Chronicles of Avel WBG Score: 8 Player Count: 1-4 You’ll like this if you like: Castle Panic, Forbidden Island, Horrified Published by: Rebel Studio Designed by: Przemek Wojtkowiak By Steve Godfrey There have been many great Chronicles over time. The Chronicles of Narnia, The Christmas Chronicles and, well, the movie Chronicle. None of these however have given kids the freedom to create and truly invest in their own fictional character…….unless you count Christmas of course. Rules Chronicles Set up by first creating the map using the four start tiles and then shuffling the rest of the tiles and placing them face down in the configuration you’re using. Give everyone a duel layered player board and a character sheet and then colour in and name your character. Yes, even you, I don’t care if you’re a grown adult, this is an essential part of the game and we all know colouring is fun no matter how old you are. Decide how difficult you want the game and place the corresponding tile at the back of the map and you're ready to go. Chronicles of Avel is played over two main phases. First, what I would call a preparation phase and Second is pretty much a tower defence game. On your turn you can perform two actions. You can move to an adjacent space and if your on a space with a portal then it’s adjacent to another portal. If you move onto a face down tile you flip it over and spawn any monsters on it if it’s a monster space. You can trade items or money with another player on your space, you can heal two damage or you can use a tile action. These come in a variety of flavours which include, putting out a castle wall, getting new equipment, selling equipment, sealing off monster tiles and laying traps to name but a few. Getting equipment will see you pulling items from the bag with a five second time limit and equipping them to your hero or putting them in your backpack. Warning though as you can only fit things in your backpack as long as you can physically fit them in your backpack. The last action you can do is fight a monster in your space. Hero’s will take two green dice and any dice given to them from equipped items and roll them against the monster dice. Hits and shields will be compared and both will take any damage. This will go for either three rounds of combat (don’t worry it’s very quick) or if either the monster or the hero is defeated. Once all players have gone the round will move on and either players will heal two damage or monsters will respawn depending on which round you enter into. Once all the rounds have passed the Beast (not the one from The Chase) will appear and depending on the difficulty and player count will spawn more monsters. From then on once all players have activated all the monsters will move one space forward. Any traps will trigger when their space is moved onto potentially doing damage and any monsters who try to move into the castle space with walls up will be repelled back but a wall section is destroyed. If any of them or The Beast successfully move into the castle space then the heroes lose. If all the monsters and the beast are defeated then the heroes win. A game of two halves I often find that making a game that has two distinct parts like this one can either be hit or miss. If one half isn't as good or is too wildly different than the other then you leave players wishing that the designers had just made a full game and focused on the good half. It’s a bit of a gamble. Luckily Chronicles of Avel pulls it off really well and manages to blend the two halves well enough that you see the second half as an escalation of the first and one that serves as a payoff to everything you were doing previously. The first part of the game is where you get to level up your character so to speak. You’re going to be adventuring round and literally laying out the map and discovering new areas. Your initial turns will more than likely involve players doing at least one move action into an unexplored tile and seeing what’s there and potentially using any abilities there. It won’t be long though before you're all discussing plans, figuring out who’s in the best place to lay a trap, seal off a gate and put up some walls all in preparation for the oncoming storm. All of that is really satisfying to be able to do because you know you're helping out the team and hopefully making the endgame a bit easier. What else is arguably more satisfying though is powering up your character. From the simple system of delving into a bag and hoping to draw something awesome to upgrading those items to something better. You really do get a feeling of being more powerful. At the beginning of the game, taking on most monsters will feel a bit risky and winning those fights you will feel like a hero who had to dig deep to secure victory and reap the rewards. As you gain items with the ability to reroll or even gain extra dice you’ll feel more confident taking on the bigger monsters. If all works out and the beast emerges you’ll have no problem walking up to it and saying “bring it on”! That’s not to say you can rest on your laurels though because if you take enough damage then you will lose items. Once the big bad is finally released it’s time to put that training to good use. The game does play as normal and aside from walls, traps, and sealing gates you can still use any tile for its action. It’s more than likely though you’ll be racing around the map trying to herd the monsters and fight your beastly nemesis but this really is the make or break part of the game. Replayability Don’t be fooled into thinking this game is going to be a breeze every time you play it. It’s not going to have its difficulty turned up to eleven but it will give you a fun challenge. There are so many ways you can tweak the difficulty from the Beast token to the map set up, even the player count has some bearing. On the times we have lost this it’s been a close fought battle. Whilst that may sound frustrating to some, I much prefer it that way. It means that just because you’ve levelled up your character the game isn’t going to be a walk in the park and that the second half of the game is still worth your time playing out. Character creation 101 Let’s get into one of the big draws for this game, character creation. Aesthetically that player board looks fantastic the duel layer board does more than just look good, it actually has a really cool function. As an aside, if you can have a dual layer player board then you should. Having the backpack be used for its proper space is genius and being able to physically see the upgrades on your character is a really fun idea and is visually pleasing. My youngest's one gripe with that though is that you now can’t see her character properly but I think she’s willing to give it a pass for how cool it looks. I worry that some people may be tempted to skip colouring in their characters and giving them a name just so that they can start playing. While you're free to play the game how you like, I would say that you’re missing out on a really fun element if you do. It adds a level or personalisation to the game which the kids get a huge kick out of. The kids now want to play this game so that they can take their character through the game. It’s all well and good being able to play a pre-made character, it’s so much more fun to play one that you’ve made. Plus there’s no arguments over who gets which character! If you don’t want to make characters right before a game then why not make it into an activity one evening, get everyone to create one or even many characters and then you're all set for when you do want to play. If you're doing that why not even let them create a backstory for them on the back of the sheet! Chronicles of Avel is up there for us as a family favourite. There's enough there to keep adults and children engaged and the scalable difficulty and replay ability means that this is gonna stick around in your collection for a good while. If that wasn’t enough there is an expansion that adds boots to your character for all you footwear aficionados and another bigger expansion in the works and I for one am keen to get my hands on both.

