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Racoon Tycoon WBG Score: 7.5 Player Count: 2-5 You’ll like this if you like: Concordia, Le Havre, Catan. Published by: Forbidden Games Designed by: Glenn Drover By Steve Godfrey Raccoon Tycoon is a stock trading, economic game in which you’ll be buying railroads and managing resources…….wait! Before you doze off, did I mention this is all done using animals wearing Victorian clothing? Good, now I’ve got you back, let’s get into it. How to trade with a sly fox. A turn in Racoon Tycoon will have players take one action from a possible five. A production action will see you playing a card from your hand. Each one has two halves and you’ll play both of them. The bottom half will let you take resources of the ones depicted to a max of three. The top half will put the prices of those resources up one space on their respective tracks per one depicted. It’s then discarded and you draw a new one. You can sell one type of resource at the current selling price and then drop the price by as many you sold. So if the price of coal is £6 each and you sell three coal, you gain £18 and drop the price down three spaces. You can buy a building, which is as simple as it sounds. Buildings will give you game long bonuses as well as be worth 1vp per one you’ve brought. When buying town cards you pay the resources and take the card. These are worth the victory points printed on them and are worth more when you can pair them with a railroad card. Which masterfully (if I do say so myself) segways me into auctions. You call an auction by choosing one of the two face up railroad cards and starting the bidding. Each one has a minimum first bid on it and you basically go round the table bidding until everyone but one has passed and the winner gains the card. The more you have of one type, the more points they’re worth. If you're the one who called the auction but didn’t win it then you get to take another action, including calling another auction if you want. The game will end when either all of the town cards or railway cards have been taken. Do business bears steal picnic baskets? The term stock market/ trading doesn’t exactly fill me full of excitement. It all sounds too 'mathy' for my liking and maths was never a subject I was good at or enjoyed. So much so that my kids know that asking me to solve a match question is like asking Garfield to enjoy Mondays or Yogi bear to stop stealing picnic baskets, it’s just not going to happen. Add to that that I still get confused by the whole orange juice stock trading thing in Trading Places. It’s great to know then that Raccoon Tycoon has taken the concept of stock trading and boiled it down to its simplest form and made it accessible, and more importantly, fun to a larger group of people. Appealing to a wider audience seems to be one of the goals of the game and I think that’s most reflected in the “theme.” Why the air quotes? Well aside from the lovely art, there isn't much here that really gives you an overwhelming feeling of being in a world of animals doing big business. It’s one that you could easily swap out for your standard stuffy old men in top hats and the game wouldn’t change. It’s this that makes me think that the theme is there to give the game wider appeal……..but honestly, that's okay. For as negative as the above may sound, in this case it’s really not. I’m all for this. Raccoon Tycoon is a fun, and I would say almost gateway level game, so any way of drawing people into it and helping them discover a new type of game and mechanics gets a thumbs up, or, you know, whatever these animals have. Do Raccoons have opposable thumbs? Racoon tycoon delivers a decent amount of tension and, like pretty much all games with these open markets, an element of push your luck involved. Taking a production turn to grab resource’s and bump stock prices up is great if you're thinking about selling on your next turn. But then comes that claw biting wait, just hoping that no one sells that same resource as you wanted and dropping the price. At a full five players this is almost agonising. You even find yourself breathing a little sigh of relief when it comes back to your turn unscathed. This is also true of the building tiles and the town cards of course. It being the equivalent of saving your money up for that one toy you’ve had your eye on forever and just hoping that no one buys it. There is a flip side of course because it’s entirely possible that you could be the one doing this to your opponents. As you watch between turns as they bump the price of coal up and, oh, look, you just happen to have a bunch of coal. You weren't going to sell this turn, but they’ve made it so inviting that it would be rude not to, you start to feel like a thieving Racoon….huh, maybe this is more thematic than I initially thought! As I mentioned before, Racoon Tycoon tends to shine in how simple it is.The rules rundown above is pretty much it when it comes to the rules and you can have it up and running fairly quickly. That doesn’t mean that there’s nothing to get your teeth into though. For example, if someone triggers an auction, you may not necessarily want that card. But if it turns out that them winning it will nab them a lot of points, you then have to make the decision to spend the money to get the railway card to stop them having it, or spending the money on that really great building tile you’ve been saving up for. It’s also proof that just because they’ve made this game look cute, it doesn’t mean you can’t be a little cut throat. It is still business after all, just business involving skunks. The building tiles alone will give you just enough to be able to change your approach on subsequent games. While, for the most part you want to try and collect a bit of everything, some of the buildings will give you a bit more of a focus if you buy them. One of them for example will make each building you own worth an extra VP. So for that game, building a heavy strategy is well worth your time. I’ve just googled it and no they don’t! Once you’ve picked up the rules, which as I said shouldn’t take you long, turns can be really quick. So quick that in some games I’ve played someone was still sorting out their money for their last turn when it got back round to them. The only thing that tends to slow things down are the auctions. That’s not a detriment to the game though. Auctions in games can be hit or miss for me but it’s quite fun to watch the auctions in Raccoon Tycoon evolve over the game. In the early game, when people generally have less money, it’s fun to hear people say “ I can’t believe you paid twelve for that card, that’s mad” then cut to later on in the game and people are quite happily throwing seventy or more on a railway card like it’s loose change they found behind the sofa that morning. If you want to know just how competitive your friends and relatives can get just give them a fistful of money and the need to collect a dog in a top hat! For two players the game works just as well for the most part. The tension between turns that I mentioned earlier isn’t as prevalent, the build up you get due to having to wait multiple turns isn’t there, and the auction mechanic for two can fall a bit flat. At two players the triggering player makes a bid, then the other player makes a counter bid if they want and that’s it, auction over. Part of the fun of watching and being part of auctions is that back and forth as you try and psyche out your opponent to see how far they’ll push. It’s like a huge game of chicken (I wonder what jobs chickens would do in the world of Raccoon Tycoon) While that happens a little bit at two players, as the first player you are pretty much taking a wild guess at what you should bid and you lose that fun push and pull. I’m sure that from a design point there’s a reason for this but we personally prefer to do this as a normal multiplayer auction. A Beary good time. Raccoon Tycoon is one of those games which takes a mechanic which could easily turn a lot of people away and extended a friendly paw to help guide you and provides a fun entry point. Will you be a hardcore stock trading fan after playing this? Probably not, but if you’re only going to have one stock game in your collection then this is a great one to have.

Tapestry : Fantasies & Futures WBG Score: 8.5/10 Player Count: 1-5 You’ll like this if you like: Viscounts of the West Kingdom , Wingspan , Lost Ruins of Arnak Published by: Stonemaier Games Designed by: Chris Scaffidi , Mike Young This is the third and final expansion to Jamey Stegmaier's ambitious civilisation game, Tapestry . If you would like to read the review for the main game, then head here . If you would like to read the review for the first expansion Plans & Ploys, then head here . If you would like to read the review for this second expansion, Arts & Architecture, then check this link . But if you would like to read about this third expansion, then read on. First up, let's cover the logistics. Fantasies & Futures has no box. It comes in an envelope. Everything in this expansion can easily be fitted into the base box. Inside the envelope you will find ten new civilizations, six advanced capital city mats, 38 new tapestry cards, and 12 new tech cards. There is also a new rulebook that cover all the rules for the base game and every expansion, in one convenient book. It clearly labels a rule specific to an expansion, so it can be simply integrated into any combination of the base game and the three available expansions. It is fantastic, and would be something I would consider buying this expansion for alone. You can see here how they clearly mark each rule with either an AA, PP, or FF, to show which rule is relevant to which expansion. Everything is very simple to understand. After three expansions, this is a welcome addition. It is also a much nicer size to read, compared to the original rulebook included in the main box, which is the size of the box itself. The main addition in this expansion is the ten new Civilisations. They are quite different to the previous civilisations, but all work well with them. However, one does seem to be quite overpowered. I have only played with it once, so it's too early to make a definitive judgement. This is the Elder Ones that allow you to have an extra round of advance turns by gaining multiple extra resources after your fifth income phase. This feels quite powerful, and with the one time i played with it, lead to this civilisation winning by 80 or so points. My favourite of the new Civilisations so far though is the Werefolk. I have always enjoyed exploring the space tiles in this game. They just feel exciting to me. Mainly as it takes some effort to get to them. I like how the Werefolk make use of these, and allow you to gain additional points or re-do previously acquired spaces on the tracks. All of the new Civilisations come from a fantasy background, to suit the theme of this final expansions. More of this can be seen with the Tapestry cards. These new cards bring a new feature to the game which I love. When you place a Tapestry card down with one of the new symbols on, (you can see below with the gain Tapestry card symbol on the right for the Chimera-Citizen Rights cards), you will gain the benefit shown. There are some cards that interact with these symbols as well, but mainly they are a nice additional bonus during the income phase. The idea behind this is that you are being "charmed" by other parallel realities Another great new addition is the six new advanced capital city maps. I am a big fan of the Netherworld, shown in the top right here. I like being able to get lots of extra resources , for extra turns later in the game. This mat worked well for me in order to do that. Although the City in a bottle mat is a great way to get lots of extra points, by not placing buildings down! There are also three new Landmark cards, which replace three cards from the Arts and Architecture expansion due to the printing on the shape being inverted on the original. Simply replace the originals with these, and recycle the existing cards. Finally, we have 12 new tech cards. A lot of these link with the new Arts tracks in the Arts & Architecture expansion, so work well when integrated with that expansion. If you don't have Arts & Architecture, or are not using it, simply remove these cards from the game, or draw a new card if you accidentally leave it in. You will notice again, that all of these card link nicely with either a fantasy of future theme. This is a good expansion. Arts & Architecture remains the best one for Tapestry as it changed the most with the fifth track. However, if you like your expansion to add no more complexity, and just bring more game, this is the one for you. Also, as mentioned above, if you have multiple expansion already, then the consolidated rule book is a welcome addition, and a great way to bring all these expansion together. More publishers should do this with games that have multiple expansions. I have enjoyed the way the game has themed these expansions. Each civilisation in each expansion links perfectly to the unique background. It is nice to now have a vast array of civilisations to choose from. Working out which ones work well with against other ones, and with other combinations of game play, capital city mats, and your approach to the game. If you are a fan of Tapestry, you now have enough options to keep you going for many games. Keeping the game fresh and interesting for years to come. Final thoughts on Tapestry, now the game is "complete." I loved Tapestry when it first came out. I then cooled on it, as I found it too abstract. I was not engulfed in the theme as much as I would like in a civilisation game. But now, after multiple plays, and with all of the content made for this epic game, I am left feeling excited for my future turns. I still wish the game integrated the theme a little more though. I don't think the art helps here. The board is highly functional, clear to read, and looks crisp. But it does not enhance the theme. The fifth board being added in the expansion adds a lot to the game play, but I think a new five sided board with more integrated art style would be a fantastic addition to the game. I know Jamey debated this on his Facebook page, and ended up with this. A rubber play mat . But it doesn't work in the way I feel a few of us wanted. A pentagon shaped board with the five tracks all together, and a darker theme would fly of the shelves I feel. I also feel more could have been made from the names of each position on the tracks. Most plays, I don't even look, let alone read these. It's a shame, as this takes away from the theme, which is there, just not integrated enough for me. Linking specific requirements or developments with the civilisation you are playing as could have helped here. For example, if you were playing as a waring civilisation such as the Militants from the base game, it would have been interesting if in one variant of the game, you could be rewarded by completing certain goals along the Military track. This is a track you will likely be developing on more with this civilisation anyway, as you will are rewarded by conquering. So, a direct goal to develop Calvary, and later Tanks would enhance the theme. It gives you a thematically tied goal to aim for, and when you reach that part of the Military track, you would consciously be developing Tanks, not just reaching an arbitrary space on the Military track. But, other than the theme being mostly absent, I love this game. After all the hype has come and gone, and the frustrations with the base cost from the painted minis has gone away; what we are left with is a highly satisfying game that encourages clever play, brings hugely rewarding combination turns, and feels different each time I play. There are so many options now with these three expansions, I can see this getting regularly plays for many years to come. I will always feel excited to play this game. It always brings a massive table presence, expectation, and sense of a gaming event. For me, it has never failed to deliver on all these things.

