Search Results

Apiary WBG Score: 9/10 Player Count: 1-5 You’ll like this if you like: Viscounts of the West Kingdom, Viticulture Lost Ruins of Arnak Published by: Stonemaier Games Designed by: Connie Vogelmann This is a review copy. See our review policy here Apiary is the new game from Stonemaier games, something that is always an event for me. To me, there is something special about a new game coming out from this publisher. This time round, Stonemaier are working with a new designer, not just to them, but to the board game world. Connie Vogelmann is entering the market with a bang. The buzz (if you will excuse the pun) around this game is massive. The queue to buy it at Essen was massive, and pre-orders seem to be flying off the shelves. But is it any good? Let's get it to the table to find out. How To Set Up Apiary Lay out the board based on your player count; one side suits one to three, the other is for four or five players. Give each player one of the five available hive mats. Each is very different and will offer a unique experience. You will need a bit of space around your mat as you may build off it. Next, take the planet tiles, shuffle them up, and place them in a face-down stack just off the board on the top left by the Explore area. Then on each of the explore spaces on the main board, add one face-up explore token at random. Place any unused tokens back into the box. Then in the bottom right space here, add the Queenship mini. It comes unpainted, so if you have time, stop the setup, go paint it, ask for my address, wait, check your post, paint mine as well, send it back, then move on to the next step. Now, into the top right of the main board, add the farm, recruit, and development tiles. Place them in three separate stacks face down on their marked locations, then flip three face up into each row. You may want two separate piles for these, especially the Farm tiles; there are quite a lot, and a large stack may have the tendency to fall! Add the yellow Carve tiles into the Carve spaces to fill each spot, then place any leftover tiles back into the box. They will not replenish during the game. Next, place one dance tile onto each blank spot on the Convert section in the bottom right of the board. Add the dance tokens here in a stack. No worries to shuffle these tokens; this is open information. Then place the extra frames, and all the resources into separate stacks by the main board. Finally for the main board, add the seed cards onto the space for these on the research section on the bottom left of the board Now, give each player a set of Worker bees: three cubes in their chosen color, one docking mat in their color, and the seven hibernation tokens in their color. Each player then takes at random one faction tile from the 20 available. For your first game, it is recommended to take one of the starting factions, but after that, try a different one each time. They offer a different end game scoring condition which can be fun to experiment with. Each will list a different amount and value of starting workers too. Add the appropriate amount and value of workers to your active worker space on your docking mat, placing any spare set to level one by the Research area on the main board. Note some faction tiles will give you all four workers from the off. Your faction will also give you a starting allocation of resources shown in the spaces marked with a green circle. Take these from the main pool and add to the spaces on your faction tile. Finally, add one of your player tokens onto the score track on the main board at zero for the first player, and one up for each subsequent player. Place the next cube onto the starting space on the Queen's favor track on the bottom of the main board, and place the third cube on their docking mat. If you prefer, you can deal out all the hive mats and faction tiles, one per player, and let players draft one of each in a snake draft, in turn order. You are now ready to play. How to Play Apiary On a player's turn, they have one of two options: Either place a worker out onto one of the six spaces on the board or bring back all previously placed workers. That's it. Players will continue like this until the Hibernation spaces on the main board are full, or one player has used all seven of their Hibernation tokens. All players will have one final turn, then final scoring takes place. More on that later. You will be able to carry out the number of actions in the area where you place the worker, equal to the number shown on the worker. If you place a worker with a strength of four, you will also be able to carry out that area's bonus action. The six areas you can place a worker on work as follows: Explore - This is where you can control the Queen's Ship, explore uncharted territory, and gain supplies. You can move the strength of all shown workers in the area orthogonally. If there is an explore token, take this and gain the shown benefit, and move it to the space for these on your docking mat. Then place the top planet tile onto this location. The planet tile will show a number of empty spaces which you can fill with any of the basic resources. You will then gain these resources as well. If you move to a planet that has already been explored, simply gain the resources shown there. When you place a strength four worker here, you will be able to carry out the extra action shown on the bottom of some of the planet tiles. This is different for each tile, but all are very powerful and useful to your goals. Some, however, do not have this. Advance - This is where you can add new farms, recruits, or developments to your hive mat to gain in-game points, extra resource storage, and resources, increase your in-game powers, and plan for your end-game points opportunities. Simply place a worker here and then buy the tile you want. The strength of the worker placed dictates which row you can buy from, and a strength four worker will allow you to also gain three victory points. Each tile has a cost shown on the bottom, a mix of basic resources for the farms, pollen for the recruits, and wax for the developments. When you take a tile, shift the remaining tiles to the left and then fill in the blank space on the right, adding the newly acquired tile to your hive mat. Grow - This area allows you to gain new workers, upgrade your faction mat, and acquire new frames for your hive. It will cost one strength to gain one worker, which is always set to strength one here and then placed onto your active pool, costing one pollen. Acquiring a new frame costs two strength, and you can add this anywhere you like to your hive mat as long as it doesn't overlap another space and touches at least one other hex. This costs two basic resources. A strength four worker added here allows you to flip your faction tile, upgrading your end-game scoring condition, generally increasing your end-game point potential. Research - This area allows you to gain new seed cards. You can only ever take one at a time, but a higher strength worker allows you to draw more cards to pick from. A strength four worker here will allow you to plant one of the seed cards into the two available spaces on your hive mat. There are two additional spaces to add a third and fourth card, which are activated when you add additional frames to your hive board. Any seed cards you do not plant can be played at any time on your turn to gain the benefit shown on the top of the card. Convert - This area allows you to convert resources in your position to any other based on the shown ratios. If you place a strength four worker here, you can also create a dance. You can only ever do this once per game, so a second strength four worker simply allows you four conversions. The dances are randomly added at the start of the game and start blank. You can add dance tiles to the blank spaces to create the conversions that suit you. This is a novel and new way to add variation to the classic resources conversation seen in many euro games. Carve - This area lets you gain powerful Carve tiles to add to your hive mat. These will give you new end game scoring conditions that can be huge swings if you get it right. They will cost two or three honey, a resource that is rare and hard to get, and can only be accessed by a strength four worker. The Carve tile is not replaced, so the ones shown at the start of the game are the only options for all players that game. This reminds me a little of the race to the Factory in Scythe. When players place a worker, they will always do so into the available space above each area. If another worker is there, this is bumped to the next space, if available. Or off the board if not. When this happens, if the worker was currently at strength one, two, or three, the worker can move up one strength and be placed onto the owners active pool. Or, the player can choose to keep the workers strength at the current level and place it onto the landing area. This last option may be chosen to avoid the worker becoming exhausted too quickly and being forced to hibernate before the player wants it too. Or because the player wants an extra worker to gain income in an upcoming retrieve action. More on that later. When a worker is bumped from the board on strength four it must hibernate. This means it goes back to strength one and is placed back by the Research area on the main board. The player who owns this worker then must place a hibernation token onto one of the hibernation spaces on the bottom of the main board. This will gain that player a resource as shown on that space, and potentially refresh one of the rows of tiles in the Advance area if the X symbol is also shown. When this area is full or one player has used their seventh hibernation token the game comes to an end. Each player has one final turn and then final scoring