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Smash Up: Disney Edition WBG Score: 7.5 Player Count: 2-4 You’ll like this if you like: Smash Up, Disney, Unmatched Published by: The Op Designed by: Sean Fletcher, Paul Peterson Rule book here Smash Up was first released in 2012. Designer Paul Peterson made the first “Shufflebuilding” game with the idea of bringing beloved characters from multiple different universes, and smashing them together in one box of fun. Robots, Dinosaurs, Pirates, and Aliens. All your childhood favourites. It was a huge success but screamed out for some IP's to be pasted on it. This has since happened... a lot. Marvel being a particular favourite of mine. Who wouldn't want to see Spiderman and The Sinister Six team up in a battle against a team from S.H.I.E.L.D. and Hydra? Well, the latest edition fixes one glaring previous omission. Disney! Let's get it to the table to see how it plays. Well, first up there are two main things to say about this edition of Smash Up. First, there are some new awesome components that make the game run a little smoother and increase the table presence. We now have cards and tokens to hold the bases. Whereas before you just put the base cards down on the table. And second, the characters they have chosen for this box are all big hitters. There are no duds! Looking at you Bolt! Set Up Smash Up is so simple to get to the table, this is one of its real joys. Simply place base cards down on the table, set to the the number of players plus one. Then have each player chose two decks of different characters, one in turn, and then shuffle them up into one combined deck. Each player will then draw five cards, ensuring they have at least one character, if not, shuffle up and re-draw. That's it, you are ready to play. In this version you have the below base mats where you need to place the P and B tokens on the bases break point and the zero. The P will then move through the numbers as characters are added to it to show the current power level. How to Play On your turn, players can play one character card, one action card, one of each, or do nothing. But generally speaking, if you have them, you will play one of each. Characters are placed on bases to add their power to your teams collective strength there. When the collective power of all players at once base supersedes the bases break point, that base will score. In the case of The Power Strip above, the player with the most power there will score four points, the player with the second most will get two points, and so on. Character cards will offer their own unique power or action too, simply follow the text on the card. Playing action cards offers multiple opportunities to increase your own teams power, attack another teams character, or manipulate the characters position at various bases. There are multiple fun and game changing things you can do with these cards. Each base will have it's own ruleset too which will either come into affect when characters are added to it, at the start of your turn if you have characters there, or when that base scores. The bases are varied and offer multiple additional ways to manipulate your scoring opportunities in the game. Once all bases that have hit the break point have been scored, you will draw two cards and add them to your hand. It will then be the next players turn. The game will continue, turn-by-turn, until one player has scored 15 or more points. How Does It Look The obvious draw in this game is the Disney theme and characters. All the art on the cards is lifted directly from the movies, so everything just looks so good. It's a real joy for fans of the films to recreate their favourite moments with these beloved characters. It feels lovingly crafted too. The actions link with the characters and images chosen. Everything just fits and works so well. Some may have preferred original art, but I enjoy this style. If you like the films, and love the characters, you will like this art. It feels "official" and credible to me when I see a game like this use the film art. I can see how in other games it would appear lazy. But it works for me here. The character dividers are gorgeous too. They are big, thick, and beautifully made. However, I am unsure how they work with the insert. I cannot seem to find a way to make them fit into the box in a useful or meaningful way? But they look great! And give a nice piece of back story for each set of cards. I am a big fan of The Lion King deck. Everything works so smoothly. Like the whole game, this deck works beautifully with the theme of the movie. The circle of life is in full effect with cards coming in and out of action to your benefit. Mufasa is a powerful card to play, but like in the film, when he is out of the picture, he can still help Simba from beyond the grave. If you are a fan of the Smash Up series, this is worth looking at for the base mats alone! If you are a collector of this series, this will be a no brainer. If you love Disney, I cannot see anyway this will not bring you a lot of joy. The only real question is if you have not yet bought into the Smash Up universe and are not a Disney fan. If that is the case but you are looking at giving it a try, should this be the first Smash Up you buy? I would check out all of sets and see which theme/IP interests you the most. The real joy of course with Smash Up is being able to mix-and-match sets. So, for me. This was an instant must have. I love being able to bring Elsa and Simba to the table in a battle against The Sinister Six and some Robots. In what other world other than table top board games could this happen Olaf fight an Alien horde? Smash Up is a real favourite of mine. The card interplay is so clever. Games are so fast and fun, and I am always left wanting to try another combination. Having more characters and decks to use is all I want with this series of games. I welcome the Disney edition with open arms. But seriously, no Micky?

Sounds Fishy WBG Score: 7.5 Player Count: 4-10 You’ll like this if you like: Just One, The Chameleon, Snakesss Published by: Big Potato If you are a fan of party games then chances are you will already have one of Big Potato Games releases neatly tucked away in your shelves already. Or more likely, unpacked, lying around your lounge as you play it so often! With massive hits such as The Chameleon, 20 Second Showdown, and Linkee to their name, Big Potato are one of the leading publishers when it comes to fun! As such, when they release a new game, I pay very close attention indeed. And with their latest release, Sounds Fishy, (spoilers!...) they have gone and done it again! Before we get into the review main, I want to pay credit to Big Potato Games for their continued efforts towards sustainability with eco-friendly, recycled packaged Sure, it doesn't look as nice, but who cares?! Not me. I salute you Big Potato Games. Set-Up Ok, onto the game! Getting Sounds Fishy to the table is incredibly simple. Place one fish on the table for each person playing. Make sure one is the blue fish. Place the questions out, and lay out the points. That's it. You're ready to start! How to Play Playing Sounds Fishy is just as easy. One player will draw a card from the pile, making sure to pull from the side that shows the question only so they cannot see the answer. On the reverse, the question will also be shown, but so too will the answer. The player asking the question will hold the card up so all players can see the back clearly, and will then read out the question. Prior to this happening, each player will have taken a fish and looked to see what they have. Either a blue fish, in which case they must read out the answer as stated on the card. Or a red fish. The Red Herring. In which case, they must quickly think up answer that is believable, but not true. Then in turn, starting with the player to the left of the person reading out the question, everyone will then give their answer. You can give a few seconds for people to think, longer if with younger players. You can work this out based on your group. Once each person has given their answer, the person who read the question out then needs to decide who is telling the truth, and who is giving them a red herring. They must flip over the fish of the players they think are lying. If they flip over a red fish, they keep going. But if they flip over a blue fish, their turn is over. One point is awarded for every red herring that is caught by the guesser. But they loose all their point awarded that round if they flip over a true blue fish. If a blue fish is flipped, all players with a red herring still face down will score one point for each flipped fish on the board. If the true blue fish is left unflipped, the person who had that will score a point for every fish that wasn't flipped over. You can play a timed game, or until someone reaches a certain score, or a certain amount of rounds so players have an equal time being the guesser. It's up to you. The sort of questions you get are all quite vague, and generally things people would be inclined to know the answer too. So, it works well in that the guesser won't be able to easily guess who is lying as they won't know the answer themselves. Is it Fun? Sounds Fishy is so much fun! But like many party games, the joy comes from the people around the table more than what is in the box. So this very much depends on who you play with. But, in this beautifully recycled box, is all the contents needed to create a lot of laughter and entertainment. With the right group, you will be playing this for hours, mostly in hysterics the whole time. The answers that people can come up with an be hilarious. The quandary that a few good fake answers can leave the guesser in is a lot of fun for all around the table. And this is what a good party game should do. It brings people together in a social setting, gives them a simple, easy to understand game to centre their focus around. And brings laughter to the table. Sounds Fishy does this in a big way. If you are looking for a new party game that works in a larger group, can be enjoyed by all ages in most settings and environments, (table, couch, or pub!) and offers a lot of laughter then Sounds Fishy could be for you. I can see this becoming a real family favourite for us, and the go to game after dinner when we have friends round. It's one downfall is it does not necessarily do anything unique or new. But what it does do, it does very well. In a slick, simple, and smooth fashion. Some people may find the process of coming up with believable answers in a short amount of time a little tricky, or even stressful. And as the guesser, some may find the process of separating the fact from the fiction too much to handle. But if you have the right group and environment, this can be hilarious.

