Leaf WBG Score: 8 Player Count: 1-4 You’ll like this if you like: Canopy, Cascadia Published by: Weird City Games Designed by: Tim Eisner This is a free review copy. See our review policy here. Leaf successfully funded on Kickstarter, delivering its autumnal goodness to 3,464 backers. It is now available for all to marvel at its relaxed beauty. I love games with a strong theme, especially when that theme extends beyond the game itself and exists in the real world. By that, I mean this game feels like the perfect choice for a long autumn evening, with a blazing fire in the background, a warm drink in hand, and an evening of strategy and leaf placement ahead. But should this be on your consideration list? Let's get it to the table and see how it plays. How To Set Up Leaf First, place the Tree board and the Leaf board at the top of your shared playing area. Next, put the Animal board next to the Leaf board. Ensure it's oriented correctly for the number of players, whether it's just two or a group of three to four. Everyone selects their Player Board and takes 15 Mushroom tokens and a Squirrel token in their chosen color. Shuffle the Leaf cards and then distribute two to each player, three to player three, and four to player four. Place the remaining cards face down to form a shared Leaf deck. Put the Acorn and Sun tokens into a pile in the center of the table. Shuffle the Animal cards and create a facedown deck on the Animal board. Reveal five cards and place them in the designated spots on the Animal board. Then, put the -3 Acorn tokens next to the Animal board. Now let's set up the leaf piles. Include one Green "Sweetgum" and one Orange "Silver Maple," both marked with an "S" on the back. Position them in the center as the starting pile, ensuring their leaf tips touch. Organize the remaining leaves by their shapes, mix them up, and place them face up in the corresponding spots on the Leaf board. Be sure to locate the appropriate leaf for the top of each pile, as indicated by the starting symbol on the back. The player who last touched a tree becomes the first player. You are now ready to play. How To Play Leaf During your turn, you'll choose a Leaf card from your hand and place it on the forest floor. This action triggers based on connected leaf tips (remember, stems count too). First, play a Leaf card from your hand, then take the top corresponding Leaf of the same shape from the pile. If you have a matching leaf to discard, allowing you to play two matching cards, you can place a baby mushroom on the leaf you're putting down. When you lack Leaf cards, you must take a -3 Acorn token, draw two Leaf cards, and proceed with your turn as usual. If a specific stack of Leaves has run out of cards, you can choose the top leaf from any other stack. Arrange your chosen leaf so that it connects with others on the board, ensuring at least two tips touch. For each tip your leaf touches, you'll get actions based on that tip's color. The specific leaf you're placing isn't important; it's about the Leaves you're touching. These are the different actions: Green: Draw a Leaf card, shuffle the deck if it's empty. Yellow: Take a Sun token. If you have three Sun tokens, you can advance the Season token, which awards a lot of points. Orange: Take an Animal card and add it to the top of your player mat. Brown: Move your squirrel up one space on the Tree, claiming the rewards for your destination space. Red: Grow an existing mushroom or place a new baby mushroom. If your leaf touches others, you gain a Sun token. When someone else's mushroom is beside a recently placed leaf, they earn a Sun token. The largest Mushroom claims the token. If no large mushrooms are adjacent, Baby mushrooms each provide one Sun. One Sun per mushroom, but you can get multiple if you've touched multiple leaves. However, you won't receive Sun for touching your own leaves with mushrooms. Any animal cards that were taken that turn are replaced, and play moves to the next player. It is worth pausing at this point to admire the art on the animal cards. They are simply stunning. This pattern of play continues until the Winter mark is reached on the seasonal tracker, or if three leaf stacks are emptied. If you're the one to take the last leaf from a stack, the Season token moves, but you won't receive a reward immediately. When three stacks are emptied, Winter begins. Crossing the Frost line with the Season token causes animals to hibernate. With three frost lines, only three sets of animals can move down this way. This means each player can move down one set of animals from the top of the mat to the bottom. Only animal cards moved down this way will score at the end of the game. Crossing the "Winter" line triggers the game's end. Players get a final turn, ensuring everyone has the same number of turns, and then final scoring begins. Scoring is neatly displayed on the player mats, making it easy to run through. All animals in your Winter Den count for points, with each group scoring separately. More animals in each group mean more points. All Acorns are tallied, taking into account whether they gained or cost you points by using -3 tokens during the game. Players also score one point for every two remaining Sun tokens or Leaf cards. Points are awarded for the player who climbed the highest and second highest in the tree with their Squirrel. The slightly tricky aspect of scoring involves mushrooms. Points are scored for groups that are adjacent to each other on the Leaf pile, but only for those that have matured to full growth. The player with the most points wins; ties are determined by unplayed Sun tokens and Leaf cards. Is It Fun? Leaf Board game Review I enjoy games that offer multiple ways to play and score, especially when crafted as thoughtfully as Leaf. This game not only looks stunning but also plays exceptionally well. It's easy to explain, and I've had great experiences introducing it to newcomers in gaming, including my eight and ten-year-old children. Everyone quickly grasped the game's strategy, yet it still provides a satisfying experience for seasoned players. When you place a Leaf, a multitude of considerations arise. While the placed Leaf doesn't provide actions itself, the ones it touches do. Moreover, it creates opportunities for subsequent players. Your choice of Leaf placement also affects how many other Leaves you can touch. With various shapes, you must strategize which shape allows you to touch the most Leaves. Consider the actions you want or need, and figure out which Leaf placement facilitates accessing those options while not making it too easy for the next players. There's a lot to ponder. You can pursue diverse scoring paths, whether it's ascending the tree to the highest point or collecting animals early to build up sets. Advancing the season yields points and controls the game's pace. When will the three frosts occur, and when will the game conclude? To accomplish this, Sun tokens are crucial, requiring you to focus on building and cultivating Mushrooms for the best chance at success. Juggling multiple considerations keeps games intriguing for me, striking a balance that avoids overwhelming my mind, as in the style of Sagrada. The components are amazing as well. This is the standard version, not the deluxe. It comes with multiple boxes to organize everything neatly. Take a look at the individual boxes for each player's mushroom tokens and squirrel. It makes setup and teardown a breeze. Everything has its designated place and looks wonderful. The Leaf tiles and tree components are thick and sturdy. I understand the deluxe version elevates these to an even higher standard, but the basic ones are already pretty good I would recommend this game to anyone who enjoys games of low to medium weight that still offer a thoughtful and strategic experience. This game is perfect to play with family or a group of friends on a cosy autumn evening, watching the last rays of sun go down, while enjoying a mug of something warm and comforting. If that sounds good to you, this game could easily become one of your firm favourites. There are a few games that scream a seasonal theme. This game is the perfect Autumnal game. Not just in looks and theme, but the feel as you play too. The perfect wind down, relaxing, game experience that will make you feel good and warm inside.

