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Line of Fire: Burnt Moon WBG Score: 6 Player Count: 2 You’ll like this if you like: Udaunted. Radlands Published by: Osprey Games Designed by: Trevor Benjamin , David Thompson (I) This is a free review copy. See our review policy here By Steve Godfrey In this game you and your opponents are playing opposite forces fighting to hijack/ defend the moon of Io but instead of using human combatants you’ll be using remotely operated robots to do your fighting for you. Still, it’s nice to see the contestants from Robot Wars managed to get themselves jobs after the show ended. I wonder if Craig Charles is gonna be hosting the fight?! How to battle in lanes To set up both players create their decks as per the rule book and place the rest of the cards in a supply, then take each of the five site tiles, shuffle them and lay them out in front of themselves in a line with the other players bases in front of that. Then both players, in turn order, place a MOSS unit card in front of one of their sites but not in the same area as their opponent. Each player draws four cards and then secretly chooses one to play for their initiative value. The player with the highest values goes first. On a player's turn they will play as many of the three cards left in their hand as they want, discarding any left at the end of their turn. When you play a personnel card you can take one of the actions on that card. These will never enter the playing field and will mostly serve to bolster your deck by taking cards from the supply and adding them to your discard pile. They will have other actions, for example, letting you draw more cards and even attack units in the field. When you play one of the many ROV cards (there are basically mechs and will make up most of your deck), you can deploy it to the line. When you deploy you can place a ROV next to one of your sites but  with a caveat. You can only have units of the same squad on a base. So you can’t mix up a squad A card and Squad B cards on a site.  If you already have a card of the same type on the field then you can take one of the actions on that card that is then acted out by the matching unit in the field. It’s here that you can take control of bases, attack enemy units and even move units to other sites.  To control a site you first have to have a majority. So add one point for each active card each player has at that site (it’s possible for cards to exhaust, at which point they don’t count for majority) add one for any fortification tile each player had there and add a point if a player already has control of that site. If you have a majority then you flip your site over and score those points. If the enemy already has control then you flip over both sites. When you move you move a unit to an adjacent site taking into account the placement rule from earlier.  When you attack you first see what the attack value is on your card, then compare it to the defence value of your opponent added to the defence value of their site.  You can use a different attack value if you have a majority in that area. If your attack value matches or exceeds their defences then you score a hit. The defender then has to remove a card of the matching type from first, their hand, if not then their discard pile, or their draw deck. That card is removed from the game. If they can’t find a matching card in any of those places then the card that was on the field gets removed and taken from the game.  The game will end when either one player wins eight points worth of sites or when one player has eliminated all of their opponents moss cards from the board.  It’s Undaunted Jim, but not as we know it. Even though the words Undaunted are never mentioned in this game, this is set in the world of Undaunted Callisto and by and large uses that same card play system. This time though in the form of a lane battler. Right from the off I’ll say this is another example of why I like these two designers working together. Every Undaunted game, and seemingly now every game that uses this Undaunted System tries to change stakes. It’s proof that they’re not willing to rest on their laurels. They’ve gone out of their way to change things up and try something different in every iteration and this is definitely their biggest swing by far as they take their card play system away from war games and maps and place it in a different genre of games and it works... for the most part. There’s a lot of room in this game for some great strategic plays and some fun back and forth as players vie for control of the sites or try to eliminate those all-important MOSS cards. That back and forth, though, is constant and always needs your constant attention. Much like when you’ve been left in charge of all your children on your own, and they try to exploit your weakness. You can’t just win a site and then turn all your attention to the next one. Because control is all majority-based, it may not take much for your opponent to add another card to the site or neutralize one of your cards there and take control. You’ll find that you turn into a futuristic, space version of a plate spinner… which, now that I think about it, is presumably just a plate spinner. You need to keep an eye on all bases, and so the decision to move a unit, while helpful for taking control of one site, could be massively detrimental to the site you just moved it from. The theory behind taking sites sounds pretty simple, just have more stuff, but the execution can be a lot more difficult. The more you play and get a handle on the strategy, you can start to incorporate some nice tactics. Like maybe reinforcing a site and drawing your opponent's attention to it while suddenly snatching control of another one. It’s those fun mind games that can really bring the game into its own.  So the question is, why don’t I just add a new unit to the board and reinforce it? Well here’s where I think they’ve really utilised this system well. Yes you could put all of your TIR units on your sites, for example, but if you do then A) you now have no cards to activate them and B) if they get attacked then you have no cards to take a casualty so you’d immediately be removing them from the sites. It encourages you to plan efficiently and really think about the placement. Planning and even experience is certainly the name of the game here. Since you’re limited to only having the same squads in each site it’s all too easy to not pay attention and place a squad in a position where it may not be able to move. In some cases that may not matter. You’ll probably be quite happy having this particular squad hanging round in the top site. But at certain points, maybe later in the game you may regret not having given yourself some flexibility to move around a bit. While this is definitely an attention thing, it can easily be an experience thing. Unless you’ve done some serious research before you play then there’s a huge chance you’ll mess this up and your game will most likely be over before you even start. The only way to combat this is to play with someone else who’s playing for the first time as well. I also find that with games like this it’s nice to play against someone with the same level of experience with the game as you, although it’s not a necessity. The advantage is that if you do lose then the game is easy enough to re rack and try again. In terms of game length, this will ramp up as you both gain experience in the game. Like I said your first couple have the potential to be pretty short affairs, but you’ll soon realise the strategy in the game and before you know it the game will start to become tight, tense affairs.  Have I been burnt by this game? I have some issues with this game and unfortunately, they’re more than I’d like, especially coming from two designers whose games I. But let’s be honest, not every game is gonna be a hit for everyone.  I’ve found that it can be so easy to have dead cards in this game, which is a massive sin for me. You can pull a card, mainly the MOSS units, and realise that you just can’t do anything with it. You can’t use the control action, either because you're already in control or don’t have the majority to do so. You can’t or just don’t want to move and you can’t attack because you just don’t have enough to beat any cards. It renders that card useless and it’s such a shame. I know some people don’t like the, hit anything on a 10 dice roll rule that inhabits some of the earlier Undaunted games but it at least lets you roll a dice and use that card for something, just on the off chance you might get a cheeky hit. Here though, you just discard the card. This is even more aggravating if you're unlucky enough to have any interference cards in your hand. Speaking of dice rolls, the lack of dice in this game is also a massive downer for me. The attacking here is just too anticlimactic and mathy and because of that the tension is gone. You know that if someone is attacking your card, they’ve scored a hit, otherwise they wouldn’t be doing it. They’ve already looked at the game state and they know if they can hit or not. Don’t get me wrong, there will be people out there that love that aspect and love that it’s not based on luck and if that’s the case then chalk that up as another positive. For me, I love the tension of that die roll and the will they, won’t they hit aspects of it, it keeps the excitement going.  I found the cards in this game, to be confusing. Before I clarify that I do want to say that some of the graphic design here is pretty clever. The symbology on the top of the card, once you know how it works and that it denotes the cards action is a great idea to have on it, knowing that the rest of the card is going to be covered up. The reason I find them confusing is largely because of the names and I had this in Undaunted 2200 but it seems to be more so here. Of course, this is a sci fi game and you don’t want to use regular names for things and I’m absolutely here for games creating their own names and investing in the world building. I’m also aware that in this game in particular we’re dealing with drones essentially. But nothing here really helped me understand what their specialty was without studying their list of actions over again. Obviously, this is something you get used to as you play more often but I wonder how many games that would take for different people. This isn’t helped at all by the art work. The artwork for every card is different, which normally I’d encourage. But with a game like this where you have names to associate with different unit types, I think having say all the MOSS A units having the same art and all the TIR A having the same art with some slight variations for the B squads would have worked better to help with understanding or at least clicking with the game faster. I will say though, I love the art in this game. Leonard Dupond’s art is beautiful and I can see why they’d want to showcase it on every card. I’d honestly hate to be the person to have to distil it down to a few pieces but I think in this case it was maybe needed. Always two, there are? In this game you get two small rulebooks. One gameplay manual and one action manual. I’ll be honest, they’re infuriating. Normally when you see dual rulebooks, one is a quick start, how to play type affair to get you up and running and the other is more in-depth stuff as you get into the game and this situation can work for the most part. These two though feel like one big rule book that has been cut up and the pieces randomly distributed amongst the two books and it makes them confusing and you’ll come to realise that there is no logical reason for why things are separated.  For example, the rule for attacking is in the action manual. You then have to see if you have a majority to see which attack number you're using on the card. The majority explanation is in the Gameplay manual if you need clarification on how to work that out. You then go back to the action manual to see how the rest of the attack action plays out. Once the attack is done and you hit you need to find how to resolve casualties and that rule is in? you guessed it, the gameplay manual It’s not even like that rule needs to be in the gameplay manual, it’s just there in a random spot not linked to any other action around it. It’s infuriating because the two actions that use it are both in the action manual so surely it would be logical to put the resolution to those in the same book? The reason it frustrates me, the reason I’m making a big deal about it is because it makes the game annoying to learn and I can see so many people being put off by it. You’ve seen my score and you know that this isn’t a game that I love and that’s fine, but this could be a game that someone else could love and I’d hate to think that they’d be potentially put off from the game because they couldn't get past the rules. Even more so is that, like the other Undaunted games, this isn’t really that difficult of a game to learn and the rule books make it counterintuitive to learn than the others. Right, rant over, let’s move on. Line of Fire Burnt Moon is a rare miss for me from these two designers. The game isn’t awful and I do think that if you like the look and sound of this, then I would suggest a try before you buy because you never know, this could still be for you. In fact, a couple of things it does are things that I’ve heard a few people say they aren’t keen on other undaunted games and if that’s you then this could be the game for you.  While this game isn’t one that I love, I’ve still gotta throw respect out to David Thompson and Trevor Benjamin for trying something different.

