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Crash Landed WBG Score: 7.5 Player Count: 2-6 You’ll like this if you like: Tucano, 7 Wonders Architects, Sushi Go Published by: Shot in the Dark Designed by: Grant Sanderson, Jordanna Sanderson Crash Landed is the first game from Shot in the Dark that is not a quiz game. This time, they have tried their hand at a family card game. The game is played from the perspective of an Alien race who have crashed landed on Earth. They need to get their ship repaired and back out into space. Let's get it to the table and see how it plays. Set Up First, each player must choose from one of the six available Alien races. The rules suggest to get each player to pick one at random and then keep it secret. This is because each one has it's own special power, and it works best if other players do not know which one you have. You then need to remove some cards if you are playing with less than six, all clearly explained in the rule book. Finally, shuffle the remaining cards and deal out three to each player. Place the remaining cards face down as a draw deck in the middle of the table. You're now ready to play. How to Play On your turn, you can do one of four things. Either play one card down face up in front of you to complete your ship. You need four specific cards in order to win the game. One engine, an adductor beam, your Saucer of course, and the finally, your Controls. The first player to have all four of these cards face up in front of them wins the game. The second thing you can do on your turn is play a damage card to break any of your opponents ship parts that they have played face up in front of them. Each part has a specific part that affects it. They are all colour coded, but make sense thematically. Rust affects your saucer. Daisy the cow blocks your beam. You know, obvious stuff. Those pesky bovines! The third thing you can do on your turn is play a card to fix any damage to your ship. If someone has previously attacked one of your ship parts, you can now play the corresponding card to repair the damage. Again, this is colour coded, and makes thematic sense. Daisy the cow has got stuck in your abductor beam? No problem, just shrink that Cow down to a tiny size. The obvious solution! I am honestly embarrassed for you that you didn't think of that sooner! Finally, the last thing you can do on your turn is discard one or two unwanted cards from your hand, and replace them with new cards from the deck. After playing a card or cards, you must ensure you have three cards in your hand again, before play moves to the next player. Seeing as you all you are doing on your turn is playing one card or discarding one or two, the game moves very quickly. Equally, as all you need to do to win the game is have four specific cards played in front of you, Crash Landed can be over in minutes. The quickest game we had was under one minute! This was a two-player game, and I started with two engine parts in my hand, and draw the other two that I needed on my second and forth turn. In this time, my son who I was playing, did not draw the right cards needed to slow me down and the game was over in minutes. But he didn't feel bad. We just shuffled up and played again. The advantage of quick game. I have also had games that swung back and forth. With the discarded cards having to be shuffled back into a new draw deck two or three times. It very much depends on the luck of the draw. There is some strategy to this in terms of what cards you discard and the order that you play your cards. But there is also a lot of luck. There are a few other cards in the deck that add to the strategy. Such as the Worker Bot which can fix any part of your ship. Worth keeping hold of if you ever get one. Although you could hold onto it for a few rounds, finally use it when a ship part gets damaged by another player, only to then draw the specific card you need to fix that ship part on your next turn, which now is redundant to you. There are also Galactic Thug, You've Been Spotted, and the Tin Foil Hat of Invisibility cards which add to the fun. The Galactic Thug will protect one of your ship parts when played, avoiding the possibility that it can be damaged by one of the other players at the table. However, Asa, the alien race, can steal a previously played Thug from another player if they are in the game. The You've Been Spotted card brings the classic miss a turn opportunity to the game. And the Tin Foil Hat of Invisibility card allows you to steel one of your opponents ship parts, proving once and for all that tin foil hats are affective against Alien races. I told you Mom! Is this Fun? All in all, Crash Landed is a very simple game. But it is also a lot of fun. The games play very quick, mostly! The rules are incredibly light, and easily explained to most players within a few minutes. The game play is fast, fun, and heavily luck based. If you are looking for a game high in strategy, you will be disappointed. But if you want a bright, colourful, child friendly game, with a small dose of take-that, and a high dose of humour, you won't be disappointed. The game is so accessible in terms of the rules, length, and space needed. I found I have played this between other games, before food when there are only a few minutes spare, and even once in the car. It has a small footprint and low complexity, but a big heart and large fun-factor. I like the Alien races and the small about of asymmetric power this brings to the game. Each race has a fun ability that can affect the game a lot, although I did find some to be more affective than others. Blocking damage, playing an extra card, or being able to repair a ship part comes up pretty much every game. However, stealing a Galactic Thug is only useful if that card comes up, and is taken and played by another player, and you still need it. A fair few things that all need to align. There are only a few of these Galactic Thug cards in the game, especially in lower player counts when you remove some. And I found this power to be redundant in some games. Although this really is a minor quibble. I would recommend this game to any young family who are looking for something simple to bring their family together. I applaud the team at Shot in the Dark for venturing out of their Quiz game comfort zone, and look forward to seeing what they come up with next. Crash Landed is a nice little family card game that I can see getting a lot of plays in my house. My children already adore it due to its pace, simplicity, and art. They often ask for a quick game, and I for one will never say no to that! Now, where did I put my Tin Foil hat?

