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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.

Covert Ops WBG Score: 8/10 Player Count: 2-5 You’ll like this if you like: Cockroach Poker, Unstable Unicorns, Dogs! Published by: Golden Ginty Games Ltd. Designed by: Mathew Jones, Ollie Jones Canine Kleptomaniacs is a hilarious, fun, and delightfully made game that I have previously reviewed here. The game came out in 2020 and has regularly hit my gaming table ever since. It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that my family adore this game! In 2021 the first expansion came out, Covert Ops, and we were all very excited to play it to see what it changes and adds to the game. Before I come onto the expansion review, I should say this first up. I am not the biggest fan of expansions. I like what some do for some games. But in a grumpy way, I often think that if the game needed it, the initial game wasn’t that great. But most of the time, the expansion is jumping on the band wagon of the base games’ success. I know this is not the case all the time. And I appreciate this is quite a simple and basic statement to make for a large subject. But I felt it needed to be said before I say this. I love this expansion! I won’t go into how the base game works. You can check that out in the main review. But let’s talk about what this expansion brings and why I love it so much. New Hiding Places. Canine Kleptomaniacs is all about stealing Collectables from your owner for points at the end of the game. It’s a set collection game at its heart. But it’s no good just having the cards in your paws, they will score you nothing there and are liable to be nabbed by other dogs. When you want to secure your Collectables and score points in the game, you must place sets of cards down from your hand into your Hiding Place. These cards are then safe and available for you to score at the end of the game. No one can touch them. But not anymore! In Covert Ops, Hiding Places can now be raided by your rival dog players. Players are given a Mutt on a Mission card at set up. This allows them to choose to raid another player's Hiding Place on their turn. You can increase your chances of a successful raid by gathering XP cards from the Action deck during the game. For each XP you use on a raid, you can increase the number of times you may roll the dice. To be successful in a raid, you need to defeat the number rolled by your opponent who is trying to defend their turf and collectables. The defending player's number of dice rolls will be determined by the level of their defence. All players are given a Secure Hiding Place at set up. These areas cannot be raided. But other Hiding Places must be defended by the new C.R.A.P. system. Hilariously, this stands for ‘Code Red Anti Pilferage’. When you acquire a new Hiding Place, you automatically gain a C.R.A.P. card as well. Roll the dice and the number you get will determine the level of security you have on this Hiding Place; and in turn when raided, the number of times you can roll the die in defence. This is a fun system. It adds a lot to the game and makes players think about where and when they place any collectables down. If you roll a low number for your C.R.A.P. defence then you can re-roll on later turns. It all seems quite fair and thought out and brings a new dimension to the game I enjoy a lot. It opens up the game in a way the base game couldn’t You want to protect your most prized Collectables - often the ones other players desperately need - but now, the main way you can do that is by making them potentially available to other players. Special Gadget Cards. There are also new Special Gadget cards, clearly labelled with a blue outer marking. When acquired these must be played immediately. They are all clearly labelled so need minimal instruction to add in, and they give players the chance to pilfer extra Collectibles in fun new ways. I like the Electroscopic Squeakatron which allows the player who draws this card to take all of one type of Collectable from every player's hand. The power of the card is nice, but I just love the name - this is clearly what a Dog would call it! Masters Bedroom Cards It was always exciting to raid the Masters bedroom to get a bonus card. Now, there is an added twist, with new cards added into the deck that will take points away from you at the end of the game. This evens out the bonuses usually acquired from here and adds an element of danger when taking this action. None of these additions complicate the game and can be added into the base game with minimal changes or extra rules. This is important for me in an expansion. I like how Covert Ops brings a whole new feel to the game without sweeping changes. It feels a lot more Dog-Eat-Dog, for want of a better phrase. No, scrap that, I actually like that phrase. It’s spot-on for how it feels, and you know, Dogs! There was always a lot of Take-That and player interaction in the base game, but the thought of being able to safely tuck away your Collectables in the safety of your Hiding Places did make the game sometimes one sided to the players that acquired extra Hiding Places first. Now, this has gone. And due to the raiding opportunity, each player needs to be a lot more careful with how they lay down and hide their Collectables. I don’t know if this was the reason for this expansion being done, but it certainly helped the only real issue I had with the base game. It fixes this issue and does it in a really fun way that is very much in keeping with the base game's feel. Canine Kleptomaniacs is a fast, fun family card game that plays best in a three to four player experience and Covert Ops is a must have addition if you like the base game. It fixes the only minor issue with it and adds a lot more fun to the table.

Trolldilemma Card Game Preview Trolldelimma WBG Score: 7/10 Player Count: 3-5 You’ll like this if you like: Cockroach Poker, Skull, Citadels. Published by: Barefoot games Designed by: Tim Jahn Disclaimer: This game was provided free for an unbiased preview. Trolldilemma is the second game from Barefoot Games, the team behind 2020 release Chef à La Card. It is hitting Kickstarter in Autumn 2021. This is a preview copy with slightly different quality components and print quality of the final version. But otherwise, this represents the mechanics and rules of the final game. Trolldilemma on face value looks incredibly simple, but there is some depth to this game that will surprise and maybe even delight you. You play as a Troll under a bridge, attacking anyone who dares to trip-trap over your bridge. Traveller cards will be revealed in the same number as there are players. Each player will then be assigned one of the Travellers to go to their bridge. Players will then either gain the benefit of that particular Traveller card or take the loss it brings depending on the cards text. But the way the cards are assigned, and the clever way their value changes is what makes this game fun. Let me explain. In Trolldilemma, there are 55 different traveller cards. Each cards shows the characters Courage in the top right of the card. The Courage scores run from one to 55. The higher you go in Courage, the bigger the target for the Troll, and the greater the reward when the Troll robs that Traveller. So, you always want to get the higher value card right? No! That would be too easy! The very top value Traveller cards, those with a courage of 42 or higher, will take away your coins. The braver the Traveller, the greater the reward. However, if they become too brave, they will fight back and rob you! So, players will be looking to get the higher value cards, but not when they are too high. Although it wont always be completely within their control. After the first round wen Traveller cards are assigned by table order, and when everyone has at least one Traveller who has come their way; all cards are reversed to show the Skull side. Then, on every subsequent round, once the Travellers for that round have been drawn in the Reveal phase, all players on the count of three will give their skulls to themselves or any other player at the table. The player with the highest number of skulls will then get the highest value courage cards. So, if the highest value card is offering nine coins, it’s a straight fight for who can get the most skulls and people will give their Skulls to themselves hoping to have the most. But if the top card robs you of your coins and the second highest value card gets you coins, you need to find a way to have the second most skulls, but certainly not the most. You may give some to yourself, and some Skulls to others. As you get more Skull cards, your power to dictate who gets which card in the following round will increase. You may not want the most Skulls in one round, but it does mean that you have more power to vote in later rounds. It may be that in one round, no one wants the top card as it is has a negative effect due to its high Courage, and one player is given all the Skulls to force them to deal with that particular traveller