Disney Sorcerer's Arena - Leading The Charge Expansion WBG Score: 8 Player Count: 2-4 (but really 2) You’ll like this if you like: Unmatched, Funkoverse, Smash Up Published by: The Op Designed by: Sean Fletcher Disney Sorcerer's Arena is a fantastic two player, three-on-three character fighting game set in the magical world of Disney. You can read what I think of the main game here, or check my thoughts on the first expansion here, or the second one here. But if you want to see what is new with this new expansion, then read on. You can read about how the game plays in the main review, let's get into this expansion and what new things it brings. New characters! This time, we have modern day Disney Queen, Elsa from Frozen. Scar from the Disney classic, The Lion King. And everyone's favourite disillusioned toy, Buzz Lightyear from Toy Story. As is the case, they all come as a brightly coloured acrylic standee that look great. The standees and bases all have a protective cover on that needs to be peeled of when you first open the game. This time, they certainly seemed a lot easier to remove. Or, I am just getting better at it after practice! Mine were only on one side this time too, which was nice. I get they need to be protected in transit, but it does seem over the top with waste and effort to have both side. Anyway... Let's take a look at each of the new characters closely. First up: Scar Scar is an amazing new character. He brings a new constant ability which is in effect, even when it is not his turn. This effect reduces other players ability to heal when he is on a yellow scoring hex. He can use his Opportunist Skill to move other characters off these spaces and take their spot instead to utilise this power even more often. And, you will notice he lets you hold three cards instead of the usual two. Big paws I assume? Scar's movement offers various opportunities to close in three spaces and pounce up on your opponent. Which I find is often all you ever need. This, along with the opportunity to assist the movement of his team mates, makes Scar a nimble character to play with. He can also make further use of being on the yellow point spaces by drawing extra cards and forcing other players to lose cards from their hand. Scar even has a movement card that can be used as an attack which allows him to deal three damage and then move. A very useful way to catch another player out. Especially if you have the initiative, and can go first. Where Scar becomes much more exciting is in his attack cards. Again, Scar gains an advantage from the yellow point scoring spaces, this time by attack other players on them, and being able to gain a point from doing so. Life's not fair, is it? Or, he can use his faithful allies, the hyena, By attacking from range, moving the rival he attacked, and potential making them lose a point for the privilege. My favourite card of his, and from this entire expansion is Scar's Treacherous Plot. This allow him to deal a mighty five damage. The rival attacked this way does gain three points however. But, Scar can take an additional turn this phase if he knocked out his rival with this attack. Which often he will with five damage. And again, Scar can play with the power of the yellow point spaces, by gaining an additional point himself from this attack, if this was done to someone on one of this hexes. Elsa plays a little more fair. She brings in a new rule, Invulnerable. This allows her to become immune to attacks for one turn. Elsa has a big heart, with nine health, but rewards her rivals big, with seven points if she is knocked out. But she can keep opponents at bay by immobilizing other characters within a range of two when she upgrades. She is also then able to draw a card. Elsas' movement also gives her lots of options to increase her hand count. She can also help her fellow tam mates recover health, and remove unwanted status effects. Her attacks allow her to target multiple adjacent rivals, as well as freezing them stiff. Or my favourite card of hers, where she can attack a rival next to her, push that rival back, and then attack them again. Although, possible her most powerful card is Show Yourself, which combines brilliantly with other cards so essentially have two turns. I am not a toy. And thankfully, neither is Buzz. He is a fully formed, fighting machine. Buzz is able to use his laser, useless in real life and the movies, so attack rivals from distance, with a rare skill that deals damage. His unshakable determination also allow him to deal damage through his upgradable skill, by adding another damage to any rival already attacked that turn. Buzz is the combo king. Buzz has the ability to move through other rivals when movement, drawing extra cards this way, as well as bringing ally's with him as he travels through the board. His attacks allow multiple attacks again, imagine combining his Rapid Fire with his skill and upgradable power. Sounds fun right? And similarly to the attack of Maleficent in the base game, if you are up against Buzz, you want to avoid allowing your characters to form a straight line, as he has the power to target you all in one attack this way. So, all in, this is a great addition to the collection so far. I hope The Op continue to support this game, as more and more characters will just make it so much more fun. However, I have found that playing the same characters over and over does make for a better game. As you understand a characters deck more and learn which ones work better together, you will enjoy the game a lot more. My current top three characters to play with are Jack Skellington, Scar, and Areal I think they work really well together, at least they do for me. My son is currently combining Stitch, Micky (his absolute favourite) and Maleficent. These six characters make for an epic duel. But I look forward to seeing what new ones we can add in future battles.

That Old Wallpaper WBG Score: 8 Player Count: 2-5 You’ll like this if you like: Sagrada, Azul, Cascadia. Published by: Alderac Entertainment Group Designed by: Danielle Deley, Nathan Thornton Take one look at below box art. How does it make you feel? Nostalgic to your nan's old flat? Or repulsed by the ugly old style? Well, it doesn't matter. Its just a box art. What's inside is what counts. Ooh, tricked you there. But aren't you thankful of the tired and patronising life lesson? No? OK, back to the more simple world of board games. Let's get this one to the table and see how it plays? Set Up Take the small deck of patterned Wallpaper cards, shuffle them up and place them face down in the middle of the table. Then draw one card face up into a central line of cards, one per person playing in the game. If any cards with a red oval in the centre are drawn, you must add one extra card next to this one. Place the Hazy wild cards into a central space so every one can reach them, along with the round tracker cards for round one, two, and the final round. Finally, assign each player a colour, and give them their matching cards and coloured disk. Each player will place their disk onto the table in order of age, youngest first. They will then shuffle their personal deck and draw five cards from it to form their hand. You are now ready to play. How to Play All players will now begin the game simultaneously. Looking at the Wallpaper cards on offer and deciding which ones they would like to acquire for their wallpaper. From the five cards in their hand, they will decide which one to play, to "bid" for the Wallpaper cards. If the card on the far left is the one you want, you will want to play a lower card. The lowest card played will win this card. The highest card played will win the far right card. Of, course, at this stage on turn one, you will find it hard to judge what to play, as you will have no idea what other people will play. But the first card you win is not that important. Each player will play one face down card, and then when all players have done this, the cards are flipped and organised into sequential order. Players will then take back the card they played, and leave it face up in front of them for all to see in later rounds. Then they will take the Wallpaper card they won, and arrange it into their wallpaper tableau. Players will then draw back up to five number cards in their hand and go again. When their draw pile runs out at the end of the 6th turn, players must take the six played cards in their discard area shuffle them up and create a new draw pile. At the end of the 12th turn, do the same. Each time you do this, change the current round using the round cards so you know where you are in the game, either round one for turns one to six, round two for turns seven to twelve, or the final round for turns thirteen to eighteen. The Wallpaper cards can be arranged and placed into your tableau in any way you wish. You do not need to match patterns, but if you do, they will score you more points at the end of the game. Some cards will have a wild hazy pattern on them, such as the far-left card on the bottom row below. On the left side, you can see a shiny pattern. This is the wild design. Any other pattern joined with this is considered complete. But, you cannot score two conjoined wilds. The end game scoring is quite clever. You will notice that each pattern has a large and small variety. Check the top card below in the row on its own. It has one large and one small of the sunshine and red flower design. At the end of the game, after the 18th round, you will count all the completed patterns for each color and size. You will then see which is the lowest number for each pattern and multiply that by two. For example, if you had four large red patterns completed and three small red patterns done, you would score six points. The lowest number was three, so double that. It is all about getting matching pairs of patterns. Don't just build any pattern you can. You need to try and build them up evenly. If players play the same card, you will place them into the same column as above. The tie will be broken by the circular disc you placed at the start of the game. The player who is further to the right on this breaks the tie and takes the cards. The other player will draw one hazy wild card. The wild cards only have one side with a pattern from the four possible sides, and they do not have to be placed until the end of the game. Unlike the usual wallpaper tiles which must be immediately put into your tableau, these can be held back until the end. The winning player will then move their disc to the far left of the line. So, in the above example, the blue player takes the tie and the cards, and will then move their disc to the back of the queue for the next tiebreaker. Players must place their Wallpaper cards as soon as they get them. They cannot be moved or rearranged later in the game. So, you need to make plans for later card placements and try to see the bigger picture. What do you need? What are you short of? How could that be most easily rectified? When you are playing cards to bid on the Wallpaper cards, you will begin to have more information to help you guess what card your opponents will play. As players will leave previously played cards face up, you will know which cards they may have left. All players have the same deck of cards running from one to ten. If you really want to win the card on the far right, and you can see that all other players have already played their nines and tens, and you have both in your hand, you will know that either one will win you the card you want. If, however, one player hasn't played their ten yet, but has played their nine, you will know that they could be in