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The First Tsar: Ivan The Terrible WBG Score: 9 Player Count: 2-4 You’ll like this if you like: Tiletum, Brass: Birmingham. Published by: Hobby World Designed by: Stan Kordonskiy This is a free review copy. See our review policy here I've come across some varied opinions about this game, and it's important to address them with honesty. While some concerns are rooted in the origins of the publisher, I can empathise with that perspective. However, I struggle to understand criticisms about the lack of tension in the game itself. To be candid, I deliberated whether to review this game. The timing of releasing a game about Ivan The Terrible, particularly by a Russian publisher, may understandably raise eyebrows. Yet, delving into historical context reveals a more nuanced understanding of the figure. While not excusing any wrongdoing, it's worth noting that perceptions may be skewed by mistranslations or misinterpretations of his nickname. Although I believe he did kill his own son! I acknowledge the complexities surrounding supporting businesses from certain regions, especially given ongoing conflicts. However, I firmly believe in separating politics from the product itself. Evaluating a game should be based on its merits alone. It is not the publisher or designers fault for what their country is doing. Therefore, this review will focus solely on the game's mechanics and experience. Ultimately, each individual must decide their stance on the broader political landscape. So, with that said, let's get this to the table and see how this plays. How To Set Up The First Tsar: Ivan The Terrible Place the board in the middle of the table and place the Tsar's Favour tokens on the 10, 20, and 30 spots on the Victory Point track. Then shuffle the six Assignment cards and lay out five face up below the Kremlin Chambers, one per Chamber. Place the last one face down nearby. Now, gather up all the Goods pieces and Coin tokens to make a pile by the side of the board and then place the Round Marker on the top on the Round track on the 1550's space. Next, shuffle the Region tokens with the dark background and stack four face down at the bottom of the Round track on the 1580's space, then place four face down with the light and dark background onto the other three round spaces, as well as four face up onto each region on the board. Now, take the Spoils tokens and shuffle them face down, placing as many as needed for your player count face up into the Field of War on the main board: three for two players, five for three players, and six for four players. Stick the rest nearby, face down. Now shuffle the Trade tokens and place ten of them into the round slots on the waterways on the map. The rest can sit next to the board, face down. Then shuffle the Title and Estate decks separately and flip three cards from each deck as a display. If you're playing with just two players, flip two cards from each deck instead. Keep the decks next to their displays for easy access. Now for player setup. Each person takes their chosen colour's components: Player's Pad, Victory Point and Tsar's Favour markers, two Seal tokens, three Boyar pieces, six Building pieces, and ten Warrior pieces. place all these in front of each player. Each player will also take one Grain, Wood, Stone, and three coins from the pool. Placing these on their player boards. Each player will then place their Victory Point Marker onto the 0 space of the Victory Point track. Everybody's Tsar's Favour markers go on the Tsar Favour track on the main board in random order, starting from the top. If you've got three or two players, leave the bottom spaces empty. then pass the First Player token to the player sitting to the left of whoever's Tsar's Favour marker is on the lowest spot. Lastly, shuffle up the Project deck and deal three cards to each player. Take a peek at them, keep one secret, and shuffle the rest back into the deck. Then reveal six cards from the Project deck and lay them out face up as a display. Keep the deck next to the display. Now that everything's set up, let the games begin! How To Play The First Tsar: Ivan The Terrible The game plays over four rounds. Each round has two main phases, as well as a clean up phase. In the Planning phase, starting with the first player, players will take it in turns to place one of their three Boyar pieces onto one of the five chambers at the bottom of the board. Each chamber has two actions. The main one everyone can do, and a secondary one shown on the right shaded in yellow that only the player who bids the most coin in each round can do. Ties are broken by the player higher on the Tsar's favour. Players place money with their Boyars as they place them, and cannot add or remove money after they have been placed. But you only spend the money if you are the winning bidder. All other players get their money back, but then do not get to carry out the secondary action. Once all players have placed all of their Boyars, play moves to the Action phase. Here, starting with the first player, players will take it in turns to move one Boyar from the chamber they placed it in during the Planning phase, down to the bottom area of the chamber to carry out the main action. Then if they were the highest bidder, they will add one of their two seals to the room and carry out the secondary action too. They will then move their Boyar onto the main board to a City matching the colour shown on the Assignment card below the Chamber. Unless the Assignment cards shows an 'X', in which case you will simply gain one coin, and if you have the secondary action, increase your space on the Tsar favour track, . The first Chamber lets you gain resources from three cities you have a presence in. The resource for each city is shown under the city's name on the main board. Then, if you have the secondary action, you can gain the benefits of one of these three cities for a second time. The second Chamber lets you add Warriors from your resources onto the board, into a city you currently have a presence in. Alternatively, you can move a Warrior from one city to another. If they pass through a Waterway with a Trade token on it, you can then carry out one of the Waterway actions on your Player board. Flip this token, adding it to your player board, and carry out the action it shows on the reverse. If your Trade token slots are filled, replace a previous token. The secondary action here lets you do this three times instead of two. The third Chamber lets you claim a new Project card or fulfil a previously claimed card. You can do this two times, or three if you have the secondary action. Project cards are fulfilled by paying the resources shown on the left. Then you gain the points shown on the right, and then one of three things happens. First, you can add a building onto the board in an area where you already have a presence but no other building. Second, you could add a Warrior to the Field of War, taking one of the face-up tokens and claiming its benefit. Or third, you could carry out two Trade actions from the available ones on your player board. The fourth Chamber allows you to swap any two goods with any one good. You can also claim one of the harder-to-attain Foreign goods, and a second one if you have the secondary action. In the fifth Chamber, you can take one of the face-up Estate or Title cards, and a second one if you have the Secondary action. It's crucial to plan ahead and decide what you want to do, then carry out your actions accordingly to build your presence on the map, fulfil Projects, and earn points. Players then score based on each of the four areas on the board. The player with the most influence gets the first pick of the two benefits for each area, while the player with the second-highest influence can take the other one. Influence is determined by players' Warriors, which give you one influence, and buildings and Boyars, which give you two influence each. In a two-player game, there is no second place for this, but the winning player must be ahead in influence by more than that area's scoring potential. Otherwise, the other player can choose which benefit the winning player gets. It's a nice little twist for the two-player version. After all players have carried out the actions of their placed Boyars, refresh all Estate, Title, and Project cards, replace the four area scoring tiles, and ask each player to return all their Boyars and seals back to their supply. Finally, the Assignment cards are shuffled, including the one Assignment card not used that round, and five more are placed face up below each Chamber. Move the round marker down one space and start the next round. At the end of the second and fourth rounds, there is additional scoring for any Title cards players have at these points, as well as for the player with the most favour and the player with the most Warriors in the Field of War. In the second round, all players get any Warriors in the Field of War back at this point. Otherwise, they stay there for the rest of the game. After the second round, any Trade spaces without a Token have their space refreshed; any Tsar Favour tokens not claimed on the points track are removed, and then the game will continue. After the fourth round, players will also score points based on any leftover resources at a ratio of 2:1 for Foreign goods and 3:1 for normal goods and coins. At any point during the game, on a player's turn, players can also carry out free actions. These may come from cards they have acquired during the game or the actions shown on their player board. These actions let players exchange goods/money for other goods/money, rearrange Trade Tokens on their board, or discard Trade tokens for Project cards. After the fourth round, the player with the most points wins the game. Is It Fun? The First Tsar: Ivan The Terrible Board Game Review This game is absolutely fantastic. From the midpoint of my first round, I was completely hooked. Every choice feels crucial, every move significant. You're constantly considering your opponents' actions and potential moves. You're strategising about which areas of the main board to control by the round's end and how to counter your opponents' strategies. Your brain is working overtime from the get-go to maximize your efficiency. With only 12 turns in the game, there's a lot to accomplish, and some turns may take a while as you weigh your options. However, this doesn't slow down the game. While you're thinking, so are your opponents. I've encountered minimal frustration from slow play, although it could be an issue for some. Overall, the game maintains a brisk pace, with turns themselves being quick—it's just the thoughtful decision-making that may frustrate. Visually, the game is stunning. The artwork is meticulously crafted, and the symbology are clear and straightforward. The rulebook even includes a helpful guide on the back for new players, making everything easy to understand right from the start. The theme of this game is fairly abstract. It's an economic, resource management Euro game with contract fulfillment. Throughout my gameplay, I never once felt like I was in a specific country or acting as a particular person. The era didn't even cross my mind. Instead, it felt like a crunchy strategy game where efficiency was key, targeting specific point combinations by aligning everything with my overall game plan. For instance, coordinating Project, Title, and Estate cards that complement each other—like cards that reward points for completing each type of Project—and then collecting and completing those projects while ensuring I had the right cards to generate the necessary resources all seemed straightforward. But discovering those combinations in the game, acquiring them, and executing them was incredibly satisfying. I would recommend this game to any fan of economic Euro games who isn't deterred by or is even attracted to the abstract theme. As I mentioned in my introduction, this is a personal preference. I might not have initially chosen this game if I were browsing for a new one. However, after playing it multiple times, I'm delighted to have it in my collection because it strikes the perfect balance of weight, game length, and strategy to fit right into my personal sweet spot. It also works very well as a two-player game, which some Euros struggle with, delivering an engaging experience that remains tight and competitive until the end.

