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Hiroba WBG Score: 7.5/10 Player Count: 2–4 You’ll like this if you like: Sudoku, Rune, Blue Lagoon. Published by: Funnyfox Designed by: Johan Benvenuto, Alexandre Droit, Bertrand Roux Sudoko burst onto the scene via apps, newspapers puzzle pages, and magazines in the 2000's, after being a huge part of life of Japan for years. It surprises me that you don't see more games utilise the Sudoko mechanics. However, Hiroba certainly does, and builds on this simple puzzle idea to create a very interesting game. Let's get it to the table to see how it plays. Set Up Take nine of the board tiles and place them at random into a three by three grid. For a two player game, flip over four tiles to create a smaller game area, and for a three player game, flip over two tiles. Then place a Koi pond token onto each pond square, with the water side showing. Each player then takes a player board and their nine numbered pebbles of their chosen colour. Give the first player two stone tokens, and one to the second player, then if you have four players, the third player also gets one, but no more are handed out in a three player game. You are now ready to play the game. How to Play Starting with the first player each person will place one of their pebbles onto the board. On your first turn, you must place your first pebble onto one of the starting spaces marked with concentric circles. On subsequent turns you must place each pebble into row or column of a previously placed pebble. Like Sudoko, you cannot place a pebble into a row, column, or garden area where another pebble with the same number has already been placed. You also cannot place your pebble onto a space where there is already another pebble, a pond token, or a stone. Obz! Each pebble is double sided, and when you place them you can choose which side to use. As an optional action, if you have one, you can then place a stone into any space to block the other players from being able to go there. Play continues until all pebbles have been placed, at which point players will check to see who wins each koi token. They are given to the player with the lowest accumulative score in each space above, below, or beside each one. In a tie situation, both players take a koi token. Players can then place the koi tokens, flipped to show a x2 symbol, into any garden they have majority, in order to double their scores there. Any unused koi tokens will score one point at the end of the game. The winner is then calculated for each garden based on the numbers shown on each pebble. So, in the example below, blue would have 17 in the bottom garden and zero in the top one. Red has five in the top garden and eight in the bottom. Red will then score two points for the two squares in the top garden they win. And blue will score 12 points for the bottom area, taking into account the x2 multiplier. Once all garden's have been scored, the winner is declared. Is it Fun? Playing Hiroba is a calming, but challenging experience, that I think many puzzle fans will enjoy. The mechanics and setting are all very calming. The gameplay is quite focused to your own game. Obviously you can affect what other players can do by placing your own pebbles, and the game is mainly about area control. But it feels like a solo game with the other players all working as bots against you. It's a strange feeling, but one that works incredibly well for a game of this style. I enjoy the placement rules, and the challenge this creates. Only being able to place pebble's onto rows and columns where you have already placed one before, whilst having to observe the Sudoko rules of not matching numbers in rows, columns, or gardens, makes this first phase highly strategic. You will want to control the larger gardens, but you also need to defend gardens you have placed pebbles at previously, if another player overtakes your score there. This is so you don't waste previously placed pebbles. But, let's face it, mainly as in area control games, players get very defensive! Wanting to control what they have. And defending what was once theirs! But if you focus too much on defending gardens you once had and have now lost, you may lose out on other areas. Gifting other gardens to other players. You need to try and spread your pebbles around the board as far and wide as you can, whilst not spreading yourself too thin, and loosing control in each garden. It's a delicate, challenging, but enjoyable challenge. The scoring is very satisfying. Being able to double your points with the koi pond tokens is a great reward for being able to place your pebbles in the right places in the first phase. The way these koi tokens are distributed is very clever. Making it about the lowest scores in the surrounding spaces, instead of the highest scores, makes each pebbles at your disposal valuable. You will want to place the higher scoring pebbles into the larger gardens, away from the ponds. And the lower scoring pebbles next to the koi ponds, into the gardens where you hope you can win by the odd point. I would recommend this game to anyone who enjoys abstract strategy games, puzzle games, and obviously Sudoko, and is looking for a game that works in this way. Hiroba has created a beautiful, small box game, that distills a wonderful sense of strategy and interplay, in a very focused and satisfying way. I think people who enjoy solo puzzles will enjoy this a lot, and will find the interaction with other players set to the perfect level. I can see this game getting a lot of plays. Games last between 10-20 minutes depending on the player count, and set-up and teach is done in minutes. It's a perfect travel, or pub game. And I have found to be the perfect, 'we have a short amount of time before we need to do something else' game. Pre dinner. Before we go out. Before we start a bigger game with others we are waiting to arrive. This game is the perfect filler experience. I very much the experience of playing Hiroba. I enjoy the challenge it presents, in the speed of game it offers. I know I am going to be making some interesting decisions, but in a game I can take from the shelves, set up and play and finish all within under half an hour. This game is highly accessible but also rewarding. I think it could have benefited from some variation with additional tiles, using extra rules for symbols or tokens you can place on the tiles. Something simple like a marker on some tiles that have to see an even number placed on it. Or, maybe something more complex using a gardener meeple that moves around and blocks certain gardens when present. But outside of that, this is a wonderfully produced, very enjoyable puzzle that I will enjoy for many years to come.

The Mystery Agency: The Vanishing Gambler WBG Score: 9 Player Count:1-6 You’ll like this if you like: Puzzle Post, Unlock Series, Exit Series Published by: The Mystery Agency Designed by: Henry Lewis By Steve Godfrey It’s not often that you can sit down and play a fun puzzle game and then immediately watch the mastermind behind it all on TV playing a drunk Santa, the Angel Gabriel and an understudy Scrooge. This of course begs the question, have I picked all of these specific roles of Henry Lewis’s because they’ve had our family in tears of laughter?. Or because I’m writing this in November and as far as I’m concerned it’s nearly Christmas? Well in both cases….Yes, yes I have. This is a spoiler free review. Any pictures, descriptions etc you’ll see will be in keeping with things that you’ll see on The Mystery Agency website. To start playing simply open the box, scan the qr code on the inside to take you to the website that will let you choose which mystery you’re solving. Then pick whether you want to play this with a timer or in your own time. Then, get solving the mystery of the vanishing gambler! The mystery component. When you first open this box of delights you’ll encounter a scrap of newspaper, some shredded paper, which if you don't remove carefully, will nicely decorate your table and a padlocked evidence bag. I’ll be honest I got a bit excited when I saw the padlock. I’ve played a lot of styles of puzzle games at this point and this is the first that I’ve played to have this sort of physical component. At this point everything seems quite minimalist but it’s a good clue to the quality of everything else you’ll find once you get into the bag. If, like me, you got excited about the padlock then just wait until you spill the rest of the components onto the table. Some poker chips, great quality dice and even a torch are amongst the bundle of fun things you’ll find in this bag that go to make up a part of your puzzling experience. What’s the most exciting thing in here though? Well anyone who’s had multiple Christmases with young children will know that seeing a battery is like a gift from the gods! It’s worth the score of nine alone! I know I've gone on about the components for quite a bit but they really add a brilliant tactile quality to the game and as board gamers who love us some good tactile pieces this is really going to up the appeal. Trust me, once I’ve let some friends try this out I’m definitely going to be trying to find a use for everything in this box. I might use the padlocks to lock up the kids' devices. Let’s just hope the teenager hasn’t remembered the code! But what about the puzzles? Won't someone think of the puzzles! More and more puzzle games have gone further to innovate to keep the puzzles fresh. From folding paper components, using the box as a clue, to these days using the power of technology to add to the experience. This is the first game outside of an actual escape room (that I’ve been aware of anyway) that uses physical components like this and to be quite blunt with you, they’re a ton of fun. The physicality does bring you in mind of an actual escape room where you’ll be interacting with items in much the same way. It adds a whole new element to it and a satisfaction that you can pass someone a set of dice and say, “you solve that and I’ll get to work on the poker chips” One of the fun things here is that, yes there are puzzles that you could (if you’re playing with others) hand off to people and let them work on separately, but there are also puzzles that will bring everyone together to work on purely because of how they're presented. I know it sounds cryptic but trust me it’ll all make sense when you see it. I’m always a fan of when these types of games innovate and cleverly use different mediums to help not only give you new and exciting ways to be presented with puzzles, but also keep the story flowing. That’s done to great effect here because what you get in the box isn’t going to be the only resources at your disposal. It's a great way to let designers of these games think outside the box and find new ways to tell a good story alongside these games. Again I’m aware I’m being cryptic but trust me, you’ll thank me that I am. Sweet little mystery. The puzzles in this box are clever, engaging and a lot of fun to solve. We always know when we’ve hit a good puzzle game when we lose count of those celebratory high five moments when we solve a puzzle. It’s better still when we manage to do it off our own backs. It’s such a satisfying feeling. That being said, any hints we did use only served to give us a nudge in the right direction. The Vanishing gambler gave us a really good challenge. It was enough that we weren’t flying through the puzzles, but not too difficult that we weren’t having to get the solution and still end up having a confused look on our faces. There’s nothing worse than being given a solution and knowing that there was no way you would have solved it on your own. One last little touch that I liked is that it gives you a choice whether or not you want to use the timer. It’s a nice choice to have, I usually prefer not to have a timer. If I’m not in an escape room then I don’t really want the pressure of having to solve these in a set time. For me it kinda takes some of the fun out of it but the fact that it’s an option to have it is great if you're in a group or are someone who likes that challenge. One oddity we did have in our game was the first padlock to open the evidence bag. I seemed to solve that one pretty quickly. I know that sounds like more of a boast than anything but I know I’m not that clever and I couldn’t imagine it would have been that simple (don’t worry I won’t tell you what I did). So I went back and checked the hints when we’d finished and as it turns out I’d managed to open the lock using a completely different code. It’s strange because it hasn’t opened with that wrong code since. It reminds me of a similar thing that happened in an actual escape room. Not sure what happened, maybe I’ve developed some kind of intermittent code breaking superpower. Whatever it was I’m beginning to think that I should change careers and become a safecracker. All Mysteries come at a (reasonable) price The Mystery Agency games do come in at a little bit more than the puzzle games that were used to. But trust me those components go a long way to justify that price and it’s going to be cheaper than going to an actual escape room, even more so if you split the cost with your friends. The great thing is that the game is fully resettable so once you’re done, set everything back and pass it onto your friends for them to enjoy. They’ll love you because you given them a fun experience in a box, but end up resenting you because now they have to buy the others, which you can then borrow thus completing the circle of life…..or puzzles in this case After playing and enjoying this box we now need to try the other two in the range so you can rest assured I’ll be badgering anyone I can to go in with me to grab the other two. If they sound like something for you and your family or group, jump on over to https://themysteryagency.com to grab yours.

