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Luna Capital is a fantastic new tile placement tableau building games from Devir. In this short 1-minute video, I will run through the basic rules and mechanics.

Furnace WBG Score: 8.5/10 Player Count 2-4 You’ll like this if you like: 51st State, Wingspan, Terraforming Mars. Published by: Hobby World, Arcane Wonders Designed by: Ivan Lashin Furnace, or as its full title on the box more accurately describes, ‘An Engine-Building game by Ivan Lashin: Furnace.’ This game sells itself right off the box. This is an engine-building game. If you are a fan of this mechanism, you will most probably enjoy this game a lot. If not, well, there is a bit of an auction and some nice card play, but ultimately… see the box lid. If you build it, they will come. But what is an engine-builder? If you are not familiar with the term, you may well have experienced it in other games. Splendor, Century: Spice Road and Scythe are all hugely popular games that employ the same mechanic. Engine-Building is the process by which you will develop your powers or abilities in a game by collecting cards, resources or other powers. It is linked to Set-Collection, Hand-Management, Tableau building, and in a way Tech-Trees too; some of which are present in this game as well. But who am I to argue with the box cover? This is an engine-builder, pure and simple. Engine-building games are very popular due to the sense of progression they bring to the gaming table. There is a sense of development. There is a real sense of satisfaction when you get your engine running well. This is felt strongly in Furnace too and is the main reason why I enjoy it. Start Your Engines! The game works incredibly simply. Cards will be placed on the table face up, based on the number of people playing. In turn, each player with then place one of their four numbered Capital Discs onto one of the cards, bidding for that cards power. The discs are numbered one to four, and the highest disc on the card at the end of the Auction round wins that card. But every other player that bid on that same card will be awarded compensation for their failed bid. Each card will have symbols on the top showing you what you will get as compensation. The reward will be multiplied by the number on your losing disc. So, a card showing two coal symbols at the top would reward a player with six coal cubes if they played and lost with their Three Capital Disc. Players can bid on any card available but can never place a disc onto a card where they have already made a bid. Nor can they can ever place a disc onto a card with a number that is the same value as one of the discs already placed onto that card. The winning player will take the card into their play area to use on the second Production phase. In this Auction phase, you will be looking to acquire resources that you need to run your other cards. If you want to win a card that allows you to convert Oil into Money, but you have no Oil, then you need to find a way to acquire some in order to avoid the first cards power becoming redundant. There may be another card that would compensate you with two Iron if you lost the bid for it, and another that would allow you to covert Iron to Oil. Utilising these three cards’ powers would allow you to get your engine going. First, collect your Iron, then convert that to Oil, and then finally sell the Oil for money. This in short is how the game works. It’s Time to Produce. Once everyone has collected their compensation and the cards that they won in the Auction phase, players will then move into the Production phase. All players can arrange their cards into any order they like and then “run” them. This simply means, gathering the resources and making the trades that each card allows you to do. The order is crucial. It may be that you need a particular resource before you can achieve a certain goal, and that first resource you need will be made available to you by one of your other cards. As such, you must ensure that you place this resource producing card before the resource exchanging card. The game will run for four rounds Each time running through the Auction and then Production phase. The goal being to collect as much money as possible. Any resources that you are left with are useless at the end of the game. You want to avoid running an engine that over produces a resource that you cannot then use for something else. This game is all about efficiency. Getting cards to work together in harmony for the ultimate aim of money! In a tie situation, the player with the most cards will take the win. If there is still a tie after that, then it will be the player with the most resources. But this very simple tie-breaker rule shows you how the game should be played. This is about having cards that work for you. Not just cards that make lots of resources. It’s Alive! Each player will be given a starting factory and unique player power at the start of the game. This small amount of asymmetry brings another side to this game that will increase its replayability. Each of the five available character cards offers something quite unique such as one extra disc with the value of two to use in the Auction phase, or the ability to break the Capital Disc placement rules. Your engine will not just be about getting the right cards. This game will also ask players to upgrade their existing cards. All the cards are double sided and offer additional benefits on the reverse side. Winning some cards may only be the first step. Flipping them could be your only chance of victory. There is also an advanced variant which I enjoy, but perhaps is not suited for game one whereby players cannot rearrange the placement of the cards once they have them. New cards must simply be placed to the left or right of any existing cards. This makes players think a lot more about what they bid on from rounds two onwards and creates a much more challenging game experience. A Well-Oiled Engine. There may be times of frustration when you cannot get the card you want. It simply may not turn up or it may be that you win it when you just wanted the resource. Or you only get the resource as compensation when you wanted to win it. But this is the nature f a competitive game. It won’t always work out exactly as you plan. Running an efficient engine in Furnace is a very satisfying experience. Win or lose, if you create an engine that is running smoothly, and churning just the right number of resources you need to convert into money; you will be left with a huge sense of achievement at the end of the game. Engine builders are popular for this reason, but often the mechanism is buried within a much more complex rule structure or mixed in with other mechanisms. In Furnace, the engine building is the entire game. There is the interesting auction mechanic in which the cards are acquired, and the clever idea for compensation for any losing bid which makes this part of the game a lot of fun too. But ultimately this game is boiled down to the engine-building. Get cards. Make them work together. It sounds simple because it is. But to play it, you will feel utterly engrossed in the process. Games don’t always need multiple mechanisms to be fun. If you like engine-builders, or like the sound of it and want to give it a try, Furnace could well be the game for you.

Rolling Realms WBG Score: 9/10 Player Count 1-6 (more with other copies or print outs) You’ll like this if you like: Ganz Schon Clever, Riverside, Hadrian's Wall. Published by: Stonemaier Games Designed by: Jamey Stegmaier It’s the end of March 2020. Lock down has just begun, and people are starting to feel isolated. For the publishers, group play-test sessions to develop new games become a thing of the past. But video calls opened up a world of opportunities for game developers to play with gamers all over the world in mass numbers. Jamey Stegmaier from Stonemaier games, due in part to the changing world around him, and I imagine his “always making a game” brain, chose this time to bring the world, ‘Rolling Realms’. A free to download, infinitely scaling, one page print out, roll-and-write game. Jamey took to Facebook live to offer rules explanations and play-throughs for people stuck at home. It gave people the opportunity join in with a live game and find some human contact. I for one found great solace in this and would like to thank Jamey for what he gave to the community. In each session, the game developed, with new rules, tweaks, and developments based on the feedback Jamey received from the playing public. A mass play test was being done live in front of all our eyes. Jamey never had the intention to publish the game, this was just some fun, and his way of giving something back to a separated community. You can still download this free version here or play via a web link here. All you need is dice! As the weeks went by, the game continued to develop, and eventually got a new name. ‘Rolling Realms’ became its final title after someone who played along with the game suggested it to Jamey in the live chat. This truly was a community project. The game was well into its later stages of life, now in its tenth and eleventh version. Fast forward a few months and Jamey put a message out to his email subscribers asking if anyone would be interested in a full published version of the game. The response was positive and here we are. A full printed version of Rolling Realms, with massive dice, beautiful pens. All the usual Stonemaier gloss! (except of course the matte rule books) Dice shown with a regular sized dice from Rory's Story Cubes, Adventure Time, for scale and general awesomeness. Now, with the final version of the game hitting retail, it's a strange feeling seeing, touching, and playing a game that existed only in home made printed form before, and meant so much to me and so many others during that strange time back in lock-down. Now in full Stonemaier final production form. I was unsure if this needed a published version. I was unsure if I wanted it. The well used, creased, old print-outs offered some sense of comfort to me. The print-and-play version was effective, elegant, and fun. But with this full version of Rolling Realms now in my hands, I can safely say I am so happy this has been made. The game is not more fun in this version. It’s the same game! (although with an awesome solo mode!) But it’s certainly prettier! The pens and dice are so good. It’s hard to explain what difference is made by a good pen, but it’s a lot! It feels more of an event when you play this game with this version. This is a great example of what production quality can bring to the tabletop experience. What a pimp up this has had! Playing Rolling Realms, like many roll-and-writes is great example of the pleasures gained from cascading turns. If you have not come across this term before, what I mean by this is that as you build up your resources in the game, your abilities to take multiple turns increases. Doing “A“ elicits the opportunity to do “B”, which in turn could mean you can do “C“ too! Cascading turns are very satisfying, and any game that uses this mechanic well is always a winner for me. It feels like you are being more efficient. Taking multiple turns instead of one. Feeling good during games is a number one priority for me. Cascading turns is a great way for everyone to feel good! In Rolling Realms, each player is given 11 realm cards. Each realm represents one of the other Stonemaier games. I wish their was a Rolling Realms realm card. Although that could be a bit Inception. One player will shuffle their cards and draw three to play with. All other players must then find those same three cards to use so each player has the same three cards ready for round one. Each realm works slightly differently, but they can be easily explained using the rule book, and have clear and simple rules printed on the card themselves. Even on game one, you will be up and running within a few minutes. Each player will also be given a resource and score card, a pen, and eraser pad. One player will then roll the two dice and the game begins! But before I get into that, a word on the dice and pens. Even if you haven’t played many games that use dry wipe pens before, I am sure you will be able to feel the difference with the pens provided in this game. They feel comfortable in your hand and write well with a nice fine (but not too fine) tip. The pens leave a nice solid dark line wen used. Not that washed out faded line so many others give you. It's just a pen, I get that, but it feels nice! It feels Stonemaier. Now, onto the dice. They are huge! Jamey originally wanted to have even bigger ones, but felt they didn’t roll that well, and could cause damage to some people tables. Being in possession of my own giant D20, I can vouch this is the case! So, in effect, this is as big as dice can get without those two real issues becoming a problem. That’s a comforting thought, isn’t it? OK, onto the game! You will roll the two dice nine times, each player uses the same dice faces shown each round to activate two realms. You cannot use both dice for the same realm card. You will then draw three more realms from the remaining eight realms and go again. Rinse and repeat one final time with three more realms from the remaining five and then score your total points. To see how each realm works you can check the full rule book or you can play along with Jamey here. But I will go through them briefly to give you an idea. Each realm has a style and theme that follows the Stonemaier game that it‘s named after. All-be-it in a very light way! The idea being that you are rolling dice through all the realms created within the Stonemaier universe. Between Two Castles. In this realm, players are looking to place die values in columns, ensuring each die is below a number of a lower value. Each completed row will gain you resources. Each column completed across each individual castle will gain you a star. This is a nice simple realm and a good one to start with when teaching the game. It is also a good realm to explain about using your bonuses seeing as there are ten spaces to mark a number and only nine rounds to do so! Charterstone Charterstone has a fascinating way to use the dice. There are spaces, laid out horizontally to mark each possible dice face from one to six, each one gaining you a resource when you do. There is a crate shown under each dice symbol. In this crate you must mark whatever dice face was shown on the other die, the turn you mark the number above. Ideally you want to mark the top row number when the other die shows the same number as a previous round when you also activated this realm. This is because in order to gain stars, you must mark off the bottom row crates with a dice face that matches one of the numbers you placed here; and you can mark more than one crate per turn if the numbers there are the same. For example, if you marked the six when the other die showed a one, you would put a one in the crate below. If when you mark off the three and four, the other die face again was a one, a one would noW appear in three crates. If on a later turn, one of the die faces rolled shows a one, you can use this one to mark off three crates and gain three stars in one move. Between Two Cities This is a simple one, probably