Escape Deathrace 2182 Micro WBG Score: 7 Player Count: 1-4 You’ll like this if you like: Downforce, Steampunk Rally Fusion, King of Tokyo. Published by: Good Days Games Designed by: Jesse Conger It's the year 2182. Things haven't quite gone to plan with the world and the entire Galaxy has been taken hostage by an Alien race called the Zillian. Historians look to world leaders from the 2020's as the starting point. (Ooh! Political!) And now, all that stands in the way of total annihilation is you! As thankfully, the leader of the Zillian race Twisted foOk has decided to host one final race, seemingly just to give you the chance to take him out! But a lot will stand in your way, including the other players around the table. Escape Deathrace 2182 Micro successfully funded on Kickstarter in 2021, and is now available to buy direct from the publisher here. A free copy was provided to WBG for our unbiased opinion. Before you make your choice, lets get it to the table. Set Up Each player first needs to choose a character to play as. There are six choices and each one offers unique player powers. Once you have made your choice, take the character card, dice and car (if you have the upgraded components) and coloured cube. Add your health clip to the 20 marker on your card and give each player one of each of the four weapon drop tokens, one random power card and one Magic Monkey Wrench card. Then take the race tiles and remove the starter space and final boss space. Shuffle the other cards and place them face down next to the face up starter space. You are now ready to play. How to Play On you turn, you will either roll the D4 dice, or draw one card from the four D4 cards. The deluxe version comes with dice, but you can always add your own if you don't get this version. Your card draw or roll will show you how many cards you are placing to extend the race track, and then how many spaces you must move on the track. You need to battle your way past obstacles, other players, and three mini bosses to get the final end game boss. Once all bosses are dealt with, it's then a battle to the death. The last player remaining wins. If you ever move past or land on a space of another player, battle ensure. Either via a drive by attack or battle. There are hazard spaces, fires to navigate, and the bosses. All off which are resolved via the roll of a D4. The D4 cards show the resolution of all events based upon your roll when you encounter them. If you encounter a track space with a Route 82 symbol on you must draw the top card of the Route 82 deck. These will create a varied series of events you must follow through, sometimes taking damage, other times give you a chance to heal. In the battle with the bosses you can roll the D4 to attack. Play one of your four weapon drop tokens, or use one of your power cards. Each player will start one one randomly assigned power card, and when used they must be dis-guarded. But the player who strikes the final blow to any boss can draw one new power card, as well as take one extra weapon drop tiles. The whole process feels chaotic, in a fun way! And each games plays quite differently, especially with the unique player powers each character has. Some allow you to become immune to certain attacks, others increase your own attacks, or reduce attack strengths on you. It's one big messy fight, and I love it. What this game is not though, is a race. Now that may be disappointing when looking at the name, and the fact that you are laying out a race track and using race cars. Yeah, fair enough, you may think this is a race game. But there is no finish line. The game ends when all other players are dead. That's a brutal day at the race track! But if you can move beyond the fact that this game is more of a fighting game and less of a race, you could well have a lot of fun. This tiny box is packed full of joy, and there is so much variation with the cards, characters, and variable layouts. The designers have just announced a slightly bigger version which could be fun. But personally, I love the portability, quirkiness, and unique flavour the micro version brings. Escape Deathrace 2182 Micro certainly is an intriguing little game. The theme certainly is absorbing. The characters asymmetric powers are rewarding, although perhaps a little unbalanced. And the game is quick, fast, and a lot of fun.

Star Wars Rebellion WBG Score: 9 Player Count: 2-4 You’ll like this if you like: War of the Ring, Twilight Imperium Published by: Fantasy Flight Games Designed by: Corey Konieczka This pictures in this review include painted miniatures. The base game comes with un-painted minis. These have been painted by Steve, and aren't they cool! By Steve Godfrey Star Wars Rebellion is an asymmetrical cat and mouse game set in the original Star Wars trilogy. One player will play as the glorious Empire and the other player will play as the rebel scum……ahem, sorry I promised myself I would let this get political, I promise it won’t happen again. For the rebels to win they have to complete objectives to move their reputation marker up the track. When the round marker and the reputation marker share the same space then the rebels win. For the Empire to win they have to find the hidden rebel base and wipe those irritating rebels from the face of the planet…..sorry, sorry, I’ll go to the rules rundown, that should be fairly bias free. After setting up and the sudden realisation that the rebels really are the underdogs, have the rebel player pick a spot for their base, take the corresponding probe card from the deck and place it next to the rebel base space face down….obvs. At the start of the round each player will pick mission cards from their hand that they want to play this round and assign a leader/s to them. Each card has an icon and a number on it The leader assigned to it has to have at least that number of matching icons on it. On your turn you can play a mission card that you’ve set out, activate a system or pass. The cards themselves will tell you what they do but they all work in a similar way. They will tell you to place the leader you assigned to the card in a particular type of system, then, if it says resolve on the text on the card, the. you just play out the card. If it says attempt then your opponent has the opportunity to send one of their leaders that haven’t been assigned to cards to try and stop that happening. You each roll dice and compare successes and if the player who played the mission wins then the card plays out. If it’s a draw or if they lose then the mission fails and the card is discarded unplayed. When you activate a system, you take one of the leaders from your leader pool, place it in a system. You can then move any units from adjacent systems into that one following all transport rules. You can’t move things like ground units on their own, they have to be carried by ships that have a transport capacity. If the empire placed ground units on a system that isn’t imperial controlled then it becomes subjugated. When you place boots or big metal feet on the ground as the empire, the rebel player then has to reveal if the base is on that system or not. If it is then they move all of their units from the rebel base space on to that system and then combat commences. I’ll cover combat a bit later on in the review. At the end of a round certain other things will happen. In the first few rounds will be a recruit phase which lets players recruit new leaders into their pool which will give you more things to do each round. On each alternative round there will be a build action. What units you can build will depend on the planets you have under your control. Each planet will give you unit types you can build and a space on the build cue that you need to place them on. These will move down a space at the end of every round and when they move off the end they can be placed on planets you control. The Rebel scum As the rebels, the first choice you’re faced with is arguably the most important choice of the game. Where to put the rebel base. Do you place it as far away from any imperial units as possible? Do you place it where you already have you own units? Or do you play it really risky and put it right next to the imperial hub of Coruscant, in the hope that your opponent would never look there because they think you wouldn’t make such a ridiculous choice. Playing as the rebels is the very definition of an uphill struggle. When you first look at your thinly spread forces on the board you can’t help but say “are you sure that's all I get? let me see the rules again.” Unlike the empire, the rebels are all about scoring those objectives and the little victories. Although I’d hardly call blowing up a Death Star or even a Death Star under construction with all its independent contractors on, a small victory. It’s a lot of fun subtly sneaking around the galaxy trying to gain loyalty in the different systems hoping that the empire will be too engrossed in looking for the rebel base to notice, or care that a backwater little planet has changed allegiances. The rebels are all about tension and then fear of being caught. You sit there hoping that certain board states hold out till the end of the round so you can score an objective card but every move the imperial player does could jeopardise that very state. You constantly feel the wave of the Empire creeping towards you to either ruin your well laid out plans or, even worse, find your rebel base. The way the rebels work and need to be played is ridiculously thematic. You can’t help but feel like this rag tag bunch of fighters who are hanging on by a thread against this onslaught of grey and white looming towards you. Watching a Death Star or a Super Star Destroyer get closer and closer to being built is a nerve racking thing. Of course the even more nerve racking thing is, where are they going to put it. Just because they look thin in the ground it doesn’t mean they haven’t got a chance. As I said, it's all about the little victories and how they use their resources. Sabotaging imperial systems so they can’t build there or even playing missions solely to draw out their leader and restrict their movement are just some of the ways the rebels can gain the advantage. As the game moves slowly on like the ship reveal at the start of Spaceballs (you know you're humming the music right now) the board will get tighter and tighter as the empire starts to close in on the rebel base. One of the starting cards in your hand will let you relocate your base at the end of the round and, as the rounds go on, you’ll find that being played almost everything round in constant fear that that round is the round you may have to use it. The problem being that the more the game goes on, the less spaces on the board there are that you can relocate to. It’s another way that the game really draws out every inch of tension and thrusts you at light speed in the role of the rebels. Of course when it comes to tension, there’s nothing more tense than being just one round from victory and just knowing all you have to do is survive for the win, but you know that the Empire is closing in. The Glorious Empire The Empire is all about threat and menace but at the same time are playing a deduction game with trying to locate the rebel base. On the one hand they need to find it, but on the other they need the forces to be able to take it out when they do. Not only that but the rebels are causing all sorts of disruptions and taking over new planets that could help them score points as soon as a round ends and these also need dealing with. The rebels, whilst handy, aren’t necessarily focused on creating a ton of units. The empire however needs them to be able to spread effectively across the galaxy and still prove to be an imposing force. As the empire you're constantly trying to wear down the rebels by taking away loyal systems, stifle their building capabilities and most of all capture their leaders to reduce the amount of actions they can do. Throughout