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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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