this round. They will then lose some coins if they have any. But, they are then left with more Skulls than anyone else for the next round handing them the power. There is a delicate balance between wanting to win certain cards, but not all of them, but also not wanting to give up all your Skulls for later rounds. Having more than eight skulls at the start and end of your turn is also how the game comes to an end. Within the deck there are also a number of other cards that bring chaos, fun, and interesting mini games into the order of play. Let’s take a look at these. Trollbird. At a courage of 17, the Trollbird gives the player who has this card the ability to act as the player with the most Skulls in the next round, even if they don’t physically have the most Skulls. Trollan Horse. With a courage set to 18, this card gives the player who receives it eight coins, but then at the end of their turn, they will then lose coins equal to the number of sulls in front of them. Troll’ey. This card has a score of 29 and when received by a player, will enact a quick mini game. On a count of three all players will point both of their fingers, either left, right or one each way. The Troll’ey card will then move left and right, depending on all the fingers directions, taking a coin and skull with it each time is passes through a player. When the card reaches its final resting place the player who now has it will take all the coins and Skulls it gobbled up along the way. Capitalist Kobold. This card comes with a courage score of 37, and like the Troll’ey, starts a mini game when it arrives. On the count of three, all players will reveal between one and five fingers on their hand. All players who show a unique number will receive that many coins. Nasty Necromancer. This card, has a score of 41 and shows a necromancer with a staff, On top of the staff is a pointed hand. The player who gets this card must throw it spinning in the air. The person the staff is pointing at when it lands will get a skull from all other players. Holy Men. This card has a score of 54 and gives the Troll player who receives it the chance to either gain two coins from each other player or discard three skulls. Something you may want to do if you are close to ending the game due to having a lot of Skulls but are not in the lead so don’t want this to happen. King of the Trolls The final card with a courage of 55 will allow the Troll player who gets it to steal as many coins from another player as you own Skulls. Troll Guide. There are four Troll guide cards numbered 11, 24, 33, and 40. When drawn, these card cause another card to be immediately drawn to go travel with this one taking on the Troll guides courage. So, it could be that a very high card that will rob from you, now becomes the lowest ranked card. It could facilitate a situation where the top and bottom card will both take coins from you but the middle-ranked card gives you nine coins. An interesting situation to try and navigate, especially in a five-player game! The end game mechanic brings in yet another dynamic to take into consideration when passing Skulls in the Redirect round. In later rounds, if you have the most amount of Skulls, but you don’t have the highest number of coins, you need to elongate the game. Conversely, if you have the most amount of coins, you will want to end the game as quickly as possible. The difficulty here being that if you want to elongate the game by getting rid of Skulls, this will mean you will most probably not have the most amount of Skulls in a round, and will not get the best card, and potentially other players will catch up with you by looting higher amounts of coins. The entire game is a balancing act made even more interesting by the five item cards available. There are eight in total, and in each game, five will be randomly dealt onto the table. These cards give players the chance to buy special powers for the cost of five coins, which can change a number of factors. This game looks very simple to start with, and in terms of turns and turn options, it is very simple. But the dynamic at play from the different powered cards and the way the end game is triggered brings a very interesting and often laugh-out-loud hilarious experience to the table. I have really enjoyed getting to know this game with this preview copy. I think at Kickstarter this could do very well. The art is gorgeous. The theme is a lot of fun. And for a card game with a twist, this is certainly one I will cherish in my collection.

by @boardelv 1. Gloomhaven - the ultimate adventure game that made my team meet every single day to play at least one map! The whole experience of playing Gloomhaven is unforgettable and one of a kind. The feeling of unlocking new character is so exciting! 2. Twilight Imperium - Meeting for TI isn't the whole process. You have to be ready to play a game that takes up to 8 hours! But all the emotions, sudden twists, unstable alliances, epic space battles and scheming… simply awesome! 3. Root - I love asymetric games! Choosing your factions, learning how to play it and what to do against other factions is so much fun! Don’t get fooled! Although Root is super cute it’s actually a great startegy game which aquires you to think a lot and upahead!

by Tom Harrod, @buryboardgames WBG Score: 7/10 Player Count: 2-5 Players You’ll like this if you like: Sushi Go!, Seven Wonders, Tybor The Builder Published by: Unfringed Designed by: Chris Priscott Judging a book by its cover is an easy trap. We’ve all done it before in many walks of life, and the same applies for board and card games. Zuuli is the kind of game that might fool a few people, if they judge it on aesthetics, alone. Now before we jump in, I should say: Zuuli is due to hit Kickstarter on 7 September 2021. I was fortunate enough to get a preview copy of the game, direct from Unfringed Things ahead of release. What’s It All About? Zuuli is a card-drafting game where you’re building a cute and cuddly zoo. Each player starts with one New Plot enclosure, and a hand of cards. Some might be animals; some could be additional enclosures. Others might be upgrades for enclosures. You’ll perform classic drafting – pick one and pass the rest on – until you have a selection of cards. Then everyone arranges their zoo into a tableau of sorts, for end-of-round scoring. At the end of the round, more cards get dealt out and the game continues. Not all cards enter the game though, even at different player counts; hand size scales accordingly. Zuuli has a familiar, formulaic structure to it. Once you’ve played the first round, you have a strong grasp of what it is you’re trying to achieve. The game lasts three rounds, with your score ever-accumulating. So: endearing animals, cheerful cartoon colours, set collection, and drafting. At a glance, I’d forgive you for assuming Zuuli shares some similarities with the likes of Gamewright’s Sushi Go!. I’ll admit they sit within the same genre of games, and claim to have similar target markets, age-wise (suggested at 8+). However, Zuuli sits a rung or two higher up the strategy ladder. Let’s creep forward and observe Zuuli in its natural habitat… Bit Of Pick-And-Pass Drafting; Pinch Of Memory, Smattering Of Push-Yer-Luck When it comes to the drafting, you’re not picking a card and then revealing it like you do in Sushi Go!, or Seven Wonders. Here you keep the card face-down; you don’t show it until the entire drafting phases finishes. This keeps other players guessing, so there’s a lot less open information on the table. To some extent, this makes things a little more chaotic. Why? Because players cannot hate-draft in such an obvious manner. Instead, a whole extra spoonful of memory-based skills get injected into Zuuli. This is all the more prevalent with lower player counts. If playing in a 2- or 3-player game, you’ll receive back your initial hand of cards at least twice. When you get an old hand back, you might recall which cards are missing. The issue is, you cannot tell which opponent has drafted what… Edit: Tom has since discovered, direct from the designer, that he misinterpreted this rule of total ‘blind’ drafting. Zuuli is, in fact, more akin to Sushi Go!