Buy Here - Wingspan WBG Score: 8 Player Count:1-6 You’ll like this if you like: Everdell , Lost Ruins of Arnak , Furnace . Published by: Stonemaier Games Designed by: Elizabeth Hargrave This is a free review copy. See our review policy here . I cannot imagine there are many people within the hobby who have not heard of Wingspan by now. Card Game of the Year 2020. Kennerspiel des Jahres Winner in 2019. Swiss Gamers Award Winner in 2019. Wingspan certainly is one of the big hitters of the modern era. But, if you are new to the hobby, somehow missed this one, or are just interested in how WBG sees this mighty game, then read on. I hope to have a fresh take for you. Let's get it to the table and see how it plays. How To Set Up Wingspan Board Game I won't go into the full set up in this review. There is a great video here if you want the full 'Rodney' details. Suffice it to say, the game comes with a lot of components that make setting up this game a lot easier, such as the card tray, which holds everything neatly when in the box and then displays three cards beautifully when set up. The trays the food tokens come in are equally useful for both storage and setup. Place all these out now around the table. In the box, there is also a bird feeder dice tower. This looks stunning, is easily assembled for your first play, and fits back into the box fully made, so you won't have to dismantle and remake it each time. Place this out now with the dice in it and give each player a board and cubes of their chosen color. How To Play Wingspan Board Game Again, I won't go into the full rules here. The video above will do a better job of that. But I will cover the basics to give you a flavour. On your turn, you will be able to do one of four actions. You will do this by placing one of your coloured cubes on your board. This will also show you how many turns you have left. The first option you can choose is to play a bird card from your hand onto your board, paying the appropriate food and egg cost shown on the card you are placing and the column you are placing it into. Then lay the card into the best-suited environment on your board. If the bird has an immediate effect, you can use this now. The second option is to gain food, gaining the symbols on the leftmost uncovered slot in the top woodland area on your board. Generally, here you can choose the food shown on one of the dice. The food is used to feed the birds when you place them in the above first option. The bird cards, when placed, will make later turns in each row more powerful. The order you do everything is crucial. Sometimes this game literally is chicken and egg. The third option is to gain eggs. The fourth is to draw new bird cards. Again, you will spend a cube and take the amount of eggs or cards as shown on the leftmost available space on your player board. The more birds placed on your board, the more powerful your subsequent turns become. When placing birds, you can also activate any birds in that row that have relevant brown "when activated" powers. So, the order in which you place the birds is also important. Each round has its own specific bonus to aim for, such as a certain number of eggs or birds in a specific habitat. You can either score this based on who scored the most each round, or in a more friendly way where all players can score the maximum bonus if they achieve five of the specific task. A player will mark this using one of their action cubes. Once this is done, all players will take back all their other remaining cubes from the board, replenish all face-up bird cards on the display, and start the next round. The game runs like this for four rounds. As such, each round you will have access to one less cube to use as an action. So, as the game develops, your actions will have to be carefully considered. The later rounds will fly by! Players will often want one or two more turns to complete certain scoring options in their early games. It has that delightful frustration of always wanting to do a little bit more. After the final round, players will score points for all bird cards on their board. Each player will score points as per their own bonus score card given to them at the start of the game and any subsequent bonus cards they may have gained during the game. Then each player will add the points scored from the mid round goals, and one point for every egg, cached food token, and tucked card on their player board. The highest score wins! Is it Fun Wingspan Board Game Review (Bear with me, we will get there...) Wingspan has a huge fan base. I think this is down to three main things: First, Wingspan is a gorgeous-looking game. The art on the cards is stunning. Each one of the 170 cards is unique and shows a beautiful, accurate picture of a real bird. People like this. It feels educational but not boring. It is interesting, true to life, and visually pleasing. The box art is also wonderful—clean and instantly striking. On a shelf, people would be intrigued to find out more. Second, Wingspan plays well, incorporating some solid mechanisms in a highly accessible way. Mix the visual appeal with solid gameplay, and you have the scale to win fan-voted awards. Winning awards gains more sales, and a positive cycle of new games being sold and new fans coming to the game begins. Finally, I think Wingspan grew to have such a huge following because it is good. But there are a lot of people out there who love it, and some who really don't. When anything gets this big, it will inevitably polarise opinion. Often, the extremes are more emotionally led, and I find a mean average can help. But those extremes sure do create a lot of hype. And that brings more sales too. So, the art draws attention. The attention draws fans. The fans draw awards. The awards draw more fans. And the whole time, it turns out the game is good too. Hmmm... Let's take a quick look at those extremes for a moment, though. The people that absolutely love Wingspan may come from a few groups. One such group may be those who have been introduced to modern gaming through Wingspan but haven't played many others, and so find it incredible compared to other older "classic" games. This is a wonderful thing. Well done to Wingspan for bringing so many more fans to this great hobby of ours. But this may explain why some views are so high in comparison. They have nothing better to compare it to. I would also wager there is a large group of fans of Wingspan who become such passionate supporters of the game due to the theme: twitchers, birders, and ornithologists, drawn to the game by the setting alone. Prior to Wingspan, there really were not that many mass-market games about birds, believe it or not! Their opinions would be positively biased by their love for a previously neglected topic within games. In the way that a mean average works, I would suggest we can discount these hardcore fans' opinions to get a more balanced review for the masses. I am not discounting their genuine and absolutely sound love for this game. I am just using a mean average for the purposes of a review, and a rather labored point. So, for balance, let's look at the other side of the fence. There seem to be two main groups of people who really do not like Wingspan. The first is those who find anything that gets this big hard to love. People who will avoid popular bands, films, and books simply because they get huge press or mass market attention. Wingspan won a lot of awards, and with that, put a lot of people off. Not just because some people avoid the popular or obvious, but also because these awards were a popularity contest rather than an objective result of mass game testing. It was frustrating to some that Wingspan won best card game, for example. It sure does use a lot of cards, and they are fundamental to the core mechanics of the game. But many would argue that Wingspan is not a card game per se. Catch me at my most pedantic, and I may be inclined to agree with that! So, this can turn some away. The second group, who seem quite passionate about this game's inability to tickle their own personal gaming itch, are those perhaps more familiar with the hobby prior to Wingspan coming out. Perhaps they enjoy more mid or heavyweight games, and they find Wingspan to be too light. Frustrated by such a simple game's popularity, they become irritated by so many people thinking that "this is what modern board games are about." They want people to experience a deeper game, to try something with more weight, and feel Wingspan stops people from trying what they may see as a more true reflection of modern board games. I don't necessarily subscribe to all these points, but I certainly can see merit in all these arguments. I raise them purely to work towards a mean average. However, let's look at the stats. On BoardGameGeek there are 176 ratings of 1 currently recorded as per the day of writing. There are 138 scores of two and 307 scores of three. Now, let's compare that to the scores of 10, which currently stand at 9,600! There are 15,000 scores of nine and 25,000 scores of eight; the mean average starts to climb up a bit. And the low scores and arguments start to get somewhat drowned out! I wonder how many people reading this would be shocked by the above. I thought, personally, that there would be far more lower scores, the vitriol for this game being so loud in the industry. But I suppose that is because, like all things in life, sadly the negative reviews and lower scores can often be shouted with a much louder voice. I would wager, although I have nothing to back this up, that there are many more people from the positive categories I mentioned above who have not scored Wingspan at all on websites like this, as they are not on BoardGameGeek. Even more people who are new to the hobby would add their own 8s, 9s, and 10s but are not doing so, simply because they are new to the hobby and not on BGG yet. Whereas the active gamers who dislike Wingspan due to their many years in the hobby almost certainly would be present on scoring sites like this, in much higher numbers. So, you could argue there are many more unscored "Tens" out there than there are unscored "Ones." Maybe Wingspan isn't as polarising as we have been led to believe. The numbers certainly don't back it up. Maybe it's just good? Well, that was all very interesting, if a little subjective! But it didn't really answer the question, Is this fun? To save this argument between myself from continuing, I will answer that now. Yes, Wingspan is fun. I felt it needed some context, considering this review is coming three years after its release. A lot has been said about this game, both in the VERY positive and also in the VERY negative. I wanted to find a balance in trying to understand why the extremes exist, while looking for the facts to see if those extremes are as balanced as I had been led to believe. But what I am left with, after the dust has settled, is just a solid game. One that looks great and is produced to very high standards (that admittedly perhaps increases the cost a little too far, another irritant for some), but that delivers a stunning table presence that has brought many new people to tabletop gaming. For that alone, Wingspan deserves a lot of credit. But let's take away all the hype, awards, history, and criticism and just look at the game. Wingspan is a good, low to mid-weight game that incorporates some interesting card play and clever engine building, coupled with an interesting depleting action selection mechanic and multiple ways to score. As a game on its own, it is solid. If you like birds, you will love it. If you are new to the hobby and want something accessible that takes you to the next step, this could be a firm favorite for you. If you enjoy hand management and simple tableau building, this may be the one for you. My advice: ignore the hype and give it a try. One of your friends probably already has a copy. It sold loads, don't you know?