Casefile: Truth & Deception WBG Score: 7 Player Count: 3-4 You’ll like this if you like: Cluedo (Clue) , Guess Who , Chronicles of Crime . Published by: Goliath Games If you have ever listened to any true crime podcasts, then you are almost certainly aware of Casefile. As one of the biggest in the genre, it has currently released over 220 episodes of intriguing dark stories of real-life cases. And now, it has spun off into a board game! Backed by the family game experts at Goliath, Casefile: Truth & Deception blends clever card play, with an elimination mechanic seen in hugely popular games such as Clue(do). Let's get it to the table and see how it plays. Set-Up Give each player a dry erase pen, (provided with the game) and one case tracker board. Place the main board and dice into the centre of the table, then separate the deck of cards into the five types. Weapon, location, Motive, Suspect, and False Evidence. Shuffle each deck separately and then choose one card at random from the first four piles (exclude the false evidence pile). Place these four cards into the confidential folder so that no one sees what they are. This becomes the answer to the game you are playing. Then, add the five decks together, shuffle them up and deal five cards to each player. Place the remaining deck in the centre of the table on the main board. You are now ready to play. How to Play Starting with the youngest player, all players will now mark off on their own sheet the cards they just received, as they know they are not the ones inside the folder. They can review any false evidence cards they were dealt, to ensure they understand how and when to use them. Then, they can ask about three separate pieces of evidence. Players can ask about any card from any category they want to find out if anyone else has. This could be to eliminate these from their investigation, knowing they are not in the central confidential folder. Or, to trick others into thinking they don't have that card, when in fact they do, so they start to think they may be in the folder. When the first player says their chosen three pieces of evidence out loud that they are looking for, all other players must then see if they have any of these cards in their hand. If they do, and they wish to trade evidence, they must total the card value for any matching card(s) they have and state this. All cards have a numerical value of one, two, or three on the top. If they have a match, and wish to trade, they will then say this number out loud for all to hear. The starting player can then decide if they want to trade with that player and will then swap them cards of equal value in return. This is the main way you can see more cards and mark off more evidence on your sheet. But other players can take note of the cards they think may be being exchanged. If no trade is made, then the starting player can simply discard one card from their hand to the central pile and replace it with a new card from the top of the draw pile. This new card can then be marked off if it was evidence. So, you will always see at least one new card. At this point, the leading player can play one false evidence card if they choose, and then play moves to the right. All players will have one turn like this until it gets back to the first player again, who at this point, will roll the deception die. The result of this will cause them to reveal a certain card to all players helping them out, or if they are lucky and roll an X, they can do nothing. Play then moves to the next player who will roll the die at the end of that round. Play will continue until one player thinks they have gathered enough evidence to make an attempt at solving the case. They must say out loud the four pieces of evidences they think is in the folder, and then have a look to see if they are right. If they are correct, they win and the game ends for all players. If they are wrong about any of the four cards, they are out and the game continues for all other players with that player out of the game. As you build up your evidence, it is worth noting that other players may be trying to fool you, or bluff certain things. Also, when people say they match evidence players are looking for and say a number value, they may of course be planning to show you false evidence, or evidence you have seen before. It won't always be the card the player asks for. It is a game of bluff, and deduction, Much like Clue(do) Is it Fun If you enjoy Clue(do) then you will most certainly enjoy this. It removes the tedious die rolling and slow progress of moving from one room to another, and focuses purely on the deduction and deception. I like Clue(do) don't get me wrong. It is a classic for a reason and I still own and cherish one copy now. But there is some frustration with it. That is removed on Casefile, and replaced with pure deduction. Adding fun and clever card play with the False Evidence cards which really do mix up the game quite a bit. You could be forced to swap your entire hand with the player next to you. Perhaps you may be forced to reveal one card from your hand to all other players. Or maybe, you could even have to give up your case tracker, and swap this with all your notes so far with another player. Being forced to try and understand their scrawl and short hand instead! If you enjoy this sort of chaos, then this game could be for you. If that sounds stressful and annoying, well, I suppose you could always remove that card. The art on the cards is all quite well done. The colour scheme is a little bland, but the pictures are clear and nothing is too gory or inappropriate for younger players. There is a small amount of flavour text on the evidence cards too, which is a nice touch, although largely irrelevant. The pens provided are a slight disappointment. They are the standard fare often provided with board games made now-a-days. But out of the four in the box, two didn't work. I am sure if I contacted the publisher I could get replacements, but I have plenty in the house. So there is no need. But it was disappointing. I like the similarities with Clue(do) but was surprised at just how similar it was. In each game of Casefile, the case is the same. All that changes is the four cards that are randomly dealt into the confidential folder at the start. It would have been interesting if the game had come with a number of different cases from the podcast, and you can chose a random one each game to try and solve. The game would be the same, but the story a little different. But perhaps each could change one rule. Or perhaps you could play a few in a row in a campaign. The absence of this seems like a missed opportunity to me. But the game is fun. I like the challenge of trying to eliminate as many pieces of evidence as quickly as possible, and trying to get to a point where you can make an educated guess as quickly as possible. All the while, under the time pressure of knowing everyone else is wanting to do the same before you do. I like this pressure. Wanting to do something thoroughly and properly. But not waiting too long so you miss out. Not many games have an ending like this. You will be familiar with it from Clue(do) but it really is quite rare. You are all aiming for a certain thing. That you can all try and do at any point. There are not set rounds. No game clock. No card or time limit. Just the players own choice as to when they go for it. It can be blunt and abrupt, and frustrating if you miss out. Frustrating too if you go for it, and get one card wrong. But the tension this brings would not be there if the ending was not as abrupt. It's hard to have one without the other. Casefile is a good game, and one I would recommend to anyone who enjoys Clue(do) and is looking for something similar. I am a little disappointed it is so similar to Clue(do) but I do like the changes they have made. The game creates a lot of tension. There is a lot of satisfaction to be found in the game from working out the clues. And the interaction between players, trading evidence, tricking others with false evidence, and mixing things up with the cards you can play, is a lot of fun. I think most will have a lot of good times with this and can see this being a real family favourite. It is no where as dark as the box art and name suggests, and I fear this may put many people off. But if you can get passed that, there is a good game to be found here.

The Animals of Baker Street WBG Score: 9 Player Count: 1-4 You’ll like this if you like: Cantaloop, Sherlock Holmes:Consulting Detective, Chronicles of Crime Published by: IELLO Designed by: Clémentine Beauvais, Dave Neale By Steve Godfrey This is a free review copy. See our review policy here If it wasn’t for the awesome Disney classic Basil the Great Mouse Detective, I probably wouldn’t have even heard of Sherlock Holmes dog Toby. Which is no surprise since he only appears in one book. Now whether you’ve heard of Toby or not, it seems like for this game he’s gone from a one off tracking dog to master animal detective and has taken on the role of mentor to some trainee animal detectives. He must be barking mad! How to train animal detectives. To set up, lay out the board and collect together the amount of time tokens as indicated on the case you're playing. Then place lock tokens on each location that the case tells you to. You’ll be using all of the four characters so either distribute these between the players or place them in front of everyone. Open up the tutorial case and play through it. You've not only set the game up, but you’ve also learnt it as well! I am gonna explain it briefly though because the rest of the review will make no sense if I don’t. Read the opening of the case in the case book. At this point I will say that putting on voices for each character is a MUST! It’s not in the rules but it’s a WhatBoardGame recommended house rule! Have a chat between yourselves and decide what location you want to investigate first. When you’ve decided, place a time marker on that space and the character token. Flip over that location card and read it out. Each character, location and item card will have either the top or bottom half of a magnifying glass on it. Locations usually have the top half and characters have the bottom. At a location you’ll need to pick a character to use. Each has their own speciality and personality and you have to pick which one to use. Calabash the spider for example is good for strength and intimidation. Then line up the character with the location and if you match the top and bottom of a magnifying glass exactly (the exact part is important) then you do the thing that's in it. Either, drawing a numbered card, placing out another time token or being forced to leave the location. Unless you're forced to leave you can use as many characters or items at a location as you’d like but choose wisely because if you make a wrong match it could cost you precious time tokens. Keep going around the board until you’ve either solved the case or you’ve run out of time tokens. In which case you’ll read the event card to see what happens next. Paws for thought. From the amount of puzzle styles games I’ve already reviewed on the site it’s probably obvious that I love this sort of game. Especially since they’re the type of games that I always do with one or both of my kids. Of course the thing with puzzle games, specifically ones aimed at families, is finding a decent balance between something that the kids will be able to solve with little to no help, and that’s going to keep the adults engaged. The Animals of Baker Street manages to successfully walk that line. So much so that I found myself shoving this in front of the kids asking to play before they’ve even had a chance to wash up their dinner plates……….ok, that’s a lie, they never wash up their plates. Speaking of lies, I’ve been lying to you, I’ve been calling this a puzzle game and it’s not. There’s no puzzles so to speak. I mean each episode is one big puzzle to solve, but It doesn’t have puzzles in the same way that an Unlock or an Exit game has. This is pure deduction and crime/ mystery solving along the lines of Chronicles of Crime or Detective or, well Sherlock Holmes. The beauty of this is that it allows you to follow a natural thread and really get invested into the story of each case. In classic mystery fashion it’s really satisfying to see how the whole thing plays out and resolves itself as you follow each lead and dig up clues (sometimes literally) to further your progress. The early couple of cases will start off relatively simple to ease you into it and will eventually start to ramp up in difficulty. Although not too difficult, it is still built with families in mind but there will be enough for you to sink your teeth into and give you that sense of achievement when you solve them. Regardless of their difficulty, each case will follow a few different paths to solving the mystery. On a few occasions we’ve played a case and checked the leftover cards and found a couple of threads or stories we didn’t uncover along the way. Chances are it would have made it easier had we followed that path, but equally it didn’t hinder us which I really appreciated. The Great Mouse Detective (and bird and spider and frog) The story/ stories across the cases are really well written and a lot of fun. You’ll quickly realise that the stories run on from each other in much the same ways as a narrative TV show. Something you learn or someone you talk to in an early case can easily turn out to be a resource or information that you can tap into in a later case. It really helps you get invested in the characters and the stories as you play each case. To get the most out of this game, as I said earlier, I definitely recommend getting into it and doing the voices for each character. Obviously this isn’t necessary but it'll be a lot more fun if you do, or even get the kids to take over a few characters and let them make the voices. My two are more than happy to let me take over reading duties purely so that they can hear me butcher various voices. My dodgy Mrs Doubtfire accent for one character is a particular highlight for them. So much so that I’m glad this is a written review and not on YouTube because now I don’t have to embarrass myself by replicating it! Normally I’d say that this game can skew a bit younger than the 10+ age on the box. However there may be a couple of lines/scenes that you as a parent might feel are a bit too strong for the younger ones. It’s not a lot and you know what your children can handle. My advice would be to just skim ahead as you read and edit it as you read but to be honest they’ve more than likely heard worse in a Disney cartoon. My initial worry was that the magnifying glass system might be too easy to guess. Like you could easily look at both cards and immediately see what would match and what wouldn’t. In very few instances that can be true, but for the most part you really can’t judge it. But that in itself makes for those lovely grit your teeth and hope for the best moments as you come achingly close to matching up a time token or a claw mark. Those time tokens are precious and losing one can determine if you manage to solve the case or not. The whole system is like a mix of Sherlock Holmes, Consulting Detective and Cantaloop (review here). It gives you the freedom of the latter to go to places and do mostly what you want once you're there, but gives you a deadline, much like the former but nowhere near as harsh. It’s just enough to keep the game interesting and not to outstay it’s welcome and put on that little bit of pressure as the time ticks down. I am SHERlocked Everything in this game, the system, the setting, the stories and the cases, all come together to make a really fun deduction game that bridges that divide that so many of these games can easily fall short on. It gives us a game that adults and the kids can get involved in and have an equally enjoyable time with. Ok, I’m off to try and figure out if and how this fits in with Basil the Great Mouse detective.

