Search Results

This is a preview for a game coming to Kickstarter soon. You can find more about the Kickstarter here. Chroma Arcana is a new card game coming out in 2024 from new publisher Roc Nest Games. It has been designed by Mo Shawwa who is also new to the board game world. Who doesn't like new stuff! Chroma Arcana is competitive duel-focused card game designed for two players. With the addition of the Tyrant Hunt expansion, the game transforms into a cooperative experience accommodating 1-6 players. Featuring Trading Card Game like gameplay, Chroma Arcana offers a lot of interesting mechanics. But as it includes all the required cards in the box, there is no need to purchase boosters. This is the concept - without the chase. The game unfolds in the enchanting fantasy realm of Alqarr, where the narrative centres around the desert city of Aredhel. In this immersive odyssey, powerful mages compete for control. The game's rich lore attempts to come to life through stunning full-art cards meticulously painted by three talented artists. Check them out, they are stunning! In the preview box I have, I have access to cards that allowed me to play an introductory game and try out a more exciting deck-building experience with two of the characters. I can assume the role of either Nuri the Pyromancer or Zaria the Archdruid. The complete game boasts a roster of over 20 diverse playable characters, each with their unique backstories. The designers have worked to make this as inclusive as possible. Approximately 30% of these characters identify as LGBT+, and another 30% represent non-white backgrounds (excluding characters without defined skin tones, such as Grimoire, the magical book!). And the artwork on all these cards is nothing short of stunning! Throughout the game, mages alternate turns to position Spells in their Spellbook, energize them, and unleash these charged spells for powerful and devastating effects. The game is a duelling one, where you are looking to reduce your opponents health to zero before they do the same to you. This is done through four phases. First, the Focus step where players will charge active spells by adding charge tokens to one Spell in their Spellbook. These are cards that have been placed in front of them in previous turns that are not fully ready yet. You can add one charge token to one spell this way, per active spells in your active row. Active spells are spells that have been fully charged and moved forward from your spell book to your active area above. Players then move to the Prepare step where cards can be added to players Spellbook from their hand as often as they like, so long as players do not have more than four cards here. During this phase, players can also discard cards from their hand to add more charge tokens to matching coloured cards in their Spellbook. The third phase is the Casting phase, where all fully charged spell cards in your Spellbook are now moved into your active area. Any immediate effect is then carried out. You can recall a spell if you prefer. Plans can change after all. Once this is done, players move to the fourth and final phase where players discards their hand, two cards can be kept if players wish, and draw back up to their hand size, usually six cards. This is how the game flows until one players loses all their health. The game works very smoothly in this way, and relies on its cards to bring the strategy. And oh my, does it do that well. The way the cards interact with each other, and can help you to form powerful turns is very clever. I would not say it is the most intuitive game to learn in this way, but when it clicks after a game or three, you will start to really enjoy the things you can do. Some spells simply do not work that well together but others really do. Learning how best to do this feels great. The proposed date for the Kickstarter launch is currently the 27th February 2024, you can find out more about that here. The final game will contain four more colours, plenty more Egos, proper playmats, and a larger (but still very portable) box to contain all the components. The publishers will also be releasing the Tyrant Hunt expansion at the same time, adding a co-operative 1-6 player game. The publishers have done a recent series of YouTube shorts (a total of 2 minutes in length) that cover the basics. Check that out here and find more about the publishers at Roc Nest Games, Mo & Alice here @rocnestgames and here on their website.

Surfosaurus Max WBG Score: 8 Player Count: 2-6 Published by: Loosey Goosey Games Designed by: Ikhwan Kwon This is a the reviewers own copy, paid for with our own money. See our review policy here When I was looking at games to check out for Essen 2023, there was one game that stood out, more for my curiosity than anything else. I did not know much about the designer, publisher, or indeed anything about the game itself. I honestly didn't even know it was a card game. I just saw the name and box art on the BGG hotlist (a website that lists all games released at Essen, then ranks them by users' thumbs up), and that was enough! A surfing T-Rex! Come on. That's got to be enough for anyone, right? Fast-forward a few months, and I have now played the game many times and realized that, it seems, by pure fluke, this game is ace! Let's get it to the table and see how it plays. How To Set Up Surfosaurus Max Based on player count, hand out the handy-dandy player aids so everyone can see at least one. This provides clear and succinct visual aids on how to win a trick in the game. It will also tell you how many cards to remove from the game based on your player count. Once this is done, deal seven cards to each player. Each player takes one Surfboard card, along with one full and half-full coconut card. Finally, determine who will be the starting player. There is no advantage to this, as all players will get to be the first player an equal number of times. Give them the dinosaur meeple and tell them to place this onto their surf board card, and you are now ready to begin. Although, it is recommended everyone has a little play with the cool dino meeple at this point to avoid later distractions. How To Play Surfosaurus Max Starting with the first player, each player now plays one card face up in front of them, then draws back to seven cards. When it gets back to the first player, a second card is then played. This continues until all players have played two cards, or three in a two or three-player game. All players will then compare the cards played to see which is the collective best combination of four cards played, or five cards in a five or six-player game. The best combination would be a sequential run of cards in the same colour, then four or five cards of the same number, followed by cards of the same colour. If you don't have any group of cards, the focus then moves to a sequential group of cards using any colour before finally picking the highest numbered cards. The cards in the highest group are then taken by the players who laid them and placed under their full coconut card to be scored at the end of the game. If there were any ties, the tied cards are placed under the half coconut and score half points at the end of the game. Half points can score for a few reasons, for example, if a straight was made running six to nine, but multiple people played a six, all duplicates would be included at half points. In a two-player game, you will play six rounds with each player starting three rounds each. Four rounds are played with three or four players. With five or six players, you will play one round per person. When the game is over, count up all your points, and unsurprisingly, the most points win. Is It Fun? Surfosaurus Max Card Game Review This game is so much fun with three players. With two, it's okay but feels more functional. But in a four or higher, oh my! This game really sings. You will be surprised at just how much fun you can have with this game. Considering all that you are doing on your turn is playing a card and then picking it back up, it's amazing how you will become so invested in this game. And how much satisfaction you will get from scoring cards as you play. As you are only ever scoring the top four or five cards (based on player count), trying to get your cards to be one or two of the chosen ones feels important. There is a constant competitive edge but all the way, mixed with a real sense of camaraderie. Your cards can only ever form part of the top group; you need other players to play cards that work with yours. If you play two tens and then someone else plays a ten, that feels exciting. You feel a sense of teamwork as the round progresses. But then if someone else starts laying a colour sequence to trump your same number sequence, this feeling is quickly replaced with one of competitiveness again. The state of the game changes with every card being laid. New potential "best hands" are being formed all the time. And what once was, may not ever be again. Who said that? Surfosaurus Max is a great filler game. It works perfectly in the pub. It's an ideal game for families to take on holidays or play after dinner. It works in so many environments, and I would recommend it to anyone, so long as you are not relying on playing it solely at two players. It's fine in two; it just loses most of what makes it fun. It has quickly become a firm family favorite for us, and I can see us playing this for years to come. I am so glad I was pulled to the quirky cover at Essen. The theme is largely pasted on, and the giant first player dino is pointless. The surf cards to place the dino on serve for almost nothing, and the artwork is distracting more than thematic. But none of this matters when you are having fun.

The gaming landscape in 2023 has been truly remarkable. This year has seen the release of a few titles that have secured spots in my new top 10 games of all time. Notably, one of my all-time favorite cooperative games and my favouite solo experience of all time also come from this years' top 10. Without further ado, here are my top 10 games of 2023. For my full reviews on each game click the link in the title of the game. Unsung Hero Award - Narrowly missing the cut at Number 11 Zhanguo WBG Score: 8.5 Player Count: 1-4 You’ll like this if you like: Iki, Brass: Birmingham Published by: Sorry We Are French Designed by: Marco Canetta, Stefania Niccolini This game is a re-release of a title originally introduced in 2014. Despite its 2023 reissue, it appears to have garnered limited attention, possibly due to its substantial weight on BGG or its somewhat lackluster artwork. The reasons are unclear, but this game deserves more recognition because it is truly outstanding. Boasting an abundance of combos to an almost extreme degree, Zhanguo provides numerous captivating scoring possibilities and presents a very intereting perspective on multi-card-use euros. If you enjoy games of this nature, it is certainly worth your consideration and so I anted to include on this list, dispite not quite making the cut, just to shine a light on it. Best Cooperative Experience - Number 10 Daybreak WBG Score: 8.5 Player Count: 1-4 You’ll like this if you like: Pandemic, Arkham Horror LCG (Mechanically speaking!). Published by: CMYK Designed by: Matt Leacock, Matteo Menapace The theme of this game is exceptionally intriguing. As you play, you gain a wealth of knowledge about the potential solutions to the climate crisis which when added to the gradually intensifying tension adds to the overall experience. If you appreciate challenging yet ultimately attainable cooperative games, Daybreak has the potential to become one of your all-time favorites. Picture Pandemic with the intensity of a Green Party conference. The game merits awards not only for the extensive research behind it but also for achieving mathematical perfection in its gameplay balance. Best Two Player - Number 9 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 Yet another game that seems to have slipped under the radar a bit. It's puzzling, considering the delightful artwork, accessible box and weight, and the intriguing gameplay that brings something a bit different to the table. Maybe it got overshadowed by the buzz surrounding some larger box games released released around the same time, or the it could be challenges in higher player counts. Regardless, the immense joy I've found while playing this, especially in a two-player setting, makes it well deserving of your attention if you're on the lookout for a compelling two-player game. Biggest Suprise of the year - Number 8 3 Ring Circus WBG Score: 8.5 Player Count: 1-4 You’ll like this if you like: Tribes of the Wind,The Red Cathedral, Great Western Trail. Published by: Devir Designed by: Remo Conzadori, Fabio Lopiano I'm beginning to realize how many games on my top 10 didn't receive the buzz they deserved in 2023. It seems that the abundance of great game released this year might have contributed to this oversight. However, one game that undoubtedly deserves recognition and is likely to stand the test of time is this charming masterpiece from Devir. It immerses you in a captivating competition to establish the most successful circus, set in America at the turn of the 19th century. With its unique theme, seamlessly executed flow, and intriguing strategy that invites multiple plays, this game brings joy in every session and is well worth your consideration. Best Campaign Game - Number 7 (Not technically a 2023 game!) Mind MGMT WBG Score: 8.5 Player Count: 1-5 You’ll like this if you like: Beast, Scotland Yard, Fury of Dracula. Published by: Off the Page Games Designed by: Jay Cormier, Sen-Foong Lim This game is exceptionally clever. It's the ideal choice to bring out during a long weekend or holiday: set it up, play a session, break for lunch, play another round, take a break, and resume the next day. The richness of the campaign experience is truly impressive. The catch-up mechanism between games is remarkably unique, and the actual gameplay itself is brimming with tension, laughter, and captivating strategy. Although the game initially debuted in 2021, I only had