Marvel Dice Throne WBG Score: 8.5 Player Count: 2-6 (but really 2!) You’ll like this if you like: Disney Sorcerer's Arena, Dice Throne, Marvel Champions. Published by: The Op, Roxley Designed by: Gavan Brown, Nate Chatellier, Manny Trembley Dice Throne first came out in 2018. It was billed as a Yahtzee style fighting game. Pitting warriors from different backgrounds in a fight to the death. Or at least, to the end of your hit points. Death seems a bit much in retrospect. Clever card play was added to the dice chucking fun, and a legendary game was born. I was never that attracted to it as the characters all seemed a little too generic for my liking. But then, after the success of Season one and Season two, kickstarter and franchise money came to play and the Marvel version was made! Thor vs Captain Marvel?! Yes please. Let's get it to the table and see how it plays. Set Up The hardest thing in this game is picking who you want to play as! All the characters are so cool, you will want to try them all! You can randomly determine the characters, but where is the fun in that. Sit there, look through each one, pour over all the cool powers, and agonise over who you want to try first. When that is done, grab a drink, perhaps have a comfort break, then go back and change your mind a few more times, then collect the character you have eventually settled on. Change one more time, then open that characters box of treats. Each character is set up in their own box, with their player mat, health and combat power dials, cards, and dice all neatly stored, ready for you to play with. Open them all up in front of you, and you are ready to go. The simple accessibility to get this game to the table is one of the huge highlights to this game. How to Play On your turn, you will roll all of your dice. You can re-roll as many of them as you like up to three times. Each player has their own special abilities, clearly shown on their player boards. Your aim is to match the dice symbols to one of your powers to enact its abilities. This part is very much like Yahtzee where you are looking for straights or groups of the same symbols. When you have finished rolling and decided what power you want to use, you then announce the Offensive Ability you have chosen. Your opponent can then try and change your roll with their own powers and cards. If they do, you can then change your attack if required, or use any un-used re-rolls. Once the dust is settled, generally what happens here is your opponent will then roll for their own defense against your attack. Each character has a different type of defence, either blocking some damage or giving damage back. Both players will adjust their health accordingly and then the attacking player does it all again! That's right. You get two attacks per turn! The game will go like this, back-and-forth until one player looses all their health. There are Upkeep phases where players resolve any effects of status tokens played on them, an Income phase where you increase your Combat Points dial by one and draw one new card into your hand. But the bulk of the game comes with the dice. Roll dice. Choose an attack. Enact damage on your opponent. Great fun! Despite the dice being the obvious star of the show, it is the clever card play that makes this game for me. You start the game with two Combat Points and get one more each round. These are used to play your cards. Each card needs a certain number of Combat Points in order for you to play it. The cards will allow you to manipulate your or your opponents dice, increase the powers available to you on your player board by upgrading them, and as a way to gain your own Status tokens, taking them from your character sheet, and adding them to your player board for later use. The status tokens are all unique for each character and offer hugely varying selections of abilities. I am a big fan of Spiderman's ability to create Combo's and essentially have extra turns. That feels great. Loki has suitably tricky powers allowing him to foil his opponents attacks with special cards that only he has access too. And I loved Captain Marvels Cosmic Ray, that allows her to add one dice rolls number from two dice, to any attack. Each power felt suitably thematic and accurate to the characters abilities from the comics and movies we have all loved over the years. The status effects are all very easily explained and used. Each character has their own character sheet which holds the tokens, and details each one very clearly. Everything about this production screams quality and careful planning. Is it Fun Getting Marvel Dice throne to the table is so simple. The game trays are so good and useful for a quick set up and put away. Each character feels very different and it will take a while to learn their own particular strengths and abilities. But the game itself is a breeze to learn and teach. Playing Dice Throne feels fast and fun. Sure, it is often luck based due to the dice, but there are so many options for most dice rolls, and a lot of opportunities to manipulate your luck with your cards and powers. There is a lot more strategy to this game than first meets the eye. As you play, you will become obsessed with rolling what you need for your Ultimate move. Each player has their own unique special move, activated from rolling five sixes. Which, on its own, sounds hard and rare. But with your re-rolls, dice manipulation, and extra powers, it does happen usually once per game. And when it does, oh goodness does it feel good! You just hope you're the first one to roll it. Do You Feel Lucky? There is something magical about dice. Throwing dice. And getting cool things from throwing the right dice feels good. Sure, there is a luck involved, but I think that this is where a lot of the joy comes from. No one would cheer as loudly at a Vegas table if someone won big after clever card play. Watch the Poker finals to prove this. I am not saying it isn't absorbing or fun to watch, I am just saying the cheer from winning big from something luck based like Roulette is often bigger than winning something strategy based like Poker. Why? I think this comes from the instant result. Generally, a good move in a board game comes with careful planning over time. Whereas something good happening to you that is luck based happens in a moment. Flip a card. Push your luck. Roll a dice. As these five dice crash and roll around your table (or dice tray) you will be hoping for some luck. And when it comes in, it feels great! You go from zero to hero in a moment. That quick progression and instant success is a spectacle to watch and experience. Some games can be ruined by this. If you are working hours with clever strategy only to be blighted at the last moment by another playing getting lucky, that does not feel good for anyone. But when a game is built on this mechanism of luck and dice throwing, this frustration is replaced by joy. It wont be for everyone, but if you want a game that involves a bit of luck from throwing dice, than this could be the one for you. It's not all luck, such as a game like Strike, but you cannot avoid the fact that luck plays a big part. Each player has access to their own special status powers and cards that can affect your luck, and manipulate your fortune to your advantage. Some characters are trickier than others, but they all take a little bit of working out. And this process of studying your character and developing an understanding as to how best use each one is a real joy to me. There is something to be said about working out the best match ups, although I don't think I am quite there yet. But I am enjoying trying to understand each character more, depending on who I am up against. This game is billed as a 2-6 player game. But for me, this is all about two players going head-to-head in a dice chucking battle. The down time in higher player counts does not work for me. It feels fast and frantic in a two, but tedious and slow in anything higher. I understand why they made this compatible with higher player counts, but I feel it adds very little with more than two, and the game would be better placed to simply market itself as a two-player only game. The cards are all clearly labeled with a clever colour frame which quickly highlights what type of card it is, and when it can be used. This is displayed on the side of the card too, just under the symbol showing you cost of the card in combat points, and also showing the phase it can be played in. All the symbology is very user friendly and will become very quickly understood wen you are at the table, with your character board and sheet in front of you. The art used is fantastic, and really brings alive what you are doing, although this does lead to me to my only real complaint with this game. Will you Like this or Love this? The theme of this game is fantastic. Marvel characters fighting out using awesome moves activated by clever card play and dice throwing. What's not to love!? However, the theme does feel a little absent as you play. You can forget who you are, and what you are doing, and move into a war of attrition, simply trying to get your opponents health dial to zero before they do the same to you. I think the difference between people liking and loving this game, will come from those who can bring the theme to the table and keep it there. The bright and vibrant art on the cards and character boards will help, but it will rely on you as the player to keep the theme front of mind. Will you be throwing threes, Illusions, or helmets? It's all the same. But how you interpret your dice rolls will affect the immersion into the theme as you play. The status powers help with the theme and the players being swept up into the Marvel world. They are all thematically chosen and relevant to the characters you are playing as, and if you can add a bit of flavour text and story as you play and use them, it will bring a little more drama to the table. Although I appreciate not everyone will want to, or enjoy doing that. For me, it adds a lot to the game, and helps me enact my lifetime fantasy of being a super-hero just that little bit more. Which really is what this game is all about. Do you want to get lost in the Marvel universe for half an hour? Pretending you are Loki or Spiderman. Fighting Captain Marvel or Thor. Reenacting scenes from The Avengers movies. If this sounds like fun to you, I would wager you are going to absolutely love this. if you like clever card play linking to a bit of luck from dice throwing, you will enjoy the game but think perhaps it's a little over produced. If you don't enjoy luck based games, this will not be for. But as someone who loves dice chucking games, who is a huge Marvel fan, and is very happy to get lost in the theme of a game by throwing myself into the universe it creates, I love this game. It will come to the table more due its accessibility. The simple set up provided by the game trays is a huge plus. But this is not something that would last for long if the game wasn't fun. But the game is fun. A lot of fun. The satisfaction that comes from getting the right combination of dice to enact huge damage on your opponents is huge. Achieving this from a combination of luck, clever card play, and the use of your player powers feels great. There are some real highs in every game of Marvel Dice Throne. Addictive highs that will make you come back over and over. Battle after battle. Learning how each character works in a joy in itself, and will make the first few games with each character a lot of fun. Mastering how to use each one feels great too. Feeling as if you are becoming comfortable with each characters strength and weaknesses and learning how best to use them feels great. There is a lot to love about Marvel Dice Throne. I would recommend it to anyone who enjoys the Dice Throne franchise already. Anyone who is a fan of the Marvel universe. Or anyone who likes games with a bit of luck, a bit of strategy, and a lot of high moments. To Battle!