Order here - Countdown To Chaos WBG Score: 8/10 Player Count: 1-4 You’ll like this if you like: Feeling smart about yourself! Published by:   Joe Mills (I) , Tristan Rogers , Dan Wiseman Designed by:   The Detective Society This is a free review copy. See our review policy here . This will be a SPOILER FREE review Countdown to Chaos is a new, short, escape room-style puzzle that acts as a prelude to the larger, more complete experience, Murder on the Moon, which we will be reviewing on the site shortly. This is a single one-hour experience that tees up the story you will experience in Murder on the Moon. It is fully replayable; nothing will be destroyed or messed about with. However, once you know the answers, it has limited replayability for the same player or group as the challenge is somewhat gone at that point. But for a one hour puzzle, this sure does seem like it could be fun? But is it? Let's get it to the table and find out. How To Set Up Countdown To Chaos Get a piece of paper and pen to take notes, and make sure you have a device that can get online to hand. A phone, tablet or laptop will all work just fine. Open the envelope and take out all the components. Find the letter with the QR code and read this. You are now ready to start. In fact, in reading this letter, you have already begun! How To Play Countdown To Chaos The idea of the game is to solve a mystery that will unravel itself as you play the game. The opening letter will give you all you need to make your start, along with prompting you to head to an online portal where you can "talk" with someone involved in the story. On this platform, you can also ask for help and get clues if you ever get stuck, which is handy if you do stall. But within this hour-long experience, you will find there are around five main set pieces, mixing online and physical clues together, that you will need to piece together to find your ultimate answer. Answers will be entered into the online portal, which will then tell you where to look next for the next part of the puzzle. The story, as explained in the opening letter, so this is not a spoiler, tells a tale of a private company looking to launch a new Moon mission. But "rumours of espionage are rife!" And it is your job to find out who is behind this sabotage, what they are trying to do, and stop them before it is too late. But don't worry. It won't ever be too late. You do not play in real time. There are no ways for wrong answers penalised you when entering anything incorrectly into the portal. It will simply nudge you in another direction. There is no end game score or final grading. You will simply get to the end and be told "Congratulations" and then be encouraged to check out the next game, Murder On The Moon, with a very cool little set piece I will not spoil here. But it certainly made me glad I had a copy of the next game. Is It Fun? Countdown To Chaos Escape Room Game Review If you are buying this as a one off, I could suggest you will need to seriously consider the price of the next game too. You will feel incomplete if you do not play that as well. You absolutely can just play this one game. It will be fine and is a complete experience. But the story will end abruptly on a bit of a cliff hanger, teeing up the next game - so take note of that. But it can absolutely be played as a one off if you want. And the one hour or so you will spend playing this will feel enjoyable to anyone who likes to solve puzzles. There is a nice variety of styles and ways the puzzles are presented to you. The difficulty was just perfect for me. The game says it has a difficulty rating of 2.5 out of 5, which I would say is about my level! Nothing was too taxing, but the payoff when you find the answer was enough to make me feel happy about my time spent with this game. I needed one clue from the portal, and the way this presented itself was very good. I entered the wrong answer for an early clue, where one of three answers is needed, and they are all very similar. I had not noticed that and entered one answer thinking it was close enough. The portal then simply said to me it thought I might be wrong and suggested I look again. It was a satisfying way to get something wrong and did not make me feel like I got too much help to eventually solve the puzzle correctly next time. There is a small amount of cutting out needed with the above clue, but you don't need to be accurate. Just cut the two circles out so you can move them independently on top of one another. I tend not to like too much "arts and crafts" in games, mainly as I am not good at that part of it. But here, it was minimal, and you really do not need to be careful. I was a little unsure of the art. It looks a little AI-generated to me. No artist is listed, and I have not asked anyone for confirmation on this. It is just my assumption. But if you look closely at these people, there are a few anomalies usually associated with AI. But it is fine, and fits the purpose perfectly. I am just not personally a fan of AI art in games. That said, this may not be AI art. It's just an assumption. If you are a fan of puzzle games like this, then I would heartily recommend this game. But really, only if you are willing to spend the extra money on the follow-up, Murder On The Moon. This game is just under £12, and Murder On The Moon is a penny under £70. So, it does feel a little like those magazines where the first week it's only £1, but there are then 25 more weeks at £9 a pop! I would much rather this simply be one game at £82. But I understand the world doesn't work like that, and it certainly is not this publisher's fault this is how consumerism or marketing works. I am just personally not a fan of it. But with the marketing and cost aside, this is an excellent little one-hour experience that I thoroughly enjoyed and would recommend to anyone who enjoys puzzle-style games such as this. There certainly is a lot that goes into the story, writing, and web design for these games, so personally, I think the cost is quite fair. And the experience and enjoyment I get out of them certainly merits the cost.

Order here - Post Office Card Game WBG Score: 7/10 Player Count: 1-4 You’ll like this if you like: Quick, simple, card placement games. Published by:   Hobby World Designed by:   Evgeny Petrov This is a free review copy. See our review policy here . Post Office is a 2023 polyomino tile laying game from Hobby World, where players are looking to bring some order to the chaotic nature of a Post Office run by animals! The game was illustrated by Natalya Kondratyuk , a comic book artist, who also worked on the comic, Post . A graphic novel that won a prestigious Russian comic book award, the Kommissia . The game has now been turned into a simple card game version, that offers a similar feel, but in a much more condensed experience. But is it still fun? Let's get it to the table and find out. How To Set Up Post Office Card Game The game comes with 36 cards, either marked with a single dice pip or two dice pips. For a four-player game, use all the cards. With three players, remove any nine cards. For one or two players, remove either set of 18 cards, keeping the other set. For a single-player game, shuffle these 18 cards, then remove nine at random. You can mix these up, but for a more balanced game, it is recommended to use the sets. Shuffle whatever you are left with and deal one card to each player as your starting card. Place this face up in front of you. Place the remaining deck face down in front of the players. How To Play Post Office Card Game Players will now draw two cards from the top of the deck. In multiplayer, players will keep one card and pass the other to their left. Taking one new card themselves from their right. In solo mode, you simply keep both cards. Now, all players place both their cards into their play area. When you place a card, you must cover at least one space of one existing card. You can never go under previously placed cards, and you can cover as many slots as you like on previously placed cards, as long as the number of uncovered slots increases by at least one after the placement of this new card. On each card, you will find a mixture of images, either mice or different types of packages. The idea of the game is you are looking to create rows and columns with three or four different packages. A row or column with three different types will score you three points at the end of the game. Four unique packages will score you six points. If you have any packages repeated in any column or row, you will score nothing. Any uncovered mice will score you negative one. Most points wins. In the solo game, there is a simple score tracker to show how well you did, ranging from under six points to over 25. Is It Fun? Post Office Card Game This is an incredibly simple game to learn, teach, and play. Games typically last for me around five to ten minutes. I like to do a best of three to get a more complete game experience. The cards are all very cluttered. On each card, in the six spaces, you will see two Mince, two unique packages, and two blank spaces. The makeup of this is obviously different on each card, but the setup remains constant. Your goal is to find the best way to lay out and orient cards so that you can build up rows and columns for three or four unique packages. This is easier said than done! You may find you are adding a unique package to a row, but in doing so, are inadvertently adding a duplicate package to a different column. In a game where you create a simple and small tableau, adding only two cards each turn, it is surprisingly easy to miss things like this! But as you play more, you will find there are ways to manipulate your array to maximize your points efficiency. And like many games, your enjoyment will come not just from aiming for a better score than your opponents, but bettering your own scores, game after game. I enjoy the simple, relaxing nature of games like this. They are simple and fun to play, and you can fit them into any part of your day, considering the small impact they have both in terms of time and space. The game comes in a tiny box and takes up minimal play space when you play, so it can be taken with you and played in most environments. The cards are perfectly square, though, with no rounded edges. They are actually quite sharp, so watch out. And the card stock, though thick and high gloss, has no linen finish, so perhaps could be a candidate for being sleeved. If you enjoy simple card-laying games, with pattern building and simple but interesting scoring, this could be one to check out. It has a tiny footprint both in terms of cost and size, so it fits easily into any collection, handbag, or pocket. Well worth checking out if you are looking for a new portable game.