Chronicles of Avel: New Adventures WBG Score: 8 Player Count: 1-4 You’ll like this if you like: Chronicles of Avel, Forbidden Island, Horrified Published by: Rebel Studio Designed by: Przemek Wojtkowiak By Steve Godfrey This is a free review copy. See our review policy here Imagine it, you’ve just defeated The Beast (not the one from the Chase) and saved Avel. You sold all your gear, got home, had a nice long bath and are now putting your feet up ready to enjoy a nice evening in, when all of a sudden another big bad, this time one with three heads, turns up with aspirations of taking over Avel. Turns out a hero's work is never done and worst of all, you’ve just gone and sold your fancy sword so you can get a subscription to Avelflix! How to adventure…….again. The first thing you need to do is pick which of the elements from the expansion you’re going to be using then set them up as per the rules. Set up will generally be the same as the base game apart from a few tweaks depending on what your using. The Moon Monster The Moon monster is the new big bad in question and will take the place of the beast. The game is going to play out exactly the same as the base game, however, when the moon monster moves you’ll flip over two of its special tiles. One will give an immediate effect which is generally going to do some damage to you or even bring out another monster. The other will introduce a permanent effect which will last until it moves again. These will have the same attributes to some monsters from the base game like restricting which dice you can use when you attack it. If you felt the Beast was beginning to become a bit of a push over (because a giant fire monster was never going to present much of a threat) then the Moon Monster is definitely going to give you more of a challenge even on easy mode. The randomised tokens are really going to change how you approach it and even how you choose to gear up before you face off. Each time you turn a tile over is going to add a fun amount of tension as you worry about what the Moon Monster has in store for you this time! Titania and Oberon These are the Elven King and Queen of Avel and you can either add these individually or together into any of your games. Simply place the cardboard minis in their respective starting locations which will be one of the two starting tiles that have lairs on them. Oberon will hold a magical item or piece of equipment which you can buy for the cost shown on the item, when your on the same space as him. The items aren’t cheap though. To buy them you’ll need combinations of gold, weapons and even trophies in the form of monsters of certain colours. Each time you defeat a monster now you’ll collect its token so you can potentially spend it later. These items are powerful though so they’re well worth the effort. Some will give you extra dice, ways to manipulate dice and even ranged weapons that can be used as a free action. These new items are great and throw an extra layer of decision to make when it comes to preparing for the big battle at the end. Especially in terms of the monsters you decide to take on. It’s now even more tempting to take on a more difficult one just so you can use it for its rewards to snag a cool toy to use later on. Once something has been brought from him, Oberon will move round the board and have another item you can buy. Titania works much the same way but she’ll be dishing out magical spirits to help you in your adventure. You’ll only pay two coins for each spirit and buying from her is a free action (you still have to be in the same space though). Spirits go beside your board and not in your backpack and you can have as many as you want. Using them is also a free action. The spirits are also going to give you some cool one off abilities like, gaining money, recovering health, upgrading weapons, changing dice or extra movement and more. The spirits are a great way of getting some cool items for cheap, especially if you’ve been having trouble getting a decent pile of money together. One problem you can run into in the base game is not having enough money to gear yourself up and these spirits are a nice cheap way to give you a boost. I really like both of these characters. They both add some cool new stuff to go for and increase the amount of ways to help you gear up to defeat the big bad at the end. They don’t really add much in terms of complexity rules wise, of course you’ll need to look up the abilities of each item while you get used to them, but I’m going to be adding at least one of them to every game I play and I’d even throw them in if I’m teaching new players. I’m still not sure why a King And Queen are wandering round the land selling items like something out of an elven Only Fool and Horses but hey, I guess even the royalty of Avel need a hobby!. Cruel Hunters Take the six cruel hunter monster tokens and shuffle them in with the rest of the small monsters. These will work the same as the usual monsters except that when you defeat them you’ll also take a spirit token from the top of the pile. These are another easy addition and I’ll be leaving these shuffled in with the rest of the monsters. These can also be used with other game modes. The Campaign This is the big addition to the game and will let you play out a three scenario campaign. I won’t go into how each scenario plays out, I’ll leave that for you all to dive into the story yourselves. What I will say is that each one changes up how the game plays. They won’t necessarily be straight, gear up and defeat the boss at the end type missions like you’re used to. All three are nice little twists on the format and are actually a nice change of pace. All the scenarios are designed so they can be played individually so you don’t have to play out the campaign in order. But it’s definitely worth doing once so you can get a sense of the story and the context behind each one. Plus being that there’s only three you could easily finish this over a weekend with the kids. The production here is great as always. The 3d cardboard components are really cool and add a ton of tactility to the game. You will have to put everything together but once assembled they easily fit into the box. I do think it’s a shame that everything from this and the base game won’t fit into the one box, not without removing the inserts anyway, as it can feel a bit fiddly delving through both boxes to find the specific components you need. My advice would be that if there’s anything you're planning on using regularly to try and fit into the base box if you can to maybe help speed up that set up. So you finally got Avelflix The question with any expansion is “is this worth getting?” For this I’d say it depends on where you’re at with the base game. If you’re still exploring and having fun with the base game and you feel that that’s enough then it’s maybe not worth picking this up just yet. However, If you feel you've gotten enough from the base game and want to change things up then I’d say it’s definitely worth it. The new big bad is a great way to add some variety to the game without changing the core gameplay, but it is going to give you more of a challenge. The Elf king and queen, I’ll happily add at least one to the game every time just to add that extra fun bonus to strive for, plus the bonuses you can get from them are a really cool addition. The cruel hunters are easy to keep shuffled into your main monsters and again it's great to pepper in the spirits for another fun reward. The campaign is fun to play through and I love that the scenarios change the way you plan and focus your efforts during the main game and add a fun twist on the game and your goals. We’ll definitely be exploring these again on their own. If you’re looking for a bit more of a challenge and variety in your games of Chronicles of Avel then you’ll definitely be getting it with this expansion.