the chance to play it early this year, earning it a spot on the list by default. For those who also missed it upon its initial release, I strongly encourage you to explore this if you appreciate sprawling, campaign-based deduction games with twists and turns that promise to delight and captivate you. Biggest 'Contraversy' of the Year - Number 6 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 When I mention controversy, I'm referring to concerns raised about the pricing strategy at Essen, the mixed reviews the game has received since its launch, and the challenges related to balancing found in the game. I don't have any issues with the aforementioned points. I opted not to purchase at Essen due to what I perceived as inflated prices, and instead, I waited. Mixed reviews for big games are quite common—some are overhyped due to insufficient playtesting, while others may receive overly negative critiques from individuals discontent with certain aspects of the publisher involved, the industry or the game itself. Regarding balancing issues, yes, there are a few tiles that offer more significant rewards than others, but if that bothers you, you can simply remove them from the game. In my view, the primary balancing factor revolves around one specific Carve tile. Carve tiles are prominently displayed from the start for everyone to see. Every player has an equal opportunity to accumulate the required resources to purchase them. If this one Carve tile is present in your game, and someone manages to obtain it first on the rare occasions it appears (assuming you haven't removed it from the game), credit is due to them for reaching it first. In reality, it's less of a controversy and more a collection of opinions—a fundamental aspect of this hobby, wouldn't you agree? My personal opinion is that this game is immensely enjoyable. It not only rewards multiple plays but also boasts a visually stunning design that has captivated me since my initial play and fuly deserves its spot on this top ten list. Best Small Box - Number 5 Bamboo WBG Score: 8.5 Player Count: 2-4 You’ll like this if you like: Bitoku, KanaGawa,The Red Cathedral. Published by: Devir Designed by: Germán P. Millán This game might just be an unexpected hit for 2023, flying somewhat under the radar. There hasn't been much buzz surrounding it, with the attention at Essen this year largely captured by The White Castle, perhaps rightfully so. However, since I haven't had the chance to play that game yet, it won't make it onto my list. In contrast, Bamboo secures its spot at the 5th position, thanks to its impeccably designed gameplay that exudes sophistication. Every playthrough has been a delight, and the strategic unfolding of turns in this game is simply glorious. Its appealing aesthetics certainly contribute to its charm. But what sets Bamboo apart from many other games of 2023 is the sheer joy derived from implementing the cascading strategy required for success. Navigating through the intricate process, thinking multiple turns ahead, is a gratifying experience that makes me eager to return to this game time after time. Most Interesting Theme - Number 4 Ierusalem WBG Score: 9 Player Count: 1-4 You’ll like this if you like: Dune Imperium, Orleans, Tiletum Published by: Devir Designed by: Carmen García Jiménez I strongly dislike the fact that this game spells "Jerusalem" with an 'I.' I understand the reasoning behind it, but I find it unnecessary. It seems like a case of being clever just for the sake of cleverness, which is the exact opposite of what the game embodies. The game itself streamlines the fundamental mechanics of set collection, hand management, and grid coverage into a mathematical euro delight. While the theme may feel somewhat pasted on, they opted for an interesting and, admittedly, unique one that, in my opinion, complements the mechanics well and aligns with every decision I make during gameplay. The board may appear busy, the art somewhat biblical, and the setting potentially not appealing to everyone based on religious or political beliefs. However, beneath these aspects, the core structure of the game is ingenious, delivering a seamless euro experience that presents meaningful decisions, rewarding players throughout each game. Best Euro Game - Number 3 Nucleum WBG Score: 9 Player Count: 1-4 You’ll like this if you like: Brass: Birmingham, Tiletum, Barrage. Published by: Board&Dice Designed by: Simone Luciani, Dávid Turczi This game is the most recent addition to my list, jumping straight in at the number three spot. It comes in a sizable box, packed with components, and the rule book isn't the most user-friendly I have seen recently. And when compared to similar games, it might not reign as the king of its own little hill, but once you peel away those layers, what remains is a highly enjoyable game. If given the space to breathe, it can offer hours of entertainment, and that's just from the first playthrough! Joking aside, contrary to some claims, it doesn't take as long as some say to play, and after a few sessions, I've even found myself wishing the game didn't conclude so quickly, yearning for a few more turns. This realisation tells me two things: one, I need to improve my skills in this game, and two, this game consistently leaves me craving more. The fact that it occupies my thoughts for days after each session is reason enough to earn it such a high position on my list for 2023. Best 'Dice' Game - Number 2 Circadians: First Light Specialists Expansion WBG Score: 9.5 Player Count: 1-4 You’ll like this if you like: Alien Frontiers, Euphoria. Published by: Garphill Games Designed by: S J Macdonald I've yet to encounter a Garphill game that doesn't captivate me. Each one ingeniously explores unique ways to look at popular mechanics, and the same holds true for Circadians, which employs a captivating dice worker placement mechanism. Although the base game debuted in 2019, it didn't grace my table until 2023 when this expansion landed, and oh my, did it elevate the game to greatness. I initially rated the base game a 9, but this expansion nudges it close to perfection at 9.5 for me. There's an incredibly satisfying feeling to performing well in this game. The mental processes I undergo as I plan my turns each round, and the surge of endorphins when everything unfolds according to plan, are experiences only games like this can deliver. If you revel in orchestrating well-structured turns in complex strategy games with numerous moving parts and variables, this could easily become one of your all-time favorites. For me, it swiftly claimed a spot in my top 5 of all time with the addition of this fantastic expansion. Best Solo Game - Number 1 Legacy of Yu WBG Score: 9.5 Player Count: 1 You’ll like this if you like: Hadrian's Wall, Ganz Schon Clever, Robinson Crusoe. Published by: Garphill Games Designed by: Shem Phillips Occupying both the number one and two spots on my list for 2023, Garphil Games has had a great year for sure. With Legacy of Yu they have crafted a remarkable masterpiece that deserves the umber one spot. What's intriguing about this games position for me is that, despite not being a solo gamer, and currnelty not wanting to play it, it was an easy choice for first place. After playing through the solo campaign multiple times in a concentrated burst earlier this year, I find myself not craving an immediate return. It's not that I won't play it again; I know I will, and I'll love it. However, I'm content with the extensive time I spent immersed in it—27 games over an almost continuous three-day marathon. I undeniably got my money's worth, and the fact that it currently sits as my number one game of the year despite my current reluctance to replay it says a lot. The context matters here. Legacy of Yu is a campaign game, and replaying an entire campaign multiple times is a substantial commitment. Three times is already quite a lot for any campaign game. Furthermore, considering that this is a solo game, and I'm not particularly a solo gamer, I initially approached it more for reviewing purposes than personal enjoyment. Yet, I found myself captivated by the process of workig through the campaign. Which I now know pretty much all parts too. I need some time to forget the story! Looking ahead, I would love to see Garphil explore new avenues with this game—perhaps a sequel, a second campaign expansion, or even a mini-expansion introducing a new chapter. Breathing new life into it would be a welcome prospect because, while the experience is phenomenal, it needs to find a way to remain relevant given its inherent nature of having a full stop . Reflecting on those 27 games and comparing them to all the other new games I played this year, Legacy of Yu stands out as the best gaming experience I had in 2023. I strongly encourage anyone with even a slight inclination to try a solo game to give this one a whirl—it won't disappoint.

Forks WBG Score: 7.5 Player Count: 2-4 You’ll like this if you like: Hanamikoji Published by: Radical 8 Games Designed by: Mark Stockton-Pitt This is a free review copy. See our review policy here. This is the scond edition of a popular card game made by designer Mark Stockton-Pitt who also runs his own publishing company. They were the team who brought the fantastic Die of the Dead to market. The first edition used a more simple art style, whereas with this second edition that also tweaks a few rules, looks gorgous with the new Tourism theme. It is coming to Kickstarter in early 2024 but this is a finished copy of the game, hence this being a review, not preview. Let's get it to the table and see how it plays. How To Set Up Forks Game Setting up Forks is a straightforward process. Utilise the provided setup card to remove a specified number of cards based on your player count. For a two-player game, you must also exclude the Ten, Eleven, and Twelve cards. Next, deal the top three cards face up on the table, visible to all players. If any cards of the same suit are revealed at this point, create a cascading pile, ensuring the values of all the cards are visible while keeping them grouped by suit. Place the remaining cards in a face-down deck at the center of the table. With these steps completed, you're now prepared to start playing. How to Play Forks Card Game The initial player starts by drawing three cards. From these three cards, they select one to keep, a process termed as Embezzling in the game. Subsequently, they pass the remaining two cards to the player on their left. The second player then picks one card from the received two, keeping it, and places the third card into the central pile, referred to as Investing. The player performing this action then draws the top three cards from the deck, repeating the same process of choosing one to keep and passing the other two to the next player. In a two-player game, after the second player completes this sequence each time, the top card from the deck is immediately Invested before continuing with the regular game. This cycle continues until the deck is depleted. At that juncture, all card groups in the middle are tallied and arranged in order of value. The top three groups are distinguished from the bottom two, and any ties are resolved by consulting the back of the setup card, which provides clear instructions on how to handle such situations. Participants then total the cards in their Embezzle pile derived from the three highest groups and record those as positive points. Conversely, they subtract the cards in their Embezzle pile from the two lower groups. The player amassing the highest number of points emerges as the victor. Is It Fun? Frks Card Game Review Forks is an exceptionally easy game to grasp, explain, and engage with, yet it falls into the category of those simple card games that prove to be incredibly addictive. A single round is seldom sufficient, and every time this little deck of joy is brought to the table I have a lot of fun. This edition represents the second iteration of the game, with the initial version featuring a business-oriented theme. The current rendition is centered around tourism, with each of the five suits representing distinct locations. While the artwork on the cards is stunning, it remains consistent across all cards within each of the five suits which is a shame. It would be nice to see some differneces over each number. As the game unfolds, you'll come to appreciate the captivating elements Forks constantly brings to the table. It's incredible how much strategy the straightforward "I cut, you choose" mechanism brings to such a simple decision. Each card you retain will either earn you positive or negative points when the game ends. However, keeping a card reduces the likelihood that its suit will rank among the top three suits, increasing the chances it will end up in the bottom two and yield negative points. So, avoiding this card seems like the logical choice, right? Well, yes, but then you'll have to select one of the remaining cards, putting you in the same predicament with that card. It's a delicate yet delightful dilemma. Another delightful aspect of this finely tuned decision when you're the first player, is that the card you opt not to take presents the subsequent player with the option to select one and invest in another. What choices do you want to leave for them? Which two cards do you prefer not to embezzle, knowing that the other player will invest in one and embezzle the other? Sometimes you might want all three cards, occasionally you'll want to invest in all three, but more often than not, you'll want to pass none to the other player. It's a joyous experience every turn, offering a wealth of strategic choices consistently, throughout the entire game, approximately every twenty seconds or so. Hit after hot of endorphines. But also, fear. Did you make the right choice? I would reccomd this game to anyone. Anyone at all. It's so simple. So quick to play. And I would imagine, universally appreciated due to its simplistic rule set but highlly enjoyable strategy. One to keep an eye on when its hits the crowd funding shlves in 2024. I will add a link here when it comes live.