This is a preview copy sent to us for our early opinions. No money exchanged hands. Some art, rules or components may change in the final game. You can follow the crowdfunding here . Golem Run comes from the genius minds behind other such brilliant trick-taking games as White Hat , Tricking with a board; Justice , trick-taking with deduction, and Tolerance , asymmetric trick taking with some very clever post trick card play. This new game comes to Kickstarter in early 2025 and combines trick-taking with a race game. With a Golem theme! The game is set in the dwarven society of Odrixia, the same world as Justice and Factory 42 (I have not played this one yet). In the game players are Golems... no, that isn't right. We are Golem owners... wait, no, it's not that either. What are we then? Oh yes! We are the crowd! We are the crowd watching the race! Not seen that theme before. The game unfolds over multiple hands of tricks, concluding when the first Golem crosses the finish line. Players will be dealt or drafted cards (depending on which version of the game you are playing) and will then use their cards to wager on which Golem will win and to try to anticipate the bets of others. This is done through a simple trick-taking mechanic that has some very clever nuances. Let's get into it. But first, you need to set up your race track. The game comes with four race sections that are double-sided. Place the first one down (the one with the three starting spaces - shown via the cog symbols). Pick the side you want for each piece and slot them together. Each player will choose one piece and a side for that piece in turn order, starting with the Race Marshall (starting player). When placing pieces together, players can do so however they choose, as long as touching pieces have at least four touching hexes. The Race Marshal then shuffles the deck and deals 12 or 14 cards to each player, depending on the way you have chosen to play: Quick or Tactical. For Quick, deal 12 cards, and that is it. For Tactical, deal 14 cards and then start a draft. Here, players pick four cards from the 14 in their hand, passing the remaining ten to their left. They then choose four more cards from these ten, passing the remaining six. Pick four from these six and discard the remaining two cards. You will now have 12 selected cards. Each player now chooses one card from their hand to be their Centre Bet, placing it face down in front of them. The colour of the card indicates the colour of the Golem that player thinks will be in the lead come the end of the round. The number of green Speed Dots on this chosen card indicates the number of spaces this player predicts the Golem will be in the lead by. Then, all players place one card face down on either side of this. The card to the right is their prediction as to what they think the player to their right has just bet as their Centre Bet. The card on the left is their prediction for the player on the left. Players will now play rounds until either a player runs out of cards or one Golem crosses the finish line, starting with the Race Marshal leading the trick. This works by that player playing either one or two cards. If you play two cards, both cards must be the same number. The suit of the chosen card(s) is the suit of this trick. If you play two cards and have two suits, both suits are in play for this trick. Booster cards (plus ones) can be added. This does not count as another card, but rather as a booster to one other played card. Alternatively, the lead player can wait and wager. This means they forfeit the opportunity to play the first card and let the next player choose. Once a card or cards have been played, all other players must follow by playing a card or cards of the same suit. Wilds (black cards) can be played as any suit. If you cannot follow suit and choose not to play a Wild, you can play any card. Following players can add Boosters too. Following two cards, players must match at least one of the suits played, and the two cards must again be the same number. Again, if you cannot play two matching cards, you can use Wilds or play any single card. Following players can also choose to Wait and Wager. When you wait and wager, you will, of course, have more cards for following tricks, increasing your options. When you do this, you can take your three face-down cards into your hand and replace them with any three cards. The winner of the trick is the player who played the highest value card of the lead suit, or the highest value card in a pair with at least one card matching the lead suit. If any identical cards compete, the trick goes to the most recent card played. If all players wait and wager or all cards played are wild, then the trick is considered to be under inquiry. In this situation, all cards bar the current winning cards and play another trick with the same lead player. Determine the winner of the second trick as normal, then the winner of this second trick takes the winning wild from the first trick, adding it to the cards from the second trick. This gives them more options in the next step: moving the golems. The winning player of any trick now uses one or two of the cards played to win the trick to move the Golems on the race track. The Golems move the same number of spaces as shown by the Speed Dots on the card chosen. Golems must always move so that they end their movement closer to the finish line, but this does not have to be in a straight path. They cannot retrace their steps, they must use the full move possible, and they cannot move through other Golems' hexes. However, when a Wild card is used, players do not have to move closer to the finish line, but they also cannot end further away. Boulders block movement. Water can only be waded through if there are no Wilds in the winning trick. And fences can only be jumped if there are Wilds in the winning trick. This will continue until one player runs out of cards or one Golem crosses the finish line. Then all players reveal their three Bet cards. Anyone who guessed the lead Golem correctly gains one point. Ties are friendly. Points are also scored if you guess the lead of the Golem in first place correctly, equal to the distance between them and the second-placed Golem. Players will also score two points for any correctly guessed Suit in their other two Bet cards that match their neighbour, and points equal to the number of Speed Dots for any matching card there. Any player with cards in their hand can then return one of these cards, but they keep the rest for the next round. However, you must then lose points equal to the highest Speed Dot score in your remaining cards. You cannot move below zero at this point, though. The position of Race Marshal moves one space to the left, and a new round is started, dealing players cards up to 12 or 14 (depending on the style of game you are playing), taking note of any cards they may already have in their hand. Golem Run is an incredibly entertaining trick-taker. The cards in the trick being used to move the Golems—on which you have all placed your bets—is an intriguing mechanic. Games move pretty fast, and the Golems' movement will be somewhat unpredictable, making the prediction of the betting round a little chaotic for some. Especially in round one, where you really have very little to go on when predicting your neighbours' intentions. But as the game goes on, you will start to get a feel for which Golem the other players are trying to get to win. Although players can switch their allegiances as the game progresses, and either bluff on one Golem before switching to another, or simply change focus when one Golem moves ahead of the others. It is an interesting addition of bluffing, betting, deduction, and hidden information to a simple trick-taking game. This is more of a bluffing and betting game added to the trick-taking than a race game. A race is happening, of course it is. But you don't win if a specific golem wins; you win if you bet correctly on a specific golem and if you can deduce what the other players are up to in their own mischievous plans. It is a fascinating blend of mechanics, feelings, and tactics. I think this may well be my favourite trick-taker from designer Ren Multamäki yet! I am excited to see this hit Kickstarter in 2025, and would encourage anyone who enjoys clever trick-taking games to check this out. The blend of deduction, bluffing, trick-taking, and racing is a master class in blending mechanics. Trick-taking games are always fun. I particularly like this designer's style of adding in other elements to the trick-taking form. And I feel with Golem Run, there is the perfect combination of a fun theme, good-looking art, simple gameplay, and intriguing mechanics. This could be a real winner on Kickstarter in 2025.

Order here- Sellswords: Olympus WBG Score: 7.5/10 Player Count: 2 You’ll like this if you like: Card laying games with ever changing game states Published by: Level 99 Games Designed by:   Cliff Kamarga This is a free review copy. See our review policy here . Sellswords was first published in 2017, and now Level 99 Games is bringing it back with a fresh new reprint. At the time of writing (15th December 2024), this is currently available for pre-order from the publisher. You can use the link in the game title above. But why are they bringing it back? You presume because it is good, don't you? Well, let's get it to the table and find out. How To Set Up Sellswords: Olympus First, separate the Terrain tiles from the rest of the deck. Then, shuffle the remaining cards and deal seven out onto the table. The cards are double-sided, don't worry about which side you deal. Now pick a first player at random, and then each player will take one card at a time from the seven in the middle until all players have three cards. Note, the power of the card you choose may have powers that affect this, but more on that later. When both players have three cards, discard the final card into a discard pile, and deal out seven more. Repeat the process until both players have six cards, again discarding the final seventh unchosen card. Players must now decide who will be red and who will be blue. The red player must turn all their cards to the red side, and the blue player... well, you get the idea. Now place one of the Terrain tiles at random into the central playing area, setting the unused Terrain tiles to the side. You are ready to begin the game. How To Set Up Sellswords: Olympus Players now in turn order will place one of their six cards from their hand into the central playing area. Players must always place a card orthogonally next to a previously placed card. And can never form a row or column to be longer than five cards. You are building a five-by-five grid. The first card must be next to the Terrain tile then all subsequent cards can be placed next to any card. When you place a tile down, you will do two things. First, you will check the card's abilities. Each card has a written ability shown on the face of the card. This could do one of many things: rotate other cards, move other cards, flip other cards, and many more. Once you have carried out the placed card's ability, you will now battle any adjacent cards next to you that your opponent currently owns. For example, if you are playing blue and you placed a card down next to two red cards as shown below, you would battle both cards. Battling works simply by comparing the adjacent numbers on the two cards. So in this example, the Blue Architect card would defeat both the red Hydra four to three, and the red Cerberus, three to two. This double victory would mean both the red cards are flipped to their blue side, swinging the victory into the blue players favour. Play continues like this until both players have played their six cards. Mid-game scoring then takes place, where both players score one point for any row or column where they have two cards, two points for columns or rows with three cards, four points for four cards, and seven points for any row or column that has five of their coloured cards in. Players will now repeat the steps shown earlier, where seven new cards are placed into the central area, and they take turns picking one. This is done twice, so both players have a second hand of six cards. The second round begins until all cards are laid and a 25-card five-by-five grid is formed. Final scoring then takes place, where cards in rows and columns are scored just the same as the mid-game point. Note, some cards with stars on them, like below, offer end-game scoring options too. And some of the Terrain tiles will do the same. The other types of cards in the game are split into three main groups: cards with mandatory effects, those with optional effects, and cards with ongoing effects. Note the type of card and its specific unique effect when you place it, and how it may interact with other previously placed cards, especially the ongoing effects. At the end of the game, the player with the most points wins. Is It Fun? Sellswords: Olympus Card Game Review Sellswords is an ever-changing game where players constantly battle to and fro for ownership of the cards. There are some intriguing and subtle tactics that you can deploy throughout the process, making this fast game deeply strategic. Starting with which cards you draft, taking note of the cards your opponent takes, and then, of course, which order and location you place your own cards in. This is a back-and-forth, tug-of-war between two players, where card ownership will change multiple times throughout the game, and you need to strategically plan ahead to make your specific hand pay off. If you have a card with two strong numbers, ideally you will want to wait for a situation to arise where you can place this card and use both those numbers. Using just one wont be the end of the world, especially if the unused high number in in a open space. It will at least have a good defence ready for other cards placed next to it. But it would be nice to flip two cards with it when you place it, wouldn't it. Likewise, if you have a power that affects more than one card, you will want to wait for a situation to arise where this card can make full use of that benefit. It may be that you can manipulate the game board to develop in this way using your other cards. You need to think ahead, plan accordingly, and be one step ahead of your opponent at all times. Now, of course, this is very difficult. Because all the while you are doing this, your opponent will be doing the same. But both players will know what cards the other player has. They all see them in the initial draft. And they are double-sided, so you cannot really hide them from your opponent during the game anyway. We play with the cards on the table so you can see them all easier. But this does also make it harder for the other player to see them, rather than being held up in each player's hand. Laid flat on the table, the angle does make it hard to read them unless you stand up and really peer over. But either way, if you want to see the other player's cards, you can. But even with this knowledge, can you predict what order they will play them? And where they will use them? All this combines to make for a delightfully strategic game that offers constantly interesting choices, making you feel fully in control of your destiny. All in a package that concludes within 20 minutes. I would highly recommend this to anyone looking for a quick, fast, fun two-player card game that creates a back-and-forth swing feel, with interesting and satisfying scoring options.