Magnate: The First City WBG Score: 8 Player Count: 1-5 You’ll like this if you like: Quadropolis, Between Two Cities, Underwater Cities. Published by: Naylor Games Designed by: James Naylor As with many games, on first inspection Magnate: The First City looks quite busy and complicated. There are a lot of things to look at just on the separate round board alone, let alone the seven city tiles. But you will quickly become acclimatised to this world and realise how well built this city is. Some say it was built on rock and roll, others say it was built with careful and acute understanding of board gamers and how people like to consume game rules. I will let you be the judge. Let Me Walk You Through It. The game comes with an excellent rule book but the first thing you will notice about this is that it tells you not to read it! There is a deck of cards labelled The Tutorial Deck which the rule book directs you too instead. The tutorial lays out exactly how to play your first game. It points you in the way of the rule book for the main table set-up, but this is all very simple, and you quickly return to the tutorial deck and stay with this, and this alone for the remainder of your first game. It is a very interesting experience and one that will ease any player into this game. Interestingly, it asks you to play this first time as a five-player game, no matter your actual player count. This is so that the game can show you as many different turn options in as short a time as possible. But also crucially, explaining the bidding round in full which works a lot better with more players. The tutorial will let you re-set down to which ever player count you are playing after a couple of quick rounds and finish your game yourself. I don’t think everyone will use this tutorial, but those that do will appreciate it and learn the game almost in full in a very easy manner. Oof, that’s gonna cost you! Playing Magnate: The First City feels like a delicate balancing act. You want to spend as quickly as possible, as efficiently as you can strategise, but also in as timely a way as you can plan, as first is not always best. Although it mostly is! Everything is based on the two key factors. First, how much does land currently cost? Second, how close to crashing is the market? At the start of the game, land is relatively cheap, and you will want to buy up what is available as best you can. But so will everyone else, and generally there is less land than players have money. As such turn order is key. The game recognises this and each round starts with a bidding phase for turn order. If you see a key plot of land has become available that you think others will go for that you also want, then you can make sure you get first dibs by bidding high for the first player marker. Again, the game recognises the importance of this by making everything about money. If you want to bid high to go first you have to do so without the knowledge of what other players may have to bid against you, also whilst remembering you cannot bid so high that you are then left with a shortfall of cash to do the thing you were bidding to do first anyway. And of course, all the time knowing that every dollar you bid is points lost at the end of the game. The game is won by who has the most money at the end of the game. Money is kept secret hidden in player wallets during the game, so you will not ever know exactly how much other players have. There is some bluff and bravado here of course, but it is mostly about strategy, timing and considered planning. You need to structure your turns accordingly to build up your financial clout to be ready to strike when the market is ripe for the picking. Buy low. Sell high. And all before the market crashes. And yes, you guessed it, the game recognises this too. The market is highly volatile and unstable in this game and reacts to one thing and one thing alone. What the players do in the previous round. The game starts with the bidding phase for turn order, then everyone has a chance to attract new tenants to previously built buildings and earn rent from them. Each player will then have three turns to buy more land, build more buildings, earn more money from consulting, and selling land. At this point, the game then adjust the game board based on all these actions. The more land you have sold, the more advertising you have spent to encourage new tenants into your buildings, the more tenants you have brought in, this all affects the market. A certain amount of risk cards will be drawn based on these factors, which everyone knows, and each risk card can move the market zero to three steps closer to crashing. Players can work together to ensure less risk cards are drawn, and the price of land is drawn up if it is in their favour as they have land still to sell and need time to do it. Or one player may work against this and try and push the market into a crash as they have already sold their land and want to hurt the other players. Will the market crash before you have a chance to sell? If so, you will inevitably loose a lot of potential profit. If you can time it so you sell at the top of the market, just before the other players get the chance, this is how you win big. When you sell land, your sales will drive the market to crash faster, meaning the other players are potentially forced to sell at the bottom of the market. Timing this all is hard. Crazy fun. But hard. Too Much Plastic? The stand-out thing in this game is the buildings. As we have talked about, they look great. And there is no denying, when you save up a few million in the game and get to place a new building on your owned land, it feels great. But it is a lot of plastic! Sure, lots of games could be labelled with this criticism, but just because lot’s do it, doesn’t make it right. The question is, does this game need this much plastic? And of course, the answer is a resounding no. The game is better with it. It looks cool. It’s way more fun placing miniatures down than tokens or cards. But like most miniatures in games, it doesn’t really add anything to the actual game or its mechanics. Some argue they actually hinder the game a little by blocking the view. Each space of land is relatively small and when you add tenant tokens to these spaces, the buildings do make it hard to see all these tokens clearly. Although this is not a big issue for me. Just adjust your head a little and its fine. I cannot blame the game or designers for this. They are simply doing what the market wants. And most of us love this stuff. But this box is big, heavy, and full of plastic. So, you need to make up your mind as to weather you want this in your collection or not. Will this pull you in? Magnate is a very clever game. It feels more like a simulation than an arcade style of game. This is not trying to make land ownership and building work fun, it’s trying to make it realistic. But in doing so, there is so much fun to be had with this. When you sell land, it all works in multiples. You check the current land price, then multiply this by a number of things. First, one for the land and one for the building. Then one for each tenant there, which could be a lot of you have multiple tenants or high value ones. Then you multiple by any relevant symbols on nearby land or tenant tokens, which again could be multiple. There could be some reductions here based on houses near airports for example but hopefully you built well and were not messed around with by the other players. As such, sales of land can be well into the multiple millions. It is so fun to work this out and take your hard earned money! Stuffing wads of paper money into your wallet genuinely feels great! And I am not sure why, but have asked myself some serious question since. Maybe I am a capitalist after all?! Some criticisms of the game have come from the luck involved in the timing of when you sell. Or to be more specific, the randomness this brings. When you sell lots of land, it drives the market towards the crash and you will just ruin the game for the other players if they have not sold their land yet. But this is literally the game. And once you get an idea for the strategy which really does take at least one game, maybe more; I think a lot of people will realise there is a lot of very clever things in this game that bring board game joy. Being able to earn a few million by turn three after bringing home a few hundred thousand in turn two feels great. Spending a few million on a large piece of coloured shiny plastic that you get to place on the board feels wonderful! Selling this all for eight figure numbers after multiples drive up the land value… well, you may be hooked by this point. In your first few games you may be caught out and the market could crash before you want, and you will be left with a lot of low value land that you paid of a lot of money for. But after a game or two, you will get what drives the market and what causes the crash and you will be able to both manipulate it in your favour, and time when you act. Understanding and using this to your favour is very satisfying and creates a wonderful game experience. This game has been compared to Monopoly due to the paper money and the act you are buying property. So, I can see this. But it couldn’t be further from Monopoly in terms of the strategy to luck ratio, and universal joy this brings to all. Largely, when you earn big in Monopoly, you do so at the expense of another player. When you earn big in Magnate, you do so due to your good timing and strategy and take the money from the game. Also, it only takes an hour or so in a two player, bit more with more players, and I don’t end up hating myself and everyone.