Puzzle Post Series WBG Score: 9 Player Count: 1-8 You’ll like this if you like: Mystery Agency, Unlock Series, Exit Series Published by: Puzzle Post Designed by: Bobbie and Will By Steve Godfrey Getting an envelope in the post can be a mixed bag. It could be anything from a bill, a tax rebate or even a birthday card gleefully telling you that you're old, losing your hair and grumpy. Birthday cards from my mum get harsher each year! Luckily Puzzle Post have arrived to bring a lot more fun to your mail, This is a spoiler free review. Getting started is simple, open the envelope, take out the contents and separate each piece (you’ll get two copies of everything) and read the setup story. Keep an internet ready device with you, preferably a tablet but you could use anything and get solving. This ain’t no snail mail The first thing you’ll notice as you pepper your table with the contents of the envelope is the thing I love most about these games. Every puzzle is presented as an everyday item. Across these three games you’ll have business cards, menus, book excerpts, tickets and even food jar labels. They’re ordinary objects but weirdly enough that’s a brilliant twist for puzzle games at the moment. Another twist is that these are normal stories in each game. By that I mean stories of blackmail, scandal and corporate drama rather than ancient artefacts and mad scientists like you may find in your Unlock or Exit style games. Think more Eastenders rather than Indiana Jones. These are a lot more fun than Eastenders though so please don’t let that put you off. The normality of all the components adds such a thematic element to each of the games and throws you right into the story. Everything ties together really nicely. The puzzles you're faced with in each envelope are a lot of fun and of course very different. I mean aside from that January when I tried to convince myself I was on a diet, I’ve never stared that intensely at a food label. It’s a ton of fun looking at things like restaurant menus and trying to find where they’ve cleverly hidden the puzzle. Of course this means I’m now a nightmare choosing food in a restaurant because I'm trying to solve the menus, but I’ll take that any day if it means I get to have this much fun. Pondering ordinary objects aside, one of the things I’ve noticed between all three of these envelopes is that you won’t necessarily find the same type of puzzle repeated. It’s hard to explain exactly what I mean without spoiling anything but for now I’ll just say that just because you’ve used one type of resource in one game, it doesn’t mean it’ll be used in another one. I love that they’ve done that. It keeps each one of these fresh. You won’t find yourself opening this envelope and looking for where the word jumble puzzle is for example (that’s not a spoiler). I’ve seen that happen in puzzle games before and it’s a massive disappointment when that happens. The last thing I want is to predict every puzzle's solution the second you look at it just because I’ve had previous experience. Normally I play these games with at least my eldest teenager and possibly my other daughter and for the majority of puzzles games that’s a good number. I find that with too many people it tends to get a bit crowded and it could be easy to find people left to the side as the components get passed around for people to investigate. The wonderful folks at Puzzle Post have obviously seen this and decided to solve it by making second copies of each of the components. It’s such a simple solution. Now I know that in most cases it wouldn’t be possible or even cost effective to do this, but in the case of these envelopes it’s something I appreciate massively. For the three of us it’s nice to have the option to either work together on one puzzle or share a couple between us. If you're in a bigger group it’s an elegant solution and as someone who has played an eight player game of Sherlock Holmes: consulting detective and felt very left out (not a fault of anyone there) it’s a very welcome one. Post that will make you think. These certainly present a good challenge and seem to have a good mix of difficulty in each envelope. There have been a couple in each that we’ve gotten fairly quickly that have given us that little spark of joy and confidence that it’s nice to have early on. Some have required a bit more thinking but this makes it all the more satisfying when the penny drops, you feel that twinge of excitement and you feel a little bit smug with yourself with solving it and well you should. Then you get the odd one or two that you maybe need that extra hint or two for. This of course is just how we found them but overall I’d say that each of these will present a good challenge for the majority of people. Having played three of these now I can safely say that these are some of the best things that will drop through your letterbox. They present a uniqueness that sets them apart from other games in this genre. Once you’ve played one there’s definitely a familiarity between each one that eases you in, but each one is different enough that you will have a different, fun experience with each one. It’s the type of post we all need to receive.

WBG Score: 9 Player Count: 1-4 You’ll like this if you like: Blue Lagoon, Cartographers, Ganz Schon Clever. Published by: Alderac Entertainment Group Designed by: Matthew Dunstan, Brett J. Gilbert In a first for WBG, we are going to review a game twice. The awesome Tom Harrod has already covered this game with a brilliant review that you can read here. But after becoming somewhat addicted to this game over the last few weeks, I felt compelled to offer my two pennies too. So, strap in for some serious gushing. I won't go into how this game plays, as Tom has already done a great job of that in his review. So, instead I will go straight into why I love this game. Tom scored this 8/10. I have given it 9/10. The main difference between Tom and me in terms of our thoughts on this game is the lack of player interaction affects Tom's thoughts more than me. Also, Tom felt there was a missed opportunity with the lack of stuff you actually explore, as he mentioned in his review. But for me, I love everything about this game. I agree with Tom's thoughts, he is right with his points, no question. It's just that the head-down, focus on my own little world aspect of this game is something that I love. I am ok with the lack of interaction, and enjoy absorbing myself in this world. Now, don't get me wrong, if every game was like this, I would be less inclined to rate it this as highly. It would be more of a problem. But obviously that is not the case. There are thousands of games out there. And some focus in a huge way on player interaction, and I love that. But I think that then leaves a place for a game like this, that removes the player interaction, and instead focuses on oh so juicy combos and point salad scoring loveliness. It's why most of us own multiple games. Different games for different itches. Initiate Gushing But, my favourite thing in this game, hands down, are the bonus cards you can draw each round. You will always have a choice of two. This will not be a case of which of the two is the best. They will both be awesome. They are all awesome! You will want them both, all the time. It's more a case of working out which one will works best for you in the current game situation you are in. But they are all incredible. I love decisions like this. I love choosing between multiple good things. So many games offer a few good things, where a player could take the best thing and leave another player with a slightly less good thing, and so on. This can leave a bitter taste. It becomes a race to be the first player. So games like this where they give everyone great things, all the time, is a welcome relief for me. This game makes everything good. It's fun. And that's what board games are about right? Too much gushing? Oh, I'm only just getting started. I look forward to the part in each round, which will come about every five minutes or so, when you get to choose one of these amazing cards. It's a genuine thrill each time. Even when it's cards I have had before and used recently. They are still great, and give you the chance to do some very exciting things. An "Essential" Game The awesome Gamecasters recently inducted this brilliant game into their "Essentials" collection. A group of games they all agree would be the perfect game in any collection, especially if you are looking to start a new collection. A game that would suit most players and play styles. I could not agree more. They only have nine in their essential line currently, it takes something to get onto this list. I could not agree more with their choice to put The Guild of Merchant Explorers into their essentials collection. The main thing that grips me with this game is how much it delivers, from such a simple rule set. When you set-up a complex game, with lots of rules, and multiple mechanics and components, you expect to get a lot from the strategy in the game. Putting more effort into learning and setting up a game raises your expectations for what you will get out of it. Now, you may enjoy some complex games just as much as this game, but that reward comes from a much bigger give. The Guild of Merchant Explorers gives you a huge reward for a tiny ask. As such, I think it's only fair to praise a game like this when it packs so much into this incredibly simple ruleset. I could teach this game to anyone within a few minutes. You can get started almost immediately. In order to run this game, because you are simply flipping a few cards, and then all players are taking the same action, I could play this with any new player, lead the card flipping myself, and just explain the options available as we go. You could be up and running within minutes and by the end of the first round, which would take five minutes, all players would know the game. And with only four rounds and a few cards played each round, games can be as quick as 20-30 minutes. But you will feel like you have made the strategic decision's needed in a much longer and more complex game. This game is all out the pay off. Very little effort. Massive gain. Variety? Each game feels very different. Despite the fact that you are always drawing the same cards. Sure, the cards come out in a different order. But the inputs into your decision making vary very little game to game. However, the outputs swing in a huge way. The four different maps help here. But I played the game on the start map multiple times now and each game felt completely different. You don't immediately need the other maps for variation. The game gives you that on it's own. However, the other maps are awesome! And I cannot wait to get my hands on the expansion maps to see what they bring! But this is one of those games where you would welcome expansions, but it doesn't need them. It is just so clean. So well constructed. The beauty is in the simplicity. And similar to games like Ganz Schon Clever, you are happy to just rinse and repeat the same experience over and over again. This game for me is still as fun, still as appealing, as till as exciting as it was on game one. So, onto the things I don't like. The name. It's terrible. That's about it. But it is a bit of a generic, easily forgettable name isn't it, let's be honest. I regularly pronounce it wrong. Merchant Explorers. Guild of Explorers. Just a bit of a generic mouthful, with too many words. But who cares. The game is phenomenal, and firmly on my list for a chance to be one of my games of the year.