Tolerance WBG Score: 7.5/10 Player Count: 3-5 You’ll like this if you like: Trick taking games with a twist Published by: Dragon Dawn Productions Designed by: Tony Cotterill , Ren Multamäki This is a free review copy. See our review policy here . Tolerance is made by a publisher that likes to make card games, specifically trick-taking card games. But the idea is they all come with a twist. We have already reviewed White Hat on What Board Game, a trick-taker with a board and no suits! And Justice , a genius little game that incorporates deduction into the usual trick-taking fare. Now, we are looking at Tolerance, another trick-taker set in Reformation England during the 16th and early 17th centuries. The game plays out over three rounds, each representing the reign of a monarch: Queen Mary, Queen Elizabeth I, and King James I. At its core, Tolerance highlights the pain and conflict caused by disagreements over beliefs, particular religious ones. But what is the twist? Well, let's get it to the table and find out. Spoiler, its a good one! How To Set Up Tolerance Every players selects a Player Board, a Score Sheet, and a Role Card. For your first game, it's advisable for everyone to opt for the Bertram the Balanced side. In subsequent games, participants can either select Roles or have them distributed randomly. Unused Roles should be placed back in the game box. For your first game, it's fine to be open about this and which role you have. But for later games, when you are using the asymmetric roles, keep your role and agenda secret! It's not the easiest thing to hide, but there you go. Next, set aside the Monarch cards, and shuffle the Suit cards. If you want to know how many there are in total, ask Bill & Ted . Count out 35 cards for a three player game, 47 for a four player and 59 for a five player. Then add the Monarch card for the current round to these cards, and shuffle this deck. Mary for round one. Elizabeth for round two. And finally James for the last round. Now deal 12 cards to each player. The player who was most recently involved in religious activity, whatever that may be, can now pick the starting player. They can pick themselves if they wish. In round two and three the player that has the lowest score chooses the starting player. You are now ready to play. How To Play Tolerance Players will now play 12 rounds of tricks, three times. Each round playing one card from their hand to form the trick. The starting player plays the first card, and the card they play determines the suit of the trick. If the first card played is a wild card, then the first player can choose any suit. Each other player then must play a card from their hand following suit if they can or by playing a wild card. If they cannot follow suit, they can play a wild card, declaring the suit of that card themselves. It does not have to be the lead suit if they wish. The highest card of the lead suit played wins the trick. The player who played the winning card can take the cards in the trick and then applies any end-of-trick effects on any of the cards. More on that later. They will then place the cards into the respective scoring tracks. Again, more on that later. The winning player now leads for the next round. The end of round effects are conducted in Rank (number) and Suit order. So, the 14 of Nobel's first, down to the one Wild. The end of round effects apply only to the other cards played in that trick, apart from the Monarch card. Each card has its own effect and target. Cards can do one of six things. Let's look at them all. It will help make the rest of the game make a lot more sense. Royal Execution - The will 'kill' any one card on any players tableau from this round. Note only the Monarchs have this effect. And it happens after all 12 rounds are done if the Monarch has survived. Killing means you move the card to the bottom cemetery section of the player board. Collect Taxes - You can take money to the value shown on each living card of the specified type. If no type is specified, take from all living cards. Watch out for the cards that never give money; they only take! Such as the Clergy, Bailiff, and Deceitful Lover! Record your taking on your score sheet. You start with five coins and can note any more gained on your score sheet, along with the Piety. Then, when you score any multiple of ten for each, check off one of the Pennants below. Even if you drop below these numbers later, your Pennants remain. Collect Piety - Collect the value shown in the eye symbol on each card that is living from the trick. Again, do this for the specified type, or all cards if no type was specified. The Piety will either be Catholic or Protestant Piety. It's different, don't you know? So distinguish your different Piety between the two religions as you score when you collect your Piety. That's a weird sentence. Condemn - This is another way to kill a card. But only if the target cards' Piety is lower than the Piety of the card you are using to Condemn. You can only Condemn people if you are better than them. It's like social media. Convert - As above, but instead of Condemning a target card, you convert them. Through vigorous, open, and honest debate I suppose. Kill - A good old fashioned, your dead type of card. Once all the cards have had their effects, the remaining living cards are now placed into their (potentially new) religious position on your board. And the next round begins. Once all twelve rounds have been played, all players now score their cards. This can be done one by one to create a bit of a story and have some interaction, or you can do it all simultaneously if you are looking for a quicker, more efficient game. Your choice. Do you even like your friends? All living cards will score one coin for each Catholic in round one, each Prevailing card in round two, and each Protestant in round three. If at this point you have less than zero money you must take out a loan. You will now have one money and a loan card. You can only take one loan car per round, and you must pay five money in a future end of round phase to pay off the loan. If you don't, you will lose three points at the end of the game. Players will now score one Piety for each living card in your Catholic and Protestant piles. Finally, all players now score points based on their own role shown on their player board. You will score points for each card you have in your tableau. You will score based on their suit, if they are alive or not, and depending on the round, if you have at least one Guild member, or if you have the most. Each character role scores differently and is clearly shown on the card as below. At the end of round one and two, you will now start a new round by dealing out 12 new cards to each player. At the end of the third round check if you will run through the end of game scoring shown on the role cards. Here, players will score additional points for Money and Piety equal to the amount shown on their role card (between minus one and four) multiplied by the number of Pennants checked off on your score sheet. The maximum you can multiply here is six. Add your Pennants bonus to your total, remove three points for any remaining loan, and this is your final score. Is It Fun? Tolerance Card Game Review So, what is the twist? Well, I suppose its religion and 'death'. In that you can score cards based on their religions. But religions can change, and cards can die! I am joking of course. The twist is the cards won in each trick are not simply piled up and put to the side of the winning player, but they are used. But only by the player who won the trick. And so when you play a card you need to be thinking both about can you win the trick and which card to play to do that. But also, if you cannot win, what card and power do you want to give to your opponent, and which cards do you want to keep back to try and win with on later rounds. It adds a huge layer to the very simple process of trick-taking. And I love it. It does make the teach for this game a little difficult. Certainly more than your usual trick-taking game. For what is a very simple game, I have personally struggled to teach this game to a few groups. I asked each group why that was the case afterwards, and they said because they found the theme to be a bit dry and the cards to initially seem a little cluttered. However, I, and a few others I played with, adored the theme. It's history. It's real. It felt deeply thematic to me when a Catholic Witch Hunter killed a Protestant card with lower Piety than it. When a Bailiff took money from me, rather than give me money, that made sense to me. When my Valiant Knight killed a Peasant, it all felt like the world was turning as it should! It's brutal, it's harsh, and it's quite dark. But it's real. And executed brilliantly. As while it is true, the cards do look a little busy at first, this is more to do with the line drawing style of the art than the layout and amount of information on them. After a round or two, I found all players were able to read them very quickly and simply. But it does affect the initial teach, no doubt. I love the asymmetric style of the game. This is another twist in this game's mechanics. There are not many asymmetric trick-takers out there. And as much as this is more about how you score rather than how you use the cards or play the game, it certainly affects which cards work for you, and which rounds you will want to win. And this asymmetric battle between players, when everyone is vying for slightly different things, makes this game an absolute gem. If you like trick-taking and asymmetric games, I would say this is a must-have for you. Certainly, it is well worth playing to see if it works for your group. But I would wager if you like those two mechanics, this could well be a huge winner for you. I personally really enjoy this but did struggle to find willing players to enjoy this with me. It is strange how formal and unapproachable this game appears to new players at first. It really doesn't play like that. I would encourage anyone put off by the theme and art to give this a try. I think you may well just love it.