Sneaky Supper WBG Score: 7.5 Player Count: 2-5 You’ll like this if you like: Simple family friendly push-your-luck card games Published by: Capital Gains Studio Designed by: Steve Ng Wen Xi This is a review copy. See our review policy her e There is something about a little box card game with cute art and a simple mechanic that instantly makes me want to play it. I know I can pick it up, learn it, and start playing within a few minutes. That accessibility, charming artwork, and short playtime is really appealing. But the question is: will it stand the test of time? Games like this can be fun for a session or two, but will you still be reaching for them months or even years later? That is the question I will try to answer in this review of Sneaky Supper , the new card game from Capital Gains Studios. How to Set Up Sneaky Supper Inside the box is a deck of cards divided into four main types. Separate them using the clearly distinguishable backs and shuffle each pile, except for the Recipe cards. These should be placed face up in their nine groups. Place the other decks face down, separate from this, next to the floorplan mat. Keep the score tokens nearby along with the Careful tokens. Each player begins with one Careful token and one Craving card. You are now ready to play. How to Play Sneaky Supper On your turn, you draw from the top of the Search deck. You must take at least one card, but after that you can stop or press your luck for more. The risk is noise: draw too much, and you will wake the house. The deck contains two types of cards: Accidents  – which add lots of noise through the symbols shown. Food cards  – which you need to complete recipes, but which can also make some noise. If your total noise reaches four or more, you are busted. The house wakes up, your turn ends, and the other players get first pick of your cards. Starting with the player to your left, each opponent takes one card until either all are gone or no one wants any more. If there are any left, you may take one for yourself, but your turn is still over. As compensation, you gain a Careful token. In addition, if any of the cards you revealed show the Careful symbol, you gain an extra Careful token. You can hold up to three Careful tokens at any time. If you stop drawing before making too much noise, you keep all the cards you revealed. These can be used to complete Recipe cards, which score points when finished. Discard the used cards but keep the completed Recipe for scoring at the end. You may then consume one card from your hand to score the points shown on it, but you must discard down to four cards before ending your turn. If you complete one of the available face-up Recipe cards, shuffle all previously discarded Search cards and place them under the Search deck. If you complete a Craving card, draw a new one to try on a later turn. If you manage to draw seven cards without busting, you may keep as many as you want, but you must stop there. When completing a Recipe, you may use a Careful token as a wild ingredient to replace any other card. You must still use at least one actual ingredient card, but you may spend as many Careful tokens as you like. Any Careful tokens left at the end of the game are worth one point each. The game ends when any player reaches 20 or more points. Every other player then takes one final turn. All players total their points from completed Recipes, Cravings, point tokens, and leftover Careful tokens. The player with the most points wins. Is It Fun? Sneaky Supper Card Game Review The fun of Sneaky Supper comes from its simplicity and its push-your-luck tension. Each turn you are deciding whether to risk another draw or stop before the noise gets too high. The artwork and theme give it a light-hearted feel, so even when you bust and hand out cards to other players, the player affected tends to laugh rather than groan. It is the kind of game that gets everyone talking, laughing, and cheering when a risky draw pays off. That kind of energy makes the experience very enjoyable in the moment. Over time, however, the game may not keep its shine for more experienced players. The decisions are always the same: do you draw another card or not. There is not a lot of depth or long-term strategy beyond managing a few tokens and hoping for lucky flips. After several plays the game can start to feel repetitive, especially if you are used to heavier or more varied card games. It is the type of game that might come out occasionally rather than becoming a regular part of game night. But where Sneaky Supper shines is as a family or casual game. The rules are easy to learn, the artwork is approachable, and the playtime is short enough to fit into any evening. Younger players can grasp the choices quickly and still feel involved, while adults enjoy the simple tension without needing to commit a whole night. For families or groups looking for a quick, fun experience that brings everyone to the table, Sneaky Supper delivers exactly that. Pros Very quick to learn and easy to teach Cute artwork and light-hearted theme make it accessible Push-your-luck mechanic creates real tension and table drama Careful tokens add a small layer of strategy and flexibility Plays fast and works well as a filler game Cons Can become repetitive after several plays Limited strategy means experienced gamers may tire of it quickly Luck of the draw plays a very big role Best with groups who enjoy lighter games, less engaging for competitive players Final Thoughts on Sneaky Supper Sneaky Supper is a fun, light card game that works best as a quick filler or family title. The cute art and simple push-your-luck mechanics make it instantly accessible, and the tension of risking one more card always creates laughs around the table. However, the limited depth means it may not hold long-term appeal for players who want more strategy. If you are looking for a charming, short game that anyone can jump into, Sneaky Supper is a great choice.

Bunny 100 WBG Score: 7 Player Count: 2-6 You’ll like this if you like: Simple family friendly party card games. Published by: Capital Gains Studio This is a review copy. See our review policy her e Bunny 100 is a hilarious card-based party game that works with children of all ages thanks to its simple rule set and fast, laughter-filled gameplay. It is a joy to teach, and I think I can show you how in three short paragraphs. Let's give that a go! How To Set Up Bunny 100 Separate the Ten, Challenge, and Unit cards and shuffle each deck separately. Draw one of each card and place them face up. For a simpler game, remove the Unit cards. For a more complex game, draw four Unit and four Ten cards and then eight Challenge cards, one for each. You are now ready to play. How To Play Bunny 100 Players will now take turns to say a number starting with one, then counting in ones up to 100. Player one says "one," player two says "two," player three says "three," and so on. However, whenever you come to a number affected by one of the cards, you must say or do what that card says, instead of simply saying the number you are on. For example, a Unit card may say that if a number ends with a 1, such as 11, 21, 31, and so on, you must then do what the Challenge card associated with that Unit card says, such as crow like a rooster or pat your belly! If you ever do anything other than what the cards say you should, you take a Poo token. Then start again from the nearest ten. The Tens cards work in the same way but affect the first number of all the numbers 10 to 19, or all the numbers 30 to 39. If you think someone got something wrong, you can accuse them. But if you are wrong, you take the Poo token instead. At 20, 40, 60, and 80, add an extra Challenge card, covering the old ones. The old rules remain active, so you now have more to remember. And in the hard mode, two new cards. When you get to 100, count up all the poos. The player with the least Poo wins! Did it, three paragraphs for set-up and teach in all modes! Is It Fun? Bunny 100 Card Game Review The best thing about Bunny 100 is how simple and silly it is. The rules, as you have read, are incredibly easy to explain, so you can be playing within minutes. The mix of counting, memory, and acting out challenges creates a lot of laughs, especially when someone forgets a rule and the whole table jumps in to correct them. It feels like a party game that works with almost any group because the fun comes from the chaos around the table as much as from the cards themselves. Where it might not work as well is for players looking for something more serious or with more depth. The game is about remembering silly rules and trying not to slip up, so once you know the jokes and challenges, the novelty can wear thin. Serious gamers who want more control over their decisions may find it repetitive after a few rounds. It is very much an experience game, so it shines brightest when you lean into the silliness rather than trying to treat it as a competitive contest. This very much is a party game or one for younger families. Which is where Bunny 100 really succeeds. With families and younger players the challenges are funny without being complicated, so kids can join in and feel just as involved as the adults. The short playtime means it never overstays its welcome, and the laughter it generates makes it easy to reset and play again. For groups who want a quick, accessible game that gets everyone acting a little silly, Bunny 100 is a perfect fit. Pros Simple rules that are easy to teach in minutes Works with children and mixed-age groups Hilarious challenges lead to lots of laughter and memorable moments Scales well with larger player counts up to six Short playtime makes it perfect for families or quick party sessions Cons Very little strategy, relies mostly on memory and silliness Can feel repetitive once players know the challenges Serious gamers may find it too light or chaotic Entertainment value depends heavily on group energy and willingness to be silly Final Thoughts On Bunny 100 Bunny 100 is pure party fun, delivering laughs and chaos through its simple memory and challenge system. It is easy to teach, works with kids as well as adults, and fills a session with fast-paced silliness. It will not satisfy gamers looking for meaningful decisions or deep strategy, but that is not the point of this design. If your group enjoys light-hearted games that get everyone acting silly and laughing together, Bunny 100 will be a hit.

Kavango Lodges WBG Score: 9/10 Player Count: 1-5 You’ll like this if you like: Card games with interesting layers and scoring. Published by: Mazaza Games Designed by:   Matt Brown , Zara Reid This is a free review copy of the pre-production version. The box art will change, and some art and components may change a little. See our review policy here . Kavango is a beautifully made game that encourages players to think about the environment whilst they play, but not in a preachy or guilt-trip way. No, this game shows you the complex majesty the wildlife of Africa can bring, and delicately points you in the direction of wanting to preserve that. The game is a little light, but offers a wonderful card drafting game mechanic along with a satisfying engine-building experience that has kept me coming back to the table game after game. I did feel it could do with a slightly more complex angle though, and a reason for placing cards in certain places. That was the only major criticism of the base game. Here is what I said about this is my main review: The lack of relevance to where you place the cards is disappointing. I would like for additional scoring to be made available based on specific groupings or placements on the board. But you can place cards anywhere on your board and this does not affect anything. You can read my full review here for the rules on how to play and my other thoughts. Which are all a lot more positive! I mention the above, because... The new upcoming expansion, Lodges, fixes this problem in a beautiful way. It also brings in some other wonderful new elements. So, let's get it to the table and see how it plays. How To Set Up Kavango Lodges When each player takes all their game components, also collect the Community Protection markers and Lodge pieces in their chosen colour as well. Place the Community Protection markers onto the final two rows on each column, with an extra three on the top and bottom rows on the fourth, fifth, and sixth card post as well. This should leave you with five on the top and bottom row, and two on the middle. Then, separate the Lodge cards into their three separate decks. Shuffle each one and deal three cards from each deck to each player, so that each player has nine Lodge cards in total. Place all remaining cards into the small card tray. Each player then chooses two cards from each level, placing the unchosen card from each level back into the box. Each player should now be left with six cards each. Along with the usual set-up, you are now ready to play. How To Play Kavango Lodges The game is played as usual but with these two main changes. When you want to place an Animal card down on the play mat where a Community Protection marker is present, you must first spend money equal to what is shown on the marker to remove it. The marker is moved into your possession, and the space becomes free to use. You can invest as much as you like each turn to remove as many markers as you desire. The markers that have been removed can then be used to gain you extra income. This is done by placing them onto other spaces with markers already present. That space is then locked for the whole game, but money equal to the total value of markers on that space is gained. When placing Animal cards onto the player boards, players will now want to try and complete the requirements as shown on the six Lodge cards kept during setup. These cards will show four symbols that represent certain types of animals that need to be placed next to each other on your player mat in a two-by-two grid. You can do this in any way possible, and if you have two Lodge cards with matching symbols, you can use an Animal card more than once to fulfil more than one Lodge card. For example, if you had a bird requirement on two Lodge cards, and you placed a card with a bird symbol on the top right of a two-by-two grid, you could then use that same Animal card again for the second Lodge card now in the bottom left with three other cards building from that. When you complete a Lodge card, you will place one of your Lodge tokens on the four cards you used for this to show it is done, and move that Lodge card to the side. You will immediately gain money equal to the lodge's level, either one, two, or three million. At the end of the game, you will score an additional eight points for each completed Lodge card. Is It Fun? Kavango Lodges Expansion Board Game Review Kavango was already a brilliant game that I very much enjoy. This expansion does exactly what I want it to do. It adds no more complication or game length. It doesn't slow down turns or make it harder to teach new players. It simply means that where you place your animals now matters. This, in turn, creates more money in the game, as you gain extra cash from completing the lodge requirements, as well as the cash on hand from placing previously removed Community Protection tokens down. But you need a bit of extra cash to remove the tokens in the first place, and also develop your habits faster, so you can place the exact animals down to meet the Lodge requirements. So it all flows together perfectly. The focus that comes from placing your animals down in a specific order and group really does add the cherry on top of this very gorgeous and enriching cake. It is exactly what I wanted from an expansion and fixes the only flaw I saw in the game before. The placement of animal cards before just felt futile. If you were simply collecting cards in a pile, then fine. But as they were placed in an eight by three array, it felt that the order or precise location of each card should mean something. The fact that it didn't just confused me. It wasn't like it made it a bad game, or worse for the lack of meaning in card placement; it was more that it just felt off. Now, though, we have a reason for getting certain cards as well as a reason for placing certain cards. It boosts your income as you go, which in turn accelerates your engine and ability to get better cards and achieve more Lodge requirements in later turns. It all works so well and addresses this specific concern. The Lodge tokens themselves are beautifully chunky and work sat up or placed face down. The colours are vibrant and match the existing players' colours, and it all fits nicely in the box with no worries. The tokens for the Community Protection could be nicer, though. They feel rather mechanical in comparison to the highly thematic and well-produced Lodge tokens. Although that said, this is a prototype and everything is subject to change. Hopefully, there could be a stretch goal or some kind of upgrade options to make these Community Protection tokens a little more interesting. I know there are plans to make them double-sided with solar panels on one side, to represent their permanent placement when you make that choice. I just hope the overall tokens get a little zhuzh. But that is being very picky. This overall is a must-buy expansion for me. If you have the base game, get this. If you didn't like the base game as the card placement felt irrelevant, try this; it fixes that issue for me! It's a wonderful production, from a wonderful team, who are doing wonderful things. And the experience is great fun too. Easy to teach, great fun to play, and stands up to multiple games as two years of gaming has proven for me. My first play of this was September 2023, and I still love it now. Just that little bit more now I have this expansion! If you want to follow the Kickstarter for this crowd funded expansion check here .

