March is here, its time again for each of us at Open Seat Gaming to share our Top 10 games.

10. Chimera Station This game is a very creative take on the worker placement genre of games. Everyone has their group of worker aliens that they are trying to use around the ever changing space station to gain victory points, feed their workers, gain money, and obtain more genes to splice into their workforce. The genes you are splicing give you different powers depending on the type of part and if your worker has doubled up on that part. You have brains (purple), claws (red), tentacles (yellow), and leaves (green). There are so many options you have in this game, like how you build your alien workforce, which resource to go after, and different modules of the space station that you and your competitors are building.

9. Bosk – We received this game last year at Origins as a review copy, and the Origins before had played Bosk in a relatively polished prototype form. Bosk is a unique entry into the area control genre of games where you are trying to gain points over four seasons. And, you’re in a forest at a National Park! How cool of a theme is that? You gain points by having your trees and leaves in the different rows and columns of the board. The art and presentation of the game give me a sense of calming zen, and the area control game play is clever and competitive. Nature themes always pique my interest, but Bosk completely stole my heart.

8. Glen More II: Chronicles – According to the developers, Glen More II is a third the core original game play, a third improvements to the base game, and a third expansion content. It is a an amazing revamping of Matthias Cramer’s original Glen More, which was out of print for several years. The original Glen More was a clever game of puzzly tile placement goodness. The improvements made to the game include a second board, called the clan board, where you can claim one time benefits or bonus endgame scoring opportunities. The modular expansions bring different elements to the base game and can be combined with one another in different ways. Glen More II: Chronicles is a lovingly made revamp of the original game.

7. World’s Fair 1893 – J. Alex Kevern’s oft overlooked gem is among my favorite games for several reasons. First, its unique theme and how it ties the theme into its gameplay. The historical theming of this area influence game is the titular Worlds’ Fair of 1893, which took place in Chicago and featured the debut of the Ferris Wheel. The Ferris Wheel provides a track for the rondel that keeps track of time in the game. If you take tickets that depict different features of the World’s Fair from the area where you place your influence cube, the round moves one space forward on the Ferris Wheel per how many tickets were taken. Second, the cards feature different period pictures and wonderful historical illustrations of things that were featured and people who were prominent during the Fair. Finally, the gameplay is deceptively thinky. You place a cube in one of five areas and take the cards displayed in that area. If you want to make the game go faster, you may want to place your cube where there are multiple tickets, if you want to be able to manipulate the location of cubes on the board you may select the people cards, and if you are looking to make your sets of exhibits worth more you may want to select mostly exhibit cards. 

6. Wingspan – Many, many things have been said about this remarkable game, all three of the meeples of Open Seat Gaming gave our opinion of the game in June of 2019 in our review. I love that Wingspan is a deceptively clear game to learn and teach, but has nuances to its card play that really make a difference. It has a clean design with an excellent engine building flow that makes you want to come back to play it again and again. The theme is magnificent and the exquisite art is alluring even to people who are novice players. Wingspan is a purely elegant game.

Tomorrow, I’ll be back to share my 5 to 1!

Game On!
Sarah