Order here - Noir WBG Score: 8/10 Player Count: 2-4 You’ll like this if you like: Simple deduction games, with some killing! Published by:   Level 99 Games Designed by:   D. Brad Talton, Jr. This is a free review copy. See our review policy here . This may well be one of the easiest games to pitch that I have seen in a long while. Noir is a simple-to-learn, quick-to-play (15-minute) card game that comes in a small box with four variations that all feel quite different. It works just as well for two to four players, but could be open for more in a team play situation. If you like deduction games and want something light and easy, this is a dream. But, is it any fun? Let's get it to the table and find out. How To Set Up And Play Noir There are four game modes here. I will go through them one by one. Killer Vs. Inspector: How To Set Up Killer Vs. Inspector: 2-4 Player Game. Separate the Suspect cards from the Evidence cards and place them in alphabetical order in a five-by-five grid. Shuffle the Evidence deck and deal four cards to the player acting as the Inspector and two the player acting as the Killer. The Killer will look at both cards and use the first as their secret identify. The second will be there disguise. The Killer will then Kill one card in the five-by-five array by flipping over one card that is above, below, next to, or diagonal to the card they were assigned as their Identity. The Inspector then chooses one of their four cards to be their secret identify. ideally, not the one just killed if they had been dealt that one! How To Play Killer Vs. Inspector: The Killer will now take their turn, carrying out one action. The Inspector then has one action. This continues until either the Killer kills ten people, or the character chosen by the Inspector as their secret identity, or the Inspector correctly identifies who the Killer is when next to that card, or successfully guesses who both the Killer's identity and disguise are. Both players on their turn can shift one column or row one place in either direction, moving all cards one space. This is done to move closer or away from certain cards. Both players can also remove previously killed cards and collapse the board down, bringing all remaining cards together to form a new smaller grid. The Killer is also able to kill at will, any other card next to them, as well as being able to switch between their identity and disguise at any point. The Inspector can accuse any card next to them of being the Killer. If they are right, the game ends and they win. They can also try to solve the identity of both of the Killer's cards. But if they guess wrong here, they lose. The game ends either way if this is the choice of the Inspector. The Inspector can also use the cards in their hand, placing one Evidence card over the matching Suspect card, and the Killer then must reveal if they are next to this card. The Inspector then draws one more Evidence card to keep a hand of three at all times. Spy Tag: How To Set Up Spy Tag: 2-4 Player Game. Lay out the Suspect cards into an alphabetical five-by-five grid. Then deal each player an Evidence card. In a four player game, separate into two teams. Team mates will share their Evidence cards with each other. This is the only time in the team game players can secretly communicate in the game. All other communication must be open for all to hear. How To Play Spy Tag: Players will now take turns to try and identify who the other players in the game are. You will do this by carrying out one of three actions each turn. You can either move one row or column one or two spaces, shifting all cards in either a row or column one or two spaces in either direction. Or, you can ask if any one other player is next to one specific card. The card you pick must be adjacent to your own identity, so this will reveal some information to the other players about your own identity. The other players must answer truthfully. Or finally, you can try to capture, by picking a card adjacent to your own, and if any other player is this character, you capture them, take that card as a point, and that player is then dealt a new Evidence card as their new identity. The first player to do this two times is the winner. Dragnet: 2-4 Player Game How To Set Up Dragnet: Lay out the 25 Suspect cards into a five-by-five grid. (You're sensing a theme now, aren't you?) Shuffle the 25 Evidence cards and deal each player two cards for their hand, and one card to be placed face down in front of them. The face-down card will be each player's own personal Secret Suspicion. Players may look at their own Secret Suspicions, but they must keep it, as the name suggests, secret. Then draw the top three cards and place them face up on top of their matching Suspect card, and leave the rest to create a face-down deck. How To play Dragnet: Players will now take turns to perform one of four actions in an attempt to create a line in the main grid that contains only innocent characters or Secret Suspicions. The first action is a Targeted Shift. This lets players place an Evidence card from their hand on top of the matching Suspect card and then shift the row or column containing that Suspect one space in either direction. Cards that move outside of the 5-x-5 grid in this way will be placed into the empty space created at the start of that row or column. The second action is to Question. This is where players may place an Evidence card from their hand on top of the matching Suspect card in the grid, and then take an adjacent previously placed Suspect card from the grid and place it into their hand. Then, all players must honestly say if any of their Secret Suspicions cards are adjacent to the card that was just picked up. The third action allows players to Rethink. Here, players can again place an Evidence card from their hand on top of the matching Suspect card in the grid, but this time, they can then pick up their Secret Suspicion and swap it with the other Evidence card in their hand. They will then draw a card from the Evidence deck to replenish their hand. The last action allows players to Solve the case, by picking any row or column, including diagonals of five cards. Then players must raise their hand if their Secret Suspicion is in that line of cards. If the number of raised hands matches the number of cards without Suspect cards on top, then this player wins the game. If they are wrong, then the player who guessed misses their next turn, and all players who raised their hand may swap their Secret Suspicions with a card in their hand if they wish. When the Evidence deck runs out, all players may attempt one Solve action in turn order, and then if no one wins, the game ends in a tie. Buddy Cops: Three Player Game How To Set Up Buddy Cops: Once again, lay out the Suspect cards into an alphabetical five-by-five grid. Shuffle the evidence deck and leave it nearby. One player will be a Killer, another the Profiler Cop, and the third an undercover cop. Take the appropriate reference card. Each player now draws three Evidence cards. The Killer picks one as their Secret Identity, placing this card face down in front of them. The other two are set aside as Disguise cards. The Killer player then flips over a card adjacent to their current Secret Identity on the grid, "Killing" them. Each player acting as a Cop now picks a living Suspect in their hand to be their own Secret Identity, placing this card face down in front of them. The Undercover cop then hands the other two cards to the Profiler Cop, checking the Profilers Secret Identity as they do this. The Two Cops must not speak as they do this or for the rest of the game. The game then begins. How To play Buddy Cops: Play rotates between the Killer and cops, with the cops taking every other turn, in between the Killer. So the Killer goes first, then the Police. Then the Killer, then the Undercover cop, then the Killer, and so on. The Cops are looking to Accuse the right Killer. The Killer wants to make 13 Kills, or simply kill both Cops. The Killer has three actions. They can Kill, just as in set-up. Shift one column or row one place in either direction, moving all cards one space. Or Disguise themselves by picking up their two Disguise and swapping their Secret Identity with either card. The Undercover Cop can take one of four actions. They can Shift just as the Killer above. Fast Shift, which is the same but two spaces. Disguise themselves by drawing a new card from the Evidence deck and picking a new Secret Identity from this card or their current one. The unused card is given to the Profiler. Or they can Accuse the Killer by choosing a Suspect adjacent to their current Secret Identity, and if they are correct, the Killer must reveal themselves. If you pick the Killer's Disguise, they must discard this card, but they do not lose. The Profiler Cop can Shift or Accuse, just as above. And they can also Exonerate or Deputize. Exonerate means they will place a card from their hand onto the matching card in the grid. The Killer must then sat if any of their Disguises or current identity is adjacent to this card. They do not have to say how many of their cards are adjacent or which one. Just a simple yes or no. Deputize means they can choose a card from their hand matching any living card in the grid and place down to replace the Undercover Cops current identity. Their old Identity is placed to the bottom of the Evidence deck. Is It Fun? Noir Card Game Review The four games in this box all feel quite similar, but they certainly have their own flavour and style. The first and fourth are by far my favourite, with the last being the best of the lot, and the one I have played and enjoyed the most. There is a really interesting moment in Buddy Cops when one cop is killed by the killer. This does not end the game as the killer needs 13 deaths in total, or two dead cops. But it does create a shift in the game. When a cop is killed, the two players acting as the cop must switch roles. The old profiler gives all their evidence cards to the new profiler along with their reference card. The old undercover cop takes these and gives their reference card to the other player. The dead cop then draws cards from the top of the evidence deck until they find the first living card. This becomes their new secret identity. Any other drawn cards are discarded face up. Then the new undercover cop looks at their partner's new identity. After all this has happened, a lot of information has been shared between the two cops. They are one life down and closer to losing. But they have also gathered a lot of new intel and shared more between each other. It's a great little catch-up mechanism that adds incredible tension to the game. All four games are short and tense. They offer an incredibly smooth and fast deduction-style experience with just two small decks of cards. It really is incredible what has been done here with so little. I think there is something for everyone with the four variations. More ruthless players will enjoy being the Killer in the first and fourth games, whereas the more 'sleuthy' players who enjoy the deduction side will have fun acting as the Detective or Cop in these two games. The second game, Spy Net, is more for families, I feel, and the third game, Dragnet, suits players more into puzzle and pattern building games. I would recommend this game to anyone due to its versatile nature, and my family and I can enjoy the first and last game a lot more over the coming years. It is portable, simple to teach, and quick to play. It creates a lot of fun table talk once the game is over, and a real sense of tension as you play.

This is a prototype version of the game and does not represent the final quality or look of the game. I first looked at this game when it was called Ecolapse. You can read the preview for that here . I said it was "mind-blowing," and I stand by that. It is a brilliant game. But, for whatever reason, the game did not get picked up in that form. So, designer Steve Eggleston has reformatted the game, come up with a whole new theme, and polished a few rules. The result is Beetown Beatdown. The game plays largely the same. But gone are the troops, and in are the Bees. In what was previously a five-round game where you had to race to turn eight troops into Refuge sites three times to win; now, you turn ten Bees into Hives over three rounds. Also, previously the game system worked mainly using a tech tree that increased the power of your actions as you played. But now you simply upgrade your actions to make them more powerful. It is a cleaner and more efficient system. I do like tech trees, so it is a shame that part went. But the result is the same, and the process of developing your engine remains incredibly satisfying. But back to the start. Beetown Beatdown, much like Ecolapse, is a race game. Who can gather resources, expand their Bees, and build their three Hives first? You only have three rounds (now broken down into Seasons) to do this. But I found that quite often more than one player would have three or more Hives by the end of the second season. As such, games were often decided by the player with the most Hives, rather than the first to three, which made for very exciting and close games. ns this race game more into a resource management game. It is a game of efficiencies. A classic euro style experience. But unlike many euros, delivered in minutes, not hours. Especially with two players. Three players will encourage more fighting and often led to the game moving into the third season. But I still found games concluding within an hour. So, how do you play? Players take turns to perform one action. They can either use one of their four Worker Bees to carry out any of the four actions, or one of their four Drones to carry out any action that at least one of the Worker Bees has already done. Drones can perform any action, but only if they are copying something a Worker has done before. The first action for each type of Bee is free, but the second action will cost one resource, the third two, and the fourth will cost three. This is indicated by symbols revealed when you move the workers down from their starting position to the action spaces, so you won't ever forget. The Workers use Pollen, and the Drones use Nectar. Managing and gathering your resources effectively will be crucial in order to use all four possible Bees. But that will be rare in rounds one and two. The way your total number of actions is determined by your ability to manage your resources rather than the rules is something I love in games. Taking those extra turns when the other players are having to pass feels great. Resources are gathered by collating all resources on the map that are on a hex with one of your Hives, or the hexes surrounding them. But only the hexes that either are unowned or that you own. You own a hex if you have a Bee or Hive on it. During the action phase, players can add more Bees to the board and move them around to explore new unexplored hexes, gathering more resources as they do, growing their control of the board, and increasing the resource-gathering potential for later seasons. This is an area control battle that can turn to war! This part of the game, spending resources to add Bees to the board, expand your territory, and gather more resources feels a little like Blood Rage to me. Not thematically, of course. But in the spending something to add dudes to the map - to get more resources - to have more turns. That cycle is a very satisfying thing to noodle out in your head. If you ever move a Bee onto a space owned by another player, (either with a Bee or Hive) you must then immediately commence battle. Bees are angry little things, don't you know. This is done through very interesting new battle cards that offer all sorts of clever options. It is here that I think the game has improved the most. Previously, players had somewhat limited choices based on ten pre-set cards, consistent among all players. They were great cards, but the options were a little more limited. Now, players are dealt five random cards from a huge deck of brilliant, unique, and varied battle cards. Options to link them are everywhere. And the chance to pull off some audacious moves in battle are very high. It is a brilliant development of the game. And just check out the fantastic character and names too! Tell me you don't want all these characters as bobby head models! The other option in the game on your turn is to Extract or Build. Extract means that you will permanently end a particular hex's resource-generating possibility for a one-time hit. It's a dangerous move to make too early, especially if it is near one of your hives—remember, your hives generate resources on all neighboring hexes each round. So, you need to be careful with how often you do this and where you do it. But it can be a powerful way to get the resources you need to take the one extra turn you so desperately desire. Build is the final action, and what everything else you are doing is leading up to. There are two ways to build Hives. Either you convert ten Bees on one hex—located anywhere on the board apart from next to any existing Hive—and replace them with a juicy new Hive. You will also need to pay one Pollen for each existing Hive you have, plus one. So, later Hives do cost a fair bit. But as you only do this a few times in each game, it shouldn't be hard. And when you build one, it feels great. A real sense of achievement. The other way to build Hives is by removing eight Honey upgrades from your player board. Not the best thing to do too early, as your engine will greatly reduce in efficiencies, but a killer option for a later or final turn in the game! And on that, let's talk about the upgrading process. At any point in the game, you can convert two Nectar into Honey. Honey can then be placed onto any of the four upgrade slots on the bottom of your board to increase the efficiency of that action for the cost of one Nectar per Honey placed You can either move extra spaces, add extra Bees when you recruit, take more resources when you extract, or reduce the cost of building a Hive. Or, as mentioned above, use them to build a Hive. It's a genius way to make use of a resource you previously used to increase your engine during the game, to then have one final use of it before the game ends. You don't see this often in games, and I wonder why. It is a brilliant feeling to pull off one final killer move. The Honey can also be used to play extra cards during combat. You can play one card for free, and then as many as you like from your hand of five, spending one Honey for each extra card played. It is a very powerful resource, and worth investing in. If you haven't already guessed, I still love this game and think this new version is even better than the last. I preferred the previous theme, but still like this one. I just find it looks a little childish for my own tastes - a look that doesn't suit the game for me. But the actual game, rules, mechanics, and flow are all brilliant. The final version of this game would be a 9, close to 9.5 for me. It offers so much in such a short, quick gameplay experience. The game feels heavy, crunchy, and full of great decisions. You need to maximize everything you do and ensure you are increasing your number of turns, resource generation, and Hive production capabilities each round. And doing this feels so good. But it is all wrapped up within a game that is incredibly accessible, simple to teach, and quick and easy to play. It really is a brilliant game. I hope this version finds success and final production copies are made in mass numbers. This game deserves to find lots of loving homes.