Within my social circle of friends and family, I am very much known as Jim the Gamer. It seems to be a popular topic of conversation when I am with them. I think it is a novelty for them. Something out of the ordinary. This more than fully grown, rather hairy man likes toys?! I do often try and steer the conversation away to other people where possible. I was brought up right by my mum after all! But, this line of chat does often lead to the question, "Shall we play a game then?" And then I panic. Now, I don't want to sound ungrateful. But I have learnt something about myself over the last 43 years of my life. I am somewhat grumpy, and like things a certain way. I score quite high on the Autism spectrum, and although I enjoy social situations, I do struggle in groups when I am in unfamiliar territory, especially when there are lots of conflicting noises or I am away from my wife who does a good job at offering me some perspective and calming me down. I am working on these issues, but feel being aware of them at least is a start. And I have got noticeably better over the last few years thanks to multiple rounds of Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT). Which is amazing, and I would highly recommend to anyone. But back to the point, oh yes. I am not a fan of playing games with non gamers! There, I said it. OK, let me try and explain myself. But first, let's put it into context. Would someone who really enjoys playing Tennis for example enjoy playing Tennis with anyone? Anyone at all? No matter their level of ability or importantly, enthusiasm for the sport? It seems that everyone wants to play a game with me, and at first I embraced and welcomed this. However, I have come out of quite a few gaming experiences thinking to myself that firstly, I did not really enjoy the game. But secondly, and most importantly, I didn't really like who I was when we played. With non-gamers I can become quickly irritated and impatient. Like the Tennis example above, I may be hitting forehands to the other player, only for every shot returned to me to hit the net. That's not a lot of fun for the tennis player, and it's not a lot of fun for me either. But stick with me here! This is not the full story. Now, don't get me wrong. I have taught hundreds of games to hundreds of people. Most of the time, I love it! And the people I am playing with don't need to be gamers, or good at games. But I do prefer it when they are at least engaged with the process. It is not necessarily the fact that the ball is never returned to the tennis player in the above analogy that is frustrating to the tennis player. But it's more the fact that as this tennis player watched the other player struggle to do as well, they also notice them not really wanting to play the game in the first place, and subsequently assume they are not trying their best to do well. When people want to play with me, it seems that part of this is because they think that this is what I want to do. I am sure that they fancy a quick game too. But generally speaking, it seems that most people don't really want to commit to anything more than 20-30 minutes, or anything that requires any significant listening to long rules or figuring out complex strategy. People rarely go from zero to hundred in their interest in anything, and I don't expect that in games. This is one reason why we have so many popular games we all politely refer to as gateway games. Games that are good for new players. Simple rules. Quick to setup, teach and play. And mostly fun. Mostly. But let's be truthful about this. Some of us gamers don't really want to play gateway games all the time. We want to play the games we like. For me, I love a long complex euro. Something you can really sink your teeth into. Would you take someone who loves French classic cinema to a new Marvel film? And if you did, would you be offended if they didn't love it? We, as gamers, seem to be expected to want to play any game, with anyone, all of the time. And obviously this is not the case. As such, I have taken this very firm, and constant stance. I will never ask anyone I that I consider to be a non-gamer if they want to play game. It will never be initiated by me. And if they ask me, I will reply "if you like." Then, if we do actually get to playing a game, I will do my best to find something fun, fast, and simple. I have plenty to choose from. Downforce being a current favorite for this. But the trick for me, is to have constantly updated gateway games to reach for, so I don't get sick of Ticket to Ride or Carcassonne over and over! If I am going to play a simple game, for me, at least let it be relativity new and exciting for me to play as well. I fully understand I sound very grumpy here. And also quite a bit privileged in all the games I have access too. But having spoken to a number of other people, I sense maybe some other people feel the same way. But as gamers ourselves, we seem to never want to turn down the opportunity to play a game. No matter who we are playing. But cast your minds back. Have you ever been in a situation where you are playing a game with someone you know is not really into it? Maybe they are getting distracted by their phone or other people, or even the TV? Or just by the simple fact that they don't really want to be playing the game in the first place. How did it make you feel when you were playing that game? I would never personally implement rules, but am a big fan of a no phones when playing a game, which is hard with instgramers! ;) But taking the odd picture isn't really the issue. It's more the sense that they are just not into this game. I don't mean less into that I am. That's fine. I get I'm obsessive with games. I mean more that they are not really into the experience at all. Perhaps they started playing as they thought it would be nice for me? Maybe they thought they may like it more than they are now realsiing, as they sort of like Connect Four, and are now regretting it! This is way more complex than Connect Four! What is Jim doing to me? And on top of the issue of 'if they are having fun', am I having fun? I am playing a game, I don't really want to play, with someone who doesn't really want to play it. Simply it seems, because they think I want to play games all the time. No matter the game. No matter the person. It's a bit of a vicious circle. I think a lot of this is because non-gamers don't really understand the gaming world. The scale and majesty we have around us. Part of that is our fault as gamers. When I play games with non-gamers it is generally either a gateway game or a party game that I will reach for and bring out as I say. They may well have a much better experience with Scythe or The Castle of Burgundy if only I just suggested it. But I don't! So, maybe this is all our fault as gamers. Another viscous circle. We under estimate the non-gamers, suggest average games we don't want to play as much, and then bemoan the experience. One such experience for me was when a group of colleagues asked me to organise a game night in the office one evening after work. I happily agreed! I brought in so many games and made so much prep! I recognised that I needed to have low expectations, but one of them is a proper gamer, another had played and enjoyed a few proper games with me recently. And one had been buying a few games based on my recommendation and seemingly enjoying them. I wasn't starting from scratch! I laid out 6 Nimmt to start of light and then quickly realised that 'game night' means something very different to some people! To me, it means playing games, for a good few hours, with a lot of laughter and fun, with the odd drink and snack. To them, it meant getting blind drunk and playing one game. We struggled through 6 Nimmt, in their drunken state, the concept seem to escape them all. The vibe seemed to be more about how hard it was and how abstract the concept was, more than actually trying to figure out a repetitively simple game. But I stayed calm (ish) Packed away this game and also the game I had set up to play next as I quickly realised I had reached far too high with that as well, and suggested we play Werewolf instead. Surely anyone can play this? After a few rounds, they all got it and we played about ten games. I think a relative success in the end. But I hated it. It just wasn't fun for me. It was a chore. I felt like a school teacher trying to encourage a group of unruly students to do something they didn't want to do. I don't want to feel like that ever. Let alone when I am playing a game. Especially when I have been asked to arrange the night in the first place. I later realised though this is down to me and my expectations. Not them. They just wanted a fun night and thought that I and the games could facilitate this. But like the Tennis analogy, (admittedly, now over used!) would you ever ask to play a game of Tennis with someone who really likes Tennis, turn up in a swimming costume and no racket, and then just get drunk? I do understand that Tennis is different to games, and you can play and enjoy games with a few drinks. But for me, games are not a once in a while novelty. They are something I love. I play pretty much every day. I don't really have the same interests as others to mess around with a game whilst getting drunk. I want to actually play the game. But as I say, this is on me. My expectations for that night were wildly off. If it were to happen again, I would polity decline. If I couldn't get out of it, I would bring one game. It would be a very simple one that could be played by anyone in any situation. And I wouldn't have any expectations of how many times or how successfully we would play it. Again, I know this makes me sound grumpy. But as I say, I play games most days. I don't need to force new or extra gaming experiences into my life. I would rather be selective with who and how I play games. If I don't enjoy something like this, and seemingly, others don't either, why make it happen? I am hpapy just playing with my son in truth. He is amazing at games, mostly wins, but loves all the same games as me. I am very blessed. He is a joy. There is a funny relationship between games and the people that play them. Perhaps we are all seen as fun, lively people and in a social situation, a simple thing to suggest is "shall we play a game?" But I like playing games in relative quiet. Sure, there can be chat and laughter. But mainly it's about the game. And I do like when all players are engaged. Most other gamers I have played with has shared this attitude. 90% of non gamers I have played with have not. I am not trying to make any specific point in this. Or put any expectations or judgment on anyone else. Nor am I trying to cast any blame or shame in anyone's direction. It is simply a statement of my mental state when playing games with different types of people. I thought it may be useful for others who have experienced this and thought they were alone. But I would love to hear your thoughts on this.

