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Lacuna WBG Score: 7.5 Player Count: 2 You’ll like this if you like: Tak, Hive, Onitama. Published by: CMYK Designed by: Mark Gerrits This is a free review copy. See our review policy here. Board games in tubes. You a fan? I am torn. They look awesome. But what if you get too many? How can you store them efficiently? That said, I only have a few and was very happy to add one more to my collection. Lacuna, an abstract strategy game from CMYK is available from July 2023, and markets itself as "a cozy game of mystical geometry." Each word in that blurb pulls me right in! But does this deliver on what it says on the awkwardly packaged tube? Let's get it to the table and find out. How To Set Up Lacuna Well, it couldn't be easier. Open the tube and take out the material cloth board inside. Lay this out on the table (or floor). Give one person the gold pieces and the other the silver. Then put the inside lid back on the tube and pour out the wooden flower pieces onto the board. If any roll off, and some will, just drop them back on. When done, space out any clusters of flowers that may have formed to create an open and even spacing. You are now ready to play. How To Play Lacuna The first player now takes one flower to add to their collection. This is because the second player will place the final piece which is a significant advantage. The first player then places their first piece. Players are looking to find spaces between matching flowers where they can put one of their metal markers. When they do, they must ensure there are no other flowers in the way. A clear line of sight must be present. When players place their piece's, they can do so anywhere on the imaginary line between the two matching flowers. They will then take those two flowers to add to their collection. Players will take it in turns like this, placing their pieces until all six markers are down for both players. There are seven different colours of flowers and seven flowers in each colour. Players are looking to get a majority of flowers. Four or more flowers of the same colour in four or more different colours wins the game. When you place one of your markers down, there must be space between the two flowers to do this. You cannot jiggle two apart to place your piece down. Once all the metal markers are down, there will still be quite a few flowers on the board. Claiming the flowers by placing your marker is only half of the game. The remaining flowers are claimed by the player with the closest marker to it. For most flowers it can be easily determined which player will take it. But for a few it will be harder to tell just from looking. In this situation, you need to get the ruler (provided) to assess who was closer. If it is tie, then the player with the second closest piece takes the flower. Where you start and end the measurement from is up to you, just make sure you are consistent for both players. It feels like a piece of string would have been better chosen for this purpose. One you could hold onto the flower with one finger and rotate between the two closest markers. I may add a piece to my tube to do this in future. When all the flowers have been claimed, stack them up and see which player wins. It's pretty quick as this is just about majority. If you have four or more, you know you have won that particular flower. If you have three or less, you know you have lost. Lacuna Board Game Review - Is It Fun? Lacuna plays very quickly. So much so, the best way to teach it is to play a game. It will be done in a few minutes and the other player will understand the intricacies of how you can choose, and more importantly, why you would choose certain flowers a lot easier this way. It will also help you realise if you are going to enjoy this game or not. Looking at a piece of cloth with wooden flower pieces on and deciding how best to place six metal markers in order to take/control the most amount of wooden flowers as possible; it won't be for everyone. Not everyone enjoys abstract strategy games like this. I think often because they don't click for most people at first. But many games don't click for me right away. I have to learn the strategy of most games before I get any good at them. And I enjoy them a lot more when i am better at the game. Abstract strategy games like Lacuna are no different. But I often find people's patience for games like this to be a lot less. Perhaps because the inference is that there is less strategy as the rules are simpler? I find that decisions are made a lot quicker, sometimes before they are even played, as to weather people are going to enjoy them or not with games like this. I mention all this because this game is frustrating when you first play it, or at least, before you 'get it'. But, when it clicks, and you start to see the patterns form in your mind, and understand how to control the board more effectively, it becomes a brilliant two-player tactical battle. A game that sets up quickly, plays fast, and is easy to teach, but offers genuine thought provoking moments that feels wildly satisfying when they pay off, well, that is a game for me. Lacuna offers this. But it took me a good ten games or so before I felt like that. I lost most of my first ten games (to a ten year old!) and found the game to be limited and frustrating. But then I started to see how to place my markers in a more effective way and the game blossomed. Initially, I was just thinking about which flowers I wanted and placed my markers between them to get those two flowers. I then started thinking more about the area control game that happens in the second stage. Placing one marker is not just about claiming two flowers. It is about controlling parts of the board. This is why going second is such as advantage as you can swing the game a lot with the final placement. Each time you place a metal piece, you need to see the board being cut in half. Separating the parts you control from the parts your opponent has. The more pieces placed, the more segments of the board. At the end, there will be 12 areas of control. Working with the flowers already taken, you need to ensure you have the right areas in your control. You don't need the most flowers. Nor do you need the most colours. Just four or more in four or more colours. You could win with 16 flowers with the losing player having 33. There are 49 flowers in total but having more won't necessarily win you the game. The designers could easily have created variations where I win with the most pieces, or with the most sets of colours. But the genius is in the tightness created by getting majority in each colour. However, a good variation to house rule with younger players is this. Most flowers wins. But the correct rules creates a fascinating area control battle, which does not need variation as each game is different due to the random set up. On that, some reviewers have complained about the set up due to the flowers rolling off the board as you tip them out of the tube. Really? Sure, one or two probably will roll off, but just pick them up and pop them back on. The set up of this game is a breeze. It takes seconds. That is an odd one to complain about for me. I would recommend this game to anyone who enjoys abstract strategy two player games who is looking for something to add to their collection that looks great, plays fast, offers a relaxing but competitive game experience, and is willing to learn the intricacies of the choices offered.

Get On Board: London & New York WBG Score: 8 Player Count: 2-5 You’ll like this if you like: Unmatched, Funkoverse, Smash Up Published by: IELLO Designed by: Saashi Get on Board was designed by Saashi and is a reimplementation his cult success Let's Make a Bus Route, which was a hugely popular game (within certain circles) in 2018. Saashi's games have a unique style, beautiful functionality, and are adored by most of those that play them. Get on Board delivers on all these levels too, lets get it to the table and see how it plays. How To Set Up Get On Board: London & New York First, you need to decide which board to use based on player count. If you have 2-3 players, then use the New York side. If you have 4-5 players, then use the larger, London side of the board. Then, give each player all the route markers of their colour, a departure board, sheet, and pencil. Shuffle the six common objective cards and place two face up on the board. Next shuffle the five personal objective cards specific to the side of the board you are playing and deal one to each player. Then shuffle all bus tickets cards when using the London side of the board, or just card one to six for the New York side. Deal two to each player face down. Players must chose one and place their departure pawn onto the traffic light at the intersection whose number is shown on the ticket they chose. Then take all 12 bus tickets back, shuffle them up again, and place them face down on the board. Give the oldest player the Inspector pawn, which acts as the first player marker, and you are ready to go. How to Play Get On Board: London & New York There are 12 rounds to a game of Get on Board and each round has four phases. The first is New Bus Ticket. At this point, the Inspector will flip the top bus ticket and place it face up for all to see. Each player will now have to mark off one of the 12 coloured boxes on the top of their player sheet, matching the colour and number of the ticket just flipped. Players will then move to the second phase where they will Plot their routes. This is the main part of the game and is split into two parts. Placing your route markers down, then getting on the bus. When placing your route markers down, you must follow a few simple rules. You must follow the shape of the route required by the ticket chosen this round, either a straight line, one turn, or two turns. You can only place one marker per road. Your route must begin where your previous route ended, or for the first round, where your departure pawn is. You can only place the number of markers shown on your sheet. You can never double back on yourself. If you cross a road with another players markers on you must mark a space on the bottom left of your sheet showing a traffic jam. When playing on New York, the black roads act as a traffic jam to make up for the reduced player count. If you end on a space with a green light, you can add one more marker in any direction. If you reach an interaction you have already been at, your turns immediately ends, and, get this, you are eliminated from the game! I know, harsh right. But don't worry, it is easily avoidable. If you want to add or reduce the amount of turns to optimise your turn, you can do so by marking of a space in your turn zone, the top right red section on your sheet. This will add flexibility to your turn, but add negative points to your end game scoring. And can only be done a maximum of five times. Once this is done, it is time to move onto the Board Bus phase. This is where all the people and places you have moved though in the previous phase, come on board your bus or are marked off your route. For each of the four symbols of passengers your bus moved through this round, mark of one space of the matching image on your player sheet. You picked them up, they are now on your bus. For the blue and purple spaces, if you have reached the specific building that matches that colour, you will drop off those passengers. Score points depending on how many of those passengers were on your bus at that point. Based on the number shown on the sheet below the furthest right passenger you had marked off. Scratch off any remaining passengers you didn't pick up on the row, that bus is now at its destination and parked, and will score that amount. You will now start another bus for that colour. The purple area also provides bonus passengers, shown on the sheet. In addition to the points you gain when a bus is parked, you can also mark off one additional passengers as shown elsewhere on