for this as well, and a nine from both players will cause a tie. You can then check to see where you sit in the discs and decide if you can play your nine this time, or if you need to play your ten. Other reviewers have commented on this part of the game, suggesting there is no strategy. There most certainly is. It is just something you need to work at. But in truth, I rarely found I ever wanted a specific card that much more than any other. Generally, they are all good. Apart from one extra part of the game. You will notice that on the above card on the far right, there is a shiny square icon. In the game, there are four different icons: squares, hexagons, diamonds, and triangles. If you have all four of these in your final wallpaper tableau, then you will score an additional ten points. Three unique shapes will score you six points. Two will get you three points. And you will get one point for one. These icons are quite rare and do not show up that often. As such, when one appears in the row that you don't have yet, you will want to do all you can to get it. Likewise, the red oval symbol means that if you win that row, you will claim more cards. In the above example, you will get two. This helps build your tableau, but at the end of the game, the player with the highest number of these symbols will lose two points. Conversely, the player with the least will score two points. There is also a bonus of two for the player who is currently in the lead in the tiebreaker line. After the 18th round, all players can then add in any wild cards they got and calculate their final score. Is It Fun? That Old Wallpaper is a fascinating game. It reminds me of Sagrada in a way that whilst playing, I always feel like I am not thinking about enough of the game. I feel like I am missing something. Focusing on one scoring area, and forgetting another. I like this feeling. It keeps me on my toes. But it is a lot simpler than you first think. It just takes a game or two to get into the swing of things. Checkout the score pad below. Looks a bit intimidating doesn't it? But it, like the game, will all fall into place quickly. First, you can ignore the top or bottom half, it's the same thing replicated for another player or game. Second, the left side is just to tally up how many pairs you got for each size and colour. The right simply goes through your score for each colour, total icons, most or least red ovals, and the person who fished first on the tie breaker track. All quite clear really. It comes into place very quickly, starts to make sense, and much like the game, brings a sense or order to my brain. I was intrigued by the theme of this game. I reached out to one of the designers, Nathan Thornton, as I was interested about their motivation and inspiration behind this game. "You know how when you're a kid and you're spending the night at your grandma's house and you can't sleep and you're just staring at the wall, tracing the pattern in the wallpaper with your eyes, following the lines and shapes and colours, finding weird patterns and making weird connections. And then years later, you realize you haven't thought about that wallpaper in years and you're talking to your older sister and you're like, "Remember that old wallpaper Grandma used to have" and together you try to piece it together, but you remember it totally differently ("I swear it had pink roses on it" "No, they were like orange starbursts, I thought"), but you realize that you both internalized that memory of a random detail from your childhood and it's something that is at the same time 1) intensely personal to you, and 2) deeply shared with your family members." "And anyway, I'd already had the idea for the bidding/drafting part and the pattern-making part, and the theme seemed like a fun one that hadn't really been used in any games I could think of. Originally, I wanted to call it "Remember That Old Wallpaper We Used To Have?" but everybody agreed that it was way too long and nobody would get the name right." This makes sense to me. This cosy, nostalgic sense of calm, belonging, and enjoyment rings true for me in the game. As I play this, I think I get what Nathan was trying to achieve. Yes, this is a strategy game on the surface. But at it's heart it is also a blanket. A memory. A childhood friend. For what is essentially quite an abstract experience, just having this knowledge of the designers motivation has enhanced the game a lot for me. I look at the tableau I am building, and I picture my grandparents house from when I was young. An old house, situated on a long leafy road. I loved it. The house had two floors but they only used the downstairs. The upstairs was full of "stuff." Downstairs, the décor was green, yellow and brown. The carpets were well trodden and dusty. The furniture was warn, but welcoming. The wallpaper, well, that's another story.

Qwirkle WBG Score: 7.5 Player Count: 2-4 You’ll like this if you like: Rummikub, Scrabble, Cascadia. Published by: MindWare Designed by: Susan McKinley Ross Qwirkle is an absolute modern classic. First made in 2006, this game feels like it could have been around for hundreds of years, both in its timeless design and its well-oiled mechanics. Qwirkle is a colourful and engaging board game that combines elements of strategy, matching, and pattern recognition. It is similar to other comparable games, where players seek to maximize their turn by not only placing their best tiles but also placing them in the best location. The game is designed for 2-4 players and is suitable for ages 6 and up. Let's see how it plays. Set Up Inside the box is one large bag filled with chunky square wooden blocks. Take the bag out of the box and have each player randomly draw six tiles. The person with the largest set will go first, and must place this set down. A set is either a group of tiles with the same colour, or shape. You can play one to six tiles at once. You cannot play two identical tiles in the same line at any point. How to Play Once the first player has placed their tiles, players will take it in turns clockwise around the table to place tiles. You must place one to six tiles from your hand somewhere into the common play area, touching at least one of the existing tiles there. You can join tiles orthogonally, and must always obey the same rules, where tiles are in lines of matching shapes or colours. And you must never have two of the exact same shape and colour in the same line. There are six different types of each colour, with six shapes. If ever you lay down tiles into a line to make for a line of six, this is called a Qwirkle and will score you six bonus points. Usually you will score points for the number of tiles in the line or lines that you added to. Place one tiles into a line of two to make a line of three, and that scores you three points. Add two tiles into a line of three to make a line of five, and you will score five points. Add any number to make a line of six and this will score you12 points. Six for the usual scoring, then six bonus points. When you place a tile you must immediately replenish your hand back up to six tiles. If ever you cannot go, then you can replace as many tiles as you like with fresh ones from the bag, but this will forfeit your turn this round. The game will continue like this until the bag runs out of tiles, and the first player places their final tile without being able to replace it with tiles in the bag. At this point, the game will immediately end and the final scores will be announced. As you score as you go, there is zero end game management. And to pack up, you simply sweep the tiles back into the bag. It is big enough to make this a simple and let's be honest, an enjoyable process! Is It Fun? Qwirkle has a classic feel and style to it that instantly makes you feel at home. It is hard to describe why, but picture this. Playing classic games like Scrabble or Chess, or any game that I have fond memories of from my childhood brings a sense of calm to me. I find this is common with many games that are familiar to many people. When playing Chess for example, players must use strategic thinking and logical reasoning to anticipate their opponent's moves and plan their own. This requires a level of focus and engagement that can be both challenging and rewarding. But also one that creates a feeling of relaxation and peace. Despite the challenges in the game. As players progress through the game, they may feel a sense of satisfaction as they successfully execute their strategies and outmanoeuvre their opponent. But win or lose, all players are rewarded with the serene vibe that is created. The pieces are chunky (most the time, if you have a nice set) which feel great on your hands. And the game is often played in a relative state of calm and quiet. Qwirkle feels very much the same as all this. And the familiarity only adds to the soothing environment. There is a huge sense of satisfaction from find clever spots to place your tiles. Such as in games like scrabble and Rummikub, I found a lot of joy from placing tiles is clever spaces to maximise my point return. Tiles can score in multiple lines you see. Such as the three green above. When these were placed above the line of four yellow, the square score twice, both for the line of three that it was in, but also the new line of two it formed with the yellow square. This is a very simply example, and as you play more regularly, you will find that you spot these sorts of places for your tiles more often, and in more ingenious ways. Finding little holes and gaps that a few of your tiles can fill for a big return is a never ending addiction in Qwirkle. I enjoy places fewer tiles for larger rewards. This can block up the board a little. A little like in Scrabble if both players do this, and no one plays nice long words to come off. But because you are not making works here, just lines of matching colours or shapes, you can always find a blocked up area to start a line off from the end or beginning. It's not like you are always hoping for an "S"! One thing I really appreciated about Qwirkle is the quality of the game components. The tiles are made of high-quality wood and have a nice weight and texture that makes them easy to handle and place onto the table. The tiles feel sturdy and well-designed, with clear markings and a colourful layout that adds to the overall enjoyment of the game. In low light, some of the colours can be hard to decipher though, and I can imagine this may be tricky for those that suffer with colour blindness. The bag the tiles come in is huge. It has a nice large opening for even the largest of hands to fit nicely in. Having played many games with small bags, this is a welcome addition, trust me! it is of good tough, durable quality as well. I would recommend this game to anyone who enjoys classic feeling games that offer a smooth, and simple gameplay. This game is suitable for all ages and my family have enjoyed ending many game sessions recently with a game of Qwirkle. It is one my mother has really enjoyed, and my Rummikub obsessed Uncle I think would enjoy this too. This is something I love about games. Their ability to bring people together. Qwirkle has done this for my family and I think it could do it for yours too. There is a simple and pure pleasure about playing with these chunky tiles in your hands. Finding the best place to lay them. And scoring those illusive Qwirkles! I can see this game quickly becoming a family favourite, and I am surprised it does not get more mainstream coverage and distribution. Everyone should own Qwirkle. It deserves a place in everyone's home in this board game reviewers opinion.