Destinies WBG Score: 9 Player Count: 1-3 You’ll like this if you like: Lord of the Rings Journey's in Middle Earth, The 7th Continent. Published by: Lucky Duck Games Designed by: Michał Gołębiowski, Filip Miłuński Destinies is a fascinating game. Billed as a table top board game version of an RPG, with an integrated digital app, campaign mode, and expanding universe with future expansions, Destinies certainly feels fresh and new. Playing it as a solo is very different to multiplayer, but each time I play this, I feel like I am experiencing something groundbreaking. Let's get it to the table to see how it plays. Set Up Getting Destinies to the table is a little different to other games. The first thing you need to do is download, then open the app on your tablet, phone or device. It's free and doesn't need internet access once downloaded, and Lucky Duck seem to be backing this game so I don't see it going anywhere anytime soon. Once this is done, open the app and select the game you want to play. There are five options to start with. One stand alone game and four others that make up a campaign. Chose the one you want to do, and player count and mode, and the app will take you through the rest of the set up. You will be asked to select one of three characters to play as, and then you are given your starting item and experience points in three areas. Your intelligence dexterity, and power. Get all the tokens, money, and cards out and ready, but there is not much more you can do for set- up until the app tells you so. So, press go and start your adventure. How to Play Destinies works very differently each game, based on the scenario you are playing. I won't go into too much detail there, as I don't want to spoil the story. That's the main part of the game. But each game, your character will have one of two destinies that they want to achieve. Convince a number of people to join their cause. Destroy a certain number of things. Kill a certain amount of people. That sort of thing. You can only achieve one of these, but don't need to choose now. You can start trying to do both to see which one is easier for you, or change your plans at any moment. If you ever achieve your goal, you will then enter the final stages of your destiny. The game will suggest you go to a specific destination, which when you do, you enter the end game scenario. Your characters 'Finale'. This will be a two or three turn part of the game where you will go through certain skill tests, and you will need to use certain items you have hopefully collected thus far to fulfil your destiny. Succeed, and that's game over for all players. This can lead to a somewhat Three Billboards style abrupt ending for the others around the table in two or three player. On your turn you can move up to two spaces to previous explored, or new tiles. The app will tell you to place certain map tiles down as you explore them, and add locations and people to them that you can interact with hen you enter them. When you move to a new location new map tiles that surround the new space you have moved to will be added as they are now accessible. When on a tile space, you can chose, generally between two locations or people to speak with or explore. You will tap on the relevant icon on the app, and then be presented with more story, and a series of choices. Perhaps you want to try and steal something? Maybe you want to help someone, or give them an item? All of your choices will be recorded by the app and go towards shaping your destiny. Later events will be effected by your actions. An angel may not want to help you if you have strayed too far from the path of good for example! So, pick wisely. Skill Checks On your board you will have three or four little wooden discs on each row. You will be given your starting position for these during set up, but will be bale to move them forwards and backwards throughout the game as and when you carry out certain actions. Help a blacksmith in his work due to his sick son, and gain a strength. Pay a wise man three coins, and increase your intellect. That sort of thing. Then, when you have to test one of these characteristics, you will roll your two main white dice, and any purple dice you have access to, and choose to use that skill check, to see what score you get. Your total score from all dice is checked, and then any wooden tokens in numbers equal too or less than your dice total is your score. These are the best example of skill checks I have seen thus far in modern board games. Some cards offers ways to manipulate your score, and these checks are the bulk of the game, and it works so well. You can see in the board below. If you rolled a nine for intelligence you would score two on that skill check. Or a three for dexterity or strength. You have three purple dice, but they all start exhausted. Each round you can refresh one of these, and use when you wish. Certain actions in the game will exhaust or provide you with access to these purple dice. Having access to all three feels wonderful! Adventure Awaits As you move around the map, talking to new people, exploring new buildings, and uncovering more map tiles, there is a real sense of adventure and mystery. You will have a specific goal based on your destiny but you will not always know exactly how to do that, and there are a lot of side quests and distractions to look into. One action you can regularly do is talk to a person you meet about your destiny. This works by showing the QR code on the destiny card, (being sure to pick the right side), to the camera in the app. It works flawlessly, and I have a VERY old iPad. It instantly springs up with new information for you, with the person you are talking to giving you advice as to how best make progress in your quest. Sometimes this can be just the clue you were looking for. Other times, it will tell you of something you have already done. As you uncover new information, and certain events or interactions send you down new paths, there is a huge feeling of satisfaction. It feels like a mystery game in parts. Like you are uncovering new facts in a deep mystery. At times, it can be frustrating and you may feel directionless, but I find this never lasts more than a turn or two. The game will eventually give you a clue or push you in the right direction. You cannot ever be lost for long in Destinies. There is an element of luck in this game. As with anything that uses dice. Sometimes your destiny is not entirely in your hands. But you will mostly only encounter things you feel you can control, or at least have more influence in. As you gain experience, you can move your wooden tokens backwards on one of your characteristics, making your future rolls more likely to give you more successes. If you know you will be fighting a lot in a certain scenario, you should choose to increase your skills here first. Having the right tools for the job will also help a lot. It is best to not go to a well without rope or a ladder first. Do not enter a cave with a torch. But there will be times when things escape you that are well out of your control. Who knew I needed Dice for an encounter with a Daemon! I mean seriously!?! Each round one of your purple dice will be refreshed, if you choose not to use them, eventually you will have access to all three. You can save them up for more testing encounters. And plan your turns accordingly. Luck is involved, but strategy, good choices, and forward planning will help you just as much. The sort of items you can collect through the game is hugely varied and often bring a lot of fun. Sometimes they will be bought from a merchant. Other times they can be found. You will also be rewarded with them as tokens of thanks when you help other non playing characters. Or you may choose to simply steel them when someone is not looking! Or with force. It's all your choice. But remember, like the great red and white bearded one himself, the app is always watching! Which list will you be on come Christmas? Nothing you do will go unnoticed. All your actions are recorded, remembered, and will go a long way to affecting what choices you have open to you later in the game. Destinies is a lot of fun. It feels fresh and new. I have experienced a lot of things similar to this. But nothing quite like it. The stories are quite dark, there is a lot of pestilence, famine, witchcraft, and daemons. But there are expansions that bring new story lines in if this isn't for you. The stories re full of character and suspense. And I find myself getting easily lost in them despite not loving the themes and tone, especially when I play with my son. But it's the stories that make me come back to this. The sense of adventure and mystery that unravels is so intriguing and full of suspense. Despite not being exactly my thing. I love the game no less. In two player or more I do have a a sense of unfulfillment if my destiny is not completed. So, I would say this is more of a solo game than anything else. But it works fine in two or three, it is just set up better for a solo experience in my opinion. But that experience is so rich. So fulfilling. So rewarding. I would put this up there as one of my favourite games of all time, and certainly one of the best solo experiences I have ever had. I cannot wait to try the other expansions and explore more of this world.