Disney Sorcerer's Arena - Thirlls & Chills Expansion WBG Score: 8 Player Count: 2-4 (but really 2) You’ll like this if you like: Unmatched, Funkoverse, Smash Up Published by: The Op Designed by: Sean Fletcher Disney Sorcerer's Arena is a fantastic three-on-three skirmish game set in the wonderful world of Disney. The only difference in this version of the Disney universe, is they all want to kill each other! The only extra thing you want with this game is more characters. They already delivered three great new iconic Disney heroes/villains to play with in the first expansion, and now the second expansion is already out. Bringing three great new characters. You can read what I think of the main game here, or check my thoughts on the first expansion here, or head straight on to see what is new with this second expansion right now. I wont go into the set-up or how to play with this expansion as you can get that all from my first review of the main game, but if you want a brief summery, here you go. Two players (ideally, but it does play up to four) will choose three Disney characters. Each player will place them onto the board at either end and will be dealt a hand of cards based on their characters hand limits. Players will then take it in turns to play one movement action to get their characters closer to the central scoring areas, and the opposition. They will then play one action card to attack the other players. You can also use special skills as per each characters own unique abilities. If you can force an opposing character to zero health you will claim the points their character is worth. First player to 20 points wins. It sounds simple, and it is. But the card play can be very clever, and the characters are obviously adorable! So, with that out of the way. Let's get to the good stuff. With this second expansion, which new characters do we have to play with? Mother Gothel Coming from 2010 release Tangled, younger Disney fans perhaps may be more familiar with this character than those of my own 80's generation! But my daughter was very excited to see her included in this game. Mother Gothel likes to be stealthy with her attacks. Stealthy means she is harder to hit. She can also use her skills to make people banish one card from their deck, or let her remain lurking in the stealthy shadows. Because running out of your deck is one way to loose this game, this means Mother Gothel remains stealthy for most of the game. She has some pretty impressive attacks, but be careful not to pair her with other Princess characters. Some of her attacks affect multiple characters on the board if they are a "Princess." Including those on her own side! The Horned King Anyone seen the 1985 Disney release, The Black Cauldron? No, me neither. But check it out, it looks pretty cool! Anyway, the Horned King is the bad guy in this film, and in this expansion, he has some pretty unique skills. The Horned King comes armed with three tokens that he can place onto the board using certain cards and whenever he gains points. These can be moved each turn using his special skill, and when they are close to other characters, The Horned King can use them to attack from afar. As such, it makes sense to use the Horned King as a sniper of sorts. Staying away from the centre of the board where most characters usually charge, and attack from a distance. If you can activate his special skill, meaning you flip his character card to gain an additional skill, the tokens can be used passively each time. If The Horned King starts his turn with these tokens next to any opponent, they will inflict one damage to each nearby character. This makes these tokens very useful weapons. And The Horned King, a very interesting character to play with. I had not heard of him before, but he is now my favourite character to use in the game. Jack Skellington Now, onto this expansions' superstar! Jack Skellington is the beloved protagonist of The Nightmare Before Christmas. One of Disney's most argued over films. Not because people don't love it. Much the opposite. Just people love to debate if this is a Christmas or Halloween film! But for me, its 100% a Halloween film that can be enjoyed anytime of year, so who cares. I think this, as this is what the many people involved in the making of this movie said! (Haha!) But also, it's true. Anyway... Jack is awesome. I love everything about this character in the movie, and the same can be said about the character in this expansion. Jack introduces a new trait, "Afraid." He can force this onto opponent's almost at will, which encourages them on their turn to run away from any opponents or be forced to incur two damage. It's a great addition to the many traits in this game, and perfectly suited to Jacks' character. The new characters work perfectly with the existing ones from the main box, and the three that were previously introduced with the first expansion. I enjoy playing this game with all the characters, but getting new ones is always a treat! It makes me want to try all the new possible combinations and new possible teams. As with the last expansion, I am a little disappointed with the choices. I don't know if this is licencing reasons, but it does seem like they are choosing some 'B' list Disney characters each time. But Jack is 'A' list for sure, and he more than makes up for the other two. But as I mentioned above, The Horned King is amazing! And Mother Gothel was a big addition for my children, so maybe that is just a generational thing? The new standees are gorgeous. And much like the ones in the original box, look stunning on the table. They come with a protective cover on, which is a nightmare to peel off though. And this time, I used a knife to help, and I did scratch the Horned King a little here as you can see. Which was most upsetting! If anyone has any tips on how to remove the covers from these standees (other than just patience!) I am all ears! I would recommend this game to anyone with children that love these characters, or to anyone that is looking to get into skirmish games, and wants a nice, gentle introduction to this form of gaming. I would recommend checking this expansion out as I think they have done something a little different with The Horned King, which I particularly like, and think it adds a nice new dynamic to the game. The designers of this game seem to do this with each expansion. Adding not just new characters, but new rules, traits and components. The previous expansion introduced the water tiles, which are nice. But these Horned King tokens are a game changer for me. I hope they bring more of these to the table with future expansions.

