Hidden Gems : Games You’ve Never Heard Of

Do you have a game in your collection that you wish more people knew about? What games would you love to get to the table but your crowd has never heard of it? Is there a game that’s out of print these days that you wish would get a revival? Here’s a list of a few of those hidden gems… how many are you familiar with?

Chimera Station

Chimera Station brings a new twist to the worker placement genre: customizable workers. Each worker can be modified in-game by splicing claws, tentacles, leaves or additional brains (or any combination of those) on them. These workers are used to gather resources: points, food, credits, and living parts of aforementioned workers! During the game you’ll build and expand the space station and open up tons of different strategic and tactical possibilities. Featuring a grand total of 12 standard action spaces and 40 additional ones (modules), 22 perks, 16 different ways to configure your aliens (via components), and 4 different races, the possibilities are endless!

Modern Art

Buying and selling paintings can be a very lucrative business. Five different artists have produced a bunch of paintings, and it’s the player’s task to be both the buyer and the seller, hopefully making a profit in both roles. He does this by putting a painting from his hand up for auction each turn. He gets the money if some other player buys it, but must pay the bank if he buys it for himself. After each round, paintings are valued by the number of paintings of that type that were sold. The broker with the most cash after four rounds is the winner.

The Bloody Inn

France 1831: In a remote corner of Ardèche, the little village of Peyrebeille sees numerous travelers pass through. A family of greedy rural farmers is determined to make its fortune and has devised a diabolical stratagem to achieve this goal: Invest in an inn so they can rob traveling guests, getting rich without arousing the suspicions of the police! Whether or not their plan will work out, one thing is certain: Not every guest will leave this inn alive.

Himalaya

As the chief of a Himalayan tribe—Dolpo-pa, Bhotia, Sherpa, or Tamang—you lead a yak caravan across snowy passes to gather goods vital to your tribe’s growth. Along the way, you’ll build religious, political, and economic influence through trade, offerings, and negotiations. Players program six movements in advance, trying to outmaneuver opponents while collecting and delivering goods like salt, tea, and jade. Each delivery lets players increase two of three influence types: religious (stupas), political (sherpas in regions), or economic (number of yaks). In a four-player game, scoring is unique: the player with the lowest religious influence is eliminated first, then the lowest political. The final two compare economic power to determine the winner—making strategic balance and timing crucial.