Venn WBG Score: 7.5 Player Count: 2-99 You’ll like this if you like: Dixit, Codenames Pictures, Wavelength Published by: The Op Venn is a clever new party game, that combines the picture clue fun seen in games such as Dixit and Codenames Pictures, with the simplistic beauty of the Venn diagram. Don't know what a Venn diagram is? Well stick around. Let's get it to the table. Set Up Venn can be played either in a competitive or cooperative mode. Let's first look at the competitive set up. This requires at least four players, so you can have two teams of two, but works up to any player count. Just split into two even teams. Give each team three plastic circles, one of each colour. Place them down on the table in front of the two teams so that each circle overlaps each other a little bit. Then place the score marker down, shuffle the number and word cards, and lay out four word cards in any order down the side of the score card. Place a score marker for each team at the top of the score tracker. Finally, shuffle the picture cards and split them into three equal decks. Give one to each team and place the final one in the centre of the table. Each team will choose which player on their side will have a first go placing the pictures, and then the game can begin. How to Play Both players chosen to go first on each team will now play simultaneously. They will draw the top numbered card and check the three numbers on it against the current word cards. Each team's player will have three words that they need to get their other team members to guess. They do this by placing picture cards down on the three coloured circles. Players on both teams will do this at the same time, not in turn order, just as quickly as they can find a picture card to match their words. They will arbitrarily choose one circle to represent each word, it doesn't matter which. And they will place one card onto each circle, the picture that they can find that best matches that word. They can also place one picture down in the areas that cross over between each of the two colours one card that matches those two words. And one final picture card can be placed down in the centre if it matches all three. So, in total, seven cards can be placed. If you find a card that better suits a word that you had previously laid a picture card for, you can simply cover up the previous card with the new one. The rest of the team that are guessing can discuss with each other about which word they think their teams picture layer is trying to make them guess. As soon as at least three picture cards are placed down, they can, when they want to, shout "VENN!" At this point, both teams picture layer must immediately stop. No more picture cards can be laid. Then both teams guessers need to try and figure out which three words were being suggested to them. This could leave the other team very short of course in terms of picture card laid. So, both teams picture layers must work as quickly as they can. If they cannot find any picture cards that suit their words, they can swap their deck with the other deck in the middle of the table, and of course if both teams picture layers do this, then you could get a chance to look at all three decks at one point. But the decks are large, the picture cards are double sided. And the pictures on the cards are all so varied with mixed images, you generally will be able to find something that suits your word. The difficulty more comes from find a picture that suits your word and only your word. They often work for more than one word, and you don't want to send your team down the wrong path. Each team will then score one point for each word they correctly guess, and if any team ever guesses all three words they will score one additional bonus point, so four in total. A new picture chooser is then chosen, the word cards are swapped, and a new number card is chosen and the next round begins. This will continue until one team scores 12 or more points. The cooperative version works in very much the same way, and allows games with less than four players. You will just have one Venn set up and only five number cards. Players will take it in turns to lay pictures cards in an attempt to score as many points as they can with their team. Trying to get to 12 or more points with their five number cards. So, five rounds to score 12 or more. There is no bonus point for correctly guessing all three words, and you are working to a two-minute time limit as you place the picture cards instead of against another team. Is It Fun? Venn works well in both competitive and cooperative modes. It is nice to have both, to work not just to different player counts, but also to suit different groups or requirements. I have played the cooperative mode in larger groups and simply increased the amount of number cards we had and upped the target we had to reach. The two minute timer works well to keep the pressure and tension in the game. But sometimes, when the cards align, you will find you are laying the perfect card with one minute to spare. Other times, you may be running out of time with only a one or two cards placed. Two-minutes is the right time, but racing against another team is a lot more fun. As such, I much I prefer the competitive game. It brings a lot more tension, and from that, laughter, table chat, and fun. The cries of anguish as one side calls "VENN!" When their side only has one or two picture cards placed. But then of course, that team could then score two points, and the first team may get them all wrong. The speed and race element adds so much to the game. People's competitive nature comes out, not just from the person rushing to place good picture cards down, but also from the rest of the team who are guessing who want to halt the other team as soon as they can. This makes Venn the perfect game for people who enjoy a little bit of time pressure, but perhaps not the right game for those who find this stressful or unpleasant. Even in the cooperative game, you may feel this in the two-minute time limit they give you. If you don't have their right cards, then this race against the clock or other team can be frustrating or stressful. Equally, if you have words that closely match other words, you may find it hard to find pictures specific enough. But most frustratingly, you may play a picture card you think suitable for one of your three words, only for your team to see that picture very differently to you, and associate it with another word. This may be because you see the art differently, perhaps you hadn't spotted the other word and how it works for that card too. Or worst of all, you had missed part of the picture that works perfectly for an incorrect word. However, these obvious frustration aside, teams I have found, will score on average two points per turn. Getting all three is pretty tough, but possible. But when you miss one word due to one of the above very possible reasons, it won't be too frustrating if you can put into context the average score. An accept the fact that under time pressures, you may sometimes miss something, and look at mistakes or misses like this as being funny and part of the game, rather than annoying, and proving the game is broken. I very much enjoy playing Venn. I have found it to work with most groups I have tried this with. It suits all ages and abilities, and works well in both modes. I have found the need to increase the amount of time allowed in the co-op mode when playing with younger children, but that is very much possible, and easily implemented. The one constant each time Venn hit the table though was laughter. Trying to determine how different people have associated certain picture cards with specific words, and correct or incorrect guesses resulting or cries of joy or anguish. Venn always brings the fun.