Undaunted: Stalingrad WBG Score: 10 Player Count: 2 You’ll like this if you like: Undaunted Series, Memoir ‘44 Published by: Osprey Games Designed by: Trevor Benjamin , David Thompson By Steve Godfrey Since this is a legacy game I’m going to try to be as spoiler free as possible. I am going to be discussing how some of the basic legacy elements work in general but I’m not going to get into any specifics. I’m also not going to get in to how the game plays, there’s plenty of great videos out there to teach you the game and if you already know how to play an Undaunted game then this works pretty much the same just with one or two changes. Ch.ch.ch.changes. Speaking of changes, let’s get into them now. Controlling a tile has changed from Normandy. You can control a tile regardless of if it’s occupied by an enemy counter. Once controlled the only way it can change hands is if the controlling player has no units on that tile. Routing. When a unit of yours is attacked and you no longer have a card in your hand, discard pile or deck to add to your casualties pile, you place a white flag on it, it’s now classed as being routed and you get to push that unit to an adjacent scouted space. This will get removed once you bolster another unit of that type into your deck. If both of a player’s riflemen have been routed, they lose that game. Routed units can still be fired upon and any successful hit will let you move that unit back one space. Last but not least is withdrawal. When playing the campaign a player can choose to withdrafrom the scenario and hand victory to their opponent. It may seem a weird rule, why would you just give up. Well it’s sometimes better to take a loss in the face of inevitable defeat rather than have the potential of more casualties. Legacy elements. Again this isn’t going to go into specifics, just a brief overview of how the legacy elements work after scenario one. After each scenario, players will take their casualties and depending on how many they have, will draw a number of cards. These cards will be removed from the game permanently. Don’t worry, nothing gets destroyed, you just place it in a separate space in the box. They then get replaced with their equivalent reserve cards from the reserve deck. These cards are worse versions of the regular cards that could have one of a number of changes on them that’s now given you a disadvantage. These are there to represent untrained reserves that are being thrust upon your forces. Players will then take all the cards in your deck (not ones from their supply), shuffle them and then draw two. These cards then get replaced with upgraded versions from the upgrade deck and, as the name suggests, are better versions of these cards. As the campaign goes on you’ll see new unit types and map tiles will change as areas have the potential to be destroyed. Depending on who won the scenario you’ll be told to read a certain section of story in your book. Each player will get their own campaign book from which they’ll read their own story elements to themselves. At the end of the section it will tell players which scenario they need to play next. Each scenario will then let you know if you’ve unlocked any new cards/ units, will tell you how to set up your deck and the win conditions for each side. A legacy for all So far we’ve had two and a half Undaunted games (reinforcements added some cool stuff but wasn’t a stand alone game) and one of the things I love about the series is how they manage to keep the core system, the thing that makes Undaunted such a fun game, in place in each iteration. They still give each one a unique twist but it just means that you could jump from game to game and just read up on the new stuff. What’s also clever is that, although functionally similar, they’re all worth owning (given that you like the new aspects of course). I mention all of this because the thing that fascinates me more with Stalingrad is that they’ve achieved all of this in a legacy game without sacrificing any of the simplicity of Undaunted. It’s so easy to take one look at that big box and assume that you’d need some foreknowledge of the other games in the series first. But of course the brilliance of all this is that anyone can jump into Undaunted Stalingrad regardless of if you’ve previous experience with the system or not. If you’ve played an undaunted game before then all you need to do is flick through the rules for the changes and you can jump into your first game of the campaign. If you’re new to the series you can read the rules as normal and play the first scenario once through to get a feel for the game then play again starting the campaign proper. The campaign does a great job of starting you off on a smaller scale and then ramping up as you go along, but if you’ve played an Undaunted game before it never feels like “oh this is just here for the new players”. It’s actually quite a nice refresh if it’s been a while. It makes this huge box a little bit less daunting. (Sorry!) All this works in its favour throughout the campaign as well since any new key words/ rules etc are never too overwhelming and are introduced piecemeal throughout the campaign. Some of these fluctuate in and out from scenario to scenario which is actually a relief if you’re only able to scatter plays here and there. I love Pandemic Legacy season one, but the constant permanent addition to the rules meant that jumping back into it after a few months meant another big rules refresh before the next game could begin. It took a simple rule set and bloated it out. I do wish that all the rules regarding the keywords and attacking were a bit more consolidated into one section of the rulebook though. They were a bit scattered here and there. Whilst things weren’t hard to find, we did find ourselves flicking through the book a bit more than perhaps we would have liked. Campaigns and consequences So how does this work as a campaign? Quite simply, it’s fantastic, and one of the things that makes it work so well is, consequences! (Of course that could be said for any legacy game, I mean, that’s their thing). In previous games, having a card removed from your deck was more of an annoyance than anything else. Sure it hurt your game and potential victory but ultimately you knew that everything reset for the next scenario. That’s absolutely not the case here. Every hit you take is now a major blow, not only to the scenario, but to the campaign. Every casualty in your pile by the end of the fight has the potential to be cast out into that lonely space in the box and, potentially replaced with a lesser version that is almost certainly going to be an unwanted hindrance at the very worst time that could probably cost you a game or two across the campaign. There’s nothing worse than knowing that you’re a point away from victory, only to be left with a reserve rifleman who doesn’t have the ability to control! It’s not until you get into the legacy element of the game that you start to realise why the “withdraw” rule has been made. Winning scenarios is great, but sometimes taking heavy casualties could be more detrimental to your campaign than taking the loss. It also adds a really lovely thematic touch as it makes later games feel like a slog (but not in a bad way) As your decks and supply fill up with weaker cards, scenarios will draw out and you really get the feeling that you’re playing as an army at the late stage of a conflict. You’re tired, beaten down and you’re fighting to your very last. The upgrade and reserve system gives your deck building some even tougher decisions. When making your starting deck and bolstering you get to choose which soldier you add to your deck. Do you take your regular rifleman, the upgraded one or the reserve? It seems like a no brainer, take the upgrade, it’s clearly better. But then you ask yourself the question, what if they get hit? Then they’re in your casualty deck and have a chance of being taken out altogether. You start to take on the role of a protective parent as you umm and ahh and weigh up your options. Go in heavy with your best people and hope to get the job done quickly, or send in the reserves and try for a last minute push at the end when you’ve hopefully worn down your opponent. It’s a balancing act. Considering this is a competitive legacy game that you’re playing over fifteen scenarios it’s fair to ask “is it balanced?” But here's the thing, it’s not an easy question to answer with a simple yes or no. Now I will throw in the caveat that this game has a branching narrative and I’ve only played this through once (and at the time of writing this I am already in the throes of a second) so I can only speak to my particular playthroughs. Scenarios themselves depend on who won the previous scenario to determine their configuration, but most of them are usually weighted more towards one side. Which makes sense since this is a war game and how many wars do you know that are balanced?. It’s also thematic since it makes sense that winning a scenario will give you tactical advantage. Don’t let any of that put you off though. There were a few times that we looked at a scenario, looked at the other player and said “well you’ve won this one”, but it either went the opposite way or it went right down to the wire and could easily have gone either way. The other reason why this is such a hard question is the amount of variables. So many things will change across the campaign that will have an affect on how things play out. It’s difficult to say definitively that you’re going to have a balanced experience with this because there are so many factors that will go to shape that experience. The cards in your supply/deck, the state of the tiles and even which units you bring in on a given scenario and much more will go to determine how it all plays out. But since most of those decisions are player driven, it's really down to them and their tactics that determine how it all goes…….except the dice, dice will be dice. All of the above is why I think this game has a massive replay factor. The scenarios themselves are fun tactical puzzles with some great options to explore. How the game changes leading up to them will give you a wealth of different decisions to make and a wealth of options to explore. For example, choosing to level a building in one scenario could have a massive effect in a later one. On another playthrough it could be a different building or even none at all, which again could change your tactics later on. At the time of writing