Brass: Birmingham WBG Score: 9/10 Player Count: 2-4 You’ll like this if you like: Great Western Trail, Scythe, Concordia Published by: Roxley Designed by: Gavan Brown, Matt Tolman, Martin Wallace Wow! What a game this is. Currently placed at three on Board Game Geeks overall ranking charts, Brass: Birmingham is a big hitter, for that there is no doubt. But does it deserve to be? In short, yes. It really does! Published in 2018, Brass Birmingham builds on previous smash, Brass: Lancashire. Lancashire was first published in 2007 and is a brilliant game in its own right. I wont go into the differences between the two games here as it has been discussed many times and way better that I can do justice, but if you are interested, there is a fantastic summery here. But in short, Brass: Birmingham is the more popular game now according to Board Game Geek. However both have very high ratings and reviews and many fans, rightly so. In this review, I will focus on Birmingham as that is the copy I own and have played, and in a very short time, absolutely fallen in love with. I first played this game with my son. He is Eight. I did this for a few reasons. Mainly, I wanted to quickly learn the game before playing with some friends. I find playing is the best way to learn complex games. I also wanted to play it as soon as humanly possible and my son was available! But lastly, I wanted to test the game on an eight-year-old. Could a game with a weight of 3.9 be taught and enjoyed to a younger gamer? The answer was a resounding yes, despite my own misinterpretation on the rule around turns, that I did not correct until a later game with other rule book reading adults that weekend. But following games with my son have proved without doubt, this game is teachable and can be enjoyed with an eight-year-old. Admittedly my son has the advantage of playing daily games with my wife and me, so knows modern games well. But it’s certainly possible. So, let’s get into it. Why is Brass: Birmingham so good? (Known hence forward in this review for simplicity as simply Brass). This is something I have spent a lot of time thinking and discussing with friends. There is no doubt this is an excellent game and deserves to be rated as highly as it is. The question I will try to answer in this review is why. I have broken it down into five simple things. Bragging Rights Learning and playing a more complex game is satisfying. Winning a hard game is even more fun and feels great! This is a simple point, but it is an important one. Everyone I have played this game with has said they have really enjoyed it, more so than most games. And this is not just because it’s good; but because it’s hard. And they did it. They got through it. The process of learning, getting confused, then everything clicking and finally understanding Brass is a wonderful experience. One generally quickly shared on social media afterwards I have found! There is often a sense of “I made it!” And time for me is now gauged in BB and AB. Before and after knowing and understanding Brass! Life used to be so grey… Rich Gameplay There is a lot to this game. It feels deep in strategy, variety, and options. This could be said about many games, but it seems to have another level in Brass. There is a layer of something that I can’t quite put my finger on, that is present in this game that makes it feel special. The best way I can describe is by saying that when you play this game you feel fully present at all times. It absorbs you in ways that some other games can’t, or in truth, don’t need to. This doesn’t mean it’s really hard! Although its certainly on the more complex end of learning and understanding. (More on that later) Or that it demands your full focus for hours on end in a time sapping way. But it does make you want to stay focused and in the game. Your focus will naturally rest on your strategy and the board. Not because you have to, but because you will want to. This feeling of connection is highly rewarding. The game is staged over two distinct periods. Set over a 100 year period during the English Industrial revolution, the first part of the game runs between 1770 and 1820. A time when Barges flowed between towns and cities, delivering Coal and Iron. Placing your own Barges is crucial for your network and connections during this phase and scoring afterwards. Once this period has run its course, all first level buildings and barges are scored and removed, as the technology moves on. The second phase, set between 1820 and 1870 introduces a few new rules around building placement and Trains replace the Barges. Your power to enact more intricate and cascading turns greatly enhances and the sense of progression in the gameplay is highly rewarding. I love a mid-game switch like this. The way it is done in Brass is so intrinsically linked with the theme. It feels natural, but also very exciting, and is elegantly woken into the mechanics and flow of the game. I also love mid-game scoring. Knowing how I am doing against the other players, and assessing my situation relative to their scores in deeply satisfying to me. It helps set up the tension for the second part in a way that wouldn’t be as present were you less aware on the scores. Analysis Paralysis Sure, this is not generally seen a great thing in board games! And in truth, its not great here either. But what I would say is this. If a preceding player is taking some time to think out a move, then you too can think out your move. Sometimes, you may be itching to just take your turn, and playing as an experienced player with new people could be frustrating. But sometimes, a little more time yourself to weigh up the options can be a good thing. Also, and this is a key point, there are only ever a certain number of things you can do in this game. It’s not always obvious which one you should do, or how best you should deploy your chosen option; but the choices are not as daunting as other games. The A.P. in this game comes more from not understanding the strategy than the variety of choices. Once this understanding comes, I find games flow a lot quicker. Any game that has A.P issues no matter the players or experience can cause some frustration. But from my experience with Brass, the A.P. fades in game the later half of the game for most players. Satisfaction Guaranteed. Win or lose, scoring well in this game is satisfying. Developing a strategy that works, seeing your progression through the game and enacting combination turns is a richly rewarding experience. More complex games; certainly the ones on the longer side, can lead to players walking away feeling dissatisfied, if after all that time, they don’t win. Whereas with Brass, each time I have played, every player, win or lose has spoken very highly of the game and their experience with it. In fact, after five games, I personally still had not won! (The sixth game was a rout though!) There is a lot of joy in winning, do not get me wrong, but just experiencing and playing this game is fun. Playing badly is frustrating for sure. But you will still have learnt something about your strategy and enjoyed the deep experience. There are some longer or more complex games that can be a little hit and miss depending on the outcome for you personally or the atmosphere at the table. For Bass, I find both of these variables have less of an impact. The winning I have covered, the atmosphere I will talk more on now. And it is an important point. So may games, you will hear reviewers say that with the right people this game will be a lot of fun. Well, what are the right sort of people and where can I find them?! I get that Cosmic Encounter can be brilliant. It’s in my personal top 10 for a reason, but I wont play with certain people as the game wont be as fun, and way longer too! Brass on the other hand I will play with anyone who want to. I love teaching it. I love playing it. I love winning and losing at it. It’s just such a brilliant experience that other players cannot affect it in a negative way like other games. Perhaps as the game is a little more insular, and there is no real negotiating or trading that other players can affect. But I think more simply as Brass is just so good! Supply & Demand In the game, the main resources are Beer, Iron and Coal. When you acquire Coal or Iron by building a Coal mine or Iron work, you can sell it straight back to the board if there are spaces available market. Being able to do this is a wonderful thing. Instantly clearing your resources from your recently built tiles, as the supply is low and demand is high and (for the case of Coal) your connections have been built, is a great feeling. But if this was possible every turn, or early on in the game, it would not feel as rewarding when it happens. The challenge here, is to develop the right options and being able to enact them at the right time. I won’t cover the rules fully here, for now, I just want to discuss this delicate balance. There are times when certain resources will be plentiful and highly accessible on the board. There are other times when the exact opposite in the case. The genius in this in Brass, is the speed of this swing. Sure, this can a feel a little luck based if you get to sell high and buy low all the time. But generally, if all players are paying attention, you can make your own luck in this game. And a lot of that luck comes from your timing of moves based on the supply and demand of resources. This is a highly rewarding and satisfying part of the strategy in Brass. Brass Tax “This is well and good, but the Rodney Smith video is over 30 minutes Jim!” Ok, sure, learning this game won’t be quick, and the short and rather sparse (for a game of this complexity) rule book defies the deep strategy you need to learn this game in full. But the experience I have had with this game (now I have taught to three separate groups) is that Brass surprisingly simple to understand, and has a bigger learning curve in the strategy to the rules. The rule book is simple, but very good. Read that and watch a video and you will be fine. The only thing I fell down on was the process of what made up a turn, but with this aside, I was able to then teach this in under 20 minutes on my fourth game. Players started the game unsure on their strategy for sure, but they knew the rules. This is important as there was definitely some uncertainty from most of the people I played this with (all new to the game) about how easy it would be to grasp. I get that. I felt it too. But the effort is worth it, and crucially, it is not as much as you may fear. Let’s put it into context. Learning Brass is obviously going to be harder than learning a simple card game like Cockroach Poker for example. But it is way less difficult than building a working rocket that could land on the moon. This may sound flippant, but I often think like this when people are dissuaded from trying certain games as they think it may be difficult to learn. Humans have accomplished so much. I am confident my group of friends can learn Brass! It should also me said that Brass is absolutely stunning to look at! The art is sumptuous. The cards are gorgeous. The board, simply stunning. The production throughout is very good and the quality makes it even more of a pleasure to play. There is no insert though, so it all sits loose in bags in the box, but this may be a space and money saving thing. Brass is, first of all, very affordable for its quality and production value. And secondly, very thin! Surprisingly so. The box is your standard Ticket to Ride size, but half the depth. Summery Adding this game to my collection has not only added a modern classic. It has changed my view on many things. Firstly, it has made me think about all the other more complex euros my gaming group could try. I have avoided putting games like this on the table too often for fear of failure. “People may not grasp it as quickly and not want to play games with me again!” This often races through my mind as I chose what to play for a game night. And it did so for Brass most times before I played. Apart from one afternoon with some other gamer friends who I knew would love it too, this is not a game you would often choose lightly for a casual game with mates. But class out ways difficulty. And all my more casual gamer friends have loved this as much as I have, and I will be less intimidated and reluctant with weightier games in the future. Secondly, it has made me think differently about longer games. Often when I have a few hours to play games, I will want to get as many different games in as possible. I love variety and trying new things. Recently, a friend came round to play games, and we happily only played this. We had around 4 hours in total, and after the general chit chat and catching up, all we had time for was Brass. And I loved it! Usually, I would think about the missed opportunity for a few quick games of this or that. But not this time. It was just pure unadulterated Brass joy! And last but not least, I have changed my top 10 board games of all time. This races into the top 10 and sits easily within some other greats I have loved for years. This has the lowest play count of any other game in the top 10 for me, but I am certain that in a few years it will be up there with the most played too. Brass is a fantastic game and one I would encourage anyone to try.