all this you’re trying to search the galaxy for that base. At the end of each round you’ll get probe cards that tell you where the base isn’t and you have other cards that can slowly whittle down the locations. Which probe cards you have in your hand is obviously going to be a secret and you can really start to play mind games with your opponent. Maybe start moving some troops away and lulling them into a false sense of security before you make before you start moving your Death Star towards a potential system. There’s a great buzz you get when you look at the cards in your hand, then look at the map and realise that surely, surely you’ve found them. The worst thing you can do as the empire is look in Alderaan places. The end of the game tension doesn’t end with the Rebels. Yes you're an all powerful force but you still need to find and destroy the base. Even if the Rebels haven’t gained many points, the round marker is still moving towards their victory condition and a couple of well played cards could change that at the drop of Obi Wan's cloak. As the game draws in you can’t help but feel that victory is within reach every time you put boots on a new planet. One touch I love is that you can’t move ships out of systems that already have one of your leaders in them. This means that you have to be careful about where you oppose missions for fear of blocking potential movement that round. It also means that the empire especially can’t just cover the whole board in the first couple of rounds. For the empire it also adds to their looming presence as they spread about the galaxy slowly pinning the rebels into a corner. Just like the rebels, playing as the empire is super thematic. You can’t help but feel like this all powerful, unstoppable force storming around the galaxy, subjugating systems and enveloping the board in a swath of grey plastic. Quite honestly there’s nothing more fun than blowing up a system with a Death Star, either for game winning purposes or, just for the heck of it, to get rid of the annoying teddy bears or Jar Jar binks. I think many of us would take out a planet just to get rid of him alone! Star Wars Stories Everything I’ve described above all culminates together to give us one of the thing I absolutely love about this game. The stories. I once saw a criticism of this game that the story telling element of it was lacking. Personally I think they missed the point. Rebellion was never a “storytelling” game, not in the same way as maybe Eldritch or Arkham horror. Rebellion just gives you the world and the characters that lets you tell your own in game narrative if you want to. You’ll soon be talking about that time that Chewbacca was captured by the Emperor and encased in carbonite, only to have Obi Wan sacrifice himself to free him and then have Admiral Ackbar get caught on the other side of the galaxy. For a Star Wars fan this can open up a world of what if’s as you play out your own stories in this universe. It won't just be thematic stories you’ll talk about though. You’ll also have some epic gaming moments to talk about as well. Stories of close calls, epic endings and that one story of when your opponent brought in ALL the star destroyers just to take out two X-Wings to end the game (true story) Of course telling a narrative isn’t necessary to enjoy the game, it’s not an RPG, but if you're a fan then it’s gonna be hard not to throw in at least a quote or two or even some heavy breathing…….. you know, because of Darth Vader. Unrest in the galaxy. Let’s talk about the small grey moon, wait that’s no moon that’s a space station in the room. Despite the rating, not everything works. Anyone who had seen anything about this will know that the combat system is famously wonky. In fact it’s the one thing that I give a brief run down of to give opponents enough info, then I teach it when it comes to it so as not to overwhelm anyone. During combat you’ll be rolling dice and playing cards. Some of these cards will require you to have rolled the lightsaber symbol on the dice before you can use them. Here’s the problem with it. The cards. They are incredibly random and go from really useful…..to completely useless. You could easily be holding some great cards in your hand, but yet not be able to play them because you haven’t rolled any lightsabers! It annoyingly works the other way round. If you have the symbol but no cards then you can spend that die to draw a new card, but if it requires the same symbol you just spent to play it, then you’re unable to use it. The dice rolling is the main feature of combat but the cards are a great bonus, especially if you're the underdog or aren’t able to roll the right type of damage. If you can’t use them though then it’s easy to feel fairly useless in a fight, almost to the point where it’s not worth bothering to roll at all. I know fans of this game are screaming at me right now that the expansion fixes that. Yes it does but that’s a review for another day! Another let down here is the rule book. It’s not great. It half explains concepts in one part of the book and then finishes them in another. For example it tells you about playing cards before a round. But doesn’t tell you the mechanics of placing leaders on them and how that works until a few pages later. It’s not a great learning tool and I was almost put off trying to learn the game because of it. Instead I’d have someone teach it to you or watch RTFMs brilliant rules video on YouTube. Lastly I do want to point out that this is a long, expensive, two player game (I know there is a four player variant but you’re literally just splitting each sides turns up and it’s not a mode that I personally really want to try) and because of that, I can see some people being a bit put off by it and I totally get that. I've had my fair few plays of it but it still doesn’t get to the table nearly as often as I’d like. So it’s something to bear in mind before you rush out and grab a copy. A New Hope. Despite those issues, I love this game! There’s so much strategy, intrigue and theme crammed inside this one box. This game is often touted as “Star Wars in a box”. Now I’m usually the person who tries to steer clear of overused terms like that……but in this case, this is absolutely Star Wars in a box. If you're not a fan of the films but like the sci-fi setting then you’ll still find a solid, fun strategic game that you’ll really be able to get your teeth into. If you're a fan though, then this will give you everything you need in a Star Wars board game. Thanks for reading, I’m now off to take the Death Star for a spin round Yavin IV for……absolutely no reason whatsoever!

Three Wise Words WBG Score: 7.5 Player Count: 4-99 You’ll like this if you like: Decrypto, Wavelength, Master Word. Published by: Big Potato Designed by: Rich Coombes, Dan Penn Want a simple, quick, but fun party game to play with your friends and family? Three Wise Words could be for you. Let's get it to the table. Set-Up Three Wise is incredibly simple to set-up. Split into teams of two. Lay out the Owl track and place each owl at the start space. Give each team a pencil (not provided with the game to save the planet!) and place the die and cards face down in a central area. That's it. How to Play Choose a team to go first. Then split the team into guessers and writers. Ideally one person would be the writer and one the guesser in a team of two. But you can of course have larger teams to help younger players, or accommodate larger groups. The guesser must close their eyes whilst the writer turns over a secret word card and rolls the die to determine which word they will do. Everyone playing needs to see the chosen word apart from the guesser. The writer will now write down three words that they hope will direct their teams guesser to the chosen word. Clues have to be one word and cannot be rhyming words. You want to pick words that will help them pick from the three words on the card, the one the dice picked. So, you want to make your clues obvious. However, the other team will be trying to guess which three clues the writing team will pick. So, as the writer, you don't want to be too obvious so that the other team can guess your clues. When everyone has done this, the writer will read out their three clues to the guesser whilst showing them the card. The guesser then has one chance to guess which of the three words the writer was trying to direct them towards. The other team will then reveal the three clues they thought the writer would choose. If the guesser correctly picks the right word, that team will score two points and keeps that card. They will score one additional point for every clue that the writing team used that the other team did not predict. The other team score one point for every clue they correctly guessed. If the guesser picks the wrong word, they get no points and each other team gets two points on top of any point for each correctly guess clue. Each team moves their owl a space for each point, and the first team to the finish wins. The game works very much like a scaled down family version of Decrypto. This is a good thing. A great thing in fact. I love Decrypto. It is by far my favourite party game. But it doesn't work for all groups, and certainly not all ages. Three Wise Words feels like a version of Decrypto that I can play with anyone. I taught Three Wise Words to my daughter when she was six within minutes and she was instantly playing with my family, happily joining in on equal footing. In fact, her team won! The tricky bit is making clues that others would not guess. But unlike Decrypto, they don't have to be clues that are cryptic. You just need to aim to avoid clues that others may think you will choose. This makes the game so much more accessible to younger gamers. And in fact, younger brains I have found have an advantage some times. With choices that are seemingly more random, but certainly harder to predict! Below is a good example for 'bubble.' People guessed I would go for "pop," "bath," and "soapy." I actually went for "pop," "fun," and "clear." So, this only gave away one point, and my team guessed it correctly. But it was hard for me to think of clues that might be harder to guess. But as soon as it was revealed my son cried, "Why didn't you say 'machine'?" Can you think of three more obscure clues that would work here? There are plenty of cards in this game, 100 in fact. And it all comes packed in a neat, very portable box. Big Potato Games are clearly thinking about their environmental impact with the materials they use, and the amount of packaging their games now go into. The rules are simply laid out, and the cards are of a decent enough stock to last. You won't really need to shuffle them. There is a simple variant for families to use just the yellow words, which are all a little simpler. or you can use larger teams as mentioned above. This game really is highly accessible, easy to learn and play, and full of charm. But is it fun? Well, this depends on what sort of game you enjoy. If you are looking for a light, easy to play, word based party game, then I would say this is likely to be a real winner for you. I have played with five different groups now, of all ages and levels of understanding for modern board games. And on each occasion, when finished, we carried on playing. Like all party games, you can play to a points or time limit, or just until everyone gets board or falls asleep. Everyone I have taught this too has played well beyond the boards scoring system as everyone was just having too much fun. This is always a great sign that a party game is being universally enjoyed. I will cherish this game for many years to come. It will come with me on camping holidays, game nights, and be brought out at family occasions. You can play it sat chilled on the sofa, shouting across a room, or just about however you like. Three Wise Words gives you the tools for a good time, and I think it would deliver for most groups, most of the time, exactly just that.