Forest WBG Score: 6.5 Player Count: 2-5 You’ll like this if you like: 6 Nimmt, Kawaii, Papageno. Published by: Helvetiq Designed by: Leo Colovini, Fabio Visintin Helvetiq make the most awesome small boxes of delight! Some of my favourite card games come in these tiny packages. Punching well above their weight, and always with such gorgeous art. One game that I had previously missed from 2017 was Forest. But thankfully, the good people at Coiledspring have sent it through for review so I was able to catch up. Let's see how it plays. Set Up OK, this is going to be a long one. Settle in. Shuffle the deck. Deal three cards to each player. You are now ready to play! How to Play I hope you are still with me. That was a brutal set up! But in seriousness, this is what this little boxes from Helvetiq are all about. Once, everyone has their cards, decide on a first player and then in turn, each player will play a card face up into a communal play area as above. Then redraw to three cards. This will continue until the deck runs out at which point the game ends. Each card in the game features various magical forest creatures such as gnomes, frogs, owls, and fairies. If the total number of any single creature on the table reaches seven or more, then a trigger occurs. In one version of the game, players aim to avoid collecting cards by never reaching seven creatures. In the other version, players compete against each other to collect cards by strategically placing cards on the table that get the total number of any creature type to seven or more. As you place your card down, you can do so either end of the current tableau. Laying it either horizontally or vertically based on the art. Although this has no effect on the game. It is a simple matter of, has your card tipped the scales over seven or not on one particular character. If your card does tip the scales, then you must take every card with this particular critter shown on it. You will place these cards into a face down pile in front of you for end game scoring. This will either be a good thing, or a bad thing depending on which version of the rules you are playing. It will either be a case of trying to avoid this, or looking to achieve this. And both versions of the game feel very different. When the deck is finished, the person with the most cards either wins or loses! One final rule that I don't play, has any remaining cards on the table go the the last player who collected cards. This seems to add too much of an unfair swing. I simply take this rule out. Furthermore, there exists an intriguing variant that I relish playing, wherein you are given an additional five points upon successfully amassing a set of seven cards for each of the four distinct characters. This particular gameplay mechanic not only engenders a palpable sense of tension but also introduces a rewarding final element of set collection that I find particularly engaging. Is It Fun? When it becomes your turn, you are either looking to get a certain group of creatures to total seven or more, or avoid that at all costs. Some cards will have more creatures on than others. Some cards have nothing on at them at all, except trees. Depending on the variant you are playing, you will either be counting up what is on the table so far and then trying to get to seven, or seeing if it is possible to lay any of your cards that would avoid this. Ideally getting to six in as many as possible, to make the turn of the next player harder. This creates a very simple, but lovely tension. Some other reviewers have suggested this is too simplistic for it to be considered a good game. It has been suggested that there is no meaningful choices and it is too luck based. Whilst this is partially true, you do have three cards to choose from. For me, there can be a lot of fun in which card you play. Yes, it is a simply choice. And one you don't have full control over. But it is a choice that has created plenty of laughter, cries of joy, and mock accusations from other players as you leave them with no good choices of their own. When this happens to you though, when you are the one left with no good choices, it can be annoying. When playing the version where you are looking to avoid collecting cards, being forced to collect cards, can be frustrating. Especially when there is nothing you can do about it. But this is the game. And all players are in the same boat. Your tree tableau will build until it eventually has to pop. If it pops on you, that's a shame. But it is unlikely it will be you next time. You cannot take this game too seriously. It only takes five minutes to play. You are never that invested in it that losing the game will ruin your day. I would recommend this game to people who enjoy short games that require minimal thinking, and create some funny, take-that style moments. This is a game for people who want something with a small footprint, minimal strategy, but high levels of cuteness! One thing I really loved about the game is the artwork of the cards. The illustrations are beautifully drawn and have a whimsical, almost storybook-like quality to them. The cards are also of high quality, with a nice weight and texture that makes them easy to handle and shuffle, despite the awkward shape. My family find this game enjoyable. We don't take it too seriously, and have played it a lot across both formats, My son (Ten) much prefers the version where you are looking to avoid getting to seven. My daughter (Seven) on the other hand has a preference for the version where you collect as many as you can. This seems to be because they are just better at this version themselves. And the results speak for themselves. over the last 12 games, my daughter won three out of four where we played the most cards win. And my son won five out of eight games where we played the least cards win. Perhaps there is some strategy after all?

Cortex: Harry Potter WBG Score: 8 Player Count: 2-6 You’ll like this if you like: Cortex Challenge, Jungle Speed, Taco Cat Goat Cheese Pizza. Published by: Gém Klub Kft., Zygomatic Designed by: Johan Benvenuto, Nicolas Bourgoin There have been a number of Cortex games. A geography version, one specifically aimed at children with simpler puzzles. And one just for adults with mature content. But now we have one specifically for fans of Harry Potter. Or, for families that don't mind a coincidental Harry Potter theme. Let's get into it and see how it plays. Set Up Getting this game to the table is very simple. After initially learning the rules that is! There are three types of card in the deck. 74 test cards. six touch cards. And ten raised touch cards. Shuffle the test and touch cards together to form a face down deck. Then lay out the raised touch cards onto the table and give everyone the chance to have a good feel, look, and play with them. This is so people can learn about each card before the game begins. The raised cards have symbols, made famous by the Harry Potter books and films, with a raised and varying pattern on them. Once everyone has had a chance to familiarise themselves with these ten cards, set them aside, give each player the four parts of the Hogwarts crest, and the game can begin. How To Play One player will now turn over the first test card. The symbol on the back will tell each player what type of test this will be. There are eight in total. As soon as the top card is flipped, all players are trying to work out the solution at the same time, as quickly as they can. When someone thinks they have the right answer they must place their hand over the card. Fastest hand wins. They must then reveal their answer to the group. If they are correct, they take the card and place it face down in front of them. If they are wrong, the card is discarded and that player is out of the next round. In a two player game, the card is given to the other player. Whenever ever a player collects two cards of the same type, they can exchange this for one of their four Hogwarts crest pieces. The first player to get all four of their pieces together wins the game. All very simple. But what are the four tests? 1. Secret Passages: You must start at the Harry Potter symbol and follow his path into the first door. This door will match another door on the map, where Harry's path will continue into a second door. This second door will match another door on the card which will now lead to a symbol. When you have worked this out, slap your hand down onto the card and say the symbol. If you are right, the card is yours. Let other people check your path afterwards to see if you are right. Or, just slap your hand on the card immediately, and take a guess on one of the symbols as my wife likes to do! She gets lucky more than she is wrong! Above, it is a feather. 2. The Golden Snitch Race. The explanation for this challenge in the rule book is terrible! I had to go onto Instagram to get the answer from a few helpful people there. Thanks @lutz_boardgame.de The way this one works is you need to imagine there are only four people racing on broomsticks. Some may be shown on the card more than once, but that is just showing them from different perspectives. If a blue wizard is beating a green wizard in one picture, but the same blue wizard is losing to a yellow in another, that means the blue is second, the yellow is first, and the green is third. But if in the last picture, a red wizard is beating a yellow, that actually means the yellow is in the lead. Make sense? Check this one above. Which one do you think is winning? See the bottom of the review for the answer. 3. The Unique Patronus. In this test you will be presented with a number of different animals, all in pairs. All, except one. Find the one animal without a pair first to win this card. Can you spot which one is going solo above? 4. The Wizards Mayhem. In this challenge, you will be presented with a number of different common objects seen in the books and films. They will have a blue, green, or red glow to them. Be careful, as some objects have these colours too and can confused you. Look for the glow colour, not the objects colour. First, identify which colour glow is shown around the most objects, then memorise the objects with that colour. Slap your hand down first, state the colour with the most objects and then list the objects correctly to win the card. This one is a lot harder than it seems, as often player will slap with the right colour, but cannot then remember the objects. Generally all but one! Above, the most common colour is blue, the feather, ticket, and Hedwig. But you may think red, as there is the book and glasses, and the potion is red, but check again, it is surrounded by a yellow aura. It's just the bottle's contents that is red. Tricky Hobbitss'ss. Sorry, wrong franchise. 5. The Spells Battle. This is the hardest one for children as it needs you to remember your rights and lefts quickly! Something that I noticed even adults struggle with at times. The back of the card will show you the blue always relates to the left, and red to the right. When you flip the card you will see a wand and a spell coming out of the wand. If the wand has a red glow then you must hold up your right hand as if it has a wand in it. If the wand has a blue glow, use your left hand. Then, if the spell has a red glow you must point to the person to your right and say "Cortexum!" If the glow on the spell is blue, do the same nut pointing to the left. It's hilarious how often people get this one wrong. It's also a lot of fun to see who is pointing the right way with the right hand or not! 6. Hogwarts Houses. This is a simple game of spot the difference. You will be presented with three seemingly matching house crest's of one of the four leaders of Hogwarts. However, there will be one subtle difference on one of them. Spot this first to win the card. This is the weakest of the eight challenges as you will quickly learn what the differences are and be able to spot them from memory rather than observation within a few games or so. This obviously gives a massive advantage to anyone who has played the game more than others. There are only 74 normal test cards. That's roughly ten cards per tests. There are four houses in Hogwarts so only a couple of cards for each house. You will easily remember what is different for each. Especially obviously ones like above. They either needed more cards. Or just one House type for each one, so it was not so easy to spot the change. 7. The Magic Circle. The back of this card will show a number of symbols. When you flip the card you need to spot which symbol has either been added or removed. Quickest to spot this correctly wins the card. See the extra symbol above? It's a lot easier when one is added like this. When one is removed, it can be a lot harder for your first few games. 8. The Raised Touch Challenge. This is the most fun part of the game. When you see one of the six finger print test cards, you must as a group, decide which one of the ten raised touch cards to give to the person who most recently won a challenge. Give them one of the cards so that they can feel it, but not see the front. They then have ten seconds to touch the card and try to correctly identify the symbol. It is surprisingly hard to do this. It is a lot of fun to watch others try. It's a shame this comes up so infrequently in the game. These cards are the star of the show, both in looks and gameplay. Is It Fun? Playing this game is a riot. It has quickly become a family favourite for us. My children (Ten and Seven) have asked to play it every evening since we got this, and my wife and I are only happy to oblige. It is a delight to be faced by these eight challenges. In a game that typically lasts' 20 minutes, and has this many varying tests, it feels fresh each time they come up. People cheer or boo when the one they need to make a match with comes up, or not! And each challenge offers a different test of your brain. Memory, matching, colour identification, or problem solving. They all feel quite different, exciting, and consistently challenging. Bar the Hogwarts houses one. The difficulty level seems to favour older players at first. But I found as my children got to understand the game more, they were able to win more than they lost. I would put this firmly in the family game category, but could see this being fun for a group of adults after one or two Butter Beers! The raised touch cards are the highlight. They look great. Are fun to touch. And it is a lot of fun to watch other players trying to identify an image, which to you looks and seems so obvious. We end every game by challenging each player to see who can identify the most, trying each of the ten cards in turn. Even after about seven tries each, we still only score around seven or eight out of ten. That pesky Quidditch Cup gets me every time! I would recommend this game to anyone who is a fan of the franchise, and is looking for a fast, fun, family friendly game to play after dinner with their children. This ticks all those boxes, and will offer a lot of life for many games to come. It's a shame the rule book explains the Quidditch Golden Snitch race so poorly, and that the spot the differences on the Hogwarts Houses is so easy to remember. But other than that, this is a brilliant little family game I will treasure for many years to come. It was red!