Singapore 1889 WBG Score: 8 Player Count: 2-5 You’ll like this if you like: Arboretum, 7 Wonders Duel, Sushi Go Published by: Mercat Games Designed by: Steve Ng Wen Xi This is a review copy. See our review policy here Singapore 1889 is from relatively unknown designer Steve Ng Wen Xi. A name, I hope, that will fast become more of a house hold name amongst board game fans. What he has created here with just a few cards is a wonderful experience. There is a delicate balance between everything you do in this game, which suggest to me, that Steve Ng Wen Xi gets it. I am excited to try his others games and see what else comes from Steve, and if he ever looks into something a little more ambitious. I hope so. But with Singapore 1889, we have a beautifully created set collection game with some intriguing scoring. Let's get it to the table and see how it plays. How To Set Up Singapore 1889 Unfold and place the paper River mat into the center of the play area. Then take all the cards and separate them into the nine different types. Choose goods at random equal to the number of players plus one, along with the Opium cards, shuffle these to form a single deck. Place the deck onto the mat and reveal the first four cards onto the mat. This is called the River. Next, take the Secret Society card and place this above the leftmost card on the mat. Each player then takes one good card from the top of the deck, and finally places one good card above the Secret Society card. The first player is then chosen at random, and the player to their right can move the position of the Secret Society card if they wish. You are now ready to start the game. How To Play Singapore 1889 Players will now take turns choosing one card from the four available on the play mat. Any card they take is added to their hand. The game ends when all players have seven good cards in their hand. When a player takes a card this way, they must first carry out the action shown on the bottom of the card. This is different for each good, but all give the players an opportunity to manipulate the game in their favour. Joss Paper lets the players draw two cards from the deck and then place one above the Secret Society card and the other at the bottom of the deck. Cards placed at the top over the Secret Society card like this affect end game scoring. This is called "Seizing," and Seized cards are used to calculate the value of each card in the player's hand at the end of the game. If there is one Joss paper card seized by the end of the game, for example, this means all Joss paper cards in each player's hand are worth one point. However, if there were two seized Joss paper cards, all Joss paper cards are now worth two points. And so on. The opium is worth one point if Seized but reduces by one if reclaimed. This is a point-scoring variant I will come to later. The Porcelain allows players to swap a good from the River with any Seized Good. Salted Fish allows the player who took this card to look at the top card of the deck and then Seize it or place it at the bottom of the deck. Spices do the same, but you take the bottom card of the deck and either Seize it or place it at the top of the deck. Silk lets you put one good card from the River at the bottom of the deck. And Tea lets you swap a good from the River with a good from your hand. When you take a card below the Secret Society card, you must then move the Secret Society card to be positioned above one of the other three cards. After a player has taken a card from the River and carried out that card's actions, they will then refill the River with cards from the top of the deck, and then check to see if there are three or more Marked goods in the River. These are cards with the Union Jack flag symbol on the top left, as shown above. If there are, the card below the Secret Society card is then Seized and placed above the Secret Society card, affecting end game scoring. If this happens, refill the River back to four cards again and then check to see if all players have seven cards in their hands. If they do, the game is over. If not, carry on to the next player. When all players have seven cards, end game scoring takes place. All players reveal their seven cards, placing them face up on the table for all to see. Then each good has its value calculated based on the Seized goods, and each player's final total is calculated. However, there is a very good small variant, where during set up, all players are dealt a merchant card at the start of the game. These cards allow players a new way to score, such as increasing your total score if you have more than three, four, or five of any one good, or increasing the value of each good by one point if you have at least three of them in your hand. There is also one crazy one that lets you win the game, regardless of the other players' scores, so long as your score is between 13 and 22! Players keep these merchant cards secret and only reveal them during final scoring, which can cause some real upsets and surprises! The other variant is a card that is added to the main deck, face down above the card fifth from the bottom. If this card is ever placed onto the River or Seized, then place it to the side of the board and draw another card. But now, the end game scoring completely changes. The Seized goods that are marked with the Union Jack flag are moved to be above this card at the end of the game; these are now known as Reclaimed goods (as mentioned above with the Opium). Any marked goods in players' hands now score two points per copy in the Reclaimed goods. Unmarked cards are worth one point per copy in the Seized goods area. Is It Fun? Singapore 1889 Card Game Review This game is so beautifully constructed. There is a delicate balance between collecting cards that have a high Seize value. But when doing this, you know those cards are less likely to come up in the River, as there are more of them above the Secret Society card, and only so many of each card in the deck. And all other players will be chasing them when they become available in the river. So, do you go for the obvious high-value but rarer card, or collect others, hoping their value increases during the game, knowing they will be less sought after and easier to manipulate? Each game takes around 20 minutes to play, and turns are fast-paced: players take a card, carry out its action, refill the River, then Seize a card if required. That's it. The game flows at a great pace, and you will find the scoring situation changes quickly, especially with more players. Cards you hoped would be the top point earner quickly change as other players manipulate the Seized goods in their favour, against your plans. It's a constant push-and-pull that makes for a lot of fun. The only thing I don't like about this game is the box. It could come in one-half the size, and that would make it so much more portable. It's the perfect game to take to the pub or out to a restaurant. I may have to move it to a little box or bag. I would recommend this game to anyone who is a fan of set collection games and is looking for new, clever ways to score. The theme is interesting, the art is lovely, the rules are simple, but the scoring is oh so delicate and strategic. You will have a lot of fun with this.

Kingdom Rush: Elemental Uprising WBG Score: 8.5 Player Count: 1-4 You’ll like this if you like: Project L, Tiny Towns. Published by: Lucky Duck Games Designed by: Alara Cameron, Helana Hope, Sen-Foong Lim This is a review copy. See our review policy here There are not a lot of Tower Defence games out there. Board games wise I mean. There are thousands of Apps that use this system. But very few that have transferred over to cardboard form. I wonder why that is? Kingdom Rush is one of the more popular modern-day app versions of this system, and they successfully developed a board game version in 2020, with the release of Rift in Time. A million dollars later and just shy of twelve thousand backers, and the team at Lucky Duck thought it was time for a sequel, and now we have Elemental Uprising. But what's changed? Has it gotten better? Was it any good to start with? Let's get it to the table and find out. How To Set Up Kingdom Rush: Elemental Uprising Each scenario has a different setup that you can easily follow in the scenario instructions, but let me take you through the basics. The first thing to do is set up the map for the scenario you are playing. There are a number of smaller and larger tiles that will make up each different level's game board. Piece these together as per the scenario's instructions, along with the exit(s) and starting hordes. There are a number of see-through tiles used to show which player can build on each area; place these on the main tiles as per your player count. Next, set up the hordes that you will be defending against this round. Each scenario will show you quite clearly which cards you need and which stack they will be placed into. Each stack will be numbered so you can clearly identify the order in which they spawn and move as you play the game. Each player will now choose a character to play with, taking the associated player mat, miniature, and any other tokens used for that character as shown on the player mat. Take a player colour marker and place this next to your board as well as a player aid. Now it's time to divide up the available defence towers. Each scenario will have a number of starting towers available to all players. You can decide who starts with what based on the number of players you have and which colour each player is and their available building sites. You may not keep what you start with, so take into account the upgrade process. More on that later. Each scenario will have a variety of other elements rising up. Does the name of this game make sense now? Place these out according to the set-up. Volcanoes, flowers, all sorts. I won't spoil the surprises of the campaign here. Finally, take your starting coins and gems and check your win condition in the scenario guide in the main rulebook. Place all the various damage tokens, separated into their groups and sizes. You are now ready to begin. How To Play Kingdom Rush: Elemental Uprising Each round begins with the hordes on the map moving. However, in the first round, you can skip this. But in later rounds, you will move all surviving hordes forwards one space towards the exit. Some hordes may move twice, based on the symbol shown on the horde card. If they move off the course, you will suffer one heart loss for each surviving fighter on the card. Next is the main phase where players can place down tower cards and move and use their main hero. Players can only place their tower cards on the spaces matching their player color and need to consider the tower's orientation and abilities in comparison to the current location of the hordes on the board. There are four main types of towers, all similar to the mobile app version of the game: Archer Towers - Fire arrows at your enemies. Mage - Perhaps you prefer to send magical bolts their way. Artillery - Or just bomb them? Soldier - Some like to go old school and send in the troops! As you place each tower down, deal the damage they inflict as you go. This is done by placing specific polyomino shapes onto adjacent hordes. Some towers and upgrades have the power to deal damage to any horde, but most of the time you will be working with one or more adjacent tiles. The Tower you are attacking will show you your options for damage; select the matching damage tile and place this however you see fit, position and orientation-wise, on the selected horde. Each horde will have a variety of enemies you must cover with a damage token in order to remove that horde from the board. All hordes come in the same shape of a five-by-five grid, but a vast variety of layout of enemies lie in wait within that grid. Covering each enemy space with a damage tile is the only way to remove that horde from the board. If any enemies remain on a horde, the horde will advance in the next phase. Some enemies are immune to certain attacks, and others require a different form of damage for each space. As in, a four-by-four enemy that needs each of the four spaces that make up its location to be covered by four separate damage