the simplest in the game. There is a three-by-three grid which must be filled with numbers. Each number can go anywhere, so long as it doesn’t touch a number of the same value in the space alongside, above or below it. When each row or column is completed, you are rewarded with resources. And this realm simply scores the same score as your lowest realm from the other two that round. This realm is about gathering resources to help you in the other realms. Euphoria This realm shows die faces of one to six two times in two separate groups. When you mark one number off you will gain a resource depending on the total of each dice face marked off in that group. For a total value of one to three you will gain a coin. From four to ten you will get a star. Anything above ten will get you a pumpkin and a heart. Marking a four, then one, then two, in three separate turns, will gain you three stars each round, as each time, the total value was within the four to ten range. If you can do this sequence twice you could complete this realm in six turns. My Little Scythe Like Euphoria, My Little Scythe shows two sets of dice faces from one to six, this time in a flower shape. When you mark the left side you will gain a pumpkin, on the right you will gain a heart. When you mark off a number on one side that has had the same number marked off on the other already, you will also gain a coin. In order to gain stars in this realm, you must gain any six resources through any of the three realms active this round. Each time you do this, you will gain two stars. Like Between Two Cities, this is a resource building realm to help you on other cards. Pendulum This is by far my favorite realm. It has a very clever mechanic that you must not let run away from you. There are three sand timers shown, each with a dice face shown in them. One with just a six die face shown, another with a five and a four, and the third with the one, two, and three. Above the timers are five octagons full of resources and stars. When you roll any dice, you can mark one of the hexes (or should that be oxes? Later, when you mark the numbers in the sand timers, and complete all numbers in each timer, you will gain all the resources marked in the octagons above at that point. If you don’t get this done soon enough you will quickly fall behind. If you completely mark a sand timer before two stars are marked, you will not be able get all six stars. If you wait too long to complete the timers you will run out of rounds to score the full stars. It’s a delicate balance of timing, and I love it. Scythe This realm shows two rows of die faces from one to six, each with a resource next to it. The top row will gain you the resource marked; the bottom row needs the shown resource to be spent in order to mark it complete. The bottom can be marked at the same time as the top. Ideally, you want to mark the bottom row in the round you are marking the top row and when you have the required resources to be as efficient as possible. As such, you don't want to use this realm in the first round. When both top and bottom row spaces are complete you will gain a star. Tapestry This is the realm I struggle with the most. There is a six-by-six grid shown, separated into six by two rows and columns. Each die face offers a different polyomino shape which can be used to fill in the grid. Each two-by-two square completed gains you a resource. Each two-by-six column or row gains you a star. The higher number shapes are bigger so you would think it's best to use these to fill more spaces, but it will need a few lower numbers to fill the gaps. This is a clever little game in itself, but the one I seem to struggle the most with. The Society (Red Rising) This is a called The Society due to Red Rising being an IP and one that is not free to use in this game sadly. This realm has the simple task of noting numbers in nine spaces in three rows. One row of four, one of three, then one above of two. Each card must show a number that is higher than the number below, representing the elitist nature from the book. When you complete a row you will gain a bonus. When you complete a pyramid of two cards below one card anywhere on this realm you will gain a star. This will be enough to get five stars. The final star is gained by filling all nine squares, meaning this realm needs to be activated each round for full points. Viticulture There are six grapes shown on this card. They are numbered one to six, and you may mark one with the corresponding die face and gain a bonus. Below the six grapes are three wine glasses numbered ten, eleven, and twelve. To mark these and in turn gain two stars each time, you must use one die face rolled that round and one previously marked grape to equal the total shown on the glass. This realm could be completed in six turns, if you roll a lot of sixes! Wingspan This realm shows three bird cards, each with a value inside. There are also three boxes to be filled within each bird card. When you mark a number from a corresponding die face in the box, you will gain a resource. You must mark them from left to right, but on either of the three cards. When you mark the third and final box in each of the three cards you will gain a star. If the three numbers you marked in the card total the exact same value as the card itself you will gain another star. This realm needs to be marked once per round. We spoke a lot above about the resources. Using these efficiently is key to scoring well. In Rolling Realms there are three resources. Pumpkins, Hearts, and Coins. Each can be used in two different ways. Players can use two Pumpkins to adjust a die face by one, just for their own personal use. Three pumpkins will allow them to adjust the die face by one and use that die in a realm in which you have already placed a die that round. This is the only way this rule can ever be broken. This is a powerful tool for completing the realms that need nine or ten numbers. If the dice rolled are a pair, then two hearts will allow players to use the value of the dice three times, one in each realm. Three hearts allow you to reuse one of the two dice in another realm when they are not a pair. Coins are the most powerful resource, I think. If the sum of the two rolled dice is seven, such as a four and a three, five and two, or a six and a one; then two coins will allow you to gain an extra die of the same value as either of those rolled die to use in one of the realms that round. But you can also use coins another way. This is a key tactic for getting good scores. For one coin, you can gain a die to the value of a one, or for two coins, you can gain a two die. Etc. You cannot place this extra die in a realm you have already activated that round, but this is a great way to boost your score and achieve the realms that require a die to be placed in it each round. This full published version also has a fantastic solo game. This is set over an 18-hole mini golf course! The idea being that for each hole, there is a unique challenge you must try and complete. I don’t want to spoil this for when you come to play. I really enjoyed learning each one as I went. But to give you a flavour of the mechanics, I will talk about hole one. This hole requires the use of Charterstone, Scythe, and Tapestry. There are only seven turns this round. Two less than the usual nine. Your goal is to score at least eight stars, or nine and a half on hard mode. This is a very simple rule change, but not overly easy to achieve. The later holes have a similar set-up of three cards being used (except the last hole), a rule change each time, and a specific goal. But I will leave you to find that out of yourselves. But what I will say is that it gets progressively more difficult! But I have really enjoyed the challenge and won’t stop until I have competed them all! Overall, this is a very interesting project. I loved the print-and-play. The concept behind this game’s conception is beautiful. The final product is fantastic and takes it all to a new level. Within it's genre of roll-and-writes it must score very highly. As a project within the community, it must score extremely well. And as a stand-alone game within the wider world of all the choices we have, again, it must score right up there for me. My score above represents all this. Rolling Realms is a great game and one that has a story and history that adds to the experience. But the game on its own, played fresh by someone naive to all that came before, will still find it brings a great experience to the table.

Zombie Teenz Evolution WBG Score: 8.5/10 Player Count 2-4 You’ll like this if you like: Zombie Kidz Evolution, Ghost Fightin’ Treasure Hunters, My City. Published by: Le Scorpion Masqué Designed by: Annick Lobet This is a spoiler free review. In the final section, there are some very minor spoilers that are hard to read unless you highlight the text, but you can stop at that point and have all the info you want if you don’t want any spoilers. Did you know that Zombie Kidz Evolution is the number one family game according to Board Game Geek? Well, the developers behind it have launched a sequel and it is always number two in the family list! Zombie Teenz Evolution is a stand-alone sequel to the amazing Zombie Kidz Evolution. It is a legacy game suitable for children from five and up. A legacy game means it has things that happen in the game that permanently change future games. New rules, characters, and powers will unlock after meeting certain requirements or hitting a certain goals. These changes will be in the game forever, replacing something else for good. Legacy games are great for encouraging further games. It is hard with Zombie Teenz Evolution to ever just play one or two games! The way the game develops is through opening envelopes. After you meet certain goals playing the game, you can open an envelope. Inside these box of delights could be… well, who knows! And I won’t tell here! This is the joy in this game. My children go crazy for this! They love the carrot this dangles for them. They absolutely adore opening the envelopes to see what is inside. This becomes the bigger attraction with that game than playing the game itself! The whole game is explained in a comic book style rule book which develops over time as you open more envelopes and get more parts of the story to add in. The highly visual way of learning works brilliantly for younger players and makes this game accessible for children to play alone as well as with parents. The game works very simply and is designed for younger gamers to play with full confidence and control. Like Zombie Kidz, you need to move your character around a board, trying to complete certain missions. In Zombie Teenz, the mission is to collect a box of ingredients from four separate buildings and bring it back to the school. You cannot carry the box, but you can pass it one space if there is another character next to you. On your turn you can carry out two actions. Move a space, pass a box, or fight a zombie. You can do the same action twice if you like, and as the game develops, more actions will become available to you. But the fundamental game remains the same for most of the game. Each game takes between 5-10 minutes to play, as such, and due to the repetitive nature of the game-play, this is ideal for younger children to play and feel in complete control. This is not a co-operative game where you as the parent need to tell them what to do all the time. The game rewards you win or lose. There is no pressure on you or the children to make the right moves. Later games do get a little harder to win first time which brings its own tension. But each time you play you can add a brain sticker to the back page of the rule book to progress your movement towards the next envelope no matter the result of the game. If you win the game or achieve certain goals, you can add trophy stickers as well as the brain sticker. Winning does speed up your progression through the game. But losing doesn’t stop it. Before you take your turn, you must roll the white dice to see what happens with the zombies. At the start of the game, they are all lined up outside the town. But they will quickly arrive and course chaos! The colour of the dice roll determines which zombie you need to place on the board. If you roll this number again on a later turn, they will move forward along their path. Unless of course one of the players has fought them off. If they move twice then they will enter one of the buildings and ransack it. This is shown by placing a large tile on the board covering the building showing new art. If this happens to all four buildings you will lose. It can start to escalate quickly as once a building is ransacked, the zombies manage to find a trampoline in each room, which then moves them forward three spaces rather than one when they move again, all the way to the next building which in turn becomes destroyed! I would like to now cover some of the developments seen in the game, but I am very keen to not spoil this for anyone who wants to encounter and discover this all for themselves. There is nothing below that will be a major spoiler, but nor is there anything that you need to know in order to understand the game or its key mechanics. FAIR WARNING – MINOR SPOILERS AHEAD - To read it more clearly highlight the text. Works on Desktop only. As you progress through the game and open the envelopes, you will encounter new characters, items to use in you battle against the undead, and new rule cards. Beyond that, I don’t want to say too much as I really want you to experience this for yourself, but I did want to make the point, that although at first this game seems very simple and basic. It does ramp up quickly. It never becomes anything beyond the capabilities for a younger player, but it does stay fresh for all at the table. What I found with my six-year-old daughter was that as the game developed and more options were made available, she did not become confused or overwhelmed, just excited about the new things to do. She did sometimes forget to roll the second dice. But essentially it is a very light game which develops into a light game. As new rules are introduced every three to four games rather than having to learn everything all at once as is the case with most games, Zombie Teenz has a very delicate and simple learning curve suitable for younger players. Playing Zombie Teenz Evolution is a fantastic experience suitable for any family. I would recommend getting Zombie Kidz Evolution first if you don’t have that as it feels like the natural place to start. And then if when you finish that, you are hungry for more, this is the perfect next game. The Zombie theme and art is not scary of inappropriate for younger players. This is an ideal game for children to learning simple pick-up-and-deliver and legacy mechanics in a highly engaging and exciting fashion. When you have opened all the envelopes, this doesn’t stop the game being playable. There are a few surprises left for you to try which I wont spoil here. The main draw is certainly the envelopes, so when they are gone, it does feel completed. But the game can certainly be played and enjoyed many times after this is over. And by that point, with 30-50 games played, you will certainly have got your money’s worth anyway!