Well, where do I begin? After 724 miles, (and that's just me walking around the halls) I am home from Essen. Coming to the end of something you hype in your mind for so long , always brings mixed feelings. I am very tired, and not 100% physically well with a little bug (not Covid!), but my mind is full of happy memories. Close to 150,000 people graced the 6 halls of the show over the four days. Over 1,200 new games were on display. Publishers from all over the world come to Essen to try and get a little bit of limelight shined onto their game. In this retrospective, I will try and give a flavour of how the show was for me. As well as sharing the thoughts of a few friends. The Logistics. Getting to the show and the overall logistics of planning are always difficult for me. I have been with and without my family before. And I don't want to do it again without them. But the show is early October now, so not in UK School holidays, which makes it tough to have my children with me the entire time. They are 9 and 7 currently. But I also don't want to force them and my wife around the halls for too long. So, going for a day on my own, and then to have them join me for a day seems about perfect. This year, I was kindly given a lift by Marie from @Burton_boards which allowed me to travel separately from my family, without much added expense. Thank you Marie! My wife is happy to drive there as she grew up close to Essen, and knows the roads, route, and likes the journey. But I would prefer to be with them for this. But having a day to myself before they arrived allowed me to do all the things I wanted to do, such as speak to some of my favourite publishers, and demo some great games. I book hotels in Dussledorf which is 25 minutes drive from Essen as they are way cheaper, and the city is awesome! I highly recommend it. Parking at the Spiel is fine. There are some queues, but it's cheap at 6 euros a day, and there are lots of spaces across nine huge car parks I believe. The Highlights With over 1,200 new games at the show, you have to be choosy! I created a short list using the BGG preview prior to going. The official Spiel App allowed you to mark your top games, and then it showed you where they were on the map too. Very cool. It would be nice if they could sync the BGG list to the Spiel app though. On my shortlist, I had 147 games. I knew I wouldn't have time to see them all but there you go! The heart wants what the heart wants! On the Thursday, I had back to back meetings with publishers to talk to them about their games, and so I found that with these diarised events, and a few stops for food and drink, I didn't have that much more time for other things on day one. Checking out Redwood from Sit Down! games was a highlight though. It's currently on kickstarter and it is stunning both in terms of looks and gameplay. I love how you move your characters and then use school math class like equipment to assess your current view. It has interesting scoring options too. One to watch for sure. My Day two highlight was meeting the design team behind The Red Cathedral and Walkie Talkie by Devir. Walkie Talkie is an awesome little card game that I demo'd then bought at the show. I love how simple it is to play, but how addictive it can be. Meeting Isra and Shei from Llama Dice was a real thrill for me. They were so humble and seemed confused at how excited and emotional I was to see them! In Walkie Talkie, you have six cards with either a single letter or a single colour on. There are two cards on the table. One showing a letter. One showing a colour. 30 seconds is available per player. You will all play simultaneously, trying to get rid of your cards by playing a letter on a letter or a colour on a colour. All you need to do when you play a card is say a word that matches the card you are playing. For example, if you play a W next to the colour blue you could say Water. If you played a Pink next to a letter F you could say Flamingo. You can say anything you like as long as it is not a colour and it makes sense. Get rid of your cards in the time limit to win. All the cards are double sided, with a letter on one side and a colour on the other. If someone says ROGER, then all players must flip their cards over. If someone says OVER, then all players must pass their card to the left. It's a bit like The Mind meets Boggle! Great fun! The Games I came home with 14 games and two expansions. I was able to play nine games over the two days I was at the show. And was able to get a demonstration of a dozen more. My pre-show big hitters were Tribes of the Wind, Revive, Sabika, War of the Ring, and Flowar. I came home with none of these and only played only one! Tribes of the Wind was the one I played. It was good. If a friend owned it and asked to play with me, I would happily do so. And I feel over a few games I could come to enjoy it a lot. But it felt quite abstract and the theme of rebuilding civilisation in a post-apocalyptic world was what draw me in. Sadly, feeling none of that as I played really put me off, despite the game being solid. I liked how the actions you could do were largely dictated by the symbols on the back of the cards that your neighbour had. Hence the card holders below, allowing you to see what everyone has on the back of their cards. The multiple ways to play and score was fun. I liked how the game ended by building your fifth treehouse, which could happen sooner or later, depending on each players tactics. But it was good, not great. And had no real new mechanic or clever moment, so without the theme, I was ok to move on. I left War of the Ring and Revive as I felt they were somewhat over priced at the show. 50 Euro for War of the Ring, and 80 for Revive. At least Revive has a lot in the box. War of the Ring is basically just some cards. But both felt over-inflated for the show based on hype, so I left them to more keen/rich buyers! But I am very excited to play them soon. Sabika and Flowar I would have got had I more budget! But you cannot buy them all, and as I didn't have time to fully demo them, I have left them for another time. Hopefully soon. Sabika in particular looks amazing. But here is what I did get. Please note, a lot of these are review copies and were provided by the publishers for review purposes. STG 2022 : A cool demo game showcasing all the cool developers from their area, kindly given to me by @zlaiannah.gameroom who is making @eyeofzamrock Scout by @oinkgms Walkie Talkie by @devirgames@llama_dice Something Wild Marvel by @funko_europe Sagrada expansion @floodgategames Kites by @floodgategames Ted Lasso by @funko_europe ET by @funko_europe Night of Frights by @funko_europe Toko Island by @helvetiq Skate Summer by @pandasaurus_games Vengeance Roll & Fight by @mightyboards Starship Captains by @czech_games_edition Wonder Book by @dvgames_official Carcassonne Ukraine Map by @hig_games Not featured in this picture as it was in the car somewhere at the time, after we played during the euro tunnel is Mada from @helvetiq The Halls I spent most of day one in Hall three. It was huge and had a lot of my favourite publishers located within it. Hall one and two was also very busy throughout and was full of amazing stuff. All three could be a full day, very easily. The Gallery connects to hall two, three, and four and five. Here, there were oversized games, children's entertainment including free mini buggies to ride, and lots of great food options. Hall Four and Five were a little smaller in comparison, but still huge! And full of great stuff, and hall six was a little quieter with some smaller independents, retailers, and peripherals. Everywhere you looked there was something awesome, and I honestly think you could spend over a week and still not see it all. But you need to keep your eyes peeled because it can all blur into one. It is hard to separate individual people and games. Well, it is at least for me. But in one glorious corner of hall 2, you could find the Serbian Tabletop Guild. A group of designers and publishers from Serbia, joining forces to create something amazing. They even had a free promo game they were handing out that promoted each of their individual businesses whilst being a playable card game. How cool! I was made aware of this by @zlaiannah.gameroom who I know from Instagram, who was promoting his upcoming kickstarter @eyeofzamrock It looked like Scythe on steroids, and I was instantly blown away! Just check out the scale and beauty of this! I cannot wait to see more. The Hype Some games get a lot of pre-show hype from the various outlets and channels that promote games. But Essen does not seem to have that many good deals anymore. Prices are normal costs. As such, the main reason to go for many is to get the hot games first. Others go for the spectacle, to see friends, network, or simply just play some games. But the queues for the hot games each day proves a large part of the show is about getting the new stuff first! Many games sold out, even at high prices, and it is great to see our wonderful hobby in boom time. I am sure many publishers, distributers, and designers suffered like most during lockdown, with distribution and parts being a real issue. But it seems we are nearly back to normal. Although there still seems to be a huge issue with importing games. So many publishers told me they had stacks of games stuck in customs, and were unable to demo or sell them at the show. This happens every year. Surely there is a better way? One game I missed out on but hope to try soon is The Wolves. Just look at how pretty it looks! This is a territory building area-majority game with a modular board that has a Cascadia look to it, but plays very differently. You can turn over the terrain tiles where you want to have your turn, to change what terrain is visible. This of course affects the options available to you on your next turn. You need to upgrade your Wolf packs abilities and control across each terrain type to win the game. It is a lovely puzzle that looks great, and seems to play very smoothly. Saying Goodbye Leaving Spiel after two days last year, I was left feeling sad and frustrated I couldn't stay for longer. I want to play more games. See more people. Try more new things. But this year, after two days I was ready to go home. I covered a lot of ground. Around 15,000 steps each day. And had seen so many great things. Yes, I missed so much, but I recognise that I cannot play every game, and anything missed this time, is a surprise and delight for another day. Still, walking out those doors, tired and sweaty,for the final time on Friday evening felt sad. My Spiel was over for another year. I loved every minute of it. I cannot wait for next year. But I leave with lots of new games to try. New friends to talk games with. And a real sense of hope and joy for our wonderful hobby. I sometimes get too caught up in the politics of our industry, but if you remove all that, you are left with a lot of people trying to do one of two things. Give other people a good time, or have a good time themselves. I need to get back to the basics that drew me in to this wonderful hobby in the first place. The Good, bad, and Ugly. I loved 99% of the show. The stands are so impressive. The people at the stands are all so friendly and welcoming and you get great demos, mostly! There are some queues for some hot games, but there is always something to do, some game to play. Or some person to say hello to! The few things I don't enjoy are the queues outside at the start of each day. Arrive 20 minutes late and you walk right in. But if you want to get in for the 10am start, you will gather outside in a big crowd, waiting to get through a narrow door, and have your ticket scanned by one of three people. Other doors are better, but this is the entrance to hall one where I always go in as it is closest to the car park I use. It's a bit stressful for me, and I feel they could have a more orderly queue, a lot more people scanning tickets, and maybe even start scanning in the queue before the doors open to avoid the rush. The worst bit about the show though is the noise and hustle and bustle. There is no chill area, and it is all a bit intense. Sure, I chose to go for two days, 10am through to 7pm, I could break it up. But it would be nice if they had some area to chill in. You can get outside through a few doors, but there are no seating areas, and it's mainly full of people smoking. There must be hundreds of people like me that want to stay the full day but find it very hard to do so. I think Spiel needs to accommodate for this a bit more. Airecon does this best I feel, with lots of side rooms, chill areas, and break areas. Maybe the two organisers could chat! If you want to check out my top tips for surviving Essen, I ran through that last year, you can check that here. For now, let's do my Best of Awards. Best game I played This has to be Walkie Talkie. I absolutely loved it! Best game I bought I am not sure as I have not played them