Tapestry Natural Rubber Playmat WBG Score: 8/10 Player Count: 1-5 You’ll like this if you like: Viscounts of the West Kingdom , Wingspan , Lost Ruins of Arnak   Published by: Stonemaier Games Designed by: Jamey Stegmaier This is a free review copy. See our review policy here . If you would like to read the review for the main game, then head here . If you would like to read the review for the first expansion Plans & Ploys, then head here . If you would like to read the review for this second expansion, Arts & Architecture, then check this link . To check out the third and final expansions, then head here . Oh, and the revised Civ pack here. All of which I have played and loved with the main cardboard board that comes with the base game. But now, I have this delightful rubber playmat to use instead. Is it any good? Does it add anything to the game? Let's check it out! First and foremost, when discussing the quality of the mat, it is important to consider the material used in its construction. The durability of the mat plays a significant role in its overall quality. In this case, it seems that the mat is of commendable quality, providing a sturdy and reliable surface for gameplay. Furthermore, the visual aspect of the mat is crucial in assessing its quality. While it may not match the sharpness and detail of a print on paper or cardboard, the clarity and crispness of the images and text on the mat are still noteworthy. A clear and legible design enhances the overall aesthetic appeal of the mat and contributes to a more engaging gaming experience. The ability to easily distinguish and interpret the elements on the mat is obviously essential for gameplay. Finally, comparing the playmat to the original board will give you a better idea of how well the print on this playmat has come out. This comparison allows for a direct evaluation of how the playmat enhances or alters the gaming experience in relation to the traditional board setup. You can see the playmat below is not quite as sharp for the text as seen on the original board on the top, but the images look great. The primary focus may not be on the quality of the text print work, but it is essential to acknowledge that the visual aspect of a game mat plays a significant role in enhancing the overall gaming experience. By investing in a game mat, players are not just looking for a functional accessory but also a way to streamline the set-up process and elevate the aesthetics of their gaming environment. Game mats are designed to not only make gameplay more convenient but also to add a touch of style and sophistication to the gaming table. The intricate details, vibrant colors, and thematic elements featured on a game mat can transport players into the world of the game, immersing them in the gaming experience like never before. When examining a game mat on its own, it becomes evident that it serves as more than just a playing surface. It acts as a focal point that ties the entire gaming setup together, creating a cohesive and visually appealing backdrop for epic gaming sessions.While The main board is just the square part with curly edges in the top right of this. All the rest is extra. Space to put the cards, space for the tiles. Space to lay out the buildings. It just makes the process a little simpler and looks a lot better when done. For comparison, here is the playmat with the original board on top so you can see what this playmat adds. There is more to this playmat than just the spaces on the board, as demonstrated. For a clearer view of the text on the main board, you can always place the original board on top of the playmat. It's the best of both worlds! If you are a fan of Tapestry, have all the other expansions, and enjoy playing the game a lot, then I can highly recommend this. It won't change your mind on the game if you are not a fan, but if you are and enjoy playing this game a lot, it will certainly enhance your time with the game, making it visually and practically a better experience.

Anachrony WBG Score: 9 Player Count: 1-4 You’ll like this if you like: Viticulture , Caverna , Perseverance Published by: Mindclash Games Designed by: Dávid Turczi , Richard Amann , Viktor Peter This is a review copy. See our review policy here By Steve Godfrey I was going to write a whole piece about the timey-wimey nature of the story that sets the world of Anachrony, in which an unexplained explosion hits and sends the world into an apocalypse. Until we learn that we can now time travel thanks to the neutronium brought with the said asteroid. We then learn that the asteroid hasn’t actually struck yet, but it’s a future event that will have ripples in time. Confusing? Well, don’t worry, this quote from the hard Sci-fi TV show Red Dwarf is sure to explain it all. Lister: Hey, it hasn’t happened has it? It has “will have going to have happened” happened, but it hasn’t actually “happened” happened yet, actually Rimmer: Poppycock! It will be happened; it shall be going to be happen; it will be was an event that could will have been taken place in the future. Simple as that Right, now that’s been cleared up, on with the review! When is Anachrony? Sorry, WHAT, is Anachrony. Anachrony is a worker placement game set in a dystopian future after the impact of an explosive event left few survivors. After humanity formed different factions called paths, they eventually came together and discovered, through the use of Neutronium left by the explosion, that they could travel through time. Each round, players will be powering up exosuits to explore the toxic wasteland (the main worker placement board) and use these spaces to recruit more workers, build buildings (which in turn will give you more worker placement spaces), mine for resources, trade, and even collect water. You’ll even be able to borrow resources from your future selves, but beware! If you don’t pay these back by the end of the game, you'll lose points. You can pay these back by using certain buildings to travel back in time to a previous round. You can also use this to travel back and build powerful but expensive super weapons. Having unpaid debt could also lead you to gain paradoxes, which could lead you to place paradox buildings that block building spaces on your board. After the fourth round, an impact will happen, and certain spaces will be populated with bonus tokens which, when visited, will destroy those spaces for the end of the game. At this point, the game will end after either the seventh round or when all spaces with tokens have been visited. The fourth round is also when you can activate your evacuation protocol for a huge chunk of points. Be careful to trigger it before the game ends, though. The player with the most points at the end of the game wins. Wobbly Wobbly Timey Wimey I’m not great at teaching a theme when I teach a game. I tend to stick to the basics and the “need-to-knows.” However, Anachrony is a game that does so much to integrate its theme that you’ll almost be doing it a disservice not to give some backstory. Don’t get me wrong; mechanically it’s not necessary to learn the game, but I’m sure that at some point you’ll be bombarded with questions like “why do we need exosuits to go here” or “how are we able to time travel” or, most importantly, “why do we need to evacuate the planet because I’ve just put on my pajamas and settled down on the sofa to watch Netflix and I don’t feel like getting up?” It’s a game that weaves its mechanics and theme so well that you may as well front-load the teach with a bit of story time (I mean, they are already in their pajamas), so why not throw in a bit of flair and entertain your friends. You never know, you could end up reading the CBeebies bedtime story, move over Chris Evans! A game that goes 88mph I love the way the worker placement plays out and the way your available actions ramp up as you play through the game and build more buildings, which, in turn, will give you more spaces to use. As you build more structures that can go inside your colony, you start to build up this big asymmetrical puzzle that you’ve crafted for yourself that you now need to navigate. Most of the buildings have a type of worker placement slot that can be used without the need for exosuits, and before you know it, a game that only seemed to have a few options now opens out into your own unique slice of this desolate world. Each round you’ll need to choose to power up a number of exosuits. You’ll need these to place your workers in so they can go outside onto the main board. The apocalypse has happened, and the air is toxic outside; trust me, you’ll need them. The exosuits aren’t the only important part of going outside because in a lot of cases, the more important decision is who to send. Each area will either require a certain type of the four different types of workers (admin, engineers, scientists, or geniuses) or give you special benefits if you choose a particular type of worker. For example, when you use the recruit space, you can't use a scientist, and you can only recruit geniuses (a wild card worker) using an admin since they have the gift of the gab (even in the apocalypse, we still have salesmen). I love that it makes that worker economy puzzle so much more interesting to navigate. Anachrony even ups the race element of a worker placement game. Because some of the spaces have some type of diminishing resource attached to them and some of the later spaces have costs attached to them, it makes getting to them as early as possible even more nail-biting and the source of so much back and forth on where to go first. This changes according to player count. At three or four, the board will fill up pretty fast, especially in the early rounds as players have fewer buildings. You’ll really feel that tug of war in your head as you try to decide your best move, knowing that whatever you choose, there’s a good chance the other space you want will be gone by your next turn. In contrast to this, a two-player game could feel almost relaxing as the fight for the main spaces isn’t quite as frantic. In one two-player game I played, for example, the first player marker never changed hands because neither of us felt it was necessary to pay the price to get it, as opposed to the other counts where it’s much more of a valid option. Speaking of workers, don’t expect your dedicated workforce to be pulling their weight at all hours. As you take them back at the end of a round, they return to your “tired” area. Yep, that’s