Small Islands WBG Score: 8 Player Count:1-4 You’ll like this if you like: Carcassonne, Fjords, Cascadia Published by: MushrooM Games, Kobold Spieleverlag, Lucky Duck Games Designed by: Alexis Allard By Steve Godfrey Have you ever asked yourself the question? If I was trapped on a desert island, what would be the best size of island? I love the show Lost but even I’d have to say that that island would be a bit too big. That series was on for six seasons and even they didn’t get round all of it. So, having weighed up all of the options I’ve decided that a small island is probably best. Besides if this game is anything to go by then there’s tons of resources on them! You probably wouldn’t want to leave! Small Rules Set up by giving each player their pieces and two tiles each from the stack. Then place out the four starting tiles on the table in any orientation following the rules for placement, I’ll get to those in a bit. Then place six tiles on the exploration tile and place three from the main stack face up next to it. Place all four ship tiles in a row above that. Each ship will be placed faced up depending on which colours are in play the rest will be on their grey side. At the start of each round players will get three objective cards. You will pick one for this one round, keep one in reserve to potentially be played next round and then discard the other. On your turn you’ll either take a face up tile then place down one of the three in your hand or land a ship. Tiles have to be orthogonally adjacent to tiles already on the table and all terrain types have to match the tiles they’re touching. Then replace the tile you took with one of the six. At this point you can now place one of your resource tokens on an island over an existing resource. Players continue taking turns like that until the stack of six tiles is empty. From then on players have the choice to carry on laying tiles and replacing the tiles from the main stack, or they can now land a ship. When you land a ship you’ll take the ship of your colour (or a gray ship if there are less than four players and your coloured ship has been used) and place it using the same placement rules. The round then immediately ends and players score their current objectives. The regular objective cards will have two halves on them. The left hand side will have the prerequisites for scoring on them. The right hand side will tell you how you score points for those islands. To be able to score a card you need to place one of your buildings on islands that meet the prerequisites. You can place a building on each island that meets it as long as a) there are enough empty building slots and b) you haven’t already placed a building on that island. The game will play like this until either four rounds have been played out, you can no longer create a six tile stack at the start or a round or there are no tiles left to replace a tile that has been taken. You’ll then score your last objective card and score points for any exploration tokens (you get these from some objective cards) and for every port symbol on tiles surrounding your ship. A tiny island across the sea. The first time you play Small Islands there’s a good chance you’ll make a mistake. It’s nothing to be ashamed of, we’ve all done it and in fact it’s part of the learning process of the game. In the first round you’ll try and make this huge island that will earn you loads of points and when you score that first goal it’ll feel great and you’ll pat yourself on the back for a job well done. Then the second round will hit and around the time you choose objectives for the round you’ll have that sinking feeling and you’ll realise that the Island you so proudly spent the entire last round working on, you won’t be able to score again. It sounds like that could be frustrating and it can be. But once you realise that, you come to understand how you should be playing the game. Small Islands is a game all about self control. In a game like Carcassonne you want to build that city out for big points. Here, you have to stop yourself doing that and spread out lots of profitable islands across the map. They’ve even gone and given you the strategy in the game's title! It might sound simple, you just don’t build big islands, but it’s just so tempting when a perfect tile comes out to just add one more onto it, just to eek out a couple more points. You know you should be planning for the next round as well but what will a couple more points hurt! In some games maybe that wouldn’t be a big deal but in this, where anyone could end the round at any point after that sixth tile has been taken, adds an incredible amount of tension. It could be the difference between you starting the next round at a bit of a head start for your next mission or being on the back foot. I love when games have round based goals but then give you the goals in advance, either privately or publicly. Think Wingspans goals as a comparison. It gives you so many options for how you want to approach the game. You tend to see a decent variety of tiles come out per round but if for some reason the tiles just aren’t coming out to make this goal work, well you can just as easily start to work on next rounds goal. Something else I love about this game is that you're not bound by the goal you picked for the next round. Being able to change tactics before each round is so freeing. There’s nothing worse than being stuck with goals that you just can’t achieve and this alleviates that to some degree. This again really opens up the game and means that everyone has a decent chance of maximising your points each round and keeping in the game. Small islands is a tile laying game and with it brings all the satisfaction that tile laying brings. It’s great to see the islands as they get built out, what shape they’re going to take and exactly how small they end up being (spoiler, maybe not that small) You’ll often find yourself wanting to place placing tiles in spaces just to finish off islands regardless of if it scores you points or not (or maybe that’s just me) yet again proof that they should put a disclaimer on the box saying “warning will power required”. The problem with that of course is that not many people have a friend called Will Power (that’s my one dad joke for this review) Just be sure to give yourself space on the table because this one is going to spread out and moving tiles isn’t easy. I’m still lobbying to get magnetic tiles but it’s just not attracting any attention! (Ok maybe one more for the road) The real trick is knowing when to stop. Small islands is a game of four rounds………maybe, because it could last three, or maybe less? That of course all depends on how long each round goes on for and when or if the stack of tiles runs out. This is a part of the game that I have a love / meh relationship with. On the one hand it’s a fun system that, like I said earlier, really ramps up the tension. It puts the end of the round in the players hands and when you decide to do it could be used for a tactical advantage. On the flip side though there are a couple of things about it that I don’t love. You end a round when you land your coloured or one of the grey ships. The lower the player count the more chances you personally have to end the round and at two this gives you control of half of the rounds. At higher player counts you have less control over this and as such, once you’ve landed your ship you’re waiting for other people to end the round. This means if they’re reluctant to do that then rounds have the potential to outstay their welcome and there’s nothing you can do about it. It doesn’t happen all the time and sometimes it may actually be to your advantage but If you happen to have a goal card that isn’t getting you a lot of points that round then you may be begging for it to end just so you can get new cards. Advanced mode After a few plays you’ll more than likely see most if not all of the goals. To stop these becoming samey Small Islands comes with an advanced mode. There are going to be two decks of cards. One missions deck and one rewards deck. Players will have three of each at the start of each round and then make up their own goal cards, again having one for this round and one for next. You’ll want to start using this variant as soon as you feel ready. They add a lot more variety to the game, and offer an even better chance to score based on how the map is looking at the time you put them together. The base goals are great but have the possibility of being a bit more limiting. That being said you can still enjoy Small Island without ever needing to use this mode so don’t feel that you’ll be playing a lesser game if you don’t. Small Islands, big game The art, the look and the gameplay all come together to make a brilliant, strategic tile laying game that’s another fantastic addition to your collection of tile laying games and may just want to make you visit one of the islands you create. Make sure you finish it first though. No one likes construction work when they’re on holiday!