your sheet. Finally, on each map, there are four sightseeing spots, one of each type and colour. They are marked on the board with stars and a coloured background. When you reach one of these spaces write the number of passengers of the matching colour that you currently have on your sheet into this space. You will score the highest number at the end of the game. The third phase reminds players to check to see if they have competed any common objectives. You get a maximum of ten points for these if you are the first player to complete them. Then in the forth phase, pass the Inspector token one space, and move onto the next round. After the 12th round, add all your negative points from any crossed off spaces in your Turn Zone in the top right of your board. Then add any crossed off spaces from the orange column on the left of your sheet. Then multiply the number of crossed off student icons in the yellow area of your sheet by the number of crossed off University building spaces. Add these to any points gained from the yellow sightseeing spot. For the blue sightseeing spots, you will gain points equal to the higher of the two values you have here. Add any points from the purple parked buses area, and half the points from any rows without points in the rightmost space (as you didn't finish them). Add all these points to any you gained from the common objectives, and your personal objective, and remove any negative points from Traffic Jams, and that will be your final score. This sounds a lot, but after you have played it once, it will all make perfect sense. Is this Fun? - Get On Board: London & New York Board Game Review Playing Get on Board is so simple, but it feels full of strategy. Flip a card, move the appropriate amount of spaces and turns. Mark off the buildings you went by and the people you picked up. That's it. A turn can take just a few moments. It sounds like a lot above I am sure, but when you play, it really isn't, and a game can fly by in a few minutes. BGG suggests 30 minutes, I would say half that once you get used to the game and are playing with others who understand it too. And this is a joy. Quick games, with multiple ways to score, and a decent amount of strategy, that are fun to play, are not always forthcoming it seems. One of those areas usually has to be sacrificed. But Get on Board delivers for all four in a huge way. With games like this, I want to feel I am making tough choices. I want to agonise between this way or that. Picking up that passenger to move on that track, or aim for that building to push on this one. Get on Board brings these decision to the table almost every turn. It is hard to score well in every area. The objective cards will push you in one direction (literally) whereas your own strategy may make you lean another way. This is what makes games like this great for me. It's fun to make these decisions and have your success of failure rest on them. Moving over the letter spaces on your personal objective will score you 10 points. It may be that this route helps you out in other scoring areas too. But you can see how much they pull you around most of the board. I have found that players tend to go for this objective about 50% of the time. When it suits the rest of their strategy it can be a good way to score big points. But when it doesn't, it can be too much of a detour or distraction. The shared objectives work towards picking up multiple numbers of a certain passenger. Again, this may suit your overall strategy or not. It can depend on the order of the bus tickets, in that if you head towards a few of a certain type early on, this may then encourage you to focus on that as a mid/late game goal. But you need to be flexible and adaptable in your strategy for this game. There are so many ways to score. If another player gets in your way, you could stay focused on your primary goal and score negative points for causing a traffic jam; or turn down another road, avoid those minus points and try for a different scoring route. Overall, I would say that Get on Board is a very good game. Sure, it joins a very busy area of the hobby. There are so many good flip-and-write or roll-and-write games out there, you could easily pick 10 or 20 as being essential. Or you could also avoid many of these, just buy pone or two and be done. It could come down to theme. Do you want to study Dinosaurs? Would you rather fight of invading Picts? Or does a journey to the stars suit you more? Or perhaps planning a bus route is the perfect theme for you. Or, like me, you just love these games so much you want them all! I can find a place for all of these, and many (many) more in my collection. Sure, the mechanics are similar, but they all feel very different to me. The experiences are all unique. They are all good. And they will all get played a lot in my household.

Godtear WBG Score: 8 Player Count: 2 You’ll like this if you like: Unmatched, Funkoverse, Warhammer Underworlds Direchism Published by: Steamforged Games Ltd. Designed by: David Carl, Alex Hall, Steve Margetson Rule Book Godtear: Champion Pack Review Godtear is a wonderful skirmish game with some incredible card play that often delivers great moments. But a huge part of why I enjoy it so much, and why it keeps coming back to the table over and over again is the ever expanding universe of Champions that you can play as. If you want to read about the main game, how it plays, and my thoughts on it, you can check our full review out here. But if you want to read about the different characters you are in the right place. There are many more characters available than covered here. These are just the ones I chose to get. My favourites. You can find out more about the full list of available champions here. But for now, let's dust off our battle axes and take a closer look at the ones I have been fighting with. Let battle commence! First up in this Godtear: Champion Pack Review, let's take a look at my favourite Guardian champions. The Guardians are blue. They get a bonus if their banner is still positioned at the end of each second phase. They tend to be a little more defensive. Helena, Inspiration of Hope & Rallied Peasants Helena is the only champion without a separate banner. She carries her own flag with her at all times. This means scoring with her for her banner is a lot easier. She is harder to defeat than a stand alone banner. Her peasants fight loyally beside her, helping her stay alive by healing her and rallying around her position. She works very well with other champions that can make use of her ultimate skill to recruit. If they can use and sacrifice their followers, she can bring them back to fight another day. Mournblade, The Soulless & Knightshades Mourneblade is easily killed with a health of just one! But his followers lock their enemies in their grip and stop them from moving. Reducing their speed to zero if they are adjacent to them. Mournblade is able to remove all his followers and replace them on the battle field within three hexes. So you could find yourself locked up pretty quickly when fighting him. As such, he is the perfect companion to a powerful fighter who can attack the stranded enemies. Halftusk, Warden of the Stonekin Isle & Froglodytes Halftusk's followers, the Froglodytes, have an interesting ability to be bale to enter objective hexes. Something other followers cannot do. This blocks other players from being able to lay their banners, as they block up the otherwise available spaces. This makes Halftusk a great champion to play with when up against other Guardians. He can heal himself and when fully healed, has a better fighting ability. Maelstrom champions are yellow. They get their bonus for taking out enemy followers. You want to use them when your opponent has a lot of weak followers to pick off. Blackjaw, The Sweeping Flame & Unburnt Reavers Blackjaw gets a bonus action whenever he knocks out an enemy follower, as well as a bonus point. His followers, the Unburnt Reavers, can weaken nearby followers, allowing Blackjaw to come in and take them out. He has great mobility and range for his attacks, meaning he can surprise you with damage when you thought you were too far away. Kailinn, The Fury of the Forest Kailinn has just two followers, but they are tough and work well together, offering their partner the chance to use each others available skills. Kailinn herself is even more resistant, and can use her horn to take out enemy followers, no matter their defence. She is a fast mover, the fastest in the game in fact, with a movement stat of four, and she can help the rest of your champions move about the board too, but she cannot enter objective hexes. So she needs to work with another champion that can take out banners for her. Grimgut, The Vile & Retchlings Grimgut's Retchlings are easily taken out, but reward their victor with zero points, and Grimgut can simply spew them back onto the battle field. As such, Grimgut is best played in an aggressive, front foot style, charging into his opponents, and using his Retchlings to surround his enemies. And when Grimgut is ready to gorge, he can use his ultimate Buffet skill to eat three followers within range delivering six points due to his maelstrom bonus. He may look disgusting, but he has devastating attacks and is a tough opponent to grind down. Slayers are red champions and get a bonus for taking out an enemy champion. Something that is a lot harder to do that most other things in this game, but they all have great attacks to help do this. Maxen, the Artificer & Gearhawks Maxen is a formidable foe with a loyal following of robotic Gearhawks. He can remove an enemy's banner when he takes out a champion, and this is something he can do with aplomb in the clash phase, when his Blunderbuss weapon comes into full effect. He has a range of three with his gun and can roll up to six damage with it. Maxen can also stuff his gun with his mighty Gearhawks and fire them at his adversaries. Taking two damage for each Gearhawks lost this way. Meaning, if he uses all four of his fearsome birds, he can attack with a guaranteed damage of eight! A lot of followers means he is vulnerable to other Maelstroms, so it is best to sacrifice them yourself before they become plunder for other champions. Skullbreaker, The Dragon Slayer Skullbreaker, with his mighty Sword, has the highest potential single target damage in the game. He has only one attack, Jawblade, but it is mighty, delivering seven damage! He is tough, but with a low defence, so he needs to attack before he is taken out. He can help fellow champions followers by arming them with better attacks so works well with other champions with numerous followers who like to attack. Shaper Champions are green, and get a bonus for making a claim action. They offer more control of the board during the game but are not the best fighters and are used more to help other Champions and their followers in their battles. Raith'Marid, The Rising Tsunami & Splashlings This champion is all about disrupting the other enemy champions. Alone, he is quite weak, but in a team of fighters, they can spoil your opponents plans a lot by moving their characters around the board as you please. He can damage opponent's himself, and even his attacks move opponents about with a push effect. But his Spashlings have zero power in their attacks so are more about positioning other players where you want them. Rattlebone, Prophet of the Ascended Past & Hexlings Rattlebone is an interesting character to play as due to her attacks and actions mainly dealing boons and blights over damage. She is great for supporting your other fighters, and weakening your opponents. In the way that Raith'Marid moves the opposition around the board to let you fight them, Rattlebone softens them up for your attacks. Most of her and her Hexlings actions give out positive boons to strengthen your teams, or negative blights to weaken your opponents. She has decent mobility to allow her to place her banner and gain the bonus each round.