will commence. Players will score points for any seed cards they placed under their hive mat during the game, any tiles placed onto their hive mat that show end game points, any fulfilled conditions on the Carve tiles they bought, eight points for filling the hive mat and any additional frames added, your fractions end game ability, your position on the Queens favour track, and any points gained from the area control mini game on the hibernation track. The player with the most points wins. Is It Fun? Apiary Board Game Review Apiary is such a simple game to teach and play but it is full of engaging and rewarding decisions. If you can find a way to make your actions connect in a meaningful way, you will quickly fall in love with this game. That said, I have lost all bar one of the games I have played so far, and I still love it! Finding the right strategy to maximise your efficiencies, get the combo turns you crave, and push up your score can be difficult. There is a lot to piece together in your mind. But the path n learning to do so is an enjoyable one. It feels like a disjointed story or puzzle that you need to find the right order for. But each paragraph or chapter opens enlightening new characters or plot twists, that even if you form into the wrong order, will still bring a smile to your face. The game plays very quickly. Perhaps too fast in your first few games as you need to find the balance between advancing your workers strength and gaining the hibernation bonus and area control points, to having simply enough turns in the game to do all you need to do. This is a very interesting puzzle and creates a very interesting learning curve for your early games. It took me a good few games to understand how to make it work for me. You don't want to fall behind the other players in the hibernation area control points and resource rewards, but you also cannot focus on this too much if one player is going for a quick game, upgrading their workers and hibernating as fast as they can. But you also cannot ignore it, you may be caught short desperately wanting a few more turns to complete your plans. It never feels like there is a bad option in this game, just lot's of good or very good ones. And as you cannot block other workers, unlike in other worker placement games, you won't ever be in a situation where you cannot do what you want, unless you run out of time. That said, other players may take certain tiles you want, or claim spaces on the hibernation spots you wanted, but the main worker placement spaces will always be open to you, even when other players have workers there. If anything, their presence their will help you with additional strength. And herein lies the genius of the game. The way the workers are bumped, and their strength either being increased and placed into active area or hibernation or remaining as is and put into the landing area; this choice is where you will win or lose many games. This is where you will dictate the length and pace of the game. This is where you will control the number of actions you take, and how powerful they will all be. I adore the theme and art, and the component quality, as is always the case with Stonemaier game is top notch. The box and insert is fantastic making set up and tear down very simple. Everything just fits, and it's clear where everything should go. A simple but important point with a euro game like this with lots of moving parts. I would recommend this game to anyone who typically enjoy Stonemaier games, or euro games with clever resource management, or anyone who is looking for a mid-weight game to play with their group that offers meaningful choices and a satisfying process to experience, but in a quick and simple gameplay. This game can be played easily in 30 minutes per player, even from game one. Initially because you may be bumping and hibernating too much, thus ending the game too fast. And latterly as you become more au fait with the strategy and choices. One word of warning. This will not fit you and your group if you do not enjoy asymmetry and variation in games. The different hive mats and faction powers offer greatly different experiences, and it may be you get the perfect tiles for your chosen set-up. Or, of course, it could feel like the game is against you. If this sort of thing would wind you up, you may find this game irritating. However, if you enjoy the challenge of rolling with these variations, and trying to work out each asymmetric set-up and the right way to play with your chosen powers, you may well fall is love with this game. I enjoy this game in solo, like all Stonemaier games, it has a fantastic and rewarding 'automa' to play against. Two and three player is the sweet spot for this game for me, but four works if you are willing for a slower pace. You will have more downtime of course, but a lot more bumping and interaction. I have not played five yet, but presume it will be the same. A slower and longer game, but more interaction. I predict this game is certainly going to end in my top ten for the year, perhaps top five. I have played every day for the last week and have it set up to play again later tonight. It is the sort of game that gets into your head, and makes you want to play over and over to get better at the strategy. Win or lose, it is fun to play. I have been competing more with my previous scores than my opponent in the game, to see if I can get better. I enjoy figuring out the strategy for each asymmetric set-up I get. This is the sort of game I want to play with all my different friends to show them what can be done, and show off the games clever mechanics and rules. I think this could go down as a new Stonemaier modern classic.

The Legends of Andor: The Eternal Frost WBG Score: 8 or10* Player Count: 2-4 You’ll like this if you like: The Andor games, The Adventures of Robin Hood Published by: KOSMOS Designed by: Michael Menzel This is a review copy. See our review policy here This will be a spoiler free review bar one minor spoiler, clearly labelled below and easily avoided if you choose. There have been a number of games in the Andor range. Starting with Legends of Andor which you can see a brief one minute overview of here. Since then, there have been a number of expansions such as 2017 release Legends of Andor: Dark Heroes and stand alone sequel's such as the 2014 success Journey to the North. It has been a bit quiet recently but 2023 saw the release of a new stand alone sequel, Eternal Frost. It uses the same mechanics and ruleset as the previous Andor, but with four new legends to play through, and let's be honest, feels a bit Games of Thronesy! Let's get it to the table to see how it plays. How To Set Up The Legends of Andor: The Eternal Frost Place the main board out with the castle showing and the lake face down. This is the board used for your first game. Then, I suggest you put the main rule book away, you really will not need it at all. And simply follow the quick-start guide instructions. It's very simple and means you learn as you play. You really can just get cracking with it. The main thing you need to do is pick a character and get ready for some adventuring! They are all double sided to offer a variation on gender. How To Play The Legends of Andor: The Eternal Frost Once you are done, take the first legend card and begin reading. This will describe what you need to do next both in terms of the mechanics, rules, but also goals and objectives. It will teach you how to move and fight as you play, which is a lot better than reading it here or in the rule book. Is It Fun? The Legends of Andor: The Eternal Frost Review First up, to manage expectations, it needs to be said, there are four legends in this game. Each legend will be one complete game. Roughly lasting an hour. If you lose one, you will need to reply it until you win. And the final legend has three different endings, dictated by a die role. And you can of course replay the whole thing again very easily. There are also ways to add additional enemies and make the game harder by reading additional red cards when prompted. Or, you can simply avoid them if you prefer. As you play through the game, your main options on your turn are to move or fight. Alternatives will present themselves as you play, but this will remain your primary choice. The game works, like the others in the series, on a game clock. Each movement or single round of combat costs you an hour. And as we all know, there are only so many hours in a day. You will have more than one day to complete your objectives, but at sunset each day, the monsters activate. And if too many make it to your base, the game is lost. Their movement can surprise you as well, as they often jump each others locations and progress a lot faster than you initially thought. Careful calculation of this during the day phase is crucial to your success. Which brings to me to my main concern with these games. The main way to win here seems to be about working out the number of monsters you have to kill. You cannot have too many infiltrate your base, but there is some leeway. But you cannot fight too many either, as it will use up all your time, both in the game clock, but also as it progresses the story too. Each time a monster is banished through battle you must move the marker on the right of the board one space up. When you get to the top the game is over, and if you have not completed your goals you will fail. This moves every night as well, but you can really accelerate the game and hugely reduce your available turns by fighting too much. But, if you can work out the right balance, you will invariably win, subject to a few good rolls. Other than that, there is not too much strategy in the game other than working out the shortest route to certain parts of the board. But the story will make up