Flourish WBG Score: 7.5/10 Player Count: 1-7 You’ll like this if you like: Everdell, Wingspan, Meadow. Published by: Starling Games Designed by: James A. Wilson, Clarissa A. Wilson From the makers of Everdell... is that enough? I imagine that this is reason enough for many to just go and buy this game. Everdell was such a huge hit! But Flourish is a very different game. It has a familiar feel to Everdell. The sense of nature and the beautiful art seen in Everdell still shines through in Flourish. Flourish is much simpler and lighter and plays in half the time. But it is still about creating a tableau of cards to maximise your score. Let's take a look. Flourish is a drafting and set-collection game. It feels surprisingly quick and light when you first play. Understanding the interactions the cards have with each other is crucial to scoring well. This will take a few games. But the rules are very light and you will up and away within minutes. To set-up, place a cardboard fence piece between each player. Give each player a scoreboard, and deal six shuffled cards to each player. The game then starts simultaneously with players drafting one card from their hand to keep and two to pass. In round one, they will keep three cards in all. There are four rounds in total leaving players with 12 cards to score from at the end of the game. When you pass a card, you must chose one to give to the player to your right, and one to give to the player on your left. Placing them either side of the fence next to you. In a two-player game you gave two cards to the other player. You will then pick up the two cards given to you, and take one more card from the deck to draw back to a hand of six. You will repeat this two more times then score the three cards you picked that round. The cards have symbols on the top which are used for mid game scoring at the end of each round. And symbols on the bottom which are used for end game scoring. The cards will reward you with points for certain symbols you have collected in your garden and also symbols in your neighbors area. The final round is played a little more simply where players chose three cards from their hand of five before they draw from the deck; and place them down on the table without a final drafting round. No matter if it is a one or seven player game, as all players are playing at the same time, a game of Flourish will be over within 20 minutes even on your first few games. It is a simple process of looking at six cards and choosing the one you want to keep and the two you are happy to pass to your neighbors. The game has a clever opportunity to be played either competitively, or in a cooperative manner with no rule changes whatsoever. At the end of the game, in a competitive game, the player with the highest score wins. In a co-op game, the players adds their accumulative score and check to see which medal they achieved against the score sheet in the rule book. Both experiences offer a good option, and the choice really just depends on your own personal preferences. All this is enough for me. When I am looking for a quick, light card game, that plays well in any player count, but still offers an interesting scoring mechanism with some engaging strategic choices, Flourish delivers. But perhaps due to the nature of this being a Kickstarter or because of the simple nature of the game, the designers have created a vast number of rule variants and expansions that can be added, all included within the base box. Let's take a look at them all. Garden Show Variant. During set-up, give each player three randomly assigned ribbons which are placed face up for all to see. If there are any duplicates, redistribute until all players have unique ribbons. The game then works as usual, except you will be required to play three consecutive games. All possible in under an hour. At the end of each of the three games, players will see if they managed to attain the goals on any of their ribbons by having the most of the symbol shown on it. If so, you will flip the ribbon over and add seven points to your total. If not, you can try and do so in one of the following games. This is a great and simple addition to make this game longer if that is what you want. I usually play the base game at least twice each time anyway, so this is simply a structured way to do this. But the ribbons are a simple add on with no extra rules that add a focus to each players game. Its a nice way to give newer players something to focus on when perhaps they may be overwhelmed by the choices. Compost Variant. The Compost variant is designed mainly to allow players to cycle through more cards in the deck. One minor complaint seen in Everdell and interestingly fixed in Flourish. It adds one simple rule tweak where after choosing one card to keep and two cards to pass, you can then discard one card and draw two, instead of just drawing one if you wish. This is a good option to give players the chance to see more cards and get a higher score by having more choices, but perhaps not ideal for game one when the choice may overwhelm new players. This will slow the game down a little but only by a few minutes each game. It doesn't seem overly necessary but it is a nice simple addition you can bring in if you so desire. Friends Expansion. The friends expansion utilises the deck of friend cards, where two are dealt at random to each player during set-up. In a co-op game they are placed face up, otherwise keep them secret. At the end of the game, players will score one of their cards based on which ever one has gained them the most points. They are all thematically linked where the butterfly wants more purple flowers,and the earthworm wants more fungi. This adds a nice target and goal for the players to aim for, similar to the ribbons, with no extra rules or time added to the game. The difference with the ribbons being that the players will get the points for the friends no mater what other players do, as long as they have one matching symbol. Whereas the Ribbons are about having the most of a particular symbol and so a more competitive option. Follies Expansion. A folly is a building or structure designed for decoration not purpose. A whimsy. Right up my street! During set-up each player is given one each of the five different follies. They look great, and add some real table presence to the game but ultimately are just an extra symbol that you can add to a card at the end of the round. They can only be placed on one of the three cards placed that round and that share at least one of the same symbols as that of the folly. In a more interesting rule change, with this expansion, for the final round, players can place the three final cards on either row. They no longer have to make up a fourth a separate row of their own. At the end of the game, each placed Folly is worth two points for each symbol matching its symbol on the card it was placed on and each card adjacent. Any unplaced Folly will loose you five points. This is my favorite addition as it changes the game the most. I like the extra challenge to work vertically, not just in the rows per round. Looking to place cards adjacent to the folly adds a new dimension to the game that I think elevates this to a new level. Flourish is a beautiful game and will sell bucket loads for the art and theme alone. But it's also a very good set-collection game in its own right. The options available in the box are a nice option. You can add them all in, or just the ones you like. They work in a modular fashion and give you the chance to fashion Flourish to be played exactly as you wish. The options with the competitive or co-operative game mode are a nice addition and make Flourish an ideal game for many collections. This game will work with most scenarios and with most players. There is a way to play it to suit most gaming groups, and when you do play, I would wager than most players will enjoy themselves. The theme and art certainly sell this to me. But the game play and simple strategic choices will keep me bringing Flourish back to the table.

Resident Evil 3 WBG Score: 8.5/10 Player Count: 1-4 You’ll like this if you like: Resident Evil 2, Gloomhaven: Jaws of the Lion, Dark Souls. Published by: Steamforged Games Ltd. Designed by: Sherwin Matthews Before I start, I want to be clear this is a spoiler free review. The year is 1996. I’m a skinny, awkward teenager, with a terrible acne problem, an obsession with football, and a dream of being able to sleep in every day. Then, after I won a PlayStation in a competition at a football match, a friend gifts me his old of Resident Evil as his Mum said he wasn’t allowed to play it! And everything changed! Fast-forward 25 years, and I’m still obsessed by the Resident Evil franchise. Having lost a lot of my youth to the first few games, the name alone inspires many fond memories. But, as someone who is not into painting miniatures, I hadn’t been drawn to any of the board game versions yet. There have been a few iterations over the years, the main ones being the deck-building version back in 2010, then Resident Evil 2 board game in 2019. And recently, a new version of this, Resident Evil 3: The Board Game, which drove 7,489 backers on Kickstarter to fund this update. RE3 is a stand-alone sequel that plays similarly to RE2 with a few minor rule’s tweaks, but a number of new additions for fans of the series. If you don’t own any versions yet but loved the video games, RE3 is the one to get. If you own RE2 already and loved it, in truth, the main addition here will be the new campaigns to play. However, the art is a little brighter after fans complained it was too dark in RE2, and there are of course a few surprises along the way that I am sure will delight loyal fans. But should you buy this if you are not a fan of the IP? The game is set deep in the world created by the video games, and as the great @northern_dice said on the games Kickstarter page, “This board game is a beautiful homage to Resident Evil’s classic survival horror feel.” Something I could not agree more with. So, the question more is this. Do you want a game that brings tension and horror to a dungeon crawl tabletop game? If so, then this should be on a list of considerations. Resident Evil 3 throws you into the world of Racoon City. A fictional American metropolis thrust into a horrific post-apocalyptic world. Your first mission is to escape from a warehouse, onto the streets of the city. This is done is a very smooth way, teaching you the game in the process. There is a lot of intimidation when it comes to buying, learning, and playing a game like this. The large box, thick rule book, and second large campaign handbook. It can put some people off. But I found I was up and playing withing 25 minutes of opening the box. The game recognises this with lines such as “we’re sure you want to jump straight into the action, so let’s not waste any more time!” As such, after a few clearly written pages about the iconography, characters, cards, tiles, enemies, and weapons, you will be up and running. Literally! Trying to escape the zombies. This is the first lesson. Killing zombies in RE3 is very hard. You essentially have a 1/6 chance of doing so each time you try with a knife. Other weapons will increase your chances later in the game, and you do start with a gun which you can fire three times, but you are still looking to roll the single face of a D6 that will cause the enemy you are attacking any damage. As such, you will find that dodging past enemies, shutting doors behind you and all round “just leg it” tactics are what happens most often in this games early scenarios! But that doesn’t detract from game. It just means you need to adjust your expectations. But don’t worry, there will be Shotguns, Grenade Launchers and Assault rifles in your hand soon enough! The game is set-up to make you feel like you are playing a video game. At the start, you have access to three areas of the map. You can play either one as your first game. In each scenario, you will be tasked with collecting the campaign progression path token, which unlocks later levels. This, along with collecting key items and defeating certain enemies will be the main tasks required to success at the missions. It feels very much like progressing through a video game. As you move through the Downtown, Uptown, Commercial, and R.P.D. areas, you will be looking to progress you way through the C item deck. Items are separated into A, B, and C decks. A's are mainly ammunition and herbs. B are scenario specific items needed to get through the level you are on such as specific keys and Weapons required. The C deck is sorted at the start of the game as a tantalising look at what is needed. Players are asked to shuffle the deck in a way that certain cards will come out later in the game, but still at a random order. Attaining the C items is crucial to each rounds success, and without them, you will need to re-do the mission. Setting up each level is very simple. The Scenario booklet clearly shows what is required visually and there is a simple to understand key for each one. Spotting all the Barricades can be hard due to the colours used, but other than that, this is a breeze. The scenario booklet also offers a simple to use guide for the encounter dice. As the game progresses, you will quickly start moving into areas on unexplored territory. When you do this, you must roll the encounter dice, and each level will have a separate guide as to what each die face represents. This is a great system that works well both mechanically and thematically. Playing Resident Evil 3 will most likely come in bursts. I played most of my games in batches of two or three scenarios at a time. As such, you will need to get used to the pack-up and tracking system. If you have the Kickstarter exclusive inserts, this will be a little easier. But I used bags and found it to be quite simple. On the back of the scenario booklet, you can record your item box and character items, but a quick photograph on your phone will do just as good a job. But after a few plays, I just put each characters items into separate bags and found this to be a quick and simple process to set-up from at a later date. The tension deck used on each scenario (bar the bosses), and played after every character turn evolves through the game, as does the item decks. As such, you don't want to mess them up mid scenario. Simply band them together so they cannot be confused with other cards already taken away or not added yet, and you are done. Running through the scenarios is a brilliant, narrative driven, suspenseful ride. I have absolutely loved it. The question many may have, is how much replay-ability is there in the box once you have done this. Well, there are four characters, so you can always try with other people. Also, each scenario plays differently each time based on a number of random factors, so if you enjoyed playing once, I am certain you will enjoy playing again! However, I found, going back to early missions and loosing all my powerful armory was tough to take! But give the game a break for a few weeks or months and I am sure you will be able to enjoy running through them all once more. The game has a stack of expansions out and on the way too. I have the City of Ruin expansion which I will review in a few weeks once I have run through that. I am very excited to see what that brings to the table. But ultimately, like any campaign game, there will be some who will play it once and then not again. It's up to you if it is worth it for that. But I found just the base games 15 missions to be ample experience for this price and box size. The minis are ok. A little small. But good detail and robust. They all come painted a solid red colour, so pop on the board right out the box. The ones I have seen painted online look phenomenal and if I had an ounce of patience for that sort of thing, this would be one of the first games I would do that for. But as someone who love minis but doesn’t as yet paint, these look okay to me. The boss minis have a nice size to them, and the ones in the expansion look incredible! The rest of the components are good. The only complaint is the Raccoon City dashboard which is printed on standard paper. This could do with being a thicker card, perhaps duel layered to hold the elements in place. But the rest of the parts are solid. Good dice. Decent cards. The tiles for the map are beautifully illustrated and surprisingly detailed if you take the time to look at them I have loved my time in Raccoon City. It has been great walking down memory lane. And revisiting my youth. Despite the constant attack from zombies. The game is hugely entertaining full of suspense and ramps up the tension and difficultly very well in my opinion. I have seen some complain of this being too easy, but there are simple ways to adjust the difficulty if this is the case for you. However, I found the difficulty to be just right, especially as I played most of this with my son. The Resident Evil legacy lives on! From a game, to a film, TV series, comics, and even a play in Japan back in 2000! Resident Evil is close to many of our hearts. The games certainly play on this using art directly from the old games and not messing with the winning formula. If you are looking for a trip back to Raccoon City and like the idea of being reacquainted with some old Zombie bashing friends, then I can think of nothing better than sitting down and playing through the scenarios in Resident Evil 3. I absolutely loved it.