right, they have the bare-faced cheek to have a rest! How to get them back? Well, there are two ways. Running along the worker area is a motivation track. Here you can take an action and pay an amount of water, depending on where you are on the track, and bring them all back. This moves the track one way to give you positive points at the end of the game. If you don’t fancy that either because you can’t afford the water cost or because you just don’t want to, you could always drive them hard. This gets them back by using a free action but pushes that track the other way for negative points at the end of the game. If you take this action with the marker at the end of the track, it costs you a worker. This little twist actually triggered a little bit of role-play from me in my first game. I’d decided that my Path didn’t believe in being nice to their workforce, and I never gave them water to get them back. Yes, I lost a couple of workers (a worrying amount actually) and some points at the end of the game, but crucially it didn’t hinder my game (me not keeping an eye on the end game objectives saw to that). I love that this is a valid choice you can make and head down this path of negative points, but you won't necessarily be sacrificing the win if you do. Time Travel, without a DeLorean! Of all the buildings you can get, arguably the most fun is the power plants (the time travel ones). I mean, let’s face it, time travel is one of the reasons this game piqued your interest, right? These let you jump into your metaphorical time travel device of choice, be it one of the two phone boxes, the grey car, the necklace, or just randomly leaping through time (oh boy) and going back to a previous round to help pay off any resources you borrowed previously or to build a super project. Time travel could have been such a perfunctory mechanic, but they’ve managed to weave it into something with meaning, some strategy, and a touch of threat. Each round you'll look back on the previous round spaces, and whoever has more borrowed resource tokens in each space will roll a die, which could get them paradoxes tokens. Get three, and you get an anomaly, which will take up precious building slots and give negative points if you don’t pay it off with resources and a worker. Anachrony isn't a game where you’ll necessarily be performing a Scrooge McDuck into your resources each round, so choosing how to spend them effectively is all part of the puzzle, and paying off the odd resources or worker may not seem worth the loss at first glance. That is until you realize that you get points for paying your debts. Not only that, because paying back your debts means that you could now avoid rolling that paradox die and throwing your competitors under the time travel bus (has there been a time-traveling bus before?). It’s great because it makes its own little strategic ecosystem. Plus, who doesn’t want to hop about in time just for the fun of it. Round five onwards is when you can complete your Evacuation objective. These are path-specific objectives that you can complete for a decent chunk of points. If you thought the race for spaces before was tense, then evacuation is about to up the game…literally. From here on out, you have a new space open on the main board which you can go to to complete your evacuation goals. One will require you to have three of a particular building type. The other will score you points based on how many sets of certain things you have. At first, the game gives you a little incentive to try and be one of the first to score your evacuation by having the last player to do it get a -3 point token. But the main reason you need to be fast is that the game could end in any of the next three rounds. So now your brain is whirring, do I trigger it now and cash in early (providing you’ve completed the main goal) or do I wait to eke out some more resources for a few extra points but risk the game ending before I trigger it. That fluctuating end game makes for a source of some great nervous tension, and you desperately try to work out how much time you have before someone triggers the end and what exactly you can get done. Whoa, this is heavy! Anachrony is certainly a big game, and with a BoardGameGeek weight rating of 4.01 out of 5, you’re going to need to have your brain switched on. I actually found this easier to have taught to me than actually teaching it myself. Mainly because there’s a lot to go through, and quite frankly, I get sick of the sound of my own voice if I’m teaching for too long. Having said that, I found that the game is actually pretty intuitive for the most part, especially when you start to get a grip of the icons. When I was having this taught to me, I didn’t find it hard to pick up the bare bones or the flow of the game. You’ll definitely need to dig out the rulebook for the super projects and the odd building or two, but for the most part, you’ll have a good idea of what everything does as you get into the game. The rulebook does a good job of telling you what each building does and even goes so far as to suggest some good combinations with other buildings. An exo(suit)stential crisis All the components you see here are from the retail edition of the game except for the Exo suit miniatures. In the retail version, they are hexagonal tokens that your workers sit on. Full disclosure, I was lucky enough to be sent the exosuit miniatures with this review copy to use as well and thought it’d be rude not to talk about them. I wasn’t asked to, but I mean look at them, how could I not. I’ll say now that you don’t need them. The game functions the same if you don’t have them, and you'll still have the same fun experience of this game with the original components. But now I’ve got them, I wouldn’t play without them. Workers will sit in the slot at the top, and they go a long way to help differentiate your exosuits from your opponents more easily, which is especially helpful when you pull your suits back at the end of each round. If I didn’t have them, I do think they would have been the next thing I would have brought for this game. Anachrony is a game that takes a theme that most books, films, and TV can struggle to pull off well and throws it into an arguably more difficult medium to navigate. But it does it well enough that it feels thematic but not so much that you feel the need to stop halfway through a game to have a conversation about if any of this actually makes sense to enjoy the game. All this while remembering to deliver a brilliant, strategic game to go along with it. Anachrony has been on my wish list for a long time, and it certainly hasn’t disappointed. Right, I'm off to invent some form of Time Machine. Maybe I’ll make it into a reclining chair and have the remote as the controls. It’ll be like watching a historical Netflix documentary but with all the smells, noises, and danger of the real thing…on second thoughts, I’ll probably just stick with the TV.

A Gentle Rain WBG Score: 8 Player Count: 1(2)* You’ll like this if you like: Cascadia , solo games, chill experiences. Published by: Incredible Dream Studios Designed by: Kevin Wilson This is a review copy. See our review policy here A Gentle Rain first came out in 2021, and it has created a fair bit of hype since it's release, over a few different editions. It has not been readily available in the UK ( it now is! ) and other countries, making it a thing of desire for many, simply because they could not get it. But also, reports were coming from overseas about this zen-like relaxing solo experience unlike any other. People wanted this game. They wanted to play it. They wanted to be blessed by its presence. But is this all hype? Or is there a good game here? Well, let's get it to the table and find out! How To Set Up A Gentle Rain Place the blossom tokens on the table, and then shuffle the tiles forming a face down stack. Flip over the top tile and place it face up into the middle of the table. You are now ready to play. The idea is is you are going to slowly build your lake. As the rain slowly starts to fall, more and more parts of the lake will be formed as you place tiles. When the rain stops, the game is over. So tile placement then! How To Play A Gentle Rain Flip of the top tile and check to see if any of the edges on this tile match the edges on the initially placed tile. Each tile has four half flowers on the four edges. The idea of the game is to create complete flowers, matching two matching halves together. If you can place the tile, you must place it. If you cannot place the tile, put it to the side in a discard pile and draw the next tile. This rarely happens. Whenever you complete a set of 2x2 tiles into a square shape of four tiles, take one of the blossom tiles that match at least one of the colours of flowers within this group of four, and place it into the middle circle created by these four tiles. If you don't have a tile matching one of the colours you are not able to place a flower blossom tile. The game will continue until the eighth blossom tile has been placed, at which point you will score eight points (for the eight blossoms) plus one point for every tile still in the unplayed stack. So, the idea is to find these matches of four to place all eight blossoms as quickly as possible. If the tiles run out before you place all eight blossoms you will simply score one point for each blossom you have placed by this point. This will be a lot more common in your first few games. It is possible to play the game with another player. The rules simply suggest that you take turns playing tiles in a cooperative mode. It works well with two players, as long as both players are in a similar head space and one player doesn't try to take over! Is It Fun? A Gentle Rain A Gentle Rain is an incredibly relaxing experience. In the right environment and with the right mindset, this can be a highly calming and enjoyable experience. I think I get the hype. However, this is in part a luck-based game. After a few games, when you have understood the right strategy, if you take your time when drawing tiles to check all possible options, you should be able to play the optimum move each time and get all eight blossoms out. The likelihood though of the tiles coming out in the right order for you to score the maximum possible total of 21 points seems somewhat out of your hands. The tiles will either come out in that order, or not. Obviously, you can optimize your placement and there is some skill