for this for most of you. However, there are moments when you do something clever that keeps you going. There are ways to spend willpower to gain extra hours. Some items will help with this, as well as clever use of your own character powers. Deciding who will do what, and working together on occasions to fight the harder monsters will greatly increase your chances of victory. And these smart choices will make you thirst for more. I do wish there was a little in the way of dice manipulation, or more special powers though. The game does a great job of creating tension and making the legends all hard enough to make victories feel satisfying. But I think one or two more ways to influence your luck a little more would be interesting. Sometimes, a game can be won or lost by the roll of a single die, or the placement of a random item. This can be frustrating if it causes you to lose near the end of a game, when other than this, you played flawlessly. But this is just because I find repeating legends annoying and a bit of a waste of time. If you enjoy repeating missions, you will love this. On one occasion, legend three, a monster spawned in a random location that was quite a way away from where we were. We had no way to get to it in time and the mission was essentially lost. The location of where the monster spawned was determined by a die roll, so we decided to roll again. We did, the monster spawned somewhere else. We won with ease and plenty of time to spare. This is cheating. Unquestionably. But I did not want to repeat the entire mission based on the roll of one dice. Some of you may enjoy repeating missions. Some may find the above admission of cheating abhorrent! I mention only as this is a key part of if you will enjoy this game or not. Tooling up your heroes is a lot of fun. There are a number of ways to gain additional weapons and items that will aid your cause. It's fun to physically place them on your hero mat as you acquire them, and it works well as a visual aid, reminding you what options you have available to you. Combat works well too. It is a combination of you current strength, added to your highest dice roll, the quantity of which will be determined by your current will power. You must spend an hour of your day as well, so it really becomes a resource management game. Your highest roll plus your strength will then go against the monsters equivalent number, and the difference between the two is removed from the losing players will power. This continues until one players will power is reduced to zero. At which point, if you win, you claim the bonus will power or strength and the monster is banished. If you lose, you lose one strength, but more importantly, have wasted a lot of time. This is all clearly labelled on the board with this clever chart. MINOR SPOILER - scroll down to below the picture if you want to avoid. The monsters you face will mostly be the first three shown on this chart, but the odd bigger monster will appear along the way. Including one of three in the final battle in legend four. This is a minor spoiler I suppose but you pop them all out at the start of the game, and see them. The only thing that is a minor spoiler is that you will only face one of these, not all three. They all offer a quite different final battle experience which does make replaying the final legend worth while. Two of the monsters below will come up, the other is a character you will work with to avoid the picture being too much of a spoiler for anyone who scrolled passed this paragraph. I would recommend this game to anyone who was a fan of the original Andor games. If you haven't played them yet, you do not need to play them in order, although I would suggest you do. If this intrigues you, I would get the first game before getting this. However if you have not played Andor, like the idea of this, and prefer the theme of the eternal frost in this game, then by all means, go ahead and jump right in. This game will not spoil any other game in the series. The story is the main thing that will pull you in. And I love the way the cards that detail the story and your game objectives work so well. The experience is close to flawless as you traverse the four legends. When you get to this encounter token on space 450 for example, read the matching card with the same image. It all works so well. However, there were two moments when the name of the card that was referenced for me to go read was simply wrong. I presume a translation error? It was frustrating to take my head out of the game on these two occasions and have to work out which card they meant. It wasn't hard to do this, there was only one other card it could have been and the names were similar. But in a game all about the story, you want to stay in it at all times. But when you are in the story, which is 99% of the time, it is absorbing, exciting, intriguing, and a lot of fun to play. I am unsure how soon it will be until I try these four legends again, but the four legends in the box were excellent and a 10/10 experience for me. I score this an 8 simply as I ask the question, is four legends enough?

My Island WBG Score: 8.5 Player Count: 2-4 You’ll like this if you like: My City, Kingdomino. Published by: BLAM ! Designed by: KOSMOS This is a review copy. See our review policy here This will be a spoiler free review. My City was a big success for us. However, we stopped on game 21 out of 24. I will finish it one day, but it got a bit samey for us. I gave it a seven on BGG. You can watch me play the first three games here if you want. It's pretty spoiler free as its just the first three games. I liked the idea more than the game I think. My Island has a more interesting theme and it uses hex tiles instead of polyomino tiles which I have found a lot more palatable for my brain. But is it better? Do you need both? Let's get it to the table and see how it plays? How To Set Up My Island Each player will take a board, placed the main side up. The other side is the forever game to play incorporating rules from the first few chapters. Take the tiles with your chosen colour matching the symbol on the top left of your board and one cream cube, which you place on the ten space. Shuffle the deck of cards and place them into a central space. You are now ready to play. This is the forever board side. This can be sued for infinite amount of games once you have finished the legacy side. How To Play My Island Flip the top card and each player will find the matching shape. This shape must be placed onto their board, with at least one hex starting on a beach. Subsequent shapes must touch a matching coloured hex and you can only place tiles onto the outer beach tiles and the inner heath spaces. If you ever cannot or do not want to place a tile you can leave it off your board at the sacrifice of one point. Each time you place a hex with an orange building icon on the beach you will instantly gain one point. And it is this simple for the first game. Keep playing until you deice you stop, which you can do at any point, or the cards run out. At the end of the round you will lose one point for any visible beach space still remaining, so this is your focus for game one. Game two will work almost the same but now you will score three points whenever you place three or more green path hexes next to each other. Game three the paths now need to be five hexes or more long and they will now score you five points. And the next layer of hexes on the pam tree spaces can now be built on. When you are done with this third chapter its time to open the second envelope which will give you new components and rules for the next three games. This continues through for the next eight envelopes and 24 games. The will be new components, stickers to add to your board, new rules, stickers, twists, and did I mention the stickers? There are a lot of stickers! in gams seven to nine I add six stickers all to the same hex! Is It Fun? My Island Legacy Board Game Review It is hard to review this fully without spoiling what is in the envelopes. But don't worry, I wouldn't do that to you. But the pink Elephant in the last envelope sure is unexpected! Don't worry, there isn't really a pink Elephant in the last envelope. It's in the seventh one. The first six games are all pretty simple. New ways to score are added at a nice pace and there is a nice gentle development of the game. Games seven to nine ramp up a bit with some interesting new ways to score and things to achieve that make the decisions you make a little more complex. Game seven was the first time I scored under ten, but this quickly changed as you work out the ways the game now wants you to play. From game ten onwards the game ramps up and the changes feel bigger. There is a nice progression as you go. And the story certainly is interesting. Not what you may expect at all! Is the pay off enough? I would say, no. But do you need a pay off? Set your expectations to developments and changes rather than a massive shock or change and I think you will be happy. People have been spoilt by other legacy games and the way they throw unexpected curve balls that rip up the fundamentals of the game. This won't do that. But you will get new things that will make what you do completely different. Your board will evolve, the things you play on will too. Just have realistic expectations. If you enjoyed My City then get this. You will like it just the same if not a little bit more. If My City wasn't for you, this won't be either. It is very similar with the only real difference being the shapes you are using now. I gave My City a 7. This gets an 8.5. I prefer this style of tile laying over the first games polyominos. But I did also prefer the progression and pace of the game. It is a better experience and one I would certainly encourage you check out.