Indiana Jones: Cryptic WBG Score: 8 Player Count: 1-4 You’ll like this if you like: The Goonies: Escape With One-Eyed Willys Rich Stuff, Scooby Doo: Escape From The Haunted Mansion, Cantaloop. Published by: Funko Games Designed by: Prospero Hall This is a free review copy. See our review policy here. This review has zero spoilers. Indiana Jones: Cryptic – A Puzzles and Pathways Adventure. Quite the mouthful isn't it! Well, it is quite an adventure too! If you are a fan of puzzles and the Indiana Jones films, then oh my, you are in for a treat. It's quite hard to show or say too much with a game like this, but I will keep this review 100% spoiler free, as a large part of what makes this game great is the sense of discovery, and I do not want to spoil that for you. So, with that said, let's get this to the table and see how it plays. How To Set Up Indiana Jones: Cryptic Board Game Inside the box you will find just a few components. But the first thing you will be greeted with is the instructions saying STOP. The game doesn't want you to open anything else just yet, for fear of ruining the game. As such, I won't do that either. I will talk you through what you will see from the very beginning and what you need to do to get started in your first adventure. There are three adventures in the box. The game recommends you start with Covenant of Raiders. The stories interlink, and run in sequence in the guide, so I suggest you stick with this order. Open the journal and begin to read the instructions on page one. It will tell you to open the envelope marked Covenant of Raiders, which will contain all you need for your first game. You are now ready to play. How To Play Indiana Jones: Cryptic Board Game During Indiana Jones Cryptic, there are two main types of challenges. Puzzles and Pathways. Starting to see where the name came from? Puzzles can vary as you go through and may use other components and elements. Each will have a number of coins on offer if you solve it. This will be shown in the journal with a number next to a coin symbol. Gather this amount of coins and set them aside. Then read the instructions in the journal, gather any components it shows, and do your best to solve the puzzle. Each puzzle has a one or two word answer. Sometimes this is indicated by a certain number of red boxes, telling you how many letters are in the word, or a selection of words you must pick from. When you think you have solved the puzzle, look up the word you have decided on in the back of the journal in the hints and answers section. It will tell you if you were right and what your next cause of action needs to be if this is the case. If you were correct, take the coins on offer and add them to your kitty. If you get stuck on a puzzle, do not worry. Each one has a hint. Find the hint word associated with the puzzle you are on, and look that word up in the hints and answer section at the back of the journal. This will give you clues as to how you might best go about solving this current puzzle. The hints are pretty good. They do not give anything away in full, and nudge you along just the right amount. Each time you use one you may have to discard one of the available coins up for grabs in this current puzzle though. This will be explained as you read the hint. If you get the answer wrong, you will lose coins and the journal will explain how you move on. Generally, just to the next page of the journal and the next part of the story after losing all the coins on offer in that puzzle. The other thing you will encounter as you play are Pathways. I don't want to spoil how these work so I am just going to show you what the instructions tell you about these. At certain parts of each adventure the story will bring you to a certain point of peril. You will need to navigate difficult terrain just like Indie in the movies. The way the game brings this to life is by showing you the path you are on and where you are in a clear picture like below. You must study this and then place a clear piece of plastic over the top of the image and mark a dot on the starting location. Then remove the plastic and place it at least one markers length away from the image. You must now draw a path using the provided white board pen, trying to avoid the dangers and guide Mr. Jones to safety. You may need to interact with certain things described as GOALS along the way, the journal will make this all very clear. When done, flip over the original image and place your drawing on the clear plastic over this, lining up the start dot. It will now show you if you managed to stay on the right path or not. The journal will explain clearly how you will score your performance, again, rewarding you with coins for your kitty. Some of these pathways will have Action Tools that can be used with them, where you can draw around or alongside different shapes to form your path. This will allow you to jump over certain things and hit certain things with other objects or elements. All will be made clear as you play though. Do not fear. After you have finished each adventure, the guide will explain how well you did based on your coin total. You can try again, play the next chapter, or pack away for another session. The coins do not carry over to the next adventure so you can just throw everything back into the box. Each adventure takes around an hour to play. Indiana Jones: Cryptic Board Game Review Playing this game feels very much like you are on an adventure with Indiana Jones. The theming of the game is excellent. I suggest you put on your best Indie hat and play the theme tune and fully immerse yourself in the game. I played these adventures with my ten year old son. He was able to contribute fully to each puzzle. He would not have been able to play alone, I would say it would work for 12/13 and up in that respect. But you can certainly play with younger children if there is an adult to guide them along. The Pathways work with any age though, and my seven year old daughter enjoyed trying each of those. We generally all tried the pathway ourselves, and scored whoever did the best! The rules say you have one turn, but this was a fun way to keep everyone involved in the game. Plus, playing with the pathways is fun! Everyone wanted a turn, so why not let them. We all very much enjoyed the story in this, and being a fan of the films made this a very special experience for me. For my children who had not seen the films, they still loved the sense of adventure and characters, and now want to watch the films. Another win for me! There is a real sense of exploration and discover in the game, with a lot of hidden treats and unexpected surprises as you play. This game will continue to delight you through the three adventures and when done, you can easily try them all again. Although it will be significantly easier the second time round, and without the initial surprise and delight. But I would imagine after a year you will have forgotten most of it! This is not a one and done. Nothing is destroyed. You could easily reset and go again or play with another group. I would very much recommend this game to anyone who enjoys puzzles and playing cooperative games adventure games with their family. It will create a wonderful experience for you all, and memories to cherish. This game certainly does not belong in a museum!

The Goonies: Escape With One-Eyed Willys Rich Stuff. WBG Score: 7.5 Player Count: 1-99 You’ll like this if you like: The Goonies: Never Say Die, Scooby Doo: Escape From The Haunted Mansion, Cantaloop. Published by: The Op Designed by: Jay Cormier, Sen-Foong Lim This review has very MINOR SPOILERS in the words and some very MINOR SPOILERS in the pictures. I will give fair warning when they are about to come. The Op have launched a new game system called Coded Chronicles. WBG has reviewed the Scooby Doo game from this series which is excellent. And now we have the Goonies version to delve into. The coded chronicles system is a clever way to incorporate puzzle solving and storytelling into multiple character games. We will get more to the mechanics in a bit. But for now, inside the box of surprises and delights, there will be multiple booklets, one for each character. You can play this solo and just read all the text yourself, or hand one out to each player. But this game, like the Exit and Unlock games, is just about solving puzzles and can be played in any player count. No one player ever controls one character, this is a cooperative experience where all players control all characters. The booklets introduce a clever way for you as the player to interact with the items and rooms you encounter. Each character has its own unique liabilities. One will be able to USE things, another EXPLORE or EXPLAIN etc. There is a number attributed to each character and ability such as 1 next to the explore function. So, if you want to explore the wrench on the floor which has a code is 101 next to it, place a 1 in front of the 101 to make 1101, then read entry 1101 from the characters booklet that is doing the action. It is all very intuitive, and works seamlessly with all age groups and abilities. This game is highly accessible due to this brilliantly simple and instinctive process. On opening the box and starting the game, you will be told to read the first entry in Mikey's booklet. This will set the scene and give you access to a map and pirate doubloon. This is the opening scene from the movie where Mikey and his friends are searching their parents attic to try and find something to help them keep their home. Fans of the movie will quickly realise how true to the original story every thing is. You are in for a true Goonies adventure, and you are gonna be hit so hard with board game puzzle fun, that when you wake up your clothes will be out of style! https://screenrant.com/behind-the-scenes-facts-about-making-the-goonies/ In the box along with the booklets are sealed envelopes. At certain points in the game you will be instructed to open them. For anyone who has ever opened a secret envelope in a game like this will know the sheer joy this brings. It is hard to explain why? It's just a bag of components! But this bag is sealed. And you cannot see in it. And you are not allowed to open it right away. It is just so tantalising! I don't want to say too much about the gameplay or rules so not to give away the surprises as you play. But to give you a flavour this next paragraph will explain the basics with only some very MINOR SPOIELRS. Scroll on to the next paragraph if you would rather not know. In the game, you will re-enact the main plot points of the movie. You will place map tiles and cards down in a series. Creating a path for your adventuring Goonies to travel through. In each room various objects and "things" will be illustrated with clearly labelled numbers next to them. You can then interact with each part of the room or area in any order or way you like. Looking at, picking up, and exploring each item will unlock new dialogue to read, and sometimes, new rooms, items and mysteries to explore. The entire time, the Fratelli family are chasing after you, just like the movie. If you do something obviously incorrect in the game, or get a puzzle wrong, then you may be at times instructed to move the Fratelli's closer to you. If they ever catch you, that is fine, it just affects your final score. But, I will say no more. There are some tricky puzzles in this game. They are all very much solvable although I would say easier in a group. Nothing should stump you permanently The game has some good tips and hints if you do get stuck, or full answers if you really need them. There are three acts to the game. You can play through the entire thing in around 3-5 hours depending on the size of your group and ability to solve the puzzles. Or you can easily pause or pack up between each act and play this as three part experience. This is the first map tile. I didn't want to show any more, or show how they connect for fear of spoilers, but this one will be introduced obviously pretty quickly, so I felt it was a very minor spoiler. But I suppose, a spoiler none the less. So... SPOILER ALERT! The entire experience is full of joy, surprises, satisfaction, some frustration, but always quickly followed by lots of "oh yeah's!" and "of courses!" Playing in a group is a wonderful experience. I played each three acts in a three and each person was able to contribute to certain parts of the game, finding solutions that benefited the team. Creating moments of utter delight, pride, and accomplishment. It's silly, but solving these puzzles does feel great. I suppose it's a bit like crosswords and sudoku puzzles. There is no real point to them, no one is testing you. You get nothing from doing them. But when you complete them, or get through a particularly tricky bit, it feels great. The brain rewards your body with that great feeling we are all hopefully familiar with. Here's the science behind this if you are interested. A recent study out of Philadelphia’s Drexel University provides some evidence. Thirty students solved anagrams while researchers used electroencephalography (EEG) to record their brain activity. Very soon after activity in the right middle frontal gyrus, located near the forehead, indicated a moment of insight, activity then occurred in the orbitofrontal cortex, above the eye, which is responsible for processing rewards. Co-author Yongtaek Oh, a doctoral candidate in psychology at the university’s Creativity Research Lab, says, “Generally, such activity is associated with ‘wanting’ and ‘liking.’ ” https://www.washingtonpost.com I think this goes a long way to explain why these games are so popular. People like to feel good. Solving puzzles makes us feel good. And the way The Op are merging clever modern board game techniques with classic nostalgia such as Scooby Do, The Shining and The Goonies is a sure fire way to create happiness. I loved my time with this game. I would recommend it to anyone, fan of the film or not, and now cannot wait to try The Shining version.