Mayhem In The Library WBG Score: 8 Published by: Big Potato This is a new one for WBG. Our first jigsaw puzzle review. This site is dedicated to board games but I felt inclined to write a review for this puzzle for three main reasons. It feels like more of a game than a puzzle. Once the pieces are all assembled, there are still things to do. It comes from Big Potato games who generally make board games. This is a little side adventure for them too. It's really, really, fun! Mayhem in the Library is a combination of a traditional puzzle, a Where Wally/Waldo book, and a picture riddle quiz. 1000 pieces will initially stretch your puzzle building skills, before 101 hidden classic Novels need to be found to fully "complete" this puzzle. The Jigsaw Puzzle The Puzzle itself is quite tricky. I don't do a lot of puzzles, but my wife and Mum do, and they helped a lot with this and said it was a little harder than usual. The shapes of the edges for example were not obviously edges. The hard lines that you can usually spot are not there as you can see, but this added to the challenge to me. As someone who is an occasional puzzler, I do not have a system. But for my wife and Mum who wanted to find the edges first, they said they found this frustrating. I liked it. Another reason it is quite tricky is there are a lot of things that look the same all over the picture. Making it hard to determine where certain things need to go. Books for example. Oh my! There are books everywhere! The Hidden Puzzles Then, when you have finished the jigsaw, you need to find 101 hidden books within the picture. Some are instantly obvious, or at least become easy once you get the way this puzzle works. But others will take a while for you to figure out, depending on your knowledge of classic and popular fiction! I enjoyed having this to do. Generally when you finish a jigsaw, you just pack it away. Something you have had out on your table for a while, reaches it's magnificent ending, and then, boom. That's it. Pack it up, Put it on the shelf to gather dust. You'll never look at it again. What a shame. Whereas with this puzzle, its been out on my table now for close to a month. A few weeks to do the puzzle, and then a good few more weeks to find all the hidden books. I am still not quite there. I like the fact that I am coming back to it, time after time day after day, to stare at the puzzle I finished. Not just to bask in my glory, although that is a large part of it of course, but to find the books. Its a nice excuse to enjoy the picture you create. And they make this part easy for you. On the back of the picture you can use to help complete the puzzle, it shows where all the hidden books are, numbered, and with a space to write your answer. Also, on the Big Potato website there is a place you can check your answers, or if you are stuck, simply get them! Overall, I have to say I absolute loved doing this puzzle. Both the jigsaw part and then hidden book part. It brought my family together in a way games have not for a while. The simple peace and quiet of sitting together, and every now and then screaming, "yes!" It feels good. I am very pleased I went through this process, and would very much like to try some other jigsaw outs and see what other tricks puzzles have now-a-days. It's nice to see how industries advance and develop. Especially when you haven't looked at them for a while such as myself and jigsaws. I wonder what will come next?

Trekking Through History WBG Score: 8 Player Count: 2-4 You’ll like this if you like: Splendor, 7 Wonders Duel, Trekking The World. Published by: Underdog Games Designed by: Charlie Bink Charlie Bink starting trekking through board games in 2014 with his first release in this world, Trekking National Parks. He then decided to go bigger with 2020's Trekking the World. After this, what's next? The Galaxy? The Universe? Nope! It's time. 2022 saw the release of Trekking Through History. The spirit of the game remains the same, but a whole new world to explore has been created. You can find out more here. Let's get it to the table and see how it plays. Set Up Getting this game to the table is very simple, and made a lot easier from the excellent insert in the box and the brilliant components within. First, lay out the board, place the component tray out with the lid off, then place the Clock board down. Then give each player their pocket watch tokens, discs, and crystal board in their chosen colour. Shuffle the three age decks separately and place the first age deck down on the left side of the board dealing out five face up cards plus the top of the remaining deck. Each player places one of their coloured discs on the zero space of the score board, and their pocket watch token on the 12 space on the Clock board. Place the ancestor cards on the top left of the board and then randomly take three Time Warp cards from the Time Warp deck and place one face up in the centre of the clock board. (Don't use the Time Warp cards until you're comfortable with the base game). Finally, give each player four itinerary boards for them to choose one from for round one. They keep the others for the next rounds. You are now ready to trek through time! Although feel free to stretch it out and hydrate. How to Play Playing this game is as simple as setting it up. Perhaps even simpler! On your turn, you will take one card from the seven available cards. Five are available with an added bonus shown underneath it, the five you just dealt out. One is available from the top of the deck with no added bonus. And finally, you can also choose one of the Ancestor cards if there are any available. When you take a card you will place it in front of you, either starting a new trek or adding it to your current trek. If it has a date that is later than your top card in your current trek, you can add the new card on top to continue this trek. If the date is earlier, then you must immediately end the previous trek and use this new card to start a new trek. You will score your finished treks based on how many cards are in each one so you want to build up a large pile. The points available is clearly shown on the right side of the board. A one card trek will score you minus three points. Two cards will score zero. Ten cards will get you 30 points. This game, much like all parents, rewards longer walks. Each card you take will show symbols on the bottom right. When you add q new card into your trek you take tokens that match these symbols. Not forgetting the symbol below the card if you chose one of those five cards. These tokens are added to your itinerary board from top to bottom. The purple "W" symbol is wild and can be placed anywhere. When you cover up certain spots on the itinerary board you will be rewarded with points and crystals. Crystals can also be gained from taking the card on the far right. The crystals are used to help manipulate your use of time. Each card you take will also force you to use up some of your allocated time. This will be shown on a symbol on the bottom left of the card. Take a card with a 'two' shown in a clock on it for example, and you must move your pocket watch two spaces on the clock board. When your pocket watch reaches the 12 space again, your round is over. Points can also be gained by completing rows on the itinerary board as shown above, or reaching the 12 space on the Clock board exactly. If you are on the 11 space and you take a card that uses up more than one hour you move to the 12 and wait there. It's fine to overshoot. But if you get there exactly by choosing a card that uses just one hour, or you use crystals to get it down to one hour, you will be rewarded with three additional bonus points, as shown on the top of the Clock board. When you use up time, you can employ previously acquired time crustal to reduce your time by one hour. You can use as many crystals as there are hours on the card you are taking. You can never move back in time. Faded photos and all that. If you don't want to take one of the six available time cards, you can either take an Ancestor card, or use the Time Warp card. The Ancestor card moves you forward three spaces on the time Clock board and gives you one wild symbol. You can do this as often as you like and the card will be added to your current trek, it counts as one more card in this trek, and the card counts as whatever year it was placed on. You can do this as often as there are Ancestor cards available. They are a limited resource in the game. The Time Warp card is different each time, based on the three you chose at random during set up. They can only be used once per round. You must place your second coloured disc there to show you have used it. Then move however many time spaces it shows on the top of the Time Warp card using whatever power this card offers. The game starts in turn order, but then works based on who ever is the furthest back on the Clock board. For example, if one player moves two hours on their first go, then all other players move three or four, the player who move two hours will go next. If they then move one hour, they will be on top of any player who previously moved three hours. That means they will