Veiled Fate WBG Score: 8 Player Count: 2-8 You’ll like this if you like: Dead of Winter, Tobago, Decrypto Published by: IV Games Designed by: Austin Harrison, Max Anderson, Zac Dixon Rule Book Veiled Fate is marketed as a strategic deduction game. Blending tactical decisions more commonly seen in 'Ameritrash' style games with the table talk and bluffing of a deduction game. On paper, this sounds like a great idea, and in reality... it absolutely delivers! Veiled Fate looks gorgeous. The team behind IV Games would be expected to make something that looks as lovely as this after the stunning production seen in Moonrakers. But that doesn't mean it should not be appreciated. It really is a phenomenal production. That said, FOR FULL DISCLOSURE this was a free review copy provided to me for my unbiased opinion, and I have the upgraded components, minis, and game trays that do not come with the basic retail edition. Although the standard components are all very good. But the main thing that really catches my eye about this game is the board art. Just look at it... It feels quite Autumnal to me. The colour scheme takes my mind to those long cold nights, with evening fire pits, and warm blankets. And it's all largely irrelevant. You don't really need the board. You could just put cards in a circle around a central tile and have the same game. But it certainly adds to the theme, table presence, and drama. And I am all in for that! Set Up Getting Veiled Fate to the table is very simple. Lay out the board and place all the minis or standees (whichever you have) into the central space. Place the scoring markers onto the bottom "zero" score space. Then lay out three Age cards, drawn randomly from each separate age deck, one city card, and one more Quest card than there are players randomly onto any of the location spaces. Each player is then randomly dealt five fate cards and one Demi-God character card, which they must look at but keep hidden from all other players. Each player will be secretly rooting for that Demi-God, and scoring for that Demi-God at the end of the game, but they can move and control any Demi-God at any point in the game. Players must try to keep their own personal intentions hidden for as long as possible. How to Play Players will then in turns, take two actions each. These are as simple as moving any Demi-God character one space to any adjacent area or onto an available quest spot. Areas next to each are considered adjacent, and all areas are adjacent to the central City space, apart from the Abyss and the Pools. The Abyss is only adjacent to the Pools and the Pools are only adjacent to the City. The second action is to enact a god power. Which I won't go through in full now, but you can read more about here. They mainly allow you to move the Demi-Gods in rule breaking ways or play extra fate cards. Doing so costs either one, two, or three fate cards. Discarded so you can take the god power action. The reason you may want to do this, I will come to now. The way you win Veiled Fate is by moving your Demi-God to be in the highest scoring positions at the end of the third age. The main way you score points is by including your Demi-God in the available quests each age. When you place a Demi-God onto a quest you must add a fate card to that quests fate pile. Voting essentially for either the right or left side of the quest card to come into affect when the quest is completed. You do this by playing either a feather or scorpion card. Once all of the available spaces for Demi-Gods on the quest is full the quest immediately activates. On the top of the quest card, it will show how many extra cards need to be added, in the above example you can see that this is one card. The player who triggers the quest by adding the final Demi-God to the last open space must choose any other player to add one more card to the pile. In a two-player game the extra card comes from the stack. All cards are then shuffled and revealed. The majority vote triggers an affect on all gods included in the quest. Either to get the reward or punishment based on where they are placed on the quest card. For example, in the above quest, on the bottom space, if the majority was with feathers, the Demi-God placed there would gain two points. If scorpion gained the majority, the Demi-God placed there would loose one point. Another affect that happens here is a Demi-God can be banished, which means being sent to the Abyss. The destiny of the Demi-God can also be left to the flip of a coin, usually resulting in a point being gained or lost, which is what happens in the above example in the top row for the scorpion side. This is the crux of the game. As you play, you will want to get the Demi-God you are secretly hoping will win into as many quests as possible. Without making it obvious that this is your Demi-God by over using them. You then of course need to try and affect the vote to work for you. Being involved in a quest is not simply enough. However, another way to play is to focus more on getting the other Demi-Gods to loose points so they fall behind you, which perhaps is a more subtle and easier way to hide your full intentions. But of course, this means you have to try and affect many more Demi-Gods destiny rather than just one. And not all votes will go your way! Sometimes, including your Demi-God in a quest will mean it loses points, and other Demi-Gods that have been randomly placed there as a decoy will overtake you on the points tracker when they gain points against your wishes. Not reacting to these moments, audibly and in your facial reactions is hard, but crucial to keeping your Demi-God identity hidden. But in truth, where a lot of the fun and laughter comes from when players visually are happy or left frustrated by the result of a vote and the other players start to make a guess as to who they are secretly controlling. The reason why you want to keep your identity hidden as long as possible, is generally, unless you are playing a full eight player game, there will be more Demi-Gods in the game than players, and so it will be a lot harder for other players to make your Demi-God loose points, when they don't know which one it is! But as soon as people start to deduct who you are, they can then start trying to make your Demi-God loose points. There are two other ways the Demi-Gods can gain or loose points. Each time you move any Demi-God into the central City space, you must move the tracker on the city card one space. This will trigger various effects, some of which are to gain points for the Demi-God that just moved into the City. It can also be a chance to draw more fate cards, or banish a Demi-God. Banishing a Demi-God is not necessarily that bad. It just means they are now at least three movement points away from joining any Quests. As to get out of the Abyss, you must move into the Pools and then City. But doing this allows the player who moves the Demi-God out of the Abyss to draw another fate card. And then the player who moves the Demi-God out of the Pools can swap a fate card from their hand with one from the top of the deck if they so choose. The final way you can score points is through the age cards. Once all quests are complete, or all players have rested, the age ends. All players can now add any remaining fate cards they may have into the age card vote. This will be a vote whereby one of three affects takes place. These are different each age, and seen by each players at the start of the age. You must decide at the beginning of each age if you feel you need to keep any fate cards back for this vote, and also if you you need to manipulate the board in anyway prior to the vote. This is because the result of the vote may affect Demi-Gods in specific position on the board when the vote occurs. The vote is a majority one, either by the most feathers or scorpions. But there is also a tie affect which may benefit you more. At the end of the third age, all players will reveal their identity and the player with the most points wins. When Demi-Gods win points, they move to the next scoring space at the front of the line. If there were two other Demi-Gods in that scoring space already, they would place in front of them and be in the lead. So this game is not just about scoring points, but about scoring points at the right time. Gaining a few final points, right at the end could take you from last place to victory! Final Thoughts I absolutely love the interplay in Veiled Fate. Being able to control all Demi-Gods, but secretly trying to manipulate just one of them into a leading position is a lot of fun. Trying to hide your intentions, and manipulate a busy board with eight different Demi-Gods is so entertaining. It feels deceitful, mysterious, and amusing to try and trick the other players into thinking you are trying to achieve one thing, when in fact you are doing something else. All eight Demi-Gods are in the game, no matter the player count. So, you can always hide within the crowd. However, I have found in lower player counts, players often focus on just five or six Demi-Gods and two are left languishing on the same space all game. Simply as their minds focus on the same few each quest. This is fine, but the game certainly shines with more players. It works well in a two and three, but from four and up it starts to get very good. I would recommend this game to anyone looking for a flexible game that works with multiple player counts, and that plays quickly and simply for most ages and experiences, but that still delivers a satisfying and thought proving game experience. This game is all about the art of bluffing, deduction, and observation. But it has no accusations like other hidden role deduction games, and players do not need to act as any roles. So, it is a little easier for those that don't enjoy the limelight that this can bring, or the sense of failure when they cannot hide their role. I can see this game getting a lot of plays in my household. It is so quick and simple to teach and set-up, and very accessible in terms of the rules and strategy. The only hard part is hiding your intentions in the game and not revealing who your Demi-God is, which some younger gamers may struggle with. But even if you have your Demi-God guessed correctly early on, this does not mean you cannot or won't win. Or that the game won't be fun that time. All in all, this is a stunning production, with a fresh and brilliantly executed rule book. The game flows incredibly smoothly. Everything feels highly polished, well thought-out, and thoroughly play tested. IV Games sure do put a lot of care into their games. It is seen in every aspect of their marketing and production. That does not always result in a good game experience. But in Moonrakers and Veiled Fate I have found two games which have both leapt into my top 20. The two games are very different but have similarities with the table-talk and human interplay that is crucial to each games success. It will be interesting to see what IV Games do next and if they stick with this formula. But I for one will follow their work very closely after this and look forward to seeing what they come up with.