Makan Mania WBG Score: 7.5 Player Count: 2-6 You’ll like this if you like: Galaxy Trucker , Captain Sonar , Escape: The Curse of the Temple . Published by: Capital Gains Studio Designed by: Steve Ng Wen Xi This is a review copy. See our review policy her e Makan Mania invites players into the bustling world of a vibrant Makan restaurant during lunchtime. In this dice-rollin', card-draftin', real-time set-collection game, you'll need to keep your cool under pressure. Can you secure your favourite table, make your food choices swiftly, and snag first dibs on the drinks? Is this really how it works in a Makan restaurant? Probably not, but the game is fun. Let's get it to the table and see how it plays. How To Set Up Makan Mania Let's set up the game! Start by placing the 1 and 88 tables separately. Then, add enough additional tables so that there's one for each player. Now, it's time for everyone to select a tray card and the three dice matching their chosen colour. After that, shuffle the food and drinks cards separately and place them face down in two distinct stacks. Reveal two food cards for each player and one drink card per player. Finally, gather all the coins into a single pile near the cards along with the round tracker card. Now, you're all set and ready to dive into the game. How To Play Makan Mania The game is played over five rounds. You can use drink cards as a tracker for which round you are on by placing them onto the round tracker card as below. The first part of each round is called The Rush. Here, all players roll their dice simultaneously. Players are looking to match the dice they rolled with the numbers on the face-up food cards. Each card needs either one or two dice to match and claim the card. Players can re-roll their dice however they please, as fast as they like. This element is a real-time race. There are no turns. When you have matched the dice face on the card you want, place your dice onto it in order to claim that card. The food card score you either three or seven end game points. Then, place your tray card and all remaining dice onto any unoccupied table card of your choice. When there is only one table card remaining, the final player has to stop re-rolling their dice and claim any food card they can with whatever their current roll is. That last player then claims the final table card. Players then move into the second phase, The Queue. Here, players take turns, based on the table number they have (lowest table first) to buy drink cards. They can do this with whatever dice they have left. The tables also provide the players with a bonus. Table 88 gains one coin and a bonus die to roll in the next round. Tables 1, 3, and 5 provide one, two, and three coins respectively. And tables 2 and 4 provide a dice discount when buying drinks this round. The drinks cost either dice or money and work in conjunction with the food cards to score you points at the end of the game. The drinks are not replenished, so there is a benefit to buying them earlier, although the higher table numbers give you a larger benefit. The drink cards score points based on a variety of factors such as the type of dice faces shown on the food cards you acquired during the game, being paired with specific meals, or can earn you dice discounts when buying other drinks, or coins when in The Queue phase in later rounds. Players can use their tray abilities to enhance their chances. Tray abilities range from allowing players to either double the benefits from the table they chose that round, to earning extra coins, points, and even having exclusive access to certain drink cards for purchase. Players will earn one coin for any unspent dice during this phase. When all players have had their turn, discard any remaining cards, replenish the food and drink cards, and start the next round. After the fifth round, calculate each player's points, and the person with the most points is declared the winner. Is It Fun? Makan Mania Card Game Review Makan Mania deploys the highly popular Kawaii style art, adding cute anime faces to the food and drinks. Everything is themed beautifully to be like you are in a Makan Cafe. But it won't feel like that as you play. It will feel rushed, frantic, and highly competitive. If you like games like this, then there are some interesting scoring options to pair certain cards together to really boost your performance. If you find games like this stressful, then this one will not be for you. But for fans of real-time games, there is something really rather special about Makan Mania. The game is so simply designed you could be fooled into thinking this is light on strategy and any considered thought. Now, don't get me wrong, this is a quick, light, filler game. But there is some strategy required. Pairing the right cards together, knowing when to fight hard to get a specific card, and other times, to get anything so you can get first pick of the tables as there is a must-buy drink on the table. It all adds up to a surprisingly interesting game. Light and fun. But with meaningful decisions. The real-time aspects only last for one part of one phase, so if you don't like this, then you will still have fun in the game, I hope. But being able to quickly pick up and re-roll your dice, faster than the other players, when under the real-time pressure of knowing others are doing the same thing at the same time and potentially grabbing the exact card you need can be stress-inducing for some players. It can also be disappointing if you regularly get unlucky with your rolls and others get lucky, and you miss out. But being able to pivot strategy and work with other cards is crucial here. After six games at two, three, and four players, I have yet to see a runaway leader; despite regularly seeing one player seemingly get all the luck. Even if you don't get the rolls you want first, this doesn't mean other players will run away with it. It's worth explaining that when playing with younger players! What makes Makan Mania so captivating is how it seamlessly blends high-speed gameplay with strategic depth. Sure, it's fast-paced, but there's more to it than just rolling dice and hoping for the best. You'll need to think on your feet, weighing your options carefully with each roll and move. It strikes a perfect balance between quick reflexes and smart planning, giving players a satisfyingly challenging experience. If you're into games that keep you on your toes, Makan Mania delivers big time. Every turn is a race against the clock, with the game's real-time elements adding an extra layer of excitement. It's all about making split-second decisions and seizing opportunities before they slip away. Whether you're snagging those must-have food cards or jockeying for position at the best table, the thrill of the chase is downright addictive. And while Makan Mania might not be everyone's cup of Iced Lemon Tea, its mix of speed and strategy makes it a must-try for gamers who crave a little adrenaline with their table top fun. It's a wild ride from start to finish, proving that fast-paced gaming can be just as satisfying as it is exhilarating. So if you're ready to roll the dice and dive headfirst into some high-speed hijinks, Makan Mania is waiting to whisk you away.

Kinfire Council WBG Score: 9/10 Player Count: 2-6 You’ll like this if you like: A euro that looks gorgeous and offers meaningful decisions. Published by:  Incredible Dream Studios Designed by:   Kevin Wilson This is a free review copy. See our review policy here . The Kinefire Council Board Game is set in the world of Din'Lux, as seen in other "Kinfire" games, such as Kinfire Delve, which we reviewed here . And Kinfire Chronicles, which preludes this game narratively. But, you don't need to have played any of these others games to enjoy this one. Although, thematically, it would sure help. But mechanically, and aesthetically, this game is a thing of pure beauty. It is so slick in both looks and play. I am excited to tell you all about it. So, lets get it to the table and see how this plays. How To Set Up Kinfire Council Start by placing the two city board trays in the centre of the table, side by side. The board labelled Tier 3 should go on the taller tray, and the board labelled Tier 2 on the shorter tray. Then, lay the Tier 1 board flat on the table beneath the other two, aligning them so the stars between levels match up. Looks nice huh! Next, place each district tile (numbered 1 to 18) on its matching space on the city boards, with the basic tan side facing up. You can upgrade to the other side during the game, so be sure to get them all tan side up for now. Then, take the Shady Dealer/Black Market special tile and place it on its designated space on the bottom city board with the Shady Dealer side showing. Create a supply of all resource tokens nearby, sorting them into coin, food, common, rare, and magic resources. Set the coffers bowl next to this supply. Next, unfold the status board and place it next to the city boards. Shuffle both the research and decree decks separately and place them face down on their assigned spaces on the status board. Leave space to place two cards next to this later on in the game. Now, sort the skill tiles by type. There are three types, stack each one on its corresponding space on the status board. Either side can face up. Then, take three food resources from the supply and place one in each of the top three spaces in the right-hand column of the City Needs track. Then place the black Cult score marker on the zero space of the score track. Now, place the threat board near the city boards. Shuffle the threat deck and place it face down beside the threat board, along with the supply of trouble tokens. Then, without looking at them, draw the top three cards from the threat deck and place them face down near the play area. Lay the Hidden Threats tile on top of this pile. These are the hidden threats and they must remain unrevealed until the end of the game. If more hidden threats are gained during play, add them to the pile under the Hidden Threats tile. Them set aside the special threat tiles, such as Rubble and Sea Beast, and place them near the threat board. Finally, to set up the main board, place all twenty cultist chits into the Cult bag and place it on the table. Next, lay out the six worker sheets. Shuffle the Councilor (devastatingly spelt with only one "el") sheets and randomly deal one Councilor sheet face up next to each worker sheet. Choose a starting player at random and give them the Speaker’s Medallion (this is the first player marker and we have a very pretty metal one that was part of the Kickstarter exclusive!). Each player takes the Seeker standee, worker chits, influence tokens, score marker, and +50/+100 token that match their selected worker sheet. Then, in turn order, place your score markers on the score track. The first player places theirs on the first space, the second player on the second space, and so on. Each player places their Seeker on the indicated space on their worker sheet along with their worker pieces. The number you have varies based on player count: five in a two-player game, four with three players, three each in a four-player game, and two each for a five or six-player game. Next, place the lighthouse tracker near the city boards and put the progress marker on the bottom space of the track. Shuffle the five lighthouse site sheets and place them in a face down stack next to the lighthouse track. Turn the top sheet face up. This will count as your round tracker as you play through each round. As such, its best to discard each one after each round so you know how many rounds are left. Finally, place all sentry tokens face up near the city boards. Spread them out so each player can clearly see which tokens are available. You are now ready to play. How To Play Kinfire Council The game runs through five rounds. Each round has three phases: a set-up phase called Sun's Rise, the main action phase called Day's Light, and a clean-up phase called, you guessed it, Night's Fall. Players are looking to score points from various means and finish with the most points, but also control the Cultists, who will be scoring their own points during the game. Each player will have their own unique asymmetric power based on the character they have chosen during setup. Each power can be quite powerful and game-changing. Matching your unique skills with a strategy in the game is crucial to victory. In Sun's Rise you will draw the top two cards from the Decree deck and read them both to all players. During the main phase, players will vote on these, to decide which card comes into play. They will introduce new orders, permanent rule changes, or events that trigger if a specific card is not passed. The second thing to do in Sun's Rise is to draw three Cultist tokens from the draw bag. They are then placed onto the board on the matching spot. Each Cultist is numbered one to 18 like the board. This spot is now blocked for this round until that Cultist is arrested. Then, add a card to the matching space on the threat board. For example, if the Cultist is numbered one to six, add a card to the one to six space. If there is already a card there, add a trouble token to that card. Each card has a number on the top left. When the card has the matching number of trouble tokens on it to the number in the top left, the card is triggered. Any cards drawn with a zero are triggered immediately. Cards with a dash stay in play until they are thwarted during the main phase of the game. You will thwart cards by paying the required resources as shown on the bottom of the card, an then gaining the benefits shown on the bottom right. This is an action you can take by sending your leader to the spaces on the threat board itself, or from one of the spaces on the main board. where you can do the sane, but for an additional cost. In Day's Light players will now take it in turns to place one of their workers onto one of the many spaces on the board. There are 18 spots on the main board that all workers can go to; then two extra spaces that change each round on the Lighthouse, and three spots on the threat board that only your leader can go to. You can see this clearly with the hexagonal spot rather than the circular spots on the main board. Each spot can only hold one worker, apart from a few spaces on the bottom tier of the main board, where you can send multiple workers. The main actions on the board are grouped by the three tiers of the board. The bottom tier has zero cost. The middle tier costs one coin, paid into the city coffers. The top tier, with more powerful actions, costs two coins, again paid to the coffers. Certain actions let players gain coins from the coffers, so it's important to add the coins there, not back into the general supply. But the coffers are emptied at Night's Fall, so they don't build up that much. After you place your workers, you can carry out the action shown on the spot you went to. This is mainly to gain or trade resources, but a few other options will open up later on, as you upgrade the worker placement locations. One of the actions at the bottom of the bottom tier allows you to spend money and resources to make these upgrades. To do this, place a worker there, pay the cost, flip over your chosen space, and then add an influence token to it if you wish. Then, whenever anyone else goes there for the rest of the game, you will gain the resource shown on the top left of this flipped token. Upgrading locations also gains you a lot of points. If you place your worker next to a Cultist, orthogonally, instead of carrying out the locations usual action you can arrest the Cultist instead. Taking it off the board and adding it to your play area. This