Shoot for the Stars WBG Score: 8 Player Count: 2-8 You’ll like this if you like: What Came First, Wits and Wagers, Shot in the Dark Published by: Big Potato Shoot for the Stars is an absolute blast! (Pun intended) Sometimes, a game comes around that just hits with you from the off. That was the case with this game. From receiving the game, I think it took 15 minutes to open, learn, teach, and then start playing our first game. It's just so accessible. So fun. So good. Lets find out more and get it to the table. Set Up Ok, the first time you play this, you will need to build the space ship. And that was what took most of the 15 minutes I spoke about above! But it's simple, quite fun, and only needs to be done once. When that is done, lay out the board, questions, score tokens, and place the ship on the board. Give each player a meeple and character token and you can begin! How to Play Choose the first player, and they will read out the first question. Make sure their meeple is in the very top spot on the ship. They are the current captain. Once they have read out the question, they then must give an answer. All questions are number based and you need to try and get as close to the answer as you can without going over. If in doubt, go low! Then the next player to your right will give their answer. They can either say a larger number out loud if they think you are too low, in which case they will become the new captain. Or they can agree you are roughly right and stay in the ship. Or finally, they can say they think you went way over the answer and abandon ship, moving onto one of the planets on the board. Either one, but we usually went to our own coloured planet for simplicity. (And my minor autistic needs). The game then moves to the next player. This will go round like this until all players have either jumped out of the ship or agreed that the previous number was about right. At this point, the current captain will reveal the answer by puling the card out of the box. If they were correct or under the answer, the captain will gain four star coins. All other players still in the ship gain two. Anyone who jumped out gets nothing. If the captain is wrong, then they will loose a star coin, every else on the planets gets two star coins, and those still on the ship gets nothing. If the captain is the only one left on the ship, as in everyone else thinks they went too high, but they were correct, then they get six star coins. If they were wrong, they only lose one star coin in this case. The final thing you can do is call "Moonshot." This is when you think you can get the answer 100% correct. Dead on. If you are right, then you will get eight star coins, and anyone who stayed with you also scores three. But if you are wrong, then you loose two star coins and anyone who abandoned ship gets one. That's the whole game. You can play to a time limit, points limit, or as the game suggests, using eight question cards. But that is never long enough for us! The sort of questions you get are either one of the three special types above, or a basic question like the three examples below. The questions with the meeple icon on are always specific to the group currently playing the game. So the card won't have an answer on. You need to work it out yourselves first as a individuals. Guess everyone else's answer and tally up what you think the total to be. Then all players will give their answers as usual, before revealing their own correct answer. Then the group can tally the total and their combined correct answer to work out who came closest. This can be a lot of fun, but be warned, learn about your friends cousins before playing! It may be useful! The question with the QR code shows live data. Questions with answers that are ever changing so the publisher cannot possibly print an answer as it would immediately go out of date. But the QR code will take you to a website that will give you the current accurate answer. What a cool idea! The questions with the calendar icon on work just the same as the normal questions, but the answer will be a date. Start with a low date and work up from there. It's the same rules as usual. Just don't say a date beyond what you think the correct one will be. The normal questions are all interesting, and guessable. Playing with all ages and abilities, I have found this game to be highly accessible. Sometimes, a younger player may be the captain at the start of a question they have no idea too, but this is fine. They can just go very low, even just say "one," as other players guesses will then inevitable go higher, and give them an idea as to what a closer guess may be. And they can then either up their answer, or stay in the ship backing another players answer. Many questions have sparked some fun debate amongst our groups as we played this. Some of the things you learn are funny. Some very interesting. And others down right unbelievable! You wait until you see the question about the amount of beer drunk in one night by one person! I couldn't believe it. The game is a little over produced for a simple question and answer game, but I love that. It adds to the spectacle and theme. But actually helps with the game too. Whenever someone up's the current answer, and becomes the new captain, you move your meeple to the top space of the ship to represent your current status. Players physically move off the ship if they think the answer has gone too high. They stay on if they are still in and agree with the current answer or want to wait for their next turn to up it. This all looks great but also reminds all players exactly what their and all players current situation is. The character tokens remind you which meeple you are, and the points tokens are just a nice touch to physically track your progress. All of this could be removed. It could just be the questions and that's it. But that wouldn't be half as much fun! When I played this with my mum, she said it was her "favourite game yet!" And I make her play a lot of games! My friends all really enjoyed it's accessibility. My kids enjoyed the fact they could join in what they said felt like a grown up game. And I very much enjoyed the debate that many questions sparked. This game is so sociable. Shoot for the Stars is a brilliant quiz based game. It brings a nice theme to the table, looks impressive set up, and offers all the tools needed for a long, fun, enjoyable session of quizzing and debating. You can make it short if you like, that's the proper rules after all. Eight cards, and that's it. That would take around 20 minutes if you played quickly. But each time I have played this game, and it has been six times in four days so far, we have played for well over an hour each time. We just didn't want to stop as we were having too much fun!