all yet, but Starship Captains has my eye! Best Small box game If I cannot pick Walkie Talk again, I will go with Kites. So frantic. So fun! Best Party game Again, I want to pick Walkie Talkie! So, I will! Best Kickstarter coming soon There were so many, but Eye of Zamrock pips it for me. Best Stand For shear scale and accessibility, it has to be Devir. They had great games. Nice tables. Great staff. A large but simple area to play with comfy seats, then a separate place to buy. Well, enough of what I think, let's hear from some other visitors. Marie - @Burton_boards My highlights of Essen Spiel? I should probably say something about games. There were definitely games. Games as far as the eye can see. 18,000 steps a day worth of games. It was incredible and immense and overwhelming all at once. But today the thing that I find myself most craving is the sociality of it all. I’ve got a stack of shiny new games in front of me but I’m missing the people to play them with. Last year I joined a queue to buy a game and found myself next to an insta friend who lives 3000 miles away from me. This year we passed each other walking opposite directions and it was pure joy seeing each other again. On Friday I met another friend who lives in Serbia. There have been multiple times that I’ve written to them ‘I hope we get to meet in real life,’ whilst never really believing it. Now I hope to one day also meet his wife and I actually believe it’s possible. You can go to dinner, notice the people next to you have games and before you’ve finished eating there are plans in place to meet the following year. You’re tired, you’ve walked the better half of a marathon over the weekend but still you find yourself in an apartment with new Dutch friends playing games until midnight. I talked to a couple who told me they don’t sit down at the demo tables to play games because it’s too busy and noisy for them to concentrate on learning rules but I really think that’s the best thing about conventions: sitting down, playing games with multiple strangers from around the world and communicating fine because everyone there speaks a common language. So go to Essen for the games but my highlight is the people. It’s an effort wandering around amongst 147 000 of them, but they’re all board-gamers and when you sit down and start playing you can’t help but feel that everyone there is your friend. Anne - Dice & Dishes Spiel ’22, FINALLY, after Covid and a burnout in 2021 we're finally able to attend Spiel again. I have been preparing for months, reading through the Spiel preview on BoardgameGeek and watching YouTubers chatting about their most anticipated games for this year. Making a list, trying to make a shortlist, setting budget, making sure we would meet people, booking a hotel close enough and eventually packing our bags to drive eastward to Essen. I kind of forgot how immense the Messe was and how busy it gets with all these crazy board gamers, but wow isn't that just amazing, all these people loving board games? At least you’re not the only weirdo hauling bags full of games around. As we both needed some time to adjust we just started walking around a bit to ease into the Spiel vibe and immediately buying some high anticipated games, until I soon spotted some familiar faces. We started looking for free tables to play some games and it surprised me we found those quick enough. Spiel is not quite the open gaming convention but this year I played more games than previous ones. With over 800 games releasing (I have no clue how many exactly since a lot of games come out in different languages) the Messe is packed with booths and people and enough to see and experience for weeks. Sure we just went 2 days but I am sure I could’ve found new stuff everyday! Could (or should?!) Spiel get even better by turning hall 7 into a huge open gaming area? Probably. Should they have more (veggie) food options and more space to properly sit down, looking at your fresh loot and chill a bit? Probably. But man is this a fantastic place to be. Of course I brought some games home as well. Many of my list and some we got to play and liked immediately. I forgot to find three of the most anticipated games on my list (Marvel Remix, Cat in the Box and The Wolves) and by the time I realized I forgot about them, they were sold out. Oh well, I’m sure I have a few games to play until these are delivered.. But THE highlight of this year was the absolutely amazing community of board gamers. Some I met prior to, some I met at Spiel. They truly made this year unforgettable. We had lovely dinners, played many games, and girl did we laugh a lot. I really DO think we are the friendliest people. And it just wouldn’t be the same without you. I am impatiently waiting to meet again. And already looking forward with the utmost anticipation to Spiel ’23. John - @TrywinGames Essen Spiel is a gigantic cornucopia of people, games and food. On one hand it’s “just” a huge games fair. On the other it’s a delightful blend of curiosity, wonder, shared experiences, meeting people and dodging speed-walking games fans! Preparation really does help make the most of the, surprisingly, short time of the event. I even printed the show guide beforehand so I could prepare. Got to love reading real print, right?! So what was my first Essen Spiel experience like? As a budding tabletop game designer my relationship with board games is probably a little different to tabletop players. I met with publishers, manufacturers and distributors. Events like this are great to work out who you would like to work with, and who you might not! I looked to see how games and stands were presented and which tricks were used to excite potential players. It’s also great to talk to fellow designers to share insights and experiences. Of particular note was the team at Nomnivoregames (@nomnivoregames on Insta) where we chatted about font selection and design to promote visual inclusivity. The chat started when I nerdily recognised a dyslexic font they use in their game. It was fantastic to share the passion for being able to welcome anyone to the gaming table. I also met lots of brilliant Instagrammers too – many of whom I had never met in person before. It was simply amazing to link up with people who had, up until this event, only been online friends. We shared chats, photo’s, food and a few laughs too. Of course, there are games at Essen too! I love how tabletop games have the ability to inspire wonder and pleasure, and seeing the joy on so many faces was a marvellous sight. I did manage to squeeze in a few demo’s; my highlights were Kites and Run Animals Run. One inspires chaos while you try to keep kites in the air, the other challenges you to claim enough resources for your chosen animal before the landscape becomes over-developed and your critters die. Yes, there is an animal graveyard where you score negative points for each animal that doesn’t make it. I guess the theme is a little morbid, but I really liked the interpretation in the game of environmental challenges for (endangered) animals. Is it possible to summarise Essen? It’s a tricky feat! The sheer scale of Essen makes everything so much more rewarding, including the size of the memories made. It’s one giant heap of amazing, and I’m so grateful to have shared it with so many wonderful friends.

Deception: Murder in Hong Kong WBG Score: 8 Player Count:4-12 You’ll like this if you like: Night of the Ninja, Werewolf Published by: Grey Fox Games Designed by: Tobey Ho By Steve Godfrey If you live in the UK and are well versed in home grown detective shows then you’ll assume that a small town, village or island are probably best avoided due to the high crime rates which, weirdly enough never seem to affect their tourism stats! Anyway, if you’ve ever felt like you want to join a long line of quirky detectives that get everyone in a room together to solve a crime which is increasingly ludicrous, ridiculously elaborate for a normal person to have come up with on the spot and, let be honest, going to be really difficult to make any of the “evidence” stick in court, then Deception: Murder in Hong Kong may just help scratch that itch. Scene of the Crime Each player will get a badge token, four “means of murder” cards and four “key evidence” cards which they display in front of themselves in sight of the whole table. Then give each player a secret role. The player who received the forensic scientist role reveals their role and who’ll be running the game. They then lay out the cause of death tile, a randomly selected “location of death” tile and then four random scene tiles. All these tiles are made up of six words each relating to the subject of the tile. For example “weather” or “duration of crime”. Everyone will close their eyes and the forensic scientist or FS as I’ll now call them because it’s easier to type!, will call for the murderer and the accomplice, if being used, to open their eyes. The murderer will then point to one means of murder card in front of them and one evidence card, they’ll then close their eyes. If the witness is in the game they open their eyes and the FS will reveal who the murderer and the accomplice are. The FS will then place one bullet token onto a word on each of the tiles that best points to the cards that the murderer chose. At this point the group can start a discussion as to who they think the murderer may be based on the clues given. After a brief period, the discussion will stop and each player will have 30 uninterrupted seconds to give their pitch on who they think the murderer is. After every player has been. The next round begins. The FS will draw a new tile and replace an existing tile with it and place a bullet on a new word. This will go on until the end of round three. At any point a player can try and solve the crime by holding their badge up and stating “let me solve the crime” (this is also the only way you can interrupt a players pitch) If they guess correctly then the game is over. If one thing they said was wrong then the game carries on. They hand in their badge and can no longer make a guess but they are still in the game and play as normal. If, after round three no one has guessed the murderer then they and their accomplice win. If the Witness is in the game and the murderer and their cards have been correctly guessed then they have one last chance at freedom and victory. If the murderer can correctly guess who the witness is, then the witness mysteriously fails to turn up to court that day and the murderer, sorry, wrongly accused citizen goes free. Gather everyone in a room together, I want to show off. I love a good social deduction game, especially with the right, fun group. But there are two things that I find can be a bit of a barrier when it comes to new players to the game and both of these are things that I think Deception does a really good job at attempting to mitigate. First, being a new player and having to face that panic inducing moment when you realise you’re the murderer/traitor etc and realising that you can’t ask the question “so how does the murderer win again?” for fear of rousing suspicion can be pretty stress inducing. Well here you don’t necessarily need to be good at lying, you just need to know how to weigh up the evidence in front of you and make a convincing argument for someone else. It’s a mechanism that uses a different skill set and one that I think more people will be comfortable with. You could even bluff people and admit that, yes they do make a good case and that you could be the murderer. It’s a classic case of “yes, but….” At any point you could also even accuse someone else and throw people off that way. This gets better with the accomplice in the game because they’ll be there backing you up with your arguments. Second is the random accusations. There’s nothing worse than in games like Werewolf, where someone is calling you out as a the werewolf purely because you screwed them over in another game, or because you were the werewolf that one time or just because she’s your sister and god forbid you can ever actually be civil to one another in a game like this…..ahem. Needless to say we don’t get a lot of One Night Werewolf plays in our house these days. So, yes, you can still get that here, however, since this is pretty much evidence based, those types of accusations don’t usually stick unless the cards and the clues line up against you. But more often than not there’s going to be an equally good case to be made for someone else as well. Again this takes the pressure off of anyone who doesn’t like lying. Both of these things could easily bring some bad feelings to some social deduction games but I love the way that Deception has tried to navigate around this. I don’t know if this was deliberate or just a happy accident but either way I’ll take it as a win. A likely story! I love how this game takes social deduction and throws in some twists that elevate it beyond that. The idea that you have one player that has