and strategy to getting better scores. But, I would say after a few games, you will learn the best way to play, and it will then be down to the luck of the draw in terms of the order the tiles come out and how well you score. With that said, do I care? Well, no. I just enjoy the experience. I know it is luck-based in part, but I simply enjoy the process of putting out these tiles in this way. It takes ten minutes to play, uses a minimal space on the table and equally, minimal brainpower. If anything, it shuts down my brain and puts me into a mindful almost meditative state. I have one thing to focus on. I do that. The game takes over my being for this short period of time. At the end, I work out my score and note it mentally, but I don't really care. It is just a nice experience. I believe that all games of this nature should be like this. Cooperatively in a two-player game, I am not sure this is for me. This game screams issues with quarterbacking (when one player tells another player what to do) in the co-op experience. When I play this game in a two, it becomes an experience much more like Magic Maze where all I want to do is bark orders at the other player, and the game gives me the opposite of what I want from it, and what I get from it in a solo experience. However, other players may be able to work better with this in a two-player then me! I certainly hope so. As you acquire some strategies, like avoiding situations where you need to align three or four spaces to place a tile, or encountering scenarios where you require a tile with two identical colours (which are unavailable) to finish an area, you will begin to derive greater satisfaction from excelling in this game. Creating spaces where you are one tile away from a 2x2 with different combinations needed, rather than the same, and also avoiding too many dead spaces that cannot be completed, or where you are two tiles away from a 2x2 instead of just one, will help you maximize your efficiency and score. And of course, keeping your eyes peeled for the right tile. Do not miss opportunities to complete a 2x2. Finally, when you complete a 2x2 and can place a blossom, have a look at what other 2x2's are close to completion, and which blossoms you could use there. Use this information to pick the right blossom to place now, so you don't create completed 2x2's later that do not allow you to place new blossom tiles. There are an equal amount of coloured flowers on the tiles, so you can start to get a sense for what is to come, based on what has already been laid. And when you only have a few blossoms left to place, you can look at what colours they are, and place your next tiles accordingly, knowing which colours you will need in your final completed areas. The box of A Gentle Rain is not only tiny but also perfectly designed for easy set-up and tear-down, making it a convenient choice for quick gaming sessions. The simple components within the box are all crafted just right, offering a chunky and visually pleasing feel that enhances the overall tactile experience. A Gentle Rain offers a quick and relaxing experience that is perfect for unwinding and enjoying some quiet time alone. The simplicity of the game mechanics allows players to dive right in without the need to navigate through complex rules, set-up or strategies, making it accessible to both seasoned gamers and newcomers alike. The gentle pace and soothing nature of the gameplay create a serene atmosphere that is both calming and enjoyable. If you are in search of a tranquil and laid-back game that provides a beautiful experience without overwhelming you with intricate details, A Gentle Rain is a fantastic choice. Its charm lies in its ability to deliver a serene gaming experience that captivates players and leaves them wanting more. As you immerse yourself in the gameplay, you'll find yourself appreciating the subtle nuances of the art and intricacies within the strategy that make this game truly special. All aboard the hype train!

The Olympics is a fantastic occasion that brings together the world's top athletes to participate in 42 different sports. I had the privilege of attending numerous events during the London 2012 Olympics and am eagerly anticipating the upcoming games in Paris. In conjunction with the games, Gibson has introduced two new games for families to enjoy and immerse themselves in the Olympic spirit. "Go for Gold" is a fast and easy matching card game, while "Ready Set Win" is a strategic hand management and set collection game where players compete in various finals using the hands they have built throughout the game. Lets take at look at them both here in our Olympic Games Special: Go For Gold & Ready Set Win Board Game Reviews. Go For Gold - 2-8 players - 10 minutes game length Go For Gold works very simply. Shuffle all the cards and deal out 15-25 cards face down into a playing deck. You can decide how many you want based on the length of the game you want to play. Leave the rest of the deck face down, but then deal six face-up cards into a central row. When all players are ready, flip the top card from the playing deck face up. All players now play simultaneously in real-time, racing to take any of the six cards that match the face-up playing card. Cards match if they have either the same sport icon on it, or the same number of sports. Players can only take one card at a time and only use one hand. Once all matching cards have been taken, players reveal the cards they took for all players to check if there was a match. If so, they keep the card for end game scoring. If not, they must return that card, along with one other from the collection (if they have any) as punishment. Play continues like this until all cards from the playing deck have been flipped over. Players then group their cards into the eight different categories, and count how many sports they have for each category. Players are awarded a gold, silver, or bronze medal for collecting the most sports in each set, and the medals award you with three, two, or one point respectively. When all medals have been handed out, calculate your final score, the most points win! Go for Gold is a quick, enjoyable, and family-friendly game that can be completed in a matter of minutes. It is easy to learn and play with almost anyone, and its fast-paced nature ensures that you will be engaged and having a good time immediately. The game is more enjoyable with a larger group, it can get a bit competitive with just two players. However, adding more players increases the fun, with everyone vying to grab the cards and resulting in more laughter! It is an excellent choice for casual family gatherings or for playing with friends at a pub! The cards are a little low quality, which is a shame, and it makes shuffling them difficult, and they will get bent and damaged easily. But other than that, this is a lovely little game, with the perfect theme for the summer. Ready Set Win- 2-6 Players - 30/45 mins Game Length In Ready Set Win, players are competing over a series of six rounds, to build up their hand, in order to compete in six different finals. The idea is you are training up your teams each round, ready to win gold when the time comes. Set up the board like below, with each player being dealt two Training cards and Two Sports cards. Players keep one sports card and place the other onto the spaces on the team village. Then shuffle into the two decks the Training Break card and New Personal Best card (training deck) and five Finals cards (sports deck) and place them on their spaces. One Finals card is added to the countdown track, along with one class token. During their turn, each player is allowed to perform two actions. These actions include drawing a Training card from the top of the pile and adding it to their hand (with the maximum being seven cards), purchasing a Sports card from the board by using Training cards (the cost corresponds to the number of sports on the card, with an additional training point required for the farthest left card and four extra points for those on the right), or exchanging all four Sports cards with four new ones from the deck. Players have the option to repeat the same action twice before passing the turn to the next player. When a Sports card is purchased, the remaining cards move down, decreasing in cost, and the empty space on the far right of the deck is filled. Among these cards are the five Finals cards. As each Finals card is revealed, it is placed on the countdown track with a class token placed on top of it. After each player has taken a turn and play returns to the starting player, all Finals cards shift one space to the right. When a Finals card reaches the far right position, a final round is initiated. Players holding Sports cards matching the current Final class token must then assemble their teams to compete in this final. The player with the strongest team wins a Gold medal and ten points. Silver earns eight points, and Bronze awards six points. The strength of each team is determined by the number of sports depicted on all the entered cards, with an additional sport granted for each repeated sport. For instance, if a player submits five cards, each featuring an Urban Sports event (the final being contested), and these cards display a total of 14 sport icons, the player gains extra points for the three BMX icons, three skateboarding icons, three street dancing icons, two speed climbing icons, and two BMX Freestyle icons, resulting in a total of 27 points. Although it may seem complex, you will quickly grasp the concept. All cards used in the finals are discarded, and the game resumes as usual. The game concludes after the sixth final is completed. This game is a little more complex, but still very family-friendly; I have found most players can get their heads round it in just a few minutes. It feels more of a game than Go For Gold, and the scoring, although complex at first, offers you the chance to create some interesting hands for each of the finals. Selecting which cards to buy as you build you hand is crucial, looking for the right card form the right discipline, but also matching events you already hold in your hand. Of course, there is a fair bit if luck here, but with four cards available at all times, and each card double sided, there is usually a good choice available. And you can always swop them all out if you prefer. It is an enjoyable hand management experience that will set you up for a great summer of sport!