/7 Wonders in the simultaneous draft-then-reveal mechanism. Tom happily accepts he got this rule wrong, but has decided to keep his review as it stands, since he’s basing his analysis upon how he digested this preview copy. And who knows? Maybe Unfringed Things will consider Tom’s accidental interpretation of the rules as a Bury Board Games Variant of Zuuli…?] This is, at least, the case in the first round. It’s all a total blind pick-and-pass affair in that regard. Nobody at the table knows who’s drafting which exact cards. At the end of the round, everyone reveals their drafted cards. (In a 3-player game, for example, you draft eight cards each in the first round.) Then everyone ‘develops’ their zoo. In other words: you’re arranging your cards to best house animals into enclosures. What Kind Of Cards Are There? Enclosure cards state their habitat type (yellow Plains, green Jungle, or blue Water). Some, like your New Plot enclosure, present all three terrain types. Others that you might draft during the game provide a single, or double-terrain. When it comes to the rest of the enclosure’s anatomy layout, there’s a number in the top-left. This determines the space available within that enclosure. A score multiplier sits in the top-right, with any habitat-specific conditions along the bottom. The animal cards, meanwhile, state whether they’re Fierce (predators) or Friendly (herbivores). You cannot house Fierce animals in the same enclosures as Friendly ones. That’s the first rule of Zoo Club! The Lion and the Sloth cannot hang our together, or else it’s going to end with a chomp, chomp, chomp. Each animal has a habitat it needs to live in, which is one of Plains, Jungle or Water. (Some aren’t fussy and can live in one of many.) The animal card has a space size that it requires, which goes hand in hand with the enclosure’s space allowance. Animals also have a points value, and some have requirements or set collection bonuses. A Menagerie Of Multipliers By now you’ll have worked out that you need to do some mental arithmetic to house all these animals. (Alongside a dollop of pushing your luck during the draft.) You need to keep certain animals apart, while you’ll want to house others together. You need to ensure their collective space doesn’t exceed the size of the enclosure(s). The set collection in this manner, as well as certain enclosure requirements, means you have to spin multiple plates. Providing the animals end up in correct enclosures, you’ll earn the sum of the animal(s)’s points, times by the enclosure’s multiplier. The third type of cards are the Upgrades, which you can bolt onto enclosures. These, in effect, break all the aforementioned rules! Some let you house Fierce and Friendly animals together (they’re all ‘Well Fed’). Others provide an extra habitat type onto the enclosure, providing flexibility. Some increase the size of the enclosure, so you can house more creatures in it. The drafting in rounds two and three works in the exact same way as before. The big difference in these later rounds is: now you can see what cards your opponents collected earlier. Now, if you are so inclined, you could hate-draft. But you’re still drafting these cards face-down, so once again, a strong element of memory takes hold. The interesting factor kicks in at the end of the second round. You get to arrange your new cards… plus the cards you had from last year. You can move animals around – providing you obey all the enclosure prerequisites. The only things you cannot move are the upgrades. Think of it as you can move animals from pen to pen. But once you’ve performed the manual labour on an enclosures, you can’t ‘reverse’ the effects! You’ll want to move animals into different pens to sneak in extra points here and there. But what if you can’t house an animal (or animals) at the end of the year? You lose that animal’s points. So watch out: poor drafting choices can put a dent in your tally. There’s one interesting plot card, called the Holding Pen. It has a multiplier of x0, which means whatever animal you put in it scores you… zero. Wait – what? But hey, that’s better than having, say, an elephant on the loose, and it costing you -5 points! The Terrible Tale Of The Overzealous Zookeeper The crux of Zuuli is trying to house as many animals as possible without being too greedy. In one game, I saw one player only draft one enclosure in the first round. They had a menagerie of animals, but nowhere to keep them. With that many creatures on the loose, they scored zero. Meanwhile, the other two players had snaffled up all the enclosures that round. They had room for all their animals. That other player could never catch up, because the scores in Zuuli increase in a progressive manner. That other player was, in essence, one entire round behind their opponents. Let that be a warning to you! Sometimes in games there’s a small indicator on cards, telling you how many cards there are of that type in the deck. This isn’t present in Zuuli, which might have helped that player make better decisions. However, it is worth saying again that this is a preview copy of Zuuli. As always, the final product may differ to some extent compared to a prototype. I must say though, this is a mighty fine prototype. The card stock itself is quality, and one of the best-produced preview copies I’ve seen in a while. There’s ten different types of animals, which feels like enough of a variety. Aat the risk of sounding like a hypocrite though, I’d like to see more! The artwork on the cardbacks shows 28 different silhouettes of animals, so I’m sure the designer has other creatures in mind. But seeing these on the cardbacks felt like a bit of a tease… Straight Out Of A Pop-Up Picture Book So now we’ve got to talk about the art style, itself. I’m aware I’m swimming out into oxymoron waters when I say ‘The art in Zuuli is too cute’. How can something be ‘too cute’? Hear me out. The animals look adorable. But they’re not cute like the anthropomorphic food in Sushi Go!, which leans onto its twee Japanese background. These animals are straight out of a kids’ pop up picture book. There’s nothing offensive about that at all, but I would argue it’s misleading. This art style doesn’t sell the true strategical depth behind Zuuli. My almost-six year-old nephew would croon over this art. He’d fall in love with the elephant spraying water, and the shy, smiling anteater. But could he play Zuuli? No. The maths and strategy required is too much for kids of that age, who live for this kind of art. And fair enough: Unfringed Things’ suggested age for Zuuli is 8+. But once kids hit a certain age (and eight might be that kind of age bracket), they grow up, and fast. No parent or guardian wants to admit it, but at that age they’re leaving the realm of being little kids any more. They’ll turn their nose up at certain art, no longer interested in products that look like ‘baby stuff’. Lurching In Limbo – Final Thoughts On… Zuuli Does the art style for Zuuli leave it lurching in limbo? As an analytical adult who runs over board game details with a fine comb, I can appreciate the quality and love that’s gone into the art. But I fear there are plenty of adults out there who won’t care for Zuuli’s aesthetics. Some might dismiss it as a game because [on a gut reaction] it looks beneath them. There are some who won’t take it seriously. Is that an opportunity missed? I’d argue yes, because despite a suggested age of 8+, Zuuli is not a game for kids, alone. And that’s a shame, because there’s a fun game in Zuuli. If adults and kids alike give it a chance, they’ll discover a drafting game that challenges them. The face-down drafting, and trying to house animals into enclosures elevates the decision-making in comparison to, say, Sushi Go!. The problem is, board and card game art is so vital in today’s saturated market. Will Zuuli pass the first impressions test? Will people see past that? Zuuli doesn’t reinvent the card drafting wheel. That’s not a negative – fans of the genre will pick it up with ease and get into the swing of things. The set collection is simple, to grasp. But at the same time, it’s also a satisfying puzzle when you get to rearrange your zoo at the end of rounds two and three. Looking for a simple 30-minute card-drafter? Zuuli ticks all the boxes, mechanisms-wise. Zuuli hits Kickstarter on 7 September

By @stevegodfrey77 Picking your favourite anything like board games, movies or your children is normally not an easy task. There are of course lots of things to consider, things that might just give them the edge per another, like for example, a great gaming experience, if they’re made by you’re favourite director, or the fact that they let you eat you’re Jaffa cakes in peace without trying to steal them, the truly important factors. Up until January of this year (2021) my list was pretty much set in stone. That is of course until I played my now number three game. At which point the number three slot became a hotly contested battle of Vikings and Space. Honourable mention to Blood Rage which lost that battle but it was down to the narrowest of narrow margins. Now onto my top three games......at the moment. 