Monikers: Monikers-er WBG Score: 8 Player Count: 4-16 You’ll like this if you like: Charades, most party games! Published by: CMYK Designed by: Alex Hague, Justin Vickers This is a review copy. See our review policy here What more is there to say about Monikers? It's one of the best selling and popular party games ever made. Like many games of this ilk, it's the polished and published version of something many if you may have played at home already, simply with paper and pen. You probably had a great time with it, and for me, the question may be less about if this game is any good, and more, do you need to pay for it? Well, to answer that, let's get this new standalone expansion to the table, and see for our selves. How To Set-Up Monikers: Monikers-er As you might expect in a party game this is very easy to set up. Simply split into two teams, grabs some cards and begin! Now, the official rules has a set number of cards based on player count, but obviously this is up to you based on how long you want to play for. But you can give each player this amount of cards, they will then choose four to eight from this, depending on player count, and these are then shuffled into the one deck used in the game. If you want to make the game suitable for younger players simply remove the cards with the pumpkin symbols shown on them. How To Play Monikers: Monikers-er Now, taking it in turns, teams will have one player from their team try and describe as many cards as possible to their team in one minute from the chosen deck of cards. Players are trying to guess what is written on the card, and the describer can say anything they like to make them guess correctly, other than the words on the card. It's up to your group how strict you police the clues and the answers that are given, the rule book suggests you err on the side of fun! Teams will take it in turns to play like this, one minute rounds, until the deck is extinguished. There are no limits to how many passes you can make, the game suggests you don't worry about that too much, and just try and keep the game moving. Keep the game fun! Teams will score points based on the cards they managed to complete and the score shown on the bottom of each card. Harder cards reward with bigger points. Then, the fun really begins! In round two, the teams will continue to do the same thing, but now they can only use one word! It sounds a lot harder than it is, but of course the cards you are using are the same from round one, so you already know all the answers. But can you remember them? Don't worry if not. Just shout out random answers from round one until you stumble onto the correct one! There is no limit to how many answers you can try. In the final round, players now have to use the power of charades to direct the teams into the right direction. It is hilarious, often terrible, sometimes genius, but always fun! It is always enjoyable to see the call backs from the things players said about the cards from the previous rounds. It always amazes me how certain things now associate with almost unrelated words, simply from the links made in the previous rounds. There are a few expansions out there with some ideas for a crazy fourth round. When we used to play this with paper and pen we then did a fourth round with sounds only, or "just the eyes!" Which trust me, can work! It's up to you how far you want to take it! Is It Fun? Monikers: Monikers-er Board Game Review If you are unsure if this is fun, perhaps this won't be for you. But, if by now you are itching to play this with your family or friends, I would suggest you do not hesitate and just get it. Sure, you could play on your own with paper and pen, but the game is not expensive and the production is very good. Having a published version like this full game takes away the need for players to have to write out the answers to start with, which can be tedious, and lead to some dreary people on occasions. Monikers also brings in very interesting cards, other than just celebrities, which was how I used to play it. Phrases, words, films, places, all sorts of wierd and wonderful things come up. And interestingly, at different point scoring options too. Each card also explains what the word is too, so if you are unsure, you can pass, or quickly read the description and that may help give inspiration for what you want to say or do. There is some value to having a full published version. As such, I would encourage everyone to buy this. If you enjoy party games, and especially have fun with the loud shouty, belly-laugh ones, then this should be in your collection. Buy any version. They all offer a lot of the same. This expansion is the newest, and has 330 new cards in the deck. You can play alone, or add to other versions. Whatever you want. There are some cards that may not be suitable for younger players, but they are clearly marked and easily removed if you want a family friendly version. But they are not that raunchy or anything to be worried about.

Ancient Knowledge WBG Score: 8.5/10 Player Count: 2-4 You’ll like this if you like: Tapestry, 51st State. Published by: IELLO Designed by: Rémi Mathieu This is a review copy. See our review policy here Ancient Knowledge is from first time designer Rémi Mathieu. It blows me away when new designers are able to create such deep and rich game experiences. Or maybe there were just a load of failures that never made it to BGG!? Either way, Rémi Mathieu has created a thing of absolute beauty with Ancient Knowledge. The game, I think, looks stunning. But how does it play? Let's get it to the table and find out. How To Set Up Ancient Knowledge Each player takes a board and places it in front of them, leaving space either side and above for more cards to be placed. Shuffle the main deck of cards and deal each player ten cards, from this they will choose a starting hand of six cards, and discard the other four. For someone's first game it is advised to give them a starting deck of six cards, shown by the symbol on the bottom right of some of the cards. Next, lay out the three technology tracks on the board, placing three cards from the level one deck onto the first two tracks, and three cards from the level two deck onto the third. Finally place the tablet tokens into a central area, decide who will be the first player and give them the first player token, and you are now ready to play. How To Play Ancient Knowledge Players will take it in turns to carry out two actions until the end game trigger occurs. This is when one player has 14 or more cards in their 'past.' I will explain that in a bit. Play continues until all players have had the same amount of turns, which could mean no more turns, depending on which player triggered this, and then final scoring occurs. Players are looking to play Monument play cards into their play area to score points, and trigger various card combos to increase their turn efficiencies. On each players turn they can carry out two actions, this can be any combination of five options. Two are very simple and just involve getting cards. You can either take one card from the top of the pile, or if you have cards in your 'past' you can rotate them 90 degrees to draw two new cards. Another option is to take one of the nine face up cards on the tech tracks adding it to the right of your board. The cards from the first two tracks help with your in game powers and abilities, whilst cards from the bottom track help with end game points. Another option allows players to discard a card to remove negative points in the shape of knowledge tokens, more on that later. The final two options are to play Monument cards to the top of your player board or to play an Artefact onto your board. Playing Monuments is the main part of the game and how you will gain most of your powers and points. This is a tableau building engine builder, although your tableau keeps changing and your engine has movable parts. This is the genius of the game! When you play an Artefact card, simply lay it down into one of the five spaces on your player board. You can never have more than five of these cards in play at once, and you can only remove them if a card has specific instruction to do so. Otherwise, they remain in play and offer in game powers at various stages of the game. The main action is to play the Monument cards. Each Monument card has one of three different symbols. Either the blue Stone Henge, the red Pantheon, or the green Chichén Itzá symbol. (Yes, I googled that!) They also have a number in a circle, showing which location above your board they must be placed. You can discard a card from your hand to place them into a different location if you chose. For each card you discard you can move one column. Unless it has a padlock symbol on, in which case it has to go to its specific location. Each card will show a number next to a Knowledge symbol. Sometimes this will be zero, in which case you don't need to worry, but otherwise, you must place the shown number of Knowledge tokens onto the card as you place it. If these are not removed by a certain point, they will score you minus points at the end of the game. Once a player has carried out their two actions, play moves to the Timeline phase. This is when all cards with the Timeline symbol are activated. Cards such as the ones shown below will now allow players certain powers such as to change their hand of cards or remove Knowledge tokens. Play then moves to the final Decline phase, in which all Monument cards in the active rows move left one column. Any card in the number one spot will move into the players 'past' which means they are now stored vertically to the left of the player board. This is where cards can later be rotated 90 degrees to excavate and draw two cards. Some cards have a specific power that is activated before they are put into the past, look out for cards such as the below with the Decline symbol, and carry out the required actions before you move them down. Any remaining Knowledge tokens on cards that are put into the players past are moved onto the space for them on the players board. They will count as negative points during final scoring. Play will then move to the next player. When one player has seven or more cards in their past, the middle Tech track is flipped from a one to a two side, and players now have access to more level two tech cards. This allows players to plan for the final scoring in a more efficient way, whilst acting as a reminder to all players about the stage of the game they are in. When someone reaches seven cards in their past, typically you will be two thirds through the game. Give or take. Whenever a player has 14 or more cards in their past, the end game triggers. All players continue until they have all had the same number of turns, then final scoring begins. Player will score points for all Monument cards in their past based on the cards score, as well as for any additional scoring some cards offer. They will also score for the level two tech cards, and an additional one point for any card still in their active Monument row. They will then subtract any Knowledge tokens on their board and total their final score. Is It Fun? Ancient Knowledge Board Game Review Ancient Knowledge is an incredibly slick and well oiled machine. There are so many cards. Soooooo many. 144 in fact. But you will fly through them, even in lower player counts. Through the course of every game I have played I have always found a way to manipulate my hand to get what I wanted. Sometimes it takes some time. But you have a bit of time in this game. And you can always build for later scoring opportunities even when you don't have everything you need right now. Or if you don't quite know what you will get! The ways you can combo the cards together to do this is incredibly satisfying. They are flexible, numerous, but powerful. The only negative I would say is that knowing the deck and how the cards work together is a big advantage. It would be hard to play this evenly with players who have a mixed experience of the game. However, when teaching this, I have gone through 20-30 cards briefly during the teach to try and accelerate each players understanding of the deck and this does help new players to catch up. Teaching the game is a breeze. It takes a few minutes. So, I think it is worth spending time on the deck for new players to over come this new player disadvantage. It feels like there is so much control in this game. There are so many options available to you in terms of what strategy you employ. Will you go big on the tech cards, or work to get your Artefacts down early to increase your powers as you play? Perhaps you will focus on building Monuments early to control the pace and length of the game? The cards themselves have multiple options too. Either cards that score high but have bigger things that need to be done that are harder to fulfil in order to score. Or cards with lower scoring opportunities, but can be scored quickly and easily. There are a few cards in the deck that directly attack another player, which works fine in a two player game, but in higher player counts it feels off. You will typically attack the leading player, but that is not always apparent. So, it feels unfairly targeted and spiteful at times. These cards can be easily burned in the game for other uses, or simply removed before you start. Although it is not easy to find them. However, I would say this game is perfect at two players anyway. The game can be a little slow with three or four. Especially if it's with players new to the game and still learning the deck. If you plan to play with the same three or four all the time, then fine. Players can make their choices quicker when they know the deck. But the downtime between turns can be long with newer players, as people check their cards out. As discussed, there are a lot of ways to cycle the deck and get new cards. You need to read each one when you get it to understand if it will work for you or not. This can be frustrating to watch and wait for. Especially if you have planned out your turn and know you can get it over in seconds. Some turns do fly by, whereas others have combos and knock effects, and can run for a lot longer. Especially if you have a lot of Timeline powers. This is fine with two players, but can drag a little with more players. The card art is stunning and the theme is interesting, but in truth, as I play, I do not really consider the card art or theme at all. In this respect, the game reminds me a little of Tapestry. Another combo-tastic civilisation style game, that has amazing art, but feels more mechanic led than thematical as you play. But I do not care about this for either game as it is just so much fun to play. Finding a group of cards that work well together and score well for me is incredibly satisfying. Starting each game and staring at that big deck of cards feels exciting. I am anxious to find out which cards I will get my hands on, and enjoy the process of trying to find a group of cards that will push me to victory. I would recommend this game to anyone who enjoys games where cards allow them to do clever things. I think you need to think hard about the player count you will play this at. 2-4 is all fine, but not so much for the higher player counts if you are playing with new people all the time. It has the perfect mid-weight crunch I love in games. An hour or so, depending on player count, but a meaty and satisfying experience. With minimal rules and simple set up. This game delivers a lot with mainly just cards. Well worth checking out.