helps all players by removing the Cultists from the board, but also, you can now use this Cultist as a resource for various trade actions on the board. Once players have carried out a location action, or arrested a Cultist, you may then carry out an errand if you want. This means spending one of your Influence tokens (you start with four but can get more) and placing it either on one of the spaces on the City Needs board, then putting the matching resource there back into the supply; or onto the Lighthouse, and paying the required resources to build the lighthouse up either one, two, or three levels. You don't have to run an errand, and you won't have enough Influence tokens to do this every time, but the points from the Lighthouse are huge and the City errands need to be run otherwise you will have more Cultists next time. When you pay a City need resource, you will gain two points for doing so. At the end of the round, during Night's Fall , for any unpaid City resource, an additional Cultist will be drawn in the next round. So, to avoid the game getting harder, the Cultist scoring more points, and for your own point benefits, you will want to do this. You start with just three City needs, but more will be added as you play the game. They stay each round, and simply grow as your city gets more demanding! But they need to be met each round in exchange for two points. The Lighthouse is built each round then reset at Night's End. As it is built higher each round, the number of points awarded to the players that contribute towards its construction is also increased. Each round you will have a new lighthouse card showing the resources needed to build either one, two, or three levels. To do this, run an errand here, place an Influence token next to the level you are building, discard the required resources, then move the lighthouse tracker up the matching amount of spaces. Then, during Nightfall, you will score a multiplier as shown by the level you reached for each level you build. For example, if you get it up to the top level, which offers three points per level built, and you built it up nine levels, that's 27 points! Damage may be added to the lighthouse during the round though, and this will knock the Lighthouse back down a level for each damage token that remains at the end of the round. As the track moves up, increasing the multiplier, the points awarded to the Cultists, as shown on the right of the track, is also reduced. Other actions during Night's Fall require you to resolve the docket. Here, the card with the most votes is activated. Unless one of the cards was a Crisis, in which case, the Crisis activates unless it received the most votes. Then, if any Cultists remain on the board (but they probably won't, it's good to arrest them and use them as resources) they will trigger the matching card in the threat board again. Players will then retrieve all the influence tokens they placed out as well as all their workers. The city coffers are emptied, and the next round then begins, unless this is the fifth round, in which case final scoring takes place. The cards beneath the hidden threat are revealed, and the Cultist scores points for every card here. Points are shown on the bottom right of the card and will range a lot, and can be quite high. Even if you were quite far ahead, the Cultist can catch up at this point. After this, if any player remains ahead of the Cultist and has the most points, they take the victory. In a three-player game or higher, players can win another way, though. Some worker spaces and cards let you gain Cult influence. When you do, the Cult also scores one point. For example, at The Red Gull in district four, you can trade two coins to gain one Cult influence and give the Cult one point. To gain Cult influence, take one of your unused influence tokens and place it in the Cult Influence area on the status board. If you’ve already used all your tokens, you must convert one into a Cult influence token instead. The player with the most Cult influence becomes the Conspirator. Their token is placed in the top right space of the Cult Influence area. If there’s a tie, the player who gained Cult influence most recently becomes the new Conspirator. You would do this because then at the end of the game, if the Cultists score the most points, the player who is currently the Cult Conspirator wins the game, even if they have fewer points than another player. The thing about the game I love the most is the research cards. These come from the Scholars’ Circle and give you special effects that can range in power and be incredibly helpful. Each card tells you when it can be used, either during your turn or during a certain part of the game. You can play more than one card at a time and hold as many as you want. If more than one player wants to use a research card at the same time, go in turn order. If the deck runs out, shuffle the discard pile to make a new one. Another way to score a lot of points is via the Sentry tokens. Points from these tokens are award when you do certain things, like meeting City Needs, making lighthouse deliveries, arresting criminals, upgrading districts, stopping threats, or leading a decree. When you get a Sentry token, keep it near your Councilor sheet and try to remember what action rewards you extra points. It's easy to forget, especially when you have a few! The Shady Dealer space on the main board is a place where you can trade points or a research card for coins. If district three (The Tumbles) is upgraded, flip the tile over to the Black Market side. This lets you use it twice per turn instead of once. Its a great place to go when you are unsure what to do, or just need some money quick! Kinfire Council Board Game Review Kinfire Council is a smart, beautiful game packed with layered decisions and player interaction. At first glance, it’s a slick euro with stunning art and components, but within this stellar production is a clever blend of resource management, worker placement, and deep strategy. The city evolves as players upgrade districts, vote on new rules, and race to build the lighthouse each round. It’s fun seeing how different player powers all interact, and there’s something satisfying about working together to keep the Cultists at bay, while actively trying to beat each other too. The best part might be how dynamic and reactive each round feels. Every session plays out differently depending on the decrees that pass, threats that appear, and player choices. You have to adapt constantly, balancing short-term actions with long-term planning. Will you invest in upgrading the city, focus on building the lighthouse, or sneakily side with the Cult to win a different way? There’s real tension in the vote phase and plenty of room for clever plays with Research cards and player power combos. It’s not all smooth sailing though. Kinfire Council can be a bit much on your first go. There’s a lot to learn and set up, especially if you’re teaching new players. Some rules (like the Cult scoring or the 18 different worker placement spots) might take a round or two to click. But the game really shines once everyone knows how things work and for the right group, that depth and scale is part of the appeal. Kinfire Council is a big, bold game that offers a fresh mix of theme, interaction, and strategy. Whether you're trading with the Shady Dealer for a quick coin, racing to arrest Cultists, or pushing a risky decree through the vote, there’s always something exciting to do on your turn. The game rewards long-term strategy and short-term cunning equally, and with multiple ways to score big and win, every decision matters. It’s a standout design that’s easy to recommend to experienced gamers ready for a new challenge. Pros Gorgeous production with standout art, components, and table presence. Deep and satisfying decision space with asymmetric powers and evolving strategies. Highly interactive—voting, shared goals, and limited worker placement locations create real tension. Multiple ways to score points and win, offering strong replayability. Unique mechanics like errands and district upgrades feel fresh and rewarding. Cons Setup and teach can be overwhelming for new players. 18 worker placement options take time to fully grasp. Early misplays can be punishing if up against a more experienced player, particularly for those unfamiliar with the asymmetric powers. Kinfire Council is a stunning and smart euro that blends worker placement, with asymmetric powers, voting, and resource management. It’s ambitious in scope and not shy about asking a lot from its players for game one, but it pays that off with meaningful choices, layered interaction, and evolving gameplay. Once the worker placement options settle in, it becomes a thrilling game of influence, risk, and clever plays. If you enjoy big-box strategy games and don’t mind a bit of learning curve, this is one council meeting you’ll want to be part of.

Jurassic World: The Legacy of Isla Nublar WBG Score: 8 Player Count: 1-4 You’ll like this if you like: Pandemic Legacy Season One , Jurassic Park Danger , Horrified . Published by: Funko Games Designed by: Prospero Hall This review will be as spoiler free as possible. Whenever there is anything close to a spoiler I will give you warning and let you know how much to skip if you want to avoid it by giving the spoiler section blue font. This is a legacy game. This means you will be doing things each adventure that permanently change your game. There is a prologue you can play as often as you like to get into the swing of the game and rules. We played it once. It's pretty simple. And then you have 11 adventures. 10 main missions and a finale you can play over and over again. I don't think any review of this game can start without referring to the Dice Tower video, where four separate people all scored this a 3/10. A three!? If you want to read my thoughts, that will come at the end, scroll on down if you want. I will also leave off the usual set up and how to play as that will spoil the surprises in this legacy game. And the pictures will only be of things you can see in the prologue, bar the empty box shot! But first, we will address the concerns of the Dice Tower crew. This was what they said they did not like about the game. Set up time is too long. Too many new rules each round. The game is on the rails. Felt procedural. You couldn't make plans for your turns as you just follow the games. The game plays you. And yet the game didn't change enough each round. Boring mini games. Hard to understand mini games. The game is not fun. The game is tedious. The game is not a puzzle to solve. Just steps to follow. The game plays you. The game is luck based. Let's get into those points, one by one. Set Up Time. Too many new rules each round. It does takes a while to set each game up. They are right to say this. There is a new envelope to open each game with new rules, characters, buildings etc. (trying to avoid spoilers) and without that development, you would not be playing a legacy game. I appreciate with other legacy games you don't get a new rule book each time, but its not much to take in. Not that much changes in truth. Some rule books have no new rules in. Just set up instructions, which is generally the same each time. And the objectives for that adventure. It's a bit more like My City, where you also get a new rule book each game and it just adds a few tweaks each time. But knowing the base game, adding a few new rules (when it does have them) really is not that difficult. And this is more about introducing new things each game so you don't have them all thrown at you in game one. I would therefore disagree on the rules part. But sure, set up is around 20-40 minutes each game, depending on which envelope you are opening. There is a lot to put out. And some episodes have more new things than others. However, I had the luxury of leaving the game out on my gaming table for a month whilst I played this, so it wasn't too bad for me, and I found the discovery of new things each game to be exciting and a huge part of the experience. I did not see it as a chore. As I left it out, set up was more than 10-20 minutes for me. And that was time I enjoyed. The game is on the rails. It felt procedural. You couldn't make plans for your turns as you just follow the games. The game plays you. This is the big one. And I suppose it's subjective to each person. All I can say is that from my experience, and from my son with whom I played the game, we felt VERY different. The game is on rails in the way any legacy game is. You will always open envelope one then two, then three etc. You will always have the same objectives to complete when you play episodes nine etc. So, perhaps they mean more in the game itself. You feel you just need to complete missions as prescribed by the game. Yes, yes you do. They are your objectives. But it's up to you how you do this. What order you do this in is your decision. And there is a lot of variety with how your board will look at any point based on actions you made previously which could affect how it plays out. And then of course there is the small matter of the dinosaurs roaming around the park. Which is random and different each round. As such, I just do not get this. Did they want an open-world game where you could just walk around and do what you want? I think this criticism is more about expectation vs reality than analysis. MINOR SPOILER AHEAD. The game follows the movies. So, yes, it is on rails if you consider it is going to re-enact the main moments from the films. if it didn't, people would wonder why they bothered paying the big bucks to use the franchise and then not follow the story. As such, I am fine with this. If it is on rails, it is for a reason. To tell the story. OK, Spoilers over. Each mission plays over five rounds, and each round the first thing you do is reveal that rounds event card. That event will typically throw up a new problem, challenge or objective. Each round you don't complete this objective you will suffer a consequence. Suffer five or more consequences and you will lose the game. Technically this is procedural. But it is also a structure. Most games have a structure. Personally, I enjoyed the process of working my way through each objective. It made the game feel constantly tense and on a knife edge. I was always close to losing when I won. I was also never far from victory when I lost. The balance was perfect and this was created by the park constantly needing my attention. It was never calm, not for a single turn. OK, maybe one or two in the prologue! But generally, I never had the chance to walk around and admire my handy work. Something was always going wrong, or needed my attention. You know. Like the movies!! I am left unsure knowing exactly what they were expecting? And saying you couldn't make plans. Well yes, you cannot do that, as you don't always know what will come up. But you can hazard a guess that leaving a carnivore in sight of a defenceless park visitor may not be a good idea. Perhaps you need to herd them out the way, move the followers, or build some fences. All of this can be planned and executed. But the reason why they are saying this I think was because each round a new objective would come up meaning you have to adapt to whatever was thrown at you, rather than plan from turn one how you will get to where you need to be by turn five. You cannot do that here as you don't know what will go wrong until it happens. This is a great part of the evolving story. I suppose if you want this gone you could just reveal the five objectives at the start, but where is the fun in that? If you had the choice, which would you pick? And yet the game didn't change enough each