Merchants of Karanor WBG Score: 7.5 Player Count:2-6 You’ll like this if you like: Venice, Explorers of the North Sea, Tales of Arabian Nights. Published by: FunkyHat Games This is a prototype copy provided for free by the publisher. The final game will have some minor changes to the art and components. Merchants of Karanor is live on Kickstarter now. You can find out more information here. At its heart, this is a pick-up-and-deliver game, but the game tries to create a full blooded story around your character and your travels. Let's pick it up and get it to the table to see if this delivers. (Snigger). Set Up Lay out the board and place a resource or local token on each space that shows the same symbol across the four islands. Place the rest to the side of the board. Give each player one city of origin tile, one backstory tile, and three commerce cards, as well as all the playing pieces in their chosen colour. Place your character marker and one building on your starting city as shown on your city of origin tile. Then take any resources, coins, and any coat of arms as described on your backstory tile. Place your income marker on the prescribed place as shown on your backstory, and place your notoriety marker on the zero space on the right hand side of the board. Finally, place one card for each player on the delivery space on the bottom right of the board, and gather the six associate tiles and place them below the board. All players will now pick one of their three commerce cards to keep, giving the other two to the player to their right in a draft system. You will then take one card from the two just passed to you, and discard the final third card. Each player should now be left with two starting cards. Your starting set up will now be complete, but you will be able to add additional coat of arms, associates, artifacts, and develop your income as the game progresses. It is from these variable components that makes each game start in a unique way for each player each game. How to Play On your turn, you can carry out any four actions each time. There are six options you can pick from. Moving. Collect resources. Working. Hire an Associate. Interact with a local. Make a delivery. Build a Villa. Or, build a commerce. Moving simply allows you to take your character pawn and progress your current travel limit on the board. You start with a movement speed of two but can gain additional move points via completing quests and gaining the traveller coat of arms. Collecting resources is done when you are on a space with a resource token. You do not take this token, rather you can take two tokens of that type from the resource pile. Working allows you to gain one coin. A simple way to gain money. Another is via hiring an associate who will initially gain you one resource of the type shown on their tile during each income phase, but if you flip this tile, they will then gain you extra one coin each round instead. Quests are gained by interreacting with a local. Move onto a space with a local token, remove it, and draw the top quest card. Some quests will be part of two connected quest, such as the San Talas Shipwreck card below. When you complete the first part, draw the second card from the second quest pile, and you can now try to fulfil this too. Most quests give you one point in exchange for taking specific goods to a certain place on the map. You can keep what you are doing secret, or read it out loud for all to hear for a more interactive immersive experience. The delivery cards act in a similar way, asking you to take specific items to a certain place but then rewarding you with money as well as points upon completion. They can only be done by one player, when they are completed they are removed from the game. So this adds a bit of a race element to the game, especially as the rewards for these cards is generally quite good. You can also move onto one of the spaces on the map that show the Villa symbol, pay eight coins, and place one of your houses onto this space. This will gain you one point. This action is limited to the five Villa spaces on the board. Finally, the last action available to you is build a commerce. In order to do this, you must be on a city location, with the right resources, an available house token, and an unused commerce card. This will gain you one point and you can advance your income marker one point, making your income each round now more profitable. You can then if you chose, pay the requirement shown in the text in the middle of the card and gain the secondary additional benefit. Each player can take any four of these actions, and as many of each as they like. You could just move four times if you wanted. When your actions are done, you will take your income, drawing money and any items your current engine generates. This will be based on where your income marker is positioned on your player board, and any items shown on any associates you have hired. You can also freely trade anything in the game you want with any other player, as long as they agree to it. This can be done at any point, with anyone, and with anything. This does not use any of your action points. You can also complete quests without taking an action. Generally this happens when you move to a certain space at the cost of a move action, whilst being in possession of the specific items you had previously gathered from a collect resources action. When you move onto the three and six spaces on the notoriety board, you will be instructed to draw a black market card. These cards will give you additional powers and opportunities, quite often to take items or money from other players. Note some cards have a 4 plus symbol on the bottom and are only meant to be used with the specific player counts. This carries on until someone reaches ten points. At which point if this is the last player who just had their turn, the game ends. Otherwise, all players have one more turn until they have had equal turns. In the case of a tie, if more than one player reaches ten notoriety points, then the player with the most coins win. Is it Fun? Pick-up-and-deliver is a limited mechanic. Is restricts a game to a fairly similar pattern of play. Merchants of Karanor develops this as far as the mechanic can go, offering multiple paths of scoring from this one mechanic. Pick up and take something from one place on the board to score points, either via a quest, constructing a commerce building, or making a delivery. It's all pretty much the same thing. Move, collect resource, move again, drop off resource, But it feels more than that. The game has gone the extra mile to bring a story to the game. Either via your own characters back story, or from the quests you undertake during the game. Some p[layers will be able to develop on this story and enhance their own game play experience. You can bring a real narrative sense of adventure to the table if you get into the back stories and quests. For others who don't want to do this, it could become quite abstract, and a simple race to move things around a board. Which side of this fence you fall depends on your own style of play and which games work for you. I enjoyed the sense of adventure this game brings to the table. Karanor is a bright, colourful world, full of exciting (if a little clichéd) stories. I liken it a little to Tales of Arabian Nights in this respect. If you enjoyed that game, then this will feel similar, a little more constructed and formed, but perhaps a little more enjoyable. It doesn't quite have the same crazy plot twists, but it has more structure and certainly more control in terms of game length. In essence, like most pick-up-and-deliver games, this is a race based on efficiency. Who can make the best decisions to collect the most points as quickly as possible through careful planing. There is some strategy too based on the options available. You could win this game without ever building a Villa for example. Conversely, you could win the game having built all of them. It very much depends on which route to victory you wish to employ. I very much enjoyed my time in Karanor. It is a wistful and adventurous place. I enjoyed moving around the board. Using and developing my skills. Becoming more efficient in my actions, and building up my own personal engine. I was conscious of the race element throughout, and this kept the tension high, my focus keen, and my engagement in the game strong. Pick-up-and-deliver certainly is not my favourite mechanic, but I enjoy the race, engine building, and character development in this game. However, my favourite part hands down is the constant sense of satisfaction you get throughout the game from completing lots of little tasks. Which in truth, does come from the pick-up-and-deliver mechanic. Being able to gain lots of small rewards, constantly feels good to me. I always liken this to a game of American Football versus Football. In Football, games are often won or lost by the odd goal. It is a huge moment in the game that the rest of the match builds up to and focuses around. This is seen in some board games where you work towards a big task that pays off with a massive reward. It feels great when you get there but it may not happen more than once per game. Whereas with American Football, there are constant moments of jubilation, not just when your team scores, but also when you defend a third down, or get a first down as the attacking side. Any time you score or course is the biggest cheer, but there are additional smaller moments throughout the encounter that all feel great too. They contribute to your overall sense of enjoyment from the experience. Merchants of Karanor feels like this. You are constantly getting a little buzz of dopamine for delivering a certain group of objects to a certain spot of the board. There is a real sense of satisfaction from this. It is not massive. But you are rewarded with this feeling regularly. I will be interested to see how this game does at kickstarter. I feel the pick-up-and-deliver mechanic and box art may put some people off, but if it does get a chance to shine, and get to your table, I think you will be pleasantly surprised.

Vengeance Roll & Fight WBG Score: 8.5 Player Count: 1-4 You’ll like this if you like: Vengeance, 90's computer games, Escape: The Curse of the Temple Published by: Mighty Boards Designed by: Gordon Calleja, Noralie Lubbers, Dávid Turczi Vengeance came out in 2018 and received mixed reviews. It was essentially the board game version of living in a Quentin Tarantino inspired film. Kill Bill the board game! Some people loved it but others criticised the ruleset and said it may suit a roll-and-write style game more. Interestingly, it seems the designer Gordon Calleja may have listened to this because he then teamed up with Noralie Lubbers and Dávid Turczi and created Vengeance Roll & Fight a roll-and-write version of the game. Cleaning up the rules. Simplifying the game play. And adding in what others felt was missing. Let's set it up and see how it plays. Set Up Each player must take a player board and random den board, choosing one side to play on, along with a erasable marker. Then lay out 24, 35, or 46 dice depending on if there are two, three, or four players at the table. Each player will then choose from one of the four hero's to play as, and take the eight ability tiles, four items, the one hero trait card, and hero piece of their chosen character. They will play the hero piece on the start space on their den board, and lay the items on their player board with the ability tiles alongside it. Then shuffle the nine boss cards, and deal one to each player. Each person will then mark the health for their selected boss on their den board. Finally place the three flashback dice onto the flashback tile, and place this in the middle of the table for all to see. Play is ready to begin. How to Play The games works in four phases. The first is the flashback phase. This is where the three flashback dice are rolled and placed onto the flashback board. Players can then take the three flashback dice benefits, as well as adding one final benefit of their choice. This will allow players to either purchase a new ability to replace one of the four on their board. Or, players can increase their training or loot by marking of two or one space on the respective track. Alternatively, you could heal two injuries previously incurred or improve your total health by one. Or finally, 'recon' one ability, meaning you can mark it, to use it in phase three without having to assign dice to activate it in phase two. Increasing your training will allow you to add more advance abilities in later rounds. There are also points available at the end of the game if you reach the later stages of the training track. Purchasing allows you to activate one of your items to use in a later phase three. Looting is all about end game points, and getting as far up the track as possible. When all players have made their choices and upgraded as many abilities as they want to, phase two begins. All players will take four dice from the pool, and when all players are ready, begin rolling them, over and over, in real-time. There is no turn order here, and players can re-roll as many dice, as often as they want. Players are looking to match the symbols on their active abilities, so they can use them in phase three. All players begin with the same basic four abilities, but can upgrade them in phase one as discussed. In order to ready an ability to use in phase three, such as the DASH action, you need to roll two SPRINTS symbols, now in phase two. If you do, you can move those two dice close to your board so show it has been activated, then take two more dice from the pool so you have four again, and then start trying to roll dice to match another ability. Players can keep rolling like this until one of three things happen. Either players will roll all the dice needed for all four of their active abilities. Or the dice pool runs out, and you cannot draft back up to four again. Hence, players wanting to roll as quickly as possible so other players do not take all the dice first. Or, finally, players could roll too many blood symbols. When you roll a blood symbol, that dice cannot be used again. So, you will be down to three dice. However, if you ever roll more than one blood symbol at once, you can place one of them onto your health tracker on your board and get all the other dice back. This will force you to loose one health at the end of this phase, but keeps your rolling options alive to meet the requirement for any abilities that need two or three dice. When you match dice to an ability, you can then also take back any blood dice not placed onto your health tracker. So, this is how you can roll blood but then later try and achieve abilities that need four dice. This also shows how dice can be cycled through quickly and the group pool can run out. So, you better roll quick! When the rolling round is over, players will then use any abilities they activated in phase two, or any abilities they were able to activate in phase one with the RECON ability, now in phase three on the Den Board. Players are looking to move through rooms, clearing out any Minions, completing the Objectives, collecting loot, and finally reaching and defeating the end-of-level boss. Players will be doing this by moving, hitting, shooting, and other upgraded skills they acquire to get through the Den as efficiently as possible. There are multiple rooms and only four rounds to do this in. For your first few games, you will