Disney Sorcerer's Arena - Turning the Tide Expansion WBG Score: 8 Player Count: 2-4 (but really 2) You’ll like this if you like: Unmatched, Funkoverse, Smash Up Published by: The Op Designed by: Sean Fletcher Disney Sorcerer's Arena is a brilliant three-on-three skirmish game set in the Disney world. The only thing you want more from with this game is extra characters. Well, low and behold the first expansion is out ready to deliver more Disney fun. You can read what I think of the main game here, or head straight on to see what is new with this first expansion for this brilliant game. First up, lets talk about the new characters. That's what you are hear for after all! Well, we have three corkers! Moana, Davy Jones, and Stitch. They are all together like this in this first expansion as this is nautically themed. Each character is an 'Oceanic' character. I sense the type of character will become more and more important with each expansion as they link to certain tile powers. More on that later. Each character is well balanced and fits right in with the existing decks. They work very much in the same way. The only real change is a new feature, Constant Abilities. Stitch and Davy Jones have this on their character card and they provide ongoing affects that can be enacted at any point in the game. Such as Davy Jones ability to recover health when cursed, when an ally who is also Cursed deals any damage. The cards are very much like the base game such Moana's Oar strike below. However, some utilise another new elements which link these new Oceanic characters. Within this box are three Ocean tiles which can be added to the board using Moana's cards and character power. These can be placed onto any empty space on the board. Whenever an oceanic character moves through them an additional movement point is given to them and they are then removed from the board. But when on the board, Moana's character gain's additional benefits such as recovering health and inflicting damage on rivals. I sense these tiles are the start of a common new addition to the game. The second expansion is already announced. Thrills and Chills, due to be released at the end of August 2022. It doesn't yet say if these set will also add more tiles but I wager most new expansion's now will. It is a welcome addition to the game. This is what I said in my review of the base game. I would like to see some variety in the board in future expansions, with perhaps some tiles to add to the board that bring in more variety based on where you are. At the moment, it is just a rush for the centre spots and a smash-em-up battle once all characters are there. This is fun, but does make the rest of the board someone redundant. Well here you go! Confirmation if ever you needed it that Sean Fletcher reads WBG! Joking aside, the titles are a welcome addition and over time, with more expansions, I can see more coming in of different varieties, making your choice when you set up your team even more important. You will now have to think about the type of character and what tiles they will have access too as well as how they will work together when on the board. Just like the base game, the three new characters come with their gorgeous acrylic standees. Don't forget to peel off the lining! I didn't spot that until I saw it written on the rules for this expansion. But once done, just look how good they are! I know Board Games can be all about minis, and I am down for that. But I don't paint. (Yet!) So, coloured standees like this do get my seal of approval. The other main new addition with this first expansion is the introduction of a new status symbol used with Stich's character. 'No Punchbacks' blocks all damage that would be otherwise inflicted onto the super tough Alien, Stitch. Stitch can give this to other rival players to protect against future attacks. As a first expansion for Sorcerer's Arena, I am very happy. I like the new powers, tiles, and characters. It develops the game nicely and brings in a great new addition when choosing who to play as. For future expansions, I hope they continue with the new tiles, and the big names in Disney. The second one has Mother Gothel, Jack Skellington, and the Horned King which is exciting. I love the Nightmare before Christmas, my daughter is a huge Tangled fan, but I won't lie, I had to google The Horned King! With such a vast array of characters to choose from, and no legal issues as they own the IP, I assume they can go for who they want? King Louie, Slinky Dog, and Goofy would be a dream for me. Who would you want to see in future expansions? And herein lies the core joy of this game. Being thrust into the magical world of Disney, and being able to bring these characters together from so many different worlds, stories, and films. It's an utter privilege. I am a huge fan of this game, and this expansion only serves to increase my feeling of adoration for this box of joy. I love the new characters. They all add their own new take on the game. The new tiles are a very welcome addition. And the use of the Cursed for Davy Jones is thematically brilliant. I am all in for this and cannot wait to see what the next expansion brings, and which characters will be used in the future ones.

Disney Sorcerer's Arena WBG Score: 8 Player Count: 2-4 (but really 2) You’ll like this if you like: Unmatched, Funkoverse, Smash Up Published by: The Op Designed by: Sean Fletcher Disney characters are cute. They are friendly, funny, and familiar. So, have you ever wondered what would happen if they all had one big fight? Yeah, me neither. It's a funny choice of theme for a fighting game. But the Disney IP sells, the characters are cool, and surprisingly, this game really works! How To Play This game has a brilliant rule book. It guides you through the rules in four simple chapters. The idea is that you play the game four times, each time bringing in new rules until you understand the entire game. You can then play the game in either mode, making it suitable for any age groups desired difficulty, or the full thing, safe in the knowledge that you learnt it all. It brings a streamlined and accessible way to learn the full game in a fun way. What a great way to do it. Chapter One. Sorcerer's Arena is all about points. Can you get to the points total before your opponent, or have the most points when the cards run out. Points are acquired from starting your turn on one of the three points spaces, or reducing one of you opponents hit points to zero to claim their point value. In chapter one, you learn the core mechanics about starting with six cards, then drawing one, before running through a movement then action phase. All very simple. It's a quick game. In a race to 12 points, you will battle off as either Mickey and Aladdin or Gaston and Ariel in a two player, two characters versus two character battle. Players can move two places or play a movement card specific to that character for specific character movement, and then attack for two damage any adjacent character, or play an attack card. Status effects can be added to players and in this chapter Mickey's Magic Broom is introduced which allows the player using Mickey to draw the top two cards of their deck and re-order them in any way. They then draw the top card, and if this is a magic card, they gain another magic broom effect. The magic broom effects work with many of Mickeys cards allowing for some powerful attacks. There are many other effects in the game, but learning this first one really helps you understand the core mechanic of this part of the game. Chapter Two Chapter Two introduces a three versus three mode, (which is the full game) as well as a draft to pick characters at the start. In this core set, there are eight characters to choose from. They are all unique and work very differently with each other sorcerer. In this chapter, you also learn that turn order is very important. Not just in terms of who goes first, but which character goes after whom. Players will order their three order tiles in their own desired preference, and then they will reveal them. The character with the lowest initiative value shown on the tile will go first. As with game one, standard movement each round is two movement points per player, or you can play a movement card. But you are now told you can discard any movement card for any player to add one extra movement to any players movement phase. Likewise for the standard attack, you can discard any attack card to turn a standard attack of two into three. The game now runs to 20 victory points which is the full total. Chapter Three This brings in the most rewarding changes with unique character abilities now being used. Each character will now have its own unique standard movement and attack value, as well as its own skill, bringing in a new phase after the movement and action phase, the Skill phase. The Skill phase allows players to do more things each turn, based on their own ability. It may allow a player to have an extra turn if a specific card is revealed from the top of their deck, or to recover health, or add a status effect. Chapter Four You would have noticed lots of things on the cards during the game you haven't used yet. Most notably the gears symbols on the player cards. There are four kinds. Fire, Shell, Heart, and Wind. Each time you discard a card, you will start