Expeditions WBG Score: 8 Player Count: 1-5 You’ll like this if you like: Scythe, Innovation, Dune Imperium. Published by: Stonemaier Games Designed by: Jamey Stegmaier This is a free review copy. See our review policy here. Scythe is one of the biggest games in the board game world. Released in 2016, Scythe catapulted Stonemaier Games and Jamey Stegmaier to legendary status within the community. After a raft of expansions, many of which you can read the review for here Stonemaier have now released a sequel. Expeditions is set in the same universe as Scythe. Set in the time after the expansion, Rise of Fenris; Expeditions tells the story of mysterious meteorite crashing into the Tunguska River, awakening ancient corruption. Two expeditions set out to explore the strange goings on have already failed to return and now it is your turn to venture out in search of the previous search parties, glory, and end game points. Let's get it to the table and see how it plays. How To Set Up Expeditions Like Scythe, Expeditions looks intimidating to any new player, but is very simple to set up, learn, and play. The setup is shown in the top right of the starting board. Lay out the tiles in the displayed pattern with the six southern tiles face up, and the remaining central and northern tiles face down with map tokens placed on the top. In the gaps between the tiles, place five cards face up. Place your mech on the main board with your chosen player colour base snapped onto the bottom. Take the corresponding player board, then choose one of the characters and companions. Lay the rest of the cards in a face-down pile along with the money, map tokens, various-coloured worker meeples, and the corruption tokens in their own hessian bag, with the 20-point corruption token kept separate. You are now ready to play. There are a number of different starting characters and companions to choose from. They all offer different abilities and powers and require different worker meeples to fully make use of their powers. The way the cards work is when you play them, you will immediately gain the benefit shown on the top left. Generally, this simply gives you power or guile. These powers increase as you gain more stars in the game, shown with the smaller icons below next to stars. As well as the main benefit, when you play the card, if you have the required meeple, you can place this on the card and gain the bottom secondary benefit too. This will often be linked to various actions. Each mech has its own unique player power too. They offer a varied and highly asymmetric starting point for each player. It is certainly worth new players looking at each mech that is in the game and learning every player's own ability. This will help new players learn how the other players may act but also further their own understanding of the right strategy as they come to understand the game more. The asymmetry in this game, as is often the case with Stonemaier and asymmetry, has caused quite a stir within the reviewer community. Well, part of it anyway. It has been suggested that it makes the game unbalanced. I certainly agree that each power is very different, and some seem more powerful than others. But I think each can be utilised to create a winning strategy. Although I do agree, some more easily than others. But this is how is should be for asymmetric games in my opinion. I just feel they should be ranked by ease of use and strength of power so it is clear from the off. What I would suggest in situations like this is that the publisher ranks the asymmetric powers by ease of use, and also by their effective power. As such, they could then be used for a balancing mechanic to help new players learn the game and equal out more experienced players when they play with newer players. How To Play Expeditions Playing Expeditions is as simple as learning the game. On your turn, you must move your player cube from one space to another. You can then enact the actions that are visible. As such on your first turn or after refreshing, you have all three actions available as the action cube will be on the bottom blank box, not covering any spaces. This is in the top right of each player mat, seen above. On any subsequent turn, you will have to move the cube to one of the three action spaces as indicated by the red arrows. This will then leave two remaining visible actions that you can enact. On your subsequent turns, you can move from the action action space you are on to any of the other two spaces, as many times as you wish, always carrying out the other two actions, until you decide to refresh. The three actions are move, gather, and play. I will explain each in detail now. Move is as simple as moving your mech one, two, or three spaces. You must move at least one; you cannot remain where you are. You can move through other mechs, but you must finish on an empty space. When you move to a previously unexplored tile, you will flip that tile, take the map token from it, and then place corruption tokens from the bag covering the second benefit space until you have matched or exceeded the corruption level. So, if it has a corruption level of five, for example, and you first draw and place a corruption token of three, you must draw a second token to get to at least five. The second token could be another three, meaning this tile now has a corruption level of six. Five was just the minimum. On later turns, using certain card powers, players can spend power or guile they have acquired in the game to remove the corruption. Doing so frees up the benefits below and also helps players achieve glory objectives and score end game points. Gather allows you to take the benefit shown on the tile. The iconography is all very clear and will quickly become very familiar to you. There is an excellent player reference card that you can use for your first game to help with this, and the rule book explains any little quirks or vagueness. Mostly you will be recruiting new workers, gaining new cards, or increasing your power or guile. As you remove corruption from new tiles, you will unlock new powers that allow you to upgrade your mech and eventually place your glory stars onto the main board. The game plays until one player has placed their fourth glory token. But no one can place any glory stars until the glory star icon is unlocked. It is not enough to achieve the glory's requirements; you also need to go to the specific tile that allows you to then boast about your achievements before you can place the star. With this tile starting the game face down, and then when discovered, the star benefit being immediately covered in corruption, it goes without saying that exploring new tiles, building up your power and guile, and removing corruption is very important in this game. The final action is Play. This is how you move cards from your hand to your active row. Your hand in this game means the left of your mech board. All cards for all players are face up on the table at all times. Your hand simply means not active yet. When you play cards, you move them from your hand to your active row, on the right of your mech board. You will gain the immediate benefit on the top left, then activate the bottom benefit if you so choose and have the required worker meeple. Cards come in one of three types: Quests, Items, or Meteorites. When you have played all your cards, run out of workers, or simply want to, you can refresh. This means you move all your cards and workers from your active row back to your hand and mech mat. You miss a turn, but on your next go, will be able to move, gather, and play as all three will be visible, reducing the impact the dead refresh turn has on your progression. The items can be placed to the right of your mech board for a permanent ability when the appropriate tile is found to do this, and the corruption uncovered to allow this action. Some cards help with this too. The quests need to be fulfilled by visiting the displayed numbered tile on the quest, and then spending the shown mix of power and guile on the right-hand side of the card in order to then gain the quest's specific benefit. In the case with the above quest to Weaken the Leviathan, and apparently save the Seals, you must spend three power to then rescue one active card and claim one coin. Coins in Expeditions are points, just like Scythe. Rescuing a card simply means you can move it from your active row back to your hand, so it can be played again without having to refresh. Any workers on it are also rescued, meaning they are placed back onto your mech board to be used again. The quest card is then tucked under your mech board on the top row. The number of quests that you fulfil affects the points each glory star is worth. The multiples here are crucial, so you need to aim to solve three quests each game which is the maximum multiple. But if you achieve four quest, that fulfils a glory objective. The meteorites are another key way to score in this game. Certain tiles and cards will allow you to meld. This means tucking a meteorite card under the bottom of your mech mat. These mostly offer a cascading score bonus, where the more meteorite cards you have melded, the more you score. However, the one above is based on locations adjacent to your mech when you meld this card. There are eight different categories for the glory stars. You can fulfil one if you have seven or more workers or five or more map tokens, eight cards in your hand or active row (not melded), seven or more corruption tokens, the 20-point corruption token, four upgrades, four melded meteorites, or four solved quests. So, as much as you can only score multiples for your glory stars up to three, completing four quests is worth while if you want to claim this glory star. Players will continue to take turns moving, gathering, and playing cards until one player places their fourth star. Then each player gets one last turn, before final scoring takes place. You will score any coins gained during the game, as well as points for each glory star placed as a multiple based on how many quests completed; points shown on any upgraded item (the above Deceptor Crystal scores four end game points), and finally two points for any corruption token (including the 20-point token, which scores just the same) you have on your mech mat. Most points win. Is It Fun? Expeditions Board Game Review Expeditions is a hard game to review. If this was a new game, from another publisher, and had nothing to do with Scythe, I think... I think I would score it higher. Now, that is an odd thing to say, I know. But I think it is true. Scythe brings a huge expectation. Stonemaier knows this and sold this game off the back of that. It certainly increased the interest in this game and generated more sales, so they certainly do win there. But as such, they have to accept the criticism that comes with the fact that it does not feel like a Scythe game. The mechanics are completely different, and the turn structure is a whole new game. All that is fine, and Expeditions as a stand-alone is good. I am giving it an 8. But as I played it the first few times, I expected more. I wanted more. I hoped for more. And initially scored it lower based on my disappoint which overrode my actual enjoyment. Expeditions doesn't feel like Scythe, a game I have played many, many times and like many other gamers, absolutely adore. I don't want to be promised Scythe and then given something else. As such, the score has to come down. But, on its own, away from the expectations and unfair hope generated from its way more famous and successful big brother, Expeditions is a good game. The development of your deck, and the various ways to play, score, and aim for victory make this a very interesting and rewarding experience each game. It looks great, the Scythe artwork helps with that. It just doesn't feel like Scythe as the story is not in your face as you play, the thematic ties in the art and card text do not have a linear path and need to be really explored by the player to have any relevance to the game play. It is hard to follow or see any story in your first few games. Take away the expectation, though, and this is good. And flows deliciously. I have seen some complaints about the game length, and some reviewers have suggested it would be hard to enjoy in higher player counts. This very much depends on your own gaming tastes. But turns are quick and with experienced players it is fine. Generally, you can only do two or three things, and moving and gathering is very quick. Playing cards is fairly quick most of the time, but you will get the odd combination turn that takes a little longer. Thinking time is quick too, but I can see with new players it will take a moment or two. So, perhaps the lesson is, if you want a quick game, don't play this with new players in high player counts. But I would say it only takes a game or two to learn the strategy, and then you can fly through your turns and games in higher player counts. But there is limited player interaction so is this worth it? Players can block each other as you cannot move to a space with another mech, but other than that, increased players doesn't really change the game. So, I can see why an increased game length without an increased game experience can be frustrating for some. As such, I would say this is great as a solo. The Automa, as usual with Stonemaier, is excellent. Fantastic in a two or three, where for me, it shines. And functional in a four or five with players who know what they are doing. But it is the cards that are the real star of the show. There are loads of them, 123 in total. All unique. With gorgeous art, and they offer some intriguing game play options. The way your hand builds and develops over the game, and your options increase is where the majority of the satisfaction from this game derives from. The mechs in this game are also incredible. You can buy the icon-clad version with metal mechs for a few quid more, or get these plastic versions in the basic retail edition. If you buy the Ironclad version and want the plastic mechs as well to paint, they are available as a separate standalone purchase. But sadly, you cannot buy the metal mechs separately. But the plastic ones are great, more than good enough quality to play with, I would say, and all you need unless you absolutely must have the metal ones, which you can check out here. The overall production of this game is incredible but, like all Stonemaier games, also very functional. The box is huge and an awkward shape, but I will take that for this insert. It holds everything so neatly it makes set-up and tear-down a breeze. I will take that with a huge box over the carnage inside the insert-less Scythe and Tapestry box any day. Although, it is a bit of a hassle that you have to put the mechs back in in the right order, otherwise the plastic cover does no fit. Although this is clearly labelled, as is the way with Stonemaier games, on the side of the box. My only real gripe is the tiles. I am not a massive fan of tiles over boards. I appreciate it allows for a random set up but how much better does that make a game? When they are nudged it moves all the tiles and you get situations like the below, which just winds me up. I spend a lot of time fixing these minor aesthetic blemishes which lessens my enjoyment of the overall experience. There is a play mat available now which I think I will get to keep the tiles a little more secure and still. But the mat seems a little small to fit all the tiles and mech mats on. Essentially you need to put the mech mats off the mat once you start collecting cards. Which is down to the fact that the tiles are probably too big. They take up too much space on the table which does show off the great art they hold, but I feel this is more about allowing for the giant mechs to have space to move, which does increase the overall appeal of the game, but doesn't necessarily make it better or easier to actually play. It feels like a commercial decision over gameplay. Which I appreciate has to be a part of the process, but frustrating when it coms to affecting the enjoyment of actually playing the game. I would be happy with smaller mechs, smaller tiles, a smaller box, and a more convenient experience. Overall, I would recommend this game to anyone who is a fan of Stonemaier games. Not necessarily Scythe, as the game is not like Scythe mechanically; it just shares the same lore and art. But fans of Stonemaier in terms of their production and style of game will like this. This feels very 'Stonemaier' as you play, and if you like that, you will like this. The game is essentially a deck-building resource management game. If you like games like that, then you may well enjoy this too. The multi-use cards are the real star for me, being able to use them for various things and in such interesting ways is what makes me come back to this game. Especially as the stack of cards is so big! It will take a good few games to see them all, and many many more to use them all. If that appeals, this could well be a game for you.