I’m five games into my second playthrough and I’m just as excited at the prospect of getting a game played as I was with my first playthrough.. I’m already seeing things change and different decisions being made, different units being used and scenarios play out in a different way to before. I’m almost more excited by this one because I want to see how things change compared to the first one. I can quite easily see this being a campaign I pull out at least once a year and playthrough again. It’s only as good as the sum of its parts. Now I have a confession to make when it comes to the story. I didn’t really get invested in it at first. That’s not a knock on the story but more my excitement to get to the next scenario. I was reading it and taking things in because I’d have a rye smile as it mentioned things that were to come in the scenario to come, but my eagerness to get playing again meant I did rush reading each section. After finishing the campaign I did go back through the scenarios we played and read through the story again. I have to say that for a game that is basically a big choose your own adventure style narrative, the story does hang together well. I think anyone who can construct a cohesive narrative around something like this deserves all the applause. My only worry is that the story could easily get lost depending on the length of time between plays. This isn’t a knock on the story, just a downside of how we consume this style of game. It wouldn’t be an Undaunted game without Roland McDonald’s fantastic art. I don’t The landscape on the tiles pulls you in with its dark colours giving the impression of an already hard fought war zone and the individual character art on all the cards give this a more personal touch than if there had been one character type for each type of unit. It’s as much a part of this series as the game mechanics. It ended with an “oh, right” There are a couple of misprints in the books (that I’ve seen anyway). One is more of a slight annoyance and we easily found the solution on BGG. Designer David Thompson has been a constant presence there to answer questions. The other one did put a bit a dampener to the ending of the campaign. Without spoiling it, it meant that we didn’t know that the scenario we were playing could have ended the campaign depending on the outcome. So when we found it was the end it gave the whole campaign and “oh…right, that’s it”. It’s a shame, because had we known that the campaign could have ended based on the outcome it would have really raised the stakes. It would have upped the tension and given those last few moves and dice rolls so much more meaning and excitement and made every point gained and casualty taken even more crucial. I will say that this didn’t affect my enjoyment of the campaign as a whole or even this last scenario. This is again resolved on the board game geek forums so if you have an earlier printing it’s worth looking this up when you get close to the end just so you’re aware but hopefully this is fixed in a future printing. Undaunted: Stalingrad is my favourite Undaunted game hands down and has now moved swiftly into my top ten games of all time. It doesn’t mean I’m getting rid of the others though. If I want to dive into a campaign then this is my preferred way to go. But if you want to get in a quick game of Undaunted then the others are on my shelf ready to go. Undaunted Stalingrad for me is the pinnacle of an already fantastic series of games.

Alpina WBG Score: 7.5/10 Player Count: 2-4 You’ll like this if you like: Quick filler games with clever scoring options. Published by: Helvetiq Designed by:   Luc Rémond This is a free review copy. See our review policy here . Alpina is a very simple little puzzle where players make two choices: Where shall I play my card this turn? And, which cards do I want to score from? Games last 10-20 minutes, but each game will feel quite different. Why? Because there are so many different ways to score, you will display 25 of them in each game, and you can only ever pick four to eight of them (depending on player count). It is a very simple, but clever system. Let's get it to the table to see how this plays. How To Set Up Alpina Pick one of the goats from the deck of cards and place it face up in the middle of the table. Then shuffle the rest of the deck and deal six cards to each player, placing the remaining cards into a face down draw pile. Then, each player takes four Hikers in their chosen colour for a four-player game, five Hikers in a three-player game, and eight in a two-player game. Be sure to also take your scoring marker in your colour too. Now, pick a first player at random and you are now ready to begin the game! How To Play Alpina Players will now take turns to play a card from their hand and then draw a card from the draw pile. You must always have six cards. When you play a card, you have an optional choice to place one of your Hikers down, either on the card you just placed or onto any card orthogonal to this card. This card will then score you points at the end of the game, based on that specific card's scoring function. Players will be collectively forming a five-by-five grid as they do this, so you can never place a card so that it forms a sixth card in a row or column. When the 25th card is placed and the five-by-five grid is complete, the game ends and players will then score their Hikers. Start on the top left of the grid and work your way along the rows, top to bottom - scoring each hiker one at a time. The box has a handy scoring device on the top edges of the bottom part of the box, so you can move your coloured counter along as you score each Hiker. Most points wins! But how do the cards score you points? Well, in many different ways. But they are largely themed around the cards in their near vicinity, row or column - based on what the card is. The Nutcracker bird cards will score you points based on other animals in the grid. The Chamois Goat will score you points based on other Hiker pawns in the grid. Whereas the Grass Frog will score you points based on the different types of landscapes on the cards in the grid. Each card will have one of these three animals on, as well as one of the three landscapes. Either the Mountain, Lake, or Forest. These are the animals and landscapes typically found in the Parc Naziunal Swizzer. The oldest national parc in the Alps. Where this game is themed. At the bottom of each card will be the way each card scores. For example, this card below has a Chamois Goat in a mountain. It will score you one point for each Hiker on any card surrounding this card at the end of the game. Whereas this Nutcracker in a Lake will score you one point for every Goat on the same row or column as this card, as well as one point irrespective of other cards. And this Frog will score you two points for each card that is orthogonally next to it that has any animal in a mountain. Make sense? Is It Fun? Alpina Card Game Review The game plays incredibly fast and does not offer anything that is new or, in truth, that original. But what it does offer is VERY interesting scoring. And if you like tile/card laying games where you need to maximize your scoring potential through clever placement of your cards/tiles, then this could well be a game that sits very nicely in your filler game pile. Within 10-20 minutes you will feel like you have made a few clever decisions, scored well from a few smartly placed cards, and experienced something that I would wager the majority of players would really quite enjoy. The game all looks gorgeous too. The art style is right up my street, and the setting is obviously a very picturesque and calming one. I would have liked a little more individuality in the art, but then again, the consistent styling between the three animals and three locations does make scoring a lot easier. You can find things quickly, and when you are constantly scanning up to 25 cards, looking to see where to place your card and hikers, this consistency in art does help. Come the end of the game, as you can see below, it is quite simple to quickly see where all the Frogs are, for example. And the changing landscapes and colors do then cause for a visually pleasing tableau, despite the minimal variation. But it is the scoring that sets this game apart the most. There are 11 different main ways cards can function, and lots of variations on that. Choosing which of the cards you want to place your Hiker on is always interesting. And the fact that you can place your Hikers on cards next to the card you place, not just the card you place, makes this decision even more interesting. A card someone else placed that does not work for them could work for you, and you have a chance to use it if you place a card next to it. But you will be thinking as you do this, does the card you place next to it help this initial card's scoring opportunities? This back-and-forth will be running through your mind more and more as the game continues. And this becomes more consuming as you have more Hikers on the board, scoring points for you in different ways. The knock-on effects of each card's potential use become exponentially more interesting the more Hikers you have on the board. Equally, are you helping another player more than you are helping yourself? There is a lot to think about in this little game. But nothing that will consume you. It's still quick, and light, and games will be fast and friendly. Sure, you can deliberately place a goat down next to a frog that really doesn't want to be next to that specific goat, and you did it for that very specific reason. But players know in this game you cannot control every card, 50% of them at best in a two-player game, 25% in a four-player. It's about controlling the controllables in this game. It is rare a card will max out its scoring unless players start grouping similar scoring cards together, but even then, they still won't ever work in complete harmony as each card and card placement is slightly different. As such, if you like card/tile placement games where you are making a collective tableau and exploring interesting scoring options, and are looking for a quick game in this field, I could not think of anything to recommend more than this game right now. It does what it set out to do perfectly. That may not be overly original, but not everything has to be. Sometimes you just want a game to do what it is trying to do well, and this does just that. And it sure does help when it looks pretty too!