Steampunk Rally Fusion WBG Score: 9/10 Player Count: 2-8 Players You’ll like this if you like, Rallyman GT, RoboRally, Pitch Car. Published by: Roxley Designed by: Orin Bishop Steampunk Rally first come out in 2015, giving players the chance to create “wacky” cars in a two to eight player race game. 2021 saw the sequel to this, Steampunk Rally Fusion. A stand-alone game that can be played on its own or combined with the original in what is called the Atomic edition. This review is for all of this. The version I have brings all the parts from both games. Offering the chance to play Steampunk Rally, Steampunk Rally Fusion or a combined version of both, Steampunk Rally Fusion Atomic edition. Keeping up? I hope so, the race is about to begin! For those familiar with the original, Steampunk Rally Fusion brings new tracks, new unique event cards, new Gear Up and Overcharge abilities, new ‘Fusion’ dice, and Secret Projects. It is very easy to add these in with no additional time or major rules for fans of the first game. They all work as individual modules you can mix-and-match as you see fit. On Your Marks! To set up, choose the terrain you wish to race on. There are four choices, two from each version of the game. The two news ones, Mars and Machu Pichu, offer new terrain features. There are Traps in Machu Pichu which will force you to take either two damage to your vehicle or discard an unplayed die from your dice pool. Mars introduces Canals and Fusion Factories. The Canals will allow you to discard a die from your invention if you end your turn within them, but require either two movement or one smooth movement to travel through them. The Fusion Factories allow players to spend two cogs to gain one of the powerful fusion dice. Once your track is set up, and you may lay it out however you like, in any order or shape. It’s now time to choose your racing character. There are 28 to pick from across the two games, and any can be used for any variation of the game. They all come with their own unique cockpit and special powers. They are all based on famous scientists, inventors, explorers and adventurous from the eighteen and nineteen hundreds, as well as Pachacuti, who lived from 1438 to 1471 and is the guy who could claim Machu Pichu as his pad. Each player will take a damage gauge set to zero, a light bulb, their starting cockpit cards, and then lay out all the cogs and dice so they are easily accessible for all players. At this stage you can choose to add in the Event decks, Secret Projects, and Challenge tiles if you wish. I will go into those later. Get Set! There are four types of cards used to build and power your machine to victory. These are Gold, Silver, Copper, and Boost cards. There are two sets in the box, one for each game. The Fusion version are clearly marked with a fusion logo on, so you can pick which ever ones you want, suitable to the game you are playing or combine them all for the Atomic game. Shuffle the ones you are using and lay them out in four separate piles. To play the game, simply take one of each cards and choose one to keep. You will then pass the other three to the player to you left or right depending on the draft tile. Take another and pass again. Do this until all four have been used. The cards can be used to either build up your race machine, sell for parts (dice or cogs), or stash for use later in the case of the boost cards. If you have any dice on your machine, you can then vent any you wish using cogs. Each cog spent can reduce a die face by two. You will do this because dice placed onto your machine can only be used the turn they are placed. After that, they just clog up your machine and must be removed before that space can be used again. Go! Players then move into the race phase where the fun really begins! All players will roll any unused dice in the pool, spend cogs to re-roll or manipulate the dice faces by one if they wish, use their light bulb to make use of any available extra powers, and finally activate their machine parts. The machines you construct will change constantly each round. Adding new parts to your machine will bring new powers. Adding dice to these parts will activate them. Some will generate extras dice, some will allow you to repair yourself, vent dice or inflict damage or other players, and others will allow you to race forward on the track. Movement is either smooth or normal. Normal is fine unless the terrain ahead of treacherous in which you need smooth movement to avoid these pitfalls. This part of the game feels more like a euro game. There is a clear element of engine building here, quite literally. But there is also a strong element of resource management. If I put this resource (dice) here, I can then generate this resource (dice) which can be placed here to allow me to move (race) here. Fans of coloured cube pushing will be in race heaven! Flipping your lightbulb means you can use any part of your machine that has the lightbulb symbol on. This can only be done once per round but can be a very powerful and effective way to generate extra dice and movement without having to use dice. Let’s Get Dicey! Each part of your machine that requires dice will have a number or star printed on it. Let’s say you have a machine part that generates movement and it has a five next to it with four dice spaces. This means that for each total of five on any dice present, you can move one space. Add one dice to the value of five or more and you can move once that round. Add four dice adding to 20 or more and you can move four times. If it is a star, it simply needs a dice. Any value will do. But this only works for the turn the dice are added. Each dice will then sit there, redundant, spent. Until you remove it through the vent phase. The fusion dice can really help here as they can roll up to nine. But be warned! A fusion die can never be removed from your machine. They are just too powerful! But worry not, most of your machine will be blowing up soon anyway! Through the ‘Overcharge’ function, some of the new Fusion cards allow you to add a one-time effect such as extra movement, new dice or inflicting damage, but only if you are prepared to lose that machine part for good. You are pushing your engine beyond its maximum limit to deliver a one-time effect before, kaboom! Don’t be afraid to do this as races can be quick, and extra movement or powers can be very useful. Machine parts can also be lost if you take damage on the course, which happens frequently! When you move into difficult terrain without smooth movment, or take damage other ways, you must rotate your damage dial one space counter clockwise. If you cannot repair your machine by the end of your turn, you must remove one part of your invention for each negative number you have. Your damage then resets, but you could then be left with a very different looking machine! You shouldn’t worry about this too much. Your contraption will grow and shrink, be developed, and destroyed over and over. This is part of the fun. Enjoy seeing the different form your cockpit takes each round! Once this is all done, remove any stored dice, discard any unused dice, flip your light bulb token if you used it and then flip the draft direction tile over and start another round. Players will keep doing this until someone crosses the finish line. At which point there will be one final round and then the inventor furthest across the line wins. As the game reaches a crescendo you will find players taking more powerful turns as their machine increases in size and power. It’s exciting to see people catch up by huge amounts and overtake people in the later rounds. Module Madness The Secret Projects are hidden long term goals that players can add in as an additional module at the start of the game. These are simple goals that players can look to achieve to gain additional benefits. Players can use dice for these projects rather than their machine. The dice need to be in a run of at least three, (at least three consecutive numbers), and then added to the secret project card in the race phase. You then move along the number track on the card with a tracking clip, and when you reach a certain number, you can activate extra powers. For example, this could be the chance to get seven extra fusion dice if you reach the maximum on the ‘Nuclear Stockpile’ secret mission. The Event deck replaces the draft tile and can be used on the two racetracks from the Fusion version, Mars or Machu Pichu. You will either use the Artifact or Tripod deck. These cards are used whenever any racer ends their turn on a certain part of the track (which is most of it!) In the upkeep phase, if you find yourself on the pink spaces in Machu Pichu or the red spaces on Mars, players must draw the top card of the deck and place it face up next to that zone. You then must apply the effects of that card. This could be a chance to peak at top two cards of the artifact deck, gain or discard a die, lose a machine part, gain extra movement, move back one space, lose cogs, or have their ability to use their lightbulb token taken away for one round. The Challenge tiles can be added to the racetrack at set up and offer even more variation and additional benefits to players who land on these spaces. The Crowd tiles, new to this version of the game, allow players the chance to get five extra cogs, less any incomplete valve on their machine. There are also seven different tiles from the original. The Coal Mine, Power Station and Newcomen Atmospheric Engine tiles allow a player to spend one cog to gain one die. The Rails allow players to discard the yellow electricity die from the unplayed dice pool to gain two motion. The Steam Pony allows you to swap the blue steam die to gain three cogs. The Glaciers force you to lose either one red heat die or take two damage. And the jump spaces force you to move back out of the spaces that have this marker. Gear Up and Move Out! The final new power is the ‘Gear Up’ powers that some machine parts have. This will be displayed by a large cog, circled on the card next to an additional benefit. Place the required number of cogs into this space, to ‘Gear Up’ this part and gain extra powers. Cogs on these slots cannot ever be removed a little like Fusion dice, but they offer an ongoing benefit each time the card is activated. This is a race game like no other. It feels like the fusion between a euro game focusing on resource management, an engine building drafting game, and a crazy race game filled with the thrills and spills of the racetrack. With all the different parts and long rule book, learning it can seem daunting at first for what looks like a light race game. But as we have discussed, this is a medium weight resource management game in race form and it can be quickly understood if you give it some time. Star Treking Across the Universe. The theme of this game is a little lost. The whole idea that you are playing as an inventor, travelling through time, trying to prevent a war with the Martian race is completely lost on me in truth. I love the idea. I read the story blurb before each game, but within minutes I am focusing on my machine and dice, and not thinking about wars, Mars, or time travel at all. This does not detract from the game. The theme is certainly present throughout the art, game and rule book. It’s just the game is so absorbing and actually quite resource heavy, that I am not thinking outside of this. The games works in a two. And can be perfect for a quick two-plyer game. But it shines in higher player counts. Probably best in a four or five for me. There seems to be more going on. More of a frantic and frenzied race. I like more standees on the track and more things happening. I also prefer to not see any cards again once I pass them on in the draft, which of course with four cards, happens in any game above three players. It makes each choice much more important. I have really enjoyed every game of Steampunk Rally and Steam Punk Rally Fusion. Oh, and the Atomic version too! In truth, this version doesn’t feel like three different games. It feels like one with a few modules and variations. But this is certainly the copy I would get if I had neither already. If you already have Steampunk Rally and love it, then I would recommend looking at this. But if you don’t love it, this won’t change the game enough to make you think differently. But if you are looking for a race game that has a little more going for it than the usual card or dice play, this could be the one for you! There is enough in this box to create a multitude of different race combinations. And the satisfaction had from creating a powerful and hardworking race machine is something I will enjoy for many years to come. Oh, and did I mention the gears are metal!?