perfect information but has limited communication is brilliant but the way they communicate is what really opens up the game. Just having a few vague words to go on really lets players tell a story and be creative when they're making connections. The mix of sometimes dark and sometimes bizarre cards really add to that. Have you ever thought about how you could kill someone with a games console? If you answered yes then don’t be surprised if I decline your invitations to come and play PlayStation with you! But those bizarre stories you start to weave together, just from a few generic words is one of the things that really make this game stand out. But not only for everyone trying to solve this thing, but for the forensic scientist as well. You now get to sit there and be entertained by your friends as they conjure more and more ridiculous theories of how this thing went down. How can you not be entertained by the idea of a jilted lover being murdered in the pub by having been administered poison by a cat (if any showrunners from Death in Paradise are reading this, I am available) It could easily be frustrating if the words you have don’t really align with any of the two cards, but because things tend to escalate you can't help but sit back and enjoy the ride. The only thing you need to remember is to not get too wrapped up and keep the game moving. As a starter game (or lower player counts) it tells you to only use the Forensic scientist, murderer and the investigators and that’s probably good advice. However, I would say to try and get the witness and the accomplice into the mix as soon as possible. They’re not difficult roles to integrate and they really make the game, especially at larger player counts and it tips the balance back to more of an equal footing for the murderer. The accomplice provides some much needed back up especially with bigger numbers and with a group which are leaning heavily to one player, It may be some much needed relief. The witness brings a much needed second win condition. Being the murderer could easily feel like you’re in a no win situation if the clues and the cards align against you. Having the witness not only gives you a way to sneak victory, but also gives you your own deduction game to play on the side. You’re Nicked. Like similar games, Deception: Murder in Hong Kong is group dependent. If you get a group that aren’t really willing to take this in their stride then it could easily fall flat. Also, you do need a forensic scientist who can control the game. If you let the discussion go on for too long then the game can run for longer than it needs to. If I’ve got new players in a game then I’ll volunteer myself as the FS or see if anyone wants to take the role. Since we tend to play this at least twice in a session then I’ll just shuffle it in for the second game. The highest player count I’ve had for this is 10 players and if the game is under control then it still moves along at a good pace. Probably about half an hour per game at that player count. Deception has been around for nine years at the time of writing this and it still holds up as one of the great social deduction games for me. If you want a social deduction game that relieves pressure for new gamers, lets you tell stories and find out ways that your friends are secretly plotting to murder you, then this is the game you need.

Cake of Doom is hitting Kickstarter on 10th March. You can find more information about the game here or follow the kickstarter here. Social links here: Twitter: @CakeOfDoomGame IG: @CakeOfDoomGame Facebook This game was proved for free for purposes of this preview. As a preview, rules and components are liable to change. The free game does not affect my opinion. I am not that cheep. ;) Cake of Doom is from first time designers Amar Chandarana and Pearl Ho. If you want to give it a try yourself, head to Tabletopia, Tabletop Simulator or Screentop.gg. The game is set during an Alien invasion. You play the role of one Alien race trying to take over the human race, trying to bribe the hungry inhabitants with cake. The most obvious invasion technique. Although, I do feel it would be more effective in the U.K. than other countries. Set Up Give each player one asymmetric alien race card. This will be their character for the game and it will also give them a cool power to use as they play. Then give each player three blue and pink mischief cards and five green cake cards. If you prefer, you can let players choose their own cards with any breakdown of mischief or cake cards, up to eight. Place the remaining cards in two face down decks. Next place the Doom card into the centre of the table along with the region cards. Five for a three player game, seven for a four player, nine for a five player, and eleven for a six player game. You are now ready to play. How to Win To win a game of Cake of Doom, you need to claim the Doom card. But you cannot get this until you have at least two region cards. You can win these cards by playing your cake cards. You can see how much each needs as a minimum on the card itself. When you win them, they will reward you with a control bonus. How to Play On your turn, you can play as many blue grab and steal cards as you wish. These will allow you to boost your cake supply. Then, you can try and make a bribe and win a region. You can play as many cake cards as you like. But the other players may then collectively play a sabotage card, so you may want to play a few more cards than you need to counter any negative effects coming your way. You can always block these with a suitable block card though, so having one spare could be very useful at this point. You can either try and bribe a region currently not controlled by anyone, or a region that was previously won by another player. If you win, be sure to keep your cakes that you used in front of it, so that if another player tries to steal it from you in a later turn, all players will know how many cakes you used to win it. This is so they know how high they have to go to beat your bribe. Some of the cake cards will give you a bonus as well as simply adding a cake to your bribe. Certain cakes will be better at targeting certain regions that others, based it seems, on their country of origins. Americans love their Apple pie! (more crumble for us brits. With custard, obvz!) After a players has played their cards and attempted their bribe, they will then draw cards based on the current round. In round one, you draw one card. Round two, two cards. And so on. This creates a great pace to the game. As players hand's become more powerful as they game progresses, giving you all the chance to steal from each other, keep other players away from being able to attempt to get the Doom card, whilst trying to do this yourself. If you started with too many cards, the game would be over too quickly. If you ended with too few cards, you wouldn't ever be able to outbid other players previous bribes. It's a lovely build. Cake of Doom is a fun, family-friendly card game, that has a delightful theme, and simple ruleset. I can see this being popular with young families, looking for a game to play on weekends, after dinner, and our at restaurants when waiting for your food. It has that classic card game feel, with an easy to understand strategy, but enjoyable take-that swing of mid-game leader. Players will steal regions from each other, with card going to-and-fro between people around the table. There is a strong attack-the-leader vibe to this, as collectively, you cannot let anyone go for the Doom card before you. If anyone ever gets two regions, all players will then go after them, trying to bribe one of their regions from them. As such, younger players may not enjoy having their cards taken from them. Take-that as a mechanic is always harder for those under eight years old to accept I find. And older children may be looking for a game with a more complex strategy. So, I would say this game has a perfect sweet spot of eight to twelve year olds, who I think would really enjoy this game.

By Steve Godfrey Top Ten (new to me) Games of 2022 Well here it is folks, the list that no one was waiting for, it’s my top ten games of 2022. This is my top ten “new to me” games of 2022. As much as I’d like to populate this list of purely releases from this year, the fact of the matter is that I don’t get to play many of them. Sure I could probably muddle together a top ten from them but there’s so few of them that a lot of the list would end up being games I didn’t really get on with and are just there to make up the list. I want this list to highlight my very favourite games that I played this year and got excited about. Luckily enough I’ve played some really great games over this year with two of them even making my top ten games of all time! 10. Village Rails There was something about Village rails that appealed to me the minute I saw the cover and that tag line. When the game finally chugged its way to my doorstep it didn’t disappoint. A really fun game of building up a grid of tracks and each time you complete a line you get points based on the different scoring conditions on it. I love the drafting system that has hints of Smallworld and century spice road and deciding when to sacrifice points for money is a great brain burn. It fills that sweet spot of being quick enough to play before you get into a bigger game but it’s by no means a filler so you can keep your brain engaged. My full review here. 9. Downforce In Downforce you ideally want to win the race, but it’s not necessary for you to win the game. I love the idea that it’s entirely possible for you to be right at the back of the pile but still be able to win the game through clever betting and manipulation through the cards you play on your turn. It’s simple to learn and makes even mechanics like betting accessible to everyone without the downsides. If you bet on a car to win and it’s falling back you can use your cards to give it a boost and help you win big money. So many race games can suffer from a runaway leader and while that can still happen here, Downforce goes some way to stop that from hindering your victory. Plus it’s tense and a ton of fun and you get to go brum brum on your turn. My full review here 8. Libertalia : Winds of Galecrest A game about anthropomorphic animal sky pirates, what’s not to love! I love how, even though players have the same hand of cards at the start of the game, watching each person's thought processes play out through when they chose to play which card is fascinating. It’s a lot of fun trying to get into your friends' heads as you try and figure out which cards they might choose so you can get the best loot or avoid getting your card wiped out by theirs. The later rounds are even more fun as you’ll get more cards in your hand, but some will be left over from other rounds so your hands of cards start to differ from everyone else’s. This is one I need to add to the collection and is a lot of fun even at the full six players. Jim’s full review here 7. Cascadia Cascadia is a wonderful tile laying, drafting game. On your turn you pick a combo of tile and animal token. Place down the tile and put the animal token on a tile with that animal on it. Animals score depending on the scoring cards. So for example salmon score points if they are in a continuous run, the more in it the more points. It’s really simple to teach but trying to puzzle out how to maximise scoring from each animal certainly gets the cogs whirring. It could well have been an easy puzzle but the random tile and animal combo gives you those fun and tricky decisions. Also included in the box are different scoring cards for each animal to give the game a lot of replayability. 6. Great Western Trail (2nd edition) So this one is a bit of a cheat but I figure that “doing a cheat” on lists is becoming a trend and who am I to buck a trend! I’ve already played the first edition, once, a few years ago and I’ve been wanting to try again ever since. Now I know that, bar a few tweaks, that these are the same game but this year I got to do a proper dive into it both physically and on Board Game Arena and it solidified how much I enjoy this game. Each game you can employ a different strategy and each one will give you a good shot at winning. I love that this game is a huge cow rondel (is anyone else picturing small cows slowly spinning on a Lazy Susan? Nope, just me?) You want to be able to do all the actions on it but you know that doing that isn’t the most efficient way of doing things. It’s all about deciding the most efficient path for that round. Couple that with a bit of a race element and you’ve got a game with some fun, interesting decisions and multiple paths to victory. 