wonder how this is possible! But after learning the mechanics of this game, you will see how to become more organised and methodical with your actions. It comes together quickly. After all players have used all available actions, then the final Resolution phase begins. Here players will remove any Recon abilities they circled, and collect any Loot from new rooms they visited this round. When you enter a new room you will mark off that room on the board, and if that room has a white star in it, you can mark that off now, and also one loot on your player board for each star marked on your den board. Or, you can choose to take a loot flashback action, the available options in the first flashback phase. Any henchmen or boss still alive in the room you are in, or any gunman in an adjacent room will force you to loose one health at this point. If you fill your health track, you can clear all your wounds, but you will now be forced to use one less dice in the next rolling phase. Do this again and you will be dead. It is rare that this will happen, but there are only four rounds to get through. So, if it does, you won't have too long to wait. After the forth round, all players will score for how far they were able to advance in their loot and training tracks. They will score for all health taken from the boss, with a further five bonus points available if you were able to fully defeat the boss. Each completed room objective will score you additional points as shown on the Den board. Finally, players will loose one point for every enemy still alive in any room they visited. Work out your score, and the highest points total wins. Is it Fun? Vengeance Roll & Fight is a beautifully crafted game. The phases and rounds move incredibly smoothly and you will fly through each game in no time at all. We found that after a few games, after we were used to the rules and mechanics, we were taking between 20 and 25 minutes for each game. This felt perfect for a game like this because it feels so akin to a a video game, both in looks but also gameplay. You want a game like this to be fast, frantic, and full of fun. Vengeance Roll & Fight certainly delivers on all of that. The different Dens do not feel that diverse, but offer some variety game to game. Each of the four playable characters has a nice little twist to their weaknesses though. This is where the main replayability, other than you own desire to get better comes in. This game is less about positive variable player powers and more about asymmetric negatives. Each hero character has a unique trait that makes fighting with them harder. As much as I like gaining benefits in games, having a negative characteristic in this way works well. Everyone has flaws right? Why not in games! it is a clever way to make playing as each character a unique puzzle to work out. Each phase gives it's own individual sense of excitement to the game. Phase one is all about strategy and forward planning. It's nice to forward plan through all four rounds of the game. Thinking about how you best want to score this game. Phase two is all about thinking fast, getting lucky, and rolling quickly! Can you fulfil all four of your actions before the dice pool runs out, or you roll too many blood symbols. Phase three is all about careful planning of your route, whilst thinking about how you can maximise your points. There are a lot more rooms than you can initially get through, so you need to decide which rooms will score the most for you with your available actions. Each phase plays very different. But feel very connected. As you move from your main board to your player board, it's a little bit like moving from the save screen and sorting your items and character set up to the main action screen in a video game. So, as much as the two boards are separated, they do not feel disconnected. What does feel a little disconnected though is your own game with the other players around the table. The only time you interreact with the other players is during the rolling phase, where it may be that they take dice that were initially available to you away from your grasp. I suppose it wouldn't work being on the same Den as players would take enemies and items away from other players, but a larger Den board, with more items and bad guys to fight, in a co-op seems like a very cool idea. However, there is an option there... Having now played this game, I am very intrigued to try the original Vengeance but also, very keen to see how the recent kickstarter for Fateforge Chronicles of Kaan plays. Fateforge utilises some similar game mechanics to Vengeance Roll and Fight in a story-driven, co-operative, scenario based RPG, where all players are playing together on the same board. I would also like to get the second season, a stand-alone game, which adds more characters, items, bosses, dens, abilities and the opportunity to play this game in an eight! I would recommend this to anyone who enjoys roll-and-write games, was a fan of 90's and noughties side scrolling video fighting games, but enjoys the process of absorbing themselves into the game, without relying too much on other players and interaction with other people around the table to enjoy their game time. I very much enjoy the process of playing this game. It is very satisfying to develop my skills, and improve my score. Which is something that I have seen happen to most people who have played this. A few people will get this right away. But most will improve their skills and understanding of the mechanics over time, and will see a steady progression in their points game after game. Vengeance Roll & Fight is one of my favourite roll-and-write games. I love the theme, and the integration between the gameplay, mechanics, and setting is seamless. I very much enjoy developing my understanding of this game, and scoring well is wildly satisfying. Every game ends with me wanting to play again, and in fact, that's exactly what I am going to do now!

Gardeners WBG Score: 8 Player Count:1-4 You’ll like this if you like: Magic Maze, Galaxy Trucker, Pakal. Published by: Sit Down! Designed by: Kasper Lapp This is a prototype copy provided for free by the publisher. The final game will have extra cards, and potentially some minor changes to the art. Back in 2017 Kasper Lapp decided to bring a world of fun/stress to everyone's lives, with potentially the most passive-aggressive game component ever made, the "DO SOMETHING!" pawn in Magic Maze. Even the name split opinion. I was a big fan, but a lot of people did understandably find it very stressful, overly tense, and essentially the cardboard conduit to family arguments. But the game did offer something interesting. A cooperative, real-time, campaign game with limited communication with a wonderful learning curve. This fascinated me and I have followed designer Kasper Lapp with great interest ever since. Lapp's latest release, Gardeners brings back more real-time, limited communication, in a campaign (of sorts). This time with a pattern recognition mechanic, and garden theme. Let's get it to the table and see how it plays. Set Up There are three training modules, as well as a beginner and normal mode. Depending on which one you are doing, the instructions will show you which cards and tiles to take. Separate the tiles into equal piles and place them face up in front of each player. If you are using it, (depending on which module or game version you are playing) place the sand timer into a central space, determine who will be the first player and flip over the timer to start the game. How to Play You will now have 15 minutes to complete the cards in the game you are playing. In the main normal or beginner game, this is all of the cards. In the training modules, this will be the specific cards to that module. The game asks you to play through the three modules and then the beginner mode before you play the full game. I did this on my first go, and it was fun. A good way to learn the game and a nice little 'campaign.' But in later plays with other players, I did go straight to the normal mode and it was fine. Perhaps this wouldn't be ideal for two new players though. But if one person knows the game, I don't think it's necessary to go through all the modules unless you want too. At the start of the game, all tiles will be in front of each player in piles. Players can add them into a central play area, forming a 4x4, 5x5, or 6x6 grid. Depending on which module you are playing. The normal game plays with a 6x6. You can play as many tiles as you like, as often as you like, when ever you like. This game is in real-time. There are no turns. You can place your tiles wherever you like as long as they touch another tile orthogonally. (On the sides, top or bottom). Obviously the first tile can go anywhere. At the start, players will simply be trying to get their tiles down as quickly as possible, meeting the criteria of the one single card that has thus far been drawn. When all the tiles are down, if the card requirements have been satisfied then the person who drew that card, declares a group success, and the next person round the table will draw the next card. Players will then try to rework the grid of tiles to satisfy the new card, whilst maintaining the first cards requirements as well. To do this, you can take tiles out from the grid and pass them to other players for them to put back into another location. You cannot take tiles out and replace them yourself. The grid will be re-worked like this until it meets both cards requirements. At which point the person who draw that second card will declare success, and a third card will be drawn by the next player, or the first player again in the case of a two-player game. When this is done, the next player will draw a forth card, but the first card will now be "scored". It is removed from the game, and it no longer needs to be considered. So, you will only ever have three cards maximum to work to. Play will continue like this until the 15 minute timer runs out, or all the cards are completed. At which point you will score points based on how many 'scored' cards you managed to work through. In the other versions of the training modules you will just need to work through the five or six cards. But in the main game, you keep going until the timer runs out. There are way more cards than there is time to do them. So, it is about your score, not time. Here's the Twist(s)! Sounds simple right. And it would be if this was it. But just like Magic Maze, in Gardeners you cannot talk to other players during the game. When you are taking tiles out and placing it in front of other players for them to replace into a new location, they may have no idea where to put that tile. Or know why you took it out. Because... wait for it, there is another twist. When a player draws a card, only they can look at it. The other players can only see the reverse of the card which will give limited information as to what that card requires, but not the full and exact details. Only the player that draws it will know this, and they cannot tell the other players what is specifically needed. The cards are mainly about building patterns. A line of flowers. Greens must be in at least groups of two. Paths must be at least two tiles long. But there are also cards that are a little different. No pinks on the outside edge. A bench must face another bench. All reds must be on the outer rows. On the reverse of the card, all players will know what type it is. But the exact card, colour or specific tile will not be revealed to all players, just the one person who draws it. For example, this card tells the other players it requires a bench to face some thing specific. They just won't know exactly what that is. Is it Fun Enjoying Gardeners will be reliant upon two major factors. How much you enjoy the pressure of working against a timer in real-time. And doing so collaboratively, relying on another player to understand your intentions, when you are unable to talk to them. I appreciate how this will not be for everyone. But for those of you who do enjoy this sort of game, Gardeners does this very well. I think the success of a game like this comes from the risk/reward scale. How much risk is there of you or your fellow team mates getting frustrated by the game or each other. How much reward will come if this go well. This is why games like The Mind polarise so much. Some people find huge satisfaction to doing well in that game. And the euphoria from winning, or even just doing ok, is enough to cover the frustration when you don't so well. Whether Gardeners has enough reward to make up for the intentional frustrations born from the limited communication and real-time nature of the game will be up to you. But I will try and distill it now for you so you can make an educated decision prior to playing the game. First up, let's talk about the rewards. Under pressure, with limited communication, when you get this right cooperatively, it feels good. Really good. And let's face it, the things that feel better in life are generally the things we have had to work harder for. And this certainly does take a bit of work. And in games, I think most people are ok with a bit of work. People don't mind games being hard if they are workable. Hard is different to broken. But I would argue this is not even hard. It just takes a moment to get into the groove. Again, like The Mind, in Gardeners you do need to sync with your fellow players. Getting into a similar head space. Which brings me onto the risk. If you are not in the same head space as the other player(s), but think you are, then other player(s) will start doing things that to you seem silly. Whereas that other player would obviously not be playing badly on purpose, and they may think that what you are doing is wrong. Or maybe they or you, or both of you are just confused. Either way, this will lead to frustration for all players. I have found that in this situation, you need to just pause. Reset your mind, and go again. But in Gardeners, you cannot do this. When you flip the timer, you won't ever pause the game. You do not stop until the game ends. There is no rest. No opportunity to pause and collect your thoughts. And this non-stop pressure can get to some people. For me, I really enjoy this sort of game and the pressure it creates if I am in the right headspace. But then, what game does not work better when you are in the right head space. So, that may not be a fair criticism, or even comment. But I would say that this game does rely a little more on players being mentally prepared for it more than most other games. But when they are in the right place, and things click, this game feels like such a joy. You feel in sync with the other players. Working collectively, in silence, towards a common goal. And the satisfaction that comes from this quiet efficiency is wonderful. I get a real sense of achievement from playing this game. It binds me to the other players I am playing with. I take a lot of satisfaction from beating previous scores and seeing if I can improve with my teammate(s). This is just a preview, but I have given it a score as the game feels complete to me. However, there will be additional cards that add more to the gameplay which I am very excited about trying in the final retail copy. I would highly recommend this game to anyway that enjoy real-time coop games with limited communication, and is looking to add something unique to their collection that rewards good team work, and concertation. I await the final game with great anticipation!