go again, as their pocket watch is on top, furthest back on the clock. In this regard, you can have multiple turns in a row. Maximising the most amount of turns each round is crucial to getting more cards, more tokens, and of course, more points. The game runs for three rounds, with all players getting a new itinerary board but keeping their current trek between rounds. After three rounds, all players total their final scores and the winner is declared. How Does it Look It is worth saying at this point that this game looks stunning. The components are second to none. The tray is great. The tokens are nice and chunky. The card stock is thick, and the roll out Neoprene mat from this Kickstarter version is gorgeous. The art on all the cards is unique and wonderful. Each card is double sided showing a bit about whatever part of history you are visiting. Although I doubt you will pay that much attention to that! But it is a nice touch. And perhaps useful for some home schooling! Something very much worth noting is the insert which is fantastic. It's well built, well thought out, practical, and perfect in every way. I'm a little bit in love with it. It doesn't add to the game, but it sure adds to making the set up, tear down, and overall feeling of quality within this production even higher. Well done to all at Underdog Games. Is it Fun? Playing Trekking Through History is surprisingly satisfying. Considering you are only doing one thing on your turn, taking one card, it feels great to play this game. You feel a constant sense or progression as you add your card to your trek, making that worth more points. You add more tokens to your itinerary and get more points there too. And doing all these actions physically feels nice, as all the components are so well made. There is a sensory reward here too. Scores can get quite big in this game. We regularly started getting into three figures from game three onwards. As you figure out the ways to get more turns, pick the right cards, and maximise your treks, your scores will get bigger and bigger. The key seems to be understanding the cards that are in each deck. Planning your choices to maximise the length of your treks. There is a reference sheet for this, showing each year on each card for each deck. But there are only three decks, and only 36 cards per deck. So, after a few games, you will become accustomed to the span of years. Deck one has just one card in the 1900's for example. Whereas deck three has 14. Nearly half the deck. Building longer treks and getting up to 30 points for this will significantly affect your overall score. I very much enjoy trying new itinerary board each round, and working out how each one can be best used. Some need a consistent spread of the different types of tokens. Others need you to focus on just one of the four columns. There are 24 itinerary sheets in the box, and they are all very different. I like to rotate the board round each player between rounds so that each player uses the same ones in the same game. The rules state you are dealt four at random at the start of the game and you then choose one for each age. This works fine, but I think it more fair if you all use the same ones through the game, and just pass the one you just used clockwise round the table. This works perfectly in a three player game with the three rounds. Summery This game is very light, highly accessible in terms of the rules and strategy, but incredibly rewarding as you play. There are two main ways to score. The number of cards in your trek, and the points gained from your itinerary board. You also get one point for any unused crystals at the end of the game, but they are generally much better used in the game to get more turns. With only one action available to you each turn, picking a card, and only seven available cards, eight if you include the Time Warp, you would think it would be easy and obvious what to do each time. And sometimes it is. You want the nearest card in year order to the one you previously visited, that also offers the most useful reward to you according to your current itinerary board. However, these two factors are often in conflict with each other. One card may be perfect for you in terms of the year you are visiting, but offers no suitable tokens. However, another card may give you all the tokens you need but is either earlier in time than your current trek card, or too big of a jump from it. Finding the right card that hits that sweet spot is incredibly satisfying. There is a solid solo mode available in the box, and the game scales very well to all player counts. There is minimal down time due to the quick and limited actions, and the frustration of players taking the cards you want happening more often with more players, is easily appeased by the opportunity to get through and see more cards. This is a great game for families looking to make a step up from basic card games, but that are not quite ready yet for mid weight or heavier strategy games. It sits in the Splendor mold as a light filler, that delivers a high level of fun and satisfaction whilst remaining incredibly simple to play. Will you ever really care about what year you visit, and pay attention to the theme and text on the back of the card? That's up to you. It's fascinating if you do, but all players round the table have to buy into that. Otherwise people will get irritated by the slow play as you read all the text! However, the art on the front is gorgeous and tells the whole story well enough most of the time. So, what you are left with is a pure, simple, rewarding game that plays as good as it looks. And by golly does it look good! (Yes, I said "by golly" and I am ok with it).

Pear Shaped WBG Score: 7.5 Player Count: 1-8 You’ll like this if you like: Jungle Speed, Spot It (Dobble), Happy Salmon. Published by: Camden Games Pear Shaped is from Camden Games who launched at the 2022 UK Games Expo. They seem to have one single remit to the games they make and publish. Fun. Not a bad way to run a business. Let's take a look at one of their first releases, Pear Shaped. Which (spoiler alert) is anything but. Anything but Pear Shaped I mean. It is a lot of fun! Let's get it to the table, and see how it plays. Set Up OK, lets have some fun! Take the pear out of the box and twist it open. Inside you will find the cards. That's a good start. There is also a QR code to scan for the rules if you want a reminder. But its all very simple, and why not just head here next time instead?! Shuffle the deck and deal everyone 12 cards in a two player with six in your hand, the rest in a stack face down in front of each player. 15 in a three or four player with five in hand, 12 in a five or six player with four in hand, and nine cards in a seven to eight player with three in hand. Place the remaining cards in a face down pile in the middle of the table. You are now ready to play! How to Play Ready to play, lets go! One player will start the Pear wobbling by flicking, spinning, or tilting it, however they please. You can do a big wobble for a longer game, or a little flick for a shorter one. It's up to you. And silly fun either way! That same player will take one card from their draw pile and place it face up in the middle of the table for all to see as the starting card. The game then begins in real-time with all players playing at once. If you have a matching card in your hand, you can play it on top of the card in the middle. All players are using the same pile and playing at the same time. When you play a card from your hand, immediately replace it with one from your own face down stack so you always have the same number of cards in your hand, until your face down stack is depleted. As you play a card, you must say out loud what the match is before you lay it. Matches can be made in one of three ways. Either the colour of the card. The type of symbol on the card. Or the number of symbols on the card. Above you can see the two potions match the two skittles. Then the potions match. Next the potions, numbers of potions, and colour all match. This is called Pear Shaped, more on that later. Finally the colour matches. You cannot copy the previous match. For example, if the previous card played was a green card on top of another green card, the next card must match the symbols of number of symbols. Not the colour. If anyone ever makes a mistake with this rule they must take the wrong card back and play continues. However, you can match a card if everything is the same as shown above. The same colour, the same symbols, and the same number of symbols. But, when you do this, you must say "Pear Shaped." When someone does this, and says the magic words, all players can then try and grab the pear. Whomever does this can then shuffle the play pile and distribute them to all other players. That player then restarts the game. When the Pear stops moving all players must point at the Pear and stand up and do the "Doing the Shakes Pear" dance. The last player to do this has to collect all the cards in the current play pile and add them to their deck. If anyone ever points and does the dance when the pear is still rocking, (and the final shakes are small and