In the world of board games, one word remains ubiquitous, "meeple." Enthusiasts and casual gamers alike are familiar with these iconic little wooden and plastic figures. Bringing fun to our table tops. But the question that looms over this innocent term is whether it should be allowed to be owned by one ne person or company. Or is it so widely used now, it is just part of the lexicon? A recent crowd funded game called Meeple Inc by UK game publisher Cogito Ergo Meeple, (who made the excellent Solar 175), successfully funded but then had a late and mysterious change. In May of 2024 the publisher announced that it was going to change the name of the game to Tabletop Inc and their own name to Cotswold Games. You can check this out here. Apparently, they had received a letter on behalf of publisher Hans Im Glueck that requested for the project to be removed from the crowd funding website because they owned the rights to the word "Meeple". Now this is not anyone being sued or threatened. It was a simple "cease and desist" which Costwold Games seemed more than happy to do. But should this be allowed? The Origin of Meeple Before we dive into the debate, let's take a step back to understand the origins of the term "meeple." Coined by Alison Hansel during a game of Carcassonne, published by Hans Im Glueck, "meeple" is a combination of "my" and "people." These small, wooden figures have become synonymous with modern board gaming and the word is now used by everyone to describe little wooden or plastic humanoid characters seen in board games. The term is common in peoples Instagram handles, rule books for other games, and multiple T-Shirts and other merchandise around the board game community. The Case for Trademarking "Meeple" Proponents of copyrighting "meeple" argue that it is essential to protect the intellectual property associated with the term. By trademarking "meeple," creators can safeguard their brand identity and prevent unauthorised use of the term in the board gaming industry. This move could also potentially lead to licensing opportunities and financial benefits for the original creators of "meeple." In short, they created it, they own it. Right? The Case Against On the other side of the debate are those who believe that "meeple" should remain in the public domain. Advocates for keeping the term free from licensing restrictions argue that "meeple" has evolved into a generic term used widely across the board gaming community. Much like Dice, Board, and Cube. Could you trademark those words too?! Attempting to restrict such a common term could stifle creativity and innovation within the industry, limiting the freedom of game designers to use a term that has become deeply ingrained in the board gaming language. As designer of Tabletop Inc said on the crowdfunding page, “we thought Meeples belonged to all board gamers, it appears they don’t. We of course have zero interest in using anyone else’s IP so we think the best option is to do as they ask." The Verdict: A Confident Stand As we navigate through the complexities of the "meeple" debate, it is crucial to consider the implications of both sides. While protecting intellectual property is essential, we must also recognise the cultural significance and communal nature of board gaming. Therefore, in our own stance here at WBG, we assert that "meeple" should not be restricted in any way. Instead, let it remain a symbol of creativity, community, and shared love for table top games. By upholding the spirit of inclusivity and collaboration that defines the board gaming community, we can embrace the term "meeple" as a symbol of unity and joy in gaming. Let's continue to roll the dice, move the pieces, and celebrate the vibrant world of board games together, one meeple at a time.

Dumb Questions To Ask Your Friends Party Game Review WBG Score: 8 Player Count: 3-8 You’ll like this if you like: Your friends! Published by: Big Potato Games This is a review copy. See our review policy here Well, here we go again! Another bright bundle of joy from the great people at Big Potato Games! How they keep delivering fresh boxes of fun every few months, I will never know. But they do, and they have done it again. It is worth mentioning at this point the huge bias I have from the hours of fun they have already given me. I am an official fan boy of Big Potato Games now. And think I will have a conscious bias towards them for the rest of my days. But, I think I can still pick out the duds from the crowd. But this game is far from a dud. Upon receiving it, we had it opened, learnt and played within minutes. My entire family gets excited when a box from Big Potato Games comes now. And we simply cannot wait to get them to the table. So with that said, lets do exactly that now with you. How To Set Up Dumb Questions To Ask Your Friends Open the box and unfold the scoring board, placing it on a table. You are now ready to play! It really is that simple How To Play Dumb Questions To Ask Your Friends Pick someone to go first. They are the Guesser. They will now pick one of the six categories: Animals, Players, Numbers, Food, Objects, or Famous People. All the categories are pretty self-explanatory. Other than 'Players', which is all about the people playing the game with you right now. Any other player then takes five cards from the chosen category and shows the top card to all players except the Guesser. Each player who saw the card then shouts out their answers to the question. This can happen in any order. The cards are then shuffled and read out loud one by one. The Guesser has to place each card, as they hear it, onto the Scoring board on one of the five available spaces. If they think the question they just heard was likely to be the one everyone answered, they will place it above the four space, meaning it was most likely the card they saw. If they think it was not the card everyone answered for, they place it above the zero space for least likely. Once cards have been placed they are then locked. They cannot be adjusted later as the Guesser hears subsequent cards. The Guesser will hear each question one by one. So they must consider what may come up later and judge each card accordingly. When all five cards have been read and ranked, the other players then reveal what was the correct question, and wherever this card was placed is the points the Guesser scores this round. Pick a new Guesser and play the next round. Officially, you should play the game so that everyone gets to be the Guesser twice in a three to five-player game, and just once in a six to eight-player game. But as usual with games like this, I recommend you simply play until everyone wants to stop. Which for us, generally means hours! The player with the most points at the end wins. But I am unsure how much you will score. We mainly just play for fun. Is It Fun? Dumb Questions To Ask Your Friends This is so much fun! Some categories work better than others, but it seems to suit personalities. Some people I have played with love the randomness of the numbers. Others enjoy the personal touch of the Players category. But all categories can make for utter hilarity! "You think I am the most likely person here to do what?!" The game works with all ages too. Some cards are a little adult in theme for the younger players, but can be easily removed if they pop up. But there is nothing outrageous here. It may just be a word they don't quite understand, or a thing they don't do. Falling in love on first dates, for example! But ultimately, each time I have played this, I have had a lot of fun. Laughter has filled the room. And people have been smiling and having fun. This game almost guarantees that! There are blank cards for each category, giving you the chance to customise the game and make up your own questions. Which is a lovely touch. Some of the pre-written questions really are brilliant and work so well with my group. As such, I would recommend this game to anyone who wants to have fun with their family or friends and is looking for a game that can help expedite that in an almost immediate sense! We have added this game into small breaks between other games, end of the night fun, or simply as a quick game after food. It works in all occasions and I think will be a staple for us for years to come. There are hundreds of cards, and even though you draw five each round, you only answer one each time. So there is plenty of fun in this box.