Living Forest: Kodama WBG Score: 8.5 Player Count: 2-4 You’ll like this if you like: Port Royal, Furnace, Mystic Vale. Published by: Ludonaute Designed by: Aske Christiansen Distributed in the UK by: Coiledspring Games. This is a free review copy. See our review policy here. Living Forest came out in 2021. It won the 2022 Kennerspiel des Jahres, one of the most prestigious gaming awards of the year. You can read for the review for that game here. I love the game, but it does have some minor issues, particularly with one of the three end game conditions, which is a little less easy to grasp a winning strategy for. Certainly for players with less experience with the game. As such, a new expansion has been made that goes some way to addressing that. It also adds a new solo mode and some cool new cards. Let's get it to the table and see how this plays. How To Set Up Living Forest: Kodama Set up the game as you usually would, with just a few changes. First, add in the guardian cards into their respective decks when you lay these out. There are five new level two cards and five new level three ones. Second, when you place your player mat, add the new mini-board that runs along the left side of this, then add your matching spirit of nature Kodama card to your own personnel deck. Third, add the new Kodama board to the table, along with the new Kodama cards in three face-up stacks. A few cards are removed based on player count; check the rule book for that. Add the new Element tiles next to this board. These new tiles add a one-time-use bonus of your choice across the elements in the game. They are all the same but double-sided to make it easy to find the right one. No pointless flipping of tiles here! Fourth, add the new tree tiles to the new tree dispenser and place it on the table. Finally, add two rocks to the spaces shown in the rule book on the Circle of Spirits board and place the Onibi standee there too. How To Play Living Forest: Kodama The game plays much the same as the base game with these few changes: As you play cards in the drawing phase, you will, at some point, play your new Kodama card. The Kodama symbol on the top left is the crucial part here. It has no effect in the drawing phase, but during the action phase, these symbols allow you to take a fragment tile if you have two showing, an element tile if you have three showing, or perform an additional action if you have four on display. There is a new action available during the action phase, called Call a Kodama. This is how you add new Kodama cards to your deck. There will be three face-up cards which can be bought using your flower symbols, with the cost shown on the bottom right of the card. This expansion aims to make the flower symbols more useful. When you buy one of these cards, you can add it to your deck face down, but you must then move the Onibi standee forwards a number of spaces based on player count; check the rules for this. Each Spirit standee that is jumped over by Onibi causes an extra two-value fire tile to be added to the Circle of Spirits. There are six new trees in the game. They grant you extra elements based on a multiple of how many Kodama symbols you have face up in your card row during the drawing phase. The only other major change with this expansion is that the game now requires you to have 13, not 12 points, to win. This applies to either trees, fires, or flowers. Living Forest: Kodama Board Game Review: Is It Fun? I would say that this expansion does not necessarily fix the issue with the unbalanced end game conditions. However, I did not think it was too much of an issue to begin with. I felt that the flowers were certainly more difficult to master, and they took me a lot more plays to understand how to use effectively; however, this was possible, and I liked that the game offered different end game goals, each needing different strategies to be implemented to make them work. It is interesting to me that they made the game with this in mind, but then made an expansion to "correct" this imbalance. For me, it was not an unbalanced game, just a game with a different learning curve for each strategy. That said, this expansion exists now, and it is good. It adds more than an unnecessary correction. It brings a lovely new ruffle to the puzzle this game presents. Adding in a new function for the flowers does encourage you to get more early in the game and potentially target this end-game strategy more often, but it is more than that. Whereas before, when the flower symbols offered nothing more than potential end game points, useless until your final turn, they now allow you to acquire new Kodama cards. These bring new powers, as well as increasing your flower strength, exponentially increasing the chances of you winning through the flower end-game mechanism. However, this is not all this does. You can also use these cards to get more fragment and element tiles and take extra actions when they show up in your draw phase. Extra actions are huge in this game. Where you could previously only have a maximum of two, the chance for three now is a massive incentive to encourage players to aim for early flowers. Not necessarily to win this way, but to get ahead and then switch to trees or fire depending on their hand and the other players' actions. The new level two cards all allow you to perform certain actions twice, something that could previously only be done by acquiring a specific high-cost tree. One person having this early often made the game an inevitable win for them via the tree method. With these new level two cards, this opens up the chance for more players to try similar strategies and avoid that previous unsatisfactory end. The new level three cards allow players to take extra actions. With these in play, along with a strong Kodama strategy, there is now the opportunity for some powerful combination turns. Again, opening up the flower game by making a reliance on this less risky, as you can progress in other strategies simultaneously. I would recommend this game to anyone who has the base game. I would not say this is an essential expansion as the base game is already very good. But it does develop the game in clever ways that I think make the game better. As such, if you have Living Forest, I would strongly recommend considering this expansion. The solo mode is excellent too. I have not touched on it much here as I have only played it a couple of times, but it works very well, maintains a similar tension throughout the game, and delivers a very satisfying experience, closely aligned with the multiplayer game.

Obey The Clay WBG Score: 8.5 Player Count: 2-99 You’ll like this if you like: 20 Second Showdown, Making things with clay! Published by: Big Potato Games This is a free review copy. See our review policy here. Big Potato Games, the absolute Kings and Queens of party games, partnering with Aardman for a clay-based party game? Yes, please! I am a huge fan of team-based party games; they work so well with all ages, and everything the Big Potato team touches turns to fun. Let's get this to the table and see how it plays. How To Set Up Obey The Clay Split into two teams. One player can act as the clay master and read the challenges and control the timer if you like, but this is not essential. If you have an even number or no one wants to be the clay master, you can just do this for each other. Get the clay out and ready. A nice warming roll on the table and in the hands will do the trick. Level the timer by evening out the bits on each side, then use a piece of the clay, fashioned into the shape of a coin, to determine the first active team with an old-fashioned coin flip. Then split the clay in half and give each part to either team. Finally, place the plastic eyes and cards out on the table. The cards are double-sided, with one half being aimed at either team. You are now ready to play. How To Play Obey The Clay The clay master, or anyone from the non-playing team, will now flip the timer to show the color of the active team on the top and read out one card with the corresponding color. The active team will then try to complete the task just read to them as quickly as possible. When this is achieved to the satisfaction of all players, the timer is flipped over, and a challenge card is then read to the second team. This will continue until the time runs out on one of the team's turns. The other side is declared the winner of round one. To win the game, you need to win three rounds. Is It Fun? Obey The Clay Party Game Review Playing with clay is fun, and doing so with the varied and hilarious challenges in this game is brilliant. The clay initially appears to be the star in this game, but it's the cards that make it truly enjoyable. They are varied, unexpected, funny, and most importantly, entertaining. It's not just about the thing you have to make, but the way you use it. You will need to act, run, recite verses, and generally make a bit of a fool of yourself. If you like this sort of thing, you will love this game. Moulding clay brings a very pleasing sensation. Crafts like this generally do not happen in adult life, doing so reminds me of simpler times. There is a satisfying sensation derived from playing with clay in your fingers, rolling it on a table to create a shape, squeezing it in your fist to make a ball. Or fashioning something funny looking that makes your friends laugh. It all brings joy. However, be careful not to enjoy this too much! The timer moves quickly, and if you get caught up in your own artistic hubris, you may well lose the game very quickly! This is not a game about creating works of art; it's about acting fast and delivering efficiency. This levels the game out for those of us with less artistic flair, making it accessible for all ages and skill levels. In order to fulfil the task of creating an umbrella, you need to sell the act with your performance more than the actual shape and styling of the clay. I would recommend this game to any family or group that enjoys party games with an element of creativity. Obey The Clay gives you a very simple and quick opportunity to create fun. That is what party games should do, and this delivers on all levels. You can set up and teach this game in a few minutes, and it guarantees laughter during the games.