Bamboo WBG Score: 8.5 Player Count: 2-4 You’ll like this if you like: Bitoku, KanaGawa,The Red Cathedral. Published by: Devir Designed by: Germán P. Millán This is a free review copy. See our review policy here. Back in 2021 Bitoku was released. It was a massive hit winning numerous awards. I myself chased after it like a lunatic at Essen, eventually getting a copy just after the show had ended. It excited people, I think, because it was a Euro game that looks pretty. It baffles me that so few good euro games look good. But we are where we are. German designers seem to love brown. Anyway, Bitoku was a fantastic game, and exists within a beautiful world, similar to the movies of Studio Ghibli. After it success, and the plaudits the game got for the art and universe it created, it would be strange if the designer and publisher left it at that. And, thankfully, they didn't. Bitoku is all part of the Kemushi Saga. As well as Bitoku, we had 2018 release Silk. And now, Bamboo. But what is this world? Well, the rule book suggests that "this is the story of a world, about the struggle between natural chaos and artificial order. A story that stretches over thousands of years." The games are linked by nothing more than the art style and some of the theming, but the idea is interesting. And if you like one, you may well like the others. So, let's get it to the table and see how it plays. How To Set Up Bamboo First time out the box, sit tight make yourself a cuppa. You got work to do! There are a couple of little tile holders to build, a whole heap of tiles and coins to punch out, and then all the coins need their middle separately popped out. How does all this stuff fit in this tiny box? But once that is done, the subsequent set up is quite simple and can be one in under six minutes. I know, I have timed it! It is especially simple if you put all the individually player components and specific Bamboo pieces into their own separate bags. You will need a few separate baggies for this. There are plenty in the box, but they are all tiny. I also separated the parts used for a three or four player to aid set-up based on player count. Doing all this will save you a lot of time. It makes me wonder why designers don't think of these things themselves and suggest it and create bags specific for it? To set up, place the main board down on the table and give each player their own player mat. There are two sides, make sure all players choose the same one. The day side is the same for all players, the night side has some icons marked already in the home area for some variation. Give each player all the pieces in their colour (hopefully now all in one bag), and add the coins and tile trays by the main board. It's best to place the tile trays above the areas they are going to be put into in the game. It looks nicer and aids the gameplay. See them as a conveyor belt above the board, ready to feed the empty slots. Add the balance and home tiles from these trays to fill the slots on the board. Next, mix up the spirit of the forest tiles and create four groups of four. Place these into the four temple spaces on the main board and put the left over tiles back into the box. Four a two player game there is one extra step here. Mix up the four temple tiles and place them on each of the four temples. Then get the brown incense pieces and add the shown amounts on the temple tiles into each temple. This will act as a dummy player in the area control battle for these four temples. The next step is to place the round tracker into the top left space of the board, representing Spring, and then to place the four gift from the forest tiles into the top middle section. These show icons for each of the four main actions. Place these face down. Each player will add one of their incense sticks into each of the four positions next to this, representing the four rounds of the game. Then place the 12 Bamboo pieces with diamond icon into random places on face up into the bottom left of the main board. Finally for the main board, add the food tokens into the space at the bottom of the board, all face down, bar five that you will place into the specified places face up. All players will then ready their own player mat. To do this, you need to place your remaining three incense sticks onto the bottom left of the mat, the action marker off the side of the board, then your happiness counter which tracks your points onto the fifth space on the points tracker on the main board. Next, take one of the central balance tiles from the tray and place this into the one of the two central spaces on your player mat. These tiles represent the ways you can score points in the game from your items as you place them, and each player starts with one to give them some early direction. Each player will then take three coins to add to their mat. The final thing to do is to set up the Bamboo. You will notice some of the Bamboo has a pot icon on the bottom. These are the bamboo that start on your player mat. Each player receives one piece (again, hopefully from your own player bag) in each colour with this symbol on, and places it into the matching coloured temple space on their mat. Any remaining shoots with this symbol are placed back into the game box, although they should by now be in the other player colours own bags ready for a later game. Finally, mix up any remaining shoots and choose two per player. Players will then draft in turn one of these pieces until all players have two extra Bamboo pieces to add to their board. A random player is assigned the first player marker and you are now ready to play. How To Play Bamboo Playing, or at least explaining how to play, is simpler that the set up! The game runs across four rounds, clearly labelled on the main board. And each round has four seasons. Starting with Spring. In Spring players will receive one extra stick of incense and 'gifts from the forest'. The four gifts from the forest tiles are shuffled and then one is placed face up for each player. Players will then in turn choose one of these each. They show the four main actions in the game, which players can now carry out their chosen one. The four main actions are: 1. Gain two extra coins. 2. Take one face up food token. 3. Perform a balance action which means to gain one point, or to take two balance tiles and add them to your main board, or score two balance tiles already on your board, or one of each. 4. Improve your home, which means to gain one coin, or buy one item from the market. This will come at a cost shown on the board, but also score you instant points, also clearly displayed on the board. The balance tokens create placement challenges for your home. Rewarding you with instant points when you have achieved them, and on a later turn, take the Balance action in order to score it. The challenges are about the placement of the items in your house. The items need to be placed either on the left, right, or in the middle, based on the balance token requirements, and/or next to other specific items. Players will want food to feed their family in the Winter, one food per item in their home. Coins help players buy new items for their home and refresh the Spirits when they have been used. In Summer, the main part of the game, players will take it in turns to take these main actions until they run out of incense at which point they must pass. When all players have passed the next season begins. To take a turn, players will move their action marker to any of the empty spaces on the four temples on their player mat. In later turns, you must move it to one of the other three spaces. You cannot stay at the same temple twice in a row. The Temple must also have at least one Bamboo piece present. Players will then place an equal amount of incense pieces into the matching coloured temple on the main board as they have bamboo on this Temple on their player mat. If they want to place them into another Temple they may do so at the cost of one coin per Incense. And herein begins the reason why you will either love or just tolerate this game. No one hates games right? The choices here are delicious. Which Temple do you want to place your incense in? Which actions do you want to take? Which actions will you need to take later? If you do not have as many incense as you had Bamboo, just place as much as you can. But if you have an equal or higher amount, you must place the same. You cannot ever choose to place less but you can if you don't have enough, but you can only carry out the number of actions equal to the amount of incense you offered that turn. This was previously incorrectly explained by me but now edited to be correct. Thanks to Brian Bord (what an awesome name for a board game fan by the way!) for correcting my mistake. The Bamboo in each Temple is a mini area control game to win the Spirits in the next phase. The Spirits grant you special powers and big end game points. Choosing which Spirit you want and which one you think you can win is a large part of why you will do what you do each turn. But this is not even half of the picture. The Bamboo in the Temple on your player mat that you carry your action out in each turn now transfers to the main board. You can choose which of the four rows to place the bamboo in and split them across multiple rows if you wish, but you must place all the Bamboo in your temple that you are activating, no matter how much incense you just used. The Bamboo you place then dictates what actions you take this round. On the Bamboo you will notice the four main action symbols. There is also a star, which acts as a wild representing any of the four actions. This is the second most important part of your turn, deciding which actions you can benefit the most from. Once you have taken your action, you will then move the Bamboo you placed up, pushing the other three pieces along with it, and then take out the bamboo you displace from the top, and add this back into your Temple on your player mat, based on the colour of this Bamboo. Deciding which actions you will want for later turns is the final part of decided how and what you will do each turn. Remember, the Bamboo you add back to your board will dictate the actions you are able to take in later turns. So, the Temple you choose to place your action marker dictates which Temple you move your incense too, which Spirit you can potentially win, which Bamboo you remove from your board, which actions you can take that round, and which Bamboo you will add to your board, which in turn affects which Temple you can visit in future turns and what actions you can do. It's a lot to think about! Juicy huh? In Autumn players will take the Spirits from the main board and add them to their play area, based on whomever has the most incense in each temple. In the case of a tie, the tied player with the most recently and thus highest placed incense takes the Spirit. In a two-player game, if the dummy player wins the Spirit, it is simply discarded. The Spirits have various powers that players can use at their discretion through the game. They allow players to take extra basic actions, add extra food to their stores, treat any Bamboo placed as a wild Bamboo, or place Incense into any temple at no extra cost. When they are used, they must be turned 90 degrees to show they cannot be used again until refreshed. Players will then remove their incense from the Temples on the main board and place them back to their own player mat ready for the next round. In Winter players may awaken any previously used Spirits. This is done by paying the cost shown on the tile, most often one coin, although Kitsune has no cost. All players must then feed their family, one food per item in their house. For any food that you cannot pay, you will lose a point. The bottom row of the balance and home items on the main board are removed and the middle and top rows move down, and the top row is replenished from the trays. Fill any empty spaces and finally pass the first player marker one space clockwise. If this is the final round, move to final scoring otherwise advance to the next round and run through the four seasons again. After the fourth round players will score two points for each unique Spirit they have attracted and half the points for each completed balance tile in their possession that they have not scored in the game. However, players will also lose points for any imbalance in their house. To do this, each player must work out the value on the items in their house (shown on the icon on the tile) for all the tiles on the left and the right of their house. They will then lose two points for every point of difference between either side. Total your points, and unsurprisingly, the most points wins! Is It Fun? Bamboo Board Game Review If you enjoy strategising in games this this could well be for you. It is not the most complex game to learn and play. And on your turn you only really have a few options. But the cascading effect of what you do, and the result of each turn on later turns is massive and I take a lot of pleasure from puzzling this out. It could leave you thinking for a moment or two. Don't worry though, this is not a problem, as the game plays naturally at a more relaxed sedate pace. Helped by the gorgeous art that you can see above. I took the tiles off so you can get a proper look. But I am not talking huge pauses for thought. More those delightful moments when your brain starts thinking that you want this specific action to get this specific thing, and you can get it if you place that Incense into this Temple, but this other Temple has a Spirit that you want more, and are more likely to win the area control for. But that will result in a turn that is less than optimal, so I will go for plan A and try and make use of this Spirit if I win it, but accept I probably wont and go for the other Spirit later. Whilst other players wait they will be thinking the same thing, along with the added thought of, so long as the person before me doesn't change anything significant! The game plays pretty quickly too. It has the same energy as The Red Cathedral. Another small box game from Devir that also packs a lot of game and strategy into a small box. Similarly to The Red Cathedral, Bamboo offers simple turn structure, but big strategy. As you play Bamboo you will feel like you are in a bigger game, both in terms of the size, weight, and length. but it will all be over within an hour, less with fewer players, but your thirst for playing a "proper" game will most likely be quenched. For now. There are many ways to score in the game, and you will progress a long way in your score as you play, but there are a large amount of points up for garbs in final scoring. I like games that offer both in game and end game scoring. It gives you a reward as you play but also keeps the final winner a mystery as players will not know exactly how the final scoring will play out until they get there. Thinking about which actions you want to do, how to fulfil each balance goal by getting the right items into the right place, whilst also keeping your house in balance overall and still competing in the area control battle for the Spirits is a lot to think about. But it is not overwhelming, just crunchy. The game offers a delicious balance between a relaxed and calming theme and look with thoughtful and genuinely meaningful turns that affect your overall ability to do well or not. There is no real luck in this game, other than the tiles you flip and have access too, but generally you can make any tiles work for you when you understand the game. The only thing I don't like about this game is the size. A bigger box and bigger board would have been better for me. And the tile holders are very annoying. As they begin to empty, the remaining tiles start to slip and it starts to get hard to take them out in the right order or not see the ones that are coming up. A vertical stand would have been a lot better. But these are minor aesthetical quibbles. The game itself is sound. I would recommend this game to anyone who enjoys the other games in the "series" of similar games from Devir. They have created a lovely collection of small-box, big-strategy games that I hope continues over the years. It will be exciting to see what comes out next.