3. Twilight Imperium 4th Edition Way back in 1999 I, like many of you, was bemoaning the fact that space politics is boring and that no one cares about trade disputes and planetary blockades. Cut to all these years later and here I am banging on about a game that encapsulates all of that...but it’s a ton of fun! TI4 is the big eight hour plus space opera in a board game that you may have heard of and whilst I understand a lot of people being put off for various reasons, please don’t be put off by the run time because you honestly won’t feel it. This isn’t your standard area control game where the biggest fleet wins, in fact trading and negotiation are often the best routes for a lasting and successful empire. This brings with it a cleverly baked in mechanic that keeps everyone around the table engaged and talking at all times, and keeps every moment of any down time interesting, whether your planning your next move, engaging in conversation about a planet you need or just watching an epic fight break out (in game that is, their can be some backstabbing but its never gone that far!) With TI4 you’ve got not only a great game but also a fun time with your friends with a surprising amount of laughs and a load of epic moments to talk about way into the next game. 2. Viticulture For my number two game, ironically crushed between two space epics like the very grapes which are so important in the game is Viticulture. Viticulture is a worker placement game in which you will be going through the process of making wine and running a vineyard. It’s a game that absolutely oozes the theme like the innards of a crushed grape that would keep Stu Francis salivating ( you may have to google that one). I love how the game isn’t afraid to say “hey, this is how you make wine, and we’re not going to skip any steps”. Now while that means that making wine isn’t a quick process, it helps the game rather than hinder it. In fact it’s all the more satisfying when you do slide you first wine token into your cellar, doubly so when you make your first rose or your first champagne. What elevates it is that all of this ramps up and a slower start makes way for a race to the finish as the summer spaces get largely ignored as people clamber for points in winter. From its stunning Beth Sobel art to its multiple avenues to victory it’s definitely one of the most chilled out worker placement games I’ve played. Whether I play it with just the base game or with the Tuscany expansion I always have a great time at any player count. If you want to relax whilst playing a competitive game whilst simultaneously upping your alcohol intake then viticulture is your game. 1. Star Wars Rebellion Now from crushing grapes to crushing Rebel scum (or the Empire, whatever takes your fancy) As Sheryl Crow once sang this is my favourite mistake. I got Rebellion as mistaken Christmas present one year and whilst I was pleased because it was a game I was wanting to try it wasn’t what I was expecting. It turns out what I actually got turned out so much better that what I originally wanted. I could easily tell you that Rebellion is a cat and mouse hidden movement game where the Empire has to crush the rebellion and that it is absolutely Star Wars in a box. I could also tell you that this encapsulates the original trilogy with its tension and scale. Just seeing the empire dominate the board with all its units and the rebels barely holding a fleet together is brilliantly thematic. I could also wax lyrical about how strategic the game is. But rather than tell you all that, I want to tell you about what is really great about Star Wars Rebellion. That’s the stories you can tell with this game, that, by and large is not a story driven game. Now I love TI4, but Rebellion will always win out because of the theme. It’s Star Wars! It’s an obvious thing to say but more often than not the person you’re playing with will have some knowledge of Star Wars now matter how big or small. Because of that and because it’s so ingrained in people’s minds you can’t help making up your own narrative and alternative versions of Star Wars and even maybe role playing a little bit, and that’s partially how you want to enjoy the game. Wether you’re threatening to blow up Endor and the silly teddy bears with a death star rather than Alderaan just because you could, or freezing Chewie in carbonite, you can just have a lot of fun with it. I’ve honestly had more great memorable moments in my half a dozen or so plays of this than I have with most of the games in my collection. Yes it’s big, yes it’s long, yes it’s only two player (ignore that 2-4 player nonsense on the box) but if you love Star Wars then you owe it to yourself to play a game if you can.

Kameloot WBG Score: 7/10 Player Count: 3-6 You’ll like this if you like: Parks, Ticket to Ride, Splendor. Published by: Blue Orange (EU) Designed by: Fred Boulle, Cédric NH, Grégory Grard, Mathieu Roussel Kameloot is an interesting set-collection game where players will either work together, on their own, or against each other, in constantly changing teams and dynamics. The concept is so simple, but the execution and smooth play will make playing Kameloot a highly entertaining one. To set up the game, give each player a double sided Tavern token. One side shows the Hooting Owl symbol, the other the Black Cat. Flip it like a coin for each player to determine the starting teams. Players are then dealt four cards and the remaining ones are left in a pile in a central deck. That’s it. You will be up and running within minutes. Each card shows one of seven magical objects. The Magnet Ring, The Two-Branch Magic Wand, The Six Fingered Glove, The Enchanting Potion, The Magic Cloak, The Permutation Parchment, and the ultra-rare Unicorn Horn. The cards will all have a number on them showing the amount of cards in the deck, and the minimum needed for that card to complete a set. The idea of the game is to complete sets of cards in order to sell the magical objects to the other non-playing 'punters' in the Tavern that you are in. Once the minimum number of cards for each set has been reached, as a collective amongst all the players in the same tavern, the cards can then be sold. This is done by flipping them over to the coin side and distributing them, one by one to all the players who contributed to the set. Starting with the player who completed it. If three players completed a set with seven cards in it, one player will get three coins, the other just the two. This is not just about completing sets, but being in the right Tavern at the right time, contributing to as many sets as possible so you don't fall behind, and when possible, closing sets up so you can get the lions share. Each card also has a power that can be enacted. Instead of adding the card to a set, you can play a card to use its power instead. Depending on the card you play, you will be either able to change your location of which Tavern you are in, change another players location, collect all of a certain Magical objects from the discard pile, place two different types of magical objects down instead of one, draw two extra magical cards from the deck, or swap a set of magical cards from your collection with another players. The final card is the Unicorn horn. This acts as a wild card and can be added to any existing set to help complete a collection. It has no power of its own outside of this. Players will be making choices based on the cards they have in hand, those on the table in front of them and in the other players area, and the team that they are currently in. Could they help complete a set of cards already down from other players in the same Tavern as them? Could they switch Taverns and help complete another set? Or could they go rouge and be the only one in a certain tavern and complete their own? There is a very interesting dynamic in this game created by teams that are constantly changing. You could be one card away from completing a large set that you started, with two other players on your turn, only for the next player to switch your allegiance without your consent, and then have another player complete that set on a subsequent turn. Leaving you empty handed, and there is nothing you can do to stop this. It’s fun to see players change teams so regularly like this. Sometimes of their own volition, and otherwise, less enthusiastically! Although there is obviously some frustration in this if it means you miss out. But games are light and quick and I would suggest this feeling of frustration is small and fleeting. Some sets only need two cards to complete, so it is fun to watch someone be kicked off a team onto one on their own, and then for them on their next turn to place these two cards down, to then immediately claim them both for themselves! There are times when you want to be working with the other players around the table, and other times when working alone will benefit you more. The game ends when a player can no longer draw back up to four at the end of their turn. So, the full deck will be seen. The winner is determined by the player with the most amount of coins from the cards they collected. As such, games are very quick, but a lot of fun. The game works from three to six, but shines in a five. Odd teams seem to be more entertaining, with Taverns of three against two or four against one. And on occassions, all five in the same place. In larger player counts there are more changes of teams, which is where the fun comes! The game feels familiar and new at the same time. The set collection is a tried and trusted mechanism, but the switching of allegiances at this rate feels fresh. This is a great, light, family-friendly card game that works quickly and can be explained in minutes. It offers the chance for players to enjoy a simple set-collection game, with quick and simple choices, but still with a lot of laughter and enjoyment.