Space Hoppers: Singko Academy WBG Score: 6.5 Player Count: 3-6 You’ll like this if you like: Published by: Orbiter & Rover This is a review copy. See our review policy here Space Hoppers: Singko Academy is a fresh new card game created by Orbiter & Rover where players compete to gather Souvenir cards in a take-that race game. The game successfully funded on Kickstarter on 2023, and is now available at retail. The artwork is colourful and attractive, the rules are simple to grasp, and the gameplay is quick and enjoyable. So, is it worth playing? Let's get it to the table to see how it plays. How To Set Up Space Hoppers: Singko Academy Separate the five decks and give them all an individual shuffle. Deal four crew cards, two monkey wrenches, and one souvenir card to each player. Players will place the Souvenir card face up in front of them along with their four Crew cards, adding the two Monkey Wrench cards into their hand. Then place one Hop card face up into the central playing area (this immediately effects all players) along with each of the separate decks, placed face down along with the modifier tokens. You are now ready to play. How To Play Space Hoppers: Singko Academy Players now take it in turns to draw an Encounter card. Players will read the card out loud and immediately follow its instructions. These cards can do all sorts of things, but your goal is to try and get Souvenir cards. Any of the next two players in turn can now play a single Monkey Wrench card if they choose, if not, play moves to the next player. If a player draws a Souvenir card they will add it to their face up collection in front of them. If a player ever reaches five Souvenir cards (four in a six player game) they win the game. (Note, some Souvenir cards are worth double) So long as no other player can change this with a Monkey Wrench card of course! Any cards played during a players turn are discarded to the bottom of their respective discard pile. Any player who played a Monkey Wrench card must draw a new one. You must have two in hand at all times. Crew cards act as each players life points. If you ever lose all your Crew cards you are out of the game. Any player with one single Crew card remaining is immune to other players stealing their final card. However, final Crew are not immune to Encounter effects or Monkey Wrench cards. Your Crew all have individual scores for various attributes. Many Encounter cards require you to score a minimum within one of these characteristics. You can gain new and extra Crew throughout a game, but be warned, you can also lose them! There is a variant where you can pick your crew one-by-one from all face up crew cards as part of a more customisable set-up. You can also boost your final crew card if you wish. And there is also a chaotic version where all players can play Monkey Wrench cards when ever they chose! Worth a try, at least once. Play continues with players drawing an Encounter card until one player has reached the required number of Souvenir cards. Is It Fun? Space Hoppers: Singko Academy Card Game Review Games of Space Hoppers: Singko Academy move fast. You could see games over within minutes. If a player gets lucky, they can see victory come their way before any other player has a chance to stop them. In a two-player game, this is actually quite common. As such, I feel this game excels with more players. More people, more chaos, more fun. Building a strategy can be hard. Things change fast. Your Crew can come and go, and the unpredictable nature of the Encounter cards can mean it is almost impossible to predict the path the game will take. The art is great though. Everything is so bright and colourful, and adds to the comic book fun of the game. There is also a lot of effort within the lore of the game. Each card has a fair bit of flavour text. Whether you ever read this or not is up to you! If you are looking for a quick, fun game that is light on rules and can be set up, taught, and played all within minutes, Space Hoppers: Singko Academy delivers. You will be disappointed if you are looking for a deeper strategy, but if you just want quick, fast fun, this is the one. I like the drafting option to build your Crew during setup, rather than just randomly gaining them. Using their combined skills to achieve Encounters is satisfying, especially if you have hand-crafted them yourself. But it can be a little random too. You never know what attributes you will need. You can't aim for one over the other as you never know what Encounter cards will come your way. I tend you just try and build an evenly balanced c Crew. I like the variety in the Monkey Wrench cards. They offer some fun and interesting things to do. The Hop cards do bring a fresh twist to each game; I just wish they were used more, and you could cycle through a few of these each game. But overall, this is a light, fun game that certainly does not outstay its welcome. It just perhaps comes in a little too light for me. I would recommend this to anyone looking for a simple, fast, vibrant card game to play with their family, that offers quick, entertaining, take-that style card play without too much stress.

Expeditions: Gears of Corruption WBG Score: 8 Player Count: 1-6 You’ll like this if you like: Scythe, Innovation, Dune Imperium. Published by: Stonemaier Games Designed by: Jamey Stegmaier This is a free review copy. See our review policy here. I have reviewed the main game here, where you can also get an understanding for how to set-up and play the game. This review will focus purely on the new expansion, what it adds, and our thoughts on these additions. Expeditions first came out in 2023. Billed as the sequel to Scythe, one of the biggest games in the industry, it received a mixed reaction. Some, expecting simply more Scythe, were a little disappointed. Others, more open to judging the game by its own merits, praised the game's clever but simple mechanics, ruleset, and structure. I was and remain a big fan of the game, but there are a few things that could be fixed and made better in my opinion. Does this first expansion do this? Well, lets it get it to the table and see how it plays. What's New With Expeditions: Gears of Corruption Two new Mechs to play with. 7 mech mats (2 new mats and 5 dual-layered mats to replace the originals) 16 new map tokens (each with a secret bonus on the face-down side) 6 new Hero (wild) workers 8 new starting cards 6 new discovery cards 7 new mech cards 12 new corruption cards and 1 corrupted mech reference card 6th player components: power, guile, glory, and action tokens 6 silkscreen printed corruption tiles A new Automa solo mode (5 progress cards, 1 corrupted mech reference card, 1 rulebook) How To Set Up Expeditions: Gears of Corruption Set up as you usually would with the main game with a few changes. First, replace the old map tokens with the new ones, being sure to place them face down on the board. Keep the old tokens for using in the main game, still. You will use the normal ones when you gain one through any other means other than exploring. But exploring new tiles now gives you these new benefits. Also, replace all the old player boards with the new ones. The new boards are duel layered so all the tokens fit nicely and snug inside now. No more sliding about. Not that it happened a lot, to be honest. But it does help when you lif the board to slide and tuck cards underneath. You can now also randomly select which mech each player will play as by shuffling and then dealing out the mech cards. You will also need to replace a few elements from the base game permanently. Tile 16 used in the base game should be permanently removed and replaced with a new one provided here. Also, item card 011. These fix some minor errors on the original print. The six new corruption tokens should be added to the corruption bag, ready to be used in all games. Then shuffle the new item cards and character cards into their respective decks. If you are using the new Corrupted mech module, place the corrupted mech reference card on the Basecamp glory track, showing the “Corrupted Mech Arrival” side, then shuffle the 12 corruption cards and set them nearby. Finally, each player now starts with one wild Hero worker. This can be used as any worker during the game. You will only have one throughout, you cannot get any more. You are now ready to play. How To Play Expeditions: Gears of Corruption Play as usual, but now when you explore a new tile, the map token will grant an immediate bonus. Flip the token, and gain whatever is shown on the reverse side. The corrupted mech is used to add a dummy extra player into the game. It first appears when a player places the first glory token. At the end of that player’s turn, any unused mech miniature is chosen and placed onto a revealed, unoccupied location. Now, flip the corrupted mech reference card to show “Corrupted Mech Turn” and place it to the right of that player. Next, deal five corruption cards face up in a pile next to the reference card so their corruption costs are all visible. Place the remaining corruption cards face down to form a deck beside this pile. From now on the corrupted mech will take a turn before the player that activated it takes their turn. To do this, deal a new corruption card face up to the top of the pile. If the deck of corruption cards is empty, move the bottom card of the pile to the top. If there is an open space in the specified direction on the new card, the mech will advance one space in that direction. Face-down spaces are considered open. Any map token is removed, the space is revealed if previously hidden, corruption tokens are placed on it, and the corrupted mech is moved onto it. Spaces already occupied by other mechs are not considered available. However, if the corrupted mech tries to move onto an occupied space, the player occupying that space will face the penalty described on the card. If there are no available spaces in the specified direction, the mech will attempt the next direction clockwise (and continue in this manner until it moves). If there are no available spaces in any direction, the mech will stop trying after checking all six directions and will not move. If the top card displays a second direction icon, the mech will attempt to move once more. Players can utilise the Vanquish ability to eliminate corruption cards when their mech is next to the corrupted mech just like you would vanquish a corruption token. They must pay the cost indicated at the bottom of the top corruption card to acquire it. This action can be repeated to acquire multiple corruption cards in a single Vanquish ability. Should a player take away the final corruption card that was revealed, the corrupted mech is removed from the game, regardless of whether there are still unrevealed corruption cards left. Place all the remaining corruption cards, the corrupted mech reference card, and the mech miniature back into the box. Is It Fun? Expeditions: Gears of Corruption Board Game Review I would get this expansion for the duel-layered player boards alone! Not that there was a real issue with the originals. I just love duel-layered player boards and feel it always makes the experience smoother, more luxurious, and obviously safer from knocks and cat attacks! The new boards in this expansion are wonderful and certainly make the experience better. But is this enough for a first expansion? Well, if you want to play this game with six players, I would say it is a must-have. But for me, the game shines with three or four players. I am not sure if a sixth player will ever be important to me. But it's perfect if that is your preferred player count. The other components included are nice add-ons, and I have found that the new exploration tokens do encourage people to explore a lot more in their first few games with them. But outside of that, there are no real new strategies needed here to play the game with what is added. But with that comes no added rules or complexity to the teach for new players. However, I love the two new mechs. They bring more variety, and it is nice to have the mech cards to choose your character from as well, especially with players all familiar with the game. But the star of this expansion for me is the new corrupted mech module. In two-player, how I play this the most, the game can become a little isolating. Players go off and do their own thing and rarely encounter each other, staying at opposite ends of the board. The new corrupted mech module fixes this with an incredibly simple extra dummy player, but in such a cool way. They are not there from the beginning, they can be removed, and the movement and control of them is so simple. It brings a more dynamic player board, with obviously more chances of encountering other mechs, and just makes it a better game. It is a simple touch, but one that I really enjoy. I won't play without it again at two-player. I am unsure if I will use it for higher player counts; maybe the odd three-player game will see this included if players have not used it before and are curious. But in four player or higher, I am unsure if I would use this as the board is already busy enough. I would suggest. But of course, it is a nice option to have. If you are a fan of the base game, this is a great addition. If you did not enjoy the original, this will not change your mind. But it certainly does help with the main gameplay issue I previously had about the lack of player interaction. However, it did not address the main issue I have with the tiles being easily exposed to the odd nudge and displacement. Tile holders would do the trick here, as seen in the demo game Ecolapse. These are available on Etsy as an unofficial upgrade, but I would love to see an official Stonemaier version of these in a future expansion. But, does it all fit in the box? Well, yes. Really quite well. And you can finally use the final two spaces for extra mechs, which is all rather satisfying. And there are a few new bags to sort the money out. Ahhhhh! Much better. All is right with the world again.