Cartaventura Odyssey WBG Score: 7.5 Player Count: 1-6 You’ll like this if you like: Choose Your Own Adventure, Tales of Arabian Nights, Forgotten Waters. Published by: BLAM ! Designed by: Thomas Dupont, Ophélie Gibert This is a review copy. See our review policy here Minor spoiler ahead in the red text - very easy to avoid if you want too. There are a number of games in this range. You can read a bit about a few of them here. They seem to have landed well and so the team behind this have made a load more. This includes the 2022 release Cartaventura: Odyssée – Le Trésor de Libertalia which now has an English release. If you are a fan of choose-your-own-adventure style games, this could well be for you. Let's get it to the table and see how it plays. How To Set Up Cartaventura Odyssey Take the main deck of cards and the three place mats out of the box. Lay the three placemats down, left to right. It is worth reading the small bit of text on these to confirm their role in the game, but essentially one holds the main deck, one is for discarding cards onto, helpful for setting up subsequent games, and the final one holds the special cards. More on that later. And that's it! The game will teach you the rest. Very quickly, and in a highly engaging way. How To Play Cartaventura Odyssey Take the top card from the main deck and give it a read. The game will teach you the rest but if you want to get a flavour then read on, but be mindful that there will be very minor spoilers in the next red paragraphs after the next picture if you do. Things will get non-spoiler after the red text. You will play as a young sea faring adventurer. You will be very quickly presented with choices about where you want to go and what you want to do. This is done largely by a map being created in front of you with the cards, and a choice of other cards to travel towards placed next to these. You will see a map tile like below with numbers on the compass point in the bottom right. You will then place cards matching those numbers from the main deck in the corresponding positions. They will present choices to you, which if you choose, you will flip the card, or draw the shown card and proceed from their. The below example are non matching cards to avoid spoilers as best I can. As you progress through the story, certain cards will be discarded, even if you didn't visit them, so your choices really do matter. You will inevitably come to a specific ending, based on your choices. The ending will have a title and you will be told to mark that title off on the final card which shows all the possible endings. You can then go back and start again, aiming for a different ending, or move to chapter two. In total there are three chapters. Is It Fun? Cartaventura Odyssey Board Game Review If you enjoy chose-your-own-adventure style games you will love this. There is a real sense of adventure as you play. But also control. Your destiny will very much be in your hands as you make your way through the divergent story. The rules and way you learn is so natural and well thought out out. You can sit down and start playing right from opening the box. What few rules that do exist are explained to you over the course of the first few cards, incorporated into the story. It is a seamless and simple to grasp process. In this tiny box, there is a lot of story and a few surprises hidden away. The three chapter's will take you roughly 30 minutes each, and can be replayed over and over for the various different endings. As a bit of a completist, I have done this for chapter one and two multiple times now, but still have a few more endings for chapter three to find. You cannot always manipulate the game to go in the exact the direction you want, but you can of course simply make different choices to see where it takes you. As such, I do always enjoy my first attempt at each chapter the most. There, I am making the choice I want to, rather than the ones I need to, to find alternative endings. But, when I make bad choices on my initial game, it is fun to try and make better ones in later attempts. Although, it does feel a little like I am cheating! Ooh, I won't go there, I know that ends badly! If you are a fan of chose-your-own-adventure games then I would recommend checking this series out. The version you get will be based on the theme that attracts you the most. I do not want to say too much about this one, to avoid spoilers, but I think you can get a flavour from the box art! This is all about adventures at sea, set a few hundred years ago. It feels like being in your very own Pirates of the Caribbean movie, just without the confusing interconnected storyline and poor editing. But let's not get into that here!

Little Explorers WBG Score: 7.5/10 Player Count: How ever many you want to fit around a tablet or smart phone. You’ll like this if you like: Treasure hunts! Published by: XD Productions, Hachette Boardgames UK This is a review copy. See our review policy here Little Explorers is out later this year. At the start of December 2023 from what I can see on the pre-orders available. It comes from XD Productions, a company that seems to specialise in AR technology, not games. With Little Explorers they have fused together their knowledge of the AR world with games with the help of Hachette Board games UK it seems. The result is an intriguing experience that my family and I have found to be really rather quite captivating. Let's get it to the table/house and see how it plays. How To Set Up Little Explorers Inside the box are three separate stand alone missions. One themed about Dinosaurs, another pirates, and the final one Space. Perfect for any little adventurer. Pick the one you want to do and then take the five cards and one map used for this game. You will need to scan the QR code on the back of the fold out map to download the app. The game doesn't work without this and will need to download the game and then the three challenges, but then the app can work offline. Next, someone needs to hide the five cards used in the game you chose around the house. Ideally you need to have them found in a particular sequence, the order of which seemingly can only be discovered from placing them on the map and joining up the back of the cards image to the map. They don't appear to be numbered and the rules are very light, in that, there are none! Below is all that can be found in the box in the way of rules. Although there is a brief tutorial on the app, but this doesn't talk about the rules either. However if you find and scan the wrong card it simply tells you to find another and you can come back to this one later. You can hide the cards anywhere you like in your house, or wherever really. Obviously you don't want to make it too difficult for the children playing to find them, and like I mention above, ideally you want them found in order. We found it best to hide each one in a different room and tell the children to look in each room in a specific order. When you are done, get the children to hold the tablet or phone you are using to play the game and click through the tutorial and start the game. How To Play Little Explorers The players will now walk around, trying to find the five cards. When they do find one, scan it with the device and it will either say it is the wrong one or create an AR world on the device in whatever environment you are playing in. This will begin the story of the adventure you are playing and will ask you to interact somehow with the screen. Mostly with just a few taps and swipes, but all linked very well with the animation and story. With each game, one of the cards is cut up into a jigsaw. So you can leave this separated and challenge the people playing when they find it to piece it together before they can scan it. When all five cards are found and have been successfully interreacted with, the game will ask you to lay them all out on the map for that game, and then scan them all together. You will then enter the final challenge which again will require some minor taps and swipes on the device you are using, before rewarding you with the final animation. The entire game will be timed so you can play over and over, trying to beat yours or other peoples times. The game also comes with some party invites, eight for each of the three challenges. So children can invite friends round to play with them, or the whole thing can be used to organise a children's party. Each game takes around ten minutes to complete, although you can of course make that harder by hiding the cards in more tricky places, but I am not sure how much fun that is? There are three games in the box, so 30 minutes for the lot. Perfect for a kids party I would say. Is It Fun? Little Explorers Board Game Review The game is very simple and the interaction with the AR is still somewhat limited but the concept and experience itself is intriguing and novel enough for any child aged between 6-10 to be quite captivated by it. You need to find a delicate balance between how hard you make it to find the cards. Too easy and everything is over in minutes. Too hard and you may loose their attention. And because this part of the game is played in the real world, it is entirely up to you how you do this. We have tried each of the three missions a few times each. Racing against each others times. My children are eight and ten, the perfect age for this. I can see us trying again a few more times, and the kids themselves playing alone now they know how to do it. They enjoy setting it up and hiding the cards around the house now, more than the actual game itself. There is some decent longevity and replayability here. The app works pretty well, but you do need to scan each code for a good few seconds, holding the device very still for it to work, and you need good light to do this. It works better on phones that iPads we found, but the slight delay and awkwardness of this part can loose younger children's interest. At the end of the game, the cards you found need to then be returned to the main map and place on it in order. We found some maps want the cards facing up, and others facing down. There seems to be no rhyme of reason for this, and in a timed game, working this out on the fly can be frustrating. Minor quibbles aside, I would recommend this game to anyone who is looking to find a game for a small group of 6-10 year olds to play within a 20 minute time frame. Devices are required but this game very much brings people out of the screen and into the real world in really rather a beautiful way as you are only ever looking at the screen for a small amount of time. The experience is unique, highly interactive, and offers a lot of fun as you go.