round. Two thoughts here. One. What game does change that much each game? Genuine question. Even legacy games where new things come in, it's still the same game with the same core mechanics and theme. Two. But it does change! Oh my how it changes. And in so many very cool ways too! It makes me think they didn't play it all, but they claim they did, so I will leave that alone. But MINOR SPOILER ALERT episode six alone argues this point with one little sticker alone. It changes so much in game six! SO SO MUCH! So, on this one issue they had, I just flat disagree. The game evolves and adapts in a huge way. Boring mini games. Ok, this may be where they are coming from when they make the above point about the game not changing enough. The mini games are not the most exciting, but they are just one part of each game. They don't really change in the game. But it's just one mechanic of the round. And I am unsure how much it could change? One mini game is about restoring power to the park. The park always needs power. It often turns off. Why would getting the power back on change significantly each time? I suppose it may be more fun if it was a different process each time, but thematically, why would that be the case? The power has to go out more than once and the way to get it back on should be relatively the same. It's just a mechanic of the game. It's a process you go through. As such, this just seems like another off criticism to me. Based on them clearly having a bad experience with this game. I found the mini games tense, and challenging. Trying to achieve them each mission within the time frame was always hard to do. And achieving success with them felt great. Yes, there were the same each time, but they were far from boring for me. Hard to understand mini games. Now this I just don't understand. They are very simple. I won't explain them here as it will be too much of a spoiler. But they are incredibly easy to learn and do. Tricky to achieve with the limited actions. But not hard at all in terms of understanding them. The game is not fun. The game is tedious. This is obviously subjective. But from 150 ratings on BGG , the current rank is 7.5. So, the current general conscientious is that The Dice Tower got this wrong. But again, these are just opinions, and everyone is obviously entitled to their opinion. I think their score just irked me so much as they gave it a three, all four of them. A three! If it was a six I would get it. If it was just one of them with a three, or maybe two, fine. We all like different things. It wasn't for them. But a three from all of them suggests the game is broken or terrible. A three says to me that it just isn't any fun, as they say many times is the case. And I simply cannot agree with that. It was a rip-roaring adventure through the movies that I adored and I cannot fathom how anyone could score it a three. And this is my heavily edited version where I am trying to be nice and open minded. My only conclusion is they rushed through the 12 games to get their review out. And in doing so, ruined the experience for themselves by playing them all too close together. Making them feel procedural and boring. Would you play any other game 12 times in a row with no other games in-between? A game that takes over an hour I mean. Probably not. And if you did, you may get tired of it and think it stale. I understand the pressure to get reviews out quickly. And I respect their desire to play the whole thing, if they in fact did. But if this is the reason their review was tainted then what was the point in the rush? I played over a month with other games played in-between and I loved it. The game is not a puzzle to solve. Just steps to follow. We have covered this a little when they said the game was on rails but I wanted to leave this as a separate complaint to cover this one point. Any puzzle is solved by following steps. Very few puzzles have multiple ways to solve them correctly. So, yes, you have to follow those steps. But the steps are not overtly obvious, and I certainly did not win every game. In fact, I lost more than I won. It was hard to solve this puzzle correctly each game. Mainly as I ran out of time and actions, and the main puzzle with this game was finding a way to do all the things you needed to do within the time you have and the actions available to you. I am intrigued to know how many games the Dice Tower team won and lost. If they lost a few, then this point is invalid. If you are just following steps, but loosing, you are not following them very well, or perhaps, the steps were never there to follow in the first place. Which I would suggest is the case. This is a game that sets you a challenge each mission. If you cannot quite achieve it, then that suggests to me it is more down to strategy that procedure. If there were steps to follow, how could you lose? However, maybe they did win them all. If so, then perhaps I am just terrible at this game and they have a point. They followed the steps and won every time, with no joy as it was just following steps. But I doubt this was the case. As that contradicts their other points, and they talk about losing at least one game in their review. So, I assume they did loose some games, and this point is perhaps less valid to me than it seems. Talking to a few other people who have played this, it seems most people win and lose in similar ratios. No one I have spoken too has breezed through this game. As I say, I myself lost more than I won. But this is not about if this game is easy or not. It's about if this is a game with steps to follow. And for me, if lots of games are lost, then this cannot be the case. Or the steps are too confusing. Which is not the case. (The state of my box at the end) The game is luck based. It certainly is luck based. Like any game with dice, or cards that can come out in a random order. This game, like thousands before it, has some luck in it. So, this argument is somewhat tired. Therefore, the question shouldn't be, 'is this luck based?', and more, 'does the luck out way the strategy?' For me, the answer is no. For example, the dice and cards control the movement of the Dinosaurs. This is the main way you can get lucky or unlucky in this game. And you can get lucky or unlucky with this. It happened to me for sure. And it sounds like it happened to the Dice Tower crew too. But there are ways to mitigate your luck by scouting the cards to see what will happen before it happens so you can make a plan to control it. They said they won and lost a game by luck? I would argue the 55 turns they took before that affected the result too! With the dice, when the dinosaurs attack, you can also make a strategy by herding the Dinosaurs, and moving location of the other characters on the board. You can decide which dinosaurs you are happy to let roam free and attack, and which ones you need to try and control. I did have one game, mission seven, when we lost down to an unlucky roll. We knew one dinosaur of two was going to attack. We could stop one, but not both. We didn't have enough actions left. We decided to let a specific one attack as the dinosaur it was going to attack one was that had the best defence, and it could defend against any one of the three attacks. It just couldn't take two hits, from rolling two of the same attack. Of course, that was what happened, and this led us to losing the game on the very final action of the game. It was frustrating to lose in this way, and luck had something to do with it, but this dinosaur had already taken one hit, we knew another would see it off. We took that risk. It was our choice. We knew it could happen and we made our decision. And in the moment, it was frustrating, but also hilarious! But here is the key point. Losing is never as much fun as winning. But in this game, we found it to be less concerning in terms of how it affected our game. Depending on if you win or lose, the game will either reward you with something to make your next game a little easier, or add something into the game to make it a little harder. Of course you want to win every game, but losing doesn't hurt you. You are not scoring as such as you play. And unlike other legacy games, you don't repeat a mission if you lose. You move on, win or lose. I like this. There always seems to be progression, and it would take you out of the story a little if you had a re-do. And losing can help the next game with a little bonus next time. And it doesn't really feel like losing. It's a constant development through the story and sometimes in Jurassic Park, a dinosaur eats you when you were quietly minding your own business, sat on the toilet. There is not much you can do about that. OK! with all that out of the way, what did I think of this game? I thoroughly enjoyed this experience. And that is how I would rate this. More of an experience than a game. As a game, it's OK. But like many legacy games, as an experience, this is where it shines. From game one, I was captivated by the theme and story behind this. For me, a huge fan of the films, I enjoyed all the nods to the movies I hold so dear. For my son (9) with whom I played this, he enjoyed the developing story line, and multitude of dinosaurs we had the chance to encounter. There is a lot I want to say to give you my full thoughts, but to avoid spoilers, here are my spoiler free opinions broken down by the main points. Starting with a spoiler! The Story - MINOR SPOILER ALERT I loved this part of the game. It felt like it was constantly changing with new characters, new dinosaurs, and new rules. All linked and themed perfectly back to the movies. If you like the Jurassic Park story from the movies, you will like this. The Build The way this game developed over the missions was fantastic. The difficulty ramped up perfectly based on your previous games success or failure, and it always felt like there was something new to try or do each game. I looked forward to opening each envelope between the games, learning what new things would come to the table. It was as much a part of the experience to learn and set-up each new mission as it was to play it. This was crucial to my feelings for the game overall. Looking forward to this process instead of dreading it and wanting to just get on with the game each time allowed me to enjoy the entire process. With a game that has 13 rule books, it was be wrong to go into it with any other attitude. I wanted to enjoy this game, like I want to enjoy every game I play. Perhaps this is an example of unconscious bias, forming my opinion to be more positive that it otherwise would have been. But this is something I have never understood in games. Why wouldn't everyone do this all the time? If I am looking for a game I want to play 100 times, then sure, maybe I would be more critical in the first five games or so, to see if I want to play it 95 more times. But for a game like this, that changes each time, that I can only really play properly12 times, why wouldn't I just try and make it fun throughout? That said, it wasn't difficult to make this fun. It was fun from the off for me. I am commenting on this as I think it is crucial to your own enjoyment of this game. Clearly The Dice Tower crew went into this with a different attitude. Maybe feeling they had to play it too quickly to get their review done. Whereas, I never played this as I felt I had too. I played this as I constantly was thinking about it. I couldn't wait to find out what happened next. It was like enjoying a good TV series where I wanted to binge it as I wanted to have all the information about what happens in my head as quickly as possible. This was made possible from the build. There was always something new and exciting to discover and do. The game was forever evolving. It lured me back with its promise of change which it delivered on game after game. The Finish The most important part of a legacy game is the pay off. Does it deliver a significant finale, worthy of the build up. Even if the game's leading up to the end were great, if the last game does not send you off with a suitable bang, I am always left feeling a little deflated. With Jurassic World: The Legacy of Isla this is certainly not the case. The finale is epic. It feels different enough to make it stand out. But you are also doing the things you are now familiar with and feel trained and ready to accomplish. The game has to to follow the movies so there is only so much they can do with this, but it feels satisfactory. It feels epic. It was a very pleasing end to a wonderful experience. If a little easy compared to some of the previous adventures. The Legacy The second most important part of a legacy game in my opinion is what sort of game are you left with. No matter the fun I had with the game during the legacy campaign, I want something at the end. It doesn't have to be as good. It can't be really, with the surprises of the legacy experience all spent. But it should be a fun game you want to play again. I don't want to chuck it away afterwards. It should be playable and fun. SPOILER ALERT In this game you are left with a board that is your own. Covered with your own work. And you can replay the finale over and over at your hearts content. It has a few minor tweaks to make it repayable, and the final game is such that I would rate it a 6.5 as a one off game. It obviously loses a lot with the legacy elements over. But the game itself is solid and one I can see myself playing on occasions when I want my dino fix. It is also nice that the board is now my own. Personal to my experience playing through the legacy missions. I like having access to all the dinosaurs and choose which ones to play with. I will forever hold this game dear from the memories it gave me and the board is a lasting reminder of that. Conclusion With all that said, is this game worth getting for you? I think there are three key things to consider. The price. This is not a cheap game. You need to consider this for your own budget. What I would say is that the legacy effect forces you to play the game at least 12 times, which for me makes it worth it. One prologue. 10 adventures and one epic finale. Makes it less than an Exit game per adventure. The theme. If you love Jurassic Park then I think you will love this too. Unless you work for the Dice Tower of course and are forced to play the game in a few days! I cannot see many fans of the films not get something from this. It's very true to the franchise. The legacy effect. If you want a game where you are ripping up cards, learning new things each game, and playing a constantly evolving entity, this could be for you. There are not many legacy games out there, so the choice is limited. I would say Pandemic Season One is the best, but this was great fun for my son and I to play. I hope that was helpful to allow you to make up your own mind. Legacy games are always tricky to review, but I endeavoured to cover all the key points that came up, both as I played it, and as I read and watched what others had said about it. My personal feelings having now finished the game are entirely positive. I wish I could wipe my mind and do it all again. If they made a follow up, (although I have no idea how that would work, but if they did), I would be very keen to play that as well. I loved every minute with this box, win and lose. It has created some lasting memories for my son and I that I will treasure for ever. It made me fall in love with the franchise even more deeply, (despite how bad the final few films were) and having finished the experience now, I am still finding myself falling asleep thinking about certain moments in the missions we played. It captivated my mind for a month and I think it will continue to do so for a while to come.