Undermined! Pairadice City WBG Score: 7 Player Count: 2-6 You’ll like this if you like: Rescuing Robin Hood Published by: Devilfly Games Designed by: Nick Barker, Chris Fisher This is a free review copy. See our review policy here Undermined! Pairadice City debuted on Kickstarter in late 2023. It marks Devilfly's inaugural game and sets players against each other in an interesting blend of semi-cooperation and competition, within a racing scenario where the goal is to reach a predetermined points total first. Participants can assist one another each round in return for mutually agreed-upon benefits, deploy cards that may either hinder or aid fellow players, but all while pursuing their individual interests. Intrigued? I certainly was. Let's get it to the table and see how it plays. How to Set Up Undermined! Pairadice City First, shuffle all the separate decks of cards and place them out in front of you. From the shop deck, lay out the top five cards face up into a line. Each player then takes the starting cards shown with the gold boxed text at the bottom, two event cards and two coins each. Keep the event cards in your hand and your other cards face up in front of you. Place the dice and coins into a general supply along with the handy player aid. You are now ready to play. How to Play Undermined! Pairadice City Players will now take turns running through the four main steps of each turn until a player reaches the agreed-upon points target. The starting total is 12 points, but there are variants to play to 15 or 18 depending on how long you want to play. The first step is simple. Players draw an event card and two coins. At this point, if you want to, you can exchange two event cards in your hand for one from the top of the deck. The second step sees players visit the shop. Here, players can exchange coins for any one of the five face-up items, adding it to their hand. There is a limit of four items, but some cards allow you to increase this. If players do not have enough money at this point, they can sell treasures for their face value, but at the start of the game, you won't have any treasures to sell. And of course, treasures are worth points, so this is a key part of the game. Deciding if you want to rush to the total or try to build up your engine so that you may take one step back now but will be able to take two giant steps forward later. The next step is the preparation phase. Here, players can pay two coins to move the top Rock card to the bottom of the deck if it has too high a value. They will then choose one tool to use to try and mine the top Rock card this turn. And then finally, ask for help from the other players if they are not using an explosive this round. If anyone agrees to help, they roll one die to add to your total for this round. Help can be offered for free or in exchange for cards, money, or whatever you want. It's a negotiation. It's up to the players if they want to do this, and of course, honour whatever promises they make at this point! Play then moves to the final stage, the Mining phase. Here players roll two dice, add whatever they get from other players' dice who are helping, and then whatever bonus they have from the tool they chose that round, and any other cards they may be able to use. If the total combined number is equal to or greater than the number on the top Rock card, that player will then flip that card and gain the benefit on the back. Money or the chance to dip into the Treasure and Peril deck. If it is a Treasure card, simply add this to your face-up cards. This will not count towards your hand limit. But it will count towards your point total or can be sold in a later shopping round. If it is a Peril card, you must immediately carry out whatever it says, and if any other player helped and rolled a one, they sadly have to face this Peril too. Event cards can be played throughout all this based on what the card says, and play continues like this until someone reaches the agreed points total. Is It Fun? Undermined! Pairadice City This game offers an interesting mix of competitive card play and cooperation. I found that in most games I played, two or three players would join forces while one player would go rogue. Either because they refuse to help or because they attack others first, causing a rift in the group! This can cause some arguments and frustrations with younger player, who generally do not cope as well with take-that and double crossing. But works well with more experienced or less sensitive players! The game comes with a second Rock deck with a higher value on the top. This makes achieving the target harder, encouraging more collaboration, and pushing players to work harder to build their arsenal of Tools and Items; perhaps selling Treasures early on to develop this, rather than just push for the points goal. I would encourage adding these in from game one. The game is kept fresh with the varied Tools, Items and Event cards, which bring about some very interesting and fun options. However, as some Events are good for all, others bad for all, and the rest just affect one player, there can be some frustrations here too with the luck of the draw. This also applies to players who draw Treasures and Perils instead of gaining money when successfully mining a Rock card. You could theoretically go through an entire game and play just as well as another player and score no points as you just get Peril cards all the time. Now you can buy items to negate the effects of the perils, but you still won't get any points! And your money supply will dwindle quickly without any treasures to sell. This is obviously pretty unlikely, but I have had a few games where one player felt like this was happening to them. It feels like there should be a little more control here. The Big Magnet Item card helps a little here. Allowing you to draw two cards and choose one from it. But it is costly, only has two uses, and is the only card in the deck that really helps with this sort of thing. There are more than one though! But the Tool and Item cards are a real highlight, and I am exited each Shopping round when I get the chance to add one to my collection. The four card limit is a little frustrating, but can be negated with a few cards, and only being able to shop once per turn also holds you back a little. But there are some Event cards which bring more opportunities to the table, although for all players, so you will help the other players too. But sometimes, it is good to be nice! And shopping is always fun, right! But my biggest issue with the game is with the Rock mining itself. When you use Explosives, you can smash your way through more than one Rock card if you score high enough. Generally two cards, but sometimes three if you are lucky. This feels great. But happens quite rarely as there are only so many Explosive cards in the game that you can get. As such, I am unsure why you cannot just go through as many cards as you can each time, no matter how you are mining. It just feels more fun this way? It wouldn't happen often, but still, I think the chance should be there. I want this game to offer me the chance to combo through a few Rocks Blow a few up each turn. Gain a little momentum. Have some fun. But with all that said, when I play this game, I do have fun. There is a very interesting game here. The theme feels unique and is well implemented into the game. The cards are varied and offer a different game experience each time you play. The mix between working together and against each other appeals to my devious nature, and I find the balance of keeping others onside while secretly plotting against them to be a lot of fun. Although, there is perhaps a little too much "take-that" in the game for my liking. Although this is just personal taste. I also think there could be a little more variety with the Rock cards. They offer either money or Treasure/Peril cards. It feels some thought here could have brought a little more excitement to the game. And the rewards, as well as being a little stale, could be a little more. A little bigger. But again, I must stress, when I play, I do have fun. And the more I played, the more fun I had. This is a real builder of a game. As you learn new ways to play and try new strategies, the game open ups a little and you feel a little more in control. But then, you can still be slapped in the face by the game every now and then, that is part of it. And I suppose, thematic to the old Wild West. But if this game every got an expansion to fix some of the issues around variety and a lack of control, I would be very interested in seeing that.