Undaunted: Battle of Britain WBG Score: 9 Player Count: 2 You’ll like this if you like: Undaunted Series, Memoir ‘44, Wings of Glory Published by: Osprey Games Designed by: Trevor Benjamin, David Thompson This is a free review copy. See our review policy here By Steve Godfrey Whenever a new Undaunted game is announced I’m always really excited, and a little bit nervous. Excited because I love this series of games and can’t wait to see what they’ve brought to this series. Nervous because I've been stung before with drop offs. I was there when Green Day released the stellar trilogy of Dookie, Insomniac and Nimrod before dropping the mediocre Warning. What I’m saying is that I’m nervous that at any point this next game could be Undaunted’s version of Warning. Don’t get me wrong, I have ultimate faith In David Thompson and Trevor Benjamin but let’s see if they’ve managed to skip their warning phase and actually made Undaunted’s answer to American Idiot? Honestly never thought I’d be writing Green Day comparisons in a review of a WW2 Aerial combat game but here we are! How to fly a plane? Set up by building the map and your decks per the scenario you're playing. You can play any of the scenarios or you can string them together as a campaign. If you’ve played an Undaunted game before then there will be some differences to what you're used to but are easily picked up and I'll mostly be going through the changes. But if you’ve never played an Undaunted game before then I’ll give the briefest of brief summary of how it works. Both players draw four cards from their decks and will choose a card to determine initiative by comparing the number in the top left corner. These cards will both be discarded. In turn order players will then play as many of the three cards left in their hand as they want playing one action on each card. These will see you moving and attacking whilst trying to achieve your individual objectives. Throughout the game you’ll be buying new cards that will go into your discard pile and will eventually get shuffled into your deck. If you’ve played an Undaunted game before then this will all be fairly familiar but there have been changes made so you may want to stick around for this bit. Each card will have a number of actions on them, of which you can play one of them from each card. However a new thing in Battle of Britain is a compulsory move action. Each plane has a move total and you will have to move at least one of that total to simulate the constant movement of a plane. Each plane will then have at least two other actions that you can play in addition to moving. The manoeuvre action will let you rotate your plane once in a hex either left or right but you can only do this after you’ve made a move. So for example you could move, make a manoeuvre and then you’d have to move at least one more hex if you want to manoeuvre again. One of the big differences compared to other games in the series is that this is a hex based map and you have to move the direction you're facing and manoeuvring is how you're going to turn your plane. The other action you can do is attacking. Because this and manoeuvre are actions you can only do one of them, not both. When you attack you can choose to attack before you move or after you’re done moving. Another change in this game is directional firing. Each plane has its own shooting limitations. Most can only fire out of the front whilst some can shoot in multiple directions. When a target is in line add up their defence value, the number of hexes between you and add any obstacles in the way (clouds, other planes etc.) and throw the number of d10s for your attack. If one meets or exceeds that number then you hit. You also get more dice for shooting at the rear. Another difference from previous games is that if the above totals more than ten then you can’t take the shot. Previously a ten would hit regardless. The previous games had the dreaded fog of war cards to, well, fog up your deck. In Battle of Britain these have been replaced with Discord cards, different name, same deck clogging effects. Fog of war cards were mostly gained from players scouting new areas but here you gain them by a different method which needs a lot more tactical planning to avoid. Your squadron leader cards and their actions all have a Wi-Fi symbol on them which relates to planes being “In Comms” If planes of the same squadron have more than one hex between them they are considered to be out of comms with anything else being In comms. If that squad is in comms then any of the actions on that card, including initiative can be played without penalty. Playing those actions when the squad is out of comms will net you a discord card. Trying to keep your planes in comms to avoid these can be half a game in itself, even more so when you're trying to juggle getting into position to take on your opponent. Take to the skies. One of the main draws of the Undaunted system is that if you know how to play one, then you pretty much know the fundamentals to play all of them. When this one was initially revealed I’d be lying if I said I didn’t worry about this one losing that familiarity and simplicity. Purely because the changes that were being made to make it feel like a game of aerial combat, could easily have added a lot of complexity to what is usually a pretty straightforward system. It’s at this point I’d like to issue WhatBoardGame's first apology, from me, to designers David Thompson and Trevor Benjamin for ever doubting their ability to keep this instalment as fun and as simple as the previous games. In fact, I’d even go so far as to say that this is probably the simplest game in the series in terms of ease of play. In terms of tactics though, I’d say that this is possibly the most tactical of the series so far. The simple move, manoeuvre system keeps that sense of constant movement and pace that other games in the series wont have because of the type of warfare they’re depicting. Because of the compulsory movement, you’re constantly having to think at least a turn ahead to not only get yourself in a good position either for shooting or avoiding being shot, but to stop yourself being on the wrong end of a barrage balloon. Colliding with a barrage balloon will instantly neutralise a plane! But you're not just thinking of what you’re doing, you’ll need to try and predict what your opponent could potentially do should they get the right cards in their hand. It gives the game a chess-like quality as you're both trying to outwit each other. The whole thing is like a well choreographed dance or fight sequence similar to that of a John Wick or THAT fight sequence from The Princess Bride as planes weave in and out of each other trying to find the best time to strike. (yep we’ve gone from Green Day to the Princess Bride this review is a roller coaster!) It will probably surprise no one to know that I don’t really know the first thing about the manoeuvrability of planes other than what films have taught me and I’m sure Hollywood won’t have taught me wrong…..right? But having to make those big turning circles to swing back around for another barrage of fire feel realistic. If you’ve just pulled off a successful hit and are coming back round for another go then they can feel like a victory lap. If, however, you missed your last attack then it can feel agonising and long as you work your way round for another pass. It’s like missing your turning on the M25 and having to go all the round again. What elevates it is that you have to manoeuvre OR fire (you could of course choose to do neither) along with your move. It adds tension as you manoeuvre into position to take your shot and then have that agonising wait to see if they’re still in position by the time you’re able to take a shot. Shooting head on even has its own problems to throw at you. Taking the shot may seem like the obvious choice, but if you’ve lined up a shot, then chances are your opponent has one too, so maybe manoeuvring out the way doesn’t sound like such a bad idea? Just when you think you’ve got enough to worry about through all the dodging and fighting you’ve also got to worry about keeping your squad together. The comms rule is a really nice way of implementing those deck clogging discord cards and gives another extra layer to your tactics. Splitting up a squad and taking a discord may be a good move at the time, but you’d better get them back together sharpish if you want to use the command ability to get those discords out of your hand. It’s especially fun if you can lure your opponent out of comms by cheekily flying past them and taunting them to get them to chase you. It’s REARly not that confusing. I said that this was the simplest of the series rules wise and it very much is, but there was one rule in the rule book that did have me scratching my head. The rule for determining rear attack was a bit confusing as it was written. Well, it confused me anyway. Luckily the accompanying diagram seems to explain it more clearly so hopefully this won’t be too much of an issue for people to get their head round. It can also get a bit confusing when you’ve got two or more planes sharing a hex, especially if more than one is facing the same direction. The hex’s aren’t really designed to have a lot of planes on them so you may find yourself having to carefully lift up tokens to see who's where on some occasions. I do appreciate the size of the hexes, any bigger and this would easily turn the game into an unnecessary table hog and break from the uniform box size of the standard games. Whilst we’re on the nit picky stuff (which the above certainly is) is that the tokens between the two sides squads can be a little close in colour. For example, the RAF will have a yellow and white token for one of their squads while the Luftwaffe will have yellow and grey for the same squad type. For your first game or two you may find yourself picking up your opponent's tokens but you’ll easily get used to the difference. It just works! Of course the most exciting thing about this game is what it could lead to. Battle of Britain is a resounding success in the way it’s changed the format and because of that it opens up so many more opportunities for different theatres. I’d even say that this system could easily work if they wanted to turn their attention to Naval battles. I really think both designers have taken a type of game which could easily get bogged down in complex rules and miniatures and boiled it down to its simplest form. It takes the feel and the pace of aerial combat and not only makes it work, but it’s easy to teach and a lot of fun. If you're a fan of the series and was hoping to save a bit of money with this one then I’m sorry, but you're gonna need this one too.

