Games, kittens and paintings by great painters

As always in this weekly column, I dive for you into the world of board games with the eye of a consumer who is discovering and exploring this pastime. I tested the French versions of the games below before recommending them to you. They are often easy to find in specialized stores in the province, in store or online.

Art Society

• 2 to 4 players
• 10 years and over
• Intermediate level
• 40 to 60 minutes
• 65 $

In Art Societyyou play the role of a fine art connoisseur who aims to impress the gallery with the sublime collection of valuable paintings hanging on your wall. To get there, you must first win the coveted paintings at auction.

The auction is quick and simple. Each round, you select paintings to put up for sale then bid secretly to win the prize.

The soul ofArt Society However, there remains the delicious puzzle of arranging the paintings on your wall. Carefully fill the available space in your chic living room, keep away pictorial genres that are too similar to avoid errors of taste, place your works in clear view… and score points for the prestige of your arrangement.

As if its delightful theme wasn’t enough, this competitive game is also one of the most flirtatious. This real gem is one of my great pleasures of the year. It’s also a great challenge to dip your toe – or paintbrush – into this category of games for beginners.

*****

Boop

• 2 players
• 10 years and over
• Beginner level
• 15 to 30 minutes
• 40 $

Who would have thought that a war between cats for dominance over a comforter would be both adorable and fraught with tension? Designed for two players, the excellent Boop challenges you to line up three cats on the padded box to win.

However, each wooden kite – first small, then large – placed on the gridded cover pushes its immediate neighbors back one square (that’s what the boop). What follows is a joyful, fast, intense and sometimes chaotic brawl. A fusion of checkers and tic-tac-toe, in a full contact formula, much trickier than one would have thought.

In a year where brilliant dueling games compete, the cute Boop pulls out the claws beautifully. I highly recommend it for all types of gamers, including families!

*****

Looot

• 2 to 45 players
• 10 years and over
• Intermediate level
• 30 to 45 minutes
• 40 $

It is by plundering that you become a plunderer. But it is through the meticulous progression of your rampages that you will become the smartest and richest of the Vikings.

Competitive title with a nice look, Looot invites you to invade buildings and steal the riches of an abandoned territory. Each of the squares you step on and loot along the way provides a tile to place on your personal board. This is how you gather resources, accomplish objectives and score points.

Not too quickly: you must, however, advance one figure after the other, maintaining a continuous chain between the longships at sea and the pawns in line, almost in single file. There lies the strategy of Loootall in all light: moving forward gives the advantage of choice, but leaves access to attractive options for your opponents. There’s no point in running, you have to score points!

*****

Terres de Yokai

• 2 players
• 10 years and over
• Beginner level
• 15 to 20 minutes
• 20 $

In Japanese mythology, a yokai is an elusive and mysterious woodland spirit. The game for two players Terres de Yokai invites you to sketch portraits of these curious creatures.

To get there, you play cards on your side of the coveted central cards to win the majority and score points. Luckily, skills sometimes allow you to disrupt the layout of your opponent’s cards to your advantage… but the opposite is also true.

Rich in chance, Terres de Yokai is a pleasant face-to-face, calm although rhythmic, in which you can quickly start and continue the games.

*****

Backstories: alone under the ice

• 1 to 6 players
• 10 years and over
• Beginner-intermediate level
• 45 to 75 minutes
• 22 $

Investigation games like Chronicles of Crime make good use of “techno” applications. Others — like Backstories — prefer the good old methods. Here, the edition Alone under the ice of this exploration and adventure puzzle uses punch cards to reveal or hide actions, objects and information.

It’s an investigation after all, one in which you interview witnesses and search the surrounding area to find your brother, who disappeared at the top of Mont Blanc while searching for treasure. To tell you more would be to spoil the pleasure of discovering this investigation “in which you are the hero” which resembles a point-and-click video game…

Which board game themes surprised you the most? Tell us which ones in the comments section below.

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Notes: these games were provided free of charge for our tests by the distributor Randolph, who neither received nor exercised any right to review the content of this journalistic article. Retail prices shown apply to French or multilingual versions.