For The King (And Me) WBG Score: 7.5/10 Player Count: 2-5 Players You’ll like this if you like: Tucano, Skull, Abyss. Published by: IELLO Designed by: Steve Finn Fans of 2007 release Biblios will be very familiar with this game. For the King (And Me) is a reimplementation of Biblios, with a new theme and a slight tweak in the scoring mechanism. Dice have been replaced with banners. Other than that, there is not a lot new here, but Biblios, was a very popular game, and as such, if you haven’t played that, this could be something you want to check out. There is a reason games like this get a re-skin. They are good! For the King (And Me) has replaced the monastery setting from Biblios with a royal palace. The theme is not screaming out in this game. This change is largely redundant, but it is a fun aside to what is a highly entertaining and addictive two phase game. You start with an innovative drafting phase, followed by a quick and exciting bidding phase. Games will take between 10-30 minutes depending on the player count and players speed, but every time you play, I would wager you will want to play again, in fact, I bet you two gold you will want another game! To The Table! The board is double sided for different player counts, so pick the one suited for you. Remove any cards with a number marked on it higher than your player count and then remove the number of remaining cards based on your player count in the helpful tally in the rules. Set a three and one banner under each character on the board, and set out the deck of card and you are ready to play. The cards you are left with will be a mixture of gold cards numbered with a value of one to three. Government cards numbered one to four for each of the five or six colours used in the game. And King cards which are used to modify the banner scores for each colour. Players will then take it in turns to draft one card more than there are players. One card can go to them in secret. Another is privately placed on the face down Favour deck ready for auctioning in the second phase. The others are placed face up in the centre of the table for the other players to pick from. One by one, starting with the player to the left of the current player. This will continue until the draw pile is extinguished as which point all players will collect their cards, the Favour deck in the centre is shuffled and we move into the second, bidding phase. Players will use the cards they acquired in phase one to bid for cards in phase two. Either bidding with gold cards on coloured Government cards, or any face down card on gold cards. Players will take it in turns to start the bid, and it will continue clockwise until all but one player passes. The winning bid gets the card. That is the entire game! The player with the highest collective value for each colour of Government cards wins the highest banner number currently under that colour on the board. The person with the second highest will get the other banner. Everyone else gets nothing. It sounds a little dry written down like this. I admit. But it is a lot more fun that it sounds. I will try and explain why now. Set Collection. Drafting. Bidding! Essentially this is a set collection game with a draft phase and then a bidding phase to get the cards for your sets. There will be either five or six different sets to collect depending on the player count and the top two scores for each set will win the banners for that colour. The way you get cards feels fresh, and as there is a huge switch in the manner in which cards are acquired at the mid-way point, it stays this way throughout. I like games with clear mid points like this. It often helps to gives the game a sense of time. Or to help scoring or assessing your current performance. But the complete change in core mechanic at the halfway point in this game does none of this. It simply keeps the game fun. It feels like two games in one. The banners you are looking to win change constantly throughout the game. The King cards allow players to increase or reduce their value accordingly. This will be done both to help your own game, and to negatively affect the others in the game. Players need to try and keep an eye on what cards people are collecting. Which colours do players gravitate towards? If you can keep an eye open, you may be able to guess which Government colours players are collecting, and as such, try to reduce those banners numbers when you get the chance. Players can only ever change the top banner but the bottom banner is affected by this. The bottom banner must always be half of the top, rounded down. A six on top means a three on the bottom. A four sees a two below. A five for the highest number will see a two underneath. Ch,Ch,Ch Changes! You may be racing away collecting the red colour Government cards, with a current value of five at the top for that colour. But then two players who are not collecting reds may noticed that you are after that colour a lot and drop the banners down. Suddenly, your victory on this colour is worth a lot less and you haven’t even had a turn! In the drafting phase, players will always look at one more card than there are players. Four in a three player, five in a four. This would mean one card being kept by them, one being placed in the pile ready for the second bidding phase, and the others being left for the other players to take. This is a great way for the leading player to not only take a card and place one ready for bidding on phase two, but to judge what other colour cards each other player is collecting. In the second bidding phase, players will bid using face down cards for Gold cards, and Gold for Government cards. If a three value Gold card comes up, players who collected minimal gold in phase one may go big for this. Those who managed to get a lot of Gold on phase one may pass and let these go. Or perhaps bid one or two just to up the bid to make it more expensive for other players. But later in the round, if a player has no Gold left, they may then go for the Gold cards with more gusto. The relative value for each type of card is constantly changing. Current Government Advice Is… The Government cards can be bid on with the Gold cards. If a Government card with a value of four comes up, in the highest current banners colour, you may see some high bids coming in! But of course, only from players who can afford it. Has one player not gone for this as they are not collecting that colour, because they already have loads of cards in that colour already, or simply as they cannot afford it? The entire game is a delicate balancing act between judging what cards each player has in their hand, judging what cards are yet to come out, and assessing the constantly changing value of each colour’s banners. The game plays quickly and works well with younger players. I have enjoyed with my six- and eight-year-old very successfully. But this is not just a simple family game. This is a strategic, cutthroat, and hilarious game that would work as a perfect filler with most gaming groups. The game works in a two, but I would recommend this for groups of three and up as a minimum. It can be a little bland and predictable with just two players, especially with someone you play regularly with. But it is nice to have that option. Players will generally focus on trying to get the highest banner on two or three colours, but there is something to be said for having a few cards of each colour and aiming to get the second banner for each colour. Especially in the higher player counts when it is easier for players to focus on the higher value banners. Tactics and strategies are often varied but always devious. This is a game for those that enjoy having a deceptive feeling in games. Does pulling the rug from under your family and friends’ noses appeal to you? How about a bit of bluff a bidding? This game has it all, along with a lot of fun. For the King (And Me) is here in my collection for good.

