June 2026 Gaming

Happy Canada Day!

June was a weird month for gaming.

It had a full convention, a 3-day weekend of wonderful gaming with friends as well new acquintances.

However, that convention was full of long plays so the number of games played wasn’t as high as it has been in previous convention months.

That’s not a bad thing!

It just means the numbers aren’t as high.

Add to that Father’s Day where we didn’t game at all (though I did get a Final Girl game in!) and work weeks that didn’t have a lot of games for various reasons, and you’ve got a relatively normal month of games instead of the usual convention bonanza.

Not that I’m complaining, because the month was fabulous from a gaming standpoint.

Overall, I played 25 games a total of 39 times (down from 30 games 44 times last month).

Of course, Final Girl led the way again (will I play it this often when I am finished reviewing the films? I hope so), with no other games getting more than 2 plays.

Here’s the list of games I played in June.

And here it is in grid format.

Many thanks to the incredible Boardgame Stats app for this beautiful summary!

Don’t forget that you can click/tap on a picture to blow it up.

Also, any new to me games played this month will show up in my post next week.

Let’s get to the highlights, as I did manage to get a few games that I haven’t played in a while under my belt.

The first game I wanted to mention was Surfosaurus MAX, which I hadn’t played in a couple of years before playing it twice on our Sunday game day.

Of course, with such a simple game and now three plays under my belt, it was time to review it (linked above) so I won’t talk about it much here.

The biggest jump between my previous play and this one, though was Trickerion.

I last played that (and my only play) in 2016.

That’s 10 freakin’ years!

As I mentioned in my Bottoscon post, my first exposure to it was a 2-player game taught by somebody who had just bought it and had never really played it.

The play dragged really long and I still didn’t really understand it.

I had no desire to play it again.

But so many people I respect love this game (including many of the Heavy Cardboard crew) that I had to try it again with a better teach and a better frame of mind.

Thanks, Shri, for teaching me this game so that I now not only know how to play it, but that I would really like to try it again!

This is a game where players are magicians trying to learn and perform magic tricks on stage in order to get the most prestige.

It seems like a weird theme, but it really works!

Another game where it’s been a long while since it’s hit the table is Quacks of Quedlinberg (now just called Quacks).

It’s been 2020 for that one, at Dice Tower West right before COVID hit.

This is a really fun push your luck game of pulling chits out of a bag, and hoping not to get too high on the “useless chit” meter.

I’m not sure why it’s been so long for this one. It’s been on offer a couple of times but we’ve always opted for something else.

Until this month, anyway.

Not quite so far back, but a fair bit, is a game we just played last Sunday.

Tiny Epic Galaxies hasn’t made it to the table since 2023.

This is a dice game where you are building up your home galaxy and colonizing planets, all in an attempt to get to 21 points.

I love how you can spend Culture points in order to follow somebody else’s actions, which can help you stay ahead as well.

I’m going to be reviewing this sometime soon, so I’ll leave the rest of the description for that.

But I do like it!

Not love it, but like it.

I know this may be hard to believe.

You might want to sit down for this, just to make sure you don’t keel over.

Until this month, I haven’t played Paladins of the West Kingdom since 2024.

Almost two years! (That play was in November 2024).

I know, right? That’s almost unheard of for a Garphill game.

I did discover that I kind of missed it, though its drop out of my Top 50 is still understandable, even after the most recent play.

I’m glad I got it played.

The funny thing was that we included the expansion and I literally was the only player to ever use any aspect of it (other than the new Paladins themselves, at least).

I lost, so what does that say? (Ok, I came in 2nd, but still…that’s a loss).

A couple of games, it was just the first time this year that I’ve played it, but they were still played last year.

I love Heat: Pedal to the Metal even though I am so terrible at it.

I always seem to start out well and I’m close to the lead as we’re going through the twisty turns.

But inevitably coming out of the final turn or two, I have no Heat to use for cornering or bursting and it’s almost like I put my brakes on before getting to the finish line, having everybody pull ahead of me.

It’s still fun and I’ll never say no to it.

A second game where it’s been a year since my last play is Scholars of the South Tigris.

This game is still firmly in my Top 10 and this play didn’t change that at all.

I love the game and love the expansion for it as well.

My last play of it was in July, so almost a full year.

I’ve missed you!

Of course, there was my monthly Combat Commander game where I almost literally had no chance to win (bad breaks but mostly the fact that the Americans can’t afford any bad breaks and need some good ones) but it was still a hoot to play.

Even when you’re losing, that game is the best.

What all did you play in June that you’ve already played before?

Let me know in the comments.