There are so many great games published in France that for one reason or another, do not get picked up by UK distributors. One person spotted this obvious opportunity and started a business in the summer of 2021 to provide a UK forum for these wonderful games. Since then, a flood of fantastic titles has hit the UK shelves. Games that were previously flourishing in mainland Europe but unavailable to British gamers. Flavien Loisier, the man behind the plan, has been busy hitting conventions, social media, and game events to spread the good word. But with games this good, this should be a walk in the park! We have recently been enjoying several great Hachette games. Let’s take a look at five of our favourites. All offering a very interesting and sometimes unique experience. Ganymede WBG score: 8/10. 2-4 Players – Set collection/ Engine building / Race Space themed game. Plays 20-40 Minutes. Suitable for 8 plus. Ganymede is a fantastic game. The art is striking and suits the space theme very well. But I think the main selling point for this title is the amount of game packed into such a short and light table experience. You will feel a significant amount of strategy and interesting decisions are needed to succeed within what is a quick and relatively light game. In Ganymede, players are looking to recruit settlers to their intergalactic space corporation to help them travel first from the Earth to Mars, and then from Mars to Ganymede. You will need to use different shuttles for each part of the journey, in a game that challenges you to increase your efficiency of turn through building a quick and productive engine. Each shuttle and settler piece has a symbol on it. When you take one that has a matching symbol to another that you already have, you can use the effect of the chosen piece again. As you move your settlers along from Earth to Mars and ultimately to Ganymede, you will also be trying to improve your company’s reputation and diversify the type of shuttle ships you use. At various stages on the reputation track, there are opportunities to take additional actions. And when you have one shuttle of each type, you can launch a settler ship to Ganymede immediately. Considering the game ends when one player launches their fourth settler ship, this is a very powerful additional action to take. As the game is quick, and full of opportunities to increase your turns power, this game is all about trying to maximise these cascading options. Recruiting the right shuttle to move the right types of settlers seems to be all this game is asking you to do at the start of the game. But players will quickly realise this is about a longer-term plan. Choosing a shuttle that moves a red and blue settler when you only have red ones available may seem inefficient. But if it gives you the symbol you want to enact a certain power more than once, or to get your final symbol to launch a settler ship, then the overall power of this turn will prove more significant. Making these decisions in Ganymede is a highly satisfying and enjoyable experience. Essentially this is a race game. Trying to maximise your efficiencies to launch your fourth ship first, whilst ensuring you are not falling behind the other scoring opportunities in the game. I think it works best in a two. It can be frustrating for certain shuttle or settlers’ pieces to be taken by other players, which of course happens more in a higher player counts. Largely, there is not a huge amount of thinking required in this. Make a plan and execute it. In higher player counts, you can be sometimes left waiting for your go. But in a two, this has quickly become one of my go too games when I only have 30 minutes. But I want to feel like I have played something with some meat on the bones. Ganymede certainly delivers for that. Ghost Adventure WBG score: 6.5/10. 1-4 Players – Dexterity story telling game. Plays 10-30 Minutes. Suitable for 6 plus. Ghost Adventure plays like no other game I have seen or experienced before. Remember those spinning tops you had as a kid? You often get them in crackers? You know, they have a cone shaped bottom with a handle which you can spin them from? The idea being how long can you make them spin for. Well, in Ghost Adventure, they have somehow turned this into a game! The idea is that you are moving through duel layered boards, moving your spinning top over certain images to collect or interact with them. This is a dexterity challenge, but in truth, more a test of your patience and subtle hand movements! Ghost Adventure has three main game modes. Solo, Adventure or Quests. Each modes asks players to move the spinning top over certain images on the multiple game boards. The Adventure mode is the one with the most story, so I will focus on that here. In Ghost Adventure, you are playing the ghost of a mouse. The mouse is looking to help a group of animals on an island that has just had their sacred statues destroyed by the wolf-warriors of the north. Your job, using a delightfully illustrated comic book, is to travel through the eight different worlds, and visit different people, collect different items, and travel to different places to progress the story. You do this by first spinning the top. There are two provided. One which you must engage in the usual way. A quick flick of the fingers. The other has a pull mechanism which starts the top itself. This is better with younger children who may not be able to initiate a good spin. It also starts the top spinning in a more controlled way. This is important, as you need to move the top through a series of grooves and channels on the duel layered boards to run over the certain target art required for that mission. Some of the boards have holes and fiendishly cut grooves to hinder your progress, and it will certainly take a few turns to master. But I found even my younger daughter who was six at the time of playing had a quick and impressive learning curve with the technique required. As you progress through the comic book, you will be taught new rules and rewarded with new powers. Being able to jump up to other levels of the board, or teleport from one board to another certainly helps speed up your progress and increases the fun factor! The idea being that in a multiplayer game, each player is holding a different board, and when one player has collected all they need to from their board, they either teleport, or move to the exit, to then roll or jump to the next persons board. All of course, whilst the top is still spinning. Players will be looking to get as far as they can across the multiple boards used in each mission before the top runs out of spin. You are able to restart the spin four times using the relaunch potions, so this won’t end your game. But it certainly becomes more of a challenge as the game goes on to reach the final part of each mission in time. The Quest mode acts similarly, but without as much of a story. The solo mode has 15 simple missions for you to try on your own. Great practice for your next adventure! I have thoroughly enjoyed my time with Ghost Adventure. I am unsure if it is a board game as such, but do the semantics really matter? I sat with my family for many hours over multiple days playing our way through the story and it delivered many laughs, cries, and screams. My family enjoyed the unique nature of this game and the story it told. The sense of satisfaction from completing a team task is very high too, and for this alone I think this game should come recommended by WBG. But fair warning, some players may find this frustrating at first, so go easy on the first few games! Photoshoot WBG score: 6.5/10. 1-4 Players – Dexterity / Puzzle game. Plays 10-20 Minutes. Suitable for 6 plus. Photoshoot is a game very much aimed at the modern generation of younger gamers! You play as a team of photographers looking to shoot a group of celebrities. You must organise them all into the right positions but remember to care for their every needs! To set-up, place the nine character tiles into a random three-by-three square, then flip over the first objective cards, and move each character into the right space to match the card. You can only move tiles one space, swapping them with one of their orthogonally adjacent characters. Players must work in teams, moving one character at a time, in turn with their team. Oh, and all whilst working in silence. And all within a 1.5-minute timer! As the game progresses, you will flip over certain effect cards that bring new rules into the game for each character. Some tiles will need to always remain next to other ones, the Foxes affection for the Squirrel being never ending for example. Other characters will require you as the player to say or do something, such as shout the words “Say Cheese” or perform a two-handed wave! The idea being that a simple game, slowly becomes more difficult with new rules to remember. If any team member gets a rule wrong, or forgets to say or do something, then the other team, if they spot it, can stop the timer and make a rule check. This is a way for teams to score a point depending on the outcome of the ruling, but the main goal is to complete as many objective cards as possible in your allocated time, scoring two for each one, and reach 25 points first. This game is very quick to learn and play with children, and due to the physical nature of the mechanics loved by younger gamers, is a sure-fire winner. There is a real sense of satisfaction in completing the objective cards, and the race to the points target adds a fun element of competition that adds tension to the game, but not pressure. Suitable for younger gamers. There is a family variant where you don’t apply some of the more complex character rules, and of course you can always house rule certain parts and not play with any of them. Or with them all added in from the start for a bigger challenge. With or without the timer, just for some fun. There are lots of ways to play this, and I have found that this is a regular after dinner request from my family due to its simple, quick, and fun gameplay. Imagician WBG score: 7/10. 2-4 Players – Real-time / Line drawing / “Spotting” game. Plays 10-20 Minutes. Suitable for 6 plus. Imagician offers players a chance to see who can spot the crazy shape first! Do that skill well, and you will win the game! Set up by giving each player a pen and double-sided board. Place the timer and cards in the center of the table and you are ready to play! The cards will show a series of symbols, either connected or on their own. If they are connected, you need to find the two shapes on the board and connect them with a line. If they are shown alone, you must circle them. The game is a race to see who can find and mark each shape first, and then identify through the lines and circles they have drawn, what shape they have just illustrated. Write down the name of the item you think you have just drawn, and then start the timer. Each other player then has 30 seconds to finish their drawing and make their own guess. The first player to finish and correctly guess the shape wins two points. Any other players who guessed right within the time wins one point. The game runs for 8 cards, and the player with the most stars after this final card is the winner. The game has an excellent catch-up mechanic. Well, more of a ‘don’t let one player run away with the lead’ mechanic! The player who wins each round must flip their board over for the next card. The reverse side of the board shows the same shapes in the same locations, otherwise the game wouldn’t work. But now, they are all in black and white. This makes a huge difference in the difficulty and is a great idea for players from different ages or abilities to be able to play together. If you like the idea of the calm, meditative state you need to be in to find the right shapes and work smoothly to draw all the lines, I think you will love this game! I found the process thoroughly enjoyable. I was not great at it, and often got lost in my head trying to find one shape. But I enjoyed the process. I liked trying to calm my mind, focus my eye, and work methodically round the board to find the right shape. Like some other games here, Imgaician is not really a board game, more an exercise, But an exercise in patience and concentration. One I think we can all perhaps do with a few lessons in sometimes! In the Palm of your Hand WBG score: 6.5/10. 2-8 Players – Sensory Party game. Plays 20-30 Minutes. Suitable for 6 plus. Like all the games on this list, In the Palm of your hand offers some unique gaming experiences many players may not have seen before. And like many other games on this list, is perhaps not really a board game. In this case, more a party game. The concept behind In the Palm of your hand is a beautiful and nostalgic dive into the players sense of touch and creativity. Each round, in teams, two players from one team will be active. One to play as the Child and another as the Grandfather. The Child’s job is to draw one card from the deck of beautifully illustrated cards and then mime what they see in the card onto the palm of the Grandfathers hand whilst the Grandfather players eyes are closed. Having watched the interaction between Child and Grandfather, but not yet seen the card, the other team must then choose a card from their hand to try and interfere with a memory. The Child will then pick a new memory, act it out onto the Grandfathers’ hand, and again, the other teams will try and interfere with it. The Child player will top up the cards in play to eight, shuffle them and place them face up for the Grandfather player to see. They must then try and guess which two memories were acted out on their hand. The active team will score one point for each correct guess. The opposing teams score a point if their cards are mistakenly chosen. Once everyone has had a chance to play as the Grandfather then the game ends. But of course, like many games of this nature you can adjust this to suit your own desires based on time and enjoyment! There is also a way to play this game through all 100 cards in the game in order, showing the Grandfathers’ life from birth to now. Which is a stunning experience. There is also an expert mode which uses cards to impose advanced rules. Such as only being able to use certain objects for the mime, not being able to touch the palm or fingers of the Grandfather or only being able to use one or three objects. I liked this challenge, but it did take away some of the creative opportunities, which for me was more important than the challenge. There are many games like this out there. The obvious unique part for In the Pam of your Hand being the sensory side. But the element that stood out for me more, was seeing the creativity from the Child player. Using random shapes and techniques to create a sense for the Grandfather player in new and imaginative ways was truly inspiring for me to watch. I love watching my children, family and friends play this game. At first, people seem a little intimidated by this game. I think there is an initial mental block that hinders your ability to think in the way the game asks you to. But after a round or two, I started to see some stunning and wonderfully inventive ways this game can be played. This is the true core of this game. Sure, there is the usual element of team competition here. But after playing this game, I am not left thinking about who won or lost. I am remembering who came up with what great idea. How a piece of plastic was used to recreate the movement of the planets. How two ends of a shoelace were used to make another player imagine rain drops on their skin. Beautiful! This game gives the equivalent feeling of the first few minutes of the Pixar film UP. If you are into that, then I would encourage you to try this game as soon as you can!

