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Continuing our 12 part #rainbowboardgames series (created by super Instagrammer @unicorns_and_boardgames) showcasing games featuring certain colours every month, October is all about orange games!
Here at Zatu, orange is obviously the most favourite of all the colours. But as we enter Autumn proper, our own home is adorned with pinecones, pumpkins, and maple leaves. Umber and amber hues are everywhere, and the palpable contrast between crisp days and cosy nights is fast approaching.
To help you bring in the change of seasons, here are 5 top orange games from David and me that put orange at the centre of the games to play in October.
Three Sisters - Favouritefoe
Strategic roll and writes are counted amongst my favourite games, and those based in nature hit even higher. Three Sisters is one of a banging series, and is all about companion planting (pumpkins, beans, and corn). This game is so combotastic that there’s even a small section on one of the two sheets just for notes!
Selecting numbers from the most beautiful orange pumpkin custom dice, you will be pinballing about different parts of your farm, checking off plants, tools, fruits, and more. Each round, you’ll get to plant crops. But then it is down to you to decide what you want to do based on the dice you pick from the wee board of options. Placement optimisation to achieve maximal scoring is the objective. And it’s addictive!
It also has a brilliant solo mode where Farmer Edith comes into your farm to deny you options. No additional sheets or comparison scoring required. The board flips to reveal a solo only side which prescribes where Farmer Edith will target when she visits your farm.
Star Wars Carcassonne - David Ireland
Whoever created this game performed a masterstroke. Combining the beloved game of Carcassonne with Star Wars was an outstanding moment of inspiration. If you are a fan of either then this is a game you need to look out for.
We have Orange meeples!!! The original and other sets do not contain this colour, so it is a lovely little variation. Also, to add to the Star Wars element, the creators include character stickers for attaching to the meeples and Boba Fett is the character getting stuck on the orange meeples. Moving away from the fields and town of Carcassonne in France, you are on a galactic adventure in a galaxy far far away. Some of the Carcassonne principles are similar; you’ll recognise the trading routes as roads and the asteroid fields as city pieces. Then you have the planets of George Lucas’s sci-fi fantasy. Meeples are played in the same way, however, you are no longer sharing points on possible mergers. There can only be one winner. You are battling your opponent for being the outright holder of the scoring item. The loser will take some points away which is also new. There is no sharing in this galaxy.
The major change from the familiar game that fans know and love is the battling. There are also fewer meeples within the set and arguably more limited ways to score. You also have rebel or empire symbols on the board which do mean something in the game and provide bonuses if your character aligns with the symbol printed on the tile. I very much enjoy this set. I’m a huge Carcassonne fan as well as enjoying Star Wars. What is great is this is different to the traditional game. And not just a visual change - there are standalone rules which make it worthy of picking up.!
Ecosystem Savanna - Favouritefoe
Ecosystem Savanna is a close drafting, tableau building, pattern matching, placement optimisation game where players are trying to create the highest scoring Serengeti desert. Third in a series of games that play the same but celebrate different natural environments, this one is all things orange! Each species and feature scores differently and spatially depending on what is placed around them. Sometimes you will want to collect groups, other times you will want to place a unique animal. In some instances, your score will depend on how many/few of a specific feature you have compared to your opponents.
The underlying emphasis of this game is symbiosis and cohesion in what your final ecosystem of 20 cards contains. You will need to balance predators and carnivores with food sources and plant preferring animals. The scoring objectives may seem obscure to start, but as your tableau builds, you will soon see the links between them. This is a celebration of the golden tones of the geographical area, and it has simple but addictive solo mode.
Articulate - David Ireland
Articulate is an awesomely fun party game. It’s great fun with larger groups and it gets surprisingly competitive very quickly. The concept is simple, complete a lap of the board first.
The game is advised from 4 to 20 people and has to be played in groups. So if you take the minimum of 4 players it is 2 groups of 2. Place your counters on the board. The board is made up of categories including Orange which relate to word connected with Getting Away
Teams start in the same category and a member of the team rolls the dice. This comes up with a number which is your bonus target for the turn (not a typical d6). Then one member of the team has to take the category cards and describe the word associated with your category colour, without using the word printed. Your team has to guess what is being described, if they get it, move on to another card and keep going to try to score as many as you can in the time allowed. Move your counter on this many spaces as correct guesses are made which will likely lead to a new category in the following turn. If you achieve your bonus score then 2 more points of movement allowed.
This game is hilarious. Trying to watch someone describe what a cable is, for example, without saying cable is hilarious. The time pressure creates an added stress also. Equally, if your team just doesn't know what you are describing, this is perhaps even more frustrating when you know you have given some great clues associated with the word on the card. This is a great fun, very easy to play party game that is always good to bring out to the table top on an evening. It is one that will remain ever present in our collection as it is highly suited to people that are not serious board gamers.
For Northwood - Favouritefoe
Get ready for a festival of cute and clever. If you haven’t heard of it, For Northwood is a gorgeously illustrated solo only trick taking game. Yes, you read that correctly. Solo only. Trick Taking. I know it shouldn’t work but it does.
In the game you are trying to get leading Fiefs from different woodland clans to start speaking to each other. The survival of all the animals in Northwood depends upon the allegiance forming! But you aren’t doing it alone. Each game you’ll get 4 allies with special abilities that can be used to manipulate card draws each round. Being an ally is pretty exhausting though, so if you win the number of tricks that each Fief demands, you’ll gain another ability to interchange with your base powers.
The main mechanism in For Northwood is hand management. In usual trick taking way, you need to beat the number and/or suit of the card flipped over to win a trick. But this isn’t Pokemon - you won’t want to win them all! Why? Well, because each Fief needs a specific number of tricks from 0 – 7. So knowing which card to play when in order to win or lose at the perfect time is essential. It’s brilliant and addictive, and if you are a solo gamer (or are thinking of playing games solo) I would highly recommend it.
So that’s it for orange games season! We hope your welcome to Autumn games fest is fruitful and fun!