Viticulture: Moor Visitors WBG Score: 8.5 Player Count: 1-6 You’ll like this if you like: Agricola, Architects of the West Kingdom, Lords of Waterdeep. Published by: Stonemaier Games Designed by: Uwe Rosenberg, Jamey Stegmaier, Alan Stone Viticulture is often cited as one of the best Worker Placement games, and one of the most popular games produced by Stonemaier games. It made a lot of people's top 3 games. I would agree with all of these points. Tuscany is seen as the essential expansion to Viticulture, and for good reason. It is truly excellent. Viticulture World brought in a new cooperative variant, which is great fun. But if you are looking for something more simple to add some variety to the base game, Moor Visitors could be for you. Moor Visitors is just that. More visitors! In this small box expansion are 42 new cards to shuffle in with the main game to add variation and some cool new powers to the game. There are 20 new spring cards, and 20 new winter cards. Plus two corrections. To play with this expansion, simple shuffle them into their respective decks and away you go. The cards all integrate well with the base game, and it is somewhat intriguing to see what someone with the pedigree of Uwe Roseburg has done with a project like this. I mean, it's the guy behind Agricola, Le Havre, and many many more, putting in his two cents worth, or should that be two lira, into this modern classic from Jamey Stegmaier. What a treat! I just wish they had done a little more than just cards. Although, that is what Tuscany is for. So, really I should just sit back and enjoy the ride. There is one minor gripe with the main game of Viticulture, that I do not personally subscribe too. This is that you can win the game without fulfilling wine orders. Which is true. Some say it is better to play this way as it is quicker to build up your points other ways. This I don't totally agree with. But I like the choice of different ways to score and play. So, I am fine with it. This expansion does bring in new cards that offer new point scoring options, which does accentuate this issue. And also, potentially speed up the game. As such, this is one minor issue with this expansion. But if you like playing Viticulture this way, then it will only enhance your experience. It's a bit like Splendor. There are two main ways to play. Build up our engine slowly and then reap the benefits with some powerful moves near the end. Or go for points early to try and end the game before your opponents have had time to get their engine running. Both are solid tactics. Both can work. This expansion helps with one more than the other. Personally., I agree with the sentiment that in a wine making game you should at least make some wine and fulfil some orders. So, we often house rule that at least one order needs to be fulfilled to win the game. It's an easy fix. But there are some cards, such as the Draftsman above, and the Mill Operator below that help with your engine too. Encouraging players to develop more buildings, with discounts, rewards, and even the chance to pass this on to other players. More buildinngs means a more powerful engine, and hopefully, more chances to make wine and fulfil orders! Although, not all the time. My cards are now shuffled into the base game, and I don't see myself ever splitting them out. I would not say this is an essential expansion as it just adds cards. But for the price, any fan of Viticulture would certainly enjoy what the added variation brings. And in terms of an expansion being used every time moving forward, in that regards, this could be considered as being close to essential as I will now never play without them. If you play Viticulture a lot, the added variety is very much welcome. It all fits in the base game box without any issues, and the expansion cards need no extra rules explanation. So, this adds no extra time to the game set-up or teach. And maybe as discussed speeds up the main game with more ways to score points. Overall, I am a big fan of this little expansion. It won't change your opinion of the base game, but if you like Viticulture then this certainly does develop the options, scope, and variety. Viticulture remains one of my favourite worker placement games in a very cluttered market place. It works well in all player counts, and is one of my go to gateway games when bringing new people to the hobby. Moor Visitors will remain shuffled in with the base game cards for the rest of my paying time, and comes highly recommend from WBG.

Ever wanted to play Mario Kart the board game? Well, your wait may be over. Wonky Wheels from first time independent designers, and father and son duo, Colin and Nathan Lee is just that. A family friendly race game, with crazy power ups, speed boosters, wild swings in race position, and multiple race tracks. Intrigued? Read on! Coming to kickstarter soon, Wonky Wheels is a crazy mix between hand management, extreme power ups, and a flat out race. This is an early prototype copy so rules, art, and quality of components are sure to change. This was provided for free for my unbiased early opinion. Set-Up Getting Wonky Wheels to the table is a breeze. Everyone must first chose which character they want to be. Distribute the character piece, cards, tokens, and player mat in each colour to all players. Then choose your race set up. You can do whatever you like, or copy one from the manual. Just make sure it joins up and looks fun. As part of this you can also lay out various power tokens, such as the frisbee and flying carpet. Deal out one Super power up card to each player and shuffle the regular power up cards and split them into two face down decks. That's it. You are now ready to race. How to Play Players will draw the top three cards from their deck then chose one card. They will play this face down and then when all players are ready, flip the card face up in unison. Cards allow you to move forward, turn, and sometimes add a nitro boost. The game is a simple race. First round the track three times wins. If two or more players cross the finish line at the same time then it's the player who travelled the further beyond the finish line that takes the victory. Each time you cross a POW sign you can draw a new power up card. You can play one power up card each turn. You can also player your super power up card whenever you like, but this is a one time use. These cards offer some hilarious and powerful options to help you or hinder others. If players move through each other, they will cause damage to other players. Using your Nitro's will wear down your tires, and various cards will affect your mechanics and engine too. If they get too low on either of these tracks, you will start losing powers to your steering, power, or nitro. The only way to fix this is by driving through the Pits. One of the corner pieces. If you travel through the frisbee or flying carpet you can use its powers. The frisbee is another way to enact damage on other players vehicles. The flying carpet will increase your movement, doubling whatever you have leftover at the point that you reached it. As you play Wonky Wheels, it will very much feel like a Mario Kart port. It has all the chaos, fun, and random power ups of the video game racer, and everything works so well on the table. Some of the power ups are hilarious. I love the art, and how simple they all are to understand and use. There is even a power up card which enacts a side mini-game of rock-paper-scissors. If the attacking player wins it allows them to swap places with the other player. Something very handy if they are significantly in the lead! The only thing that disappointed at this stage of the development of this game, was that there are currently no asymmetric powers. The characters you can choose from are all incredibly varied in terms of their looks. But identical in terms of the deck of cards you have, and the options available. I would like to see some minor asymmetry at work in the final version, or perhaps as a side module, where each character has its own special power linked somehow to its characteristics. The submarine can take a short cut through a water area perhaps? The foot can stomp nearby players to become mini versions? I love the Super power up cards. They add a huge twist and swing to the game. Some are a little less powerful that others though, and as they can be so influential in the game, I feel that perhaps you should be dealt two or three, and then can chose one, and discard the others. Some games I have not even used my super power up card as it just did not work out. Other times I felt I won because of it. I think you need more options at set-up with these. The frisbee and flying carpet tokens are a nice addition to the game. For variety, perhaps a few more tokens could be developed that bring in new affects and powers. There is already quite a lot of variety here with the Super power up cards, various track lays outs, and the random nature of how players interact with each other. But I would like to make the tracks look and feel different each race with these variations in tokens too. Overall, I was left very excited to see how this game develops. It is great fun right out the box as it is. But can see huge potential with just a few minor amends. There are some great race games out there. But a lot of them take themselves a little too seriously. I like how Wonky Wheels brings a more arcade style sense of fun to the table. Games are quick, incredibly hard to predict, and offer all players the sense of victory at all points with the various power up cards on offer. I will follow the progress of this game very closely. You can do the same too here - https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/wonkywheels/wonky-wheels And here - https://icklefamgames.uk/