Divinus WBG Score: 6.5 Player Count: 2-4 You’ll like this if you like: Land vs Sea, Doing LOTS of stickers and admin Published by: Lucky Duck Games Designed by: Filip Miłuński This is a review copy. See our review policy here - SPOILER FREE REVIEW Divinus is the ultimate demigod experience. If you are looking for one? Take on quests, challenge Greek and Norse gods, and shape your own mythological destiny. Each game unlocks new quests, stickers, LOTS of stickers. And the god characters in the story keep the legacy element fresh with their constant requests, mischievous behaviour, and combative nature. With the app guiding the narrative, players will use their dice to select and lay down tiles, create new worlds, complete quests, and hopefully gain divine favour. What that all means by the end of the experience, well, let's see if you get there first. But it's not just about impressing the gods. You'll make permanent changes to your playing character (your demigod) and the game world by collecting artefacts and making seemingly pivotal decisions that alter the course of the game throughout. Battles, holy sites, and even the fate of gods are in your hands. Your choices matter and have apparently lasting consequences. So, let's dive into Divinus, get it to the table, and see how it plays. How To Set Up Divinus For your first game, there are only a few rules to read, and set up is pretty simple. This will change quickly. Rules wise. Set up remains relatively quick and straightforward throughout the campaign. First, layout the game board and separate the tiles two their two separate backs. Remove any based on your player count, using the symbol on the tile and place them face down in two separate piles on the designated spaces for them on the game board. Then turn over six of each, placing them face up onto the numbered spaces on the board. Each player at the start of the campaign needs to choose one of the four demi gods to play as. Take the associated box and dice for this character, and place it in front of each player. Next, take out the game one god cards. There is a small card box for each game n the main box. In each one you will find the components you need for each part of the campaign. In the first box you will find four god cards. Place these in their designated spaces on either side on the top of the board. These will set you main scoring challenges for the first game. Some components will run through game to game, some will be removed permanently from the game after a few uses. But don't worry, the app does a very good job at clearly explaining all this as you play through. You are now ready to play. Later games will require little more set up, adding extra things, but I don't want to spoil that here. Just know the opening game is far from the complete experience. How To Play Divinus Players will roll all their dice and then starting with the first player, use any combination of dice to claim a tile. As many dice can be used as each player wants, but each die can only be used once. You could use simply a die showing a "one" to take the tile in the "one" space. Or you could combine dice such as a "one" and a "two" to claim the tile in the third space. You can also combine dice to reduce your number, so a "one" and a "three" to claim the tile in the second place. However you want. Take the tile and place the die or dice you used into the space the tile came from. Do not replace the tile. The tile that is taken is placed in front of you. The second tile you take this way must connect to the first tile you took, with one side matches the tile you have already placed. Subsequent tiles must be placed in the same way, matching one other previously placed tiles side. You will be building a 4x4 grid over the course of each game. Players continue like this until they run out of dice, or do not have any dice that they can use. At this point, you will take back all previously dice, re-roll all your dice, replace the tiles from the spaces you took the dice, and then hand back over to the next player. Essentially you miss a turn, but get all your dice back. So, you want to use your dice as efficiently as possible as soon as someone completes their grid, that is the end of the game. You cannot fall too far behind in your own grid by refreshing your dice too often. The main that players are looking to do as they build out their grid is to match terrain on the tiles and complete the mission set in each round god mission cards. This is mainly about creating the largest number or largest amount of certain terrain. But later in the game, this evolves to other challenges. All focused around specific tile placement. As the games evolves, stickers will be added All over. Into the rulebook, (lots there!) onto tiles. New powers onto your own god character box. You will even change the numbers on your dice. As you take and play tiles with stickers on, some will be numbers that link to the app; either by scanning them, or much more simply by adding in the two digit number. This will then start a story, with a fair bit of text on the app you will need to read. At the end, you will need to make a choice based upon the events that you just read about. Your choice will affect the rest of the game of all parties, but mostly you. Allegiances will be formed. Behaviours judged! In later games, getting tiles with number stickers on that you have interacted with before will be beneficial. It will help you with various parts of the story, and opportunities to "level up" your character by attaining certain tiles, offering certain powers. But there will be benefits for other players to take these tiles and interact with them as well. Of course, on top of the opportunity to stop the original player to take this tile from doing so. It can be a bit of a rush when these tiles come out. And as such, if any are drawn during the initial set up, you need to replace them with another tile, and shuffle them back into the stack. Once the first 4x4 grid is formed, players all take one final turn, and then the app will take you through end game scoring. Players will score extra points for completing their grid, as well as the challenges set by the gods for each round. New parts of the story will evolve, more stickers will come out, new rules will be introduced, and a new round can then begin. after the final game, you can reset and go again by buying a refresh pack, or play your now unique version of the game in one of challenges. Is It Fun? Divinus Legacy Board Game Review I want to love this game so much. There is so much about it that excites me. And some of the game is brilliant. The game itself is a little simple, but if you like tile-laying, it offers a nice challenge. Each game is quick, there are simple and clear goals to aim for, and the process by which you do this with the dice is a lot of fun. The issues comes more with the legacy parts, the story, and crucially; the stickers. The story is quite long. There is a lot of reading. Normally I want to read every word and not miss a thing with games like this. But by game four of Divinus I found I was skipping through pages of text just to keep the game going. I found it frustrating to keep pausing the game midway, when it usually moves at quite a nice pace, for one player to have to read out three pages of flavour text. This is not always conducive to the best game experience, and is very uncommon for me. I usually want to devour everything. After each game, when you want to crack on with the next chapter and try the new rules or components added to the game, you will be busy with a fair bit of admin. Adding stickers to the rule book, game board, and dice; running through various mid-game clean-up phases, and reading a lot more text. The flow again is frustratingly interrupted. Just when you excitement is peaked, there is admin to do. The concept of this game sadly is better than the execution. But I hope a lot of learning can come from this. There is a great game within this. It feels like an early edit. The directors somewhat egotistical cut. But with a few tweaks and a lot of cut backs in the stickers and text this would be a great experience. Now, of course, some will love this. The text and stickers all come together to make this a rich and evolving experience, which some will love. Some may even expect it for a legacy game like this, and so do I. Usually, I would lap it up. It just crossed the border of deep, layered, evolving and fun into laborious. Adding stickers to dice can truly enhance the gaming experience by providing a personalised touch and a unique aesthetic appeal. And let's be honest. It's just a fun thing to do in a game! It also brings a genuine sense of ownership to the game. The varied ways to score points in the game, influenced by the different demi-gods each round, introduce a layer of complexity and strategy that keeps players on their toes. This dynamic element ensures that each game session is different and presents new challenges for players to overcome. It adds depth to the gameplay and encourages players to adapt their strategies based on the changing requirements each game. This balance between familiarity and novelty ensures that players are constantly invested in the game, making each session something you want to get into. But, ultimately, the success of the game has to be measured by its legacy elements – the lasting impact it leaves on players, the memories created during gameplay, and the overall enjoyment it provides from the story and development of the rules. By combining evolving mechanics and rules, customisable components, and dynamic gameplay, the game does create a cool experience that resonates with players long after the dice have been rolled. But you will need to judge for yourself if the admin to get through is worth it for the payoff that Divinus delivers.