Quoridor WBG Score: 8 Player Count: 2-4 You’ll like this if you like: Go, Chess, SHŌBU Published by: Gigamic Designed by: Mirko Marchesi This is a review copy. See our review policy here Quoridor was first made in 1997 and is a reimplementation of another game Pinko Pallino made in 1995. It is one of the many games redesigned in the wooden Gigamic range distributed in the UK by Hachette Boardgames UK. It mixes classic elegance with modern board game production. Let's get it to the table to see if it is any good. How To Set Up Quoridor Each player will choose one of the four player pawns. This is placed in the middle on the front row by each player, either side of the board, facing each other. Distribute 10 fences to each players side, placed horizontally into the slots behind each players line. You are now ready to play. You don't have to put them there, you could just leave them to the side if you wish. But it is a nice visual aid to remind players how many each player has left. Which is pretty important in the game. How To Play Quoridor On each players turn they can do one of two things. Either move their pawn one space orthogonally in any direction, or place one of their unused fences anywhere on the board. When you run out of fences you must move. The fences can be placed vertically or horizontally, they don't have to be touching but must be in a complete space, they cannot straddle more than two blocks. The object of the game is to get your pawn to your opposing players base line, whilst stopping them from doing this to you. You can use fences to obstruct them but you cannot form a complete blockage across the board. There must always be a path for a pawn to move to the back line. You must slow them down but you cannot stop them altogether. When two pawns face each other you can then jump over the opposing pawn. If there is a fence blocking your landing on a jump, this is the only time you can move diagonally. You can play this game two player or four player. In a four player game the four pawns are placed on either end of the board, one per side. Each player is given five fences. The rules of the game are the same, jumping is still aloud, but can only only ever jump one pawn at a time. Is It Fun? Quoridor Board Game Review Playing this game feels a lot like a mix between Chess and Checkers. There is the delicate balance needed between attack and defence. With limited turn options, but seemingly endless opportunities. The game flows very quickly and you will find early games race by as players learn the various strategies available. Later games can become a little more of a stalemate, especially if one player begins to mirror another players moves. But as you must move when you have no fences, the stale mate can only last so long. Players must remain vigilant not to get too close to the other player, or they may offer them the chance to jump over them, gain valuable ground, and race to the base line. But you also do not want to waste any movement or turns moving away or moving backwards. This game is all about efficiency. One wrong move can often be enough to seal your fate. There are some hilarious moments as you play. Players often will try and block other players in, forcing them down winding paths, away from their goal. On occasions it can work out beautifully that you can manipulate the other player to go one way, only to block the path at the last minute, making them backtrack and go back the other way. But be careful as you are doing this to another player they don't simply go and do the same to you, but better! The opportunities to do some really clever and unexpected things with the fences in this game feels endless! As you learn the game, more options and ideas will come to your mind. You will start to pull out more intricate and forward thinking plans. Just like chess. It is an utter joy to develop your skills in this game. Online, the game has a huge following. You can play online for free on BGA. There are also some great online strategy guides worth checking out if you want to take the game a little more seriously. Here is a good one offering some good starting moves. My only downside is the fences are a little wonky, and the groves in the board seem to be cut a little haphazardly. There could be a little more craftsmanship in this game. But if you want a nice coffee table game to leave out and pick and up play easily when guests come round, this could be perfect for you. If you want a game you could obsess over for months on end, this also could be the game you are seeking. It is so versatile and offers a quick, fun, and layered gaming experience, one I would recommend to anyone. Available from amazon.co.uk and all good Hobby Stores.