Factory 42 : Specialists & Golems WBG Score: 8.5/10 Player Count: 2-6 You’ll like this if you like: Biege euros with cubes! Published by: Dragon Dawn Productions Designed by: Ren Multamäki This is a free review copy. See our review policy here . You can check out the how to play and review of the base game here . But for this expansion, read on! Factory 42 is a fantastic euro game that is full of great decisions, tight gameplay, and delightfully curated resource management. If you like euros, then this is well worth checking out. The theme is a big funny, and its obviously VERY brown, but c'mon! Its a Euro. What did you expect. Anyway, Factory 42 came out in 2021. And in 2024, the same designer released this expansion, Specialists & Golems. It makes the game playable up to six now, (previously 5) it amends the Spiking action, develops the Incinerator, Crane, and Steam Tank power, and introduces four new elements that we will go through one by one here to see if this is a good fit for you. So, with that said, lets get this to the table to see how it plays. How To Set Up Factory 42 : Specialists & Golems Factory 42’s expansion is modular, so you can mix and match elements or throw them all in for the full experience. To get started, place all the new components you are using out on the table: the Golems, Specialists, and the updated tiles for the Patriot Box, Calendar Clerk, and Spiking Commissariat. To include the revised Spiking rule, replace the original Spiking tile with the upgraded version. The Commissar action now has an additional bonus to take an extra cube to make the Spiking action more balanced. If you're playing with six players, the expansion includes everything you’ll need to accommodate the extra player right out of the box. How To Play Factory 42 : Specialists & Golems Golems This expansion brings in new characters and effects that shake up the rhythm of play in clever ways. Each player can build a Cargador through Research for a cost of two Iron and one Steam, placing it on the board rather than their mat. They act as an extra worker, but once placed, don't move! Golems are metallic workhorses that occupy one of the numbered placement slots, but never the first or as a Commissar , and once placed, they don’t move unless you spend Steam to shift them. That cost can even be paid to move an opponent's Cargador, making for some wonderfully petty manoeuvres. They don’t count as regular workers but act as extra hands for the factory floor. If you’ve upgraded with a Crane, moving your own Cargador becomes free, but it still takes an action. Specialist Each player can optionally acquire a Specialist during the game, but only one per player. Specialists are premium workers who break the placement order rules. You buy them for one Beer and they replace one of your regular Workers. From then on, they can be placed on any numbered slot, regardless of what’s already there. They don’t act like Commissars but do count as Workers in most other respects. Patriot Box The Patriot Box gives you a cheeky bonus. Place a worker here and not only can you take an Operate action, ( see full game explanation ) but you also gain a free large good. It immediately closes the Black Market for the round, flipping the tile to its standard side. Calendar Clerk The Calendar Clerk gives you more event control. When you place a worker here, you can take an Operate action and then either draw a fresh Event or cancel an existing one. This lets you inject chaos or restore order with precision. Steam Tank The Steam Tank is a new token you can add to your payer board. It lets you store two additional steam tokens. You can purchase this during the research phase to develop your engine. Is It Fun? Factory 42 : Specialists & Golems Expansion Board Game Review The Golems are a brilliant thematic fit. They are stubborn, bulky, efficient, and mechanical, just like the bureaucracy they serve. Adding one feels like unlocking an extra gear in your strategy engine. They offer you another presence on the board and can stick around like a little thorn in everyone’s side. The fact that they can be used against you adds just enough tension to keep your placement game sharp, and make this euro sing with even more theme and gripping strategy. I adore them. Specialists, meanwhile, introduce flexibility in a worker placement system that usually thrives on restriction. Their ability to skip placement order rules makes them feel powerful and refreshing. Suddenly, that crucial slot is within reach, and your plans aren’t so easily derailed. It’s the kind of addition that advanced players will love, but it’s simple enough to slot into the base game without overwhelming new players. It fixes the issue worker placement games like this have, where when you are blocked, and you know the other player did it deliberately as they knew what you wanted to do, you think fair enough. But when they do it by accident, and they don’t even really need to do that action that much themselves, it can be infuriating. That frustration is now greatly reduced. But it's only one specialist per player. So you still have the tightness and tension. The bonus tiles, Patriot Box and Calendar Clerk, are flavourful and tight. They offer small, impactful choices that ripple outward, especially in games with five or six players. Whether you’re spiking for extra resources, shutting down the Black Market, or rewriting events mid-round, these options bring that extra sprinkle of dystopian spice to a game already rich in theme and tension. Pros: Expands player count to 6 with ease. Modular elements allow custom setup and replayability. Golems and Specialists create new strategic layers. Enhances narrative and theme without overcomplicating core mechanics. Event control and market manipulation add clever player interaction. Cons: Rules can be fiddly to remember in early plays already, let alone with these new sprinkles! More players mean longer game time and added downtime. Some modules may feel unnecessary if you prefer a tighter base game. Final Thoughts On Factory 42: Specialists & Golems This expansion to Factory 42 doesn’t just build on what came before, it subtly reshapes the game’s power dynamics. By introducing persistent board presence with the Golems, flexible placement through Specialists, and tools for direct market and event manipulation, it makes the industrial grind feel more alive and unpredictable. For those who already appreciate Factory 42's satirical tone and tactical planning, the expansion lets you lean further into the politics and machinery of Odrixia. But more than that, it begins to shift the feel of the game from one of linear escalation to one of calculated asymmetry. Each player's factory begins to operate just a little differently, and in a game about strict state control and uniformity, that little difference can spark some very big changes.

I recently played Molly House. The new board game from Wehrlegig Games from designer Jo Kelly . It got me right in the feels. I was left feeling quite raw after my game. It made me think things and feel things I have never felt or thought of before after playing a board game. Not even close. To explain, the game is based around the Molly Houses of eighteenth-century London. Don't know what Molly Houses are? They were the places where homosexual men and gender non-conforming individuals could gather for social interaction, away from the glaring eyes of the outraged public and the brutal judgment of the law. Acts of this nature were a hanging offense at the time! The game is a fascinating blend of roll-and-move, set-collection, semi-cooperation, and hand-management. The aim is to "host" multiple festivities, where you work with the other players around the table to create "joy," the term for points in the game. But if the wrong people turn up to your parties, i.e., the police, things could turn sour quickly! In my game, we were perhaps a little too reckless and allowed for too many bad things to happen, and we lost, with a round to go. You can control this somewhat. We were just a little over-excited and didn't pay enough attention to this part of the game. So, the game ended prematurely. And it ended with all players, ALL players, being hung. That's how it ended. A game about hosting parties ended with our characters all being killed. I will just let that sink in for a bit. It really threw me. So much so, I had a lot of questions. So, I reached out to the designer of the game, and thankfully, they were very happy and willing to help me process my experience and understand better what they had in mind as a designer for this game. It helped me out a lot. So, I post here for you all to have access too. I highly recommend that anyone interested in this period of history, or the rights of humans, check out this game. I think it's important. WBG - Thanks for talking to us. I must ask, what was your original inspiration for designing a game with this theme and historical setting? Jo - The game was conceived in response to the announcement of the Zenobia Award at the end of 2020. They were looking for designers who were underrepresented in the historical games space, and that prompted me to work on a game that tied in with my own identity, and how it intersects with my own country's history. I initially learned about molly houses because of a piece named Molly-House, composed by Michael Finnissy, who was my composition tutor in the final year of my music degree. I fell down a rabbit hole of research, and came back out with an idea for how it could be turned into a board game. The design of the game is quite deliberately old fashioned, with some gorgeous touches. Tell me, why was that important to you?  Quite honestly, that was more Cole's doing than my own! [Co-designer Cole Wehrle ] The game has been through many iterations, a lot of which were made during Wehrlegig's development process. The addition of playing cards and roll-and-move does a lot to ground the game in its period of history, while remaining evocative of the story I set out to tell. I love how the festivity card game gets all players invested in something that feels like a party, with all its highs, lows and pettiness, and the dice movement creates this idea of evading danger by cutting you off from visiting certain sites. The components and overall design are also incredibly premium. Is this a thematic choice, or because you just like nice things yourself!? This was also mostly down to Wehrlegig, although having seen the production of Pax Pamir and John Company, it was certainly part of the decision to work with them! I knew they would create a beautiful game, and they gave me a lot of freedom in directing the art. I was so grateful to be able to include so many scenes on the cards inspired by real snippets of history. OK, into the crunchy bits. The theme. This is a sad part of human history where for whatever reason, people refused to let people be who they wanted to be. Some may want to forget that. You decide to make a game about it. Why do you think this part of history is important? It's important because it's not over. The 'line go up' version of the history of the queer civil rights movement is far from the truth. There is evidence of comparatively progressive attitudes to what we may now think of as a trans identity in the records on Princess Seraphina, for example. The actions of the Society for the Reformation of Manners were the actions of a small fringe group, who seemed to be fairly unpopular among the general public at the time. There's a clear parallel in the so-called Gender Critical movement of our time, whose influence far outweighs their popularity, and whose actions are just as deadly as the death sentences passed upon the mollies of the 18th century. We must never forget this history, and never become complacent in a belief that our troubles are over or that things are only getting better, because our rights must be fought for, over and over again. I see. OK, I did not think of it that way. Thank you for saying that. That helps me understand this a lot better. Back to the game experience, the way it can end can be quite dramatic, and incredibly sad for the players. I know that's how I felt. It was very abrupt, with final rounds left unplayed. I asked my friend who I played with, "I wonder why they decided to let this be an option?" And he replied, "Because that was how it was back then." Is this how you see it? Did you want to keep things realistic and true to the times? Not sugar coat the sad facts.  It was important to me to create an honest recreation of the history, and part of that was the oppression of this community. I hope that some games of Molly House will leave players feeling sad, in the same way I sometimes hope to leave the cinema or finish a book feeling sad. The history is filled with joy, love, tragedy, betrayal, sex, and gender play, and I think the game gives room to explore all of that. I have never seen board game sin the way. And I should. Thank you. Some of the language may be quite shocking, even offensive to some players. One card for instance suggest that you sodomise a police officer without their consent, but I assume with the underlying message that of course they did consent. But they are hiding their true desires. Am I right? If so, do you worry some may not understand some of the card text? I actually included a note in the rules for this very reason. This is not the modern conception of 'assault'. Any form of supposedly 'unnatural' sex was considered assault by both participants, regardless of whether they were consenting. OK, that is an important definition. Thank you. I enjoyed my time with your game, but also left feeling sad and dejected. Humans can be terrible. I was hung for nothing more than being who I was in the game. Of course I knew this was an option before. And I knew this is how life was back then, and of course is still like now in parts of the world. But, I would love to hear your take on this, and your hopes for people as they play, win or lose. How do you want people to feel, and what do you want people to take for themselves when they play your game? What I really want is for people to reflect on how all of this is relevant today. Like all historical games, it is as much about the modern day as it is about the historical period. The far right is gaining traction all over the world, and it is already rolling back the rights of queer and trans people here in the UK, in the US, and it is showing no signs of stopping. I don't want people to come away from the game just thinking 'wow, things were bad back then'. Things are bad right now, and they're on track to get much worse. Thank you so much for talking to us, Jpo. That was incredibly insightful, interesting, shocking, humbling, but important. I am glad I had the chance to talk to you about this, and I hope others can gain something from reading this conversation. Thank you for what you have done with this game. I am excited to see what else you develop in the future. I know from other interviews you are not done with historical games. I am very pleased to hear that!