Search Party: Chaos At The Park WBG Score: 8 Player Count: 1-4 You’ll like this if you like: Micro Macro Published by: What Do You Meme This is a free review copy. See our review policy here. Search Party takes the essence of what Micro Macro offers and presents it in a more family-friendly context. It eliminates themes of murder and adultery, replacing them with elements like clowns and balloons. Additionally, it introduces colour to the game, departing from the previous black and white drawings. The board itself is of a reasonable size, allowing it to fit comfortably on a regular table. As it is not made of paper, there's no issue with it sticking or needing to be folded into numerous pieces. Furthermore, the cases in Search Party are generally easier to solve, catering to a family-oriented gameplay experience. The addition of three significant pop-up features further enhances the game's appeal. Overall, it appears to be a significant improvement for a family setting on Micro Macro, if that is what you are after. Let's bring it to the table and see how it plays. How To Set Up Search Party: Chaos At The Park Unfold the board. The pops ups are huge and a little delicate but open well, but do be careful when you fold it back up. Make sure you do it the correct way Then draw the first case file and begin. That was easy! How To Play Search Party: Chaos At The Park One person will read allowed the introduction to the scenario you are playing on card one. This will end with a question on the top of card two that you need to answer by finding something or someone, hidden on the board. The board looks like a Where's Wally/Waldo style environment, set amongst a busy and chaotic amusement park. Once you find the first person or object, you proceed to flip the next card and read the subsequent part of the story. This guides you to the next item or person you need to search for. This sequence continues through several more cards until you successfully complete the mission and solve the specific mystery or problem at hand. The game mechanics are similar to Micro Macro, where certain individuals or objects appear on the board at different points in their timeline. This allows you to trace events backward or forward, track the movements of characters through the park, and uncover mysteries by discovering their origins or destinations. By piecing together these details, you can unravel why certain events unfolded as they did. There is no scoring system or time limit in the game. The primary objective is to have fun while searching for the various objects or people. The enjoyment comes from the process of observation and discovery, immersing yourself in the engaging world of the game. There are 15 missions to complete. Each one takes around 5-15 minutes to complete. There is also colour booklet with 300 individual things to find that you can check off as you do. This is separate to the 15 main missions and works as a side mission you can dip in and out of on it's own. Search Party: Chaos At The Park Board Game Review: Is It Fun? First, let's talk about the board. It looks amazing and will draw a crowd for sure. My children instantly wanted to play this, just from looking at the board. It really does look very impressive. Now, let's discuss the accessibility of this game. Learning the rules, setting up the game, and getting started can be accomplished within a few minutes as you read through the instructions. Additionally, the first mission can typically be solved in just a few minutes, allowing children to experience the satisfaction of successfully completing a game early on. This quick reward and sense of accomplishment are likely to make children happy and eager to play again. In terms of targeting a younger audience, I believe the game developers have succeeded in creating an engaging and accessible experience. Moreover, the visual appeal of the game is captivating. The intricate details and hidden objects tucked away behind, on, or above certain parts of the board generate a thrilling sense of discovery. The board itself is brimming with secrets waiting to be unlocked, and the process of unveiling them is immensely enjoyable. The game includes a small magnifying glass to assist with finding smaller objects, but let's be honest, it's not a particularly effective magnifying glass. Furthermore, it's not truly necessary for children with good eyesight. The main reason for this to be included in the game is to have fun and engage in imaginative play as detectives, and I wholeheartedly embrace that concept! If you ever find yourself stuck, there's an option to flip the card for the item you're searching for. It will provide a grid reference to help you locate the next item and also display a picture of the object to give you a gentle nudge in the right direction. Throughout all the missions, I found the need to flip the card early on only three times. This was mainly to help my children quickly find the items, prevent them from losing interest, and then gently guide them towards the correct area to continue the search. We managed to complete all the missions in just one afternoon, and I must say, it was the most engrossed I've ever seen my children in a game. There are still plenty of items left to discover and tick off in the search-and-find guidebook, which provides ample replayability. However, I must admit that it does feel somewhat like a "one and done" experience. When playing the game again, it becomes more of a casual exercise or pointing things out since the excitement of the search diminishes once you already know where everything is located. Over time, some details may be forgotten, but I believe that won't be the case for most items or people. Nevertheless, with 15 missions and 300 objects to find, there is plenty of gameplay to satisfy me. I thoroughly enjoyed my time with this game and will continue to do so until we've uncovered every single item in the guidebook. The utilisation of 3D elements in this game is truly excellent. The experience of finding items on top of, behind, or placed onto specific pop-up features on the board is clever and adds a sense of significance to the gameplay. Discovering something hidden in such a way feels more magical and exciting compared to simply locating objects within a busy scene. The pop-up elements create a lifelike landscape with hidden nooks and crannies to explore. Players will find themselves standing up, rotating the board, and peering into small crevices in their search. Finding things in this manner is immensely enjoyable and adds a deeper sense of meaning to the game. I highly recommend this game for families with children aged between 5-10. It is the perfect experience for both children and adults to enjoy together. It is likely to be one of the quickest family games to complete, but in that short span of time, you will create wonderful memories and have a tremendous amount of fun. Now, where on earth is that pesky spider web hiding?

221b Baker Street: The Master Detective WBG Score: 7.5 Player Count: 2-6 You’ll like this if you like: Cluedo, Sherlock Holmes Consulting Detective. Published by: Gibsons Designed by: Antler Productions, Jay Moriarty This is a free review copy. See our review policy here. Ah, so you're ready to embark on a mysterious and captivating journey through 1800s London and 221B Baker Street, the board game! Grab your detective hat and let's dive into the ingenious world of Sherlock Holmes. Get ready for a game filled with intrigue, deduction, and perhaps a few hilarious mishaps along the way! 221b Baker Street was initially published in 1975, featuring 20 cases to solve, and it quickly became a sensation. Over the years, many new cases were released as expansions, and different versions of the game were created. Fortunately, Gibsons has graciously published this new version, which includes a whopping 75 cases. There's also a deluxe version with 180 cases, but acquiring it can be quite challenging. Personally, I believe 75 cases provide more than enough content! So, let's gather around the table and see if this game, which predates me, still stands the test of time. How To Set Up 221b Baker Street Alright, my dear Watson, it's time to delve into the world of mysterious cases in 221B Baker Street! Are you prepared for an adventure? Indeed, Holmes! I have my trusty magnifying glass and my wit honed to perfection. Let us see if we can outmatch the brilliant detective himself! Splendid, Watson. Allow me to explain how the game unfolds. We are presented with a series of peculiar cases that require solving, and our objective is to be the first to unravel each mystery. Throughout the game, we will visit various locations, gather vital clues, and conduct thorough interrogations of suspects. However, we must remain vigilant, my dear Watson, as our opponents may attempt to foil our plans! Oh, the game of deduction and mischief! I love it already. How do we start, Holmes? Well, Watson, first, we will place the board into the centre of the table. Each player will choose a coloured playing piece and place it into the starting location. Is that 221B Baker Street? By Jove, you've got it! Each player will take one skeleton key card and one Scotland Yard card and place it in front of them. Place the remaining skeleton keys into the Locksmith and the Scotland Yard keys... Into Scotland Yard? That one was a little easier, but yes! Then choose a starting player with the roll of a dice, and a case to play and you can begin! The starting player should read the case aloud, a few times if necessary, and then the game will be afoot! A foot? How To Play 221b Baker Street ... On each turn, we'll roll the dice to determine how many spaces we move. We can choose to visit various locations, and once we arrive, we'll read the corresponding clue. Each case will show which number to read in the book on the back. Ah, the suspense is killing me, Holmes! What do we do with the clues we gather? Fear not, Watson, for each clue presents a baffling piece of the puzzle to add to the overall mystery, and our task is to collect all the clues we need to solve the case. Each case will have a different requirement of things that need to be solved. The murderer. The weapon. The motive. Who the Villain was. And why certain things happened. Each case has its own specific challenges. We can collect our thoughts on this handy sheet each game, so we do not forget what we have learnt. Do not read what is on the below Watson if you want to keep the first case a mystery. I cannot read your writing anyway Holmes! So, we must carefully strategize our route to narrow down where to go first to find the suspects and motive. But what if they try to mislead us, Holmes? Ah, Watson, that's the exciting part! Our opponents might try to throw us off the scent with outrageous and ridiculous facial reactions to clues they just read. They can block off certain locations they have visited using their Scotland Yard card. We can then only enter that building or location if we have a skeleton key. But did they lock it because the clue there is vital to the case? Or because they want to trick us into heading down a dead end? We must be prepared for their shenanigans and rely on our keen deduction skills! Oh, Holmes, this is going to be quite a challenge. But I have faith in our wit and cunning. What happens when we think we've solved the case? When we believe we've cracked the mystery, we must had back home to 221B Baler street. We'll announce our solution to the group then check the case book to see if we were right. If we're correct, we'll bask in the glory of victory! But if we're wrong, Watson, brace yourself for the laughter and mockery from our opponents. We must then watch on as they continue playing. Oh, I can already picture the scene, Holmes. Our grand theory shattered, and our rivals revelling in their triumph. But fear not, my friend, for we shall persevere! Indeed, Watson! Let us embark on this challenging adventure, filled with wit, mystery, and a good dose of absurdity. Remember, it's not just about solving the case, but also about enjoying the whimsical journey we're about to embark upon! Absolutely, Holmes! With you as my partner in this detective escapade, I'm ready to face any challenge that 221B Baker Street throws our way! 221b Baker Street Board Game Review: Is It Fun? The cases featured in this game offer a delightful range of complexity, presenting intriguing challenges to solve. The satisfaction derived from moving around the board, meticulously gathering clues one by one, and gradually piecing together all the information to crack the case is truly rewarding. The thrill