Isla Board Game Preview - This is a prototype version and does not represent the final quality or ruleset of the game. Isla is from the team behind 2020 release Salvage Hidden Treasures. Ocean City Games Ltd are back again, this time with a roll-and-write themed around exploring a mysterious island. The game is coming to Kickstarter in 2024. You can get more information about the game and crowd funding campaign here. The game works very simply by all players taking a player sheet, pen, and setting up their items in a random fashion on each marked space. Each player will place their character in the start space on the bottom left of the sheet and the five dice tiles on the matching coloured and shaped space on the bottom left of the sheet. One player will then shuffle and set up the threat deck, placing it face down in the central area, along with the five dice. Finally, take the Exploration deck, shuffle that and deal the first four cards face up. Give one player the first player card and you are ready to go. Players will now take it in turns to be the lead player. Players will either be exploring which means moving through the island, researching which means exchanging tokens you have found for the research cards, or resting, to get a dice back. When exploring, you will choose the number on one of the rolled dice and move the shown number of spaces. If you move over a token you can take it for your collection. When exploring, you must move the token for the dice you chose to cover that dice symbol on your player sheet. This shows that you cannot use this dice again. If you move over a symbol on the map that shows a dice colour and shape, you can refresh that dice. When researching, you do not move, but instead hand in previously attained tokens to claim a research card. These will give you end game points. When resting, you simply refresh the left most used dice. You can only rest once per game, but one token that you can collect as you explore does gives you a second rest if you move through it. Whenever you roll a one you must draw a threat card. The old rules said you had to take one threat card for each one rolled. This made the game pretty tough and highly unpredictable. I think they made the right decision to update this rule. Most of the threat cards are bad you see. They restrict your movement, make you exhaust dice, or even give other players the power to act on your behalf. Some though do give you end game points if you can cover entire areas on the board. Something that is quite hard to do in your early games. One you have chosen if you are exploring, researching or resting, the first player rolls the dice and the players all carry out their actions. Multiple players can use the same dice, but players must take it in turn order if more than one player is researching. Once a card has been researched it is replaced by another. Each round one card is replaced too. So these are constantly being refreshed. The game ends when all players reach the exit in the top right of the map. Points are awarded to the first player who made it out, how far out of the map you managed to escape, how many dice you have unused at the end of the game, and for all of your completed research cards. Then, minus points are awarded, -1 for each unexplored space on the map! This creates in interesting balance between racing to get out first, whilst covering all spaces. Another change to the rules sees the player coming out second also receiving some points, three points versus five for the first space. I think this again is a good change to avoid the race for the finish being as important. In multiplayer mode, the desire to effectively move through as many spaces as possible whilst managing the quickly depleting resource of usable dice is negatively affected by the race element. I feel players need to have more reasons to cover the island in full other than negative points, which I hate in games. Secret challengers known only to them perhaps, that force them to visit certain spots on the map, or cover certain areas in full so slow people down. In solo mode however, this is very different. The set up for solo mode is very similar. Take out the threat deck. Also remove the first player token, and replace them with one of the four Keeper. There are four to chose from, each with a different degree of difficulty. Each one has a starting location as shown on the back, along with a little back story. Place any other non-playing character piece onto the Keeper starting location to represent your enemy. In the solo game you are looking to get as many points as possible, whilst avoiding the Keeper capturing you which happens if its piece ever moves through or onto your spot. The Keeper moves after your action each round. You do this by drawing the top research card. On the bottom left of this card a symbol is shown, not used on the multi-player game. This links to the symbols shown on the Keeper card, and it will move closer to you accordingly. It s a very simple but effective way to add some tension to the solo player game that works for me so much better than the multi-player version. The game becomes so much more than a race to the finish, and more what it should be. A resource management game. The resource in this game big the dice. You will be amazed by how quickly you run out of dice if you do not manage them properly. Will you use the higher valued dice to move further and more efficiently through the island, covering more ground more quickly, but in turn move away from the lower dice refresh spots that are situated at the bottom of the island. Or will you work you way slowly but surely through the island in an organised manner, refreshing dice as you go, starting slowly and building up? The race against another player who perhaps may be playing faster than you and going for that finish bonus is removed. It is replaced with the tension of the slowly advancing Keeper. Which, even with carefully made plans, and on easy mode, offers a significant challenge. It will either not move, or race forward one to three spaces. If you stay still to research, or run out of the higher dice, or force yourself to reply on a specific role, you can be easily caught. This is a wonderful tension that builds on the games suspense and enjoyment for me. Solo is where this game shines. If you are looking for a new roll-and-write game, and enjoy playing these solo, this well could be one for you to check out in 2024 when it comes to Kickstarter. I for one will continue to follow it closely.

Elios WBG Score: 7.5/10 Player Count: 2-4 You’ll like this if you like: Azul, Mandala Published by: Helvetiq Designed by: Philippe Proux Distributed in the UK by: Coiledspring Games This is a review copy. See our review policy here Philippe Proux likes making games with lovely bits of wood. I like playing games made of lovely pieces of wood. Seems like a pair made in heaven! There is something so satisfying about the tactile experience of holding a well fashioned piece of wood in your hands. But is this game any more than that? Let's get it to the table and find out. How To Set Up Elios Place two yellow discs into the central playing area, leaving the others to the side, and place one beam of each colour around them. The beams can be placed in any order but a nice grading of colour may be more satisfying to your eye. Then give each player one white Joker piece each (two in a two player game) and depending on player count, either 16, ten, or eight other randomly drawn pieces from the bag, for a two, three, or four player game respectively. Each player will then place the beams they draw in front of them in groups of one to three. A group can never contain two beams of the same colour. The last player to finish this process starts. You are now ready to begin. How To Play Elios Players are looking to get rid of all of their pieces in front of them, placing them onto matching colours in the central playing area. You can never place a piece on a level higher than the central sun, and when needed, you can use your white pieces as jokers. On your turn, players will carry out one of three actions. Place all pieces in a group. If you can, players can place up to three pieces at a time onto matching pieces on the middle. Making sure to not place higher than the current central yellow discs. All beams must be placed onto the same level. Place one central yellow disc from the reserve onto the yellow discs in the middle to raise the level. Split one of your groups. You can turn a group of three into two separate groups of one and two. Or a group of two into two single pieces. The Jokers can be placed on any colour, and any colour can be placed on the Jokers. The first player to place their final piece is the winner. In a four-player game, players play in teams of two, working together alternatively to try and place all of their pieces. Is It Fun? Elios Board Game Review Elios is a thing of beauty. Both to the touch and to the eyes, the game just oozes class, feels wonderful, and looks bright and cheerful. To play, the game is incredibly simple, but wonderfully satisfying. Games are fast, and often played for us in sets of three of four. One game is never enough. Especially if you lose quickly! It can be frustrating to be forced into placing another central yellow disc when you are out of options elsewhere, and simply helping the other players. It has happened on occasions where a player has placed a yellow disc on their turn, only then for the next two players to take full advantage of this and leave the player who played the yellow disc no other options on their next turn that to place yet another disc! You can always split your groups instead of doing this, but if you groups are fully split, it may be your only legal option. Looking to your opposing players available colours you will see that you will be setting them up for a very good turn. This can be annoying. However, this is uncommon; and if you plan ahead, mostly avoidable. And the satisfaction gained from looking ahead, predicting your opponents moves correctly, and slowly placing all your beams is very satisfying. The beams do feel wonderful in your hands too, and everything just looks and feels so joyful. There is a tactile pleasure and satisfaction to this game that certainly elevates its score for me. I enjoy playing with pieces like this and find it does increase my own sense of enjoyment. I would recommend this game to any family who enjoy quick, fun, simple games that can be played with minimal fuss or preparation. I can imagine this be problematic for those with colour blindness though, there are no symbols or shapes here. Just solid blocks with different colours. Elios has captured my heart with it's pure and honest pleasures. It offers a solid and robust production, clear and simple rule set, and hours of fun and satisfaction.