Yaxha WBG Score: 8/10 Player Count: 2-4 You’ll like this if you like: Building things that are pretty, but also score you big points! Published by: Helvetiq Designed by:   Baptiste Vaiana This is a free review copy. See our review policy here . You know Helvetiq? Yeah, you know - that cute Swiss publisher who makes delightful little box games? Well, strap in. They also make big box games too! Well, not big box per se. But normal size box games. Well not quite normal size. Its a bit more square than the Ticket To Ride box. But anyway, I feel I am losing myself here. They have made a "bigger" box game, Yaxha. And it's a beauty. Let's get it to the table and see how it plays. How To Set Up Yaxha First, place the cubes into the bag. After your first game, I imagine you will simply leave them in there now forever! Next, arrange the Market tiles in a line at the centre of the table, one per player. Place any remaining back into the box. Each player then takes a set of cards that match the Market tiles. One for each colour. Now, deal a Turn Order tile to each player randomly and draw three bonus cards at random and place them face up. There are recommended cards for your first game to keep thing simple. You are now ready to play. How To Play Yaxha The game plays over ten rounds. Each round, one player will draw three cubes at random from the bag and add them onto each of the market tiles. Players will then decide which set of three cubes they want the most. In order to try and claim the cubes they want, each player will then place one of the cards from their hand that matches the tile they want face down in front of them. All players will then reveal the card they played, and if they all played different cards, simple - each player takes the cubes on the matching tile and adds them to their own personal construction. If there were any matches in cards played, then the turn order breaks these ties. The turn order cards are then swapped. For example, if you had the third card previously, and two others matched with you, then you would have third choice, but you will end the round with the first turn order card for the next round, the player with the first card will now have the third, and the person with the second will keep the same card. But what are players making? Well, as the name suggests, and I am sure you are all aware, Yaxha is a Mesoamerican archaeological site in the northeast of the Petén Basin in modern-day Guatemala. So, yeah, you are making one of them. A boxy pyramid. Which in this game means a four-tiered structure with the bottom base being a four-by-four grid, the second a three by three, then two by two, and finally a single cube on top. Like this... When you place a cube, it must touch another cube of the same colour. Be that on the same level orthogonal to it, or on a previous level below. For your first placement, of course you can ignore this rule. You can start a higher level without completing the level below, but you must always have a full base of four cubes to place another higher cube on. If you ever cannot place a cube simply discard the cube. Your structure sadly now will never be complete. The game ends after the tenth round. Players will then score for each of their largest groups of cubes for each colour. There is a handy scoring guide, which you can see below, that details exactly what each quantity of touching cubes will score you. You will also score based on the three scoring cards you have in the game, which range from simply scoring an additional five points to the player with the most of a specific colour, to more specific things, such as five points for the largest single group of cubes in one colour, no matter the colour that is. Or even five points for any player who managed to place five different colours on level two. Something that usually you would not want to do, instead favouring building up your largest groups of two or three colours. Is It Fun? Yaxha Board Game Review There is something incredibly calming and satisfying about creating your little Yaxha's in this game. The cubes are just so tactile. They feel great in your hands. 'Clunking' them together feels lovely. It makes a lovely little 'clunk' you see. Forming groups of colours makes your heart sing. The process of this game alone is wonderful. But is it fun? Well, yes! You add the satisfying nature of the actual physical process of this game, add in the bidding process by which you claim your building pieces, then chuck in the big points on offer in the end game scoring - and you have yourself a winner. The only reason I do not score this game higher is it's just a little too simple. It's just a few rules. A few cubes. And that's it. Sure, the cards add in some variable scoring options, and it is nice to have these different challenges each game. But this is a 1/5 weighted game on BGG for a reason. And as much as I do not usually let that sort of thing affect how I rate a game, it is hard not too in this case. I will explain why. The game itself, though fun to play - though satisfying to do well in; does whisper to me as I play it, "are you playing a game? Or is this just a fun activity?" Now, I do not think this. But I do think about it each time I play. But, I do answer back, "NO! This is definitely a game! Have you not seen the rules? The mechanics? The scoring?" Which does makes me feel like I won that little argument quite convincingly. However, the game then does this say back to me, in a tiny little voice that I can only just about hear, "but you did think it?" Which is fine. Activities can be fun too. It doesn't make this any less of an experience. It doesn't mean I enjoy it any less. But it does explain to me why this great game, that I love playing, that I really enjoy getting out and going through the process of "playing," scores an 8, and not any higher. It feels quite abstract, (obviously) as you play. Which again is fine. I like abstract games. But it does have a theme. And I just feel a little more could have been done with the theme, and perhaps just one more little wrinkle of a rule linked to the theme could have been added to make this good game - great! It feels a little too similar to other games of this nature, when it had the chance to really stand out in its field. My score puts into context this slight under development as well as my overall enjoyment. That said, I do really like this game. I just feel it has a little more potential than the end result, and the score I am giving it. But I will keep this in my regular pile, and will see this getting a lot of plays. It is perfect to play when you are a little tired and don't want too much table talk. You may be willing to accept the odd "Ah! I can't believe you took that pile, I wanted that pile!" But with the knowledge that you will then quickly hear "It's cool, this other pile works great for me too." Because you will always score well in this game. Games will be close, and losing is ok. Building the Yaxha is fun in itself. And it is just a nice thing to do, an activity if you will. No, no! This is a game. Sorry.

This is a preview copy sent to us for our early opinions. No money exchanged hands. Some art, rules or components may change in the final game. The link to the publishers insta is   here . Grunling: Fantastic Fruits is an adapted version of a game that was first launched on Kickstarter a few years ago under the guise of FunkiFruit. I was a big fan, but the funding was canceled. I think perhaps the art was not to everyone's taste, and maybe it was simply the wrong time. The game is now back with a brand new look and feel. Art now coming from German artist Johanna Forster who has done a phenomenal job with the fresh new style. It's beautiful, whimsical, fresh and vibrant all at the same time. Just check out this cheeky Pear! I very much enjoyed the previous version of this game. It had some interesting scoring options and the card play was slick, fast, and full of laughter. This new version is pretty similar in terms of rules and game play. It just feels like it has grown up a bit. Gone to university, and learnt a few new tricks. And certainly bought an entire new classy wardrobe! I hope this time round the Kickstarter is a success as I would love to see this game out in the wild. The game deserves that. This is what I said last time about FunkiFruit. Essentially this is a set collection game where you are looking to build a hand of ten cards that score you the highest possible points total but there are so many ways you can do this and your hand will change drastically and so quickly, and not always by your own design. It’s fast, family-friendly fun that we have had a blast with. It has some take-that but it’s all fun and you always have time to sort yourself out. This is a game you can’t take too seriously but offers a lot of replayability due to the number of cards and the Swarm cards that bring rule changing moments four times per game. There will be a lot more of these Swarm cards in the final KS version too. Well worth checking out. All of that holds up! Except the Swarm cards are now replaced by Effects cards. Similar sort of vibe, but with new name. The other main change is the setup, which used to be a little fiddly. It is now a lot simpler. You will need to add or remove certain cards based on player count. And if you have a different player count from your last game, you will need to do some minor admin. But the cards you remove all now have a very clear edge colour and style, so they are very simple to find. And it's only ever a maximum of 13 cards per set you are looking for. And you only have to do this when you increase player count. Otherwise, you are all good. But I don't want to get into the changes too much. FunkiFruit sadly never saw the light of day. This game, I hope very much does. And I want to now focus on this new version of the game, which is great fun! When I play this with my family, games fly by. Everyone always seems to be having fun. And win or lose, players enjoy the process as scores are always high. Scores of around 90-100 are common. Sometimes a fair bit more if everything clicks, But either way, it always feels fun. As I said in my previous preview, this game is simply about trying to curate the best hand of ten cards that you can. You start with seven and can never have more than ten. You will often get more, but then need to discard down. There are a lot of cards in the deck, and you will cycle through them very quickly. Each turn, you get to draw two cards. There are also many Action cards that let you get more. You can take cards from other players, as well as force them to discard ones you know they have or are collecting. But ultimately, there are a lot of ways to manage your hand and turn what you start with at random into a high-scoring thing of beauty by the end. And that process is wildly satisfying. There are so many ways to play this game. Do you go for a big Grape majority? Perhaps you want to chase berries and aim for enough to score the big bonus there. Some cards work in pairs, like, well - The Pear. And you need to find another card with the same art to score the maximum here. But you can always use the Star Fruit if you don't find the other Pear. Or there are cards like the Dragon Fruit and Orange which simply score big on their own. There are also cards like the Lychee which offer a small bonus on their own but are more useful during the game by using their power to "Nope" your opponents when they play cards on you that you do not wish to suffer from! A very handy card to keep in reserve. Chasing the Apples can be a bit risky. Other players will quickly cotton on to your plans, as this is a card you need multiple copies of to score well from. Six is the goal here. As you draw one card openly each turn from the deck, players will quickly realise if you are not discarding them in later turns. There are certain cards that let you affect how well people score from Apples in a way that will not make them happy when they receive it! Be warned if you are in the Apple game. But if you take the risk and it pays off, there is a huge reward coming your way. But you can keep two cards face down in your basket. These are safe from most attacks and also hidden from the other players throughout the game. But nothing is ever fully safe in this game. Some cards allow you to take blindly from other players' baskets. Have they put something juicy there, or did they load it with a trap? Players can always change the cards in their basket, so you don't have to put the good ones there right away! The game is full of back-and-forth like this, as all players look to slowly build up the perfect ten cards to score big at the end of the game. The game clock is controlled by the event cards. When the fourth and final event is drawn (always in one of the bottom six cards), the game immediately ends. These event cards are very clever in how they work. They all have an instant effect on the game as you play. But if the event is the fourth an final one, each card also has a specific end game effect, which can sometimes have big swings. Such as one event that now punishes all players who don't have a Darkling card. These are cards that usually you will want to get rid of in the game. But keeping one back just in case may not be a bad idea if you think this card is in the deck. They will also score you ten points if you have the most of them at the end of the game. But holding one when someone else has two can be tough! Or do you ignore this, risking it because you think you can score bigger with other cards? The choice is yours. And this certainly is why I think this game deserves a space on anyone's shelf who enjoys fast-playing, enjoyable card games with a mix of strategies in how you can play it. There is so much choice here as to what cards you go for. Your starting hand will dictate this to some extent, of course, but you will always have enough time to see a good percentage of the deck to then try any strategy you fancy in this game. And it is this simplicity that I love. Collect some fruit. Make it the best set of ten cards you can. Go!