intensifies as you race against other players, striving to solve the mystery quicker and more efficiently. It's crucial to pay attention to the details mentioned in each case. For instance, if the case refers to a theatre, it's wise to head there promptly. Similarly, if there's an event at the pub, make it a priority to investigate. Not every location is necessary for every case. Some locations may lack clues altogether, while others may provide redundant or inconsequential information. Knowing where to go and in what order becomes a vital strategy. Now, let's discuss movement on the board. In the original game, movement is determined by the roll of a single six-sided die (D6). However, I have addressed the potential frustration of long distances between buildings by introducing an additional twelve-sided die (D12). As the game was created in 1975, I believe it's perfectly acceptable to adopt house rules to alleviate the monotony of roll-and-move mechanics. Ultimately, the decision to implement this rests with you. Nonetheless, it's important to be mindful of your movement and its order. Consider which buildings are crucial for the specific case you are investigating. Also, remember that you must eventually end your movement at 221B Baker Street, so ideally, you wouldn't want to venture too far and then have to travel all the way back. Personally, I find it helpful to utilize the Carriage Depot, allowing me to travel to any building on the board early in the game. This way, I can plan my movements accordingly and ensure I am well-prepared when returning to 221B Baker Street for my final deduction. The cases themselves are absolutely delightful and mysterious. I won't spoil them here, but as you can see from the first case, they capture the desired style perfectly. They transport you back to the era of the great (fictional) Sherlock Holmes, where you're ready to engage in a battle of wits with the criminal masterminds of the late nineteenth century. The clues provided in the game come in various forms. Some are general statements, others are useless tidbits, and then there are the puzzles. The puzzles are often presented in groups, requiring you to visit multiple locations to gather all the pieces of those clues. They may be related to the weapon or the killer and often involve clever wordplay. However, at times, solving the puzzles may require pre-existing knowledge. For example, in the second case, you need to know what a group of orange trees is called. We resorted to a quick Google search. Additionally, in the aforementioned first case, having some familiarity with the play Hamlet proves to be quite helpful. These factors may make the game more challenging for younger players or those lacking specific areas of general knowledge. It's important to keep in mind that this game was created 47 years ago! Naturally, there may be aspects that don't align perfectly with the modern era. Just as you wouldn't expect a car from 1975 to have self-driving capabilities, there may be elements in this game that reflect the time it was designed. However, one can still appreciate the charm of that car and how it evokes a particular feeling while driving it. Similarly, this game possesses a certain charm that I find endearing, entertaining, intriguing, and, above all, fun. This game indeed benefits from house rules regarding movement around the board, as the standard mechanics can potentially lead to frustration. One alternative approach that I often employ is treating the movement as a worker placement game, allowing players to move between adjacent buildings without the need for dice rolls. This modification significantly speeds up the game, removes the luck factor of dice rolling, and minimizes frustration. While it may reduce some of the tension, it amplifies the importance of strategic decision-making when selecting the buildings to visit and in what order. In my experience, the true joy of this game lies in the process of solving the case rather than the movement mechanics. Thus, adopting this style of play addresses the issue and enhances the overall enjoyment. I wholeheartedly recommend this game to anyone who appreciates deduction games, seeks a touch of nostalgic charm, or is a fan of the Sherlock Holmes universe. With 75 cases included in this version, it offers hours upon hours of engaging gameplay. I can envision playing through all these cases and this game becoming a beloved favourite for many years to come.

Excavation Earth: It Belongs In A Museum WBG Score: 8.5 Player Count: 1-4 You’ll like this if you like: Brass: Birmingham, Power Grid, Bonfire. Published by: Mighty Boards Designed by: Dávid Turczi This is a free review copy. See our review policy here. Excavation Earth is a fantastic game. You can check out my review for it here. In 2021, the first expansion, Second Wave, was released. Although I haven't played it myself, it introduced two new playable races, new achievements to pursue, wildcards offering new powers for your race, and the Observation Barge, which provides new ways to manipulate the market demand for artefacts and score points. It sounds great to me! Then, in 2022, the second expansion, It Belongs in a Museum was released. Fortunately, for the purposes of this review, I have played it. Let's bring it to the table and see how it plays. What's New? The It Belongs in a Museum expansion introduces two new modules and two new alien races, all of which are compatible with the first expansion. Here are the details: New Races: Seekers and Commanders - The expansion adds two new alien races for players to choose from. The Seekers race is particularly interesting as it allows you to send artefacts directly to the museum without needing to sample them first. This ability will make more sense when we discuss the museum addition below. On the other hand, the Commanders race enables you to resolve an excavate action when you take a command action, using the same card. It's exciting to have these new races available, as they provide unique gameplay options and strategies for players to explore. Mysterious Artefacts - Set Up: To incorporate the Mysterious Artefacts module expansion into the game, follow these steps: Place the five map overlay cards onto the main board, aligning them with the indicated locations in the rule book. Add the 12 Mysterious Artefacts, as shown below, into their corresponding coloured piles. If you draw a Mysterious Artefact during the set-up phase for the black market, place it on the map instead. No replacement card needs to be drawn. Additionally, there are four new command cards that should be added to the command deck. Place these cards among the existing command cards. Also, include the 21 Reverse Engineering cards in a face-down deck next to the command centre. Mysterious Artefacts - How To Play: During the excavate phase in the game, mysterious artefacts cannot be sampled. However, you must assign a crew cube to the tile as a "custodian" to protect other players from the potential dangers of the new artefacts. If you don't have an available cube to assign as a custodian, you cannot excavate the artefact. The new artefacts cannot be sold, but they can be moved from your cargo hold to the mothership when you place an envoy during the command phase. When you do this, the custodian is returned to your crew pool. Additionally, you must draw the top two reverse engineering cards, choose one, and place it face-up next to your player board as a new active power. The other card is placed at the bottom of the deck. At the end of the game, you will score points equal to the value shown on all of these reverse engineering cards. If you offload a mysterious artefact during the smuggle phase, you will gain six credits for each analysed mysterious artefact on the mothership. The offloaded artefact is then removed from the game along with its custodian. During the survey action, mysterious artefacts must be placed on the corresponding dig site on the map, and a replacement card is drawn. Shuffling it back or purchasing it is not allowed. Galactic Museum - Set Up: Shuffle the new command cards and reverse engineering cards featuring the museum symbol into their respective decks. Add the museum board to the table next to the mothership board and randomly place exhibition tiles on each space based on the player count, as shown in the manual. Next, take a buyer pawn from the supply based on the colour indicated on the top card in the buyer deck discard pile, and place it on the top space of the board. Then, draw the next card from the buyer deck and place the corresponding buyer pawn onto the middle space. These pawns represent the curators. Galactic Museum - How To Play: There is now a new action available during the main phase of the game, as depicted on the new player aids. It's called "Exhibit." To perform this action, you need to discard a card from your hand. Then, you have the option to send an artefact from your cargo hold to the museum board, regardless of whether it matches the card you discarded or not, or even both. Additionally, flip the top card of the buyer deck and place a new curator from the supply at the back of the museum queue. Move the remaining curators one space forward as indicated on the main board. In case you draw a wild card, you can select any other coloured buyer, but you cannot add the wild buyers to these spaces. For each artefact tile you move, you will place it into an empty exhibition tile that matches the icon and either matches or exceeds the value on the tile. If the artefact matches the colour of the tour guide on the corresponding row, you will gain the bonus of the column where you placed it. Additionally, whenever you move an artefact to the museum, you must assign one of your crew members as a tour guide for that artefact. If you place an artefact on the last empty tile of any column, each player with a tour guide in that column receives the benefit shown at the bottom of that column. Each tour guide present provides one benefit. At the end of the game, players will earn credits for their tour guides in the museum. Pop-Up Market: The pop-up markets are placed on the board after every sell action and during the preparation phases of rounds two and three, where one market is added. When you place a pop-up market on the board next to the dig site shown on the card, it is considered part of that dig site. This means you can now perform actions on these sites in addition to the usual ones. These market cards allow players to either buy artefacts at a discounted price or sell artefacts to gain special rewards, such as engineering cards. Excavation Earth: It Belongs in a Museum Expansion Board Game Review: Is It Fun? I am torn on this expansion. It is very good, and what it adds is simple and fun. However, in my opinion, the base game is already excellent. It doesn't have any real issues that need "fixing" through an expansion. Moreover, the base game can be quite complex to teach and play for the first time. Therefore, this expansion is only suitable for those who have played the base game extensively and are looking for something new. For those individuals, I would say, go ahead and get this expansion. You won't be disappointed. However, I'm not sure if Excavation Earth is the type of game that people play 25 times in a year. If you are returning to the game every couple of months or so, adding this expansion might be challenging without a rule refresher each time. That being said, if you are familiar with the base game and want to add more, this expansion will deliver for you. I particularly love the new factions and the museum board, which offers bonuses that add an element to the game different enough to make the expansion a success. I believe most people will find it to be a rewarding addition. The reverse engineering cards are also an excellent addition, providing exciting new options. I appreciate how the new modules encourage players to consider all the available options on their turn, more so than in the base game where players may have become accustomed to focusing on just a few turn options. This expansion encourages exploration of less commonly used options, such as the command option when playing with the Commander race. Overall, I would say this is an excellent expansion for an already excellent game that will not disappoint. However, you need to decide if you are comfortable with the added complexity to the base game. I would personally advise against purchasing this expansion until you have played the base game at least ten times. But if you have done so, it's likely that you enjoyed it a lot, and this expansion will bring you joy.