Curious about the ideal midweight game for a seven to twelve -year-old? Well, here are three options worth considering that have proven to be adored by children in this age range. Bunny Kingdom WBG Score: 8/10 Player Count: 2-4 Complexity rating: 5/10 Time to learn: 25 minutes Time to set up: 10 minutes Time to play: 45 minutes You’ll like this if you like: Building an army of bunnies to control the land. Published by: IELLO Designed by: Richard Garfield To read my review on the expanion for this game, head here. Every game on this list shares a common thread—they not only boast appealing aesthetics for younger gamers but also deliver a substantive experience that requires strategic thinking and meaningful decision-making all gamers can enjoy. Bunny Kingdom encapsulates this essence, presenting a charming facade paired with profound strategic depth. The gameplay revolves around a card-drafting mechanism, involving a substantial deck. Players are dealt a bundle of cards, choosing one to play immediately. Most cards allow the placement of a bunny on a specific grid location, while others offer point-scoring opportunities and enhanced powers. After playing a card, players pass the remaining cards to the next person, receiving a set from the opposite side to repeat the process. This continues until all cards are drafted, culminating in scoring based on your grouped bunny collections. With multiple rounds and potentially intricate scoring, particularly as the board becomes densely populated, the game promises a lot of fun. The average duration is around 45 minutes, edging closer to an hour with more players. While the scoring may present a visual challenge, the rest of the game remains fairly straightforward. The goal is to strategically position bunnies by selecting cards with grid references near existing placements. An additional educational benefit lies in Bunny Kingdom, serving as an effective tool for teaching multiplication, as scoring is intricately tied to the multiplication of bunnies within each group by the number of towers among them. Each game maintains a familiar feel, yet the abundance of cards and diverse strategies ensures that different players will attempt varied approaches in each session. The expansion further enriches the experience, providing additional reasons to bring this game to the table throughout the year. Although Bunny Kingdom may be prominently featured on social media during Easter, its appeal and enjoyment merit its presence year-round. Unicorn Fever WBG Score: 8/10 Player Count: 2-6 Complexity rating: 5/10 Time to learn: 25 minutes Time to set up: 10 minutes Time to play: 45 minutes You’ll like this if you like: Racing unicorns and betting on the results. Published by: Horrible Guild Designed by: Lorenzo Silva, Lorenzo Tucci Sorrentino To read my feature on Horrible Guild, the publiser of this game along with more thoughts on the game istelf, head here. Unicorn Fever is a betting game but often feels more of a race game when played by children. Over the course of four seperate races your goal is to correctly predict and bet on the winners or top three finishers. You can also play magic cards to either help or hinder specific Unicorns you want to affect in some way, which children seem to love. The betting phase comes before the race, where through the simple flip of a card and roll of two dice the Unicorns will race to the finish. Children will enjoy this seperate phase of the game. It feels like an event and breaks up the game. Game last between 40-60 minutes depending on the number of players and how often each player has played it. The game can be learnt in 20 minutes and taught in 5 minutes, but it does appear complicated at first. There are six phases across four races, but if you have one adult who understands the game, you can just get playing and only really explain the first few phases and then explain the rest as you go. But this is pribably the most complex game of the list. Each game feels completeley differnet and children will love the instant reward of multiplying their small wager for potential big returns. This game is probably better suited to children more used to modern board games, but could be enjoyed by any child with one adult willing to supervise, play along, or lead the process. Toy Story: Obstacles & Adventures WBG Score: 7.5/10 Player Count: 2-5 Complexity rating: 4/10 Time to learn: 15 minutes Time to set up: 10 minutes Time to play: 30 minutes You’ll like this if you like: Building a powerful deck of cards to complete missions. Published by: The Op Designed by: Prospero Hall, Kami Mandell To read my full review on this game, head here. This game serves as a reimplementation of a Harry Potter deck-building game. If your children have a preference for the Harry Potter franchise, both versions offer a comparable gaming experience and are highly recommended by WBG. In both iterations, the game concept revolves around navigating through the storiline from movies, offering highly thematic and accurate renditions of key events and characters. Starting with a standard hand of cards, players have the opportunity each round to acquire new and more potent cards, enhancing the strength of their decks. This process, known as deck-building, is a thoroughly satisfying and enjoyable mechanism employed in numerous board games. If you find pleasure in this game, a quick search using the website's search bar with the term "Deck Building" will reveal a plethora of other games that utilise this engaging mechanic. The game unfolds as a campaign, featuring distinct levels akin to a video game. Progression involves successfully completing one level before advancing to the next. With each victorious level, new cards, rules, and components are introduced, enriching the game. This campaign-style structure enhances the overall experience, creating an anticipation to explore the contents of the little boxes opened at the start of each new round. Game sessions typically last between 25 to 45 minutes, based on your performance, and are relatively straightforward to comprehend. The initial rounds are designed to be accessible and easy to win, facilitating a smooth entry into the game. As players become more adept, the complexity intensifies toward the end, aligning with the expectation that their decks are now primed for more challenging tasks.

Curious about the ideal game for a five to eight-year-old? Well, here are three options worth considering that have proven to be adored by children in this age range. Dungeon Academy - Click title to find the cheapest price WBG Score: 8/10 Player Count: 1-6 Complexity rating: 4/10 Time to learn: 10 minutes Time to set up: 5 minutes Time to play: 15-30 minutes You’ll like this if you like: Racing against other players to do something. Published by: The Op Designed by: Julian Allain To read my full review of this game, head here. Dungeon Academy is a rol;-and-write game. This means the primary process of the game is rolling dome dice and then writing something down based on the dice rolls. In this game, the dce are rolled in a Boggle style box that forms them into a four-by-four grid which makes up a dungeon map the players need to traverse. Armed with player sheets, players journey through the dungeon, collecting potions and battling monsters. The game unfolds over four quick rounds, sparking a lively sense of competition as kids strive to conquer the maze with utmost efficiency. With games clocking in at just 10-15 minutes (though they feel even quicker with the four dynamic rounds), Dungeon Academy is perfect for those seeking a fast-paced adventure. The rules are a breeze to grasp and teach within a mere 10 minutes. With a variety of characters, each offering unique powers, and a distinct challenge driven by the roll of the dice, each game promises a fresh and engaging experience. Get ready to keep coming back to this delightful dungeon escapade! Marvel Splendor - Click title to find the cheapest price WBG Score: 8/10 Player Count: 2-4 Complexity rating: 3/10 Time to learn: 10 minutes Time to set up: 2 minutes Time to play: 15-30 minutes You’ll like this if you like: Building up your power in games Published by: Space Cowboys Designed by: Marc André Within this box, you'll discover cards featuring a vast array of current Marvel movie characters, instantly recognisable to your children. The inclusion of chunky, casino-style poker chips enhances the appeal, creating a wow factor when the box is opened. The game itself is a delightful experience. On your turn, you can opt to acquire three different chips, two identical ones, or use your accumulated chips to purchase a card, each clearly indicating its cost in the bottom left corner. Cards serve as currency to acquire other cards or points, propelling players in a race to reach the 16-point target. Games unfold swiftly, leaving a desire for more, as players strategise to either acquire inexpensive cards initially, building a robust engine to later claim pricier but higher-value cards or build up more steadily. However, those adopting a more strategic approach might find the game concluding before their engine is fully optimised. With its diverse cards and a dynamic, enjoyable gameplay style, children will likely be drawn back to this game repeatedly. This Marvel-themed version is the same as the popular board game Splendor, offering the same gameplay but with a more entertaining and engaging theme. Disney Dixit - Click title to find the cheapest price WBG Score: 8/10 Player Count: 3-6 Complexity rating: 3/10 Time to learn: 5 minutes Time to set up: 2 minutes Time to play: 30 minutes You’ll like this if you like: Thinking creativley. Published by: Libellud Designed by: Jean-Louis Roubira This game is a delightful choice for family bonding, especially if your loved ones are Disney enthusiasts and enjoy a touch of creativity. The concept is straightforward: each player selects one card from their hand of six or seven and provides a brief description, be it a single word or a phrase. Subsequently, all other players must choose a card from their own hands that best matches the given description. The selected cards are then shuffled and displayed, prompting players to try to guess the originally chosen card. Correct guesses earn points for both the guesser and the original card chooser, while selecting a different card awards a point to the person who chose it. The game provides joy and amusement, with interpretations and descriptions often leading to humorous moments. Typically lasting between 30 to 45 minutes, the game can be adjusted for shorter durations by reducing the points total. Alternatively, you can opt for a casual, non-competitive play, focusing on the creative enjoyment rather than scoring. Kids, in particular, will relish identifying their beloved characters and movies, immersing themselves in the charming and mysterious artwork. While the cards may become somewhat repetitive over time, each individual's unique interpretation ensures plenty of opportunities for creating lasting and enjoyable family memories. This is the Disney version of a very popular party game, Dixit that has many expansion and version currenlty available. Honourable mentions: Zombie Teenz Evolution WBG Score: 8.5/10 Player Count 2-4 Complexity rating: 3/10 Time to learn: 5 minutes Time to set up: 5 minutes Time to play: 10 minutes You’ll like this if you like: Fighting Zombies together. Published by: Le Scorpion Masqué Designed by: Annick Lobet To read my full review of this game, head here. Zombie Teenz Evolution is a legacy game, where you'll make permanent changes that transform the game into a unique experience for you and your family. Don't fret, though—it's incredibly easy to learn and play. One fantastic aspect of legacy games is their ability to introduce new rules gradually as you progress through different 'levels,' making it an ideal choice for younger children. Learning happens seamlessly during playtime. With its large, sturdy components, it's easy for little fingers to handle. The joy kids experience when opening a new envelope and discovering hidden treasures inside is truly delightful to witness. Each game session lasts between 5-10 minutes, and you'll be ready to dive into your first game within just 15 minutes. The rules and concepts are remarkably easy to grasp. This game offers substantial replay value, with numerous goals to achieve, envelopes with excitig new additions to the game to unlock, and compelling reasons to return for more playtime. The zombie theme leans towards cute and cartoony rather than scary, but it's worth mentioning if you prefer to steer clear of anything too monstrous.