Red Rising WBG Score: 8/10 Player Count: 1–6 You’ll like this if you like: Fantasy Realms Gùgōng Lost Cities Published by: Stonemaier Games Designed by: Alexander Schmidt (II), Jamey Stegmaier Red Rising Reviews Ratings & Rants. Before I get into the review, I little background if you will. If you would rather get straight to the review, click here. I wanted to give my thoughts on the way Stonemaier games launch their games. If you would like to have a look at the the video interview with Jamey and Alex, or the preview then head here. Otherwise, read on! Red Rising Retrospective. First, I want to look at the logistics. Always a fun way to start right!? All Stonemaier Games feel like an event to me. I like the way Jamey Stegmaier goes about his business. After a few Kickstarter experiences, Jamey now prefers to use his own site to launch games. And then at a later point, mass retail for general distribution. A few months before launch, Jamey will start his design diaries on Facebook. Releasing pieces of information, day-by-day about the mechanics, art, game conception and rules. Jamey always starts this by saying he won’t give too much away at first. But if you don’t want to be teased in this way, he encourages people to come back at a set date when all will be revealed. He offers the best of both worlds. Jamey runs a weekly live broadcast on Facebook where he answers all questions from the vewing public. Nothing is off topic and he will engage with criticisms, issues, or concerns anyone may have. Often using this as a forum to explain his process to people who have not heard before. It is all so open and honest. Like most publishers, Jamey also gives out advanced copies to a select group of reviewers. They have plenty of time to learn and play the game to form an opinion. Jamey embargos the release of these reviews until a set date. This is so the reviewers are not pressured to get things out first. This gives the reviewers time to play the game multiple times, and in different player counts. This embargo date is always before the release date of the pre-order for this game. So, people have plenty of time to watch and read the reviews before they decide to pre-order or not. The pre-order date will be only a few weeks before you get the game. Jamey will not set this until production is complete, and the games are on their way to international fulfilment centres.Its nice to be able to get a new game wihtin weeks, not months! Although, in these difficult times, I appreciate that U.S. shipping for this game has been slower that expected. Red Rising Rant. So why am I talking about this? Well, it’s a great and fair system, that still gets criticised. Why? Well, because its Stonemaier. Despite being still only a small team of local passionate games developers and publishers, Stonemaier are perceived as a huge business. They have only made 11 games in nine years and have as far as I can see, three full time employees. Hardly big. But since the success of Wingspan, all things Stonemaier have been rather polarising. Wingspan ruffled some feathers with some contentious awards such as the Board Game Geek best card game of the year. It’s a great game, but is it a card game? Tapestry also upset some due to the cost of the game. The pre-painted miniatures included affected this and were seen as superfluous by some. Also, the lack of balance in the asymmetric civilisations, leading to an update on some starting rules irked others. And then Pendulum! People were not happy about plastic components, the fact it was a real-time game and the less said about inconsistent sand timers the better! But moutains and mole hills comes to mind. It seems Stonemaier games have been built up to be knocked down by a minority of people in the community. As soon as anything is seen as “big” and “popular” it is liable for attack in any walk of life. So this is of course nothing new. But it is a shame. I understand all these concerns and issues. I agree with most of the above points. But I disagree it means people should then attack Stonemaier for it. They are all minor issues, tiny insignificant things, set aainst a catalogue of brilliant games. But were all dealt with. Jamey took on board the feedback and adapted to it. Seen here with Red Rising. A game that offers a collector’s edition for people who are willing to pay more for nice components. But a cheaper retail version too, for others who are less keen. Taking the feedback from Tapestry and creating a solution. The retail version is still made to the usual high Stonemaier standards. And you can also buy the upgrade pack which would give you everything you missed out on if you later want that, bar the insert. Taking the feedback from Pendulum. Again, best of both worlds. What about Wingspan's huge success and contentious awards? Well Jamey doesn’t judge on the awards he wins! There is not much to be done here! But for the record, Wingspan is not a "card-game"! I get the reaction. But it is still a good game, who cares about titles? Well, the other great cards games that didn't win that year I suppose! And finally. In a world of extremes, the board game community is not averse to this either. It seems things must be either amazing or terrible. We have all seen the scores on BGG of 10 or 1 for some games. People have extreme opinions on things and can, it seems, often forget that it's acceptable for some games to just be "ok". You don’t have to love or hate everything. With that said, let's talk about the game now! Red Rising Review. Red Rising is set in the world created by author Pierce Brown in his series of books. A dystopian future and a world ruled by a class system based on “colour” (not related to race). People are assigned roles in life that seem impossible to break. A “Red,” the lowest class, attempts to change that. I won’t go into the story much more to avoid spoilers. But you will get all this and more from the back of the first book, so I hope that was ok! But suffice to say, it becomes a very big story and the world created is very engaging. I was excited to see how this translated to the game. The books are good fun. They create a wonderful deep world that captivated Jamey after he read Red Rising back in 2014. During which time, Jamey was busy with Scythe. He spent a few years tinkering with ideas for a Red Rising game but could not make a breakthrough. Even speaking about his failures openly here. But not long after this, Jamey stumbled across a mechanism that worked for his idea for the game. After playing Fantasy Realms, Jamey partnered with co-designer Alex Schmidt and set to work. From this, a card collecting game, very much like Fantasy realms was born. A game where players are looking to find the best combinations of cards in their hand to score the most points. I am certain the simplicity of this will put some people off. People who are more accustomed to the more mid-weight nature of Jamey’s games may be disappointed. But after playing this game now many times, I can say that is not the case for me. Before I get into the rules, I wanted to share the thoughts of Gareth from @boardgamemeeple "Red Rising delivers pretty much what was promised, a fast playing, simple to learn card game with enough depth and decision making delivered through the goal to craft the best hand of cards from those available. Juggling and adjusting your hand to optimise scoring is a real delight, especially grabbing a much needed card or claiming the Sovereign token at the last moment to both gain victory points for yourself but also making the previous holder lose the opportunity to score bonus points and hopefully claiming victory for yourself is so satisfying. The variable victory point mechanic on the cards really is something wonderful. Each card has both a VP value for itself but also gives you a chance to score bonus VPs for meeting its requirements; like pairing with other cards or owning a number of resources. This makes you strive to optimise your hand and to squeeze as many points as possible out of each card, absolutely fantastic. The only minor issue for me is that the rich and engaging world of Red Rising just doesn’t come alive through the artwork alone, which while it is a shame it doesn’t take away from the fact that Red Rising is a nicely balanced card game, a whole ton of fun and has already become my most played game this year, well done Jamey and Alex." @boardgamemeeple score - 7.5/10 As Gareth says, the rules are simple, and I can see why people may think this makes Red Rising a simple game. But it is not. But first, let me take you through the rules. Red Rising Rules. The game is simple. To set-up, lay out the board and deal two cards to each of the four areas. Jupiter, Mars, Luna, and the Institute. Then deal five cards to each player and give them their house card, player rules card, rocket and influence tokens. Then each player can place your rocket token on the Flight track. In a two-player game, you would also add three tokens to the Institute. This acts as a dummy third player for this part of the scoring. This is the only change for a two-player game. There are other rules for solo, but I won't go into that here. But you find some great information on this here. On your turn, you will place a card from your hand onto one of the four areas on the board. You can carry out that cards deploy effect if you choose. You will then take a card from any one of the other three areas and take that areas location effect. From this exchange of cards, players are looking to maximize the points from the cards in their hand. Each card has a simple score on the top left, but also an end game scoring opportunity on the bottom. This will often need cards working with other cards in combo effects. And through the game you will be looking to find ways to curate a hand that works together as best you can. The Institute is where you can place your influence tokens at certain points in the game. This can be from a card deploy power or when you take a card from this part of the board and use that location benefit. At the end of the game, the person with the most influence tokens in the institute gets four points per token. The player with the second most gets two points per influence token. On the Fleet Track, players can move their ship up a space to gain more end game points. As above, this is done when a card deploy action allows it, or if you take a card from the Jupiter section of the board. Taking cards from Mars will get you one helium. Little red crystal components that score you points at the end of the game. They can also be used to buy extra cards and activate other end game card powers. The last area is Luna. This is how you get the Sovereign Token. This gets you 10 points at the end of the game if you have it, but also combos with certain card powers for extra points. Play continues until as a group, all three of the following factors have happened. Someone has got seven helium, at least seven points are on the Fleet Track and at least seven influence tokens are in the Institute. This does not have to be the same person doing all three of these things. Rather, they need to have been reached collectively. Once this happens, each player counts up their points from their cards, and activates any end game powers. They then add their points from their helium crystals, points from the Fleet track and tokens in the Institute to get their final score. Most points wins. Want to play again? Red Rising Response. OK, so you have learnt the game in under five minutes of reading, and I get that makes it sound simple. But it is worth noting that one thing Jamey looks for in a game is that it can be explained to others with ease. He does not want to publish games that are intimidating or long and boring to learn and teach. This may seem off brand? With games like Scythe and Euphoria published, which on the surface, look like more complex games. And they are mid to high weight games, but they are also easy to learn and teach. Way easier than some may think. Hard to master for sure, but easy to get started. But is there any complexity in Red Rising beyond the simple mechanic and gameplay? Yes! Yes there is! And very simply, from the card-combos. At the end of the game, you will have between four and seven cards. Perhaps more, maybe less. But generally, that amount. But you can still score between 100-400 points from these. The combo effects are huge, wild and fun, but also, complex. Players will be thinking through the game about what cards have come up? What is available? What may not be seen in this game? What card to keep? What to deploy? Which ones to try and pair with something else? What cards are you opponents perhaps keeping based on the cards they are taking? It is very deep. It can lead to a bit of mild analysis paralysis for some players as they learn the deck and opponents tactics. Red Rising is simple in rules and Mechanics, but it is not simple in strategy. Well, if you want to try and score well anyway! Any analysis paralysis is understandable. But don't worry, it does not worry the game. But there are 112 unique cards in this game all offering new and exciting ways to score points at the end