The Quacks of Quedlinburg – The Alchemists WBG Score: 8/10 Player Count: 2-5 players You’ll like this if you like: Clank! Port Royal Published by: Schmidt Spiele Designed by: Wolfgang Warsch I know this won’t be very popular, but I didn’t love Quacks of Quedlinburg. I know! Sorry! But, to cut to the chase, I love this expansion. If you are a fan of the base game you will love it too. And if like me, you didn’t get on with the base game, well then, this could fix all your problems too. Related to this game I mean. It won’t sort your ear worms. In Quacks, you are looking to create the most wonderful and 'point-worthy' potion. This is a push-your-luck game where you are pulling potion ingredients out of a bag one by one, in unison with the other players. Looking to build on your existing brew and fill your cauldron as best you can. But watch out! In your bag are the nasty Cherry Bomb white chips. Too many of those in your concoction and kaboom! Your potion will explode! At this point, you must either sacrifice the points you had scored, or the money you had earnt. Also, now, you cannot roll the bonus dice. The loss seemed too great to me. The risk too high. I know I am in the minority here, but let me explain. Pulling the chips out one by one can be excruciating! You have no idea what will come other than guess work. You can develop your bag each round. Adding ingredients you want into it. Thus, reducing the risk, but it is still blind luck what comes out, and in what order. There is no control here and when you draw cherry bomb after cherry bomb, round after round it can be a little annoying from some. Whilst your opposing players are pulling pumpkins, spiders and the like, you are blowing up. It can be frustrating. Push It Real Good! Now I know this is the nature of a push-your-luck game. But there are few push-your-luck games where the game lasts this long. Or the effects of pushing-your-luck too far are this great. Or the lack of control has no mitigating options. I usually love this mechanic. I enjoy pushing my luck and the sense of exciting when it pays off is huge! But with Quacks, I was often left frustrated as for me, it has all three of these issues and the pay off wasn't ever enough to make up for the frustration of the loss. A loss you couldn't control with anything other than luck or conservative play. As such, we have created a few house rules to make it more fun. And let’s be honest, this is not a serious heavy game. Shouldn’t it be more fun? For example, there is a vile you can use to put back any chip you pull out that you don’t want. But you cannot do this if the chip you pulled would have caused you to explode. We changed that. We also amended a few other rules, and I am not saying it was better for it. But it was better suited to my family. But I do prefer to play the proper rules so did dream for an expansion to fix it. With the first expansion for this game, a few extra bits were brought to the table. But these two issues where not addressed. But with this second expansion, they are addressed in part. And I was very excited to try it out. Spoilers! I was not dissapointed. Lucked Out! First let’s look at the luck-based element of the game. Now, this is a major part of the game. You don’t want to completely remove it. It is a huge part of the fun! Drawing things from a bag that will cause success or failure has some genuine tension. You don’t want to remove that. But having zero control makes the game dull for me. There is minimal strategy. This can be disheartening for players. Especially younger ones, if they keep pulling things you don’t want. With 'The Alchemists', they have created opportunities to have some of your chips pulled from the bag before the round starts. When it comes to pulling out a new chip, you can either pull as usual, or place one of the chips you have out already instead. Giving you some choice. Some control. Some sense that you can manipulate your destiny. Even if only a little bit. I like this opportunity to add some control to the game. But it is not given for free. That would not be right. You need to earn this power, and your opportunity to do this increases with time, round by round. This works brilliantly with the game. As your bag fills up, you will be building larger and larger potions. Your opportunity to control this a little more each time grows at the same rate. It is a very clever system. So, what about the high-risk nature of blowing up and losing too much if you do? Well, this has been addressed in a way I never imagined! Now, on occasions, you may want to aim for seven exactly. Push your luck right to the wire. You still lose the same things as before if you go too far but now, there are times when you can also gain things from this hitting exactly seven white chips. It makes the events of your potion making so much more enjoyable. Still tense. But not annoying as seven can be good. Let me explain how this all works. In 'The Alchemists', you are presented with an extra choice at the beginning of the game. Three from eight patients are chosen at random before play begins. Then each player chooses which patient they will try to cure. This is done by placing the relevant essence card into their flask. Each aliment will bring the player a different potential extra power if they can cook the right potion. In the first round, nothing changes. But then each subsequent round, and growing each time, you are able to control your destiny a little more. At the end of the preparation phase, you will move your essence marker along a certain number of spaces. One space for each different colour chip you pulled that round. Another space if your neighbour’s cauldron exploded. And another space if the white chips in your cauldron totals exactly seven! The amount needed to exceed in order to explode. So, now you gain a benefit from narrowly avoiding an explosion but only if you do so perfectly! Not a huge benefit, but something. This is a clever rule. If you got this bonus on the essence track simply from exploding, players would not care if they exploded as much, if at all. But to say you gain the benefit from a total of seven white chips only is a smart touch. It makes pulling extra chips when on four white chips or more so much more exciting. And less stressful. Seven white chips can now be something to aim for! The powers available on the essence cards are varied and fun. You can add more rats tails into your cauldron, extra points, dice rolls, chips, ruby’s and even refill your flask. But most enticingly, the chance to pull chips out of the bag before the next preparation phase starts. If you score high enough on the essence tracks, in a later round you can have up to 10 chips pre-pulled. You put any firecrackers you pull out back into the bag but lay the rest out in front of you. During the next preparation phase, you can then decide to either pull from the bag as usual or one from here. Each patient brings different powers and opportunities. If the above does not sound appealing, don’t chose it. There are eight different patients as I said. You will only ever have three in each game, but each player only ever tries to help one patient. So, it is up to each player what they want to add to their game. It is a clever way to bring these new powers into the game. I can imagine a few of you who have read the above have thought it fixes an issue that did not exist. I know many love the base game as it. I understand that and so too do the designers of this expansion. You pick the powers you want. But for me, it made a game I so wanted to love, but found large issues with, so much better. It turns this from a sometimes unpayable six into a joyous eight. That is a large jump for me. I am less than enthusiastic about some expansions. But here, with 'The Alchemists', something wonderful has been conjured up. Quacks of Quedlinburg: The Alchemists expansion is out now and available at all good retailers.