tiles. Players work simultaneously during this phase. You can place your towers down as you like, and whenever you see fit. It does not need to be in turn. But it obviously makes sense to work together to make the best use of the towers you have and the locations in which you can build. If you don't play any towers in this phase, you can instead pass them to another player who can then upgrade the tower to the next level, ready to be used on the next round. Each tower has four levels. Not all levels will be available on each scenario, but you will have access to level one, two, and three. The more advanced levels offer more range and increased damage. As the scenarios develop, you will encounter new enemies. Some will trigger certain actions and require specific ways to defeat them. I don't want to spoil too much here. Just know things ramp up in a really engaging, challenging, and interesting way. The game gives you new and interesting ways to level up your own powers though. And this is where the Elemental Uprising of the game's name comes into play. Certain tokens will be placed out during set up for various scenarios that, when triggered, will give you bonuses, extra ways to cause damage, new events, and even ways to unlock new hero abilities. Speaking of which, a huge part of this game is the heroes you play as and the asymmetric abilities they offer. There are five hero characters to choose from, and each brings new attacks and ways to cause damage. The heroes can unlock new abilities as the campaign progresses and will become a pivotal part of your strategy. Each round you can move the hero and activate their attacks to increase the amount of damage they do. The hero itself will count as damage. The enemies they cover on the horde are considered defeated. When you activate your hero, play your hero card from your hand to remind you that you have done it this round. Once you have activated your hero and used or upgraded all your tower cards, you will now remove all fully destroyed horde trays. Simply take them off the board. Any hero on a tray that is being removed receives one damage unless any other powers contradict this, and the horde card is flipped to show what reward is given, generally a coin or gem. Then, any remaining horde trays advance forward towards the nearest exit. Hordes closest to the exit move first. Any hordes blocked by another horde jump one space. Some hordes have double movement and can leap forwards. Watch out for that! Any hordes that manage to break free and escape through the exit will cause you one damage for each enemy still alive on the horde tray. Players will now pick up all their previously placed towers and hero card back into their hand ready for the next round. Players are now free to discuss how best to use any collected gems and coins to buy upgrade mods for their existing towers with the coins, and new towers to add to either player's hand with the gems. The game then resets back to phase one, adding new hordes, drawing the top horde from each stack you placed during setup, and adding it to the nearest position on the board to the spawn point. If another horde blocks their way, move them forward towards the exit to the first free space. The game then continues like this until the end game condition is met. Generally, this is to defeat all the hordes. But in later scenarios, you will have specific targets to defeat, actions to do, or quests to achieve. Again, I won't spoil that here, but it certainly ramps up the difficulty and interest levels! There are 13 scenarios in total to play, and you certainly will need to play more than 13 times to win them all. Is It Fun? Kingdom Rush: Elemental Uprising Board Game Review Let's start with the bad - because there is a lot of good! Set up and tear-down is long and tedious. It's fiddly, there are not enough baggies, storage containers, and your table and box will be a mess. It's annoying and takes a good 20 minutes each time. The rule book is not the best. They try to make it easy with an introduction scenario that has its own separate rule book, which you think will teach you the game if you read it. It does not do this. It teaches you about 75% and makes the rest seem overly confusing. I honestly think I could halve the size of this rule book and do a much better job given a few hours at the editing station! It's a real shame. The solo game is a little lacklustre and feels devoid of any real emotion, character, or thought. Nothing changes really, and I think it needed to. Because celebrating wins on my own in this game felt a little hollow. I think it needed more of a focus. OK, now, with that moan out the way, onto the good. Oh my is this game satisfying! playing the game in a two is wildly enjoyable, and has created multiple moments of tension, joy, genuine cheers! And multiple tough but oh so tasty decisions to make. We got stuck on a few scenarios for a game or two, but then when you finally beat a level it feels great! There was a quick and incredibly rewarding learning curve both in terms of our understanding of the strategy to the game and how to play it well, but also in how the game throws new things at you each scenario. It ramps up perfectly keeping each new game fresh and delicately balanced. No game ever felt easy. No game ever felt impossible. Winning this game always feels great! Losing just makes you want to try again. Getting access to new powers and towers as the scenarios develop is very exciting too. I can see why they don't give them to you earlier on. It would make the game too easy. But also, it is nice to have an improved arsenal when you are up against tougher opposition. It feels you grow in your skills at a perfect pace to the enemies you are up against. The different hero powers are all very interesting too. They feel balanced but varied enough to make trying each one out an exciting proposition. Developing their skills is a lot of fun, and as the scenarios progress, you will feel like a mighty warrior throwing different polyomino shapes down here there ad everywhere! Which brings me nicely to my final point. The tactile feeling of placing the various damage shapes down, and the puzzle of trying to decide where to put each one feels like a separate part of the game each round, but heavily linked to the overall experience. It just absorbs you each round, and when played with another player, creates some genuinely interesting debate. The strategy and tactics are crucial. You cannot just go off on your own throwing arrows. If you are a fan of the mobile version, then certainly give this a try. You need to understand it won't have the same pace as the app. How can it? But the frantic nature of the real-time phone game is replaced by the strategic thinking of the board game version. Both work. Both are excellent. Each offers a different feeling, and you need to be mindful of that if you expect a direct port. But both deliver an enjoyable experience with a strong tower defence theme.

Paper App Dungeon WBG Score: 8 Player Count: 1 You’ll like this if you like: Welcome To Published by: Lucky Duck Games Designed by: Tom Brinton This is a free review copy. See our review policy here Paper App Dungeon first hit Kickstarter in 2021, and was a huge success with over 4,000 backers pledging over $400,000. Which is incredible for what this is. A small notebook, with a pencil. Although back then, you did get a dice as well to be fair! I think the success can be put down to a few things. Modern board games are amazing. But some of them are huge and very complex. Sometimes you want something small and light. But still fun. Paper App Dungeon delivers this. I, like many others, also crave portability. I love playing games. But it's hard to set up Star Wars Rebellion on the bus. Games that offer complete portability, both in terms of size, but also playing area required are very few and far between. And even then, you still need a flat surface to play on. Paper App Dungeon is its own playing surface. And now, with the D6 pencil, you can simply roll the pencil onto the notebook and play from there. Lets get it to the table and see how it plays. This is going to be quick! How To Set Up Paper App Dungeon Open the notebook to page one and take the pencil. You are now ready to go!! How To Play Paper App Dungeon Turn to the first map. Each notebook comes with 44 randomly generated maps. So, each book is completely unique. Find the smiley face on the map. This is your starting point. Then roll the pencil. The pencil has six sides, just like a D6. Whichever side is lands on is how many spaces you can move. Roll an odd number as you have to move diagonally. Roll an even number and you have to move orthogonally. You must use your full movement and do so in a straight line. If you hit a wall, simply turn directions. Try to avoid going over a pathway you have already gone on. As you go, draw a line to show your path. Your goal is to reach the stairway, your exit to the next map in the book. But along the way, you will want to collect extra health by going over hearts, and extra money, by going over coins. There are treasure chests which will contain the value of whatever you roll with the D6 pencil when you go over it, as well as mystery health, which again will give you the health shown on whatever you roll that turn. So far, so simple. But watch out for monsters that will take your health away, either by the amount shown on their, or again, for whatever you roll when you go over them. As well as spider webs that will take away coins equal to the value of the roll. There are also locked doors that you can only go through by gaining a key, and portals that transports you around the board. You record you gained and lost health and money as you go, and then record your final tally on the map itself. If you fall to zero health then note a death on the final page and restart the next level with 10 health again. You cannot go over ten health at the start, but every now and then you will come across a shop. This is where you spend your coins. Some shops sell items that allow you to increase your maximum health. Play through all levels and note your final health, coins and number of deaths on the final page. That's it! Is It Fun? Paper App Dungeon Pocket Game Review This is a crazy game. Each map takes around one to two minutes to complete. As they are randomly generated, some maps make no sense. You could find yourself heading monster-free, easily towards the exit sometimes. Other times, you will be stuck behind a wall of death, with no obvious pathway to safety. It's cool they are made this way. Each book you buy would be unique, and offer new maps. But it does mean some maps are better thought out that others. Because, there is no thought! (Sorry to any future all powerful AI that I just upset) Also, as this is a dice rolling game... well, pencil rolling, you can sometimes be wandering around, going anywhere but the direction you want. But this is not frustrating or annoying. It's hilarious. The game is small. The game is quick. The game is easy. You cannot take it too seriously. And the consequences of winning and losing are both equally small. But it is so addictive. As it is quick, easy, and fun, you just want to keep coming back for more. The minimum times I have played in a row so far was four. And that was because my son ripped it out of my hands after watching me, and played himself! Paper App Dungeon is the perfect portable game to play on the go, on your own, when you have no space, no time, but want to play. For what it is, this is a ten out of ten game. The shop that pops up every four or five maps is a welcome break. It offers some cool powers, and they change as you play through the game. It's fun to do new things with them, in what is otherwise, a slightly repetitive game. But this repetition in this game is welcome. It feels familiar each time. Which for a quick game you play on the move feels right. I would recommend this game to anyone. Just go buy it. You will pop it into your pocket or bag and play through it on the plane, train, or when out waiting for friends to turn up. It's so portable, quick, and fun, you will fly through the book and I cannot see how this game doesn't work for any person in any environment.