Shifting Stones WBG Score: 8 Player Count: 1-5 You’ll like this if you like: Cascadia, Azul, Coatl Published by: Gamewright Designed by: J. Evan Raitt There are some games that pass you by because they have a generic name, or unappealing cover. We can't all play every game (as much as I try!) so this is fine. We have to filter out some games, some how! But there are a few games that go unnoticed for these reasons when they deserve so much more. At risk of spoilers, (not that you haven't already looked at the score out of ten) Shifting Stones is one of these games. It looks somewhat generic, but offers a brilliant game experience. Let's get it to the table and see how it plays. Set Up Setting up Shifting Stones can be done in under a minute. Simply lay out the nine tiles in a random order in a three-by-three grid like the below. They are all double sided so it doesn't matter which way they lie. Then shuffle the cards and deal each player four cards and give each player a reference guide card. The darker card goes to the starting player. You are now ready to begin. How it Plays Learning and teaching the game is just as simple. Players will now take it in turns to play as many cards from their hand as they wish. Cards can be use for one of three things. You can either discard a card to flip two adjacent tiles position with each other, or to flip over a tile to show the reverse side. Or you can meet one of the cards placement criteria to score points. Each card has a number showing how many points the mission is worth, and a few tiles laid out showing what you need to match on the grid to achieve this mission. You can play as many cards as you like. All four, or none if you prefer. If you choose none, you can draw two extra cards to have six available to you on your next turn. You cannot take this option twice in a row. After playing cards, draw back up to four cards and then play moves to the next player. In a two player game, when one player completes their tenth mission the game ends on that round. For a three player game it's nine. Eight missions for a four player and seven for a five player. Players will total their points from completed missions, with the player who completed the most missions with a value of one being given a bonus of three points. The player with the most points wins. The missions vary from having certain coloured tiles in a specific orientation and position on the grid. Sometimes next to other tiles. Other times in certain positions next to any other tile. When a gray tile is shown, this means this can be any tile. Remember, any card can be used to move tiles, or flip them over. So if there is a mission that looks too tricky based on the current configuration of the board, use it to complete other missions instead. The trick of the game is decided which cards to use as missions, and which to use to manipulate the board. There is a solo variant where you sort out 16 cards made up of eight one pint card, four two pointers, three lots of three pointers, and one five point card. On your turn, if you fail to complete a card you gain one strike. The game ends if you collect four strikes. You win if you can score all 16 cards. it works very well and only takes ten minutes in total. Is it Fun Shifting Stones is so simple to set-up, learn and play, and looks fairly generic, but this game is fantastic. It is so satisfying to play. Constantly completing little missions throughout games is a feature I always enjoy. You are regularly rewarded throughout the game and feel good for the entirety of the game. Win or loose. The game is a race game. First to required completed missions ends the game. But this won't mean you will win if you get there first, or loose if you don't have the required missions. As each mission is worth a different amount of points, you could win the game with less missions if you chose harder cards with a higher point value. There are a lot of ways to try and win this game. But don't forget the single point missions reward the player with a bonus of three additional points for the person who completes the most of them. And as the single point mission are the easiest and quickest to complete, you could race through these a lot quicker. If you notice one player is doing this, I have found that often other players will follow suit to avoid not falling too far behind. And if they don't it will be tricky to beat them. But ideally, you want a balance of high and low scoring cards to be most effective. If you want to try and complete some more complicated missions for the higher rewards you need to bear in mind that the board will change significantly between the end of one turn and the start of another. Other players will be moving and flipping tiles too, and changing the layout to suit them. Not just you. You cannot make changes and expect them to still be there on your next turn. However, this can of course work in your favour if you get lucky. You will always have four potential missions in your hand, and in most games, I have found there is at least one occasion when the board develops into a mission I was not planning on going for from the movement of other players. To do well in this game I think you need to adapt and react to the board you are presented and complete the missions best suited to the board in front of you. Each tile is double sided, and it can take a few games to get your head round the configuration of each one. Thankfully the game comes with these handy reference guides showing you what is on either side of each tile. You will be referring to this a lot in your first few games! But it is no chore, and very easy to read. They also show the entirety of the rules on the other side! I would recommend this game to anyone looking for a new abstract strategy game that can be played quickly, but delivers a high sense of satisfaction. This is a perfect filler game in that it can be played in a short space of time, set-up and taught quickly, but still brings a feeling that you have played a proper game. It will test you mind. And leave you feeling like you have enjoyed the process of battling against your friends. All in under 20 minutes. It is hard to describe how satisfying it is to play this game because there is so little to it. Which is a terrible thing to say in a review! But it certainly feels like Shifting Stones brings a lot to the table, without any complicated rules or components. Simple beauty. Simple efficiency. A beautiful puzzle to try and solve, game after game.