Nucleum WBG Score: 9 Player Count: 1-4 You’ll like this if you like: Brass: Birmingham, Tiletum, Barrage. Published by: Board&Dice Designed by: Simone Luciani, Dávid Turczi This is a review copy. See our review policy here Nucleum was one of the big hitters at the Essen Speil of 2023. There were long lines to get the game, and I saw a lot of people with a copy under thier arm. Anything with Simone Luciani and Dávid Turczi's name on it will attract attention due to their extensive back catalogue of successes. Anachrony and Barrage being two noticable names in their collective CV's. I also think there is somehting incredible captivated about aterntive history. Nucleum is an Economic game set in the real-worl with one twist. Nuclear power was discoverd in the early 19th centurary. But this has been billed as a heavy game. It currently sits at over 4/5 on the weight scale on BGG. Thats a heavy game for sure. But how does it play? Let's get it to the table and see for our selves. How To Set Up Nucleum Place the main board in the center, matching the side of the board you use to the player count. Put Coal Import Wagon tiles in coal production areas, following player count rules. Set up Thaler tokens, Uranium cubes, and Achievement tokens into a general supply then put the victory point Flag token under the "70" spot on the VP Track. Seperate the base action tiles then shuffle the remaining 30 tiles. Add 10/15/25 based on 2/3/4 player count to the 20 base tiles. Shuffle this pile and split into three groups. Draw 5 for the market from one pile placing the others on the top of the side board and place the other two piles face-down next to this board. Return any unused tiles to the box. Next, set up Contract tiles based on type, give each player an Initial Contract, and create stacks for Initial, Silver, Gold, and the three types of Purple Contract, (they are marked on the back one, two or three) then place them into their allocated spaces based on the main board returing the rest to the box. Then shuffle the Milestone tiles, assign one face-up to each space on the Milestone track returnig the rest to the box, then place three Nucleum tokens on indicated spaces near the Milestone track. Then draw one card at random from the set up deck and place Power Plant standees, Urban Building tiles, Nucleum tokens, Turbine Rubble tiles, Urban Rubble tiles, and Mining Rubble tiles as indicated by the card. Now set up each players player board. Everyone must take components in your chosen color: Income markers, Urban Building tiles, Turbine tokens, Mine tiles, Worker meeples, Milestone markers, Victory Point marker, and Initial Contract. When packing up, put these all into one bag to make set up for your subsequent games a lot quicker. Next, place Income markers on the first spaces of income tracks. Put Urban Building tiles on matching level spaces face up. Position Turbine tokens on indicated spaces. Arrange Mine tiles on specified spaces. Distribute two Worker meeples to your supply and the rest to a reserve. Place three Milestone markers on indicated spaces, and keep three in reserve by the main board. Put Victory Point marker on the "0" space of the scoring track. Finally ,set up the initial Contract you received earlier on the bottommost Contract space. Now, each player chooses one of the four Experiments, taking the Experiment-specific components, and place Starting Action tiles and Turbine Effect tile accordingly. Note, that for Experiment B, this will include two Special Action tiles that you must place below the Experiment Board. You can get access to these later with a specific technology upgrade. Finally, set up the Endgame Condition markers on the main board and randomly select the first player and give them the First Player marker. Now, the game is ready to start, with the first player taking their turn. How To Play Nucleum On your turn, you will choose one of the following three actions: Play an Action tile on your player board and resolve its actions, then complete one Contract if you wish. Or, play any Action tile on the main board's empty railway space, placing a Worker then perform actions based on color matches. Or, peform a recharge action to gain income and retrieve all Action tiles from your player board. Players will take it in turns clockwise carrying out one of these three actions until two (or three in a two-player game) of the five endgame conditions are triggered. At which point final scoring takes place. Before we get into the actions lets look at the basics. Gaining Resources Thaler (money) and Achievement tokens come from and go to the common supply, while Workers come from and are used from your personal supply. You can spend one Worker to gain one Thaler, but not the other way around. If you need to gain a Worker and have none left in your reserve, you immediately gain one Thaler instead. This can all happen at any point as a free action. Uranium is typically obtained when constructing a Mine. When you acquire Uranium, you must either place it on one of your Mines or use it to gain one Worker. You can always spend one Uranium to gain one Worker, but the reverse is not allowed. When you build a mine you will gain one Uraniiuk for each mine currently built that you own. When you receive any income advancement (Thaler, Workers, Victory Points), shift the corresponding Income marker right by the specified number of spaces on your player board. If the Income marker is already on the last space of its income track, receive one VP for each advancement you couldn't gain. How The Board Works The main board displays cities with differnet colors (green, white, orange, purple, and Praha which is multi-coloured). Cities have urban sites, mining sites, turbine spaces, and power plants. Urban sites host buildings, mining sites have mines storing Uranium, and power plants can have Nucleum and Turbines. Some spaces are blocked based on player count or contain Neutral Buildings placed during setup. Red spaces indicate higher construction costs. Links connect cities through railway spaces when Action tiles are placed and turned into railways. Networks consist of connected cities with completed rail lines. A city is part of a network if it is adjacent to a railway or connected to a completed rail line with owned railways. At the tsrat of the game no one has a network so you can place your first building or tile anywhere you like. After that you must join up with part of your existing network when adding anything to the main board. Coal production areas, Ruhr and Silesia, represent off-map coal-rich region anyone can use. Long-distance rails connect these areas to specific cities for coal import at a cost of one, two, or three Thaler, although you can gain discoutns for this from your player board. Coal, Uranium, and electricity are transported between cities using completed rail lines owned by any player. Playing An Auction Tile The main action in the game is to play an Action tile. You will do this by putting it on the leftmost empty space at the top of your board. The placed Action tiles will stay in place until a Recharge action is taken. You can then carry out both actions on the tile in any order. The tiles show the fivemain actions which will be detailed below. You can skip actions if you wish; nothing is mandatory. When using a Special Directive tile (Starting Action tile with a black background), you can choose and perform any one of the five main actions with a one Thaler discount. This is a nice option becasue you can do anythig you like at a discount but you can only carry out one action instead of two with this tile. Before, between, or after actions, as a free action you can fulfill one Contract per turn. You can fulfill Contracts on your board or Purple Contracts on the side board. Purple Contracts don't get replaced as can be fulfilled pnce by all players. to fulfil a contract you simply must meet the requirements shown on the contract tile and you can then gain the benefits shown and flip the Contract face down. Freed Contract spots are available for new Contracts. Placing A Railway Tile The second main action in the game is to use an action tile to place a railway line. First, put an Action tile on an emplty link, using a Worker to mark ownership. Then, resolve any action(s) with a color match. Each end of the tiles have a colour. If you place the tile into a city or touching another tile and match the colour you can carry out the actions on this half of the tile. When you have carroied out the avtions of any matched colour, if the rail line is complete with tracks, flip the tiles over to the track side. If the track has two or more pieces in it all players hwo added track to this part of the line then scores a victory point bonus as shown on the bottom right of the board. This is differnet for each player count. When you place a tile like this, the tile doesn't have to be in your network; placing a Railway tile extends or creates a new network. If you don't have a Worker when you do this, you can spend a Uranium to get one. Special Directive tiles can't be placed as railways. To place a tile on a red railway space, pay two Thaler; otherwise, you can't place it there. If other players gain matched actions when yu place a tile this way, they resolve them after you finish. The tiles show symbols for the five main actions in the game. I will now go through these actions. understanding these will give you a basis for understanidng the main game. Main Actions: Urbanise This action lets you place Urban Buildings on the map. First you must choose an Urban Building tile from your player board. Then pay the cost shown to the left of its row (two Thaler for the first row, three Thaler for the second, etc.).then place the chosen tile onto an empty urban site within one of your networks on the main board. You must put the tile onto a matching site shown by the differnet building types. Some site shave two icons. If there are two options for your tile in one city and one has two icons and th eother has one you must put the Building in a single-type space in the chosen city. Some locations have a discount icon where you can reduce the total payment by one or two Thaler. Level-IV Buildings have two icons. There columns icons as well as being considered Government buildings. You want to place the buildings onto the main board in order energise them to gain benefits and achievements tokens n the game and to score points for them at the end of the game. Main Actions: Industrialise Use this action to place Mines and Turbines on the map. First, choose a Mine or Turbine from your player board. Then pay the cost on the left of its row (one Worker for the first row, 2 Workers for the second, etc.). Then put the Mine or Turbine onto a corresponding space within one of your networks on the main board. The Turbines provide an ongoing special ability to produce additional Uranium used during an energise action, more on that below. When you place a mine you will gain Uranium equal to the total Mines on the board, including the new one. Adding this to the new Mine or others you own if you prefer. When you build both the Turbine and Mine from a rown on your board you will gain an additional perminant reward, such as to reduce to the cost of coal. Main Actions: Develop This action allows you to buy one Action tile from the market by paying the specified Thaler amount as shown below it (zero to 2two). You can then if you wish pay an additional two Thaler plus the cost below the tile to purchase a second tile. After buying one or two tiles, shift the remaining tiles right to close gaps and refill from the draw pile. If the draw pile is empty, replenish it from the setup piles. Main Actions: Contract Carrying out ths action allows you to choose a Silver or Gold Contract from the main board and add it to any empty Contract space on the right side of your player board. You will then receive the corresponding reward shown on that Contract space. Some of the Action tiles for this action show the icon twice, if this is the case, you can get the reward twice. After taking a Contract, draw a new Contract of the same color (Silver or Gold) to refill the offer. If no more tiles of the required color are available, draw the other color. If neither color remains, leave the space empty. Drawing the last Contract from the last pile triggers an endgame condition. Purple Contracts cannot be taken with the Contract Action. Treat them as everyones to try ans fulfil, but the first player to claim them from the side board prevents others from fulfilling them. Some contracts will alllow you to unlock level one, two or three technologies. To do this, simply chose th eone you want from the specific level or above and slide it. Technologies will either offer a one time bonus or ongoing bonus. Main Actions: Energise This is the most complex part of the game buy runs relitivley simply once you have done it once. You will take this action to Energise previously placed Buildings to gain the benefit, experience and end game points shpwn on the building tile. To do this you must first choose a power plant (Riesa, Zittau, Glashütte, Grimma, or Plauen). You must then be able to transport coal and/or Uranium to this power plant using completed rail lines equal to the amount needed on the building you want to energise. For coal, you can import any amount you can afford based on the current cost. For Uranium, you can transport from your connected Mines to the power plant if the power plant has been upgraded to Nuclear, one for each Turbine (plus an additional amount for each extra Turbine) plus one for the plant itself. Pay must pay one Thaler to another player if using their Turbine. You will then receive Achievement tokens equal to the Building's requirement and any printed benefits and must then flip the building to show its energised side. Recharge If you find yourself in need of additional resources, have exhausted your action tiles, or simply sense it is the right moment, you have the option