This is a prototype version of the game and does not represent the final quality or look of the game. Every so often, a new game emerges that utterly captivates you. Sometimes, it's a release from a renowned publisher or designer that you've eagerly awaited for months, even years. You've followed every development closely, from design diaries to early glimpses. You've devoured "how to play" videos on YouTube. Other times, it's a complete surprise—a stranger reaching out with an offer to try their unknown game, and it's not just impressive; it's mind-blowing. In truth, as I played it this weekend in my conservatory, the heat led me to voluntarily shed my socks to regulate my body temperature. But I'm almost certain that even if I had left them on, they would have been figuratively blown off by the sheer impact of the experience. This game is awesome. The game is a giant tech-tree-building, territory-controlling, card-playing, race game. It looks epic. It feels epic. It plays epic. The full version will play up to six players. This early pre-release version is up to four. But even in two, the game feels tense, combative, enthralling, and just simply put, very, very good. The game is essentially a race to build three or more Refuge by the end of the fifth round. Each player starts with one Refuge site and four force tokens. These are essentially level one troops. You need to get eight troops onto a hex not adjacent to any other Refuge sites in order to build another Refuge. Players start with two Zealots on their own player board. These are your workers in which you can carry out the various actions. There are two ways to play the game: the basic or advanced. In the basic version, your choices of actions are significantly reduced making it a perfect learning game. But we went straight into the full game as it looked too darn exciting! The main actions are: Move your troops on the board and gain the resource of the hex they finish on. Add more troops, either four onto a refuge, or six around it and one on it. Double the amount of troops on one hex. Flip over a neighbouring tile to a Refuge you control to gain three times the value of that hex's resources, either something called Soylent or Desolene, and gain a Mangled Zealot. This is a worker you can use for one round before they become exhausted. You can also upgrade your Refuge to gain an additional permanent Zealot. Construct Fabrication which increases the yield of your Refuge. Develop one of your many tech trees to make your actions better. Gain P.A.T.Z.E.R. tokens which can be used to develop your tech. Or build a new Refuge. You can do as many actions as you have Zealots, so getting more by upgrading is crucial. As such, we found the game to have a delicious build. Rounds one to three build slowly as you develop your tech and Refuge. But round four and five explode with some truly amazing turns. In the early games, I felt I was way behind and was never going to get close to building my third Refuge, but on each occasion, it happened with time to spare, and on most occasions, with time and resources to build my fourth and sometimes fifth Refuge as well. This was because we were not fighting much. I think we got into the game so much, we did not focus on each other, instead concentrating on our own development, which is stupidly satisfying. But this led to drawn games. Which technically mean you should keep going until one player pulls ahead. But each time, we stopped, restarted, and tried again. This was because we wanted to learn the game from the beginning and try again to build up more efficiently. However, again, as we did not fight each other, it led to more draws. In later games, we managed to find the balance between fighting and developing your own tech. It is very much like Scythe in this way. In that you don't really want to fight too much as it takes your focus away from your own development. But you need to do it to avoid other players developing at the same place. And the board is tight. As you cannot build next to other Refuge locations, you will quickly run out of convenient locations to build new ones. You may well have to go and destroy another player's to simply gain the building site. Developing your tech is so fun though. And I can see why we were so preoccupied with this in our early games. Perhaps because we were playing mostly in a two, and had only one other player to worry about, it made it easier to do this. But in a three, I still found this was the case. Simply as developing your own abilities, gaining extra Zealot, and thus more turns, is just so fun. The game is a beautifully crafted, delightfully balanced, and wonderfully executed example of what modern board games can do. When you combine interesting mechanics, interesting lore, gorgeous art, and intriguing gameplay, you end up with something special. And that is exactly what has happened here. The board is modular. The tiles slot neatly into cases which can be easily formed as they all snap together with tidy little magnets. This means you can form all sorts of shapes for your game board, and they will not slide around or get knocked out of place as you play. Something that drives me crazy in other games. Well done for this wonderfully solution! The art on the game is simply stunning. The cards are the best example of this, especially the Divine tech cards. Each round, one Divine tech card is revealed, offering game-changing powers for the first player who is able to buy this. They are great cards to acquire, but very hard to do so. Which is how it should be. So many games get it wrong by either giving you small upgrades only to avoid the game becoming unbalanced. Why not have huge awesome upgrades but make them hard to get so players who do manage to acquire them have to make sacrifices to do so, so other players don't feel bad if they miss out. Fighting is an intriguing aspect of the game. Players tally up their troops on the hex in question, similar to Scythe. They can add extra tech powers they may have previously developed, as well as any Divine Tech cards they had bought. Additionally, players will play one card from their hand, either to boost their battle strength, which will cost them a fighter after the battle, or to weaken their opponent's strength after the fight, but also weaken themselves during. All players start with the same ten battle cards, making it a quick but engaging mini-game that keeps all players invested as they go head-to-head. The winner will then be able to carry out bonus actions, based on their current Refuge level, such as to take troops from your opponent, harvest resources from the hex you just waged war over, or even level their Refuge to the ground! All players then receive a bonus of either a P.A.T.Z.E.R token for the loser, or a R.U.I.N. token (worth four P.A.T.Z.E.R tokens) for the winner. The game runs through multiple phases across five rounds. It seems complicated at first, but most stages fly by. Essentially, you gain resources each round, take actions, then do your best to control the Ecolapse. The final phase where players need to destroy a hex neighboring one of their refuges. Something that can be very frustrating if you need that hex for resources in the next round. But you can avoid this through various powers or simply by paying the most cost in the voting round that precedes the Ecolapse round. But do you dare spend your resources in this way? What will the other players do? How much do you need to risk losing? I cannot wait to play this game in higher player counts, and I am intrigued to see how this game develops. Everything about it has so clearly been crafted with love, attention to detail, and a knowledgeable mind of modern games. I cannot imagine this being anything other than a runaway success.

This is a prototype version of the game and does not represent the final quality or look of the game. Prepare to embark on an epic journey through the realms of Micro Midgard, the latest creation from the publisher behind the critically acclaimed Micro Dojo. Building upon the success of its predecessor, Micro Midgard introduces players to a thrilling Viking-themed adventure, enhanced with layers of complexity that promise to elevate the gameplay to new heights. Drawing inspiration from the same innovative movement mechanic that captivated players in Micro Dojo, Micro Midgard takes this core gameplay element and weaves it seamlessly into the rich tapestry of Norse mythology. As you navigate the vibrant landscapes of Midgard, you'll encounter multiple ways to score points and win the game. Launching soon on Kickstarter, Micro Midgard invites you to join the fray and discover the secrets hidden within its dynamic gameplay and immersive theme. Prepare to unleash your inner Viking and chart a course for glory as you delve into the heart of this captivating tabletop adventure. Check the links below for updates and be among the first to embark on this epic quest into the realms of Micro Midgard! Kickstarter BoardGameGeek Website Instagram Facebook Page Facebook Group The game is launching with three different versions. An envelope edition where the entire game ships as a letter for super low cost shipping (just like the original Micro Dojo). This is the version I have here. A standard version of the game that fits in a pocket. A larger Ragnarok Edition with dual layer boards and deluxe wooden components. The solo mode has been co-designed by Shem Phillips of Garphill Games. But how does it play? The game unfolds over a series of rounds, as players strategically position their characters on one of the four meeples scattered across eight distinct realms. With each move, players transition to an adjacent realm, activating the action(s) specified there. It's a beautifully simple yet intricately designed system that demands careful planning, fosters a delicate balance among players, and prompts strategic foresight with every turn. The available actions offer a spectrum of choices: players can opt to gain a resource, manipulate the movement of a wolf, or embark on a crafting mission. Crafting actions allow players to progress along one of two tracks, while manoeuvring the wolf triggers actions akin to crafting but activates one of two different tracks. As players ascend these tracks, a cascade of possibilities unfolds, igniting a deeply satisfying chain reaction of strategic manoeuvres. At its core, Micro Midgard is a game of resource management, challenging players to optimize their actions, amass essential resources, and leverage gold and mead for maximum point accrual. Additionally, it operates as a race, with the first player to reach nine points declared the victor. Though if no player achieves this feat within a specified number of rounds, victory is awarded to the player with the highest point total. However, in most instances that I have experienced, a player will claim victory long before this contingency arises. While the game boasts portability, particularly in its envelope version that I possess, it lacks a designated storage solution which I fear will mean I put it away and forget about it. While the lack of a box may deter some from displaying it prominently on a shelf, (envelopes are not as pretty as boxes!) it is a commendable choice in terms of sustainability and accessibility. Nevertheless, backers may find themselves drawn to the full boxed version for its enhanced presentation and organisational appeal. Despite its compact size, Micro Midgard belies its complexity, offering players a wealth of strategic depth. Yet, there are moments where options may seem limited, particularly as the game progresses and certain realms are removed during Ragnorok, altering movement dynamics and intensifying the race to accumulate points. This can restrict your movement on the main board to sideways only progression. You can no longer travel inwards towards Midgard. And in certain positions, with players in certain places, you can often be left in a position where you can only move a few directions with your turn, giving you reduced choices as you plan your turns. This is what makes the game great though. This is not a bad thing at all. The game just gets tighter and tighter, and closes in on you as the race to nine points heats up.