Skate Summer WBG Score: 8 Player Count: 2-5 You’ll like this if you like: Clank! Tony Hawks video games. Skateboarding! Published by: Pandasaurus Games Designed by: Randy Reiman Were you into Tony Hawks when you were younger? Yeah! me too. I was obsessed. I still have my signed PS2 copy. So many hours of my life went into that game. Sadly, when I tried to get on a board in real life I was never quite as good! But I tried. For a few weeks at least. Thankfully, in my 40's, Pandasaurus has spared us all more scrapped knees and sore wrists by making a board game all about skate boarding. Sounds cool? Well, let's get it to the table to see how it plays. Set Up Lay out the main board into the centre of the table and then place one large and then one small goal token face down onto each circular space. Place the endgame marker on either 50, 70, or 90 points depending on what game length you want. Shuffle the trick deck and special trick deck and place them face down by the board along with the flame and manual tokens and dice. Then, each player will choose one player to play as, and will take their coloured board, skateboard mini, player landing marker, and score marker. Each player will set their board up with each upgrade space covered with the appropriate marker. Place the balance token into the centre of the balance track, and give each player five trick cards, one manual move token, and a skill cube of each colour which they place into the bottom space of their skill tracks. Finally, place your skater meeple into the central space of the board. You are now ready to play. How it Plays The object of the game is to collect as many points by doing trick combos with your cards, that score you skill points. But also allow you to move around the main board, and collect items, upgrade your board, and visit each of the "S", "K", "A", "T", "E", and "R" locations. The game works in three main phases as well as a final clear up phase. The first of these is where players will simultaneously try and play as many of their tricks cards onto the board as possible. This is a brilliantly tense push-your-luck phase of the game where each card you play increases your points in phase two, and your movement options in phase three. But also increases the risk of bailing. As you play each card, you need to move your balance accordingly. Tricks will give you flame or goal tokens, and the more you get, the more your balance is upset. Once the card is played you must then roll one dice per card played, plus the direction dice, telling you which way your balance could be upset further by the balance dice. So, the more cards you play, the more dice you must roll. And the riskier it will become that you will loose your balance and bail. If you do, you must remove the final card you just played and half of your flame tokens. If you don't bail you can then either carry on, or land your trick. If you land your trick without bailing you can then advance one of your skill cubes. It's quite a big difference between success and failure. But you can control your luck to some extent. As you play the cards, you can choose which way you move your balance token. You can try to re-balance each trick. And there is the opportunity to improve your balance on both the right and left side by visiting the upgrade slots on the main board. As the game progresses you become a better skater and will be able to play more cards with less risk. If you managed to get any cards into the space on your board under the diamond shaped special trick token, you can take the top card of the special trick deck. These can be used now as extra cards to play on your board, or saved for the third phase. As soon as players bail or land you must then place your landing token onto the landing track on the left side of the main board. This will determine the movement order in the third phase and reward each player with a certain benefit. Once each player has either landed or bailed, you will then move to the second phase and score each card played that is still on your board, based on your current position on the skill track. Big points are awarded for big tricks. It feels great! At this stage, you can use the flame tokens you have earnt to upgrade your skill track to earn more points, or save them for the third phase. In the third phase, you are now moving around the main board. Any card you played in the first phase can be used to help you move. Each hex on the main board has a coloured ramp or rail. You must play the matching coloured card to move onto this space. You can also use any free movement manual tokens, or special trick cards as wild cards to move onto any space. If you move onto a space with a token on, you can pick it up in exchange for one flame token. These will get you various bonuses such as points, extra movement, as well as the goal icons which score with an area majority rule at the end of the game. The player with the most of each icons gets eight points. Four points for the player in second. Players are looking to move around to each of the upgrade spaces, whilst collecting points. If you visit all six of the upgrades spots you will gain a bonus of ten points at the end of the game. There are a few short cut spaces on the board including revert ramps and the central big air space, which allow you to jump forward a number of spaces. The big air space is controlled by the big air dice. When you move to this space you can roll this dice and move forward up to four spaces in any one direction. When every one has played all the movement cards and manual tokens they want, the clean up phase occurs. If anyone has reached the end goal points total then this will be the last round. If not, each player will retrieve their landing marker, reset their balance, deal back up to their hand limit, and pass the first player marker. A next round will then begin. Is it Fun Skate Summer is so much fun. Each phase feels very different, but also quite connected. I love multi-use cards, and in this game the cards use feels quite unique. As it is not that you can choose to use them for different things, it's more that you are always using them for different things. In phase one you are using them for tricks, trying to pick the card that will best keep your balance, but also score you as many points as possible in phase two. But you also need to pay close attention to what coloured cards you will need for movement in phase three, whilst concentrating on the benefits the cards will give you immediately in phase one. It's such a great thought process. Each card will be used three times. Each round. For multiple purposes. Choose wisely! I love the push-your-luck element in phase one. It feels so tense to play additional cards beyond the first two or three. The way the number of dice you have to rolls ramps up, but the higher rewards for each card played balances this off is so good. As you can use each card three times for re-balancing and getting special trick cards, points, and movement, there is always the temptation to push your luck. Despite the punishment for bailing being quite high. I don't mind push-your-luck punishing you when the rewards are high. This is what makes a good push-your-luck game. High risk. But also, high reward. Skate Summer does this brilliantly. The points on offer in phase two really ramp up. As you get the ability to play more cards by increasing your hand limit and improving your balance skills, you will advance from stopping at three or four cards, to five, six or even beyond, within a few rounds. Then, when you move into phase three, the game changes quite a lot. It goes from a push-your-luck card management game, into a point-to-point grid movement bonus collection game. Both feel very different from each other, but beautifully connected within the same game. As you make this switch from the different phases and parts of the game multiple times across the many rounds you play, it feels seamless. Switching just the once would feel jarring. But moving backwards an forwards between the two makes it work well. I see it as going from up a close up, insular look at my skater mind. Planning my tricks and looking closely at my board. Then, moving to performing those tricks with a more top down look at my skater from a third person perspective. In my mind, I am just switching the viewing angle on the screen. Everything in this game works brilliantly with the theme. The art, names of the tricks, use of different tokens and the meeples. It feels to me like the designers of this game have really done their research to create a skater game for the masses, but that real skaters would respect too. It all just works so seamlessly. Looks so great. And has a real sense of development as you play, advance your skaters abilities, and start scoring bog points. I always enjoy games where there are different ways to score, and Skate Summer delivers this. At first, it will feel like the main way to score if in phase two. Scoring for the cards you played in phase one. But as the game develops you will become more aware of the other ways to improve your score. The area majority scoring with the three goal tokens is a very interesting addition in this game. I love every part of it other than the three random icons they chose. I guess we are collecting spray cans to paint some street art, or tag our name somewhere? And perhaps the crates are to help build some ramps and do some tricks on? Or is this because the very first skate boards were made from old crates? But what is the school bell for? Are we setting or the alarm? Or excited school is over? Or breaking in? The characters in the game feel a little old for this, and I am not sure all skaters are criminals?! Just feels odd to me. Anyway! The idea is fun. And I like how all the tokens you can pick up on the main board have these symbols on, so you can chose which ones to go for in order to try and win the area control part on each of these three icons. But they also have a secondary benefit hidden underneath as well. I like the art of the different characters in the game. They look great and the names are a good example of how fans of the game can come together and vote on suggested names to create a better theme and game. It is just a shame there are no unique powers for each skater. It would seem like a very obvious and easy additional to have a small amount of asymmetric powers in the game where each skater has a special signature trick only they can do. Or a power where they can do extra combos, get bigger air when jumping, or score more points for certain tricks. It would make choosing which character to play as a little more interesting. Playing Skate Summer for the first time, I fell in love with it instantly. I love the theme and feel they have delivered on this perfectly. The various phasing in the game work so well and integrate together perfectly to form a seamless experience that feels as close to performing tricks and riding around a city as sitting down at a table and playing a game could. The colours and art style nod perfectly to the culture without being too touristy, whilst the names, icons, and rules do not alienate people who are not skaters. I would recommend this game to anyone who is looking for a board game this is bright, colourful, fun, and offers a theme that is original and unique, and one that might appeal to a younger audience. But still a game that still delivers some crunchy, fun decisions, that will make you feel like you have played a proper game at the end of it. it is hard to see what came first in this game. The mechanics or the theme. I assume theme. But the mechanics work brilliantly with this world and have been built into the skating world in a very cleverly crafted way. Anyone who is moderately interested in skating and board games will be in heaven with this game. That is an obvious target audience. But I also think people like me who were never out on a board much but are fans of the skating video games will absolutely adore this. Kudos to Panadsaurus for taking on this ambitious theme and delivering it in such a good way. The only real downside I can see is that it has made me itchy to get my old board out and try again. And I think we all know that this will only end in one way!