to take a recharge action on your turn. During the recharge, you'll receive Thaler, Workers, and Victory Points from your income tracks, determined by the current levels of both your income markers and the number of action tiles you've placed. Pay attention to the vertical lines running alongside the spaces for the action tiles, perforating the columns of the three income rows. When recharging, the benefits are derived from the line to the right of the rightmost action tile on your player board. Even if you've advanced your income tracks beyond this point, you won't accrue additional benefits beyond this specific point. Next, you will place a Milestone marker on the Milestone track based on yoru current amount of achievement stars. If the Uranium marker is still here from set up you can then place it into any of the power plants to gain the benefit shown there. If a Milestone space on the main board becomes empty by doing this, perform a King’s Day Scoring action meaning the player with the highest currenlty placeed Milestone marker scores six points and the player with the second highest scores two. Then discard all collected Achievement tokens and finally retrieve all tiles from the top of your player board redy to be used again. Endgame The endgame occurs when two (three in a two-player game) of the following five conditions are met. The Action tile draw piles are empty. Both the Silver and Gold Contract draw stacks are empty. All players have recharged at least three times (no Milestone markers on the Milestone spaces). At least one player has unlocked all eight Technologies. At least one player has reached 70 VP. At this point, ensure all players have had equal turns, ans if any player has remaining Achievement tokens, they can put a Milestone marker on the Milestone track during this stage, similar to the "Recharge" action. However, no additional effects or income are triggered, and the one-Milestone-per-player-per-tier limit still applies. Then final scoring takes place. Players will score points for what they achieved during the game plus points for each milestone condition they met based on the multiple shown on any placed Milestone makers on the milestone track. If you unlocked your ultimate goal technology you will now score this based on how well you did against this. This count be various things depenidng on which experient you chose at the begining of the game. Then score points for any left over resources, all energised buildings, and finally any income tracks you got to the final three spaces. Most points wins. Is It Fun? Nucleum Board Game Review When evaluating a game like this, two key considerations come to the forefront: 1) Is it good, and 2) Is it superior to similar games? This is important because individuals often lack the time or inclination to invest in multiple games of similar length and complexity. And fair enough. Nucleum frequently draws comparisons to Barrage and Brass, both due to mechanics and theme, with Barrage sharing the same designers. While they undeniably share similarities, is Nucleum a good game? Yes, it's excellent. Is it better than these counterparts? No. Brass stands out as a phenomenal game, potentially ranking among the best games ever made. However, Nucleum is noteworthy and deserving of your consideration. Nucleum boasts numerous positive aspects, but for a more balanced perspective, let's delve into its shortcomings, which primarily reside in three areas: the rulebook, the art, and the tension in a two-player game. Let's explore each of these issues in detail. Firstly, let's talk about the rulebook. While it's not inherently bad, it doesn't quite reach the level of user-friendliness expected for a game of this complexity. Learning the game from the rulebook was manageable, yet in the initial few plays, I found myself consulting it multiple times to clarify certain points. This is to be expected and the information was always there, but not always where I thought it should be. The layout is a bit awkward, and the order of explanations isn't as intuitive as one would hope. Some aspects, such as when certain things are scored, could be clearer. However, the excellent appendix at the end and a useful rundown of main icons on the back page are very useful, as the icons are not always immediately intuitive. On to my second point, the overall art doesn't particularly resonate with me. While the box art is impressive, the board's predominant green hue isn't to my liking. The iconography initially presents some confusion, taking until the third game before it fully clicked for me. Admittedly, such a learning curve is not uncommon for a game of this weight. But I did feel the art did not help the process. My third concern is a lot bigger. The lack of tension in a two-player game. It tends to feel like a multiplayer solitaire experience for a significant portion—about 80% of the game. Only in the final turns do considerations for the opponent become apparent, potentially leading to some areas you want to access being blocked moves based on their actions. In most two-player games, players often build near the top right or bottom left by the coal fields, keeping a respectful distance until necessary. In three or four-player games, a similar dynamic emerges, but it constitutes only about 30% of the game. Things become more engaging on this side of the board with more players a lot quicker. Four players is very enjoyable but perhaps a tad lengthy. Especially if you have a few new to the game. Therefore, three players seem to strike the right balance fo rme unless you plan with the same group over-and-over. Another minor concern involves the box. While it includes inserts, there are no instructions on how to assemble them. The packaging features a QR code, but it only leads to a website about the game, not assembly guidance. Despite this, I managed to assemble it adequately, and it stores neatly as you can see above. However, when I include the player boards and main board, an issue arises as you can see below. Does this bother you? It certainly bothers me. I understand that larger boxes are more expensive to produce and ship, but in this case, a larger box would be more fitting. Ok, onto the good bits. And oh my, there are a lot. But first, combos! This game has some amazing combo turns. Quickly into the game you will work out that to do well in this game you need to plan ahead. Turns can be quite simple on occasions, especially in the early phase. But later, thay can get very complicated with one thing triggering another. Understanding how to manipulate this to your favour is crucuial to not only doing well in the game, but to squeeze out all the joy it offers. Doing one thing, to then do another, to fulfil another thing, which gives you yet another benefit is a joyous thing. Nucleum brings this to the table in a big way. In Brass, there's a deliberate mid-game point that I appreciate, yet it does interrupt the game's momentum. In contrast, Nucleum steadily intensifies as players' turns grow more powerful, and points accumulate rapidly. There's no room for complacency; maintaining the momentum is crucial. Deciding when to recharge resembles the strategic pit stops in Formula One racing—opt for a full tank and one-stop technique for a slower pace or run half full, necessitating two stops but allowing for greater speed. You will feel like as this as you plan when to recharge in the game. It's a wonderful thing. I also love how you can only gain the icnome based on how many actions you took. So, if you have built up uour income, youc annot then siply just recharge over and over to gain all those points and resrouces. The game very cleverly fixes this. In Nucleum, achieving top status in all three Income tracks is not really unattainable, demanding focus on two that you feel willhelp you the most. Attempting all three might lead to falling behind the others as you become too much of a generalist, and not enough of a specialist. The Money and workers Income rows contribute less to in-game points than the victory point track but provide essential in-game resources. So, if you focus on these two tracks you may feel you are falling behind. And probably wont trigger the 70 point end game trigger if another player is moving along the points Income track. But fear not. You may well catch up more than you think if you have done well in the other areas. Balancing this aspect of the game's strategy is delicately nuanced, allowing each player to imprint their personality on each session maing each game feel unique. The setup in Nucleum also offers many variations with diverse board configurations, and scoring methods based on Milestone scorers and chosen Experiments. However, after several games, the two-player version may feel monotonous due to limited player interaction as optimal scoring strategies are identified and become more easilly deployed. Unless you are seeking a solo style experience, the two-player may lose appeal. In contrast, the game truly shines in three- and four-player mode and has yet not come close to looking like it will outstay its welcome. While Nucleum ranks high for its variety, it falls slightly short compared to games like Brass. Despite this, there's room in my collection for both. I appreciate deep euro games with complex strategy, and Nucleum aligns with this. I envision playing it frequently in the future and would welcome expansions to enhance the two-player experience and overall variety. Additional experiment boards and action tiles could introduce intriguing options and heightened tension. I look forward to much more fun with this box in the future, now if only I could actually close the lid!

Last Message WBG Score: 7/10 Player Count: 3-8 You’ll like this if you like: Micro Macro Crime City, Mysterium, Chronicles of Crime. Published by: IELLO Designed by: Lee Ju-Hwa, Giung Kim Remember those Where’s Wally/Waldo (delete as appropriate) books you used to read? If you have played, when trying Micro Macro for the first time, do you think how this is such a good idea for a game, why aren’t there more like it? Well, here you go! Last Message sets players as either detective, victim or criminal. Your choice! (Hence the minimum of three players required). You need at least one player for each role. But you can have multiple Detectives if you have more players. In the box is six very busy looking scenes. All from a very different looking landscape, and designed by a variety of very talented artists. Including Vincent Dutrait, artist for Robinson Crusoe and Lewis and Clark and Stéphane Escapa who was the artist on Slide Quest and Maki Stack amongst others. The criminal and victim will sit one side of a provided screen, the remaining players, all playing as the detectives will sit the other side. Once one of the incredibly hectic scenes has been chosen, the player playing as the victim will chose one of the many characters to represent themself and places a small magnifying glass token over the image on the picture on their side of the table. This lets the player acting as the criminal know who they have attacked. The victim will then have 30 seconds to send a message to the detectives, writing or drawing onto a three-by-three grid. They can draw, write messages, whatever they like really. There are some rules around repetition, but largely you can do what you like. “I am the large red man in the middle of the picture, sat on the building. I have black shoes and am next to another man wearing green.” Then draw a picture of that. Seems pretty easy right? The Criminal acts as timekeeper, screaming stop the second the last grain of sand drops. They can then enact their main power! The Criminal, in an attempt to get away with their devious crime, will then delete five of the nine sections of clues before handing it to the Detectives. This will often leave pretty much nothing to look at in round one. The Detectives will often have very little to go on and may feel at a loss as to however they will be able to determine who the Victim is. Their only job, and how they will win the game for them and the Victim. But fear not. There are four rounds, and in each round, the criminal has less opportunity to intercept the message. With only four grids being removed in round two, three in round three and two being taken away in round four. What I have found is that most games are won by the Detectives and the Victim in round three. The rules offer variations if it starts to get too easy this way. You can allow the Criminal to erase one extra space per round, which is a good idea for rounds three and four, but just makes round one and two largely redundant. You can say it has to be drawings only instead of text, which is a good idea for younger players anyway. Or finally, you can ask the Victim to pick a weapon instead of a character. A much smaller, and harder thing to find. But what I found is it is quite nice to win the game! It’s nice to have a game that is quick and relatively easy to win, but still gives you that endorphin rush when you spot the right character. I don’t see this as a negative. And as a largely co-operative experience, why not share that feeling of victory over and over? However, if you want to make it harder, and give the Victim more of a chance to win, the option is there and it works well this way too. Overall, the game feels unique. The idea has been seen before, but this mechanic of the Victim and Detective against the Criminal with the partial information that you can pass between players is new to me. And it feels fresh and entertaining. This game works well with families, or in a party situation, and is a perfect quick filler game before or after a heavier game. It is rules light and low pressure for a party game. The game is a great way to ease people into a game’s afternoon or evening. I would recommend this to anyone who enjoys looking at the busy scenes of Micro Macro and trying to spot the hidden messages and is looking for another game offering a similar experience.