I recently reviewed Vantage, and loved it. If you want to read my how to play and full review, check that out here . Here, we sit down with the designer of this game, Jamey Stegmaier, and ask him about the game. Thanks for talking to us, Jamey. I am loving the game so far. There’s been a lot of buzz and positive chatter about Vantage already. From your perspective, what’s the global reaction been like? Anything that’s surprised or delighted you since launch? I've been working on Vantage for 8 years in the hopes that it would someday be a game that brings a sense of joy and wonder to at least some tabletops around the world. So it's really been incredibly fulfilling to the game connecting with people through their stories, photos, and curiosity over the last few weeks. That's great to hear. I have seen a lot of that myself on the Vantage Facebook group, which is a lot of fun to be a part of. After 8 years, a project this big inevitably changes along the way. Are you happy with where it landed? Did anything turn out even better than you hoped? The luxury of that time is that I was able to include everything I could possibly imagine (and learn from other games and worlds) in Vantage, so I would say it far surpasses my original vision for the game, the concept for which was primarily about finding the other players. It certainly has moved on from that! Roughly how many games would it take to see everything? I know the whole point is that each game is unique and replayable, but for the curious completionist out there, is there a rough idea of how many playthroughs it would take to see all the locations, secrets, missions, and content? I think if you play Vantage a few dozen times, you'll have seen all the different categories of things in the world. But within each category are often 6, 12, 24, or 30+ different types of cards (depending on the category). You can go wide in Vantage or you can go deep. And there are layers of discoveries and spoilers. Some things are incredibly difficult to find. I honestly don't know if anyone will ever see everything in Vantage, and I wouldn't say it's my goal for someone to try (that's why I didn't include a checklist of things in the game). It's about your journey and how you find the fun in the world.. My job was just to keep the discovery, exploration, and gameplay fresh over many dozens of plays. Well, you achieved that! You said there wouldn't be expansions for Vantage, but honestly, it’s all I want after playing, just more. More cards, more missions, more mysteries! You’ve said you want to leave Vantage complete and self-contained, but is that truly final? Is there any chance we might see a follow-up adventure someday? I appreciate your desire for more Vantage, and the good news is that there's still so much more for you to find in the game as it exists! :) Vantage really is complete. I already put everything into the game (plus, the interconnected nature of the cards and storybooks doesn't make expansions feasible). For those who feel similarly, you can think about it like this: Vantage is a game where all 15 expansions are already seamlessly included in core box. As for a follow-up, most likely not. After spending 8 years on this game, I'm really just trying to enjoy the moment. In general, I try to design games I haven't designed before, so I don't have plans to make another open-world game. That's an annoyingly good answer, as I just want more! Would you consider another open-world design in future? And what did working on an open-world board game teach you? Are there elements from this experience you’d like to carry forward? And what other genres or formats are calling your name next? I learned that when a game has no limits, I sometimes need to set my own constraints. I also learned that it isn't fun to fail a skill test in an adventure game. There can be stakes in a game even when you always succeed (as is the case in Vantage). I really like the action system in Vantage, and I could see myself using it (or some version of it) in a future game. I've been working on a few games on and off for a while: some sort of follow up to Red Rising, my contribution to the Smoking Bones series (a collaboration with Andrew Bosley ) and a nature-themed game. Also, while Vantage gave me a playground to experiment with two of my favourite fictional genres, heists and time travel/time loop; I'm still hoping to design a game with those themes someday. Exciting! Well, as always, I wait with bated breath to see what you do next. Thank you for your time, and for Vantage. It truly is a wonderful world, and I cannot wait to get back to it. It's set up on my table now. It has been for three weeks! And I don't see it coming down for a while!

Vantage   WBG Score: 9 Player Count:1-6 You’ll like this if you like: 7th Continent and Zelda style video games. Published by: Stonemaier Games Designed by: Jamey Stegmaier This is a free review copy. See our review policy here . I bought my own character boards, wooden skill tokens, and metal coins though! Note: these are all upgrades from the base game. There will be minor spoilers (you’ll see a few pictures of cards), but I’ll keep these to a minimum. Where do I start? This game is epic. Big box. Big ambition. Big expectations. Designer Jamey Stegmaier has been working on this for close to a decade, fine tuning his version of an open-world card game for us all to dive into. Inspired by various video and board games, Vantage is clearly made by a fan of free exploration and grand scale storytelling. This feels like a landmark moment in board games. A title that could bridge the gap between video gamers and table top players. A game that might convert those previously reluctant to try campaign style exploration titles by delivering an experience that can be completed in one sitting, but still with those big exploration "feels". And Vantage sure does feel important to me. Monumental. And crucially, it is a very good board game. So with all that said, let’s get it to the table and see how this plays. How To Set Up Vantage Flip all the cards in the box so they are rotated and slightly raised. That makes them easier to pull out but still keeps them in their respective drawers. It should look like this when you are done. Place this into the centre of the play area, within reach of at least one player. Take out the component trays if you want to use them. There are three handy little boxes provided. I put the skill dice in one, the boost tokens in another, and the skill tokens in the final one. Place the coins next to these. Next, place the game board in the centre. It is double sided, so pick whichever side you like best. They offer the same gameplay, just with a different layout. Place all the books next to the board in a pile. Each player now takes a card stand and places it in front of them. Finally, take the Book of Vantages and place it face up to show location 000. You are ready to play. How To Play Vantage Now read text sections one to four on the back of the Book of Vantages. This is still part of the setup, but it already feels like the game is beginning. Start by taking eight dice plus two per player and placing them into the Challenge Dice Pool area of the main board. Each player can now choose one of the six starting characters, or roll a skill die and take one at random. Take the matching card and place it in front of you. You will build a three-by-three grid of cards around this, so leave space if you do not have the upgraded character boards that show the space for these cards. Also, take a skill token that matches the colour of your character. Each character starts with two boost tokens as shown by the "when placed" action on the card. Place two boost tokens on your character card, which has space for six. Other cards you find later will also use boost tokens. They are very useful. Each player now takes the time, morale, and health tokens in their matching colour and sets them to three, four, five, or six on the main board, depending on difficulty. It is recommended to start on Daring, which is level four. The first player rolls two skill dice and takes the matching skill tokens. Then take the starting mission card based on the roll. You will find a key for this on the back of the Book of Vantages. If you roll doubles, re roll because those cards tend to be trickier. Next, flip the Book of Secrets to the back page to reveal location 001. Your ship has malfunctioned! This happens every game, no matter how many times I have played. Every time! Shoddy workmanship if you ask me. Each player now rolls a die to randomise an extra starting skill token and a starting location. Or you can choose if you prefer. For example, if you roll a purple LOOK skill, you begin at location 003 with that skill token. Each player must start in a different location, so if someone rolls the same as you, roll again. Here comes a starting card. VERY MINOR SPOILER. It's one of six starting cards. I think it's okay to look, but skip on if you don't want to see it. You don't make a choice from this; you roll dice. Take your starting card from the box and place it in your card stand. Only you can see your own Vantage cards. This is your view from the escape pod, looking down at the planet you're about to crash into. Other players have landed elsewhere. You can describe what you see using your working intercom connected to all other players, but no peeking at their cards. Seriously, do not spoil it, you might end up there later and trust me, it is more fun when it is a surprise. On your starting card, the text will tell you to roll two skill dice and gain those matching skill tokens. Then go to the corresponding location based on what the card tells you. Doubles can be rerolled again since they are trickier starts. The location cards are all double sided, so put your new card on top of the starting location card, which is single sided one so no one sees the back. From here on out, you are in the game proper. And it is going to feel different every time depending on the choices you make. MINOR SPOILER PICTURE COMING UP. SCROLL PAST IF YOU DONT WANT TO SEE ANYHTING. This is a starting location so not a huge spoiler. Viewer discretion advised! Each card is a self contained little world. On the top left is the card number. Top right shows directions you can travel in — north, south, east, west. If it lists a number, roll a die (which will be explained soon) and go to that card. If it shows an asterisk, look up the number in the MOVE book and follow the instructions. Use the card’s image for clues. If the north shows an icy river, you will probably have to swim. That might not go so well, especially if your character hates the cold. Bottom left is a description and any passive effects, like taking cold damage. On the right side are six available actions, each tied to a colour and verb. Blue is MOVE, purple is LOOK, orange is ENGAGE, green is HELP, yellow is TIME, and red is OVERPOWER. The verb gives a hint about what you are about to do. For example the green Help action here is REPAIR, but what are you going to REPAIR here? What would you FOCUS on if you LOOK? You get one action per card per game, unless the card says otherwise. Even if you revisit it later in the game, no do overs. So choose carefully. When you pick an action, take the matching coloured book and find the entry tied to your card number. If you are doing a red OVERPOWER action on card 613, you check entry 613 in the red OVERPOWER Storybook. In multiplayer, have someone else read it aloud. In solo, you will read it yourself. The first line will tell you how many dice you need to roll and describe the task. Don't read on beyond there or let your eyes drift to other entries on this page! Every action succeeds, the question is how difficult it is and how much damage you take doing it. You can reduce the number of dice you roll by spending skill tokens that match the action colour. Trying to perform a three die HACK? Discard a yellow TIME token to reduce the numbers of dice by one. You can use as many tokens as you want and have access too. Other players can share tokens with you too. You may be worlds apart, but your crew can talk you through it. Dice rolls can go a few ways. Blanks are great, no effect, just drop them into the penalty area on the main board. Arrows send the die back into the pool, fine, but it slows things down. You want your dice to cycle to refresh, more on that soon. The other faces hit your health, time, or morale. If you roll one of these, lower that stat on your tracker unless you can place the die onto a card. Cards can absorb dice based on the action type, or the specific action. For example, a fishing rod might help you FISH (a red OVERPOWER action) but not help in combat as it specifically says FISH on the dice box. Other dice placement may be more general, and universally helpful, allowing any Star dice to be placed there, or any blue action where you are LOOKING for example. You can use your own cards or anyone’s cards with a lightning bolt symbol, meaning it is open to the whole team. This makes teamwork feel real and important. If you run out of available dice in the dice pool, you can refresh all dice, including dice previously placed on cards, thus opening up those slots for use again. Hence, you want to cycle through dice as quickly as possible. So, you could place a die, even if it was a blank, just to cycle through the dice more quickly if you so chose. Once you resolve the dice and damage, read the rest of the entry to see what happens. You might get an item, go somewhere new, or even be told to CONTINUE and take another action on the same card. That is rare and the only way you can ever do two or more actions on the same card in the same game. (Unless the card specifically says so!) Otherwise, play moves to the next player. Other than choosing actions on location cards, you can also carry out actions on your cards that you collect, which may allow you to craft a new item, upgrade a tool or weapon, or do something very specific. I won't spoil anything here. But trust me, some things will come up you do not expect! It's wonderful! You can also carry out actions on the Mission card you got during setup. Each Mission has a number of areas you can look into one time per game, to give you clues as to how you may complete this mission. It may move your location or give you a specific clue or skill to help in this quest. It is worth doing these early if you want to focus on a quicker mission based game. Later on in the game, you may gain a Destiny card. This goes alongside the mission card on the main board. When you complete a mission, you will be prompted to read the matching text in the book of secrets. Similarly, the Destiny cards will do the same. You can try to complete both for an EPIC victory, or just one, or just roam around. The game can end a number of ways, and some missions and destiny will let you continue after you have completed if you want to. You could also end the game when any of your trackers, health, morale, or time, reaches zero. If this happens, read the matching text as shown on the main board in the yellow TAKE story book. This will tell you what to do next. Again, I won't spoil that here, you will find that out on your first game I expect! Monitoring your resources and mitigating dice rolls takes a few turns to get used too. Well, it did for me! As you move around this world, you will be mostly aiming for things that may help in your mission and/or Destiny (if you have one). But you could also get side quests, get distracted by something intriguing or mysterious, or simply just enjoy a wonder. There