Favouritefoe
Apologies to those tracing this series’ colours in the sky – April’s blues and May’s browns didn’t show themselves. But we are more than making up for it with a resplendent rainbow coloured June which is also perfect for celebrating Pride month!
And who doesn’t love games that showcase all the shades? Here at Zatu, whilst we may be orange at our core, nothing makes us smile more than seeing a feast of favourite hues spread out over our tables. So here are 5 games to make your eyes water (in the best possible way!)
Mantis – Favouritefoe
From the Exploding Kittens team comes MANTIS; a cornucopia of quick, colourful card play! And there are only two rules; steal or score. Players take it in turns to draw the top card off the deck. The back of each card shows a rainbow plus 3 colours (including unique symbols) whereas the fronts show a Mantis Shrimp in one of those same colours. Without looking at the front, the active player chooses whether to score one of those 3 colours or steal a card from an opponent.
To score, the colour on the card(s) must match a suit already present in your collection. Then all those cards get flipped over to the rainbow side and placed underneath your collection. If you lucked out, the card is added to your active collection for future scoring (or stealing!).To steal a card, the colour must match cards in your opponent’s collection. When you get a match, you get to add those cards to your own collection. But when it doesn’t, that opponent gets to keep that card for themselves.
MANTIS is a super easy to learn, fast playing, fun card game for all ages. If you like quick push your luck games with masses of player interaction that are an absolute feat for the eye, this is a game for you!
Candy Lab David Ireland
I was treated to playing Candy Lab at this year’s UKGE (amongst many other games) and really enjoyed learning this very simple and highly entertaining game. A game for 2-4 players, you play the role of a confectioner and are busy in the factory boxing up the prized candy seeking to be the master confectioner.
To play, the candy bars are laid along the middle of the playing area randomly, looking like a translucent rainbow, and all have a score printed on them as well as an action symbol. Players are also dealt a hand of cards to use to produce the candies and score further points. The cards have candy orders on them, and this is how you pick the candies up from the middle as the order has to align with what is available. When you have picked them up you can play your candy actions as well. It is a combination of drawing cards, asking your opponent to discard, swapping hands, and more. The game ends when all candies are collected or cards played. The player with the most points on their candies and cards takes victory.
It was a lot of fun playing CANDY LAB and is definitely one of those games that you want to play again straight away when you fully understand what you are doing. It also plays quickly and there is a very nice competitive balance in the game drawing people into each and every play. I’m certainly sweet on CANDY LAB!
Calico – Favouritefoe
It’s not quite Joesph and his Technicolour Dreamcoat, but the rainbow of colours on display in Calico makes it a worthy addition to the list. And with rainbow buttons up for grabs, we would drop a stitch if we missed it off!
An abstract, tile laying, strategic spatial puzzle, players are trying to create beautiful quilts that will entice the fussiest of cats to bed down. Each turn, you draw a tile from the market and place one of the two tiles from your hand into your dual layered quilt board. Every game has three specific scoring objectives based upon the patterns and colours of the tiles placed around them. You can also earn bonus point scoring coloured buttons if you co-ordinate your quilt well! Getting one of every colour boosts your points even more with a rainbow button for you to proudly display.
If you’re feeling warm and welcoming, you can play and win Calico by focussing on your own board. If you like scrapping like an alley cat, however, then you can hate draft your opponent back under their own blankets! There’s a super effective solo mode and the campaign included in the rule book provides a great way to cover a lot of possible combinations of objectives. Calico is a colourful, puzzly prize indeed!
Ticket to Ride Europe – David Ireland
Unbelievably, I’ve only just played Ticket To Ride Europe for the first time at UKGE 2025. I’m most disappointed with myself that it has taken until now to have my first game for it is absolutely incredible. I totally loved the experience!
The board is a big map of Europe, and very much a necessary size with all the train pieces available to each player. I played it as a 2 player game but it’s a game for 2-4 people. The task is very simple, create as many train routes as possible to get the biggest score to win. These routes are made up of different colours; blues, orange, yellow, red….pretty much all the colours of the rainbow. And the longer the route, the better the score. You create routes between major European cities through drawing cards from the train deck and compiling enough of the same engine colour to exchange them for carriages to build a train route. Players start with a hand of 5 cards and there is no hand limit. Players can either draw cards on their turn or play cards to complete a route. Your route cards are secret until the end but will score a lot of points for if you manage to create the complete route between cities (nb: you will lose a lot of points if you don’t!). Stations are also available for construction to help you out as well.
I don’t always get games quickly, but this one was very simple and the depth of strategy in the game and puzzling your way through to plan your train routes is amazing. I really enjoyed it and will play this again. One of the joys of UKGE is getting to play new games and this game was one of my Expo highlights. It is very much on my wish list going forward.
Red Rising – Favouritefoe
Red Rising is based on the young adult book series by Pierce Brown and the factions within it are a dazzling display of colours. Combining hand management, open drafting, and deck building; this game is great in both multiplayer and solo mode.
Your goal is to create the most symbiotic group of followers whose special powers will propel you to political primacy. And over the course of the game, it will become clear which characters work well with others and which clash like MPs on budget day! But there is also an ongoing race to gain achievements throughout the game before the alternative triggers that end the game are satisfied. With so many cards and possible combinations, Red Rising will bring different rainbow of colourful character opportunities to the table every time you play.
So there we have it – games of different colours to suit different gamers! In the month where we spotlight celebrating diversity (although really that should be every month!), enjoy a cornucopia of colourful gaming fun, whatever your passion and whatever your preference!
Stay tuned for July and some fab yellow games!