Marvel Champions WBG Score: 8.5 Player Count: 1-4 You’ll like this if you like: Marvel Legendary, Arkham Horror LCG, Lord of the Rings LCG Published by: Fantasy Flight Games Designed by: Michael Boggs, Nate French, Caleb Grace By Steve Godfrey There really is no better feeling in the morning than swooping down, thwarting a bad guys evil schemes, beating them up and their minions and throwing them in jail... errr is what I would say if I was a superhero, which I’m not, I don’t know where you heard that, it’s just a silly rumour. How to put villians in The Raft: A superheroes guide. In Marvel champions players are working together to stop the main villain completing their nefarious schemes. If the villain gains enough threat tokens on the main schemes or if they knock out all the players then they win the game. If the players manage to defeat the villain a set number of times then they win. The number of times you need to do this depends on the difficulty you want it at. On a player's turn they can do as many things as they wish as long as they can afford it or are able to. Once per turn they can flip their hero’s identity card from its alter ego side to its hero side or vice versa. They can also choose to activate their hero. On their alter ego side they can exhaust the hero to heal damage done to them. On the hero side they can either attack the villain or a minion that’s engaged with them or they can thwart. Thwart removes threat tokens from schemes that are in play. Players can play cards from their hand. These can either be event cards which are played and then discarded, or they can be, upgrade, ally, or support cards, all of which are played in front of you and will stay in play either permanently or until any card effect discards them. Allies can either be played for their card abilities if they have any or for their thwart or attack abilities and usually take some sort of consequential damage if they do so use them wisely, because chances are they won’t be around for long. Once all players have been then all cards are unexhausted and everyone will draw back up to their hand size. Now it’s the villains turn. First they add threat tokens to the scheme. Then they will go to each player in turn order and do one of two things depending on their identity at the time. If in alter ego mode the villain ignores the character and schemes using their scheme value. This basically puts more threat to the main scheme. First though a card is drawn from the villains deck and any symbols on the bottom right are added to this amount. This is called boosting. If a player is in hero mode then a similar thing happens but this time the villain will attack instead of scheming. Before the boost card is played the hero can declare that they are defending and will then exhaust their hero card to add their defence value. Which is handy as you’ll take less damage but it means that, unless you have particular cards in play, your hero will begin your next turn exhausted. Of course the other option is to bravely pull an ally in front of you to soak up all the damage as you bravely cower behind them! Once the villain has been round all the players, then any minions engaged with the hero's will either scheme or attack but without the boost. Once they're all done then a card is drawn from the villains encounter deck for each player. These will either be nasty effects, new minions or even new side schemes. Then everything will start again with the players taking their turns. Marvellous I've been back and forth on whether or not I wanted Marvel Champions since it came out. On the one hand, it’s Marvel and it presented with a ton of possibilities to play as your favourite characters and create your own hero decks and even the villains were customizable given you more replayability! What’s not to love? My problem however is that it was compared a lot to Marvel Legendary. A game which I’ve played a quite few times and just can’t get into for a number of reasons. There were other factors, like some reviews that stated that you may want to invest in extra packs straight away to get the best experience out of it and that the story was lacking. So here I am reviewing Marvel Champions and I’ve gotta I’m almost annoyed at myself that I didn’t make the leap sooner……although I’ll always encourage doing your research before investing in most games. Marvel Legendary has taught me that. Much like being a superhero this game is all about making difficult decisions, errr So I’m told, I mean I'm certainly not a superhero. Just because you’ve never seen us in the same room together, doesn’t mean we’re the same person! From the moment you draw your starting hand of cards you’re faced with some interesting and sometimes difficult choices. Working out your priorities for the round is usually the best place to start. Something I didn’t mention in the rules is HOW you play cards from your hand. Each card has a number in the top left corner, this is how much it costs to play that card. In the bottom left of every card is one or two resources that it generates. To play cards you need to spend the resources by discarding cards. This is such a great system, which, when looking at it from the outside you can appreciate it for what it is. When your in the game playing though you can’t help but curse it for making you choose between punching a villain in the face now or playing down a decent long term bonus. It’s a system which will see you constantly looking at you hand of cards and saying “that’s a really good card, ooh so is that one, argh I can’t afford them both”. Sometimes which one you want to play for that turn is a bit of a no brainer. If you need to thwart that turn then you’re going to play that one. But getting rid of that other great card could be a crucial decision later on down the line, especially if you don’t get that back until later on in the game, if at all. Excelsior! I love combos in games, I’ve probably even mentioned it in other reviews. Marvel Champions gives you all the combos you can fit under your cape and they’re great, especially since you have to build up to them. Your starting layout is just your hero which means that your first one or two turns are fairly limited. But, as you play down allies and upgrades your turns become like a dance as you play cards here, exhaust other cards and ready others only to use them again. Seriously, add in some music next time you play a big combo and see what I mean. It’s all the more satisfying when you know that you’ve put all that effort into building it up and then it triggers like a Marvel themed Rube Goldberg machine in card form and it’s awesome. So is it thematic? Do you feel like a superhero taking down a villain? Kind of. If you make the effort to proclaim loudly all of the card names in dramatic fashion then yes, you may well feel that way. It’s even quite fun when you're with your friends, but I’m guessing you won’t be doing as much of that when you're playing solo. At the end of the day though you are playing cards and twisting them horizontally so it really depends on how much you put into as to how much you get out theme wise. However each deck does a great job of bringing out each hero's characteristics and you do feel like you're actually playing as that hero. When you're playing as Iron Man and Spider-Man you can feel the difference in the decks. You feel like you're playing as Spider-Man rather than as a deck of cards with some generic powers with pictures of Spider-Man on them. Black Panther for example has a set of upgrades which can’t be triggered on their own. Once you play the Wakanda forever card they all trigger in a sequence that you determine at the time with attacks and thwarts flying everywhere culminating with the last card you play in the sequence gaining a more powerful version of that card. It gives a real feeling of those big graceful combos with a big finishing move that you could see from Black Panther. Iron Man as a character is fairly weak without his armour, only giving you a hand size of one in hero form. But for every piece of armour you equip your hand size increases, as does your ability to deal more damage. I’ve managed to do ten damage in a turn if you play your cards right. She Hulk is all about damage and her ground stomp card will let you damage all the enemies and just switching from her alter ego to She Hulk will do damage to an enemy. It’s because of thematic touches like these that make you excited to see what they do with other heroes and villains. Origin Story Marvel Champions comes with everything you need for a full four player game. Which apparently isn’t always the case with some of the previous LCGs. Best of all it comes with two pre constructed decks and one fully constructed villain deck. The rule book does a great job of walking you through your first game using these so you can just jump right into your first game. After you’re familiar with how everything works the rule book also provides you with card lists to create a deck for each hero character in this box. Already in this box there’s a ton of replayability, with the many combinations of hero and villain decks you can create and you could honestly just sit with this box for a long time and not even need to buy any of the extra packs or boxes. At the moment I’m looking at getting extra packs but realise that this it’s purely a case of me wanting the characters rather than needing the extra content. Deck building not deck building Building and experimenting with your own custom decks in LCG’s is pretty much an essential part of the game if you want to start defeating those harder villains with a bit more ease or at all. But don’t let it fill you with dread because the mechanics of building decks in Marvel Champions is actually super easy, barely an inconvenience. You simply pick a character and take the fifteen cards associated with them, then make up a 40-50 deck using any of the cards from one of the four aspect decks (leadership, aggression, protection and justice) and possibly some basic cards. There are limits to how many of each type of card you can have but again, this is really easy to follow. I love how simple this system is. It gives you free reign to add pretty much whatever cards you want in your deck, but doesnt bog you down with too many rules on how to do it. It’s actually quite fun and easy to try your hand at doing it yourself. As you get into it you will find that card choices are kind or limited in the aspect decks in this base box but it is a good starting place to get a feel for how it all works. Don’t get me wrong though because you will still have plenty to experiment with here. Eventually if you do decide to venture out of this core set you’ll start to have access to a ton of different cards that will open out your choices and creativity with how you put a deck together. Teamwork doesn’t always make the dreamwork. Building up your own team of board game avengers may sound exciting but sometimes you're best off sticking to that dynamic duo. Marvel Champions is marketed as a 1-4 player game. Personally, three and four players are a bit too long for me so I tend to stick with one or two or two handed solo. The solo mode works well and is great for quickly experimenting with new decks. Not all decks work in true solo mode though, I got roundly trounced when I played as Iron Man using the suggested deck in the rulebook. Be aware though that some of that could have come with bad choices from my part but you quickly find how much you need to balance thwarting, healing and doing damage in this game, something that a single deck doesn’t always give you. However if you play solo with two heroes (whilst scaling the game for two players) then it’s a great way to see how two decks play off against each other and balance each other out. The game scales incredibly well though. You simply increase the villain's health and thwart level per player. So playing this solo takes no more or less effort to set up than a multiplayer game. Whilst we’re on the subject, setup is another thing that makes it so appealing for me to get to the table. The only thing that will really add a lot of time to setup is if you need to create decks before you start. If you’ve got a couple of decks already set up then it’s all the more easy to get in a cheeky game before dinner or before flying off to stop a villain opening another portal to the multiverse. I’ve given Marvel Champions an 8.5 out of ten but I want to make it clear that this is for this base box alone. I’m having a lot of fun with this game and as I pick up new characters and scenarios I can see the score for the game overall going up. This box alone offers a lot of fun and I’m already excited for everything else that’s going to open up for me with it in the future.