working your way towards your characters gear requirements. When you meet this, you can upgrade your character by banishing the required gears, and flipping your character card. This will add a new ability to your character for the final addition to Sorcerer's Arena. You now know the entire game. There is also a team mode, which allows two player to compete against one or two other players. But really this game excels in a one versus one battle. Learning the game in this way, across four games, is so easy. It makes what ends up as a low to medium weight game, so simple for most ages to learn and play. Working out what each character's main strengths and weaknesses are, and forging powerful threesomes is a lot of fun. I really enjoyed discovering this game, and seeing which heroes and villains worked best together. They all feel so unique, and once you get to the end of chapter four, and you see the full scale of each character's powers, you really get an idea for how best to combine certain characters. Ariel does not deliver much damage but she is a great healer. Sully and Gaston have some powerful brute attacks. Maleficent and Mickey have some incredible spells and powers to attack with. Demona has the ability to move to any space and attack multiple sorcerer's. Aladdin can be very stealthy, moving through the crowds with ease to help his fellow summoners, and Dr. Facilier (who ever that is!?) can shrink and fluster his competing sorcerers with his magical spells. It's a great mix of characters, although Demona and Dr. Facilier seem a little niche! But what this game is ripe for is expansions. In fact, one is already out! Bringing three new characters including Stich! What a joy. I want to try that one asap!! The card play in this game is so clever. Most gamers will be surprised at how much you can do each turn. The game has hidden depth, with some very interesting and exciting opportunities to do some really cool things. I am a big fan of combining Sully's brute strength, with Ariel's healing abilities and have everyone's favourite blue monster rampage his way through your opponents, whilst Ariel keeps him fresh for battle turn after turn. All the time, Maleficent or Mickey would be fighting in the background at a distance using their spells to pick people off. Its a great fun romp into the Disney world, in a way you may not have seen it before, that brings so much joy and laughter to the table. The standees are gorgeous acrylic, full coloured works of Disney art, and I just love to watch them dance across the board. I would like to see some variety in the board in future expansions, with perhaps some tiles to add to the board that bring in more variety based on where you are. At the moment, it is just a rush for the centre spots and a smash-em-up battle once all characters are there. This is fun, but does make the rest of the board someone redundant. It also works best in a two-player game, but is marketed as a 2-4 player, which is true with the team battle. But I think this really should be considered more a two-player game. In the future there are so many other characters I would love to see. Tigger fighting Daisey Duck. Goofy in a battle royal with Lady from Lady and the Tramp. And perhaps even Jessie and Rex fighting against some of the seven Dwarfs. It would all be a lot of fun, and I am here for the long haul.

Point Salad WBG Score: 8 Player Count: 2-6 You’ll like this if you like: Arboretum, Sushi Go, Circle The Wagons Published by: Alderac Entertainment Group Designed by: Molly Johnson, Robert Melvin, Shawn Stankewich Rule book here Pont Salad games are when there are multiple ways to get lots of points. They are very popular as people feel good it seems in games when they are getting lots of points and high scores. I know I do! The Castles of Burgundy is a great example of this. So, too are most Steffen Field games in truth. Well worth a look. Point Salad the game takes this concept and simplifies it to its purist form. A deck of cards, and loads of fun ways to score points. Let's get it to the table and see how it plays. Set-Up The only bad bit about Point Salad is sorting the cards pre-game. You need to add or remove cards based on the number of players. I would be inclined to buy a few sets just to have each box set-up for different player counts. It only takes a moment, but always slows down the fun and frustrates me. Once this is done, the grump is over, and the cards are sorted to your player count, shuffle the remaining cards. Then split them into three piles of roughly the same size, don't worry too much about how accurate the splits are, and then flip two cards from each pile underneath each pile so you are left with something that looks like this. How to Play Then in turns, each player can take one of two actions. Either, they can take one point-scoring card or two veggie cards. If you take a veggie card, you must then refill the spaces you have left empty, taking cards from the pile above the row you took from. If you ever run out of cards in one pile, roughly split the remaining cards in the other packs into three new piles. Keep doing this in turn until all cards are used. Players add cards they take into their collection. As a free action at any time, all players can flip any score cards they had previously taken to veggie cards whenever they want. This may be because they desperately need one more veggie card, or because the scoring that this point card offered them does not work for them anymore. The veggie that is on the back of each card is shown in the corner of the other side, so you always know what options you have. When all the cards are gone, players will score all their veggie cards based on the scoring options they took, with the points cards they picked during the game. Veggie cards can be used multiple times, meaning if you have more than one card that scores either positively or negatively for the same vegetable, and you have at least one of those veggie cards, then you will score that card each time for each point card that it is relevant for. Will This Fill You Up? There are a lot of very good small box card games on the market. The 90s classics like Bohnanza, 6 Nimmt, and Tichu. The more modern brilliance of Hanabi, Arboretum, and L.A.M.A. If you have some of these, or others, is there a place for more on your shelf? I would say yes. I own all of these, and many more. I love small box card games. The simplicity of them. The beauty of what can be done with a simple deck of cards. The fun you can have by introducing non or casual gamers so a new game that seems familiar to them, but brings something new to the table. Point Salad is one of the best games for this. I have introduced this game to so many people and have had 100% success rate with it. I have gifted it to so many people as it is so accessible, but also so good. It is the perfect gateway card game. Players feel like they are making significant, meaningful, and complex decisions, but not ones that are confusing when it comes to rules or strategy. When it pays of, and you score well, it feels great. When you score poorly, you rack-em-up and go again. It's a quick game after all and is fun, win or loose. I love how simple, but varied the scoring options are. Some can reward with you with points for having the fewest or most or a certain type of Veggie. Others give you points for having an even or odd number. A lot give points for collecting certain sets. Sometimes you can strike it lucky and get score cards that work well together such as the first two below. Other times, you can make bad choices or get unlucky and have cards that conflict each other, such as adding the third card below. The game rewards multiple plays with the huge variety of score cards. Every card in this deck is a potential score card after all. So there really is a lot of choice! And as each game is so quick, you will regularly want to play multiple games in a row when getting Point Salad off the shelf. Point Salad won numerous awards and rightly so. The games that designers Molly Johnson, Robert Melvin, and Shawn Stankewich have since released have been instant successes. You can check out my thoughts on TEN, and also Abstract Academy here. This is all on the back of the brilliance of Point Salad. Their next game is Point City. A card-drafting engine-building game. I cannot wait for that. What this team does turns to gold. And that is down to one thing. Their games are good. Simple, easy to digest and get to the table, and a lot of fun to play. But most importantly, good. You can feel the quality as you play one of their games. Everything is well produced, well thought-out. The rules are clear. The iconography is brilliantly simple. The mechanics are smooth, not over-thought, and create enjoyable, strategic moments for all around the table. There are a lot of dream teams in board gaming. I would say that Molly, Robert, and Shawn are on the fast track to becoming legends of the industry if they keep up this quality. It will be interesting if they keep with this level of game weight. Although to be fair, Public Market is more mid-weight. But the bulk of what they have done is about pure, simple rule-sets, within a clean, easy to consume package. I love what they have done with all of their games that I have played, and will watch their careers with great interest.