5. Terraforming Mars The annoying thing about TFM is that I had a couple of opportunities to play this game way before this year. Now, having played it a few times I really regret not having played this sooner. I love the card play system, the build up of your economy and the fact that you semi-cooperatively work to Terraform Mars. It's a lot of fun trying to puzzle out which cards you need to play in order to play others so you can then get the most out of the cards you kept at the start of the round. This is another one I need to get in the collection and rest assured that when I do I’ll be ordering Prelude alongside it. 4. Lost Ruins of Arnak At the time of writing I’ve only played this once but that just goes to show just how much I enjoyed this one. I love the adventure theme and Indiana Jonesyness of the whole thing. The combination of deck building and worker placement works so well. It gives you so many options to think about. Speaking of combos, the combos you can trigger on your turn are so satisfying and give your turns some heft. Especially when you’ve read the rules and your initial thoughts are “huh, doesn’t seem you get much to do on your turn” This is another game where you can change your path to victory each game and still be in with a good chance with winning. 3. Cantaloop: Book 1 It’s number three on this list in terms of games I enjoyed but in terms of a pure nostalgia trip this is number one. Cantaloop threw me right back to my childhood and is just a fantastic adaptation of the old point and click adventure games. It encapsulates the humour, the tone and the clever interaction of those games. I can’t wait for the third in the series (the sequel was good but didn’t quite reach the highs of the first one) but what I’m most looking forward to is when enough time has passed and I can go through these games again. My full review here. 2. Ark Nova Much like a lot of this list, here I am having missed the initial hype train and end up running frantically after it. To be fair I’m much closer to this one as I am with most of these ex-hotness games on this list. I was convinced to take a harder look into this after playing terraforming mars. I knew the card system was similar so at least I knew it had something I liked in it. It didn’t disappoint. The action card river system gives this game its edge and brings with it so many great decisions and the need to put all of your planning abilities to good use. Yes the luck of the card draw is sometimes a frustration but if you go into it knowing you have to take an adaptive stance on your strategy then this game is such a fun experience. The fact that the solo mode is ridiculously easy to use and also punishing means this game gets to the table way more often than I expected. My full review here 1.Marvel Champions There was a bit of back and forth over these top two games and ultimately Marvel Champions does what its subject matter does best and fights for justice. This game spent a lot of time in and out of various online baskets until I was lucky enough to receive it for review on the site. Since then a lot of my gaming budget this year has gone on more decks and my first campaign box for this game. I initially gave this game an 8.5 and as predicted it's gone up to at least a 9 now. I love how quick it is to pull out a couple of decks and get playing. The experimentation with different characters together is a lot of fun and each one feels thematic to the characters. Deckbuilding is a simple process but again is a lot of fun putting something together that works for each specific character. It’s brilliant fun being able to put your favourite characters against some iconic villains. This definitely deserves my top spot this year. Of all the games that are sitting on my shelf this is the one that I keep looking at and thinking “could I sneak in a quick game” but that may be my fault for having it in my eyeline while I’m trying to work! My full review here. So that’s my top 10 new games to me this year. Are there any here that you’ve discovered this year? Or any that you really want to try or are excited to play?

Wormholes WBG Score: 7.5 Player Count: 1-5 You’ll like this if you like: Venice, In the Hall of the Mountain King, Explorers of the North Sea. Published by: Alderac Entertainment Group Designed by: Peter McPherson It is not proven if Wormholes are even a thing yet. Worm holes are. They help aerate your garden soil. Warm moles are. That's why their burrows are known to be so effective. And WORMHOLES certainly is. Look, there is a box right there! Set Up The main thing to decide in Wormholes is which side of the boards you want to use. There is a basic side, and a fun side. I think it's obvious which one we suggest! Even from game one, go with the fun side. They introduce a lot more features on the boards for you to interact with. More stuff equals more fun! The game suggests to randomise the sides, but just go all in on the fun side I say. Once you have done that, lay out the boards as per the rule book. There is a different positioning recommended for each player count. But really you can do what you like. The game suggests you don't let planets get too close together, so orientate the boards so that is the case. But we have played a few games with planets only one space away from each other, and it's actually quite fun. You can build some cool combos this way by delivering to two planets without moving in-between. It certainly affects the balance, but either way, make your choice and set them down as you wish. Then distribute the player pieces with the ten wormholes and ship in each player's chosen colour. We bag them all up separately so it's a simple case of giving each player one bag. In this bag, we include the three energy tokens each player needs and the reference card. It makes set up a breeze. Why they game doesn't give you enough bags for this and suggest doing this, I do not know? Next, set the exploration stacks with the exploration tokens numbered from one to eight, or up to ten for a higher player count game. Then under this, place the 'planets connected' token, and the three, two, and one round countdown token's, in that order. All in one tall stack. Then form the passenger deck, removing any cards not needed for your current player count and give each player one card. The second and third player will get a second card, the forth and fifth player with get a second and third. Finally, lay out the point tokens to form a general supply. You are now ready to play. How to Play On your first turn, you need to lay your first wormhole, inactive side face up, on a space adjacent to the starting location around the space station. This can be seen in the central space on the bottom left tile above. Each player then has three energy tokens to flip to carry out three movement actions, moving one space each time. However, there are a lot of ways to increase your movement as you play. First, you can move from a wormhole to another for a free action if those wormholes match number and colour. This can allow you to move any distance at no cost, as long as the wormholes match. Second, you can move from any space on the orbit of the space station to any other space in the same orbit for one action. Third, you can move from any space on the Nebulae (colourful cloud of dust and gas in a line on the board) to any other Nebulae space or adjacent space without spending any energy to do so. Forth, you can warp from each wild wormhole on the board for free to any corresponding number on an active wormhole on the board, irrespective of the colour. Fifth, when you move into the black hole space, you can warp to any space adjacent to the planet shown on the top passenger card that you flip as you do this. And finally, you can move onto the photon cannon space and launch yourself in any direction, as far as you like in a straight line, moving through any obstacles or gaps on the board! You really can get around in this game! This may sounds like a lot to remember, but it is all clearly shown on the handy player aids. Now handily photographed for your convenience below. In the game, you are looking to move around the board, dropping off passengers at planets that match the passenger cards you have. Each time you do this you will score two points per successful delivery. If you manage to deliver passengers to more than five planets, you will score three additional points for each planet. When you are at a planet, you can refill your hand back up to four, being sure to discard any cards you pick up that match the current planet you are at. Another way you can score is by placing your wormholes down when you are next to a planet in any adjacent space. If you were the first to do this at this current planet, you can take the top exploration token which will reward you with one or three points at the end of the game. This also serves as the game clock. When all planets have a wormhole next to them, either eight in a one to three player game, or ten in a four or five player, the countdown to the final end game begins. You will have three more full rounds, and then the game ends. The most efficient way to do all this is to use your and your opponents wormholes to zip around the board at maximum speed. Each time you use a wormhole this counts as a free action, and you can over a lot more ground this way. So, you will be encouraged to do it. And each time you use another players wormhole, you must reward them with one point from the general supply. Placing your worm holes in locations useful to yourself and also the other players is crucial to your success in this game. Is it Fun? Pick-up-and-deliver games are not for everyone. I think a lot of bad games that used this mechanic in the 80's and 90'w ruined it for all games that came later. If you are turned off by pick-up-and-deliver, I don't think this game will be for you. It adds a lot of new features and elements to this type of game, but the fundamentals remain the same. However, if you do enjoy this mechanic, then I think you will love this game as the twists really bring a lot to the table. Moving around the board in a pick-up-and-deliver game is generally what makes the game fun or boring. If you have a lot of ground to cover and cannot do that quickly or efficiently, it just isn't fun. I sense this was at the heart of the design for this game. It strikes me that designer Peter McPherson wanted to find a way to make the most important part of a pick-up-and-deliver game work, and do this is the most enjoyable way. "What if people would warp from this place on the board to this place, for free?" I hear him in my mind asking himself this question. And coming up with the wormhole solution to fix that And his idea works. It works really well! Being able to jump from one end of the board to the other is very satisfying. Making this move a free action is even better. And then rewarding your brain with either the sense of achievement by knowing it was your forward planning that created this path for you in the first place; or by giving you a nice juicy point when other people use your wormholes. It's a stroke of genius. It makes you want to create the most useful and convenient wormholes possible. You want other people to use your creations. You want to create a network of accessible wormholes positioned in the most convenient locations. They help you, they help others, which in turn helps you. And all the other players are thinking and doing the same thing. So, by the middle of the game, the board generally opens up and becomes very easy to navigate for all players. However, this is not a coop game. Creating this network becomes a race! And as you can only take one exploration token per planet, you want to build your wormholes first. But to get to the locations quickest, you need a good network of wormholes to get there. And, you cannot randomly move around the board, for fear of falling behind the points scoring options available from dropping off passengers at their required destinations. Your movement needs to be calculated, efficient, and ruthless. Focused on the mid game network you are creating, but also the end game points scoring targets, and also the opening game rush to build in the premium locations whilst all the time, dropping off passengers as often as possible. If all this sounds like a lot of fun, then I think you will enjoy this game immensely. I have found it to be highly rewarding and this is not really my type of game, so maybe this can convert a few people who were otherwise turned off pick-up-and-deliver games from past experiences. The art is quite simple, but on a dark background like my play mat, it really pops. This helps you clearly see where your wormholes are. Separated by colour, the bright primary colours can be easily spotted. And they look great. Wormholes is so easy to get to the table. It is quick to teach and play, and rewarding from game one. It has hit the table a lot over the last few days and I can see this getting a lot more plays when I am looking for a quick simple game with three to four players. I think that is the sweet spot. Two players is a little too simple. Five is a little too busy. But with three or four there is a lot of fun to be had with this game.