This is a prototype version of the game and does not represent the final quality or look of the game. At the time of writing in April 2024, Tenby is currently live on Kickstarter right now. You can check it out here. In fact, it just hit its goal! So, if you want to play this game, it will be a reality soon! But do you want to play it? What is Tenby anyway? Let's get it to the table and find out. Tenby is a picturesque little Harbour Town in South West Wales, in the UK. It is the holiday destination for many families in the area; especially in the 80s, before low-cost airlines changed the way we travel. One such visitor to this charming little summer spot was first-time game designer, Benjie Talbott. Inspired by the charm and aesthetics, Benji set about to honour this once favoured childhood spot, and now regular relaxation spot, in the form of cardboard and tokens. At its heart, Tenby is an open-drafting tableau builder. Nothing outrageously new there. But what sets this apart is two key things. The scoring. And the charm. Let's look at the scoring first; it's way more objective. But first, a quick overview of the game. First up, I want to say how good the rule book is for this game. From a first-time designer, playing a game that is not in its finished state yet, I am always a little apprehensive about how the game will be, and importantly, how clear the rule book will be. But this game has one of the most clear, well-laid-out, and coherent rule books I have seen in a long time. Tenby is played over a series of ten rounds, clearly shown by the round tracker. Each round, players will choose which day card they want to take. Day cards will show a series of symbols that will allow them to take town cards, resident cards, and/or life ring tokens. The cards can be added to their town that they build up through the game. The tokens can be exchanged for extra cards, moving cards in your town that have already been placed, or increasing your choices of cards when taking one from your display to add to your town. Each round, players will add more cards to their town this way, building up streets of cards. Cards must be placed in a way that their edges match any neighbouring cards. Buildings must go next to other buildings. Harbours next to harbours. You can end streets with specific cards to form a finished complete street, which will assist end-game scoring. But then of course, it cannot be added to anymore during the course of the game. You can create as many streets as you like. Starting a new one with a card you just took, or you can add to another unfinished street so long as you match the edges of the card. When you take a resident card, you can choose between two cards, discarding the other. This will then provide a new way of scoring for you this game. Such as rewarding you with points for every building of a certain colour. Or points for specific features in your street like window blinds, flower boxes, or viewing binoculars. But this is not the clever scoring I mentioned above. No, that resides on the cards themselves. Each card has the image of the street, featuring buildings, piers, shops, and various features. But on the bottom, it will also show points or a scoring condition. These are mostly to do with buildings that are next to it, on the same street, or within one or two houses from its own placement. Cards will score you points for neighbouring lights, dustbins, benches, door frames, chimneys... all sorts! There is a huge variety. And the puzzle in the game is to figure out how to make cards work well together within your linear tableau. One card may need to be next to a blue house, and you have just drafted a card with a blue house. But that new card with the blue house perhaps would score more efficiently if next to a different card as its own scoring condition doesn't work with the first cards. Do you sacrifice the second card's scoring, hoping to get a better card to go next to the other side; knowing it will help the first card, or do you put it elsewhere, maybe even starting a new street with it, hoping to find a better blue house later in the game. It's a delightful, absorbing, and highly rewarding puzzle that you will be fully obsessed with for the entire game. But thankfully, as the choices are never that great, it won't slow the game down that much. Although, there are a few occasions where choices can be tight and players will need a moment. But hopefully the other players will have their own things to be thinking about and doing when this occurs. Players take it in turns to choose their day cards, and then in turn, their town cards to pick from each round. But then once this is done, the next player can go ahead and make their choice whilst the previous player thinks about where to place their newly acquired cards. There is a bit of overlap if you want to speed it up a bit. Just be sure the previous player is done before you take any cards as they may wish to use their life rings to do something unexpected. So, onto the more subjective charm of this game. There are lots of card games in small boxes like this that do similar things. Ecosystem for one is a game that comes to mind thinking about the mechanics. But there is something about Tenby that feels alluringly unique. I have never been to Tenby. Although, like most who play this, I now do! But I have been to similar harbour towns in the UK and always fell in love with them. There is something just calming, but also exciting about these places to me. The adventures to seafaring fishermen had throughout the years. The stories told in the pubs every night. The gossip, scandal, and outrage of the local communities. The history, families, and lives, lived. It feels like a beautifully self-contained history that I get to dip into, be a part of for a short time, but then always have to leave. Like the fridge magnets I buy and postcards I send, I always want to keep a part of these towns with me when I leave. I don't feel like that when I play most tableau-building card games. But I do when I play Tenby. As I said, the above point is very subjective. And may not mean anything to you. However, if that is the case, I guess you stopped reading this a long time ago. If you are still with me and currently have images of your own summer vacation spots from your own childhood, I would encourage you to check this game out. Now, where are my swim shorts and sunglasses? I need to book a weekend away to Tenby!

Cubirds WBG Score: 8.5 Player Count: 2-5 You’ll like this if you like: Hanabi, Sushi Go, Bohnanza. Published by: Catch Up Games Designed by: Stefan Alexander This is the reviewer's copy. See our review policy here By Steve Godfrey You wake up in the morning with Morning Mood by Edvard Grieg playing (you'll know it when you hear it) which is odd because you haven’t put on any music. Then you realise that you’re probably in an intro bit to a board game review so it all makes sense. You look out the window at the birds perched on your fence and think, “wow they look blocky.” So you rub your eyes, look again and see the same blocky birds facing you? It’s only then that you realise the kids have been mucking about with your copy of Cubirds and now you have to go out in the cold and peel them from the fence that they’ve sellotaped them to. Yep that’s right, tape, not blu tack! How to get your ducks in a row. Set up by laying out four rows of three birds and make sure that each row has three different species of bird. Shuffle the deck and give each player eight cards to make up their starting hand and then give them one card to keep face up. This is the start of their collection. To win you’ll need to be the first player to either a) gather at least one card of 7 different species (there’s eight in the game) or b) gather 2 species of at least three birds each. On a turn you have to lay birds to one end of one of the four rows. Choose a bird from your hand, you then have to play all of that species on the table. Pick any row and all the cards have to be placed on either the left or right of that row. If there are any birds of the same species in that row then you’ll take all the cards that are in between those cards. For example, if you play a Robin down and there is a Robin on the other end of that row then all cards In between the two robins will come to your hand. Slide the remaining cards together then add cards to the end of that row until there are two different species there. Now if you want to and are able to, you can complete a flock. All birds have a small flock and a large flock number on them. If you have cards of that species equal to or higher than that number then you can play a flock. With a small flock take one of those cards and place it in your collection and discard the rest. Do the same with a large flock but this time add two to your collection. If you play birds down that don’t surround anything then you have the option to draw two cards from the deck or pass. If at any point a player empties their hand of cards, everyone discards all of their cards in hand and then get dealt right new cards. The person who triggered the end of a round now takes a turn. Birds by Picasso At this point I’ve certainly racked up more plays of this on BGA than I have physically. But regardless of which platform I play it on, one thing is usually abundantly clear. it’s still not enough. I need more, because this game is addictive. Is it perfect? No. It’s got its flaws and in reality this should probably be a 7 or a 6.5 out of ten and maybe for some people it is! But despite everything I still find myself wanting to rack this game up time and time again but I’m still not sure I’ve got a grasp on why. I appreciate that for a reviewer informing the reader what makes a game great/bad that this isn’t entirely helpful but maybe I’ll work it out when I’m writing this, or you’re money back. From the off Cubirds asks you to put on your best, feathery, set collection cap on and gets you to make some interesting decisions and sometimes take a gamble. Surrounding birds with cards you know are going to complete a set is a bit of a no brainer. Except on the occasions where you’re sacrificing a lot of birds to complete a set, which then runs the very high risk that you're handing your opponents a free set. So in that case you’d just hold onto them? Maybe, but then there’s the ever-present possibility that someone could empty their hand of cards and trigger a new round which would then make everyone discard their hand and leave you with nothing. In fact a good little strategy is to purposely empty your hands to not only make your opponents start from scratch and to give yourself a refresh in the case of a less than stellar hand. It’s a really fun and interesting balancing act and it really keeps that, in between turns, tension going. Of course this amplifies with the player count as the time between turns gets longer and the “board” state changes more drastically. I love how the race element ramps up as the game goes on. The tension as you hope no one else takes your cards and those almost sweat-inducing moments as two people are close to victory and you nervously wait on a wing and a prayer for those cards you need. It’s easy to look round the table at others collections and the state of the cards and see how close people are to winning and you instantly start thinking “if I can just get one more turn” and then it’s that agonising wait to see if your able to pull off your winning turn or if someone else is going to win by a beak. Angry birds or lucky birds Luck of the draw can definitely be a factor in how your game plays out. I’ve had my share of games where the cards just weren’t falling properly either in my hand or on the table and I just couldn’t complete flocks quick enough. It’s possible to get games where you feel shut out. I’m not gonna deny that it’s a frustration when things aren’t going your way and it’s out of your control. That sort of bad luck seems worse in a two player game since there’s less chance for the game state to change dramatically enough between turns. As the player count grows, that bad luck has more chance of changing between turns and hopefully becoming less of a factor on the table at least. The orientation of the bird type and the numbers are a bit off as well. On the top left of the cards you’ve got the bird type and on the top right you’ve got the number you need for a flock. It means that whichever way you fan the cards you’ll be covering some important information. Despite the possibility of bad luck shutting you out of the game there’s something about Cubirds that just makes me want to rack it up and try again. There’s a part of my brain that no matter how well or badly the game went just wants to go back in for more. I’m not sure what sort of addictive mechanisms they’ve put in this game but whatever they are, they’re working.