Dream Home WBG Score: 7.5 Player Count: 2-4 You’ll like this if you like: The Networks, Sushi Go Published by: Rebel Sp. z o.o. Designed by: Klemens Kalicki By Steve Godfrey I’ve learned two things in my time with Dream Home so far. 1. I like building my dream home. 2. Apparently my dream home board isn’t sufficient enough to submit as a set of building plans and even if it was, my designs don’t meet building regulations! All I’ll say is that when I’m in my kitchen-less home and I’m laying in my bath, in my bathroom which has been built on top precariously erected scaffolding, we’ll see who has the last laugh then! Building Regulations Each player receives a home board and the main board is laid out in the middle of the table. Place the room cards on the bottom of the main board and deal out five face up. Then place out four resource cards above the room cards leaving the left most empty. On your turn you’re going to draft one column of room and resource cards. Resource cards will either be a roof tile, which will need to go on your home board face down. You can’t look at this pile for the rest of the game so remember what you placed there. Resources cards may also be either special bonuses or give you a decor token which you need to place on your home board if you can. If you choose the leftmost column you only get a room card but you also get the first player marker for the next round. Room cards need to go, well into your house, but with some restrictions. You can’t build a room on top of an empty space, that’s not only a rule in the game but also how gravity works. So on the first round at least you only have three spaces in which you can place regular rooms or there are two spaces in which you can place basement cards. Aside from basement rooms, you can place any type of room in any space. So yes you can have a luxurious bathroom downstairs, your living room upstairs and no kitchen! Most rooms are generally worth points on their own. However if you’re able to place the same rooms types next to each other then they will start to score as sets. So one living room is worth one point, get three together though and it could be worth 9 points. However to score the sets the rooms need to be next to each other. So if you place another next to, say that living room card, then you can no longer add to that set. You can always start another of those sets elsewhere though. Rounds will play out until every player has taken a turn. The remaining cards are discarded and reset for the next round. At the end of the game players will score for the rooms in their house and any decor tokens. This is also where those roof cards will come into play. Four of the same colour will be worth 8 points but four mismatched roofs will be worth 3. The last thing you score for is functionally. Having a bathroom on each floor is worth 3 points and a house with a bathroom, kitchen and bedroom is worth 3 as well. Theme Home Dream home is one of those games that will present you with different choices depending on how you play the game. If this is a game you’re playing to win then your strategy is obviously going to be to take the cards and combos that will get you most points. That’s just how you win games (a lesson I still need to learn apparently ) Then there’s games like Dream Home, games that not only present you with point scoring options, but things you just want to have in front of you regardless of how many points it’s worth. There are some of you out there reading this that will want to win (nothing wrong with that) and others who literally just want to build their dream home and if they happen to get enough points to win then all the better. Will that garage with the DeLorean net me points? No, do I really want a garage with a DeLorean in it ? HECK YEAH! It’s a DeLorean! One of the first things you’ll see when you open the box is those brilliant house player boards. It’s such a simple thing, a player board shaped like a house but it really helps bring out the theme. As rounds continue you’re sure to have discussions like “I’ve put my kitchen right next to the toilet. I know it’s not hygienic but It’s the only space I can put it if I want to extend to put in a double oven” or “well the only space I can put the cat tower is in the bathroom” Games like dream home go to prove that you don’t need to have a big sprawling game with a Kallax shelf full of boxes of components to draw any amount of theme from it. All you need is to give players enough to create talking points and they’ll do all the rest. Talking of theme, the art on each of these cards is beautiful. Like a particularly nice rug, this really ties the game together. For such small cards there’s a ton of detail on each of them. If any games do take longer than usual it’s because people are spending all their time staring at the art. The last little touch is that all the room art flows together to create continuous rooms no matter which way you organise them and this is so satisfying to look at. It’s nice to look back at the house you’ve created at the end of the game, regardless if you’ve won or not, and be impressed of what you’ve created. You need planning permission for that! So the game itself is, rather fitting for a game about building a house, all about planning. Sticking a single point bathroom slap bang in the middle of a row will immediately stop you from building your three card living room. On the other hand leaving the space for that third card could always be a bit ambitious. After all, if you’ve got your eye on that three piece suite then the chances are so does someone else. Open drafting games like this always come with those tough decisions of which card, out of the inevitable river of good cards you want to take. Dream Home gives you a column of two to pick. A room card is the obvious first card to look out but the other cards could be just as important. Tool/ Helper cards are nearly always helpful. Some will let you rearrange rooms in your home whilst others may let you switch cards on the main board. Considering that some combinations of cards aren’t always great, these cards are important. Speaking of resource cards, if you think that remembering which colour roof cards you have in your collection is easy then think again. Guaranteed someone will pick their first one and loudly pronounce “I’ve got a red tile” only later in the game to mutter to themselves “wait, was I collecting brown tiles?” it’s actually a small source for celebration as you finally turn over your cards and see that you’ve matched four colours. At two to three players the first player gets to discard a column of cards before they take their turn. This rule is optional if you're playing with younger players or if you just don’t fancy that sort of play. This rules does make the game a bit more take that in that you can easily see what an opponent wants and take it off of them. It also makes taking that first player space even more valuable. I personally don’t really have a preference between the variants but I like the idea that the game can be tweaked to suit different players and play styles. Dream Home is a fun, thematic family friendly game that I could easily teach to new gamers but will give you more than enough game to take to a game night. Everyone, at one time or another has talked about what they want in their dream home and this is a good start to seeing this played out. Except I’d have a pool…..and a cinema room…….oooh and a spa…..and, I’ll stop now.

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.