POP! Puzzles WBG Score: 7.5 Published by: Funko Games This is a free review copy. See our review policy here. Ok, this is a jigsaw on a board game review site, but the last time I featured Jigsaws I got a lot of good feedback, so I thought I would look and see what other fun jigsaws were out there. I found these three beauties from Funko Games based on some pretty huge IP's Funko happen to be blessed with the rights for. So, lets check them out and see how they go. There are a number of different puzzles in this line including fan favourites such as Encanto and the awesome Ted Lasso (which you must watch if you haven't already). I have been sent Avatar, Guardians of the Galaxy and Jurassic Park. I have been working my way through them but not quite finished them all yet. They are surprisingly hard! But rather than wait for my slow paced jigsaw skills to finish all of these puzzles, I wanted to share these with you now. They could be the perfect thing to get for those rainy summer days! The reason anyone would choose one puzzle over another is the art. I cannot really see any other reason to choose one over another. Can you? I suppose some like this one, previously reviewed, stand up from the parapet with some extra elements added such as hidden puzzles included within the art, which I love. But the main act is still about forming the puzzle and staring at the pieces for a few hours. So, you best like what you are staring at! Funko have sown up pretty much every major film and TV licence you can imagine within their Funko range, and this allows them to offer some pretty attractive puzzles. Blockbuster classics such as Jurassic park is going to span the generations, and Guardians has spawned many peoples favourite marvel characters from the recent movies. I am sure these are going to appeal to a lot of people. Avatar The last Airbender may not appear as natural a partner for these puzzles as you might originally think, but the 2010 movie made a tidy box office profit, there are a number of graphic novels out there; and although the sequels were all cancelled, there is a new series coming to Netflix next year. So, back to the puzzles. How hard are they? Well, at first, they look pretty easy. Nice big chunky pieces and some big elements to look for to form a base from such as these faces in the Guardians one. And, yes, they were relatively simple to do. It's the bits in the middle that are tricky! The first issue is there is no full easy image to copy. The box has the image on but covered by some logos in key places and that's it. The second issue is there are some very small detailed pieces with similar colours that make this quite tricky. And don't just take my word for it. My mother in law and mother who are both expert seasoned jigsaw puzzlers found this one very tricky. They got a lot more done than I did, and in a much quicker time, but found the smaller detailed sections as tricky as I did. This will not be a quick jigsaw by any means. But, stick with it and you will be rewarded with a bright, vibrant, and absorbing picture. Picture from Puzzles Galore. Each jigsaw is 18" x 24" and made up of 500 pieces. You can find them in the links above in the title of this review or from all good online stores. Enjoy!

Nidavellir WBG Score: 8.5 Player Count: 2-5 You’ll like this if you like: Furnace Published by: GRRRE Games Designed by: Serge Laget This is the reviewer's copy. See our review policy here By Steve Godfrey Some of you are probably wondering how to pronounce the title (you're definitely not alone in this). Some of you may be here because you recognise the name from Avengers Infinity War as the place with the giant dwarf that Thor got Stormbreaker from. Sadly anyone hoping to stare at cards with Chris Hemsworth on them will be disappointed, although there is a card that looks a lot like Robert Downey Jr so that's something. It is about dwarves though, just not giant ones, and even though it’s not the most thematic, it’s well worth your time checking it out. How to recruit a dwarf. First thing you’ll need to do is build the coin holder. It’s not that difficult and will easily fit into the box assembled. It’s not the sturdiest though, so my recommendation would be to grab a bit of PVA and glue it together. Give everyone a player board and their five starting coins. Shuffle the gems and give one to each player. Add or remove cards from each of the age decks according to player count. Place out the three taverns and place a number of age one cards under each one, one per player. Simultaneously each player will now secretly place one of their coins on each tavern space on their board face down. The two unused ones will go at the bottom face down. Once everyone has picked, everyone will flip over the first coin. The player who bid the higher value coin will get first pick of the dwarves at that tavern. They’ll take the card and put it in front of them and so on in bidding order until everyone has a card. You’ll do the same for the remaining two taverns, then set up and go again. If there is ever a tie for a tavern then the player with the highest gem will break the tie. Then the tied players will swap their gems. There’s protocol in the rule book for when multiple people tie and how the gem swap happens. There are five types of dwarves each with different coloured “ranks” (these are the coloured arrows on the card. I’ll go though how each type scores at the end. If you play a dwarf down and it completes a set (one of each dwarf) then you get to choose a hero to add to your army. These come in all different flavours, too many to go through here, but they add a lot of different ways to score. Every time you complete a new set you can pick another hero, even if playing a hero makes you complete another set. If a player/s bid their zero coin then, in turn order, that player flips over the two coins they didn’t bid, totals up their value and takes a coin of that value from the coin holder, then discards the higher of the two leftover coins. If the coin of the value you gained isn’t available then you simply take one of the next highest available. Some cards will also let you upgrade a coin by a certain value, usually 3 or 5. Once all the age one cards are gone you’ll have a “troop evaluation” phase where the player with the most ranks of each dwarf will take a special bonus. After that, age two will play out the same as age one. When that’s done, score up. Score for the total values of all your coins, then your dwarves, including your heroes. Green (Hunters) and Purple (blacksmiths) will score based on the handy chart on your board depending on how many you have. Blue (explorers) and red (warriors) will score the points on them, however, whoever has the most red will score their highest value coin again. The orange (miners) will score for the total values on times the number of ranks. Nobody outbids a dwarf! Nidavellir solves a problem for me that I have with some auction/bidding games, which is, If you can’t win what you want, then it’s easy to find yourself constantly on the back foot and it can get increasingly hard to claw your way back. Nidavellir doesn’t have that. Regardless of where you end up after each bid you’ll end up getting something that will net you points. Every card is useful in one way or another. Granted it may not be part of your well thought out plan and won’t be worth the max amount of points you were hoping for, but I’d take something over nothing anyday. It’s a strange attitude to have, I know, no one likes to “just settle”. We’d all rather have that card that scores us the big points. But somewhere down the road, that card that we “settled for” may just help us complete a set of dwarves. Even better, having that bit extra may set off a chain that will help us nab two heroes in one turn, which in turn may rack up more points than that 11 card ever could have gotten us. Don’t get me wrong being lumbered with a zero orange card a few times can still feel disheartening. But all it takes is a two orange card to wind up in your army and before you know it those seemingly dud cards are worth a lot of points! What’s fun is seeing that tableau of dwarves building up in front of you. But the real question is, how do you build it up? How does it look? Because it may not seem like it but this game has multiple paths to victory, and that’s just in your choice of regular dwarves alone! Going heavy on one or two types, with a smattering of others isn’t necessarily a bad option, neither is trying to get an equal balance to try and get as many heroes as you can. Whichever of the routes you decide to go for though, be prepared for your opponents to try and stop you. Since everything scores it may not be as much of a hindrance to nab cards you wouldn’t normally have gone for as it would be in other games. The heroes bring their own brand of chaos to the party. Each one will give their own way of scoring and could quite easily change up how you play the rest of your game, or enhance the plans you’ve already got in place. There are a lot of them though, which brings a huge amount of replayability as each game you can try out different combinations. The downside to this is that, whilst a lot of them are fairly self explanatory, be prepared to be doing a lot of rule book diving everytime someone gains a hero. The rule book does a great job of explaining them in their own section. But generally new players will end up going for the easier to explain ones rather than listen to what each one does…..or maybe they’re just sick of the sound of my voice! You have my axe……and my upgradeable coin. Although the bidding mechanism isn’t one I’m always drawn to, the game's bidding system, along with the coin upgrades is what really makes it shine. Everytime you lay a coin down is a gamble. Now normally that's because you don’t want to use your best coin only to find out that no one else really cared about that tavern and went low, so you could’ve used it elsewhere. In Nidavellir though, realising you used a high coin like that meant that you missed a potential opportunity to upgrade it for a better coin. Just knowing that you could have used your zero coin there causes that “argh” moment that is oh so prevalent in games but is weirdly something I love. But the bidding and drafting element creates all of this game's tension and moments of relief. Relief as you realise the card you want is still available, even though you didn’t go first. But tension as you watch people’s hands hover near the cards you want in what can only be described as a slow motion that Zac Snyder would be proud of (don’t worry, it won’t drag the game out to four hours) The system offers at least half, potentially even more of the game's strategy. There’s always a temptation to bid as high as possible to try and get as best a card as you can, but you also don’t want to neglect upgrading your coins. Not only because you can keep as competitive as possible in the later stages of bidding, but because those points are just as important as the ones you claim from everything else in the game. Nidavellir takes a mechanic that I try to avoid and turns it into a game that’s quick, has a ton of replayability and is one that I want to play again as soon as it’s over.