, tableau-building dice game which is always kind of interesting.

You’re trying to build developments and settle planets by rolling dice secretly and choosing the action you want to do, hoping that others choose an action that your other dice match so you can do those actions as well.

It’s fairly light, but the rules can be complicated to pick up at first.

It still plays in just over an hour (probably a lot less if everybody knows the game) and I enjoy it for what it is.

Finally, there’s Cape May, which is kind of a cheat to say “2024,” as I played it on December 29, 2024.

But it’s still 2024!

Sadly, I didn’t take a picture, so this one is from a while back.

I really enjoy this one and it was nice to get it to the table again.

I somehow managed a bird strategy that almost won the game!

But not quite.

Even with all of that, you know what the real highlight of the month was for me?

Yes, I finally got to play Combat Commander on the table.

Yes, I have the 20th Anniversary Edition (as mentioned Friday night) and on Saturday morning, I actually got a scenario played with somebody at the con!

I have loved this game for so long, and my monthly plays on the Ladder, but I’ve been longing to get this to the table and I finally managed it.

I played a scenario I’ve played before, with attacking British troops against some conscript Germans.

Sadly, I didn’t pull it out, but you know what I did pull out?

(No! Get your mind out of the gutter).

I pulled out my own cards.

I didn’t click a button to draw them.

I drew my own.

I read the cards and had to make sure I noticed that there was an event or a sniper because there was no convenient sound effect.

I did hear them in my head. You know I did.

I was in heaven all of Saturday morning, even as we scrambled to find counters because of my organizing system and just how many fucking counters there are on this game.

It was still heaven, though.

Of course, I had my monthly ladder game as well, and it ended in a victory, so I was happy about that.

I enjoyed all of my plays this month, but it’s so rare that I have so many highlights, so this is going a bit long.

What did you play in February that wasn’t new to you?

Let me know in the comments.