Turing Machine WBG Score: 9 Player Count: 1-4 You’ll like this if you like: Decrypto, Break The Code. Published by: Le Scorpion Masqué Designed by: Fabien Gridel, Yoann Levet This is a free review copy. See our review policy here. Turing Machine has been billed as a board game where you are playing with an analogue computer. Intriguing, isn't it? I didn't quite understand the concept before I played, but quickly learnt. It is fairly simple, and I was instantly fascinated by this experience. It is certainly unique when it comes to board games, and in this Turing Machine Board Game Review I hope to delve into the depths of why this game is so absorbing. Let's get it to the table. How To Set Up Turing Machine The first thing to do in Turing Machine is decide which problem/level you want to do. Within the rule book you will find 20 to try, but online via the Turing Machine website you will find millions more! Once you have made your selection check the numbers associated with the criteria and verifier cards that are being used in your chosen problem and collect them from the deck of available criteria and verifier cards. Place these cards accordingly around the "machine" card on their correct locations, A-F. Give each player a player aid, note sheet and pencil (not provided) and place the punch cards in their holder intro a central area. You are now ready to play. How To Play Turing Machine Each player will begin to read the criteria cards in play. These cards tell you what you can "test" in this game, to find information out about a three digit code that you need to decipher in order to win the game. Understanding how these cards work together and what they can teach you will be crucial to your success in the game. These cards vary game to game. Some allow you to test how many numbers in the solution are odd or even. Others give you information about which number, the first, second, or third, will be the largest or smallest. You can learn if certain numbers in the sequence are larger or smaller than others, and if they are higher or lower to other specific numbers in the sequence. Checking the criteria cards before a game starts will give you an idea as to what number you want to test first. When players are ready they will write down their starting three digit number onto the first line of their note sheet and then when all players have done this, each player can "question" up to three of the criteria cards. Making a test involves taking the three numbers you chose from the punch cards, overlaying them to form one single punch card with just one available hole, and overlaying this on top of the verifier card you are testing. The reverse of the criteria cards shows a series of ticks and crosses. Based on your selection, the hole you are left with will then show either a cross or tick telling you if what you are testing is one thing or another. It takes a little of time to get used to this process. For example, if you are testing a verifier that says you can find out if the yellow square number is either higher than, lower than, or exactly four, and you put a three yellow and it comes back with a tick, this doesn't mean the yellow number is a three, it just means that it is under four. If it came back as a tick if you tested with a four, then that does mean it is a four. Because there is only one variable. It is either a four or not. But when testing if it is below a four and you get a tick, it could be three, two, or one. You have narrowed it down, but not deduced the exact number. Make sense? Each round you can test up to three verifiers, but you don't have to do that many, and you don't always want to because this is a race game, and the amount of tests you do could affect your victory. More on that soon. After everyone has tested as many verifiers as they like, you will now interpret what you learnt that round. You can make notes on your sheet, and cross out numbers you have ruled out for the solution as you go to help your thinking. Each player then needs to decide if they want to try and solve the puzzle at that point or go for another round. All players will present either a thumbs up or down on the count of three to show their intentions. If you think you have found the code then write it down in secret on your sheet and then check to see if you are correct. The answer is shown in the rule book for the 20 available there. Or online under 'test a code' if playing there. If the code has been correctly guessed then the game is over and that person wins. If two people are trying for the solution at the same time, and they both get it correct, then the person who has made the least test's wins. If no one guesses it correctly, the players who were incorrect are eliminated and the game will continue for the remaining players. If the code has not been correctly guessed and there is still at least one player left, then all remaining players will choose their next three digit code to test, and run through the process again. This continues until a player wins by correctly guessing the code the quickest, or all players are eliminated. Turing Machine Board Game Review Piecing together the clues and information you gather in this game to eliminate numbers to finally get the correct answer is highly satisfying. Not everyone will enjoy the process, or find it equally clear how best to do this. But getting there and getting it correct feels great generally for everyone. Putting this process into the game creates a race. Everyone will be able to eventually get the correct number, it is a process of elimination. But in the game, this is not about eventually, it is about how fast can you do it. This adds pressure. Under a mental challenge some people will not like this. It could make them feel stressed, frustrated, or even question their intelligence. This is a logic challenge. A puzzle. This is a board game in as much as Sudoku is a board game. It has board game components that make it feel more like a board game from the table presence it brings. But this is a logic puzzle. As such, the game is marketed as a deduction game to fit into the board game ecosystem but its very essence and lack of board game style mechanics will make it fall flat for some people. However, for those of us who enjoy this kind of challenge Turing Machine could become your new obsession. There is something very addictive to playing this game. It is the sort of puzzle that you either "see" or you don't. However, you can train yourself to get a more clear picture. For my first five games I was generally getting the code correct, but never the quickest, and often needing to use more tests than I should have. As I played more, I realised the overlapping clues you can take from the verifiers that are in the game. I started to make better choices with my first number and was able to greatly reduce the amount of tests I needed to get the answer correct. My son (Ten) however, saw this from game one, and was able to win most games we played using a lot less tests, and never guessing the number wrong. He said he could just see what he needed to do to eliminate as many numbers at once. Some tests will get rid of one number. Others will knock a load down. It's the equivalent of getting a yes for "Do they wear glasses" in Guess Who! Making choices to test something that eliminates more numbers than the other players can is how you do well in this game. I think most of us will know what sort of player we will be at Turing Machine. Someone who gets it right away and loves it. Someone who can learn how to get better at it and begins to really enjoy it. Or someone who just will not enjoy this experience at all. As such, this may be one of the easiest games to recommend or not as you will know by now where you may sit in this. Will you will enjoy this game or will it frustrate you more than entertain you? For me, I am loving the learning curve and challenge this game presents and can see a real progression in my understanding of how to play the game more efficiently. This pleases me and makes the process of playing Turing Machine an enjoyable one. I think the game is unique enough for it to be something that everyone should consider. But if you are the sort of person that would not enjoy this, perhaps it won't ever become fun for you. For me, this is a real winner and with the millions of codes to solve, perhaps will become the game I end up playing the most in my life.