Cascadia WBG Score: 9 Player Count: 1-4 You’ll like this if you like: Azul, Calico, Barenpark Published by: Alderac Entertainment Group, Flatout Games Designed by: Randy Flynn This is the reviewer's copy. See our review policy here By Steve Godfrey “Cascadia, you’re breaking my heart, you’re shaking my confidence daily.” Yep, another review and another song stuck in my head (it’s Cecilia by Madness if you’re wondering.) Why do I feel the need to keep mentioning these? Well in the hope that they leave my head and transfer onto the next poor soul who hears it, much like the video in The Ring. How to cascade. Give everyone a random starting habitat tile and then remove a certain number of regular habitat tiles at random depending on player count. Place the rest of the tiles in face down piles and put four tiles in a row face up, then take four wildlife tokens from the bag and place one underneath each tile. If they happen to be four of the same then set them aside and draw again. Choose one of each of the wildlife scoring cards and set them where everyone can see them. For your first game at least it’s suggested to use the set A cards. On your turn choose one set of tile and wildlife tokens in the display and add them to your environment. Tiles will have some terrain types on it as well as some animal types depicted on it.  When you place your tile it can go anywhere in your environment  as long as at least one side is fully touching an already existing tile. You don’t have to place matching terrain types next to each other but since end game scoring involves scoring your largest terrain areas it’s good if you can. You'll then add your animal token to your environment. It can go on any tile in your environment that has a matching animal on it. Once the token is placed it can’t be moved and no other tokens can be placed there. Then replace the tile and token you took and then onto the next player's turn. If there are four of the same animal tokens in the display they are immediately replaced. If there are three of the same. then the active player can choose to replace the three identical ones. If the tile you place your token on has only one animal type on it you can take a nature token. These can be spent on your turn to either replace any of the animal tokens in the display or you can use it to take any combination of tile and token and not just the set ones. The game will end when you have no more tiles left to refresh the display. You’ll score one point for each tile in your largest terrain area of each terrain type. Then the player with the largest area in each terrain type will score bonus points. Then you’ll score for the wildlife cards. Each animal has its own scoring conditions and you get points depending on those cards. For example, in the set A cards the elks will score for how many and you have in a straight line, the hawks don’t want any other hawk adjacent to them and the bears want to be in pairs with no other bears adjacent to them. Lastly you’ll get one point for each nature token you haven’t used. Grin and bear it We talk a lot in board gaming about welcoming games, or gateways games, or games that we show to people that will introduce them to this fun, but also addictive and financially crippling hobby that we call board games. A lot of gamers have in their arsenal (other football teams are available) a few of these types of games that they’ll recommend or take to a family gathering to play in place of that Christmas relationship crushing stalwart Monopoly. Just invoking that name I can already hear families gearing up for an argument. The reason I mention all this is because Cascadia is going to be a game that I'm going to be adding to my particular gateway repertoire. Cascadia will lull you into a false sense of security. The process of teaching or being taught it is a simple affair and will probably have you thinking “right we’ll crash out a quick game of this, nothing too thinky and then get onto the really crunchy stuff”, and then the puzzle hits you like being hit on the head with the hammer from Mallets Mallet (there's my obscure British TV reference for this review.) Now granted, that was a foam hammer but it’s still relevant because even though Cascadia presents you with a nice puzzle, it’s still not a particularly complex game. It’s currently sitting at a weight of 1.83 / 5 on Board game geek, if you put any stock in those ratings. It does however give you something that maybe you weren’t expecting from the rule’s explanation and I love when games surprise me like that and you can see it come to life as you play. Cascadia gives you a lovely combination of things to mull over as you survey the choices of tokens and tiles. Trying to navigate those animal tokens to score as much as you can on as many of those cards as you can would be puzzling enough on most games of this weight. In fact if you play with the family or intermediate variant then that’s pretty much what you'll be getting. It’s this wonderful juggling act as you're constantly trying to set up a scoring opportunity and all the while trying to keep enough space so you can set up some others later down the line. It’s a spatial puzzle in the same vein as a polyomino game and managing to slot that last piece in place is just as satisfying as any of those types of games. Terrain scoring really adds that extra crunch to the game that, in combination with everything else, really makes this a game that anyone, regardless of your gaming experience can latch onto. Each round you’ll be agonising over whether you should take a combination for its tile or for its animal token as you wait for that rare instance of the perfect combo coming out. Like seeing an outfit that you like on a shop dummy and then seeing all of it in your shop in your size. That’s where the nature tokens come in and these are like tiny pine cone saviours that you want to hoard like a hungry squirrel (do squirrels hoard pine cones?) They add just enough mitigation to stop the game becoming as frustrating as it could potentially be if you were constantly only getting unfavourable combos. Getting the most out of your Elks If there’s one thing you won’t be short of in Cascadia is replayability. With four scoring cards of each animal type that can be used in any combination, you're already looking at, hold on, 1, 2, carry the six, er…….. a lot of games before you’ve been through the various combinations. Then factor in the random tile set up and then all the different tile/ animal tile combinations and you could easily be playing this game until such a time that you actually manage to get some real Elk to stand in a straight line. If you hadn't guessed that would probably be never, which puts a stop to my pitch for a real life version of Cascadia. That and the fact that fish aren’t exactly known for being responsive to instructions. They’re too busy chanting to Bob which I presume is their god. Vast amounts of replayability of course is only necessary if you find yourself needing the variety. The first five or six times I played Cascadia it was with the set A cards and even after all those plays I didn’t feel that I particularly needed to dive into the other cards. I have played with a few different cards since then and they’re as much fun as the regular cards and even having one different is enough to add a bit of variety to each game. There’s a family variant which uses just one catch all scoring card and if you’d like they even have an achievements track which you can throw in for multiplayer or solo which serves as another level of competition, especially if you play with the same group. The solo mode itself is nice and simple to run and works on a “score as high as you can and compare to the table” style system. Again changing your scoring cards and even going for those achievements can change up the longevity of the solo game. Cascadia is a catch all type of game that’s gonna stay in my collection ready to be taken off the shelf at a moment's notice to be played in any situation. It’s light enough to be a great family game but puzzly enough that it's going to give the old grey matter a workout regardless of your gaming experience.

Intent To Kill WBG Score: 9 Player Count: 2-4 You’ll like this if you like: Cluedo, Mind MGMT, Detective. Published by: Hobby World Designed by: Artur Khodzhikov This is a free review copy. See our review policy here Anticipation is reaching a fever pitch as the release of 'Intent to Kill' looms on the horizon for 2024. Promising to be a standout masterpiece in the realm of deduction games, this eagerly awaited title is already garnering praise for its meticulous design and immersive gameplay. With its captivating retro 60's style theme and artistry, 'Intent to Kill' presents a visually stunning experience that transports players to an era of intrigue and mystery. The attention to detail in 'Intent to Kill' is wonderful, with every aspect of the game meticulously crafted to deliver an unforgettable gaming experience. From the intricately designed game components to the richly thematic artwork, every element of 'Intent to Kill' has been carefully curated to evoke the atmosphere of a classic noir thriller. But beyond its aesthetic appeal, 'Intent to Kill' promises to deliver on multiple levels of gameplay depth and complexity. Players can expect a riveting blend of deduction, strategy, and suspense as they navigate the shadowy world of intrigue and betrayal. With its carefully balanced mechanics and intuitive gameplay, 'Intent to Kill' offers both seasoned gamers and newcomers alike a thrilling and immersive gaming experience. Let's get it to the table and see how it plays. How To Set Up Intent To Kill First, place the game board onto the table and give each player a page from the notebook and a pencil. Place the building markers onto the board as per the scenario you are playing, as shown in the manual, or use the basic starting locations shown in the setup. Next, place the five crime scene markers in the spaces on the right of the board in sequential order. Then shuffle the civilian cards and pick 20 at random. Decide which player will act as the murderer, and then they take one card from the 20 civilian cards at random, noting this character as the murderer for this game. They mark this on their notes. If you are playing with the person of interest (not recommended for your first game), do the same, and pick one at random, noting this also in the murderer's notes. The murderer must also write down the characteristics of these two choices: their height, build, age, and social group. Next, take the civilian cards and let one of the players playing as the detective place them onto the board, putting two into each corner block and one into each other block. Make sure you place all civilians with the coloured side face up when you do this. Now take the motive cards and choose six from the deck. Shuffle these up and let the murderer choose one. There is a recommended group for your starting game that I strongly advise you use! After that, pick any that work for you. In the full game, you will choose eight instead of six. The murderer notes their chosen motive on their notes, then lays out all six in front of them face up. The detective will take six identical cards and lay them out in the same order in front of them. The murderer now takes the social group tokens, chooses three at random, and picks one from their three. Ideally, you want to pick one that is represented a few times on the board with the current civilians. The other two are discarded, and the one selected by the murderer is placed face down in front of them. This will be the group that sympathizes with the murderer. In the basic game, this has no effect, but in the main game it will! Then take the remaining six social groups and place them face down on the bottom of the board. Finally, give the detective the surveillance token, and they now place their marker into any block on the board. Give each player the reference card based on the version of the game they are playing, and you are now ready to begin the base game. If you are playing the full game, now shuffle the murder and detective cards separately. Place two murder cards underneath each crime scene card and stack the rest face down by the board. Draw three detective cards to form an available face-up row and place these next to the rest of the deck, which is placed face down next to all the evidence tokens, also in a face-down group. You are now ready to play. If you are playing one of the scenarios, note some of the extra rules, shown clearly in the rule book, such as removing some of the social groups, dealing additional cards to the players, or adding additional tokens to the board. How To Play Intent To Kill Playing the game is very simple but does differ a little based on which version of the game you are playing. Follow the step-by-step guide on the bottom of the board, and also shown on the player reference cards. First, the murderer