Mysterium Park WBG Score: 8 Player Count: 2-6 You’ll like this if you like: Mysterium, Psychobabble, Dixit Published by: Libellud Designed by: Oleksandr Nevskiy, Oleg Sidorenko By Steve Godfrey Since playing the original Mysterium I’ve steered away from going to big mansion houses. Constantly solving murders was getting exhausting. Just as I was getting into my new pastime of going to fairgrounds, the visions started again. Ah well looks like I’m going to have to stick with hanging out with the Mystery Inc gang, I can’t see them getting into any shenanigans with ghosts and monsters! The rules of the park. To setup shuffle the suspect cards and place nine of them on the board. Give the ghost player the vision cards and then they draw three plot cards and place one at random in their card holder. Each player takes a player colour and an innocence token. That’s it! In Mysterium players are trying to solve the mystery of who killed the director of Mysterium Park, a funfair which settled in Derry. I'm sure that at this point the very mention of that name will make Stephen Kings ears perk up. The plot card in front of the ghost will show a layout of the board with the different player colours. These are the suspects that the ghost wants that particular player to eliminate as a suspect. The ghost does this by handing out vision cards to the players. Each player then has to interpret which suspect the ghost is leading them towards with the card. This could be a colour scheme, common objects between the two or anything else the ghost may see that links the cards. Once all players have guessed their cards the ghost determines if they are right or not. If you're correct then you remove that character card and place your Innocence token in that space. If you're not then simply take back your pawn and keep your vision cards. This will continue until (hopefully) all the suspects of the colours in play have been guessed. The three characters that didn’t occupy a coloured space on the plot card are set aside for later and the board is filled with location cards and the ghost puts a second plot card in their holder. Play continues in the same way until all players have guessed the locations as well. If by the end of round six all the players have successfully guessed their suspect and location then they move onto the third and final round. If not, they and the ghost lose the game. For the third round the ghost lays out the set aside characters and locations and uses the third plot card to determine which column houses the killer and the location. They must then give out two final vision cards to the players. One in relation to the killer and one to the location but the ghost cannot indicate which is which. Players then discuss which is the correct column and when they’ve come to a decision inform the ghost. The ghost must then indicate if the players are right, at which point they win the game, or if they’re wrong and they lose the game. Welcome, to Mysterium Park. There’s a lot to love about both Mysterium games. As the investigators it's a lot of fun to have those discussions about each vision card and trying to figure out exactly what it is you're being pointed to. What is the ghost pointing to?, are they focusing on colours, shapes or is it the blatantly obvious sharp pointy object that’s trying to lead us towards the sword swallower! Of course everyone has their own opinions, and own interpretations of cards so these conversations can veer wildly in all directions. It’s not uncommon for you to look at a card and have a pretty good idea of where you think you’ll be placing your token. However, by the time you spoke to your teammates you could have had a better chance of guessing BEFORE you got given the card. There’s also a tension as you make your final decision and you wait to see if you’ve successfully got inside the head of the ghost and your guesses are correct. If you get it right it’s cause for celebrations and if you get it wrong it’s usually met with looks of confusion and replies of “I’m sure they were leading me to the strong woman” In the original game you were either right or wrong. In this one you have the addition of the witness space. If a player guesses here then the card is removed, the witness token is placed in that spot and the player gets to place their token on another card. I like the addition of the witness space in Mysterium Park. So often do you find yourself wrestling with two possibilities. So if you happen to be on the witness space at the end of a round you can easily go to your second guess. It kind of reminds me of the tv show catchphrase, it’s a “it’s good but it’s not right” space, but with a bit of a do-over. Ghostly goings on In the past I’ve compared the ghost in these games as being like the drummer in a band. You're there at the back orchestrating this entire show trying to keep everyone in time and as long as you’re doing your job as best you can then it’s not your fault if the guitarist goes off and does their own thing. Ooh, idea for a Mysterium game. Mysterium Spinal Tap where you play the ghost of one of the drummers! Copyright, me, Libellud, let’s talk I would imagine that there are some people who won’t like the pressure of being the ghost and I understand that. There’s a lot to juggle here, you have to work with your hand of cards to give the best clues you can while also playing to your audience but also hoping that they’re not trying to get into your way of thinking as you’re getting into theirs. For some they don’t want to be the one to derail the game by giving bad clues. This is a game about interpretation and as far as I’m concerned, no one is to blame if the group loses. Except that one person who couldn’t match the sword in the card with the sword swallower…..I’m not bitter about that at all! The real downside of playing as the ghost of course is that it’s easy to get lost in that gorgeous art on the vision cards. I’d be lying if I said my turns didn’t take longer because I got distracted by a card and forgot I was supposed to be givin them out! Part of the fun of this game is that discussion afterwards of, “what did you mean with this card” and “why did you think that was the ticket booth” and I love when games give you cause to have that post game analysis. It’s safe to say that we love Mysterium in our house and aside from the odd occasions when I take it to a game night, it only gets played as a three player game. It works ok at that count and games are usually quick enough that both of the kids can have a go at being the ghost. Even though we mostly get two games in a session, setup can still be a pain and trying to do it two games in a row, doubly so. So much that it kinda puts me off wanting to play it at that low a count, even though me and the kids do have fun. Well now we have Mysterium Park and it’s not a spoiler to say that this is pretty much going to be our go to version of Mysterium. Setup is lightning quick and if everyone knows what they’re doing you can be up and dealing out the first vision cards in under five minutes. It’s such a great feeling, not least because I now don’t have to find an excuse not to get out and set up the regular Mysterium. I love how they’ve managed to streamline everything, the use of the codenames style grid is, for my money, a little slice of genius. It’s clear what/who each person is going to be guessing and just that deck of plot cards gives a lot of variety and that’s before you remember that you can flip them. There have been a few things removed from the original game either for size, time length or just pure fiddliness and I approve of…… most of them, I’ll get to that and my reasons why later. The things they've removed are the things that I dreaded teaching in the original game. Gone is the clairvoyance system where, for those who don’t know, is where you basically rated peoples guesses to try and get to see more cards in the final round. Also gone is that system of who sees what cards in the final round. The final round in this is simply lay everything out and everyone sees two cards and then they have to guess. For me this whole box is so much easier to teach to new players and a great stepping stone if they ever want to play the original at any point. Mysterious misgivings. It’s not all juggling and trapezes in the Park. A lot of the locations are quite similar in look which is understandable given the setting, but that does mean that there's not always a lot that differentiates them and therefore it’s easy to be led down the wrong path. Granted that may make the game more of a challenge, but I personally think that the locations in the original had more unique space and still managed to keep the dark colour palate. The next thing kinda ties in with the one thing that I miss from the original game and it may surprise you. It’s the player screen. I know, I know, I’ve just been praising this game for how small and streamlined it is but hear me out. One of the things I love about the original is being able to hide behind that screen and grimace as the others veer wildly off the path that I’ve so expertly led them down. Without that screen there you really have to keep your emotions in check. The slightest little smile or contortion of your face could give away a lot to the other players. The other advantage of the screen is being able to look at the cards closely, and the right way up. With Mysterium Park you now have to find a ways to look at the cards you need on the table, upside down, but without looking too hard at them so you give away which ones you're looking at. The absence of the screen doesn’t ruin this game, and for the sake of what they’re doing with this version it's an obvious sacrifice. It does mean you have to work that little bit harder as the ghost to not give too many visual clues……apart from the vision cards of course. Mysterium Park is definitely going to be the go to Mysterium game in our family. It’s small, quick to set up and play and is just as much fun as the original. I’m still keeping both in the collection. The big one for when we have more players and we want the game to be more of a game night event and this one for a quick Mysterium fix and one we can throw in a bag and take away with us.