subtle) they then must take the play pile as punishment. The winner is the player to get rid of all their cards first and then grab the Pear and do the "Do the Shakes Pear" dance. But everyone else get's to watch this. So really, everyone is a winner. Is it Fun Yes! In a word, this is great fun. Ok, that's two words. But I get flustered in real-time games. Which really is this games only down side. If you don't like the pressure of simultaneous real-time games, this may not be for you. But if you can embrace the chaos, and enjoy this type of game, Pear Shaped will be a sure fire hit for your family. (Or drunken group! WBG does not endorse drinking to excess). As such, I have enjoyed this game equally with adults and children alike, although both game situations were VERY different! In truth, my daughter who is seven (at the time of writing) does find this game a little stressful. It can be quite frantic. So, it certainly is not for everyone. I myself find it can be a little too chaotic at times. But I find that quite funny when I am falling behind, collecting more and more cards, and ultimately loosing. It is amusing to me. But I get how that does not work for everyone. The game does have more simplified rules to make it work for younger players. You simply remove the punishment for being the last player to point at the pear when it stops moving. However, this does also remove a large part of what make this game fun. It then becomes a card matching game, with the only pressure being how fast you can play against other players. And I find most of the time one person, whoever happens to be quickest at this, will win most games. The distraction of having to look at the Pear and spot when it stops moving is a real leveller. It means you cannot ever fully focus on just the cards. It allows slower players to have a chance against faster players. And the more "Do the Shakes Pear" dances the better, right? There is no getting away from the fact that this game is a bit of a novelty. It comes in a Pear shaped container. But that doesn't mean it isn't good. And it is. Pear Shaped is a lot of fun. It blends real-time matching with the suspense of a random countdown in the shape of the wobbly pear stopping, which combines to create laughter. You cannot take it too seriously, but you certainly can make a lot of memories with your family and friends with this little game. And for that reason, I will always cherish and enjoy this game.

Star Wars Rebellion: Rise of the Empire WBG Score: 10 Player Count: 2-4 You’ll like this if you like: Star Wars Rebellion, Twilight Imperium, War of the Ring Published by: Fantasy Flight Games Designed by: Corey Konieczka By Steve Godfrey A couple of things before I jump into this expansion. First, if you want to know how Rebellion plays then go and check out my full review here on the site. Second, I’ve painted all my miniatures for this game so just be aware that the minis in this box do all come unpainted, although, does grey plastic for the empire technically count as a paint job? Third, rather than a traditional review I’m basically going to break down what comes in this box and what I like about each. So if you’re looking for info about a particular aspect then you can scroll right to it. There’s a lot of cool stuff in this box though so it’s worth taking a look at everything if your interested in this expansion. New Leaders The new leaders and, pretty much most of the expansion, are all based around the film Rogue One. The only outliers here are Admiral Motti (the guy who gets force choked in A New Hope) and Jabba the Hutt. More leaders obviously means more choice and if you were a fan of Rogue One then these are all gonna be familiar and a lot of fun to add In The choice to make this expansion fit with that film makes a ton of sense when you consider how it fits into those original films. The new leaders will come with Minor skill icons. These smaller icons count towards fulfilling skill requirements and will allow you to roll the new green dice when it comes to missions. These dice only have two direct hit symbols on them each. Whilst they have fewer symbols on them, being able to roll a few extra dice may just be the difference between loss and victory. As with the base game you’ll also get new action cards that go with the leaders and again this is great for providing some variety into the mix. New Units You’ll get new units for each side. For the rebels you’ll get frigates, U-wings, vanguard (troops with rocket launchers) and a new gun turret. For the Empire you’ll have Tie Strikers, assault tanks, shield bunkers and my favourite, Interdictors. The rebel units are nice additions but are really just standard units. The empire however gets the coolest new additions, plus they get some new abilities with theirs. Having a shield bunker the same system with a Death Star will stop it from being destroyed when the Death Star plans card is played. The rebels now have to take out the bunker before they can destroy the Death Star. Having an Interdictor will mean that the rebels can no longer retreat from the system until it’s destroyed. I love how thematic the shield bunker is. If you want to feel like you're playing out the end of Return of the Jedi then this will do it for you but without the teddy bears! The Death Star plans card was a nuisance and, in a well engineered situation on the part of the rebels, could be easy to pull off. Just survive a round of combat and there goes a hard earned Death Star. The shield bunker brings with it a whole new depth when it comes to planning your strategy. All of the new units will roll the new green dice for combat meaning that they can deal damage to any type of unit in the game. Again the dice have less hits on them but now you potentially get to roll three more dice in combat. I love these new units. The ships in particular are, let’s face it, just cool looking ships. The new abilities for the Empire I would imagine are there to help with balancing the game. The base game was apparently more balanced in the rebels favour. It wasn’t anything that I personally experienced but if this does work to address that issue then I’m all for it. New Mission/project cards There are a couple of cards here that you can replace permanently that are just reworded versions of cards in the base game but now work with this expansion in mind. To use the rest of the new cards you first need to separate all the base game cards with the character pictures on the cards then add those to this new deck. The other cards from the base game can be left in the box. The new cards are easily seen with a Darth Vader symbol on the card. The project cards simply mix in with the project deck. These cards are no better or worse than the base game cards, they're just different and they bring out the rogue one theme. If you’ve played Rebellion enough that the regular cards are feeling a bit familiar then this will give the game some variety. It’s also easy enough to separate the cards and go back to using the base game set. Being as they are aren’t any more complex than the regular cards, I think you could easily teach the game using this new set of cards if you want to. New Objective Cards For these simply add in the twelve objective cards into their respective phases. To set up, build a stage three deck by adding four random stage three cards to a Death Star plans card. Do the same with the stage two cards then deal out five random stage one cards. Just like the mission cards these are more cards to add a bit of variety and also some randomness to stop the empire player predicting the mission cards in your hand. Some of these are immediate objectives and some introduce target markers. You place the target marker in the system indicated by the card. When you place a ground unit in that system you remove the mark and score the objective card. These are fun new cards that add a bit more of a race element to the game because if the system with the marker is destroyed then it’s lost. I love how you can throw a target maker halfway across the galaxy and use them as a potential decoy. The Empire now has a choice between leaving the markers in place for you to score, or head towards them and try and get rid of them. For only a few cards they add a lot to your strategy. The new objectives are a welcome new addition to keep the game fresh and make it less predictable for the empire. New Combat System. This is the big one and the thing I’m guessing you’re all here for and rightly so. The big criticism of the base game is that combat wasn’t the best. It’s the big thing that stopped that game getting a 10 for me. Well meet the thing that claws that point back. Take the base games combat cards. Have you got them? Good, now throw them away, go on, you won’t need them any more. Ok don’t actually throw them away, that’s just wasteful. But you definitely don't need them anymore. Each side now gets a hand of 16 new tactics card that they have access to for every battle. Before a round of combat starts each player will simultaneously pick a card to use and reveal them at which point the cards text will play out. Each card will have two sections to it. The top