Pyramido WBG Score: 8 Player Count: 2-4 You’ll like this if you like: Kingdomino, Queendomino, Shifting Stones Published by: Synapses Games Designed by: Ikhwan Kwon This is a free review copy. See our review policy here. There seems to be a lot of marketing support behind this new release from Synapses Games. The game arrived months before general release in fancy packaging, with four exclusive play mats. That's quite a fanfare for a board game. Ikhwan Kwon has made some cool games, but is not a huge name, and this is not a big box legacy or miniature filled monster. Just your normal abstract strategy board game. So, why the internal hype? Well, lets get it to the table and find out in this Pyramido board game review and how to play. How To Set Up Pyramido Getting Pyramido to the table is a thing is pure simplicity. The same goes for learning the game. The rule book is one of the best I have ever seen. It is quite long for such a simple game. 12 pages in total. But that is with well over 50% illustrations, and a beautifully constructed flow. You will get through it with no questions in minutes. To set up, take all the tiles out of the box and give them a quick shuffle. Then separate them into four piles of roughly the same size, keeping three back, and pile them into a central area face up in a row of four. With the remaining three tiles, place these face up in front of the other four piles in the middle of each so you have three tiles in front of four piles. Give each player one of each of the six coloured wooden jewel marker pieces, and one of each of the three single tiles. You are now ready to play. How To Play Pyramido Starting with the last player to make a sand castle, players will now take it in turns to draw a tile from one of the three single tiles in the front of the other four piles. The chosen tile must be placed immediately in front of that player as they begin to form their own pyramid. You are working towards a 4x5 or 5x4 base. After you take a tile you must replace it with one of the two face up piles above from where you took your tile. You then must add one of your wooden Jewel markers that matches the symbol on the tile you just placed. Finally, if you want to, you can place one of your single tiles over one half of the domino you just placed if you want to change it. You only have three of these, and once placed they must remain in position until the end of the game. On your next turn, any subsequent tiles must be placed touching one of your existing dominos. Colours do not matter. But they must be connected with at least half of the tiles touching. No partial connections. What you are looking to achieve is to create coloured groups of as many jewel symbols as possible. At the end of the round, when all the players have formed their bottom layer, the first scoring round takes place. You will score one point for each jewel in any area with jewel marker present. You will also score your lowest area twice. Any group without a jewel marker does not score. If you have left any single space gaps you must use your single tiles to complete this. If you cannot do this as you have already used them you immediately lose the game. So, don't do this! The second round then begins where you will now build a second layer on top of the first layer in a 3x4 or 4x3 shape. Building up the pyramid shape leaving a gap on the outer edge of the previous level. At the end the second round you score as you did in the first, but this time, you can include the outer rim of the base layer that will still be visible. If any symbols on the base layer that are visible and connect to areas on the second layer of the same colour, these can be included in your scoring. Below you can see on the third level scoring the blue bird symbols connect all the way from the first level, through the second to the third. As does one of the green ones from the first level, even though there are not any on the second, the green area still connects. The placement of one of the single green tiles here has helped increase the green score by an extra three points. The final forth round see's players adding just one tile on the top of the pyramid. It can be a make or break round where with careful planning, you can score a lot more than other players if they have not been as forward thinking, and in truth, lucky with the final selection of tiles available to you. The below tile added to the top scores an extra six points but if the blue single tile was still available you could get ten more. It was already used on the base layer though, as you can see on the top row below. But if there was no blue or green tile available and you had used all your single tiles, the scoring options greatly reduce in this situation. After the fourth round, the four rounds of scoring are totalled up and the highest points wins. Pyramido Board Game Review Playing Pyramido feels very simple. Anyone who has played any domino style game before will very quickly adjust to the strategy and get into the flow of the game. You may miss the importance of placing symbols on the outside edges so they can continue to score for you through the rounds, but by game two you will be well aware of this. And from this moment on, you will realise that through the simplicity of this game, is a genuinely entertaining and rewarding experience. Grouping tiles together to score points is not unique in board games in any sense. Carrying over actions from round to round to affect later game scoring is not new. But the strategy to build up in this way, round-by-round, focusing on the outer edges and building groups of colour that connect across multiple levels feels fresh. It creates interesting strategic decisions. And makes the scormg exciting and when done well, very satisfying. As the area you build each round reduces in size from a 4x5 to a 1x2 in the final round, your scoring area stays the same. But you need to stay aware of the connection between the levels and how they interreact with each other because your ability to place down the jewel markers reduces and you can only score in the areas that these are present. In the final round you can only place one tile, and a maximum of two jewel markers so you need to maximise your chances and plan ahead. With this, the three single tiles become very important. They are double sided so you have access to each of the six colours, and holding them back to the final round can be very useful. Being able to manipulate your final choice can increase your score by quite a lot. Earlier in the game, you can make most tiles work for you. By the final round, your intentions are clear for all to see and the three tiles available to you may not score well for you without these single tiles to adapt them. Games of Pyramido take around 20 minutes in a two player match up. A little longer with more, but the game always feels fast. Turns are short and quick and the game will move at a real pace. The choice of which tile you move down into the available three is an interesting one. In a two player, you are often able to manipulate the situation to move tiles down that you want and can later use without interference. In a four player game, there are obviously more turns between your own, and the situation can change a lot more. This changes the strategy quite a bit. No longer are you able to manipulate your own situation as much, but you still need to pay attention to the player after you, to see what they need, and what tiles you can move down that would work for them or not. My only criticism of the game is the tiles themselves. In a game where you are building a pyramid, I would like more height. The tiles are of a decent quality and absolutely fine for the game. It would just feel more thematic and look better aesthetically if the tiles were a little chunkier and offered more of a sense of building up as you work through the levels. These pyramids are a little flat! However the game itself is faultless when it comes to rules, set up and gameplay. I would recommend this game to anyone who enjoys tile laying and abstract strategy games who is looking for something that plays quickly, whilst still offering a game of substance. I think this is why the publisher is putting more effort into the marketing for this release. It hits that sweet spot that can be very popular amongst the board game community. I can see this game on release selling out all over and this game becoming part of many people's collection.

Crazy Pilot WBG Score: 7.5 Player Count: 2-6 You’ll like this if you like: Jungle Speed, Dobble Published by: Helvetiq Designed by: Matteo Cimenti, Carlo Rigon, Chiara Zanchetta This is a free review copy. See our review policy here. I love the little boxes of joy that Helvetiq put out. Each one has been a hit for me. They always seem to pack in so much game into these tiny boxes. The slightly bigger "After Dinner" series that so far includes games like Art Robbery and Barrakuda has just added a new beauty to its line, Crazy Pilot. A real-time game with zombies. I'm in! Let's get it to the table and see how it plays. Set Up First, separate the five different card types, using the card backs to help you. Then shuffle the 94 situation cards and deal 20 to each player. In a five player game give each player 18 cards, and for a six player game, just 15. For two players you need to remove the zombie cards first, then deal 20 regular cards to each player, adding three zombie cards to each hand afterwards. Leaving each player with 23 cards in total. Shuffle these together for each player, then place a starting card on the top of each deck to block the view of the first card. It is best for each player to do this for another person, so you cannot glimpse your first card as you do this. Each player is then dealt a car card which they must place in front of them, leaving enough space to place a card in each space orthogonally around this card. Place the penalty points and finish card into a central area where all players can reach and you are now ready to play. How To Play When all players are ready, one person will say go, and all players will begin the game, playing simultaneously. First moving the starting card from the top of their personal deck to the bottom, revealing their top card and then working their way through their deck until they come to the starting card again. Players will be analysing each card as quickly as possible, trying to determine if they should place this in front of their car card as the road ahead is clear, behind it as they need to turn around due to an unavoidable obstacle, to the left or right of them as they need to change lanes to avoid a hazard, or to the bottom of their deck, meaning they need to stop and wait for a temporary hazard to clear before moving on. All players are playing at the same time, in real-time, so you can do this as fast as you like. There are no turns. But be careful not to make too many mistakes by rushing. Each card is quite busy, and it is easy to miss something. Here, have a try now, check out these four cards. Where would you place them? Once the first person has gone through their deck so they are back to their starting card, they will grab the finish card and all other players must now stop. Each player in turn will then go through each of the cards they managed to place, and check if they put them in the correct position. This is done by flipping them over to reveal the correct location. To check to see if you got the four above right or not, I will now flip these over to show you how this works. How did you do? Hopefully that all makes sense. The top two are straight ahead as there is no real obstacle on the road. Just a busy sidewalk. The top right could be placed either in a change lane to the left position or straight on, both would be correct. The bottom right you need to change lanes to the right to avoid the car. And the bottom left, you are not going anywhere for a while. Time to turn around. For each correct card you will score one point. For each card placed into the wrong location you will lose a point. The person with the finish card gains two bonus points. Most points wins! And that is pretty much the entre game, except for the small mater or the zombies! If you ever come across a Zombie in a card, and they are sometimes very easy to miss when playing at pace, you must shout "Zombies!" You will then slap you hand on top of the penalty deck. Each other player must stop what they are doing and slap their hand on top of yours. The player who cried Zombie now checks to see if there really was a Zombie or not. If there was, they can place this card under their car card and score one extra point at the end of the game. The person who reacted slowest and slapped the hands last takes a penalty card and score minus one at the end. Then play resumes for all players with the person who paused the game shouting "Drive!" If they were mistaken and there is no zombie, they must place this card face down beside their card and it will score minus one point at the end, and play will resume. Any zombie card that was placed anywhere else will score you a minus point at the end game scoring. They are hard to spot sometimes. Can you find all four zombies in the above cards? I find the ones in the windows very easy to miss when I play. Others are quite tricky as they look exactly like other cards, other than the addition of the zombie. Check out the one on the top left with the crashed UFO compared to the one earlier in the review that also has the crashed UFO. Tricky huh?! In the two player game, when you spot a zombie in one of your cards, you will shout "Zombies" as usual, but instead of then slapping the penalty deck, you will place it into the other persons player area. They must then check if there is zombie there or not, and place a penalty card over it. If there was a zombie there and they do this, then all is well. If they don't, they will lose a point. You could place cards without zombies in front of the other player just to mess with them. And of course, this is all happening whilst they are trying to get through their deck as quickly as possible. So any distraction to move their focus to a new card in a new location can be very distracting! This is the only change for the two-player game other than the 23 card set up. Is It Fun? Playing Crazy Pilot will be hectic, stressful, and perhaps a little overwhelming for some. If you don't enjoy real-time games where you are racing against other players, this will not be for you. But if that kind of game floats your boat then this could be a real winner. I love real-time games. I enjoy the focus this puts on my mind. I do not like it when I am rushed in my decisions that need real strategy or thought. Games like Escape: The curse of the Temple properly stress me out and I do not have fun when I play it. But games like Jungle Speed where you are under a time pressure, but the mistakes made because of this are not huge work for me. That's the balance at play here. Real-time is hard for more serious games where you play for an hour and everything could sway on something you miss due to the lack of time available to you. That is not fun. Games like Pendulum find a way to hit the middle ground by putting you under time pressure, but giving you just enough time to make the informed decisions you want to, and by keeping the decisions limited to a set number of things. It works like this with Crazy Pilot by keeping the decision to one of six things, but also lowering the jeopardy. A game of Crazy Pilot only takes a few minutes. If you lose due to a silly mistake, rack-em-up and go again! I can see this game being very popular with families, and couples who enjoy a bit of healthy head-to-head competition. My children have really enjoyed this one and keep asking to play, especially my son (ten) who very much enjoys it in two-player and the direct challenge it poses. It is fun to push yourself and try to make the decisions on each card as quickly as possible. There is a noticeable learning curve, and you can se yourself getting better each game, which is rather satisfying. Without the zombies, you really could fly through the cards after a few games of this. Once you become more familiar with the cards your pace will pick right up. The introduction of the zombies makes a big difference there. But if you are lucky with the shuffle and spot your three zombies early on, and are certain you were right, you can then fly through the rest of the deck with a lot more reckless abandon. I think the game would have benefited from more cards to avoid the ability to learn them like this. But I appreciate the publishers are limited somewhat by the size of the box they use. That said, I am over ten games in and I am not quite there yet. I have got to a point where I am fast, but it is still a process to get through them. And that process is enjoyable. If you want to have some fast, frantic, fun with your family in real-time then I can heartily recommend Crazy Pilot. Just watch out for those Zombies!

