Top 5 White Games for January

Wow! A New year and 12 months of gaming opportunities await. Last year’s loss statistics wiped away. So what better way to celebrate a cardboard clean slate than with a new #rainbowboardgames (created by super Instagrammer @unicorns_and_boardgames) showcasing games featuring certain colours every month. And as it is January, we are all about the absence of colour……white!

Here at Zatu, we are looking forward to a whole year of great gaming, and so to help you kickstart your 2025, here are 5 top game suggestions from David and me that put white at the centre of the games to play in January

The White Castle: Favouritefoe

The White Castle is a brilliant euro style worker placement, dice placement and resource management game set in Himeji Castle, Japan. It follows another excellent small box, big game offering from Devir (the Red Cathedral), and we love it! Just 9 turns in total, but what a decision cloud that creates! Each spot in and around the Castle represents a cornucopia of options, thinking, bonuses, and delicious dilemmas. And the dice you place there determines not only the cost but also what you get to do there. The sweetest moment is when you place a worker and it causes a cascade of actions, converting one move into multiple goodies. The best (worst?!) part is realising that the one action you choose means that you do not get to do the other things that would otherwise be available. And that brings a brilliant internal tension to the gameplay.

The components are also lovely and they have packed the wee box full of them. So much that it can be a struggle to get them all back in! Working perfectly at every player count (the solo mode is tantalisingly tricky!), the White Castle is one of our favourite games to play in under an hour. And if you enjoy The White Castle, check out the new expansion, Matcha, which brings more turns and more opportunities to go combo crazy!

Hey That’s My Fish: David Ireland

When I’m thinking of white games, for some reason my mind goes straight towards the cold, snow and ice. It’s an odd default, or maybe just at the time of writing the UK is about to be hit hard by a cold/snow front. Hey, that’s my fish, is set on a frozen icy lake where you as the players have to collect as many of the 100 fish available as possible.

The game is for 2 to 4 players, and how many players affects the amount of starting penguins you have to collect these fish. Players take turns to place their penguins on to the board on the single fish hex tiles. Play is simple; a penguin can move in any of the 6 directions in straight lines, as far as is available, but other penguins block the way. Once the player has moved the penguin, they take the tile off the board that the penguin started on and add to their collection for scoring. Gaps in the ice sheet also block movement of penguins in subsequent turns. The game is rapid. Once all the tiles are taken up the game is done. Then you count up the total fish collected in your pool, and the top scorer is the winner.

This is fun game suitable for most ages. There is a strong strategy element to the game with a real cat and mouse element as you try to outwit your opponents and maximise your scoring potential. If you can cut off your opponents’ penguins, you can hinder their games severely, which is also highly amusing for you. Perhaps not when it happens to you, of course! All in this is a game full of fun that plays very quickly and ultimately is very cool.

Legends of Andor: The Eternal Frost: Favouritefoe

Andor is a legend. Not just because it is printed on the box, but because the series of games are known for their quality play. And The Eternal Frost is a co-operative offering which throws players into a crisp, white, icy tundra with the mission to find out why everywhere is suffering a serious case of the freezies!

For 2- 4 players, it combines area movement and a whole heap of dice rolling to get your characters exploring and facing dangers hidden in the snow. Decisions will be made based on where you will go and what you will find when you get there. There’s also a double sided board and multiple scenarios to play through. Luckily, the first scenario is a pure teaching aid so anybody unfamiliar with the process will be able to understand how the game works before heading into one of the tricker adventures. It also means you can skip reading a rulebook cover to cover! But, being Andor, nothing becomes frustratingly complicated. Designed for family/mixed groups in mind, the action ramps up in the final two scenarios by which time you’ll all be experts in the mechanisms and processes. If you are looking for a co-operative game that will immerse you and your fellow frost fighters, then this one could be for you!

Blokus: David Ireland

On first view of the game, it just does not look as good as it is. A game utilising the classic colours of blue, red, green and yellow on a white board. It is so simple looking and yet it really tests the problem solving area of the brain as you try and place as many of your tiles as possible on a board that rapidly runs out of space.

Blokus is quite an old game now, having been created in 2000. But it will be one of those games that never dates and, if it isn’t already, it’s a classic game. It’s a 2-4 player game but I would say in reality it’s best as a 4 player game. If you want to play 2 players, pick up Blokus Duo.

To play, each player takes a colour which is 21 Tetris like pieces made of 1 – 5 squares. Players play their first piece in a corner of the board and then on subsequent turns can play where they want. However, your subsequent tiles have to be played corner to corner, your new piece to one of your existing pieces in play. No Horizontal or vertical connections allowed. If you are unable to play corner to corner then your game is over and you must wait for the others to finish. If players play all their tiles, they win outright. If nobody can place then you then count the remaining squares (not tiles) that you have left and lowest total is the winner.

This is another game suitable for pretty much anyone. We love it in our household and it is one of those games that just gets more and more competitive on every outing to the tabletop.

Micro Macro Crime City: Favouritefoe

Where’s Wally meets Cluedo? Or should that be Clouseau? Micro Macro City is a co-operative deduction game where you need to spot clues hidden in the gigantic doodle-drawn map to solve the crime that has been committed! With 16 individual cases to solve, you’ll be scouring the map for hours! No detail is too small or too random to be a potential hint to determine whodunnit.

With a huge city map (75cm x 110cm) to scour, you’ll be pleased to know there is a magnifying glass included in the box as some of the details are super small. Blink and you could miss something important though so don’t discount anything you spy! Being criminal in nature, there’s a guide to help determine which scenarios will be suitable for the group you are playing with (in terms of age, difficulty level, and content), so there should be something for everyone age 12+

Just like jigsaws where you promise to stop after finding one more piece, Micro Macro City draws you in and doesn’t let go. One more look…..one more clue……..you’ll still be there with your magnifying glass long after you should have packed it away! And with more cases available (Full House, Bonus Box, All In, Showdown, and Funfair), there are plenty of mysteries to keep you hunting around in Micro Macro City! After solving everything, you could also embark on a huge colouring in exercise…… and who knows, you may even spot super fun details you missed first time!

So that’s it for the first month of 2025. A whole month of fresh and exciting gaming opportunities for you to enjoy! We hope these recommendations set the scene for a brilliant year of playing new and well-loved titles!