Moonflight by independent designer Man O’ Kent games is a beautifully constructed deck ‘un-builder’ that puts the player into the strange world of Moonflight. A town born wherever the shadows of the hunter’s moon fall. If I haven’t already lost you, then let me explain! Not the hunter’s moon bit, I am no expert there, although I believe it’s something to do with harvest time and prepping for winter. No, I mean the deck ‘un-building’ bit! I am sure you have heard of deck building. If not, go check this out. But have you heard of 'un-building'? Well, this is a game where you need to build up your deck in the first half of the game before the ‘flip’ at which point you then need to shed cards like a sheep in springtime. This is because points are scored by what’s in your hand at the end of the game and there is a hand limit so you can only hold so many. And most cards are pointless! It’s a clever idea and not one I have seen many times, but does it lead to an enjoyable experience? Well, yes! It really does! The first half of the game you are racing to build up your deck of cards to become more powerful. Essentially you want to generate money each turn to buy better cards. Your hand limit and maximum coin count is limited each round, so you need to get cards that can increase your hand limit and generate coins quickly each turn. You can only carry five coins over to the next round. As such, you want to spend all your money as best you can to make your deck develop as quickly and efficiently as possible. A lot of the cards are set up to do this, so you will find your hand improves each round in the direction you intend quite easily. This is a fundamental part about why deck building games are fun. Seeing immediate gains and benefits to your efforts. Being able to do new things quickly. Using new cards is a lot of fun. Some deck builders force you to wait too long before you can use the new cards. Whereas in Moonflight you will not have this problem. The cards you will have access to early in the game will mostly be worth zero points at the end of the game, but they will help you build your hand size and coin earning potential to get the higher value point cards. But they will clog up your deck later in the game. The game has a clever timing mechanism using the stack of available upgrade cards. After each round when you acquire a new card from one of your own three personal stacks, if one of them is empty for you or any other player in the game, all players will draw three new cards to place on top of each stack. This is a very clever rule for many reasons. Firstly, this allows players to cycle through their deck quickly to find the cards they want. This makes deck building more fun! Secondly, it allows for tactical play to block your opponent’s more powerful cards. If you see another player has a great card available on their next turn, you can try to empty one of your stacks, meaning that they will then have to bury that card under another that you hope will be less attractive to them. Thirdly, it acts as a variable timer on the game. When you can no longer fill one of the piles, the mid-game ‘turn’ happens. This is when all players will physically turn all their cards 180 degrees. Every card in their hand, deck, supply stacks and discard pile is affected. Each card is designed to have two sides to it. A top and bottom. On the same face of each card, exists two different scoring options, costs, powers, and effects. When you flip them round, you will find that most turn from cards that help you to build your deck, to becoming cards that help you burn it all to the ground! Your once beautiful deck full of money and hand increasing powers becomes the target of a trash filled slaughter! In what essentially becomes a race game of who can devolve their deck the quickest, the 'turn' changes Moonflight completely on its head. The end of the game is triggered when one player has exhausted, their cards so much that their draw deck and discard is empty during the reset stage. Each player then scores the cards they have in their hands. It’s a fantastic way to manage the games length and set the strategy that each player adopts. There are four decks available at the start of the game which are chosen by the players during set-up. The Jack o’ Clay and Bones specialises in controlling the discard and trash stack, providing an ability to use both stacks to extend its users hand. This allows the player holding these cards to use newly acquired powers quicker and cycle through a build and trash mechanic a lot quicker. The Jack o’ Words and Names can draw cards quicker than other cards allowing it to build bigger hands to carry out more powerful actions. After the ‘turn’ this power switches to controlling both hand and deck by drawing cards into your hand in incredible numbers. This risks getting a lower score, but also ending the game quicker so others suffer the same fate. The Jack o’ Cot and Hovel likes to build a bigger tableau. There is an ability in the game to ‘set’ cards. This allows you to keep cards from turn to turn, rather than using and discarding. The Jack ol’ Cot and Hovel allows you to set cards quicker than one can type "game, set, m…" After the ‘turn’ this power to set cards continues, and now allows the user of this deck the power to order their cards in a specific way. Allowing the player to try and structure when they draw their cards worth the most points. The Jack o’ Bond and Kind deck is all about generating coins. Giving you the chance to buy your way to victory, this can bring about the ‘turn’ quickly if you chose to do so. After the ‘turn’ this deck will require more time to prepare a final hand, using coins to trash cards. So, this is all about a quick first half and steady burn in the second. The four decks feel very different. Their unique powers and theming is a joyful experience to behold. Having tried them all, I cannot say I favour one over the other. But I like the opportunity to use each one and work my strategy to each deck’s strengths and weaknesses. Moonflight is an asymmetric deck un-builder. Is it a one-of-its-kind is this respect? I think potentially so! Does that mean you should go out and buy this? Well maybe! It certainly scratches am itch I didn’t even know existed before! But now when that tickle comes, I have no idea where else to look. Designer Glenn Ford has created something special with Moonflight. I look forward to playing this game with new players over the coming years to see their face as they realise what it is this game is trying to make them do. It is a novel and refreshing experience that is a lot of fun to boot. My only slight comments are the art and rule book. It’s all very brown. But the theme excuses the art in part. But it's a shame this isn’t a little more vibrant. The rule book works well but is ordered in a way that confused me. The game is not complicated but the rule book perhaps could have been structured in a more friendly manner. But other than that, this game delivers on all levels and these are minor quibbles for something that I think is quite special. Speaking on the rulebook, designer Glenn Ford commented, “my previous game SSO had a very small, tightly written rulebook with essentially no examples or explanations and people struggled with it because of that. With Moonflight I had more space in the book and the box and so was possibly overly careful about giving extra explanations and examples, I also inherently personally prefer rulebooks that cover every eventuality, even at the cost of length and I’m still finding the sweet spot for other people, I think. I am always personally available for rules questions, and welcome the chance to add to any FAQs, but equally there really haven’t been too many questions that actually need clarifying.” “As for the artwork, with the double ended nature of the cards finding images that worked either way up effectively while also fitting in with the ancient/timeless feel of the theme and coming in at the sort of price point a small independent designer can cover was always going to be tough, but I really stand by the overall feel of the game and am very proud of some of the small details in the cards. The art does have a lot of richness and historical references to it if not full colour and while I accept that’s not to everyone’s taste I think they reward repeated inspection in a way that I really like." "Ultimately, with the artwork, its one of the most expensive and time-consuming part of any game and with a tiny budget and zero staff I aimed for making a virtue of necessity by shaping it to an overall theme and feel rather than commissioning higher impact pieces.” I quite agree with this, and these are minor quibbles as I say. Overall, Moonflight is a beautiful piece of work that I am delighted to have in my collection and will play for years to come. It offers a unique and engrossing experience that I think rewards mid-level strategy game fans heavily.

Booty Dice WBG Score: 6.5 Player Count: 2-6 You’ll like this if you like: Bang! The Dice Game Published by: Messy Table Games Designed by: Eric Olsen This is a free review copy. See our review policy here Booty Dice comes from new publisher, Messy Table Games; who have a mission statement to bring fun, fast, and engaging games to the market. With Booty Dice, they have certainly achieved that. This is a fast-paced pirate free-for-all where players attack and steal from each other while trying to defend themselves from attacks. This all happens is a very quick and simple game that is basically just throwing dice. Want to see how easy this is to learn? Lets get it to the table and find out! How To Set Up Booty Dice Each player takes 5 gold Doubloons and 10 life tokens. Place the six dice and player aid into the central playing area. You are now ready to play. How To Play Booty Dice Players now take it in turns to roll the six dice. Players can re-roll one or all of the dice up to three time if they wish, or stop when they have the roll they want. Players will then enact each final dice face as per the below player aid. If players ever eliminate a player using the Cutlass, Mutiny, or Blackbeard's curse roll, then they will take all of their Doubloons. Players will continue like this until one player has amassed 25 or more coins, or only one player has any life tokens left. That's it! Told you it was easy. Is It Fun? Booty Dice - Dice Game Review This game is a fantastic choice for casual gatherings, whether it's a night out at the pub or a laid-back game night with friends. Its simplicity and ease of learning make it accessible to players of all levels, even those who are not seasoned gamers. While the gameplay may lean more towards luck than strategy, it offers a refreshing break for those looking for a light-hearted and enjoyable experience. One of the standout features of this game is its thematic elements, which are well-integrated despite the limited components. The quality of the components, especially the chunky dice, adds to the overall tactile experience and enhances the game's immersive feel. It's the kind of game that you can easily bring along wherever you go, thanks to its compact size and quick setup time. Personally, I find myself drawn to this game when playing with my children for its reliability in delivering fast-paced and simple gameplay. It's a go-to option for those moments when you want to dive straight into the action without any delays. With its blend of simplicity, theme, and casual mechanics, this game has all the makings of a crowd-pleaser that promises lots of fun and laughter. If you are looking for a game that is intricate, strategic, and requires tough decision-making, this may not be the right choice for you. However, if you prefer a game that is easy to learn and can be enjoyed within minutes, especially with younger or more laid-back players, then this could be the perfect fit for you.