Raptor Island WBG Score: 8 Player Count: 2-5 You’ll like this if you like: Exploding Kittens, Plotalot, Star Realms. Published by: Board Game Goose Designed by: Dan Hayball I first saw Raptor Island at UKGE 2021 and picked up a demo copy where I made the below video. I instantly fell in love with the theme, being a big fan of 90's Dinosaur based movies! And found the game to be, fast, fun, and very accessible. I then saw designer Dan Hayball again at UKGE 22 and managed to get my hands on one of the final production copies, which was very lucky as he sold out at the fair. In fact, he sold out his entire web stock too! As such, this review has been on hold for a while whilst Dan waited for a re-stock to come in, but I can happily confirm that via this link or by clicking on the name of the game in this review you can go buy a copy of this great little card game if you so desire. But do you so desire? Well, let's talk about the game and how it works so you can set your desire levels to the appropriate level. The above video will talk you through the set up and rules, but if you would rather read it, then here goes. There was a rule change since then around the set-up which I will explain below. Each player draws three cards from the main deck. If anyone draws a card with the trigger immediately sign, then they must discard these and redraw another card until they have three cards. This is the rule that changed since the video where I said you don't replace them and have a reduced hand count. Although I suppose this could be a hard mode variant?! Once this is done, any Trigger Immediately cards are shuffled back into the deck. The game then starts with the first player drawing one card. They can then play as many cards as they wish, or none, before handing over to the next player. Players are looking to collect two Dinosaur DNA cards in their hand, and two Fuel cards collectively, before playing an Escape the Island card to win the game. The Fuel cards are played into a separate pile on the table for all to see, and become a shared resource. You cannot win by holding two fuel cards in your hand, they must be played into the central space for all to see. So, this means that everyone can use them, and everyone knows what stage this part of the end game mechanic is at at all times. Although of course, some players may be storing some in their hand to stockpile these useful cards and hide their current status. If you ever draw a Raptor card you must immediately play this in front of you. You need to try to get rid of this Raptor as soon as possible using one of the various cards in the deck that dispose of these pesky critters! If you ever end a turn with a Raptor in front of you that was there at the start of your turn, you are eaten and must shuffle all your cards in hand back into the deck and effectively start again. But as this rule only kicks in at the end of the next turn, you generally will have at least one draw from the main deck to try and find a card to help with your plight. As well as the obvious set collection, the games main mechanic is take-that, and there are some really fun cards in the deck that allow you to mess with the other players. Take-that can be tough to take in games but I find always works when at least one of three things are in play. 1. The take-that isn't too bad and easy to recover from. 2. The Take-that happens all the time to all players so doesn't ever make anyone feel picked on. 3. The game is so short that you don't mind if the take-that makes you loose as you can just shuffle up and play again. Well, all three are very much in play here, so the take-that is just hilarious fun. Sure, some cards may make you loose, and in a two-player game you will obviously be targeted! But the games are so quick, it works great. My favourite cards are the Sabotage cards where you can take a much needed item from another players hand, who also has to reveal their entire hand to you when you target them with this card. very useful when the game is in its latter stages and you want to check on the progress of another player. I also love the Raptor eggs, which you place in front of another player, and then when the next Raptor is drawn by any player, it goes directly to the player with the eggs instead of to the person who draw the card. Reminds me of a certain someone, from a certain movie getting very wet in the forest. Other important cards in the deck at the Gallimimus and Safehouse Key cards. The Gallimimus card forces you to search the main deck for an Dino DNA card and add it to your hand. This not only gives you the chance to get one step closer to winning, but it also gives you an idea as to how many other Dino DNA cards are in there, and subsequently, how many are in the hands of the players at the table. Crucial information. Not that you wouldn't have been already trying to win as quickly as possible. But you can now perhaps play that Sabotage card you have been holding onto to check on another players status if there were not many DNA cards left in the deck. The Safehouse key is perhaps one of the most powerful cards in the deck. There are only two of them in the game, and when played, you can search the discard pile for any ITEM you want, but then you must shuffle the discard pile and any Raptor cards in play back into the main deck. The Safehouse Key itself will be left in the new discard pile to avoid it being used to often. This is the only way the discard pile will ever be shuffled back into the deck, so is a great card to play when things are looking bad for you, and you need more time, or more cards. Or indeed, a good card to play when are doing well and want to make the deck less dangerous for you, but reducing the chances of drawing a Raptor card. All this depends on how many Raptor cards are out already. The end game mechanic where all players are looking for two Dino DNA cards that they keep secret in their hand, and two Fuel cards which must be played into the shared Fuel reserve is such a simple one, but raises the tension in the game so much and makes playing Raptor Island so much more fun! Knowing when the Fuel cards are in play and anyone at any point is potentially one turn away from winning changes the dynamic so much. If you are ever falling behind on the search for Dino DNA, but there are two Fuel cards, the Triceratops card can be a very useful addition! When drawn, the Triceratops has to be played immediately and will charge at your resources and remove one fuel from the stockpile. Sometimes this can be a real pain for other players. But other times, it can swing the game a big way. Similarly, the Compsognathus card forces a player to discard a Dino DNA card if they have one. Great fun if they just played the Sabotage and stole a Dino DNA from someone else and then instantly lose it! The game is great fun. Each game lasts between five and fifteen minutes. As such, I have never played just one game of this. At the end of the first game I am always keen for more and regularly sit down to play five or so games back-to-back. It is such a funny card game. It never fails to bring laughter and joy to my gaming table. It scratches the itch of wanting to play a game with my family and is so accessible with the teach and set-up, you will be up and running with a game of Raptor Island within seconds. All this means it just gets to the table more often. I love more complex heavy games but feel the need for quick, lighter, fun family games like this to ensure I can game at all times and at all occasions. To play Raptor Island you simply take the cards out the box, give them a quick shuffle, decide who will be first player, and begin! What a joy! The back and forth of the take-that, the partial knowledge of what others have, and the fuel card stockpile, combined with the gorgeous and deeply engrossing dinosaur art all make this a firm favourite for us. We take it everywhere and regularly play before meals and when waiting for friends. The cards are a good stock, and its priced fairly at £15. I absolutely adore this little game. And did I mention the gorgeous card art...

CLICK HERE for the Kickstarter page Moonrakers came out in 2020 and is one of my favourite games. If you like negotiation games this could be the perfect game for you! If you like-deckbuilding too, then you should perhaps seriously consider this jumping right up to near the top of your wish-list. As a stand alone game I absolutely adore it. You can read more about my thoughts on the base game here. But the team at IV Studio have not rested on their laurels. Not content with one smash hit game and perhaps one expansion, Moonrakers is getting a Big Box version, three new standalone expansions, AND a whole new free experience via a Steam powered game to play the Moonrakers in an entirely new (and spoiler alert, stupidly awesome) way. You can find more about it here, or read on. These expansions will be on Kickstarter from July 19th and the digital download available from Friday 15th July. All copies of these expansions were provided for free for my unbiased opinion by IV Studio. Each expansion develops upon one of the main mechanics of the base game. Deckbuilding, negotiation, and strategy. Nomad Expansion Nomad is my favourite of the three regular expansions. It adds a new navigation board and makes the game feel quite different. It helps make finding suitable contracts a lot easier, and introduces global events which shake up the game for everyone! On your turn you will move to one of the five sectors. Each one offers different contracts that align with their factions speciality. You must be careful as you can only align with other players and form a partnership for contracts with other players that are currently adjacent to you on the board. Knowing what type of contracts will come up at each sector allows players to build their hand and ship accordingly. You can focus on certain areas and then ensure you get contracts that will reward that skill-set. Something that was somewhat more luck dependant in the base game. Nomad also introduces global events cards which change the rules of the game in some pretty interesting ways. Players can be forced to travel to certain sectors, or be allowed to draw extra cards, or even be forced to give cards from their hand to other players. Overload Expansion One of the core mechanics in Moonrakers is deckbuilding. Overload is all about expanding your options with this. In fact, it doubles your options in terms of the number of cards. There are new contract types, crew, ship parts, and supercharged cards to add to your deck that bring in increased powers. Some of the new crew cards use IOSpheres to give you powers that last beyond just one contract. The IOSpheres are used on some of the new Crew cards, and are placed on them when first used, and removed one by one, each time you activate the card. What this means is that the cards will stay out in front of you between contracts, so you can start the next one with some powers already in play. The other main change this brings are the new contracts and powered up cards. For example, you can buy Reactor cards now that give you three actions, or two actions and the ability draw a card. The combo powers are a real treat! The additions to the contracts are a lot of fun. There are head to heads contracts which if a player choses to do, all other players can then decide if they want to join in or not. The person who plays the most of the two types of cards shown will win the points, credits or cards shown on the card. There are also new Flex contracts which show a new star shaped symbol which acts as wild. You can complete these contracts using any card, but you will need to get to much higher numbers in order to be successful. Binding Ties Expansion Bing Ties is all about bringing new options to the negotiations at the table. There are 40 new cards that tie in with these new options. Binding Ties brings in more structure and strategy, encouraging more alliances at the start of the game and more power for each player who does help their fellow players at the end. The Binding Ties expansion brings in new player boards for each person around the table that introduces an entirely new concept. Faction reputation. Each time you complete a contract with another player you will gain reputation with them, move that p[layers coloured marker one space up your board. And reputation isn't just a nice thing to look at on a board. It can be used to buy new cards, crew, and even prestige points. It feels like this was the expansion that was made to make people who don't ever agree to help others play nice! At the start of the game, each player is given one of the new player mats and a coloured marker for each other person playing. As you successfully complete contracts with other players, you will move the appropriate marker along one space. You can then trade these reputation points for the ability to discard a contract or armoury card, to gain a credit one action or card, to draw one objective card, trash a card from your hand, gain prestige points, to block a hazard die, or the chance to subtract two from any one requirement. As I say, it feels like it was designed to encourage more interaction and partnerships in the contracts but I have noticed it perhaps goes too far. Where previously players may not want to help others in contracts as they will just help them get points and money, now players sometimes look to see where others who have offered to help them are on the reputation track, and decide against letting them partner with them as the know they are about to get a massive benefit. It's gone from others not wanting to help to players not wanted others help. But, mostly this is not the case, and the concept does work. It also speeds up the game, making more contracts successful and more rewards being made available. Luminor Expansion Now this is the big one! Luminor is a 1-5 player co-op PC or MAC based expansion that you load up alongside a vast majority of the base game components to play a digital hybrid mission based game. It's incredible. Everything just works so well. It's an incredibly slick operation that will take you through the core rules and mechanic changes with such ease it will make you question why more games don't do the same. But then, not many publisher put this much effort into the production of their games. Let's face it. IV Studio are a little different from the average. The plans are for this to be mobile enabled soon, but for now it's just on computers and laptops. It brings a cooperative nature to the game and as a download, is completely free! That's right, FREE! And you don't need any of the other expansion to play with this. Just the base game. Although it is compatible with them. In Luminor, players will move across a procedurally generated map, all powered by the games AI. This basically means it's a bit different each time you play! You will move through the map, planet to planet, completing different missions, similar to the contracts in the main game. You will purchase ship parts and hire crew just like the base game, but all along a narrative based arc that leads you to ultimately taking on an enemy general that you must defeat to collectively win the game. There are three end game bosses to take on currently, all quote tricky! But with more to come. You have to experience this to believe just how well it works. I was sceptical at first. I am not a huge fan of video games and play board games to get away from screens. but this is just such a flawless, engaging, unique and fun experience, I could not help but cast all my doubts aside and just have a good time. The AI in Luminor essentially just replaces the contract cards in the game, and therefore the competitive nature of the game. Sadly this does mean the negotiating part has gone. But the deck building is still there, and the negotiating is replaced with the narrative arc, sense of adventure, cooperative play, and some really cool new ways to play. Such as one contract where you need to beat another character in a shoot out. Who can cause most damage. But there is an element of choose-your-own-adventure here too. At the start of this contract you are asked if you want to play it straight or try and hustle them. If you hustle them, then you need to try and loose the first match playing three miss cards, this then ups the pot for a larger match up second time round. If you play it straight, you don't have this option. The game tracks all your upgrades and health and works just brilliantly. It really ramps up too. At the start. you will think it is a breeze, but the final few contracts do get very hard, and the amount of damage dice you will have to roll for the final battle is unbelievable at first! Overall These expansion's are amazing things. I love how the publisher has split the three core elements of the game, broken it down by the main mechanisms, and then focused on each one for the three physical expansions. And then Luminor... well, what can I say. I was blown away. It needs more plays, it's very early days, but my goodness was it cool! Everything just worked so well, and the introduction I played was just flawless in the way it guided you through it all. I loved Moonrakers already, but there is just so much content now, it is a hard game to ignore. More isn't always better. And I wouldn't say you need all of this, the base game alone is very good. But if you are a fan, and want to try the full experience then you are in for a treat. I would expect most people will buy one or two expansions, based either on the parts of the gam they like the most, or the part of the game they think needs the more development. But having all three, I don't see myself ever playing this game now without at least one expansion. Overload will 100% always be shuffled in. It is so simple, and doesn't add any more time, complication or complexity to the game. Binding Ties also I think will be used probably 9/10 games. Perhaps just when I am playing with someone completely new to the hobby. And Nomad I would expect would be included 7/10 times, again based on the players I am with and how much complexity they want. It's my favourite of the three, but does add the most in terms of rules. Go check out the Moonrakers instagram page here You can find out more about the kickstarter here. You can download the Luminor game on Itch.io right now, and then on Steam on July 23rd. And if you want to talk about it, join the Moonrakers community on Discord here.