of the game. You will want to have a bit of a think! But this can make the end game scoring sometimes a lengthy process. Which is another complaint I am sure this game will get. So, let’s get into that! Red Rising Recording. A typical game for me at two-player took on average 25-35 minutes to play. For three players, around 35-55 minutes. Each time, scoring was around ten minutes to complete. Some people will not like that balance. Thinking too much time is spent counting and not playing. But I loved it. The scoring was a fun part of the process. I enjoyed seeing what each player had done with their cards. There are some ways to see how people are doing during the game score wise. From the progress they are making on the Fleet Track, how many Helium tokens they have and how many Influence tokens they have in the Institute. But this usually pales to the hundreds of points in each player's hand that you will not know about. So the score at the end can be a bit of an event. It’s fun to go through card by card, how many points each player has, and for the early games, learn how each player did it. To see which cards work well with others, and which less so. I enjoyed the process, for both the dramatic reveal of the scores, but also learning and analysis of the game. So many games end with a moment of, “and you got 124 and I got 67. Well done! What's next?” Whereas with Red Rising, there is a bit of drama. It unfolds over time and can be exciting! Jamey is looking to develop an APP to speed this process up for those that will not enjoy this. But it was a simple thing to do, it is just a matter of time. But as I say, it was a fun part of the game. I didn’t see it as the game had ended and it was now dull end game admin. I found the process to be a part of the game itself and an enjoyable one. But this is a key consideration to make if you are on the fence with this game. Red Rising Recipe. The fun in this game lives within the card combos. This is where the complexity lies too, but it is also where the joy from the game comes. Finding cards that work together is very satisfying. The way this game asks you to curate your hand is so engrossing. Sometimes, you may need to place a card down you want to keep, to free up another card you also want. This of course puts the first card at risk of being taken by the other players in the game. Anything on the board is free game for any other player and you won’t always know what their plans are. You may also tempt them to change their plans with a juicy piece of bait. This is also a fascinating part of the game that started to come through for me from game six onwards. Players started to second guess what other people were doing. And on quite a few occasions, laid cards as bait or as a bluff. Hoping to fool their opponents into assuming they were playing a certain way to distract them from their real plan. I don’t have many games that play as "rule-light" as this, but also offer the level of complexity with the scoring. As such, it meant that I played it a lot. And that I and those I was playing it with, all got quite adept at the game quickly. I am more used to playing a new game five to ten times whilst the new game sheen lasts. And then it falls into a "once every few months" rotation when something else comes through the door. I don’t see this happening with Red Rising. The game plays in such a short amount of time but offers such complexity and satisfaction with the scoring. As such, this is the perfect medium length game. It plays in under an hour every time, and it is easy to teach and learn. Red Rising has to score well considering how often I would be willing to pay this game. Red Rising Red Flags. The components are great. The presentation is great. The rule book is great. But it is not perfect. Theme wise, like Pendulum and Tapestry, I am left a little underwhelmed. I don’t feel I am in the Red Rising world at all. There is zero story in this game. This is to avoid any spoilers for those that have not read the books. I get that. But this is an IP. People expect a bit of that don’t they? Jamey hopes people will read the books from playing the game and I am sure that will happen a lot. It worked for me and many others I have seen talk about now reading the book having been inspired by this game. But I do think it’s a shame that more of the Red Rising universe isn’t felt in the gameplay itself. The characters are there for sure, but they mean nothing to the game. It can become a little abstract to play. This is my only criticism. But a big one for me. Scythe created this amazing world that so many of us fell in love with. This is a big part of Stonemaier’s success. We all want to fall in love with another world that Jamey and his team create. This will come from the open-world game Jamey is developing due for a release in a few years. But I hoped I would see more of this in Red Rising too. This is the rod Jamey has created for his back. It is hard for a card-collecting game to have as expansive and immersive a world as a large-board engine-builder with mechs! I understand that. But I do feel something could have been done in Red Rising to develop this a little more. Some flavour text on each card? Event cards that change the scoring or game proceedings that are linked to events in the books? A minor point that has also come up is the deck size. In most games, especially at a lower player count, you will not get through the deck. A lot of the cards need other cards to be present to maximise their scoring. If they don’t come up; those powers are redundant. This can be frustrating and did bug me for the first three games. I then realised I was playing the game wrong. I was trying to make my starting hand work for me too much. I was being stubborn with my “Plan A”. But then I started working with the cards I had available to me, rather than the cards I wanted to have, and this changed. It became a much better experience. I realised each game was going to be very different based on what comes up and I started to enjoy the game even more. Another small issue is the colours of some of the components being too similar in the Collector Edition. As they are metal, Jamey explained it was hard to get huge differences. This does not affect the game but a point that has been raised by some. There may be the odd second take in low light but that’s it. I agree it can also be momentarily confusing when you are setting up or packing away if they get mixed up. But the inlay does have a separate home for everything. Red Rising Round-Up. I like this game. It sits currently sixth in my all-time Stonemaier favourites. Behind, Scythe, Viticulture, Wingspan, Tapestry, and Euphoria. But ahead of Charterstone, Pendulum, Between Two Castles and My Little Scythe, and Between Two Cities. It is very different to any of these other games. Quicker and lighter, closest to Between Two Castles for weight. But with a lot more satisfaction in the scoring. I felt more in control of my destiny than when playing Between Two Castles. And as silly as it sounds, the huge numbers available in the scoring do make it more fun. I like scoring in the double and triple hundreds for games! If you are looking for the next Scythe, you will not find that here. If you want a game that oozes the IP, you will not get what you hope for. But if you want a polished, Stonemaier game that is the perfect sub hour game, then look no further. Red Rising is a solid game that I will keep in my collection and enjoy for many years to come.

K3 WBG Score: 7/10 Player Count: 2-4 You’ll like this if you like: Azul, Patchwork, Hive. Published by: Helvetiq Designed by: Philippe Proux Designer Philippe Proux has a passion for wood work, mountaineering and games. It doesn't come as much of a surprise that he brings the world K3, a wooden strategy game about climbing a mountain. Using beautifully crafted wooden pieces, the game works as a co-op or competitive game, and brings a delightful sensation of calm strategy to the table. To set up K3, place all the wooden pieces bar the white and grey ones into the provided bag. A high quality cotton bag bringing added portability to this game. Draw nine pieces out at random and lay them out as the base of the mountain. All players will now draw pieces according to the player count. 17 each for a two player, 12 for a three player, and nine for a four player. Each player will also get a combination of the white and grey pieces depending on player count again. Players must then quickly assort their pieces into a pyramid. With a base of six, five, or four depending on how many pieces you have. The first player to finish building their pyramid will take the first turn. The trick here is to be quick so you can go first, but not so quick that you build your pieces in a disadvantageous way. On your turn, you will place a piece from your pyramid onto the base of the mountain, showing your route up the hazardous path. You may only take pieces that are available from your pyramid, as in, one that has no other pieces on top of it. And when placing your piece onto the mountain, it must touch one colour the same as its own. As such, when you are setting up your pyramid, you will want to spread out the colours as best you can, and look to leave suitable pieces near the top, based on the colour of the pieces on the mountain base. You will also have your white and grey pieces which you will want to space out near the bottom third of the mountain, it's unlikely you will want them sooner. The grey pieces act as wild and can be placed on any colour. The white piece acts as you taking a rest. You remove the white piece from our pyramid, but do not place it onto the mountain. You do not forfeit your turn, or get penalised in anyway, but no progress is made up the mountain. If you are ever in a situation where you cannot place a piece legally onto the mountain, or you are out of pieces before the mountain summit has been reached, then you are eliminated. This is a last player standing situation, so you must plan accordingly. The last player still in the game wins. If you are ever in a situation where you can only place a piece onto the mountain so that it touches two other pieces of the same colour then you must allow the following player to chose one of your accessible pieces to take as their own There is also a cooperative variety where players work together to try and reach the summit. This works similarly to the main game, with players taking it in turns to place a piece onto the mountain with the same rules as the competitive game. Except victory here is attained by reaching the top with all players still in the game. If you do not make it or any player is eliminated, then all players loose. Playing K3 feels very calming. The puzzle to first assort your own pyramid, and then place your pieces correctly onto the mountain so that you will not leave yourself short later in the game is one that I take great satisfaction from. Of course, in the competitive game, you can be scuppered by your opponents, but the challenge does feel more like a solitary one. You can of course see what pieces your opponents have coming up, and plan your move accordingly, it depends on how you wish to play. I prefer the cooperative experience where this doesn't happen. Completing the mountain path feels fulfilling. Like you have achieved something as a team. But the game plays quick enough that any failed attempts can be quickly forgotten as another attempt for the summit is made. Missing out by one piece as the picture below shows can be a real heart break! Just one more wild, green or yellow for the top piece was needed! This is a highly tactile game. From the beautifully constructed box, to the cotton bag, and finally the expertly crafted wooden pieces, everything feels like it has been made with real attention to detail and high quality. It is a delight to hold and manipulate these pieces in your hand. The hexagon shapes fit together side by side on the mountain beautifully. They roll in your finger tips so delightfully as you ponder you next move in a manner I think only board game hobbyist would understand! This game feels unique in my collection. (Steadily reaching 500). This is an abstract strategy game at its heart. But the physical construction, built between players either cooperatively or competitively, brings something new to the table for me. This works perfectly as a quick filler or a game to take out with you to the park. I am always on the look out for weather proof games. Not just from the rain, but the wind too. Far to many cards have blown away from my exterior tables for my liking. A nice solid weighty piece like this always catches my eye. Find any flat surface and you will be playing in seconds. This game worked well for me with my two children, (6 and 8) and I can see it being the perfect game to teach kids multiple game and physical disciplines. I would recommend this to anyone who enjoys games such as Hive. This has a similar component quality to that, working in multiple environments and situations. It is simple enough to teach in minutes. But still with a challenge that will satisfy those looking for a quick, fun, strategic game.