Block Party WBG Score: 8 Player Count: 2-6 You’ll like this if you like: Pictionary, Pictures. Published by: Big Potato Games Designed by: Ed Naujokas This is a free review copy. See our review policy here. Big Potato games are building a very strong catalogue of happiness. Every game they make hits the spot with me as they seem to build games with a simple philosophy. Fun + colour + simplicity = joy. You can check my review of some of their other games here. Block Party is the latest in the line of Big Potato releases, and it looks like this will be no exception to the joy equation. Let's get it to the table and see how it plays. Set Up Place the scoring board into the central playing area along with all the building blocks and the challenge cards. Each player then takes a building board in their chosen colour and places one building block of the same colour onto the starting space of the scoring board. Each player is dealt one building card and given one steal token. Choose a starting player and give them the guesser token. You are now ready to play. How To Play The guesser now reveals the top challenge card and reads aloud the challenge and allotted time for this round. Each player then chooses one of the ten things on their building card to try and build. You can only build each thing once, so think about what may be easier for other challenges and/or time frames in later rounds. Try not to leave yourself short. When everyone is ready, the guesser starts the timer on their phone, or any timing device, and everyone else starts building. You can only use one hand to take blocks and you can only take one block at a time. It is up to your group how tightly you police this! When the time is up, that's it, no more building. Well, get a few more bits done whilst no one is looking, obviously. But stop as soon as people start to point and shout. Then the guesser will go around the circle, trying to identify what each person has built. If they guess correctly from one guess, both they and the builder score a point. If they don't get it right, other players can use their steal token to have a guess of their own. But you can only use this token once per round. When everyone's construction has been guessed, the bonus point is award for that rounds challenge. You only qualify for this if your construction was correctly guessed. Players will be looking for the tallest object, or the fewest colours etc. Some work well with some objects, others less so! The guesser token moves around the table one space and the next round begins. You can play so everyone acts as the guesser at least once or to a points target or time limit. Totally up to you. We generally play for hours!!! Is It Fun? This game is essential pictionary using blocks. The issue with pictionary is some people are not good at drawing. Or do not enjoy doing it. Using blocks levels the field and makes the game a lot more open to more players. Now, some will still feel it is beyond them and won't be able to get their head around how they can turn a bunch of coloured cubes into a volcano, but for most, I have found the blocks makes this a much more even and approachable game across all levels of artistic skills! It may be that some can envision things easier than others. But then, can the guesser see what they were trying as well? Probably not, as I found out. But the reduced time limit means that no one can create anything spectacular or overly complicated anyway. It is a case of trying to quickly form a clear representation of whatever it is you are building so that it can be easily guessed by the person currently acting as the guesser. This can be stressful for some. The time limits are very short in this game. But I found that with a few adjustments, this worked for most people we tried with. For example, when playing with younger kids, we always gave them an extra 20 seconds or so after everyone else finished. And for younger children guessing, we allowed them three guesses. We also gave people the chance to change their cards. However, I think the most fun comes from working your way through a card and being forced to make everything on each one. The game has a very simple adjustment so you can play a cooperative two player version. Simply flip over the score board and place a block onto the level one space and a red block on the ten space on the lives bar. Take three steal tokens and then play through each level, trying to guess each others attempts in turn, with both players building each round. If you are successful in guessing each others attempts, simply move on. But if you get a guess wrong you lose a life. If you ever want to get a hint, play one of your steal tokens onto the hint space and then your partner can give you a one word clue. Notice that between some levels there will be bonuses to reclaim lost lives or get extra building cards. I really enjoy the process of building in this game. But found guessing to be a little more stressful! It's funny how clear something can be in your or other peoples minds, that are just completely baffling to other people. It depends on the object, time limit, and the person as to how this works, but you can make things that look quite obvious to some, baffling to others. At times it can become quite abstract. Take a look at the two below. These are reconstructed from a game I had recently. The top one was guessed by the guesser, but the others around the table thought it was something else. Take a look. What do you think this is? A fish! Of course it is. But others thought this was tumour, bolognaise, and one even thought it was a heart. I suppose I shouldn't have used red? What about the one below? Any thoughts? This one wasn't guessed correctly by the guesser, but was by another player who used a steal token. A Chessboard! Obviously!! Now in the game, you don't get to look at the card to see the options. I have just done this hear for illustrative purposes. You are supposed to keep your card secret. But I suppose there is an element to the fact that players could learn the cards and find it easier to guess the more they play. But there are a lot of building cards. 40 in total. However, there are only six challenge cards, so they become a little old quite quickly. A few more of those would not have gone a miss. One final thing to praise Big potato on is their eco packaging. Zero plastic. Minimal waste. Functional design. Well done Big potato. . I can see this game being a massive hit in our household for many years to come. It has been proudly placed alongside my other party games in the front row, ready to be played at every possible opportunity. I would recommend this game to anyone who enjoy party games and likes having the opportunity to flex their artistic muscles in games. This is a game I would play with pretty much anyone, and the games on that list are not very long. It is just so simple to teach and grasp. It works with any person, group or environment. And it is so fun to play.