Happy City WBG Score: 8/10 Player Count: 2-5 Players You’ll like this if you like: Quadropolis, Villagers, Sushi Go! Published by: Cocktail Games Designed by: Toshiki Sato, Airu Sato Sometimes, you play a game, and instantly fall in love! That is what happened for me and my family with Happy City! It looks so cute. You can learn and teach it in under a minute, and that’s with a break for tea. And the games last around five minutes for a two-player, with scoring being a thing of pure simplicity! If you are looking for a quick, light, fun filler game, this may be my number one recommendation right now. Based on the Japanese release from 2018 Happiest Town, this is a simple translation into the English language, and the core game stays the same. I can imagine there are publishers and distributors out there all the time, looking for great games in Japan and other non-English speaking counties. And when they stumble upon a gem like this, their eyes must light up! It is such a simple concept, but it is incredibly satisfying and fun to play. It’s the perfect combination for a light card game, and one I can highly recommend. Set-up is simple. Lay out the three different ‘Dwelling’ cards on the top row, removing one of each for any player count under five, so one remains in a two player. Then sperate the other building cards into their three types, clearly marked on the back into three separate face-down rows below. Give each player a Happy Market card, two coins and the starting card to one player. You will then gather the special buildings, always two more of them than there are players, lay them out and the game can start. All players will then gather income for all buildings showing a coin symbol on the bottom left of their card, and then in turn, each player will lay out three cards into the display area. Flipping cards from either of the three face-down rows. They can then choose to buy one of these three available cards from the cost shown on the top left of the card. Buy nothing and simply claim one more coin or acquire any ‘Dwelling’ card that had not yet been acquired from the top row. You can also take one of the special buildings as an extra action if they have fulfilled the necessary criteria. On subsequent players turns, if the player before chose to buy, there will be two available cards face up for purchase. This means players can flip only one extra card. There can only ever be three face-up in this area, but never any less either. Players may choose to discard one card from this row before they flip, meaning they can then flip over two cards to increase their buying choice. The three rows of available cards are marked on the back with the potential cost when flipped. The top row has cards with a value of one to three coins. The middle row is worth either four or five. And the bottom row is worth from six to nine coins. Players can then flip cards to the potential value of their current balance, knowing they will have a chance to buy them. Players will continue taking turns of taking income and buying buildings until someone claims their tenth building, all players will ensure they have had the same number of turns, and then the game ends. Scoring is a simple act of multiplying all hearts shown on the bottom right of your building cards with the green people symbol shown in the same place. Highest score wins. There is a minor variant in the box where you can flip over your starting Happy Market card to show a colour and symbol. You can also use the advanced special buildings which have more complex requirements for their acquisition. These cards can be added into your tableau at any point, not taking up your turn, if you have cards in your array that match the symbols on the card you are taking. Your Happy Market when flipped, will have one of these symbols on itself, and they are all different. This increases the chances that players will aim for different special cards at the start of the game, making it less of a race for certain cards. I have played this game multiple times in the short time I have had it. It has become a minor obsession for me. I cannot stop thinking about the game and want to play whenever I have five-minutes spare. It is just so quick and simple to play. But offers a fun and engaging experience. I enjoy how your town comes together and the cards work. The Haunted house offers extra revenue but reduces your population by one. Maybe they got scared off? I hope its nothing else too sinister?! The Factory will also increase your income but reduces your hearts as the population don’t enjoy the pollution that comes from it. Or perhaps the new roundabout created for the increased traffic. That would bug me. The previous crossroads was fine. Everything just makes sense. All the card art has been thoughtfully done and looks so cute! There is no other word for it, other than perhaps ‘Kawaii’, which is the Japanese word and art style for cute cartoon art. The Shoe shop is one giant pink shoe shaped building. The Museum has a tiny Dinosaur skeleton outside the main entrance. The luxury apartments has a roof top pool. There is so much unnecessary detail that just adds to the fun and overall theme of the game. There are a few ways to try and win. Perhaps you want to accumulate income as quickly as possible to start buying the more valuable buildings. You may miss an early chance to buy and take a coin instead to try and get a more valuable building that also gets you income on a later turn. This will increase your income collection potential for the rest of the game. You will now have a harder worker engine within your city, which will exponentially grow faster than someone who chose cheaper early buildings that don’t generate income. However, that other players may be just trying to end the game as quickly as possible. Buying the cheapest buildings available to keep the game progressing. Remember, getting your tenth building ends the game that round. So, any players who have missed buying and took money instead could be a building or two behind by the end of the game. However, I have found it is possible to win the game with less buildings if your population and happiness is higher, which is of course highly possible when you have bought better buildings. But if you get it wrong and loose a game of Happy City, fret not. Simply re-set and start again. You will be back playing within a minute and the next game will most likely be over within another five! The game is so fast and fun. Your turns are so quick and enjoyable. But the fun to be had from this group of cards is massive. This is one of my favourite filler games I have played in a long while. I expect it will be played after dinner most nights in my household and will come with me to every game night for the foreseeable. It plays in a nice tight space so could work in restaurants and pubs when waiting for food, but the cards are quite light so probably not great outside with any wind! Happy City is sticking firmly in my collection and I think will become a firm family favourite for many years to come.

OK, before we start the review, lets explain the origins of this game as it can be a little confusing! Back in 2014, Bézier Games released Castles of Mad King Ludwig. In this game, players took turns to be the master builder, setting the prices for the rooms available, selling said rooms to the other players and then choosing from the remaining options. Then in 2015 Stonemaier Games made Between Two Cities. A tile drafting game for 1-7 players where you build two Cities at a time, one with the player either side of you in a grid. Then in 2018, Stonemaier and Bézier came together to make a mash-up of the two games, Between Two Castles of Mad King Ludwig, where players needed to make a Castle with either player beside them, taking ideas, themes, and mechanics from both games. This new version played 2-7, but is at its best three and up. I always sensed this bugged Jamey Stegmaier, who likes all his games to work at solo too. So, in 2021, the first expansion for the game was released which expands the game to a 1-8 experience, with a revised two player option. Secrets & Soirees. In this review we first look at the base game, then the expansion new cards and rules, then the new two player variants, and finally the solo option. Between Two Castle of Mad King Ludwig The base game is an absolute delight for tile-laying fans. Building your two castles, working with your two neighbours, you will be delighted with the number of tiles on option, and the variety within them. It will take multiple games before you see all the tiles. I am certain some will still delight and surprise you well into your later games. The game works very much like Between Two Cities. Starting with nine randomly drawn tiles, you will pick two tiles. One for the Castle you are building to your right, and the other for the one you are building to your left. Both of your neighbours will be doing the same, and you can work with both players to make these decisions. As your castles expand and develop, you will work in new ways of scoring, and expand upon existing scoring options. You may lay a tile that scores for each surrounding Utility room, and then later place a Utility room next to it, which also scores for all connected Sleeping quarters. The Sleeping quarters themselves score four points if you build one room of each type, otherwise they score just one point. So, getting a few of these in a well-equipped castle can be fruitful. Each time you place the third type of any room, you immediately score a bonus action. This can be the opportunity to place an extra room tile, a bonus tile such as the Fountain, Tower or Grand Foyer, which all score their own bonus points. Or the chance to take a bonus scoring card or Royal Attendant. All of which give you yet more opportunities for end game scoring. All in, this is a point salad of a game