Distant Suns WBG Score: 7.5 Player Count: 2-4 You’ll like this if you like: Castle Party, Cartographers, Welcome To. Published by: IELLO Designed by: Yeon-Min Jung, Gary Kim As I look at the box art for Distant Suns my mind is taken back to the retro sci-fi I passionately devoured as a child. The sense of adventure and mystery I found in space travel that the films, comics, and novels from the 1900's through to the 1960's captivated me. Inside the box, this does not really continue, with the game art being a little more modern and formulaic. But the game does not disappoint. It may not be filled with nostalgic sci-fi adventures as the box teases, but it sure does come packed with fun decisions, interesting scoring options, and a slick gameplay. Distant Suns has been a real winner for me. Let's get it to the table. Set-Up Place the two game boards into the centre of the table, joining them up to make one board. Then take the ten exploration tiles, shuffle them up, and randomly choose five. Place these into the large slots at random on the board. Then separate the two sets of mission tiles, and place five from one group at random into the slots at the top of the board. Then place five other matching symbols into the slots at the bottom from the other set, matching the same symbol from the top. This is just so players from either side of the table can see the symbols clearly. Then sort the five modules tiles into order, with five on the bottom and one of the top. Give each payer a sheet and pencil and you are ready to begin. How to Play The game plays across three rounds. Each round will have either four or five turns, depending on how the exploration modules are placed. You could place them such that all five fit, or place two so that only two others could now join the party. The game plays over two phases, Assign and Draw. In the assign phase, the active player will take the top module and place it down next to the action they want to take. The board gives you six options. The five from the tiles you placed during set-up, and the Black Hole that is always present on the far left of the board. The active player will take the action that the blue side of the module is pointing at. But this is not the only decision you are making as you place the module. The yellow side will point to the action that all other players will take. So, as you make your decision, you are not only thinking about what you want to do, but also, what option you will give up to the other players, and take away from you as a possible later turn as this one is now blocked. This means that all players are playing at the same time. Regardless of if you are the active player or not during the Assign phase, all players will be “active” during the Draw phase. This is where all players will draw onto their player board the shape that has been selected either for them, or by them. The first shape you add must be placed in the bottom left of your map. After this, all shapes must connect to one other shape on your board. As you add your shape onto your board, you are then supposed to draw in the symbol for that shape, only if it meets the score criteria. This makes final scoring easier. However, I cannot resit drawing them all in each time, just to add to the fun and theme! The reason you are not supposed to this is so that you can easily spot which shapes are in a scoring location once the board is full. This is based on where the tiles have been placed at random during set-up, but in the example above, my flying Saucers only score for the one on the bottom right, the one just above that, and the one placed at the top left. The one placed at the beginning on the bottom right does not score as it was not placed next to a yellow treasure hex as per this shapes criteria for this game. For each correct shape that is next to a treasure space on your map, you will score one point per treasure space. You can place this shape (in this case), the flying saucer anywhere you like, and you can place other shapes next to the treasure spaces, but only the specific shape chosen for that game at set-up will score points when next to the treasure hex. The Alien hexes on the board all score you one negative point at the start of the game. During the rounds you need to try and cover them up to avoid scoring these negative numbers remaining active in your score. For every shape that blocks the alien that comes from the specific shape for this game linked to Alien hexes (in this case, the shooting star), you will score an additional point. The blue shapes on the board represent your upgrade slots. When covered up, these allow you to remove one hex from any future shape you add to the board, if this helps you. Again, any shape can cover the upgrade hexes, but if you cover it with the specific shape to your set-up you will score an additional point. In this game, it was the lightning bolt shape. The forth tile in this example (although again, they are different each game based on your own set-up) shows how you can score points for each specific shape that outlines any black hole. The black hole takes up a lot of space, and any subsequent shape that touches it that comes from the right module will score you a point. You can also score points for reaching the top left, top right, and bottom right of the board. The first player to do this will score 10 or 15 points depending on which corner, and then any subsequent player who makes it to the outer reaches of the board will score five or eight points. So, there is an element of a race to this game. But this depends on what strategy you want to take. Will you try and make it to these far sections of the board first? Using any shape to get there, forgetting the other ways to score. Just focusing on distance and speed. Or will you focus more on placing the right shape into the right place, and maximising your end game scoring via the specific shape/hex scoring. The game comes with the above polyominoes to help you draw the right shape onto your board. You can flip the shapes into any orientation. As doing so in your mind can sometimes be a little tricky to visualise these shapes neutralise that and make it very easy to place them anywhere, in anyway. This is a nice addition clearly brought to the game from the designers frustrations from other games that don’t do this. Other than the five exploration zone tiles shown on the board at the top of this review, above are the other five tiles included. You choose five from these ten at random during service-up. They don't change the game drastically, but add a small variety game by game. Overall, Distant Suns works well. As all players play at the same time, but you take it in turns to be the active player, everyone feels constantly involved, but with an equal share in the decision making process. The game moves at a fast pace because of this, each round being a simple task of assigning the shape for the active and inactive players and then drawing the shape. With just four to five turns per round and only three rounds total, the game can be over quickly. Sometimes in just 15 minutes. The variety coming from the different amount of turns that each round can have. Playing Distant Suns is a lot of fun. There is a nice puzzle to work through in your own sheet that you make very quick progress with. There is an instant sense of satisfaction from meeting goals, scoring points, achieving certain tasks right from the start. There are many different ways to score and paths to choose. This always adds to the enjoyment for me. I like to be able to mix up my strategies and try different ways to score each round and game. In a world where paper-and-pencil games have become so successful and ubiquitous, in part due to the surge in roll-and-writes, it’s hard for the new kids on the block to stand out. But Distant Suns is worthy of your consideration if you are looking for a new low to mid weight game that plays quickly, and offers some interesting in-game choices and scoring options. Unlike many other games of its type, Distant Suns is limited to a maximum player count of four. That is worth considering when choosing this game. It doesn’t scale like some other games in this genre which play to unlimited player counts. But that is because of one crucial factor. There is a choice in this blank-and-write. It’s not a dice roll that decides everyone's fate. It’s not down to the flip of a card. You, the player, determine the destiny of the players around the table. This is a choose-and-write. And that choice brings a whole new strategy to the paper and pencil genre, and one I am in favour for.

Dodo WBG Score: 7 Player Count: 2-4 You’ll like this if you like: Rhino Hero, Ice Cool, Memory. Published by: KOSMOS Designed by: Frank Bebenroth, Marco Teubner Dodo is a very striking game. First up, there is the huge 3D mountain on the table. And second... second, there is the egg! Have you ever seen a ball roll so slowly?! Seriously, check it out! A slow moving egg is not exactly at the top of everyone's mechanics list when it comes to making a good game. But it sure does seem to be high up when it comes to making people want to play it! Whenever I get this out, people are intrigued. I could have anything else set up on the other table, but it will be Dodo, and the crazy slow rolling ball that will grip them. But is it any good? Well, let's get it to the table and find out. Set-Up The initial set-up of this game is a little fiddley. You need to build the mountain and attach all the bridge supports before you can play. It will look complicated, but as a test, I left my kids (six and nine) to it, and using the below instructions, which are brilliantly laid out, they manged to do this within a few minutes quite easily on their own. Spurred on, I think, by the excitement of seeing the game in action! Once this is done, you can leave the mountain fully made and have it on display, it looks pretty cool I think. Or, it quickly disassembles, ready to be packed away if you wish. But when made, simply place the tokens face down on the table, give them a shuffle, place the dice somewhere close by, and set the egg at the top with the Dodo bird trapping it in place. When you are ready to start, release the egg! How to Play Playing Dodo is just as easy. In turn, players will roll the dice, and then will need to try and find the matching symbol on one of the circular tiles. If you do, you can place it onto the space on the bridge you are currently making. All the while, the egg will be slowly making its way down the mountain. If you don't flip the right token you need to roll the dice again and try one more time. Of course, each time you do this, you need to try and remember what tokens you have flipped but not used next. You need to try and fill the circles with the required building materials and place the next mountain road ramp piece before the egg makes it way to the end of the current path. If you do, you will carry on to the next piece. If you don't, sadly that's game over. Try again. And you will! Over and over. It's very addictive. When you find a token that is correct, you place it onto the space on the bridge you are making until all spaces are full, and at that point you can attach the bridge onto the mountain. All used tokens need to be then posted into the coin slot style whole at the top of the mountain, simply so they cannot be used again that game. There are six bridges to make in total, getting steadily more difficult as you go, with more spaces to fill. And then you need to call in the boat by filling in the spaces reserved for it at the port, located at the bottom of the ramp. If you manage to get the boat in place in time, it will catch the egg and you will be victorious. You can ignore the spaces with the skull symbol for a simpler game, or fill them all for a more tense affair. It feels right to have people sat around the table in different positions so that you can have eyes on all parts of the mountain at all times. So you can keep track on the eggs progress. It doesn't help you of course, but the screaming of players saying "quick, its nearly at the edge" sure does make it more fun! As you are playing cooperatively, if you remember the location of a specific resource that someone has rolled, you can help the other players by pointing them in the direction of the tile you think they need. You are all playing together and any help will be much appreciated, if you remembered correctly. Quite often players will scream for others to chose a certain token only for it to be wrong. Playing Dodo is a very tense affair. You will be in a constant race against the ever moving egg. The movement of the egg is incredible really. Sometimes, it wriggles and higgles onwards at a merry pace, and other times it slows down almost to a stand still. It is hard to judge it. But you will need to make constant progress, and when playing the hard mode with all the skull circles thrown in, you cannot afford too many slips ups if you want to win. Some players will love this. It makes winning feel good. Like you have achieved something. But others may find the tension to create a panic that doesn't sit well with them. Trying to complete a simple task under a time pressure when other players success rests on your shoulders is not something everyone enjoys. I would seriously consider that, especially if you are thinking about getting this to play with your children. When you place the bridge pieces on, it is all very well labeled as to where they should go. They slip in nicely, and feel secure when in place. I would advise letting younger children practice putting them in a few times before you start a game, so they feel comfortable with the process before they need to do it under time pressure. At the end, if you manage to get the egg into the boat, there is a sense of satisfaction from completing the job, and winning of course. But it does feel a little anti-climactic. I think because of the boat itself being the thing you catch the egg in. It feels like you should then do something with the boat. But as you don't, I am left a little underwhelmed at the end. The art and icons in the game are all fantastic. They look bright and vibrant. It's easy for children of all ages to understand what they are looking for when they roll the dice and flip the tokens. The shape, colour, and style of all the resources are all so clear. The Villages act as wild and can be used in place for any other resource. Playing Dodo is a lot of fun. Games run quickly, under ten minutes. And you can be re-set and ready to go again in a matter of seconds. As such, I tend to play this game in batches of two or three. My children all really enjoy the game, and the satisfaction from saving the egg. But I fear the novelty could wear of quickly as each game really is just the same experience time after time. But if that does happen, I think I would have got a lot of plays out of it, and will at that stage, still want to keep the game as it has such a high fun factor, I will always enjoy sharing it with other people when they come round to play games. But if I ever do get rid of this, I would love to find what is inside that ball!