part you will be able to play if you have the pictured unit in the fight. This is the more powerful of the two actions on the card. The bottom part will be less powerful but you can play it regardless of the unit in battle. Once played, cards will then be put in a discard pile and you won’t get them back until you’ve played all of your cards. So you could potentially go a few battles with a dwindling hand of cards before you get them back. Combat will continue as in the base game with players rolling dice and assigning hits until a new round starts and you pick a new card. Previously in a battle you needed to have a leader with a tactics number in a system at which point you’d draw cards equal to that theatre of combat. With the new system in place those numbers now relate to the number of rerolls you can have per attack in that theatre. The manner in which the crossed Lightsaber symbols work has changed as well. When you roll one you can remove a damage from a unit whose health matches the dice. As I spoke about in my review of the base game I had a real problem with the amount of luck in the original system. This new system isn’t going to stop unlucky dice rolls or the mismatch of attack to defence dice (although the green dice do help with that) but this system is sooooo much better. First of all cinematic combat cards give space for some decision making, a bit of focus and to play a bit more tactically rather than hoping that you roll the right sort of damage or draw a good card. Not only that but not being able to get your cards back until you’ve played all of them makes those decisions even tougher because now you’re not just thinking of this battle but also any future battles. Switching those leader tactic values to make them rerolls is another stroke of genius and in my opinion makes those numbers even more important and valuable. Having rerolls helps, at least a little bit, with that feeling of uselessness when you're staring down the barrel of a really unlucky roll. Lastly, being able to remove damage is huge. Again it’s all based on a die roll but if that symbol comes up that could be the difference between either losing an important system or losing the game and holding on for one more round to play a Death Star plans card. Coupling that with the potential that you can reroll your dice in the hope that you can repair damage gives this all the hallmarks to make some epic battles. I love the improvements they’ve made to combat. As much as I wanted to give the base game a 10 out of 10 combat was bringing it down enough to make me drop that one point off. This system and even this expansion is enough to bump this game up for me. Does this mean the game is perfect? No, of course not, no game is perfect but for me personally I still rate this a ten because despite its flaws I still love this game. Is this the expansion you're looking for? Is this expansion essential? I think this is one of those rare cases where I think it is essential. Granted this may be there to fix a few problems that people had with the base game (i.e. combat, balance) but the fact that it does address that and does it really well it’s more than worth a look at. Especially if you're someone who enjoyed the base game but those factors were a let down. Even though I think this is an essential expansion it doesn’t mean you necessarily need to get it right away, especially since the base game isn’t cheap. Play the base game a few times and make sure you enjoy it before grabbing this. (I’d actually apply that advice to board games in general) Even if you don’t get it for the “fixes” it’s worth it for the Imperial minis alone…..I mean…..tie strikers and interdictors and tanks Oh My!

Love Letter Princess Princess Ever After WBG Score: 8 Player Count: 2-6 You’ll like this if you like: Love Letter, Coup, Lost Legacy Published by: Renegade Game Studios Designed by: Seiji Kanai By Steve Godfrey I love love letters, not as much as I used to love love letters though. My love for love letters has dropped since I don’t get many love letters to make me love love letters as much as I used to love love letters. Rules Love Set up by shuffling the deck, placing one card at random unseen, back in the box. Then deal each player one card and you're ready to go. In a two player game follow the same rules but put three cards face up next to the deck. On your turn you’ll draw a card and then play one of the two cards in your hand out in front of you triggering the text on that card. Rounds will end when either all but one player has been eliminated or the deck runs out, at which point players still in the game compare numbers on their cards and the highest wins. In either case the winner gets a favour token. To win the game you need to have a certain number of favour tokens based on player count. There are 10 different characters in the deck each with their own special ability and with a different amount of cards for each character. So for example there are six guards in the deck and two princes. If you're familiar with other versions of love letter then either most or all of these cards will all be familiar depending on what version you’ve played. Cards in the deck will have you either trading hands with other players, comparing scores, looking at opponents cards or guessing others cards and more in a bid to try and eliminate others from the round or end up with a high scoring card. Every character will tell you how many of each card is in the deck and all cards are played face up so that everyone has knowledge of which cards have been played and which cards may still be in the deck. There are also cards in the deck that will net you extra favour tokens for meeting certain criteria. For example the Spy will give you a token for being the only person to have played a spy that round. For the love of deduction. Love letter is a brilliant, quick, simple game of deduction. After every turn you learn more about the state of play and as such your ability to form a strategy increases. For example, playing a guard (this card lets you guess a player's card and eliminate them from the round if it’s right) as your first play is really a wild stab in the dark, although sometimes you do get lucky and you can’t help but feel like some sort of all powerful mind reader when it happens. As the game goes on though playing that guard becomes more of a tactical strike. There are only a certain number of each card in the deck so as each card is played face up it becomes less and less guess work This means that rather than simply picking a card from the list, you can now throw that guard down with a degree of confidence and if you get it right, well then you get to do your best Sherlock Holmes impression and regale the table with stories of how you worked it all out. Of course if you don’t guess then you utter a confused “oh” and spend until your next turn with a baffled look on your face. Don’t get me wrong, you’re not going to have a ton of deep, thinky, long term strategies for this game, they’ll all pretty much be on the fly when your turn comes around. But sometimes you’ll pull off a little combo over a couple of turns which will leave you feeling pretty smug when it all works out. A love for Love Letter. The original love letter has been in our collection for a few years now and has been with us on numerous camping trips, nights away and now and then on the occasional day trip, just in case. I’d say our plays to this date have got to be near the hundreds and it’s not slowing down anytime soon. So like a new baby coming into the family and making the older siblings jealous, how does this stack up and are we close to naming this one our favourite simply because it isn’t at that “unreasonable” stage yet. Well straight off the bat there are some new additions to the original game. If you’ve played the most recent edition then these cards may already be familiar to you. First you have the Spy that will give you a favour token if you’re the only player to have played one that round. There are also now two princesses in the game. Both will let you draw two cards, choose one and place the other two in the bottom of the deck in any order. There’s also a new twist to even the newest version. Both princesses want to be together (in keeping with the theme) so if two different players have played one and they are both still in the round by the end then they both gain one token each. In essence these are a really simple addition, it’s just a few cards right? Here’s the thing though, they really do change up how you approach the game. Before it was mostly about deducing other players' cards and trying to eliminate them. Now with the spy it’s all about finding the perfect time to play it. Play it too early and other players may throw down the other one to block you. Wait too long however and the icy hand of elimination could find you. It’s such a simple card but it really does give the game some added tension. On the flip side the princesses will see you almost in a mini co-op game. If two of you have these out you really want to try and protect both you and the other player so you can both gain the benefit. This little twist means that the game