with 13 different ways to score at the end of the game. The provided score pad is both well designed and much needed! The only complaint here that some have said that the end game scoring can take as long as the game itself. Each game of Between Two Castles is very quick. You play just two rounds, with eight tiles from nine used each round. Everything can be over in 10-20 minutes for experienced players, especially in lower player counts. But then the scoring can take just as long again! Personally, I savour this part of the game. Watching the scores build up for each room type, player by player is exciting to watch. You could all score simultaneously, which would make it a lot quicker. But I find watching each player tally their respective points, room by room, highly entertaining! It is also impressive to see how some players have found clever combinations from certain scoring rooms. Before I move onto the new expansion content, it’s essential to mention the fantastic Game Trayz inserts that come with both the base game and new expansion. They serve as a fantastic way to sort and store the game, as well as assist and speed up set-up and take down. This is the industry standard all should aspire too! They look great and are highly functional. Shhh! It’s a Secret! Ok, lets talk about the new stuff! In the new expansion you are provided with two new room types. One of the new rooms types are Secret rooms. These are clearly identifiable from their cyan colour and arrow in the scoring area. These exciting new rooms mirror the room next to it in the direction of the arrow. They copy the room type, scoring opportunity and wall hanging. Clever players will be able to use these to score big points. For example, here you can see how three secret rooms around a Garden tile that scored six points from building six separate Activity rooms, created a huge combo effect for a total of 24 points. That’s quite a lot in this game! So much room for activities! The second new room type is Activity rooms. These varied new rooms score you four points, simply if they are surrounded orthogonally. But they all will score just one point if they are adjacent to a specific room, marked on each activity room. The rooms themselves are great to look at, with the new Boxing and Train room my personal favourites. Time for Two? In the base game, there is a two-player variant where each player plays as usual with their human partner, and then a third false player is created for each player to play with on the other side. This is done at random, with two tiles chosen by the player to the left of “Ludwig” the name for the “bot” player. That player will choose one for the castle they are making with Ludwig, and one for the castle the other player is making with Ludwig. In the second round, the player to Ludwigs right will make the selections. In this scenario it is entirely possible for Ludwig to score the highest, and both human players to lose. This creates a strange scenario that is ultimately dissatisfying. A better Two? In the new two-player variant, each player simply makes their own castle. Choosing from their nine tiles as usual, one for them to place and one for their neighbour. At the end of the game, you simply score your own castle. This is a marked improvement on the two-player version and is entirely possible without the expansion. It is just a small rule tweak and very simple to learn and play. That said, the experience for me is always better with at least three players. And best for me in a six. A busy loud table, with multiple discussions, arguments, and debates! It is the human interaction that makes this game special. Deciding as a pair what to build, where to build and how to develop your castle is a joyous thing. The puzzle of the solo experience of the two-player is a lot of fun, but it is half the game for me. Although, still very good. Solo Adventures Included in the expansion are rules for two different solo variants. Again, these can be played with the base game alone or with the expansion tiles. The first solo variant sees you play with two automated bot players in a three-way simulation. The second one sees you building just one castle and playing against a single bot opponent. Both offer a fun, and quite unique puzzle experience that is both entertaining and challenging, but like the two-player variants, takes away the debate and discourse that makes this good game, great. Explaining the solo variants can be much better done by reading the excellent rule book here. So, all I will say is this. For anyone who has played any other Stonemaier Automa game, you will be well aware of the slick and well-oiled way this company makes solo variants and explains them. It works very well and feels well executed. Simply put, if you want to play this game solo, you now can, and there are two very different ways to do it. A Mad King is a Happy King! Overall, this is a brilliant expansion. For the improved two-player rules alone, I love it! But the solo variants are also very good, although not my cup of tea. The two new tile types add a lot of new fun to the game, and the quantity of them works perfectly when mixed with the base game tiles. Although, I have to admit, I did manufacture a higher quantity of the two new room types in my first few games, just because I wanted to use them more often. You know, new stuff! It’s always exciting right! This is a brilliant tile-laying game, and probably my favourite of its type. I do enjoy the two-player game, with the new rules a great deal. Its quick and simple to play, and a lot of fun to score, although timely. But this game shines in the higher player counts and the conversations it creates both during and after the game. If you are looking for a new tile-laying experience and think you could get it to the table in higher numbers every now and then, then this could be a real winner.

Attack of the Intergalactic Gherkins! WBG Score: 6.5/10 Player Count: 2-6 You'll like this if you like: Plotalot, Unstable Unicorns, Cockroach Poker. Published by Teleporthole Games Ltd Designed by Andrew Klinkenberg Are you looking for some 'B-Movie' fun for your table? From the name alone I think you already know what this game is going to be like, and after playing for the first time, you won’t be disappointed. This game, as the name suggests, is just about having some fun! You cannot take this game too seriously, although it does have some clever card play and interaction. The game advertises itself as the 'best B-Movie that was never made in card game form,' and if you take this attitude to the table, you will be in for a treat! The game is set after some brave astronauts have been sucked through a black hole whilst escaping the terrifying 'Intergalactic Gherkins'. Now stranded, the astronauts need to rebuild their ships to try and be the first to sling shot around the Sun and return home. The aim of the game is to collect enough ship repair cards and then get out of dodge. But beware the 'Intergalactic Gherkins' will be out to stop you? Why? Does it matter, just get it done captain! To set up the game, lay out the four planets around the Sun. Underneath each planet, place one ship part per player. Shuffle the deck and deal four cards to each player and begin. On your turn, after drawing one card from the deck, you can play as many cards from your hand as you like. Powers on the cards vary from allowing you to pick up more cards such as the ‘Solar Eclipse,’ exchange your cards for other players ship parts using the ‘Wormhole,’ or the ‘Conjunction,’ will let you steal a turn when used with other cards. Turns will pass by quickly, and you will need to pay close attention to see how the other players are progressing. The main action you will want to be doing is moving from planet to planet. When you do this, it will immediately end your turn, but you can then search under the planet card for ship parts. Once you have four of these, you can then move to the Sun card and win the game. But beware of the Gherkins! If you flip over 'Gherkins Attack!' card then you must immediately either lose a ship parts card or two cards from your hand. Unless you have an ‘Antimatter’ card which will allow you to stop the attack, or the ‘Rocket Pickle Jar’ which allow you to send the attack over to another player. (Which is always fun!) There is a fair bit of ‘take-that’ in this game with cards such as the ‘Meteor Shower’ allowing you to stop other players from moving, the ‘Cloaking Device’ letting you stop another player from finding ships parts, the ‘Cosmic Ray’ card giving you the chance to take any card from another players hand, and the ‘Alliterating Aliens… Appropriating Artifacts’ card forcing all players at a planet to lose one card at random. Although of course this last one will most probably affect the person who plays it too. Playing this game is fast and a lot of fun. It can become a bit of a tug-of-war when a player with three ship parts often becomes targeted to stop them from winning. And some players won’t enjoy the take-that aspect of some of the cards. But this is a game that doesn’t take itself too seriously and you shouldn’t either. The art is bright, vibrant, and rather amusing. It has a South Park style to it in both looks and humour. If the character cards offered minor asymmetric powers, that may have offered the game a little more edge. Also, perhaps missions given to each player for them to acquire specific ship parts may have given this game a little something more. Although there are advanced rules which require players to get four specifc ship parts instead of just any four, and with the kickstarter there are plans for Team and Solo versions. But if you are looking for a family-friendly card game then this will certainly deliver a lot of fun and laughter at your gaming table. The kickstarter will go live on October 5th and you can check the pre-launch page here.