I played physical board games 9 times last month, which is more than I used to play, but not as much as I wanted to! Several were old favorites (Wyrmspan, 7 Wonders, Azul, and Carcassonne) and two were new-to-me.
Earth is a game that was described to me as Wingspan meets Cascadia, which are two games I really enjoy. I would add that there are elements of Sagrada in that you are using the cards to make a grid, and how that grid is laid out can generate more victory points. It’s also very pretty, and I find that I particularly enjoy nature-themed games. I picked up on aspects of the strategy fairly early, and I had some lucky draws to start with, so by the end, I was only two points behind the experienced player (who won the game). This is one I’m definitely looking to add to my collection.
Along that line, the other new-to-me game I played last month was Harmonies. In this game, you are drafting animal cards that have particular patterns of habitats required to attract them. You are also drafting randomly selected sets of them (kind of like Azul tiles on the factory floor) to place on your board to create those patterns. There are some additional patterns/placements that will result in end of game victory points, so strategy involves thinking about how to re-use habitat elements and also set things up to include those victory points. There’s enough complexity to make this very re-playable, and there’s an advanced element that we didn’t get into with this being my first (and subsequently second) time playing the game. I would probably want to own this game if my friends I played with were likely to be less frequent gaming companions, but for now I’ll look forward to playing it with them again.