I’m continuing my slow walk through the alphabet, looking at a few faves for each letter. Next up is O.
Overbooked
In Overbooked, players are trying to pack as many people on their plane as they can, while following a few rules for how the people want to be seated. Each turn, the player will choose a card from a line-up, where the first card is free, but if they want the next card in line, they’ll need to put a meal kit on it (a resource everyone starts with). The card will define which passengers they must take and the configuration in which they’ll need to be sat. At the end of the game, players will get points based on each customer group: kids must be surrounded, lovers must be in groups of exactly two, and the rugby players, friends, and senior citizens want to be in large groups. But be careful, passengers that can’t be seated will be put on the airplane steps, which can add up to a lot of negative points.
I really enjoy a good puzzle game, and Overbooked certainly delivers. I especially like playing with the advanced rules, where some of the passenger cards have powers that allow you to break some of the placement rules or gain extra points. And the art on the planes and customer tiles put this one over the top for me.
O Zoo li Mio
O Zoo li Mio has players building up their zoo, trying to complete loops of paths, connect together types similar types of animals, and give their customers a lush, tree-filled landscape. The game is place over five rounds, where players will bid on the five available tiles one at a time. Whoever wins the tile immediately adds it to their zoo. As they add tiles, they check for completed path loops, which will get them a bench. They also check for majorities of trees and groups of the same color stars (representing similar types of animals or habitats). At the end of each year, players score points for each wooden piece in their park — benches, meeples of the different star colors, and trees — and get income equal to the number of tiles they have. And of course, most points at the end is declared the best zoo.
True confession: I usually hate bidding in games, but this is one of the few where I don’t mind it. Here you have a single, secret bid that all players reveal at the same time, which is much better to me than the around the table bidding. But also, building up your park and adding the wooden benches, trees and visitors just makes this game feel so satisfying by the end. You feel like you’ve built up something cool (because you have!).
Oceanos
Oceanos is a drafting game where players are using cards to collect sea life, explore forests of coral, grab treasure, and upgrade their submarine. The game is played over three rounds, with each round representing going deeper into the ocean. At the end of each round, whoever played the most kraken eyes will take a penalty. Throughout, players will upgrade their submarines to hold more animals, carry more divers, draw more cards each round, or just get some straight-up points each round.
I really enjoy the drafting mechanism in Oceanos, where each round there’s a captain who deals cards to the other players, and then the captain gets the rejected cards from everyone else. The cool thing about this is that sometimes when you’re the captain, you get more cards to choose from than you normally would. Plus when you aren’t the captain, you are quite aware of what you’re giving them. The other thing I absolutely love about this game are the submarines. There are several segments that fit together like puzzle pieces, and when you upgrade your submarine, you swap out those pieces for the upgraded versions. This quickly became one of our most-played games.
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What are your favorite games that start with the letter “letter”? Or is there one from my list that you love or are hoping to try? Let me know in the comments!