will intimidate two civilians, which means they cannot be questioned in the later part of this round. They can do this to any civilian other than the ones in the same block as the detective. To do this, simply flip them from their coloured side to the black and white side. The murderer can even do this to their own character if they wish. Then, the murderer will murder one civilian. They must do this in a way that follows their current motive, and they cannot pick a civilian in the same block as the detective or pick themselves. When they have chosen, remove this character from the board swapping it with the crime scene token on space one. In the full mode, the murderer now takes the two murder cards that were under the crime scene card and chooses one to keep, placing the other one under the remaining deck. The murderer can play this card immediately if the card allows. Note, any card with the gun symbol on means the detective will draw an evidence token. The detective now acts by moving directly to the new crime scene. Any other civilians there are immediately moved to an orthogonal location as chosen by the detective. They then have up to two movement and two actions in which they need to gather evidence to decipher who the murderer is and what is their motivation. As an action, the detective can ask any unintimidated civilian a question in any location they are in. Simple yes or no questions about the gender, height, build, and age. The detective can ask one question to each civilian in the location they are in as one action. The murderer answers for the civilian and must answer honestly unless, of course, the detective inadvertently is unknowingly questioning the murderer themselves, or the person of interest if this is in the game. Also, any member of the sympathizing social group can also lie at this point. There are then four separate building actions that can be chosen if the detective is in the block with the appropriate building. The Fire station lets you take a social group from the stack of six and move every civilian from the chosen group one block. The Hospital lets one flip over one intimidated civilian in this or an adjacent block. The Diner lets you ask one question to any unintimidated civilian in this or an adjacent block. And the Police station lets you place the surveillance token onto a civilian in this or an adjacent block. The surveillance token then lets you take a free action later, by removing the token and asking to the murderer, could you murder this person right now? They have to answer truthfully, and this will give you vital clues as to their motive. In the full game, the detective also has the choice to take two evidence tokens when in the location of the current murder and choose one from these two. The tokens show the symbol of the four buildings. Later, as a free action, you can discard a matching token to a building if you are in a block with the matching building and draw a new detective card. You can also play a detective card during this phase as a free action. The detective cards are much like the murder cards and give the players unique one-off abilities to gather more information, or for the murder, put the detective off their scent. Once the detective has carried out their two actions and all movement they want, any intimidated civilian in the same block as the detective is now comforted and flipped over. The murderer then takes one social group at random from the stack of six and can move any remaining civilian from this group one block. The detective can then do the same with another chosen social group. The next round then begins. The game plays over five rounds, at which point the detective must guess the murderer's motive and civilian. If they get both right, they win. If they get both or one wrong, the murderer wins. Is It Fun? Intent To Kill Board Game Review Intent to Kill is incredibly slick. Everything feels so smooth as you play, and the balance between the two roles is perfect. We have played six times so far, and the score is 3-3 between the two roles. Each game has felt incredibly close. The detective usually gets at least one of the two things right, and has the other one isolated down to one of two or three options. The game always feels like either side could win right until the very end. The game is intriguing, captivating, and utterly absorbing. From the very beginning, from either side, you feel completely caught up in the theme of the game. Asking a question as the detective to rule out more than one motive at once feels great. Answering a question to throw off the detective when you know you can lie, but they have no idea, is secretly hilarious. And plotting who you murder, to try and throw open the options of your possible motive, is a delicious decision to make. The art works so well with the theme. Everything looks a little mysterious. It oozes the theme of the Cold War, and the characters chosen for the civilians are varied and well executed. It does probably need to be said that this is all just a little odd in the current political climate. Especially as this has been made by a Russian publisher. And I have noticed a few zero rankings on BGG simply because of this. I myself contemplated my own position and if I should review this game or not. But it seems folly to do so simply due to the country of this game's origin. I don't think board games should stay out of politics, but I also don't think we should blindly cancel any publisher or anyone based on a global political situation they have no control over. That said, you need to make your own mind up if this theme works for you right now, based on the state of the world. I myself found it a little creepy and ominous, but I felt that added to the game. It is set during the Cold War, after all. But then, I did not grow up or experience this war or know anyone affected by it. Others may feel differently, quite understandably. As such, I would recommend this to anyone looking for a great deduction game, who is not affected by the theme, and ideally, is looking to play with two players. This game works up to four, and beyond probably. But I feel that it sings with two. Sure, with three or four, you get the added table talk. But I found most of this was muted as the other team were conscious of giving away clues. Whereas in a two, we still had the talk, but it was more rhetorical and often hilarious!

Dubious: A New Wave WBG Score: 8 Player Count: 3-6 You’ll like this if you like: Dixit, Codenames, Decrypto Published by: Hobby World Designed by: Dave Neale This is a free review copy. See our review policy here Dubious first came out in 2021. It received favorable reviews from fans of social deduction, leading to calls for more content. This standalone expansion can be added to the main game to add more variety or played alone. It comes with everything you need to play the game. But how does it play? Let's get it to the table and find out. How To Set Up Dubious There are three new settings with this version of Dubious: Science Fiction, Cthulhu, and Antiquity. Make your choice of which arena you want your game to be set in and take one reference sheet from this choice for each player. Give this along with a pencil, clip, record sheet, and screen to each player. Players will now affix the setting card to the middle of their screen with the clips. Place this around the record sheet so the screen shields your sheet from all other players' gaze. Next, take the occupation and secret cards from your chosen setting, shuffle each deck separately, and deal out two of each card to all players. Players will choose one occupation and one secret card to play as from their choice of two. They will mark their choice on their player sheet, along with the other card they saw but did not choose. This helps them eliminate one option from their guesses for the other players. Finally, set up the questions for the game. You will need to have two appearance questions and three assorted questions. Take the three thematic questions linked to your chosen scenario and add these to the general question deck. Shuffle the two decks separately, then draw one appearance card, one general card, a second appearance card, then two more general cards and stack them in this order with the first appearance deck on top. You are now ready to play. How To Play Dubious One person will now read out the first question aloud. All players will write their answer to this question on their record sheet. You will want to answer the question in a way that hints at your occupation and secret. To score points, you need for at least one other player to guess your occupation and secret correctly. But if everyone guesses correctly because your answers were too obvious, you will score nothing, and the other players will score instead. Equally, if no one guesses as your answers were too vague, again you score nothing, and the other players score instead. Think about your roles and how they link to their choices in the game, and try to write answers that give some clues, based on the other players playing and how well you think they know you, so you can find the balance between blatant and obscure! The remaining four questions are then read out, and again all players write their answers. When this is done, players take turns reading out their answers to all five questions. As this happens, players take notes on their record sheet, trying to figure out what each other player's occupation and secret is. For each answer they give you can take notes and make a guess, then there is a space on the record sheet for you to note down your final guess for each player. Players then read their answers aloud one final time, and each player now has 30 seconds to make their final guess. There are then two final minutes to sort your guesses out, before all players reveal their answers aloud. Each player will score a point for each correct guess they make for other players' occupation and secret, as well as a point for each time someone else guesses their own occupation and secret correctly. Unless of course, everyone guesses correctly, in which case they score nothing. The player with the most points wins. Is It Fun? Dubious Party Game Review Dubious is incredibly simple to play and teach, and you will get through a round in no time at all. This is all the vital ingredients for a good party game. But is it any fun? Well, yes. It is a lot of fun. Working out your own answers to find the balance between being too obvious, but knowing you are giving just enough information away so that some of the other players guess correctly is a very enjoyable experience. If you like that sort of thing. There will be some players who find this too difficult. And some combinations of secret and occupation are just too similar to allow you the freedom to do this well. Being a Gladiator or Pirate who was raised by Barbarians for example can be a hard combination. However, if you enjoy this sort of thought process, and the deduction required to then figure out what the other players are talking about, you will have a lot of fun with this game. Guessing correctly based on a few obscure clues feels incredibly satisfying, especially if not every other player managed to do this. There is then a shared moment of celebration between you as the guesser and the player who gave that answer as you both score from it. Conversely, when players are not on your wavelength and do not understand what you were hinting at by only wearing one boot because the other was stolen at the local baths, it can be frustrating. This is just an example though of course. This absolutely did not happen to me, leading to a rant about how obvious this was, questioning loudly why my fellow players did not figure this out! There is enough variation in this box to play the game over and over, but by the very nature that this is an expansion with three new settings, I suppose after time, you will grow tired of these three arenas and the occupations and secrets they offer. But great news! The original game is still being printed and offers three more. If you already own that, well, now you have six, and I suppose that will take longer for you to outplay all the scenarios. We have played it eight times in just one weekend and loved every minute! I think it would take 50-100 plays before I was wanting more due to repetition. I would recommend this to anyone who enjoyed the original game and wants more variety. For anyone who doesn't own the base game yet, pick either one based on the settings and which three appeal to you the most. And if you are not a fan of social deduction, then well, this may not be for you. But there is no acting, no lying, no being put on the spot. This removes many of the things people don't like about this sort of party game, so I would encourage you to give it a try. The questions are written for you, and lead your answers in quite a specific way. This could be the social deduction game for people who don't like social deduction.