Kites WBG Score: 8 Player Count: 2-6 You’ll like this if you like: Captain Sonar, Magic Maze, Escape: Curse of the Last Emperor. Published by: Floodgate Games Designed by: Kevin Hamano Rule book here Just look at this box. So serene. So calm. Doesn't it just make you want to go and fly a kite? And sing that song! Ahhhhh. Lovely. Ok, well remove all those relaxed thoughts from your mind, as things are about to get tense! Kites is a real-time cooperative team game that brings elements of Magic Maze and The Mind to the table. With all the stress of those games, but also, all the joy of victory. Making it so addictive and fun to play. Let's get it to the table and see how it plays. Set Up Place all the sand timers into the centre of the table on their sides. Space them out a bit so people can grab them from all sides. We quite like to order them in time order, so it is easier to play the game. As each timer has a different length, I would certainly suggest doing this for your first few frantic games! The red is the quickest at 30 seconds. The orange runs for 45 seconds, the yellow and white are a minute, blue is 75 seconds, and the purple is the longest at a minute and a half. Then separate the expansion cards, unless you are trying to strike down upon your friends great vengeance and furious anger. With the remaining cards, shuffle the deck and deal three, four, or five cards each depending on player count. Each card has either one or two coloured symbols on. The colours represents the kites/timers, and when played, you must flip the associated sand timer over. There is no white colour on any of the cards, but this timer can be flipped with any single colour card. When everyone is ready, the game is started by the white timer being flipped. How to Play Players will now take it in turns to play one card, re-drawing from the communal deck to their full hand size each time. As cards are played, timers will be flipped. The idea is that all players will be trying to keep all the kites in the air, by not letting the timers run out. Players are working together in this process. There are no communication limits. So, you can calmly point out to your friends which timers may be coming close to running out. Or, your choice, scream wildly "red, red, someone flip the red!" If any of the timers run out, that is game over for all the players. You can check your score based on how many cards are left in your hands, but let's face it, you lost, Move on and try again. But if you manage to keep them all up and play all the cards, you win the game! When the deck runs out and players can no longer re-draw, the white timer can now no longer be flipped, so the intensity increases as players rush to play all the cards in their hand, still in turn, before the white timer runs out. Flipping the white timer over just before the deck runs out is a key part to your success. Is it Fun? Kites is frantic fun. If you don't like real-time games, or playing under a time pressure, you will not enjoy this game. But if you enjoy the communal satisfaction, of working towards a team task, under a time pressure, this could well become one of your favourite little card games ever made. I absolutely adore this game. I find huge satisfaction from winning this game with my friends. And when we loose, which is far more common, I just want to play again and again until we win. But I have not found this to be the case with all of the people I have played this with. So, my score for this game must be taken with a pinch of salt. You need to make your own mind up based on how much you enjoy this sort of game. As the game moves so fast you don't really get the opportunity to enjoy the art on the cards. But here, whilst we are not playing, take a moment to appreciate the work of Beth Sobel. It's gorgeous. Beth is the genius behind Wingspan, Cascadia, and Arboretum, to name just a few. Quite a resume. The three mini expansions are a nice add on. If you get to a point with your group where you are winning all the time, they are a nice add in. I personally just like the purity of the base game and don't feel the need to make the game harder. But they are a nice, simple addition. Just add them into the deck before you shuffle and deal some cards out. The Storm card is my favourite. When you draw this card, you must say out loud "A storm is coming" to warn all the other players what is about to happen. On your next turn you must play this card and immediately flip all of the timers. When you draw the Crossed Lines card, you have to keep this secret. Like the Storm card, when you draw the Crossed lines card you must play it on your next turn and announce "Crossed lines." All players must then swap one card from their hands with the player to the left, and with the player to their right. The final mini expansion is the Airplane card. Like the Crossed line card must be kept secret when drawn, and like both other expansions must be played immediately on your next turn. This time, saying "Airplane." The noise from the plane means that no players can talk until the airplane is covered up by another card on the person that played this card's next next turn. This creates a huge amount of pointing, humming and grunting! Frustrating fun! I would recommend this game to anyone who got to the end of the Mind, and each time enjoyed the process win or loose. People who like the challenge of a cooperative game, that can be frantic, that can be loud, that can result in more loses than wins. But that delivers a huge sense of satisfaction when do you come together as a group, play well, and win. Kites is an acquired taste, that is for sure. I have seen all sorts of people try this one, and it certainly isn't for everyone. But I love it. I love the feeling of working together in this way. Yes, it is hectic and sometimes stressful, but with that pressure comes a greater sense of achievement when it all comes together. I am not really a "high-five" kind of guy, But when I win this game, high fives are flying around all over the gaff! Some games build up over time, helping you to feel satisfied by a well developed, smart strategy. Kites comes out of the blue, jumps right into your face, screams at you for two minutes, and then rewards you with juicy Dopamine in large doses. And I'm all for that!

E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial: Light Years From Home WBG Score: 7.5 Player Count: 2-4 You’ll like this if you like: Explorers of the North Sea, Jaws, Horrified. Published by: Prospero Hall Designed by: Funko Games E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial: Light Years From Home is recent board game version of the hugely popular Steven Spielberg movie from 1982. The film is famous for its touching, family-friendly moments of magic, sci-fi, and comedy. Can the board game version recreate these feelings? Let's get it to the table and find out. Set Up First place the main board down into the centre of the table. Shuffle the E.T. powers cards and place three face up by the board with the rest in a face down deck. Then take all the item tiles, mix them up, and place one in each space on the board, avoiding the clearing in the top left of the board, and the three areas with a coloured dice symbols in. Place the mothership on its starting space half way up the right hand side of the board. Then, each player will choose who they want to play as and will take their mini, player board, and matching agent of their chosen colour. Place the mini on the bottom right space on the board and the agent near the top left on the agent marker space. Add the agency named Keys to this space too. This agent will be chasing E.T. Add the cop cars to spaces A, B, and C. And place the E.T. figure next to the spaces where the kids start. Place E.T.s health tracker next to the board with his health set to six. Take three candy tokens and place these next to a reference sheet, putting the other candy tokens next to the dice to form a pool. You are now ready to start. How to Play Starting with the last person to ride a bike, players will now take it in turns to try and save E.T. You will do this buy building three device dice out of items you find lying around the neighbourhood, attracting E.T.s mothership to Earth, and getting E.T. to the rendezvous point, whilst avoiding the agents out to get you. On your turn, you can take up to three basic actions and as many free actions as you choose. Basic actions include moving your mini up to two spaces, including along the diagonal shortcuts only accessible to the kids. You can pick up a Candy which can be used for a free action later to move E.T. to tempt him along one space. Or, you can pick up an item in a space near you. The free actions include dropping an item or Device dice you are holding, picking up or dropping E.T. in the space you are in, using an E.T. power if you currently have E.T. in your basket, teaming up with a kid on your space to use their power and/or move them with you, and finally moving E.T with Candy as we mentioned above. After using your three actions, if you have built a device and taken it to the cleaning, you can now roll any dice there. Any phone symbols rolled will bring the mothership one space closer to the clearing. If you can get the mothership to the clearing when E.T. is in one of the four spaces surrounding this then all players win the game. After you have had your three actions and rolled the device dice, you must then roll the two black dice, and the red danger dice if you have finished your move on the same space as another kid or E.T. These dice will move the cop cars closer to the clearing along their pre-designated paths, or move the agents closer to you and E.T. If all three cop cars make it to the clearing, all players loose. If an agent or cop car ever ends on your or E.T.'s space then you are caught. E.T. looses a health, you drop all your items into a nearby space, and you must move back to the starting space. If E.T.'s health drops to zero, all players loose. The way you build the device dice is buy bringing three, four, or five items (depending on which difficulty you want to play) of the same colour to each dice spot on the board, and then bringing or moving E.T. to that space to covert the items to the dice. One player must then pick up the dice and drop it off into the clearing so it can be rolled after each player's turn. You can win the game without making all three devices, but of course the more you make, the quicker you can get the mothership to the clearing. And the whole time you are doing this, the agent's will be after you, so you need to act as quickly as possible. As the agents move, you can partly choose which direction they go, but it must always be the quickest route to their assigned kid. But you can use this knowledge to try and out-manoeuvre them, to avoid detection. When you take a dangerous action, you need to roll the danger dice an extra time. Dangerous action include moving by or past an enemy, or picking up an item near an enemy. However, some of the kids have unique player powers that help them avoid this. This game is all about cooperation and getting each player to utilise their abilities so that your group works as efficiently as possible. "Teaming Up" so that you can move other players on your turn, to make their turn when it comes around more effective is a key action. But remember, if you end on the same space as another kid you will have to roll the danger die. Discussing with your group the best way to enact your turn will be key. Is it Fun? Playing E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial: Light Years From Home Game is a great experience. If you are a fan of the film (and if you're not, then you must be dead inside, a lot younger than me, or perhaps a victim of alien abduction) then you will love this. The art is straight from the movie. Not in terms of stills, but the style and wistfulness. It's beautiful and takes me straight back to my parents ugly polyester coach from the 80's when I first watched this movie and fell in love with a tiny, wrinkly, little alien. I love cooperative games like this. Games where you can pause, strategise, and decide as a group the best course of action. There is a real sense of jeopardy throughout this game. The agents are often only a few spaces from you, but you can with clever play, avoid their grasp, and keep E.T. safe. You can of course take more risks, but this again is your choice. It's fun to plan out a risky move, only to be told by another player that they can do this risk free with their special skill, and you then realise you can do something else, more effective, and less risky. But sometimes, you just have to throw the dice, and hope that luck is on your side. Utilising the power cards is crucial. In my first few games, I was too sparing with these. And I lost. But each time you use one from the three that are face up, the one you used is immediately replaced from the deck. And if you run out of the deck, you can shuffle up the discard pile and go again. As such, you may as well use them whenever they are useful. But as you can only us them when you are carrying E.T. I found our games quickly became like a game of catch with this poor little alien. We were passing him about like a ball, keeping him away from agent Keys, bringing him to the spots where he could make the devices, and using him for his power cards. I would love to see a GPS tracker of E.T.s movement around the town after a game of this! Each game of E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial: Light Years From Home Game feels tense. Every time I have won it has been very close in terms of E.T.s health. Each time I have lost, I have felt like I was very close to winning. It is so easy to adjust the difficulty by changing the amount of items you need to make the devices, this game is perfect for any age or time period you have to play. As changing the required items not only makes the game easier or harder, it adjust the game length to suit your group too. I love this option and wish more games offered this. It feels like a real adventure playing this game. It is simple enough for all my family to play, but offers a strong enough reward that keeps us all wanting to come back. Game after game. All to save that little alien! I would recommend this game to anyone who is a fan of the original film. It will take you right back to the hazy 80's when hair was big, your fizzy drinks were full of sugar, and the summer evenings seemed to never end. This is a time capsule of a game, and has been produced to a very high spec. I will treasure this game as much as I will enjoy playing it, and can see this coming out over the festive holidays, just after we have all enjoyed watching the movie, and with me sat at the table, a broad smile on my face, and my family around me.