Asteroid Dice WBG Score: 8 Player Count: 2-5 You’ll like this if you like: Throw Throw Burrito Published by: Camden Games This is a free review copy. See our review policy here. Asteroid Dice feels like a combination between dodgeball, and in a very weird way, Libertalia. It has huge, squishy foam dice, that you will be throwing at your family and friends, and I am unsure if you need any more introduction than that?! Let's get it to the table and see how it plays. Set Up Each player chooses a colour, and takes their set of cards. Place the foam dice into the centre of the player area and ensue all players are sat equal distance to them and each other. How To Play Simultaneously, players will now choose one of their seven cards to play face down on the table. When all players are ready, on a count of three, two, one, players will reveal their chosen card. The cards will either be a one to six (three not shown below for the sake of symmetry!) Or, one of the two special cards. The Losteroid card or the I Can't Decide card. As all players have the same cards, and you are slowly working your way through the deck, and you all know what everyone else has played, this is where the game starts to feel a little like Libertalia and the strategy comes in. You want to play a card that allows you to roll a higher number so you can win that round, but ideally not when other players play the same card. If players played a number card, they must now take the matching dice. But if another player played the same card as you (including special cards) this turn, a Brawl ensues. This is where both players try to grab their chosen dice the same time (either one if a special card was played) and throw it at the other player. They need to avoid the other players head, pet, precious vase, or sleeping Granny. If they are successful, they win all cards played by the players in the brawl for juicy end game points. If they miss, and the other player ducks, dodges, and dives in true dodgeball style, both players can make a grab for the thrown dice, wherever it may now be, and try again. If the thrown dice is caught, that player can then throw the dice back at the person who attacked them. Parry's do not count. It has to be a clean catch. Brawls can also happen with more than two players, if multiple duplicate cards are played at the same time. All players are now attacking each other with one dice. I would start running if I was you. Never be still in a game of Asteroid Dice! Once all required brawls are over, all players will now take a dice. The one they played if they did so alone. Or the dice they won if they were in a brawl. For any player in a brawl who lost, they can now take any remaining dice. If you played the I Can't Decide card you will take any remaining card at this point. All players now roll their dice and the highest number rolled wins all remaining cards. If someone played the Losteroid card, then before the roll takes place, they must declare any number out loud. If anyone then rolls that number, all cards played this round are discarded, bar the Losteroid card. Which is placed into any players hand, as chosen by the player who played it that round. If someone played the I Can't Decide card, they can re-roll their dice one time at this point. Players then pick up their cards and go again for the next round, less one card. This continues until all players have played all cards. Final scoring is calculated based on the numerical value of each card in each players score pile at the end of the game. If you have a Losteroid card in your hand, you have to discard your highest scoring card at this point. Most points wins! But really it is down to most hits with the dice! Let's be honest why we are all here. Is It Fun? I think the level of fun you will take out of this game will vary greatly based on the amount of fun you can see yourself having from throwing a foam dice at a loved one. For me, that meant crazy amounts of fun! And I think most children will agree! We did have the odd tear, as dice caught people in the eye from close range. We starting sitting a little further apart from each other at this point. And really enforcing the "no-headshots" rule! But mainly, playing this game created huge amounts of belly laughter and fun. I love it. It is a very simple game, and can be taught in minutes. It is the perfect game to take to a family gathering, works well outside, but not in the pub. As I found out. Sorry John. (My local landlord). You do need a bit of space, and ideally an environment where everyone in the near vicinity, playing or not, doesn't mind being hit by a foam dice. They do not hurt when they hit you. They are very soft. But it is not for everyone. And you need to ensure 100% compliance and acceptance for everyone present. Not just the players Again, sorry John! I would heartily recommend this game to any family, or group who enjoy silly, but fun games likes this. Games that can get you jumping up and moving around. You can play sat around a table. We have done that, but it does take away most of the challenge. Although we found a lot of throws were caught and simply returned, you don't always get your own way if you grab the dice first. But a little ducking and diving makes for a much more entertaining experience if players are up for that. This game feels like it has been made with a huge amount of joy, love, and happiness. And bar the odd dice in your tummy, you will feel this as you play.

Disney Animated WBG Score: 8 Player Count: 2-4 You’ll like this if you like: Horrified, Disney Villainous, Back to the Future: Dice Through Time Published by: Funko Games Designed by: Prospero Hall This is a free review copy. See our review policy here. There is something special about Disney. Whatever your own feelings are on the brand, there is a unique feeling associated with the entire Disney world. To me, it means family, fun, and queues! But overall the emotion conjured by the little mouse is happiness. And the thought that this could somehow be packaged into a box and distilled in cardboard form excites me! There are a lot of great Disney games on the market, you can check my review for a number of them here. But this new one from Funko intrigues me. It offers a cooperative experience, where players race to 'complete their films' before the time is up. A simple concept. But the feeling this gives... it's like I am transported back to a Disney studio in the 50's, at the beginning stages of creating a Disney classic. I cannot really say why. The art style does not suggest that. The gameplay does not encourage that. But it is how I feel when I play. Let's get it to the table and see how it feels for you. Set Up There are five films to choose from. Make your choice as to which one you want to play with and simply place your background board face up in front of you, along with the background tiles placed to the left of your board, three character cell cards placed underneath, and your action board to the right. Then add any wood tokens your chosen film has near your action board and take one Magic token to start the game with. Each board shows the films release date in the top right. The player whose film was released first becomes the first player and takes the first player token. Next, place the Studio board in the middle of the table. Create a supply of the remaining magic tokens here, and then shuffle the Animation cards, placing them into their allocated slot. Each player draws three cards from this deck and adds them to their hand. Players can share this information freely with other players at any point. The next step is to put the deadline token onto the starting position of the deadline track. Next, place the Paint tokens onto their spaces in the Ink and Paint section on the Studio board in any random location. Then take the Villain Tiles linked to the films each player chose. Place them onto the studio board, calamity side up, in order of the films release, earliest on top. Then take the five Action tiles and place them face up on the five spaces on the main board. You can do this is any order. Next, take the calamity cards from the films the players chose and shuffle them together. Place them next to the top right of the main board. Then, based on the player count and level of difficulty you want, flip over one to eight calamity cards. You are now ready to start the game. Check the section in the rule book for the correct amount. How To Play The game plays through two main phases, starting with the players turn, then the villains. On the players phase, starting with the first player, players will take it in turns to choose one of the five action tiles, and place it in front of them. They will then carry out that action based on the number it was at. For example, if you took the Ink and Paint action tile from the three location, you can do this action three times. The five actions are as follows. Sound: This lets you carry out your own unique player action, shown on your action board. Each character has their own power, such as the Alice in Wonderland player, who can draw two cards, then place the Cheshire cat token onto any other action card. Later, when another player chooses that action and returns the Cheshire cat to you, another player can then take the action this player is doing at the same value. Another example, is the Aladdin board, which allows you to place the Genie above any action, and similarly to the Cheshire cat, when taken, allows the Aladdin player, and the player who took the Genie to then carry out a bonus action detailed on the Aladdin players action board. Animation This simply lets you draw extra animation cards. Ink and Paint This allows you to take ink and paint tokens from the main board. This is used mainly to add your characters to your board when the background is finished, but also to ward off certain calamity cards. Background This allows you to place the background tiles into your board. When they cover certain spots you can take additional actions, or claim extra magic tokens. Magic This allows you to carry out any other action at its current cost for the payment of one magic token. All of these actions are done in the process of traying to complete your background, add your characters, and then defeat your enemy. When your action is done, move all the action cards along one space, and then replace the action you took back into the lowest available space. Once you have taken your main action, you can then spend any cards or paint tokens you may have to either add a character cell (if the background is finished) activate a character (if they are on your board) and/or remove a calamity card(s). Each round, new calamity cards will be drawn based on your player count and difficulty, and they need to be removed otherwise the villain that round will activate more often. The four types of calamity card are as follows. Paint - Cards that need specific paint tokens to get rid of them. Cards - Cards that need specific animation cards to get rid of them. Actions - Cards that need specific actions to be taken to get rid of them. So the above card will need what ever action is currently in the second spot to be taken in order for this calamity card to be removed. Unremovable cards - These cannot be removed, even using character powers. Once all players have had their turn, it is then the turn of the current villain. Whichever one is currently top of the pile activates. Simply follow the instructions on the villain, advancing the deadline token one space, checking no one has more than seven cards, and then enacting the calamity effect for each calamity card still present. Finally, draw back the correct amount of calamity cards and go again. The game continues until all players have successfully completed their film, or the time runs out. To complete your film, you need to fill your background, add your characters, and then defeat your villain. This is different for each player, but is shown on the action board. When you have added your final character, flip your action board to show your final task. This will be to discard a number of tokens and cards, alongside other unique requirements for each character. When this is done, you can take your specific villain back from the main board, flip it over and place it onto your own board. Your film is done! Now, try to help the other players do the same before it is too late! When you are done, each film's components can be neatly packed away in its own little box, ready to go again another time. Is It Fun? As you can tailor this game very easily to the player count and difficulty, every game of Disney Animated has been a very tense affair for me. I have won or lost with a turn or two to spare every time. This is exactly what is needed with a game like this. Working cooperatively towards a team goal, based on a time limit without tension is just completing a series of tasks. With tension means you have a game. And a really fun one at that! There is a real sense of progression in the game as you go through the various stages of completing your film. First with the background, then the characters, and finally the villain. It feels a little like an engine builder at this point too, as adding the characters to your background increases your powers, offering you new powerful options on your turn. There are a few opportunities for cascading turns, as you cover certain spots with your background, or enact certain character powers. Which not only feels fun and satisfying, but also imperative! This is a race against the clock remember, and turn efficiency is crucial to winning. There are five great film to choose from. All of which offer a very different experience, from the character powers you can use, the villain you need to defeat, and also the unique character powers given to you based on your sound action. It's great to see these different films interreact together. Although it feels somewhat abstract. You are a film. Not a character. The game doesn't even encourage you to feel like a producer, director or studio even. No, they want you to be the film. The concept of the movie. And you need to make it become a reality. But I love that. It genuinely works, and thrusts me into the wonderful world of Disney. I like how most of the powers offer you a chance to help other players. Give them extra cards, or increase their turn power. In a cooperative game, I like it when this happens. It makes the experience better when you are encouraged to help others, and work together as a team. I would recommend this film to any fan of Disney, family cooperative games, or people looking to bring a sense of light-hearted tension to their tables. I see this being endlessly expandable with new movies added at later stages. Something that I really hope happens! It would be such a simple but wonderful thing to do. I want every Disney film ever produced made in this format! This could be a real cash-cow for Funko. Cash cows sound bad, but they work as they are fun and popular. And a little bit addictive! Just like this game.