Dice Trip WBG Score: 7/10 Player Count: 1-4 You’ll like this if you like: Any roll and write! Published by: Helvetiq Designed by: Hartmut Kommerell Dice Trip has a very pure concept. The package, name, branding, theme, rules and structure are all very clear. In a world of roll and writes turned up to 11, Dice Trip brings the genre back to the core. And the net result is a very pleasing, relaxing, and meditative game. This, I feel, is what this mechanism should be about. Some other games have somewhat over complicated the idea of rolling a dice and marking the result on a sheet of paper in the pursuit of points. With games like Ganz Schon Clever, I like the clever cascading affect created. With Hadrian’s Wall, I love the deeply entrenched theme and structure. With Divvy Dice, I enjoy the choices and solo campaign experience. But all three, sometimes, just feel like too much of a game. This sounds silly I know. But aren’t roll and writes supposed to be simple? I love all the aforementioned games, and will play them for years to come. They are my top three in the genre in fact. But I did have a longing for a more simplistic roll and right for those times when I am tired in my collection. Dice Trip hits this spot perfectly. Time to Roll! To set up, give each player a sheet and a pencil. Done! The rules? Well, they are not that much more complicated. Lets see if we can do it in three paragraphs? Players take it in turn to roll the dice. Each player must then combine the four dice to make two numbers. A five and one could make a 51 or 15 for example. Each dice must be used once, and then the two numbers created are written onto the sheet in front of each player. The sheet will show a map of Switzerland. Although there are other maps in other variants. The idea is you are looking to score points by creating links of numbers in consecutive order. A link of four cities next to each other in directly ascending order will score two points. Five consecutive cities will get three points. This runs up to a run of ten plus which would score nine points. Players will also score there longest road of ascending cities. They don’t have to be in direct order, but they must be in successive order. Players will score one point per city in this sequence. There are also points available for any number you write which has two of the same number in. 11, 22, 33 etc. And there are also coloured circles on the sheet which if you match up with the coloured dice, you will score a point. As in, there are four dice of four different colours. And for example, if you use the 4 from a blue dice to write 41 onto Basel which is the blue city, you will score an additional point. Each player has two special powers that they can use when ever they wish. One is to re-roll the dice which affects all players. The other is to use the number on a dice twice, which only affects them. Any time you can’t or don’t want to use a dice, you must cross out a city and score a negative point. No number can be written twice so sometimes this is unavoidable. The board us set up into three zones. North East, North West, and South. If you can avoid crossing a city out in all three areas you will be rewarded with nine additional bonus points at the end of the game. If you have crosses in just one area, you will gain seven points. And if you have just one zone without any crossed-out cities you will get four points. Points will also be awarded if you can place a number from each 'decade'. That’s the entire game. Highest score wins. Players will carry on until all cities have a number or a cross in. It feels so natural and relaxing to play. I find I can set up and teach this game to new players within a minute, and we are usually done for game one within ten minutes. This game is best played relaxed on a couch. Drinking a hot beverage of your choice. Perhaps planning a driving holiday. Maybe even to Essen one year! That’s certainly how I last played it just now and it was a delight! The game works well in a solo or two, and is an idea filler or "chiller" game. There is a delicate balance between getting your numbers into the right place, building the ascending roads, and not blocking other scoring opportunities. Learning where to place your first numbers is key and understanding the setup of the score sheet will help players improve their score; rewarding repeat plays. This improvement is satisfying and another reason this game is just so relaxing. The feeling I get when I play this game is one of content and relaxation. It is not the best roll and write on the market. It doesn’t try to be the cleverest. But it certainly will end up being the one I reach for more than many others due to its accessibility.

There are very few sports games out there. Let me re-phrase that. There are very few good sports games out there. Out of the thousands of games listed on BGG, over 5,000 are sports based. But a lot of those are racing games or in truth, terrible. When a new one comes long, I am often highly skeptical of it. I am unsure why. Surely a good one has to come around soon? But I often pass on playing them due to the many poor experiences I have had in the past. Recently, I saw a demo of ManagerBall at UKGE and was very impressed. There was something a little more thought out with this game than some others that made me think this could be one of the few good sports games. Having now run through many ‘seasons’ with this game, I can safely say that it is fun. There are some issues with it that I would like to see tweaked. But overall, this was a fun experience. It felt unique, and I had fun playing. Let’s see how it plays. Kick Off! On the surface, the game is loosely based on a Top Trumps mechanic, but there is a lot more going on. Players will select a team from six pre-set groups of cards. The only really difference is the name of the players and their kit colour. All the teams are evenly balanced. You will then place your selected starting 11 face-down on your player mat leaving you with three substitutes. Each player has a group of ratings like Top Trumps. Speed, Aggression, Technique etc. You can alternate your formation to some degree, but largely this part feels a little prescribed, and each team starts largely the same. Each player will then be able to “sign” a Superstar player. There is a deck of cards you can draw from, full of players with higher stats and jazzy kits! This one player can be instantly added into your starting 11, and could be a Goalkeeper, Defender, Midfielder, or Attacker. This is where some minor asymmetry kicks in. Using the IOS enabled app, one person will then need to enter in the team names and colours for each person playing. It works from two up but is a lot more fun with at least four players controlling one team each. The app will generate a fixture list for you and tell you which two players are up first. You will see all the fixtures, so you can have two games running at once if you have at least four players. But in a three-player league, one person will be watching at all times. Games are quick and fun to watch though, so this is not a fault. Games consist of players choosing a card to flip. They must start with Attackers first when attacking, and Defenders first when defending. Midfielders work for either discipline when you have exhausted the usual suspects. The home team starts with possession and will pick one of their Attackers first. They will flip the card and pick one of the statistics from their chosen card and read out loud which one they are going for, and their players appropriate score. If they have a higher number than their opponent, they can then have a shot on goal. So far, so Top Trumps. Strikers will have two shots (two die rolls). Midfielders just the one. Defenders also only one, but with a negative two attributed to their dice roll. Shooting consists of throwing the 26 sided die into the provided stadium shaped dice tray (which is awesome). Roll a one and you will score an own goal, roll a 20 and you will somehow manage to score twice as well as getting your hands on the goal of the season trophy. If you roll higher than the defending goalkeepers stats. You will score. If you roll less than half their stats, the goalkeeper will catch the shot and possession is overturned. Anything in between means the attacking player will pick a new player and start the process again. The dice also has multiple ‘refs whistle’ icons on a number of the sides that will elicit a card draw from the appropriate deck. These cards could see your players being sent off, injured, or a penalty, free kick or corner being awarded. It can also prompt the end of the game which can be frustrating if this happens early in a game. Fantastic if you are currently leading! Otherwise, the match is finished when both players have used each of their ten outfield players once. Full-Time. And this is the entire football part of the game. You will be doing this over and over, game after game. But crucially, wining games is only part of the actual game experience. Sure, winning games helps. Winning games will get you points in the game. ManagerBall points. But it is not the entire objective. You are playing more as Chairman and Manager of this team, not just the manager. Your overall objective is about your club’s sustainability financially as well as success on the field. You will start the game with a cool £25m in the bank. Sounds a lot. But after each game you need to pay your players wages. If you win the match, this is manageable. You will get a £5m win bonus, £1m for TV rights and potentially a bit more from other sponsors or ad-hoc rewards. However, if you lose, and perhaps get fined for your poor conduct in the post-match TV interview, your funds will quickly become depleted and over time you can fall into administration. This is all managed by cards that are drawn by both managers after each game. The variety of rewards and punishments from these cards is high and a lot of fun. The risk of leaving yourself exposed financially is real. We can't all be like City! Let’s Shop! Other than paying your players wages, the main way you will spend your money is in the transfer market. At the end of each season, when each team has played each other team twice, all players will enter a transfer window. This a chance for players to sell unwanted players to other teams or the bank, buy new Superstar players, and can also be a time when you are forced to sell one of your better players. Cards drawn earlier in the game could force a sale of one of your preferred starting players in the next transfer window. You will always be fairly rewarded for these forced sales, but of course, you would prefer to sell your weaker players, not your better ones. But this football. Players have feelings and sometimes want to go, no matter what the club did for them. Looking at you Jack. Each player can take part in up to two transfers, crucial if you need some funds, or want to improve your starting 11. The off-season break will also see players being rewarded financially for their finishing position in the league based on the results on the pitch. As well as one person winning significant prize money if they currently hold the goal of the season trophy. Awarded to anyone who last rolled a 20 when attempting a shot. Depending on your player count and available time, you can play multiple seasons or just one. That’s entirely up to you. But at the end of each season, the app will ask you to enter your current financial situation, rewarding each player with more ManagerBall points, based on their current fiscal position relatively speaking to the other players. A league table will then be created based on the Manager points you got from your league position and financial situation. More than just a game. This game is far more than just a sports simulation, or the simple Top Trump mechanic of comparing stats of one card to another. That is a core part of the game, and if that doesn’t sound fun, then the rest may not make up for it. But if you do feel you would enjoy that kind of quick card play, the rest of the mechanisms will certainly draw you into this game. I enjoy the balancing act between trying to upgrade your players and win games, all whilst trying to stay afloat financially. The first few games I played I ran into administration very quickly due to poor play and one rule mistake! Not being able to pay you player wages after games forces you to sell player for half their face value to the bank until you can pay their wages. This quickly results in you not being able to fill a full team, and ends your chances of winning the game very quickly. I later found a more conservative way to manage my finances, which while at first, was frustrating, ultimately ended up with a more satisfying experience. The best way I can explain this, is by saying this is more of a simulation than an arcade game. Putting it into old-school 90s video game terms. This game asks you to think seriously about the decisions you are making rather than just letting you do whatever without any consequences. This isn’t a quick fantasy football game where you can sign all the best players, play seven strikers and just have some care-free fun. You need to think more seriously about what you can afford and what is realistic. Harry Redknapp would hate it. This is resource management more than a pure sports game. I really enjoyed this part of it. Playing multiple seasons help cement this aspect for me. Slow growth with one or two player improvements per season is sustainable and ultimately satisfying when you see your teams progress over four or five seasons, and of course, the fact that you haven’t gone bankrupt yet! You don’t need to make all those changes in one season, and it is strange how you become attached to some of your players. You won’t want to sell them all! ManagerBall will come to Kickstarter later this year or early next. I will put a link here when it does. But go check out the pre-link page here.