changes from, how do I eliminate this player to, how can I keep them in the game, all the while still trying to win the round. Of course if your princess opponent is on the verge of winning if they gain that extra token then at that point all bets are off. These cards also make the game quicker. One of my small issues with the original game is that games can feel a little long. Which for a quick game like this is weird. If games went down to the last favour token then yes, it made that last round pretty exciting. But by that point you’d already played quite a few rounds and were ready to be done. Having a way to gain extra favour token in a round though helps with that massively. You can be done with entire games in half the time of the original. So much so that you don’t mind going for a second game just because you know it could be over pretty quickly. More love letters! I tend to roll my eyes whenever a new reskin of a popular franchise is announced (I’m looking at you Pandemic) and Love Letter is included in that. The recent Star Wars love letter was high on the roll factor list but I suppose Space Slugs need to find love too right? That’s not to say that any of these are bad games but it’s just a lot of the same game. So what makes this particular version different and is it worth it? So this is the third game in the Renegade line of adapting Kay O’Neils comics after the Tea dragon society games. The theme is focused back to the original princess theme (which tends to make more sense) and the art on the cards is a welcome refresh. The theme and the comic it draws from are a perfect match and the LGBTQ+ subject matter is a welcome one and it’s great to see it in a popular game in the hobby. Don’t get me wrong, there’s still a ways to go before everyone can feel equally represented in gaming, but every game is another stepping stone towards that goal. The comic itself is geared more towards younger readers and the art and just the beautiful look of the game is more likely to draw in the younger players. My girls love the original game but this is absolutely the more appealing of the two for them and for me too. How many love letters does one person need! So the big question of course is, do I need both. If you own the new edition then I would say that it depends on if you prefer the theme of this one and if you think that rules change is going to make a difference for you. If, like us, you have only played the original then I would say you could absolutely own both and for a few reasons. The original is more portable since it’s in a cloth bag. This one comes in a box with tarot sized cards. I love the size of the cards, there’s more space of art (and who wouldn’t want more of that art) and the text isn’t as small but I do concede that it does make it less portable. Personally for us we’re going to be keeping both. The original for that portability factor and a bit of nostalgia and this one for everything it adds to this already brilliant game. Love Letter Princess Princess Ever After is a welcome entry in this series of games and is fast going to be our go to “at home” version of the game. I mean, who can deny a version where a cute purple dragon is going to protect you.

Go Big or Go Home WBG Score: 7.5 Player Count: 4-99 You’ll like this if you like: What Came First, Wits and Wagers, Shot in the Dark Published by: Shot in the Dark Designed by: Grant Sanderson, Jordanna Sanderson The team behind Shot in the Dark, an awesome quiz game that gives everyone the chance to do well, have come out recently with two brand new games. Crash Landed, that you can read about here, and Go Big or Go Home, a brilliant version of a game you may have played before with friends or family, at home or in the pub, that always creates a lot of buzz and laughter. Let's get it to the table to see how it plays. Set Up First, split into two even teams. Give each team a pen and white board sheet. Place the category cards in the centre of the table, and finally, choose one person from each team to start as the captain. That is officially all you need to do to set up Go Big or Go Home, but WBG does recommend some form of intimidating war dance from both teams at this point if you want to take it seriously. How to Play Once the dance is finished, and enough time has been given to courteously pay respects to each others moves, the game can begin. The captain of the starting team will take the top category card, choose one of the two categories that they hope will suit their team the best, and declare it to the table. They are all fairly generic and generally suitable for all players, but some may throw younger players, but any that do confuse the group can be easily replaced with another card. The captain is not choosing the one they like the best themselves, but the one they think their team can do the best with. Once a category is chosen and it has been shared with the other teams captain, they then have five seconds to decide how many "things" in this category they and their team can come up with within the time limit. But be warned, it goes quick. You only have 60 seconds to write all your answers down if you bid the highest. Each teams captain must decide how many they can do as a group without consulting with their fellow teammates. You need to think about what your friends knowledge in this chosen category might be, how high you think the other team will bid, and then finally, how quickly you could write them all down! And you have to make this decision within five seconds! When the five seconds is up, both captains will reveal their white board and the captain with the highest number will then have the baton. Only the highest bidder gets to attempt this round. So, you want to bid high to have a chance to win a point, but not too high that you cannot achieve the number. Then, with the help of all players in their team, they need to write down on their white board as many correct answers before the timer runs out. It is advised to write as many as you can, not just the number you are aiming for, because when the time limit is up, you must read all your answers out to the other team. They then have the chance to challenge any answers they believe to be incorrect. If after the arguing, bickering, and general raucous behaviour has finished, if the team who wrote the answers are left with enough correct answers, they will win a point. And so the game will continue. Like any good party game, you can play for as long as you like. To a points or time limit. Or just until all players grow tired of the game, each other, or the seats they are on. The rules suggest playing to either five, ten, or fifteen points, but of course you can adapt to suit your group. Is It Fun Like many party games, Go Big or Go Home's success lies mostly with the group you are playing with. What's in this box is all you need for a great time. But this may not be for all players. The time pressure, first of coming up with number you and your team will go for, and then if successful, the time pressure to deliver the answer won't suit all players. You may find that any answer of 12 or more quickly becomes avoided! As even if you could think of that many correct answers, you don't have the time to physically write that many down within the time limit. Legibly anyway! I have been left starting at my scrawl myself, something that I only just wrote literally a few seconds prior, failing to remember what it was I scribbled down. Unable to read what I wrote down in a frantic panic! Initially this was frustrating not being able to bid higher, as you want to go high to win the chance to have a go. It was frustrating to limit your answer by the time limit rather than your knowledge in the area. But I quickly realised this just adds to the fun and tension in those five seconds. You need to think about how many you could do in total, how many you could write in the time limit, how many you think the other team may go for, and if you want to risk a higher number to win that round. And if you do win, the timer is flipped, and you are away. Players on your side begin shouting out possible answers, you are trying to write them down as fast as you can, and the other team will be staring intently at the ever reducing sand timer. If all this sounds like fun, then you will have an absolute blast with this game. Personally, I very much enjoyed the competitiveness this game brings out. I mainly play games in a fairly chilled way. I am not bothered about scores or my own performance. But in this game, winning starts to really matter! And sometimes, in some games, I think that works. It's ok of course when you loose, and I enjoyed seeing other people do well, and win points. But I also enjoyed doing well myself, and helping my team win points. It's a bit like School Sports day all over again. Everyone tells you it's ok to not win. It's the taking part that counts. But everyone wants to cross that finish line first. It's hard for this game to be billed otherwise. It is a competitive game. The time pressure brings that out even more. And if you like that in a party game, then you will enjoy this.

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.