Downforce Wild Ride WBG Score: 9/10 Player Count: 2-4 You’ll like this if you like: Camel Up, Long Shot The Dice Game, Flamme Rouge Published by: Restoration Games, 2 Pionki, IELLO Designed by: Rob Daviau, JR Honeycutt, Justin D. Jacobson Distributed in the UK by: Coiledspring Games This is a review copy. See our review policy here Downforce is one of my favourite racing games of all time. It is so simple to teach and play but has layers that feel so juicy! For my full review of the base game you can check here. There are a few expansions for this game. First came the 2018 expansion Downforce: Danger Circuit which added two new tracks to race on and six new race powers. Then in 2020 Wild Ride was released, again with two new race tracks, and two new racer powers. And on these tracks we now have 3D ramps and animals! Let's get it to the table and see how it plays. The first new track deploys 3D ramps! They are very simply popped out, folded together and placed onto the marked spaces on the map. They add nothing mechanically, you could easily play without them. The pieces are purely for table presence. But I love them and would never now play without them being added. As players approach each ramp, you need to carefully consider which card you are playing as per all the usual parameters; but now also the size of the ramp. Each ramp displays a number, ranging from three to six. If you play a card with a movement score for the particular coloured car approaching the ramp with a number that matches or exceeds the ramp size you can then if you chose, take the jump! The landing space also must be clear and you must have at least one more movement left as you reach the ramps location. Using the ramps in the way, players can cut off a lot of the track and increase their chance of victory with particular cars a great deal. There is one ramp all players must take, but the others are all a choice. The ramps also provide some very interesting ways for players to slow down other vehicles. If you drive deliberately around a ramp, avoiding the start, or use other cars to block either the access to a ramp or the landing space, you can significantly slow other vehicles down by forcing them to take the longer route. Physically lifting your car after racing up to the ramp and making it fly through the air before landing smoothly with a skid in the landing area... well I defy anyone to not be taken back to their childhood and make a whooshing noise as they essentially play with cars again. What a joy! There is some lovley detail in the art for this board. Sharks and Sting rays can be seen swimming through the water as you race around. It adds nothing to the game but looks great. There is one final large jump on the home straight that allows players to miss three spaces. This can add a very exciting twist to the final moments of the game, with cars, previously languishing at the back racing up to the front spaces. A six for the orange or yellow car here changes everything! The second new map introduces three wild animals into the fast paced race! A giant snake, an Elephant, and a herd of Wildebeest are now casually walking around the speeding cars! They add a wonderful catch up mechanic and allow players some very interesting choices as they move each vehicle around the track. The snake is placed on each corner, four times, to force the lead vehicle to take a wider turn, thus using more movement and allowing the other cars behind to catch up. This works because as each animal is passed by the lead car, the animal is moved to its next location, freeing up the track for the other cars. The width of the Elephant taking up two spaces on the track means it creates bottlenecks, where cars can be blocked in quite easily before it moves on. The Wildebeest take up two spaces on the track and when moved are replaced by one space. Cars moving through spaces vacated by the Wildebeest can catch up with the lead cars using these short cuts. I love the design on this board, and how the animal migratory paths are clearly shown. Are these animals really getting in the way of this race track, or has some idiot built a race track over a group of animal migratory paths? You can see how the Elephants can be easily used to block other cars in. Here the green car has been placed behind the Elephant, and now cannot move until another car passes the arrowed lines behind the Elephant which would cause it to move onto the final space. Until that point, the green car has to sit and wait. So we have one track with jumps that allows cars to race on ahead and catch up other cars, and another track with pinch points and animal blockades that allows for a more congested race. Both offer interesting choices and make for a very different feel as you play the game. The game also comes with two new race powers. I am not sure I like Civilised much Personally I do not see why anyone would ever chose this one? Maybe I am missing something? Lucky is a lot of fun though, and one that if you are dealt a lot of low numbered wild cards could be a great addition to your strategy. Obviously there is a bit of luck involved but it creates a fun and quite separated moment from the rest of the game, that I think adds a nice little twist. I would recommend this game to anyone who owns the base game. It does not change the game drastically but certainly adds some variation and small twists that will keep the game fresh and interesting for many more plays.

Just Wild WBG Score: 7/10 Player Count: 2-4 You’ll like this if you like: Cascadia, Abstract Academy. Published by: Helvetiq Designed by: Leo Colovini, Marco Franchin Distributed in the UK by: Coiledspring Games This is a review copy. See our review policy here Helvetiq makes small boxes full of joy. With Just Wild they seem to have turned their attention to promoting a very valid wildlife and environmental concern around four threatened species native to mainland Europe. This has come about with a partnership with Salamandre, a non-profit French/Swiss publishing house. The plight of the Lynx, Wolf, Bear, and Ibex are detailed in the rulebook within a production that has been made with the highest environmental standards available. But is the game any good? Let's get it to the table and find out. How To Set Up Just Wild In the box you will fund a deck of 80 cards. 20 each for the four animals in the the game. The Lynx, Bear, Ibex, and Wolf. Each player chooses an animal to play as and takes their respective deck of cards. Each animal also has six tokens. Distribute these to each player based on their chosen animal as well. Each player then shuffles their deck and places their top card into a starting central area. Each card is placed in turn order, one at a time, touching each other adjacently, forming a rectangle. Each player then draws a starting hand of three cards and you are ready to play. How To Play Just Wild On each players turn one card must be played. This typically would be one card chosen from their hand of three cards, placed over the top of two other half cards. However, if a player cannot do this or chooses not to do this, then they must place a card face down on the table from the top of their deck. Players are looking to form the biggest total of their chosen animals cards. At the end of the game, each face up animal for each player scores each player one point. But, each player ends the game at different times based on when their deck runs out. When you place a card over the top of other cards, the card you are placing must be equal too or have a higher value than the cards it is covering. Each face up card has a number for each half, and the total of the two halves you are covering is totalled up, and you must be able to match or beat this in order to cover it over with your card. The cards have value running from one to ten. Whenever you are covering two cards, and one of the halves has a ten, no card will be able to match or beat the total, as it will be above ten, and everyone's highest card is ten. In this situation, players can still cover the cards but must use two cards to do so. One from their hand as usual, and another taken from the top of their deck, placed face down. Face down cards have a value too, and can be covered just like other cards. Typically they have lower values, and of course, do not show any animals artwork, so will not score any player any points. When a player places their last card they will immediately score one point for each face up animal of their chosen type. The other players will then continue as usual until they run out of cards. If any player who has finished has any of the scored cards covered by players in later turns, this will not affect their score. All players have a number of cards in their hands with artwork that shows their animal walking with an infant. Ten from their total deck of 20 in fact. When these are placed, players may choose if they wish to mark this half with a token. This means this half of the card is protected and cannot be covered by any card later in the game. You must choose carefully when to place these, thinking about which cards your opponents may try or want to cover. At the end of the game, when all players have placed all of their cards, the player with the most points is the winner. Is It Fun? Just Wild Card Game Review Before I come to the gameplay, I want to touch on the production. I applaud Helvetiq for creating such a sustainable and environmentally friendly product. It is clear from the slip case with no cellophane, and paper card holders, that everything has been considered with this production when it comes to being green. Well done to them for that. It must be said though that this does affect the quality. The cards are quite thin and the tokens feel quite cardboardy. With such a small box production, I wonder if there could be a balance here. Or if there are other methods than can be employed that deliver the same impact on the environment but with a slightly better finish for the user? But, I do want to be clear, the components are fine. They are not bad. They are just not up to the usual Helvetiq standards. I mention this with caution as I understand what has been attempted here, and it feels that the world and our children's future is the bigger picture over card stock! I mention purely for honesty. The gameplay however, absolutely is up to the usual Helvetiq standards. Like most Helvetiq games, this is incredibly easy to learn and teach, but still a lot of fun to play. I think it works best in a four player game. The two player is fine, and very fast. But does feel a little confrontational and full of take-that moments as you can only ever attack one other player. But in a three or four, where there is more choice and naturally a larger game area, the game opens up to more strategic choices. You don't want to let anyone run away with the lead, and as everyone has the same deck, games tend to be tight affairs, with all players being in with a chance right until the end. Being able to play seems to be the key. If ever you have cards in hand that are not of a high enough value to cover two other half cards, you are forced to play a card face down from your deck, which essentially wastes a card. Being able to prevent this and keep as many of your cards face up on the table is how you do well. Which admittedly has some luck to it. You only ever have three cards in your hand after all. As such, I wander if a better variant of the game would have allowed players to hold five cards instead of three? There is a lot of joy in creating little areas you can call your own though. Many board game designers seem to understand this and offer it within our hobby. Creating something, no matter how small or temporary feels good. Scoring that thing you have created gives your time some worth. Adding an see-saw nature to the control you have in what you can create by adding competitors makes it a game. With Just Wild, the elements of area majority have been distilled to its finest format and the result is an incredibly simple but fun game to play. I wonder if there could be just one or two more wrinkles to the gam though. It feels a little too light. I like the opportunity to add the tokens, but wonder if the artwork could have brought in a few other variants with some of your animals being in packs, or perhaps with other powers that allowed more strategic choices. This is Cascadia light. A very good thing! But maybe just a little too light. There is a delightful environmental message with this game though that must be applauded. Not just the theme and production, but also the preservation of the young animals over the old. Nurturing the next generation of these endangered species and putting more focus on the young. It has allowed for some wonderful conversations with my children that I otherwise might not have had. I would reccomend this game to any young family who have an interest in conseration or the environemt and are looking for a new game to play as a group after tea that brings both fun and conversation to the table.