is so much to explore, and you can have just as much fun meandering aimlessly for hours, with no real resolution, as you could completing a mission in 30 minutes. I have had both of those experiences, and enjoyed both for different reasons. Is It Fun? Vantage Board Game Review Crash-land, wander, and wing it. Vantage throws you into a wild, card-driven alien world where you and your crew have all landed in different spots. You're alone… but also not. It’s part 7th Continent, part Zelda, and part “how the hell did I end up with a fishing rod in a blizzard?” You’ll chat through intercoms, describe what you see, and bumble your way through missions, mysteries, and “oops, probably shouldn’t have goaded that monster” moments. Every card is a new page in a choose-your-own-adventure story that will surprise and delight you! No two games are the same, and that’s the point. The setup is quick (shockingly quick for a game like this), and the decisions feel immediately meaningful. You make choices, roll, explore, make a move, and then live (or regret) the consequences. You’re building a character and a narrative. Getting stronger and gaining new powers and items. One die roll might send you to a mountaintop monastery (for example - no spoilers here!). Another to an underground mutant pub, again for example! And it all just flows so deliciously. The way skill tokens, other player powers, and boost tokens can all help one action is slick and deeply satisfying when it all comes together. There is some gameplay to this story. And yes, you will get distracted. Vantage is one of those games where half the fun is not simply focusing on your mission. You might just wander because something looks interesting. You’ll pick a direction based on a weird symbol. You'll push buttons because, why not? It’s the kind of game where the journey is the game. That’s what makes it feel so fun and alive. Whether you're trying to “win,” just explore, or go full chaos mode, there’s something here for everyone. You can finish a session in under an hour... or just keep going, because it’s too fun to stop. Game length is quite varied! If you are looking for a complex, mechanics-driven board game, this is not for you. But if you want a story-driven, narrative-based, choose-your-own-adventure style game full of exploration and wonder, this could well be your new favourite game. It is incredibly accessible, works perfectly solo, but probably best with two players for me. It works up to six, and it's fine. You can get a massive benefit from having so many dice placement locations and extra skill tokens. But it does slow down your own specific adventure. You need to fully commit to the team experience in higher player counts. Describe what you see. Allow others to offer guidance and advice, and make this a team game. If that doesn't sound fun to you, I would not buy this for higher players counts. I have seen criticism around the game's high levels of admin and poor rulebook. On the rulebook, I somewhat agree. It has a slightly weird layout and took me a few read-throughs. But you could always watch a playthrough, rules video, or read my rules explanation above! It isn't too complex. On the admin side, I strongly disagree. It takes mere moments to find the cards you are looking for, and the excitement of seeing what you get is always fun for me. If you are rushing through, particularly in solo, and you are not explaining things to another player and discussing your decisions and options, then sure, it may become laborious as you are not in the game for the right reasons. You are rushing it. This game is not about the end; it's about the journey. As such, the game shines in a two-player experience. I love the solo, but I do enjoy bouncing off ideas with other players, and sharing the highs and lows as our story unfolds. In a two, you are always back to your turn quickly enough, but also have a side story to enjoy, and maybe even become a part of. Although I have found most games we do work together, we are rarely near each other. The planet is massive, and it's hard to know where you are first and foremost, let alone find another person. But there are ways to get a lay of the land, through various vantage points. And maybe make your way to each other. But there is rarely a huge benefit from that. Sure, you could do two actions per location now, or maybe even use specific tools as a group. But the fun is in the adventure, and that can take you anywhere. Is Vantage good for solo play? Yes! Vantage is highly accessible and works very well as a solo experience. The game’s simple set-up, narrative and exploration-driven gameplay keep solo players engaged, making it a great choice for playing alone. How long does a typical game of Vantage take? A single session of Vantage can be completed in under an hour, making it perfect for shorter game nights. However, if you want to explore more deeply or complete multiple missions, you can easily extend playtime by trying to do more. Some missions are harder to complete, and some missions will add in secondary destiny's. This will extend game time. But you don't have to complete them. It is all your choice. I have had some games run into a third hour, but largely because we wanted it to. If you want a quicker game, research your mission card early and focus on that. If do want to explore, there is plenty opportunity to do that! Is Vantage replayable? Definitely. Every game of Vantage is different thanks to its open-world card layout and randomised starting position, missions, and diverging paths. Its modular design and narrative choices create a highly replayable experience with many new surprises each time. I have played the game ten times now over the course of three weeks and 25 hours and I would say it feels like I have "seen" a small fraction of the game. Sure, some things have come up again,. I have repeated certain locations and even certain actions, but then the game quickly diverts into path and things change very quickly. One action per card, six actions per card in total, and 801 location cards in total, plus a few surprises along the way, that's a lot of game. Pros Intriguing secrets! There are so many exciting items, crazy powers, and hidden "things" to find in this world. I find that part deeply engrossing and highly addictive. I want to find them all! Highly replayable  with randomised missions and open-world card exploration. Quick setup  for a narrative-driven adventure game. Engaging solo and cooperative play , great for 1 to 2 players but does work for higher players counts if that is your jam. Accessible mechanics  that balance strategy with storytelling. Strong thematic immersion  that bridges video game and board game fans. Flexible playtime , from short sessions under an hour to longer adventures. Innovative dice and skill token system  that adds depth without complexity. Cons Not ideal for players seeking heavy mechanics or complex strategy. Larger player counts (4 to 6) can slow down gameplay and dilute the narrative focus. You need to commit to the group experience and really engage with each others story. Some players may find the randomness frustrating  if they prefer more control, away from dice. But there are plenty ways to mitigate rolls. Requires players to engage with narrative text regularly, which might not suit everyone but the text you read is mostly, very short. One short paragraph, most of the time. There will eventually be a limit to the replayability , you will know all the cards and secrets at one point, but I wager that would take a good 50 plus plays, maybe even more. Vantage Board Game Review Final Thoughts If you’ve ever wanted to crash-land on a mysterious alien planet with nothing but a hunch, and a questionable sense of direction, Vantage is calling your name. It’s like a choose-your-own-adventure book got tangled up with your favourite video game and then invited your friends over for a wild night of dice rolling and chaos. Will you survive? Probably. Will you have a blast trying? Absolutely. So grab your boost tokens, buckle up, and prepare to get lost in a story that’s as unpredictable as your last internet search history.

Home Team Heroes WBG Score: 8 Player Count: 2 You’ll like this if you like: Magic and Football Published by:   Home Team Games Designed by:   Jussi Saarinen This is a free review copy of the game. See our review policy here This is a very interesting concept. Designer Jussi Saarinen has come up with a concept for combining card playing elements seen in games like Magic, and turning it into a football-based two-player card game that supports lower-level football teams. How? Well, the idea is the game can be easily replicated to represent the playing staff of any team. That team can then sell their version of the game on the Home Team Games website and make a small profit themselves. There is no risk or cost to the team, just a small profit for each sale, which, with their own playing staff in, will surely be a winner. It's a great idea to help local teams, as well as develop a bespoke game for each fan of every club. As a concept, I absolutely adore it. But how does it play as a game? Let's get it to the table and see how it plays. How To Set Up Home Team Heroes You can create your own deck using cards from multiple decks. Or, simply shuffle one deck of playing cards and deal seven cards to each player. Place the remaining cards in the centre where each player can reach it. Place the two yellow and red cards and goal cards separate from this on the table. In the advanced mode, you can also draw five cards and place them face down in front of each player. These are your subs. You can use them when ever you wish, but you cannot look at them until you draw them. Now, pick a random player to start; it doesn't matter. And you are now ready to begin. How To Play Home Team Heroes Players will now take turns having two possessions each half, one at a time. When your possession is over, the other player has a turn. Players have two possessions, then it is half time. All cards are shuffled, and you go again. In the second half, you do the same again, two possessions each, one at a time. The game then ends, and the player with the most goals wins. For the advanced mode, at half time, instead of shuffling all cards back into the deck, each player can decide which players from the discard pile to shuffle back into their deck and which ones to leave in the discard pile. On a player's possession, they will play one event card, if they wish, then one player card. The card they play must start with a one shirt number. The second card can now be a one or two. The third can be a one, two, or three. After you have played at least three cards, you can then attempt a shot at goal. Each card shows an attack and defence stat. You score a goal if your total attack value exceeds your opponent's total defence value. There are various card effects that can increase or decrease your total score. Add up your total at the point the attacking player decides to shoot, and either a goal is scored or not. In the advanced mode, the attacking player, after a failed shot, can retain possession and have another try if they complete a successful press by having a higher defence value than the opponent's defence value. Their attack was not good enough to score, but their attacking player's defensive skills allowed them to win back the ball for another try. You can do this a maximum of three times each possession. There is a clean-up and refill between a failed attack and a successful press. At various points, you may gain a free-kick or a penalty. Free kicks work by each player drawing the top two cards from the deck. They pick their highest attacking card for the attacker, and defensive card for the defender. Then the player with the highest card wins. If the attacker wins, they score a goal. If the defender wins, no goal is conceded. The same applies to a penalty, except the defending player only draws a single card this time. Various cards can be played as event cards. One per turn, before a playing card is played. They allow you to alter the effect of the game in various ways, as explained on the card. You can book the other player, and then if they get booked again, that means they receive a red card. This reduces their hand size by one permanently, as well as reducing the total defence and attack score by one for the rest of the game. You can force players to discard the player they just played, or the event card they just played, and you can add fancy boots to your players to improve their stats. All sorts of different cards and powers. Is It Fun? Home Team Heroes Card Game Review The game itself is very simple in its mechanics, which makes it accessible to players of all ages and skill levels. However, the depth of strategy involved in the choices you make as you play your cards feels absolutely delicious and engaging. Each decision carries weight, and as you navigate your options, the tension builds, creating an exhilarating experience. Much like football! You may find yourself in possession of a great defensive card, one that could potentially turn the tide of the game in your favour. Yet, at the moment, you are on the attack, pushing forward with your offensive strategy. This raises a critical question: do you hold back that valuable defensive card for your next attack phase, anticipating that it will be more beneficial later on, or do you desperately need to deploy it now to bolster your current position hoping your press at least will give you another chance? The stakes feel high as you weigh your options. Furthermore, you might consider whether a substitute card at this juncture could help improve your situation on the field. Is it worth the risk to take a card that could serve you better later in the game? Or should you exercise restraint and save your extra cards for future attacks, where they might have a greater impact as your opponents deck runs dry. As you assess your opponent's current hand, you may notice that they possess a strong set of cards right now. This prompts you to think strategically about your own card choices. Can you afford to be a little more conservative, playing defensively and waiting for the right moment to strike? Or do you need to go all-in, pushing aggressively to affect the pace of the game and disrupt your opponent's strategy? Perhaps you observe that, while their attack may seem poor at the moment, they have a formidable defence that will allow them to maintain pressure on you unless you stand firm and counter their advances. This adds another layer of complexity to your decision-making process. And the back-and-forth really do feel like a little game of footy. What may appear to be a simple choice at first glance begins to take on significant meaning as you continue to play. The dynamics of the game shift, especially as goals start flying in, creating moments of celebration and excitement. You will find yourself cheering during various phases of play, as cards are laid down and goals are scored, mirroring the intensity and thrill of a real game. Each choice you make, each card you play, contributes to the unfolding narrative of the match, making the experience not just about winning or losing, but about the journey and the strategic dance between you and your opponent. I don't see this being enjoyed by people who don't like football. And of course, if the cards are decked out in players from the team you support, it will be even more fun for you. But I think that is the point. This is a bespoke, unique little game that can really drill down into a niche area, and I am all in for it.